2013-14 Big Ten Hockey + Icebreaker Classic Preview

Howdy folks!  If you are reading this you are probably confused for two reasons.  First you are wondering who the hell this guy writing this is.  Secondly, you are probably wondering what the hell Big Ten Hockey is.  As to the first question, I'm Andy a new writer here and I will be covering Gopher Hockey this season here on the blog.  As for the second...well that's a bit of a longer story involving Jim Delaney, Terry Pegula, Barry Alvarez, Joel Maturi, and probably should not be discussed around children...but I digress.

Yes the Gophers along with the evil red menace to the east, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Penn State have all become inaugural members of the Big Ten Hockey Conference.  The WCHA still exists, but won't have most of its past notable members as not only has Minnesota and Wisconsin headed to the Big Ten, but North Dakota, St Cloud State, UMD and others decided that they wanted to run to another conference as well, so they are now in the NCHC, otherwise known as the Nacho conference.  Mmmmmm Nachos.

So the Gophers will not be playing some of the usual teams you would have recognized in the past.  No Denver, Colorado College, or either most annoyingly or happily, North Dakota will not be seen on the schedule until at least 2015-16.  Instead Minnesota will be playing 20 games (2 each home and away) against its Big Ten Conference foes.  For those who worry about the future of Minnesota hockey, no worries as the Gophers will play each of the other four Division I schools in Minnesota for at least one game, and most for two.  The Gophers will host UMD and Minnesota State for 2 games each in November, and will play 2 games up in Bemidji next weekend.  The last game comes against St. Cloud in the Friday night game of the inaugural North Star College Cup to be played in January at the Xcel Energy Center.  The Gophers/Huskies winner will play the winner of UMD and MSU on Saturday night, and the losers will play Saturday afternoon.
The other big game on the Gophers schedule is the Hockey City Classic which will take place on January 17th against Ohio State outdoors at a rink constructed on TCF Bank Stadium's field. 

The Gophers will round out their schedule with four additional non-conference series, @Notre Dame, at home against Boston College, the Mariucci Classic and this weekend's Icebreaker Classic at Mariucci Arena.

There are plenty of additional Gopher previews that go in depth on the players who have left the program to head to the pro ranks or have graduated, and the freshmen who have come in to replace them, so I encourage you to check them out if you are so inclined.  We shall cover several of the players over the course of the season here, but there is not enough time to do it all today.  I will however quickly attempt to handicap the Big Ten Conference race:

Projected Big Ten Conference Finish

1. Minnesota

The Gophers did lose several notable players to the pros including Nick Bjugstad, Nate Schmidt, and Zach Budish, however they return arguably the best goalie in the Big Ten in Adam Wilcox, the biggest big game player in Kyle Rau, and between Taylor Cammarata, Justin Kloos, Hudson Fasching, and Lou Nanne's grandson Vinni Lettieri should have the best freshman class in the Big Ten.  All this comes together in time for the Gophers to take the inaugural crown.

2. Wisconsin

The Badgers were predicted to finish first by the coaches and many in the media this season, and they return a ton of firepower, so that was to be expected.  However, I don't think Joel Rumpel is quite as good a goalie as many think he is, and Wisconsin's slow methodical playing style will be tested by several uptempo teams like Minnesota and Michigan in the Big Ten. They also got the whole losing to bad teams thing going on as well losing at home to Penn State last February.  They still get the first round bye in the Big Ten Tournament come March.

3. Michigan

The Wolverines missed the NCAA tournament for the first time in 22 years last season, but Red Berenson will have them rearing to go to get back this season.  Michigan will miss Jacob Truba who has moved on the the NHL after one season in Ann Arbor, but they bring in three freshmen who just need to move across the town from the US Under 18 Program.  Michigan will be back to the top soon, but not quite yet.

4. Michigan State

The Spartans did not have a very good year last year.  There is no way to put it.  Their two best players are also out for the first month of the season this year after off-season surgeries.  However, MSU coach Tom Anastos has the team bought into his program in his third year and the injuries early may be a blessing in disguise when the backloaded Big Ten schedule comes around after the end of the year.

5. Ohio State

The Buckeyes had a bit of a rough offseason as their former coach Mark Osiecki was fired to the surprise of many in the college hockey world.  His departure made waves as several of his high profile recruits he had coming to Columbus decided to find other schools.  His former assistant, Steve Rohlik has taken over and will have a hard time trying to keep up in a tough conference with a new goalie after Brady Hjelle graduated.

6. Penn State

And now we come to the kids who forced this whole thing in the first place.  Penn State gets a huge donation from alum Terry Pegula, and a few years later a decent club team is playing in a brand new arena at a Division I level.  The Nittany Lions did beat three Big Ten teams last season (Wisconsin Michigan State, Ohio State) so they could be better then many expect in their first year.  They will be led by Gopher transfer Max Gardiner

Icebreaker Classic Preview

Enough of this everyone else crap, lets talk about the Gophers and what they will be dealing with this weekend.  The fifth ranked Minnesota team is hosting the annual college hockey kickoff tournament this season named the Icebreaker Classic.  The Gophers are coming off of a 5-1 exhibition win last weekend over Lethbridge, a Canadian college. The game ended up being more of a wresting match then a hockey game as Kyle Rau played the AJ Pierzynski character to the Lethbridge squad drawing several penalties and causing at least two melees.  Rau will be centering the first line for the Gophers this season, most likely this weekend with Lettieri and Junior Sam Warning who did not play against Lethbridge.  The Gophers will open Friday night at 7:00 against Mercyhurst.  The Lakers are predicted to win the Atlantic Hockey Conference this season, so they most likely will not be a complete pushover, but the Gophers are definitely the better team.  The Gophers and Lakers have meet once in the past, in the first round of the 2003 NCAA Tournament when the Gophers cruised to a 9-2 win at Mariucci en route to their second consecutive NCAA title. 

Mercyhurst Lakers All Namers:

#7 Randy Cure Sr-D
#8 John Mousso  Sr-F
#10 Nardo Nagtzaam Jr-F
#29 Spencer Bacon Fr-G

And of course the girls:

Mercyhurst Dance Team

Mercyhurst Cheerleaders

The other two teams in the Icebreaker Classic, Clarkson and New Hampshire will face off at 4:00 in Friday with the losers playing at 4:00 on Saturday and the winners playing at 7:00 Saturday night.

Since we obviously don't know who Minnesota will play on Saturday, here's some girls for both teams to tide you over under next week:

Clarkson Volleyball

Gophers Week 2 Preview vs. New Hampshire



Is it happening again?


It might be.  Although last week's game against UNLV was too close for comfort, at least they did actually win.  I was at the game and there was a pretty fantastic turn out.  It turns out Gopher fans like to gamble and drink and possibly visit the chicken ranch.  If you think Gopher fans are apathetic you should see the UNLV fans.  Attendance was reported at 16,013, approximately 5,000 of which were Gopher fans.  It SEEMED like it was half and half with Minnesota faithful being much louder.  Then again, I started the morning with a jimmy buffet and a pitcher of bloody marys and never looked back. 

There were bright spots beyond the win in the game.  Both lines played pretty well, the running game was solid, the secondary looked pretty good including Derrick Wells earning both the B1G and National defensive player of the week awards.  Some wise blogger said in his week 1 preview that this game would be too close for comfort and it isn't because the Gophers aren't more talented, because they are.  The combo of  traveling to the west coast, playing primetime and on a Thursday night certainly caused their fair share of nerves.  Many of MarQueis Gray's passes looked like me after 3 hours of tailgating.  He was often overthrowing receivers and he was lucky to only have one interception in the game.  Receivers were frequently open deep, a couple of times Gray saw them and threw a rocket ship right over their heads.  These missed passes were what allowed UNLV to hang around and make this a game.  UNLV was ready to roll over and die from the beginning, but they were allowed to hang around.

Anyway, that's over and we WON.  Northwestern and Iowa had some close scrapes too.  Michigan got Bama'd and Penn State got stomped by the Ohio Bobcats. 

Oof.

Next on the schedule is a home game against the University of New Hampshire Wildcats.  The super original Wildcats moniker features a mascot named "Wild E. Cat".  UNH has about 15,000 students.  The students are 57% female!  Famous alumni include Carlton Fisk, Chip Kelly, some hockey players and the second vetrinarian in space.  UNH is also the alma mater of George O'Leary.  It is the place where he famously "resume padded" his way to 3 letters at a school where he never played a game, thus pissing away the head coaching job at Notre Dame.  Then Mike Tice hired him as the DC for the VIkings for a couple of years before he moved on to the University of Central Florida.

New Hampshire doesn't appear to be your typical FBS cream puff.  First off, they run a fast spread offense that is a carryover from when Chip Kelly (you know, the visor guy at Oregon) was OC from 99-06.  This may affect the Gophers defense rotations as ther may not be time to rotate subs in as easily as last week. 

More bad news comes in the form of UNH's recent history against FBS opponents.  Since 2004, they've beaten Rutgers, Northwestern, Marshall, Army and Ball State.  They lost to Pittsurgh in 2010 and were stomped by Toledo in 2011.  This doesn't appear to be a team that is blinded by the bright lights and big cities of their more well known opponents.  They are #14 or so in the FCS.

The Coaching Staff

Head Coach Sean McDonald has been with the Wildcats for 14 years, the last 8 of which he's made the FBS playoffs. "Playoffs?" /mora  He also has 8 years as an assistant at New Hampshire.  He graduated from New Hampshire.  Listen, this guy really likes New Hampshire, ok?  DC John Lyons enters second season with the Wildcats, and is formerly the HC at Dartmouth.  OC Ryan Carty enters his first year as OC, but has been with the team for 6 seasons.  He's the young buck on the staff, but I bet McDonald and Lyons could both whip his ass because of their old man strength.

Sean Goldritch, CAA Rookie of the Week!

The Offense

As mentioned, UNH runs "the speed spread" which relies on a lot of receivers and a quick passing game.  The Gophers once again face a redshirt freshman trigger man in Sean Goldritch (6'3", 205).  Goldritch was 21-31 in his first career start, throwing for 193 yards.  He added a team high 71 yards rushing on 10 carries.  Sophomore WR RJ Harris appears to be the main target after going for 12-102 receiving.  He also added 57 yards on the ground.  He earned the FCS Golden Helmet, which I guess is like the player of the week.  So, Gopher defense, keep an eye on #15.  Jimmy Owens, Chris Setian, and Nico Steriti all ran for TDs last week against Holy Cross. Setian and Steriti each had 12 carries.  Something called Joey Orlando also had 100+ and 2 TDs receiving.

The key for the Gophers on D is going to be strong tackling and pressure from the defensive line.  The spread involves a lot of quick passes. With 4 and 5 receivers out on the field, it sometimes only takes one tackler to miss for a huge gain.  Since the passes are quick, it often takes the d-line out of the picture, so they need to get their hands up and if there's any hesitation by Goldschlager they need to make him pay.  This is a great type of game for the raw, bear-like strength of Ra'Shede Hageman as collapsing the pocket can really affect these throws.  The linebackers have the unenviable task of helping out in coverage and watching for the QB run or draw play. 

Finally, a key to stopping the offense will be the fans making noise.  Some grumpy old dudes will have to put down their walkers to get up and cheer a bit.  Allegedly, New Hampshire only used 300 of it's allotted 3000 visiting tickets, so Gopher fans have the opportunity to make a big impact on how well this no huddle/sugar huddle type offense runs. 5,500 freshman were given free tickets to fill up our anemic student section, so hopefully they make some noise in between trips to the beer garden with fake IDs. (Don't get arrested, you guys.)

The Defense

The defense is led by linebacker Matt Evans who had like a billion tackles last year (see really old video above) and was the FCS defensive player of the year.  Senior CB Dontra Peters is a convert from RB and had an interception against Holy Cross; as did Junior S Manny Asam.  Peters also returns kicks.  Junior CB Chris Houston led the team in interceptinos with 6 last season.  Senior LB Alan Buzbee had about half of the tackles Evans had with 88 last season.  Junior Chris Beranger was second on the team with 142 tackles.  Senior Jared Smith is a stalwart at defensive tackle.

This is another game where the level of  execution for the Gophers is what is most important.  Sure, these guys have lots of tackles and decent stats against the Richmond Spiders and Holy Cross Crusaders, but 60 minutes of the Gophers o-line SHOULD grind them to dust.

The Prediction

The first quarter is going to be hugely important in this one.  I get the impression that Sean Goldritch won't flounder around at QB like Nick Sherry did last week.  The Gophers' running game is a key because it will give the defense much needed rest.  Again, this is a situation where the Gophers have the better players;  the bigger, stronger athletes.  This could be another big game for Derrick Wells as he'll have plenty of opportunity to make big plays, as will the other members of the secondary.  In the end, despite solid play from New Hampshrie the Gophers will have just too much:  Gophers 34 - Wildcats 24