It’s another busy weekend of action for the Minnesota Golden Gophers as we hit mid-November. We have the Gophers cross-country teams running to keep their season alive on Friday, a busy Saturday with a lot of action on the ice and court, and more “preseason” wrestling action to close out the weekend. Check out the full schedule below and how you can catch the action.
Friday November 13th:
Cross Country @ NCAA Midwest Regional, Ames, IA 11AM
The Golden Gopher cross country teams made the trip down I-35 for the NCAA Midwest regional hosted in Ames, Iowa on Friday morning.
The 6k women’s race will begin at 11 AM with the 8 K men’s race to follow at Noon.
The top two teams in each regional secure automatic bids to the NCAA Championships. The first four regional individual finishers not from an automatic qualifying or at-large team also secure an auto-bid to the championships. If a team doesn’t secure one of the 18 automatic bids, it will have to rely on the NCAA DI Cross Country Subcommittee to select it as one of the remaining 14 at-large teams to fill the 32-team field at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. Only two individual at-large student-athletes are selected, making a strong regional performance pivotal to advancing toward a national title.
The Gopher women are ranked #28 in the nation which places them the 5th highest ranked team i the Midwest region behind #8 Oklahoma State, #20 Missouri, #21 Northwestern and #25 Iowa State.
The Men enter the Midwest Regional ranked #22 in the nation which places them third in the region behind #3 Oklahoma State and #10 Iowa State.
Live scoring will be available HERE.
#2 Women’s Hockey vs #9 St. Cloud State 6 PM B1G+
The Gopher women’s hockey team returns to the ice after a week off resuming WCHA play with a hoe and home series against #9 St. Cloud State. Minnesota will be shorthanded as they will be missing a trio of players who are playing for their country in the World Championships currently underway in Denmark. The Gophers will miss Chloe Primerano (Canada), Julia Schalin (Finland) and Tereza Plosova (Czechia) for the second weekend in the last three. The Huskies will also be missing four players with Junior goaltender Emilia Kyrkkö, senior forward Sofianna Sundelin and junior defender Siiri Yrjölä all playing for Finland and Laura Zimmerman playing for Switzerland. The biggest loss for the Huskies is Kyrkkö who is 5-1 with a 1.72 goals against average this season for St. Cloud.
Minnesota enters the weekend with a 9-1 record with their only loss coming to #1 Ohio State. Minnesota has been an offensive juggernaut averaging 5.1 goals per game to rank second in the nation. Freshmen defender Sloane Hartmetz has been named the WCHA Defender of the Week in back to back series for the Gophers and she leads the team with eight assists on the season.
St. Cloud State comes into the weekend ranked #9 in the nation with a 8-4-0 overall record and a 6-2-0 mark in WCHA play. Senior forward Alice Sauriol leads the Huskies with 18 points (4g-14a) through 12 games. Sofianna Sundelin (14 points) and Maria Mikaelyan (11 points) have also reached double-digit scoring totals.
The Gophers have dominated the historical series between the two schools with a 115-7-4 advantage in the all-time series against St. Cloud State, though the Huskies have earned three wins in the last 10 meetings. The teams met seven times a season ago with the Gophers winning six of seven. Friday night’s game will face off at 6 PM and will stream on B1G+.
Men’s Hockey vs Alaska-Anchorage 7 PM Fox9+/ B1G+
The Gopher men’s hockey team returns to non-conference action this weekend as they welcome in former WCHA opponent Alaska-Anchorage to 3M Arena at Mariucci. It’s the first time the two teams have met since the 2016-17 season opener in Anchorage.
Minnesota is coming off of a performance to forget against #1 Wisconsin last weekend. The Gophers outplayed the Badgers for a majority of the game on Friday night but could not take advantage and the teams would end in a 1-1- tei before the Badgers took the extra point in the shootout. There would be no shootout needed on Saturday as the Gophers looked flat from the get go and Wisconsin dominated the Gophers en route to a 6-0 shutout win.
Minnesota has again struggled to find a way to score so far this season. Their 2.2 goals per game average places them just 53rd in the nation in scoring this season. The Seawolves are the exact same averaging an identical 2.2 goals per game. The difference comes on the defensive end where Minnesota ranks 42nd in the nation allowing 3.2 goals per game, but Alaska-Anchorage is dead last in the country allowing 5.3 goals per game. If Minnesota can’t snap ut of their scoring funk here, they are in deep deep trouble.
The coaching staffs will be very familiar with one another as the Seawolves are coached by former St. Cloud State and Brett Larson assistant Erik Rud. The Seawolves stayed in the Twin Cities this week after being swept by St. Thomas last weekend and have now lost five straight games. Jacob Terpstra and Ethan Warrener pace the team with four goals apiece, while Oren Shtrom has a team-leading 11 points while in goal Joey Rocha has struggled to a 1-7 record in eight starts and has a 4.28 goals-against average and an .866 save percentage.
Minnesota owns a record of 58-19-8 (.729) in the all-time series against Alaska Anchorage. The Gophers also are 31-10-3 (.793) in games played at home and currently have a nine game unbeaten streak 8-0-1 against the Seawolves in their last nine meetings.
Friday night’s game will face off at 7 PM and will air locally on Fox9+ and stream on B1G+.
Saturday November 14th:
#2 Women’s Hockey @ #9 St. Cloud State 1 PM B1G+
The Gophers and Huskies drive up I-94 for the second game of the home and home series in St. Cloud on Saturday afternoon. Puck drop is set for 1 PM on B1G+.
#18 Women’s Basketball vs Kansas State Sioux Falls, SD 1 PM
The Gopher women’s basketball team will put their 3-0 record on the line when they take on the Kansas State Wildcats in a neutral site game at the Sanford Pentagram on Saturday afternoon. The Gophers enter off of a 86-47 win over Southern at The Barn on Tuesday night paced by Mara Braun’s 19 points.
Kansas State enters the game on Saturday with a 4-0 record after four home wins over Wichita State, Southern Indiana, Texas-Rio Grand Valley, and Montana. Their win over the Grizzlies was the closes last Tuesday with the Wildcats struggling to pull out a 67-62 win.
Kansas State has a trio of players averaging double figures so far this season with senior guard Tarin Sides leading the way at 13 points per game. Senior forward Nastja Claessens and freshman forward Shaila Nde both are averaging 11.2 points per game so far. The Wildcats do have several taller players on their squad so Minnesota will need good games from Tayla Thomas and Gracie Merkle in the post.
It’s been the Grace and Grace show thus far for the Gophers as Grace Grocholski leads Minnesota averaging 18.7 points per game and 7.7 rebounds per game with Merkle averaging 13 points per game. They are joined by Mara Braun and Natalie Kussow who also are both averaging in double figures with 11.3 and 10.7 PPG respectively.
Tip on Saturday is set for 1 PM in Sioux Falls and will stream on B1G+.
Football @ Penn State 6 Pm FS1
The Gopher football team heads to Happy Valley for what appears to b a chilly and potentially wet night game at Penn State on Saturday. Kick is set for 6 PM and will air on FS1. Both teams sit at 5-4 on the season and really could use a big win to get bowl eligible and take some of the pressure off their final two games.
A full preview of the game is HERE.
Men’s Hockey vs Alaska-Anchorage 6 PM Fox9+/ B1G+
Game two of the series between the Gophers and Seawolves is set for a 6 PM puck drop Saturday night.
#19 Volleyball vs Michigan State 7 PM Big Ten Network
The Gopher Volleyball team hosts Michigan State in their final Big Ten regular season home game on Saturday night. The Gophers with a lone match at #1 and undefeated Nebraska next Tuesday sit at 10-5 in Big Ten play and are in a tie for 5th place in the conference with Purdue. Assuming a loss to the Huskers, the Gophers need a win over the 7-8 Spartans coached by former Gopher assistant Kristen Kelsay to stay in the top half of the field heading into the inaugural Big Ten Tournament beginning next weekend.
Minnesota has been on a hot streak of late including a 3-1 win over #22 Indiana at the Pav on Wednesday night.
First serve is set for 7 Pm Saturday and will air live on Big Ten Network.
Sunday November 15th:
Wrestling @ Mountaineer Invitational 9AM
The Gophers will send a group of wrestlers to the Mountaineer Invitational hosted by Appalachian State on Sunday in Boone, North Carolina. Besides the host Mountaineers the Gophers will also see wrestlers from No. 5 Virginia Tech, No. 16 North Carolina, Drexel, Ohio and several SoCon programs. Action will kick off at 9 AM.
