Gophers men’s hockey team nets sixth straight win

The Gopher Hockey program picked up its sixth-straight win on Friday night, opening the weekend’s Big Ten series with a 4-1 win over No. 19 Michigan State. The victory pushes the Maroon & Gold into a tie for first place in the Big Ten with Ohio State.

Minnesota (13-10-4 overall, 8-5-4-3 Big Ten) picked up eight points from the top line of Blake McLaughlin (one goal, two assists), Sammy Walker (two assists) and Scott Reedy (two goals, one assist) while Jared Moe made 22 saves on 23 shots.

McLaughlin led things off for the Maroon & Gold with his fifth of the year at 1:11 of the first period off feeds from Reedy and Ryan Johnson before the Spartans got the equalizer later in the period with a power-play goal from Mitchell Lewandowski at 8:18.

From there, it was all Minnesota.

Sampo Ranta notched the game-winning goal at 4:45 of the second period with assists from Brannon McManus and Ben Meyers as the sophomore briefly caught Reedy for the team goal scoring lead.

Reedy wasn’t about to let that stand as the junior pocketed two goals – his 12th of the year at 19:58 of the second period from Walker and McLaughlin and his 13th of the year with an empty-net tally at 19:41 of the third period off assists from Walker and McLaughlin.

McLaughlin set a new single-game career high with three points on the night while Reedy picked up his fourth career three-point performance.

Moe improved to 7-4-1 on the season and has now allowed one goal or less in each of his three appearances this seasons against Michigan State. John Lethemon also made 22 saves, falling to 13-10-1 on the year. The Gophers outshot Michigan State 26-23 on the night while going 0-for-2 on the power play and 1-for-2 on the penalty kill.