Gophers lose out on chance at playoff bye

The opportunity to win an outright Big Ten regular-season title was there for the taking for the Gophers men's hockey team.

Given a boost with a loss by Ohio State earlier Friday, Minnesota needed to beat Michigan on Friday night at 3M Arena at Mariucci, and the Gophers would have had the chance to secure the title by themselves with a victory over the Wolverines in Saturday's regular-season finale.

Instead, the Gophers tied Michigan 2-2, then lost the extra point in the conference standings when the Wolverines' Jake Slaker scored in the second round of the shootout to end a thrilling night of hockey in front of an announced 8,149 at 3M Arena at Mariucci.

That result enabled idle Penn State to clinch at least a share of the regular-season title and a bye into the Big Ten tournament semifinals. The Nittany Lions finished with 41 points, which the Gophers (38 points) can match Saturday with a win in regulation or five-on-five overtime, but Penn State owns the tiebreaker (12 conference wins to Minnesota's nine).

Afterward, Gophers coach Bob Motzko found plenty about which to be happy after Jackson LaCombe and Brannon McManus scored third-period goals and Jack LaFontaine made 31 saves.

"Outside of the first 10 minutes, when we were a little shaky, we couldn't have played any better the next 55 minutes,'' said Motzko, whose team outshot the Wolverines 55-33, including 39-14 during the second and third periods.

Though the Gophers won't have a bye in the first round, Motzko still sees plenty of opportunity. A victory Saturday would give Minnesota a share of the title, plus the No. 2 seed and home ice for the best-of-three first round.

Minnesota is up one point, 38-37, on Ohio State for second place in the Big Ten, while Michigan and Notre Dame each have 35 and Michigan State 34.

The tie also helped the Gophers in the PairWise Ratings, the formula the NCAA uses to fill its 16-team tournament field. Minnesota moved up one spot to No. 13.

The Gophers (14-12-7, 9-7-7-4 Big Ten) can credit perseverance for securing at least a point against Michigan goalie Strauss Mann, who made 53 saves.

Down 2-0 after goals by the Wolverines' Luke Morgan 4:27 into the first period and Nick Pastujov 3:56 into the third, the Gophers rallied when LaCombe, the smooth-skating freshman defenseman, took a pass from Ryan Zuhlsdorf and blasted a shot past Mann to make it 2-1 at 5:47 of the third.

"It definitely was a big relief,'' LaCombe said. "We were battling in the offensive zone and hemming them in, so to finally get one was nice.''

"It was huge,'' Motzko said. "… We had good looks tonight on the power play.''

Neither team scored in the five-on-five and three-on-three overtime sessions, and Slaker sealed it on Michigan's second shootout attempt. McManus and Ben Meyers couldn't beat Mann on their attempts.