B1G Championship Game 2023

Donate To GopherHole
S

SHGopher

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 5, 2023
Messages
2,885
Reaction score
1,606
Points
113


I am excited for championship hockey in Minnesota!

The #1 ranked Minnesota Gophers hockey team will play Michigan for the Big Ten championship title in Minnesota.


I have my ticket to the game and hope you will be watching too.


So exciting to see the return of elite hockey to Minnesota. The #2 Gophers women's team is in the NCAA Frozen Four next weekend in Duluth. Minnesota men's hockey is #1 and hosting the Big Ten championship title game.


www.ncaa.com

DI Men's Ice Hockey Rankings - USCHO.com | NCAA.com

Men's USCHO DI rankings
www.ncaa.com www.ncaa.com


Go Gophers!

Let's go Gophers!

Way to go Gophers!


www.startribune.com

Gophers men trounce Michigan State in Big Ten hockey semifinal

The victory gives them a date with Michigan on Saturday in the conference title game next weekend in a rematch from last year's final.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com
 

Finalists Named for Big Ten Hockey Individual Awards - Minnesota and Michigan Only

bigten.org

Big Ten Conference

The official athletics website for Big Ten Conference
bigten.org bigten.org


Player of the Year

Matthew Knies, forward, Minnesota

Luke Hughes, defender, Michigan



Defensive Player of the Year

Brock Faber, Minnesota

Luke Hughes, Michigan



Goaltender of the Year

Justin Close, Minnesota



Freshman of the Year

Logan Cooley, forward, Minnesota

Adam Fantilli, forward, Michigan



Coach of the Year

Bob Motzko, Minnesota

 

Let me help build the hype a bit more.

Gather your friends and family and get to Mariucci next Saturday at 7PM for what could end up one of the best games in modern Big Ten hockey. The back-to-back regular season champion Gophers will look to get revenge on the reigning conference tournament champion Wolverines. Both schools have won the conference tournament twice, with no school having won it three times. Last year's championship at Mariucci saw an arena record 10,744 paid attendance, with an incredible 10,252 tickets scanned.

Want some fun facts about what could make this the game of the year?

  • It will be #1 vs #4 in the polls, including the Pairwise, which means these two will not meet in the national championship if they both advance.
  • It will see the best player in college hockey and IMO the likely Hobey Baker winner, 60 point superstar Adam Fantilli (27+33 in just 32 games) against the best forward line in college hockey and one of the best in Gopher history: Knies (21-19-40) - Cooley (18-32-50) - Snuggerud (20-28-48)
  • Michigan is stacked, with the best top 6 and top 9 forward units in the country.
  • Cooley became just the 8th Gopher freshman to hit 50 points. Snuggerud will look to join him asap. Cooley will look to join Snuggerud and become the 15th freshman to hit 20 goals.
  • The best defenseman in college hockey and reigning Big Ten D-man of the year, Brock Faber, leads the best D unit in the country against the best offensive defenseman and reigning Big Ten Rookie of the Year, Luke Hughes. Hughes and Jackson Lacombe are both second-team All American recipients.
  • Between the pipes, last year's Big Ten tournament MVP and net-knocking-off aficionado Erik Portillo goes up against the quietly steady Justen Close. In just about 1.5 seasons as a starter, Close currently holds the best save percentage and GAA in Gopher history (.925 and 2.02) and is tied for 4th in shutouts (9) in that limited time.
  • NHL fan? This is your game. At least half of the first round picks playing college hockey this year will be on display. 5 or 6 for the Wolverines (depending on Brindley's draft spot) and 3 for the Gophers. There were a max of 15 first rounders in college hockey this year.
  • Only like top of the board picks? You'll get likely #2 Fantilli (because of Bedard), #3 Cooley, and #4 Hughes.
  • Only Harvard has more draft picks than these two with 15. Gophers have 14 and Michigan has 12, plus Brindley and Fantilli.
  • Like goals? Minnesota is first in the nation in goals per game (4.114) and Michigan is second (4.108)
  • Special teams? Minnesota 7th in PP (25.0%) and 14th in PK (83.0%). Michigan 15th in PP (22.3%) and 50th in PK (77.4%)
  • Discipline or lack thereof? Michigan leads the nation with 17.6 PIM/game, Minnesota is third best with just 7.7 PIM/game.
  • Not a fan of the Mankato model of recruiting? Two youngest teams in college hockey. Michigan 21.0 avg and Minnesota 21.1.
  • Full strength teams? Both teams are mostly healthy. UMN hopes to get Jackson Lacombe back, while UM has been missing Jacob Truscott who scored the OT winner at Mariucci on Jan. 21 and hasn't played since.

Recent results? Very even.
1/21/23: Gophers 5-4 in OT at Mariucci
1/20/23: Wolverines 4-3 in OT at Mariucci
11/18/22: Gophers 6-3 at Yost (Michigan missing top players)
11/17/22: Gophers 5-2 at Yost (Michigan missing top players)
3/19/22: Wolverines 4-3 at Mariucci
1/22/22: Wolverines 4-1 at Mariucci
1/21/22: Gophers 2-1 in OT at Mariucci
12/4/21: Wolverines 6-2 at Yost
12/3/21: Gophers 5-1 at Yost
3/15/21: Gophers 3-2 in OT at Notre Dame in Covid Big Ten Tournament

Last 5 on 5 win for the Gophers at Mariucci? 3/6/2021 by a 4-2 score

I could go on and on. Can you tell I'm a little pumped?

Get your tickets here:
gophersports.evenue.net

University of Minnesota Athletics

Online Ticket Office
gophersports.evenue.net

If you can't make it, the game will be on BTN.
 
Last edited:


Game is basically sold out at this point. Not sure if they will open up SRO for the general public.
 


bonin21 said:
Game is basically sold out at this point. Not sure if they will open up SRO for the general public.
Click to expand...
Much better effort needed Saturday than what they put forth last night!

Really, they only looked good end of first through the beginning of the 2nd otherwise I think the Spartans carried the play overall, which was surprising to see.

I think they weren't up for these guys BUT that isn't a good approach when it's one and done after Saturday's game.
 

Wow - game is not only completely sold out, but StubHub is asking $230 each (including $50 of fees) in the section where my seats are located (section 21).
 

You don't even have to be a Gopher, Michigan, or even a college hockey fan to be excited for this one. This is about as much high end skill between two evenly matched teams as you will see in a college hockey game.
 

cemba99 said:
Wow - game is not only completely sold out, but StubHub is asking $230 each (including $50 of fees) in the section where my seats are located (section 21).
Click to expand...
I hypothesize that some of the crazy rush on tickets yesterday was scalpers that saw a profit opportunity. They don't care the sport, the time, the location. If it's a profit opportunity it makes sense to maximize it.
 



Gophers1992 said:
You don't even have to be a gopher, Michigan, or even a college hockey fan to be excited for this one. This is about as much high end skill between two evenly matched teams as you will see in a college hockey game.
Click to expand...
Capitalize the G
 


Excitement wasn't enough for you? Add the fact the Gophers will likely need to win to get the one overall seed and play the lone cupcake (or closest thing to it, nothing is easy) in the tournament.
 

Draftkings has us -175 to win this game. Seems a bit high, but we are the better team and need to show it. Maybe they know something about Lacombe coming back that we don't.
 



Gophers1992 said:
Draftkings has us -175 to win this game. Seems a bit high, but we are the better team and need to show it. Maybe they know something about Lacombe coming back that we don't.
Click to expand...
They don't.

So if I bet 100 on Michigan what would I win? I would do that all day as an emotional hedge... Stupid MN and not being able to do it.
 

bonin21 said:
They don't.

So if I bet 100 on Michigan what would I win? I would do that all day as an emotional hedge... Stupid MN and not being able to do it.
Click to expand...
Michigan is + 140 so $100 would return you $140. I don't bet much these days and I hate admitting that but it does feel like a good value. If I were making up the numbers in my head (which I guess I am), I'd give us about a 55% chance of winning.
 

Gophers1992 said:
Michigan is + 140 so $100 would return you $140. I don't bet much these days and I hate admitting that but it does feel like a good value. If I were making up the numbers in my head (which I guess I am), I'd give us about a 55% chance of winning.
Click to expand...
That +140 will go down over the next few days as the bets come in.

It's like 51/49 for Minnesota and the difference is just being on home ice.
 


DanvilleGopher said:
Much better effort needed Saturday than what they put forth last night!

Really, they only looked good end of first through the beginning of the 2nd otherwise I think the Spartans carried the play overall, which was surprising to see.

I think they weren't up for these guys BUT that isn't a good approach when it's one and done after Saturday's game.
Click to expand...
I thought they looked just fine. Never felt they weren't in control the whole game. Close was lights out good.
 

PMWinSTP said:
I thought they looked just fine. Never felt they weren't in control the whole game. Close was lights out good.
Click to expand...
Close was great, and while we got outshot, I didn't feel like he had to make a ton of huge saves. D did a good job of mostly keeping MSU to the perimeter. Most encouraging part of the night was getting 3 goals from outside of our top line. Would not at all say that MSU carried the play.
 

Gophers1992 said:
Close was great, and while we got outshot, I didn't feel like he had to make a ton of huge saves. D did a good job of mostly keeping MSU to the perimeter. Most encouraging part of the night was getting 3 goals from outside of our top line. Would not at all say that MSU carried the play.
Click to expand...
Yeah, he was in a zone. There were a couple of flurries with multiple shots in close that he locked into and tracked the puck. I was very impressed. He really had no chance on the one MSU (PP) goal. Just as my brother said to me "Wow they just pulled their goalie..." the puck comes out of the zone with a Gopher in hot pursuit. When Gophs decided to pick it up a notch, it was very noticable. Got my tix for Saturday and looking for a fanastic game.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Yeah, he was in a zone. There were a couple of flurries with multiple shots in close that he locked into and tracked the puck. I was very impressed. He really had no chance on the one MSU (PP) goal. Just as my brother said to me "Wow they just pulled their goalie..." the puck comes out of the zone with a Gopher in hot pursuit. When Gophs decided to pick it up a notch, it was very noticable. Got my tix for Saturday and looking for a fanastic game.
Click to expand...
Yes, Close played very well and it seems like when you get into the one and done final 16 it really becomes about goalie play, so that is a great sign for the good guys. I guess I was getting frustrated watching them get bottled up in their own zone and just not getting the puck out so they could show their skill.

State did a very good job of keeping the puck in and it seemed the Gophs had trouble winning the battles to break the puck out.

Looking very much forward to this weekend and hopefully locking down the #1 seed!
 

I didn't catch this but according to someone on GPL, Motzko said in his postgame that he expects Lacombe to play in this game, anyone else hear that?
 

Who bought all the tickets? During the Oscars last night I was looking and saw sections 1-4 wide open with plenty of seats. I look today and the game is sold out? What the f

Was aiming to buy today after I figured out my schedule next week and now I guess I’m not going. Not paying $200 LOL especially when the face value was $30 last night.
 

saintpauljeff said:
Who bought all the tickets? During the Oscars last night I was looking and saw sections 1-4 wide open with plenty of seats. I look today and the game is sold out? What the f

Was aiming to buy today after I figured out my schedule next week and now I guess I’m not going. Not paying $200 LOL especially when the face value was $30 last night.
Click to expand...
I think scalpers grabbed hundreds.
 

Kind of funny, for years the U set single game prices way too high, now the B10 set them way too low for this Michigan game. Glad I got in early.

I paid more to see us play Mercyhurst a couple years ago than I did for this game LOL.
 

bonin21 said:
Excitement wasn't enough for you? Add the fact the Gophers will likely need to win to get the one overall seed and play the lone cupcake (or closest thing to it, nothing is easy) in the tournament.
Click to expand...
I believe they already have lone 1 locked up.
 


Gophers1992 said:
Kind of funny, for years the U set single game prices way too high, now the B10 set them way too low for this Michigan game. Glad I got in early.

I paid more to see us play Mercyhurst a couple years ago than I did for this game LOL.
Click to expand...
I believe tournament prices are set by the conference.
 



You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom