Game Gab - Nightly Post-Game Analysis
Come here after the games for analysis and insights from CHN Staff members.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Friday, March 15, 2013
Minnesota 2, Bemidji State 1 - Friday, March 15, 2013
Bemidji State tried to steal Game 1, with Andrew Walsh turning aside 49 shots. But it wasn't enough. Kyle Rau scored at 13:18 of overtime to give Minnesota the win. It came off a faceoff win by Nick Bjugstad, who got it back to the point. A shot was blocked, but caromed right to Rau, who buried it. BSU had tied it with 38 seconds left in regulation, leaving the Gophers temporarily stunned. Minnesota goalie Adam Wilcox also had to stop two breakaways in regulation and a big kick save in overtime. The goal was Rau's seventh game winner of the season.
"We felt as it was going on, we scored that goal, good things could happen," BSU coach Tom Serratore said. "But they had 50 shots, pushed the pace, and that's a hard-working team. ... It's a good hockey game, but we have to forget about it. It stings, but you just have to wipe it out of your memory bank."
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Minnesota 5, Bemidji State 1 - Saturday, March 9, 2013
Wisconsin may be enemies to Minnesota on the playing fields -- but they are Big Ten brothers in arms. And Saturday, Minnesota can thank its most storied enemy for helping it win the MacNaughton Cup. Wisconsin defeated St. Cloud State, which allowed Minnesota, with the win Saturday and a sweep of the series, to tie the Huskies for first place and share the Cup in its final season in the league. Minnesota will still be the second seed in the playoffs, because the Huskies win the tiebreaker. ... Erik Haula and Nick Bjugstad scored in the first and that was pretty much all Minnesota needed, as it rolled. ... Bemidji finishes 11th, and so that means these teams will meet again next weekend in a best-of-3. If this weekend was any indication, the Gophers will not need three games to close things out.
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Minnesota 5, Denver 1 - Saturday, March 2, 2013
It took a while to get going on the weekend, but when it did, it really did. Minnesota was shut out at home Friday by Denver, and was being stymied again through the first period Saturday. But the Gophers finally broke through, then took the lead on a power-play one-timer by Nick Bjugstad, and rolled to the win. That gets Minnesota back within two points of first, tied with North Dakota for second, with one weekend remaining. St. Cloud State has the toughest scheduled of the three, having to travel to Wisconsin.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Minnesota-Duluth 2, Minnesota 2 - Saturday, February 23, 2013
Minnesota was unable to finish off the sweep, despite 40 shots on net. Jack Hendrickson scored a late goal for UMD to tie the game and it stayed that way. Like the three-point weekends had by New Hampshire and Quinnipiac, it does little damage in the big picture, though the Gophers go into their final two WCHA regular-season weekends two points behind St. Cloud State for first place. Adam Wilcox was strong all weekend in net for the Gophers, as usual, and his 35 saves Saturday were a career/season high.
Remarkably, Duluth went all of February without a win, though this tie felt like a pretty good accomplishment after all that. “Through the first 10 minutes we weathered some storms and got some momentum,” UMD coach Scott Sandelin told the Duluth News-Tribune. “To come in here against a team that is pretty damn good, we made them earn everything they got. We played well and (goalie Matt McNeely) gave us a chance.”
Minnesota coach Don Lucia was more stoic about it: “UMD found its power play this weekend, McNeely made some good saves, (UMD) blocked shots, and overall it was a hard-fought series. It was pretty even.”
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Wisconsin 3, Minnesota 2 - Sunday, February 17, 2013
Wisconsin uses a big second period to earn a split of the weekend series, this one coming outdoors in Chicago. See our complete story.
Saturday, February 9, 2013
St. Cloud State 4, Minnesota 3 - Saturday, February 9, 2013
This series was everything you'd hoped it would be coming into the weekend. In-state rivals playing for first place. In the end, after two tremendous hockey games, the teams got a split. As far as the WCHA race goes, this favors St. Cloud State, since it maintained a three-point lead on the closest teams with the regular-season ticking down. And the Huskies go away happy because they won the second of the game, always a better way to end up. But Minnesota is fine too. After all, despite being in third place in the WCHA (with two games in hand), it is still No. 2 in the Pairwise. And part of that is because the Gophers have two games in hand over every team in front of them in the standings.
Friday, Erik Haula scored a pair of huge goals for Minnesota, and standout defenseman Nate Schmidt got the clinching goal late in the third. Saturday, SCSU turned things around, charging forward to a 4-1 lead. Minnesota scored twice late to close the gap, but that was it. Ryan Faragher came up huge with 36 saves, and the scoring continues to be spread among two lines that are both really cooking.
“If we drop two games, Minnesota is right on us,” Huskies junior center Nic Dowd told the St. Cloud Times. “Just to get a win in this situation -- that’s big time. That’s what big-time programs do and that’s what we want to be. ... That’s why we had guys coming back when they could have left (for pro hockey). We had guys selling out to block shots. That’s why we have guys more excited on the bench when other guys score. We want to be a big-time program and leave our legacy.”
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Minnesota 4, Minnesota State 1 - Saturday, January 26, 2013
A split on the weekend dropped Minnesota a point behind St. Cloud for first place in the WCHA, though still No. 2 in the Pairwise. Minnesota State played a strong game Friday for the win, getting a goal from Brett Knowles in the final minute of regulation. Minnesota bounced back and gritted out a 4-1 win Saturday. Credit to Minnesota State, though, for continued good play; the Mavericks sit in a three-way tie for fourth.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
North Dakota 4, Minnesota 4 - Saturday, January 19, 2013
Minnesota blitzed North Dakota pretty good on Friday, putting a real stamp on what's been a strong season so far for the Gophers. Minnesota keeps getting big win after big win, and are really, truly "back" as far as being a national threat. Obviously the Gophers were back last year, making the Frozen Four, but this really feels like a program that is completely back, as in consistently again. And perhaps the biggest reason this year is that freshman Adam Wilcox has been a huge find, and has been great right out of the chute. Even in the national title years of last decade, Minnesota didn't have this kind of goaltending.
Of course, it's been much-discussed that this series was the final one as members of the WCHA, unless they meet in the playoffs. The teams will be in separate new conferences next year, and Minnesota coach Don Lucia has so far balked at scheduling North Dakota for non-league games, at least over the next three years. Whatever his reasons, fact remains that a storied, passionate, sometimes overly-intense rivalry will be put on the backburner for a while, and it's a shame.
It was all on display this weekend, and Saturday, North Dakota bounced back with a more complete effort, and showed it wasn't going to go away quietly. Big names like Kristo, Grimaldi and Knight scored as ND took a 4-2 lead. But Minnesota made the home crowd go wild, coming back to tie, starting with Nick Bjugstad's 13th of the season. "(It's a) hard-fought battle," North Dakota's Rocco Grimaldi said. "It feels like playoff hockey every time you play (Minnesota). I can't even describe it, it's a whole new level out there. ... Today might sting even worse than yesterday, having a two-goal lead, but the season's still going on and we're still getting better every day."
North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol said: "I thought we played a solid game. It's disappointing obviously to let up a 2-goal lead in the last 10 minutes. We got tangled up on the third goal. But I thought we came back off last night and played a more complete 60 minutes. ... They're a good team. They make plays. They're a big, strong team down low, you have to work to maintain them and control the scrums. ... I think we took a step forward. I saw a lot of things from young guys that I liked. ... Drake (Caggiula) is one of them. We've seen flashes. We're starting to see it more consistently."
North Dakota goes right back in the fire next week, playing at home against St. Cloud, which is tied for first.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Minnesota 8, Boston College 1 - Sunday, December 30, 2012
Kyle Rau scored twice, Nick Bjugstad is back to his dominating ways and scored two as well, and Minnesota pulls off a surprising rout of Boston College to win the tournament. Both teams were missing players to the World Juniors. It's rare, and strange, to see BC humbled -- embarrassed -- so badly. It came just one night after coach Jerry York finally earned win No. 925, breaking the record for most in college hockey history, with the Eagles easily dispatching Alabama-Huntsville. Minnesota did the same with Air Force in the opener, setting up this heavyweight matchup, that turned into a laugher. Safe to say Minnesota deserves to be in the national title contender conversation now, as if it wasn't already.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Minnesota 4, Colorado College 4 - Saturday, December 8, 2012
Sam Warning, recently back in the lineup, scored twice in Friday's 4-2 win for Minnesota. It looked like the Gophers were cruising to a sweep Saturday, but the problem is, they played that way. Some defensive breakdowns, including by some forwards who weren't particularly sharp either, led to CC scoring three goals in the third period, the last one in the closing minute, to get the tie. At 11-3-3, Minnesota is doing fine, but still has its moments where you wonder a bit.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Minnesota 3, Wisconsin 1 - Saturday, November 17, 2012
Wisconsin is still grinding things out, without top scorer Mark Zengerle, without top recruit Nic Kerdiles, and without its assistant coach, Bill Butters, who resigned mid-season. So Friday's tie was a bit of an accomplishment, but the Badgers couldn't sustain it Saturday and conceded three points to the rival Gophers. It wasn't easy for Minnesota -- it overcame a shorthanded goal from Ryan Little, and rallied for the next two before getting the empty netter. ... “It was a very good college hockey game,” Minnesota coach Don Lucia said. “I thought both teams competed extremely hard. It went down to the third period, and for us it was great to see a guy (Tom Serratore) that doesn’t score a lot score a big goal.”
Said Nick Bjugstad, who had the game-tying goal for Minnesota: “Last night, we felt we had some chances we didn’t capitalize on. Tonight, we were missing the net a little bit, but executed on some of those goals. Tom Serratore came up big with that game winner. The team put together a great effort. We came out hard from the start, so that was a good statement to make.”
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Minnesota State 5, Minnesota 3 - Saturday, November 3, 2012
Dylan Margonari scored late in the third to give Minnesota State the win, and a split of the home-and-home weekend. The Mavericks finally put it all together, finally keeping the penalty minutes in check, for the most part, and killing off four of five Minnesota power plays, which is a big improvement over what they have been allowing so far this season. "It's a great weekend," the freshman Margonari said. "It's huge for our team. It will definitely set up our team for many wins to come."
"We came out and played a poor first period, we were outshot 19-7 and fell behind 2-0," Minnesota coach Don Lucia said. "To the kids' credit, we battled back, unfortunately we made a mistake late. ... We started to find our game as it went along. We had some good looks in the second, their goaltender made a huge save near the end of the second."
Minnesota 4, Bemidji State 3 - Saturday, March 16, 2013
A goal in the closing minute from Ben Marshall capped a comeback for the Gophers and prevented Bemidji State from an upset for the second straight night. "They put their foot on the gas pedal for the final 15 minutes,' BSU coach Tom Serratore said of Minnesota. "That's the sign of a championship team. ... Too bad there's no results to show for it (because) I thought we played a very good hockey game."
Read more in our blog.
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