Friday, January 13, 2017

Pregame Blog: Minnesota Line Combinations vs Michigan (January 13, 2017)

Greetings from Mariucci Arena!



I'm covering this weekend's series against Michigan for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Pick up a newspaper copy for both games if you can.

Tonight's game begins at 8 pm CT on BTN and 1500 ESPN.

With all the question marks entering tonight due to illness, everyone appears to be healthy enough to give it the old college try. Minnesota's lineup Friday turns out to be familiar to the one Don Lucia iced at the Mariucci Classic nearly two weeks ago.

On defense Ryan Lindgren is healthy enough to play, returning to his blue line pairing with Jake Bischoff. He returns from World Junior Classic duty where the freshman won a gold medal with Team USA while spending a few days in the hospital with a strep throat and illness.

He is in for Jack Glover (#3).

The other major scratch, Connor Reilly (#21), missed one of the Classic games with the flu. Reilly played in the championship win against UMass, however. Jack Ramsey takes his place.

Leon Bristedt and Brent Gates Jr. switch spots on the wings. Bristedt moves up to a line with Tommy Novak and Vinni Lettieri in an attempt to spark Novak, who has been held without a point in his last five games and gone nearly two months without a goal.

Luke Notermann plays in his third straight game.

University of Minnesota Golden Gophers lines

Forwards
Rem Pitlick (#15) - Justin Kloos (#25) - Tyler Sheehy (#22)
Leon Bristedt (#18) - Tommy Novak (#17) - Vinni Lettieri (#19)
Brent Gates Jr (#10) - Mike Szmatula (#9) - Luke Notermann (#11)
Taylor Cammarata (#13) - Darian Romanko (#26) - Jack Ramsey (#16)

Defense
Jake Bischoff (#28) - Ryan Lindgren (#5)
Steve Johnson (#4) - Jack Sadek (#2)
Ryan Zuhsldorf (#20) - Ryan Collins (#6)

Goaltenders
Eric Schierhorn (#37)
Nick Lehr (#34)
Brock Kautz (#1)

Michigan's lines


Zach Nagelvoort is listed first in goal and expected to start. The Wolverines also get back Joe Cecconi from the World Juniors.

Pregame Reading:

If you're reading this, you know that I made a blog to put all my Gopher hockey writing and podcasts in one spot. Congrats you early adopter!

-Scouting Michigan
-Gopher Hockey Notebook touches on Ryan Lindgren winning a gold medal and Luke Notermann's debut at the Mariucci Classic.

The Gopher women's team lost 3-2 this afternoon to UMD, snapping a 21 game unbeaten streak against the Bulldogs. Twice Minnesota scored third period goals to come back, however, could not do it a third time when Katherine McGovern put UMD ahead with less than five minutes left.

What was impressive about Minnesota Duluth's win was that the Bulldogs not only battled back. The team out-shot Minnesota 35-30 - it's not often anyone accomplishes that feat.

Gopher junior forward Kelly Pannek (1G-1A) extended her point streak to 18 games. Sarah Potomak also had a goal and an assist while UMD's Lara Stalder finished with 3 points.

Some good Michigan Twitter follows:

-Orion Sang, Michigan Daily beat writer is in the building and at (@orion_sang)
-Official Michigan Twitter
-Yost Built

You can follow me on Twitter as well @gopherstate.

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