University of Minnesota Athletics
Men's Hockey Opens Friday With Exhibition Contest
10/9/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Hockey
The 2008-09 season opens Friday for the Minnesota men's hockey team with an exhibition contest against the University of British Columbia at Mariucci Arena at 7 p.m. The Gophers feature 12 new players on their roster after losing six seniors from the 2007-08 squad that finished second in the WCHA playoffs and qualified for their eighth consecutive NCAA tournament. Friday’s game is Minnesota’s only tune-up for the WCHA season as the Gophers open league play the following weekend against St. Cloud State.
Last Time Out
Minnesota concluded the 2007-08 season with a 5-2 loss to Boston College on March 29 in the NCAA playoffs in Worcester, Mass. It was the Eagles’ first game on their march to an NCAA championship. Minnesota concluded the season 19-17-9 and wrapped up a thrilling postseason that saw the team with four straight one-goal games, including three in overtime, to reach the WCHA Final Five title game.
Series History
The two teams are meeting for the first time. Minnesota has an extensive background of games against Canadian universities and is playing a different Canadian school for the fourth time in five years. The Gophers won all three of those games against Alberta opponents Lethbridge, Alberta and Calgary. Minnesota has won 10 straight exhibition games since a 7-5 loss to Valerenga on Dec. 15, 1999 in Don Lucia’s first season. The Gophers are playing an exhibition game for the 20th straight season.
About the Thunderbirds
British Columbia is playing its third straight WCHA opponent and fell to 2-5 overall after a 3-0 exhibition loss at St. Cloud State on Wednesday. The Thunderbirds split a pair of series with Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and Calgary to open the season before losing twice in Alaska last weekend. They lost to Alaska-Fairbanks 3-2 on Friday and then fell to Alaska-Anchorage 6-2 on Saturday despite jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first period. The Thunderbirds have two players playing in Mariucci Arena for the second straight year as Tyler Ruel and Jordan Inglis both played for Wayne State last year before the school dropped its program. Keith Voytechek leads the Thunderbirds with three goals and three assists for six points, while Mike Lynch has two goals and four assists for six points. Gerry Festa has played the majority of minutes in goal and has a 4.31 goals against average with a .857 save percentage.
