Gophers men’s hockey team blows lead, loses to UMass in NCAA regional on controversial OT goal

FARGO – Bob Motzko’s voice was hoarse, and his face was flushed. His Gophers just had been eliminated from the NCAA men’s hockey tournament in a 5-4 overtime loss to Massachusetts on Thursday night in the Fargo Regional semifinals.

The Gophers took a two-goal lead into the third period and endured a strange situation that briefly forced their starting goalie from the game but still rallied late in the third to force overtime.

It’s that overtime result that didn’t sit well with Motzko and the Gophers fans at Scheels Arena, a handful of whom threw cups and cans onto the ice.

Aydar Suniev scored his second goal of the night 4:29 into overtime, sending the Minutemen into Saturday’s 5:30 p.m. final against Western Michigan, a 2-1 double-overtime winner over Minnesota State Mankato earlier Thursday.

That goal, Motzko contended, shouldn’t have happened because just before it was scored, Gophers defenseman Ryan Chesley was skating the puck through the neutral zone only to go down after what the coach believed was a tripping infraction by UMass center Dans Locmelis. Locmelis immediately retrieved the puck, skated into the Minnesota zone and fed Suniev with a backhand pass for the winner.

“It’s a crying shame that we’re sitting here right now like this,” Motzko said in the postgame news conference, with Jimmy Clark and Brody Lamb sitting to his left. “These guys deserve better.”

When asked if he felt a trip should have been called, Motzko responded, “What do you feel?” adding, “two goals today,” referring to another non-call he thought was suspect.

When asked if he thought he was tripped, Chesley declined to answer.

Before the overtime, Jimmy Snuggerud scored two goals, including one with 3:36 left in the third that tied it 4-4 for the Gophers (25-11-4). Brody Lamb and Connor Kurth also scored for Minnesota, which got 32 saves from Liam Souliere.

Larry Keenan, Daniel Jencko and Francesco Dell’Elce also scored for UMass (21-13-5). Goalie Daniel Hrabal made 25 saves.

“Obviously means a lot,” said Dell’Elce. “These kind of games you kind of want to get done for your older guys.”

The game took a U-turn in the third period.

UMass pounced on a Gophers turnover to cut the lead to 3-2 at 7:14 of the third. Suniev, alone in front of the net, took a pass from Jencko and beat Souliere.

Souliere left the game at 8:44 because the strap that connects his pads to his skates was broken. Under NCAA rules, he wasn’t allowed a delay to fix the equipment. Motzko said he didn’t call timeout because the pad needed more time to fix than one minute.

“They just said it was taking too much time,” Souliere said of the officials, “and that we needed to put the other goalie in.”

Said Motzko, “First time I’ve ever had that happen.”

In came backup goalie Nathan Airey, cold off the bench, and the Minutemen tied the score five seconds later when Jencko tipped a pass in front of the net past Airey.

Souliere returned to the game at 12:07, and UMass continued to push the pace. That resulted in Dell’Elce beating Souliere for a 4-3 lead at 15:07.

Snuggerud, though, answered back by knotting the score 4-4 at 16:24. After a faceoff win by Moore, Snuggerud collected the puck and snapped a shot past Hrabal from the slot. The third finished with UMass outshooting the Gophers 34-28 through regulation and 16-7 in the period.

Minnesota scored first, getting Snuggerud’s blast from the left circle for a four-on-three power-play goal at 14:14 for his 23rd goal of the season, ending a four-game goal drought.

But only 20 seconds later, Keenan beat Souliere to tie it 1-1.

The Gophers took a 2-1 lead at 18:49 of the first when Lamb collected the puck after a faceoff and promptly wired it past Hrabal. The goal was Lamb’s 17th of the season and first since Feb. 22.

Gophers defenseman Luke Mittelstadt rang a shot off the post 1:07 into the second period as Minnesota pressured early. UMass responded by getting more zone time and challenging the Gophers’ zone exits.

Minnesota stretched the lead to 3-1 at 14:07 of the second period when Clark fed a pass across the crease to Kurth, who deked Hrabal and backhanded the puck into the net for his 18th goal of the season.

Early in the third period, UMass started with increased energy and pressured the Gophers. Souliere was forced to make a scrambling save on Jencko at 3:37 as the pro-Gophers crowd roared.

Then came the UMass surge that ended Minnesota’s season, leaving Motzko to begin an offseason that arrived quicker than the Gophers wanted.

“First and foremost, our coaching staff and me personally loved coaching this team this year,” Motzko said. “From start to finish, they gave us our heart. They were an unbelievable group to be around.”