MINNEAPOLIS — With the No. 8 Michigan hockey team down 1-0 at No. 15 Minnesota midway through Sunday’s contest, the Wolverines received a five-minute power play after Golden Gopher defenseman Aaron Ness was whistled for checking-from-behind and given a game misconduct.

For Michigan, it was the ideal chance to grab the equalizer and some momentum after failing to sustain much offensive pressure in the opening 30 minutes of play.

But the Wolverines squandered the opportunity, tallying just four shots on the power play en route to a 3-1 loss at Mariucci Arena in the final game of the 18th College Hockey Showcase. Michigan tied Wisconsin, 4-4, in Madison in its first game of the showcase contest on Friday.

“You got to get something past your goalie there,” Michigan coach Red Berenson said of the 5-on-4 power play. “A team sometimes gets more energy from killing a penalty, and the team on the power play gets more frustrated. That’s kind of what went on tonight.”

Whether it was Minnesota’s heightened pressure on the penalty kill or Michigan’s inability to quickly move the puck in the Gopher end, the Wolverines didn’t register a goal on the power play all night against the WCHA’s worst penalty-killing team. Michigan was 0-for-4 with the man advantage.

According to senior forward Matt Rust, “panic” may have hindered the Wolverines. Rust said that after two or three minutes of the five-minute major, in which Michigan couldn’t score, “players began to make plays they don’t normally make,” leading to frustration.

“Things just went downhill from there,” Rust said.

Minnesota took the momentum from the penalty kill and scored what would be the game-winner three minutes later off the stick of Nick Larson.

But Michigan (8-4-4 overall) responded, as senior forward Scooter Vaughan fought off two Gophers behind the net and wristed a shot on goaltender Alex Kangas. Kangas stopped the initial shot, but Vaughan corralled his own rebound and banged it home to cut the Minnesota (8-5-1) lead in half.

With less than 20 seconds left in the period, the Gophers pushed their lead back to two, netting a power play goal off the stick of Erik Haula. A Minnesota forward blasted a one-timed shot from the slot, with the rebound trickling to the right of Wolverine senior netminder Bryan Hogan. Unguarded and with a wide-open net, Haula found the back of the net.

“Minnesota’s a good team, and when you give them a lead, we couldn’t answer the bell,” Berenson said. “That power play goal in the last minute, that really hurt us and we couldn’t get that one back.”

Michigan played a pretty solid third period, outshooting the Gophers 12-4 in the final frame, but the Wolverines still couldn’t capitalize on its chances.

As senior forward Louie Caporusso said following the loss, “it was definitely a game that you want to forget.”

Prior to the contest against Minnesota, Michigan played Wisconsin (7-6-3) on Friday night at the Kohl Center. And though the end result was different, special teams dictated the outcome of the game as well.

Not counting junior David Wohlberg’s 10-minute misconduct late in the third period, Michigan was whistled for eight penalties while Wisconsin had seven.

During the 10-game stretch starting with a contest at New Hampshire on Oct. 17, the Wolverines were just 2-for-43 on the power play. But against the Badgers, the team doubled that total, with senior Carl Hagelin and sophomore Chris Brown both registering power-play tallies.

Additionally, at one point in the second period, the Wolverines received four consecutive penalties, leading to two Wisconsin power play goals. The Badgers were 3-for-6 on the night with the man advantage.

“We were surprised at all the penalties,” Berenson said on Friday night. “We’re disappointed in that part of the game. Then our penalty killing wasn’t good enough for their power play. At least our power play got a couple back. It was a good game, a hard-fought game. You just like to take the referees out of it and give the players a chance to play the game.”

With an umbrella setup in the offensive end, three Wisconsin players situated themselves at the top of the zone and passed the puck back and forth until they found an adequate shooting lane. They didn’t deviate from their designed setup, as they continued to work the puck from one side of the ice to the other, in hopes of getting a Wolverine or two out of position.