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The Vermont men's hockey team opens the 2015-16 regular season in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game against the eighth-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers at Mariucci Arena on Saturday (Oct. 10) at 8 p.m. (ET). The game will be televised live on Fox Sports North Plus and Fox College Sports Atlantic. Pre-game radio coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. (ET) on WVMT 620-AM and SportsJuice.com with Alastair Ingram on the call.
 
RELATED LINKS
Video | Audio | Live Stats | Game Notes (.pdf)
TV: FSN North, FCS Atlantic | Radio: WVMT 620-AM
CatamounTV Preview
 
TV COVERAGE
Fox Sports North Plus is available on DirecTV channel 668-2. The game will also be televised live on Fox College Sports Atlantic, which is located on DirecTV channel 608 and Comcast channel 171. Check your local listings for other cable providers. Fox Sports subscribers can also access a live online video stream via Fox Sports Go, and Big Ten Network subscribers can access a stream at BTN2Go.
 
SETTING THE SCENE
The schools will be meeting for the fifth time since the 2011-12 season. The Catamounts are coming off a 22-15-4 season in 2014-15 with a 10-9-3 record in Hockey East play for seventh place. UVM beat Maine and Boston College in a pair of three-game playoff series to reach the Hockey East Semifinal for the first time since 2010. Vermont returns 66-percent of its point scoring and 76-percent of its goal scoring for the new campaign while adding nine freshmen to the roster.
 
SCOUTING THE GOPHERS
Minnesota won 23 games last year and beat Michigan to win the Big 10 title before falling to Minnesota Duluth in the first round of the NCAA Regional. The Gophers have lost their top three scorers from the 2014-15 season; Captain Justin Kloos is their leading returning scorer with 13 goals and 19 assists. Starting goaltender Adam Wilcox signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning after the season, leaving Nick Lehr as the only the returning goalie who saw time last year with two games played. Don Lucia begins his 29th season as the head coach at Minnesota.
 
SERIES HISTORY
Saturday night marks the fifth all-time matchup in series history, and all four previous meetings have come in the last four seasons. UVM opened the 2011-12 season at Mariucci Arena, dropping a Friday night game before rebounding for a 5-4 win on Sunday afternoon. Minnesota made its first-ever visit to Gutterson Fieldhouse in November of the 2012-13 campaign and swept a weekend series with 5-1 and 3-1 victories. Yvan Pattyn and Jonathan Turk are the only current players who skated in that 2012 series as Pattyn picked up an assist in the second contest.
 
SANTA ON RICHTER WATCH LIST
Mike Santaguida is one of 20 goaltenders nationwide named to the Mike Richter Award Watch List. He was tabbed as one of 28 nominees for last year's Mike Richter Award, given to the top goalie in Division I. Santaguida posted the third-best save percentage (.923) and fifth-best goals against average (2.08) for a single season in program history last season as a sophomore. The netminder ranked 19th nationally in both goals against average and shutouts (3) and was 27th in save percentage.
 
RUNNING THE GAUNTLET
After facing No. 8 Minnesota in the season opener, the Catamounts host series against No. 10 Nebraska Omaha and No. 4 North Dakota, both of which reached the Frozen Four last season in Boston. UVM is the only team in the country that will face all four 2015 Frozen Four participants, with a trip to Boston University and a home series against NCAA champion Providence also on the 2015-16 slate. The last time a school faced all of the previous year's Frozen Four teams was Western Michigan during the 2011-12 season.   
 
20 IN TWO STRAIGHT
Vermont has registered back-to-back 20-win campaigns for just the third time in its Division I era and the fourth time in school history. It marks the first time that UVM has accomplished the feat since the back-to-back NCAA Tournament teams of 1996 and 1997. Those squads, led by Martin St. Louis, Eric Perrin, and Tim Thomas, also earned the school's first-ever trip to the Frozen Four in 1995-96. Last year's 22 victories match the program's highest total since the 2008-09 campaign when UVM earned its second Frozen Four berth.
 
WHO'S NEXT
Vermont returns to Gutterson Fieldhouse next weekend to host 2015 Frozen Four participant Nebraska Omaha for a two-game series on Friday, Oct. 16 and Saturday, Oct. 17 at 7:05 p.m. Both games will be streamed for free on CatamounTV.com, and pre-game radio coverage begins each night at 6:30 p.m. each night on WVMT 620-AM and SportsJuice.com.

KEEP UP WITH THE CATS
There are several ways to keep up with all the men's hockey news, notes and results in Catamount Country:
Twitter – follow @UVMmhockey and when tweeting about the Catamounts use the hashtag #VCats
Instagram – follow us at instagram.com/vermontcatamounts
Facebook – like us at facebook.com/vermont.catamounts
YouTube – watch game highlights and other features at youtube.com/uvmathletics
 
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