COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Gophers men’s hockey team flew to Ohio State determined to empty their tanks prior to an extended holiday break. They got a 5-4 win in the series opener on Friday and also looked like a team without much left in reserve with one more game to play.

Jimmy Snuggerud had two goals and an assist on a night where the Gophers relied heavily on goalie Justen Close and his 34 saves. They improved to 9-5-3 overall and 5-4-2 in the Big Ten after Rhett Pitlick scored a goal for the seventh consecutive game. Brody Lamb had a goal — the eventual game-winner — and an assist.

Gophers coach Bob Motzko rattled off a list of good things his team did, including getting a pair of power-play goals, but also looked at the effort and the result realistically.

“The negative is that we were the best team for Ohio State. We caused our own undoing, and we’re running on fumes a little bit right now,” said Motzko, offering a pep talk for Saturday’s series finale. “We’ll have enough in the tank tomorrow, but we haven’t had a break the whole first half. I was afraid that would happen one night this weekend. Let’s hope that was tonight and we’ll rebound tomorrow.”

Ohio State outplayed Minnesota for long stretches, taking a first-period lead and dominating the middle period, only to emerge still looking for its first conference win of the season. Logan Terness started the game in goal for the Buckeyes (5-8-3, 0-8-1) but was pulled after making 10 first-period saves. Freshman goalie Kristoffer Eberly played the final two periods with 10 saves.

“Overall I thought we did what we needed to do. We just, again, came up short,” Buckeyes coach Steve Rohlik said. “It was not for lack of effort or emptying the tanks, like our guys did at the end. You’ve got to play desperate from start to finish.”

It was a busy opening 20 minutes, with each team leading, each team scoring on a power play, each team taking advantage of turnovers by their foe, and Snuggerud putting on a show.

“It’s big for our team. If we start off strong like that, we can win any game,” said Snuggerud, who leads the Gophers with 11 goals. “Obviously really slow in the second and third there, but we finished strong and got the win. That’s all that matters.”

He opened the scoring by grabbing a loose puck and putting it between his own legs before fooling Terness with a shot. But a Minnesota turnover helped the Buckeyes answer just 12 seconds later, and Ohio State took a 2-1 lead on the game’s first PP.

Minnesota lost defenseman Carl Fish after he was hit from behind into the boards and left the game. The hit cost the Buckeyes top-line winger Thomas Weis, who was ejected for boarding. Snuggerud tied the game just eight seconds into the extended power play, but that was one of only two shots for the Gophers on the man-advantage. Pitlick scored late in the first period for a 3-2 lead.

“It was huge,” Motzko said of the two power-play goals. “We found ourselves down because we turned the puck over for their first goal, they scored on the power play for their second goal, then we got the five-minute (power play). We needed to score there and Snuggie got it in to tie the game up. Our power play was critical tonight.”

Ohio State dominated the middle period, outshooting Minnesota by a 2-to-1 margin, dominating the faceoff circle and tying the game, only to see the Gophers answer late in the period for a 4-3 lead after 40.

After opening up a two-goal lead, the Gophers’ continued struggles in the defensive zone gave the Buckeyes the chances they needed to claw back within one with just under five minutes to play.

Briefly

It was a good news/bad news night for Gophers center Aaron Huglen, who started the play on the team’s go-ahead goal in the second period with a pretty behind-the-back pass. He left the game for a time in the third period after taking a teammate’s inadvertent high stick to the neck.

The teams conclude their first-half schedules on Saturday evening with a 7 p.m. start at Value City Arena in Columbus. Big Ten Network will televise the game with Ben Holden and Pat Micheletti calling the game.

Related Articles

Men’s hockey: Penn State earns weekend split with Gophers

Men’s hockey: Gophers weather early storm, then storm back to tame Nittany Lions in series opener

Men’s hockey: Jimmy Clark ends it in overtime as Gophers outlast Michigan State

Men’s hockey: Gophers salvage split with Notre Dame

Men’s hockey: Ryan Bischel, Notre Dame shut down Gophers