Goals were scarce Saturday night at 3M Arena at Mariucci.
So were shots — for Harvard.
The Crimson had only 16 shots on Eric Schierhorn of the Gophers, but forced an overtime with the score tied 1-1 on the home rink of the No. 7 team in Division I hockey.
The extra period didn't last long. Captain Tyler Sheehy scored a power-play goal at 35 seconds to give Minnesota a 2-1 victory. Brent Gates Jr. and Rem Pitlick had assists on the play.
Until then Crimson goalie Merrick Madsen was strong. He stopped 48 shots — 16 in each period and two in overtime.
"A goaltender sometimes has something to say about who is going to win the game," Gophers coach Don Lucia said, "and [Madsen] is an elite goalie. There is a reason he has a 2.0 goals-against [average] for a career."
Henry Bowlby, a freshman from Edina, put No. 13 Harvard (2-5) ahead at 7:02 of the second period on a back door deflection.
It was just the fifth time an opponent has scored first against the Gophers in 14 games this season.
The Gophers (9-4-1) tied it when Pitlick scored at 14:38 of the third, on a rebound off a shot by defenseman Steve Johnson. It was his seventh goal of the season. Steve Johnson and Casey Mittelstadt had assists.
For Pitlick, a sophomore forward from Plymouth, it was his eighth consecutive game with a point, a career high.
And the Gophers kept shooting.
"I liked the pace we played with, the relentless attack." Lucia said. "Our 'D' did a good job of getting pucks up to our forwards and we got to some loose pucks. … Rem scored a big goal and we finally won in overtime after losing a couple of difficult ones. Our power play came through."
Minnesota went on the power play for the final 38 seconds of regulation after Mittelstadt was tripped.
Sheehy, a first-team All-America and the Big Ten player of the year last season with 20 goals, had a tough time scoring early this season. In the first nine games, the junior from Burnsville missed two with an undisclosed injury and had no goals in the other seven. But he has four goals, including two game-winners, and four assists in the past five games.
"Eric had a couple of timely saves, although he did not get tested a lot," Lucia said. "And we had 50 shots on goal and it took the 50th shot to get to two [goals]."