‘U’ Drops Season Opener at Colorado College
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Colorado College bounced back from a pair of one-goal deficits to the Gopher men’s hockey program on Friday night before eventually handing Minnesota a 3-2 loss in the 2019-20 season opener at the Broadmoor World Arena.
Senior captain Tyler Nanne opened the night with a goal 1:53 into the game – set up by Joey Marooney and Garrett Wait – that stood as the lone tally for nearly 50 minutes while Scott Reedy also scored for the Maroon & Gold (0-1-0 overall, 0-0-0-0 Big Ten) at 11:03 of the third period off assists from Brannon McManus and Matt Staudacher.
But Colorado College (1-0-0, 0-0-0-0 NCHC) answered both goals and pocketed the eventual game winner with under five minutes left to pick up the win. Chris Wilkie scored both equalizers for the Tigers before setting up Ben Copeland’s deciding tally at 15:14 of the third period.
Minnesota was outshot 30-31 in the loss while going 0-for-2 on the power play and 4-for-5 on the penalty kill. Jack LaFontaine took the loss for the Gophers, making 28 saves in his first start with the program. Ryan Ruck also made 28 saves to pick up the win.
Notable
After Nanne’s goal stood alone for the opening 49 minutes of play, the two teams proceeded to score three goals in just over two minutes and four goals in just over six minutes including two goals 10 seconds apart to tie the game at 2-2.
Quoatable
“It was a crazy first game, you just don’t want to lose it the way we lost it,” Minnesota head coach Bob Motzko said. “We just weren’t able to close it out.”
Up Next: Series Finale at Colorado College
The Gophers close out this weekend’s non-conference series at Colorado College on Saturday, Oct. 12 at 8:07 p.m. CT (Radio: 1130 KTLK-AM/103.5 FM; Stream: NCHC.tv) before hosting Niagara next weekend for the first home series of the season at 3M Arena at Mariucci.