2022 Gophers Hockey

Dumb question, is it the first game of the season for the Gophers tonight? I see they are playing MN State. Any thoughts on how their season will go?

I think they played a different non-conference opponent last weekend. It may have been exhibition though. I don’t remember. Mankato has had a couple of two on ones in this and didn’t convert. Otherwise its been pretty even. I don’t think Kato is quite the juggernaut they’ve been in recent years but they’ll be a top ten ranked team all season. Minnesota should win the big ten. Notre Dame is the other team that could beat them out for it. Mankato plays Minnesota, Duluth, and St Cloud three weekends in a row in non-conference play.

The Gophers opened play last weekend against perennial powerhouse Lindenwood.

Hard Water Fan wrote:

The Gophers opened play last weekend against perennial powerhouse Lindenwood.

Yeah, I was worried when I saw they started out with the Lions!!

I’m not real sure how the college hockey season is structured. But Gophers just swept Michigan. And I think leading the Big10 and #2 in the nation?

Is there still a lack of enthusiasm for Gophers hockey since they aren’t in the WCHA or has that changed?

Depends who you ask..

lindyrig79 wrote:

I’m not real sure how the college hockey season is structured. But Gophers just swept Michigan. And I think leading the Big10 and #2 in the nation?

Penn State is actually leading the big ten.

Michigan is missing 5 players from illness. Apparently one of them is so sick that he’s in the hospital on a ventilator. And it’s not from Covid either.

Gophers are solid though. They have played a relatively tough schedule and put together a respectable record so far.

The past few years the Gophers non-conference schedule has primarily been against the local teams that are in the NCHC (UMD, St Cloud, UND, etc) plus Mankato (WCHA) so they typically have a solid strength of schedule. Mankato lost to Denver in the national championship game last year. For the Big-10, Michigan is commonly in the mix and teams like Penn State & Notre Dame have recently had good seasons as well.

It’s interesting that there are some programs that have fallen by the wayside like CC, Mi State and Wi.

Nice sweep for the Gophers at Michigan.
I saw it last week and this week. A team playing a man up on a delayed penalty and scores. The guy still serves the penalty. Was this a rule change this year? I like it.

Netguy wrote:

Nice sweep for the Gophers at Michigan.
I saw it last week and this week. A team playing a man up on a delayed penalty and scores. The guy still serves the penalty. Was this a rule change this year? I like it.

The rule was added a few years ago, but not sure when. I like it too.

tegg wrote:

plus Mankato (WCHA)

Mankato is now in the CCHA as of 2 years ago. The WCHA is completely disbanded now. The leftover teams in the WCHA started over and kicked the two Alaska teams out, plus Alabama-Huntsville. Then they added St Thomas to make 8 teams which is now what is known as the CCHA. The Commissioner is former long time CC and Gopher head coach, Don Lucia.

gimruis wrote:

Mankato is now in the CCHA as of 2 years ago. The WCHA is completely disbanded now. The leftover teams in the WCHA started over and kicked the two Alaska teams out, plus Alabama-Huntsville. Then they added St Thomas to make 8 teams which is now what is known as the CCHA. The Commissioner is former long time CC and Gopher head coach, Don Lucia.

Did not know that, that is a weird conference. If you asked me what division Ferris St., Augustana, Lake Superior St. and St. Thomas were in for hockey, I wouldn’t have guessed D1!

Michigan was short handed but so where the Gophers. Was fun to see a D man move to forward and score the first goal of the game Friday night.

BigWerm wrote:

Did not know that, that is a weird conference. If you asked me what division Ferris St., Augustana, Lake Superior St. and St. Thomas were in for hockey, I wouldn’t have guessed D1!

Augustana is actually not in it, yet. They are an independent right now but they have been accepted to join it in the future.

Most of the teams in this conference are essentially the “leftover” teams from the major realignment about 10 years ago when the Big Ten and NCHC was formed. Mankato applied to join the NCHC several years ago and they were rejected.

Gophers looked good tonight. Maybe a tad sleepy to start, but can this team play …

Full arena despite the Tonka-Edina AA game in the other city.

Next weeks game should be a good one.

Brittman wrote:

Gophers looked good tonight. Maybe a tad sleepy to start, but can this team play …

Full arena despite the Tonka-Edina AA game in the other city.

Next weeks game should be a good one.

They looked to be on a power play most of the game last night. Michigan will test them no doubt.

Sparty is terrible. Wolverines will provide a much stiffer test.

They often set up and appeared to be running a powerplay whether State had someone in the box or not. MN actually only had two full power plays in the entire game and scored on their first PP. MSU scored their only goal on a PP.

This upcoming game is a rematch of last year’s Big10 championship game. Michigan whomped the gophers last year. Officiating a little suspect (but I do not think in mattered). Lack of equitable calls last year resulted in two delays tied to massive amounts of plastic water bottles landing on the ice. Never seen anything like it.

Michigan will be a good test but man the Gophers have run away with the conference. Watch that Fantilli (helluva player) do something stupid and put MN on the power play.
The Gophers will likely be a bit rusty since they have only played one game in like 3 weeks. Time to get the legs going for NCAA tourney time. Dont want to be flat but Im sure Bob will have them going. This is probably the best Gopher team ever and that is saying something. They are going to lose a ton of players (lot of freshmen) from this team though. Still surprised that one Lucius kid decommitted and went to Wisconsin. Did they even win a conference game this year?

CaptainMusky wrote:

Did they even win a conference game this year?

Yes, they went 6-18 in the Big Ten this season and 13-23 overall. That includes wins over top ranked Minnesota and #4 ranked Michigan. They fired their coach Tony Granato and his entire staff last week, who had been there for 7 seasons. He really only had one good season there in 2020-2021 (the pandemic year when it was all conference games only). They won the Big Ten that season and Cole Caulfield won the Hobey, but they got creamed in the first NCAA tournament game by Bemidji State.

As far as a replacement, who knows. I think they need to go outside the alumni box. And don’t hire an NHL coach either. That rarely works. There is a rumor they may make a run at Mike Hastings in Mankato after their season ends. They could probably double his salary.

There’s absolutely no reason that Wisconsin should be this bad every season. Being a Big Ten school, they have the facilities and recruiting to be competitive every season. At minimum they should qualify for the NCAA tournament every year. They have good players, many of whom are NHL draft picks. So the problem lies with the coaching.

There’s absolutely no reason that Wisconsin should be this bad every season. Being a Big Ten school, they have the facilities and recruiting to be competitive every season. At minimum they should qualify for the NCAA tournament every year. They have good players, many of whom are NHL draft picks. So the problem lies with the coaching.

I suppose the same could be said about mens BB at the U.

Dutchboy wrote:

I suppose the same could be said about mens BB at the U.

Perhaps, but Gophers BB has never really had much success. The only year in recent memory they made it to the Final Four was vacated. Wisconsin has won 6 NCAA mens hockey championships, several hobey baker awards, and produced countless NHL players.

The only comparison there is that they are both in Big Ten.

Dutchboy wrote:

I suppose the same could be said about mens BB at the U.

I think Ben is going to get the U turned around he has some real good recruits coming even after losing that Dennis Evans. I think they pulled the plug on Whalen too soon. She had one of the best recruiting classes ever and she will never get to see them play.

I don’t understand the love for Johnson. He had a bad team and they stayed bad. He couldn’t coach them up to respectability. The best of a bad team will now transfer out to be replaced by freshman that couldn’t get recruited to decent programs.

The program is in the dumpster and I don’t know who could get them out.

We you have to at least give him a chance to get recruits in and establish his systems. Pitino had quite awhile and he didnt do anything either.

anyone know when the gopher hockey team plays next???????

glenn57 wrote:

anyone know when the gopher hockey team plays next???????

They play Michigan in the Big Ten Championship on Saturday.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>glenn57 wrote:</div>
anyone know when the gopher hockey team plays next???????

They play Michigan in the Big Ten Championship on Saturday.