The winter sports seasons are in full swing, and it is a busy weekend of action both on and off-campus for the Minnesota Golden Gophers teams. Men’s hockey and Gymnastics have ranked matchups, the Gopher women’s hockey team is out for revenge, and the Go[her wrestling team kicks off Big Ten action and more. Below is a full schedule for all the Gophers action this weekend and how you can catch it.
Friday January 9th:
Swimming and Diving @ FAU 9 AM
The Gophers Diving teams are back in action in the Sunshine State when they will both face Florida Atlantic in Boca Raton, and the women will also face North Texas in a tri-meet. The Gopher swimmes faced Tampa University last weekend while the Gopher divers last competed in December’s Minnesota Invite, where Minnesota topped the charts in five of the six total diving events held throughout the three day competition.
Action in both men’s and women’s diving is set for a 9 AM start.
Men’s Hockey @ #9 Penn State 5 PM BTN
The Gopher men’s hockey team hits the road to kick off the second half of the season with a series at Penn State. Minnesota will need to try and come away from the weekend with at least a split, as the Gophers are far enough back in the NPI rankings that they need to make up some ground and fast if they want any chance at a NCAA at-large bid. A full preview of the weekend is HERE. Face-off is set for 5 PM on Big Ten Network.
#3 Women’s Hockey @ #12 Minnesota State 6 PM Fox 9+/ B1G+
The Gopher women’s hockey team returns to WCHA play with a home and home against Minnesota State this weekend. Friday’s game will be in Mankato with a 6pm faceoff on Fox9+ and B1G+. The Gophers will be out for revenge after the Mavericks swept the Gophers in a previous home and home series in November bringing the all-time series between the teams to 116-8-3 in favor of the Gophers.
Minnesota got back to action in 2026 last weekend at Sacred Heart where they picked up a 4-0 win on Friday and then exploded for a school record 14 goals in a 14-2 win on Saturday. Abbey Murphy tied the Gopher single game record with seven points with a hat trick and four assists. Defender Nelli Lahitinen added a hat trick and trio of assists of her own. The duo became the first Minnesota teammates to post hat tricks in the same game since Rachael Bona and Kelly Pannek accomplished the feat against St. Lawrence in 2015. With nine points on the weekend, Murphy moved into fourth place on Minnesota’s all-time scoring list with 238 career points, passing Nadine Muzerall (235) and Krissy Wendell (237).
Minnesota will try and rack up as many wins as possible before they will lose at least a quartet and potentially five players to the 2026 Olympics in a few weeks. Murphy will be playing for Team USA, Laitinen for Finland, freshman Tereza Plosová for Czechia, and while not officially announced senior forward Josefin Bouveng will play for Sweden. The lone question mark will be if Gopher sophomore defender Chloe Primerano makes the Canadian roster when it is announced on Friday.
The Mavericks enter the weekend playing their first series since the first week of December. MSU is 11-8-1 overall record and a 5-8-1 mark in WCHA play. The Mavericks currently sit fifth in the conference standings with 17 points. The Mavericks are not an offensive powerhouse with freshman forward Mercury Bischoff leading the way with a team-high 12 goals and 17 points this season. Juniors Kamryn Van Batavia and Lauren Zawoyski each have recorded 15 points. But they have a star in goal in Hailey Hansen. She has posted a .915 save percentage, allowing just 2.74 goals per game, and has recorded a team-high three shutouts and allowed just one goal in each game of the two-game sweep of the Gophers in November.
Men’s Basketball vs USC 7:30 PM BTN
The Gopher men’s basketball team will close out a Gopher doubleheader on Big Ten Network as they take on the USC Trojans at 7:30 Friday night after the Gopher hockey game. Minnesota will try to pull off another huge home win in conference play after ranked wins over Indiana and Iowa allready this season. A full preview of the game is HERE.
Saturday January 10th:
Women’s Indoor Track—Minnesota Open 11 AM
The Gopher women’s Indoor Track and Field Team kicks off the 2026 season with the Minnesota Open Saturday at the University Fieldhouse. Northern Iowa and Milwaukee will head to Minneapolis to join the Gophers in competition. The 2026 Minnesota Open begins at 11 a.m. with the women’s pole vault while track events starting at 12 p.m. The meet is set to wrap up by 4 p.m. Additionally, Minnesota will have a small contingent of unattached men’s student-athletes competing on Saturday. The event is free and open to the public to attend. There will not be a livestream of the event, but fans can follow live results via Wayzata Results.
#8 Wrestling @ #10 Illinois 1 PM B1G+
The #8 Gopher wrestling team kicks off the Big Ten duel meet season when they head to Champaign for a meet against #10 Illinois at 1 PM Saturday. Minnesota has the advantage in seven of the ten weight classes led by #3 Max McEnelly at 184 and #6 Jore Volk at 125 pounds. The Illini’s Lucas Byrd is #1 at 133 lbs and they also have the advantage at 157 and 165 pounds. Action begins at 1 PM and will stream on B1g+.
#15 Gymnastics vs #10 Arkansas 4 PM B1G+
The #15 ranked Gopher gymnastics team kicks off the home season at The Pav with a tough ranked duel meet against #10 Arkansas on Saturday afternoon. Minnesota kicked off the season last weekend at #5 Utah falling to the Utes but defeating #22 Iowa. The Gophers posted scores of 48.825 on vault, 48.000 on bars, 48.775 on beam and 49.075 on the floor. Utah won on vault (49.200), bars (49.150) and beam (49.250) while the Gophers were victorious on the floor with their 49.075. Individually, Sarah Moraw (9.850) led the Gophers on vault, Jordyn Lyden (9.850) led on bars, Lauren Pearl (9.825) was the top beam score and Sophie Swartzmiller paced the ‘U’ on the floor (9.850). Gianna Gerdes went 39.075 on the all-around.
Arkansas is led by seventh-year head coach Jordyn Wieber who was a a member of the 2012 “Fierce Five” USA Gold Medal winning Olympic squad. The Razorbacks finished #12 in the country last season while posting four top 10 victories, including beating No. 2 LSU twice. Arkansas returned several standouts, including sophomore Joscelyn Roberson. Roberson ended the season at NCAA Championships, where she competed as an all-around individual and scored a 39.425, the best-ever mark by an Arkansas freshman at nationals.
The action begins at 4 PM and will stream on B1G+.
Men’s Hockey @ #9 Penn State 5 PM BTN
The second game of the series between the Gopher and Nittany Lions is the start of a second consecutive Gopher doubleheader on Big Ten Network at 5 PM.
Women’s Hockey vs Minnesota State 7 :30 PM BTN
The Gopher women will close out the night on BTN with the second game of their series against the Mavericks after the men’s game. Faceoff is set for 7:30.
Sunday January 11th:
Women’s Basketball vs #21 USC 2 PM B1G+
The Gopher women’s basketball team will look to pick up a ranked win when they host the #21 ranked USC trojans at the Barn on Sunday afternoon. Minnesota enters with a 2-2 record in Big Ten play after a big 79-47 win over Northwestern Thursday night at home. The Trojans come in on a two-game losing streak with a loss to rival #4 UCLA last Saturday and then against Oregon last Tuesday. USC of course is missing star player Juju Watkins who tore her ACL last February and has not yet returned to action. Jazzy Davison leads the Trojans with 16.1 points per game. Tip is set for 2 PM and will stream on B1G+.
