The top-ranked Minnesota Gophers were upset in the semifinals of the Big Ten Hockey Tournament at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, 3-1, on Saturday night.
Ohio State will move on and play Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship game on Saturday.
The Gophers trailed 2-1 after a third period goal from Ohio State’s Ryan Dzingel. Minnesota appeared to have scored the game-tying goal moments later but it was waived off by the officials.
With just :33 remaining late in the third, goaltender Adam Wilcox left the ice to give Minnesota the extra man, but the Gophers turned the puck over and Ohio State turned that into an empty net goal to put the game away.
Minnesota's conference tourney drought continues. #Gophers haven't advanced to a conference tournament championship game since 2007-08.
— Tyler Mason (@tylermason21) March 22, 2014
While the Gophers did a good job on penalty kill keeping Ohio State to just 1 of 5 on the power play, they played short-handed too much of the night.
Still though, Minnesota outshot the Buckeyes 31-25.
The only goal for the Gophers came from Kyle Rau, he scored with the team down 1-0 at the 4:47 mark of the second period. Rau was assisted by Taylor Cammarata and Travis Boyd.
The loss doesn’t mean much for the Gophers in the big scheme. They will still be a number one seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament and will be back at the Xcel Energy Center next weekend.
In the early game, Wisconsin’s Michael Mersch scored a pair of goals to send the Badgers to the Big Ten Tournament Championship, as Wisconsin defeated Penn State 2-1. Both of Mersch’s goals came in the second period for Wisconsin.
