MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Minnesota sophomore Tommy Novak made the most of his first game against longtime rival North Dakota, scoring two goals as the Gophers rallied four times to tie the Fighting Hawks 5-5 on Friday.
Novak’s second goal of the game and the Gophers’ third goal of the third period at 18:43 knotted the game for the final time.
North Dakota (5-2-1) led 2-0, 3-2, 4-3 and 5-4. But the 13th-ranked Gophers kept coming back. Novak’s first goal in the first period tied the game for the Gophers (3-2-2).
Hayden Shaw, Brock Boeser, Tyson Jost and Tucker Poolman scored goals that gave UND the lead. Austin Poganski also scored.
Tyler Sheehy, Brent Gates also had game-tying goals.
UND goalie Cam Johnson made 32 saves and Minnesota’s Eric Schierhorn stopped 17.
“It started the right way . a 2-0 lead. For the next 10 minutes we took some undisciplined penalties,” UND coach Brad Berry said. “We said play team tough whistle to whistle. The stuff after, don’t mess with it. But we got into that stuff.”
UND had 13 penalties for 34 minutes and was just 1-for-5 on the power play. Minnesota was 3-for-8.
The teams last met in the 2014 Frozen Four when Minnesota scored with six-tenths of a second left to beat UND 2-1. This time they battled to a 2-2 tie after a chippy first period in which North Dakota was held to three shots. Three of the four goals were on power plays.
Shaw scored just 1:35 into the first period and Christian Wolanin staked the Fighting Hawks to a 2-0 lead at 7:56. Shaw’s goal was the only even-strength goal of the period.
“It really felt good to get that first one,” Shaw said.
Vinni Littieri cut the deficit in half for the Gophers at 11:12 and Novak tied it at 17:56.
Boeser broke the tie just 44 seconds into the third period when he redirected a pass from Jost from behind the net past Minnesota goalie Schierhorn. It was the first of six goals in the period.
The Gophers tied it on their third power-play goal, this one by Sheehy at 7:45. Sheehy, all along in front of the net, backhanded a deflected pass past Johnson.
Jost broke the tie for UND at 11:17. Jost had the puck in the corner and took off across the goal crease, drawing Schierhorn toward him. Jost scored easily before Schierhorn could get back across the goal.
Gates tied it at 14:45, Pollman broke the tie at 18:01 and Novak tied it again at 18:43.
UND then killed off a rare penalty in overtime
“We left something on the table here as far as the result,” Berry said. “We wanted the win, we got a tie out of it. More importantly, it’s what to do and not to do. “Discipline is one thing and puck management. It’s the little things catching us right now.”
North Dakota avoided its first three-game losing streak in three years. The last time it lost three in a row was between Nov. 1 and Nov. 9, 2013 - two games to St. Cloud State and one to Nebraska-Omaha.
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