I'll be up in Duluth this weekend covering the Ice Breaker for a few different outlets. Of course, you can find links to anything Gopher-related I write on this website, as well as follow me on Twitter @gopherstate. I'm also planning on doing a Facebook Live video to discuss the games, which will be posted here as well afterwards.
My plan is to put a pregame blog a couple hours before the game. I do still hope to do a TV analysis blog before we get too far into the season for those who were wondering. Unfortunately, neither of this weekend's games are on television in the Twin Cities. The Gophers do not control TV rights to visiting non-conference games and the Bulldogs and My9 Duluth did not allow Fox Sports North to broadcast. Those in the Twin Cities can stream the game live for a fee at NCHC.TV.
It's a college hockey-wide problem where every season you can almost count the number of nationally televised non-conference games on one hand. Sadly, the problem seems to be getting worse and worse as realignment creates more non-conference games and more teams get TV deals. The same situation will occur in two weeks when the Gophers travel to Grand Forks to face North Dakota.
Men's team:
-Since I never did a pregame blog for Sunday's exhibition game, here were the lines:
Forwards:
Leon Bristedt (#18) - Tommy Novak (#17) - Tyler Sheehy (#22)
Brent Gates Jr. (#10) - Mike Szmatula (#9) - Brannon McManus (#7)
Rem Pitlick (#15) - Casey Mittelstadt (#21) - Scott Reedy (#19)
Ryan Norman (#23) - Darian Romanko (#26) - Joey Marooney (#12)
Cullen Munson (#13) - Jack Ramsey (#26)
Defense:
Sam Rossini (#28) - Jack Glover (#3)
Nate Knoepke (#24) - Jack Sadek (#2)
Steve Johnson (#4) - Ryan Lindgren (#5)
Ryan Zuhlsdorf (#20) - Tyler Nanne (#29)
Goaltenders:
Eric Schierhorn (#37)
Brock Kautz (#1)
Mat Robson (#40)
-For the most part, I'd expect Minnesota to use this as a template against UMD. The top-9 is set with those nine forwards in one combination or another. The remaining 5 are battling for 3 spots with Darian Romanko, Jack Ramsey and Ryan Norman having the inside track.
With both forwards and defense, Minnesota head coach Don Lucia normally tries to roll all lines equally. Only six of the eight defenders will dress. If the pairings stay the same, I'd assume Rossini and Glover would be the ones sitting.
-As a reminder, Mat Robson cannot play until December 8th.
-The Gophers tried using 4 forwards and a defenseman during their power play in the exhibition game.
-The Ice Breaker is a four team tournament with Union and Michigan Tech being the other two clubs. With the possibility of facing one of those two teams tomorrow to begin the year, Minnesota's focus is more on its own team.
-"He's got things you can't teach," was how Don Lucia described Casey Mittelstadt. If you saw his exhibition goal, you'd have to agree.
-More Lucia: "(Mittelstadt)'s got a very good work ethic. I showed him a couple video clips just on angling and he's very receptive to coaching because he wants to be a player. We got a whole room of those guys and they have been very receptive so far the year has begun."
-What did Lucia like about his team after watching the exhibition game film?
"I liked defensively that we played well, we only gave up 13 five-on-five shots. I thought all three goalies were sharp. I liked the way our goaltenders played.
"It was kind of choppy at times offensively. Normally we score off a lot off the rush. We didn't have a lot of rush in our game, but I liked that our end zone offense was better. We got on top of some pucks, guys like Gates who are stronger physically and worked on that part of his game. You can see the improvement there. We'll have the ability to score off the rush, but adding the ability to score down low is an important element of the game.
"The tweaks that we did, you saw it show up in a positive manner on the video and that's good. We need to get our defensemen more involved in the offense, I think we only had a couple shots on goal by our D core in the game so we have to get our forwards looking at our defensemen more and getting our defensemen getting pucks on the net."
-Brent Gates Jr. summing up facing Duluth and in-state issues:
"It's a new year, new teams. We're both 0-0 right now so that's all I got to say about that," he said. "Every game's big and means a lot in-state. We want to be the best team in-state. We know we have a good group this year and can compete with anyone, but like I said everyone's 0-0 right now. We're going to go out there and play hard and prove we're the best team in the state.
-Gates on being an upperclassmen and whether he considers himself a leader:
"We have a huge class, our junior class. We have a lot of guys who make an impact in our class and I think everyone after their sophomore year, we even have a sophomore captain right now (Ryan Lindgren, you know how things are done, and how things should be done, and how the coaches want it to be done and what it takes to win. Just having a bit of experience teaching the younger guys how to do things and showing them the right way, I feel a bit of leadership responsibility."
Women's Team
-Head coach Brad Frost wouldn't divulge his goaltending plan for Minnesota's WCHA opening weekend on Wednesday. The Gophers went into last weekend planning to give both Sidney Peters and Alex Gulstene a start. Peters lasted 25 minutes before being pulled Friday in her start. Gulstene played the rest of Friday's game and started Sunday.
-Ohio State, who Frost believes should be one of the top-10 teams in the country, presents an exciting early challenge for the Gophers. As Minnesota and several others in the WCHA are mixing in large groups of newcomers and replacing Olympians, the Buckeyes return most of their core from last season.
Redshirt junior Kassidy Sauve was a second-team All-American in 2016-17 while redshirt sophomore Jincy Dunne and senior Dani Sadek (older sister to Minnesota junior Jack) are two of the better defenders in the country. The Gopher offense has their work cut out for them. Some questions are going to be answered this weekend.
-There is also familarity on the bench. OSU head coach Nadine Muzerall was a longtime assistant to Frost and U of M alum. One of Muzerall's assistants, Milica McMillen, also played for her at Minnesota from 2012-2016 and was a teammate to several current Gophers.
-What Frost wants to see out of his team:
"For us it starts defensively. We know that we lost some scoring so defensively we have to be strong and that takes all six players on the ice, not just the defensemen. If we can keep them off the board as long as possible it allows us to get on the offense and hopefully put a couple pucks home in the net."
Loose Ends:
-15 Gopher alums are on NHL opening night rosters although one, Jordan Schroeder, begins the year on IR. In alphabetical order, by team: Alex Goligoski (Arizona), Kyle Okposto (Buffalo), Erik Johnson (Colorado), Jordan Schroeder (Columbus), Nick Bjugstad (Florida), Mike Reilly (Minnesota), Nick Leddy (New York Islanders), Brady Skjei (New York Rangers), Phil Kessel (Pittsburgh), Paul Martin (San Jose), Thomas Vanek (Vancouver), Erik Haula, Nate Schmidt (Vegas Golden Knights), Aaron Ness (Washington), and Blake Wheeler (Winnipeg).
-The Don Lucia Show will be on KTLK 1130 AM this season. First show should be Monday.
-SB Nation College Hockey's Jeff Cox reports that onetime Gopher commit William Fallstrom is officially no longer committed. The 1998 born Swede has bounced around the past couple years, going from multiple USHL teams to returning home to Sweden and back to the USHL with Fargo. Originally scheduled to come in this season when he committed in 2014, there's not much room for Fallstrom these days. 5 to 7 other forwards could potentially come in next season while only 2 seniors leave for certain.
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