Minnesota - UND; good way to start season

As many good rivalries and must see series there are in the WCHA, I have to say that University of North Dakota against Minnesota ranks atop my list. The games never lack intensity and the favorite in any given year matters little to the outcome of the game. The Gophers and the Fighting Sioux are two of the best covered teams in the WCHA when it comes to the media, so naturally a lot has been written about this weekend's series....


From the Grand Forks Herald

Minnesota and UND rank first and second in the country in NHL draft picks on the roster.
The Gophers have 20 NHL picks, while UND has 15.
Minnesota’s highest-drafted players are Nick Leddy (16th overall), David Fischer (20th), Patrick White (25th), Aaron Ness (40th), Zach Budish (41st) and Mike Hoeffel (57th).
Only six players on the Gophers’ roster are undrafted.
UND’s highest drafted players are Danny Kristo (56th), David Toews (66th), Jason Gregoire (76th), Corey Fienhage (81st) and Chris VandeVelde (97th).
“The draft isn’t always the best way to measure great college players,” Lucia said. “Ryan Duncan was a pretty good player. He wasn’t drafted. That’s the thing with college players. Some of the greatest may never play in the NHL.” Read Entire Article HERE

As heated as this rivalry gets there are often relationships and ties between Gophers and top talent Minnesotans who play for North Dakota. The Fighting Sioux's top two freshmen Danny Kristo and Joe Gleason both have ties to players on Minnesota's roster. Gleason played in high school with Gopher freshman Zach Budish and Kristo played high school and bantams with Gopher freshman Nick Leddy and more recently nationally with Jordan Schroeder.

Recently, they’ve been teammates on the U.S. Under-17 team, the Under-18 team and the 2009 World Junior team.
Kristo said the two talked on the phone Monday about life in general, but decided not to speak again until the series is over. -Grand Forks Herald Full Article HERE

The Star Tribune ran a story on captains Ryan Flynn and Tony Lucia. The trend of late is that the best players in the program have elected to leave early to pursue NHL careers, which means role players like Flynn and Lucia have the most games under their belt and will take on leadership roles for Minnesota. The best piece out of this article for Gopher fans was this by Lucia:

"There is absolutely no excuses for not making the NCAA tournament," said Lucia, referring to the Gophers missing it last year for the first time in nine seasons. "Certainly, we don't want a repeat, especially at a historic program like Minnesota." - Full Article HERE

The Pioneer Press have a piece on Alex Kangas trying to bounce back from his sophomore slump after a great freshman year.

In his first 18 games, he was excellent — posting a 10-3-5 record with a 2.88 goals-against average and .920 save percentage. Then came the Jan. 9-10 nightmare in North Dakota, where Kangas yielded 11 goals and did not finish either game.

It was part of an ugly 4-8-1 stretch in which he failed to finish five starts and had Gophers fans holding their noses and scratching their heads.- Full Article HERE

From the Sports Information Department of Minnesota GAME PREVIEW HERE

From the Sports Information Department of North Dakota GAME PREVIEW HERE