Saturday night’s game will be at the X
The #5 ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers hockey team will skate on the 3M Arena at Mariucci ice for the first time this season on Friday night as the Gophers host Twin Cities foe St. Thomas in the opening night of a home and home series between the two schools. Saturday night’s St. Thomas “home” game will take place at Xcel Energy Center for the season consecutive season. The Gophers sept the series in the first two meetings ever between the teams in the modern era last year wining 6-5 in OT on Friday night at the X on a Jimmy Snuggerud winner, and 3-0 the following night at 3M Arena.
The Gophers are coming off of a dominating sweep last weekend in Duluth over UMD. Friday night the Gophers jumped out to a 4-0 lead after the opening 20 minutes before things got a bit funky in the third period. Minnesota never less hung on for a 7-5 win. Saturday the Gophers dominated once again and cruised to a 5-1 win and gave Penn State transfer Liam Souliere his first win in goal in the maroon and gold.
Through four games the Gophers have been spreading their scoring around. Connor Kurth leads the Gophers both in points with 8 , and in goals with 4. Linemates Mathew Wood and Jimmy Cark each have seven points on the season with Wood potting a pair of goals. Brodie Ziemer, Sam Rinzel and Ryan Chesley all also have a pair of goals on the season. IN net, the Gophers have split time between sophomore Nathan Airey and the 5th year grad transfer Souiere. Airey is 2-0 but has the worse stats in net as he has allowed six goals on the season to Souliere’s three. Airey has just a .864 save percentage, while Souliere has been great at .940. But expect both goalies to again split time this weekend.
St. Thomas was off last weekend after earning a tie and a win in a home series against Vermont the weekend before. Sophomore defenseman, Mason Poolman is UST’s leading scorer so far with four points and three goals. The Tommies have their own goalie platoon with Jake Sibell and Aaron Trotter splitting the work. This season the two have combined for a 2.27 GAA and .925 SV%.
One key will be the Gophers attacking on the power play as the Tommies are averaging over 13 minutes per game in the box. Minnesota did not score a power play goal in the Ice breaker in Las Vegas, but scored one in each game against UMD last weekend.
Both games this weekend will air on Fox9+ featuring the broadcast team of Jim Rich and Pat Micheletti. Both games will feature a half-hour pregame show as well as a postgame show. On the Gopher radio broadcast it will be the debut of Eric Schierhorn as color commentator joining Wally Shaver in the booth. Friday’s game will also stream on B1G+, while Saturday’s game will just be available via stream on Midco Sport Plus.
HOW TO WATCH:
St. Thomas Tommies vs #5 Minnesota Golden Gophers
Where: 3M Arena at Mariucci, Minneapolis (Fri); Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul (Sat)
When: 5:30 PM Fri; 8:00 PM Sat
TV: Fox 9+
Stream: B1G+ (Fri), Midco Sports Plus (Sat)
Radio: 1130 AM/103.5 FM/ I Heart Radio (MN Feed); AM 1500 St. Thomas Feed