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Hot young Minnesota team up next for DU

By Pat Rooney, Special to the Rocky

Published November 16, 2008 at 9:25 p.m.

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Minnesota is not accustomed to looking up at the front-runners in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.

Yet that is exactly where the league's coaches and media contingent believed the Golden Gophers would be at the outset of the college hockey season, as Minnesota, in both preseason polls, was picked to finish in a fourth-place tie with Wisconsin.

Almost two months later, a young Golden Gophers team has regained its customary position atop the league standings. Minnesota, the only unbeaten team in WCHA play, (6-0-4, 5-0-3 WCHA) visits Magness Arena for a two-game WCHA series against the University of Denver that begins Friday.

"I think Minnesota came into the season kind of in a very unique situation," said DU coach George Gwozdecky, whose team was swept at St. Cloud State during the weekend.

"For the first time in I don't know how many years, they were considered the underdog. They were going to be too young to be effective, too young to be in the top part of the league.

"They have had to rely a lot on their young players, similar to what we did last year. The younger players are playing very well. They are getting strong goaltending. And they are getting strong play from Ryan Stoa.

"At this point, they have to be one of the early surprises in the league. They are a very good team, and I think they are relishing the role of the underdog."

Stoa, a second-round pick (34th overall) of the Avalanche in 2005, is a 6-foot-3 junior forward who leads the Golden Gophers with nine goals and seven assists. Minnesota leads Colorado College by two points atop the WCHA standings.

INJURY UPDATE: DU forward Rhett Rakhshani (upper-body injury) and defenseman J.P. Test- wuide returned to the lineup Saturday after missing the series opener at St. Cloud. Testwuide, the Pioneers' captain, missed three games because of a groin injury.

But after those two players returned, DU lost the services of defenseman Patrick Wiercioch, who suffered an upper-body injury Friday and didn't play Saturday.

Wiercioch, the top-scoring freshman defenseman in the nation, with five goals and five assists, is questionable for the series against Minnesota this week.

ETC.: Air Force, off to the first 10-0-0 start in the program's history and the only unbeaten and untied team in the nation, hosts an Atlantic Hockey Association series against Sacred Heart on Friday and Saturday. . . . CC, which split a series at Minnesota State Mankato, visits Alaska Anchorage for a WCHA series beginning Friday. . . . The Falcons' Brent Olson and Jacques Lamoureux have scored 19 points, which ties Boston College's Brock Bradford for the most in college hockey. Olson leads the nation in assists, with 16. Lamoureux is tied for the national lead in power-play goals (seven) and leads the nation in winning goals, with four.