Can the Gophers keep up with a depleted lineup?
The #1 ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers hockey team will close out the 2024 portion of their schedule when this host #2/3 Michigan State Spartans for a series at 3 M Arena at Mariucci. For the Gophers, it may be a battle of attrition as Minnesota will be missing enough players that they will not be able to play a full 12 forwards this weekend. Can they find a way to get past the Spartans and remain undefeated in Big Ten play? Only time will tell.
The Gophers jumped up to #1 in the nation after a huge sweep of the formerly #6 ranked Michigan Wolverines last weekend. The Gophers jumped out on Michigan with three goals in the first period and three more in the second to pick up a 6-0 win on Friday with Mathew Wood scoring a pair of goals, and then had to grind for a 2-0 win on Saturday on a Sam Rinzel power play goal sealed by a Jimmy Snuggerud empty net goal .
It was the first time since 1943 that Minnesota shut out Michigan in back to back games. Nathan Airey made 32 saves for his first collegiate shutout Friday night, and earned the Big Ten’s 32 Star of the Week for his efforts. Liam Souliere stopped 22 saves on Saturday for his second shutout of the season.
Minnesota did lose several players to inury in the Wolverine series however, which is not great. Aaron Huglen was injured in Friday’s game after a freak check to his head and neck. He IS expected to play this weekend, but it’s not known just how healthy he is. But the Gophers will miss Cal Thomas who also was injured in Saturday’s game with a “lower body” injury. He unfortunately will be out for several weeks with his injury. The Gophers will also not have Matthew Wood this weekend as he has already left for the Canadian World Juniors Team camp.
So the Gophers will only dress 11 forward this weekend, and one of those will be Axel Begley who normally plays defense and dressed at forward last Saturday. The Gophers will still have a full seven defenseman roster, but Max Rud will make his season debut as the 7th defenseman with Begley moved up to forward.
The Spartans come in after taking just two of six points on the road in Madison last weekend. Wisconsin came out and knocked off the previously #1 ranked Spartans 4-0 on Friday and had a 2-0 lead on Saturday before Michigan State came back and would win 3-2 in overtime.
Issac Howard leads the Spartans in points with 17. The UMD transfer scored the OT winner in Saturday’s game in Madison. His seven goals are one off the team lead of eight held by Daniel Russell. Former Wisconsin Badger and Minnesota Wild First Round pick Charlie Stramel has had a career resurgence in East Lansing and his 11 points tie him for second on the team with Russell.
In goal it has been all Trey Augustine for the Spartans. Augustine is one of the best goalies in the nation and comes into the weekend with a 1.83 goals against average and a .934 save percentage. He ranks only behind Souliere in both categories in the Big Ten.
This weekend should be a very interesting matchup as both teams have nearly identical statistical profiles. The Gophers average 4.11 goals per game to lead the Big Ten and rank second in the nation while the Spartans are second in the conference and seventh in the nation at 3.36 goals per game. On defense Michigan State ranks first in the Big Ten and second in the nation allowing just 1.71 goals per game while the Gophers are right behind second in the conference and fourth in the nation at 1.78 goals per game. Their special teams numbers are very close as well with the Gophers scoring on 22.7 % of power play chances, and the Spartans 20%. On the penalty kill the Spartans have a bit bigger advantage killing off 83.3% of chances while Minnesota is killing just 79.5%.
The biggest question will be if the depleted Gophers can keep up with the Spartans. Minnesota has had tons of recent success against Michigan State at home as their last regulation or overtime loss to MSU at 3M Arena at Mariucci came in February of 2020. Minnesota did drop a shootout last season to the Spartans but have won or tied their last 8 games at home vs MSU.
Notes: Minnesota will be wearing their new Taconite Grey uniforms on Friday night for the first time, and Saturday is their annual Teddy Bear Toss game.
HOW TO WATCH:
#2/3 Michigan State Spartans @ #1 Minnesota Golden Gophers
Where: 3M Arena at Mariucci, Minneapolis, MN
When: 7:30 PM Friday; 5 PM Saturday
TV: Big Ten Network (Fri); Fox9+ (Sat)
Stream: Fox Sports App (Fri), B1G+ (Sat)
Radio: 1130 AM/ 103.5 FM/ I Heart Radio