Quinnipiac stunned the top-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers with the national championship-winning goal 10 seconds into overtime Saturday night in Tampa, Florida.
Minnesota, the No. 1 team in the polls and the NCAA tournament, came within three minutes of claiming the university’s first men’s hockey championship since 2003. But it wasn’t to be as Quinnipiac won the opening faceoff in overtime and two passes later Jacob Quillan scored to win the first national championship in Quinnipiac program history.
QUINNIPIAC NATIONAL CHAMPS
https://t.co/D62MAE1sV0— Pardon My Take (@PardonMyTake) April 9, 2023
Leading 2-1, freshman phenom Logan Cooley was whistled for high-sticking with 4:52 to play. After a couple of big saves by Justin Close and a big blocked shot by Brock Faber, the Bobcats called timeout with 32 seconds left in the man advantage and got aggressive by coming out of the timeout with their goalie pulled for a 6-on-4 advantage.
The bold decision paid off as just seconds after the penalty ended, Collin Fare fired a shot between the legs of Close for the game-tying goal.
Quinnipac outshot Minnesota 14-2 in the third period. In fact, the Gophers had just 15 shots on goal in the first 60 minutes.
The Gophers opened the scoring with a goal from John Mittelstadt with 14:25 left in the first period, and they pushed the lead to 2-0 with 15:36 left in the second period when Jaxon Nelson backhanded the puck into the net after Brock Faber fired a shot wide and the puck bounced off the end boards in Nelson’s direction.
Minnesota was undefeated when leading after two periods this season before faltering on the biggest stage.
