Gophers Open Up at Ice Breaker Tournament

Minnesota (0-0-0) at Ice Breaker Tournament
Friday, Oct. 10	Minnesota vs. Minnesota-Duluth (1 p.m.)
	Notre Dame vs. RPI (6:30 p.m.)
Sunday, Oct. 12	RPI vs. Minnesota/UMD (11 a.m.)
	Notre Dame vs. Minnesota/UMD (2:30 p.m.)
Location	South Bend, Ind.
Live Video	Minnesota vs. UMD - WatchND.tv
Radio	Minnesota Games: 1500 ESPN \| Listen Online
Live Stats	Minnesota vs. UMD -
Live Blog	Minnesota vs. UMD - Game Day Live
	Check Minnesota Hockey Schedule for Sunday Video/Radio Information
Game Notes	Minnesota \| UMD \| Notre Dame \| RPI \| Big Ten
Social Media	@GopherHockey \| Facebook

Oct. 8, 2014

For the first time since 2009, the top-ranked Gophers will open the regular-season on the road as the program looks to defend last year's Ice Breaker Tournament title. Minnesota will play Minnesota Duluth to open the season on Oct. 10 (1 p.m. CT) and will play either Notre Dame or RPI on Oct. 12 (11 a.m. or 2:30 p.m.). The Irish host this year's season-opening tournament at Compton Family Ice Arena.

Against the Field

Oddly enough, Minnesota saw all three of this weekend's potential opponents in action last season, combining for a 3-2-1 record against the opposition. The Gophers split a pair of games at Compton in 2013-14 with the Irish (1-4, 5-4) and are 24-14-3 all-time against Notre Dame. The Maroon & Gold also played UMD three times last season, going 1-1-1 to push the all-time record to 133-75-17. The two teams split a nonconference series (6-1, 2-6) and then met in the inaugural North Star College Cup finals (officially a 4-4 tie, Gophers won in a shootout). Finally, Minnesota is 10-2-0 all-time against RPI after picking up a 6-2 win over the visitors in last year's Mariucci Classic consolation game.

Preseason Favorites

With almost 90 percent of the team's goals and over 85 percent of the team's points coming back from a year ago as well as All-American Adam Wilcox in net, the Gophers were picked No. 1 in both national preseason polls last week. Minnesota totaled 978 points in the preseason USCHO.com Division I Men's Poll as well as 36 of 50 first-place votes while the team also led all schools in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll with 505 total points and 32 of 34 first-place votes. The Maroon & Gold were also picked to finish first in the Big Ten Conference two weeks ago, according to the league's preseason coaches poll.

Seniors to Lead in 2014-15

All-American Kyle Rau will lead the Gophers as team captain in 2014-15, making the senior the first player at the University of Minnesota to serve as captain for two-straight seasons since Grant Potulny in 2002-03 and 2003-04. Seniors Seth Ambroz and Ben Marshall will serve as alternate captains -- the 159th and 160th players to serve as either captain or alternate captain for the Gophers in a tradition that dates back to the program's first year of play in 1921-22 when Chet Bros led the Maroon & Gold.

Iron Man in Net

Over his two seasons with the Gophers, Adam Wilcox has arguably put up two of the top seasons in net in program history. The South St. Paul, Minn., native set a new school GAA record of 1.88 in 2012-13 as a freshman, earning All-WCHA Third Team honors. Last year was even better for the netminder. Wilcox set a new school save percentage record of .932 and earned Second Team All-America accolades as well as being named Big Ten Player & Goaltender of the Year and First Team All-Big Ten. He also was named a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award -- Minnesota's first finalist since Ryan Potulny in 2006. In 76 career games, Wilcox has posted a 51-14-11 record with his 51 wins tied for seventh all-time at Minnesota.

Reilly Returns for Junior Campaign

Minnesota celebrated sophomore defenseman Mike Reilly as the program's first First Team All-American since 2009 (Ryan Stoa) last year with the Chanhassen, Minn., native coming back as a junior this season. Reilly led all Big Ten defensemen and finished tied for fifth in the NCAA with 33 points last year (nine goals, 24 assists) in route to also earning First Team All-Big Ten honors and Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year accolades.

Up Next - Hosting Bemidji State

The Gophers are off next weekend before hosting Bemidji State for a pair of games to kick off the home schedule on Friday, Oct. 24 (8 p.m., BTN, 1500 ESPN) and Saturday, Oct. 25 (7 p.m. FSN+, 1500 ESPN).

Kloos Lets Loose

Sophomore forward Justin Kloos returns to the Gophers this year after leading the team with 16 goals as a freshman in 2013-14. The Lakeville, Minn., native was the first Minnesota freshman to lead the team in goal scoring since Jay Barriball scored 20 goals as a rookie in 2006-07. Kloos scored three goals to earn NCAA West Regional Most Outstanding Player honors and totaled five points (four goals, one assist) in four NCAA tournament games.

A First Time for Everything

Now in its 94th year of collegiate competition, the University of Minnesota has seen almost everything. However, the team did have a couple firsts last year. A new era of Gopher Hockey started in 2013-14 as Minnesota joined the Big Ten Conference and went on to win the first-ever Big Ten game on Nov. 29, 2013 (4-1 win over Wisconsin) as well as the inaugural Big Ten regular-season championship. Additionally, the conference crown gave Minnesota its third-straight conference regular-season title -- another first for the Maroon & Gold.

The Return of Rau

Kyle Rau returns to the Gophers after leading the team with 40 pointsâ€ˆ(14 goals, 26 assists) last season -- he tallied both his 100th career point and 75th career assist during his junior campaign (47-76--123 in 121 career games). Minnesota is 65-11-6 all-time when the forward tallies a point including an incredible 44-6-5 mark since the beginning of the 2012-13 season. Additionally, the Gophers are 32-2-0 all-time when Rau tallies more than one point in a game. Rau has tallied at least 40 points in each of his three seasons with the Maroon & Gold.

A Glance at Coach Lucia

Minnesota's 4-0 win over St. Cloud State in the NCAA West Regional finals last year advanced the Gophers to the Frozen Four, but it also gave Minnesota head coach Don Lucia his 650th career coaching victory. Lucia is 651-344-94 all-time as a head coach including 372-189-65 at Minnesota. Only Doug Woog has more coaching wins behind the Gophers' bench with 390. Lucia's 651 career wins rank him 10th all-time in college hockey while he will enter his 28th overall season as a head coach and 16th season with the Gophers in 2014-15.

Live and In Color

Twenty-nine regular-season Gopher Hockey games will be available on television during the 2014-15 across several networks. FOX Sports will lead the way in Gophers television coverage this season with 14 games while the Big Ten Network will broadcast 11 regular-season games featuring the Maroon & Gold over the course of the season. The ESPN network follows up with another four Gopher games. The entirety of the 2015 Big Ten Hockey Tournament will be broadcast live on the Big Ten Network.

And on the Radio with Wally and Frank

Gopher Hockey will continue to call 1500 ESPN home for its radio broadcast after Minnesota and Learfield Sports' Gopher Sports Properties announced a three-year agreement with the radio station this summer. Every regular-season game as well as the entire post-season will be broadcast on the 1500 ESPN radiowaves through 2016-17. Wally Shaver and Frank Mazzocco return to call the Gopher Hockey action this season.

International Influence

Gopher Hockey will list two non-North American players on its roster for the 2014-15 season as Swedish born Leon Bristedt (Stockholm) and Robin Hoglund (MoIndal) will be incoming freshman forwards this year. Just the third and fourth non-North American players to ever dress at Minnesota, the pair of Swedes are certainly in good company. Both previous European players -- Thomas Vanek (Baden bei Wien, Austria) and Erik Haula (Pori, Finland) -- are currently skating with the Minnesota Wild in the NHL.

Upcoming Events

Players Mentioned

Seth Ambroz

Leon Bristedt

Justin Kloos

Ben Marshall

Kyle Rau

Mike Reilly

Adam Wilcox

Upcoming Events

University of Minnesota Athletics