SERIES PREVIEW: No. 1 #Gophers (15-2-1, 8-0-0 B1G) vs. No. 2/3 Michigan State (12-2-0, 5-1-0 B1G) Friday, Dec. 13, 2024 • 7:30 p.m. CT Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024 • 5:00 p.m. CT 3M Arena at Mariucci (Minneapolis, Minn.) LAST TIME OUT Minnesota kicked off the month of December by becoming the first team in over 81 years to complete a shutout sweep of Michigan. The Gophers won their seventh-straight Friday game against the Wolverines and improved to 7-0-1 in Friday contests in 2024-25 with a 6-0 triumph in the series opener, and completed the sweep with a 2-0 victory on Saturday. Minnesota entered the weekend finale with an 0-7-1 record in its previous eight Saturday games against Michigan. Matthew Wood, who will miss this week’s series to attend the Canadian National Junior Team Selection Camp, recorded his first two-goal game as a Gopher in Friday’s win, while Big Ten Second Star of the Week Nathan Airey earned his first collegiate shutout with a career-high 32 saves. Jimmy Snuggerud scored his 50th-career goal, becoming the first Gopher since 2006 to accomplish the feat in fewer than 100 games. Just under 17 minutes into the second game, Sam Rinzel fired home his eighth goal of the season to become the first Minnesota defenseman to score eight goals in the first 18 games of a season since Jordan Leopold in 2001-02. The score remained the same until Snuggerud sealed the win with his first-career empty-net goal with 11.5 seconds left. Liam Soulière capped the sweep with a 22-save shutout. The shutout sweep was the 12th of the NCAA era for Minnesota and the first since 2006 in which the team used multiple goaltenders. Soulière, who blanked the top-ranked Wolverines, 3-0, on Nov. 4, 2022 for Penn State, became the eighth NCAA-era netminder to record multiple shutouts against Michigan and the first to do it with two different teams. Michigan State, which entered its series against Wisconsin riding a nine-game winning streak—its longest since 2000-01—dropped its series opener, 4-0. The Badgers had a 2-0 lead in Saturday’s rematch, but then-top-ranked Michigan State rallied for a 3-2 overtime victory. Former Badger forward Charlie Stramel got the Spartans on the board in the second period and assisted on Isaac Howard’s extra-session winner. Howard assisted Stramel’s tally and was the only other Spartan with multiple points on the weekend. Joey Larson scored Michigan State’s tying goal. Spartan goaltender Trey Augustine stopped 51-of-56 Wisconsin shots in the series. ALL-TIME SERIES Before tying in its first contest against the Spartans in 2023-24, Minnesota had won 14-consecutive games against Michigan State. After going 2-1-1 against MSU in four games last season, the Gophers hold a 136-51-17 (.708) advantage in the all-time series. In 2023-24, Minnesota and Michigan State split 12 Big Ten standings points. The Spartans won a shootout following the teams’ 3-3 tie in Minneapolis on Nov. 24 and Jimmy Clark gave the Gophers a 6-5 overtime victory in the series finale two days later. When Minnesota visited East Lansing in late January, the Gophers held a 2-0 lead through 40 minutes of the opener, but Michigan State’s Daniel Russell capped a 3-2 comeback win with four seconds to go in regulation. The Gophers rebounded with a 5-1 triumph the next evening thanks in part to a two-goal, three-point outing from Oliver Moore. Over the course of last year’s season series, the Gophers held eight different leads and the Spartans overcame all but one of them. Minnesota trailed Michigan State for just 5:09 over the course of the four games. Both teams were ranked in the top 10 in all four meetings. Top-ranked Minnesota, which is expected to be undermanned in this weekend’s series, is 8-0-1 in its last nine games against Michigan State at 3M Arena at Mariucci and is 15-1-2 against the Spartans, all-time, in the month of December. GOPHERS VS. THE BIG TEN For the second time since joining the conference in 2013-14, Minnesota is off to an 8-0-0 start in Big Ten play after recording home sweeps of Penn State and Michigan and road sweeps of Wisconsin and Notre Dame. The only other time the Gophers won their first eight Big Ten games was in 2020-21. The Gophers have earned 23 of a possible 24 Big Ten standings points and enter this week’s series with the league’s highest point total and points percentage (.958). Michigan State is 5-1-0 in the league. The Spartans sit in third place in the league standings, but have the second-highest points percentage at .778. Last season, Minnesota followed up back-to-back Big Ten regular-season titles with a third-place finish. The Gophers, who set conference records for wins (19) and points (57) in 2022-23, went 13-7-4 in the league last season before bowing out of the league tournament with a 2-1 home loss to Michigan in the semifinal round. The Gophers are 158-72-24 (.669), all-time, in Big Ten regular-season games. OTHER NOTES • Since falling behind, 2-1, against Alaska on Nov. 30, Minnesota has scored 12-consecutive goals to complete a 5-2 win over the Nanooks, as well as 6-0 and 2-0 wins versus Michigan. Gopher Goaltenders Nathan Airey (32) and Liam Soulière (30) have combined to stop 62-straight shots on goal and have not conceded in 144:56. The last time Minnesota scored 12-or-more goals in a row was from Feb. 19 to March 12, 2022 when the team potted 19-consecutive goals. In that four-game stretch, the Gophers erased a 3-0 deficit to top Penn State, 6-4, and swept Wisconsin with 5-0 and 8-0 victories before opening the postseason with a 3-2 win over the Nittany Lions. • Oliver Moore, Brodie Ziemer, and Matthew Wood all made their respective countries’ preliminary rosters for this year’s World Junior Championships. Moore (United States) and Matthew Wood (Canada) will look to become the 26th and 27th Gophers to compete in multiple WJC tournaments, while Brodie Ziemer seeks to become the 88th Gopher to skate in the event and the 83rd to represent Team USA. Wood, the only Gopher to have represented Canada at the event, will attend his team’s selection camp this week. • Minnesota enters the week averaging 4.11 goals per game, the second-best mark in the nation behind Denver’s average of 4.13. The Gophers’ 74 total goals are at least eight more than any other team. Minnesota’s Jimmy Snuggerud (tied for third), Matthew Wood (tied for eighth), Connor Kurth (tied for eighth), Sam Rinzel (tied for 14th), Brody Lamb (tied for 23rd), and Oliver Moore (tied for 34th) all rank 34th or higher in national scoring. Rinzel’s eight goals and 19 points are both tied for the most in the country by a defenseman. • Nathan Airey, who set a Minnesota NCAA-era record by winning the first nine starts of his career, is the only goaltender in the nation with eight or more starts and no losses this season at 9-0-1. Liam Soulière, who has yet to allow more than two goals in a game in his first eight starts in maroon and gold, leads the country with a 1.37 GAA. Minnesota averages 1.78 goals against per game this season, the fourth-best mark in the nation. Michigan State is third at 1.71. • Minnesota is the No. 1 ranked team in the nation for the first time since Oct. 23, 2023. The Gophers were the top-ranked team for two weeks last season and were No. 1 in 10 weeks during their national runner-up season in 2022-23. The Gophers are 14-12-0 as the top-ranked team under Bob Motzko (USCHO poll), including 7-7-0 at 3M Arena at Mariucci. The last time the Gophers were the No. 1 team and hosted another top-three team was on Jan. 8, 2013 when they defeated No. 2/3 Notre Dame, 4-1. The last time Minnesota played in a top-three matchup, overall, was in its 2023 NCAA title game loss to Quinnipiac.
@GopherGameNotes 2023 title game mentioned