Gophers and Huskies Set For Home-and-Home Rematch

The Gophers continued their up-and-down play last weekend in splitting a pair of low-scoring, tightly contested games with the Colorado College Tigers at Mariucci Arena, and now set their sights on the St. Cloud State Huskies in what could be viewed as a must-sweep series for the Maroon and Gold.

In Friday’s 2-1 loss, the Gophers certainly played well enough to win but a pair of defensive zone faceoff losses led to both Colorado College goals, including the game-winner with less than a minute to go in the game. CC goalie Josh Thorimbert kept his team in the game early but turning away 15 first period shots, and only Nick Bjugstad was able to beat him late. He made 38 saves in the Tiger victory.

Saturday’s game was similar in that it was clear the Gophers were the better team, and that really showed in the third period as Minnesota outshot CC by a 19-6 margin in the third period and held one of the nation’s top five offenses to just 20 shots. Kent Patterson, who was his usual solid self all weekend, made a breakaway save in the closing seconds to secure the victory. The offense came from sophomore Nate Condon, who scored his fourth shorthanded goal of the season, and senior Nico Sacchetti, who scored his first goal of the season in the second period which proved to be the winner.

Because Minnesota Duluth was in non-conference action last weekend, the Gophers moved two points ahead of the Bulldogs but have now played two more games. Given the schedules for both teams the rest of the way, it would be a giant upset if the Gophers finished ahead of the defending champs.

While the Gophers are in good shape in the WCHA race – they are now four points up on CC for third place, five clear of UNO for fourth, and seven ahead of DU for fifth – their position in the PairWise Rankings is anything but solid thanks to their 4-4-1 non-conference record. Right now they are 13th in the PairWise Rankings, which of course is used to determine the field of 16 for the NCAA Tournament. Due to autobids for conference winners, teams need to be in the 14 or higher to feel safe, so they are right on the brink.

With the PairWise Rankings, teams with an RPI over .500 are considered teams under consideration (TUC) and all of those teams (right now there are 31 of them) are compared against each other head-to-head. Right now, the No. 1 team is BU as they win all 30 comparisons against the other teams under consideration. The ways in which the teams are compared include RPI, record vs. TUC, record vs. common opponents, and how the teams have done in head-to-head meetings.
The losses at home over the holidays to Northeastern and Notre Dame really put a dent in the team’s ranking and unfortunately for the Gophers, they don’t have any more games outside of the WCHA schedule to try and improve things vs. teams not in their conference.

So, what the Gophers CAN do is do more than split on a weekly basis, especially against teams that won’t be in the NCAA Tournament come this March. Lucky for the Gophers, they have one of those teams on the schedule this weekend in the form of St. Cloud State. The Huskies are currently is tied with Michigan Tech for seventh place in the WCHA with 17 points in 18 games. Since their split against the Gophers they are 4-5-2 which is a pretty similar record to that of the Gophers since that weekend (Minnesota has gone 6-6-1 since).

The Gophers and the Huskies split a home-and-home series back in November, with SCSU winning a wild 4-3 game on Friday night at the National Hockey Center, and the Gophers bouncing back on Saturday with a commanding 5-0 win. Including the weekend prior to that in which the Gophers split at Wisconsin, the Gophers have had just one WCHA weekend that resulted in a sweep – they won both games at Mariucci against Minnesota State on Dec. 2-3 – since sweeping UND on Nov. 4-5. Minnesota has lost on Friday to Wisconsin, St. Cloud State, Michigan Tech, North Dakota, and Colorado College only to bounce-back and win the Saturday rematch in all five occasions. And while it’s nice to show some resolve by rebounding, the Gophers are going to need more than two points a weekend the rest of the way if they hope to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

The Huskies have been besieged by injuries this season though they hope to get junior goalie Mike Lee, who suffered a leg injury in late October, back in the mix soon. Freshman Ryan Faragher has settled in nicely though in Lee’s place as he currently has the sixth-best save percentage in the WCHA; goaltending has not been the reason for the poor season the Huskies are having to date. The loss of senior captain Drew LeBlanc after just ten games was crippling. Combine that with the mid-season departure of Cam Reid, who had 15 points in 22 games before leaving for Major Junior, and the team just doesn’t have the firepower up front that we’re used to seeing for Bob Motzko’s clubs.

Ben Hanowski has 27 points in 26 games as is one of the league’s best forwards. Senior Jared Festler is second on the team in goals with 11. One of the biggest bright spots has been freshman blueliner Andrew Prochno out of Minnetonka who has 20 points in 25 games, which is outstanding for a first-year defender. Fellow d-man Nick Nensen has 19 points in 26 games, so getting offensive production from the backend – which is something that’s plagued SCSU in the past – isn’t an issue this season.

The Huskies are fourth in the WCHA in scoring offense and seventh in defense, but what’s really killed them has been their power play, which is dead-last in the conference at 15.2 percent. Again, the power play has been a staple of Motzko teams, and they did score a pair in their win vs. the Gophers earlier this season, but when you combine the WCHA’s worst power play with the league’s ninth-best penalty kill, and you have your explanation as to why the Huskies are currently in the bottom-half of the league standings.

The Gophers, meanwhile, have had good to great special teams all season long. Last weekend, they held the WCHA’s top-ranking power play off the board all weekend and won the special team’s battle thanks to Condon’s shorty. The Minnesota power play failed to cash in however, and that’s an area of concern due to the lack of production with the man-advantage in recent weeks as the team has just one goal on the power play over its last four games. The puck movement was pretty good against CC though, so hopefully that’s a sign that things are on the verge of changing in that regard.

While this weekend probably won’t make or break the team’s season, putting four points in the back could go a long way to at least staying in the hunt with UMD for the league title and also, and maybe more realistically, securing a second play finish and avoiding a play-in game at the Final Five should they get there. After the SCSU series, the Gophers have an off-weekend before wrapping up the regular season with series at Denver, home vs. Bemidji State, at Nebraska Omaha, and at home vs. the Badgers to wrap things up. There is nothing easy about that road to the finish line, which makes taking care of business against teams you should beat all that much more important.

Gophers Fight Back, Earn Split

Strong Defensive Effort, Unlikely Hero save Weekend


Nate Condon celebrates his 4th short handed goal of the year.
Photo by: Craig Cotner“It’s tough to see Nick Larson go down” said senior (and player of the game) Nico Sacchetti after the game on Saturday night. “[But] it just opens up opportunities” he rightly claimed.

After a frustrating loss on Friday night, the Gophers had to have this game today, hosted at 5PM as a part of Hockey Day Minnesota. After a dull, lifeless 15 minutes to start the game (perhaps brought on by the early start), things picked up where they left off on Friday; this time the Gophers prevailed by a 2 – 1 score. They now lead the WCHA by two points, although the Bulldogs do have two games in hand.

Skating in mud for the better part of the opening period, the teams traded goals in the last five minutes and the crowd came alive a bit.

CC woke up first, or at least took advantage of some lazy play by the Gophers. Jaden Schwartz converted a pass from behind the net and the general feeling of malaise in the building was palpable.

But the Gophers answered pretty quickly. With an assist from Kent Patterson, Taylor Matson raced up ice and dropped the puck to Nate Condon. Condon used Gabe Guentzel and Scott Winkler as screens to score his 4th shorthanded goal of the year, soaking Josh Thorimbert with a shot over his glove. The life came back to the building and the team seemed a lot more focused as it lead to a better second period.

“Taylor and I just take advantage of the opportunities that we get” said Condon. “A lot of times on the power play, they have one defenseman back, so we can jump up the ice, it’s an odd man rush for us.”

The Gophers cleaned up after a jumbled special team situation with players from both teams in the box. Mark Alt took a shot from the point that went wide but caromed right to Nico Sacchetti who put a shot on net. Thorimbert kicked out the puck but Sacchetti fought off a defender and tapped it home for the first point of his senior season.

The third period was almost a complete lock down period for the Gophers. “We’ve been solid on Saturday all year” said Condon. “We couldn’t let that go to waste.”

With just under four minutes to go in regulation, the Gophers had outshot the Tigers 17 – 3 and it felt like they didn’t even possess the puck in the Gopher zone all period. The only real chance they had was when Nate Schmidt pulled up high by the blue line and CC had a modified three on one with five seconds left. Patterson made a huge save to seal it.

“They’re (the Gophers) are a top-3 defensive team in the country” said Tiger coach Scott Owens. “There was not a lot of room out there despite being an Olympic sheet. So I think a lot of the credit has to go to them, and their defensive play.”

Certainly not the offensive explosion that many people thought the series would be, but the split was probably a fair outcome. On to next week, where the Gophers return to face an in-state foe in St. Cloud State in a home and home series; Friday’s game is on the Big Ten network while the return match in St. Cloud is back on FSN. Both games start at 7PM.

POST GAME VIDEO OF LUCIA & SACCHETTI

Thorimbert’s 38 Saves Lead CC To 2-1 Win


Nick Dineen beats Kent Patterson to put CC up 1-0..
Photo by: Craig CotnerSophomore goalie Josh Thorimbert turned away 38 Minnesota shots as Colorado College scored the game-winning goal with less than a minute to go in the game en route to a 2-1 upset of the Gophers on Friday night at Mariucci Arena.

In a game that featured two of the highest scoring teams in the nation, defense and goaltenders prevailed in this one. Thorimbert, who has recently displaced incumbent starter and Minnesota native Joe Howe as CC’s primary netminder, was spectacular from start to finish, making big saves throughout the night to keep his team in the game.

Both Tiger goals came on defensive zone faceoff loses by Minnesota’s Erik Haula. Their first tally came 4:04 into the second period as Nick Dineen notched his 13th of the season, as the Gophers failed to clear the puck and Seth Helgeson, figuring his teammatves would get the puck out, let his man – Dineen – go. The puck would up on the senior’s stick, and Dineen beat Gopher goalie Kent Patterson between the legs to make it 1-0.

The Gophers had a great chance to tie the game or perhaps take the lead midway through the third period when CC’s Archie Skalbeck received a game misconduct for checking from behind. Minnesota had a few good looks on the power play, but Thorimbert stood tall and the Gophers failed to score during a five munte power play for the second time in three games.

However, they would tie the game at 1-1 with just over a minute to go in regulation as who else but Nick Bjugstad scored a timely goal. To his credit, Haula had a major hand in stripping the puck from a CC player who was trying to skate the it out of his own end. The Gophers go the puck on net and finally were able to hammer home a loose puck in the slot. It was Bjugstad’s 20th goal of the season and it looked as though the game was bound for overtime.

But with another faceoff in the Minnesota end with 40.2 to go, Haula did what you cannot afford to do in that situation: lost the draw cleanly. CC got it on net and Patterson made the initial stop but the Tigers crashed the net hard and Tim Hall scored just his second goal of the season with :36 to go, and that turned out to be the game-winner.

Aside from failing to convert on the five minute power play, the Gophers have to be happy with their effort in this game. Thorimbert was lights out for the Tigers, and if the Gophers duplicate tonight’s effort in the Saturday afternoon rematch, they’ll likely split the series and gain a crucial two points in the WCHA standings.

One troubling trend that did continue tonight though is losing the first game of a WCHA series, which the Gophers have now done in five of their last six series. They have bounced back to win on Saturday after those five Friday night losses, so hopefully that trend of winning game No. 2 continues this weekend.

Due to Hockey Day Minnesota, Saturday’s game gets underway at 5 p.m. CT.

Video: Post game Don Lucia.

Gophers Win 6-3 at Minnesota State
Provided by the University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota women's hockey team earned a 6-3 win at Minnesota State tonight, led by senior Emily West who had her first career hat trick.

The Gophers had a slow start, with Minnesota State tallying four shots on goal in the first four minutes of play. After the slow start, the Gophers picked up the pace and took a 1-0 lead when Sarah Erickson scored eight and a half into the first period, getting an assist from Becky Kortum. Minnesota went on the power play at 15:50 in the period, and the Gophers capitalized on the power play, marking Minnesota's 30th power play goal of the season. Kelly Terry scored for the Gophers, with assists from Rachel Ramsey and Kelly Seeler. The Gophers would score once more in the period, getting a goal from Bethany Brausen with a minute and a half left in the period, assisted by Kelly Terry. Minnesota doubled Minnesota State's shots in the period, finishing with a 14-7 advantage in shots.

Minnesota State got two quick goals in the second period to bring the Mavericks within one at 3-2. Kari Lundberg with both goals for the Mavericks, with the first coming at 1:47 and the second at 3:58. Emily West added a goal for the Gophers six minutes into the period, getting assists from linemates Amanda Kessel and Jen Schoullis. The assist marked Kessel's 100th career point. Minnesota's lead was not safe, however, and the Mavericks got within one goal again before the period would end, getting a goal from Tracy McCann to bring the score to 4-3. Minnesota State outshot the Gophers 12-10 in the second period. Minnesota gave up three goals in a period for just the fourth time this season, with all four instances happening on the road.

Emily West put the Gophers ahead 5-2 with a goal just under two minutes into the final period, assisted by Mira Jalosuo. West struck again nine minutes into the period, assisted by Sarah Erickson. The goal gave West her first career hat trick, and made her the fourth Gopher player to score a hat trick this season. The Gophers outshot the Mavericks 10-4 in the final period, and held on to the 6-3 lead to finish the game.

With the win, the Gophers improve to 21-4-2 on the season, and 15-4-2 in conference play. Minnesota State moves to 7-20-0 overall and 3-18-0 in WCHA play.

The same teams meet again tomorrow at All Seasons Arena at 3 p.m.

Gophers Tie 3-3, Get Shootout Win Against Bemidji State
Provided by the University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota women’s hockey team tied Bemidji State 3-3 Saturday afternoon at Ridder Arena, but was able to get a 2-0 shootout win for an extra point in the WCHA standings. Senior Jen Schoullis had two goals for the Gophers, while Emily West had one. West and Amanda Kessel scored for Minnesota in the shootout.

Both teams were scoreless in the first period, despite the Gophers having two power play opportunities. Minnesota outshot Bemidji State 16-6 in the opening period, recording three shots on goal in each of the power plays.

The Gophers got on the board with a Schoullis goal 13 minutes, 29 seconds into the second period, assisted by Kessel. Minnesota extended its lead to two goals when Schoullis struck again just 39 seconds later, this time assisted by Sarah Erickson and Megan Bozek.

Bemidji State got a goal of its own before the second period ended as Sadie Lundquist netted a power play goal with just over three minutes remaining in the period, assisted by Montana Vichorek. The score remained 2-1 into the intermission. The Gophers and Beavers were even in shots in the second period with 13 apiece.

The Beavers tied up the score at 2-2 when Kristin Huber scored unassisted five minutes into the third period. The goal was the second power play goal of the game for Bemidji State.

With 14:47 on the game clock and Sarah Davis in the penalty box, Emily West scored her first goal of the game and third of the weekend with an assist from Kelly Terry. The shorthanded goal was just the second for the Gophers this season, with West scoring both shorthanded goals. The last time Minnesota had a shorthanded goal was against St. Cloud State on Oct. 7, 2011 in a 6-0 victory. West’s goal gave the Gophers a 3-2 lead.

Bemidji State’s goalie, Zuzana Tomcikova, left the net with just over a minute remaining in the game, giving the Beavers an extra skater. BSU capitalized with the advantage, getting a goal with 49 seconds remaining in the game to tie the score at 3-3. Erika Wheelhouse scored for the Beavers, assisted by Marlee Wheelhouse and Sadie Lundquist. With Bemidji State’s first two goals coming on the power play and the third coming with an extra skater, Minnesota did not give up a goal at even strength in the game.

With the score tied at three, the game went into overtime. The Gophers tallied six shots in the extra period to the Beavers’ one, but neither team was able to score, sending the game to a shootout. The game marked Minnesota’s second shootout of the season after tying Wisconsin 3-3 on Jan. 6, with the Badgers winning that shootout 1-0.

Emily West took Minnesota’s first attempt, and scored. Sadie Lundquist took the first attempt for Bemidji State, and missed. Amanda Kessel was up next for the Gophers, and scored. Emily Erickson was up next for the Beavers, and missed, giving Minnesota the shootout win and extra point in the WCHA standings.

With the tie, Minnesota is 20-4-2 this season, including a 14-4-2 mark in conference play. Bemidji State is now 14-10-3, and 8-10-2 in WCHA games.

Minnesota will next be in action at Minnesota State next weekend. Games are scheduled for Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m.