December 13th, 2024: Despite five key players out, the Gophers were able to force a tie with the No. 2 ranked Michigan State.
–> Follow @Dylanloucks4 on Twitter
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN – Coming into the weekend there was a lot of excitement and hype surrounding the matchup against the NCAA’s best teams, the Minnesota Golden Gophers and the Michigan State Spartans.
Friday’s game lived up to the hype. There were six goals scored and 48 total penalty minutes between the two teams. It even needed overtime and eventually, a shootout to end things off.
“Well, that was a heck of a hockey game. I mean, two heavyweights going at it,” Gophers head coach Bob Motzko said. “I give our guys credit. I mean, I just loved our heart, compete tonight and battle. Both goaltenders were outstanding. Our guy was the difference when he needed to be and Augustine was the difference for them when they needed it. But everybody got entertained. Outstanding game tonight.”
Brodie Ziemer opened the scoring for Minnesota just 23 seconds into the game after Jimmy Snuggerud fired a puck to the slot. It banked off Trey Augustine’s right pad and bounced on the blade of Ziemer.
The freshman forward made no mistake and fired home his sixth goal of the season and first of two on the night.
“You know what I’ve kind of learned playing with him (Snuggerud) is, just go to the net,” Ziemer said on his goal. “Pucks are going to find their way there and it kind of took a lucky bounce off me and found the back of the net.”
Minnesota held the 1-0 lead into the second period until Tiernan Shoudy scored his second goal of the season. The Gophers were able to answer back just under two minutes later when Brody Lamb and Oliver Moore connected on a 2-on-1.
Moments after Nick Michel went to the box for a hit on Michigan State’s Tommi Mannisto. It was reviewed and called a five-minute major and a game misconduct for direct contact to the head.
The Gophers almost killed off the five-minute penalty before Tanner Kelly scored on a nice pass from Shane Vansaghi. Michigan State was able to capitalize on another power play eight minutes later.
Karsen Dorwart’s third of the season gave the Spartans their first lead of the game and put the Gophers, who were down to nine forwards, behind 3-2.
Michigan State is a veteran team. They have a lot of experience up front and on the backend. For the Gophers, they had six forwards who are upper-classmen who played tonight.
They were without forwards Erik Pahlsson, August Falloon, Mason Nevers, Matthew Wood, and defenseman Cal Thomas. They dressed Axel Begley as a defenseman tonight but played him at forward for a few shifts after he played forward the whole game last weekend.
Aaron Huglen missed the Gophers last game with an upper-body injury but returned to the lineup on Friday. They dressed only ten forwards but lost one of them in the second period due to a game misconduct.
For the rest of the game, the Gophers were rolling three lines and were able to come back down 3-2 to the No. 2 ranked Spartans and force overtime.
“Yeah, I mean, right now you see this as adversity,” Graduate captain Mike Koster said on the injuries. “But I’m really proud of the group. It hasn’t really phased us. We wish those guys were out there with us but even just seeing them working at the rehab every day just kind of helps us on the ice. These guys are working their tails off to get back for us. But I think down the stretch, when it comes to the end of the year playoff time, you know, if we get an NCAA tourney, it’s gonna be unbelievable for us. You know, just guys stepping up into those roles and we’ll be kind of prepared for anything at that time. So down the road, I think it’ll be a positive.”
This really does speak to the Gophers ability to battle back and fight adversity despite all these guys going down with injuries. Ziemer was able to get his second of the night after he walked into the offensive zone and fired one under the pads of Augustine who finished with 40 saves on 43 shots in the tie.
“It’s huge. It’s huge,” Motzko said on how important these games are for the young guys to experience adversity and step up. “With Cal out, those two young defensemen get more playing time, and they’re only going to get better with being in games like that. We only played nine forwards in the second half of the game, so we got to find a way to keep our energy (up). It’s all we got. I can’t say enough about how they competed.”
On a positive note, Matthew Wood is expected to return for Saturday’s game in time to play. He missed Friday’s game due to the 2025 IIHF World Championships. He was cut from Team Canada on Friday and is in the process of coming back to Minnesota.
There are no other updates on the rest of the injured Gopher players but despite these challenges, the boys of maroon and gold, have been able to handle adversity and have run with it. A 15-2-2 record to show for it and 8-0-1 in the Big Ten.