Pregame Blog: Minnesota-Harvard Friday Line Combinations, TV, Radio & More

Harvard (2-3-0, 2-3-0 ECAC) at #7 Minnesota (7-4-1, 3-2-1-1 Big Ten)

Date: November 17, 2017
Time: 7:00 pm CT
Place: 3M Arena at Mariucci in Minneapolis, MN
TV: Fox Sports North PLUS/TSN5 in Canada
Stream: BTN2Go/Fox Sports Go
Radio: 1130 KTLK-AM (Wally Shaver and Frank Mazzocco)
Nate is covering for tonight: The Athletic/Zone Coverage/Wellsociated Press

Pregame reading: Gopher hockey loses its finishing touch in disappointing weekend at Michigan (The Athletic), Harvard 1989 shocker still haunts Gophers 28 years later (The Athletic)

Pregame listening: That Gopher Hockey Puckast Episode 8

"That's the million dollar question."

Said by Don Lucia earlier this week, the Gopher head coach was responding to the question "how do you pull the positives all together?" Minnesota has found success on defense, allowing 2 and 1 goals against in back-to-back weekends, as well as offense, scoring 10 goals in 2 games.

However, the two have yet to go together in the same weekend.

Minnesota will try to do so against #13 Harvard, which like the Gophers enter the weekend dealing with its own third period collapse.

"If somebody could patent that, they would win the lottery. We'd want to read the book," Lucia said. "We want to have our guys make sure they have their legs this week and play with pace against a good opponent."

The Gophers so far have done well in non-conference play, going 4-2 against tough competition without putting together both offense and defense in one.

Coming off of a weekend with two collapses, Minnesota is looking to avoid a repeat and have it be an abberation rather than the norm.

One group that would like to be counted on more is the line of Tyler Sheehy, Tommy Novak and Brent Gates Jr. All three played their best weekend, with two complete performances, in the loss and tie to Michigan.

“I thought Tyler and Tommy both played with more energy this weekend. Maybe it was Tyler getting that first goal (of the season), but he has to play that way now,” Lucia told me after Saturday's game in Ann Arbor. “You can’t play the game without a high compete level and moving your feet and really working. They did that.”

Line Combinations

Minnesota makes a couple changes from the past couple weekends. First, freshmen Scott Reedy and Brannon McManus switch spots after the RPM line was shut down against the Wolverines. McManus played in Reedy's spot during Wednesday's practice.

Second, Sam Rossini gets in for his second straight game in place of Jack Glover. While the Gophers found success offensively with 11 forwards and 7 defensemen, Minnesota is going back to 12F/6D tonight. Ryan Norman returns to the fourth line with Darian Romanko and Jack Ramsey while Tyler Nanne slides into Glover's spot, breaking up the Nanne-Zuhlsdorf pairing that has been together much of the year.

Harvard has three Minnesotans in Friday's lineup: Henry "Hank" Bowlby (Edina), Jake Horton (Oakdale) and Jacob Olson (St. Paul)

University of Minnesota Golden Gophers

Forwards
Brent Gates Jr. (#10) - Tommy Novak (#17) - Tyler Sheehy (#22)
Rem Pitlick (#15) - Casey Mittelstadt (#21) -  Brannon McManus (#7)
Leon Bristedt (#18) - Mike Szmatula (#9) - Scott Reedy (#19)
Ryan Norman (#23) - Darian Romanko (#26) - Jack Ramsey (#16)

Defense
Ryan Lindgren (#5) - Jack Sadek (#2)
Steve Johnson (#4) - Tyler Nanne (#29)
Sam Rossini (#28) - Ryan Zuhlsdorf (#20)

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

Harvard University Crimson

Forwards

Henry Bowlby (#28) - Ryan Donato (#16) - Lewis Zerter-Gossage (#77)

Seb Lloyd (#15) - Jake Horton (#19) - Michael Floodstrand (#44)

Ty Pelton-Byce (#17) - Jack Badini (#33) - Nathan Krusko (#13)

Frederic Gregoire (#71) - Eddie Ellis (#7) - Benjamin Solin (#11)

Defense

Wiley Sherman (#25) - John Marino (#12)

Jacob Olson (#26) - Adam Fox (#18)

Adam Baughman (#20) - Reilly Walsh (#2)

Goaltenders

Merrick Madsen (#31)

Michael Lackey (#35)

Cameron Gornet (#32)