Gophers Fall To Harvard In Overtime 4-3

MINNEAPOLIS (GopherSports.com) -- Eric Schierhorn stopped a career-high 35 shots, but it wasn't enough as the Gopher Hockey program came up on the wrong side of a back-and-forth 4-3 overtime battle with No. 7 Harvard in the championship game of the 25th annual Mariucci Classic.

The seventh-ranked Crimson (8-1-3 overall, 4-1-3 ECAC) picked up the program's first two Mariucci Classic wins in route to its first tournament title and snapped Minnesota's streak of eight-straight games with a power-play goal.

Sean Malone scored his first goal of the year 2:04 into the contest and Colin Blackwell made gave the Crimson a two-goal lead with a power-play tally 9:31 into the second period.

But the Gophers (8-9-0, 3-1-0-0 Big Ten) chipped back late in the second as Michael Brodzinski scored his second goal of the weekend with 19 seconds left in the period off assists from Hudson Fasching and Jake Bischoff.

Minnesota then opened the third with a pair of goals within 28 seconds of each other to take a 3-2 lead. Leon Bristedt notched his ninth goal of the season after being fed by Fasching and Tommy Novak at 14:01 and then Steve Johnson pocketed his first career goal at 14:29 when he found the net off a setup from Connor Reilly and Ryan Collins.

Fasching, who tallied the game winner in Friday's win over Connecticut, has now tallied a point in six-straight games and leads the Gophers with 17 points (nine goals, eight assists) on the season. Novak, meanwhile, extended his team-best point streak to eight games.

The lead would hold until Kyle Criscuolo found the equalizer on an extra-attacker goal at 19:26 and then the senior captain added his second of the night in overtime at 2:39 to give Harvard the title.

Minnesota was outshot 29-39 in the game while going 2-for-3 on the penalty kill and 0-for-3 on the power play.

The Gophers return to Big Ten action next weekend with a road series at Penn State.