Minnesota Golden Gophers freshman Grace Zumwinkle lifted her team to a sweep over conference foe Minnesota State in early November with a goal and four assists.

Zumwinkle leads the Gophers with 28 points in 27 games, and her 12 goals are second to only senior Nicole Schammel’s 14.

The sweep kicked off a nine-game winning streak for the Gophers, which included a perfect 8-0-0 November. But the New Year hasn’t brought good fortune to Minnesota, who are 2-3-0 in 2018. They’ll look to prey on a slumping Maverick team against whom they hold an 82-3-3 all-time record against.

You can catch the series live right here on FloHockey. The games are set for Friday at 7 PM EST and Saturday at 5 PM.

Minnesota, 17-8-2, is hosting its final home series of the season. Ridder Arena has been an Achilles heel for the Gophers, where they have gone just 7-6-2. But with just six games remaining and an eye on second place in the WCHA Conference — where they are 10-6-2 — the time is now to right the ship.

The Mavericks are coming in at an inopportune time, as the Gophers should be angry and motivated to get back on track after losing back-to-back games against Ohio State.

Minnesota State, 3-20-1, sits at the bottom of the WCHA with just one conference win. The Mavericks have lost their past seven regular season games as their offense has continued to struggle. They have scored three or more goals just three times all season.

While the offense has been spread out among the roster, only Jordan McLaughlin has eclipsed four goals on the year with six.

The Mavericks are also coming off the bad end of a sweep, in which No. 1 Wisconsin posted consecutive shutouts for 6-0 and 4-0 wins. Coach John Harrington’s post-game quotes have seemed like an echo during the Mavericks season.

“We came in here against a team that hasn’t played in a couple of weeks and obviously they were hungry to play,” Harrington told the Mavericks athletics department. “They are an exceptional team we were playing, we wanted to go into the first period and just get out of it with not too much damage against and they got us on the power play, they got a little momentum and we just didn’t generate any offense.”

And pending a large upset, they’ll be echoed again against an even hungrier Minnesota team looking to rediscover its success from November.

Don’t miss Grace Zumwinkle and the Gophers in the rematch series, streaming live right here on FloHockey this weekend.

By Jacob Messing

Have a question or a comment for Jacob? You can find him on Twitter @JMessing23.