Gophers' in-state rivalry heats up with Minnesota-Duluth
The Gophers and Minnesota-Duluth own one of the greatest in-state rivalries in college sports. And this scenario couldn't be better: an early-season home-and-home between two nationally ranked teams. Top-ranked Minnesota holds home ice Friday night, then it's up to the Twin Ports and a home tilt against No. 13/15 Minnesota-Duluth.
Ben Clymer and I will call both games on Fox Sports North Plus. We'll be joined in the booth by former Bulldog captain Judd Medak on Saturday. The fireworks begin at 7 p.m. both nights.
Tale of the tape
Speed vs. speed: There will be no dawdling on the ice this weekend. Both outfits boast good team speed and both have put up strong numbers in the early going. The Gophers swept No. 14 Notre Dame last weekend at Mariucci Arena, punishing the Irish by a combined scored of 9-2. Minnesota thus extended its nation-leading home-ice unbeaten streak to 17 games, going back to last season. (The last visiting team to win at Mariucci? Yup, Minnesota-Duluth).
The Bulldogs, meanwhile, have won three straight after a strong sweep at St. Cloud State last weekend. They posted three goals each night and haven't lost to anyone with a three-goals-or-better offensive output in three years.
Goalie vs. goalie: Minnesota's Adam Wilcox continues to smoke the opposition. Last Friday against Notre Dame, he posted his second shutout in eight games and his 58th career win. Wilcox is now four wins behind John Blue and the No. 4 Gopher all-time wins mark. His 5-0 whitewash of the Irish gives him the second-most shutouts in Minnesota history (9) behind Kellen Briggs (13).
In Duluth, head coach Scott Sandelin seems to have settled on Finnish netminder Kasimir Kaskisuo, a freshman who formerly played for the NAHL Minnesota Wilderness.
Special teams: The Gophers have had good service on both sides of the special teams equation, although the loss to injury of Travis Boyd (still out), who scores both power-play and penalty-kill markers, certainly hurts.
Minnesota's power play is clicking at a sizzling 10-of-31, 32.3-percent rate. The penalty kill has held opponents scoreless 30 times in 37 attempts.
Sandelin's Minnesota-Duluth special teams rank second in the nation in power play goals (13) and short-handed tallies (5). And this says something, although I'm not sure what: UM-D has been on the power play more often than any other team in Division I hockey (57) and on the penalty kill more often than anyone (56 times). Team speed accounts for some of that.
Been a while: It's been a long time between home-and-home series for these two teams. In fact, it's been nearly 46 years since the Gophers and Bulldogs played on against each other.
That was in 1968, UM-D's third season in the WCHA after being a MIAC member and an independent since 1930. On that frigid weekend, Glen Sonmor's squad beat Ralph Romano's club 4-0 at Williams Arena (as it was then named) on Friday and 6-5 at the DECC in Duluth the following night.
DOUG McLEOD is the original Voice of Golden Gopher hockey. He began calling Minnesota games on radio in 1978 and moved to TV in 1987. He also spent 16 seasons in the National Hockey League as voice of the Minnesota North Stars, Pittsburgh Penguins and Phoenix Coyotes.
