Home-Opening Series vs. DU on Tap for Gophers

[Ryan Cardinal]

Home-Opening Series vs. DU on Tap for Gophers

Despite being nearly run out of Ralph Engelstad Arena yet again on Friday night, the Golden Gophers were able to bounce back with a much better effort on Saturday night and take one point home with them from Grand Forks after losing 4-0 on Friday and tying a hard-fought 3-3 game on Saturday night, and now look ahead to another tough WCHA series against the Denver Pioneers this weekend at Mariucci Arena.

Last Friday was almost a replay of the series last January which was the Sioux outclass the Gophers by a wide margin on both nights. North Dakota had twice as many shots as Minnesota, dominated in the faceoff circle, scored two power play goals, added a short-handed tally, and held the Gophers to just a few solid scoring chances.

Saturday was a different story. Minnesota shuffled all its lines and brought a much better effort from start to finish, and nearly won the game in the third period with most late pressure. The Sioux still outshot the Gophers by a pretty fair margin, but the ice was not tilted nearly as much as it was the previous night.

One of the main reasons the Gophers only came home from Grand Forks with one point was their special teams. Only two of the Sioux’s seven goals on the weekend came during five-on-five play. Their power play was two for six on both nights against a Gopher penalty kill that set schools records a season ago and was fourth in the nation as well. Sioux senior defenseman and reigning WCHA Defensemen of the Season Chay Genoway scored three power play goals on the weekend. Given the experience the Gophers have up front, the seemingly beefed up and improved defensive core, and two solid goalies, expect the penalty kill to improve over the coming weeks.

Conversely, the Minnesota power play was very poor all weekend, mainly because the Sioux did a terrific job of disrupting the Gophers’ attempts to gain the zone and setup shop. It was clear the Minnesota was trying to gain the blueline with the puck and then go from there; however, the Sioux took this option away by stacking the blueline, and the Gophers seemed unwilling to dump the puck in and then go after it. The second power play unit, which featured the likes of Tony Lucia and Mike Carman last weekend, could have issues all season due to the lack of high-end skill and playmakers, but the top unit should get things going, as there’s just too much talent for that unit to remain stagnant for very long.

They straw that stirs the drink on that top power play unit is Jordan Schroeder, and he was virtually invisible against the Sioux. He often went head-to-head against senior center Chris VandeVelde, and also had big sophomore defenseman Ben Blood giving him a hard time for most of the weekend. Things aren’t going to get any easier for Schroeder, the preseason WCHA Player of the Year, as all teams are going to key on him and play their best defenders and two-way players against him. Hopefully this past weekend was a bit of a wake-up call and he can use his speed this weekend on the big ice-sheet at Mariucci Arena to make better use of the increased time and space.

One area where Schroeder will really need to improve is the faceoff circle. Most of the draws he took were against VandeVelde, who is one of the WCHA’s biggest and best centers, so that is something that certainly factored into things, but Schroeder took the most faceoffs of any Gopher center over the weekend and won just 35 percent of them. He will be the team’s top center for the rest of the season and will likely go against the other team’s top center more often than not, and while he doesn’t need to dominate in the faceoff circle, it’s unacceptable to lose 65 percent of the time.

The biggest bright spot for the Gophers last weekend was their goaltending. Despite losing 4-0 on Friday, junior Alex Kangas was very good. He looked confident in net, controlled his rebounds for the most part, and had a saves percentage over 90 percent. On Saturday, Head Coach Don Lucia switched gears and gave the start to sophomore Kent Patterson, and he was almost equally as good. He stopped 31 of 34 shots and two of the goals he let in deflected off teammates on the way to the net. Look for the rotation to continue this weekend against the Pioneers.

One of the keys to the Saturday night turnaround was the play of Minnesota’s fourth line, which consisted for most of the night of sophomore Joe Miller, sophomore Taylor Matson, and freshman Zach Budish. Miller, who played sparingly as a freshman last season, was inserted into the lineup on Saturday, replacing freshman Josh Birkholz. Miller brought the type of energy you’d want out of a fourth line winger, as he hit anything he could get to, was strong the puck and forechecked very hard. If he can play like that on a nightly basis, it’s going to be tough for the coaching staff to keep him out of the lineup. Matson was solid on both nights but really stood out on Saturday. Like Miller, he was tenacious, hitting guys, and was incredibly tough to play against. Budish used his size well and helped maintain the forecheck by keeping the puck along the wall and cycling it low in the UND zone.

The Sioux are now 8-2-2 against the Gophers over the last 12 contests between the two teams. Minnesota will took to turn the tide in this rivalry come January when the Sioux visit Minneapolis for a pair of games.

Minnesota now turns its attention to the Denver Pioneers, who were the preseason pick by nearly everyone to win the WCHA. And by looking at their roster, it’s easy to see why.

Much like the Gophers, DU’s roster is littered with NHL draft picks. Minnesota catches a break, pardon the pun, this weekend, as sophomore center Joe Colborne, who had 30 points in 41 games as a freshman, is going to miss some time due to a broken finger. Colborne is a huge body (6-5, 200 lbs) that plays center and was a first round NHL draft pick in 2008, so DU will miss his presence up the middle very much.

Including Colborne, the Pioneers return their top seven scorers from last season. Names such as Rhett Rakhshani and Tyler Ruegsegger, who are DU’s two top scorers so far, are at this point very familiar to WCHA fans, and this will be as deep of a forwards group the Gophers will go against all season.

On the backend, DU is led by super-sophomore Patrick Wiercioch, who had an astonishing 35 points in 36 games as a freshman. He nearly turned pro this summer, but turned down a deal from the Ottawa Senators to return for another year of seasoning in Denver. He is very dynamic with the puck and quarterbacks what should be a very explosive power play unit, though its struggled so far at just 15 percent.

Defensively though, DU may need some time for their young defensive core to gel. They brought in three very talented freshmen defensemen, but playing that position as a first-year player in the WCHA is a tall-task, and it’s showed over the first two weekends as DU has gone 2-2 while giving up 14 goals over that stretch.

Junior netminder Marc Cheverie has both wins, while highly-touted freshman Adam Murray has struggled. Murray has played the second night of both the Pios series against Vermont to open the season and then again last week at Ohio State, and has struggled. He’s 0-2 with a 4.72 goals against average and a .836 saves percentage. Now that DU is going into conference play, Head Coach George Gwozdecky may be more apt to go with Cheverie if he continues to play well, despite saying before the season he would rotate both of his goalies.

Denver has more skill than the Gophers up front, so it’s going to be key for the Gophers to try to be physical with DU’s smaller forwards all weekend long and not let them get into a flow. If the Gophers’ special teams are as poor as last weekend, they could easily be winless two weeks into the season. However, if they can shore up those areas and continue to get good goaltending by the Kangas / Patterson combo, then they have a chance to do some damage at home over the next two weekends before heading back out onto the road against Wisconsin.

Friday’s game will air live on Fox Sports North at 7 p.m., but the Saturday rematch, which is Saturday at 7 as well, won’t air until Sunday at 3 p.m. on tape-delay.