It was a split result for the Minnesota hockey teams in their respective road matchups on Friday night, with the men winning at Notre Dame while the women fell at Ohio State.
Men squander lead, win in shootout
It was a matchup featuring two of the three teams bringing up the rear in the Big Ten Conference, and the Gopher men teetered falling even further in the circuit standings before pulling out a shootout win.
After squandering a 2-0 lead they’d held for the better part of two periods, Minnesota recovered to claim the extra point with a shootout win after recording an official 2-2 tie against the Irish.
John Mittlestadt put the visitors on the board at 11:09 of the opening period, with Brodie Ziemer increasing the advantage to 2-0 just 26 seconds later.
The score remained static through the second stanza before Notre Dame struck 46 seconds into the third frame to cut the lead in half. The Irish knotted the count at 2-all just under seven minutes later to send the game through a scoreless overtime and into the shootout, where the visitors pulled out the victory though the game officially ends as a tie in the standings.
Goaltender Luca Di Pasquo made 28 saves for the Gophers (10-18-2 overall, 6-12-1 Big Ten), while opposing netminder Nicholas Kempf made 31 saves for Notre Dame (5-20-4, 1-15-1).
The two teams play again at 5 p.m. Saturday in South Bend, Ind. in a game televised on NBCSN and Peacock.
Women doubled up in battle of No. 2 vs. No. 3
While the Gopher men languish near the bottom of the Big Ten standings, the Minnesota women remain near the top of the WCHA order.
However, this weekend looked to be a tall task as the third-ranked women’s squad took on No. 2 Ohio State on its home ice.
The Buckeyes proved just how tough it will be to earn a point in Columbus, Ohio by taking a 4-0 lead through two periods before the visitors managed to notch two goals of its own in the final frame.
Unfortunately for the Gophers, scores by Anabella Fanale and Ava Lindsay got them just halfway there before the final horn as Ohio State claimed the 4-2 win.
Goaltender Hannah Clark made 35 saves for Minnesota (24-6-1 overall, 18-6-1 WCHA) as her counterpart, Hailey Macleod, made 26 saves for the Buckeyes (27-4, 21-4).
While the Gophers have clinched at least a third-place finish in the regular-season race, the loss dropped the team six points behind second-place Ohio State and eight points back of conference-leading Wisconsin with three games remaining until the playoffs.
The first of those games comes at 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon in the series finale against the Buckeyes in a game televised on both BTN+ and Fox 9+.
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