Captain Kyle Rau provided the direction that the Gophers desperately needed.
The senior forward created just enough room to track down a rebound and sling the puck into the back of the net for a 3-2 overtime victory against RIT on Saturday night in the Mariucci Classic consolation game.
The No. 8 Gophers (10-5-1) had lost four of their previous seven games and were struggling to put away a five-win opponent when Rau produced the morale boost with the help of Hudson Fasching on the rush.
"It's good for us. It was a good tournament, we had some 90 shots," Rau said, "but we need to start scoring goals, and I think it starts with crashing the net on rebounds. So that was a good one for us and lucky to squeak away with a win.
"It felt good to win, but a loss and almost a tie in our building is unacceptable, so it was a good win, but we've got to get better. Way better."
Rau finished with a goal and assist. Vinni Lettieri and Mike Reilly scored the other goals for the Gophers. Adam Wilcox had 19 saves.
RIT's Mike Rotolo had 46 stops.
The Gophers finished in third place in their own tournament for the second year in a row.