Weekend Overview: The Minnesota Golden Gophers begin the 2010-11 season against an unfamiliar opponent in the Massachusetts Minutemen. The two teams have met only once and that was at a 2004 tournament in Alaska. UMass, who finished last year with an 18-18-0 record, lost their lone exhibition game this year 4-3 in overtime to New Brunswick on Oct. 2.
Last Time Out: Minnesota overpowered British Columbia 6-0 in an exhibition game on Oct. 3, despite having started official practice just one day prior. The Gophers jumped out to a 4-0 lead 13 minutes into the game and posted additional goals in both the second and third period. Goaltenders Alex Kangas, Kent Patterson and Jake Kremer each played one period and collectively stopped 24 shots for the combined shutout. Thirteen Gophers tallied a point. Jake Hansen led the way with two goals, while Jacob Cepis had a goal and an assist. Jay Barriball and Cade Fairchild each had two assists for Minnesota.
Series History: This weekend will mark only the second and third time that Minnesota and Massachusetts will meet on the ice. The Gophers won the previous contest between the two schools on Oct. 15, 2004, at the Nye Frontier Classic in Anchorage, Alaska. Ryan Potulny scored with 31.9 seconds left to give the Gophers a 1-0 win. Netminder Kellen Briggs posted a 17-save shutout for Minnesota, while Gabe Winer stopped 20 shots for the Minutemen. UMass took third in the event with a 2-1 win against Canisius in the consolation game. No. 3-ranked Minnesota fell 3-2 to host Alaska-Anchorage in the championship game.
About The Minutemen: Massachusetts is led by veteran coach Don "Toot" Cahoon, who holds an all-time record of 327-357-67. The Minutemen are without their top-five scorers from last season. Leading scorer James Marcou (11g-40a) and leading goal scorer Casey Wellman (23g-22a) both turned professional early and Justin Braun (8g-31a), who led UMass in defensive scoring graduated. Looking to lead the offense will be junior T.J. Syner (8g-12a), sophomore Rocco Carzo (6g-6a) and junior Michael Marcou (7g-3a). Senior Paul Dainton mans the pipes for Massachusetts and turned in a tidy .901 save percentage last year with a 3.08 goals-against average.
Preseason Picks: Minnesota is picked to finish fifth in the WCHA by the coaches and sixth by the media. The Gophers are ranked No. 15 in both the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine and the USCHO/CBS Sports Rankings polls. The No. 15 ranking ends a 10-year streak of the Gophers being ranked in the top 10 to begin the season.
Against Hockey East: Minnesota is 78-47-7 all-time against Hockey East and 6-3-1 against the conference since it last played Massachusetts. The six wins came against Boston University, New Hampshire, Northeastern, Maine, Merrimack and UMass-Lowell. The Gophers lost to Boston College, Boston University and Maine. The lone tie came against New Hampshire. Minnesota has played every team in Hockey East at least nine times except for Massachusetts and Merrimack. The Gophers have played those two teams only once.
Feel Good (Story) Coach: Coach Don Lucia was diagnosed with sarcoidosis in January 2009 and was forced to miss four games during the 2008-09 season. After receiving treatment and medication, Lucia enters the 2010-11 season fully healthy after receiving a clean bill of health from his doctors in July 2010.
Opening Under Lucia: Minnesota is 6-5-0 in season opening games under coach Don Lucia. That record improves to 7-3-1 for home openers at Mariucci Arena. The Gophers lost their season opener last year at North Dakota (4-0) and their home opener to Denver (3-0). Minnesota won both openers in 2008-09, as the Gophers took both games of a home-and-home series with St. Cloud State. The Gophers won 3-2 on the road and 2-1 at home.
Back On Track? The Gophers look to finish the season with a winning record after ending last year with an 18-19-2 mark. It was Minnesota's first losing season since 1997-98 and only the 16th losing season in the history of the program. Minnesota also aims to return to the NCAA tournament for the first time since the 2007-08 season. The Gophers have missed the last two NCAA tournaments and have not missed three straight tournaments since 1997-2000.
70 Percent Full: Minnesota begins the year without its two highest scorers from last season. Tony Lucia (graduated) and Jordan Schroeder (turned professional) led the Gophers with 28 points a year ago. However, the team does return seven of its top 10 point producers from a year ago. Mike Hoeffel (24 points), Cade Fairchild (21), Jacob Cepis (19), Patrick White (17), Zach Budish (17), Nico Sacchetti (15), Jake Hansen (12) and Aaron Ness (12) will all wear the maroon and gold this year. Mike Carman (graduated, 18 points) is the third top-10 scorer not back this year.
Something Change? The Gophers roster has been drastically remodeled for this year's opening night. Only 11 of the 18 skaters in the lineup for the final game of 2009-10 are able to play this weekend. In addition to the ten incoming freshmen, redshirt senior Jay Barriball and junior Taylor Matson will return to the ice after suffering season ending injuries last year. Only 10 of the 24 skaters on the roster played in more than 30 games for the maroon and gold last season.
Have We Met? There will be plenty of new faces in Mariucci Arena this year as 10 freshman join the Golden Gophers for the upcoming season. The talented class includes Mark Alt, Minnesota's Mr. Hockey Nick Bjugstad, Nate Condon, Max Gardiner, Erik Haula, Justin Holl, Jared Larson, Jake Parenteau, Nate Schmidt and Tom Serratore.
Keep It To A Minimum: Many of the Gophers' wins and losses last season were contingent on how well they did at keeping the puck out of their own net. Minnesota was 16-1 when allowing two goals or less and 2-18-2 when allowing three or more goals. Two of the outliers came in a series at Alaska-Anchorage where the Gophers took the first game 7-4 and fell the next day 2-1. Both ties were 3-3 stalemates with North Dakota.
Getting A Little Drafty: Nineteen Gophers have been drafted by NHL teams. The junior and freshman class each have six draftees, the senior class has five and both of the team's sophomores have been drafted. Incoming freshmen Nick Bjugstad, Mark Alt, Justin Holl, and Max Gardiner were selected in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, with each of them going in the first three rounds (and top 74 picks overall). Other than Bjugstad, senior Patrick White (No. 22 in 2007) is the only other Gopher taken in the first round.
Call Him Captain: Jay Barriball returns to the lineup after missing all but five games last season. The senior captain had two goals and two assists last year before suffering a season-ending knee injury in practice on Nov. 3, 2009. Barriball, who was granted a medical redshirt for this season, became the 78th player in school history to reach 100 career points last year. He has 102 career points (39g-63a) in 124 games.
Full Year For Cepis: Jacob Cepis, a transfer from Bowling Green, will be with the Gophers for the entire season. He joined the lineup at mid-season last year and skated in all 21 games for during the second half of the year. Cepis, who finished fifth on the team in scoring (7g-12a), had a 10-game point streak (team's longest streak of the season) and received the team's Unsung Hero award.
King Kangas Moving Up: Alex Kangas enters his senior season third all-time in program history for games played by a goaltender. He played 33 games last year and has guarded the crease in 100 career games for Minnesota. Kangas has a chance to pass Kellen Briggs (132 career games) and move into second place on the list if given a heavy workload. Even if Kangas played every game this year he cannot break Adam Houser's record of 151 games played. Kangas is also third on the Gophers' career saves list with 2,571 but should move into second this year. Briggs is second on the career list with 2,968 saves while Hauser is first with 3,777 saves.
Fresh Import: Freshman Erik Haula, who hails from Pori, Finland, will become the first European-born player to play for the Gophers since Thomas Vanek (Graz, Austria) in 2003-2004. Haula joins Vanek as the only European to play for Minnesota under coach Don Lucia. Haula, who played for Shattuck-St. Mary's High School in Faribault, Minn., racked up 28 goals and 44 assists in 56 games for Omaha (USHL) in the 2009-2010 season. The Minnesota Wild selected Haula in the seventh round of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft with the 182nd overall pick. Haula had a goal and tied for a team-high five shots against British Columbia on Sunday.
MMMBop: Junior forward Jake Hansen recorded only 10 points in 35 regular season games last year, but has started to get his name on the score sheet more often since then. After assisting on the game-tying goal in the team's lone first-round win at North Dakota and notching the team's final goal of the season against the Fighting Sioux the following night, Hansen potted two goals in the Gophers' only exhibition contest against British Columbia last Sunday.
Excuse Me Mr. The highest distinction a high school hockey player in Minnesota can receive is being named Mr. Hockey. This year's team has two players - junior Aaron Ness and freshman Nick Bjugstad - who received that honor. Additionally eight players (Jay Barriball, Nick Larson, Taylor Matson, Joe Miller, Patrick White, Justin Holl, Max Gardiner and Mark Alt) were named finalists for the award.
I noticed UNO annihilated Clarkson 8 zip. Next weekend's series with Deano will be good.