Gopher Hockey Update

Well, it's been a while. For those out of the loop, here's the skinny: We're the #1 team in the nation. We are currently sitting at 5-0-1. The main reason I haven't published an update before now is that I didn't believe the #1 hype we had going into the BC series.

Vs. BC
Our big series againt BC (currently #8, I think they were #5 when we played) went well: a 3-3 tie and a 5-1 win. We were up 2-0 in the first game when BC decided to score 3 goals a minute and 10 seconds apart to take the lead. We scored in the 2nd to tie it up. We almost won the game in OT, but a BC defender was able to corral the puck in mid-air before crossing the goal line and throw it out of the net.

This seemed to be more controversial than I thought. Cracker and other homers think there's no doubt that he closed his hand on the puck before throwing it out, which would have resulted in a penalty shot. I believe that he didn't close his hand on the puck (and recently learned that it's now illegal to hand pass in the defensive zone). If I knew how to post a GIF, I would to let you judge for yourself. Once again, I'm not convinced that he closed his hand around the puck (making a fist).

The teams did a fun little exhibition shootout after the official game ended in a tie, which BC won. The second game was all gophers. It was their performance in the second game that allowed me to finally accept the #1 ranking as legit.

Notre Dame
Probably the biggest weekend of the year starts tonight. We play at Notre Dame. Notre Dame was ranked #2 to begin the season, but has lost 2 games in the past weeks to UMD and Vermont. They are currently ranked #4.

Of course, this will be a bittersweet game for Gophers head coach Don Lucia as not only will he be playing his Alma Mater, but also his son, Mario. I'm sure if you tune into the games on NBC Sports and NBCsports.com (that's where they're being televised), you'll get the overdose of this story.

I think we'll walk out of here with 3 points, but it wouldn't shock me if we split. Notre Dame is a good team and has just been struggling lately. Let's hope they don't find their groove again this weekend.

Gopher Highlight
The highlight of the year so far has to be the play of Sam Warning (Jr, from Missouri, of all places). He currently leads the team with 12 pts. He had a career high 23 pts last year and is well on his way to breaking that after 6 games.

Also worthy of note is the play from our Freshmen. 3 of our top 5 scorers are freshmen: Taylor "I'm not a midget...Honestly, guys" Cammarata, Justin Kloos "Klux Klan" and Hudson "Hawk" Fasching (Rod can say he heard of him first).

Where we Stand
Here are the current B1G standings:

	CONFERENCE							OVERALL
	W	L	SOL	SOW	PTS	GF	GA	W	L	T	GF	GA
Minnesota	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	0	1	29	10
Michigan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	1	1	22	14
Wisconsin	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	2	1	23	23
Michigan State	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	3	0	16	17
Ohio State	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	4	0	27	30
Penn State	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	3	1	17	21

Thoughts: 
- Michigan is a surprise so far this year. They are currently #2 after starting out at #11
- Wisconsin is sputtering a little of late. Started out #3 (waay overrated in my book), but got swept by BC and split with Lake Supperior and are currently #13
- The rest are who we thought they were.

There's still the majority of the season to go (kind of sucks that our big match-ups are already done for the year - BC + ND), so all of this really means nothing.