Minnesota men’s hockey suffered its first home loss of the season on Saturday night, falling 6-0 to top-ranked Wisconsin inside 3M Arena at Mariucci and snapping a six-game unbeaten streak.
The No. 18/17 Golden Gophers struggled through a costly stretch in the second frame where they surrendered three goals in just 2 minutes and 25 seconds.
Playing in front of a sellout crowd of 10,473 fans during their annual “Gold Out” night, the Maroon and Gold initially traded blows with their rivals in a physical opening period. Early tension saw the officials review a Wisconsin rebound play at 1:47 before determining the puck never crossed the goal line.
Minutes later, Austin Burnevik appeared to tie the game 1-1 by batting a Christian Humphreys pass out of mid-air, but a lengthy video review upheld a Wisconsin coach’s challenge for goaltender interference, wiping the goal off the board.
The game tipped decisively in the second period when Minnesota was whistled for a major penalty during a faceoff battle at 7:02. The visiting Badgers capitalized quickly, netting two goals 90 seconds into the man advantage and adding another less than a minute later to build a 3-0 cushion. Even strength offered no immediate relief, as a long rebound found the back of the net at 11:02 to push the deficit to 4-0.
Penalties heavily dictated the flow of the contest, as the two sides combined for 55 penalty minutes. While Wisconsin ranks among the nation’s leaders in discipline trouble at fourth overall with 18.4 penalty minutes per game, the Gophers entered the matchup sitting 60th out of 63 teams averaging 6.6 minutes. Saturday’s undisciplined stretch proved fatal, with the Badgers converting 3 of their 5 power-play opportunities overall.
Freshman goaltender Melvin Strahl stopped 32 shots in the defeat, marking the first loss of his collegiate career and dropping his NCAA record to 4-1-1. The Gophers were shut out for the first time since a January 9 game against Penn State. Offensively, Burnevik, Evan Murr, and Brodie Ziemer paced the attack with four shots apiece, though Minnesota’s power play went scoreless across five chances despite putting eight shots on target.
Wisconsin scores.#Gophers 0 – Badgers 6
“Obviously, the discipline part of the game just killed us tonight. You can’t beat the top team in the country playing disciplined hockey, and it definitely hurts,” Minnesota head coach Brett Larson said. “I thought a tale of two games up until the major.
One, they were giving it to us pretty good. And then I thought we kind of turned that, and we were giving it to them pretty good. And then the major kind of changed everything.”
The Gophers (3-4-3 overall, 1-1-2 B1G, 4 points) now look to regroup as they continue their extended homestand on November 13 and 14, hosting Alaska Anchorage for a nonconference series at Mariucci Arena.
Wisconsin scores with 18:13 remaining in the period. After review, it is determined that the puck did not cross the goal line. We remain scoreless!#Gophers 0 – Badgers 0
