The Minnesota Gophers traveled to Columbus, Ohio, to begin Big Ten Conference play this season.

No. 11 Buckeyes bound no. 1 Gophers

Ohio State started off the series Friday with the lead in the scoring column. Dominic Vildoli tipped a pass up front to pull the Buckeyes to a 1-0 lead. The score would stay that way heading into the first intermission with the Gophers struggling on offense.

Shortly inside the second period, Jackson LaCombe tied the contest with a slap shot blast all alone above the right circle. That draw would only be around for six minutes as Ohio State’s Travis Treloar scored on the Buckeyes’ first man advantage on the power play. Joe Dunlap would also help the puck find the back of Minnesota’s net. At the halfway point of the middle period, the Gophers faced a two-goal deficit at 3-1 and were losing the shots on goal battle 20-15.

The Gophers slowly tried to creep back into the game with a Brody Lamb wrister straight ahead of the Buckeye blue circle to decrease the lead to one. Yet, Stephen Halliday of Ohio State soon scored an unassisted goal to give the Buckeyes a two goal advantage at 4-2 heading into the final period.

The third period was as much of a frenzy as the second with four total goals. Early on, Treloar netted his second goal for Ohio State and was quickly followed five minutes later by Patrick Guzzo scoring, leading to a 6-2 Ohio State win. This was the Gophers’ largest deficit of the season.

Bryce Brodzinski and John Mittelstadt each scored goals for Minnesota, and Mittelstadt did it with 16 seconds left in the game, scoring his first as a Golden Gopher. Yet, they needed two more as the No. 11 Ohio State Buckeyes upset the top team in the nation

“Obviously, we are not real happy right now,” Minnesota head coach Bob Motzko said. “That was not a great effort by us. Our energy was low and we were trying to find it. When you don’t have your energy, you make some poor decisions.”

Gophers even the series at one apiece

LaCombe once again started the game strong for the Gophers offensively, netting Minnesota’s first goal of the game to give them their first lead of the series 1-0. One minute later, Davis Burnside managed to score an unassisted shorthanded goal to tie the game at one apiece.

In the second period, both teams were at an offensive standstill for 16 minutes until Mason Nevers broke the draw with 4:22 left in the period, and he was shortly followed by Matthew Knies finding scoring success for the first time over the weekend, bringing the score to 2-1.

In the third period, around the halfway mark, leading scorer Jimmy Snuggerud earned himself a powerplay goal, his sixth of the season. Before the game’s conclusion, Burnside got another shorthanded goal, but it was too late as Minnesota would win 4-2.

“We went to work tonight,” Motzko said. “It wasn’t all pretty early, but we hung in there; we kept with it and you get rewarded. Our freshmen line had a huge shift for us in the second period and it got our guys on the bench going.”

The Gophers return home Friday and Saturday to play the No. 12 Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Both games will be televised on Bally Sports North Extra and will start at 7 p.m.