Gophers men’s hockey team rallies to beat No. 5 Penn State 3-2

Mason Moe snapped a 2-2 tie midway through the second period as the Gophers men’s hockey team rallied from a two-goal deficit to edge No. 5 Penn State 3-2 on Friday at 3M Arena at Mariucci.

Penn State led 2-0 after one period, but the Gophers (6-8-1, 3-2-0 Big Ten) scored three times in a 6½-minute span in the second period to take the lead.

“Our players earned that thing, start to finish,” Gophers coach Bob Motzko said. “We had a really good first period, but we found ourselves down 2-0 and then they held strong. We got great goaltending tonight and special teams were critical.”

The Nittany Lions (10-5-0, 3-4-0) pulled goalie Joshua Fleming with 35 seconds remaining and their final shot-on-goal went into the net. But after an official review, it was determined that the shot went in after the horn had sounded.

Reese Laubach scored twice in a four-minute span to stake the Nittany Lions to the early lead.

Axel Begley got the Gophers on the scoreboard with 16:22 remaining in the second period. Brodie Ziemer’s power-play goal with 11:57 left in the second tied it before Moe scored two minutes later.

The teams will conclude the series on Saturday at 3M Arena at Mariucci.

Ava Guillemette broke a 1-1 tie with 3 minutes, 20 seconds remaining in the third period. Kianna Roeske’s empty-net goal with 42 seconds remaining sealed the victory for the Mavericks.

The victory was just the second in the past nine games for the Mavericks (7-7-1, 3-7-1 WCHA) and was their first regular-season victory over the Gophers since Jan. 15, 2022.

“Disappointing to say the least,” Gophers coach Brad Frost said. “We weren’t sharp, passes were off, and shots were just missing the net. We had plenty of chances to get more than one here tonight, but so did they. We weren’t reloading, we weren’t on top of pucks, and overall it was not positive.”

The Gophers (12-3, 8-3), who went into the game second in the nation in scoring (5.21 goals per game), led 1-0 after Abbey Murphy’s goal with 7:33 left. It was the 18th goal of the season for Murphy, who led the nation with 30 points going into the game.

The Mavericks tied it on a goal by Mercury Bischoff with 3:52 left in the first period.

The teams will conclude the home-and-home series on Saturday afternoon in Mankato.

Julia Hanson had 12 kills to lead the No. 19 Gophers volleyball team to a 25-16, 25-11, 25-13 sweep of host Maryland.

Lourdes Myers and Kelly Kinney each added nine kills for the Gophers (20-8, 10-7 Big Ten), who play at Rutgers on Sunday.