Gophers, Huskies set to renew rivalry in home-and-home series

SPECIAL NOTE: Gopher fans attending Friday night’s game at the National Hockey Center should note that St. Cloud State is planning on doing a “Red Out” on Friday night. So, to help show your Gopher pride, make sure to wear white and/or gold (instead of maroon) to make sure you stand out amongst the sea of Polaris jackets and mullets.

After several months of waiting, Golden Gopher fans will finally get to see the 2008-09 edition of Minnesota’s “Pride on Ice” get into action as they take on the St. Cloud State Huskies in a home-and-home series to open WCHA play.

The Huskies, who are ranked 12th in this week’s USCHO Men’s D-I Poll, already have two non-conference games under their belts. Like the Gophers, Bob Motzko and Co. opened up their schedule with an exhibition win over the University of British Columbia; however, unlike Minnesota, the Huskies head into this weekend games with a 2-0-0 record after having dispatched of the Mercyhurst Lakers last weekend at the National Hockey Center.

St. Cloud put up seven goals in each game, winning by scores of 7-2 on Friday and then 7-3 on Saturday. The difference on the weekend was SCSU’s speed, which enabled them to get 16 power play chances. The Huskies’ power play was great last season, ranking first in the WCHA at 21.9 percent, and they more than picked up where they left off last season against the Lakers, going an amazing seven power play tallies.

The keys to St. Cloud’s power play are their two top returning scorers – junior Ryan Lasch and sophomore Garrett Roe. The two combined for 12 points last weekend, with seven of those coming with the man advantage.

The Gophers cannot frequent the penalty box too often this weekend if they hope to emerge with wins / points. Minnesota’s defense should be able to skate with St. Cloud’s forwards, which should help their cause, but with NCAA-wide crackdown on obstruction (similar to the post-lockout NHL) both teams will assuredly get their shots to score with the extra attacker.

Minnesota’s power play wasn’t particularly sharp in their 3-1 win over UBC, going 0-6, but given all the new faces, it will likely take some time before it starts to click. As head coach Don Lucia has said in recent weeks, he feels his team will be much deeper this season as opposed to last, so hopefully their five-on-five scoring will help any possible early season struggles by the new-look power play units.

The team experimented with the top power play unit in the exhibition game, but the likes of Ryan Stoa, Jordan Schroeder, and Aaron Ness figure to be fixtures on the main unit throughout the
season.

Like most teams, Minnesota will likely do its fair share of line-juggling early in the season, but the all-junior line of Tony Lucia, Mike Carman, and Ryan Flynn could be one that sticks together. They trio have played together at times during their first two seasons as Gophers and have always been tough to play against and have generally been able to keep the puck out of their own end. With the three all having two full seasons under their belts, one could assume that the goal production out of all three should improve this year.

On defense, the pillars of the team will likely be senior R.J. Anderson, junior David Fischer, and sophomores Kevin Wehrs and Cade Fairchild. A pair of freshmen – Ness and Sam Lofquist, who sat out the UBC game with a minor injury, also figure to get their fair share of playing time. Fellow freshman Grant Scott played very sparingly against UBC and is more of a long-term project than a short-term solution, and junior Brian Schack played in just 12 games last year when the team had fewer rostered defensemen, so he likely won’t dress too often unless the team runs into injury problems.
There are zero questions marks between the pipes for Minnesota, as sophomore Alex Kangas, who was the team’s MVP last season as a freshman, will likely start both contests this weekend and will carry the load for this team as both backups – Kent Patterson and Jake Kremer – are freshmen.

Ironically, it was the National Hockey Center where Kangas officially took over the reigns as Minnesota’s netminder last season. After Jeff Frazee pulled – well, a “Frazee,” – by allowing one long goal and nearly yielding another one late in the first period of a game last season, Kangas was inserted to start the second period and Frazee never saw the light of day again and of course left the team in the offseason.

There will likely be a time or two on Friday night especially where Kangas will have to be that steadying influence and maybe put the team on his back a time or two. The National Hockey Center will certainly be rockin’ (you might even hear some Guns N' Roses if you’re lucky) and is a very tough place for Minnesota’s large freshmen class to have to cut their teeth. Still though, many of these kids have played in international situations and other intense environments, so that should help them deal with the atmosphere come Friday.

Both games start at 7 p.m. and will air live on Fox Sports North. After this weekend, Minnesota heads to Madison to deal with another rival in the form of the Wisconsin Badgers.