Just six regular season games remain
The Minnesota Golden Gophers hockey team still holds the ability to win the Big Ten regular season crown in their hands. Minnesota enters this weekend’s road series against the Michigan Wolverines five points back of the first place Michigan State Spartans with two games in hand. If the Gophers can pick up a road sweep this weekend, the Gophers will leap in front of the Spartans and take a one point lead into the final two weekends of the regular season. But, that goal must start this weekend, and the Wolverines have zero intention of making anything easy for the Gophers.
Minnesota comes into this weekend’s series off of their bye week, which Gopher head coach Bob Motzko said could not have come at a better time. Minnesota hopefully used the week to get healthy—both from injury and sickness and for Gopher senior forward Aaron Huglen to see his wife have their baby girl last Sunday. Minnesota can now focus on their final six games, all against potential NCAA Tournament teams and not only try and hang another Big Ten Championship banner, but lock down that NCAA #1 seed.
Jimmy Snuggerud remains tied for second in the nation in scoring despite not playing last weekend. He has 41 points on the season, tied with Penn State’s Aiden Fink just two back of Michigan State’s Issac Howard. Snuggy’s 20 goals on the year ranks fourth in the nation. He is pulling away from his teammates. Connor Kurth is second in the team in scoring for the Gophers with 31 points, and Matthew Wood is in third with 29.
It will be interesting to see if Bob Motzko goes back to his goalie rotation this weekend against the Wolverines, or if he has decided that Liam Souliere will be the #1 going forward. He started both games of the Wisconsin series two weekend ago at home as the Gophers swept the Badgers. It was reported that Nathan Airey had the flu that weekend and was too sick to play, but Souliere definitely took the opportunity that was sitting there and ran with it. He still is the Gophers statistical leader in net entering this weekend with a 10-4-1 record, a 2.02 goals against average and a .927 save percentage. Airey is not far off with a record of 11-2-2 and a 2.50 GAA and a.901 save percentage.
The Wolverines come in looking for some points to try and make sure they end up in the top half of the Big Ten standings and can host a first round playoff series. Michigan is ranked #12 in the polls and the pairwise. They sit in fourth place in the Big Ten standings with 28 points, four ahead of the Badgers. The Wolverines split a series with the Spartans last weekend eeking out a 2-1 win at home on Friday before the teams headed to Detroit for a game at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday where Michigan State dominated en route to a 6-1 win. Michigan only has four conference games remaining including this weekend, so the Wolverines will be playing hard trying to get any points from the Gophers to lock down their position. Yost Ice Arena is always a tough place to play, and Michigan is 9-4 at home this season. Add in the fact that it’s senior’s weekend, and the Wolverine will be amped to take it to the Gophers.
Minnesota will need to make sure they can makr two players on the ice at all times for the Wolverines. Junior T.J. Hughes leads the Michigan offense with 33 points. Hughes has a team-best 13 goals and 20 assists this season. Hughes also boasts the longest active scoring streak in the nation at 13 games. Freshman Michael Hage missed the series between the two teams in Minneapolis last fall and is back and healthy, and is a dangerous scorer. He enters the weekend with 12 goals and 18 assists and has four game winning goals on the season.
Minnesota should be able to score on the Wolverines goaltenders who have not been great. They have been platooning with Cameron Korpi and Logan Stein each having started 15 games this season. Korpi has the slightly better stats with a 3.12 GAA and a .903 save percentage to Stein’s 3.18 GAA and .893 save percentage.
Minnesota is the much better 5×5 team. Their advantage is at full strength this weekend. The Wolverines are better on special teams. The Wolverines’ power play ranks sixth in the nation at 26.5 percent, while the Gophers are 13th at 23.4 percent. Michigan’s penalty kill has killed off 78.3 percent of its penalties, while Minnesota is at 75.4 percent. Michigan is averaging almost double the number of penalties that the Gophers (4.4 to 2.4), so when given those power play opportunities, the Gophers must take advantage. They need to stay out of the box. It’s an absolute must.
Minnesota will look to take the season series from the Wolverines. Minnesota swept Michigan at 3M Arena at Mariucci shutting out the Wolverines in back to back games for the first time since 1943. They have played well in Ann Arbor as of recently they are 8-1-3 at Yost Ice Arena since Bob Motzko took over the program in the fall of 2018. If Minnesota can show their dominance early and not need to play from behind, the pressure will mount on the Wolverines. Michigan has been known to take some stupid penalties, so when they go, the Gophers should pounce. Do that, and Minnesota may be coming home atop the conference standings with their chances of raising a banner squarely in their hands.
HOW TO WATCH:
#3 Minnesota Golden Gophers @ #12 Michigan Wolverines
Where: Yost Ice Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan
When: 6 PM Friday; 5 PM Saturday
TV: Big Ten Network (Saturday only)
Stream: B1G+ (Friday); FoxSports.com (Saturday)
Radio: 100.3 KFAN (Fri) 1130 AM/ 103.5 FM (Sat) I Heart Radio (Both Nights)