The stick that launched a thousand penalties.
At least that's what it felt like.
Rhett Pitlick probably would have kept a tighter grip on his (pretty expensive) piece of equipment had he known what calamity would ensue in the Gophers' 5-4 overtime loss to North Dakota after he chucked his hockey stick into the stands.
But when he scored the goal to put the No. 1 Gophers up by two against No. 7 North Dakota about halfway through the second period, the fervor of playing in an age-old Midwest college hockey rivalry flooded the sophomore winger. So much so, that he executed a rather epic-but-costly celly, only for a displeased fan clad in kelly green to lob the stick right back onto the ice.
Pitlick took a 10-minute misconduct for that antic and had plenty of time to watch from the box as his team took five more penalties — including a five-minute major and 10-minute game misconduct for face-masking that resulted in freshman Logan Cooley's ejection — and lost their two-goal lead to suddenly trail by that same margin. In all, the Gophers wracked up 31 penalty minutes in the second period.
"That was an unfortunate four- or five-minute segment," Gophers coach Bob Motzko said. "We absolutely dominated for 55 minutes, and then we took penalties after whistles. And we let them back in the game."
Minus #stickgate, the Gophers were clearly the stronger side throughout the split, despite falling to 4-2-0 in front of another announced sellout crowd of 10,193 at 3M Arena at Mariucci. They outshot North Dakota 38-18 in Friday's 3-2 overtime victory and again commandeered the puck Saturday, finishing with 41 shots to North Dakota's 20.
Matthew Knies — who had the game-winner in the first installment of the series — put the Gophers ahead 1-0 only 48 seconds into the second period before Pitlick took the puck from the neutral zone to the net nine minutes later, making it 2-0.
But the bombardment by North Dakota (3-2-1) started soon after with power-play goals from Jackson Blake and Riese Gaber, plus an even-strength one from Mark Senden, all within just more than a minute of each other. Jackson Kunz added another power-play goal a few minutes after that to make it 4-2, which also heralded a goalie change for the Gophers, with Owen Bartoszkiewicz pulled for Justen Close.
But once the Gophers had finally emptied the penalty box, their form returned, and Connor Kurth scored with just 30 seconds to play in the middle period to help the Gophers go into the break with just a 4-3 deficit.
The Gophers tied it about six minutes into the third period on Jimmy Snuggerud's goal, which eventually forced overtime. But Senden, the UND captain and 2016 graduate of Wayzata High School, despite combatting four Gophers in the crease, somehow managed to jam the puck past Close to end the game.
"Honestly, I thought we were the better team in this competition," Snuggerud said. "… Just can't take penalties in those vulnerable times. And the things we did after the whistles weren't very smart."
The Gophers did not make Pitlick available for comment after the game, and Motzko was clipped in his assessment of the celebration, just saying he would address it Monday in practice (potentially with some extra cardio). But the forward sat on the bench for a good 10 minutes of the third period Saturday.
Ryan Johnson, a senior captain who led the staunch Gophers D-corps this series, said "a lot of discipline comes with maturity" and encouraged the Gophers — and their 11 freshmen — to learn from Saturday's foray.
As for Pitlick's notorious heave, Johnson showed the sophomore some compassion.
"Obviously, the game is emotional, and I think we all make mistakes," Johnson said. "And we all go through some things that we probably regret."
