Gophers men’s hockey edged 6-5 by Michigan after rallying to force overtime

The perfect script for the Gophers in their regular-season finale on Saturday would have included a thrilling victory that finished a sweep of Michigan on a night that celebrated the 1974 Minnesota team, which won the program’s first NCAA hockey championship 50 years ago.

The Gophers got the thrilling part. They didn’t get the victory.

Seamus Casey scored a power-play goal 1:31 into overtime, giving Michigan a 6-5 win over the Gophers, who furiously rallied with a five-goal third period and tied the score 5-5 on Luke Mittelstadt’s extra-attacker goal with 1:39 left. Rutger McGroarty had given Michigan a 5-4 lead with 3:24 left.

Jaxon Nelson scored two goals, and Brody Lamb, Aaron Huglen and Mittelstadt had one each in the third to rally the Gophers. Minnesota trailed 3-0 after one period as Casey, Gavin Brindley and Mark Estapa scored for Michigan.

“We were kind of disinterested in the game for two periods, and then we scored a goal and got life,” Gophers coach Bob Motzko said. “What an incredible crowd again. At least we gave them one entertaining hockey game.”

Motzko challenged the overtime goal for a hand pass, but the call stood after a video review could not determine if Brindley touched the puck with his glove, sending the 3M Arena at Mariucci crowd of 10,564 home disappointed. The winning goal came with the Gophers’ Rhett Pitlick in the penalty box for cross-checking with 16 seconds left in the third.

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Goalie Noah West, starting in place of the injured Jake Barczewski, made 23 saves for Michigan (18-13-3, 11-11-2 Big Ten).

The Gophers (20-9-5, 13-7-4), who scored three power-play goals in a 6-2 win on Friday, went 0-for-4 with the man advantage, and that included a five-minute major penalty on Michigan in the second period. Goalie Justen Close gave up three goals on 15 shots in the first. Motzko replaced Close with freshman Nathan Airey to start the second. Airey stopped 14 shots.

Michigan, playing with the desperation of a team that entered the game No. 15 in the PairWise Ratings and outside of the NCAA tournament cut line, struck early on the power play on Casey’s shot from the point at 8:01 of the first, then took control with goals by Brindley and Estapa in a span of 31 seconds late in the period.

“We needed to start competing and getting the ground game going,” Gophers forward Mason Nevers said. “It just wasn’t the best start for us.”

Nelson put a charge into the crowd 32 seconds into the third period when he fired a sharp-angle laser over West’s left shoulder, trimming the lead to 3-1.

Brindley’s bar-down shot beat Airey at 7:01 of the third, making it 4-1.

The Gophers cut the lead to 4-2 at 7:58 when Lamb tipped a Mittelstadt shot past West. Nelson scored his second of the game at 9:29, sneaking a sharp-angle shot from the goal line past West to make it 4-3, and Huglen followed with his goal at 14:04.

The Gophers will face Penn State in the best-of-three first round of the Big Ten tournament next weekend at Mariucci. Games are 6 p.m. Friday, 3:30 p.m. Saturday and 6 p.m. Sunday (if necessary).

“We’ve been terrific the second half of the year,” Motzko said. “And we know what has to be done. It’s a new season.”