Gophers Look To Jump-Start Offense vs. Seawolves
Posted: Wed 10/28/09 10:25 amGophers Look To Jump-Start Offense vs. Seawolves
Minnesota Head Coach Don Lucia has often said in the past that while you can’t win the WCHA in the first part of the season, you can certainly lose it. And, after another winless weekend of league play, Minnesota is certainly facing the possibility of the league title being out of reach by the time the calendar rolls over to November as Minnesota remained winless on the young season after losing a pair of games – both by scores of 3-0 – to the Denver Pioneers at Mariucci Arena this past weekend.
Including the team’s season-opening 4-0 loss to the North Dakota Fighting Sioux, the Gophers have now been shutout in three of their four games, a worrisome trend for a team that returned the bulk of its scoring from last year’s team.
It should be noted that both North Dakota and Denver are teams that were picked by the coaches and media to be the class of the WCHA and are both currently in the top three in the major national polls. However, unless the standards have really changed in Dinkytown, being a national power is still the goal of the Minnesota hockey program, and being shutout in back-to-back games at Mariucci Arena is unacceptable, regardless of the opponent. The last time they were held scoreless in consecutive games was in 1930.
Going into the weekend, it appears as though Minnesota’s forwards, a veteran and (at least on paper) talented group, should have had the edge over Denver’s young (but skilled) defensive core. For both games this weekend, DU had five underclassmen playing on their blueline, but they were able to dominate Minnesota’s forwards in forcing poor play and turnovers.
It certainly helped DU’s youthful defensemen to have junior netminder Marc Cheverie behind them on both nights. Cheverie, who is now 4-0 on the season with three shutouts to his credit, has shutout the Gophers in his last three outings against the Maroon and Gold.
On Friday night, Minnesota lost senior Jay Barriball, one of the team’s top scorers, to a injury that kept Barriball out of the lineup on Saturday but doesn’t appear to be a long-term concern for the team. Defensemen Sam Lofquist (foot) and Brian Schack (knee) are still out of the lineup as well, though neither figure to be vital cogs on the Minnesota blueline this season.
With the loss of Barriball, Lucia shuffled his lines again on Saturday in hopes of finding some combinations that could generate offense. Among the highlights, sophomores Nick Larson and Jake Hansen bounced back into the lineup, Jordan Schroeder moved back to center from the wing, and junior Patrick White was moved to the top line with Schroeder and Mike Hoeffel. The team had 30 shots on goal both nights, but no line really stood out on Friday or Saturday as a group to keep together for the long-haul.
Like UND, Denver has owned the Gophers in recent years. Including their sweep last weekend, the Pioneers are 8-3-1 against Minnesota in the team’s last 12 meetings.
The road would – in theory – get a little easier for the Gophers this weekend as they play host to the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves at Mariucci Arena. The Seawolves are 3-3 and have split on all three of their weekends of play so far, most recently against North Dakota in Anchorage. These games will be UAA’s first away from the state of Alaska. In addition to the games against UND, the Seawolves hosted the Kendall Hockey Classic to open the season in beating Mercyhurst and then losing to Michigan. The following weekend, they traveled north to Fairbanks to play in the Brice Alaska Goal Rush where they beat Rensselaer and then lost to Robert Morris.
As per usual, the Seawolves are a much older team than Minnesota. No player on their team is under the age of 20, and the average age of their players is 21.7. Conversely, the average Minnesota’s player age is 20.6. The talent on Minnesota is far greater, but if that talent isn’t willing to put in the hard work both nights, the experience and size of the Seawolves could come into play.
Much like the Pioneers, UAA has one main scoring line that Minnesota will need to contain if they hope to come out of this weekend’s series with points. The team’s three leading scorers – seniors Kevin Clark and Josh Lunden and junior Tommy Grant – have combined for 16 points this season and all play on the same line. Those three are all proven scorers as they were three of the team’s top point-getters last season as well.
That line is much better than anything Minnesota has been able to roll out up to this point, and Lucia will likely continue to tinker with his forward group in trying to find the right mix, both at regular strength and while on the power play. After Saturday’s game, Lucia said he may mix different guys into the power plays units if the struggles continue.
Special teams are an area that the Gophers have lost by a pretty one-sided margin vs. both UND and DU. They have yet to score a power play goal and their penalty kill is at just 71.4 percent. The Seawolves haven’t been as bad as Minnesota in either category but haven’t excelled either, so hopefully things won’t be as uneven this weekend as the last two.
In goal, senior Jon Olthuis has started four of UAA’s six games, though he split last weekend with junior Bryce Christianson. Both have save percentages well south of 90 percent and goals against averages above three, so Minnesota should have a decided advantage between the pipes with the duo of Alex Kangas and Kent Patterson. Both have save percentages at or above 90 and have played very well this season against elite groups of forwards.
Anything less than a sweep this weekend is really unacceptable for Minnesota. Yes, it’s early in the season and this isn’t the same doormat edition of the Seawolves from four or five years ago. But with some very tough games on the horizon (two at Wisconsin, two vs. Bemidji State, two vs. Minnesota-Duluth, and one at both Michigan and Michigan State) and three losses already against them in WCHA play, the Gophers need to get some momentum going heading into the Kohl Center next weekend or they could be in for a much longer dry spell than anyone could have predicted to start the season.
Friday's game will air on FSN but will be tape-delayed and will come on the air at 10 p.m. The second game of the series will not come until Sunday but will air live on FSN at 4 p.m.
Minnesota Head Coach Don Lucia has often said in the past that while you can’t win the WCHA in the first part of the season, you can certainly lose it. And, after another winless weekend of league play, Minnesota is certainly facing the possibility of the league title being out of reach by the time the calendar rolls over to November as Minnesota remained winless on the young season after losing a pair of games – both by scores of 3-0 – to the Denver Pioneers at Mariucci Arena this past weekend.
Including the team’s season-opening 4-0 loss to the North Dakota Fighting Sioux, the Gophers have now been shutout in three of their four games, a worrisome trend for a team that returned the bulk of its scoring from last year’s team.
It should be noted that both North Dakota and Denver are teams that were picked by the coaches and media to be the class of the WCHA and are both currently in the top three in the major national polls. However, unless the standards have really changed in Dinkytown, being a national power is still the goal of the Minnesota hockey program, and being shutout in back-to-back games at Mariucci Arena is unacceptable, regardless of the opponent. The last time they were held scoreless in consecutive games was in 1930.
Going into the weekend, it appears as though Minnesota’s forwards, a veteran and (at least on paper) talented group, should have had the edge over Denver’s young (but skilled) defensive core. For both games this weekend, DU had five underclassmen playing on their blueline, but they were able to dominate Minnesota’s forwards in forcing poor play and turnovers.
It certainly helped DU’s youthful defensemen to have junior netminder Marc Cheverie behind them on both nights. Cheverie, who is now 4-0 on the season with three shutouts to his credit, has shutout the Gophers in his last three outings against the Maroon and Gold.
On Friday night, Minnesota lost senior Jay Barriball, one of the team’s top scorers, to a injury that kept Barriball out of the lineup on Saturday but doesn’t appear to be a long-term concern for the team. Defensemen Sam Lofquist (foot) and Brian Schack (knee) are still out of the lineup as well, though neither figure to be vital cogs on the Minnesota blueline this season.
With the loss of Barriball, Lucia shuffled his lines again on Saturday in hopes of finding some combinations that could generate offense. Among the highlights, sophomores Nick Larson and Jake Hansen bounced back into the lineup, Jordan Schroeder moved back to center from the wing, and junior Patrick White was moved to the top line with Schroeder and Mike Hoeffel. The team had 30 shots on goal both nights, but no line really stood out on Friday or Saturday as a group to keep together for the long-haul.
Like UND, Denver has owned the Gophers in recent years. Including their sweep last weekend, the Pioneers are 8-3-1 against Minnesota in the team’s last 12 meetings.
The road would – in theory – get a little easier for the Gophers this weekend as they play host to the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves at Mariucci Arena. The Seawolves are 3-3 and have split on all three of their weekends of play so far, most recently against North Dakota in Anchorage. These games will be UAA’s first away from the state of Alaska. In addition to the games against UND, the Seawolves hosted the Kendall Hockey Classic to open the season in beating Mercyhurst and then losing to Michigan. The following weekend, they traveled north to Fairbanks to play in the Brice Alaska Goal Rush where they beat Rensselaer and then lost to Robert Morris.
As per usual, the Seawolves are a much older team than Minnesota. No player on their team is under the age of 20, and the average age of their players is 21.7. Conversely, the average Minnesota’s player age is 20.6. The talent on Minnesota is far greater, but if that talent isn’t willing to put in the hard work both nights, the experience and size of the Seawolves could come into play.
Much like the Pioneers, UAA has one main scoring line that Minnesota will need to contain if they hope to come out of this weekend’s series with points. The team’s three leading scorers – seniors Kevin Clark and Josh Lunden and junior Tommy Grant – have combined for 16 points this season and all play on the same line. Those three are all proven scorers as they were three of the team’s top point-getters last season as well.
That line is much better than anything Minnesota has been able to roll out up to this point, and Lucia will likely continue to tinker with his forward group in trying to find the right mix, both at regular strength and while on the power play. After Saturday’s game, Lucia said he may mix different guys into the power plays units if the struggles continue.
Special teams are an area that the Gophers have lost by a pretty one-sided margin vs. both UND and DU. They have yet to score a power play goal and their penalty kill is at just 71.4 percent. The Seawolves haven’t been as bad as Minnesota in either category but haven’t excelled either, so hopefully things won’t be as uneven this weekend as the last two.
In goal, senior Jon Olthuis has started four of UAA’s six games, though he split last weekend with junior Bryce Christianson. Both have save percentages well south of 90 percent and goals against averages above three, so Minnesota should have a decided advantage between the pipes with the duo of Alex Kangas and Kent Patterson. Both have save percentages at or above 90 and have played very well this season against elite groups of forwards.
Anything less than a sweep this weekend is really unacceptable for Minnesota. Yes, it’s early in the season and this isn’t the same doormat edition of the Seawolves from four or five years ago. But with some very tough games on the horizon (two at Wisconsin, two vs. Bemidji State, two vs. Minnesota-Duluth, and one at both Michigan and Michigan State) and three losses already against them in WCHA play, the Gophers need to get some momentum going heading into the Kohl Center next weekend or they could be in for a much longer dry spell than anyone could have predicted to start the season.
Friday's game will air on FSN but will be tape-delayed and will come on the air at 10 p.m. The second game of the series will not come until Sunday but will air live on FSN at 4 p.m.