EAST LANSING, MICH. – None of the goals the Gophers men's hockey team scored in its 4-2 victory over Michigan State on Friday night at Munn Ice Arena will end up on anyone's highlights reel.
But it's March. The Gophers are chasing down a third Big Ten regular-season championship in as many seasons. And a trio that entered the night with a combined nine goals on the season led Minnesota to a victory on the road.
"All of a sudden, guys who haven't scored a lot of goals scored for us tonight," Gophers coach Don Lucia said. "At this time of the year, it doesn't matter who gets them."
The victory, coupled with second-place Michigan's 7-4 loss to Ohio State in Ann Arbor, gives the Gophers (18-14, 13-4 Big Ten) a four-point lead in the league standings with three regular-season games left. It also gave the Gophers a first-round bye in the conference tournament.
"We're trying to get every point that we can," said forward Tommy Novak, who scored the winning goal with 7 minutes, 9 seconds left in the game. "Obviously, we want to win the conference and be hot coming into the playoffs."
The sequence that led to Novak's goal started just as he was leaving the penalty box. He joined Justin Kloos and Hudson Fasching on an odd-man rush, corralled a loose puck just in front of the crease, and chipped it off Spartans goalie Jake Hildebrand's outstretched arm for his fifth goal of the season.
"I think a few guys hit [the puck] and it came right to me," Novak said. "Right spot, right time."
The Spartans (9-21-3, 5-11-1) opened the scoring 4:37 into the game after forward J.T. Stenglein snared a loose puck in the Gophers zone. His shot from the left wing caromed off defenseman Steve Johnson's stick blade to Michigan State forward Matt DeBlouw, who fired a wrist shot past diving Gophers goalie Eric Schierhorn for his seventh goal of the season.
The Gophers tied the score with 3:44 left in the first period when Hildebrand mishandled the rebound off Novak's shot from the top of the far face-off circle, giving defenseman Jack Glover the chance to nudge the puck into the net for his second goal of the season.
"We had a lot of rebound chances tonight and we converted on a couple, which is good to see," said Glover, who added an empty-netter with 15.5 seconds to play. "That's the kind of goals we need this time of year."
Forward Taylor Cammarata gave the Gophers a 2-1 lead 6:46 into the second period when Michael Brodzinski's point shot grazed his leg and got past Hildebrand's outstretched glove.
That lead was short-lived, however, as the Spartans' Mackenzie MacEachern scored his team-leading 13th goal of the season 47 seconds later on a shallow-angle shot from the far half-wall that scooted over Schierhorn's right shoulder.
"It wasn't the prettiest game but the bottom line is it was three points, and we'll take it and move on to tomorrow night," Lucia said. "At this time of the year, that's what it boils down to."