The #1 ranked Gopher Hockey team (17-4-4, 9-4-4 WCHA) hosted #14 ranked Minnesota State-Mankato (16-8-3, 10-8-1 WCHA) tonight at Mariucci Arena in front of 10,076 as part of their home and home series this weekend. In a heartbreaker, it was the visiting Mavericks that take home the win, 2-1, with a last second goal.
Here is what I saw.
* The Gophers ten game unbeaten streak ended with the loss
* Seth Ambrosz had been good about staying out of the box recently, after being a habitual penalty getter last year and at the beginning of this season. He has cut down on his penalty minutes, and increased his offensive output this season.
2012-13 = 7 Goals & 7 Assists for 14 points and 9 Penalties for 18 Minutes
2011-12 = 5 Goals & 3 Assists for 8 points and 21 Penalties for 53 Minutes
* Probably an ideal game for Wilcox. He got just enough shots to keep him warm, and stopped a few toughie's. Unfortunately, he got turned around on the Mavericks first goal in the second period when he lost track of the puck behind the net and was looking the other way as the Mavericks punched it in.
* After pretty evenly played first and second periods, Minnesota dominated the third period before giving up the game winning goal with only :44 to play. On the play it looked like Tom Serratore was just a little late in trying to tie up the MSU player that ended up knocking home the loose puck.
Here is what I didn't see.
* The Big Ten Network apparently sucks at broadcasting Hockey games. Every game that they have done for the Gophers this year have been met with a lot of complaining from Fans. Being at the games, I have yet to be subjected to the Big Ten broadcasts. Apparently I have been fortunate?
* It was brought to my attention after the game that Adam Wilcox and the other Gopher goalies were wearing "Cat's Eye" masks. For those not familiar with Goalie masks, the cage part of the helmet comes in a couple of different styles. Players from youth through College have worn a more protective style of cage by rule. The pro's have always worn the "Cat's Eye" cages, which allow for better ability to see, since there is a bigger opening where the eyes are.
Here are the post game comments:
Minnesota Head Coach Don Lucia:
Regarding Adam Wilcox… "I think both goalies played well tonight. I knew it was going to be low scoring, and one play was going to make the game, and they made the play in the final minute to win the game. The way both goalies were playing, it probably wasn't going to be a clean shot. He (Wilcox) did his job. I thought that he was probably our best player tonight"
Regarding The Nate's… "Nate (Schmidt) was good tonight. Other than Adam (Wilcox), I would say that Nate was our best player tonight. Nate Condon was our best Forward, and Nate Schmidt was our best Defenseman"
Regarding the game… "I think our energy got better as the game went on. They had the momentum, I think, for the first half of the game. We were sagging, we weren't playing on our toes, and we weren't talking. I don't think we did enough to put ourselves in a position to win the game. But we did get better. We had some good opportunities in the third, but we just couldn't get that next goal. You've gotta make plays at critical points in the game, and we didn't make enough plays tonight to win. I thought that (Travis) Boyd's line got better in the third period. They had some good shifts. But we didn't put enough shifts together back to back, especially early in the game, to gain any momentum"
Regarding tomorrow's game… "We've gotta play better early. The positive is we only gave up two goals, and most night's you're going to win when you give up two. Our specialty teams have to play better. We have to have a better start than we did tonight"
Regarding the special teams… "We looked disorganized tonight. It was not very good. It needs to be a whole lot better tomorrow. It was a key part of the game. They scored on the power play once, and we didn't"
Nate Schmidt:
Regarding the game… "There's no weekends off in the WCHA. There really aren't. With how good all the teams are in the league this year, a team like Mankato can win here if we have a lackluster performance. We couldn't really string together consecutive shifts, and it was tough to get a rhythm going. I thought we made a little bit of a run there in the third. I thought we had a chance to maybe steal a win here tonight, with how well we were getting the puck to the net, and getting the puck down low. It was a bright spot in a dim game. Hopefully tomorrow we put together a whole sixty minutes instead of just ten"
Regarding the play of the Defense... "We pride ourselves on blocking shots and getting pucks out of the zone. Tonight, I don't think we did that very well. We didn't block a whole lot of shots, and didn't get the puck out of our zone very clean"
Regarding the power play… "We're having a tough time getting the puck into the zone. That kind of falls on me. We're struggling. Teams are throwing different looks at us. Everyone's a little tense, and pressing a little bit. We've had chances, but it's just not going in. Right now it's just not falling in for us"
Regarding Adam Wilcox…"We've been asking a lot of our Freshman Goaltender. He doesn't have a lot of experience back there. But the guy is really athletic, and he's been playing really well for us. But we've been leaning on him a little too much. It's time for us to start pulling our own weight"
The Gophers will take on the Mavericks again tomorrow night in Mankato at the Verizon Wireless Center. Game time is 7:00 PM (Central). The game will be broadcast on Fox Sports North PLUS.
Here is what I saw.
* The Gophers ten game unbeaten streak ended with the loss
* Seth Ambrosz had been good about staying out of the box recently, after being a habitual penalty getter last year and at the beginning of this season. He has cut down on his penalty minutes, and increased his offensive output this season.
2012-13 = 7 Goals & 7 Assists for 14 points and 9 Penalties for 18 Minutes
2011-12 = 5 Goals & 3 Assists for 8 points and 21 Penalties for 53 Minutes
* Probably an ideal game for Wilcox. He got just enough shots to keep him warm, and stopped a few toughie's. Unfortunately, he got turned around on the Mavericks first goal in the second period when he lost track of the puck behind the net and was looking the other way as the Mavericks punched it in.
* After pretty evenly played first and second periods, Minnesota dominated the third period before giving up the game winning goal with only :44 to play. On the play it looked like Tom Serratore was just a little late in trying to tie up the MSU player that ended up knocking home the loose puck.
Here is what I didn't see.
* The Big Ten Network apparently sucks at broadcasting Hockey games. Every game that they have done for the Gophers this year have been met with a lot of complaining from Fans. Being at the games, I have yet to be subjected to the Big Ten broadcasts. Apparently I have been fortunate?
* It was brought to my attention after the game that Adam Wilcox and the other Gopher goalies were wearing "Cat's Eye" masks. For those not familiar with Goalie masks, the cage part of the helmet comes in a couple of different styles. Players from youth through College have worn a more protective style of cage by rule. The pro's have always worn the "Cat's Eye" cages, which allow for better ability to see, since there is a bigger opening where the eyes are.
Here are the post game comments:
Minnesota Head Coach Don Lucia:
Regarding Adam Wilcox… "I think both goalies played well tonight. I knew it was going to be low scoring, and one play was going to make the game, and they made the play in the final minute to win the game. The way both goalies were playing, it probably wasn't going to be a clean shot. He (Wilcox) did his job. I thought that he was probably our best player tonight"
Regarding The Nate's… "Nate (Schmidt) was good tonight. Other than Adam (Wilcox), I would say that Nate was our best player tonight. Nate Condon was our best Forward, and Nate Schmidt was our best Defenseman"
Regarding the game… "I think our energy got better as the game went on. They had the momentum, I think, for the first half of the game. We were sagging, we weren't playing on our toes, and we weren't talking. I don't think we did enough to put ourselves in a position to win the game. But we did get better. We had some good opportunities in the third, but we just couldn't get that next goal. You've gotta make plays at critical points in the game, and we didn't make enough plays tonight to win. I thought that (Travis) Boyd's line got better in the third period. They had some good shifts. But we didn't put enough shifts together back to back, especially early in the game, to gain any momentum"
Regarding tomorrow's game… "We've gotta play better early. The positive is we only gave up two goals, and most night's you're going to win when you give up two. Our specialty teams have to play better. We have to have a better start than we did tonight"
Regarding the special teams… "We looked disorganized tonight. It was not very good. It needs to be a whole lot better tomorrow. It was a key part of the game. They scored on the power play once, and we didn't"
Nate Schmidt:
Regarding the game… "There's no weekends off in the WCHA. There really aren't. With how good all the teams are in the league this year, a team like Mankato can win here if we have a lackluster performance. We couldn't really string together consecutive shifts, and it was tough to get a rhythm going. I thought we made a little bit of a run there in the third. I thought we had a chance to maybe steal a win here tonight, with how well we were getting the puck to the net, and getting the puck down low. It was a bright spot in a dim game. Hopefully tomorrow we put together a whole sixty minutes instead of just ten"
Regarding the play of the Defense... "We pride ourselves on blocking shots and getting pucks out of the zone. Tonight, I don't think we did that very well. We didn't block a whole lot of shots, and didn't get the puck out of our zone very clean"
Regarding the power play… "We're having a tough time getting the puck into the zone. That kind of falls on me. We're struggling. Teams are throwing different looks at us. Everyone's a little tense, and pressing a little bit. We've had chances, but it's just not going in. Right now it's just not falling in for us"
Regarding Adam Wilcox…"We've been asking a lot of our Freshman Goaltender. He doesn't have a lot of experience back there. But the guy is really athletic, and he's been playing really well for us. But we've been leaning on him a little too much. It's time for us to start pulling our own weight"
The Gophers will take on the Mavericks again tomorrow night in Mankato at the Verizon Wireless Center. Game time is 7:00 PM (Central). The game will be broadcast on Fox Sports North PLUS.