The 2011-12 Mariucci Classic has come and gone with Minnesota taking second in their own tournament via a Northeastern upset. This weekend beckons the US Hockey Hall of Fame Game with Notre Dame, Saturday night at 7pm on Big Ten Network. Let’s take you inside the numbers.
22: Minnesota owns a 22-13-2 all-time record against Notre Dame and the teams last played in Grand Rapids, MI in the NCAA Tournament in 2004. Minnesota won that game 5-2.
27: Notre Dame’s TJ Tynan has twenty-seven points (7-20-27) which leads Notre Dame in scoring. Tynan is also sixth in the nation overall. Anders Lee comes second with twenty-two and Riley Sheahan comes home third with eighteen total points.
2.60: Notre Dame’s leading goaltender, Mike Johnson, has a 7-5-3 record with a 2.60 goals against average. Expect the Gophers to need work in order to win. (Johnson also has an .889 save percentage.)
2008: Saturday night marks the first time that Minnesota and its opponent will be rated in the top five in polls since Nov. 7th-8th, 2008. Minnesota tied and beat New Hampshire 2-2 and 6-2 respectively on those occasions.
66: Notre Dame’s penalty kill is 66-77 on the young season, resulting in a percentage of 85.7%. Minnesota is 91-108, which is 84.3%.
4.8: The difference (averaged) between the shots Notre Dame takes per game (28.7) to the shots the Irish give up per game (23.9).
10.2: Let’s use the same statistic, flipping it on the Gophers now. Minnesota takes 36.0 shots per game, whereas the Gophers give up 25.8 shots per game to opponents.
13: In thirteen home games this season, Minnesota is 10-3-0. Their three losses were to Vermont, Michigan Tech, and Northeastern.
1323:06: The time that Kent Patterson has played in twenty-two games during the 2011-12 season. He has six shutouts.
2: Notre Dame has only two players that have scored over a point per game this season—being TJ Tynan (1.35 per game) and Anders Lee (1.04 per game). Minnesota has five players averaging over a point per game (Bjugstad, Haula, Schmidt, Rau, Hansen).
101: Notre Dame is outshooting its opponents by a +101 shot margin, by a total of 602-501. The Irish are even outshooting opponents in OT 12-10. Their totals, by period: 178-169, 217-170, 195-152, 12-10.
9: When leading after two periods, Notre Dame is 9-0-0. The Irish are 2-0-2 when leading after one. When trailing through twenty minutes, Notre Dame is 5-4-0, and after two periods, they’re 1-4-1.
8: Minnesota is 8-0-0 when leading after two periods, and 9-1-0 when leading through one. The Gophers have losing records when trailing, however. They’re 0-1-1 when trailing after one and 3-4-0 when trailing after two.
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.comwith comments, story ideas, or any general talk surrounding college hockey. You can find him on Facebook as well by clicking hereas well as hereand 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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