Gophers to host Bulldogs for the first time since leaving WCHA
By Frank Bi
The No. 19 Duluth Bulldogs will make the two and a half hour bus ride to Minneapolis on Friday to face their old Western Collegiate Hockey Association rival Gophers in a two game series.
Minnesota, the No. 1 team in the country, is sporting a record of 8-1-1 in the first season as a member of the Big Ten hockey conference while the Bulldogs are 5-4-1 overall in their first year as a member of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference.
Friday’s game will be the 221st meeting between the two teams and Minnesota holds the series edge at 132-72-16, with the first game being played in 1952. However, Duluth was the last Minnesota team to win the NCAA Men’s Hockey Championship when they beat Michigan in 2011 at the Xcel Energy Center.
The puck drops at 7:07 p.m. CT on Friday at Mariucci Arena. The second game of the series will be on Sunday at 4:07 p.m. CT.