Team, Player of the Week

Not too many teams had two game weekends this week, but one that did was Minnesota. The Gophers had to wait until Sunday for their second game against Duluth, but they got out of there with a tie. Add that to their win on Friday and it adds up to the team of the week. Kent Patterson made 37 saves on Friday to steal the game for the Gophers, who won despite getting outshot. On Saturday Jacob Cepis drew a couple penalties (by diving, but we’ll just call it drawing penalties) and scored the tying goal. Patterson had an even better game, stopping 41 shots.

Runners up: New Hampshire, Wisconsin

Like team of the week, there weren’t a ton of good candidates for player of the week. But I decided in the end to go with Jon Merrill of Michigan. Merrill had the first two goals in the Big Chill, and had an otherwise strong game for the Wolverines. Merrill looks like a lock to make the US WJC team, and games like Saturday will only help his cause.

Runners up: Chase Polacek, Matt Frattin