The Minnesota Gophers started their 2024-25 season with an exhibition game against their in-state & former WCHA Conference rival, the St. Cloud State Huskies. 

The broadcast analyst was former St. Cloud Stat D Geno Parrish, with whom I once played pickup hockey back in my HockeyGiant days. I had a high-ankle sprain and was very hesitant to play because I didn’t want to hurt it more and was told by a co-worker that I was “being a pussy” because of it. I don’t remember if I played that time or the next time but Geno was also there because another co-worker knew & invited him. I remember being in front of the net and Geno was winding up for a slap shot and it was coming right at my foot so I screamed, “NOOOOO!” It didn’t hit me though. PHEW!

Geno is the older brother of F Mark Parrish who played 12 years in the NHL including 2 seasons with the Minnesota Wild.

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Here’s how the teams lined up for the 1st game of this in-state battle home & home series that began at Mariucci Arena:

Minnesota Gophers

St. Cloud State Huskies

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Alright! Let’s get to the game, ‘Puckers!

Drop the College ClutterPuck!!!

There wasn’t any audio to start the game on Fox9+ so I guess that makes it Fox9-? It’s an exhibition so… practice for everyone then? The commercials work, of course. Ughh! Streaming is having a great start to the season! Did they prep the cords for the cold 🥶? Is it the guy from Airplane the Movie unplugging it just to be funny…

Airplane! Unplugging the lights!

Then they returned from the commercial and we missed the first 45 seconds of the game! Geez!

12:18 mark – Gopher D Mike Koster made a nice move to get to the net for a scoring chance then got cross-checked right in front of the official but there was no call.

Now even the commercials don’t have audio! That’s an improvement, though!

Breakaway for Verner Miettinen starts the scoring with St. Cloud State early in the second period.

Gophers responded when Gopher F Connor Kurth got to a loose puck in the St. Cloud offensive zone first and both Huskies D-men went to Kirth which left F Aaron Huglen open for a quick shot that beat the goalie to the upper right corner to tie the game at 1.

The Gophers went up 2-1 on a Jimmy Snuggerud goal that also went to the upper right corner and the Huskies were puck-watching on that one.

They called a double-minor on the Huskies when the same player took a tripping & a cross-checking penalty on the same player in about 5 seconds. That’s unusual. Exhibition call, maybe?

Gophers scored on the 1st power play on a Ryan Chesley point shot. 3-1 Gophs!

Maybe due to technical difficulties, the Minnesota Gophers Men’s Hockey Twitter account combined the last 3 goals into one video.

The 4th goal was scored off a point shot from D Mike Koster and it appeared to go bar down on the Power Play to make it 4-1 Minnesota!

And, the 5th Minnesota Gophers goal was scored by freshman forward August Falloon on a great feed from F Connor Kurth (his 2nd assist of the game) after the Huskies defenseman turned over the puck at the blueline trying to find it in his feet.

Here’s the recap from the Gophers:

‘U’ Skates by Huskies, 5-1, in Saturday Exhibition

And a highlight reel from YouTube that looks like it’s just all of the highlights above with the St. Cloud State goal added in:

Game Notes

Some notes we had from watching the game.
There are a lot of new faces on the roster and we aren’t familiar with any of them:

Forwards:
9 August Falloon – Freshman
14 Becketter Hendrickson – Freshman
72 Erik Påhlsson – Freshman
74 Brodie Ziemer – Freshman
91 Matthew Wood – Junior

Defense:
3 John Whipple – Freshman
10 Max Rud – Sophomore
33 Axel Begley – Sophomore
55 Leo Gruba – Freshman

Goalies:
29 Nathan Airey – Sophomore
30 Zach Wiese – Junior
31 Liam Souliere – Senior
35 Matt Bryant – Junior

That’s 13 new players* on a 27-man roster. That’s nearly half the team! 
*6 Freshmen, 3 Sophomores, 3 Juniors & 1 Senior

• Gophers number 91 – F Matthew Wood has good size and uses it to protect the puck well.
• Gophers number 72 – F Eric Påulson has speed & hands
• The Gophers played 2 goalies, Nathan Airey & Liam Souliere; the Huskies played 3 goalies (1 each period)
• The Huskies were puck-watching a lot but got better in the 3rd period
• The Gophers somewhat dominated the game. Do they have more talent? They are ranked 6th while the Huskies were ranked 16th in USCHO’s college hockey poll.

Next up:  

The Minnesota Gophers will host the 2024 Ice Breaker Tournament in Las Vegas next Friday & Saturday. They’ll play Air Force on Friday night at 9:30 pm & play the winner of the UMass/Omaha game on Saturday night at 9:30 pm. There isn’t any television coverage currently listed for either game. We’ll update if that changes.

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