Minnesota/Minnesota State Line Charts

Minnesota State

Kael Mouillierat-Trevor Bruess-Mick Berge
James Gaulrapp-Zach Harrison-Jerad Stewart
Geoff Irwin-Andrew Sackrison-Jason Wiley
Tyler Thompson-Rylan Galiardi-Mike Louwerse

Kurt Davis-Brian Kilburg
Cameron Cooper-Channing Boe
Blake Friesen-Ben Youds

Mike Zacharias
Dan Tormey
Austin Lee

Youds and Louwerse return to the lineup after sitting out last night for unneccessary penalties in a previous game. Justin Jokinen and Nick Canzanello are out in their place.

Minnesota

Ryan Stoa-Jordan Schroeder-Jay Barriball
Tony Lucia-Mike Carman-Ryan Flynn
Mike Hoeffel-Patrick White-Nico Sacchetti
Jake Hansen-Taylor Matson-Justin Bostom

Cade Fairchild-David Fischer
Aaron Ness-R.J. Anderson
Kevin Wehrs-Sam Lofquist

Alex Kangas
Kent Patterson

Hansen and Sacchetti return to the lineup after sitting out last night disciplinary reasons, taking the place of fellow freshmen Mike Dorr and Joey Miller.

Pre-Game Stuff

50 minutes before game time and my official head count on attendance is 64. This should be interesting.

The first game should actually be a great test for both teams. Duluth seems better this year, but their results are less than staggering with a loss and tie to Anchorage, and a tie against Lake Superior--though the Lakers could be better than people expect this year.

Meanwhile, Duluth has enough offensive firepower that they should test St. Cloud's five defenseman. The Huskies, like last year, are going to be a team that lives and dies based on their powerplay. UMD typically has a very good penalty kill, they're a pretty brutal 77% so far this year(27/35). Playing on the smaller ice should tend to benefit the team killing the penalty though.

Both teams are pretty desperate for points. Duluth is tied for 8th with one point, while St. Cloud is in the basement with 0. Both has have games in hand on the field, but if they dig themselves in too deep of a hole, it's going to be difficult to dig their way out. The league is tough enough and competitive enough that it's going to be difficult to run off a streak of 6-7 straight wins in league play to make up a lot of ground.

NCAA Blogging Policy

Now that the NCAA has solved that pressing North Dakota logo issue, it looks like they've moved on to other, extremely important ventures. After a bizarre incident where a newspaper writer was kicked out of an NCAA baseball super-regional for live-blogging, the NCAA has come out with a live-blogging policy. (Link via this guy)

So credentialed journalists can now live blog during NCAA championship events(which in hockey, only applies to NCAA regionals and the Frozen Four), but are limited in the number of the posts. In hockey, bloggers are allowed three posts per period, plus one in between each period. So if someone is live-blogging after each goal from the press box at the Frozen Four this spring, and someone jumps out to a quick 3-0 lead in the first period, and then an asteroid hits the Pepsi Center, the NCAA kindly requests that you wait until the intermission to blog about it.

The NCAA is all about coming up with solutions. As long as that solution involves bureaucracy and pages upon pages of rules.

Elite League NIT Recap

The Elite League held their National Invitational Tournament this weekend, and the Minnesota Red team, featuring out-state Minnesotans, Wisconsinites, and North Dakotas took home the title.

Here's my recap of what I saw at the tournament on Sunday, and part of Saturday.

Also, here's a list of a few uncommitted that helped themselves with their play in the Elite League this year.

NAHL Showcase/Midget Showcase Report

Here's my report from the NAHL Showcase/Midget Showcase. I spent about 16 hours there over two days, but with 48 teams playing, I didn't see everything. I tried to write as much as I could.

There were such a wide range of players playing there that I decided it would be easiest to separate it all by birth year. Here it is:

1987 Birthdates

1988 Birthdates

1989 Birthdates

1990 Birthdates

1991 Birthdates

1992 Birthdates

1993 Birthdates

Model Camp Report

I went to the Minnesota Men's Model Camp last Friday, and I finally got around to writing about it.

Click here to read about it.

Sioux Falls Camp Report

Click here to read my report about Sioux Falls' All-Star game.

Tri-City Camp Report

Here is my report from Tri-City's tryout camp.

Click here to read it.

Great 8 Recap: College Commits

This weekend was the Ted Brill Great 8 Festival, a tournament that features (most of) the best seniors in Minnesota High School hockey. The rosters are here.

I made it up to South St. Paul on Sunday, the last day of the tournament. Here are my thoughts on what I was able to see. I'll break it up into two posts, starting with kids that have committed to college, and then talk about some kids that haven't committed to a college yet.

Colorado College recruit Tyler Johnson got hurt on Friday, and rumors are that he broke his collarbone again. Obviously it is a shame if he has to miss some more time due to this injury. I'm sure some people will question why he was even playing this weekend, since he is all lined for college, and coming off a recent injury, but at the same time, this is an event that a lot of NHL scouts come to, and I'm sure he's interested in trying to improve his draft position, plus, it's always tough for a competitive kid to turn down an opportunity to play. Hopefully he heals up quickly and is ready for next fall.

Since Johnson wasn't playing, I thought the most impressive player was Jack Connolly, who recently committed to Minnesota-Duluth. He's an unbelievable passer. He created an opportunity just about every time he touched the puck. Plus, it is probably a perfect situation for Duluth. Connolly is incredibly excited to be a Bulldog, and is willing to play two years of juniors before joining the team, which should definitely help him. And because of his lack of size, he'll likely be a four year player for Duluth. I really think he'll be an excellent college player.

The next best player I saw was Mike Louwerse, who has committed to Minnesota State. Louwerse really flew under the radar this year, because he struggled with some injury problems early this season, which kept him quiet in the Elite League, and kept his HS stats down, and kids that commit to Mankato don't tend to draw as much attention as kids that commit to other in-state schools, but he was extremely impressive today. I think he finished the tournament with like 8 points in 3 games. I haven't heard if a final decision has been made, but he could be suiting up for the Mavericks next fall, and I think he could contribute next season.

Another kid who may or may not be playing college hockey next season is Minnesota recruit Brandon Martell. I was really impressed with Martell today. His best asset is his excellent slap shot. Not only is it a heavy shot, but he's got a pretty quick release. He did score a goal off a nice one-timer. But I thought he also showed he could be capable of stepping up and playing college hockey next season. He didn't really take over the game, but he did a great job of playing smart, solid hockey and getting the puck off his stick quickly, which is the way he will have to play with the Gophers. He also showed a nice ability to block shots. I think Michigan Tech proved this season that if you can block shots well, you don't have to do a whole lot else to be successful in the WCHA. I think Martell could be a bit of a sleeper pick in this summer's NHL draft.

One RPI recruit, Chase Polacek, wasn't playing today. His past, and future teammate, Bryan Brutlag, who is also going to RPI, was playing, however. I've always liked the way Brutlag plays. He's a good skater and makes very nice, sharp passes. I could see him stepping into the RPI lineup right away, and slowly developing into an excellent player.

Chad Huttel recently committed to Minnesota-Duluth and will join the Bulldogs next season. I thought Huttel got off to a shaky start today. He was a little too aggressive and looked to be playing outside of his comfort zone. As the game went on, he settled down a little bit, and looked more like he did in the state tournament. I still think it could be rough for the Bulldogs if they have some injury problems and Huttel has to be counted on to contribute significantly next year.

Another Bulldog recruit, defenseman Scott Kishel has a lot of talent, but probably didn't play his best game. A couple times, especially early on, he got caught hanging onto the puck too long and ended turning the puck over. He'll play a year of juniors though, where he should get used to having make quicker decisions with the puck.

Recent Minnesota State recruit Joe Schiller also didn't do a ton to stand out in the time I saw. It looks like he has some potential, and will be playing junior hockey next season, where he should continue to develop.

Live Coverage of League Tournaments

I totally wimped out on actually going to the Final Five this year, but luckily, other people are picking up my slack if you're looking for live coverage.

CSTV's Elliot Olshansky will have his usual excellent live coverage on his site.

In Detroit, College Hockey News will be live-blogging the CCHA tournament.

Championship Day

Class A State Championship:

Hermantown 4 Duluth Marshall 1

Class AA State Championship:

Roseau 5 Grand Rapids 1

I have so much stuff to get to from the tournament that I'm going to save it until tomorrow or Monday so that I can do it justice. Tonight, I'll just give my congratulations to two very deserving, and very classy state champions.

MN State Tournament: Day 2

I made it through the second day of the state tournament. I also able to finish two of the recaps. I will finish the other two tomorrow morning.

While Wednesday's Class A quarterfinals belonged to the favorites, the quarterfinals of the Class AA tournament were a continuation of what happened in the sectional finals, with many teams pulling off big upsets over highly-touted teams. By the end of the day, second seed Roseau was the only team among the top four still standing. That makes the Rams the new favorite to win the tournament, but given the way things have played out so far, that may not be a place where they want to be.

The best game and biggest story of the day was Rochester Century beating Hill-Murray 6-5 in overtime. It was nice to see an underdog from the southern part of the Minnesota finally break through and win a game at the state tournament, after going a long time without a victory. The feeling in and around the Century locker room after the game was pretty magical, and is one of the things that makes this tournament so great.

Here are the recaps:

Roseau 7 Woodbury 2

Rochester Century 6 Hill-Murray 5 (OT)

Grand Rapids 3 Edina 1

Burnsville 4 Blaine 2

I decided to take tomorrow off from the tournament, partially because I think four straight 16 hour days would kill me, and partially because there's a lot of notes and information from the tournament that I want to catch up on.

MN High School Tournament-- Day 1

Unfortunately, it looks like I'm not going to have internet access while at the XCel Center, so no live/semi-live updates, but I do have game recaps from the four game recaps today.

All four games were actually quite similiar. The seeded team was given a scare by the unseeded team, but ultimately, all four favorites came out ahead. All four winning coaches felt their teams could have played better, and all pretty much agreed that having a day off to practice would be a big help.

Here's the recaps for Wednesday:

St. Thomas 5 Orono 2

Duluth Marshall 4 Blake 3

Hermantown 6 Little Falls 3

Warroad 3 Albert Lea 1

Thursday will start the Class AA tournament.

Life on the Road

CSTV's Elliot Olshansky of the Rink Rat Blog has embedded himself with Quinnipiac's hockey team for this weekend as the Bobcats travel to Cornell and Colgate for a set of games this weekend.

It's been a very entertaining read so far and I recommend checking it out.

Minnesota State vs. Wisconsin Coverage

This will be the place for pre-game, in-game, and post-game coverage of this weekend's series between Minnesota State and Wisconsin. In the interest of blog cleanliness, all the coverage will posted on Western College Hockey 2 and linked over here.

Here's some pre-weekend coverage.

Tonight's Lines and other notes.

Live updates of Friday's game.

Friday Night Game Recap.

Other Friday night notes.

Live Updates of Saturday's Women's Hockey Game.

Recap of Women's Game. Wisconsin won 8-0 to sweep the series.

Line charts for Saturday's game. The biggest story will be the absence of Jon Kalinski, who is one of MSU's top players. The other major story before the game is that Shane Connelly will get his fourth start of the season tonight.

Live Updates of Saturday's game.

Saturday's Game Recap.

Saturday's Notes and Quotes.

And that should just about do it for a very fun weekend of hockey. I'd really like to thank the University of Wisconsin for being gracious hosts this weekend and giving me the opportunity to watch some great games.

A Weekend in Madison

I'll be attending this weekend's series between Minnesota State and Wisconsin, and thanks to the kindness of the Wisconsin athletic department, I'll be sitting in the press box this weekend.(Though I did have to agree to show up early on Friday and clean up some of the blood leftover from UW's slaughter of the Michigan basketball team on Wednesday night). Anyway, since I'll be there, I'll be writing quite a bit about the games, including live updates from both games, as well as Saturday's women's hockey game between Minnesota State and Wisconsin.

SCSU vs. Clarkson: Misc. Notes and Thoughts

A few notes and thoughts from tonight's game...

The officiating tonight was....quiet. There were two penalties called on St. Cloud in the first period, one called on Clarkson in the second, and two called on Clarkson in the third period. I've noticed in recent weeks that WCHA officials are starting to become a little more lenient in terms of calling penalties. It was definitely a bit of a culture shock for Clarkson, coming from the whistle-happy ECAC. I was sitting next to Clarkson's radio team, and they seemed shocked at some of the no-calls on plays which I haven't seen called in the WCHA all year. Clarkson coach George Roll said that the officials in the two leagues were "different in terms of what they let go" but diplomatically added that one wasn't necessarily better than the other, and that the officials were very consistent tonight.

The lack of penalties was one of the big reasons why St. Cloud was able to win so easily tonight. Clarkson has scored a lot of goals this season, but goalie Jase Weslosky noted that Clarkson is a big powerplay team, and said that the Huskies went over Clarkson's powerplay a lot in practice this week. Of course, one of the easiest ways not to give up powerplay goals is to not take a penalty in the final 44 minutes of the game like St. Cloud did.

St. Cloud is also probably thankful that the game didn't turn into a special teams battle because they struggled on the powerplay. They went 0-3, including a 5-minute advantage in the third period. Coach Bob Motzko said his team's powerplay was "not good" tonight, but gave credit to Clarkson's penalty kill, saying that they "played aggressive and took away passing lanes."

The duo of Andreas Nodl and Andrew Gordon had been in a bit of a mini-slump prior to tonight's game. Coach Motzko attributed that to the fact that they were playing between the faceoff dots too much, as opposed to playing below the faceoff dots. To fix this problem, Andrew Gordon said they worked in practice this week on just dumping the puck into the zone so that they could start their cycle. That back-to-basics approach paid big dividends. Both of that lines' goals came when a player dug the puck off the boards and fed it to a cycling teammate that broke away from a defender and into the slot.

Andreas Nodl was easily the best player on the ice tonight. I noticed that a scout from the Flyers organization was there, and he had to be pleased with what he saw from Nodl. The pass he made to Gordon for the second goal was absolutely sensational, and he always seemed to be hanging out in a prime scoring area ready to make something happen. It's not a question of if Nodl will leave St. Cloud early, but when, and if he keeps playing like he did tonight, that could be as early as this summer. Not that I think that scenario is likely, but I think it's at least possible.

He didn't show up on the scoresheet, but I thought Ryan Lasch was the next best player on the ice. He was always working hard and making things happen. The good news for St. Cloud fans is that I don't think he's a guy that they will have to worry about leaving early. Seeing how well these two freshmen played, it's scary to think about what St. Cloud will be like when they are a team made up entirely of Motzko-recruited players.

One nice thing for Clarkson about coming out west was the ability to go to video replay. David Leggio said he was glad there was replay on the disputed call in the first period, because there isn't video replay in the ECAC, and he was confident that the puck didn't go into the net.

In sort of a weird scheduling oddity, I just happened to be in attendance for both of Jase Weslosky collegiate starts. Obviously Weslosky has played great in both games, but I thought he looked even more confident in net tonight. About the only flaw I could find in Weslosky was that he left a couple big rebounds on long shots in the first period, one of which would have been a great chance for Clarkson, had the puck not jumped over the CU player's stick. But after that, I thought he even did an excellent with rebounds. Coach Motzko even noted his confidence in directly longer shots into the corner to help start a breakout, rather than holding onto the puck to get a whistle. He got caught looking over the wrong shoulder late in the third period, but was able to keep his shutout when the Clarkson player couldn't control the puck for a score. He made every other save look incredibly easy, even though at least a couple of the shots he faced weren't all that easy to save. In the long-run, I'd still take Bobby Goepfert, and I think Coach Motzko will do the same. I get the feeling that Motzko will likely avoid a goalie controversy because he'll stick to his original plan of only starting Weslosky sporadically. I also get the feeling that if the previous coach of St. Cloud was in the this position, he probably would have found a way to create a goalie controversy and shatter the confidence of his senior goalie.

I really liked Shawn Weller of Clarkson. On a night when Clarkson couldn't seem to get anything going, he seemed to be the only guy that was anywhere near effective. He had 8 of Clarkson's 24 shots on net. Of course, he also went -3 on the night(counting the ENG), but I didn't get a chance to see if he was the guy responsible for the defensive breakdown on the first two goals.

The biggest difference between the WCHA and ECAC that I can see is depth. Clarkson's top line of Weller-Zalewski-Beca was really the only line from Clarkson that could get the puck out of their own end and keep it at the other end. St. Cloud held a pretty sizeable advantage everywhere else on the depth chart.

SCSU vs. Clarkson Game Recap

East met West tonight as Clarkson University traveled to St. Cloud to take on the St. Cloud State Huskies. Ironically, it was the player that hailed from the farthest east that was the difference for the western team tonight. Freshman Andreas Nodl, a native of Vienna, Austira, scored the first goal of the game, and set-up teammate Andrew Gordon on the second goal, as St .Cloud cruised to a 4-0 win over Clarkson.

Clarkson got off to a slow start in the first period, as it seemed like the Golden Knights had difficulty adjusting to the Olympic-sized ice sheet. Early in the first period, St. Cloud came down the ice on a 3-on-2 and Clarkson defenseman Phillippe Paquet misplayed the angle, allowing St. Cloud's John Swanson to break down the middle and feed a pass across the crease to Ryan Lasch, who was stopped by Clarkson goalie David Leggio. Leggio was tested against later in the first period when defenseman Casey Borer snuck behind Clarkson's defense and tipped a pass across, but the attempt was gloved by Leggio. St. Cloud appeared to take a 1-0 lead in the game, when the Huskies fired a shot from the bottom of the circle that Leggio mishandled and trapped underneath his pads. Referee Brad Albers reviewed the play, and there was no conclusive evidence that the puck crossed the line.

"I thought it was underneath me the whole time," said Leggio after the game. "I really didn't think it was that close."

Despite holding a slight advantage in play, the Huskies only outshot Clarkson 14-10 in the first period, mainly due to the four shots Clarkson generated on goal during their two powerplays in the period.

But after the first intermission, St. Cloud took control of the game. Just twenty-three seconds into the second period, Andrew Gordon got control the puck behind the net and threw a soft pass towards the front of the net. Leggio tried to block the pass, but missed, allowing Nodl to fire the puck into the net. St. Cloud controlled the play for the rest of the period, only allowing Clarkson to take four shots on goal.

The Huskies struck quickly again to start the third period. This time, twenty seconds into the third period, the roles were reversed as Nodl made a brilliant pass from the sideboards to a streaking Andrew Gordon, who deposited the insurance goal for the Huskies.

"They got rewarded when they were working," St. Cloud Head Coach Bob Motzko said of his top line, which had been struggling prior to this game.

Clarkson's comeback attempt was hurt when seven minutes into the third period, Phillippe Paquet was called for a five-minute major penalty and game misconduct for a hit from behind on St. Cloud's Aaron Brocklehurst. The Huskies failed to convert on the powerplay, but was able to take a large chunk of time off the clock without much pressure from Clarkson. The Huskies added to their lead at 12:02 of the third period when Garrett Raboin found Matt Hartman in the slot, and Hartman beat Leggio to score his first goal of the season. The Huskies closed out the game when John Swanson scored an empty net goal with fifteen seconds left in the game.

"We got outworked, and they were the better team," said Clarkson head coach George Roll.

The other major story for St. Cloud tonight was the impressive performance of 18-year-old freshman Jase Weslosky, who earned a 24-save shutout tonight, in just his second career start.

"It's still Bobby Goepfert's team," Motzko said, "but we're going to be playing Weslosky more and more."

Weslosky is now 2-0, with a goals against average of 1.00 and a save percentage of 96.3%. Weslosky was humble after the game, crediting his teammates for helping make sure he was able to see the puck, but Weslosky's outstanding performance was not lost on his teammates.

"He's a calm kid that doesn't get rattled," said fellow freshmen Garrett Raboin. "He makes saves that most goalies won't."

Weslosky won't be in net for the Huskies tomorrow night, but that's probably little consolation to the Golden Knights, because that means they will have to face All-American goalie Bobby Goepfert as they try to earn a split in this non-conference series.

Misc. Notes and Thoughts from the X

Obviously tonight was not Tyler Hirsch's night of redemption at the XCel. He was held out of tonight's game for being late to a team meeting. Fellow senior Kellen Briggs was also in street clothes tonight due to a "violation of team rules". Don Lucia said after the game that the coaches "wanted to set some examples after (what happened) last season". The presence of Hirsch and Briggs was sorely missed, but tonight was about growing as a team for the future for Minnesota, and the message sent by the coaches will probably have a more positive long-term affect than if they had played.

Jeff Frazee is probably his toughest critic, but I thought he played pretty well tonight. Both Frazee and coach Lucia thought he overplayed the puck a little on the first goal of the game, though given the way the puck redirected, it's not likely he could have made the save regardless. Frazee said he was "a little shaky for the first 10 minutes, but then settled down and played well". He also said he got outplayed by Ben Bishop, though I'm sure most people would agree that if he only gives up two goals a night, most nights the Gopher offense is going to score enough goals to win the game.

Speaking of the Gopher offense, Don Lucia said after the game that he thought the Gophers might be "streaky offensively", and that they lacked a go-to upperclassmen. I really agree with that. Perhaps it's just early in the season, but the Gophers didn't seem to move the puck around like Minnesota teams in the past. Most of their chances came off individual rushes up the ice.

The biggest story of the night for the Gophers offense was little Jay Barriball. I hate admitting when I'm wrong, but I didn't think he'd make that big of an impact coming straight from high school, especially at his size. Barriball was outstanding tonight though. He looks tiny on the ice compared to everyone else. He was asked how tall he was and he said "5'8", 5'9"", but my guess is that he's closer to 5'7". He plays a lot bigger than his size though. He's not afraid to go out and throw around what little weight he has. Don Lucia said "Jay is a hockey player. He's a throwback". He was probably the best Gopher forward on the ice tonight.

One guy that was really good that I actually thought would be really good was Barriball's linemate Michael Carman. He's known for his tenacity and he was all over the ice tonight. He also showed that he has a little speed and skill to go with his grit and determination. He didn't get an assist, but it was his hard work that really helped set up Barriball's goal. He also drew a penalty with his hard work.

Ryan Flynn was the third on the Barriball/Carman line, and I wasn't as impressed with his performance, but the Don and some other media members thought he played really well.

Kyle Okposo is going to be an amazing player. I can't think of another college forward with his mix of speed, hands, and strength. I could see him turning into a guy that the Gophers really count on for production by the end of this season. After that, who knows, maybe the Islanders will sign him to a 20 year contract.

Jim O'Brien got off to a slow start, but really impressed me later on in the game. Before all is said and done, I think he'll have a huge year too.

Aside from those guys, Minnesota's forwards were largely unimpressive. Blake Wheeler missed a golden opportunity in the second period when Minnesota caught Maine changing and Wheeler couldn't finish off a 2-on-1. I'm still not convinced that I like him at center.
Obviously a lot of attention was going to placed on Erik Johnson in his first collegiate game. If I had to grade him, I'd probably give him a B. He started a little slow, but once he got into a rhythm, he played well. The area where he has the most room for improvement is offensively. He could improve his poise on the powerplay. On one powerplay in the second period, he fired two shots into a Maine defender, and had one shot that got through, but was an easy save because he didn't give his teammates time to get traffic in front of the net. He also probably should have finished off that cross-ice pass in the first period. Overall though, he played a very solid game.

It should be interesting to see how he does with Alex Goligoski. Don Lucia said that they still have to get used to playing with each other. The two times that Johnson tried to rush the puck, Goligoski rushed too, and the puck got turned over and almost caused a breakaway. Playing with EJ could force Goligoski to be more defensively aware when Johnson takes off. That could actually help Goligoski since that is probably the weakest part of his game.

I really like Minnesota's second defensive pairing of Mike Vannelli and Derek Peltier. They played like you would expect a senior and a junior to play. They didn't really do anything flashy, but they logged a lot of ice time and didn't make many mistakes.

The third pairing of R.J. Anderson and David Fischer probably has the most improving to do, but I also love the potential they have. Don Lucia said that Anderson "took another step forward tonight". Fischer looked like he was still adjusting to the speed of the college game, but once the game slows down for him a little, he'll be a great defenseman.

I didn't watch Maine as closely so I don't have as many notes on them.

Michel Leveille definitely deserves mention as one of the best players in the country. I was extremely impressed with him. He's a great stickhandler and an amazing passer.

Teddy Purcell is going to have a huge year because he can just set up in the slot and wait for Leveille to feed him the puck. Maine had some nice chances that way, and I think they'll finish off a lot of those this year.

Ben Bishop does a great job of using his size to his advantage. He does a nice job of squaring up to the shooter, and after that, he doesn't need to do much. The one goal he did give up is one he'd like to have back. He gave up a fat rebound off Mike Vannelli's shot that went right to Jay Barriball. Vannelli held onto the puck a little longer than Bishop expected, throwing off Bishop's timing, and causing him to give up the rebound.

Game Recap: Minnesota vs. Maine

#11 Maine opened up the season with a huge 3-1 victory over #2 Minnesota at the XCel Energy Center tonight. The Black Bears were led by goalie Ben Bishop, who made 29 saves for the win and shut down Minnesota's talented offense.

Minnesota did not get off to the start that they were hoping for. Maine scored on a shot from the point tipped off forward Josh Soares in front and past Jeff Frazee just 21 seconds into the game. That seemed to set the tone, as Maine carried the play for much of the first period. Perhaps some of Maine's fast start can be credited to former Black Bear great Paul Kariya, who was in St. Paul tonight and talked to the Maine team before tonight's game.

"He gave us a great speech. He's a great guy," said Maine senior captain Michel Leveille.

They increased their lead to 2-0 at the 12 minute mark of the first when freshmen defenseman David Fischer got beat in a battle behind the net by Wes Clark, who fed teammate and Minnesota-native Bryan Plaszcz on the side of the net for the goal.

"I got caught looking over the wrong shoulder," explained Minnesota goalie Jeff Frazee, who was unable to make it to the post in time to stop Plaszcz.

Minnesota was lucky to escape the period only down a goal when Jay Barriball picked up a Mike Vannelli rebound to cut the lead to one with just over a minute left in the first period. The Gophers were outplayed and outshot in the period. While they had a few nice individual rushes, they were never able to string together two or three passes in a row to really set up a play and get goalie Ben Bishop out of position.

The Gophers rebounded and played much better in the second period. They outshot Maine 16-3, with all three Maine shots coming from the perimeter.

"We tried to play Minnesota's style of hockey in the second," said Bishop afer the game.

Despite outplaying the Black Bears, Minnesota was not able to put the tying goal in the net. Their best chance came when Jay Barriball took a long outlet pass from a defenseman for a breakaway, which was stopped by the glove of Ben Bishop. Though their advantage may not have showed up on the scoreboard, it did result in multiple powerplay opportunities, but the Gophers were unable to convert.

The third period was more of the same for the Gophers. The Gophers continued to control the play, but had no answer for Bishop.

"He had timely saves," said coach Don Lucia, pointing out that Bishop played well when he had to.

Minnesota's best chance to even the game up came near the midway point of the third period when freshmen Jay Barriball made a beautiful cross ice pass to fellow freshmen Erik Johnson, but Johnson was unable to find the handle and couldn't put the shot on goal.

Maine closed out the game with an empty net goal from freshmen Teddy Purcell with 26 seconds left in the game. The story of the evening though was the play of Bishop in goal.

"Ben has been there for us," said Leveille. "He'll be a big positive this year."