University of Minnesota Athletics
`U' Sweeps Big Ten Three Stars
3/17/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Hockey
MINNEAPOLIS (GopherSports.com) - The final week of the regular-season couldn't have gone much better for the No. 13 Gopher Hockey program. One conference championship. Two conference wins. And all three of this week's conference honors.
Hudson Fasching was named Big Ten First Star, Kyle Rau was named Big Ten Second Star and Adam Wilcox earned Big Ten Third Star as Minnesota swept the final Big Ten Three Stars of the Week after picking up its second-straight Big Ten regular-season title and fourth-consecutive regular-season conference crown over the weekend.
Fasching led the Big Ten six points (three goals, three assists) over the weekend including a career-high four points (two goals, two assists) in Minnesota's 6-2 win over Penn State on Saturday to clinch the Big Ten title. The Buffalo Sabres prospect was one of two Gophers (Leon Bristedt) to lead the Big Ten this weekend with a plus-six rating while Fasching has notched points in eight of the last 11 games.
Rau closed out his final series at Mariucci Arena in style with five points (three goals, two assists) including both game-winning goals against the Nittany Lions. Saturday's game winner marked the second-straight season that a goal from the Florida Panthers prospect has clinched the conference title for Minnesota while Rau's 23 career game-winning goals are the most among active NCAA skaters. The Gophers are now 82-15-8 all-time when Rau tallies a point and 41-4-0 when the two-time team captain notches multiple points. Rau ranks 19th all-time at Minnesota with 162 career points.
Wilcox went 2-0-0 on the weekend with a .959 save percentage and a 1.00 GAA as the Gophers repeated as Big Ten champions. The Tampa Bay Lightning prospect made 18 saves on Friday for his fifth shutout of the season and 12th of his career and needs one more clean sheet to tie Kellen Briggs for the Minnesota record. The junior came back to make 29 saves on 31 shots on Saturday for his Big Ten-best 20th win of the season. Wilcox's 71 career wins are the most among active NCAA goalies and the fourth-most ever at the University of Minnesota.
Already candidates for the Hobey Baker Award along with Mike Reilly, Rau and Wilcox were both named Second Team All-Big Ten selections on Monday with Rau representing Minnesota as a Big Ten Sportsmanship Award recipient. The senior captain is also a finalist for the Senior CLASS Award.
Minnesota enters the 2015 Big Ten Ice Hockey Tournament as the top-seed and will play the winner of four-seed Penn State and five-seed Ohio State on Friday, March 20 at 3:30 p.m. CT. Joe Louis Arena in Detroit hosts this year's conference competition with the championship game set for Saturday at 7 p.m. CT. All five games this weekend will be televised on the Big Ten Network (streamed on BTN2Go) while all Gopher games will feature radio broadcasts on 1500 ESPN and the Gopher Radio Network.
