Weekend Overview: Minnesota plays its first road games of the year this weekend when the team travels to Colorado College for a WCHA matchup. It is only one of four times that the Gophers will leave the State of Hockey in the regular season. Before leading Minnesota, coach Don Lucia was the head coach at Colorado College where he recorded a 166-68-18 (.694) record in six seasons.
Last Time Out: Minnesota welcomed St. Cloud State to Mariucci Arena for a Friday-Sunday WCHA series. The two teams played on Sunday because president Barack Obama was on the University of Minnesota campus on Saturday. On Friday, the Gophers fell behind 5-0 to St. Cloud State in the second period and could not come back. The Gophers controlled the third period and scored twice, but eventually lost 5-2. Mike Hoeffel and Taylor Matson scored for Minnesota, while Kevin Wehrs, Nico Sacchetti and Mark Alt added assists. Alex Kangas started in goal, but was replaced by Kent Patterson at the 33:33 mark. Patterson stopped all 12 shots he faced.
On Sunday, the Gophers snapped a three-game skid and earned their first WCHA win on the season with a hard-fought 2-1 victory against St. Cloud State. The win also ended a three-game losing streak to the Huskies. For the fourth straight game, the Gophers allowed their opponents to score first, but unlike the previous three games Minnesota scored the important second goal when Jacob Cepis scored on the very next shift. Captain Jay Barriball added a power-play goal at the end of the first period and that was enough for goalie Kent Patterson who started his second game of the year. The junior turned away 25 shots, including 13 in the final period to improve his season record to 2-0-0.
Series History: Minnesota leads the all-time series with Colorado College 158-84-7. The Gophers won both meetings last year at Mariucci Arena and the teams have each won five of the last 10 meetings. Minnesota won 3-0 (Feb. 19, 2010) and 7-4 (Feb. 20, 2010) a year ago, but most of the scoring power from those two games is no longer on the Gopher roster. Of the 10 goals scored, only Patrick White, Mike Hoeffel, Aaron Ness and Cade Fairchild (all one goal each in the series) are back wearing the maroon and gold this year. Alex Kangas was between the pipes for the Minnesota in both games and his 3-0 win in the first game of the series was his most recent shutout and the fourth of his career.
About The Tigers: Like Minnesota, Colorado College is playing this year without its top point producers from last year. The Tigers are without three of their top-four scorers from 2009-10 and their leading returning scorer is sophomore Rylan Schwartz (6g-22a). Senior Tyler Johnson is the only returnee who reached double digits in goals last year (14). Tiger alum Scott Owens coaches Colorado College and has a career record of 242-135-36 in 11 seasons. This year, the Tigers are ranked No. 19 and are 3-2-1 (every game decided by one goal) on the season. They are 1-1-0 in the WCHA after earning a road split with Minnesota State last weekend. Goaltender Joe Howe, who is from Plymouth, Minn., led the Tigers to a 1-0 win on Saturday. Brothers Jaden (4g-2a) and Rylan (2g-4a) Schwartz lead CC with six points.
Road Trip: This week's matchup at Colorado College are Minnesota's first road games of the season. Minnesota played its first six games at Mariucci Arena for the first time in 46 years. This weekend is one of only seven road trips that Minnesota will make this year and is one of only four times that the Gophers will leave the state in the regular season.
Familiar Ice: Minnesota coach Don Lucia led the Colorado College program from 1993-99 and registered a 166-68-18 record (.694) during his time behind the Tiger bench. He guided CC to a 23-11-5 record and the WCHA regular-season title in his first season. The Tigers were 8-28 before Lucia arrived and had not had a winning season in their previous 13 campaigns. Lucia guided the Tigers to three straight outright regular-season league titles in his first three years in Colorado Springs and led Colorado College to the 1996 national championship game and the 1997 NCAA Frozen Four.
Colorado Connections: Colorado College has five Minnesotans on its roster, while Minnesota has one player from Colorado. Freshman Tom Serratore is from Colorado Springs and his father, Frank, is the head coach at Air Force in Colorado Springs. Tiger defenseman Gabe Guentzel is the son of Mike Guentzel. Mike is a former Gopher player and assistant coach and is currently an assistant coach at Nebraska-Omaha.