The WCHA recently posted recaps of the 2008-09 season for all 10 teams. This is what it had to say about the Gophers, with my added comments in parentheses:

Minnesota finished its season with a 17-13-7 overall record and a 12-11-5 mark in the WCHA … the Gophers placed fifth in the WCHA standings and swept St. Cloud State in the first round of the playoffs by 4-2 and 3-0 scores before losing to Minnesota Duluth 2-1 in the Final Five play-in game … Minnesota set a single-season school record by killing off 88.8% of its penalties, which ranked fourth in the country … the Gophers’ 17 wins were their fewest in a season since their 15-19-9 mark in 1998-99.

(As good as the Gophers’ penalty-killers were, they also gave up seven short-handed goals and the U was 0-0-7 in those games. … Minnesota ran into a hot, motivated UMD in the Final Five and that lost cost the Gophers a chance to make the NCAA tournament.)

The Gophers made their 11th straight appearance in the WCHA Final Five and 16th appearance in the 17-year history of the event … the Gophers lost in the play-in game for the first time in five appearances … Minnesota’s first round playoff sweep marked the 31st time in the past 32 years that Minnesota has won its opening series in the WCHA playoffs … the Gophers improved to 65-10-1 in the first round of the WCHA playoffs since 1973-74 … the Gophers finished 6-0 against St. Cloud State this season, marking the 12th time in school history they’ve beaten an opponent six times in a single season … the Huskies are the only team Minnesota swept this season, doing so three times … it was Minnesota’s first postseason shutout since a 1-0 overtime win over Maine in the 2005 NCAA regional and its first WCHA playoff shutout since blanking Alaska Anchorage twice in a 1999 first round series.

(Huskies coach Bob Motzko was right when he said the Gophers ruined St. Cloud State’s regular season and its playoffs. That rivalry might be a little more heated next season.)

Junior Ryan Stoa earned first-team All-WCHA honors and first-team All-American honors by College Hockey News after leading the Gophers for the season with 24 goals and 22 assists for 46 points … Stoa ranks fifth nationally in points per game and third in the country in goals per game … Stoa finished as the WCHA’s scoring champion with 36 points in league games, marking the first time a Gopher player has won the award since Reggie Berg in 1998.

(Eleven years between conference scoring champions at the U. Seems like a long time. Stoa got a lot of ice time, and he had a good set-up guy. Now he will get his picture on the mural at Mariucci Arena which has all the school’s All-Americans.)

Freshman Jordan Schroeder was second in the WCHA with 35 points in league games and ranks third nationally in scoring with 13 goals and 31 assists for 44 points in overall games … Schroeder is the only freshman among the nation’s top 50 scorers … Schroeder ranks third in the nation in assists per game and his 32 assists rank sixth all-time among Gophers’ freshmen … Schroeder was named the WCHA Rookie of the Year and the College Hockey News National Rookie of the Year.

(Schroeder should be picked in the top half of the first round in the NHL draft in late June. There has been a lot of speculation the Wild may take him with the No. 12 pick. Wherever he is picked, I think he will stay at least one more year at Minnesota so he can get stronger. Remember, he accelerated his high school education. He should be entering college this fall.)

The Gophers finished the season 15-1-3 when scoring first and 13-0-2 when leading after the first period … Minnesota had a 2.18 goals-against average and .923 save percentage at home compared to a 3.88 goals-against average and .864 save percentage on the road … sophomore defenseman Cade Fairchild ranks third among the nation’s defensemen in scoring with nine goals and 24 assists for 33 points … the Gophers ranked second in the WCHA on the power-play at 20.1% behind Minnesota Duluth’s 22.0% … Minnesota scored a power-play goal in 25 of its 37 games … the Gophers rank second in the nation in combined special teams at 54.7 percent.

(Behind only NCAA champion Boston University.)

The Gophers had qualified for the NCAA tournament eight straight years, which was the second-longest current streak behind Michigan’s 18 straight … Minnesota and Michigan are tied for the most NCAA tournament appearances of any school with 32.

(The U is the host of another regional in 2010, except this time it’s at the X and in 2011 the Frozen Four is at the X. So the boys should have a lot of motivation not to miss qualifying for the NCAA in upcoming seasons.)

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 at 12:49 pm and is filed under Gophers men's hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.