More than 100 years of history against 10 years of history, 35 tournament appearance with 52 wins against a first-time dancer. It was that sort of David versus Goliath matchup that Robert Morris found themselves in against the No. 1 overall seeded Minnesota Gophers in the West region semifinals in the NCAA men’s ice hockey tournament.
The Colonials didn’t let Minnesota’s resume affect them early as they came out strong in the first period taking advantage of an aggressive opponent and drawing two power play opportunities in the first five minutes, operating with a 5-on-3 advantage at one point. The Colonials were unable to capitalize on the opportunity totaling five shots on net with the advantage. Minnesota fought back throughout the first period making it difficult for Robert Morris to leave the defensive zone much less mount any sustained offensive attack.
Minnesota wore the Colonials down and drew first blood with 3:47 remaining in the period as Nate Condon drove down the ice and scored 5-hole on goalie Dalton Izyk to give the Gophers the lead. Minnesota has gone 15-0-5 when scoring first this season. Two minutes Michael Brodzinski got his name on the score sheet as he tickled the twine with a slap shot from the blue line to put Minnesota up two. With under 20 seconds left until the intermission, Justin Kloos tried to shut the door as he put back a Brady Skjei shot for the third goal. The first period ended with shots favoring Minnesota to the tune of 16-9 and took 17 of 25 faceoff chances.
The Gophers opened the second stanza just as they had closed the first as captain Kyle Rau sent a loose puck home to give his team a seemly insurmountable lead. The Colonials stormed back late in the second as leading scorer Cody Wydo netted his 31st of the season, which also gave him the record for career goals at RMU with 65. With the goal, he also added to his three-game goal steak and five-game point streak. Wydo found himself in the penalty box on the ensuing faceoff with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after getting tangled up with a Gopher jockeying for position. Not to be out done, Wydo’s line mate and second-leading Colonial scorer, Zac Lynch, scored with 43.5 seconds left before the intermission.
Robert Morris was able to settle into the game in third mounting several sustained offensive possessions. The Colonials looked to add to their 56 goals scored in the third period or overtime. However, it was Minnesota that struck first in the period as a Hudson Fasching was scored the lone power play goal of the game on a rebounded Taylor Camratta shot. Only a few seconds later, RMU’s David Friedmann would send home a rebound to make the scored 5-3, but that was as close as the Colonials would get as Nate Cordon would score an empty-net goal for his second of the game and defenseman Mike Reilly sent a slap shot to the back of the net to make the score 7 to 4.
Looking at the numbers, the shots were in favor of Minnesota 50-25 as was the faceoff advantage as the Gophers won 40 of 66 faceoffs. The Colonials held their opponent to 1 of 4 on the powerplay while being held to 0 of 3 themselves.
