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MINNEAPOLIS - The Niagara men's hockey team (5-6-6; 4-2-5 AHA ) could not dig itself out of an early 2-0 hole, eventually falling 5-1 to the No. 2/2 Minnesota Gophers (15-5-1; 11-3-0 WCHA ) during the opening round of the Mariucci Classic at the Mariucci Arena on Friday evening.  

Early in the final stanza, junior forward Tyler Matthews dented the scoreboard for Niagara to make it a 4-1 game, but it was not enough to battle back against the second-ranked team in the nation. 

Less than three minutes into the period, Matthews came streaking down the right boards, ripping one past the shoulder of Gopher goaltender Kent Patterson for his first career goal. 

"They got a couple of quick, early goals that we never really rebounded from ," said head coach David Burkholder.  "I was happy that in the third period we punched the clock, played them down low and finished our checks.  We didn't play the score board which was a good thing to see.  Their players made some big time plays though, especially on the powerplay and that was the difference." 

The Gophers took control of the scoreboard 1:58 into the opening period when senior Nick Larson buried a rebound from Jake Parenteau past Niagara netminder Cody Campbell.  Senior Jake Hansen capitalized on another rebound opportunity from a Sam Warning shot less than three minutes later, making it a two-goal game. 

The Gophers upped their lead to 4-0, with two goals in the last six minutes of the second period.  Minnesota made it 3-0 after Campbell made a diving save on a shot by Nate Schmidt, but a trailing Erik Haula was right on the doorstep to knock in the puck for his 10th goal of the season.  The Gophers then went up 4-0, with Justin Holl scoring off a feed from Hensen. 

Sophomore Zach Budish rounded out the scoring for the Gophers with 6:39 left in the final frame for his fifth goal of the season.   

Campbell finished the first two periods with 27 stops, while freshman goalie Colby Drost pushed aside 11 Gopher shots to end the game.

The Purple Eagles return to the ice on New Year’s Eve to wrap up the 2011 Mariucci Classic when they face off against Princeton at 4 p.m. ET.