Gophers go missing in third period, fall hard against Spartans in men’s hockey

When Gophers forward Brody Lamb pounced on a rebound in front of Trey Augustine and swatted the puck past the Michigan State goalie 3 minutes, 21 seconds into the third period Saturday, the roar of the 9,922 at 3M Arena at Mariucci was full throat. Lamb’s goal gave top-ranked Minnesota a two-goal lead over the No. 3 Spartans, and the crowd was prepared to celebrate a win in the series finale between Big Ten powers.

Turns out, Michigan State had other plans.

Trailing by two goals with less than nine minutes to play, the Spartans got goals from Isaac Howard, Maxim Štrbák and Charlie Stramel in a span of 2:51 to stun the Gophers 5-3 and silence the crowd. Red Savage set the final score with an empty-net goal with 35 seconds to play.

“We ran out of gas,” Gophers coach Bob Motzko said. “Momentum flipped on us, and that’s what we were afraid of. We were running on fumes.”

Instead of entering their three-week break on a winning note, the Gophers (15-3-2, 8-1-1 Big Ten, 24 points) took only one of a possible six points over the weekend. The teams tied 3-3 Friday, with MSU winning a shootout for the extra point.

On Saturday, Brodie Ziemer and Aaron Huglen scored second-period goals for Minnesota, and goalie Liam Souliere made 25 saves.

Howard also scored in the second period for Michigan State (13-2-1, 6-1-1, 19 points), which got 24 saves from Augustine.

“Getting the lead in the third, we’ve got to figure out a way to hold that, especially in big games like this,” Lamb said. “So, that’s going to sting for two weeks going into the break, but we’ll be back.”