Showing posts with label Hudson Fasching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hudson Fasching. Show all posts

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Shibby Saves + Little Brother Comes to Town

Kyndell Harkness

The Gopher hockey team and crowd got to hear the Battle Hymn for the first time this season after a sweep of Minnesota State-Mankato this past weekend, and look ahead to another former WCHA foe, UMD this weekend at Mariucci.

Friday night, the Gophers cruised to a 4-1 victory over the Mavericks.  Adam Wilcox stopped 34 shots, and got contributions from two of the Reilly brothers.  Justin Kloos started off the scoring half way through the first period when Nate Condon slipped an amazing pass through several defenders from the sideboards to the middle of the ice right onto Kloos stick who snapped the wrist shot past Mankato goalie Cole Huggins for the opening tally.  Eight minutes later, Condon again set up the goal with a pass back to Mike Reilly  who let his wrist shot fly past Huggins to make it 2-0 after one period.  Mankato became much more physical in the second period, and in doing so got called for a couple of penalties.  The Gophers made them pay when Connor Reilly ripped a one-timer off of a pass from Sam Warning to put the Gophers up 3-0.  The Reilly's became the first set of brothers to score in the same game for the Gophers since the Potulny's, current assistant coach Grant, and his brother Ryan did in in March of 2004.  In the third period, Mankato would not go away.  Adam Wilcox made several insane saves, and allowed only one goal to his former high school teammate Zach Palmquist.  Seth Ambroz would tack on an empty net goal with less than 30 seconds remaining, and Minnesota completed the 4-1 win.

Saturday night, Coach Don Lucia surprised the Gopher fan base in giving Senior goalie Mike Shibrowski a start.  Shibrowski's last start had been at Michigan Tech in October of 2012, 393 days prior. He did not disappoint stopping all 25 shots he faced getting his first career shutout in a 3-0 Gopher win.  Great play from the Gopher freshmen class continued Saturday as Grant Bischoff scored the first goal for Minnesota.  Bischoff crashed the net and fellow frosh Hudson Fasching found his with a great pass to make it 1-0.  Mankato thought they had struck back two minutes later when Bryce Gervais put the puck past Shibrowski, however upon replay it was obvious that he had used his hand to put the puck in the net, and the goal was disallowed.  The second period was an up and down affair, however both Shibrowski and Huggins stood tall and kept the puck out of the nets.  In the third period the Gophers broke through.  Justin Holl made a nice play behind the net to create a turnover and put the puck to the front of the goal. Tom Seratorre was standing right in front as the puck slid onto his stick and he popped it over Huggins' shoulder for his first goal in 17 games.  Two minutes later the Gopher's #1 line made it 3-0 when Warning from behind the net found a streaking Fasching in front who hammered home his team leading sixth goal of the season to complete the sweep.  As the Battle Hymn was being played by the band, the team mobbed Shibrowski and proved that the Gophers do have two viable goalies for the rest of the season.

For Shibrowski's game, he was named the #2 Star of the Week by the Big Ten.  A Gopher has been one of the three stars every week so far this season.  Sam Warning had three assists on the weekend and currently has 17 points to lead the Gophers.  he has tallied at least one point in every game so far this season.  He is currently leading the Big Ten and is 7th in the nation in scoring, however he has played two less games than the national leaders above him.  Fasching's 13 points on the season lead all freshmen in the Big Ten. 

Little Brother's Back in Town

This weekend former WCHA foe Minnesota-Duluth comes to tow for a two game series against the Gophers.  The #19 ranked Bulldogs are now in the NCHC where they have a 2-2 record, and an overall 5-4 record.  The Gophers and Bulldogs have played over 200 times as Minnesota has an all-time record of 132-74-16 against UMD. Minnesota is 5-2-3 in their last ten meetings, with their last loss to UMD at Mariucci coming in 2009.    Nate Condon leads all Gophers in scoring against the Bulldogs with 9 points in 8 career games. 

Last weekend UMD split a series in Grand Forks against North Dakota.  The Bulldogs are led in scoring by freshman forward Alex Iafallo.  His ten points on the season are nearly double anyone else on the squad.  In goal, UMD has used senior Aaron Crandall in seven games and sophomore Matt McNeely in three games.  McNeely has the better stats of the two with a 1.64 goals against average and a 92.3 % save percentage. UMD as a team likes to play a low scoring game, averaging only 2.8 goals per game this season.  Other Bulldogs to watch for this weekend include highly touted freshman Dom Toninato, senior forward Joe Basaraba, and sophomore forward Tony Cameranesi, brother of Gopher Women's freshman and 2013 Ms. Hockey Dani Cameransei.  

The Friday night game will face-off at 7:10 and will be broadcast on FSN+ , and on 1500 AM on radio.  The Sunday game (which was postponed due to the MN/WI football game on Saturday) will face-off at 4:00 PM and will be broadcast on FSN and 1500 AM.  Both games will be available to stream on BTN2go.com.    Coming off of last week's sweep, the Gophers will continue to play well in the non-conference portion of the season before finally beginning Big Ten play next weekend.  Gophers win 5-2 Friday and 4-3 Sunday.

What they are Saying on the Tweeters:


Didn't know Maroon and Gold were gang colors....

 Worst Bulldog Impression Ever.....

No comment


Dream bigger son....dream bigger

 I miss....umm


 tGopher Arrogance!







Posted by Unknown at 11:54 AM 0 comments
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Thursday, November 14, 2013

Irish Split + Purple Cow Party!

Robert Franklin, South Bend Trib
Welcome back to your weekly dose of Gopher Hockey.  The Gophers are coming off of their toughest weekend of the season so far.  The #1 Gophers went into South Bend, Indiana to take on the #3/#4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish.  After a tough Friday night where Minnesota lost their first game of the season, and frankly did not look good at all, they battled back using their outstanding freshman class to split the series with a 5-4 win Saturday night.

Friday night the Compton Family Ice Center was rocking as the Gophers had not made the trip to South Bend since 1980.  The first period was a back and forth affair, but no one could get the puck past either of the two outstanding goalies, Adam Wilcox for Minnesota and Stephen Summerhays for Notre Dame.  After Tom Serratore picked up a roughing minor early in the second period, Byran Rust made the Gophers pay as he slid a backhand past Wilcox on the power play to give the Irish a 1-0 lead.  Five minutes later Ben Marshall would even the score for the Gophers with a nifty wrist shot from the top of the left circle.  Unfortunately, that would be the lone Gopher goal of the evening.  With three minutes left in the period, Sam Herr scored on another power play for Notre Dame and gave them a 2-1 going into the third.  Notre Dame would add a third goal three minutes into the third, and an empty netter with under a minute left to cap off their 4-1 victory, and give the Gophers their first loss of the season.

It would be a mystery how the Gophers would react Saturday night after their worst played game of the season the night before, and it would be Minnesota's outstanding freshman class that carried them that evening.  The Gophers started the scoring with Taylor Cammarata would score his third goal of the season on the power play about seven minutes into the game.  The freshman onslaught continued three minutes later as Hudson Fasching went to the wrap around on a nifty play and put Minnesota up 2-0 ten minutes into the game.  Notre Dame would answer a minute and a half later to cut the Gopher lead to 2-1, but Justin Kloos would come through at the 15-minute mark to once again extend the lead to 2 goals at 3-1.  With 17 seconds left in the first period, the Gophers were victimized by an Irish player they know well.  Mario Lucia, Gopher coach Don Lucia's son scored his first of two goals on the night and make it 3-2 Gophers after one period of play.

Fasching would add his second goal of the night and fifth of the season seven minutes into the second go put the Gophers up 4-2.  However, the Irish were not going to go down that easily.  Lucia scored his second of the game to cut the lead to 4-3, and with the Gophers down two men late in the second period, Stephen Johns scored with two second left in the period to send it to intermission knotted at 4.  In a back and forth third period, the only tally was scored by another freshman, Jake Bischoff.  His second goal of the year was enough, as Wilcox held strong down the end and Minnesota hung on for a 5-4 victory.

Hudson Fasching was rewarded with the Big Ten's Third Star of the Week after his weekend against the Irish where he had two goals and an assist.  He currently leads all Big Ten Freshmen in points (11), goals (5), and =/- (+12).  A Gopher player has been named one of the three starts each week so far this season.  The Gophers also kept their #1 national ranking after the split as all of the teams on their heels also lost at least one game this weekend. 

Purple Cow Party!!!

It will feel like the old WCHA the next few weeks for the Gopher hockey team as they will host three familiar foes the next three weeks.  This weekend's series is against the Minnesota State- Mankato Mavericks.  For those wondering why this is a purple cow party, this is the Mavericks Logo:
Makes you think Mankato huh.....

The Gophers and Mavericks are of course former in-state rivals in the old WCHA.  MSU-M is still currently in the "new" WCHA, and are 2-2 in conference play and 4-4 overall this season.  The Gophers are 33-10-6 all-time against the Mavericks and have a 16-4-6 record at Mariucci Arena.  However, MSU-M has had recent success against the Gophers as the teams are 5-5 in their last ten games.  The Gophers will also see a familiar face on the Maverick bench as their coach Mike Hastings is a former Gopher assistant.  He has a 2-2 record against his former team.

The Mavericks are led in scoring so far this season by Senior Forward Johnny McInnis. His six points are the most on the squad and his three goals are tied for the team lead.  Sophomore Bryce Gervais is another player with a high-scoring potential.  he is tied for the team lead with three goals as well.   Much of the Maverick's recent success has been on the shoulders of Sophomore Goalie Stephon Williams.  Williams was one of the best goalies in the NCAA last season until he self-destructed in the first round of the NCAA tournament.  Since them he has struggled to regain his form giving up 3.4 goals per game this season, with only an 87% save percentage.  This has made Hastings have to rely a lot more on Freshman Cole Huggins, who in portions of four games this season has only allowed three goals and has a 96.4% save percentage.  It would be expected that the Gophers will most likely see both goalies this weekend. Being back home will be a recharge for this squad, so I forsee a Gopher sweep, with a 5-2 win Friday and a 4-3 win Saturday to hear the Battle Hymn!

Both games this weekend will face-off at 7:10 at Mariucci Arena.  Both games will be broadcast on Fox Sports Plus, and will be streamed via BTN2go.com.  The Friday night game will be on AM1500, and the Saturday night game will be on 107.1 due to a conflict with Gopher Basketball.  


What they are saying on the Twitters:


No don't do that....it could be worse you could go to St. Cloud?


Yes Please!


Umm....A bit whiny if you ask me...

 Ouch......it burns so good.

 

 And Now for Some Dancing....

 

 

 




Posted by Unknown at 12:37 PM 0 comments
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