ClutterPuck

The Gopher Hockey team is ranked #1 in the nation!!! Their first matchup as the #1 team is with the 2nd-ranked team in the nation in the Notre Dame Irish and the Son of Don, Mario Lucia, among others. After dominating the former #1 team Boston College Eagles in an 8-1 win back on December 30th, the Minnesota Gophers can’t let up as every opponent from here on will bring their best game to try to beat them and the Irish has plenty of talent and team to win! They’re not ranked 2nd in the nation for nothing.

Line Chart – Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey

Left Wing – Center – Right Wing
Kyle Rau-7 – Nick Bjugstad-27 – Christian Isackson-26
Sam Warning-11 – Nate Condon-16 – Zach Budish-24
Tom Serratore-14 – Travis Boyd-22 – Seth Ambroz-17
Mike Reilly-5 – AJ Michaelson-15 – 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
G-Mike Shibrowski-1

Scratches:  G-Ryan Coyne-31, G-Matt LaPrade-30, D-Blake Thompson-3(Transferred), F-Ryan Reilly-9, F-Chirstian Horn-18, F-Jared Larson-23

Injured: F-Erik Haula-19, F-Connor Reilly-21

Line Chart – Notre Dame Irish

 Left Wing – Center – Right Wing
Jeff Costello-11 – Anders Lee-9 – Bryan Rust-21
Mario Lucia-21 – T.J. Tynan-18 – Michael Voran-16
Nick Larson-17 – David Gerths-10 – Austin Wuthrich-27
Thomas Dipauli-14 – Steven Fogarty-26 – Peter Schneider-15
Left Defenseman – Right Defenseman
Shayne Taker-3 – Stephen Johns-28
Kevin Lind-25 – Robbie Russo-5
Eric Johnson-23 – Sam Calabrese-8
Goalie
Steven Summerhays-1
Mike Johnson-32

Scratches/Injured: G-Joe Rogers-31, D-Andy Ryan-6, D-Jared Beers-29, F-Sam Herr-12, F-Kevin Nugent-20

With Erik Haula out with a wrist injury, Christian Isackson moves up to RW on the #1 line and Nate Condon moves down to center the 2nd line. That opens up a spot for AJ Michaelson to get in the lineup centering the 4th line between GOLD MEDAL WINNER Mike Reilly & Justin Holl.

Let’s DROP THE CLUTTERPUCK!!!

1st Period

• GOAL! – Nate Condon from Zach Budish & Sam Warning at 1:21 of the 1st period – Sam Warning gets a loose puck along the left boards off a puck battle is won by Jake Parenteau knocking it away from T.J. Tynan. Warning quickly turns and heads up ice then makes a pass to the center of the Gopher blue line to Zach Budish. Budish carries the puck through the neutral zone and once he gets over the Irish blue line, he drops the puck to Nate Condon, and drives the net. Condon was right behind Budish then skated to the right of the zone getting the pass as he crossed the blue line, he skated to the top of the right circle and sent a snap shot to the upper left corner of the net past a screened Steven Summerhays in goal. GOPHERS 1-0!!!
  • Too much time and space given to Budish and Condon by Irish defenseman Kevin Lind and Robbie Russo. One of them needs to force Budish to make a play before the blue line and not just let him skate into their zone freely.
    • Russo turns and skates towards Budish but not enough to make him move the puck or dump it in or do anything he doesn’t want to.
    • Once Lind sees Russo coming towards Budish, he should step up and make a play on the puck or attempt a check on Budish.
    • Russo stays on Budish and when he sees Condon preparing to shoot, he gets out of the way (to not screen his goalie) but he doesn’t get in front of the shot or at least get in front of part of the net to block the shot from getting through.
    • Lind attempts to block the shot with the old put my legs together and hold my stick like a goaltender which only gives Condon a better lane to shoot the puck through!
  • Use the blue line as another defender! That is your “line” of defense!
  • Offensive players want time and space! That gives them the chance to handle the puck and/or find an open man for a pass. Why would you want to give them that chance?
• PENALTY – Peter Schneider for Boarding on Seth Ambroz at 5:13 of the 1st period – A loose puck comes to Seth Ambroz at the right half wall of the Gopher zone and Peter Schneider puts his arm into Ambroz’ back and gets two minutes for it!
• GOAL! – Sam Warning from Travis Boyd & Ben Marshall at 7:29 of the 1st period – After the penalty expires, Ben Marshall gets the puck at the point and just dumps the puck wide left of the net where Seth Ambroz is the first to it and passes it to Travis Boyd at the left half-wall. Boyd skates the puck towards the net and makes a backhand pass back to Ben Marshall for a one-time slapper that goes off Steven Summerhays right pad & rebounds right to Boyd. He tries to make a move around Summerhays but trips over his pads and a mad scramble for the puck ensues in front of Steven Summerhays that includes all 5 Irish players and 3 Gopher players. Boyd is down on the ice, Ambroz is knocked down, loses his stick (which is flung in the air by Tynan) and the puck comes loose to Shayne Taker. Taker tries to make a move around Sam Warning but Sam gets his stick in the way enough to steal the puck and shoots it into the upper left of the net. GOPHERS 2-0!!!
  • Hard to believe one Gopher player basically beat out 5 Irish players for the puck in that situation.
    • No way that should happen! GET THE PUCK and GET IT OUT!!!
  • If you get the puck in that situation, just get it out of the zone or throw it in the corner. Don’t try to make a move! Or at least don’t make a move that takes the puck toward the opposing player.
• PENALTY – T.J. Tynan for Hooking on Jake Parenteau at 9:56 of the 1st period – T.J. Tynan gets a little too aggressive on the forecheck (or back check) and puts his stick in front of Parenteau and holds him up enough for the official to call him for a penalty.
• PENALTY – Sam Warning for Interference on Austin Wuthrich at 12:14 of the 1st period – Sam Warning is skating through the neutral zone and Austin Wuthrich is back checking and they run into each other. Wuthrich falls down so the official gets Warning for the penalty.
  • Not sure that wasn’t just incidental contact as Warning just kept skating. He didn’t change direction to get in Wuthrich’s way and it appeared as if Wuthrich was trying to jump to get around Warning.
• GOAL! – Jeff Costello from Bryan Rust & Anders Lee at 14:31 of the 1st period – After the Gophers clear the zone, Stephen Johns flips the puck out to the center of the neutral zone. Anders Lee catches the puck and drops it to the ice and he swings at it to pass it to the left to Bryan Rust. He skates it into the center of the zone, tries to stick-handle to his forehand but the puck gets away from him and rolls/bounces to the right of the zone through Seth Helgeson, who can’t get enough of it to deflect it, to Jeff Costello and he’s able to get it on his stick and now has the speed to get around Helgeson and cut to the net, make a move to his forehand and get the puck on Adam Wilcox. The puck somehow gets through Wilcox and slowly goes across the goal line! IRISH 1-2!!!
  • Could that have been a hand pass by Anders Lee or did he actually get a piece of it when he swung at it? He may of barely got a piece of it.
  • When the puck gets through Helgeson, he panics and turns from skating backwards to forwards and reaches for the puck instead of just angling Costello off and forcing him to go behind the net or to make a pass.
    • Also, he reaches instead of moving his feet and goes for the puck instead of taking the body.
      • KEEP SKATING! You will always be in better position to make a play! If you reach and miss, you’re usually out of the play!
      • Take the body! It’s a much bigger target.
  • Sam Warning and Seth Ambroz weren’t in the greatest position to break up that play with both of them going for the puck in the same area of the ice.
  • The craziest thing about that play may be that the puck may have never been flat on the ice, always rolling or bouncing on edge!
    • The puck flipped to Anders Lee
    • Dropped to the ice, bounces to Bryan Rust
    • Rolls through Helgeson
    • Is on edge the whole time Costello has it on his stick and
    • somehow gets through Wilcox and
    • I’m wrong, it was flat when it slid across the goal line!
• PENALTY – Nate Condon for Holding on Jeff Costello at 16:54 of the 1st period – Nate Condon loses the puck as he tries to get around the Irish defense and, in frustration, grabs Jeff Costello and hauls him down and now he gets to think about it for a couple minutes in the sin bin!
  • Never a good penalty in the offensive zone!

2nd Period

• PENALTY – Nick Larson for Tripping on AJ Michaelson at 3:06 of the 2nd period – Nick Larson is in front of the Gopher net and a shot comes in from the point from Sam Calabrese. AJ Michaelson gets in front of the shot, catches the puck and as he drops it to the ice, Larson trips him up and gets the call for tripping from the official.
  • Bad penalty in the offensive zone but maybe a little bad luck that Michaelson fell down there.
• GOAL! – Christian Isackson from AJ Michaelson at 5:23 of the 2nd period – After the penalty expires, Travis Boyd just dumps the puck in right of the Irish zone (to Summerhays left) with Sam Warning in on the forecheck. Shayne Taker coasts to the puck and plays the puck around the right boards to Stephen Johns. Johns taps the puck back around the back boards but a little farther than he may have wanted to creating a loose puck for a second and enough time for AJ Michaelson to pressure him and force a turnover as they get past the net. Christian Isackson gets the puck and has enough time all alone in front of the net to fake a move to his forehand, move it back to his backhand and go Backhand Shelf with it for the goal! GOPHERS 3-1!!!
  • AJ Michaelson got his skate on the puck and may have kicked it in the direction of Isackson. Nice play if he did that on purpose. Heck! Nice play even if it was just a good bounce.
    • Always a good play to force the d-man to make a quicker play than he wants to. That forces mistakes as most defenseman don’t have the calm to make the smart play every time.
  • Tough to fault anyone for being out of position as the Irish are preparing to break out of the zone and then the puck is turned over.
  • You could say have a little more sense of urgency from the defense. Get the puck, make a quick play and force the opposition to work harder to defend you!
    • By coasting and playing lackadaisical, the Irish allowed the Gophers to get in on the forecheck and force a turnover that quickly turned into them being down by 2 goals again.
• PENALTY – Stephen Johns for Boarding on Kyle Rau at 6:51   of the 2nd period – Kyle Rau misses the net on a scoring chance and follows the puck around the right corner. As he gets to the right half-wall with the puck, he turns and Stephen Johns body checks him and the official calls boarding!
  • That’s not a good call! Even if its an elbow like Kevin Gorg thinks it is.
    • Gorg thinks the call is an elbow because Johns followed through high extending his arms so it looks like an elbow to him. Johns never touches Rau with his elbow.
    • It was a good physical play and looks rougher than it is because Johns at 6-4 and 233 pounds is a lot bigger player than Rau at 5-8 and 173 pounds.
      • Don’t follow through with your arms high! When you do, a good physical hit can look like a minor penalty to the officials.
• PENALTY – Kyle Rau for Interference on Stephen Johns at 9:02 of the 2nd period – Notre Dame gets a 2-on-1 with Mario Lucia on the right with the puck & Stephen Johns on his left. Kyle Rau back checks to take away the pass and interferes with Johns and the official gives Rau a 2-minute minor for it.
  • Kevin Gorg says “this is a good penalty” as it takes away a scoring chance. I’m not sure I agree with that completely because he might be able to take away the pass without taking a penalty but he did what he had to do to keep the Irish from getting a good chance to score.
    • There aren’t many “good” penalties. Somebody makes a mistake that results in a scoring chance so even though Rau takes a penalty to take a scoring chance away, someone else made the wrong play to give up the 2-on-1.
• PENALTY – Tom Serratore for Roughing Cross-Checking on Jeff Costello at 19:48 of the 2nd period – Tom Serratore comes in to finish a check on Jeff Costello and gets his hands up high on him.
  • He did have both hands on his stick so I can see why the official called a cross-check but it looks more like a roughing penalty to me.
  • Keep your hands down when you check!

3rd Period

• BIG SAVE! – Adam Wilcox on Bryan Rust at 3:20 of the 3rd period – Kevin Lind makes a poke check on Nick Bjugstad that gets past Zach Budish and Bryan Rust gets a breakaway. He makes a move and is bothered by a back checking Nate Schmidt as he does so he doesn’t get a good shot off. Adam Wilcox still had to make a save with the toe of his left skate keeping the score at 3-1!
  • Not sure if the shot would’ve gone wide but it was close.
• PENALTY – Shayne Taker for Interference on Seth Ambroz at 8:52 of the 3rd period – Off a face-off in the left of the Irish zone (Summerhays left), Seth Ambroz is on the left wing with Shayne Taker opposite him. The face-off is won by T.J. Tynan to the back wall so Ambroz is on the forecheck and Taker ends up knocking him down  with the puck nowhere near them.
• PENALTY – Michael Voran for Cross-Checking on Ben Marshall at 14:00 of the 3rd period – Michael Voran is going to the net to get open for a pass or a rebound and cross-checks Ben Marshall for no reason and gets to sit in the penalty box because of it.
  • Dumb penalty! Offensive zone! Needless play! ‘Nuff said!
• GOAL! (Empty-Net) – Zach Budish from Kyle Rau & Nate Condon at 19:45 of the 3rd period – With the goalie pulled, a one-time slap shot by Stephen Johns goes wide left and around the right corner. Nate Condon gets to the puck before Robbie Russo and banks it off the boards to Kyle Rau, who skates it to the blue line, passes it to Zach Budish and Budish puts it in the open net.

FINAL SCORE
Minnesota 4, Notre Dame 1

The Gophers jumped on the Irish early and never looked back as the Irish looked a little sluggish playing their first game in 24 days. It took Notre Dame half a period to get in some kind of flow going but even though they cut the lead to one at 2-1 by the end of the 1st period, they couldn’t get much going on offense to make a comeback against a deep Gopher hockey team.

The Gophers have a quick turnaround when they play Alaska-Anchorage in a 2-game series starting Friday at Mariucci! Both games will be televised. Friday’s game is on the Big Ten Network at 8pm CST and Saturday’s game is on FSN at 7pm CST.

Gopher Hockey Recap from GopherSports.com – No. 1 Gophers Get Hot Early in 4-1 Win Over No. 2/3 Notre Dame
Gopher Hockey Box Score from GopherSports.com – Minnesota-Notre Dame stats
Gopher Hockey Recap from UND.com – Second-Ranked Irish Fall To Top-Ranked Minnesota 4-1
Gopher Hockey Recap from Michael Russo of StarTribune.com – Gophers beat Notre Dame, now look to climb up the WCHA standings

Here’s a funny video from Gopher Hockey with former Gophers Keith Ballard & Paul Martin helping out their alma mater during the NHL Lockout!

Bring The CLUTTER in the comments, on Twitter, on Facebook and on Google+.

You’ve Been ClutterPUCKED!!!

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!
• 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?
• 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?

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.
• 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,
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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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