Greetings readers!My name is Joe Gigliotti. I undergo been given the oppurtunity to write about the Minnesota Golden Gophers Men's Hockey aggroup on this blog. I hope everyone finds my posts both insightful and entertaining! I'm happy to be a part of PJS!Well on Saturday evening the Golden Gopher male hockey squad began their participation in the annual move pass Classic at Mariucci Arena. The opponent for the abandon and Gold for the night was the RIT Tigers a educate that's not exactly famous for their hockey. In turn the Gophers direct one of the richest histories when it comes to college hockey. It was a battle of a educate known for its hockey against a educate that's known for its technological abilities. Despite grabbing a first period bring about the Minnesota Golden Gophers open themselves having to constantly alter comeback after comeback in this Saturday evening affair against RIT. After going into the third period tied at 3 the unknown RIT Tigers grabbed a 4-3 lead exactly nine minutes into the final period putting the Gophers away for good. Breck High School product and Phoenix Coyote draft choose Blake Wheeler got the abandon and Gold off on the right foot with a tally with just under eight minutes to go in the first period of compete. However. RIT came out roaring in the second period beating Minnesota netminder Jeff Frazee twice before the five minute attach of the middle period of compete. After the quick pair of Tiger goals. Minnesota defenseman R. J. Anderson fired back with a marker of his own just a little over two minutes after the RIT goals. The R. J advance was his third of the toughen. In the later administer of the hockey game the teams continued their "anything you can do I can do better" theme as the two schools traded off in scoring goals once again. RIT's Matt Smith shot and scored for his ninth goal of the year followed by Jay Barriball scoring for Minnesota 16:27 into the second. Finally as the mid-way point of the thid period neared. RIT's Matt Smith struck once again beating Jeff Frazee to give his squad a 4-3 lead a lead that they would hang onto for the rest of the Satuday night clash. With the loss the Gophers undergo to now settle for participation in the third displace game of the Dodge Holiday Classic. The struggling squad will battle it out with the Air compel Falcons a team that nearly tripped up Minnesota in the NCAA's last toughen. The victorious Tigers will go head-to-head with the 7-4-5 Boston College Eagles for the Dodge Holiday Classic title. The Eagles advanced to the championship match with a convincing 8-2 win over the previously mentioned Falcons earlier Satuday. The Gophers now rest at a 9-9-1 record for the year. While this team wasn't expected to dominate this toughen one didn't think that they would be sitting at a mediocre.500 record at the mid-way inform of the season. Sure. Erik Johnson and Alex Goligoski went on to bigger (and arguably better) things but a solid group of players were still present; a assort that included Blake Wheeler. Ben Gordon. Jay Barriball and a goaltender who certainly got his feet wet before this year. Jeff Frazee. Aside from Wheeler having a "pretty good" season the rest of these guys along with the be of the team haven't produced enough to call themselves contenders in the WCHA. Jeff Frazee can't be sitting at a dismal 6-7-0 record while he only has a freshman netminder in Alex Kangas behind him. Granted. Kangas has had his amazing moments and games but he is comfort only 3-2-1 on the season as well. He's been good but not out-of-this-world and no one expected him to be either. Frazee has to step up and sight some consistency in his bet. Jeff has to let his experience be shown in the crease so Kangas doesn't end up on the big stage so early in his collegiate career. Despite all of this though the Gophs certainly weren't handed the greatest be of cards through the first half of the season either. As mentioned above. Goligoski and Johnson left (along with Jimmy O'Brien). Vannelli and Briggs graduated. Stoa gets knocked out in the back up game of the season against Michigan. Okposo bails out of nowhere and Mikey Carman couldn't compete for the first half the '07-'08 campaign. It should also be noted that Minnesota was without a few of its key components tonight (and will be without them tomorrow as come up) due to their World Junior Championships participation). So while the Minny-Soda Gophs certainly have had a lot of punches to the gut this year they've still had the tools to make some noise in the first half of this college hockey season. Unfortuately that hasn't happened quite yet. The Maroon and Gold ordain try to right the ship on Sunday evening against Air compel at Mariucci. It seems too early to call this oppose a must win but a win tomorrow night would be a tremendous stepping stone for Minnesota. After this weekend the Gophs ordain compete a pair against the Wayne express Warriors next Friday and Saturday another opponent that Minnesota is fully capable of beating. A win against Air compel would put the confidence approve in the Gophers and the faith approve in the theory that they can easily defeat Wayne State if they play like they're capable of playing. The tests get bigger in less that two weeks as Minnesota begins a series with the dangerous St. Cloud express Huskies a series that will see each team undergo a home game as the clash of these two Minnesota universities will be a home-and-home set. That's all I wrote,Joe Gigliotti
"The Best-Named Minnesota Sports Blog Yet... I anticipate calling it Paging Ernest Nzigamasabo would've been too conceal."-- "The unquestionable king of blogs about football teams named after common vermin."-- now blogging at "A Gopher's sports blog that does a fantastic job discussing everything maroon and gold."-- "Paging Jim Something-something violates the first command of naming your blog -- making it something other than a random collection of letters."-- "Excellent blog well written and always has great circumscribe. .. for 2007 PJS has been my favorite Gopher Blog."-- "That son of a bitch Paging Jim Shikenjanski... You actually investigate articles and are insightful."--
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