After feasting on home cooking for the past six games, the Ohio State University Men’s hockey team travels to historic 3M Arena at Mariucci in Minneapolis this weekend for a series featuring two teams ranked in the Top 20 national rankings.

      The Buckeyes (6-2-0, 3-1-0-0-0-0) won five of those six consecutive home games and are ranked 18th in the USCHO poll and 14th in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine rankings.

     The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers (6-4-0, 3-1-0-0-0-1) are 6th and 8th in the respective polls.

     Ohio State skates into Minnesota propelled by the momentum of a three-game winning streak, including a sweep of Penn State last weekend. The Buckeyes limited the high powered Nittany Lions’ offense to a two- game series total of three goals while netting nine of their own.

      Buckeye goaltender Jakub Dobeš has a 6-1-0 record with a 1.06 goals-against average and a .960 save percentage. Against Penn State, Dobeš had a career high 33 saves in the series opener and followed up with 29 saves in the second game, earning the netminder Big Ten Second Star of the Week.

      Offensively, 22 Buckeyes, including every skater with more than two games played, has posted at least one point through the first eight games.

      Junior forward, Mark Cheremeta (3 goals, 4 assists) and Freshman defenseman, Mason Lohrei (2 goals, 5 assists) lead the team in scoring. Tate Singleton (3 goals, 3 assists) Cam Thiesing (2 goals, 4 assists) and Jake Wise (2 goals, 4 assists) have each earned six points.

     Minnesota is coming off a weekend split with Wisconsin and have a sweep of Notre Dame in the record book this season.

     Fifth year senior and last year’s Mike Richter award winner, Jack LaFontaine has a 2.72 goals-against average and a .900 save percentage, while senior forward Blake McLaughlin has netted three goals and assisted on 10 Gophers’ goals.

     The Buckeye are looking to rebound from being swept in all four games against the Gophers last season.