Birkholz Bolts For The Dub, Leddy Signs With Chicago

Having missed the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back years and the program on a downward slide, Golden Gophers Head Coach Don Lucia needed all the ammo he could find to hopefully make a return to the field of 16 come this spring. However, the chances of that happening were dealt a major blow as sophomore Nick Leddy will forgo his final three seasons at the U in favor of signing with the Chicago Blackhawks.

Also, fellow sophomore-to-be forward Josh Birkholz has left the team and will resume his hockey career this fall for the Everett Silvertips of the WHL after violating team rules. The former Blake star allegedly failed multiple drug tests this summer.

The much bigger of the two losses here is Leddy, who of course was a first round selection by the Minnesota Wild during the 200 NHL Entry Draft and then was subsequently dealt to Chicago last season, reportedly wowed Blackhawks management during their recent prospect camp.

"[Nick] Leddy was excellent," said Chicago GM Stan Bowman to NHL.com recently. "This is the first time we've seen him here in Chicago. (We) saw him perform during the (college) season, but boy he's really smooth out there. I think he's going to be with the Blackhawks for many years. It's exciting to see that."

The Eden Prairie native had a solid first season with the U, though it was marred by a head injury suffered in early November that knocked him out of action for nine games. For the season, he finished with three goals and eight assists, which certainly aren’t great numbers, but when playing for one of the worst goal-scoring Gopher teams in history, it’s tough to say they are that bad, either.

Leddy was arguably the Gophers top defenseman from Christmas on, and when you take into account he came straight from playing high school hockey right into the WCHA as a defenseman, he had a very good first year in Maroon and Gold. He would have easily been the Gophers top defenseman and arguably their top overall player – on paper – heading into the upcoming season. His loss leaves a gigantic hole on the blueline that will be extremely tough to replace this late in the summer.

Look for former Minnetonka blueline Justin Holl, who was ironically selected in the second round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft by Chicago, to join the U this fall as opposed to spending a year in the USHL honing his game.

Holl, if picked to fill Leddy’s skates, would join fellow incoming freshman bluelines Mark Alt, Nate Schmidt, and Jake Parenteau, meaning half of Minnesota’s blueline this season would consist of first-year players.

The rest of the defensive corps would be rounded out by seniors Cade Fairchild and Kevin Wehrs, along with junior Aaron Ness and sophomore Seth Helgeson.

Closed circuit to senior goalie Alex Kangas: hope you’re eating your Wheaties.

Up front, the Gophers will bring in forward Max Gardiner, who was as third round pick by the St. Louis Blues in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, to replace Birkholz. His older brother, Jake, will be a junior at Wisconsin this season, and Max was slated to play in the USHL this fall and then join the Gophers next fall, but plans changed and now the younger Gardiner will be a freshman this fall.

Max was a senior last year at Minnetonka and did well when he played though he missed a chunk of time with both a wrist injury and mono. He is the classic example of a lanky kid (6-3, 176 lbs) who could have really used a year in the USHL to fill out and go against older / bigger competition, but now he won’t have that option and will likely be a bottom-six forward for Minnesota this season.

In fairness to Lucia, there is no way he could have predicted when Leddy committed in the fall of 2008 that he would be a one-and-done player. But it’s hard to ignore the cavalcade of negative remarks from NHL personnel about the poor state of the Minnesota program, and that certainly had to factor into Chicago’s desire to see Leddy continue his career away from Lucia and Mariucci Arena.

Birkholz was known to be a little bit of a diva prior to him coming to the U, but anything with substance abuse needs to be treated and looked at in a completely different vein.

Lucia and the program as a whole have been taking on water fast and furious over the past three years to say the least. Many feel as though Lucia, whose contact is up at the end of the 2011-12 season, needs to at the very least return to the NCAA Tournament to save his job and earn a possible extension. A Leddy-less team that boasts as many as ten freshmen and returns several inept alleged goal-scorers up front doesn’t seem to have “Frozen Four” written all over it, and even the WCHA Final Five, which the Gophers failed to qualify for a year ago, may seem like a long-shot at this point.

Schroeder Leaves Program, Signs Pro Deal With Vancouver

The first domino of the 2010 Golden Gophers offseason fell today as sophomore center Jordan Schroeder signed a pro deal with the Vancouver Canucks and will forgo his final two seasons of eligibility.

Schroeder, who was a first round pick, 22nd overall, by the Canucks in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, wasted little time departing the Gophers after the 2009-10 season ended, which was a train-wreck for both the team and the Prior Lake native.

The former St. Thomas Academy standout committed to the Gophers at a very young age during the summer of 2006, and fans were giddy with excitement after watching Schroeder dominate at the high school level before departing to spend two years in Ann Arbor at the U.S. National Team Development Program.

While playing for the NTDP, Schroeder excelled on the ice and was a leading scorer for the U.S. in most key events and tournaments despite being small in stature and young; he accelerated his studies to enroll at Minnesota as a 17-year-old freshman.

From the vast majority of his freshman season, he was paired on a line with juniors Ryan Stoa and Jay Barriball, and Schroeder continued his strong play into the early stages of his career as a Gopher. He put up a dazzling 45 points as a first-year player and was named the WCHA Rookie of the Year and National Rookie of the Year by College Hockey News and Inside College Hockey, among other accolades.

However, when Stoa signed with the Colorado Avalanche last summer, some wondered whether Schroeder would be able to repeat his stellar freshman performance without the 6-3, 212 pound Stoa at his side. Aside from Schroeder, Stoa, and Barriball, the team didn’t have many scorers returning from a team that finished just four games over .500 and missed the NCAA Tournament.

The team in general got off to a slow start to last season, forcing head coach Don Lucia to shuffle his lines around for much of the season, and it took quite a while to find consistent linemates for Schroeder. Junior transfer Jacob Cepis, who was not eligible to play until late December, and freshman winger Zach Budish were paired with Schroeder when he returned from helping the U.S. capture a gold medal at the World Junior tournament in early January.

That trio would play together nearly each night for the rest of the season and while they were the Gophers most reliable scoring line, they too were inconsistent and could never establish themselves as an elite unit.

Schroeder finished the season with just nine goals and 19 assists, both well below his freshman totals. He often looked disinterested with his play, not unlike former Gopher Kyle Okposo’s performance during his sophomore season which he cut short by leaving the team in early December of that year. There were even rumors that Schroeder was considering “pulling an Okposo” by leaving midway through this past season, and the University had to issue a press release shooting said rumors down.

Still though, it was clear that, for reasons maybe out of his control, Schroeder was not the same player that hit the ice in the fall of 2008 as a freshman.

Now, Minnesota will enter next season without its two top scorers from the year before, as both Schroeder and Tony Lucia, who led the team as a senior with 28 points, are gone. Next is line is senior-to-be Mike Hoeffel, who had 24 points in 34 games. Hoeffel was a second round pick of the New Jersey Devils, so his return is no guarantee.

Gophers Season Comes To An End In Grand Forks

Prior to the start of this past season, several members of the Golden Gophers talked about needing to be a tougher team to play against and needing to play with more of a physical edge. But as the season wore on, it was apparent that those words would not translate to their on-ice play. Look no further than Sunday night’s season-ending 4-1 loss to the North Dakota Fighting Sioux, who hit Minnesota all over Ralph Engelstad Arena and, in the process, punched their ticket to St. Paul for the WCHA Final Five this weekend and, conversely, ended Minnesota's season.

After Saturday’s somewhat improbably 4-2 victory, which came on the heels of an embarrassing 6-0 drubbing to open the series on Friday night, the Gophers had the momentum in the series and certainly had the Sioux questioning themselves a bit heading into the third and deciding game.

However, Minnesota came out flatter than they did on Friday night, as the Sioux outshot them by a 13-2 margin in the first period and drew three power plays. The converted on one of them, as sophomore defenseman Ben Blood sniped a shot over the blocker of Gopher goalie Alex Kangas, who saw his record in Grand Forks drop to 2-5-0.

The Gophers did manage to knot the game up before the first period concluded thanks to sophomore Jake Hansen’s seventh goal of the season, which came on Minnesota’s first shot of the game. The former White Bear Lake standout found a soft spot high in the North Dakota zone, and took a poor pass from Tony Lucia and managed to kick it to his stick and let a low shot fly that found its way past Sioux goalie Brad Eidsness.

The game would change early in the second period, when North Dakota’s Matt Frattin, who was arguably the best player on the ice this weekend, took a run at Minnesota defensemen Kevin Wehrs. Frattin left his feet, led with his forearms and elbows, and absolutely floored Wehrs, who left the game and did not return.

The end result of the play and ensuing scrum was a five minute Gopher power play, though Frattin was not ejected from the game, but rather charged with contact to the head penalty. Minnesota’s power play, which cashed in three times on Saturday night but was ninth in the WCHA for the season, again cost them in a big way. They generated next to no pressure during the major penalty and, just as was the case last month in Duluth when the Bulldogs took a five minute major against the Gophers but killed it off with ease, the opposing team took the momentum because of Minnesota's ineptness.

Later in the second period, freshman defenseman Nick Leddy would injure his leg after a hit from UND’s Brad Malone. Leddy played very sparingly the rest of the way, thus leaving the Gophers with just four defensemen for the majority of the second and third periods.

The two teams were tied at a goal apiece late in the second period until Danny Kristo, who had his initial shot blocked, got one on net that Jason Gregoire tipped past Kangas to put the Sioux out in front for good. It was Gregoire’s 19th goal of the season and came with just under four minutes to go in the second period.

Minnesota never really mounted a charge as the third period wore on, as several of the players that you’d expect to help mount an offensive rally remained silent, which should have surprised no one considering this was more often than not the case for the entire season.

At the 11:24 mark, Frattin would score a goal similar to UND’s second one in that, while on the power play, he had his first shot blocked but got the puck back and scores his ninth of the season, with the assists going to Brett Hextall and Chris VandeVelde.

Hextall would tack on an empty-net goal with under a minute to go, his 13th of the season.

The Gophers clearly didn’t come out on the favorable end of officiating on this night, as there were several calls or non-calls that didn’t go in their favor. Now, that being said, North Dakota was clearly the better team all weekend long and deserved to win this game and the series.

Minnesota couldn’t match their intensity in either of the two losses, and while in Sunday’s game especially the Sioux were a little bit over the top in terms of their play, there was no answer from the Gophers in terms of a) scoring on the power play, or b) taking out some aggression on the Sioux in the form of payback.

This group of Gophers played some of their best hockey towards the end of the season, and they should be given credit for their play in the final two games of the season. But unfortunately for the Gophers, they were far too inconsistent from the start of the season to the end, and thus found themselves playing in Grand Forks against a physical UND team, which was a terrible matchup for the finesse style Minnesota employs.

Minnesota, who will not qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight season, will finish with a below .500 record for the first time since 1998-99 season, which was Doog Woog’s last as head coach.

Also for the second time in as many years, the Gophers will not be playing in the NCAA West Regional which they hosted at Mariucci Arena last season and will host at the Xcel Energy Center two weeks from now.

Now, the team will be left to wonder which underclassmen will leave the program or turn pro over the course of the next six months. Gone is a hard-working but non-impactful senior class that will give way to what could be a large group of freshman that will hopefully help pull the program out of the downward spiral that it’s found itself in for the last three seasons.

Gophers Surprise – Rebound to Force Game 3

First Career Goal by Helgason Matches First Playoff Win Ever in Grand Forks

After the complete debacle last night (and quite frankly, the last several years in North Dakota), pretty much nobody thought the Gophers would even hang with the Sioux tonight, let alone come back from a goal down with less than eight minutes left. But they somehow found energy that they didn’t display all season, scoring three goals in the final seven minutes and force a Game 3 with a 4 – 2 win on Saturday night.

The Gophers seemed pretty tentative at the start, but what helped them out is that the Sioux did as well. Neither team had a whole lot of energy – and it was clear by the fact that the crowd was hardly into the game at all.

Of all things, a power play goal got the Gophers on the scoreboard. Jake Cepis threaded a nice pass to Mike Hoeffel, who was stationed just in front of the crease. Hoeffel calmly tapped home his 13th goal of the season, as no Sioux defender bothered to defend him in any way.

A good series of penalty kills by the Gophers that bridged the first and second periods had the crowd even quieter; but a face-off win and poor defensive coverage lead to the tying goal. Dan Kristo put a shot on net off of the draw, Kangas couldn’t handle the rebound; Corban Knight snuck through Aaron Ness and Cade Fairchild with ease and put home the rebound.

Kangas was keeping the Gophers in it though. After the Knight goal, he robbed Brett Hextall on a nice cross ice pass by Chris VandeVelde. The Gophers were being out shot 25 – 10 halfway through the game and it seemed like they were losing any of the energy they brought tonight.

Jake Cepis was stoned on a breakaway and it seemed like it was just a matter of time. Mike Frattin scored on a nice feed from VandeVelde with just over nine minutes left and just about everyone that has watched the maroon & gold this season figured that was it.

However, perhaps the Gopher hockey team was inspired by the basketball team’s run through the Big Ten tournament.

Jake Cepis drew a penalty - and his shot from the half-wall deflected off of Mike Hoeffel to tie the game. And just 48 seconds later, Seth Helgason’s shot from the point fooled everyone – probably even Seth – and sailed past Brad Eidsness for his first goal (and point for that matter) as a Gopher.

The Sioux – who are clearly not the offensive juggernaut they have been in past years - were whistled for a Boston Bruins style too many men on the ice penalty with just under a minute left. They never threatened after Helgason’s goal and Jordan Schroeder (who gained a small amount of face back tonight by actually putting forth effort) added an empty netter (which included Alex Kangas’s first career point as well) and it’s off to game three tomorrow night.

Game 3 will begin at 7PM – much like Friday you’ll have to make sure to find it on alternate channels as the Wild game will be on FSN.

Gophers No-Show In Grand Forks Yet Again

For the fourth time in their last five games at Ralph Engelstad Arena, the Golden Gophers failed to show up and put forth an abysmal effort, and once again embarrassed themselves to the tune of a 6-0 beat-down from North Dakota in the first game of the best-of-three WCHA playoff series.

The Sioux took the lead just 1:39 into the game as freshman Danny Kristo took advantage of a Minnesota turnover, and the Sioux never looked back. Senior Chris VandeVelde scores a short-handed goal later in the first, and the Sioux’s three-goal first period was capped by Brad Malone’s breakaway tally with less than a minute to go in the first frame.

Junior Matt Frattin scored his first of two on the night late in the second, as he wired a slapshot over Alex Kangas, who was again lit up by UND. Sophomore Kent Patterson entered the game to start the third period but by then things were out of hand with the Sioux leading 4-0 and the Gophers showing zero signs of life.

Frattin’s second goal of the night would come after sophomore Mario Lamoureux’s seventh of the season midway through the final stanza. For the third time in their last five games at North Dakota, the Gophers gave up six goals.

So, the season now comes down to the Gophers winning the next two nights against UND, or else – for the second year in a row – Minnesota will fail to advance to the NCAA Tournament.

Gophers Hope To Extend Season In Grand Forks

After finishing their regular season on a high-note with a blowout win over the Wisconsin Badgers on senior day at Mariucci Arena, the Golden Gophers now face the reality of needing to win the WCHA Final Five to avoid missing the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season. The first step in that process will be a tough one as they travel to Grand Forks to take on the Fighting Sioux in the first round of the WCHA playoffs this weekend.

Thanks to last Friday’s 3-2 loss to the Badgers at the Target Center, coupled with Colorado College’s split against the Denver Pioneers, the Gophers locked themselves into their second seventh place finish in the WCHA over the last three seasons. Two years ago, when Minnesota last found themselves this close to the bottom of the WCHA, they traveled to Minnesota State and won an epic first round series against the Mavericks, so hopefully history can repeat itself again this weekend, though the Sioux will likely be a much more formidable foe than the Mavs were.

The good thing for Minnesota is that they head into this series against the Sioux with some momentum after Sunday’s 6-1 win over Wisconsin. Things looked bleak for the Gophers early in the second period as the Badgers tied the game at 1-1 and were taking over the game. But senior Ryan Flynn got tangled up with UW junior Ryan McDonagh and both got 10 minute misconducts, along with a two minute minor to McDonagh. The Gopher power play, which has been abysmal all season, suddenly exploded as they scored five power play goals, including three in the second period. Seniors Tony Lucia and Mike Carman both had a pair of goals in their final game at Mariucci Arena.

Minnesota will need that goal-scoring prowess to be on display in North Dakota this weekend against the Sioux, who will ride a seven game winning-streak into this weekend’s series. Most recently, the Sioux swept Michigan Tech in Grand Forks, though the Sioux were trailing to start the second period in both contests. However, UND stormed back in both games and put over 40 shots on net in both games.

During their current winning streak, the Sioux have not allowed more than two goals in any of those games and are really playing well defensively as they have, for the most part, all season. They were the top defensive team in the WCHA during the regular season as they allowed just 2.18 goals per game. This is even more impressive when you consider they’ve been without senior defenseman and captain Chay Genoway for much of the season. Genoway, who was checked from behind by SCSU’s Aaron Marvin in mid-November, suffered a concussion and has not returned to the ice since.

North Dakota’s top defensive pairing features sophomore Ben Blood and freshman Andrew MacWilliam. This duo was matched up against Minnesota’s top line of Zach Budish, Jacob Cepis, and Jordan Schroder when these two teams met at Mariucci Arena in January. That lines speed gave Blood and MacWilliam fits on the big ice sheet, but look for that duo to get another crack and Minnesota’s top unit again this weekend on the NHL-sized ice sheet at Ralph Engelstad Arena, which should bode well for the big bodies of Blood and MacWilliam.

Sunday’s offensive outburst notwithstanding, the main reason the Gophers find themselves in the precarious position they are in is their anemic offense, which was just seventh in the WCHA this season. One of the main issues they have when it comes to scoring goals is their power play has been awful for much of the season, and not only that, but they don’t draw very many penalties to give themselves chances with the man-advantage. Minnesota had just 115 power play chances this season, which was last in the WCHA and well below the league average of 144.8.

On the season, Minnesota’s power play finished ninth in the WCHA at 16.5 percent. Two of the main keys to playoff hockey are special teams and goaltending, and if the Gophers power play goes belly-up this weekend, it’s going to be tough for them to score enough five-on-five goals to beat the Sioux.

North Dakota’s second-half slide, which the Gophers played a part in by tying and then beating the Sioux 5-1 in January, ended when they got sophomore Brett Hextall back in their lineup from a knee injury. The Sioux have lost just one game since he returned to the lineup on Feb. 12 and he’s really jump started their power play which was riding a 0-31 streak before Hextall ended that drought in his first game back. He’s averaged a point per game since his return and will likely be a physical factor this weekend.

For the Gophers to have any shot in this series, Minnesota goalie Alex Kangas is going to have to exercise some demons when it comes to his play at Ralph Engelstad Arena. Over his career as a Gopher, he’s been brutal in said building, though his teammates haven’t done much to help him out in many instances. During his freshman he season, he won a 4-3 contest us there, but it’s been all downhill since then. Last season, he gave up 11 goals in a pair of blowout losses, and followed that up by being on the wrong end of a 4-0 season-opening loss last October. Kangas was the main reason the Gophers upset Minnesota state two seasons ago in the first round of the playoffs, and he’ll have to probably make 40-plus saves each night this weekend if the Gophers hope to keep their season alive.

On the other end of the ice, Sioux sophomore Brad Eidsness has put together another rock solid season for Dave Hakstol’s team. His goals against average of 2.18 his second in the WCHA and his save percentage of .914 ranks him third. The Gophers put five goals on him back in January but that’s not likely to happen again this weekend, as Minnesota is going to have to win by scoring timely goals and limiting North Dakota’s chances. If the games turn into shootouts, the edge goes to the Sioux.

Up front for the Sioux, they are fairly healthy and feature three lines that can score and of course all four of their lines play a physical brand of hockey that fans are accustomed to seeing from the Green and White. The top line as of last weekend had senior Chris VandeVelde flanked by sophomore Jason Gregoire and freshman Danny Kristo. That trio combined for nine points in the two games against Michigan Tech and, for the season, those three are UND’s top scorers.

The second line of Evan Trupp, Bad Malone, and Matt Frattin has been together for a few weeks now despite not producing much last weekend has been pretty formidable and features a good blend of speed with Trupp and Frattin and a lot of grit with Malone. Hextall is the key piece to their third line along with senior Darcy Zajac and freshman Corban Knight, who has really come on in the second half.

Last Sunday against the Badgers, the Gophers got contributions from players other than the ones who play on the top line, and that will need to be the case again this weekend. Seniors like Lucia and Carman are going to have to play at a very high level in what’s sure to be a chaotic environment given the arena and the Sioux’s style of hockey. Schroeder, who has been very inconsistent this season and often disappears at times, is going to have to play with more physicality than fans are used to seeing and the team in general cannot be afraid to go to the front of the net and take some hits from UND’s defense.

The key for Minnesota all season has been holding the opposition to two goals or less; they have just one loss this season when they accomplish that feat. However, if they allow three or more, their record is terrible since scoring goals is a huge issue for this team, and it would be surprising if they put a lot of crooked numbers on the board this weekend given who and where they are playing.

Prior to this season, the Gophers vowed to be tougher to play against, and for the most part that promise hasn’t been something the team has followed through on. However, this weekend is going to be as physical of a challenge as the team will face, and they certainly have the ability to win two of three games against a good but not great Sioux team and advance to St. Paul. To do that, they are going to need to play on their toes, not back down, and execute when given chances to put the puck in the net. And, most importantly, Kangas cannot give up soft goals and may have to win a game on his own if they hope to keep their slim NCAA hopes alive for another weekend.

Gophers Win, Seniors Carry the Day

Four Goals by Seniors Help Class of 2010 go Out In Style

“Primarily I wanted us to win our last game, as seniors, at Mariucci” said player of the game Mike Carman.

“It feels good to go out on top, that’s for sure” said Tony Lucia of winning his last game on home ice.

It was a heck of a finish for the seniors playing their last home game. Just about all got involved as Carman and Lucia both potted two goals each, Brian Schack played and did a great job on defense, and Ryan Flynn got himself a misconduct penalty which sparked the team in a 6 – 1 rout of the Badgers.

Both teams played a fairly conservative and boring hockey game until the 16 minute mark. Badger backup goalie Brett Bennett couldn’t handle a shot from the point by Kevin Wehrs; Mike Carman, standing in the crease, batted the puck through Bennett. It laid there in the crease - thankfully Badger forward Patrick Johnson was there to knock the puck in for us or it’s possible Bennett could have gotten back around to freeze it.

The Badgers took control of the game for a good four to five minutes just as the second period began. After several close calls and a hit post, the Badgers finally cashed in. Derek Stephan and Michael Davies connected on a great give and go, with Davies putting a fantastic snap shot over Alex Kangas’s glove.

But just as it seemed like the Badgers were going to take control, it seemed to flip a switch for the Gophers.

“McDonough got in that wrestling match” lamented Badger coach Mike Eaves of offsetting penalties between McDonough and Ryan Flynn. “We tied the game; it looked like we were coming on, and then from there it kind of deteriorated.”

“It stoked the fire” said coach Lucia of the scrum. And it not only resulted in a series of Badger penalties, the Gophers took back the lead and extended it. Pat White faked a shot and from the point, passed it crisply to Tony Lucia who won his battle in front of the Badger net. Lucia’s tip found its way inside the post and Bucky began to sag a bit.

Jake Cepis followed up with a power play tally of his own, his 7th goal as a Gopher, pouncing on a rebound to the side of Bennett, and he had all day to tap it home.

Tony Lucia finished off the Gopher scoring in the period, with their third straight on the power play. After a dump in, Tony Lucia took the puck through two Badger defenders and sniped a wrister through traffic, perfectly placed into the upper corner.

“We've gone a month without scoring five power play goals” reflected coach Lucia of his team’s sudden specialty team’s prowess.

Things got pretty chippy in the waning moments of the second period, and into the third. Both teams had a fairly steady stream of players heading to the box, although the Badgers did have more power play time, including about 45 seconds of a 5 on 3.

The Gophers gained a 5 on 3 with about 8 minutes left as Badger captain Blake Geoffrion lost his cool and took a double minor. Nick Leddy capitalized just as a Badger was coming out of the box to ice whatever chance the Badgers had of coming back.

Mike Carman finished off the scoring with another power play goal, the first time since 2006 that the Gophers have scored five power play goals in a game.

Well, it’s off to North Dakota. Not the WCHA finish any of us wanted or hoped for. But perhaps the way this team has played the last few weekends (aside from the Saturday Duluth game), they can go up to Grand Forks and make a series of it. The Sioux are hot right now, winning their last seven games, but traditionally they have allowed lesser teams than the Gophers to stick around in the first round when they are hosting.

“There’s no bigger rivalry in our mind, than North Dakota” said Tony Lucia. Summed up what should be a nice week of buildup before the opener on Friday night.

The games will be on FSN all weekend, however the Friday game could be tape delayed unless FSN decides to move the Wild game. Stay tuned to Gopher Puck Live for any updates.

Badgers Best Gophers 3-2

If Gopher fans know nothing else by this point of the season, it’s that this Minnesota team is very inept offensively and thus they need to get breaks to win games. On this night, playing in the odd atmosphere of the Target Center, Minnesota had two goals waved off and, not surprisingly, lost 3-2 to the Wisconsin Badgers.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say there was a full moon tonight,” said Badger Head Coach Mike Eaves of the game, which featured two reviews and several stoppages in play to fix the poor ice. That, combined with the fact that the facility is less than ideal for hockey and the high number of penalties on both sides, made for a very choppy contest.

“It was a funny game … didn’t have the same feel,” Eaves added.

The Badgers dominated the first period and scored on two of four power play attempts in the opening stanza. However, Minnesota got on the board first, thanks to a turnover at the UW blueline by Badger freshman Justin Schultz. Minnesota senior Ryan Flynn picked up the loose puck and broke in alone on Badger goalie Scott Gudmandson, and score his second goal of the season, the first that wasn’t into an empty net.

However, that lead would be short-lived, as UW freshman Craig Smith would get his first of the night to knot the game at 1-1 just over two minutes later while on the power play. The goal, his fifth of the season, came via a two-on-one rush after a Mike Hoeffel tripping penalty.

Later in the first, after Zach Budish’s second penalty of the first period, Schultz would atone for his turnover earlier in the period as he was the beneficiary of a great passing play by the Badgers than ended with Schultz one-timing the puck over the glove of Minnesota goalie Alex Kangas for his third tally of the season.

There was no scoring in the second period and the Badgers had just two shots during said period, but there was plenty of action. Most of the action came in the Badger end, as Minnesota found themselves with a two-man advantage for over a minute early in the period. Hoeffel appeared to tip home a Cade Fairchild point shot past Gudmandson, but after a review, it was ruled that Hoeffel was in the crease and thus the goal was waved off.

“We got that third goal twice,” Minnesota Head Coach Don Lucia said afterward. “But unfortunately both were disallowed.”

The second disallowed goal that Lucia, who was visibly frustrated both during and after the game, came from the stick of Budish, who jammed home a shot from the side of the Badger net in the third period, but the net was kicked off its moorings by Gudmandson before the puck went over the line.

The goal would have put Minnesota in the lead thanks to Nick Larson’s fourth goal of the season, which came early in the third period. He tipped a Kevin Wehrs point shot past Gudmandson at 2:36 of the third. Nico Sacchetti also assisted.

The Badgers came into the game with the highest-scoring offense in the WCHA, so keeping them under three goals was going to be a chore for the Gophers. And sure enough, with just under five minutes to go, Smith found himself alone in the slot and sniped a shot past Kangas high on the glove side to put Wisconsin in front for good by a 3-2 score.

“I thought our guys played terrific,” Lucia said. “We went toe to toe if that’s one of the top teams in the country.

With the loss and Colorado College’s win at Denver, the Gophers will finish in seventh place in the WCHA and the season-ending game on Sunday against the Badgers back at Mariucci won’t affect Minnesota’s WCHA standing. Who they play next weekend in the first round of the WCHA playoffs is still up in the air. They will play at North Dakota, Minnesota Duluth, or St. Cloud State and the Gophers will know their fate when Saturday night’s games conclude.

The Gophers played a solid game on Friday night and held Wisconsin, who put up nearly 120 shots in their two games at Michigan Tech last weekend, to only 23 on this night. However, Minnesota again gave up two power play goals and didn’t convert on their own man-advantages, though they waved off goals certainly hurt their cause in that regard. The Gophers are now riding a 0-14 power play streak into Sunday’s game, which gets underway at 1 p.m. and will air live on FSN.

Gophers Host Badgers To Wrap Up Regular Season

Minnesota’s third consecutive subpar regular season will come to an end this weekend as they play host to one of the nation’s elite teams in the form of the Wisconsin Badgers, who have lost just three games in their last 19 and are in line for a No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament, which will likely not feature the Gophers for the second-straight season.

The Gophers are coming off a road split against Minnesota Duluth that saw them give a good effort on Friday night in a 3-2 win but then lay a total egg in a 3-0 loss on Saturday. Minnesota was somewhat fortunate to win on Friday night considering they gave up 34 shots, two power play goals, and went 0-4 on the power play themselves, including going scoreless during a five minute power play late in the second period. However, a pair of breakaway goals by Nick Larson and Cade Fairchild set the table for Jacob Cepis’ game-winner with just over five minutes to play in the game.

The second night of series this season has not been kind to the Gophers, particularly during the second-half of the season. Since the calendar rolled over to 2010, Minnesota has given very poor efforts against Northern Michigan (4-2 loss at home), St. Cloud State (4-1 loss at home), Alaska Anchorage (2-1 loss on the road), Denver (5-1 loss on the road), and now, last Saturday’s 3-0 loss at UMD. The team had just 22 shots on net and gave up 37, and had only a handful of high-quality scoring chances. As has been the case of much of the season, this team needs to generate a good deal of ‘grade A’ chances if they are going to convert on a handful of them, and neither happened last Saturday.

The two points in Duluth, coupled with results elsewhere in the WCHA over the weekend, means the Gophers will open the WCHA playoffs on the road for the second time in three seasons, most likely against North Dakota or UMD, who both secured home-ice for the playoffs last weekend.

The Gophers currently sit in seventh place, one point behind Colorado College, who plays the regular season champion Denver in a home-and-home series. CC has now lost four straight games and has just five wins in their last 15 games, so one win against DU is likely a best-case scenario for them. The Gophers hold the tie-breaker over CC thanks to the fact they won the only two regular season matchups against the Tigers.

However, regardless of if they finish in sixth or seventh, the key for Minnesota is to avoid a first round trip to North Dakota. The Sioux have reeled off five straight wins and have a legit chance to run that streak to seven as they host Michigan Tech this weekend. Additionally, the Gophers have had a ton of troubles at Ralph Engelstad Arena as of late, going just 1-4-1 in said building over their last six games, and being outscored by a combined total of 26-13 over those games.

A trip to Duluth, or even St. Cloud, would be much more favorable to Minnesota’s chances to advancing to the WCHA Final Five at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, which is what they need to do to keep their slim hopes of making the NCAA Tournament alive.

It’s not going to be easy to have momentum going into the playoffs though, as the Badgers come to Minneapolis this weekend as one of the nation’s hottest teams. Most recently, the Badgers went to Michigan Tech and came away with four points, which most teams do. But, playing without their top forward (Blake Geoffrion), UW put an amazing 113 shots on goal in a pair of 5-2 wins.

Geoffrion, who leads the WCHA in scoring with 33 points and in goals with 19, missed the two games due to a concussion he suffered two weeks ago against St. Cloud State thanks to a hit-to-the-head by SCSU’s Aaron Marvin, who was suspended for three games this week. There is no word yet on if the senior will be ready to go this weekend, but his absence leaves a big hold in a talented Badger forward group.

Wisconsin, traditionally a defense-first team, is averaging over four goals per game in WCHA play, a feat hasn’t been accomplished since Denver did it in 2004-05. The Badgers have a good mix of experience and talent up front. Aside from Geoffrion, fellow senior Michael Davies has also been huge, as he leads the team in scoring with 43 points. For comparison’s sake, Minnesota’s top scorer – Jordan Schroder – has 27 points. Sophomore Derek Stepan, a Hastings native, was one of the United States’ top players at the World Juniors last season and has carried that strong play back into the WCHA, and has a team-high 31 assists. Freshman Craig Smith has also been a terrific playmaker as a first-year player, chipping in with 21 assists. Ben Street, a fifth year senior who hurt his knee a season ago, has 13 goals.

But despite the talent they have up front, the key to Wisconsin’s success this season has been their star-studded blueline, which is great in transition and gets the play going for the forwards. Junior Brendan Smith is a top candidate for the Hobey Baker award, as the first round pick of the Detroit Red Wings has a whopping 15 goals and 40 total points. Fellow junior Ryan McDonagh, an Arden Hills native, may be the best overall defenseman in the nation. He has 15 points but excels at both ends of the ice and seems to play his best hockey against his hometown team, the Gophers.

Freshman Justin Schultz, along with Smith, quarterbacks the top power play unit and has 16 points, while another junior – Cody Goloubef – is another defense-first blueliner. Freshman John Ramage surprised some by making the U.S. World Junior team, but he was solid for the Americans at the World Juniors and has done the same for the Badgers. Sophomore Jake Gardiner has nine points this season as well.

McDonagh, Gardiner , Goloubef, Smith, and Schultz are all first or second round NHL draft choices, and that group really outshines what Minnesota currently has on the blueline, which is the biggest reason the Badgers are where they are and the Gophers are likely missing out on their second straight NCAA Tournament.

In net, the Badgers split juniors Brett Bennett and Scott Gudmandson have split time for most of the season, but recently, Gudmandson seems to have taken over the reigns as the No. 1 goalie. He has solid numbers this season (13-3-4, 2.42 GAA, .909 Save %) but with the defense playing in front of him and with Mike Eaves as the head coach, you think they would be better.

The Badgers as a whole are third in the WCHA in scoring defense but they have given up some goals as of late. Minnesota State, hardly an offensive juggernaut, put seven on them in a two-game series in Madison. St. Cloud State, a good offensive team, put in nine in a weekend split in Madison two weeks ago. Even giving up four goals at Michigan Tech isn’t great given how bad the Huskies are.

So, there’s hope that Minnesota, who split at Wisconsin way back in early November, could flex some offensive muscle this weekend. They are probably going to need to score at least three goals in each game if they hope to win, since it’s tough to envision this Gopher team putting the clamps on Wisconsin’s high-powered offense.

Due to a scheduling conflict at Mariucci Arena, Friday’s game will take place at the Target Center, while the second game of the series won’t occur until Sunday afternoon back at Mariucci. The first game of the series will be on the Big Ten Network in HD but is tape-delayed, while Sunday’s game will air live on FSN at 1 p.m.

Bulldogs Gain Split

Poor Offensive Effort Ends Three Game Winning Streak

An inability to bury any of the limited chances they did have tonight spelled disaster for the Gophers, as they finish the season series 1 - 3 against the Bulldogs after a 3 - 0 loss on Saturday night.

Pretty tame first period, all things considered. UMD out-shot the Gophers 14 – 5 but none were ‘Grade A’ chances. If anything, the few chances the Gophers had were much better as they hit two posts and if not for a last second kick-out by Brady Hjelle, Tony Lucia would have had his 4th short-handed goal of the year.

The Gophers did hold UMD to a 0 – 3 mark on the power play in the period, which would have had to continue for them to win.

UMD did the Gophers in with two quick scores 1:26 apart in the second period. Justin Fontaine buried a rebound opportunity – Mike Connolly’s shot from just past the Duluth bench was not controlled well by Kangas as the rebound bounced right to a streaking Fontaine who, uncontested by either the Gopher defense or forwards, buried it into an open net from directly in the middle of the slot.

Just minutes later, on their 4th power play chance, Brady Lamb’s blast from the point found its way through a mess of players in front and Kangas as well to pretty much end the night for Goldy.

The Gophers had some power play time in the third, but aside from a Cepis breakaway that was foiled by Hjelle, there was really very little in the way of quality scoring opportunity. To be quite frank – the two teams played a fairly boring game as the Gophers were shut out for the 5th time on the season (and only the third time the Bulldogs have ever shut out the Gophers – first since 1980). Even the Bulldog fans seemed bored as a ‘USA!—USA!’ chant broke out during the waning moments.

Justin Fontaine ended the scoring with an empty netter with just under three minutes left.

Next weekend, Wisconsin comes to town for the much publicized Friday-night-at-Target-Center-Sunday-Afternoon-At-Mariucci series to conclude the regular season.

Cepis Nets The Game-Winner, Gophers Top UMD 3-2

Junior Jacob Cepis was not an on-ice member of the Golden Gophers earlier this season when Minnesota was swept by Minnesota Duluth. However, his third period goal late in the game on Friday night proved to be the winner as the Gophers won their third game in a row, topping the Bulldogs by a 3-2 score.

Nick Larson and Cade Fairchild both scored breakaway goals for Minnesota after defensive breakdowns by UMD. Larson’s goal, his third of the season, gave Minnesota an early 1-0 lead.

They were unable to build on that lead despite having a five minute power play after UMD’s Brady Lamb boarded Jordan Schroeder during the second period. Shortly thereafter, UMD used the momentum of that big penalty kill to get on the board via a power play of their own, as David Grun scored his fourth of the season.

Fairchild’s goal, his fourth of the season, was controversial in that one of the referees ran into a UMD defenseman who could have possibly caught the streaking Fairchild, who was just coming out of the box after a penalty. The Duluth native was able to break in alone on UMD’s Brady Hjelle and beat him to give the Gophers a 2-1 lead.

Thanks to a make-up call, UMD found themselves with the man-advantage shortly after Fairchild’s goal, and Travis Oleksuk notched his eighth of the season to again tie the game.

But then Cepis, who had a goal disallowed earlier in the game, scored after a scrum in front of the UMD net. Freshman defenseman Nick Leddy started the play by hammering a low shot on net that created the second-chance opportunity for Cepis.

Minnesota, now winners of three in a row, will go for the sweep of UMD on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Gopher Hope To Keep Momentum Going In Duluth vs. Bulldogs

For the first time all season, the Gophers swept a WCHA team not named ‘Michigan Tech’ or ‘Alaska Anchorage’ as Minnesota put up a whopping ten goals en route to a pair of wins at Mariucci Arena over the Colorado College Tigers.

The Tigers came into the weekend as the No. 8 ranked team in the nation, but unless the Gophers – who were two games under .500 going into the weekend – played way beyond what their record would indicate, CC had a pretty poor weekend. They were outshot by a sizeable margin on both nights, went just 1-11 on the power play (which was second in the WCHA coming into the weekend) and looked out of sync for much of the weekend.

On Friday night, the Gophers held a 1-0 lead heading into the third period and had played pretty well, though were only up by one goal, which scared many fans to a degree, as the team has blown several one-goal leads this season. However, Jordan Schroeder scored just under two minutes into the final stanza to bump that lead to two, and later, Josh Birkholz would score his first of two goals over the weekend. Junior Alex Kangas recorded his first shutout of the season.

In the Saturday rematch, the Gophers got out of the gate quickly, as they scored three first period goals and brought a 5-2 lead into the third period. The Tigers scored two goals in the first four minutes of the third period to make things pretty tight, but a Cade Fairchild goal – the fourth of the game for Minnesota defenseman, who had scored just eight total goals heading into the game – put the game out of reach late, and the Gophers held on for the 7-4 win.

With the two wins, Minnesota gained four points on the Tigers, who were alone in holding down the final home-ice position heading into last weekend. However, the Fighting Sioux also swept last weekend, and are now tied with CC for fifth place. So from a Gopher perspective, they are still in the conversation for home ice after the sweep, but they have to jump over two teams, not just one, and Minnesota has the toughest schedule – on paper – of those three teams.

So, all the Gophers can do now is turn their focus towards this week’s opponent, and that is the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs, who swept Minnesota at Mariucci Arena earlier this season, but are in the midst of a 2-6-0 stretch and may be without one of their top players.

Late in last Saturday’s 5-1 loss to North Dakota in Grand Forks, sophomore Mike Connolly suffered a concussion after taking a hit to the head by UND’s Corban Knight. Connolly has 32 points in 30 games this season, so if he cannot go this weekend, it would certainly be a big blow to a UMD offense that has hit the skids in recent weeks; they are averaging less than two goals per game in their last four games

The Bulldogs have only had three home games in their last 10 contests, and despite losing once to both Wisconsin and Bemidji State, two of the top teams in the nation, for the season they are 11-6-0 at home, but just 6-7-1 on the road. The Gophers, meanwhile, have been equally average on the road and at home, but have played just eight games on NHL-sized ice surfaces this season. They are 3-4-1 in those games, but two of the wins came vs. Michigan Tech, maybe the worst team in the country.

This will be the second meeting of the season between these teams, as the Bulldogs swept Minnesota in a pair of tightly contested games earlier this season at Mariucci. The Gophers led both games by 2-0 scores but lost both by a goal. Should Minnesota fail to get home ice, those are two games they could really look back on and say ‘what if.’

The key this season for the Bulldogs has been scoring three goals or more; they have just one loss when they hit that mark. However, if the score two goals or less, they are 1-12-0. At home for the season, they are averaging 3.7 goals per game, so their impressive home record should come as no surprise.

Up front for UMD, aside from Mike Connolly, they sport some really high-end guys, including their leading scorer, Jack Connolly (no relation). He’s a sophomore as well but has 40 points in 32 games and will likely center UMD’s top line. Junior Just Fontaine leads the team with 19 goals and has 38 points overall. Fellow junior Rob Bordson has a team-high 26 assists.

On the backend, they have solid depth but no real standouts. Freshman Dylan Olsen, who came in with high hopes after being a first round pick in last year’s NHL Entry Draft, was a healthy scratch last Saturday and has just 11 points. Sophomore Brady Lamb leads the blueline with 15 points, while junior Mike Montgomery has 13.

Goaltending has been a bit of an issue for the Bulldogs all season long. Sophomore Kenny Reiter took the job over shortly after the New Year and has been ‘the guy’ for UMD since then, though the was pulled in favor of fellow sophomore Brady Hjelle in last Saturday’s loss. Hjelle came to UMD as a more highly touted prospect, but hasn’t been able to fill the shoes of the departed Alex Stalock. Reiter will likely get the start on Friday, but don’t look for either guy to put forth a game-stealing effort on either night this weekend.

The Gopher penalty kill was excelled against CC last weekend, and they have another tough test ahead of them as UMD’s power play is the best in the WCHA at 23.6 percent. It will be different for Minnesota in that they will have to kill penalties on the extremely small ice sheet at the DECC as opposed to the Olympic-sized ice sheet at Mariucci.

Conversely, UMD’s penalty kill is eighth in the WCHA and gave up three power play goals to the Sioux last weekend. Minnesota’s power play is ninth in the WCHA and it would stand to reason that the Gophers, we average just 2.88 goals per game, likely won’t score as much this weekend as they did last, so they may have to rely a bit more on the man-advantage against the usually high-scoring Bulldogs.

From a league perspective, the Bulldogs are likely going to finish in fourth or fifth place, as their 2-6-0 mark in their last eight games has probably dropped them from a top three finish. Nationally, the Bulldogs are now on the bubble of making the NCAA Tournament, as they sit in 12th place in the PairWise Rankings after being near the top five for much of the season.

This could be the first of two weekend get-togethers for these teams over the next few weeks, as there’s a very good chance the Gophers will be back up at the DECC to play UMD in the first round of the WCHA playoffs on March 12-14. There’s an outside chance that UND could catch UMD for fourth place and become a likely opponent for Minnesota. But, as a Gopher fan, you’d much rather place CC or UMD than North Dakota at this point given the way the team’s are trending and their styles of play.

Friday's game gets underway at 7 p.m. on Friday, while the Saturday rematch features a 7:30 p.m. puck-drop. Both will air live on FSN.

Gophers Open Floodgates, Sweep Tigers

Offense Overcomes Repeated Defensive Breakdowns

“It was a great weekend for us” said a very happy Don Lucia, after the game.

If anything - it certainly was odd being in Mariucci Arena this afternoon. It felt like Gopher hockey for a change.

In a pretty decent sized surprise, the Gophers gain a sweep at home for only the 2nd time all season, and look good – offensively at least – in scoring seven goals in a 7 – 4 win. In fact, seven different Gophers tallied goals in one of their best efforts of the season.

As expected, CC came out with much more energy than last night. The Tigers drew two power plays in the first ten minutes of the game but could not convert as the Gopher penalty killers did a nice job of clearing the front of the net.

“I thought we actually skated harder and better today” said CC coach Scott Owens of his squad’s effort.

The Gophers began to gain their bearings and as the clock ticked down under the 13 minute mark, goals started flying.

After spending a good amount of 1:46 of 5 on 3 power play time fumbling around the CC zone, Mike Hoeffel tapped home a rebound of a Jordan Schroeder shot. Just 40 seconds later, David Fischer’s weak seeing-eye wrist shot somehow eluded Tiger goalie Joe Howe and it seemed like the Gophers may roll.

However the Gophers had a severe let down just seconds after that. Both defensemen were caught behind the net and Rylan Schwartz snuck through traffic and deposited his 6th goal of the year past a sprawling Alex Kangas.

Usually when this happens things settle down a little. But a dump in type shot by Aaron Ness found its way to the net and past Howe when Jake Cepis crashed into the CC net-minder. He argued, but it was to no avail as after a brief review the goal was awarded to Ness and the Gophers.

Josh Birkholz extended the Gopher lead to 3 goals with another laser beam of a shot from the slot, just a few minutes into the 2nd period – trying to match his #3 ranked play of the day yesterday from ESPN.

CC got back into the game for a little bit with a nice power play goal towards the end of the period. Cloquet’s Tyler Johnson fed a streaking Kris Fredheim who tapped home his 3rd goal of the season. But just as that jump returned to CC’s skates, Nick Leddy answered with a long wrist shot from the point that found its way past Howe.

“We tried to make a game of it [in the third]” said Owens, in a very understated manner.

Back to back CC goals by Gabe Guentzel and Tyler Johnson (after a really poor turnover at the Tiger blue line by Kevin Wehrs) just 3:36 in put CC back in the game with tons of momentum. They really started pouring it on but couldn’t gain the equalizer. Coach Lucia thought about 4 – 5 minutes after that “we settled down” and took back control of the game.

The Gophers shut down CC’s last power play opportunity that came with seven minutes left, and just as soon as that expired, Cade Fairchild’s 3rd goal of the year – a ripper from the point – sealed the salute at center ice.

Owens seemed worried off the bat about last weekend. “They don’t look like a team that’s been struggling, at home in particular” he said. “We knew we’d be in trouble – a bit of a tough weekend – after their deal out in Denver”.

So – the Gophers are now off to Duluth for their final road trip of the regular season. These are absolute MUST wins as according to the Pairwise geniuses there are still ways for the Gophers to make the NCAA tourney without winning the Final Five.

Notes: It was reunion weekend at Mariucci as several recent Gopher players were back in town over the NHL/Olympic break, and attending the game today, including Blake Wheeler, Alex Goligoski, Paul Martin and Kyle Okposo…the University honored the 1969 – 1970 hockey team that won the WCHA title that season, on their 40th anniversary…the Gophers probably had their best face-off night of the season, winning 41 of 64 draws today

Kangas Backstops Gophers To 3-0 Shutout Of Tigers

Alex Kangas made 26 saves, including 13 in the third period, and the Gophers put forth one of their better efforts in several weeks en route to a 3-0 victory of the Colorado College Tigers on Friday night at Mariucci Arena.

“We did a great job defending tonight,” said Kangas, a junior. “We didn’t give up anything from the slot all night.”

Kangas rebounded from a shaky performance last Friday in Denver, where he let in three goals in the final period and gave way to the seldom-used Kent Patterson for Saturday’s series finale. On this night, he wasn’t faced with a ton of ‘grade A’ scoring chances, but he looked much more in control than a week ago.

“We came out really tentative,” said CC Head Coach Scott Owens. “They worked hard and were sharp and tonight they got a break.”

That break that Owens referred to came late in the first period, as the Gophers got on the board first with less than a second to go after a miscue by CC goalie Joe Howe and a Tiger defenseman behind the CC net. Sophomore Nico Sacchetti was able to jar the puck loose to the slot where Minnesota’s Patrick White fired a shot into the open net for his ninth goal of the season with just .3 left on the clock.

Minnesota took control of the first period after a CC penalty with just under six minutes to go. Though the Gophers didn’t score with the man-advantage, they put several shots on net, though Tigers goalie Joe Howe, a freshman, stood tall.

“The game should have been over after the first period,” said Owens, who was very complimentary of Howe, who is a Wayzata native and was playing his first game in his home-state.

The second period was largely even on both sides, though the Gophers were able to kill off a CC power play that included a brief five-on-three advantage for the Tigers, who coming into the game had scored 40 percent of their goals in league play on the man-advantage, which ranked second in the WCHA.

To start the third period, Minnesota got a solid forecheck going and forced the Tigers to ice the puck. The Tigers of course could not change lines, and it cost them, as eventually Jacob Cepis rolled out from behind the CC net and threw a low shot on goal. Howe made the initial save but the CC defender couldn’t tie up Jordan Schroeder, who tapped the rebound by Howe for his eight goal of the season to extend the lead to 2-0.

In his post-game talk with the media, Gophers head coach Don Lucia was very pleased to get that “separation goal,” a term that has been mentioned by Lucia several nights this year, mostly in regards to his team not being able to get said goal(s).

“I’m happy with the way our team responded tonight,” said Lucia, referring to the fact they were swept last weekend at Denver and had just one win in their prior six games coming into tonight’s contest.

The Tigers started to mount some pressure midway through the third period, but Gopher freshman Josh Birkholz delivered the dagger when he picked up a loose puck at the Tiger blueline. The former Blake standout had a clear path to the net, and he beat Howe with a shot low to the blocker-side to make the score 3-0 Minnesota.

With the win, the Gophers picked up two points on the Tigers, who are currently sitting in fifth place and holding down the final home-ice position. Minnesota now has 20 points, while CC still sits with 25, and both teams have five games remaining. North Dakota, with its win over Minnesota Duluth on Friday night, moved within four points of CC and travels to Colorado Springs next weekend in what could be a decisive series for who gets the final home-ice position.

For Minnesota to keep any shot at home-ice alive, they need to win tomorrow vs. the Tigers … and even then they are still likely facing a roadtrip for the first round of the players. But, even though they play two very good teams the next two weeks – UMD and Wisconsin – neither one of those teams are super hot right now, so there is still hope.

Look for the Tigers to play better tomorrow; it’s tough to imagine a team that was seventh in the PairWise Rankings heading into the night playing worse than they did. Plus, Minnesota has, since early January, been much worse on Saturdays than on Fridays.

Remember, Saturday’s game gets underway at the unconventional time of 3 p.m.

Gophers Hope To Rebound At Home vs. CC

After another weekend of lackluster play on the ice and yet another off-the-ice dig by an NHL team at the program, the Golden Gophers return home after being swept for the second time in their last three series and look to save face on what’s quickly going from a bad to embarrassing season.

Everybody knew the Gophers were up against it last weekend heading into the Mile High City to take on a Denver Pioneers team that may be the best in the country. However, Minnesota put itself in a position to need to take points from a team like the Pioneers this late in the season thanks to their poor play for the last several months. And, as most expected, the Maroon and Gold was punchless against Denver and captured no point, thus they remain tied for seventh place in the WCHA with Alaska Anchorage.

In the first game of the series, the Gophers – for the most part – played a pretty strong game in terms of defensive play and being physical. They had several scoring chances during the second period, including a pair of breakaways by Ryan Flynn and Zach Budish – but, as has often been the case this season, failed to score (or in Flynn’s case even hit the net; odd to see one’s college career summed up in one play).

And then, to start the third period, the bottom fell out, as two of the team’s key players – Jordan Schroeder and Aaron Ness – put forth minimal efforts and allowed DU’s Tyler Ruegsegger to blow right around them and beat an out-of-position Alex Kangas to give DU a one-goal lead. The Pioneers would hold a 2-1 lead with under two minutes to go. While breaking out of his own end, Schroeder threw a soft backhand “pass” to the middle of the ice with no teammates in site. DU’s Rhett Rakhshani stole the pass and made a charge to the net. Schroeder did his best to tie up the senior forward, but Rakhshani spun around in the slot and threw a low shot on net that seemingly surprised Kangas, and made the game 3-1 which held on to be the final score.

Saturday’s game was never really close, as the Pioneers coasted to a 5-1 victory, with the Gophers’ lone goal coming with under a minute to go while on the power play. For the fourth time this season, DU junior goalie Marc Cheverie dominated the Gophers, as he turned away 136 of the 138 shots the Gophers put on him in the four meetings this season, good for a .986 save percentage.

Now, with the team being two games under .500, the team doesn’t even qualify for the PairWise Rankings, and now almost assuredly will begin the WCHA playoffs on the road for the second time in three seasons.

The Gophers are now seven points back of Colorado College, who currently holds down the final home-ice position and it also Minnesota’s opponent this weekend at Mariucci Arena. Catching them in next to impossible right now but in order to keep those slim hopes alive, the Gophers need a sweep this weekend.

The Tigers were off last weekend and most recently won a pair of non-conference games at home against Air Force and Mercyhurst. In their last WCHA series, which took place on Jan. 29-30 against St. Cloud, the Tigers lost 5-4 on Friday before salvaging a split by winning 6-4 on Saturday.

Last season’s team was favored to win the WCHA and the Tigers fell short of expectations, as they didn’t even make it to the WCHA Final Five and were also a no-show in terms of an NCAA Tournament bid. This year’s team was picked to finish in the bottom-half of the WCHA and they have overachieved for most of the season. The Tigers got off to a great start, going 12-4-3 to start the season. However, since a 4-2 non-conference win over Cornell on Dec. 29, they are just 5-6-0, but still are in a good spot to make a return to the NCAA Tournament, as they sit alone in seventh place in the PairWise Rankings.

The biggest question mark for this team coming into the year was goaltending, after sophomore Richard Bachman left for the pros after last season. So, that left a pair of freshmen – Wayzata’s Joe Howe and Hudson Stremmel – to carry the mail for the Tigers this season. Howe got off to the better start and Stremmel bailed for major juniors due to the fact he lost out to Howe, who has started 27 games as a freshman.

Part of CC’s recent struggles could be Howe wearing down a bit, but with last weekend off and returning to his home state to play the Gophers, he should be on his game this weekend. As a whole, he’s 15-9-3 with a 2.60 goals against average and a .910 save percentage.

The Tigers are led by the smooth-skating Billy Sweatt. The senior has 28 points in 30 games and is a fun player to watch due to his excellent speed a skating ability. Fellow senior Mike Testwuide, who has seemingly been at CC for about ten years, leads the team in goals with 18 and plays on the team’s second line that is centered by one of the best freshmen in the WCHA, Rylan Schwartz, who has 25 points in 30 games.

The Tigers have the WCHA’s second-best scoring offense in the WCHA, which doesn’t bode well for the low-scoring Gophers. The Tigers’ power play has been a real strong point for them, as it’s humming along at 24.4 percent in league play, just behind UMD which is at 24.8.

One of the key’s to that power play is defenseman Gabe Guentzel, the son of former Minnesota and Colorado College assistant coach Mike Guentzel. Gabe has 22 points in 30 games as a sophomore, which follows a very successful freshman season where he totaled 17 points. There were rumors that Minnesota Head Coach Don Lucia didn’t think Guentzel could cut it at Minnesota and that was part of the reason his father was essentially fired by Lucia. For what it’s worth, his 22 points would put him second overall on Minnesota’s team in scoring this season.

For Minnesota, the story is pretty simple at this point in the season: they have major problems scoring goals and don’t play sound enough defense or have good enough goaltending to offset that fact. The team is just 7-8-1 at home this season, and the majority of those wins have come against poor to very poor teams (two vs. Alaska Anchorage, one vs. Bowling Green, and two vs. Harvard).

The top line of Schroeder, Zach Budish, and Jacob Cepis was a combined minus ten at Denver last weekend, so one would assume they would play better this weekend and should find their way back to the scoresheet. Junior Mike Hoeffel returned last weekend after a bout with mono but was pretty much non-existent, so hopefully another week of recovery under his belt will help him get back to 100 percent.

In goal for Minnesota, Kangas gave up three goals on Friday night, with two of them being somewhat to very soft. In a shocking move, sophomore Kent Patterson actually got the nod on Saturday night, and though he gave up five goals, the team put forth one of their worst “efforts” of the season in front of him, so it’s tough to be too hard on a kid making just his seventh college start near the end of his second full season.

Another thing that may actually go against the Gophers this weekend is the start-times of both games, which had to be changes due to a Gopher men’s basketball game being moved to 7 p.m. on Saturday. So, Friday’s game vs. CC will get underway at 6 p.m., with the Saturday rematch starting at 3 p.m. Not that the crowds this season have been great (or even good on most nights), but look for the building to be pretty quiet and sparsely filled this weekend. Plus, over time, there are many examples of the Gophers laying an egg in games that start at unconventional times.

Friday's game will air live on the Big 10 Network, while the Saturday rematch will be live on FSN.

Pioneers Look Like WCHA's Best

The Gophers entered Denver’s Magness Arena with a chance to salvage their season, but Friday’s 3-1 and Saturday’s 5-1 losses to the conference’s top team put a damper on those hopes.

The losses pushed Minnesota into seventh place in the WCHA, tied with Alaska Anchorage at 18 points, and behind North Dakota at 21 points. Unless the Gophers win out against Colorado College, Minnesota Duluth, and Wisconsin and get some help, Minnesota will be on the road playing for a spot in the WCHA Final Five.

"I think they're the best team we've played this year," said Don Lucia to the Denver Post’s Mike Chambers. "(Cheverie) has been lights out against us, and probably the best player in our league. They're very good defensively and have top-end talent, and their role players don't need to score for them to be successful (because) their top guys bring it game in and game out."

The season sweep of the Gophers by the Pioneers was their first in school history, and Denver’s top player, Marc Cheverie certainly was a big factor. The junior net minder earned two 30 save shutouts at Mariucci in October, and followed it up with 44 and 32 save nights this past weekend. The Gophers must be hoping that the 7th round Florida Panther pick will sign after the season since he’s posted a .986 save percentage against the Gophers this year.

Cheverie wasn’t the only factor in the weekend though. The Pioneer number one line of Rhett Rakshani, Joe Colborne, and Tyler Ruegsegger also shined, scoring five of the Pioneers eight goals in the series. Meanwhile, the Gophers top line of Jacob Cepis, Jordan Schoreder, and Zach Budish were held to zero points, and nine shots.

The Gophers needed a little bit of a break to break-up Cheverie’s shutout Saturday. The Gopher goal came with 38.8 seconds left as Mike Carman’s point shot found it’s way to Tony Lucia's skate and then into the net.

The Gophers return home next weekend to face Coach Lucia’s former employer Colorado College. The games will be Friday at 6 p.m. since the game will be televised on the Big Ten Network and Saturday’s game has been moved to 3 p.m., televised on Fox Sports North, since the men’s basketball team plays Indiana at 7 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.

Gophers Come Up Short Again, Fall 3-1 vs. Pioneers

The desperate Golden Gophers put forth a valiant effort in Friday night’s game against Denver, but as often has been the case this season, they were unable to put the puck in the back of the net, and the end result was a 3-1 loss to the Pioneers.

The game was scoreless after two periods and the Gophers were the better of the two teams up to that point, but they were doomed when they blew three prime scoring chances in the second period. Senior Tony Lucia could have had a shorthanded breakaway had Jordan Schroeder looked up and hit him with a pass, but instead Schroeder elected to carry the puck into the DU zone and didn’t get a shot off. Both Zach Budish and Ryan Flynn had breakaways after their penalties had ended but couldn’t beat DU goaltender Marc Cheverie, who had his streak of over 240 straight minutes of shutting out the Gophers ended late in the game.

The Pioneers took the lead less than a minute into the third period, as Tyler Ruegsegger danced past Schroeder in the neutral zone and then blew around Aaron Ness and beat junior Alex Kangas, who badly misplayed the scoring attempt.

DU would pad its lead at the 11:37 mark, as the Gopher defensive coverage broke down in front of their own net, with the end result being a Joe Colborne goal to make it 2-0.

After a Cade Fairchild blast hit off the boards and took a fortunate Gopher bounce, Patrick White beat Cheverie with less than two minutes to go to make it 2-1 Pioneers.

The Gophers blew any chance to tie the game thanks to a terrible play by Schroeder in his own end. He threw a backhand pass up the middle that was nowhere near another Gopher, and Rhett Rakhshani picked it off and beat Kangas, who inexplicably didn’t seem to know a shot would be coming.

Schroeder finished the night a minus three.

It will be interesting to see if Don Lucia goes in a different direction in goal on Saturday night given Kangas’ poor play on Friday, though he’s pretty much painted himself into a corner due to the fact he’s hardly played sophomore Kent Patterson.

The rematch gets underway at 8 p.m. CST on Saturday.

Gophers Begin Stretch Run Against Pioneers

Coming on the heels of their last bye weekend of the season, the Gophers now face the toughest schedule of all the WCHA teams down the stretch, with the two most difficult games of the eight on tap for this weekend in Denver against the Pioneers, who are currently one of the hottest teams in the nation and are the odds-on favorite to take home the WCHA regular season title.

DU was the preseason pick by both the coaches and media and they are certainly living up to the hype. From a league perspective, the Pioneers currently sit in third place with 28 points, but are just one point behind Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State, who are tied for first with 29 points, but have two games in-hand on both teams and have arguably the easiest remaining schedule. After hosting Minnesota, who is tied for seventh, they then take on Michigan Tech – who is in last place – at home before traveling to ninth place Minnesota State. They then conclude the season, as they always do, with a home-and-home with Colorado College.

Nationally, the Pioneers currently sit second in the PairWise Rankings and, barring a late-season collapse, will secure one of the four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament, and will likely end up out East in the NCAA Tournament.

So what makes the Pioneers so good? As Gopher fans can attest to, it all starts in net. Junior Marc Cheverie is one of the leading candidates to take home this year’s Hobey Baker award, and has dominated the Gophers over his nearly three years in Denver. Last season, he lost his first career start against the Gophers and was pulled from the game after allowing five goals. However, he bounced back the next night to shutout the Gophers 4-0, and then held the Gophers scoreless in both meetings this season back in October at Mariucci Arena.

For the season, he has a 1.96 goals against average and a .935 save percentage, which are both second in the nation, and is 15-3-3 overall.

What’s even more amazing is that Cheverie is doing this with a very young – albeit talented – defensive core in front of him. Sophomore Patrick Wiercioch is their best overall defender, and has 18 points in 26 games as well. Freshman Matt Donovan has 16 points and was a key member of the United States’ gold medal winning World Junior team. After that, the rest of the group is pretty defensive oriented. Sophomore John Lee, brother of former UND defenseman Brian Lee, has played 28 games, while freshmen William Wrenn, and Paul Phillips have played 20 and 18 games, respectively. Senior Cody Brookwell has played in 15 games and brings size to the group (6-4, 215 lbs) and junior Chris Nutini has also played 23 games.

Up front, DU is as talented as any team in the nation though are just fifth in the WCHA in scoring, which is a bit puzzling. Senior Rhett Rakhshani and Tyler Ruegsegger are both forces and shows just how important it is to keep guys around for four years, as both of these players are NHL drafted and have had chances to leave but elected to stay. Sophomore Joe Colborne, who was a first round NHL draft choice a summer ago and missed the series against the Gophers earlier this year with a finger injury, has 28 points in 26 games. Junior Anthony Maiani has 23 points in 28 games and is a quick and shifty player.

Largely because of Cheverie, DU’s penalty kill is tops in the league. Their power play is third, and thus they lead the team in combined special teams.

Denver has scored just 15 goals in the first period this year, last in the WCHA, so the Gophers could have a chance to get out to an early lead, which would be huge, especially on the road. But the key to the Gophers have any success this weekend rides on the shoulders of junior goalie Alex Kangas.

Kangas’ numbers this season aren’t great, though the defensive core in front of him is one of Minnesota’s worst in recent memory. Kangas is seventh in the WCHA in goals against and fifth in save percentage. He is going to need to play at a very high level, like he did down the stretch during his freshman season, if the Gophers are going to pick up some wins down the stretch.

Minnesota’s offensive struggles have been well-documented this season. Two weekends ago, they exploded for seven goals in a 7-4 win at Alaska Anchorage, but then reverted to their old for the next night as they lost 2-1 and only put 24 shots on net. Given their problems against Cheverie over time, getting three goals or more in either game this weekend would appear unlikely, so Kangas is going to need to make the first save and rely on good team defense.

The Gophers will welcome their top goal scorer, junior Mike Hoeffel, back to the lineup after he missed the last four games with mono. He will add some scoring pop to the second line, while the top trio of Jacob Cepis, Jordan Schroeder, and Zach Budish will look to stay hot. Those three have been involved (i.e. scored or assisted on) 12 of Minnesota’s last 15 goals. If the Gophers could just get one goal a night from one of the other three lines, it would provide a major boost.

From a WCHA perspective, the Gophers are pretty much out of the running for a top five finish and thus will likely start the playoffs away from Mariucci Arena. They trail UND by a point for sixth place but are seven points back of Colorado College though they do have two games in-hand on the Tigers and host CC for a pair of games in Minneapolis next weekend. Aside from the two games vs. the Gophers, CC hosts UND and has a pair with Denver, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that CC doesn’t pick up many more points down the stretch; regardless of what they do though, it’s tough to envision the Gophers winning too many games given their tough schedule. Plus they’d have to jump UND, who closes the season with a home series vs. Michigan Tech, which essentially assures them of a free four points.

Nationally, the Gophers now sit 22nd in the PairWise Rankings. Realistically, their only chance to make the NCAA Tournament at this point is to make and then with the Final Five, which won’t be an easy task.

Seawolves Trip Up Gophers

The Gophers missed an opportunity to move past North Dakota into 6th place in the WCHA standings after losing their Saturday rematch with Alaska-Anchorage by a 2 - 1 score.

Zach Budish got the Gophers on the board in the first (completing a 5 point weekend), but Seawolf senior forward Josh Lunden evened things up with a power play goal just 37 seconds in to the second period.

The game was sealed by Kevin Clark, as he got back at the Gophers for their shorthanded tally on Friday night with one of his own a few minutes later in the frame. The Gophers put on some pressure in the last 5 - 8 minutes, but couldn't come up with the equalizer.

Jon Othlius picked up the win with saves 23, while Alex Kangas takes the loss with 22.

It's off week as the next series isn't until February 12th/13th when they visit Denver. Both games will be live on FSN North.

Gophers Dispatch Of Seawolves 7-4

Mike Carman and Jordan Schroeder both had a pair of goals, while freshman Zach Budish had his first four-point game of his career as the Gophers claimed a 7-4 victory of the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves on Friday night at Sullivan Arena in Anchorage.

Things were a little dicey early in the contest, as the Seawolves scored two goals on their first four shots, so despite dominating the first period, the Gophers were tied at 2-2 after one.

However, senior David Fischer would get his first goal of the season less than a minute into the second period, with Schroeder adding his second of the night -- this one coming while short-handed -- later in the period to bump the lead to 4-2. Less than a minute later, the Seawolves again cut the lead to just a goal, but Minnesota rattled off the next three goals to secure the win.

The Seawolves have been a better Saturday night team all year, as they have wins against North Dakota, Denver, Minnesota State, and two victories vs. Colorado College on Saturdays after losing on Fridays. So, the Gophers will need to bring this same kind of effort on Saturday night if they hope to return home with four points.