The No. 7/8 Gophers men’s hockey depth proved they can compete with anyone once again after dominating No. 8/7 Ohio State 5-1 on the road Saturday night en route to sweeping back-to-back series for the first time this season.
Freshman Rhett Pitlick has been on a tear recently and extended his point streak to four games after recording the first multi-goal game of his career. He has tallied seven of his 14 points in this span.
Minnesota (19-11) had all four lines rolling against the Buckeyes as they outshot them 50-30, including a first period that saw three goals for the away team.
“That was another solid effort out of our group tonight. It was up and down our lineup,” Gophers head coach Bob Motzko said. “We’ve known all along that we have depth. The most important thing is the guys who are playing in new roles or different roles, they’re doing a whale of a job.”
Along with Pitlick, senior Blake McLaughlin (one goal, one assist) and juniors Jackson LaCombe (two assists) and Bryce Brodzinski (two assists) had multi-point performances for Minnesota.
McLaughlin, who now leads the Gophers with 27 points, got them off to the races early, scoring just 45 seconds into the contest.
Ohio State’s lone goal came from Tate Singleton with 4:50 remaining in the first period after he capitalized on a Minnesota turnover and buried the tying goal in front of the Gophers’ net.
The Gophers quickly got back in front after sophomore Mason Nevers buried his team-high fourth power-play goal with 1:29 remaining in the first. Then senior co-captain Sammy Walker scored his team-leading 12th goal this season less than a minute later to bring Minnesota’s lead to 3-1.
Pitlick went on to score the fourth and fifth goals for the Gophers. All three of his collegiate goals have come in his last four games.
Junior goaltender Justen Close earned his fourth-straight win to improve his record between the pipes to 7-3-0 this season after making 29 saves on 30 shots faced.
The defensive pairing of sophomore Carl Fish and LaCombe recorded three assists in the victory as Fish had one and LaCombe tallied two.
All six of Fish’s points have come in his last eight games, while LaCombe leads Minnesota defensemen in points with 19. Ten of LaCombe’s 19 points have come in the past 10 games.
McLaughlin needs just one more point to become the 86th member of Minnesota’s 100-point club. He has 36 goals and 63 assists in 133 games played.
With the sweep, Minnesota is now on a four-game win streak, their longest this season, and now sits in second place in the Big Ten standings, trailing Michigan by two points in the table.
Next week, the Gophers will travel on the road to take on Penn State on Friday, Feb. 18, at 5:30 p.m., and Saturday, Feb. 19, at 5 p.m. as they look to extend their four-game winning streak.
