Gopher Hockey Recap – vs Michigan State Spartans – 10-13-2012

The Gopher hockey team will try to complete a season opening sweep, keep that #1 ranking & keep Gopher hockey in a good place after a few down years. They are looking to redeem themselves after the way their season ended at the 2012 Frozen Four!

Starting Goalies: MSU: Will Yanakeff; MIN: Adam Wilcox

Adam Wilcox gets the first start of his Gopher hockey collegiate career tonight after Michael “The Big” Shibrowski got the start last night. It’s going to be those 2 guys in goal until one of them takes control of the starting spot. The Big Shibrowski wasn’t tested very much last night. Hopefully Wilcox won’t be tested too much. That would be a good sign for Gopher Hockey!

Line Chart – Minnesota Golden Gophers

Pronunciation: Skjei = Shay
Scratches/Did Not Play: MIN: G-Michael Shibrowski, G-Ryan Coyne-31, G-Matt LaPrade-30, D-Jake Parenteau, D-Blake Thompson-3, F-Christian Horn-18, F-Jared Larson-23, F-Ryan Reilly-9
Injured: MIN: F-Connor Reilly-21

Basically the same lineup as last night with the only changes coming in goal and on the 4th line where freshman Ryan Reilly takes the center spot over for fellow freshman AJ Michaelson and Justin Holl gets a game at forward and right wing in place of Jake Parenteau. All other lines are the same.

Line Chart – Michigan State Spartans

No changes to the Michigan State lineup. FSN listed the lines in a different order but I’m not sure that means anything other than maybe the coach trying some different match-ups for Game 2!

OK…Drop The CLUTTERPUCK!!!

1st Period

• An early turnover tests Adam Wilcox but he makes a nice glove save.
• GOAL!!! Erik Haula from Sam Warning? at 1:25 of the 1st Period – A pass into the skates in the neutral turns into a bad turnover for MSU and Erik Haula gets the puck on the right side and takes it in 1-on-1 with Gatt, Haula just takes the shot and follows up the rebound by battling through the MSU defenseman knocking him down so he runs into his own goalie pushing the puck in the net. Controversial goal maybe? 1-0 GOPHERS!
• PENALTY – Anthony Hayes for Hooking at 1:50 of the 1st Period – Gophers come in on a 2-on-1 and force a hook on the backcheck
• Penalty killed off but the Gophers got a lot of chances
• GOAL!!! Nick Bjugstad from Kyle Rau & Christian Isackson at 5:19 of the 1st Period –A battle for the puck off a dump between Tanner Sorenson and Kyle Rau in the Gopher defensive zone is won by Rau (the puck squirted out off an MSU poke check), Christian Isackson picks it up and heads up the ice with Nate Schmidt & Nick Bjugstad. Bjugstad comes up the right side being covered by Forfar but for some reason, Forfar lets him go and the big guy just wheels around the net to get open on the left side of the net (Yanakeff’s right). Isackson coming up the left side with the puck spins back waiting for Rau who was trailing the play coming up the center of the ice. Rau gets the pass, skates in and sees Bjugstad wide open for an easy tip-in to an open net. 2-0 GOPHERS!!!
  • Some puck-watching on defense for the Spartans turns into an easy goal for the Gophers
  • I’m amazed how Bjugstad gets open! He scored 25 goals last season so how does he get open all the time? Why isn’t someone on him constantly in the defensive zone? HOW does he get wide open 3 feet from the net?
• GOAL!!! Tom Serratore from Ryan Reilly and Ben Marshall at 7:19 of the 1st Period –Ben Marshall skates the puck to the left side of the neutral zone with one guy chasing him and one guy coming at him but he’s still allowed to make a cross-ice pass to Ryan Reilly coming up the right side. Reilly gets around Bondra, looks to take a shot but fans on it and the puck slides to the front of the net where Tom Serratore is covered but he battles through it to get his stick on the puck and it slides in the right side of the net! 3-0 GOPHERS!!!
  • Tom Serratore’s last goal was on November 11th, 2011 – 24 games ago!
  • Gotta have a stick blocking the pass through the neutral zone. I’m totally for physical play but you have to be smart. Take the puck if you can or at least take away the pass through the neutral zone.
  • You can’t just cover someone by having a body on him especially if you don’t know where the puck is. You have to make sure you have the stick checked as well.
• PENALTY – R.J. Boyd for Kneeing at 8:42 of the 1st Period – Not a tough call for the official as that was pretty obvious
• PENALTY – Nate Condon for Interference at 11:09 of the 1st Period – This looks like a bad call to me. Chris Forfar trips on Condon’s skate and falls down while Condon is standing there. I’m not sure that’s interference. That might be the official trying to even up the game with a few penalties already called on MSU.
• GOAL – Ben Marshall from Zach Budish & Erik Haula at 19:07 of the 1st Period –A little dump chip into the right side of the offensive zone by Sam Warning and Zach Budish wins the race to the puck, tries to take a shot that is blocked and goes behind the net where Erik Haula gets possession and passes it back to Budish in the left corner of the offensive zone. Budish comes out from the corner off the half-wall and makes a pass to Haula, who makes a little backhand drop pass to Marshall at the right point and Marshall takes what looks like a harmless wrist shot from the point that appears to have been deflected by MSU forward Brent Darnell into the net. 4-0 GOPHERS!
  • It wasn’t deflected but Darnell accidentally screened Yanakeff while trying to cover Warning in front of the net.

2nd Period

• GOAL – Kyle Rau from Christian Isackson and Brady Skjei at :30 of the 2nd Period –A good forecheck and winning battles will turn into good things the majority of the time. Brady Skjei keeps the puck in the zone by dumping it back in from the right side wrapping it around to the back of the net. Christian Isackson gets body position on Jake Chelios to gain the puck and keeps possession, while two MSU players defend him, until he sees an open Kyle Rau in front of the net for a one-time shot through the five-hole!
  • More puck-watching from MSU! What happens when you watch the puck? Players get open and you hang the goalie out to dry so he has no time to react to a quick play.
• PENALTIES – Matt Berry for Roughing – 5 Roughing Minors at 5:12 of the 2nd Period –Matt Berry gets a scoring chance and gets to the net and decides it’s time to rough things up a bit by running the goalie. He lowers his shoulder into Adam Wilcox when he had plenty of time to avoid him. This causes a total of 5 roughing minors (MSU: Matt Berry, Ryan Keller, Matt DeBlouw; MIN: Seth Ambroz, Seth Helgeson) and a Gopher Power Play!
  • Revenge of the Seth anyone? Both Seth Ambroz and Seth Helgeson got in on the action there to protect there goalie! “Two minutes well worth it!!!”
• PENALTY – Nickolas Gatt for Hooking at 7:30 of the 2nd Period – A hook on the penalty kill gives the Gophers 22 seconds of 5-on-3
• PENALTY – Nickolas Gatt for Hooking at 9:52 of the 2nd Period
• GOAL – Nate Condon from Seth Ambroz and Mark Alt at 14:58 of the 2nd Period –Off a tip-in dump from a Mark Alt pass from Seth Ambroz on the right side, Nate Condon uses his speed to get around Jake Chelios, makes a quick move from his backhand to his forehand and rips one past Will Yanakeff to the blocker side! 6-0 GOPHERS!
  • Ahhh….to have speed! SPEED KILLS and Nate Condon has speed and he knows how to use it!

3rd Period

• Jake Hildebrandt in goal for the Spartans to start the 3rd Period –The freshman gets his first college action in mop-up time!
  • “Hey! Get in there and make some saves, huh?” Is there ever a good time to be the back-up ‘tender? Usually you’re coming in because your team is losing big or because of an injury! There’s always being the guy brought in when your team is up big but that might not be the greatest situation either. It could become a rough game and the other team will usually get a little more physical to try and spark their team and get some momentum going.
• GOAL – Brent Darnell from Chris Forfar at 2:05 of the 3rd Period –Darnell got the puck from Forfar in the left corner (to the right of Wilcox) and had time enough to move in towards the goal and shoot between Brady Skjei’s legs and through the five-hole of Adam Wilcox!
  • Would that make it a 10-hole shot? Two 5-holes equals at 10-hole? No? Maybe?
• BIG HIT!!! – Seth Ambroz levels John Draeger in front of his own net at 3:34 of the 3rd Period – BOOM!!! – HEY! Take it easy on Future Wild!!!
  
  • Caught him watching his pass! Good hit! Actually broke Draeger’s stick too!
• PENALTY – Travis Walsh for Charging at 6:55 of the 3rd Period – Walsh taking out some aggression attempting a big hit on Seth Ambroz
  • Gorg doesn’t know why it isn’t checking from behind!…Because he hit him from the side probably.
  • Does it matter? It still would’ve been a minor penalty! It wasn’t close to a major!
• PENALTY – Jake Chelios for Checking From Behind at 12:31 of the 3rd Period – 5-minute MAJOR and Game Misconduct –Just a dangerous hit that they are trying to get out of the game.
  • Luckily, Ryan Reilly was far enough away from the boards that he had time to adjust before he hit the boards
  • Not sure if players are getting instruction on how to avoid making that hit but they need to figure out how to adjust how they hit
• GOAL – Brady Skjei from Nate Schmidt & Justin Holl at 15:42 of the 3rd Period On the POWER PLAY –Just a simple little pass from the left half-wall from Holl to Schmidt at the middle of the blue line and Schmidt just passes it to a waiting Brady Skjei at the right point for a one-time blast that goes upper left to give the Gophers at 7-1 lead!
  • That’s Brady Skjei‘s 1st Collegiate GOAL for Gopher Hockey!!! Hopefully the first of many for him as a Gopher!

Another dominating game by the Gophers tonight! The Spartans didn’t look ready for either game. I can’t imagine starting the season on the road against the #1 ranked team in the nation is an easy assignment for any team. That being said, I’m sure they are quite disappointed with the way they played and will make the necessary changes to improve over the season.

Gopher Hockey Recap from GopherSports.com – Gophers Complete Season-Opening Sweep with 7-1 Win
Gopher Hockey Box Score from GopherSports.com – Box Score
Recap from USCHO.com –Haula, Budish each notch two points as Minnesota crushes Michigan State
Recap from MSUSpartans.com – Gophers Blitz Spartans 7-1 in Series Finale

In other WCHA action tonight,
Colorado College beat Clarkson 5-4 completing a weekend sweep
Michigan Tech beat Lake Superior 8-4
Wisconsin lost to Northern Michigan 4-2
Minnesota State tied Alabama-Huntsville 2-2
Minnesota-Duluth lost to Ohio State 3-2
St. Cloud State lost to New Hampshire 4-2
Nebraska-Omaha lost to Notre Dame 3-2
Alaska-Anchorage tied Air Force 3-3
and
Bemidji State beat the US Under-18 Team 4-3 (Exhibition)

In other College Hockey action,
Penn State got their 1st NCAA Win needing Overtime to beat AIC – Penn State Recap
Boston College lost to Northeastern 3-1

Boston College was ranked #1 in the most recent USCHO poll and the NCAA Division I Rankings. I say “was” because since they lost, Minnesota could move into the #1 ranking alone. Now, rankings don’t really mean anything especially this early in the season but there something to look at and there’s always bragging rights…right?

Until next week….KEEP ‘PUCKIN’!!!

ClutterPUCKED AGAIN!!!

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Later ‘PUCKERS!!!