In a relatively shocking turn of events at Mariucci Arena Friday night, the No. 1 ranked Gophers tied Colgate 2-2, and ended up dropping a shootout 2-1 to the Raiders in each team’s opening game of the Mariucci Classic.
The result will officially go down as a tie on both team’s records, but since the four-team tournament requires a winner and loser to determine Saturday’s matchups, the game went to a shootout.
Once there, Kyle Rau scored for Minnesota, but Colgate was successful on two of their attempts to put the Gophers away.
Minnesota was without head coach Don Lucia and two of their top skaters Brady Skjei and Hudson Fasching, as the three return from the IIHF World Juniors in Sweden.
Without three of their leaders, they struggled on offense, and Colgate goalie Charlie Finn stopped 36 Gopher shots to make sure the Raiders would head to the championship game Saturday.
For the tournament title, Colgate will have to defeat No. 2 Ferris State, who crushed RPI 6-2 in the matinee game of the Mariucci Classic today. Minnesota will face RPI at 7 p.m. tomorrow in the consolation game of the tournament.
