Zoologically speaking, there is no such thing as a golden gopher, so how did this mascot name come to be?  It has to do largely with a railroad in the 1800s and a sports announcer in the 1930s.  More on that later, down below.

Over the weekend, nearly all the top ten teams split, where in the bottom half of the top twenty, most teams either swept, or got swept.  Starting with the top twenty head-to-head matchups, #2 Minnesota split with #12 Denver; Friday night’s game was scoreless for two periods, but Denver scored right at the start of the third, and then found an empty net with fifteen seconds remaining for the 2-0 win.  Saturday night couldn’t have been much different; Denver scored early in the first and Minnesota tied it up midway through the second.  In the third, it was bombs away for the Golden Gophers as they scored three more unanswered goals, and then found an empty net with a minute remaining for the 5-1 win.  Zach Buddish scored the first Minnesota goal, and the empty-netter, and tallied two assists; the game winner was scored by Nick Bjugstad.  #6 Boston College split the weekend with #18 Providence as well; Friday night’s game was scoreless after one, and in the second BC scored two goals in the first four mnutes on two power plays, Providence came back a minute later to make it 2-1 on a short-hander, and BC scored again eight minutes later to take a 3-1 lead into the third.  Early in the third Providence scored to make it 3-2, BC, which is how it ended.  Saturday night was extremely different, as Providence scored midway through the first for a 1-0 lead, which stood for thirty-nine minutes.  In the third, Providence scored four times in the first six minutes, twice on power plays, and once short-handed, to take a 5-0 lead, until BC scored with a minute to go, to make the final 5-1.  Wisconsin now finds itself ranked #14 after sweeping Nebraska-Omaha, knocking UNO down to #16.  In Friday’s game, the two teams traded goals thorughout three periods, and with the game tied at 3-3, Wisconsin scored the final goal with two minutes left, to take the win, 4-3.  Saturday night was, again, extremely different, as the two traded goals in the first, but Wisconsin blew it open in the second with four unanswered goals scored evenly throughout the period.  In the third the teams traded goals to make the final 6-2, Wisconsin.  Michael Mersch, of the Badgers, scored two goals and had two assists in Saturday’s game.

So what big news is there?  It has to be UMass-Lowell and their second seven-game winning streak; in addition they are 17-2-1 since December 8.  We all know about the big St. Cloud State and Mankato State winning streaks — add UMass-Lowell to the list, as they now find themselves ranked up five spots to #7 after sweeping Merrimack, and knocking them out of the top twenty.  #1 Quinnipiac split its weekend, taking a rare loss at the hands of Harvard, but beating Dartmouth, and knocking them out of the top twenty.  #3 Miam of Ohio split with Ohio State, and #4 New Hampshire tied and beat UMass-Amherst.  #5 North Dakota split with Bemidji State, and #8 St. Cloud State split with Michigan Tech.  #9 Western Michigan split with Michigan State, and #10 Mankato State split with Colorado College.

#11 Notre Dame swept Bowling Green rather convincingly, and #13 Yale notched a couple of one-goal wins against Colgate and Cornell.  #15 Niagra was swept, no, make that blown out, by the United States Air Force Academy, and RPI popped into the top twenty at #17, after sweeping its weekend with two powerful wins over Clarkson and St. Lawrence.  #19 Boston University split with Vermont, and Union College is back in the rankings at #20 after also sweeping its weekend with two powerful wins over St. Lawrence and Clarkson.

So if a Golden Gopher is not an animal, how is it the name of the University of Minnesota Mascot?  In 1857 the US government had granted land for the purpose of building a railroad in the state, and proponents acted to amend the state constitution, to allow the state to issue $5,000,000 in bonds to construct the railroad — these proponents were very active with those in the legislature.  The opponents issued a cartoon of a train on rail tracks, the rail tracks supported on the backs of members of the legislature, each with heavy $10,000 bags of money around their necks.  And the train was being pulled by nine gophers — the proponents who had been “digging” for state money to build the railroad.  Shortly after that the nickname “The Gopher State” was coined, and shortly after that, that nickname was adopted for the state.  In 1880, the U used maroon and gold as the graduation colors, and shortly after that, adopted them as the colors of the U.  And in the 1930’s, the team introduced football uniforms of gold jerseys and gold pants.  At the first game, radio announcer Halsey Hall announced that the Golden Gophers had taken the field; he repeatedly referred to them this way, and eventually it stuck, and became the name of the mascot.  There is no such thing as a real gopher called the golden gopher, however.

Ok, so what is coming up this weekend?  It’s the last weekend of regular season play for Hockey East and the WCHA.  Top twenty matchups are #5 North Dakota at #10 Mankato State for two games; #7 UMass-Lowell playing a home/road series with #18 Providence, and #8 St. Cloud State at #14 Wisconsin for two games.  In addition, first-round, best two out of three, tournament action gets underway in the CCHA, the ECAC, and in Atlantic Hockey; in none of these conferences are any top twenty teams involved in any first round play.  In the CCHA, Bowling Green plays at Lake Superior State; Michigan State plays at Alaska-Fairbanks; and Northern Michigan plays at Michigan; and Miami of Ohio, Western Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Ferris State, all have byes.  In the ECAC, Clarkson plays at Brown; Harvard plays at Dartmouth; Cornell plays at Princeton; Colgate plays at St. Lawrence; and Quinnipiac, Yale, RPI, and Union College all have byes.  In Atlantic Hockey, Niagra, The United States Air Force Academy, Holy Cross, and Connecticut, all have byes.

Wow, it’s upon us — the end of the regular season, conference tournaments, and pretty soon the NCAAs and the Frozen Four.  Who will make it to Pittsburgh?

This provides the top twenty teams, rankings, records, and last weekend’s results:

[table id=63 /]

That’s all for now.  Stay tuned, and go Terriers!

— Tom