Gophers Split With Michigan St

MINNEAPOLIS (GopherSports.com) – Two goals from Kyle Rau weren't enough to pick up the sweep over Michigan State as the No. 14/15 Gopher Hockey program fell to the Spartans by a 4-2 margin on Friday night in the series finale.

Minnesota (18-11-3 overall, 9-4-3-0 Big Ten) fell behind the Spartans for the second night in a row, but this time couldn’t muster a long-term rally as the Gophers will now wait to see where they stand in the Big Ten with two more conference games on Saturday between contenders.

After a scoreless first, John Draeger put Michigan State up with the first goal of the game just 44 seconds into the second period. Rau quickly found the equalizer with his 14th of the year at 4:09 after being set up by Hudson Fasching and Leon Bristedt, but the Spartans (14-14-2, 8-6-2-2) added a goal from Ryan Keller at 18:42 of the period and never looked back.

Michael Ferrantino picked up the eventual game winner at 7:04 of the third period, and while Rau scored his second of the night at 15:36 with a power-play tally to make it close, Thomas Ebbing shut the door on the comeback with a power-play insurance goal at 19:23 to seal the win. Rau’s second tally of the night was set up by Fasching and Travis Boyd and both Rau and Fasching ended the night with two points.

Adam Wilcox took the loss in his return to the Gophers lineup. The junior made 30 saves to move to 17-10-3 on the season. Jake Hildebrand made 22 saves to pick up the win, improving to 14-14-2 on the year.

Minnesota was outshot 34-24 in the contest while the Gophers went 1-for-3 on the power play and 0-for-1 on the penalty kill.

The Gophers return to Big Ten action next weekend with a two-game conference series at Ohio State.