The No. 3-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers men's hockey team trailed most of the night but rallied late to defeat the Wisconsin Badgers 3-2 at Kohl Center in Madison.
Junior forward Jimmy Snuggerud scored two goals, including the game-winner in the third period, to lead the Gophers to victory. It's Snuggerud's third and fourth goals scored in the past three games.
The Gophers move to 8-1-0 overall on the season and a perfect 3-0 in Big Ten play. After the loss, the Badgers are now 2-7-0 and 1-4-0 in conference play.
Related: Gophers gain another spot in latest hockey poll
Follow us on Facebook
Minnesota trailed early 2-0 in the second period when Ryan Chesley found the back of the net midway through the period to cut the lead to one.
Snuggerud scored the first of his two goals with about six minutes remaining in the second period to tie the game at two.
He then scored the go-ahead goal with 7:15 remaining in the game, thanks to a terrific pass from teammate Erik Påhlsson to go up 3-2 where the score held for the final buzzer.
Sophomore goaltender Nathan Airey starts his 2024-25 season 5-0-0 after the win, posting 28 saves including his last 15 shots he faced.
"We got the win tonight, but we did a lot of things in the game that were self-inflicted wounds and put ourselves on defense far too many times," Minnesota head coach Bob Motzko said in a statement. "We have to be comfortable playing uncomfortable and we're not right now, but we got a win out of it and that's the darn positive thing out of it."
Minnesota will wrap up the weekend series with Wisconsin on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Kohl Center.