The Minnesota Golden Gopher men’s hockey team won the Big Ten Tournament Championship on Tuesday night, defeating the Wisconsin Badgers 6-4.
The Gophers dominated the game early with Blake McLaughlin scoring the first of his two goals to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead after the first period. Mike Koster doubled the lead with a feed from McLaughlin to double the Gophers lead before Roman Ahcan got the Badgers on the board midway through the second period.
Minnesota turned it on from there scoring three unanswered goals from Brandon McManus, Scott Reedy and Jaxon Nelson to take a 5-1 lead.
Wisconsin made things interesting with three goals in the third period. Mike Vorlicky, Ahcan and Cole Caulfield scored to bring Bucky within a goal but McLaughlin scored an empty-net goal to give Minnesota its first Big Ten Tournament title since the 2014-15 season.
The Gophers are 23-6 on the season and will now advance to the NCAA Tournament. Minnesota will find out its opponent on Sunday night.
