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."
