University of Minnesota Athletics
Final Five Berth at Stake as Gophers Host Huskies
3/11/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Hockey
Minnesota vs. St. Cloud State
WCHA First Round Playoffs
Fri.-Sun., March 13-15, 7 p.m.
Mariucci Arena
A berth in the WCHA Final Five is at stake this weekend as Minnesota hosts St. Cloud State in a best-of-three first round series at Mariucci Arena. The Huskies are the only team Minnesota swept this season, doing so twice with wins on Oct. 17-18 and Jan. 16-17. The Gophers are seeded fifth in the playoffs and St. Cloud State is seeded sixth.
Last Time Out
Minnesota clinched the final home spot in the WCHA playoffs with a 2-0 win over Michigan Tech on Saturday after a 6-5 overtime loss on Friday. Ryan Stoa scored three goals in the series, including the game-winner on Saturday. Tony Lucia had a goal in each game and Patrick White totaled a team-high four points in the series with a goal and three assists. Alex Kangas stopped all 21 shots for his second career shutout in Saturday’s game.
Series History
The Gophers lead the all-time series 45-23-12 and have won five straight in the series, including all four meetings this year. Close games have been the norm in the series as 12 of the past 14 meetings have been decided by two goals or less with three ties and five one-goal games. Minnesota leads the postseason series 7-3, including a 3-2 win in last year’s WCHA Final Five play-in game. The Gophers swept the only previous first round series between the teams 6-1 and 7-3 in 2004.
About the Huskies
St. Cloud State and Minnesota have been mirrors of one another as both have similar records and nearly identical offensive and defensive numbers. Like the Gophers, St. Cloud State also features an outstanding scoring tandem with two 40-point scorers in Garrett Roe and Ryan Lasch. Roe’s 46 points put him seventh in the country in points per game and his 31 assists rank fifth in the nation. Lasch has 41 points and ranks 25th in the nation in points per game. He had a hat trick and one assist against the Gophers on Jan. 17 after totaling no points in the first three meetings. St. Cloud State lost and tied against Minnesota State last weekend, dropping a 5-1 decision on Friday and then posting a 4-4 tie on Saturday to move one point ahead of Minnesota Duluth into the sixth position in the WCHA standings. Jase Weslosky has played the majority of minutes in goal and owns a 2.71 goals against average and .913 save percentage. He had a 4.40 goals against average and .856 save percentage in four games against Minnesota this season.
Home Sweet Home
The Gophers will open the WCHA playoffs at home for the 32nd time in the past 36 years. Minnesota has hosted a WCHA playoff series 32 previous times and has never lost a home series. The Gophers are 58-6-1 all-time at home in the first round of the league playoffs. 
First Round Fortunes
Minnesota owns a 63-10-1 record in the first round of the WCHA playoffs since 1974 and the Gophers have failed to advance out of the first round only once in the past 35 years, coming in 1998 at Minnesota Duluth. The WCHA Final Five began in 1993 and the Gophers have reached the event 15 times in its 16-year history, including 10 straight years. The Gophers’ last three first-round losses have all been in overtime, including defeats to Minnesota State last year and Alaska Anchorage in 2007.
Leading the Way
Minnesota featured the top two scorers in the WCHA this season as Ryan Stoa led the league with 36 points in conference games and Jordan Schroeder had 35 points. Stoa is the first Gophers’ player to lead the league in scoring since Reggie Berg in 1998. He also led the conference with 19 goals, while Schroeder shared the league lead in assists with 22. They both rank among the nation’s leading scorers as Schroeder is sixth at 1.25 points per game and Stoa is seventh at 1.24 points per game. Both players have current five-game scoring streaks.
Down to the Wire
The final five weeks of the regular season featured plenty of tight games as Minnesota’s last 11 games were decided by two goals or less. In fact, nine of the 11 were essentially ties or one-goal games, since there were three two-goal games with an empty net goal.
Rallying Cry
Minnesota has shown tendency to battle back in recent games as the Gophers rallied from behind to tie the game 10 times in a five-game span. Against Colorado College, the Gophers came back from 1-0 and 3-1 deficits on Friday and battled back from 1-0, 2-0 and 3-0 on Saturday. They rallied twice in Friday’s 2-2 tie with Minnesota Duluth and came back from a 3-2 deficit on Saturday against the Bulldogs. They also had comebacks from 4-1 and 5-4 deficits in the eventual 6-5 overtime loss at Michigan Tech.
Getting Ahead
For the first time this season, Minnesota lost when scoring first in Friday’s game at Michigan Tech. It has still been critical to the team’s success, however, as the Gophers are now 13-1-3 when scoring first and 2-11-4 when the opponents score first. The Gophers are 11-0-2 when ahead after one period and 0-8-3 when trailing.
Special Alert
Special teams are typically vital in the postseason and they could be a factor in this weekend’s series as Minnesota leads the WCHA and St. Cloud State ranks last in combined special teams. The Gophers lead the WCHA in penalty killing and rank third on the power play, while St. Cloud State is seventh on the penalty kill and sixth on the power play.
A Time to Kill
The Gophers have been among the nation’s penalty killing leaders all season and rank second this week at 88.8 percent, trailing only Miami’s 91.1 percent. Minnesota’s single-season school record is 88.5 percent in 2000-01. The Gophers have maintained their high number despite allowing 13 power play goals over the past 16 games after giving up just seven power play goals in the first 18 games. Minnesota held Michigan Tech to 0-for-6 on the power play in Saturday’s shutout win.
Rookie Raves
Schroeder is the only freshman player in all of Division I hockey averaging more than one point per game. The national Rookie of the Month in November, Schroeder has scored points in 25 of his 32 games this season. Ranking sixth overall in scoring, he is the only freshman among the nation’s top 50 overall scorers. Denver defenseman Patrick Wiercioch ranks second among freshmen at 0.97 points per game.
