gophers/ncaa

The scouting report on Colorado College was that the Tigers were offensive-minded, vulnerable killing penalties and led by the talented Schwartz brothers, Rylan and Jaden.

Tear up that assessment this Friday night.

Fourth-line center Tim Hall and goalie Josh Thorimbert were CC's key players in a 2-1, last-minute victory over the Gophers at Mariucci Arena.

Thorimbert stopped 38 shots and came within two minutes of becoming the first goalie to shut out the Gophers this season.

Nick Bjugstad's team-high 20th goal, with 1 minute, 17 seconds left, gave the Gophers a 1-1 tie -- temporarily. He put in a rebound during a scramble in front of the CC net while the Gophers were employing six attackers.

There was one more flurry of shots around Thorimbert before CC lined up for a faceoff in the Gophers' end.

The Tigers won the draw, and the puck ended up on Hall's stick in the low slot. As he was falling, he scored on a rebound with 36 seconds to play. It was his second goal of the season, in 23 games.

"We had great goaltending, we had a timely goal, and we killed a five-minute major, which is huge against their power play," Tigers coach Scott Owens said. "And then they just outnumbered us -- they've got so many good players -- and tied it up.

"Usually on the road you don't bounce back like that. You just hope to get to overtime and see what happens."

With the victory, the No. 11-ranked Tigers (14-8-1, 11-6-0) moved within two points of the Gophers, the WCHA co-leaders with Minnesota Duluth, which has a nonconference series this weekend.

"We worked hard to get the game tied like we did," Gophers coach Don Lucia said, "and then made a mistake off our faceoff and it cost us the game and some valuable points.

"Right before we went out there, Grant [assistant coach Grant Potulny] talked about making sure you don't let them go to the net on the draw, and they went to the net on the draw."

This was the fourth one-goal loss for the Gophers (16-9-1, 12-5-0) in their past five games. They had beaten North Dakota 6-2 on Saturday, elevating them to No. 2 in one national poll and No. 4 in the other -- but their scoring woes returned Friday. They have seven goals in those four recent losses.

"[CC's] goaltender, every time we were in a position to score, he made the save," Lucia said. "They were able to get that first goal and play with the lead and they played a good, efficient road game."

The Gophers outshot the Tigers 39-27 and had chances every period.

A third of the way into the final period, Archie Skalbeck of CC received a five-minute major and a game misconduct for checking from behind on Kyle Rau. The Gophers squandered that five-minute power play, getting only four shots.

"I just tried to play simple [Friday]," said Thorimbert, a sophomore from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. "I knew coming in this is a tough atmosphere to play in."

One edge Thorimbert had was that his team had the lead for much of the game, after Nick Dineen scored early in the second period.

Bjugstad became the first 20-goal scorer for the Gophers in three years with his late game-tying score, which had Mariucci rocking.

"We got a little momentum," Bjugstad said, "and everyone was excited, but we didn't do what we wanted to at the end. I've never had a loss like this."