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.

With Home Ice Now A Longshot, Gophers Head to Alaska

After taking three out of four points from North Dakota and moving back into the race for home ice a weekend ago, the Golden Gophers took a huge step back last weekend in being swept in a home-and-home series by the St. Cloud State Huskies, and now face an even bigger uphill battle both in their quest for home ice and a NCAA Tournament birth.

Gopher fans had to know the weekend may not play out as they hoped after the first period on Friday night, as the Huskies – who lost six times to the Gophers a season ago – stormed out to a 3-0 lead at the National Hockey Center. The back-breaking goal came with less than ten seconds left, as Minnesota’s David Fischer inexplicably let SCSU’s Garrett Roe get a shot off that beat Gopher goalie Alex Kangas.

The Gophers, to their credit, came back nicely, scoring three second period goals to cut the lead to 4-3 heading into the third period, but as we’ve seen all season, scoring more than 2-3 goals in a game for this version of the Maroon and Gold is a huge challenge, and they were unable to do so on this night.

Saturday’s game may rival the 6-0 loss at Michigan in terms of a season low-point. Coming off a tough loss on Friday and playing at home, fans expected Minnesota to make a stand and stay in the race for home ice in the WCHA playoffs by earning a split with the Huskies. Unfortunately, the Gophers again found themselves down 3-0 to SCSU early in the second period. Minnesota defenseman Cade Fairchild broke up the shutout with his second goal of the season, and SCSU goalie Mike Lee made 42 saves to secure a 4-1 win for the Huskies, who are now 11-1-1 in their last 13 games and are in the mix for the WCHA title and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Minnesota now sits alone in seventh place in the WCHA with 16 points after 18 league games. North Dakota is three points ahead having played the same amount of games, while Wisconsin and Colorado College are currently in a tie for fourth place with 23 points. Given Minnesota’s remaining schedule, it’s tough to imagine the team finishing the season strong enough to vault into the upper-half of the WCHA.

Six of the team’s 10 remaining WCHA games come on the road, starting this weekend at Alaska Anchorage. They then have a weekend off before wrapping up the season by traveling to Denver, hosting Colorado College, playing their final series ever at the DECC in Duluth against the Bulldogs, and closing things out against the Badgers.

Minnesota’s best chance to accumulate points comes this weekend against the Seawolves in Anchorage, though if this weekend goes awry, the Seawolves could jump over Minnesota in the WCHA standings. UAA has played two more games, but they trail Minnesota by just one point in the standings.

The Gophers swept the Seawolves in Dinkytown last fall by scores of 5-1 and 4-1, and absolutely need to get four points out of Anchorage this weekend. Things probably won’t be as easy for Minnesota as they were last time around, as the Gophers will now take on UAA without snipers Jay Barriball and Mike Hoeffel in the lineup. Hoeffel is expected to be back for the series against DU in a few weeks, but his bout with mono will hold him out again this weekend.

UAA has played better of late after starting the season 4-9-0. Since then, they are 5-6-1 and have some quality wins this season over North Dakota, Denver, and two against Colorado College. They are essentially a one-line team, with three of their top four scorers all on said line. Senior Kevin Clark leads the team with 12 goals, while junior Tommy Grant is the team leader in assists with 13. Junior Nick Haddad centers the line and has nine points. Senior Josh Lunden would likely be one of those top scorers, but he missed time due to an injury, but he’s now back in the lineup and could be a name you hear or see on the scoresheet this weekend.

Despite their recent uptick in play, UAA is at or near the bottom of the WCHA in most key metrics, including scoring offense (9th), scoring defense (9th), and power play (10th). They also lead the league in penalty minutes.

For the Gophers, the recipe for success is pretty much known at this point because they haven’t won a game all year allowing three goals or more. So, if they can keep the Seawolves to two goals or less, they’ll have a great shot at winning. Conversely, if UAA gets three or more, it’s likely the Gophers will lose.

The Seawolves had scored three or more goals five times in their 20 WCHA games so far, though two of those came against Michigan Tech, who is by far the worst team in the league and maybe the country. So, it’s not going to be easy for UAA to put three by Kangas.

Look for these games to be similar to the ones Minnesota played at Michigan Tech in mid-December. The Gophers won both games 3-2 but both were hard fought and were in doubt late.

In terms of the all-important PairWise Rankings, the Gophers are now on the bubble of falling out of “rankability” again, as they now sit at 12-12-2 on the season, good for 24th in the PairWise. If they fall under .500, they’ll drop out of consideration. To have a solid shot at the NCAA Tournament, they’ll need to finish in the top 12-14.

At this point, it seems like their best shot of making the field of 16 – and playing in front of their home fans at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul due to the fact they are hosting the West Regional – is to make and win the WCHA Final Five. Two seasons ago, they finished in seventh place in the WCHA and made it all the way to the title game before losing to Denver, and last year Minnesota Duluth became the first team in the history of the tournament to win the Final Five after playing in the Thursday night quarterfinal .

So, it’s not impossible, but there is much work to be done between now and then if this Gopher team is going to return to the NCAA Tournament after a one-year absence a season ago.

Gophers Swept

Poor Early Goaltending, Scoring Deficiency Leads to another Home Loss

You could use many adjectives to try and explain the results of this game; none of them would be of any use. After throwing another 40+ shots on net, they come away with only one goal and lose to St. Cloud by a 4 – 1 margin, getting swept for the third time on the season as a small measure of revenge was enacted for a Gopher whitewashing of the Huskies last season.

Coach Lucia’s feelings on the game were predictable. “They are doing the things we ask them to do” he said time and again after the game. “It’s frustrating when there’s no reward.”

The Huskies scored on 2 of their first 3 shots on goal, continuing a very poor trend by Alex Kangas, who is allowing a startling amount of goals on the first five shots on net he sees this season.

First, a power play goal from Taylor Johnson – his first career goal - and then an unscreened chance in the high slot by David Eddy both blown by Kangas, who like the team seemed somewhat disinterested in even playing tonight at the beginning of the game.

“We were kind of a bend, bend, but didn’t break team, I thought, at times tonight” said Husky coach Bob Motzko, who included the obvious point that scoring the early power play goal was “huge”.

The Gophers were down 3 – 0 after the second period thanks to a Jared Festler tally, and it certainly seemed like a shutout could be in order for Mike Lee.

However, after killing off a five minute major to Kevin Wehrs, the Gophers got on the board with a nice cross ice pass by Aaron Ness to Cade Fairchild, who deposited his second goal of the season. But that was it for the Gophers on the score-sheet as freshman Lee had a pretty nice game, making 42 saves, although not a whole lot of them grade ‘A’ chances.

“We generated a lot of chances” said Fairchild. “We maybe made him look a little better than he was”, which came out in somewhat of a frustrated/defiant tone.

Where do the Gophers go after a series like this, which most likely will put them on the road in the first round of the WCHA playoffs? It’s hard to say. The team has been playing probably to the best of their ability since the beginning of January. Hopefully their early game goaltending gets better and somebody can find a consistent scoring touch so they can have a better than average chance at making the Final Five.

Minnesota Looks to Continue Dominance of SCSU

Despite the level of competition going up several notches last weekend, the Golden Gophers managed to continue their winning ways as they took three out of four points from North Dakota and, in the process, vaulted back into the home-ice conversation for the WCHA playoffs.

On Friday night, the Gophers and Sioux went back and forth for much of the evening and played one of the more memorable games at Mariucci Arena over the last few years. Newcomer Jacob Cepis’ tied the game with just over two minutes remaining after the Sioux had led for most of the third period. UND had a power play late in overtime but couldn’t convert, so the Sioux were forced to settle for the tie, while the Gophers were happy to salvage a point late in regulation.

In Saturday rematch, Minnesota held a one-goal lead late in the second period, but then exploded for three goals over a 3:22 span to mount a 4-0 lead heading into the third period, and coasted to a 5-1 victory. Minnesota had five different goal-scorers in the Saturday win, and with that, one goal from each of its four forward lines. That depth is going to be very important down the stretch.

That stretch-run continues this weekend with a home-and-home series against the St. Cloud State Huskies, who along with Minnesota are two of the hottest teams in the WCHA. Bob Motzko’s team is coming off a non-conference sweet at Quinnipiac, and has just one loss in their last 11 games.

Like Minnesota, St. Cloud State took advantage of a soft schedule after the Christmas break and, just as the Gophers did, won most of those games after playing a much tougher schedule before the break. The Huskies held their own during the months of November and December where they went 5-4-1 in series at North Dakota, vs. Wisconsin, at Denver, at Alaska Anchorage, and vs. Colorado College.

Overall on the season, the Huskies are 14-7-3 on the season, and are 9-5-2 in the WCHA. Their 20 league points puts them in a tie for fourth with the Badgers, though UW has two games in-hand on SCSU and hosts St. Cloud in mid-February. From a national perspective, the Huskies are in sixth place in the PairWise Rankings, with three of the five teams ahead of them being WCHA counterparts.

Last season, the Huskies went 18-11-3 against teams everybody except the Gophers; however, they were an astonishing 0-6 against a Minnesota team that was just 17-13-7 overall. St. Cloud’s biggest problem against the Gophers last season was its power play, which went just 4-37 in those six losses.

The Huskies power play this season is sixth in the WCHA at 18.7 percent, and it’s tough to figure why the unit isn’t better when you look at the talent they can roll out. Senior Ryan Lasch and junior Garrett Roe are two of the more dynamic offensive players in the league, while senior defenseman Garrett Raboin is one of the better point-producers among WCHA blueliners. The team also has other offensive threats, such as junior Tony Mosey (18 points in 24 games), sophomores Jared Festler and Drew LeBlanc (13 points in 24 games). Freshman Ben Hanowski, who of course last season capped off his wonderful high school career at Little Falls by becoming the state’s all-time leading scorer, has 13 points as well in 24 games as a freshman.

Denver Head Coach George Gwozdecky said earlier this year, after his team split at home vs. the Huskies, that SCSU had the deepest group of forwards of anyone in the WCHA.

SCSU is in the middle of the pack in the WCHA is most key stats, but much of their success can be contributed to their strong penalty kill. They have allowed just ten power play goals on the season, tops in the league, and they also lead the league with seven short-handed goals.

As good as SCSU’s penalty kill has been, Minnesota’s might be even better right now. The Gophers have allowed just one power play goal in their last 23 shorthanded situations, including killing ten power plays last weekend against the Sioux.

The key to any team’s penalty kill is the netminder, and junior Alex Kangas – who will likely start both games this weekend and be “the guy” for the Gophers the rest of the way – was very good against UND, and outplayed the Sioux’s Brad Eidsness, who was the top goalie in the WCHA heading into the weekend. Kangas has just one career loss against the Huskies, though he did six goals in a winning effort at the National Hockey Center last season.

For the last two weeks, SCSU has gone with junior Dan Dunn in net on Friday, with freshman Mike Lee getting the nod on Saturday. Dunn has been the better of the two this season but both have been solid and given the Huskies a chance to win on most nights. Expect to see the rotation continue against Minnesota.

The power play is still ninth in the WCHA at just 13.1 percent, though they did score a pair of power play goals against UND last weekend. In the six games against SCSU last season, the Gophers scored a goal with the man-advantage in each of the six games, and finished at a 28 percent success-rate against the Huskies.

The Minnesota power play – and their group of forwards as a whole – will be without one of their main guns, as junior Mike Hoeffel, who is the team’s leading scorer, will miss the next few weeks due to mono. This is a tough blow to a Gopher team already missing Jay Barriball and Taylor Matson due to injury. Hoeffel has recently been playing on Minnesota’s second line with Mike Carman and Nick Larson, and that trio has been pretty formidable. Look for Tony Lucia or Josh Birkholz to slide up to that line in an effort to replace Hoeffel’s production, which will be a tall task for either one of those players.

For Minnesota, the opening game of road series this season has been an issue. They have played just four series on the road, but are 1-3 in those Friday night games, with the lone winning coming against lowly Michigan Tech. The three losses came against North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Michigan by a combined score of 14-2. Granted those games were earlier in the season and the Gophers are clearly an improved team right now, but the National Hockey Center is as tough of a place to play as anywhere in the country, and the building will be jumping come puck-drop on Friday. The Gophers will need to hold their own the first few minutes and get the crowd out of the game quickly.

Minnesota is four points behind SCSU / UW for fourth place, so a sweep would be absolutely huge for the Gophers. Conversely, if they stumbled this weekend, they have a road series vs. Alaska Anchorage next week, and the Seawolves are just three points behind Minnesota and host a struggling CC team this weekend.

You know that the Huskies are going to be a little ornery after getting it handed to them by their in-state rivals last year, and SCSU has the goods the good to back it up. However, it looks like this Gopher team has finally turned a corner, and hopefully can continue their recent success both over the last few weeks and over the last several games against the Huskies.

Gophers Dominate Sioux

Kangas Stellar In First Win Over UND at Mariucci since January 2006

“I’m happy for our guys” said a confident Coach Lucia after the game tonight.

Good feelings all around Mariucci for sure. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a full 60 minute intense effort as we did tonight, and for that matter, this weekend. And the Gophers were rewarded with a 5 – 1 victory and three out of four points on the weekend as North Dakota was a step behind all night. Goldy made a return to their opportunistic selves and maybe – just maybe – this team has started to turn a corner.

You’d not have thought the first period would have gone the way it did for the most part. After a fantastic game last night, both teams were fairly sloppy in all three zones. Each squad had several turnovers in their own zone and completing passes was tough.

It was the Gophers that broke through, though, on a fantastic play with just three minutes left in the frame. On a 3 on 2 break that was very deliberate (three UND forwards were close to the Gopher crease), Josh Birkholz batted in his third goal of the year when Nico Sacchetti’s shot from the slot hit crossbar, and bounced up waist high. Josh’s baseball swing was perfect as he flew by the side of the net and the Gophers had the lead at intermission.

The second period was much more of a return to last night. Quite a bit more action was had and both teams had several close in chances. North Dakota, on a power play, had a rebound chance that went off both posts. For the Gophers, Jake Hansen was in all alone from 15 feet out but the puck rolled off his stick as he tried to backhand it around Eidsness.

Like our fearless leader suggested last night, Zach Budish took a face-off in the Sioux zone and it paid off. Budish, who has the size to take over the face-off circle even though he may not win the draw, popped up the puck after it was dropped and it went up and over Eidsness, who seemed to have no idea where the puck even was.

“It was a game of surges” said Lucia. And it very much was just before the period ended. The Gophers were starting to take control of the game, and just minutes later they pretty much sealed the deal.

Tony Lucia made a fabulous play, blocking a shot at the Gopher blue line and capitalizing on a breakaway. His short side upper corner shot sent the team into a frenzy as they mobbed him at the side of the Gopher bench.

Then, off the ensuing face-off and seven seconds later, Jake Cepis and Jordan Schroeder broke in on a two on one and Cepis sent the crowd into a double frenzy making it 4 – 0 Gophers. This was a new Gopher record, breaking the previous mark of 8 seconds from a game in 1989 when Larry Olimb and Lance Pitlick notched goals.

“We didn’t know what to do with it” said a joking Lucia of his team’s huge lead. “It’s been so long since we scored some goals.”

Mike Hoeffel for the Gophers and Darcy Zajac of the Sioux traded goals in the third but this one was never in doubt. Alex Kangas was the star of the game as he stopped 34 of 35 shots and stoned the Sioux time after time.

“It’s huge” said Alex Kangas of the three points gained this weekend. “Obviously they’ve had our number” said Kangas, referring to their record over the last couple of years versus the Gophers. “It’s definitely big to get a win.”

Sioux coach David Hakstol skirted the media quite well after the game; perhaps he was too upset with the fact his team didn’t attempt any dirty play in the third period or that he didn't find anyone to give a certain finger gesture.

Zajac summed UND’s night up quite well when he said “We didn’t match their intensity”.

Nevertheless, the Gophers now need to turn their attention to an in-state rival. They have a home and home series with St. Cloud coming up, the Saturday game is an early start (5PM) as it’s the ‘middle’ contest, as usual, for the annual Hockey Day in Minnesota. Enjoy the 3 points Gopher Nation, you’ve earned it.

Cepis’ Late Goal Helps Earn Gophers Tie vs. Sioux

In one of the more entertaining Golden Gopher hockey games in some time, newcomer Jacob Cepis’ goal with just over two minutes remaining in the third period helped the Gophers earn a 3-3 tie against the Fighting Sioux in an up-and-down, face-paced college hockey game.

Both head coaches – Minnesota’s Don Lucia and North Dakota’s Dave Hakstol – were pleased with their teams effort after the contest, with the two bench-bosses calling the game hard fought, which is tough to argue with.

However, Hakstol was obviously disappointed losing the lead late.

“We feel like we lost a point, giving up a goal with two minutes left,” Hakstol said.

Thanks to a goal by Sioux junior Brad Malone at the 6:37 mark of the third period, the Sioux held the team for much of the third period, but Minnesota took charge late in the final stanza and really brought a lot of pressure. Cepis, playing in just his fifth game in Maroon and Gold, scored his third goal after his linemates, Jordan Schroder and Zach Budish, and Cepis entered the UND. They collided with a pair of Sioux players and the puck shot high in the air and landed right on Cepis’ tape. He dragged the puck and shot it high and back across the grain and beat UND netminder Brad Eidness high on the blocker-side.

“He’s a dynamite player,” Hakstol said. “Good players take advantage of good bounces.”

Lucia agreed.

“The right guy had the puck for us,” Lucia said. “We had to work hard to score three. We have to work like that each and every night.

The Gophers were fortunate on their second goal as well in terms of getting a favorable bounce. That goal, scored by Patrick White, his sixth of the season, came early in the second period after Ryan Flynn had a shot blocked. The puck went right to White, and he put it past an out-of-position Eidsness, as the goalie was tracking Flynn’s shot which didn’t of course make it to the net.

The goal put Minnesota in front and came just under two minutes after Schroeder tied the game at 1-1. A penalty on Sioux sophomore defenseman Ben Blood for holding Cepis at the end of the first period put the Gophers on the power play to start the second, and Schroeder let a rocket go from the point that made its way through traffic and past a screened Eidsness. It was Schroeder’s fifth goal of the season. Budish and defenseman Cade Fairchild assisted on the goal, and both would add assists later on as well to round out their two-point nights.

The offensive star for the Sioux tonight was Eden Prairie’s Danny Kristo, who was playing in his hometown for the first time. The freshman put UND in the lead late in the first period after he walked Fairchild and sniped a shot past Gopher goalie Alex Kangas, and he would help the Sioux tie the game heading into the third period as he again beat Kangas with a great shot.

“He’s a world-class player,” said Lucia of Kristo, who – like Schroeder – was a part of the United States’ World Junior team that recently won a gold medal.

In overtime, Kristo was checked from behind by former bantam teammate Nick Leddy, and the Sioux had just over a minute of power play to end the game but couldn’t cash in, as the two teams went to overtime for the sixth time in the last 11 meetings.

UND won 39 of the games’ 70 faceoffs, with Schroeder going 9-17.

Overall, the Sioux attempted 64 shots to Minnesota’s 49 attempts, and for the game, UND had 33 shots on net to Minnesota’s 27. The Gophers did however convert on one of their four power play attempts; the Sioux were 0-4.

With five of their next six on the road, Saturday’s game is the most important of the season for Minnesota. With a win, they will gave a good deal of momentum heading into next weekend’s home-and-home with St. Cloud State; if they lose, it will be another setback and they’ll fall back to .500 on the season.

Now Or Never: Gophers Begin Key Stretch vs. UND

For the first time this season, the Golden Gophers find themselves above the .500 mark thanks to a 6-2-0 stretch over their last eight games that has improved Minnesota’s record to 11-10-1 and have the Gophers making their first appearance in the PairWise Rankings since last March. Most recently, the Gophers dispatched of a second-rate Harvard team by scores of 5-2 and 3-1 at Mariucci Arena, and have a little bit of momentum heading back into WCHA play this weekend as they play host to North Dakota.

Both of the victories against Harvard were similar in that you never really got the sense that the Crimson we’re going to make a big charge at Minnesota, mainly because they were undermanned and one of the worst teams to roll into Mariucci Arena in a long time. Maybe it was the big ice sheet that gave them gave them issues, but regardless, they had trouble making passes and executing in general all weekend long.

On Friday, the game was tied at 1-1 heading into the third period, but the Gophers scored four third period goals, including junior Jacob Cepis’ second goal in just three games. Nico Sacchetti and Zach Budish both scored their fourth goals of the season to extend Minnesota’s lead, which is something they have had trouble doing all season long: getting ahead of teams by more than one goal.

In the Saturday night rematch, the game was tied midway into the second period, but sophomore Nick Larson – seeing his first action on one of the top two lines in a long time – scored a pair of goals, his first two of the season, and the Gophers hung on for a 3-1 victory.

Junior Alex Kangas was in net on Friday, and he was solid though, much like sophomore Kent Patterson on Saturday night, had a relatively easy night as Harvard couldn’t generate consistent scoring chances on either night.

The Gophers, since starting the season 5-8-1, have put more W’s than L’s on the board of late, and are clearly playing better than they were earlier in the season. However, only one team the Gophers have played during those last eight games has a winning record, and that team is Northern Michigan, who beat the Gophers at Mariucci Arena by a 4-2 score. Minnesota State, who split with the Gophers to start this run in early December, fell back to .500 this weekend after being swept by the Fighting Sioux.

After the Minnesota State series, the Gophers swept Michigan Tech, beat Bowling Green in the first game of the Holiday Classic tournament, lost 4-2 to the Wildcats in the title game of the tournament, and of course most recently swept Harvard. To say the competition over the last few weeks has been soft would be a major understatement. Michigan Tech, Bowling Green, and Harvard are without a doubt three of the worst teams in all of college hockey, and the numbers below illustrate that, as this chart shows each team’s rank out of the 58 D-I teams:

So, while it’s nice that the Gophers have been able to string some wins together and get back above .500 for the first time all season, it should not be lost on fans that they still haven’t shown the ability to consistently beat average to above average teams, and that is all they play the rest of the way, starting with North Dakota this weekend at Mariucci.

So far this season, the Gophers have been awful against good teams, which is why they are facing a big up-hill battle to get home-ice for the WCHA playoffs and making the NCAA Tournament. Minnesota is 3-9-1 vs. teams with a winning record, and only 1-5-0 at home in those games. The atmosphere at Mariucci Arena this season has been pretty marginal, due to the team playing at a lower level than they have in years past, but also due to the fact they have played a pretty soft home schedule and, when they’ve played good teams, they’ve been handled by the Denver and Minnesota Duluth’s of the world.

Like Minnesota, North Dakota comes into this weekend’s series coming off a home sweep, as the Sioux took a pair of games from Minnesota State by scores of 4-2 and 3-2, and have now won 14 of their last 16 games against the Mavs, who were hot heading into this series, having won seven of their prior 10 games. Overall, UND is riding a four-game unbeaten streak into this series after losing six of their previous 10 games.

The Sioux came into this season with high expectations despite having 10 freshman on their roster, and got off to a hot start, going 7-1-1, including taking three of four points against the Gophers to start the season in Grand Forks. However, in a 4-2 series-opening victory over St. Cloud State on Nov. 13, SCSU’s Aaron Marvin hit UND defenseman Chay Genoway from behind, with the 6-3, 205 lb. Marvin essentially cross-checking the 5-9, 174 lb. Genoway’s head into the glass. Genoway, who had 10 points in nine games at that point and was likely on pace for a first-team All-American selection, suffered a concussion and hasn’t played since, and his prognosis for the rest of the season is still up in the air.

The loss of Genoway came at a bad time for UND, who played a very tough schedule since that incident that included games at Denver, at home vs. Ohio State and Miami of Ohio in a tournament, two matchups in Duluth to play the Bulldogs, and then rounding out the eight-game stretch by hosting the Badgers, going just 2-4-2 over those games.

However, it appears as though the Sioux have adjusted to life without their captain, as they came back from the Christmas break, as they beat Niagara and then tied Notre Dame before sweeping the Mavs. They welcomed back junior Matt Frattin, who was suspended for the first half of the season due to some alcohol-related issues over his first two seasons in Grand Forks. Frattin, who had 25 points in 42 games a season ago, played on North Dakota’s top line last weekend and is a big mid-season addition for Head Coach Dave Hakstol’s team.

This version of the Fighting Sioux doesn’t have one big bopper, such as a Zach Parise or a Jonathan Toews or a Ryan Duncan, but rather offer one of the most balanced attacks in the WCHA. Though they will be missing sophomore Brett Hextall, who is second on the team with eight goals, due to a knee injury, the Sioux still sport 10 players with 10 points or more. Sophomore Jason Gregoire scored a pair of goals in both of the wins last weekend, and he’ll likely remain paired with Frattin and senior center Chris VandeVelde on UND’s top line. Freshman Danny Kristo, who was a key part of Team USA’s gold-medal winning World Junior team, joins Evan Trupp, who scored an amazing goal two seasons ago at Mariucci to notch an OT win vs. the Gophers, and the rugged Brad Malone round out UND’s top six forwards.

Minnesota’s biggest problem this season has been scoring goals – they 40th in the nation in goals per game at 2.64 per game – and North Dakota is the top team in the WCHA in terms of scoring defense, as they are yielding only two goals per game in conference play and, nationally, are fourth out of the 58 D-I teams. Sophomore goalie Brad Eidsness has followed up his solid freshman season with an even better sophomore campaign, and the defense in front of him – even without Genoway – has been very good. Look for sophomore Ben Blood and freshman Andrew McWilliam to be on the ice as much as possible against the Jordan Schroeder-Cepis line for Minnesota. That combo could give Blood / McWilliam trouble due to their speed, especially on the big ice sheet, but if Blood and McWilliam can use their size, it could be a long weekend for the Gophers’ top line.

One area where UND has owned Minnesota over the last several years is the faceoff circle, and that could be key again this weekend. On the season, Minnesota has won 51 percent of its draws while UND has won 54 percent. Not a huge gap on paper, but in the world of faceoffs, that’s a big discrepancy. The Sioux won 55 percent of the draws in Grand Forks against the Gophers earlier this year, though this time Minnesota will have the final change and should be able to get more favorable matchups. Individually, Malone has won 59 percent of his draws, while VandeVelde is second among regular centers with 56 percent. Schroeder and junior Mike Carman will likely be going head-to-head with those two all weekend long; while Minnesota probably won’t win that battle, they just cannot lose too many faceoffs clean, particularly in the offensive and defensive zones.

From a Minnesota perspective, the Gophers are going to have to hope their improved play of late translates as the speed limit goes (way) up this weekend, as Head Coach Don Lucia likes to say. Between Minnesota’s offensive issues and North Dakota’s defensive prowess, the Gophers hopes to winning this weekend could fall on the shoulders of junior goalie Alex Kangas, who will for sure get the start on Friday, and likely against on Saturday unless the wheels really come off in game one of the series. Kangas has shown the ability in the past to steal games, and he may have to do that more than once during the next few months if this team is going to ascend in the WCHA standings. The Sioux have had Kangas’ number, as he’s just 1-4-1 all-time against the Sioux, and has a save percentage of .854 save percentage in his last three starts against the Sioux, all Gopher losses. Now, four of his five starts have been at Ralph Engelstad Arena, which is a hostile building for any goalie to have to play in.

The Sioux have owned this series as of late, going 8-3-1 in their last 12 matchups against the Gophers. UND has been particularly good against Minnesota at Mariucci Arena, as they have just two losses in Dinkytown in their last eight games (5-2-1). North Dakota generally has very good team speed, so they are able to match Minnesota’s typically fast / skilled teams on the Olympic-sized ice sheet.

With its sweep last weekend, the Gophers moved into consideration for the PairWise Rankings, as they are now 25th in the nation. The Sioux are one of seven WCHA teams ahead of Minnesota on the list, as UND currently checks in at ninth on the list. Denver (1st), Wisconsin (4th), Minnesota Duluth (6th), Colorado College (8th), St. Cloud State (10th), and Minnesota State (24th) are the other teams that help make the WCHA the dominant conference when it comes to the PairWise Rankings.

With only four games left at Mariucci Arena left during the regular season and five of their next six on the road after this weekend, it’s as close to a “must-sweep situation” as you can find for Minnesota. They aren’t in a position where they can chip-away at their WCHA and PairWise deficits; splitting the rest of the way will get them a spot on their couches come the NCAA Tournament. They need to go out and have three and/or four-point weekends on multiple occasions if they are going assert themselves as a post-season threat, and there’s no better time to start than hosting your top rival.

Gophers Sweep Harvard Back To Boston

Fairchild, Larson score first goals of the season in getting revenge for 1989

Let’s face it – Harvard isn’t exactly the toughest of opponents. However, the Gophers came out tonight and did what they had to do, and beat Harvard 3 – 1 in a game that closely matched Friday’s contest. Goldy pretty much carried the play from start to finish in route to their first sweep at home since the very first of November.

“It was a similar game” to Friday, said coach Lucia. “We had to work to score, we scored some goals we needed to score”, very much hinting about getting guys to go to the net more.

The first period ebbed and flowed for the Gophers. After holding Harvard shot-less for the first 6:30 of the game, Kent Patterson allowed an extremely poor goal – basically a dump in – that blew all of the momentum that Goldy had built.

“I thought Kent responded positively after letting in that first goal” said coach Lucia. He hinted that he at least was thinking of pulling him if another went in. “We did not want to see another one like that go in” he said. “But we didn’t have to worry about that”.

The Crimson took it to the Gophers for several minutes after that goal, but some good shifts by the Birkholz – Budish – Flynn line, and a long puck possession shift by Pat White and Jordan Schroeder tilted the ice downhill for the Gophers again.

Jake Hansen drew a hooking penalty from Harvard defenseman Ryan Grimshaw shortly thereafter; and with just under a minute left in the opening frame, Cade Fairchild tied the game. His blast through traffic beat Crimson goalie Kyle Richter through the five-hole – it was Cade’s first goal of the season and you could clearly see his relief as he celebrated with his teammates.

His look up to the rafters in relief was more for some of the grief he’s been getting from his teammates recently. “It was kind, more of a joke for the guys” he said. “They’ve just kind of been giving me crap, telling me to keep shooting the puck.”

The only goal in the second period was another first. Nick Larson made a nifty play on a one man rush. Barreling through the neutral zone with the Gophers on a line change, Nick cruised around one defenseman and banked the puck in off of the other Crimson defenseman, through Richter’s legs, netting him his first of the year. The Gophers probably got one back there to cancel out Harvard’s first tally.

The Gophers really had complete control of the game in the second period. Harvard looked very lost in all phases, including their power play which was abysmal.

Nick Larson pretty much ended the game, just 11 seconds into the third period. He took a pass from former Hill Murray teammate Mike Hoeffel, and drove the net like a freight train. He got a shot off just before being pulled down and it somehow got through Richter, who was already down on his leg pads.

“I’ve been a little snake-bit this year” said Larson. “I’ve tried to get on the stat sheet whenever I can” he continued. “It’s definitely nice to get a couple of goals as well.”

“We did a lot better job than we did last night” said Crimson coach Ted Donato. “It’s tough to swallow” he said, of the sweep, the disappointment and frustration clear in his voice and facial expression.

Some of the stats in this game were somewhat lopsided in favor of the Gophers, including their face-off domination. 36 – 21 for the game, and once again a large number of shots (43 total). It kind of shows you exactly who the Gophers were playing. But nonetheless, it's a much needed win and sweep.

Either way, the team seems to feel like they are playing their best hockey of the season, and it couldn’t come at a better time, with North Dakota coming in next weekend.

“The building is going to be hopping” said Lucia, his voice sounding very excited for the first time in awhile.

It’s most likely the last crack at North Dakota at Mariucci for a decent handful of players on this team, that quite frankly, haven’t played well against for their entire careers. Puck drops at 7:05 on Friday night. Should be a fun and intense weekend of hockey.

Gophers Take Game One vs. Crimson 5-2

For much of the Friday night contest between the Golden Gophers and Harvard, it looked like many previous Gopher games this season: score a goal early, sit on the slim lead, and let the other team tie the game. However, Minnesota was able to grab the lead back and extend it at that, cruising to a 5-2 win over the Crimson at Mariucci Arena.

Just over two minutes into the game, Harvard defenseman Chris Huxley lost the puck just inside his own blueline, which allowed Minnesota’s Nico Sacchetti, who had a goal and an assist on the night, to shovel the puck over to linemate Jake Hansen, who was streaking in alone and beat Harvard’s Kyle Richter to give Minnesota the early 1-0 lead. Morin would add his second goal of the game later, cutting Minnesota’s lead to 4-2 with 1:23 to go in the third period, but the game was over at that point.

“I thought we came out with good energy,” Gophers Head Coach Don Lucia said. “We’ve been getting better over the last six to eight weeks.”

Minnesota would have several ‘grade A’ chances early in the second period but, as has been the case more often than not this season, wasn’t able to get up by two (or more) goals, thus allowing an over-matched and under-skilled Harvard team to hang around. And thanks to a terrible turnover (or, as Lucia called it, a “freshman mistake”) by sophomore Seth Helgeson late in the second period, Harvard had a three-on-one rush and converted as defensemen Chad Morin got his first goal of the year to knot things at 1-1 heading into the third period.

However, to start that final stanza, the Gophers had a power play, and new-comer Jacob Cepis, playing in just his third game of the season, got his second goal of his Minnesota career, burying a rebound off a shot by Jordan Schroeder, who returned to the team after missing last weekend’s Holiday Classic while playing for the United States in the World Junior Championship.

Schroeder finished the night with three assists and didn’t seem worn down or tired from his play at the World Juniors, as had allegedly been the case in the past with Gophers returning from the event. Lucia talked about getting Schroeder to attack the net with the puck versus pulling up once gaining the zone and looking to pass.

Sacchetti would get that all-important third goal to put Minnesota up by two goals midway through the third period. He gained the zone and, just before he got put on his rear by a Harvard defender, let a laser of a wrist shot go that beat Richter high on the glove side.

“Those separation goals, three and four, were key,” Lucia said. “The power play came through.”

Freshman Zach Budish would add a tally as well, his fourth of the season, while senior Tony Lucia scored an empty-net goal with 1.2 left, shortly after Harvard cut the lead to 4-2 with Moring’s second goal of the game with 1:23.

Cepis and Schroeder played with Patrick White on Minnesota’s top line, though it sounded like a new right wing would be added to that line in place of White come Saturday, according to Lucia.

Alex Kangas was solid on this night, though he certainly wasn’t tested much. He made 22 saves and could play tomorrow night in the rematch, depending upon what the tape shows, according to Lucia, who sounded optimistic that sophomore Kent Patterson would play one game this weekend earlier in the week.

Harvard Head Coach Ted Donato was frustrated with his team’s effort after.

“We got beat to too many loose pucks,” Donato said of his team, which fell to 2-9-2 on the season. “We didn’t win a lot of battles.”

With North Dakota on the horizon next weekend and then five of their next six on the road, it’s key that the Gophers pick up a win on Saturday and keep their momentum going into the series with the Sioux, as things get a lot tougher in terms of competition from here on out.

Gophers Wrap Up Non-Conference Play vs. Crimson

After having the previous two weekends off, the Golden Gophers returned to action last weekend as they hosted their annual Dodge Holiday Classic. And unfortunately for fans of the Maroon and Gold, it appears as though not much has changed since the team chugged along to a 8-9-1 first-half record, as Minnesota snuck by Bowling Green by a 3-1 score in their first game, but dropped the championship game to Northern Michigan by a 4-2 score last Sunday.

The highlight of the weekend for the Gophers was the debut of junior forward Jacob Cepis, who transferred last winter from Bowling Green but wasn’t eligible to play until this weekend. He made an immediate impact as he scored a goal on Sunday, had tons of speed, and was arguably the Gophers best player on the ice over the course of the weekend. Good for Cepis of course, but the fact a kid who hadn’t played for over a year stood out so much doesn’t say a lot for the other members of Don Lucia’s team.

Minnesota was without sophomore center Jordan Schroeder this weekend, who was playing for the United States in the World Junior Championships but is scheduled to return for the remainder of the season. Losing a player of Schroeder’s caliber certainly meant Minnesota wasn’t at full strength, and their lineup took another hit when fellow sophomore center Taylor Matson, who missed most of last season with a torn ACL, suffered an ankle injury early on Saturday night and didn’t return to action. Lucia said after the game on Sunday that he’ll miss the upcoming series against Harvard and that he’ll undergo tests this week to determine exactly how long he’ll be out.

So, playing without two of their main centers, the Gophers got smoked in the faceoff circle all weekend long, losing several key draws that led directly to goals for the opposing team. Faceoffs have been an issue for this team for the last five or six years, and when you’re a puck-possession team as the Gophers are, it’s tough to always have to chase the puck from the drop.

In the first game, Bowling Green, who has just two wins on the season, led 1-0 going into the third period before a Mike Carman goal tied things early in the third. The Gophers controlled the play but couldn’t get that go-ahead goal until 17:10 of the third period when Mike Hoeffel got his ninth of the season. Senior Ryan Flynn would add an empty-netter go seal the 3-1 win.

On Sunday, it appeared the Gophers were on their way to what would have been a nice win over a veteran-laden Northern Michigan team who entered the game with an 8-8-4 record. The Gophers took the lead early and outshot the Wildcats by an 18-4 margin but couldn’t extend the lead beyond 1-0. And as Gopher fans know, if this Minnesota team can’t build a lead, they are probably going to have issues, and that came to fruition on this night as the Wildcats scored three of the four second period goals to take a 3-2 lead into the third period.

As they did for much of the night, Minnesota controlled the play but couldn’t beat NMU goaltender Brian Stewart, who was solid but not spectacular on this night, even though he made 48 saves. The Gophers put many perimeter shots on net but didn’t have many ‘grade A’ chances. The Wildcats netted an insurance goal with less than four minutes left and held on for the 4-2 win.

Junior Alex Kangas made his fourth and fifth consecutive starts this weekend and was okay; a few of the goals on Sunday were pretty savable, but whether it’s Kangas or sophomore Kent Patterson, they are going to have to steal some games for Minnesota as it’s clear that at this point, the Gophers aren’t going to win many 5-4 games.

Now, the Gophers sit at 9-10-1 and have two more non-conference games against Harvard this weekend before diving back into WCHA play for the rest of the season. They still sit in seventh place in the WCHA with 13 points after 14 conference games. Of their remaining 14 league games, 12 of them come against teams higher than they currently are in the standings, so Minnesota will have their cuts at the teams they need to jump over by season’s end.

From a national perspective, Sunday’s loss to Northern Michigan could be costly in the PairWise Rankings by the end of the season if Northern Michigan remains a team under consideration for the NCAA Tournament. The Gophers, meanwhile, are NOT one of those 25 teams at this point. And when you consider the team needs to be in the top 13-16 to make the field of 16, they have a long road ahead of them. For reference, last season, Ohio State was the last at-large team to make the field, and they were 23-14-4 heading into the tournament.

Before hosting North Dakota next weekend, the Gophers have a nice shot to get things going against a Harvard team that is just 2-8-2 on the season. The Crimson were picked to finish fourth in the ECAC by both the media and the coaches prior to the season, but they haven’t lived up to expectation so far, though they had their best game of the season – a 3-1 win over Quinnipiac, who was 13-3-1 heading into that game – last week.

Their main issue this season has been scoring defense, as they are last in the ECAC and are yielding nearly four goals per game. Like the Gophers, they are a solid first period team (only minus one in goals for / against) but struggle as the game goes on (minus 12 over the final two periods).

Up front, their top forward is freshman Louis Leblanc, who tore up the USHL last season and was a first round pick by the Montreal Canadians last summer in the NHL Draft. He has ten points in ten games so far this season. Fellow freshman Alex Fallstrom, who played at Shattuck St. Mary’s and is a Wild draft pick, has played on a line with Leblanc and has six points. Junior Michael Biega leads the team in points with 12 in 12 games. They are the only two players with double-digit point totals, though the Crimson (and all Ivy League schools) play less games than others due to league rules, so just something to keep in mind.

It would appear on paper that the Gophers should be able to put up some goals this weekend, particularly with Schroeder back in the lineup. However, the same thing was said heading into the Bowling Green game, the Michigan Tech series in early December, etc., and more often than not it hasn’t panned out, as they are averaging just 2.5 goals per game, ahead of only Alaska Anchorage and Michigan Tech in the WCHA, and good for a tie for 43rd overall nationally.

Minnesota needs to get a sweep this weekend before taking on the Sioux next weekend and nothing but WCHA teams the rest of the way. Including at least two games in the first round of the WCHA playoffs, the Gophers have at least 18 games remaining. To make the NCAA Tournament, they are going to have to win about 12-14 of said games AND make it to the WCHA Final Five to even have a chance.

Gophers Fail To Bury Chances, Fall To Wildcats 4-2

The Golden Gophers outshot and outchanced the Northern Michigan Wildcats by wide margins on Sunday night, but as has been the case on many nights both this season and the last few, they failed to convert on enough of those opportunities and dropped another winnable game, this one by a 4-2 margin in front of a sparsely filled Mariucci Arena, giving the Wildcats the Dodge Holiday Classic title.

“Their goalie was better than our shooters,” said Minnesota head coach Don Lucia. “We did so many good things all weekend long … As a coach, you’ll take that effort each night.”

Minnesota got on the board first, as junior Mike Hoeffel potted his tenth goal of the season after the puck took a fortunate Gopher bounce while on the power play near the Wildcat crease. As a whole in the first period, Minnesota outshot the Wildcats by an 18 to seven margin and constantly cycled the puck in the NMU end, but were unable to extend their lead beyond just Hoeffel’s tally.

“We should have been up two or three [goals],” Lucia said.

NMU head coach Walt Kyle spoke after the game of how the coaching staff preached to their team to keep the game close early, and then they felt they could win the second and third periods.

“We sold that going in,” said Kyle. “We had to bend but not break.”

Including tonight’s game, the Gophers hold a 15-12 advantage in terms of goals for / against in the first period of all games this season. However, when you combine the second, third, and overtime periods, they are a minus nine.

At 6:58 of the second, the tide started to turn, thanks to a power play goal by NMU’s Greger Hanson, who scored after Minnesota lost another defensive zone faceoff clean. Roughly five minutes later, the Wildcats would take the lead as Ray Kaunisto scored his eighth goal of the year at 11:46.

Minnesota junior Jacob Cepis, who of course made his debut this weekend and was arguably Minnesota’s top player on the ice for both games, got his first goal in Maroon and Gold just after a power play expired to tie the game up a 2-2 at 15:13.

However, the Wildcats scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal with just 12.2 seconds left in the period, as Kaunisto got his second of the night as he tipped a point shot past Alex Kangas, who started for the sixth game in a row and was pretty ordinary on this night.

The Gophers outshot the Wildcats by a 13-6 margin in the third period but didn’t have many “grade A” chances, and NMU netminder Brian Stewart, who was named tournament MVP, was solid for the second night in a row after shutting out Clarkson on Saturday. He made the first save all night long and when he did cough up a rebound, a combo of NMU clearing the puck and the Gophers not going hard to the net made his life even easier.

With just under four minutes left, NMU’s TJ Miller got the puck at the left point and had plenty of room to walk in and fire, and that he did, beating Kangas with a saveable shot to bump the lead to 4-2 and essentially ice the game – and the tournament – for the Wildcats.

“We’re doing a lot of good things,” said Hoeffel, who along with defenseman Cade Fairchild were the only Gophers named to the all-tournament team. “But it doesn’t matter if you don’t win.”

With the loss, the Gophers drop back down to under .500 at 9-10-1, with their final two non-conferences games of the season on tap for next weekend as they play host to Harvard, who is 2-8-2 on the season. Then, the Gophers get back into WCHA play by playing host to North Dakota.

Minnesota will welcome sophomore Jordan Schroeder back into their lineup vs. the Crimson, as he will be back by then – and hopefully with a gold medal around his neck – from the World Juniors. They will not, however, have the services of fellow sophomore Taylor Matson, who suffered an ugly looking ankle injury on Saturday night. Lucia said he will have more tests on Monday but is for sure out next weekend.

Gophers Upend Bowling Green in Tourney Opener

Victory comes at a large price as Matson injured

In front of another seemingly very quiet crowd at Mariucci, the Gophers start up the second half of the season with a somewhat unimpressive comeback win over the Falcons from Ohio. All in all it was kind of a ho-hum evening as they out shot Bowling Green 41 – 23 on the night, but it kind of had the overall malaise feel of the season so far.

This was a game the Gophers simply had to win, and they did, with a nice three goal third period. But being down to start the third period was probably not what most fans had in mind for a good start to said second half. They came out of the gate slowly, and after a scoreless first period, allowed a goal just 90 seconds in to the second.

Jordan Samuels-Thomas popped in a rebound off an odd man rush; a shot by James Perkin deflected off of a Gopher defenseman and eventually into the net; depending on your view of things right now that may or may not have been surprising.

Certainly, the Gophers did start playing better as the game went on. Passes were a bit crisper and their positioning in the offensive zone was solid as they had a few nice shots and scoring chances. Jake Cepis most certainly was nice to watch as a few times he flashed probably his biggest attribute which is his speed.

Senior Mike Carman helped save the day with the tying goal just a few minutes into the third period, and assisting on the winning goal with just a few minutes left in the third.

Nico Sacchetti carried the puck over the blue line and fed a streaking Carman. It was a modified two on one for a moment, but Carman kept it, and with a nice move, backhanded the puck over Falcon goalie Andrew Hammond for his fourth goal of the year.

Carman helped start up the winning goal by sending a pass up ice to Zach Budish off of a neutral zone turnover at the Gopher line. Budish carried the puck over the blue line, fed Mike Hoeffel, who took a seemingly harmless shot on net. But the low wrister found its way through the five-hole and another major mistake at an opponent’s blue like goes the other way for a huge goal.

Ryan Flynn forced in an empty netter for his first goal of the year with just twenty seconds left to salt it away.

It’s fair to say that the Gophers have not played in three weeks, and losing a top player such as Matson so early in the game forced a lot of line shuffling. They do currently hold a four game winning streak and have a chance to extend that in the title game tomorrow against Northern Michigan.

It’s also very fair to say that Bowling Green really pushed the play all night tonight, giving the Gophers all they could handle. As Mike Carman said, they play a ‘man on man’ defense, which is fairly odd but something that the Gophers need to do a much better job taking advantage of. Oddly enough, this was the first time all season that the Gophers have earned anything more than a loss when trailing after two periods. Perhaps that is a good sign to come?

Hopefully the Gophers will give us some good news on sophomore Taylor Matson, who looked as though he injured his ankle quite severely just two minutes into the game.

The former heated rivalry with the Wildcats of Northern Michigan will be renewed tomorrow night, at approximately 7PM.

Gophers Get Back To Work With Holiday Classic

As is the norm around the world of college hockey, the Golden Gophers were off the past two weekends as they wrapped up final exams and then enjoyed some time away from school during the Christmas break, but now jump back into action this weekend as the host the annual Holiday Classic at Mariucci Arena.

The field for this tournament has dropped off in quality over the past few years, which may reflect the fact that non-conference losses hurt teams in the all-important PairWise Rankings, so it’s easier for teams to bring in lesser competition in hopes of picking up valuable out of conference victories. In the not-so-distant past, teams like New Hampshire and Boston College visited the Twin Cities for this tourney, but this season, the trio of teams that comprise the field – Bowling Green, Northern Michigan, and Clarkson – have just 13 wins combined.

Minnesota will take on Bowling Green in the first round of play, with Clarkson and Northern Michigan of course playing in the other semi-final. The winners and losers will meet on Sunday, the second day of play, in the championship and third place games, respectively.

Ordinarily, there wouldn’t be much in the way of a storyline in a game between Bowling Green and the Gophers. However, the much anticipated arrival of transfer former Falcon Jacob Cepis to the Minnesota lineup will occur Saturday night, and he’ll make his Gopher debut against his former team. Cepis left Bowling Green at this time last season, reportedly due to not seeing eye-to-eye with their former head coach, who was not retained after last season.

Cepis will likely take a spot on one of the top two lines for Minnesota and be a power play guy from the get-go. He was a point-per-game player in the USHL and was a member of the CCHA All-Rookie team in 2007-08, but his played dropped off severely before decided to transfer a season ago, so it remains to be seen what Cepis can bring to this Gopher team.

Bowling Green has just two wins on the season, and are last in the CCHA in both scoring offense (1.94 goals per game) and scoring defense (3.56 goals per game), and are second-to-last in terms of their power play and penalty killing. They have just two NHL drafted players, one of which is freshman Jordan Samuels-Thomas, who leads the team with 15 points in 18 games. The other is junior goalie Nick Eno, who has started 12 of their 18 games.

The Gophers, meanwhile, will be without sophomore Jordan Schroeder, who is playing for Team USA in the World Junior Championship. Even though Schroeder hasn’t been nearly as dynamic this season as he was a year ago, his absence created a large hole in the Minnesota lineup, as he’s still their best play-maker and takes most of the team’s key faceoffs.

In their most recent series, Minnesota came away from Houghton with a pair of one-goal wins against Michigan Tech, who – like Bowling Green – is one of the worst teams in the nation. The Gophers have been brutal at home this season, going just 2-5-0 so far, so there’s no guarantee that the Gophers can just show up and steamroll a poor team such as the Falcons.

The second game for Minnesota will be against another team they clearly should be favored against. Northern Michigan will likely beat Clarkson, so should the Gophers get by the Falcons – and they better – this is the most likely matchup. The Wildcats are 7-8-4 but have just three losses in their last 11 games, so they are playing better after a 1-4-1 start.

Northern Michigan is an older team (just three players are under the age of 20) and have some high-end guys up front. Junior Mark Olver leads the team with 21 points in 18 games, while Greger Hanson (15 points), Ray Kaunisto (13 points), and Justin Florek (12 points) are also formidable. Junior Erik Gustafsson is one of the nation’s top-scoring defensemen with 16 points in 17 games.

In net, sophomore Reid Ellingson, a Cloquet native, likely would get the start if they play the Gophers. Ellingson has a 2.16 goals against average despite having only five starts on the season. Senior Brian Stewart has been “the guy” for much of the season, but his numbers pale in comparison to Ellingson’s, so we’ll see what happens as the season rolls on.

Clarkson has just one win in their last 11 games, and were swept in a pair of games at Minnesota Duluth in late October. They are 10th in the ECAC in scoring offense and 11th in scoring defense, so they are clearly the underdog vs. the Wildcats or the Gophers.

Regardless of who they play on day two, the Gophers can ill-afford to drop a game this weekend, given their slow start to the season and the need to play at a much higher level than they have shown over the first half of the season if they hope to return to the NCAA Tournament after missing it a season ago. After this weekend and then next against a one-win Harvard team, the speed limit goes up considerably as they return to WCHA play for the duration of the season.

Gophers Finish Sweep Of Tech

Identical 3 - 2 Scores Finish First Half On High Note

It wasn't necessarily the prettiest weekend of hockey, but the Gophers did what they needed to do, finishing off the Michigan Tech Huskies with another workmanlike effort, with the same 3 - 2 final as Friday night.

Alex Kangas, not surprisingly, started his second game of the weekend and played well, although he didn't face all that many shots, especially in the third where the Gophers held the Huskies to only 7 shots on net.

Jake Hansen got the Gophers on the board with a power play goal in the first. Two second period goals, including Mike Carman's 2nd game winner in the last three Saturday's won it for the Maroon & Gold.

It's break time, as the first 'half' of the season is now in the books. If nothing else, it's probably a confidence booster that they go in on a three game winning streak. Their next two weekends of hockey - not until after the new year - are against non conference opponents (Mariucci Classic followed by Harvard in for a two game set). There is a good chance they'll be on a long winning streak when they head back in to conference play. Who knows where it will lead - so celebrate the sweep while you can.

Gophers Edge Tech 3-2 For Rare Friday Night Win

For only the third time this season, the Golden Gophers were able to win the first game of a weekend series as junior Patrick White scored with less than a minute remaining to give the Gophers a 3-2 against the Michigan Tech Huskies.

Fellow junior Mike Hoeffel scored the other two goals for Minnesota, both coming in the second period after the Huskies went up by a 2-0 score early in that second stanza. Hoeffel’s first mark came on the power play, which went 1-4 on the night against the nation’s worst penalty kill.

The Gophers outshot the Huskies 40-25 and controlled the game from start to finish, but as fans have seen all season long, the team doesn’t have the ability to finish on a consistent basis, and it almost cost them on this night.

Alex Kangas was strong in net, making 23 saves in picking up his sixth win of the season. Look for sophomore Kent Patterson to get the nod on Saturday as the Gophers conclude the first half of the season.

Gophers Wrap Up First Half of Season in Houghton vs. Huskies

For the second straight weekend, the Golden Gophers suffered a bad loss on Friday night but then showed the ability to rebound on Saturday, as the team split for the second time in as many weeks, with this win-then-loss coming in a home-and-home set with Minnesota State.

On Friday night, the Gophers were as flat as could be in a 3-1 loss to the Mavericks, who outshot the Gophers by an 18-4 margin in the first period and 42-26 for the game. The Gophers got on the board first but then surrendered three-straight goals to the Mavs, including the game-winner with just less than eight minutes remaining. Sophomore Kent Patterson stood tall in net and now has a .935 save percentage in his four starts this season despite having only one win in those games.

Given the lack of energy the team showed on Friday in dropping to 3-6-0 on home ice, Saturday’s game in Mankato at the Verizon Center became a must-win, and that they did in impressive fashion. The team scored a whopping six five-on-five goals; to put that in perspective, that’s 19 percent of their five-on-five goals scored on the season so far. Freshman Nick Leddy, who looked a little tentative on Friday night, played much better on Saturday and scored his first goal. Fellow freshman Josh Birkholz netted a pair of goals as well – also his first of the season. The Gophers got out to a three-goal lead and the Mavs cut the lead to 3-2, but three goals in the third period iced the game for Minnesota.

With a split vs. the Mavericks, the Gophers now sit in eighth place in the WCHA with nine points with 12 of their 28 league games behind them. The Mavs, who have played two more league games than the Gophers, are two points ahead of Minnesota. North Dakota sits alone in sixth place with 13 points accumulated after 12 games, and then there’s a large group of teams tied for third place with 15 points.

Michigan Tech – one of the two teams behind Minnesota – is on tap for the Gophers this weekend, and returning from Houghton with anything other than a sweep is unacceptable for Don Lucia’s team this weekend.

The Huskies are clearly the worst team in the WCHA, as they have just four points after 12 league games, and are minus 33 for the season in WCHA play in goal differential. They have just one win in their last nine games and are coming off a sweep at the hands of Wisconsin by scores of 8-2 and 6-0. The Huskies are last in the league in scoring offense (1.92 GPG), scoring defense (4.67 GPG), and penalty kill, which is an abysmal 60 percent in league play. Overall, their penalty kill is the worst in the nation by a large margin.

Outside of their top line, there’s not much to worry about with Tech. Sophomore Brett Olson, who had an impressive 23 points as a freshman, is the team’s leading scorer with 15 points in 14 games. Senior Malcolm Gwilliam, who plays wing on Olson’s line, has six goals and six assists. Freshman defenseman Steven Seigo had 10 points, but no other Tech player has more than six.

In goal, freshman Kevin Genoe has nine starts to sophomore Josh Robinson’s five. Genoe started off the season very well, most notably making 48 saves in a 3-2 win at Minnesota Duluth on Nov. 13. However, since the Saturday, he has been pulled in two of his three starts and has a save percentage of .840. Compare that to Robinson’s season save percentage of .856, and it’s easy to see why Tech is giving up almost five goals per game in WCHA play.

That being said, there are some reasons to think that Tech may give the Gophers a little more trouble that the numbers may make people think. They haven’t played a home game since Nov. 7, so much of their season has been played on the road. The trip to Houghton isn’t the easiest one for opposing teams, as even the best WCHA teams often leave potential points behind when leaving town.

The Huskies have quality home wins over Northern Michigan and St. Cloud State this season, and Minnesota needs to look no further than their season-closing series in Houghton last year for a reminder of what the Huskies can do. Michigan Tech has just two wins in WCHA all of last season, but one of those came against the Gophers in Houghton.

Minnesota, meanwhile, hasn’t shown the ability to string two good games together on any weekend sans the home sweep of Alaska Anchorage all season long. Their biggest issue has been scoring goals; they are just eighth in the WCHA in terms of scoring offense at 2.58 goals per game, but will have a chance to fatten that number up a bit this weekend.

As noted earlier, the Tech penalty kill is dreadful, but the Minnesota power play continues to be poor as well. It’s at just 8.9 percent for the season after a going 0-for the weekend against the Mavericks.

Regardless of if the team’s on the power play or playing five-on-five, they just don’t have a dominate goal-scorer like they did a season ago with Ryan Stoa.

Junior Mike Hoeffel leads the way with six goals, and three players are tied for second on the team with four apiece. One of those players – Jordan Schroeder – was expected to score more this season but he has just 10 points after 16 games, compared to 45 points in 35 games a season ago. Hopefully he can get things going this weekend and have a strong performance in the upcoming World Junior Championships for the United States.

In goal, Lucia will likely give both Kangas and Patterson another start each, as both have save percentages over 90 percent and goals against averages under three for the season. Neither should have to steal a game this weekend as one would assume the Gophers should score four-plus goals in both games.

With these being Minnesota’s last games until the Holiday Classic tournament on Jan. 2-3, it’s key that the Gophers head into the Christmas Break with some momentum. Thanks to their poor play for the majority of the first half of the season and a tough WCHA schedule waiting for them come mid-January, they have put themselves in a tough spot and need to pickup four points in their only series of the season against the last-place Huskies if they hope to climb back into contention for home-ice.

Gophers Go To Work, Gain Split

Hard Work In All Facets Leads To Win

“I think we had six goals in the last nine games” said freshman Josh Birkholz after the game tonight. “We knew we needed to come out and pound a few in."

An exasperated coach, team, and a legion of fans were at least rewarded with a nice effort and result tonight. A 6 – 2 win was the good result for a team that seemed, for a change, pretty determined to win from the outset.

According to Coach Lucia “their pride” was on the line tonight; and it showed. The Gophers came out with a little more energy than Friday night. When you average just about two goals per game, three goals in a period will do that for you.

Josh Birkholz broke out, scoring two fantastic goals after Nick Leddy potted goal number one, and the Gophers took an early 3 – 0 lead.

Leddy’s was assisted by a Maverick player, who in a scrum, weakly attempted to clear the puck out of the zone. Leddy corralled it at the center of the blue line, and his wrist shot cleared the mass of players in front for his first career Gopher goal.

Josh Birkholz then thrilled the throngs of Gopher fans with two highlight reel goals.

First, on a three on one rush, Josh flew down the ice with the puck and put a laser beam over Austin Lee’s glove hand – which also was his first career goal.

Birkholz talked about “confidence” after the game. “All you can control is the chances you get” said Josh, seemingly speaking of the results you get from hard work as a team. “We have to start playing consistently.”

Then – easily the goal of the year; Birkholz took the puck at the Gopher blue line, proceeded to skate through and around three Maverick players, and put a nice backhand over top of a stunned Lee.

“I saw open ice through the middle” said Birkholz. “Just tried to make a little quick move, and just get it on net”, he said, somewhat sheepishly. “I didn’t even see it where it went, but I guess it went top shelf.”

A Maverick goal by Tyler Pitlick took a pinch off of the Gopher’s nice first period, but if anything they were playing much better than Friday.

The second period was back to normal for the Gophers. They were out shot 13 – 7 and Mankato really built up some momentum. It would have all went for naught if not for Alex Kangas giving us all his best Jeff Frazee impression. Tyler Pitlick netted his second goal of the game when he casually flipped the puck on net and went for a line change. Kangas swung at it and missed – and it went right through his legs and a three goal Gopher lead was down to one after the second period.

In what could have been a tense ending, the Gophers went back in time 6 years and finished off the Mavericks with a well played last twenty minutes.

“We got some separation goals” said Coach Lucia, something that they really haven’t been able to do in recent memory. “The frustrating thing, I think, for us coaches, has been how we can play so well one night, and (after a long pause) so abysmal another. At least he’s feeling like how just about every Gopher fan is.

Nico Sacchetti got it started with a great tip in at the goal mouth. Sacchetti, one of the strongest players on the roster, wouldn’t be budged from the front of the net. He tipped in Cade Fairchild’s shot from the point and the Gophers had some breathing room.

Pat White’s rebound goal and Taylor Matson’s tip in from a Brian Schack shot finished off the Mavericks.

Several times after the game, a clearly tired and still somewhat frustrated Coach Lucia mentioned the forwards “going to the net”. Perhaps he heard our fearless leader yelling from his palatial estate in Cologne.

Next up is a road trip to Houghton before finals break and a couple of weeks off before their holiday tournament.

“We’re only six points out of third” said Lucia. Wishful thinking of course, but if they can sweep Tech next weekend, who knows?

Frustrated, Disappointed Gophers Fall 3-1 To Mavericks

The way things have gone the last two seasons and, in particular this season at Mariucci Arena, you got the sense that things weren’t going to go the way of the Maroon and Gold on this night as the Gophers game against the Minnesota State Mavericks wore on. And when Rylan Galiardi broke a 1-1 tie late in the third period to give the Mavs a 2-1 lead, one never got a feeling that the Gophers would make that late-game charge that so many teams of the not-so-distant past always seemingly had in them, and that they didn’t, as Minnesota lost by a 3-1 score to MSU, falling to 5-9-1 on the season and losing their fifth contest of the season in front of their home fans.

“You can’t win scoring one goal,” said a clearly rattled Head Coach Don Lucia of his team, which has scored just five goals in their last four games. “We’re not good enough not to play with a sense of urgency.”

Minnesota got on the board first, as former Roseville start Adam Mueller made a soft play on the puck along the board, which allowed Minnesota’s Cade Fairchild to pinch in and make a quick pass to Jake Hansen in the slot. The sophomore let a low shot go and beat MSU’s Austin Lee for his third goal of the season.

However, the rest of the period would be owned by the Mavs. They outshot the Gophers 18-4 and would knot the game up at 1-1 heading to the second thanks to a Jerad Stewart power play goal late in the first stanza.

That was one of two goals that sophomore Kent Patterson yielded on the night. The former Blake star posted his second consecutive solid start, as he turned away 39 Maverick shots on the night after backstopping the Gophers to a 2-1 win last Saturday against Minnesota State.

“Kent played well,” Lucia said, who was non-committal on a start for tomorrow night’s rematch in Mankato, though junior Alex Kangas will likely get the nod.

Neither team scored during a second period that witnessed both teams putting 11 shots on net, though Minnesota seemed to have the better of the play as the period went on, yet they couldn’t put anything past Lee.

Early in the third period, Minnesota killed off a pair of MSU power plays, including 45 seconds of a five-on-three advantage. Just prior to that, freshman forward Josh Birkholz danced through the MSU defense but couldn’t put the puck in the net.

With just under eight minutes left, the Mavericks took the puck from one end of the ice to the other, with the end result being a great spin-around pass by Mike Louwerse, who pivoted in the slot as dished it to a wide-open Galiardi, who just slid the puck under Patterson’s right arm to put the Mavs in the lead.

Zach Harrison would tack on an empty-net goal with under a minute to go, as Minnesota never came close to tying the game despite keeping the puck in the MSU end for the last few minutes of the game. The Mavs did a good job of keeping the puck to the outside and taking away passing lanes.

Lee made 25 saves on the night and picked up his sixth win of the year, and the Mavs’ third straight against the Gophers.

“He made key saves at key times,” said MSU Head Coach Troy Jutting.

Lucia was clearly irritated and seemed out of answers in terms of what to do to get his ninth place team going in the right direction.

“We need to be mentally tougher,” he said. “We have to come out and play with passion and heart every night. I’m frustrated, no question.”

His son and co-captain, Tony Lucia, also expressed concern.

“We need to make sure we’re playing for all the right reasons, and that’s for the ‘M’ on the front of our sweaters,” he said. “We have [NHL] draft picks up the wazoo but that doesn’t matter if you don’t bring the effort.”

Prior to the season, the team talked about needing to be tougher to play against and that they would only go as far as their upperclassmen would take them. In terms of being difficult to compete against, Hansen doesn’t think that talk has translated to the rink.

“We’ve fallen short of what we wanted,” Hansen said. “We’re all in shock.”

That shock is going to have to wear off real quick as the team has three-straight road games to finish the first half of the year, including Saturday’s game in Mankato. The Gophers, who have just one win in their last six games, are currently in ninth place, and home-ice for the WCHA playoffs is in serious doubt, despite the fact the calendar just rolled over to December.

If this team comes out and lays an egg on Saturday, things could get out of control in a hurry.

Gophers Return To WCHA Play In Home-And-Home vs. Mavericks

After playing non-conference opponents in four of their last six games, the Golden Gophers return to WCHA play over the next two weekends in a pair of key series if they hope to vault themselves back into the fight for home-ice advantage, with the first of those two series coming in the form of a home-and-home series with Minnesota State.

Last weekend, the Gophers managed to bring home a win from the College Hockey Showcase, and on the surface a split against Michigan and then Michigan State is never a bad thing, even in years when the Gophers are an upper-echelon outfit. However, Friday night’s game was a border-line embarrassment for Head Coach Don Lucia’s team, as the Michigan Wolverines – who had lost five of their previous six games – carved up the Gophers from start to finish in cruising to a 6-0 victory and dominated the game from start to finish.

To the Gophers credit, they bounced back the next night and got a strong goaltending performance from sophomore goalie Kent Patterson, who stopped 37 of 38 Spartan shots in the 2-1 Minnesota victory. This was a must-win for the Gophers, who could not have afforded to go winless on another weekend in key non-conference games.

Coming into the weekend, the Spartans were statistically the better of Minnesota’s two opponents, having recently swept Michigan and being a top ten team in the nation heading into the weekend. However, they were drilled by the Wisconsin Badgers by a 7-3 score on Friday night, and had gone winless the weekend before against a mediocre Notre Dame team.

With just four games to go before the holiday break, the Gophers sit in ninth place in the WCHA, one point behind Alaska-Anchorage and two points behind Minnesota State, with two games in-hand on both of those teams. With last place Michigan Tech on the horizon next weekend, the Gophers cannot afford to stumble their way through the next two weekends.

Looking at Minnesota’s WCHA schedule, they only play two games each (as opposed to four) against Minnesota State and Michigan Tech, who are two of the worst three teams in the league. The second-half of the season also contains a trip to Anchorage to take on the Seawolves, a team Minnesota swept in October. However, the roadtrip to Alaska is never an easy one for teams, and the Seawolves have wins against Denver, North Dakota, and Colorado College on their resume already.

Minnesota still has to travel to Denver and Minnesota Duluth, has a home-and-home with St. Cloud State, two-game sets at Mariucci Arena against both North Dakota and Colorado College, and a “home” series against Wisconsin to close out the year, but one of the two games against Wisconsin will be played at the Target Center, taking away from the supposed home-ice advantage Minnesota should have for that series.

So, the road gets much tougher from a WCHA perspective after the next two weekends, which is why it’s critical that the Gophers get six to eight points and some much-needed momentum before adjourning for the holidays, and that starts this weekend against the Mavericks.

Prior to last January’s home-and-home series, the Gophers had absolutely owned Troy Jutting’s team, having had just lost one in their previous 25 contests against the Mavs. However, things took a turn for the worst in those two games late last season, as the Mavs took it to the Gophers at the Alltel Center on Friday night by a score of 6-2 in a game that had a combined 94 penalty minutes. Most notably, after Jay Barriball was checked from behind late in the game MSU’s Channing Boe, which ignited a minor donnybrook that saw the Gophers Brian Schack go after Boe, who broke his leg in the process.

On Saturday night, the Mavs scored a pair of first period goals en route to a 3-1 victory and securing their first ever sweep of the Gophers, who were in the midst of a terrible second-half swoon that saw them win just seven games after January 4.

This season, the Mavs are off to a 6-7-1 start, and have won three of their last four heading into this weekend. After losing their first three league games to start the season, they came back on a Saturday night to beat Wisconsin 3-2 after losing 6-0 the night before. They then went to Denver and lost a one-goal game on Friday before at least bringing home a point after a 4-4 tie on Saturday. MSU suffered a pair of one goal losses to the league-leading Colorado College Tigers on home ice, and most recently split at Alaska-Anchorage and swept Michigan Tech at home.

In WCHA play, the Mavericks are a middle of the road team in most key categories, including score offense ( 6th), scoring defense (8th), power play (5th), and penalty killing (8th).

The Mavericks’ upperclassmen have led the way for them so far this season, as their top five scorers are all juniors or seniors. Senior forwards Jerad Stewart and Zach Harrison both have 12 points to lead the team. Senior forward Kael Mouillierat led the team in goals a season ago with 17, but has just three this season, though scored twice against Minnesota State last weekend. One name up front that fans may recognize is freshman Tyler Pitlick, who recently starred for Centennial and is the nephew of former Gopher Lance Pitlick. Tyler is off to a nice start with six points in 13 games, and should be a nice player for the Mavs as time goes on.

Junior defensemen Ben Youds already has 10 points after having just eight points a season ago. Fellow junior Kurt Davis, who was the team’s top returning scorer, is off to a little bit of a slow start, as he has just seven points so far. Boe, who is also a junior, and freshman Tyler Elbrecht round out MSU’s top four on the blueline.

In net for Minnesota State, former Bloomington Jefferson standout Austin Lee has taken the reigns early in the season. He’s started five of the last six games and has played reasonably well, posting a .913 save percentage and a 2.54 goals against average so far this season. He’ll be between the pipes on Friday night for sure, and should give the Mavs a chance to win on most nights this season.

For Minnesota, they only scored two goals last weekend, so offensively, they aren’t exactly hitting on all cylinders coming into this weekend’s series. The top line of Mike Hoeffel, Jordan Schroeder, and Nico Sacchetti stayed together for both games last weekend and accounted for one of the two goals on Saturday night, but the other three lines all changes from Friday to Saturday as the coaching staff looks to find another line or two that can chip in offensively.

On defense, Lucia has said that freshman Nick Leddy may return to the lineup this weekend, which would likely force Brian Schack back to the bench, which may be a good thing for both teams considering Schack’s actions last season and the fact he may be a marked man if he hits the ice this weekend. Leddy is a giant upgrade from Schack and will likely go right back to quarterbacking the second power play unit and playing top-four minutes.

It will be interesting to see how Lucia handles the goaltending situation this weekend, as junior Alex Kangas was lit up pretty good against Michigan, while Patterson was great on Saturday against the Spartans. Kangas is clearly Lucia’s favorite and will likely be in net on Friday night in Mankato, a place where he was pulled a season ago. It would be very surprising if Patterson doesn’t get the nod on Saturday regardless of how Kangas and the team does on Friday, but stranger things have happened in the recent past with Gopher goaltending.

As usual when these teams matchup, the talent gap is enormous and the Gophers should have the edge on both nights. However, you could say the same thing on most weekends and as recent history suggests, it may not mean a whole lot. However, aside from the thumping against Michigan, the Gophers have started to play better hockey in recent weeks. They had two-goal leads in both games against UMD, but the end result was a pair of tight losses. They split against a Bemidji State team that showed they are for real by upending Miami last weekend, and split at Wisconsin against a Badger team that seems to be hitting their stride a bit.

At the end of the day though, you are only as good as your record shows, and right now that’s below average for the Gophers. They need to start doing more than playing well but coming up empty-handed; they need wins. And it won’t be easy against the Mavericks, who like other teams know that this Gopher team doesn’t have the same firepower or mystique that teams three or four years ago had.

Friday night could be a swing game for the Gophers. Should they lose the series opener at home, the pressure will be large the following night in Mankato with the Mavs looking for the sweep. However, if the Gophers can pick up a ‘W’ on Friday night, the pressure shifts to the Mavs, as they’ll be looking to avoid the sweep at their own barn.