Michigan (8-10-2 overall, 3-7-2-1 B1G) vs No. 9/11 Minnesota (13-10-1 overall, 4-7-1-1 B1G)
Date: Friday, Jan. 12, 2018
Location: 3M Arena at Mariucci | Minneapolis, Minn.
Puck Drop: 7:00 p.m. CT
TV: FOX Sports North PLUS
Stream: BTN2Go | FOX Sports Go | TSNGO
Radio: 1130 KTLK AM | 103.5 FM | Listen Online
Date: Saturday, Jan. 13, 2018
Location: 3M Arena at Mariucci | Minneapolis, Minn.
Puck Drop: 7:00 p.m. CT
TV: FOX Sports North PLUS
Stream: BTN2Go | FOX Sports Go | TSNGO
Radio: 1130 KTLK AM | 103.5 FM | Listen Online
INSIDE THE MATCHUP
It’s rare for the Gophers to be part of a close all-time series, but this historic matchup between Minnesota and Michigan stands at 139-125-15 in favor of the Maroon and Gold. Minnesota holds a much more comfortable 78-45-8 mark when hosting the Wolverines.
It’s the second series of the season between Minnesota and Michigan. The first two games in Ann Arbor were high-scoring affairs. Michigan won 5-4 in overtime in the opener despite the Gophers jumping out to a 3-0 lead. The next game followed a familiar script; Minnesota blew another three-goal lead, but was able to win their first ever Big Ten shootout.
The line of Dexter Dancs, Cooper Marody, and Tony Calderone dominated in that series, posting a combined four goals and seven assists on the weekend.
The Wolverines come into the series going just 1-4-0 in their last five. Minnesota has to feel pretty good after a sweep of Army and splitting with No. 1 St. Cloud.
Both teams come into the matchup with disastrous power play numbers. Michigan is converting at just a 14.8% clip while the Gophers are even worse at 12.7%. Minnesota could have a chance to gain momentum with the man advantage as Michigan’s penalty kill is also poor at 74.7%.
STORYLINE CENTRAL
It’s hard to mention Michigan hockey without bringing up Red Berenson. The now-retired coach was honored last weekend as the rink at Yost Arena was renamed Red Berenson Rink. David Goricki of The Detroit News has the story on the ceremony; pretty cool even from a rival team.
Benjamin Katz of the Michigan Daily has a good preview of how the Wolverines plan to attack the Gopher defense that’s giving up just 2.4 goals per game.
Deciding which goalie to start hasn’t been an issue for Minnesota in years. That could be changing as newcomer Mat Robson is off to a hot start. Robson is coming off a shutout of SCSU, and back-to-back Big Ten weekly honors. Randy Johnson of the Star Tribune takes a look at the Gophers’ goalie dilemma.
QUOTES
Don Lucia
“It’s time to get back after it. Non-conference games are over, now is just Big Ten play the rest of the year. Because of what we did the last few series of the first half, we put ourselves in a bit of a hole. Now we have to climb out of that hole. I think we practiced well. Ryan [Lindgren] is back. Casey has been out this week. We were going to give him a couple days off, but then he got sick. He’s feeling a lot better today and he’ll practice tomorrow. Then we can have that continuity in our lineup. Hopefully Tommy won’t be out too long; another week or two, hopefully he should be back. Then we can set lines and hopefully how we want to play from here on out.”
Ryan Lindgren
On Michigan:
“That weekend we had with them earlier was probably the craziest hockey games I’ve ever been a part of; being up 3-0 halfway through and being up 4-0. We ended up losing the first night and winning in a shootout the second. They’re a really good team. They have a lot of tremendous players. Norris and Hughes are great hockey players.”