Back at The X,
Saint Paul, Minnesota
The Big Ten Hockey Tournament started on Thursday at The X in St Paul. Ohio State prevailed over Michigan State in OT, and Penn State beat Wisconsin 5-2 to advance to the semifinals.
Michigan takes on Penn State
In the Friday afternoon game, Michigan faced Penn State, and the Wolverines have lit the lamp against the Lions this season.
Michigan led 2-0 after one period on goals by Max Shuart and Alex Kile. In the third period, Kyle Connor scored three in a row for the pure hat trick. JT Compher assisted on all of Connor’s scores. Kevin Kerr finally put one behind Wolverine GT Steve Racine, which put the score at 5–1 after two.
Michigan would tally two more in the third, with one being from Connor, and PSU sandwiched a goal in there for a 7-2 Michigan win.
Kyle Connor, the B1G Freshman & Player of the Year, scored 4. Connor now leads the nation in scoring with 34 goals and 65 points.
Compher had 5 assists.
In their five games against PSU this season, Michigan has scored 33 goals, with ten of those being scored by the freshman Connor.
Minnesota and Ohio State during warm ups
In game two, the Minnesota Gophers faced The Ohio State Buckeyes. Minnesota had great tempo in the first, but OSU did a good job of boxing the Gophers to the outside. Still, the Buckeyes took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission on a goal by Kevin Miller.
The second period had some great defensive hockey, and the period was scoreless, although the natives were getting restless.
Tyler Sheehy opened the scoring for Minnesota on a great shot from the left circle to tie the game up, 1:36 into period three. Vinnie Lettieri, would score the go-ahead 4 minutes later and the small crowd at The X exploded. Taylor Cammarata would score two more for the Gophers, both assisted by Sheehy, and Minnesota would go on to win 4-2.
Minnesota had 45 SOG to OSU’s 29. Attendance was 5423.
They gave away hats! Notice anything odd about them though?
Minnesota will face Michigan on Saturday night for the B1G Championship, and the Gophers will have their hands full. Michigan is already in the national tourney, but Minnesota needs the win to get the automatic bid. The teams split 2-2 during the regular season.
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Congrats to the Minnesota Gopher Women’s Team in their overtime win over the Wisconsin Badgers. Minnesota will now face Boston College for the National Championship. It will be the Gopher Women’s fifth straight appearance in the title game.
March 20th, 2016 at 4:06 AM
Congrats to the Gopher gals on their win over my Badger gals at the women’s Frozen Four semi-final game.. What a great season for both teams–they played six games and each team won three games. The Badgers won the WCHA Season Championship & the WCHA Conf. Tournament, but the Gophers beat the Badgers in the Semi Finals of the Frozen Four. Unlike some fans I will pull for the Gophers to win the NCAA Championship on Sunday because that means the Championship will again belong to a team from the WCHA Conf. In the past 15 years the WCHA has won 14 of the 15 women’s national hockey championships: five for the Gophers, five for UM-Duluth and four for the Badgers; the remaining one was won by Clarkson–talk about domination. WCHA rules NCAA women’s hockey. Go Gophers win another one on Sunday.
March 20th, 2016 at 1:47 PM
Getting Kessel back gave the team a huge boost. Hopefully, the WCHA keeps the hardware.
March 21st, 2016 at 12:18 AM
Congrats –your Gopher gals did it again–NATIONAL CHAMPS !!!!