Michigan’s Alex Roos took a puck to his helmet that was a punch to the gut of Minnesota.
The thwack of a puck bouncing off plastic saved Roos’ noggin. As a consequence, it ricocheted into the back of the net for a 5-4 defeat for the Gophers at Yost Ice Arena. His overtime power-power play goal 3:24 into the extra period was the first and only lead Michigan had all night as the Gophers could not hold onto a 3-0 lead in Big Ten conference play.
“That’s one of the more disappointing ways to lose. Just being up, having a great start and our own mistakes killing us and letting them back in the game,” said Minnesota junior Tommy Novak after a three-point (one goal, two assists) night.
The Wolverines took advantage of Minnesota turnovers and penalties. Twice the Gophers were called for penalties in the final four minutes of regulation and overtime — much to the dismay of Minnesota head coach Don Lucia.
“Those are giveaways. You just can’t give away the puck and shorten the rink. We did a really good job before that,” he said. “Their first goal was their first scoring chance against in the second period. We just had the game we wanted and then let them back in.”
Minnesota’s second penalty, a Rem Pitlick tripping call off a faceoff, helped lead to Roos’ winner. In a night of strange hockey goals, his took the cake although it was challenged earlier by the Gophers scoring a pair of goals on Jack LaFontaine, who finished with 27 saves.
Tyler Sheehy was credited with a second-period goal that went off the skate of a Michigan defender and into the net as he crashed hard into the boards. Grand Rapids, Mich. native Brent Gates Jr. scored in front of his family. The junior whiffed on his first attempt before his second barely crossed the goal line.
“They played hard. They stayed after it. They knew they needed to score so they took more of an offensive approach”
Minnesota entered Friday’s game 6-0-0 when scoring first. Mike Szmatula put the Gophers ahead 1-0 for a seventh time this season when he redirected a Pitlick shot 1:53 into the second period. Novak and Sheehy added goals for the visitors, whose forecheck kept Michigan’s offense away from Eric Schierhorn.
“When we were getting shots on, they were going in,” said Novak. “We had a pretty good ground game where we having some nice shifts. Our first 30 minutes were some of the best we played.”
The Wolverines came back with a fury. Michigan’s band nearly matched the number of times it played “Hail to the Victors” after goals (five) to the number of Minnesota shots (eight) over the final 35 minutes.
After Roos made a spin move to set up Nick Pastujov for Michigan’s first goal with 10:46 remaining, Tony Calderone cut the lead to one with just over a minute left in the second period.
“They played hard. They stayed after it. They knew they needed to score so they took more of an offensive approach,” said Gates. “We never want to sit back and play a boring defensive game when we have the lead, but at the same time we need to be smart when we take our chances and know not to.”
Dexter Dancs tied the game before Gates’ goal 33 seconds later temporarily gave Minnesota a 4-3 lead. It was not to be, as Michigan’s Jake Slaker once again tied the game with 12:15 left in regulation. Slaker did so for the second straight year on Schierhorn, who finished with 28 saves.
With the loss, the Gophers snapped a four-game winning streak. Any bounces going the team’s way will need to wait for Saturday, where for the third straight year in Ann Arbor, Minnesota will try to salvage a split following a Friday loss.
Puck drop for Saturday’s BTN televised game is set for 6:30 p.m.
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