COLUMBUS, OHIO – The celebration will have to wait for at least another week.
The Gophers came into Value City Arena knowing that two victories would clinch the first-ever Big Ten regular season men's hockey championship, and for just over 56 minutes on Saturday night, it appeared as though they would lock up first place.
Unfortunately for the top-ranked Gophers, Ohio State scored with 3 minutes, 50 seconds left in regulation to steal a 2-2 tie, then claimed the Big Ten's bonus point by scoring the only goal in the shootout.
The result, coupled with Wisconsin's 3-2 overtime victory at Penn State, means the Gophers will take a five-point cushion into the final two games at Michigan next weekend. The Gophers also could have clinched the championship had the Nittany Lions beaten the Badgers, and they would have clinched at least a tie had those teams gone to a shootout.
Ohio State's Nick Schilkey scored the tying goal, lifting a rebound in front of the Gophers crease past goalie Adam Wilcox. Schilkey also scored the only goal of the shootout, on the Buckeyes' first attempt.
"We made a couple of mistakes on the faceoff and lost our coverage," Gophers coach Don Lucia said of the tying goal. "They made a good play to crash the net, where a lot of goals are scored this time of year."
Added senior forward Nate Condon: "We were up with five minutes left, and that goal, it did deflate us a little bit. This is the time of year where these things happen, and we have to bounce back if we want to win championships."
One player who did bounce back after the tying goal was Wilcox, who made five of his 41 saves in the overtime period, including a pair of stellar stops on Ryan Dzingel, the Big Ten's scoring leader. The first saw Dzingel alone in the slot with 3 minutes, 24 seconds to play, but Wilcox made a terrific glove save. Nearly two minutes later, Dzingel broke in on a breakaway at the Gophers blue line, but Wilcox made the stop with his left leg and kept the puck frozen in the crease to preserve the tie.