Gophers men’s hockey freshman Chaz Lucius is on his way to the NHL and is foregoing his three years of eligibility with the program after signing a three-year entry-level contract with the Winnipeg Jets, announced Wednesday evening by the team.

Lucius’ contract will begin in the 2022-23 season as the Jets drafted him in the first round, 18th overall in the 2021 NHL Draft. He is the 22nd men’s hockey player in program history taken in the first round of the NHL Draft.

The 18-year-old, who battled injuries during his first season with Minnesota, skated in 24 games, where he tallied 19 points (nine goals, 10 assists). Lucius tallied five multi-point games with a single-game career-high three points against Michigan State on Jan. 7.

Lucius, originally from Grant, Minn., is the third Gophers men’s hockey player to sign his NHL entry-level contract following the 2021-22 season behind Blake McLaughlin (Anaheim Ducks) and Ben Meyers (Colorado Avalanche).

While Lucius remained sidelined due to injury in the second half of the season, the Gophers were 10-3-0 this season when he tallied a point. He finished second in scoring among freshmen on the team.

Lucius’ three-year deal will pay him an average annual salary of $1,325,000 in the NHL.

Briefly

Gophers men’s hockey seniors Ben Brinkman and Grant Cruikshank have decided to transfer programs for their fifth seasons. Brinkman will join Notre Dame, while Cruikshank will join St. Cloud State.

Gophers men’s hockey senior Matt Denman, juniors Jack Perbix and Jonny Sorenson, and freshman Tristan Broz are currently in the NCAA transfer portal.

The bats were in full effect in the first-ever Division I meeting between the Gophers and St. Thomas that saw Minnesota take home a 9-3 win in a game where the teams combined for five home runs Tuesday evening at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium.

“It’s awesome,” sophomore Sara Kinch said of the Tommies becoming the second Division I softball program in Minnesota. “They are a great hitting team. They have good pitching. It’s exciting for them.”

All four of Minnesota’s home runs came as solo shots as senior Emily Hansen and Kinch scorched back-to-back home runs in the 3rd inning. The duo combined for three RBIs and two runs scored in the game, accounting for five of Minnesota’s nine runs on the evening to help bring the Gophers above .500 (21-20-1).

“Our approach is always the same, regardless of who we’re playing,” Gophers head coach Piper Ritter said. “[The team] did a really good job of zone management and swinging at the pitches they wanted to hit.”

The Gophers, who recorded fewer hits (7) than St. Thomas (8), earned their largest lead at 9-3 after scoring two runs in the sixth and fifth innings. The Tommies helped Minnesota around the bases as they walked six batters alongside hitting another with a pitch.

The Tommies started to claw back against the Gophers as all three of their runs came in the fourth inning. Kaitlyn Raymond led off with a double before Cassidy Carby hit a two-run home run over the right-field wall. St. Thomas added one more off a Coryn Jacobson RBI single.

Entering as the relief pitcher at the start of the fifth inning for starting pitcher freshman Emily Leavitt, who earned her 10th win this season, senior Autumn Pease shut the Tommies out the rest of the way.

Pease recorded six strikeouts, including half of them in the seventh, and allowed just three hits in three innings pitched to earn her third save this season.

“She [Pease] had a good game, but for the most part, she’s very honest with herself, where her pitches are and how she’s doing that day,” Ritter said. “She doesn’t try to do too much or think that her pitches are good when they’re not. She has a very realistic and honest approach to every game.”
Rounding out the four home run game for Minnesota, graduate student Megan Dray blasted her seventh this season over the left-field wall as sophomore Chloe Evans followed her up two at-bats later with another solo shot in the second inning.

The Gophers will travel to Ann Arbor, Mich., for their last away series this season when they take on Michigan for a three-game series as game one will take place on Friday, April 29, at 5 p.m.

Heading into the final rotation in Fort Worth, Texas, in session one at the 2022 NCAA National Championships semifinals, the No. 8 Gophers gymnastics team sat in fourth place of four teams, trailing third-place No. 5 Alabama by 0.250. However, Minnesota’s bars team and one of the program’s greatest gymnasts of all time, fifth-year Lexy Ramler, had different plans.

Ramler, anchoring the bars team that totaled 49.3875, scored 9.9500 on her routine to help the Gophers to a third-place finish (197.1125) in the semifinals behind No. 1 Oklahoma (198.1125), No. 4 Utah (197.7125) and ahead of Alabama (197.1000)

“I can’t think of a better finish,” Gophers head coach Jenny Hansen said of Ramler’s closing routine. “Being able to watch her knowing that was probably her last routine competitively and for her to finish the way she did and bring our team up another spot, that was pretty clutch, and it was a really special routine.”

With the third-place finish, while making their sixth NCAA appearance, Minnesota’s 2021-22 campaign as a team comes to a close as Oklahoma and Utah advance to the NCAA Championships finals on April 16 at noon CST.

However, Minnesota’s finish in session one of the semifinals guarantees the program its highest finish to close out a season. At the conclusion of session two on Thursday evening, Minnesota moved into sixth place overall. Previously, the Gophers’ best finishes were eighth-place in 2013 and 2021.

“We’re guaranteed the best finish. [Now we] just wait to see how tonight unfolds and see how high we could go,” Hansen said. “We’re really proud of the way the team finished. We did think this was the team that could set a new record for our program, so we’re pretty thrilled about that.”

Minnesota’s floor team was its best lineup of the meet. All five scoring routines tallied at least 9.8750 en route to producing 49.500, the program’s highest floor score recorded at the NCAAs.

Sophomore Mya Hooten highlighted the floor team routines as she dazzled the crowd with her Beyoncé-inspired routine, which scored a 9.9500. This score puts her in second place on the apparatus through session one.
“[That was] probably [Hooten’s] best routine she’s done. Ever. It was really exciting for that floor group,” Hansen said. “Her amplitude and tumbling were off the charts. Her landings were fantastic, so it was a really special routine.”

Hooten now has two 9.9500s on floor in as many appearances in the NCAA Championships semifinals. She rounded out her meet with a team-high 9.9000 on vault and 9.8500 on bars, topping her scores on these apparatuses from last season’s NCAA Championships semifinals.

Through session one, Ramler’s bars (9.9500) and beam (9.9375) routines put her in a three-way tie and five-way tie for first place on the apparatuses, respectively. The Gophers veteran tallied 9.8875 on floor and 9.8375 on vault to complete her all-around, where she sits in second place behind Oregon State’s Olympian Jade Carey.

The vault and beam lineups scored 49.2500 and 48.9750, respectively, to round out the apparatuses for the Gophers.

Outside of Ramler, her fifth-year counterparts in Ona Loper and Hannah Willmarth had strong performances. Loper is in fifth place in the all-around (39.3500) through session one as her bars routine was her best of the meet at 9.9000, which Willmarth matched to tie her season-best.

Minnesota’s appearance in this year’s semifinals marked the first time in program history the team has reached the NCAA Championships in back-to-back seasons.

“That was a huge step for us,” Hansen said. “Getting here is really difficult, but getting here two years in a row is even harder. I’ve given our team and our program a lot of confidence that we belong here and know what it takes to get here, so I think that’s really important for us moving forward.”

Gophers men’s hockey junior co-captain Ben Meyers has signed a two-year entry-level contract with the Colorado Avalanche, the NHL team announced Wednesday.

Originally from Delano, Minn., Meyers will burn the first year of his two-year deal that is through the 2022-23 season if he plays in a game this season with the Avalanche. He is ineligible for the playoffs because he was not on an NHL roster before the trade deadline.

Meyers, the second Gophers men’s hockey player to sign an NHL contract this week behind senior Blake McLaughlin, represented the U.S. in the Olympics earlier this year and was named the Big Ten Player of the Year and a Hobey Baker finalist.

In his third season with the Gophers, Meyers recorded career-highs in goals (17), assists (24), and points (41) in 34 games played en route to being named an NCAA West Second-Team All-American and a First Team All-Big Ten member.

Meyers, 23, skated in 102 collegiate games with the Gophers, where he tallied 95 points (39 goals, 56 assists) over that span.

Meyers will join an Avalanche team that sits atop the NHL standings with the Florida Panthers, as both teams are tied for first place with 110 points this season.

More updates

Three Gophers men’s hockey players – seniors Ben Brinkman and Grant Cruikshank and junior Jonny Sorenson – have entered the transfer portal this week, according to Gopher Puck Live and Eric Vegoe.

Gophers men’s hockey senior forward Blake McLaughlin signed a two-year entry-level NHL contract with the Anaheim Ducks, the team announced Sunday.

McLaughlin, 22, will report to Anaheim’s primary development affiliate – the San Diego Gulls in the American Hockey League – on an amateur contract for the remainder of the 2021-2022 season.

Drafted by the Ducks in the third round and 79th overall of the 2018 NHL Draft, McLaughlin’s two-year entry-level deal will officially begin in the 2022-23 season.

McLaughlin, originally from Grand Rapids, Minn., recorded 105 points (38 goals, 67 assists) in 142 collegiate games with the Gophers.

The 6-0, 170-pound left-winger recorded single-season career-highs in goals (13), assists (20) and points (33) in 39 games for the Gophers in his senior campaign.

McLaughlin helped Minnesota to a 26-13 record this season, highlighted by the team winning the Big Ten regular-season title and appearing in the Frozen Four for the first time since 2014.

A strong first-period effort in weathering the storm by the Gophers was not enough as Minnesota State-Mankato continually overwhelmed Minnesota en route to a 5-1 comeback win Thursday night to punch their ticket into the NCAA Championship game.

The No. 1 seeded Mavericks had an all-around dominating performance against Minnesota. They scored five unanswered goals despite the Gophers keeping them off the scoreboard in the first period.

“For big chunks of the game, [Minnesota State] kicked our butt. The first period we were great, got the lead,” Gophers head coach Bob Motzko said. “Then, we made a couple of mistakes in the second period…but I’m so proud of our guys. This was a terrific group of guys we had and this is not indicative of the season we had. We had a terrific season, a terrific team. We just ran into a really good hockey team tonight.”

In a stretch of 6:11 in the middle frame, Minnesota-State’s Benton Maass and Reggie Lutz buried wraparound goals to help throttle the Mavericks into the driver’s seat as they earned their first lead in the game with 6:29 remaining in the second period.

After gaining their first lead of the night, Minnesota State did not let off the gas and added three more goals in the third period.

Ondrej Pavel scored Minnesota State’s third goal of the game 1:57 into the final frame after deflecting Jack McNeely’s shot from the point into the back of the net.

With the Gophers trying to find an answer, Mavericks’ David Silye fired a wicked wrister into the top left corner of the net with 6:43 remaining in the game to extend Minnesota State’s lead to 4-1.

To cement Minnesota State’s 5-1 victory in the Frozen Four round of the NCAA tournament, Brendan Furry scored an empty-net goal with 1:09 remaining in the contest.

“They’re a really good team and I think that they controlled the game,” junior Bryce Brodzinski said. “We made a couple of mistakes and they’re a team that capitalizes on those.”

Despite not recording a shot for nearly the first nine minutes of the game, it only took the Gophers one shot to score the game’s opening goal due to a costly turnover by Minnesota State.

Mavericks’ defensive partners Andy Carroll and Maass struggled to corral the puck at their blue line. Then, Brodzinski swooped in to gather the loose puck to create a 2-on-0 odd-man rush with freshman Matthew Knies against Minnesota State goaltender Dryden McKay.

Brodzinski and Knies combined for three back-and-forth passes before All-Big Ten Freshman Knies finished off the play as he buried a one-timer from one knee into the back of the net 8:52 into the contest.

Knies finished his first year with the Gophers lights out down the stretch. The Olympian’s go-ahead goal stretched his goal streak to four games, where he had five over that span plus an assist.

The Gophers’ loss marks the end of their 2021-2022 season, where they finished with an overall record of 26-13 while winning the Big Ten regular-season title.

“This one stings right now. This [loss] is what’s stuck in my head,” Knies said. “This was the best year of my life. This was the most fun group I’ve been a part of and I’m proud to be a part of this team.”

As for Minnesota State-Mankato, they advance to the NCAA Championship, where they will face off against Denver for a national title on Saturday, April 9, at 7 p.m. CDT.

As the top two teams of four from each Regional final advance to the NCAA National Championships, No. 8 Minnesota needed their floor team to be the cornerstone they have been all season. The Gophers trailed second-place No. 9 California by 0.100, heading into the final rotation of the meet Saturday evening, looking in from the outside.

With all the pressure on the shoulders of the floor team, Minnesota’s No. 2 ranked floor team showed the crowd, and the nation, at the Norman Regional final why they are one of the best floor teams in women’s gymnastics.

In the final rotation, the floor team totaled 49.650, led by sophomore Mya Hooten’s dazzling title-winning routine of 9.975. Every scoring routine earned at least 9.900, helping fuel the Gophers to the NCAA National Championships in back-to-back seasons for the first time in program history, as California’s vault team scored 49.125.

“We just have such a wonderful group and this means so much to them to be back there and get that experience again,” Gophers head coach Jenny Hansen said. “There were just so many wonderful things to take away from this weekend. This was the goal, to get back there [Nationals]. ‘Back for More.’ That was our motto, so we’re back for more.”

Minnesota finished the meet in second place with 197.725, which comes as the sixth-highest score in program history as six of the program’s top eight team totals have occurred this season alone.

The Gophers’ season stays alive alongside No. 1 Oklahoma, who finished in first place after accumulating 198.250. On the other hand, California’s (197.300) and Arkansas’ (196.675) seasons have come to a close.

“It means so much to us [to advance]. We put in so much work the past couple of weeks to get to this point,” Fifth-year Ona Loper said on the ESPN+ broadcast after the meet. “I’m just so proud of every single member on this team.”

Loper helped pave the way for Minnesota as she won the all-around title for a second-straight meet after totaling 39.700, which included tying her career-best on floor (9.950).
A veteran for the Gophers, Loper did not have one routine across her all-around that scored less than 9.900. She matched her floor score on vault and tallied matching 9.900s on bars and beam.

“It’s all because of the team. They put so much trust in me and I really wouldn’t be where I am today without them,” Loper said of her consistency on the ESPN+ broadcast after the meet. “Lexy Ramler as well. She pushes me every single day in the gym…I couldn’t be more thankful to experience this journey with her.”

Ramler, Loper’s fifth-year counterpart, finished second in the all-around competition (39.600). Her best event score of the evening came on vault at 9.925, while she rounded out her strong meet with matching 9.900s on beam and floor and 9.875 on bars.

The vault team opened the Norman Regional final for the Gophers and got them rolling as they totaled their highest postseason team total in program history at 49.550.

Four of the five scoring routines scored at least 9.900, with senior Maddie Quarles leading the charge as she posted a career-high 9.975 to win a share of the vault title. Hooten (9.900) added the fourth routine that scored at least 9.900 outside Loper and Ramler.

Minnesota’s bars and beam teams performed in the middle rotations, scoring 49.275 and 49.250, respectively, where senior Ali Sonier tied her season-high on bars (9.800).

“The most important thing is we hit all of our routines. That’s really difficult to do. We hit 24 of 24 routines, so that was huge for us. It doesn’t happen very often throughout the season,” Hansen said. “We can use that going into Nationals and know that if we can hit our routines, we’re going to make a statement.”

The Gophers will compete against California, No. 4 Utah and No. 5 Alabama in the NCAA Championships semifinals round on Thursday, April 14, in Fort Worth, Texas.

Fifth-years Lexy Ramler and Ona Loper shined for the No. 8 Gophers gymnastics in the second round of the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships Thursday evening. The veterans matched each other in the all-around competition as they scored 39.675 to share the all-around title.

Combining for 79.350, Minnesota’s dynamic duo helped them total 197.825, which marks the fourth-highest team total in program history, to secure a first-place finish in the second round and session one of the Norman Regional.

The Gophers, along with No. 9 California (197.375), finished in the top two over Utah State (196.825) and Boise State (196.425) to advance to the Norman Regional final and keep their 2022 seasons alive.

“It was a fantastic day, really on every event,” head coach Jenny Hansen said. “Floor, we just do what we do there and vault was fantastic. We stuck a couple of really big vaults and there was a lot of energy that we were able to carry into the rest of our events…I am really proud of the team and the way we just keep doing exactly what we know how to do.”

Loper and Ramler not only tied each other in the all-around, but the duo also shared the vault title as they tallied 9.950s. Ramler also took home the beam title (9.950), while Loper took home a share of the bars title (9.925).

To round out their all-around winning performances for the Gophers, Ramler scored 9.900 on bars and 9.875 on floor, while Loper recorded matching 9.900s on floor and beam.

As Ramler and Loper combined for four first-place individual event titles, sophomore Mya Hooten took home the floor title (9.950) as Minnesota swept all five of the individual event titles.

Hooten’s strong meet for the Gophers did not end there. She earned a career-high 9.900 on bars and matched that score on vault to total 29.750 for the competition.

Minnesota never trailed at any point throughout the meet. Its No. 2 ranked floor team opened up the competition by scoring 49.550 as four of the five scoring routines were at least 9.900. Junior Halle Remlinger (9.925) and sophomores Gianna Gerdes (9.900) and Emily Koch (9.875) rounded out the rotation alongside Hooten, Loper and Ramler.
The middle rotations, vault and bars, saw similar success as they kept the Gophers’ momentum going. The vault team produced 49.525, which ties the third-highest score in program history, and the bars team continued the first-place pace with 49.400.

Senior Tiarre Sales slipped off the higher of the two uneven bars, scoring 9.350. To avoid having her score count in the lineup, Ramler (9.900), in the anchor spot, got the Gophers back on track heading into the final rotation.

“You couldn’t ask for anybody else to be in that position,” Hansen said. “[Ramler’s] our anchor and that’s why we know we can count on her. She did the routine like she always does, so that was pretty great.”

With the beam team closing out the meet, Hansen has put them through pressure sets in preparation for big meets like this as they have struggled at points throughout the season, most recently at the Big Ten Championships.

And the pressure sets paid off as Minnesota’s beam team totaled 49.350, led by Ramler and Loper. Koch tied Loper, and her season-high, after scoring 9.900. Gerdes and senior Abbie Nylin rounded out the lineup with matching 9.800s.

Minnesota will compete against California and the top two teams out of No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 16 Arizona State, Arkansas, and Arizona from session two of the second round on Saturday, April 2, at 5 p.m. in the Norman Regional final. The top two teams from the Regional final session will advance to the NCAA Championships.

“This is the first year where they added a day off between [meets], so we’re pretty excited about that,” Hansen said. “We’re focusing on recovery, getting their bodies to feel good and taking time to relax a little bit before we turn our focus to our competition for Saturday.”

After helping the No. 5/6 Gophers to a comeback victory over No. 10/9 Massachusetts Friday, freshman Matthew Knies recorded the game-winning goal in Minnesota’s 3-0 victory over No. 4/5 Western Michigan in the Worcester Regional final Sunday evening.

Knies, an Olympian and a Second Team All-Big Ten member, helped keep the Gophers’ season alive as they will make their first appearance in the Frozen Four since 2014.

Knies’ Olympian counterpart sophomore Brock Faber, the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, got things done for Minnesota on both ends of the 200-foot sheet of ice.

Playing sound defense with keen stick checks and blocked shots, Faber turned on the jets and dazzled his way down the left side in the offensive zone and fed a backhand pass to Knies in the slot, who buried a one-timer into the back of the net to give the Gophers a 1-0 lead with 9:49 remaining in the first period.

The opening goal from Knies marked his fourth goal in his last three games. It also marked career-bests for Faber, who has a career-high 13 assists this season, and Olympian junior co-captain Ben Meyers, who extended his point streak to a career-high eight games as he recorded a secondary assist on the tally.

From start to finish, junior goaltender Justen Close was perfect, making 24 saves en route to his third career shutout, as he had a little bit of help from the Broncos themselves.

With 8:44 remaining in the middle frame, Western Michigan’s Ronnie Attard beat Close, knotting the game at 1-1. However, the referees reviewed the play for an offsides zone entry, determining that the Broncos were offsides and disallowing the tying goal.

Minnesota’s red hot power play continued its scoring streak as the third-period action got underway. They have scored at least one goal on the man advantage in their last seven games.

Earning a power play just 10 seconds into the final frame, Meyers fed a pass from the right circle to freshman Aaron Huglen at the left circle, who one-timed the puck into the back of the net 23 seconds into the man advantage to give the Gophers a 2-0 lead. Huglen, the new addition to the Meyers and Knies line, has seven points (two goals, five assists) over the same amount of games. Meyers, the Big Ten Player of the Year, has six multi-point performances in his last seven games and has a team-high 41 points this season.

Senior Blake McLaughlin cemented Minnesota’s victory as he scored a shorthanded empty-net goal with 1:57 remaining in the Regional final.

The Gophers (26-12) will compete against Minnesota State-Mankato in the semifinal round of the Frozen Four on Thursday, April 7, as the time is to be determined.

Trailing 3-1 in the second period, the No. 5/6 Gophers men’s hockey team hunkered down and scored three unanswered goals en route to a 4-3 overtime victory over No. 10/9 Massachusetts Friday evening in the first round of NCAA play to advance to the Worcester Regional final.

Skating in his 100th game in a Minnesota uniform, junior co-captain Ben Meyers continues to show up for the Gophers (25-12) when they need him.

Meyers ended the Minutemen’s season and continued Minnesota’s onward when he one-timed freshman Aaron Huglen’s feed past Massachusetts’ goaltender Matt Murray 8:31 into the extra frame.

Big Ten Player of the Year Meyers recorded his team-leading fifth game-winning goal this season while recording his fifth multi-point performance in his last six contests, where he has 13 points (six goals, seven assists) over that span.

Freshman Tristan Broz started the three unanswered goals comeback for Minnesota. He scored his sixth goal of the season after deflecting junior Jaxon Nelson’s pass into the back of the net with 2:51 remaining in the second period, cutting the Gophers’ deficit to 3-2.

With the Gophers on a man advantage needing an equalizer in the third period, Broz’s first-year counterpart freshman Matthew Knies batted down a clearing attempt from the Minutemen in the offensive zone and fired a wicked wrister past Murray to knot the game at 3-3 with 6:43 remaining in the game.

However, Minnesota had a slow start to their NCAA slate as Massachusetts scored the game’s first two goals 59 seconds apart past the halfway point of the first period.

While the referees whistled down junior Ryan Johnson for cross-checking, the Minutemen continued to control the puck in the offensive zone. Eventually, Reed Lebster fired the puck past junior goaltender Justen Close with 5:51 remaining in the first period.

Then Massachusetts went to the man advantage and converted their only power play of the evening, as Garrett Wait scored just 50 seconds after Lebster’s opening goal.

Johnson stopped the bleeding for the Gophers as he scored their first goal of the game with 1:58 remaining in the first frame of play. His goal marked his third this season, which comes as a career-best in a single season for the junior.

For the Minutemen, Lebster added his second goal of the night early in the second period (1:24 into the period) before the Gophers started their comeback victory.

Minnesota is now 5-0-0 all-time against the Minutemen.

The Gophers will face Western Michigan in the Worcester Regional Final on Sunday, March 27, 2022, at 3 or 5:30 p.m.