Late surge carries Gophers over Bulldogs, 5-3

The Minnesota Gopher men’s hockey team scored two goals in the third period to break a tie and beat the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs 5-3 on Friday night at Mariucci Arena to bring the team within a point of the WCHA lead with five regular season games to go.

Coming off a defeat at the hands of Wisconsin last weekend at the Hockey City Classic in Chicago, the No. 2 Gophers struck first with a goal by Nate Condon in the first period. But the Bulldogs were relentless in the second period, notching three goals.

Luckily, Minnesota’s Erik Haula and Sam Warning both scored in that period to bring the game to a tie at the end of the second period.

Sophomore Kyle Rau would score the game-winning goal for Minnesota 13:25 into the third period to break the tie and Haula scored his 15th goal and second goal of the game on an empty-netter with less than 10 seconds remaining to seal the game for the Gophers.

Freshman netminder Adam Wilcox avenged the loss last weekend to the Badgers by making 26 saves against the Bulldogs to advance his rookie record to 20-5-4.

Minnesota will closeout the series against Duluth Saturday night at 7 p.m. CT at Mariucci Arena.