Gophers are Big Ten Co-Champions!

But taking four points was not enough to earn the #1 seed for the conference tournament

The Minnesota Golden Gophers hockey team headed into their final regular season series of the year at Penn State holding a two point edge over Michigan State atop the Big Ten standings. They had the much harder series facing Penn State who was one of the hottest teams in the nation, while the Spartans got last place Notre Dame. Minnesota did just enough, taking four points from the Nittany Lions to earn a tie atop the Big Ten Standings with the Spartans who would sweep Notre Dame. But, Minnesota lost the tiebreaker to the Spartans by losing the regular season series to the Spartans and will be the #2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. Minnesota will host Notre Dame in a best of three series next weekend at 3M Arena at Mariucci.

The Spartans closed their two point gap immediately after Friday’s games. Michigan State defeated Notre Dame, and the Gophers would fall in overtime to the Nittany Lions 4-3. Minnesota took a 1-0 lead early on a Mason Nevers goal, and despite dominating the remainder of the opening period could not get another puck past PSU goalie Arnenii Sergeev. The Nittany Lions scored a pair of quick back to back goals to take a 2-1 lead before Connor Kurth tied the game at 2 on the power play late in the second period. After a Nittany Lions power play goal early in the third, Minnesota battled back again and Jimmy Snuggerud knotted the game at three midway through the third. The game would head to OT where PSU was a much better team and Simon Mack ended the game 3:09 into the extra session to get the Nittany Lions the win.

So headed into Saturday’s games the Gophers and Spartans were deadlocked at 47 points each, Michigan State picked up a 5-2 win at Notre Dame that went final just as the Gopher game started, so they knew that any chance to earn the #1 seed and first round bye was gone. But, the Gophers could still hang a banner with a win in regulation.

It was another back and forth affair. Neither team scored in the opening period. Penn State would take an early 1-0 lead 6:01 into the second when the Friday game winner Mack struck again. Just under four minutes later it was Matthew Wood knotting the game for the Gophers as he put in a rebound of an Oliver Moore shot.

Mason Nevers would give the Gophers their first lead of the game later in the period as he put a rebound of a Mike Koster shot past Sergeev to make it 2-1.

It appeared the Gophers went up 3-1 on a Snuggerud shot a few minutes later, but Penn State challenged for a major penalty on a hit by Ryan Chesley two minutes before the goal. After review the referees agreed giving Chesley a 5 minute major and and ejection for contact to the head, and under a newer rule they reset the time to the point of the penalty, added two minutes on the clock and took the Snuggerud goal off the scorebord.

Penn State took advantage of the momentum swing scoring on the major power play an tied the game at 2 as the teams headed to the third period.

Jut 3:44 into the third period Wood struck again putting a pass from Kurth into the net for a 3-2 Minnesota lead. Alas, once again the lead would be short lived as a Penn State goal 59 seconds later tied the game at three.

The Gophers got their break with under eight minutes left in the game. After a collision with Sam Rinzel, Penn States Reece Laubach took a two handed swing of his stick and hit Rinzel in the head. After a review he was given a five minute major and an ejection, and the Gophers would go on a five minute power play.

It would take the Gophers over four minutes of the power play, but finally they got the goal they needed. Koster snuck back door and took a gorgeous pass from Jimmy Clark across the goal mouth and put it in the net to give the Gophers a 4-3 lead with 3:04 to play.

Moore would add an empty netter and the Gophers escaped with a 5-3 win and tied the Spartans with 50 points atop the Big Ten standings. It was the first time in the 12 year history of the Big Ten Hockey conference that two teams tied for the regular season championship. Minnesota earned their 7th title in 12 seasons in the Big Ten, while Michigan State won their second in a ow and second overall.

Michigan State earned the #1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament after taking ten of a possible 12 points from the Gophers in the regular season. They will have a bye for the first round of the Big Ten Tournament next weekend and will host a semifinal against the lowest remaining seed on March 15th, and would host the Big Ten Championship Game should they advance.

Minnesota is the #2 seed and will host #7 seeded Notre Dame in a Best-of-Three series at 3M Arena at Mariucci this weekend. The Gophers went 3-1 against the Irish this season sweeping in South Bend in November and splitting in Minneapolis in January with a loss in OT. If the Gophers advance they will host a semifinal against the highest seeded team remaining on March 15th. Faceoffs for this weekend are set for 7 PM Friday and Saturday and 6 PM Sunday if necessary. All three games will air on Fox 9 and will stream on B1G+.

The other two Big Ten Tournament series include #3 Ohio State hosting #6 Wisconsin and #4 Michigan hosting #5 Penn State.