The Gophers Men’s Ice Hockey split a two-game series against the No. 8 University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks.
Minnesota started their first away game of the season strong, with two goals in the first period by Gophers junior transfer forward Tanner Ludtke and freshman forward Mason Moe. Both goals were Ludtke and Moe’s first career goals for the Gophers.
Despite their efforts, the Gophers still lost the first game of the series 5-2, with the last goal being an empty net goal for the Fighting Hawks.
Gophers head coach Bob Motzko said some of the guys ran out of gas.
“Unfortunately, at 2-2, we thought we were in a good spot,” Motzko said. “And then give North Dakota credit, they just kept their ground game going, and we made two mistakes, and that’s how they scored their two goals to tie it and get the lead.”
A recurring theme, Motzko said a similar thing about the team was getting too comfortable with their lead after the Michigan Tech loss.
Coming off a loss, the Gophers were determined to have a stronger showing going into their second game. Ludtke started the Gophers off with the lead by getting his second-ever goal for the Gophers around five minutes into the first period.
The Hawks quickly fought back with a goal of their own. Another goal would not be scored until the third period of the game, where the Gophers dominated.
Defense dominated the second period. Both the Gophers and the Hawks had power plays that ended scoreless.
During the game on Friday, North Dakota saw a lot of success in the third period, but on Saturday, it was the Gophers who pulled forward.
A minute into the third period, redshirt sophomore Max Rud scored his first-ever career goal for the Gophers, bringing them into the lead once again. Minnesota kept a lead for the rest of the game, scoring three more goals before the end of the game.
The final score of the second game was 5-1, with freshman forward L.J. Mooney ending the period with an empty net goal for the Gophers.
This split series is now the fourth split series in a row in Minnesota and North Dakota’s game history. It brought the Gophers’ 2025-2026 season record to 2-3-1 so far.
This is the second series this season where the Gophers have lost one game and won another. In their second game against Boston College, the Gophers won the shootout, but it still resulted in a tie.
Motzko said the team had great resolve in the second game of their series.
“That was a big grow-up game for our team,” Motzko said. “It was a big win for us this stage of the season with the schedule we’ve had.”
North Dakota’s head coach, Dane Jackson, said after their loss, his team struggled resetting and preparing for the push that the Gophers had.
“Last night we did such a good job with consistently playing hard, and we did a good job with puck management and checking,” Jackson said. “Tonight I just thought it was kind of intermittent.”
The Gophers’ next series will be at home against the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs on Oct. 24-25.
