Minnesota Hockey: Rem-arkable-Pitlick named NCAA #1 Star of the Week

Gopher freshman forward Rem Pitlick picked up a pair of honors on Tuesday when he was named both the Big Ten’s First Star of the Week, and the NCAA’s First Star of the Week after his performance in helping the #4 Gophers sweep Penn State. Pitlick scored his first career hat trick and added an assist for a four point night in the Gophers 6-3 Friday night win. Then on Saturday he added an assist and scored the game winning goal in overtime to push Minnesota to a 4-3 win. His six points tied him for the leading scorer in the nation for the weekend. How in the zone was Rem this weekend? He took five shots on goal...and scored four goals.

The Gophers picked up another honor when Justin Kloos was named the Big Ten’s Third Star of the Week. Kloos played a huge role in the Gophers sweep. He scored the game winning goal Friday night, scored the game-tying goal with 3.5 seconds left to force overtime on Saturday, and then tallied the primary assist on Pitlick’s game-winning-goal in overtime. Its the third time this season Kloos has been honored by the Big Ten, and the seventh time overall in his career. He currently leads all active Big Ten skaters and ranks third among active NCAA skaters with 144 career points (61 goals, 83 assists. With his goal Friday night he passed Neal Broten on the all-time Gopher scoring list, and is now tied for 32nd all-time in scoring with 2002 Hobey Baker Award winner Jordan Leopold.

The Gophers will look to place a stranglehold on the Big Ten this weekend when second place Wisconsin comes to town. The Gophers and Badgers will face off at 7:00 both Friday and Saturday night at Mariucci.