SB Nation • 10 min read

Gophers Host Boston College in Maroon and Gold Grudgematch

The #12 ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers hockey team will return to the 3M at Mariucci Arena ice this weekend when they face off against one of the other most stories programs in college hockey. The #10/11

Boston College Eagles come to Minneapolis to face the Gophers for the first time since 2013 in a series where the two teams have faced off over 30 times in their history. Both teams will look to build back off of frustrating defeats. Minnesota lost 5-3 to Michigan Tech last Saturday after a 6-3 win on Friday night while BC lost their season opener at home to #13 Quinnipiac.

Minnesota needed to find some new scorers after losing their top five from a season ago, and they both got some new blood in on the action and got some returners to take a step up. Brody Ziemer scored a pair of goals in Friday’s season opener, and both senior captain Brody Lamb and sophomore center Erik Pahlsson potted a goal in each of the Gophers first two games. Freshman Tate Prichard scored his first collegiate goal Friday and LJ Mooney joined him in the club on Saturday night. It was a good start, but now they have to keep scoring.

Minnesota got middling play in goal and from their defensive blue line last weekend which wasn’t ideal. Nathan Airey got the start on Friday and allowed three goals on 28 shots to pick up the win. Michigan State transfer Luca Di Pasquo started Saturday night’s game and would give up four goals on 32 shots in the loss on Saturday. However, his defense left him hung out to dry on multiple occasions. Minnesota relied on returners Cal Thomas and Luke Mittelstadt to play large minutes and they did their job, but with Leo Gruba suffering an injury early in Friday’s game, it gave a lot of time to relatively untested players on the Gopher blue line like freshman Jacob Rombach and Finn McLaughlin and redshirt sophomore Max Rud. It didn’t go great. Hopefully they can play with a bit more confidence this weekend against BC.

It’s likely the Gophers will hopefully have a full roster going this weekend as well. Minnesota missed freshman Mason Moe and Teddy Townsend last weekend with minor injuries and played defenseman Axel Begley at forward last weekend. Getting Moe and Townsend back will help Minnesota have three full lines with scoring ability and have their fourth line be a bit more skilled as well. Gruba also is expected to return from his injury after Bob Motzko said in his radio show Monday that had it been a critical game he could have played on Saturday, but they kept him out precautionally.

Boston College comes in with one of their weaker teams in memory. The Eagles lost a ton of firepower from last season’s #1 NCAA seed to the NHL. Gone are starting goalie Jacob Fowler and offensive stars Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perrault. Boston College was predicted to finish fifth in the preseason Hockey East Poll behind rival Boston University, Providence, UCONN and Maine. But the Eagles still do return a ton of firepower. That group is led by James Hagens who was selected #7 overall by the Boston Bruins in last summers NHL Draft. He was kept off the scoresheet against the Bobcats in the season opener last weekend with BC’s three goals scored by Teddy Stiga, Ryan Conmy, and Drew Fortescue. Both Stiga and Fortiscue played for the US National development Team before coming to BC and are talented players. Conmy was the Eagles lone incoming transfer coming over from New Hampshire where he posted career-highs of 33 points and 15 goals to go along with his 18
assists a year ago for the Wildcats.

In net the Eagles lost one of the best in program history in the reigning Mike Richter Award winner as the NCAA’s best goalie Jacob Fowler to the NHL. He has been replaced by junior Jan Korec who allowed four goals on 30 shots by Quinnipiac in the opener. He has been Fowler’s backup the past two seasons playing in seven games and allowing just seven goals in those games prior to last weekend.

In BC’s 4-3 loss to Quinnipiac they were smothered by the Bobcats and got just 15 shots on goal in the loss. They did go 2-3 on the power play meaning Minnesota will need to make sure they can stay out of the box this weekend or things likely won’t end well. Meanwhile the Gophers went 0-4 on the power play against Michigan tech last weekend and only picked up 13 shots on goal of their own in Saturday’s loss. They allowed one power play goal in three tries to the Huskies.

Minnesota leads the all-time series against Boston College 18-12-3. Recent history has also been good to the Gophers as they are 4-0-1 in their last five over BC including a win in their most recent game in November of 2016 4-2. BC was last in Minneapolis for a two-game series in October of 2013 where the Gophers picked up 6-1 win and the teams skated to a 3-3 tie. The Eagles’ last win in the series was in the NCAA Frozen Four semifinal in Tampa in 2012 where the Eagles won 4-1 enroute to the NCAA Championship.

Faceoff Thursday will be at 8 PM and the game will air live on Big Ten Network. Friday’s faceoff is set for 6 PM and fan’s are advised to arrive early as the U Of M Homecoming Parade is set for a 6:30 stat and University Avenue will be closed to traffic beginning at 6 PM. Friday’s game will air live on Fox9+ and will stream on B1G+.