Gophers Game!

First, I have to mention that Dan Dunn has been named Center Ice Player of the week. He clearly stood out this weekend (well Saturday) as the key to SCSU's success against Miami. Dunn stopped 38 out of 39 SOG including 5 in OT in the 1-1 tie with #4 Miami Saturday. You can read an earlier post of mine about Dunn and his tie here.

This weekend the Huskies will face I-94 and division rival the University of Minnesota for the first and only time this year. It will also be the Huskies first WCHA conference game. Needless to say, this is an important weekend for the Huskies and Husky fans. You can hear some of Coach Bob Motzko's thoughts on the game in this week's "Bob Motzko Show" which can be heard over at the CIC website.

You should also head over to Goal Gopher and read the article "SCSU coach Motzko expects to find Gophers ornery", which is sort of a response to Coach Motzko's comments on his radio show. The article begins with this gem of a quote:

"St. Cloud State, much like the Gophers, is struggling a bit at the start of the season."

Now, is this quote accurate? Yes, it most certainly is. St. Cloud State has struggled (at least by my expectations) at the start of this season.  I would also have to agree that the Gophers have struggled a bit at the start of this season. However, I think it is a stretch to really compare the two with "much like".  The two teams overall records are fairly similar, with the Gophers being 2-2-0 so far this season and the Huskies are 1-2-1 this season; however, they have faced very different teams and have had very different accomplishments so far. The Gophers accomplishments (where they have received their points) are from winning two games against Massachusetts. This Massachusetts team has yet to show up on any of the major college hockey polls. The best I could find was INCH's Great 58 which placed Massachusetts as the 35th best college hockey team in the nation. By comparison, SCSU's accomplishments (points) have come from beating RIT (a team that went to the Frozen Four last year) and getting a tie against #4 Miami (also a team that went to the Frozen Four last year---and the year before). I think by looking at these accomplishments alone, the Huskies are off to a better start this year than the Gophers. However, I expect the Gophers to come at the Huskies strong this weekend as they will have something to prove after being swept at home by WCHA newcomer Nebraska-Omaha.

If you have not yet heard, President Obama is throwing things a little off for this weekend's game. Because of his visit the Saturday night game has been postponed to Sunday afternoon. You can read more about that here.

Here is a slightly dated, yet still highly relevant, video on the Husky vs. Gopher rivalry:

What do you think will be this weekends outcome?




Last, but not least, a little quote from INCH to think about:

"Pollsters, can we drop the notion that sweeping Minnesota is a big deal? In the last two seasons and change, the Gophers have been swept nine times – they’re an average to slightly above-average team, not the juggernaut that rolled to two national championships nearly a decade ago."