Gopher Hockey / Badger Split

I love all Gopher Sports, but let's face it Gopher Hockey is my favorite. This weekends match-up between the Golden Gophers and the North Dakota Fighting Sioux should be some of the best hockey of the year! But let's look back a moment because I missed the chance to blog about the Badger game which is always one of my favorites. I love a good border battle!

The last two series the Gophers have split, much to my dismay. The match-up two weekends ago between the Gophers and the Wisconsin Badgers was a classic. I was certain the Gophers could have won both games with a little more perseverance, but those Badger fans sure get rowdy! And with over 15,000 of them it looked like a sea of angry red at the Kohl Center. It was nice to see the Gophers skate well and when Brian Schack scored the first Gopher goal Friday night, I really thought the Gophers were a shoe in to win. The Wisconsin goalie really turned it up and shut the Gophers down periods 2 and 3 and let's face it the penalties killed us. Both of the Wisconsin's goals came from Power Plays!!!! Come on Gophers, we need to learn to kill the power plays or stop getting penalties (-:

Saturday's game was much better and the Gophers came away with a BIG W!!! Goalie Jeff Frazee earned his third career shutout and the one goal by Jim O'Brien was enough to win the game. Frazee turned away 24 shots from the Badgers to push Minnesota's lead in the WCHA standings to seven points over Colorado College, Denver and St. Cloud State. The Gophers have maintained an undefeated series record this season and I am so proud of them for that! Let's Go Gophers!!!

Here are a couple of interesting facts I found on gophersports.com

• The Golden Gophers lead the all-time series against Wisconsin with a 147-78-15 record, including a 55-48-10 mark on the road.

• Wisconsin has not swept Minnesota at the Kohl Center since Nov. 12-13, 1999.

• The last nine games in the series in Madison have been decided by two goals or less.

• The Golden Gophers have not been swept since Dec. 2-3, 2005, vs. Wisconsin, and have not been swept on the road since Feb. 27-28, 2004, at Denver.

• Minnesota has not been shut out in 26 games - the longest streak in the WCHA.