St. Cloud State and the Gophers split two games last season at Mariucci Arena. The Huskies won the first game 5-2, taking a 5-0 lead late in the second period. The Gophers won the second game 2-1 with Kent Patterson replacing Alex Kangas as the starter in the nets.

Three keys to the No. 1 Gophers beating SCSU:

1) Get the power play going. The Gophers had the nation's No. 1 pp for the first month or so of the season. It has cooled lately as has Erik Haula. No coincidence there. If pp and Haula heat up, the Gophers will be hard to beat.

2) Make sure Jared Festler of St. Cloud State is closely watched. The senior left wing has five goals and four assists against the Gophers in nine games. He has six goals this season.

3) Come out with emotion. The Gophers were flat on Friday of last week and paid for it. They lost 3-1 to Wisconsin in Madison. They need to come out flying, hit a few bodies, put some shots on Huskies freshman goalie Ryan Faragher.

GOPHERS LINES STAY THE SAME

The maroon and gold's lines for Friday:

1st/ Kyle Rau-Nick Bjugstad-Zach Budish ... Rau and Bjugstad are battling for the the team in goals. Rau has eight, Bjugey nine.

2nd/ Sam Warning-Erik Haula-Jake Hansen ... Hansen has played more games in his career than anyone else. The senior right winger will play in his 119th game tonight.

3rd/ Nate Condon-Taylor Matson-Seth Ambroz. ... Condon and Matson had goals in the last game

4th/ Tom Serratore-Travis Boyd-Nick Larson ... playing well as a line, probably had best weekend couple weeks ago against North Dakota

Defensive pairs:

Seth Helgeson-Justin Holl ... Helgeson had first goal of season last game

Ben Marshall-Mart Alt ... Marshall has some moves

Jake Parenteau-Nate Schmidt ... Schmidt is coming home. Grew up in St. Cloud

Goalie

Kent Patterson ... 13th start in row this season. Hope he is not superstitious

ST. CLOUD STATE LINE-UP

1st/ Ben Hanowski-Nic Dowd-Dave Eddy ... Big Ben is from Little Falls and leads team with seven goals, Eddy is from Woodbury, Dowd from the hockey hotbed of Huntsville, Ala.

2nd/ Jared Festler-Cam Reid-Brooks Bertsch ... Festler has been the Gophers killer (see above)

3rd/ Garrett Milan-Cory Thorson-Travis Novak ... Milan, a freshman from Whistler, B.C., is looking for his first point

4th/ Nick Oliver-Jordy Christian-Joey Holka ... This line has only two points.

Note: All four SCSU centers are left-handed shooters ... Patterson might be looking to his right a lot

Defensive pairs:

Andrew Prochno-Nick Jensen ... Freshman from Shorewood with sophomore from Rogers

Kevin Gravel-Taylor Johnson ... Five assists between them

Sam Zabkowicz-Jarrod Rabey ... senior-freshman pairing

Goalie

Ryan Faragher ... taken over for Mike Lee since he was hurt late last month