February 22nd, 2025: Gophers now sit first in the Big Ten Conference with two games left to play in the season.
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Minneapolis, Minn – A Minnesota Golden Gophers (23-7-4 | 14-5-4) sweep over the Ohio State Buckeyes (20-10-2 | 13-8-1) has put the Gophers in first place in the Big Ten, thanks to Penn State beating Michigan State today.
Funny enough, the Gophers get to travel to Penn State to finish the season.
“We got a great test ahead of us,” Connor Kurth said. “Penn State is super hot right now and they are a great squad. Going into their barn, the ball is in our court to try and get first here and that’s all you ask for coming into the last week.”
Kurth opened the scoring for the Gophers on Saturday which turned into three-straight goals by the boys of Maroon and Gold. Kurth was assisted on the play by Jimmy Clark and Mike Koster.
It was Koster’s sixth assist in his last seven games and Clark’s first of three assists on Saturday.
Clark had been playing left wing recently but even after a win on Friday night, Gophers head coach Bob Motzko juggled the lines a bit. Oliver Moore jumped up to play with Brodie Ziemer and Jimmy Snuggerud and Clark moved back to center with Kurth and Matthew Wood.
“I think we have a lot of combinations that we can continue to go with and our guys just go with it,” Motzko said on the two line changes. “That line was the line at the start of the year that was going.”
After Moore scored on the power play, Wood batted the puck out of the air on Clark’s wraparound attempt to give the Gophers a 3-0 lead.
“Yeah. I mean, we play a game after every practice and he does that a little bit,” Clark said on Wood’s baseball skills. “So, cool to see. Not shocked.”
After two goals from the Buckeyes to make it 3-2, Kurth scored his second of the night in the third period. Clark picked up the primary assist for his 14th assist of the season.
“We found a little chemistry there earlier in the year so it was nice to revisit that chemistry and get it going again,” Kurth said on playing with Wood and Clark. “It’s fun when you can find that again and just roll from there.”
Ryan Gordon was able to get OSU back within one goal again with six minutes left. Ohio pulled the goalie hoping to get a game-tying goal but Brody Lamb found the back of the net after a tic-tac-toe empty net goal.
It all started after Huglen stripped a Buckeye forward on the wall in the defensive zone and then pulled off a few moves at the blue line before he found Beckett Hendrickson on the far side. Instead of ending the game, Hendrickson passed it to Lamb.
“I don’t like that because I’ve seen it missed before,” Motzko said. “But, it shows how unselfish he was to give it over to him. We will talk to them. That’s one rule we have. You cannot be selfish enough with the goalie out. You put it in.”
Jimmy Snuggerud wasn’t going to let that happen. Moments later, he stared down an empty net and fired it home as hard as he could to make it a 6-3 game. Snuggerud’s 21st goal of the season ended the game and capped off a sweep over Ohio State who had won four straight games coming into Friday.
Saturday marked the Gophers senior night. The only senior on the roster was Huglen who had two assists. But the Gophers honored student manager Ben Kimlinger and graduate student Liam Souliere as well. It is Souliere’s first season with the Gophers so the team thought it would be nice to honor him.
“I mean Aaron’s an unbelievable guy,” Clark said. “He’s a dad now, it’s great. He’s a leader. He’s mature. He’s been helping me out through this process as well. Just talking to him, he’s a leader for sure. Liam, just coming in and also being a leader. He wanted to come here and play for the Gophers and he’s got so much heart. Yeah, it’s special.”
Not only did Huglen have two assists, but he made many defensive zone plays that were top-notch. The senior forward finished the weekend with three assists.
“I thought Huglen might have been our best player tonight,” Motzko said. “Huge play by him at the end of the game and big on face-offs. It was big.”
The Gophers travel to Penn State next weekend to face the Nittany Lions with a chance to win the Big Ten Regular Season Championship. Michigan State will play Notre Dame, who is 3-17-1 in Big Ten play this year.
If Michigan State gets six out of the possible six points they will finish the season with 50 points. The Gophers have 46 points right now which means they need four to tie. But, Michigan State has the tiebreaker over Minnesota. So, the Gophers need to get five of the six possible points next weekend to win the Big Ten Regular Season Championship. That is if Notre Dame gets swept.
“A lot. I mean we get to be back here at Mariucci,” Jimmy Clark said on what a Big Ten Regular Season Championship would mean to them. “We got to get some work done against a hot Penn State team in their own building so big weekend coming up.”