Gophers tie Notre Dame; pick up Big Ten bonus point with shootout victory

Brannon McManus gave the Gopher Hockey program its first shootout win of the season on Friday night as the Maroon & Gold picked up the Big Ten bonus point following a 3-3 overtime tie with Notre Dame at Compton Family Ice Arena.

Coupled with Wisconsin’s win over Penn State, Minnesota’s two-point performance puts the Gophers into a tie with the Nittany Lions for first in the Big Ten.

Minnesota (13-11-5 overall, 8-6-5-4 Big Ten) jumped out to a two-goal lead in the first period before rallying in the third period to force an overtime tie with the Irish. Following a scoreless 3-on-3 period that included a penalty shot opportunity for Minnesota, McManus found the net on the Gophers’ first shootout attempt and Jack LaFontaine turned away Tory Dello’s attempt for the Irish to lock up the Big Ten bonus point.

Scott Reedy scored his team-leading 15th goal of the year just 28 seconds into the game off assists from Sammy Walker and Blake McLaughlin while McLaughlin added to the lead at 13:00 of the opening stanza after being set up by Walker and Reedy.

Notre Dame (12-11-6, 7-7-5-3) responded with three-straight goals – one in the first and two in the second — before Walker tallied his third point of the night for the equalizer at 10:13 of the third period with assists coming from Matt Staudacher and Garrett Wait.

Scott Reedy with his team-leading 15th of the year on Minnesota’s first shot of the game, 28 seconds in. McLaughlin with the assist.

LaFontaine made a season-high 39 saves in the official 65 minutes of play (3-on-3 overtime stats do not count towards season totals, moving to 6-6-4 on the season. Cale Morris made 31 saves for the Irish, moving to 9-10-6.

The Gophers were officially outshot 34-42 in 65 minutes.