DETROIT -- The Gophers had about 20 minutes on Friday morning to get familiar with Joe Louis Arena's ice surface. It wasn't much time for the Big Ten tournament's top seed to figure out how to play the corners or get a good feel for the speed of the ice, but that didn't appear to hinder their ability in a 3-0 semifinal victory over Ohio State.
The unfamiliarity might be more obvious in Saturday night's championship game. The Gophers' opponent, Michigan, is very familiar with Joe Louis Arena and has a 4-1 record at the NHL venue, this season, including a Great Lakes Invitational championship run.
"I know Michigan and Michigan State in a sense have home-field advantage a little bit there," Gophers junior defenseman Mike Reilly said leading up to the tournament.
Michigan coach Red Berenson also recognized that there could be an advantage with the tournament shifting to Detroit this year.
"At least we're more familiar playing at the Joe than we are [at Xcel Energy Center] in St. Paul," Berenson said. "I think it could be somewhat of a home-ice advantage and familiarity."
The Gophers hadn't played in a conference tournament outside of Minnesota since 1996 when the WCHA tournament was held in Milwaukee, Wis. The change might have been good for the Gophers, though, since they hadn't won a conference tournament championship since 2007.
They won their first conference playoff game since 2009 on Friday and will try and end the long title drought on Saturday night.
"Sometimes there is more pressure at home in our own building," Gophers coach Don Lucia said. "It's the first time we've ever played in this building before for any of our guys, so that was all new. We're just trying to get used to the boards and some of the nuances of the rink."
The Gophers jumped to No. 10 after Friday's results and enter the Big Ten tournament championship game in better position to claim an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament whether they win or not. However, Lucia knows there's no guarantees.
"Winning takes care of everything. There are still a lot of scenarios where if where if we don't win tomorrow we can't get in," Lucia said. "It's kind of crazy that you win your league and you're in the [tournament] championship game and you still have that possibility. If we win, it takes care of everything.
"Obviously we're hoping for the favorites to win [Saturday], and there's not a lot of upsets. If that happens, then it won't matter."
There were several conference tournament upsets on Friday, including St. Cloud State beating North Dakota in the NCHC and Harvard beating Quinnipiac in the ECAC. Check out the college hockey scoreboard and the most recent PairWise rankings as conference tournaments wrap up on Saturday.
• Gophers' Saturday lines
Forwards (left wing, center, right wing)
Leon Bristedt, Kyle Rau, Hudson Fasching
Sam Warning, Travis Boyd, Seth Ambroz
Taylor Cammarata, Justin Kloos, Vinni Lettieri
A.J. Michaelson, Christian Isackson, Jack Glover
Defensemen (left, right)
Brady Skjei, Ryan Collins
Mike Reilly, Jake Bischoff
Ben Marshall, Michael Brodzinski
Goaltenders
Adam Wilcox, Nick Lehr
• Big Ten tournament championship preview: No. 1 Gophers vs. No. 3 Michigan
7 P.M. VS. OHIO STATE • DETROIT • TV/radio/live stream: BTN, 1500-AM, BTN2Go
Inside the matchup: Michigan caused the Gophers the most trouble of any Big Ten opponent this season. The Wolverines (22-14) swept the Gophers (22-12-3) at Yost Arena in early January to jumpstart what became a terrible month for Minnesota. The Gophers, however, were the better team over the six weeks leading to the Big Ten tournament with a 9-3 record and winning the regular-season title race against the Wolverines. Two of those victories were against Michigan at Mariucci Arena. The Wolverines were 5-6 during this stretch. Both teams showcased their strengths in Friday's semifinal victories with the Gophers getting a shutout effort from standout goaltender Adam Wilcox and Michigan's nation-best offense erupting for four goals against Michigan State's goalie and Big Ten Player of the Year Jake Hildebrand.
Friday replay: Gophers advance to Big Ten tournament title game, improve NCAA tournament status with shutout over Ohio State, read Friday night's game story and postgame blog. Watch the Gophers postgame press conference and video of senior forward Seth Ambroz.
