Wilcox shutout keeps Minnesota’s postseason hopes alive

Adam Wilcox wasn’t named the Big Ten Goalie of the Year this season, but he sure played like one Friday afternoon. The junior goalie stopped all 39 Ohio State shots as Minnesota (22-12-3) advanced to the Big Ten Tournament Championship game with a 3-0 win over Ohio State (14-19-3) at Joe Louis Arena.

“It was one of those nights where you look at your goaltender and say I don’t think they’re going to score one tonight,” said Minnesota coach Don Lucia. “That’s how it ended up.”

The performance gave Wilcox’s his 13th career shutout, tying him with Kellen Briggs in the Minnesota record books.

“Creating the goal for 13 seemed like a while away,” said Wilcox. “But when you have a good defensive core and good team every year, you get opportunities to get shutouts. I thought it was a great way to get it. Anytime you can get a shutout in playoffs it’s a great feeling–getting something like [the record] was pretty cool too.”

The Gophers didn’t make things easy on their goaltender despite drawing two early power play opportunities in the first period. The Buckeyes generated the better scoring opportunities and had numerous opportunities on the rush. However each time Ohio State generated a quality chance, Wilcox was able to square himself, make the save, and control his rebounds.

Lucia felt his team played tight early knowing how important a win was for an NCAA tournament bid and that the first goal of the game was a big one. Minnesota’s senior class has led the team over the last 14 games, as their 32 goals have accounted for 55 percent of the teams output. They added another to their total midway through the second period. Seth Ambroz won a board battle in the right wing corner forcing the dumped in puck up the wall to Travis Boyd. Boyd found his linemate Sam Warning coming late into the zone, touched the puck over and Warning beat the goalie high glove for his 12th goal of the season at 7:51.

“Give a lot of credit to Ambroz who chipped in, and then Boyd made a good play,” said Warning. “All I had to do was shoot it.”

The Gophers added to their lead 10:45 into the third period. Ben Marshall came down the left wing, fired a wrist shot towards goal. As the puck deflected off an Ohio State defenseman’s skate, Vinni Lettieri beat his check to the net and helped the puck over the goal line for his ninth goal of the season.

Ohio State pulled their goalie with over four minutes to go for a late 6 on 4 advantage, but the Gophers quickly got the puck off the ensuing face off and Boyd fired it 170 feet for an empty netter at 15:40, his 17th goal of the season.

The win pushed Minnesota to ninth in the PairWise Ranking, putting them in decent shape for a bid to the NCAA tournament. However, with so many games left in conference tournaments Lucia didn’t think they had alleviated the pressure yet.

“Winning takes care of everything. There are still a lot of scenarios where if we don’t win tomorrow we can’t get in,” said Lucia. “It’s kind of crazy that you win your league and you’re in the championship game and you still have that possibility. If we win that takes care of everything tomorrow.”

The Big Ten championship game is set for 7 p.m. CT on Saturday televised live on the Big Ten Network and streamed on BTN2Go. The game will also be available on the radio via 1500 ESPN and the Gopher Radio Network.

The post Gophers blank Buckeyes appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

SCSU finishes “Red October” with third win

ST. CLOUD – The gauntlet that has been the October portion of St. Cloud State’s schedule hasn’t seen a team ranked lower than fifth.

But the Huskies are right where they wanted to be five games into the season, with three wins.

SCSU handed No. 1 Minnesota its first loss of the season, 4-1, in nonconference action Friday in front of a capacity crowd at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.

“Every series we play the Gophers here, it’s always great because it gets absolutely packed,” said SCSU forward and Blaine native Jonny Brodzinski. “So playing in front of a crowd like this, especially when everyone is in costumes, it’s awesome.

SCSU’s Kalle Kossila’s two-point night (1-1–2) helped lift the Huskies over the Gophers on Friday. (SCSU Athletics Photo / Brad Olson)

“We’ve started Fridays out just terrible this year so we wanted to put the foot down on the gas early.”

Brodzinski finished with a goal and two assists and Kalle Kossila had one of each for the Huskies.

SCSU entered last weekend’s series with No. 2 Union coming off a split at home to No. 5 Colgate, a bye week and was still in snooze mode when Union scored three in the first period.

But a 3-2 win the next night, earned the split and got SCSU back to .500.

The Gophers, coming off a comeback win and sweep against Bemidji State, got a few good chances early but then couldn’t continue into an offensive rhythm despite averaging 4.25 goals per game entering the weekend.

The Huskies’ sticks were disruptive on defense, getting in passing lanes and poking pucks off Minnesota’s blades before it could take shots.

“It was just an all-around tough game. We didn’t match their tenacity. We just didn’t have it today,” Minnesota alternate captain Seth Ambroz said.

“We got off our game, taking the penalties and looking for any reason, looking to blame the refs. You could tell we lost our composure there. We were punched in the mouth and we weren’t able to punch back. Tomorrow, we’re going to have to play desperate and come out with the victory tomorrow.”

Charlie Lindgren, a Lakeville native in his first year as SCSU’s full-time starting goalie, wasn’t as flashy with the glove but caught his share of pucks in the shoulder and he didn’t give up many juicy second chances.

“He made key saves at key moments,” SCSU coach Bob Motzko said. “One early in the game where (Minnesota) could’ve gone up but we get a power play goal and it let us get our feet underneath us.

“I think Charlie is going to get a lot of credit for this win.”

The Huskies got first-period goals on Kossila’s wrist shot from the left circle and David Morley’s swipe at a floating puck into the open net with less than two seconds on the clock.

SCSU got a power play goal 1:12 into the second period by Brodzinski on a shot that beat Minnesota goaltender Adam Wilcox 5-hole and Joey Benik was able to stuff in his second goal of the season early in the third period.

The Minnesota power play still leads the nation in goals scored (6) and effective percentage (31.6) but was held without a goal in two opportunities.

The Gophers finally got one past Lindgren at the 4:18 mark of the third period when Hudson Fasching scored on a wrister, which beat Lindgren high.

“We’ve talked about it all year. We have improvement to do,” Minnesota coach Don Lucia said. “You play a good team on the road it’s never going to be easy, but you can’t give up a couple power play goals and put yourself down 5 on 3 and some of the positions we put ourselves in.”

The Gophers had previously gone unbeaten in 16 of their last 17 games against in-state opponents. They fall to 4-1-0 overall.

And though SCSU’s month of high difficulty has closed, the weekend has not.

Motzko told his players after the game to expect a different Gophers team when they meet again at 4 p.m. Saturday at Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis.

“Coach said what (Minnesota) is going to do after the game,” Kossila said. “’They’re going to get on the bus and be quiet and they’re going to be ready tomorrow.

“Our plan is to get as much rest as possible so we can be as pissed off as they’re going to be.”

The post Huskies Treat Gophers to First Loss appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Adam Wilcox shuts out RPI as Gophers win second straight Ice Breaker title.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Minnesota looked like an entirely different team in its shutout of Rensselaer Sunday afternoon than on Friday against Minnesota-Duluth. Playing nearly flawless hockey, the Gophers blanked the Engineers 3-0 in the Ice Breaker Championship at the Compton Family Ice Arena.

The Minnesota offense fired 34 shots while holding the Engineers to 22 in winning its second consecutive Ice Breaker title and third overall.

“I thought we were much better today in how we played and I thought we played the game the right way today,” Minnesota coach Don Lucia said. “We held the puck better, got some pucks down low in the offensive zone and we spread the rink a little better, too.”

The Gophers came out strong Friday against the Bulldogs, but tapered off late in the game to let Minnesota-Duluth almost make a comeback. Sunday was a different story that saw the Minnesota defense limit second-chance rebound shots to almost zero.

“Their D-core just skates so well that when we’d get a push, they’d limit it to one chance and then they’d get the puck,” Rensselaer coach Seth Appert said. “It’s usually the second or third chances that get it in the net, not the first ones – especially when you have a goalie of Wilcox’s caliber.”

The few times the Gopher defense lapsed in judgment Adam Wilcox came up big. RPI started laying down thick pressure several times late in the second period and early in the third, but Wilcox kept the door shut to keep the Engineers off of the score sheet.

“We did a good job of boxing out and when I was able to get the puck and cover it there wasn’t anyone in my face, especially after the whistle with not letting them get close to me,” Wilcox said. “Sometimes that can cause a little discomfort for a goalie but our structure in front of the goalie was second to none tonight.”

Minnesota scored one goal per period with Seth Ambroz starting the scoring off with just over five minutes left in the first period. Tournament Most Valuable Player Hudson Fasching then scored just over 90 seconds into the second period to extend the Gophers’ lead to 2-0. Connor Reilly netted Minnesota’s third and final goal just three seconds into a power-play near the midway point of the third period.

“We’ve got a lot of guys with speed on our team and we knew that was going to be an advantage for us today,” Fasching said. “I think the speed on our defensive end was big because they got a lot of chip-outs and they were racing to get back.”

After playing just two games last season, RPI goalie Jason Kasdorf played great over the course of the Ice Breaker weekend. It took a lot of grit and getting bodies in front of the net to get anything past him in either game.

“I think to come out here against two top-tier programs and to perform the way the he did solidifies in the back of his mind that he’s back,” Appert said of Karsdorf. “It was a good mental hurtle to get over.”

The Gophers (2-0) will have some time off before their next series when they host the Bemidji State Beavers, Oct. 24^_25.

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Justin Holl’s buzzer beater vaults Minnesota to title tilt against Union.

PHILADELPHIA — Mix Minnesota’s maroon and gold with North Dakota’s green and white, add ice, stir and the result is utterly unpredictable.

Such was the case on Thursday night as no one could have foreseen Minnesota senior defenseman Justin Holl scoring his first goal of the season, shorthanded mind you, with 0.6 seconds remaining to defeat UND 2-1 in the Frozen Four semifinals at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

But that’s precisely what unfolded, giving Minnesota its third win in five NCAA Tournament meetings with North Dakota.

“No better time for Justin to score his first goal of the season than tonight,” Minnesota coach Don Lucia said. “But that’s our team. We haven’t relied on any one guy. A new guy has to step forward each and every night.”

As the final seconds of regulation ticked down and the Gophers shorthanded, Holl carried the puck through the neutral zone and fed it to Kyle Rau who carried it across the North Dakota blue line. With time running out, Holl chose to jump into the play offensively and, when Rau’s shot deflected off of UND’s Jordan Schmaltz, the puck found its way to his stick and his shot through a screen slid just inside the right post and the on-ice bedlam ensued … for a moment.

An officials’ review was required to verify the puck crossed the line before time expired, which it did, and the celebration was on again.

”It’s a great feeling, but it doesn’t mean anything if we don’t do well on Saturday,” Holl said. “So we’re looking ahead to Saturday and we’re excited for that game.”

Holl’s defensive partner Brady Skjei could not be happier for him.

“He’s one of the biggest team guys we have on our team,” Skjei said. “That’s his first goal of the season, which is crazy because he’s been playing so well. I think he saved it for a good time.”

Rau assisted on both goals adding to his team-leading points (39) and assist (25) totals and goaltender Adam Wilcox was spectacular in making 36 saves and raising his record to 26-5-6 on the season.

“We really had to be good defensively and when you’ve got Wilcox in goal, you can give up a couple and he really stood on his head tonight,” captain Nate Condon said. “We don’t go anywhere without Adam.”

“Adam made some critical saves, like he always does,” Lucia said. “Like I’ve said most of the year, we’re a good team with a great goalie. Adam gives us a chance to win and he certainly did tonight”

Though their bitter rivalry was lost after both teams departed the WCHA after last season for “greener pastures”, it was allowed to briefly rekindle for this one-night-only engagement with each team’s season on the line and an opportunity to play for a national title at stake.

The score was 0-0 through two and a half periods until Minnesota’s Sam Warning scored his 13th of the season, backhanding a Rau rebound behind UND goaltender Zane Gothberg, who finished with 26 saves, to break a scoreless tie at 10:51 of the third period. But North Dakota’s Connor Gaarder answered just 32 seconds later to knot the game once again.

Gaarder drove hard to the net from the left side, getting off a backhand shot Wilcox stopped but could not control. As he headed behind the Minnesota goal, the Edina native reached up with his forehand and batted the puck out of midair past Wilcox for his ninth of the year and third of the postseason.

With time winding down in a tie game and the certainty of overtime growing, Gopher defenseman Mike Reilly was called for holding with just 1:39 to play putting UND on a power play for potentially the rest of regulation and into overtime. Holl’s heroics took care of all that.

The Gophers move on to face Union in the national title game on Saturday night at 6:30 pm on ESPN. The Dutchmen beat Boston College 5-4 earlier in the evening. The championship game will be the fourth meeting all-time between Union and Minnesota. The Gophers hold a 2-1 advantage in the series.

“That was the goal at the beginning of the year, to be playing at the end of the season,” Condon said. “We’ve realized that goal but I don’t think anyone comes here to lose.”

Minnesota is making its first championship appearance since 2003 and 12th title game appearance overall. The Gophers’ 2003 national crown was their most recent.

The post Gophers Advance to Frozen Four Championship appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Like it or not, Adam Wilcox’s stellar play lands him in the spotlight.

He’s humble off the ice and just as ruthless on it.

Gopher sophomore Adam Wilcox is putting up numbers that Gopher goalies don’t usually amass. He’s already got the single season record for save percentage, his 51 wins (going into this weekend’s NCAA West Regional) ties him for seventh all-time (with two years left to play) and he is tied for second in the NCAA this year in save percentage.

And if you ask him about his success – all he’ll do is talk about how good the defense in front him is playing.

Wilcox is a finalist for Mike Richter award, given out to the nation’s top goaltender and a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, given annually to the player who best displays outstanding skills in all phases of the game, strength of character on and off the ice, sportsmanship and scholastic achievement. While this is the first year of the Richter award, Wilcox is the first Gopher to be a finalist for the Hobey since Ryan Potulny in 2006.

Think about that, it’s been 8 years since the Gophers have had a finalist for the nation’s top individual hockey honor. Names like Kessel, Okposo, Wheeler, Bjugstad and more have donned the Maroon and Gold—some longer than others—but none of them have crossed into the territory that Wilcox has.

But what I love most about Adam Wilcox and his success is that he wasn’t a highly-touted blue chip goalie from a hockey factory school. He played in US selection camps but never played in the World Junior Championships or played on the development team. He was a very good goalie at South St. Paul, which is becoming ‘Goalie High’ between Wilcox and his cousin Alex Stalock who plays for the San Jose Sharks.

While he was named to the All-Classic Suburban team twice, he only earned honorable mention at the state level twice. In fact, he might have been a better football player for the Packers, making All-Conference and All-State teams and even winning the Tom Nace award.

He is the quintessential story of good things happening to people who work hard. He stayed at his small school as long as he could. And when his opportunity to shine came, he made the most of it.

Wilcox was drafted in the sixth round of the 2011 draft by Tampa Bay which is not bad for goalies by any means but, until this season, he was somewhat of an unknown outside of our borders. Now, he is looking to pull off something that only two other goalies have done in the history of college hockey have achieved: Win its top prize, the Hobey Baker award.

By the way, one of the others to do it, was the guy who Wilcox will spend the next two years chasing in the Gopher record books, Rob Stauber, who won the award in 1988 (Ryan Miller is the other).

I happen to think Wilcox can pull it off. If you look at the numbers they are comparable. Stauber went 34-10 that year, with a 2.72 goals against average. While Wilcox won’t be able to duplicate the win total, his G.A.A. is a slim 1.90 (third in the nation). Yes there are goalies with better stats, but they don’t play the level of competition that Wilcox does night in and night out.

Like most goalies he is a cool customer. He rarely gets rattled in a game, and he never sweats a question after it. It would be nice to see a Minnesotan get a chance to join an elite group, especially since the “land of 10-thousand skates” rarely is known for those who wear the goalie version.

Just maybe Wilcox can pull it off. But if he does, don’t expect him to brag much about it.

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Featured Image:
Minnesota’s Justin Kloos celebrates after watching Nate Condon’s game-winning goal elude St. Cloud State goalie Ryan Faragher in the Gophers’ 4-1 win on Jan. 24 in St. Paul.
(Photo/Jeff Wegge)

Much of the focus leading into this weekend’s inaugural North Star College Cup tournament was on St. Cloud State’s No. 22 Jonny Brodzinski’s first time facing his younger brother, Minnesota freshman defenseman Michael Brodzinski, as an opponent.

While the elder Brodzinski did not disappoint, scoring his team-leading 12th goal of the year, it was the Gophers’ No. 22, junior Travis Boyd, who shined in scoring the game’s first goal and assisting on another in No. 1 Minnesota’s 4-1 win over No. 5 St. Cloud State before 14,388 in attendance at Xcel Energy Center on Friday night.

With the win the Gophers advance into the tournament’s championship game against Minnesota-Duluth which had to work overtime to beat Minnesota State earlier in the day.

The game marked the first-ever official meeting between the two schools as non-conference foes. The only other time the schools squared off outside of the WCHA came in the Hall of Fame exhibition game on Oct. 3, 1987 in Eveleth.

“Our game was efficient,” Minnesota coach Don Lucia said after his team extended its winning streak to six games. “I think we can play better in certain areas than we did tonight but anytime you can beat good quality team like St. Cloud State you have to feel good about that.

The Huskies outshot the Gophers 39 to 29 for the game but Minnesota sophomore goaltender Adam Wilcox turned aside 38 shots to earn his 17th win of the season. Captain Nate Condon’s second-period goal held up as the game winner while freshman Hudson Fasching scored his seventh of the year and, in turn, set up Boyd’s seventh at 8:58 into the contest.

Despite the loss which stretched St. Cloud State’s winless streak to four games (0-3-1), Huskies coach Bob Motzko was pleased with his team’s overall play.

“We came prepared to play, we played a good game,” Motzko said. “What killed us was their goaltender was outstanding tonight and special teams.”

The Huskies came out flying right off the bat, outshooting the Gophers 16-9 in the opening period. But Boyd scored the first of two Minnesota power-play goals on the night just seven seconds after the Huskies’ Kalle Kossila sat down in the penalty box.

Off a faceoff to the left of SCSU goaltender Ryan Faragher, Fasching outmuscled defenseman Andrew Prochno in the corner and fed Boyd on the doorstep.

“We didn’t come out very strong so getting the first one kind of maybe woke us up a little bit,” Boyd said. “I think we got better as the game went on but we still could improve a lot moving forward into tomorrow.”

Boyd’s goal held up past the game’s midway point until Brodzinski answered for St. Cloud State at 11:22 of the second. The former Blaine star took a trio of whacks at the puck in the crease before finally putting it behind Wilcox.

“It was a great pass by [Kalle] Kossila; [Cory] Thorson really created the whole play with that hit on the defenseman,” Brodzinski said. “It popped back to Kalle and it was just a 2-on-1 in front of the net and he made a great pass to me in front.”

Brodzinski led the Huskies with seven shots on goal on the night.

“He’s a good player, he’s physical, he’s got a heavy stick and he can shoot it a ton so he’s the wrong guy to have that many shots on goal,” Lucia said.

But Condon restored Minnesota’s lead just three minutes later and Fasching’s power-play goal, finishing off a rebound of a Boyd shot, ultimately finished off the Huskies.

“We got a puck through to the net on the power and Hudson was there to clean up the rebound, which was good for him because he hasn’t scored a goal in a while,” Lucia said. “We talked about our team kind of going through different guys going through a little bit of a drought so it was good to see Hudson get a goal.”

Fasching, who scored twice for Lucia and Team USA at the 2014 World Junior Championship in Malmo, Sweden, tallied his first on U.S. soil since scoring against Minnesota State on Nov. 16.

Charlie Lindgren replaced Faragher to start the third and St. Cloud State pelted Wilcox with another 13 shots in the final period but Wilcox, who was deservedly named the game’s No. 1 star, withstood the Huskies barrage and Seth Ambroz closed the scoring at 19:31 with yet another empty-net goal.

“They’re a good team, they put a lot of pressure on you, they’re well coached and they easily could have won the game tonight with a couple breaks,” Lucia said.

Motzko would undoubtedly concur with his counterpart.

“We made a couple critical mistakes that they capitalized on and their goalie stopped all the mistakes that they made.”

The post Gophers Win Efficiently Over Huskies appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Featured Image:
Colgate goaltender Charlie Finn watches a Minnesota shot in the third period at Mariucci Arena on Friday, January 4, 2014, in the Raiders’ 3-2 shootout win over the Gophers at the Mariucci Classic.
(COPYRIGHT: Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com)

Sluggish Gophers tie Colgate, fall in shootout in Mariucci Classic opener…

Twenty-six days can be a long time for a mid-season break. Maybe too long, as made apparent by a lifeless University of Minnesota Golden Gopher team Friday night.

The Gophers opened up 2014 as hosts of the Mariucci Classic, but didn’t retain their status as No.1 in the tournament with a 2-2 tie and eventual shootout loss to Colgate.

“We were just off, plain and simple,” said Gopher assistant coach Mike Guentzel.

Without Don Lucia, Brady Skjei and Hudson Fasching — who were on their way home after an early exit for the U.S. National Junior Team in the International Ice Hockey Federation’s World Junior Championships held in Malmo, Sweden — Guentzel took the reins and shook up the lines.

But while the lines appeared to work well together at first, something was off. Minnesota came out slow and struggled with smart plays. Maybe it was the holiday break lagging them down, but the energy was completely absent from the maroon and gold squad.

“Yeah, I really don’t know,”said Guentzel of his team’s struggles. “It’s tough, but you make the best of it. We have no excuses there. Whether it’s coaching or not scoring, being short-handed, there is no excuse for it. (Colgate) is a good team.”

Minnesota tested Colgate freshman netminder Charlie Finn early on, out shooting the Raiders 13-6 through the scoreless first period.. Minnesota sparked a flame in the middle of the second frame as Gopher freshman defenseman Michael Brodzinski continued to prove himself as an offensive threat. Brodzinski sailed one from just inside the blue line that skipped past Finn for a 1-0 Minnesota lead just 2:25 into the period.

Colgate responded with two of their own including Joe Wilson’s goal at 8:29 which he slipped between the pads of Adam Wilcox after the Gopher goaltender mistakenly assumed he had frozen the puck. Wilcox finished with 27 saves and appeared to be fighting the puck all night.

Just under seven minutes later the Raiders capitalized on a poorly executed Minnesota line change by turning a Nate Condon neutral-zone turnover into an easy 2-on-0 for Darcy Murphy and Daniel Gentzler with Murphy tallying for a 2-1 Colgate lead at the end of two.

“Ultimately, the bottom line tonight is that giving up the puck between the blue lines in the neutral zone, is going to cost you the hockey game,” said Guentzel.

And that go-ahead goal was a big turning point for Colgate according to Finn.

“I think just pulling in front of them for that lead against a No.1 team was a lot,” said Finn, who ended the night with 36 saves. “To do that here, obviously we’ve never played in front of a crowd like this, gave us that confidence to finish this game.”

The Gophers didn’t make it easy for the Raiders, however, as Travis Boyd slapped one in from the left side on the power play midway through the third for the tying goal. The final minutes were the most electric of the night, the announced crowd of 9,520 included. Each team had opportunities, but both goaltenders did their part to force overtime.

Colgate held an edge in the extra stanza but ultimately the teams were going to let a shootout decide.

Colgate’s Mike Borkowski scored leaving Kyle Rau with a must-score effort after two Gopher failed attempts. The Gopher captain prevailed, but Ryan Johnston potted one to end the game leaving the Gophers now 0-3 in shootouts this season.

What was supposed to be a prime match-up between the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the nation in Minnesota and Ferris State on Saturday is no more. Colgate and Ferris State now play for the championship at 4 p.m. while the Gophers will face RPI at 7 p.m. consolation title.

Additional Game Notes:

Kyle Rau tallied his 100th career point on the assist to Boyd. He joins an elite class of 80 Gophers to have reached the century mark. Erik Haula, now in the Minnesota Wild system, was the last Gopher to achieve the honor.

“It’s pretty cool,” said Rau. “I’m disappointed in the loss but that’s a positive take away.”

The post Far From A Classic appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Bemidji State’s Jordan George reached the 50 career goal milestone against Colorado College (Photo: Bemidji State University Athletics)

Jordan George’s goal last Friday night was not only the first of the season for the senior, it also stood as the 50th of his career … He is the 25th player in Beaver hockey history to net 50 goals and the fourth in BSU’s Division 1-era (since 1999-2000) … George is the only current NCAA Division I men’s hockey player to have scored 50 collegiate goals … The Beavers now return home to Sanford Center for the first time since Oct. 20 to host Michigan Tech Nov. 16-17 … The Beavers own a 5-2-1 advantage in the all-time series with the Huskies, which includes a perfect 4-0-0 mark when playing MTU in Bemidji.

Minnesota

The Gophers’ power-play is the third most successful in the country at .286 (12-for-42) – a stat that also a leads the WCHA … The Gophers have now tallied nine power-play goals in the last four games on 22 opportunities for a whopping 41 percent success rate but the Gophers have scored just three even-strength goals during that span … 12 of Minnesota’s 31 overall goals–or 39 percent–have come on the power play. Only Minnesota Duluth’s 53 percent (10 of 19) ranks higher … The Gophers rank second in the WCHA and eighth in the nation in scoring defense with just 18 goals against in nine games (2.00) – Denver leads the league at 1.88 goals against per game … Goaltender Adam Wilcox’s 1.58 goals-against average leads the WCHA and ranks fifth overall in the nation … the rookie’s .786 winning percentage (5-1-1 record) also is the best in the WCHA and the eighth highest percentage in the NCAA this season … Minnesota continues the season this weekend, hosting Wisconsin for a two-game WCHA series at Mariucci Arena … the Gophers are 155-86-20 all-time against the Badgers and 90-27-7 at home.

Minnesota-Duluth

The Bulldogs, who are mired in a five-game winless funk at the moment (0-4-1), will be seeking to notch their first WCHA win of the young 2012-13 season in Grand Forks … Senior right winger Mike Seidel, who has picked up at least one point in seven of UMD’s eight games to date (the exception was a 2-0 shutout loss to Wisconsin on Oct. 26), leads the Bulldogs in scoring with five goals and four assists … Four of his five goals this season have come on the power-play and those four scores are unsurpassed by any NCAA skater at the moment … Rookie center Tony Cameranesi figured in on all four UMD goals in Omaha, scoring once and adding three assists to improve his 2012-13 offensive harvest to seven points … That puts the Plymouth, Minn., product and Toronto Maple Leaf (NHL) draftee third among all WCHA newcomers in scoring … The Bulldogs are the nation’s most penalized team at the moment, averaging 19 minutes of infraction time per outing.

Minnesota State

Sophomore forward Jean-Paul Lafontaine, who has not missed a game in his two-year MSU career, upped his season totals to 3-5=8 with his two-goal, two-assist output in MSU’s two games vs. third-rated Denver last weekend … A member of the 2011-12 WCHA All-Rookie Team, Lafontaine has moved into second place on MSU’s scoring charts, he owns 16-20=36 in 48 career games and is currently riding a four-game point scoring streak (3-4=7) … Sophomore forward Matt Leitner (1-9=10), who led the Mavericks in scoring last year, stands atop MSU scoring charts this year and also leads the Mavericks in assists … In the last three consecutive weeks, Minnesota State has faced three ranked opponents in #15 St. Cloud State, #2 Minnesota and #3 Denver … The Mavericks are outshooting opponents 346-272 in 2012-13.

St. Cloud State

SCSU’s Joe Rehkamp had three assists on Saturday (Photo: St. Cloud State University Athletics)

Junior Nic Dowd and senior Drew LeBlanc ranked second among Division 1 players this season with 14 points apiece … Dowd leads the Huskies with six goals this season and he also has eight helpers in 2012-13 … LeBlanc charted two goals and one assist in the SCSU win over UND to up his season totals to five goals and nine assists … LeBlanc now has 111 career points at SCSU ranking him 17th all-time at SCSU along with former Husky standouts Fred Knipscheer and Tony Gruba … Sophomore forward Joe Rehkamp broke into the SCSU scoring column on Nov. 10 with a career game-high three assists … The Huskies are outscoring their opponents 36-25 in 2012-13, and they are also out­shooting their opponents 304-277 after the first 10 games of the year …  SCSU freshman Jonny Brodzinski got back on the scoresheet with his second goal of the 2012-13 season on Nov. 10 against UND … Brodzinski now has two goals and two assists for the Huskies in his first year at SCSU.

Beyond the Border Scorers

Ryan Walters – Nebraska Omaha (junior, forward, Rosemount, Minn.) – Walters led the Mavericks with five points (2 goals, assists) in UNO’s sweep of Minnesota-Duluth and his 11 points (3-8–11) overall now leads all Nebraska Omaha scorers this season. In addition, Walters had a +3 plus/minus rating for the series.

Archie Skalbeck – Colorado College (junior, forward, Hopkins, Minn.) – Skalbeck had two assists in each game of a CC’s sweep of Bemidji State last weekend including the primary assist both game winners. With his goal against Wisconsin on Nov. 3, Skalbeck now has had a hand in three consecutive game-winning goals for the Tigers.

Connecticut’s Sean Ambrosie (Photo: University of Connecticut Athletics)

Sean Ambrosie – Connecticut (senior, foward, Moorhead, Minn.) – Ambrosie scored the game-winning goal at the start of the third period and assisted on the game-tying goal on the power play to lead the Huskies to a 3-1 win at Merrimack on Saturday.

Josh Archibald – Nebraska Omaha (sophomore, forward, Brainerd, MInn.) – Archibald’s primary assist on Saturday’s game-winning goal was one of his three points (1-2–3) in the series for UNO. His nine points (6-3–9) overall have him tied for third on the team in scoring.

Niagara’s Isaac Kohls (Photo: Niagara University Athletics)

Isaac Kohls – Niagara (sophomore, forward, Forest Lake, Minn.) – Kohls led the offense for the Niagara men’s hockey team with a four-point weekend in a sweep of the Army Black Knights to remain undefeated in AHA play.  Kohls helped the Purple Eagles extend their unbeaten streak to seven games with a goal and three assists in two contests.

Heading to the polls …

Minnesota and St. Cloud State are the only Minnesota teams ranked this week in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll as the Gophers drop one spot to N0. 3 in swapping positions with Denver who is second only to Boston College which received all 50 first-place votes this week. St. Cloud State maintains its hold on No. 15 while  North Dakota (6), Colorado College (14) and Nebraska Omaha (18) are tho other ranked WCHA teams. Last week’s No. 20, Minnesota-Duluth, dropped out of this week’s poll.

USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll – November 12, 2012

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Erik Haula’s goal salvaged a tie and a three-point weekend for Minnesota at Anchorage on Saturday night. (Photo: Sam Wasson/UAA Athletics)

No. 3 Denver (7-1-0, 5-1-0 WCHA) at Minnesota State (3-5-2, 1-5-0 WCHA)

Friday: DU 4  MSU 3
Saturday: DU 3  MSU 2

The Pioneers chased MSU starting goaltender Phil Cook in building a 3-0 lead in the first 23:28 on Friday night in Mankato. But goals by Jean-Paul Lafontaine and Eriah Hayes late in the second period closed the gap to one heading into the third. The Mavericks could not bury the equalizer, however, and Daniel Doremus score the eventual game winner for Denver with 6:17 remaining in the third. Lafontaine’s second goal of the game at 18:09 with the MSU net empty restored the one-goal margin, but that is as close as the Mavericks would come

Denver’s Chris Knowlton scored twice on Saturday, including the game winner with 3:12 to play and the Pioneers left Mankato four points richer with a series sweep. For the second straight night, Minnesota State dug itself a hole and trailed 2-0 midway through the first on goals by Knowlton and Doremus. But Hayes trimmed the deficit to one at 15:07 of the opening period and Josh Nelson tied it 2:42 into the third.

No. 6 North Dakota (4-3-1, 2-1-1 WCHA) at No. 15 St. Cloud State (6-4-0, 4-2-0 WCHA)

Friday: UND 3  SCSU 0
Saturday: SCSU 5  UND 2

North Dakota goaltender Clarke Saunders made 32 saves to shut out St. Cloud State 3-0 on Friday night in St. Cloud. UND’s Brendan O’Donnell scored the only goal his team would need just 48 seconds into the contest while Carter Rowney and Mark MacMillan added goals in the second and third periods, respectively.

Drew LeBlanc scored twice to lead the Huskies over North Dakota on Saturday to split the series. (Photo: WCHA.com)

After falling behind North Dakota in the opening period for the second straight night, the Huskies bounced back this time for a resounding 5-2 win on Saturday night. Drew LeBlanc scored twice, including the game winner, and added an assist while SCSU goalie Ryan Faragher made 22 saves for the win. UND’s Drake Caggiula got UND on the board first at 11:18 of the first but Jonny Brodzinski answered with his second goal of the season just 1:01 later. LeBlanc scored twice in the first 12:23 of the second period, the first courtesy of one of Joe Rehkamp‘s three assists on the night, to give the Huskies the lead for good.

Bemidji State (2-3-1, 1-2-1 WCHA) at No. 19 Colorado College (7-3-0, 4-0-0 WCHA) at 

Friday: CC 3  BSU 2
Sunday: CC 6  BSU 3

Rylan Schwartz‘s goal at 16:19 of the second period, one of his two on the night, proved to be the difference in Colorado College’s one-goal win over Bemidji State on Friday night in Colorado Springs. The teams traded goals in a 2-2 first period as the Beavers erased two CC leads on goals by Jordan George and Danny Mattson, the first goals of the season for each. Archie Skalbeck assisted on both of Schwartz’s goals.

Behind two goals and two assists by William Rapuzzi, the Tigers completed a series sweep of BSU on Saturday. Both of Rapuzzi’s goals–including the game winner at 5:17–came in a third period which began with CC clinging to a 3-2 lead. Markus Gerbrandt scored to pull the Beavers within two at 18:32, but that’s as close as BSU would get. Cory Ward and Aaron McLeod also scored for Bemidji State while CC’s Skalbeck (two assists) and Schwartz (three assists) capped off big weekends on Saturday.

No. 2 Minnesota (6-2-1, 3-2-1 WCHA) at Alaska-Anchorage (2-3-3, 0-2-2 WCHA)

Friday: UM 4  UAA 0
Saturday: UM 2  UAA 2

Kyle Rau scored twice while Nick Bjugstad and Ben Marshall each scored a goal for Minnesota on Friday night in Anchorage. Minnesota continued its trend of reliance on the power play for its offense as the Gophers scored four times with the man advantage and Adam Wilcox stopped 14 Seawolves’ shots to post the shutout.

Erik Haula scored Minnesota’s only even-strength goal of the series at 13:31 of the third period on Saturday allowing the Gophers to escape Anchorage with a tie and three of four points on the weekend. The Gophers and Seawolves traded first-period goals and they remained knotted at 1-1 at the second intermission. But Alex Gellert gave UAA its only lead of the series at 5:38 of the third setting the stage for Haula’s big goal.

Minnesota-Duluth (2-5-1, 0-3-1 WCHA) at Nebraska Omaha (6-3-1, 4-1-1 WCHA)

Saturday: UNO 3  UMD 2
Sunday: UNO 6  UMD 3

Mike Seidel and Tony Cameranisi each scored late in the first period to pull the Bulldogs even with UNO at 2-2 after an early two-goal deficit. But the scoring dried up from there until Michael Young‘s goal at 12:12 of the third period lifted the Mavericks over UMD on Saturday night in Omaha. Josh Archibald and Ryan Walters also scored for UNO while Wade Bergman had two assists for the Bulldogs.

Dominic Zombo scored twice and Walters added a goal and an assist as the Mavericks completed a sweep of Minnesota-Duluth on Sunday afternoon. UNO goaltender John Faulkner made 31 saves in raising his record to 6-0-1 overall. Seidel and Joe Basaraba scored first period goals for the Bulldogs as the teams skated to a 2-2 tie after one period as they had the night before. But the Mavericks scored twice in the final 1:14 of the second period, including Zombo’s second of the game with 9.1 seconds left which would hold up as the game winner.

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Zach Budish’s goal on Friday, the first of the season for the Minnesota captain, turned out to be the difference in a win over Minnesota State (Photo: University of Minnesota Athletics)

A Zach Budish power-play goal at 5:40 of the third period–Minnesota’s third of the night with the man advantage–lifted the University of Minnesota men to a 3-2 win over a plucky Minnesota State team in the first game of a home-and-home series between the in-state rivals at Mariucci Arena on Friday night.

“It was a good hockey game, we’ve just got to find a way to kill a penalty,” said Minnesota State coach Mike Hastings. “It’s something that we’ve talked about and we’ve got to get better at but I thought the compete was better tonight.”

Minnesota State sophomore defenseman Zach Palmquist got the Mavericks on the board first against Minnesota on Friday. (Photo: Minnesota State University Athletics)

The teams traded goals in the first two periods with sophomore defenseman Zach Palmquist and freshman forward Teddy Blueger giving the Mavericks one-goal leads in each period. Palmquist’s first-period goal, off of a pretty back-door feed from Jean-Paul Lafontaine, was, itself, a power-play goal for MSU (2-3-2, 0-3-0 WCHA) which was 1-3 with five shots in such situations.

“I thought Teddy [Blueger] was good tonight, not only offensively, but defensively and I think I’ve got to find a way to get him more ice,” Hastings said of the rookie. “I thought he was a good hockey player tonight and he’ll get more ice tomorrow.”

But Travis Boyd and Nate Schmidt answered for the Gophers (5-1-0, 2-1-0 WCHA) with Schmidt’s blast from the high slot at 15:07 of the second tying the game 2-2 heading into the second intermission. After the Mavericks failed to clear their zone, Schmidt stepped around a would-be shot blocker and fired a rocket over Mavericks goaltender Phil Cook’s left shoulder.

Minnesota finished 3-6 with the man advantage firing nine shots on Cook who turned away 29 Minnesota shots in taking the loss, but played well and perhaps deserved a better fate.

“One thing about [Minnesota’s] power play is if you don’t get clears when you have an opportunity to clear, as you saw with Schmidt’s [goal], he can shoot the puck,” said Hastings. “If you give them another opportunity they have a tendency to, once you’re down, to be able to find late guys and he just shot it through them.”

The Mavericks were giving the Gophers all they could handle through 40 minutes but what Hastings referred to as his team’s “Achilles heel” cost them once again. Minnesota State’s Brett Knowles went off for interference 4:49 into the final period and Budish poked in a loose puck through a scrum just 51 seconds later giving Minnesota its one and only lead.

The Mavericks pressed hard late but were unable to bury the equalizer behind Minnesota goaltender Adam Wilcox who finished with 23 saves.

“Tonight was a step from the compete end but, at the end of the day, it’s about wins and losses and we’ve got to find a way to get that first win in the WCHA,” Hastings said.

The Mavericks get that chance tomorrow night in Mankato when they host the Gophers in the series finale.

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