The Minnesota Gopher Hockey team gets back on the ice tonight with their annual Mariucci Classic Holiday tournament and their first opponent is Air Force Academy Falcons! One of the big story lines will be the family affair between Air Force Head Coach Frank Serratore and his son Tom Serratore, who is having his best season as a Minnesota Gopher in his junior season with 6 goals (3 game-winners), no assists and numerous big hits that are a huge part of his game.
Another big story line will be how the Gopher Hockey team plays coming out of the holiday break. Their last game was way back on December 8th when they gave up a 4-1 lead to Colorado College to end the first half with a tie! That’s three weeks without any game action! That’s a long time! There’s only so much you can do in practice to simulate a game and that only goes so far. I’m sure every player is anxious to get back on the ice and play against someone other than their teammates!
Line Chart – Minnesota Golden Gophers
Left Wing – Center – Right Wing
Kyle Rau-7 – Nick Bjugstad-27 – Nate Condon-16
F-Sam Warning-11 – Erik Haula-19 – Zach Budish-24
Tom Serratore-14 – Travis Boyd-22 – Seth Ambroz-17
Ryan Reilly-9 – Christian Isackson-26 – Justin Holl-12
Left Defenseman – Right Defenseman
Seth Helgeson-4 – Mark Alt-20
Jake Parenteau-6 – Ben Marshall-10
Brady Skjei-2 – Nate Schmidt-29
Goalie
Adam Wilcox-32
Mike Shibrowski-1
Ryan Coyne-31
Scratches: G-Matt LaPrade-30, D-Blake Thompson-3 (Transferred), D-Mike Reilly-5 (in Russia for World Juniors), F-AJ Michaelson-15, F-Christian Horn-18, F-Jared Larson-23
Injured: F-Connor Reilly-21
Line Chart – Air Force Academy Falcons
Left Wing – Center – Right Wing
Tony Thomas-20 – Chad Demers-17 – John Kruse-27
Kyle De Laurell-9 – Stephen Carew-19 – Cole Gunner-22
Scott Holm-15 – Ben Carey-26 – Casey Kleisinger-7
Ryan Timar-13 – Jason Fabian-16 – Mitch Torrel-25
Left Defenseman – Right Defenseman
Alex Halloran-4 – Dan Weissenhofer-11
Eric Artman-3 – Mike McDonald-55
Trevor Waldoch-77 – Mike Walsh-24
Goalie
Jason Torf-29
David Bosner
Paul Moberg
Scratches/Injured:
We’ll see how they come out tonight as we….
DROP THE CLUTTERPUCK!!!
All comments are from an offensive point of view unless otherwise noted!
1st Period
- Great interview before the game from Air Force Head Coach Frank Serratore about what he thinks about facing his son for the first time:
“All I can tell you is…like…I hope he gets his first hat trick……and I hope its tomorrow against Boston College!” – Haha!
- GOAL! – Erik Haula from Jake Parenteau & Sam Warning at 6:58 of the 1st period – The Gophers get a good bounce off a Jake Parenteau shot from the point that goes wide right off Ryan Timar’s stick and bounces off the back boards to the other side of the net. Erik Haula was going to the net from the left corner and just tried to chip the puck to the front of the net and it ends up going off Jason Fabian’s skate and into the net! GOPHERS 1-0!!!
- Is Erik Haula becoming the Gophers best player? He leads them in scoring and scores just over a point a game!
- Or is it because team’s are game planning against Nick Bjugstad and not worrying as much about Haula?
- Is it a good play to tip/deflect the puck wide when you are defending in your own zone?
- Hard to know if it was done on purpose but Air Force goaltender Jason Torf looked to be ready to catch that shot in his glove and then he didn’t know where it went after it deflected wide. That lead to the net being open as Torf was way to the left side of the net and couldn’t get over in time to cover the net.
- Usually you’d think deflecting a shot wide would be a good thing. This time it turned out bad as the Gophers got a good bounce off the back boards and Haula happened to be in the right place at the right time.
- That’d be a good thing to discuss with your team!
- I’m sure the goalie will tell you what he wants you to do or not to do in that situation!
- Is Erik Haula becoming the Gophers best player? He leads them in scoring and scores just over a point a game!
- PENALTY – Seth Helgeson for Roughing at 12:04 of the 1st period – Fox Sports Network shows no replay of the penalty so from what I saw Seth Helgeson threw a body check as Air Force exited their own zone and got his hands up high so the official called a roughing penalty on him!
- Bad penalty as going for that check resulted in a 2-on-1 for the Falcons!
- Plus, Kyle Rau was already covering that man on the play.
- Was there a miscommunication between Rau & Helgeson? or no communication at all?
- Bad penalty as going for that check resulted in a 2-on-1 for the Falcons!
- Should goalies try to play the puck?
- How often is it a turnover when a goalie attempts to make a play with the puck?
- They pass it around the boards….to the other team – TURNOVER!
- They play it away from the forechecker….to nobody – TURNOVER?
- Maybe they should just leave the puck for the defense?
- How often is it a turnover when a goalie attempts to make a play with the puck?
2nd Period
- GOAL! – Ryan Reilly from Christian Isackson & Justin Holl at 5:34 of the 2nd period – Ben Marshall crosses the red line and slaps the puck around the left boards for a hard dump. The puck goes all the way around to the right half-wall where Justin Holl gets to the puck about the same time as Falcon defenseman Alex Halloran and the puck bounces up in the air and neither player knows where it is until it lands on the ice. By that time Jason Fabian has come in to play the puck but Halloran hits it back to him but it goes through his legs. Christian Isackson sees the loose puck and gets to it as it goes down below the goal line. Dan Weissenhofer goes to defend Isackson and that leaves Ryan Reilly open in front of the net for a one-timer that he puts into the upper left corner! GOPHERS 2-0!!!
- That’s Ryan Reilly’s 1st COLLEGIATE GOAL!
- Even if Doug McLeod says its his 2nd goal of the season!
- He may be worse than Anthony LaPanta! That’s saying quite a bit there!
- I wish I could just mute the announcers and just listen to the game of hockey being played! Is there an app for that? There should be!
- Dan Weissenhofer leaves the front of the net to pursue the puck but Isackson had a step on him so he should have made sure to block a pass from getting to the front of the net.
- There’s not much Isackson (or any player for that matter) can do from beneath the goal line so just leave him there until someone else can cover the front of the net.
- The goalie, Jason Torf, doesn’t do a good job of being ready for the pass.
- He had his stick pointing out like he would deflect a centering pass but he missed it! Trying for it gave him less time to try to stop the shot.
- To give the goalie some slack, its difficult to watch the puck and know who’s in front of your net but a goalie’s job is to read the play more than any other player on the ice.
- Ryan Timar scrambled to get to Ryan Reilly in time but obviously couldn’t get there.
- There is a fine line between covering a player and being close to a player.
- Of course, if Weissenhofer gets the puck from Isackson, Timar is ready for the breakout right away.
- A Game Of Inches!
- Alex Halloran reaches for the puck at the half-wall but barely misses it allowing Holl to get to it and the puck bounces in the air.
- The puck is inches away from both Halloran and Fabian and it gets through Fabian’s legs.
- Isackson gets to the puck inches before Weissenhofer and passes it through his legs….
- Inches from being deflected by one of his skates and…
- Torf misses the centering pass by inches with his goalie stick!
- PENALTY – Erik Haula for Hooking at 19:50 of the 2nd period – Erik Haula accidentally gets his stick in between the legs of Scott Holm slowing him up and the official calls him for hooking. Tough break but you have to control your stick and don’t put it there.
3rd Period
- Quinnipiac – Quinn-i-Pee-Ac? or Quin-nip-EE-Ac? I say the latter but Mcleod pronounces it the former! Who’s right?
- Doug McLeod is talking about what’s on the scoreboard during the intermission!
- AND he says “that’s why you buy a ticket to a division I college hockey game!”
- Really? You buy a ticket to see what’s playing on the scoreboard during the intermission? Is that why ticket prices are high?
- Giving Doug McLeod free time to talk is a bad idea! Or at least a bad idea to have it broadcasted to the listening public!
- BIG SAVE! – Adam Wilcox on Stephen Carew at 5:50 of the 3rd period – Trevor Waldoch comes over the left of his own blue line and sees Stephen Carew coming up the right side. He fires a pass through the neutral zone that Nate Condon tries to break up but he only gets a piece of it and it deflects back right into the path Carew was skating in sending him in alone on Adam Wilcox but he waits too long to take a shot on Wilcox so Adam goes down making the save to keep the game at a 2-goal deficit!
- I’m not sure what Seth Helgeson is doing on that play! He was over near the bench and looked like he would change and then he’s closer to the other side of the ice and center ice and nobody is playing left defense.
- Mark Alt was already playing on the right D.
- Looking at the replay, it looks like Helgeson was covering Jason Fabian instead of staying in a good defensive position for where the puck is and could go.
- Hard to imagine the coaches want him glued to one guy like that, especially in the neutral zone.
- How can you be prepared defensively if you are skating away from the puck? Especially while some of your teammates are making a line change!
- PENALTIES – Seth Helgeson for Roughing & Unsportsmanlike Conduct (Spraying the Goalie) & Mike McDonald for Roughing at 6:27 of the 3rd period – Seth Helgeson skates in and takes a shot from the right side that the goalie saves in his glove but he still skates in and sprays him and that sets off the Falcons!
- Up two goals, why would you want to get a team going by doing that? The Gophers just had a great scoring chance and haven’t really given up that much for chances in on Adam Wilcox. I’m dumbfounded by that sequence by Seth Helgeson!
- PENALTY – Tony Thomas for Tripping at 11:36 of the 3rd period – Tony Thomas is skating near the Falcons blue line and Erik Haula (?) skates into him and falls down and the official calls Thomas for tripping!
- WOW! That’s a bad call! It’s called incidental contact! There wasn’t anything that looked like a trip except the fact that someone fell down.
- GOAL! (POWER PLAY) – Kyle Rau from Erik Haula & Nick Bjugstad at 12:05 of the 3rd period – A loose puck comes to Nick Bjugstad near the top of the left circle. He backs up towards the left half-wall to get more time and space and passes it to Erik Haula at the right point for what looks like a one-timer but Haula passes it down to Kyle Rau at the right of the net (Jason Torf’s left) for a one-time shot attempt that goes into Jason Torf’s padding but the puck squeaks out behind him and Rau grabs it and shoots it into the empty net! GOPHERS 3-0!!!
- Kyle Rau basically missed badly on the one-time attempt or he was trying to pass it because he had a tough angle to shoot from.
- He had Nick Bjugstad on the backdoor. That must’ve been the play because from where he was aiming the one-timer, it never would’ve hit the net.
- Jason Fabian was going out to block Haula’s one-timer but it looked like he went out with his head down like he was afraid to get hit with the puck.
- It probably didn’t affect the play. I just thought it looked strange.
- Maybe he was off-balance or something. He was crouched down so maybe he thought that was the best way to prepare for blocking the shot.
- The obvious problem with that is he doesn’t know where the puck is going or if its coming towards him or not so when does he pick his head up and/or come out of the crouch?
- If you’re going to sell out to block a shot, get down and take up as much space as you can making it difficult to get a low shot by you.
- Kyle Rau basically missed badly on the one-time attempt or he was trying to pass it because he had a tough angle to shoot from.
- GOAL! – Nate Condon from Nick Bjugstad at 15:03 of the 3rd period – A shot from Mike McDonald goes wide left and wraps around the left corner to the left half-wall. Nick Bjugstad gets to the puck before pinching defenseman Trevor Waldoch and he chips the puck by him down the right boards to a speedy Nate Condon who comes in the right of the Falcon zone, cuts to the middle, shields the puck away from the defender and shoot back against the grain high to the upper right corner where Jason Torf gets his glove on it but the puck comes out of his gloves and trickles over the goal line! GOPHERS 4-0!!!
- Down three goals, its hard to argue with pinching in late in the 3rd period and Waldoch had a forward coming back to cover for him and Mike McDonald was back to play defense on the play.
- Speed kills! Nate Condon made it difficult for the defender because he has to try to keep Condon from getting by him on the outside and from cutting in front of him. Its hard to take away both!
- Not sure if he had the angle or enough time to take the body but that would’ve been the ideal defense there with only Condon in on the rush and a back checking forward coming!
- Condon had the option of shooting right away coming down the right side but decided to make the goalie move and go back against the grain!
- PENALTY – Ryan Timar for Slashing on Adam Wilcox at 17:48 of the 3rd period – Even though FSN shows Scott Holm with a whack on the stick of Sam Warning, after looking at the play, I’d say the call was made when Ryan Timar took a pretty good whack at the stick of Adam Wilcox when he went behind the net to play the puck around the boards for the break out of the zone.
FINAL SCORE
Minnesota 4, Air Force 0
The Gophers showed they were the better team tonight. They had good jump from the start of the game and never really looked back once they got the lead. Adam Wilcox, despite a couple miscues from his defense, was able to preserve another shutout and lower his league leading goals against average.
Tomorrow night’s matchup is a much tougher test as they will battle the #1 ranked team in the nation in the Boston College Eagles at 7pm again at Mariucci Arena and again on FSN!
Gopher Hockey Recap from GopherSports.com – Gophers Top Air Force, 4-0, in Mariucci Classic Opener
Gopher Hockey Box Score from GopherSports.com – Minnesota-Air Force Stats
Gopher Hockey Recap from StarTribune.com‘s Mike Russo – Gophers blank Air Force, move on to Sunday showdown with No. 1 Boston College
Gopher Hockey Recap from GoAirForceFalcons.com – No. 4 Minnesota blanks Air Force, 4-0
In other WCHA College Hockey action tonight,
Home=”vs”, Away=”@”
Denver won vs Boston University 6-0
Nebraska-Omaha lost at Quinnipiac 5-4
In other College Hockey holiday tournaments,
In the Florida College Classic at the Germain Arena in Estero, Florida (Home of the ECHL’s Florida Everblades)
Minnesota-Duluth lost vs Ferris State 6-2
Maine won vs Cornell 6-4
In the Great Lakes Invitational at Joe Louis Arena,
Michigan Tech won vs Michigan 4-0
Western Michigan tied Michigan State 1-1
In the UConn Hockey Classic at the Freitas Ice Forum,
Minnesota State won vs Brown 3-1
Connecticut won vs American International 7-2
In the Catamount Cup at the Gutterson Fieldhouse,
Princeton tied Merrimack 2-2
Vermont won vs Union 2-1
and in the Three Rivers Classic at the CONSOL Energy Center,
Penn State won vs Ohio State 5-4
Miami lost to Robert Morris 1-0
In other College Hockey action earlier in the week,
Home=”vs”, Away=”@”
St. Cloud State split a series with Renssalaer losing 4-3 on Thursday and winning 2-1 on Friday
Minnesota-Duluth lost vs Maine 1-0 on Friday in the Florida College Classic
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