Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth meet for the only time all season this weekend, with Friday’s 7pm start televised by FOX Sports North and Saturday’s tilt brought to you at 7pm on BTN. Let’s take you for a ride with important numbers you might want to reference.
16: Minnesota is 16-2-2 when not allowing a power play goal all season, but only 4-4-2 when they allow a marker on an extra-man disadvantage.
13: Minnesota is also 13-0-2, that’s right, I said undefeated when scoring four or more goals. A supreme effort against the Bulldogs this weekend may see the four goal mark.
14: Fourteen of Minnesota’s last seventeen games have been against ranked teams. Minnesota is 9-3-2 against nationally ranked programs all season.
8: Minnesota is +8 in power play conversions when compared to UMD. Minnesota has converted thirty-five times in one hundred and thirty-three tries while UMD boasts a 27-138 mark, which is just under twenty percent.
11: On average, the two teams playing in Minneapolis this weekend draw just over eleven penalties a game (11.3), but there’s no telling what type of game you may see on Friday. This will be the first series of meeting between UMD and Minnesota this season.
33: Each team takes over thirty-three shots per game, with Minnesota at 33.6 and Minnesota-Duluth at 33.2.
29: Minnesota’s Nate Schmidt has twenty-nine points in thirty games played, which is top marks for a defenseman in the NCAA in 2012-13.
3: Minnesota’s Adam Wilcox has three shutouts so far this season, which puts him tied for eighth in the country. His 1,717:07, or just short of seventeen hours in net, puts him solo-eighth in the nation.
7: Seven is the luckiest number for Nick Bjugstad. His seven power play goals rank him tied for fifth in the country while Kyle Rau, who has six, is tied for tenth.
Geoff Discher is Examiner.com's Minnesota Golden Gophers Hockey Examiner as well as the National College Hockey Examiner. Leave a comment below, or feel free to reach him at Disch61@hotmail.com with comments, story ideas, or any general talk surrounding college hockey. You can find him on Facebook as well by clicking here as well as here and joining the conversation from the social media side as well. He's always chock full of fact and opinion. I’m also on Twitter @GophHkyExmnr. Check it out!
Until next time, I'll see you at the rink!
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