3M Arena at Mariucci hasn’t seen on-ice action from the men’s team since Jan. 28, and the Gophers gave their fans a show. On Friday, they shut out the eighth-ranked team in the nation, Ohio State, and scored 5 straight goals to come back from a 2-goal deficit on Saturday.
Koster cooks in two-goal second period
Ohio State goalie Jakub Dobeš was the main character of the first period. He was involved in an on-ice collision with Gopher Bryce Brodzinski and had his own net leave its hinges four times (the fourth time he was called for a delay of game). Karma for Dobeš didn’t fare well in the second period, as he was scored on by Brock Faber and then peppered with Gopher power plays resulting in three scores for Minnesota.
Two of those successful power plays were because of Mike Koster, who managed to record his first multi-goal game. Given the leading scorer from the defensive unit, Jackson LaCombe (8 goals), didn’t suit up due to a lower body injury, this was an exceptional outing.
Justen Close finished with 23 saves on 23 shots for a shutout. Minnesota finished off Ohio State in a quiet third period, shooting a total 38 shots on net.
“You can’t replace a player like Jackson, he’s one of the top players in the country…but we got depth on the backend,” Koster said. “All six of us (defenseman) played great tonight, so it was just a great team effort.”
Head coach Bob Motzko said this is the deepest defensive core he’s ever been able to coach.
“It won’t come around again,” said Motzko, as even without LaCombe and Ryan Chesley, the team hasn’t seen much difference in defensive dominance.
Back-to-back goals propel Gophers to senior day win
In the Gophers’ eighth home sellout of the year, both teams were far more physical near the end of the first period. This time around it bit the Gophers as they faced a 2-goal deficit early in the second period, thanks to a couple of five-minute majors on Snuggerud (boarding) and Matthew Knies (contact to the head).
“It’s a playoff game,” Brodzinski said. “We were fighting to keep them out of it…so it was very intense the entire weekend, but those are the hockey games you want to be in.”
Besides those two powerplay goals, Minnesota was solid the rest of the way, scoring 5 straight goals, with the first 2 coming 13 seconds between each other. Aaron Huglen cut the Ohio State lead in half and Matthew Knies rebounded a shot by Snuggerud to tie the game, interrupting the Mariucci PA announcer relaying Huglen’s score.
“We needed one to get the crowd going,” Motzko said. “And once that came, we picked it back up.”
Knies wasn’t finished carrying the Gophers back, as he made a fantastic feed to Logan Cooley to give the Gophers a 3-2 lead going into the second intermission. After Snuggerud forced a turnover behind the Buckeyes’ net, Knies made a behind-the-back pass from in between his legs to Cooley directly behind him.
After their five-minute majors, Knies and Snuggerud “had no choice” but to return to the ice strong, according to Motzko. “I love to see the toughness but not the stupidity.”
The third period was relatively quiet but did feature 2 goals from two seniors. Brodzinski completed an unassisted backhanded breakaway goal followed by Ryan Johnson saucering in an empty net goal.
Brodzinski and Johnson were two out of seven skaters celebrated postgame for their last home regular season game. The rest included Close, LaCombe, Colin Schmidt, Jaxon Nelson and Matt Staudacher.
“I love all those guys,” Knies said. “It’s honestly sad to be a part of this day to kind of see that it’s their last game here…they’ve taught me a lot on and off the ice. I can’t thank them enough.”
Minnesota will receive home-ice advantage through the entirety of the 2023 Big Ten Men’s Hockey Tournament. They will face the lowest seeded team to win their best-of-three quarter final series on March 11 at Mariucci. The matchups for the Big Ten Tournament Quarterfinals are as follows:
5 Michigan St. @ 4 Notre Dame
7 Wisconsin @ 2 Michigan
6 Penn State @ 3 Ohio State
This week, the Gophers will travel south to Rochester to compete in a public intra-squad scrimmage. With the week off, Motzko expects Garrett Pinoniemi back for their next game with Chesley out and LaCombe questionable.
