Le Journal

We all know what year will be #1 but what about the rest of the list? Next up on our series of the Top 25 of the last 25 years of Minnesota Golden Gophers athletics is our ranking of the past 25 seasons of Golden Gopher Hockey from 2000-2025. There have been some historic seasons that ended with the Gophers on the top of the college hockey world. There have been some historic seasons that ended with heartbreak. There have been some seasons that were very much in the middle of the pack, and then a few that I think we all wish we could forget about. See how we ranked them 25 to 1 below, and let us know in the comments if you agree. #25 2009-10 18-19-2 7th in WCHA The only season in the last 25 years where the Gophers finished below .500. The Gophers started the season with a loss and a tie in Grand Forks and came home to be swept by Denver. Minnesota looked to possible salvage something taking three of four points from UMD at Mariucci in January but would finish 5-7 to finish in 7th place in the WCHA Standings, and then lose in three games in the First Round of the WCHA Playoffs in Grand Forks. Tony Lucia and Jordan Schroeder shared the team lead with just 28 points each. #24 2010-2011 16-14-6 5th in WCHA The third of three consecutive seasons of missing the NCAA Tournament and nearly got Don Lucia fired. Minnesota was decent on the road going 7-4-3, but for some reason stunk on home ice going 9-10-3. Minnesota could beat the good teams going 2-1-2 against the two teams that would face off at the Xcel Energy Center for the NCAA Championship in Minnesota-Duluth and Michigan, but stunk against the bad ones including being swept in the First Round of the WCHA Playoffs on home ice by Alaska Anchorage. Little remembered Bowling Green transfer Jacob Cepis led the team in scoring with 29 points. #23 2017-18 19-17-2 5th in Big Ten The final season of Don Lucia behind the Gopher bench did not end well. In nearly an opposite to the 2010-11 season the Gophers were near unstoppable on home ice going 13-5-1. But they were beyond brutal on the road going 4-12-1. Penn State absolutely owned Minnesota that season going 5-1 against the Gophers including winning four straight to end the season at Pegula Ice Arena and ending Lucia’s career behind the Gopher bench. But even after that Minnesota still looked like they would sneak in the NCAA Tournament. Heading into the final day of the college hockey season Minnesota had a 63 out of 64 chance of making the NCAA field. Guess what happened. UMD got in as the last at large berth after everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong for the Gophers and they trailed UMD by 0.001 in the Pairwise rankings. The ultimate gut punch. Scoring was an issue as Minnesota averaged just 2.7 goals per game. Rem Pitlick scored 31 points and Casey Mittelstadt in his lone year as a Gopher added 30. It would be the start of another three year run of missing the NCAA Tournament. #22 2008-2009 17-13-7 5th in WCHA Minnesota got off to a good start in the 2008-2009 season going 7-0-4 to start the year. They didn’t pick up their first loss until mid-November at Denver. Then the holiday break hit and something went wrong. Minnesota ended the regular season on a 5-9-2 slump sinking them to a 5th place finish in the WCHA. They would sweep St. Cloud State to reach the WCHA Final Five, but would lose in the Thursday night opener to Minnesota-Duluth ending their season. Ryan Stoa led the way with 46 points and 24 goals, but the team struggled to get any scoring from anyone not on the top line, and the string of three straight NCAA i Tournament misses began. #21 2019-20 16-14-7 Tied 2nd in Big Ten This season and the next one on the list are nearly identical. But due to COVID ending the season, this one has a few more bad memories and is lower on the list. The Gophers were about as average as a team can be. They split a majority of their conference series earlier in the year except for a crushing sweep at home by Penn State.…