Gophers Open WCHA Final Five Title Defense on Thursday

Defending champion Minnesota makes its 10th consecutive trip to the WCHA Final Five and will play a quarterfinal game for the first time since 2000 as the Gophers take on St. Cloud State on Thursday night at 7 p.m. at the Xcel Energy Center. All of the Final Five games will be televised by Fox Sports Net North and all of Minnesota’s games in the tournament can be heard on the Gopher Radio Network.

Series History
Minnesota leads the all-time series 40-23-12, though St. Cloud State is 4-0-3 in the last seven meetings in the series. The Gophers’ last win came Oct. 29, 2005 in St. Cloud. The Huskies beat the Gophers 3-1 and rallied for a 4-4 tie on Jan. 11-12 of this season. Garrett Roe broke a 1-1 tie with 1:41 left in the first meeting and scored two of the Huskies’ goals as they rallied from a 4-1 deficit in the final 21 minutes in the second matchup. The teams have played in the WCHA playoffs eight times with Minnesota winning five of the meetings. The Huskies took the most recent encounter 8-7 in overtime in the 2006 semifinals.

About the Huskies
St. Cloud State swept Wisconsin 3-0 and 4-3 in overtime last weekend to earn a spot in its third straight WCHA Final Five. The Huskies have been especially hot down the stretch, bringing a season-high five-game unbeaten streak into the weekend and posting an 8-1-2 record over their last 11 games. St. Cloud State was in ninth place on Feb. 9 before its season-ending surge. The success has been keyed by a defense that has allowed 1.36 goals per game over the span after giving up 2.74 goals per game in its first 27 games. The Huskies feature the nation’s second-best power play at 23.6 percent. They boast the top three scorers in the league as Ryan Lasch has 25 goals and 26 assists for 51 points, while Garrett Roe and Andreas Nodl each have 18 goals and 26 assists for 44 points.

Last Time Out
Minnesota outlasted Minnesota State in a thrilling three-game series that featured three overtime games, including two double overtime affairs. The Mavericks took the opening game 1-0 in double overtime before Minnesota rallied for a 2-1 win in one overtime on Saturday and a 3-2 double overtime win on Sunday. Trevor Bruess scored a shorthanded goal for Minnesota State for the lone goal in Friday’s game, while Mike Carman netted the overtime winner on Saturday and Tony Lucia scored the Gophers’ game-winner on Sunday.

Three Crazy Nights
The figures from last weekend’s opening round series between Minnesota and Minnesota State are staggering. Here is a closer look at what took place over the three nights in Mankato:
* - The teams combined to play 262 minutes and eight seconds over the three nights, which is the equivalent of nearly four and a half games.
* - The teams played over 82 minutes of overtime and each put 42 shots on goal in the extra sessions.
* - Total game time for the series was 10 hours, 13 minutes, which averages to a length of three hours, 24 minutes per game.
* - Minnesota State scored one goal all weekend in a five-on-five situation. The Mavericks also tallied two power play goals and one shorthanded goal.
* - Minnesota goaltender Alex Kangas stopped 115 of 119 shots faced, finishing with a 0.92 goals against average and .966 save percentage for the series.
* - Minnesota State goaltender Mike Zacharias saved 116 of 121 shots for a 1.14 goals against average and .959 save percentage.

Working Overtime
Only one other time in WCHA history have all three games of a series gone to overtime. It happened in 1992 between Colorado College and Minnesota Duluth. Colorado College won the first game (7-6) and third games (5-4) in triple overtime, while Minnesota Duluth won the second game (4-3) in one overtime period. Last weekend’s series marked the fourth time in WCHA playoff history that a series included at least two overtime games.

Extra, Extra
Overtimes have been nothing new this season for the Gophers, who have played a national-high and school record 15 overtime games. Minnesota also has a national-high and schoolrecord-tying nine ties as the Gophers are 2-4-9 in the overtime contests. Prior to Carman’s winning goal on Saturday, the last Minnesota overtime victory came on Blake Wheeler’s dramatic goal to beat North Dakota in last year’s WCHA Final Five championship game. Aside from the scoreless regulation game on Friday at Minnesota State, the Gophers’ opponents have scored the tying goal in 13 of the other 14 overtime games.

Rookie Impact
Minnesota freshman goaltender Alex Kangas has had an improbable freshman season, taking over the team’s starting job during the second half of the season and posting the best single-season numbers in school history to this point. Kangas played in five of the team’s first 17 games of the year, but has now played in 22 of the last 24 contests, including 20 straight entering the postseason.
* - Kangas has started 17 straight games and posted a 1.64 goals against average and .939 save percentage over the span.
* - His season goals against average has dipped to 1.95 and his save percentage has risen to .930. Both of those numbers rank seventh in the country and second among all freshman goaltenders behind Colorado College’s Richard Bachman.
* - Kangas has a chance to eclipse Minnesota’s single-season goaltending records as Kellen Briggs owns the record for goals against average at 2.13 in 2006-07 and Jack McCarten had a .920 save percentage in 1956-57.

Playing Their Way In
The winner of the Thursday night quarterfinal game has never won the WCHA Final Five in its 15-year history. The quarterfinal winner has advanced to the title game three times and placed second each time. St. Cloud State in 2006, Michigan Tech in 1996 and Northern Michigan in 1993 are the only play-in winners to reach the finals. Northern Michigan was the only fifth seed to make the title game, doing so in the inaugural year of the format. Minnesota is 3-0 all-time in quarterfinal games, winning in 2000, 1999 and 1995.

Champs Are Back
Minnesota is the defending Broadmoor Trophy winner and has won the award three of the past five years. The trophy has been presented to the playoff champion annually since 1984-85 and three teams have won it back-to-back years. Minnesota has done it twice, winning in 2004 and 2005 and also winning in 1993 and 1994. Northern Michigan won consecutive titles in 1991 and 1992.

First Round Fortunes
The Gophers have qualified for the WCHA Final Five 10 straight years and all but one year since the format began in 1992-93. The only time Minnesota failed to reach the Final Five was in 1997-98 when it lost in three games to Minnesota Duluth. This year and last year against Alaska Anchorage are the only times Minnesota has not swept its first round series since 1992-93.

Wheeler Returns
Gophers’ junior forward Blake Wheeler returns to the site of his outstanding performance in the 2006-07 WCHA Final Five when he had four goals and one assist to earn tournament Most Valuable Player honors. He had a hat trick in the semifinals against Wisconsin and scored a spectacular diving goal to beat North Dakota in overtime in the title game. An all-tournament team has been chosen since 1988 and no player has won back-to-back MVP awards. Northern Michigan goaltender Bill Pye is the only player to win two MVP awards, capturing the honor in 1989 and 1991.

Poll Position
Minnesota is ranked No. 12 in this week’s U.S. College Hockey Online and USA Hockey/USA Today national polls. The Gophers have been ranked in 14 of the 23 USA Hockey polls this season. The current ranking is the Gophers’ highest since Jan. 2 when they were also No. 12 entering a series with Wayne State. Minnesota has dropped out of the rankings three different times this year and re-entered the polls each time.

Strong Starts
The Gophers continue to be an outstanding first period team and has outscored their opponents 38-20 in the first period. They have allowed two goals in the opening period only twice all season, including none of the last 31 games. The Gophers have outshot opponents 407-312 in the opening period and have not allowed a goal in the first four minutes of any game.

Down to the Wire
The Gophers have played 32 games this season decided by two goals or less. Minnesota is 8-6 in one-goal games and 4-5 in two-goal games. The Gophers have also played nine ties and 15 overtime games. Of Minnesota’s 41 games, 39 have had a margin of two goals or less at some point during the third period. The only two games that were not within two goals in the final period were Nov. 2 against Denver and Nov. 24 against Michigan.

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