Gophers' Rhett Pitlick scores, throws stick into stands and gets 10-minute penalty

Pitlick was hit with a 10-minute misconduct penalty.
Gophers' Rhett Pitlick scores, throws stick into stands and gets 10-minute penalty
Gophers' Rhett Pitlick scores, throws stick into stands and gets 10-minute penalty /

Rhett Pitlick, part of the No. 1 Minnesota Gophers' star-studded freshman class, celebrated a goal in a way that has maybe never been before. 

After ripping a wrist shot by North Dakota's goalie to put the Gophers up 2-0, Pitlick celebrated by chucking his stick into the stands. A North Dakota fan caught it and immediately threw it back on the ice, similar to how baseball fans throw an opposing team's home run ball back onto the field. 

While fans got a kick out Pitlick's celebration, the officials didn't. 

Pitlick was slapped with a 10-minute misconduct penalty, which sparked a North Dakota rally – and the Fighting Hawks went on to win 5-4 in overtime. 

Jackson Blake scored on the ensuing power play 2 minutes, 9 seconds later. And Riese Gaber's power-play goal tied the game 2-2 54 seconds later, and Mark Senden gave the Fighting Hawks a 3-2 lead just 18 seconds later. 

Less than three minutes after that UND scored again to take a 4-2 lead. 

Minnesota battled back with a goal from Mason Nevers with 34 seconds left in the second period, and the Gophers tied the game 4-4 on freshman Jimmy Snuggerud's goal 6 minutes, 30 seconds into the third. 

Senden, who went to Wayzata High School in the Twin Cities, scored in overtime to help UND split the weekend series against Minnesota. 


Published
Joe Nelson
JOE NELSON

Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen.  His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011.  Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play.  Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers.  Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.