How Gophers stack up nationally statistically

Monday is a great day to mine the national statistics and see how the Gophers stand. So here goes:

There are seven players with 20 goals or more. Austin Smith of Colgate is the runaway leader with 34. Reilly Smith of Michigan has 26, then third is sophomore center Nick Bjugstad of the Gophers with 23.

Sophomore defenseman Nate Schmidt has 30 assists, which puts him sixth. The top two are Spencer Abbott of Maine with 37 and Jack Connolly of UMD with 36. The Gophers play Wisconsin at home this weekend, meaning they will face sophomore forward Mark Zengerle who has 33 assists

Among defenseman, Schmidt is tied for third in scoring with 32 points (he has two goals). Schultz had 15 goals and 42 points. Denver freshman Joey LaLeggia has 36 points.

Short-handed goals/ Smith has six. Sophomore winger Nate Condon of the Gophers is tied for second with four. The other player with four is Matt White of Nebraska Omaha who got his latest shorty in the Mavs' 3-2 loss to the 'U' on Saturday.

Game-winning goals/ Freshman left winger Kyle Rau scored two goals for Minnesota on Saturday, including his sixth game-winner. That ties him for third nationally with Travis Oleksuk of UMD. The leaders are Smith of Miami with eight and Drew Shore of Denver with seven.

Rau is second in rookie points (16-18-34), trailing only LaLeggia (11-25-36). And Rau is tied for first in rookie goals with 16.

It's hard to believe, but there is another goalie who has played more minutes than Kent Patterson of the Gophers. Andrew Hammond has toiled in the nets for 2,100 minutes, 10 seconds. Patterson is at 2098.29, or about two minutes fewer.

Patterson's seven shutouts put him along at first in that category. He is 11th in goals-against average (2.09), tied for 28th in save percentage (.917) and 10th in winning percentage (.671).

GOPHERS TEAM-WISE

The Gophers continue to be second in scoring at 3.63 goals per game; UMD is first at 3.76. Minnesota is third nationally in scoring defense, giving up 2.09 gpg which translate into a 1.54 scoring margin. That's second best behind Union at 1.68.

The Gophers' power play, which clicked for two Rau goals on Saturday, is seventh at 23.2 percent. The only WCHA better is DU at fifth at 24.5 percent. The Gophers' penalty kill is at 83.8 percent, or 18th.

USA TODAY's top five last week

1. Ferris State, 22-9-5 ... lost to Western Michigan twice, 2-1 after a shootout and 3-0 ... should drop out of first

2.Boston College, 23-10-1 ... Eagles on nine-game winning streak, swept Providence 3-0, 7-0, should be new No. 1

3. Michigan, 20-10-4 ... split with Bowling Green, losing 4-3, winning 3-0; should fall one or two spots

4. UMD, 22-7-5 ... swept Colorado College 4-3 in OT and 5-2; should move up one or two spots