Kyle Rau tossed, Jason Zucker hurt as Gopher hockey falls in Denver

After a break of nearly two weeks, two trends Gopher hockey fans don't like continued in the opener of the team's weekend series in Denver. The Gophers saw an early lead disappear and again lost on a Friday, and again lost in Denver - two things that they've done plenty of recently.

Nate Condon gave Minnesota and early lead, which was long gone by the end of the first period. Denver scored three times in the opening period and twice more in a penalty-filled second en route to a 5-3 win.

Minnesota is now 8-7-0 in Friday night games, which left Gophers coach Don Lucia at a loss for answers on how to turn things around in series openers.

"I don't know. I don't know. It's frustrating," Lucia said. "For the most part we've played pretty well on Friday. This was a rare game where we didn't give ourselves a chance to win."

The skinny

Lucia for years has preached the mantra that if you can get three goals, you'll usually have enough offense to win the game. On this night the Gophers got three, and it wasn't anywhere near enough, as Minnesota surrendered five goals for just the second time this season.

And the cave-in came after Condon's first period goal which seemed to have the momentum on the side of the visitors. It went away quickly, as Denver tied the game on the next shift and had 19 shots in the opening period en route to taking a 3-1 lead.

"You've always got to come back strong after you score. You can't let up," Condon said. "If they come back and score, it kills any momentum we have."

Rau scored to pull Minnesota back within a goal early in the second, and again Denver answered. That, and time in the penalty box, were themes that continued all night.

"I thought we were much too loose tonight and I thought that was evident by giving up 19 shots," Lucia said. "We put ourselves shorthanded too much the first two periods. We didn't have much crispness to our game tonight. Denver was the better team tonight and they deserved to win."

Gophers goalie Kent Patterson, whose rights are owned by the Colorado Avalanche and who was likely playing in front of a few future employers, had a rough go early, and let in an ugly shot for Denver's fourth goal before finishing with 29 saves.

"We put more pucks on net in that first period than we have in a long time, and certainly I thought it rattled their goaltender," Pioneers coach George Gwozdecky said. "He settled down later but I don't think he was expecting to see those kinds of shots from us."

Turning point

The Gophers already trailed 4-2 in the middle period when Rau delivered a high check to Denver's Jason Zucker in front of the benches. Zucker, who is a good bet to play for the Wild within two years, went down hard, and left the game with an upper body injury. Rau was given a five-minute major penalty for boarding after the hit, and tossed from the game. The Pioneers took control of the momentum, and the game, at that point, scoring to make it 5-2.

Numbers game

• 0-4-0: Friday night record for the top four ranked teams in the nation after the Gophers, Boston University, Minnesota Duluth and Michigan all lost.
• 9-2-0: Denver's record versus the Gophers in their last 11 meetings.
• 9: Goals scored by Denver's third line of Nate Dewhurst, Shawn Ostrow and Dustin Jackson this season prior to this weekend. That trio scored three times in the first period.
• 40: Seconds that the Gophers held a lead on Friday.

Health watch

No significant injuries for the Gophers, although NBC Sports Network color man Mike Greenlay mentioned that Rau may well miss additional time due to supplementary discipline for the hit that took out Zucker. Lucia seemed to make the case afterward that the hit contained none of the checking from behind elements that can lead to an extended suspension.

"I didn't see it, but it happened," Lucia said. "When I watched the video between periods, their kid had the puck, he was going to throw it in. He made the play into the zone and Kyle finished his hit. It was in the chest, so it wasn't from behind or anything like that."

Summary

First period
Gophers - Nate Condon 10 (unassisted), 9:08
Pioneers - Shawn Ostrow 9 (Jackson, Dewhurst), 9:48
Pioneers - Dustin Jackson 1 (Ostrow), 12:37
Pioneers - Nate Dewhurst 2 (Ryder, Didier), 17:32

Second period
Gophers - Kyle Rau 14 (Budish, Bjugstad), 1:56, PPG
Pioneers - Jason Zucker 15 (Mayfield, LaLeggia), 4:02, PPG
Pioneers - Chris Knowlton 9 (Ostrow, LaLeggia), 11:55
Gophers - Zach Budish 7 (Helgeson, Bjugstad), 15:19

Third period
No scoring

Shots: Gophers 9-14-11-34; Pioneers 19-9-6-34. Saves: Gophers, Kent Patterson (29-34); Pioneers, Sam Brittain (31-34). Power plays: Gophers 1-for-4, Pioneers 1-4.

Three stars
1. Nate Dewhurst
2. Dustin Jackson
3. Shawn Ostrow

Coming up

The WCHA-leading Gophers lost, but so did second place Minnesota Duluth (which fell 3-1 to North Dakota in Duluth), meaning Minnesota still has a three-point lead in the race for the conference title with seven conference games left to play. Saturday night's rematch with the Pioneers starts at 8p CT and will be the Gophers' last game of the season played outside the Central Time Zone, unless they make to the Frozen Four, which will be played in April, in Tampa.