TravisErickson
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No. 13/15 Minnesota (0-1-0) vs. No. 7 Minnesota Duluth (0-1-0)
Location: Friday – Mariucci Arena, Saturday – AMSOIL Arena
Puck Drop: Friday – 7:05 p.m. CT, Saturday – 7:07 p.m. CT
TV: FOX Sports North
Stream: BTN2Go (Friday only), FOX Sports Go
Radio: 1500 ESPN, Gopher Radio Network
Inside the Rivalry
The Gophers hold an impressive 134-77-17 advantage over the Bulldogs. Minnesota is 74-33-9 at home and 55-40-7 on the road against Duluth.
Last season wasn’t great for the Gophers, posting just a 1-4-0 record against UMD including a season-ending loss in the NCAA Tournament.
Minnesota holds a 5-1 National Championship advantage.
Storyline Central
Mike Wellens of the Duluth News Tribune writes about the Bulldogs’ struggle with penalties in their first game. Against Bemidji State, UMD gave up 12 minutes of power play opportunity.
The Bulldogs’ Carson Soucy will not be suiting up for Friday’s opener. Jeff Cox of SBNation College Hockey has the latest on the Wild prospect’s suspension. The hit was MASSIVE and you can see why he has to sit out.
The Bulldogs were involved in one of the most interesting events of college hockey’s opening weekend. The Duluth News Tribune details how a power outage forced a rescheduling of what would have been UMD’s season opener last week.
Notes and Quotes
Sophomore defenseman Ryan Collins is looking forward to playing the Bulldogs after last year’s disappointing finish.
“I’m looking forward to playing them,” said Collins. “It was a long summer, after playing that last game, and none of us forgot about that.”
The Bulldogs present a high-flying explosive offense. The Gophers will have to improve on last week’s loss to Vermont if they want to contain UMD.
“We don’t change our game too much,” said Collins. “Obviously we know what the other team is going to do and we’ll practice that as far as their neutral-zone trap. We worked on that and their penalty kill. We really want to focus on how we play. We’re very confident in our game and we know if we play the way we want to play, that we can take it to any team no matter how they play.”
After getting blanked in their opener, the Gophers will need more production from their freshmen forwards against Duluth.
“There are guys in new roles; guys in elevated roles and obviously we had about seven freshmen playing,” said Connor Reilly.
“We’ve had significant lineup changes and because of that, the way guys respond, who’s playing with who, the chemistry, the cohesiveness is certainly going to be different and that’s something we’re going to have to really work on in practice.”
Don Lucia agreed that scoring will need to come from the youngsters.
“Freshmen are going to have chip in, certainly we have a lot of them playing, and guys that are elevated in our lineup with power play time and top-nine minutes, they’re going to have to produce,” said Lucia.
Along with questions up front, Minnesota’s goalie situation is also up in the air without the dependable Adam Wilcox this season.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do yet with our goaltending,” said Lucia. “To be honest, we really haven’t even talked about it as a staff, yet. We’ll discuss that in the morning and which direction we’ll want to go.”
Freshman tender Eric Schierhorn got the first start and, despite the loss, didn’t look out of place.
“I like the fact that he didn’t beat on the first shot,” said Lucia. “He’s got to work on his rebound control, obviously. He’s competitive. I think Justin [Johnson] is going to be great for him because he hasn’t had a goalie coach. He fights and battles. I think over time you’ll really see him grow.”
Location: Friday – Mariucci Arena, Saturday – AMSOIL Arena
Puck Drop: Friday – 7:05 p.m. CT, Saturday – 7:07 p.m. CT
TV: FOX Sports North
Stream: BTN2Go (Friday only), FOX Sports Go
Radio: 1500 ESPN, Gopher Radio Network
Inside the Rivalry
The Gophers hold an impressive 134-77-17 advantage over the Bulldogs. Minnesota is 74-33-9 at home and 55-40-7 on the road against Duluth.
Last season wasn’t great for the Gophers, posting just a 1-4-0 record against UMD including a season-ending loss in the NCAA Tournament.
Minnesota holds a 5-1 National Championship advantage.
Storyline Central
Mike Wellens of the Duluth News Tribune writes about the Bulldogs’ struggle with penalties in their first game. Against Bemidji State, UMD gave up 12 minutes of power play opportunity.
The Bulldogs’ Carson Soucy will not be suiting up for Friday’s opener. Jeff Cox of SBNation College Hockey has the latest on the Wild prospect’s suspension. The hit was MASSIVE and you can see why he has to sit out.
The Bulldogs were involved in one of the most interesting events of college hockey’s opening weekend. The Duluth News Tribune details how a power outage forced a rescheduling of what would have been UMD’s season opener last week.
Notes and Quotes
Sophomore defenseman Ryan Collins is looking forward to playing the Bulldogs after last year’s disappointing finish.
“I’m looking forward to playing them,” said Collins. “It was a long summer, after playing that last game, and none of us forgot about that.”
The Bulldogs present a high-flying explosive offense. The Gophers will have to improve on last week’s loss to Vermont if they want to contain UMD.
“We don’t change our game too much,” said Collins. “Obviously we know what the other team is going to do and we’ll practice that as far as their neutral-zone trap. We worked on that and their penalty kill. We really want to focus on how we play. We’re very confident in our game and we know if we play the way we want to play, that we can take it to any team no matter how they play.”
After getting blanked in their opener, the Gophers will need more production from their freshmen forwards against Duluth.
“There are guys in new roles; guys in elevated roles and obviously we had about seven freshmen playing,” said Connor Reilly.
“We’ve had significant lineup changes and because of that, the way guys respond, who’s playing with who, the chemistry, the cohesiveness is certainly going to be different and that’s something we’re going to have to really work on in practice.”
Don Lucia agreed that scoring will need to come from the youngsters.
“Freshmen are going to have chip in, certainly we have a lot of them playing, and guys that are elevated in our lineup with power play time and top-nine minutes, they’re going to have to produce,” said Lucia.
Along with questions up front, Minnesota’s goalie situation is also up in the air without the dependable Adam Wilcox this season.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do yet with our goaltending,” said Lucia. “To be honest, we really haven’t even talked about it as a staff, yet. We’ll discuss that in the morning and which direction we’ll want to go.”
Freshman tender Eric Schierhorn got the first start and, despite the loss, didn’t look out of place.
“I like the fact that he didn’t beat on the first shot,” said Lucia. “He’s got to work on his rebound control, obviously. He’s competitive. I think Justin [Johnson] is going to be great for him because he hasn’t had a goalie coach. He fights and battles. I think over time you’ll really see him grow.”
