The top-ranked Minnesota men’s hockey team plays its final games of the 2024 calendar year with a marquee Big Ten Conference matchup against No. 3/2 Michigan State inside 3M Arena at Mariucci Dec. 13-14.
The series gets underway at 7:30 p.m. Friday night on Big Ten Network before the weekend finale Saturday evening at 5 p.m.
Minnesota’s annual Teddy Bear Toss event will take place postgame on Saturday. All stuffed animals will be donated to the M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital. Donations MUST be new and placed in plastic bags prior to throwing them on the ice.
PREVIEW PIECE
MNN sports director Mike Grimm previews the series:
Connor Kurth
LAST TIME OUT
Minnesota put together its most impressive weekend of the season and did something that it had not done in more than 80 years, shutting out sixth-ranked Michigan in back-to-back games for the first time since Jan. 14 and 16, 1943. The Golden Gophers won 6-0 Friday with three goals in each of the first two periods, including a pair from Matthew Wood, while Connor Kurth and Oliver Moore each had three-point performances. Sam Rinzel scored Saturday’s eventual game winner on the power play late in the first period before Jimmy Snuggerud added an empty-net tally with 11 seconds remaining to complete the sweep. Goaltender Nathan Airey collected his first collegiate shutout with a career-best 32 saves Friday and Liam Souliere followed his lead and stopped all 22 shots in his second shutout of the year Saturday.
IRON RANGE ALTERNATE DEBUT
Minnesota will debut its “Iron Range Alternate” uniforms on Friday the 13th against Michigan State, honoring the gritty, hardworking culture that embodies the region. Featuring a taconite gray color, the uniforms were inspired by the legendary talent from the area and the toughness and pride that has helped shape Golden Gopher hockey.
EXTENDED TIME AT HOME
The Maroon and Gold are in the early stages of an eight-game homestand inside the friendly confines of 3M Arena at Mariucci and are not slated to hit the road again until mid-January. The home stretch is the longest for the Gophers in more than a decade as they last played eight-consecutive home games between Dec. 29, 2012, and Jan. 25, 2013, where they posted a 6-1-1 record. Minnesota is unbeaten at 7-0-1 at 3M Arena at Mariucci this season and outscored its opposition by a 30-8 margin, getting game-winning goals from seven different skaters. Connor Kurth, Sam Rinzel, and Jimmy Snuggerud all have nine points in the eight home outings.
AIREY STARS IN FIRST SHUTOUT
Goaltender Nathan Airey is fully healthy entering his second year of college hockey after missing nearly the entire first half of last season with an injury and is making a significant impact in the Minnesota net. After picking up his first collegiate shutout against Michigan (Dec. 6) behind a career-best 32 saves, he was named the B1G Second Star of the Week for his performance, the first weekly award of his young tenure. Airey remains unbeaten in all 10 of his starts to begin his sophomore campaign at 9-0-1 with a 1.99 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage, giving up two or fewer goals in six of 10 outings. A native of Cochrane, Alberta, he is the only NCAA goaltender with more than seven appearances to have not lost a single game this season.
NEW NUMBER, SAME SAM THE STAR
While he may have changed from No. 5 to No. 2 during the offseason, the game of Sam Rinzel has remained unchanged following an All-B1G Second Team selection in 2023-24. After recording multi-point performances in both games against St. Thomas, the sophomore landed B1G First Star of the Week honors (Oct. 29). He extended his career-long point streak to eight games, dating back to the final game of last season, with an assist in the series opener versus Penn State (Nov. 1). Rinzel has a point in 13 of 18 appearances this year, including the first two power-play goals of his tenure at Notre Dame (Nov. 22). He’s scored two game-winning goals over the last three weeks and is tied for the most goals (8) and points (19) among all NCAA defensemen, thanks to four multi-point performances in his last six games.
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON
With an assist at Notre Dame (Nov. 22), Jimmy Snuggerud became the 89th player in program history to reach 100 career points and the second member of the family to do so. It took the junior 92 career appearances to reach the mark, one game fewer than his father, Dave, who recorded his 100th-career point in game number 93 back in 1988. The Snuggeruds are the only father-son duo in Minnesota men’s hockey history to both eclipse the century mark as Dave finished with 140 points, which ranks 38th all-time for the Maroon and Gold.
PUCK STOPS AT SOULIERE
Graduate transfer goaltender Liam Souliere is enjoying a change of scenery as he joined the Gophers after playing four seasons at B1G-foe Penn State. After suffering a 2-1 overtime loss in his Minnesota debut against Omaha (Oct. 12), he won six of his next seven starts, including a 28-save shutout of the Nittany Lions (Nov. 2) in his first appearance versus his former team. That was also his first time playing in front of his new home fans inside 3M Arena at Mariucci and he added a second home shutout of rival Michigan (Dec. 7). He has allowed 11 goals in eight appearances this season, no more than two in any game, for an NCAA-leading 1.37 goals-against average and a .943 save percentage that ranks third nationally. Souliere has needed to be at his best as the Gophers are averaging just 3.0 goals per game when the Montreal, Quebec, native has started between the pipes.
HISTORY WITH THE SPARTANS
Minnesota has won more than 70 percent of the meetings with Michigan State in the nearly 100-year history of competition between the programs, holding a 136-51-17 all-time record. The Gophers are unbeaten in 19 of the last 21 matchups dating back to early 2020, aided by a 14-game win streak. This weekend, it’ll mark six-straight meetings with both sides ranked in the top 10 of the national polls. In 2023-24, Minnesota went 2-1-1 against the Spartans as Bryce Brodzinski and Oliver Moore each finished with six points during the season series, leading the Gophers to a 16-12 scoring edge.
INSIDE LOOK AT MICHIGAN STATE
The Spartans come to Dinkytown after a tough series in Wisconsin where they were shut out Friday before overcoming a two-goal deficit to defeat the Badgers in overtime Saturday. Michigan State had won nine-straight games before last weekend as it boasts the best scoring defense in the B1G, third nationally, allowing just 1.7 goals against per game. It also ranks in the top 10 of scoring offense, putting up 3.4 goals per game, behind Daniel Russell’s team-high eight goals, five of which have gone down as the game winner. Isaac Howard paces five Spartans that have reached double-digit scoring as the junior has 17 points with a point in six of his last seven appearances. Trey Augustine is one of six NCAA netminders to have double-figure wins this season as the sophomore holds a 10-2-0 record, playing more than 85 percent of the team’s minutes in goal. He has a 1.83 goals-against average and a .934 save percentage with two shutouts.
COMFORTS OF HOME
Only once in the 31-year history of 3M Arena at Mariucci has Minnesota not posted a winning record inside its home building and that happened in 2010-11 when the team was 9-10-3. Since that year, the Gophers own a 180-69-17 record (.709) and have won double-digit home games each of the last 13 years. That includes a mark of 14-6-1 from last season, aided by the Maroon and Gold winning eight-straight games from Jan. 8 and Mar. 1, the longest home win streak since 2017. Under Coach Motzko’s guidance, the Gophers hold an 83-39-7 (.671) record on home ice, including a 50-17-2 (.739) mark across the previous four years. That stretch of quality play is aided by Minnesota dominating Big Ten foes, going 32-10-1 (.756) in conference outings inside 3M Arena at Mariucci since the start of 2021.
BLUE LINE SCORING
With a combined 51 points from eight skaters along their blue line, the Gophers are getting an offensive boost from the defense through 18 games in 2024-25. The defensive group in 2022-23 totaled 147 points on 30 goals and 117 assists, aided by three now-NHL skaters, and that number dipped to 83 points last season. Sam Rinzel (8) and Ryan Chesley (5) have both more than doubled their single-season high for goals and rank first and fourth among NCAA defensemen in goals, respectively. The duo is one of only two in the NCAA to have 11 or more points apiece and helped Minnesota’s defensemen surpass last season’s nine-goal production, totaling 15 tallies as a group.
WE ARE THE STATE OF HOCKEY
According to data from College Hockey Inc., 249 NCAA Division I men’s hockey players hail from the state of Minnesota, nearly a quarter of all student-athletes, and more than double the next closest state. That total is bolstered by the Gophers lineup as 22 of their players this season will skate in their home state, including five of their eight newcomers. Even more impressive is the fact that 20 of the 22 Minnesotans on the team are from within 70 miles of campus.
(info and stock photo courtesy of Gopher Sports)
