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:

Go to MSU Mankato? Why don't I just shoot myself.
— Brad Davern (@DadBravern) November 13, 2013

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

Anyone down for Gophers vs. Mankato hockey on Friday?
— Tyler Johnson (@TJohns1720) November 14, 2013

Yes Please!

Lets go to the Mankato vs U of M hockey game somebody plz
— Evan Mulville (@evanmulville) November 11, 2013

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

So that guy thinks the packers are a winning team. Sort of like how he probably considers Mankato a real college.
— GOPHERgossip (@GOPHERgossip) November 10, 2013

 Ouch......it burns so good.

 

 And Now for Some Dancing....

 

 

 

Icebreaker recap + We're about to go on a Beaver Hunt!

Welcome back to your weekly recap on everything Gopher Hockey.  Hopefully some of you are return customers and not random people trolling for shaved ladybits.

The Gophers began their season last weekend on a high note by winning the Icebreaker Classic at Mariucci Arena.  The Gophers kicked off their season with a 6-0 plastering of Mercyhurst on Friday, and followed that up with a 3-2 come from behind win over New Hampshire on Saturday night.

The Gophers got on the board first Friday night as junior captain Kyle Rau put away a rebound on the power play.  They added three additional tallies in the second as Seth Ambroz scored what may go down as the goal of the season in the first game of the year.  Ambroz ripped a shot off the right goalpost, and caught the carom in midair, dropped the puck and swatted it between his legs in midair off the back of the Mercyhurst goalie and into the net.  Trust me, it looked a hell of a lot cooler then I described it...in fact take a look:

 

With thanks from @GoAUpher on twitter

Junior wing Sam Warning added his first of the weekend as did freshman Justin Kloos to make it 4-0 after two periods.  In the third, Mike Reilly and Micheal Brodzinski added goals to round out the 6-0 final.  Adam Wilcox picked up the fourth shutout of his career.

In Saturday night's game against #12 New Hampshire, the Gophers fell behind for the first time on the season when the Wildcat's Eric Knodel scored on the power play less than 30 seconds into the second period.  The Gophers responded back quickly as Hudson Fasching, a freshman from Apple Valley scored his first goal in the maroon and gold.  New Hampshire responded, scoring their second goal with about 9 minutes left in the second period, and once again the Gophers had to strike from behind.   Warning scored his second goal on the weekend after a Gopher flurry of activity in front of the Wildcat net a minute later to tie the game at two.    With just over two minutes left in the second, the Gophers got another freshman, Vinni Letttieri on the score sheet as he came from behind the net to the left faceoff circle, spun around and pushed his shot past New Hampshire goalie Casey DeSmith.  Wilcox and the Gopher defense held, and the Gophers collected the hardware with a 3-2 victory.  Warning was named the MVP of the tournament, and was joined on the all tournament team by Rau, Fasching, and Wilcox. The Big Ten also named Warning their second star of the week, and Rau their third star.
Of some concern is the Gopher power play which after going 2-6 in the Friday night game went 0-6 against the Wildcats.  This is something that will need to change as the Gopher's opponents continue to improve.   Both of New Hampshire's goals also came on the power play Saturday night, so Minnesota cannot be happy with its non 5 on 5 play Saturday.

On to this weeks series: Shave the Beavers!

The national poll voters were impressed with the Gophers performance (and aghast at preseason #1 UMass-Lowell losing to the worst team in the NCAA in 2012-13, Sacred Heart) as Minnesota moved from #5 to #3 in both national polls this week.  They will make their first road trip of the season this week as they hop onto the busses for a ride up to the Sanford Center and a series with the Bemidji State Beavers.

The Gophers played the Beavers four times last season.  The first two games ended the WCHA regular season in Bemidji as Minnesota swept the series by 4-3 and 5-1 scores.  The Gopher win on Saturday, coupled with St Cloud State's 3-2 loss to Wisconsin clinched the Gophers tie of the top spot in the WCHA.   The teams met the next weekend in Minneapolis in the first round of the WCHA Playoffs as once again the Gophers swept the Beavers by scores of 2-1 and 4-3.

Bemidji State and St Cloud State played a series in St Cloud last weekend, with the Huskies winning 3-2 on Friday and the teams skating to a 2-2 tie on Saturday.  The Beavers are still in what is left of the WCHA this season, and the coaches in the league predicted them to finish in seventh place.  Junior goalie Andrew Walsh played both games last weekend, and is expected to play both games in goal this weekend as well. Bemidji does not have any notable offensive players to watch out for, however they are a well coached team with Tom Serratore, the uncle of Gopher forward (and also named) Tom Serratore behind the bench.

The Gopher's young roster will be tested on their first games away from Mariucci.  However, one would expect a good contingent of Gopher fans to make the trip up north as it is one of the favorite road trips of the season, and outside of Wisconsin is the only true drivable road trip this season with the switch to the Big Ten. The Gophers have won eight of the last ten against the Beavers, and are 14-1-1 all-time.  Their only loss to Bemidji took place in November of 2009. I see it being close, but I predict that the Gophers will sweep with scores of 4-2 Friday night and 5-1 Saturday night. Friday night's game will begin at 7:30 and will be broadcast on FSN.  Saturday night will start at 7:00 and be on FSN+.

Bemidji Notable Names:

#5 Carter Struthers Fr-D
#7 Matt Prapavessis Jr-D
#18 Radoslav Illo Sr-F
#25 Ruslan Pedan  Fr-D
#33 Reid Mimmack Fr-G

Here's What They Are Saying on Twitter:

Green and white tutu is complete. Bring on the hockey. #bemidjistate #BeaverNation #beaverpride
— Emily Malterud (@emilyTHEaverage) October 16, 2013

I'm sure its perfectly pretty....

I call for the suspension of any @BemidjiState student found to be wearing #Gopher apparel this or any other week.
— John Andringa (@beaverbandit) October 15, 2013

 Beaver bandit eh......I bet you're a real pelt stealer

Press credentials have arrived. Ready for hockey season. #BemidjiState #WCHA http://t.co/IKGoOit1lH
— Jack Hittinger (@jackhitts) October 15, 2013

Only at #BemidjiState would I be ending my night eating a #Porcupine pic.twitter.com/5P7cPr4Ftb
— kevin ness (@kev1nness) October 6, 2013

Ummm...ok?

 And On to The Lovely Beavers of BSU:

 

Gopher Hockey Noobery

What I know about Gopher hockey could fit on the back of a postcard to Bison Dele, but I feel like we need to take notice here.  I know literally zero, so let's see what I can learn in one evening of internet study.  Obviously I'll form opinions with no real knowledge behind them like usual.

Minnesota is the #2 team in the country behind something called Quinnipiac.  A little research shows that Quinnipiac is in Connecticut and only has an 8,400 student enrollment.  They recently did the switch from the Braves to the Bobcats (way to be original) and now have a super lame logo.

Rawr!

Anyway, those losers are going to back to looking up the Gophers' tailpipe in short order which will leave Quinnipiac alum and black licorice lover Turk Wendell in tears.  The Gophers are 22-7-5 overall and in second place in the WCHA two points behind St. Cloud State.  They're coming off a weekend split against #12 Denver; losing on Friday 2-0 and winning on Saturday 5-1.  This weekend they head to Bemidji State for their last games in the WCHA as next year they move on to the Big Ten Hockey Conference next year.  There's only six teams in the conference so far, so I'm not sure what's up with that; but I can't learn everything in one night.

Leading scorer Erik Haula is a junior for the Gophers and has 42 points in 31 games.  He is a Wild seventh round draft pick from 2009.  Here he is scoring a kick-ass goal against Devil Wisconsin in November.  The Fin is second on the team in goals with 15.

Fellow junior and leading goal scorer (17) Nick Bjugstad is a 2010 first round pick (19) of the Florida Panthers.  The 6'6" center netted 25 goals last year and his uncle Scott was a North Star.  Here's a sweet goal against Bahstun Cahlledge.

Sophomore Kyle Rau is on a bit of a cold streak with just one goal in the past 12 games, but is still second on the team in points with 33. Get to know him here!

Freshman goalie Adam Wilcox is 3-3-1 in his last 7, but it appears he's done a pretty good job despite the recent record.  In 32 starts he's only allowed 4 goals on 4 occasions and 3 goals on another 4.  He also has two assists and that's pretty sweet.  Here he is doing a cool drill where he basically just slides around on his knees.

The WCHA Final Five is March 21-23 at the Excel Energy Center and is sponsored by Red Baron Pizza, which is delicious.  I'm looking for OUR Gophers to get there and kick some major ass. Shit, I don't know...I tried.