Minnesota Gophers Weekend Recap

Catch up on the news and results you may have missed from this weekend

You lead busy lives. We all know that. You might not be able to keep track up all the various Go[hers sports action that takes place on a weekend. So here is a quick recap of the weekend that was in Minnesota Golden Gophers sports .

Football:

This one you probably know about. The Gophers made it eight straight bowl wins in a row as they knocked off the Virginia Tech Hokies 24-10 in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. PJ Fleck got a mayo bath with help from the man inside the Tubby the Jar of Mayo mascot costume—none other than Flavor Flav.

Elijah Spencer was named the game’s MVP after catching six passes for 81 yards and two touchdowns.

Men’s Hockey:

The Gopher men’s hockey team was the lone Big Ten team to not play an outdoor game at Wrigley Field this weekend, and it was just fine with them. Minnesota still was hampered by a short roster as the Gophers deal with injuries and having a pair of players at the World Junior Championships—more on them later.

But, Minnesota had no real issue earning a home sweep of Mercyhurst, who statistically is one of the worst teams in the nation this season.

On Friday night the Gophers were outshooting the Lakers 16-0 in the first period but could not seem to buy a goal. Then, finally the damn broke as Jimmy Snuggerud sniped a wrister top corner to give the Gophers a 1-0 lead on their 17th shot late in the first period.

Connor Kurth would make it 2-0 three minutes later and the Gophers would take a 2-0 lead to the break.

A Brody Lamb power play goal early in the second would put Minnesota up 3-0 before Mercyhurst made things interesting with a pair of back to back goals to cut the lead to 3-2.

Minnesota decided enough was enough and got a pair of goals in 1:09 late in the period from Matthew Wood and John Mittelstadt to push the lead back to 5-3.

After his gorgeous assist on the Mittelstadt goal, Erik Pahlson would get rewarded himself in his first game back from injury in six weeks and capped off the win with a shorthanded empty net goal late in the third to make the final score 6-2. He would be the game’s #1 star with a goal and a pair of assists. Nathan Airey made 20 saves in the win.

Saturday was more of the same for the Gophers, except they didn’t take 17 shots before their first goal. They took care of that on shot #1. Kurth forced a turnover along the boards and the puck popped out to Wood who sniped it into the net to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead just nine seconds into the game.

It would be 2-0 just over two minutes later when Nick Michel made a gorgeous feed to Snuggerud for his second of the weekend.

Ryan Chesley made it 3-0 with a wrist shot from the point just a few minutes later, and the Gophers could cap off their four goal first period with Michel getting his first goal as a Gopher on a tip of a Chesley shot.

The Lakers added a late goal to make it 4-1 headed into intermission. The second period was sleepy with both teams just going through the motions and no goals being scored. Minnesota added one more on the third as Becket Hendrickson scored on a breakaway to make it 5-1.

Mercyhurst added one more goal late to make it a 5-2 final. Michel was the #1 star with a goal and an assist. Liam Souliere made 27 saves to pick up the win.

Next up for the Gophers is a return to Big Ten play against one of the hottest teams in the conference at Ohio State this weekend.

Women’s Hockey:

The Gopher women had two very different games at home in the East/West Classic this weekend. The Gophers routed Brown 9-1 on Friday before being on the opposite side of a stomping losing to #12 Penn State 6-2 on Saturday.

It was all Gophers from the get go on Friday. Minnesota recorded four goals in the opening period including a Neli Laitinen tally just 1:31 into the game. Freshman Carly Humphrey scored her first career goal as well. Minnesota added three more in the second period, two of them by Josefin Bouveng. They would finish off with three in the third period including a shorthanded goal by Abbey Murphy and senior forward Natalie Mlynkova’s second of the game to complete the 9-1 rout of Brown.

Unfortunately, the Gophers seemed to score all their goals for the weekend on Friday. Penn State came in and dominated Minnesota on Saturday. Penn State took six shots on goal in the first period—-they scored on four of them. It was not a good day in goal for Minnesota freshman netminder Hannah Clark.

The Gophers lone goals were both scored by defender transfer Sydney Morrow, one in the second and one in the third. But the Nittany Lions added a pair more as well to complete the shocking 6-2 win.

Minnesota will face St. Thomas in WCHA play at Ridder Arena this weekend.

Gymnastics:

The Minnesota Gophers gymnastics team kicked off their 2025 season with a 194.450-193.400 win over Central Michigan at the Pav on Saturday. The Gophers got contributions up and down the lineup from returners and a pair of newcomers. Gopher start 5th year senior Mya Hooten would take home event titles on vault 9.900 and floor 9.825 while sophomore Jordyn Lyden would take home the uneven bars title with a score of 9.850. Freshman Ava Stewart, the 2024 Canadian Olympian made her Minnesota debut, and won the balance beam title with a spectacular 9.875.

The beam was the best event of the meet for Minnesota as they combined for a 49.000 score on beam. Besides Stewart’s 9.875 score. Fifth year Emily Koch recorded a 9.800 while Sarah Moraw, Jordyn Lyden and Lauren Pearl all earned 9.775s.

Minnesota is back in action this Saturday when they head to the Granite State to face New Hampshire.

Women’s Basketball:

The Gopher women came back from an 11 point deficit with two minutes left in the third quarter to defeat Illinois 68-61. Grace Grocholski led the Gophers with 19 points, while freshman Tori McKinney scored ten of her 11 points in the final quarter. Gopher head coach Dawn Plitzuweit won her 4000th career game as a coach. Minnesota is next in action Wednesday night when they host Rutgers.