Pushed around for much of the first two periods by defending national champion Massachusetts, the Gophers shoved back with a tying two-goal rally Friday, then scored the winner in overtime, pushing themselves into the Worcester (Mass.) Regional final in the NCAA men's hockey tournament.
Gophers men's hockey tops Massachusetts in overtime of NCAA tournament on Ben Meyers' goal
Minnesota fell behind 2-0 in the first period and trailed into the third before Matthew Knies sent the game into overtime ahead of Meyers heroics.
March 26, 2022 at 1:12AM
Ben Meyers scored 8:31 into the extra session, sending the second-seeded Gophers to a 4-3 victory over the third-seeded Minutemen at the DCU Center. Minnesota will play Western Michigan, a 2-1 overtime winner over Northeastern, at 3 p.m. Sunday for a berth in the Frozen Four on April 7-9 in Boston.
"I'm proud of our group because we battled today,'' Gophers coach Bob Motzko said. "The only way you beat UMass is you've got to match that grit.''
Down 3-1 late in the second period, the Gophers (25-12) got a goal from freshman Tristan Broz. Then in the third, another freshman, Olympian Matthew Knies, tied it 3-3 with a power-play goal at 13:17. Ryan Johnson scored in the first period, and goalie Justen Close made 20 saves.
The Minutemen (22-13-2) employed a relentless, tight-checking, physical game and got goals from Reed Lebster and former Gopher Garrett Wait during a 56-second span in the first period. Lebster added a second-period tally, and Matt Murray made 20 saves for the Minutemen, who were playing 55 miles from their Amherst campus and in front of a pro-UMass crowd.
"We stuck to it,'' Knies said. "We played a really good game overall.''
On the winner, freshman Aaron Huglen, operating below the goal line, found Meyers alone, charging to the front of the net, and the Gophers leading scorer finished for his 17th goal of the season.
Early on, though, things weren't going Minnesota's way against the Minutemen's structured approach.
Physical play helped UMass set up the game's first goal at 14:09 of the first. After Matthew Kessel blasted Huglen with a hard check, the Minutemen hemmed the Gophers in their zone and forced a penalty. During the delayed penalty, Lebster's shot fluttered over Close for a 1-0 lead. On the play, UMass forward Anthony Del Gaizo was parked in front of Close and his skates were in the blue paint of the crease at times. The goal was reviewed via video replay, and officials ruled it good.
On the ensuing power play, Wait, the Edina native who transferred to Massachusetts following the 2019-20 season, scored when the puck caromed off Wait's skate and in for a 2-0 lead.
The Gophers didn't panic, though. "The message was there was a lot of game left,'' Meyers said.
Sparked by a big hit from Knies, the Gophers gained momentum late in the first period and trimmed the lead to 2-1 at 18:02 on Johnson's goal that bounced in off a UMass defenseman.
"We get down 2-0, and that's not a good thing,'' Motzko said. "… It was critical we scored in the first period to get back into that thing.''
Massachusetts restored its two-goal lead 1:24 into the second on Lebster's second goal, but the Gophers' perseverance paid off late in the period when Broz tipped Jaxon Nelson's pass past Murray, cutting the lead to 3-2.
Knies' tying goal came with 6:43 left in the third on a wrister during a power play, and that set up Meyers' overtime heroics.
"Their difference-makers,'' UMass coach Greg Carvel said of Meyers and Knies, "were the difference.''
Motzko felt relief that his team adapted to UMass' defensive style.
"We like a little prettier hockey, but we've got to learn to win games like that,'' he said. "We're growing as a team.''
Note: The Star Tribune did not send its reporter to the regional site. This article was written with use of the TV broadcast and team websites.
The Gophers men’s hockey team can trace Sam Rinzel’s improvement this past offseason down to the second, and he’ll be a focal point in this weekend’s series against No. 3 Michigan State.
