MINNEAPOLIS — Turning the page from 2023 to 2024, the Minnesota Gophers were focused on no longer letting third period leads slip away, as had happened a few times in the first half of the current season.

Unfortunately, they opened the new year by seeing a second-period lead slip away, quickly, instead. Colorado College, playing in Minneapolis for the first time in a dozen years, ran its win streak to three games by rallying from a deficit to win 6-4 on Sunday in the opener of a two-game set at Mariucci Arena.

Jimmy Snuggerud, fresh off the plane from his world juniors gold medal, had a pair of goals for the Gophers, but the Tigers answered everything the home club threw their way. Freshman Bret Link had the first multi-goal game of his career for Colorado College (10-6-1), which got 33 saves from Kaidan Mbereko in the win.

“We played hard in spurts. (Colorado College) played hard the entire game, and three of their goals came on just blatant turnovers on us,” Gophers coach Bob Motzko said. “We lost the turnover game, and they earned the victory tonight.”

Justen Close had 23 saves for the Gophers, who fell to 9-6-4 overall. Playing at home for the first time in more than a month, they started strong, testing Mbereko early, but did not get rewarded. And that led to trouble.

“We started off great, with great energy, and then we got bored,” Motzko said. “We’re working hard, but the goal wasn’t coming, and Colorado College just kept digging in their heels. We took our foot off the pedal. We score the goal and then we give one up the next shift, and it was not a good goal on our part.”

The Tigers were coming off the emotional high of a road sweep at North Dakota, ranked atop the national polls at the time, before the holiday break. Their coach saw nothing that would indicate a letdown in 2024 for a young team that is gaining confidence.

“The ability for our team to respond and just get back to it, that’s what is growing,” said Tigers coach Kris Mayotte. “That’s what we started to see at North Dakota. … Now to be able to do it at North Dakota and to be able to do it here, I don’t know what else our guys need to really believe that they can be that type of team.”

Snuggerud and his three Gophers teammates from the world juniors champions traveled all day Saturday to get home from Sweden, arriving in the Twin Cities a little before midnight on Saturday night. All four were in the Gophers’ lineup, and fatigue was certainly not an excuse after Snuggerud popped his team-leading 12th and 13th goals.

“It’s crazy how fast you can go from a high to a low, but we’ll get back at it tomorrow,” Snuggerud said, lamenting his team’s habit of sagging after scoring which helped the Tigers counter every Gophers move on the ice. “We get goals, we get going, we get momentum and we scored, and then the shift after was negative.”

Snuggerud and Mbereko were teammates with USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program, and the goalie said the ability to keep a big crowd from getting into the game, and keep his friend off the board for as long as he could, was the key.

“He’ll shoot from anywhere and he’s super accurate, so I’m always on my toes,” Mbereko said. “It was good to go up against him.”

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