Ache #15: Michigan 58 Minnesota 0

Not really to much to say about this one. The final score says it all, other than the fact that it could have been much worse. Which is saying a lot because it's already the largest Big Ten loss in Gopher history.

Michigan leads the all-time series between these two teams 75-25-3 including winning 41 of  45 meetings dating back to 1968.

The Gophers were 1-3 heading into the Big Ten Opener, one week after a loss to FCS North Dakota State at TCF Bank Stadium. It couldn't get more embarassing for Gopher fans than that, right?

Wrong.

Michigan welcomed first year head coach Jerry Kill and the Gophers to the Big House on October 1st, 2011 and, in front of a crowd of 111,000 strong, proceeded to annihilate the Gophers.

But perhaps annihilate is too nice of a word.

Michigan dominated in all aspects of the game. It was Michigan's first Big Ten shutout since 2001, and their first shutout of any opponent since 2007. Michigan outgained Minnesota 580-177. Junior running back Vincent Smith had touchdowns rushing, passing and receiving on Michigan's first four drives.

Vincent Smith (2) had 72 all purpose yards and

3 TDs in the first half

Denard Robinson was 15-19 for 169 yards and 2 TDs along with 53 rushing yards and a TD before being pulled after jumping out to a 38-0 halftime lead. Backup running back Fitzgerald Toussaint had 108 yards and a touchdown, freshman Thomas Rawls had 73 yards rushing, and senior Michael Shaw added 60 yards on the ground. The Wolverines gained 10 or more yards on 18 different plays. 

QB Max Shortell was 11-22 for 121 yards against Michigan

On their way to shutting out the Gophers, the Michigan defense didn't allow a Minnesota first down in the opening quarter, and only gave up four in the first half.

The Gophers were in a great position to score and break the shut out before a David Cobb fumble was returned 83 yards for a touchdown by Courtney Avery.

While the numbers were ugly, the outcome was much worse. The 58-point rout was only the third worse loss in Gophers history, because the Wolverines took their foot off the gas.

Ache #14: The 2017 NHL Expansion Draft

In 2017, the NHL was expanding from 30 to 31 teams with the addition of the Las Vegas Golden Knights. It was the NHL's first expansion since 2000 when the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild entered the league.

With an expansion franchise, comes an expansion draft and one player being plucked from every roster in the league.

Minnesota lost two.

In the 2000 expansion draft, the 28 NHL teams were allowed to protect nine forwards, five defencemen and one goalie or two goalies, three defensemen and seven forwards. But in this expansion draft, teams were only allowed to protect seven forwards, three defencemen and one goaltender or one goaltender and eight skaters regardless of position.

Teams had to expose at least two forwards and one defenceman that had played at least 40 games in 2016-17 or more than 70 games in 2015-16 and 2016-17 combined. Teams were also required to protect players with No Move Clauses in their contracts.

The Wild were in a tough spot. It had to protect Jason Pominville (who had a NMC). One of the players that was left unprotected was Eric Stall (who scored 42 goals for the Wild in 2017-18). The Wild also had an outstanding core of young talent (Matt Dumba, Charlie Coyle, Jonas Brodin, Mikael Granlund and Las Vegas native Jason Zucker)

After months of speculation, the Wild protected Pominville, Brodin, Coyle, Zucker, Granlund, Mikko Koivu, Zach Parise, Ryan Suter, Devan Dubnyk, and Nino Niederreiter.

Jason Pominville scored 30 goals in his first full 

season with the Wild, but only 42 in his next 235 games

This left players like Dumba, Eric Staal, Marco Scandella, Darcy Kuemper and Erik Haula exposed.

Wild fans were nervous that Dumba would be the one selected. Dumba was a first round pick by the Wild in 2012 and was regarded as one of the best young defensemen in the game. George McPhee was willing to pass over Dumba for a forward as long as they got a prospect in return.

Matt Dumba stayed in Minnesota on Expansion

Draft Night

The player McPhee liked was Haula, who had spent most of the previous season on Minnesota's fourth line. Haula, a 7th round pick in the 2009 Draft out of the University of Minnesota, was coming off a season in which he scored a career-high 15 goals for the Wild, while averaging just under 14 minutes a game.

While McPhee was concentrating on building a franchise, Wild GM Chuck Fletcher was trying to protect his. He knew that, logically, one of his young defensemen would likely be taken. But he wanted to try and trade one of them for some forward help, while trying to clear some salary cap space.

Fletcher accomplished each of those things. After Las Vegas eventually passed on a Wild defenseman, Fletcher traded Marco Scandella and Jason Pominville (and his salary) to Buffalo for forwards Marcus Foligno and Tyler Ennis (both of whom were protected by the Sabres).

For Vegas, the one piece left in the puzzle was the prospect the Wild would send them to not take Dumba or Scandella. Three names were at the top of their list: Jordan Greenway, Kirill Kaprizov and Alex Tuch.

Minnesota send 2014 first round pick Tuch to complete the deal.

Tuch appeared in six games for MIN with a +/- of -3

Tuch played in his first full NHL season for the Golden Knights and scored 15 goals. Haula went on to score 29 in 76 games, nearly doubling his 2016-17 total. It's worth noting Foligno and Ennis combined for 16.

Chuck Fletcher got inside his own head on this one. Not only did he give up two players to protect one, but he didn't realize what he had in Eric Haula. Why wasn't Haula putting up near-30 goal seasons with the Wild? The previous season, Fletcher decided he had to trade three draft picks (including a first) for Martin Hanzel and Ryan White. Then Bruce Boudreau gave Hanzel more ice time than Haula.

The Wild had Haula and wasted him, then willingly gave him away plya another pretty good forward to boot.

To put more salt in the wound: Haula, Tuch and the Las Vegas Knights became the first expansion team to win their division and reach the Stanley Cup Finals.

The Wild's postseason struggles continued as they lost in the first round of the playoffs for the third consecutive year.

Ache #13: Winter Storm Xanto

Minnesota is proud of their "great, white North" heritage. From freezing Vikings games at The Met and TCF Bank Stadium, to frozen 5Ks, polar plunges and various winter celebrations the cold and the snow are part of Minnesota culture.

But not so much for baseball.

"Spring" 2018 was unseasonably cold, wrecking havoc across the baseball landscape. The New York Yankees, Mets and Detroit Tigers all had their home openers snowed out. Detroit had six of their first twelve home games rescheduled due to weather.

But the worst was still coming.

Winter Storm Xanto hit the the Midwest Friday April 13th 2018 and dumped 15-22 inches of snow in the Metro Area in Minnesota. The Twins had a four game series against the Chicago White Sox scheduled the 12th thru the 15th. 

The fountain (and literally everything else) froze

at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City

The one game the Twins played was a 4-0 win over the southsiders on Thursday the 12th. The other three games were all postponed due to the snow.

And that begs the question that sparked a debate across Twins Territory: should Target Field have been built with a retractable roof like Milwaukee?

One click of a button, and no snow-outs in Milwaukee

The coldest game played at Target Field was April 17 2014 with a temperature of 31 degrees at first pitch. The Milwaukee Brewers played at home the same day, but nobody inside Miller Park made a big deal about the snow until they went to their cars and realized the roads home were covered in snow and ice. Inside the stadium during game time, it was a balmy 62 degrees.

Rain outs and snow outs are a part of baseball. During Xanto, the Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs played a game in 38 degree weather, 24 MPH winds, snow and sleet. But nobody is demanding Wrigley Field be rebuilt with a roof.

Every single time there’s a rainout (or a snow out), people complain because the Twins used to have the Metrodome. Rain or shine, you could count on the game being played in the Dome and everyone was happy. Except, The Dome was ugly. We had to crane our necks because home plate was 70° off to the side. Fly balls were lost in the white roof and ground balls bounced over defenders or raced past them at breakneck speed. It was not a pleasant experience for anyone involved, unless you came from North Dakota, because at least your trip to the Twin Cities to see the Twins came to fruition because you were able to watch the Twins.

Though there were discussions to put a retractable roof on the new ballpark, it was ultimately decided that it would be an open-air stadium. The space where Target Field was built used to be a parking lot, meaning the ballpark had to be tiny.

Literally, a parking lot

(Source: www.twinsballpark2010.com)

Not only would a retractable roof cost tax payers more money, but there wasn't really any place to put it because of the size crunch the stadium was already in with their construction site.

The original design of Target Field did include a retractable roof, 

But, as terrible as the weather was (for everyone) during Winter Storm Xanto, there probably aren't many Twins fans that would trade a couple more games in early April for a view like this:

Ache #12: Leo Hayden

If you're a die-hard Vikings fan and have never heard of Leo Hayden, there's a good reason for it.

The Minnesota Vikings won the 1970 NFC Central championship with a 12-2 record. However, they weren't able to make it back to the Super Bowl after being upset in the first round of the playoffs by the San Francisco 49ers, 14-17.

The Purple People Eater Defense was thriving. The offense wasn't.

Quarterback Gary Cuozzo had taken over as signal called after Pro Bowler Joe Kapp signed with the Boston Patriots. In 1970, Cuozzo completed less than 50% of his passes for 1,720 yards, 7 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Backup Bob Lee was 2-0 as a started with 610 yards and 5 touchdowns and 5 picks.

The running game wasn't much better. Dave Osborn led the attack out of the backfield with 681 yards and five touchdowns on 207 carries. Clint Jones added nine touchdowns out of the backfield while splitting time with Boom Boom Brown.

The offensive line was there with future Hall of Famers Mick Tinglehoff and Ron Yary. The defense was loaded with talent and only gave up 200 yards per game. The offense was inconsistent, averaging about 272 yards per game. 

The Vikings needed a dynamic play maker. 

And they thought they found him in the 1971 NFL Draft.

Leo Hayden was a backup running back during his time at Ohio State, but when he was on the field, he flashed brilliance. Taking carries behind Big John Brockington (who was selected 9th overall by Green Bay in 1971), Hayden ranked seventh in the Big 10 in Yards From Scrimmage (787) and first in Rushing Yards Per Attempt (5.8). He scored three touchdowns on the ground that season as well.

John Brockington (42) and Leo Hayden combined for 20 rushing

touchdowns for the National Champion Buckeyes in 1970.

Brockington had 17 of them.

With the first pick in the 1971 NFL Draft, the Boston Patriots selected quarterback Jim Plunkett (they were 2-12 with Joe Kapp that year). Pro Bowlers Archie Manning, Dan Pastorini, JD Hill, Frank Lewis, Isiah Robertson and John Brockington and Hall of Famer John Riggins all went in the top 10. The offense-needy Vikings watched the top quarterbacks go one-two-three and saw five running backs go off the board before they picked at 24. So maybe Hayden was a panic pick and felt the need to grab somebody. The fact of the matter was that the Vikings needed to improve on their abysmal 3.2 YPC from 1970.

It's also worth noting Hall of Famers Jack Ham and Dan Dierdorf were still on the board, both selected in the second round. Pro Bowl caliber quarterbacks like Ken Anderson, Joe Theismann, and Lynn Dickey still available as well.

To say Hayden's Vikings career was underwhelming would be a dramatic understatement. 

Hayden appeared in seven games for the Vikings in 1971, finishing the season with exactly zero touches. In 1972, he was with the St. Louis Cardinals. His stats from 1972: 8 carries for 11 yards and a touchdown, good for 1.4 yards per carry. He also added one catch for 17 yards. In 1973, he was on kick return duty for the Cards, returning five kicks for 98 yards.

In 1974, he was out of the league.

Ache #11: The 1981 Stanley Cup Finals

Now in their 14th season in the NHL, the North Stars had finally built a contending team.

The 1980-81 North Stars were looking to build off their then-franchise record 88 points from the previous season. Prior to their 88 point season, they had missed the playoffs five times in six seasons. With a rebuild beginning with 1978 #1 overall pick Bobby Smith, the 1981 team boasted a lot of young talent (Steve Payne, Dino Ciccarelli, Don Beaupre, Tom McCarthy, Craig Hartsburg, Curt Giles) with a couple of veteran guys sprinkled in (Gilles Meloche, Paul Shmyr, Fred Barrett), GM Lou Nanne had a team built for the future.

And the future was now.

Steve Payne scored 30 goals for Minnesota in 1980-81

A year after losing in the conference semi-finals to Philadelphia 4-1, the North Stars had their eyes set on the next level: the Stanley Cup Finals. They finished one point shy of matching their 1979-80 point total with 87 total points (35-28-17), which tied them with the Boston Bruins for second place in the Adams Division. They drew the Bruins in the first round of the playoffs for the first and only playoff match up between the two teams.

The 1980-81 NHL Playoff seeding. Teams were reseeded after each round

PRELIMINARY ROUND VS BOSTON:

When these two teams played the previous February, these two teams battled at Boston Garden for a game that resulted in a combined 406 penalty minutes. Minnesota won Game One at Boston Garden (they were 0-35 all-time in Boston up to that point) in large part to a Steve Payne hat trick. In Game Two, the North Stars blew them out 9-6. In Game Three back at the Met Center, Minnesota scored four first-period goals in a 6-3 win, sweeping the hated Bruins out of the playoffs.

Yeah...these guys didn't like each other...
This is what 392 penalty minutes looks like

QUARTERFINAL ROUND VS BUFFALO: 

After reseeding the field, Minnesota drew the Adams division winner Buffalo in the quarterfinals. These two teams had met one other time in the playoffs...a two-game sweep by Buffalo in 1977. Minnesota won Game One 4-3 in OT courtesy of a Steve Payne winner with :22 seconds left. Minnesota also won Game Two at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. The series shifted back to the Met Center. Minnesota won Game Three 6-4. After trailing in Game Four 3-0, the North Stars scored three quick goals (Ciccarelli, Christoff, Payne) in the second period to tie the game before losing in OT 5-4. Minnesota closed out the series in Game Five 4-3 to advance to the semifinals.

SEMIFINAL ROUND VS CALGARY

Through the first two playoff series, Minnesota was 6-1. The Calgary Flames were just as much of a surprise in the playoffs as the North Stars were. Entering the tournament as a 7 seed, they swept the Chicago Black Hawks and then upset Philadelphia in Seven Games in the Quarterfinals. The teams split the first two games at Stampede Corral. The North Star's offense exploded in Games Three and Four, scoring 13 goals in the two games with Ciccarelli's hat trick in Game Four. Flames goalie Pat Riggin, who had 41 saves (on 47 shots....) in the games at the Met calmed down in Game 6, allowing only one goal to the North Stars on 34 shots in a 3-1 Flames win to force a Game 6 back in Bloomington. The North Stars advanced to their first ever Stanley Cup after a 5-3 win at the home.

Rookie winger Dino Ciccarelli scored a rookie-record 14 goals (in 19 games)

in the 1981 playoffs

STANLEY CUP FINALS vs NEW YORK ISLANDERS

The North Stars faced their toughest test for the Stanley Cup...the defending champion New York Islanders. NYI had a pretty smooth path to the finals...a sweep of Toronto in the prelims and a sweep of the rival Rangers in the semis. The only team that gave them trouble was Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri, Glenn Anderson, Mark Messier and the Edmonton Oilers. Edmonton took them to 6 games and was the only road team to win at Nassau Coliseum during the tournament.

Games One and Two were at Nassau, and the Islanders won them both by identical 6-3 scores. A sold-out Met Center welcomed the North Stars back for Game Three. The Stars played great hockey at home as well, having gone 5-1 at home, with their one loss coming in overtime to Buffalo. 

Minnesota led 3-1 after the first period after goals from Christoff, Payne and Smith. But, in the second, Butch Goring scored two of his three goals that game, and Bobby Nystrom added another. Mike Bossy also tallied two goals in a game that ended in an Islanders win, 7-5.

Game Four was at the Met Center, too. After Gilles Meloche gave up six goals in Game Three, North Stars head coach put rookie Don Beaupre between the pipes. Beaupre responded by stopping 33 of 35 shots in a 4-2 North Stars win.

That would be the only Stanley Cup Finals loss the Islanders would suffer the rest of their dynasty.

C Butch Goring had five goals (seven points) in the five game series,

including a hat trick in Game Two.

In Game Five back in Long Island, Goring netted two goals in the first period as the North Stars failed to show up. New York won the game 5-1, capturing the second Stanley Cup in what would be a four-year Islanders dynasty as the North Stars became a footnote in Islanders history.

Ache #10: 2017-18 Gopher Hockey Misses The Postseason

Minnesota is the State of Hockey. The state high school hockey championship attendance dwarfs that of NHL teams. There are five DI hockey programs in the state with easily the most talent.

But sometimes, things don't line up the way they should.

The 2017-18 Minnesota Gophers Men's Hockey team was a shoe-in to make the NCAA Tournament. In the middle of February, the team was ranked #8 in the country after beating and tying Ohio State and were on a 6-1-1 stretch. The Gophers lost their last two regular season games to Penn State, and then drew the Nittany Lions again to open the Big Ten Tournament.

The Nittany Lions won the three-game series 2-0, ending the Gophers chances at an automatic NCAA Tournament bid. The Gophers were outscored 21-11 in the four games.

The Gophers were now score-board watchers. After North Dakota beat Minnesota Duluth (the 2018 NCAA Men's Hockey champion), the Gophers were up to #12 in the rankings...the final spot for at-large bid.

There were six conference tournament games left to determine the majority of the 12 at-large teams for the tournament. Minnesota needed one of these teams to win to make the field: Providence (Hockey East), Clarkson (ECAC), Robert Morris (Atlantic Hockey), Northern Michigan (WCHA), St. Cloud State (NCHC) and Ohio State (Big Ten).

Just one of those team winning any of their respective championships would have put the Gophers in the Top 12.

Here are the scores from those conference championship games:

HOCKEY EAST:

Providence- 0

Boston College - 2

ECAC:

Clarkson- 1

Princeton - 2 F/OT (Clarkson tied the game with 7 seconds left in regulation)

ATLANTIC HOCKEY:

Robert Morris - 1

Air Force - 5

WCHA:

Michigan Tech - 2

Northern Michigan - 0

NCHC:

St. Cloud State - 1

Denver - 4

BIG TEN:

Ohio State - 2

Notre Dame - 3 F/OT

All six teams lost. The last result to come in, an OT winner by Notre Dame's Cam Mortenson 9:23 into the extra period, gave Notre Dame an automatic berth into the tournament and ended the dreams of the Gophers. The final PairWise rankings for the 2018 NCAA Men's Hockey Tournament:

1.  St. Cloud State

2.  Notre Dame

3.  Denver

4.  Cornell

5.  Ohio State

6.  MSU-Mankato

7.  Providence

8.  Northeaster

9.  Clarkson

10. Michigan

11. Minnesota Duluth

12. Penn State

13. Boston University

14. North Dakota (did not make tournament)

15. Minnesota (did not make tournament)

Teams that did not crack the Top 20:

Air Force (automatic bid)

Michigan Tech (automatic bid)

Gopher Head Coach Don Lucia stepped following the season after 19 years as head coach. Lucia had coached the Gophers to NCAA championships in 2002 and 2003, but hadn't won an NCAA Tournament game the previous four seasons.