Due to some issues with the Gopher Women's page on MyFoxHockey.com, here are the game recaps from this past Friday and Saturday, but as soon as the tech guys decide to fix the issues check back at the site for the post-game comments and audio.
FRIDAY OCTOBER 16TH
Gophers Down UMD
Marc Christopher, Sophomore Writer
MINNEAPOLIS -- The Number Two Ranked University of Minnesota Women's Hockey Team hosted their first WCHA home series of the year Friday night against interstate rival and Number Five Ranked University of Minnesota Duluth at Ridder Arena, which meant that the Northern Star traveling trophy was on the line.
Minnesota, 4-0-0, is coming off a weekend sweep over Ohio State in which 15 Gophers earned a point led by Sophomore Sarah Erickson and Junior Emily West who each tallied five points. Erickson earned WCHA Player of the Week honors scoring a natural hat trick in Friday's 6-5 win and two goals in Saturday's 6-1 victory for five on the weekend. With that natural hat trick, the Sophomore centre from Roseau became the first Gopher to accomplish the feat since Sarah McKenzie did so in 2005 against Brown. Emily West scored two goals and added three assists, and Freshman Noora Raty became the first Minnesota goaltender to register two assists in a game.
Minnesota Duluth, 3-1-0, is coming off a sweep over St. Cloud State last weekend 5-3 and 2-0. The Bulldogs had five players record two or more points in Friday's 5-3, led by WCHA Rookie of the Week Katie Wilson's goal and two assists, as she finished the weekend with two goals and two assists. UMD also has five olympians missing from it's roster this season as Haley Irwin and Jocelyne Larocque are with Team Canada while Kim Martin, Elin Holmlov, Pernila Winberg, and Jenni Asserholt are training with Team Sweden.
It appeared as those UMD scored the game's first goal at 11:24 of the first period, but about two-seconds before Katie's Wilson's wrister got past Gopher freshman netmider Noora Raty, the net was knocked off it's mornings. Minnesota did take advantage of this as just over a minute later at 12:53 when Senior Kelli Blankenship fed Anne Schleper's who's wrister from the high slot gave the Gophers a 1-0 lead. That goal was the fourth of the season for the Sophomore who scored seven as a freshman last year.
The Bulldogs had a few chances early in the second period to tie the game up, including Junior Tara Gray's breakaway after the Gophers power play expired, but Raty was able to stonewall her to keep it a 1-0 Minnesota lead.
Minnesota upped the lead 2-0 when Junior Terra Rasmussen scored her second goal of the season at 16:38, and along with the two goal lead the Gophers took a 25-13 shots on goal advantage into the second intermission.
Sarah Erickson converted the Gophers forth power play chance of the game 2:53 into the third period to up the lead 3-0. The sophomore now has six goals on the season which she's scored in the last three games.
UMD did get on the board at 10:51 of the third period off a rebound goal from Senior Emmanuelle Blais, but it wasn't enough as the Gophers took the first game of the weekend series from the Bulldogs 3-1.
Freshman Finnish goaltender Noora Raty made 22 saves and improved to 3-0-0 on the season for the Gophers.
The weekend series wraps up Saturday afternoon at 4pm at Ridder Arena.
Game Note: Former NHL Number One Overall Pick Pierre Turgeon and his daughter were in attendance for Friday nights game.
THREE STARS:
1--MIN--Noora Raty : The Freshman made 22 saves look easy.
2--MIN--Kelly Seeler : The Defenceman set up two of the Gophers goals.
3--MIN--Anne Schleper : Scored the all important first goal of the game and her forth of the season.
SCORING:
UMD 0-0-1 1
MIN 1-1-1 3
1--12:53--MIN--EV--Anne Schleper/4 (Kelli Blakenship/1, Chelsey Jones/4)
2--16:38--MIN--EV--Terra Rasmussen/2 (Kelly Seeler/3)
3--2:53--MIN--PP--Sara Erickson/6 (Kelly Seeler/4, Megan Bozek/3)
3--10:51--UMD--EV--Emmanuelle Blais/3 (Saara Tuominen/1)
GOALIE STATS:
MIN--Noora Raty (Win, 3-0-0) 59:46-Min, 1-GA, 22-SV (8-5-9)
MIN--Empty Net 0:14
UMD--Jennifer Harss (Loss, 3-2-0) 60-Min, 3-GA, 35-SV (14-9-12)
MISC STATS:
Shots -- UMD 23 (8-5-10), MIN 38 (15-10-13)
Power Play Goals - Attempts (Shots) -- UMD 0-3 (3) MIN 1-5 (13)
Penalties-Minutes -- UMD 5-10 (2-4, 1-2, 2-4) MIN 3-6 (1-2, 1-2, 1-2)
SATURDAY OCTOBER 17TH
Gophers Sweep UMD
Marc Christopher, Sophomore Writer
MINNEAPOLIS -- The Number Two Ranked University of Minnesota Women's hockey team completed the weekend swept of interstate rival and Number Five Ranked University of Minnesota Duluth Saturday afternoon at Ridder Arena.
The Bulldogs picked up right where they had left off towards the end of Friday's game in matching the Gophers shot for shot and shift for shift. The first period went scoreless with each team getting one power play chance and UMD with the edge in shots at 9-8.
Both teams had some early scoring chances in the second period with Bulldogs Freshman Audrey Cournoyer hitting the post on UMD's first power play chance of the period and Minnesota Senior Jaimie Horton's breakaway stuffed by Duluth Freshman German goaltender Jennifer Harss.
The Gophers were finally able to break the scoreless tie at 12:10 of the second period when Junior Emily West got a long pass from Senior Brittany Francis and scored her fifth goal of the season shorthanded on the breakaway to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead.
Outside of the shorthanded goal, the second period saw several special team situation's as the Gophers had a four-on-three power play for a minute-thirty-eight at the 13:13 mark in which they got three shots on goal, and also a four-on-four chance late in the period.
Minnesota upped the lead 2-0 in the first few minutes of the third period when Senior Kelli Blankenship parked herself on the right side of the net and her wrap around shot found the open part of the left side at 2:04 for her first goal of the season.
Senior Chelsey Jones scored the Gophers second shorthanded goal of the game at 12:38 of the third period when she picked up a lose puck at center ice and beat Harss on the breakaway to up Minnesota's lead to 3-0 and give the Gophers the weekend sweep over UMD.
After allowing one goal in each of her pervious three starts, Finnish Freshman Goaltender Noora Raty picked up her first career shutout making 29 saves.
With the Win Minnesota improves to 6-0-0 and 4-0-0 in the WCHA, while Minnesota Duluth drops to 3-3-0 and 2-2-0 in league play.
Next up for the Gophers is a home and home with St. Cloud State next weekend with Friday's game at the National Hockey Center in St. Cloud at 2pm and Saturday's game at Ridder arena at 4pm.
THREE STARS:
1--MIN--Noora Raty : The Freshman picked up her first career shutout.
2--MIN--Emily West : Scored what was the game-winner in the second period and her fifth of the season.
3--MIN--Kelli Blankenship : The Senior scored her first goal of the season.
SCORING:
UMD 0 0-0-0
MIN 3 0-1-2
2--12:10--MIN--SH--Emily West/5 (Brittany Francis/2)
3--2:04--MIN--EV--Kelli Blankenship/1 (Terra Rasmussen/1)
3--12:38--MIN--SH--Chelsey Jones/4 (Terra Rasmussen/2)
GOALIE STATS:
MIN--Noora Raty (Win, 4-0-0) 59:49-Min, 0-GA, 29-SV (9-10-10)
MIN--Empty Net 0:11
UMD--Jennifer Harss (Loss, 3-3-0) 59:48-Min, 3-GA, 34-SV (8-13-13)
UMD--Empty Net 0:12
MISC STATS:
Shots -- UMD 29 (9-10-10), MIN 37 (8-14-15)
Power Play Goals - Attempts (Shots) -- UMD 0-6 (8), MIN 0-4 (9)
Penalties-Minutes -- UMD 5-10 (1-2, 4-8, 0-0) MIN 7-14 (2-4, 4-8, 1-2)
Face Offs --
Team / Player / Won - Loss
MIN / Becky Kortum / 8-5
MIN / Kelli Blankenship / 6-4
MIN / Sarah Erickson / 6-16
MIN / Chelsey Jones / 5-3
MIN / Emily West / 5-6
MIN / Laura May / 1-0
UMD / Saara Tuominen / 22-7
UMD / Gina Dodge / 5-6
UMD / Katherine Wilson / 4-14
UMD / Emmanuelle Blais / 2-2
UMD / Jessica Wong / 1-1
UMD / Audrey Cournoyer / 0-1
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
January 8th
WILD SERGE
Following a bad month of December in which they went 4-9-1 (9pts) and suffered through a franchise worst six game losing streak, the Minnesota Wild have started the New Year on the right track going 2-0-1 (5pts), and counting their New Years Eve Win over the Sharks have beaten the top team and each conference (San Jose & Boston) and lost to the number two team in the West in overtime (Detroit).
There are several reasons on why the Wild are playing better in January and had a horrible December, which range from the question of Marian Gaborik's status to the club not signing veterans and instead having several rookies going through growing pains having to develop in the NHL instead of in the AHL like in past. In all sports what tends to get overlooked is that every team goes through at least one or two slumps during the course of a season, and sometimes that slump happens in the playoffs. Usually the bottom five teams will suffer through 4-6 dry spells over a miserable season that puts them out of the playoff hunt and the chance for winning record a 1/2 to 2/3 into the season.
For the last several years it seemed like around late February/early March the Wild would suffer a slump, and with an unusual bad early month in the season it caught us all by surprise. With the Flyers, Blackhawks, Ducks, Maple Leafs, and Canucks among the remaining games in January, we should know come Feb 1 how the rest of the season will shape up as Marian Gaborik elected to have surgery and won't be back until the last half of March with about 13 games left in the season.
While it took almost the first half of the season to know what was wrong with Gabby, it is a little disconcerting that he won't be ready to skate again until after the trading deadline which puts Minnesota in a bit of a pickle. With rumors flying around about how he reportedly turned down a contract offer from the Wild, you wonder what's going to happen when he does come back. Will Doug Risebrough try to trade him him before the deadline to get something for the free-agent to be, put him on Long Term Injury status (LTI) and add his $6.33-million cap hit to the payroll, or resign him to maybe a lesser multi-year contract with the uncertainty of his future after the surgery.
Keep in mind that whoever signs Gaborik will only have a handful of games to determine if he's worth an Alexander Ovechkin type contract in terms of years and money that he was reportedly asking close to, or if it'll be just a multi-year deal of say 3-4 years for $24 to 40-million now that he's had surgery on both his hips.
Wether it's with the Wild or someone else, Gabby will be well rested and fully recovered for the 2009-10 season, and the main question that will have to wait a few years to be answered is, Will the 40 goal 80 point scorer emerge or will he just be another player that had the potential to be one of the games best but was cut down by injuries?
Following a bad month of December in which they went 4-9-1 (9pts) and suffered through a franchise worst six game losing streak, the Minnesota Wild have started the New Year on the right track going 2-0-1 (5pts), and counting their New Years Eve Win over the Sharks have beaten the top team and each conference (San Jose & Boston) and lost to the number two team in the West in overtime (Detroit).
There are several reasons on why the Wild are playing better in January and had a horrible December, which range from the question of Marian Gaborik's status to the club not signing veterans and instead having several rookies going through growing pains having to develop in the NHL instead of in the AHL like in past. In all sports what tends to get overlooked is that every team goes through at least one or two slumps during the course of a season, and sometimes that slump happens in the playoffs. Usually the bottom five teams will suffer through 4-6 dry spells over a miserable season that puts them out of the playoff hunt and the chance for winning record a 1/2 to 2/3 into the season.
For the last several years it seemed like around late February/early March the Wild would suffer a slump, and with an unusual bad early month in the season it caught us all by surprise. With the Flyers, Blackhawks, Ducks, Maple Leafs, and Canucks among the remaining games in January, we should know come Feb 1 how the rest of the season will shape up as Marian Gaborik elected to have surgery and won't be back until the last half of March with about 13 games left in the season.
While it took almost the first half of the season to know what was wrong with Gabby, it is a little disconcerting that he won't be ready to skate again until after the trading deadline which puts Minnesota in a bit of a pickle. With rumors flying around about how he reportedly turned down a contract offer from the Wild, you wonder what's going to happen when he does come back. Will Doug Risebrough try to trade him him before the deadline to get something for the free-agent to be, put him on Long Term Injury status (LTI) and add his $6.33-million cap hit to the payroll, or resign him to maybe a lesser multi-year contract with the uncertainty of his future after the surgery.
Keep in mind that whoever signs Gaborik will only have a handful of games to determine if he's worth an Alexander Ovechkin type contract in terms of years and money that he was reportedly asking close to, or if it'll be just a multi-year deal of say 3-4 years for $24 to 40-million now that he's had surgery on both his hips.
Wether it's with the Wild or someone else, Gabby will be well rested and fully recovered for the 2009-10 season, and the main question that will have to wait a few years to be answered is, Will the 40 goal 80 point scorer emerge or will he just be another player that had the potential to be one of the games best but was cut down by injuries?
Friday, January 2, 2009
January 2nd
GABORIK COULD OPT FOR SEASON ENDING SURGERY
Marian Gaborik's injury plagued season, and tenure with the Minnesota Wild could both be coming to an end.
The St. Paul Pioneer Press is reporting that Gaborik has a hip deficiency that's causing his groin problems, and he's contemplating season ending surgery.
Gabby, who's set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, has only played in six of the Wild's 36 games this season scoring three goals and registering two assists.
The 26-year-old met with the same specialist over Christmas who performed his hip surgery this past June. While that previous surgery repaired the right side, Gaborik must now decide whether to fix the left side with surgery or play the remainder of the season in pain.
Tom Lynn, Minnesota's assistant general manager, said a decision on the surgery will likely be made in the next few days.
Gaborik, the number three overall pick in the 2000 entry draft, is the only remaining skater left from the inaugural opening day roster, and is the franchise's all-time leader in several categories including goals (209), assists (210), Points (419), and games played (491).
Marian Gaborik's injury plagued season, and tenure with the Minnesota Wild could both be coming to an end.
The St. Paul Pioneer Press is reporting that Gaborik has a hip deficiency that's causing his groin problems, and he's contemplating season ending surgery.
Gabby, who's set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, has only played in six of the Wild's 36 games this season scoring three goals and registering two assists.
The 26-year-old met with the same specialist over Christmas who performed his hip surgery this past June. While that previous surgery repaired the right side, Gaborik must now decide whether to fix the left side with surgery or play the remainder of the season in pain.
Tom Lynn, Minnesota's assistant general manager, said a decision on the surgery will likely be made in the next few days.
Gaborik, the number three overall pick in the 2000 entry draft, is the only remaining skater left from the inaugural opening day roster, and is the franchise's all-time leader in several categories including goals (209), assists (210), Points (419), and games played (491).
Thursday, January 1, 2009
January 1st (HAPPY NEW YEAR!)
KHL FIRES OMSK DOCTORS
As a result of the latest revelations regarding the death of Avangard Omsk forward Alexei Cherepanov last October, the KHL Disciplinary committe has removed the team's doctors from that role with the team.
In Addition, the committee requested the suspension of Avangard General Manager Anatoly Bardin and team president Konstantin Potapov until the investigation being conducted by the Russian Federal Prosecutor's Office is concluded, as the Prosecutor's Office released a statement indicating that performance enhancing drugs had been found in Cherepanov's system.
The KHL revealed more details in their own press release Tuesday.
"As the federal investigation's report clearly shows, Alexei Cherepanov, had been suffering from chronic myocarditis for at least a year," the KHL release stated, "This disease should preclude participation in professional sports, such as hockey. Further, kordiamin, a drug used to treat cardiovascular disease and to stimulate the cardiovascular and respiratory systems was found in Cherepanov's blood.
"It was found that Cherepanoc had been injected with kordiamin three hours before the start of the game between Vityaz and Avangard on October 13, 2008."
Kordiamin is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The KHL Disciplinary Committee will meet again on this matter January 5, and any further findings are expected to be made public on January 15.
Cherepanov, 19, had played 15 games this season for Omsk Avangard, before he died shortly after collapsing on the bench during a KHL game on October 13.
As a result of the latest revelations regarding the death of Avangard Omsk forward Alexei Cherepanov last October, the KHL Disciplinary committe has removed the team's doctors from that role with the team.
In Addition, the committee requested the suspension of Avangard General Manager Anatoly Bardin and team president Konstantin Potapov until the investigation being conducted by the Russian Federal Prosecutor's Office is concluded, as the Prosecutor's Office released a statement indicating that performance enhancing drugs had been found in Cherepanov's system.
The KHL revealed more details in their own press release Tuesday.
"As the federal investigation's report clearly shows, Alexei Cherepanov, had been suffering from chronic myocarditis for at least a year," the KHL release stated, "This disease should preclude participation in professional sports, such as hockey. Further, kordiamin, a drug used to treat cardiovascular disease and to stimulate the cardiovascular and respiratory systems was found in Cherepanov's blood.
"It was found that Cherepanoc had been injected with kordiamin three hours before the start of the game between Vityaz and Avangard on October 13, 2008."
Kordiamin is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The KHL Disciplinary Committee will meet again on this matter January 5, and any further findings are expected to be made public on January 15.
Cherepanov, 19, had played 15 games this season for Omsk Avangard, before he died shortly after collapsing on the bench during a KHL game on October 13.
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