ANDREW
GORDON
St. Cloud State
Jr. | F | Porters Lake, Nova Scotia
Andrew Gordon on last year's wild WCHA Final Five
game against Minnesota: "We never thought
we were going to lose, even though we weren’t
a team that you could ever imagine winning an
8-7 game. It was the most fun game I’ve
ever played in."
Key Statistics: Enjoyed
a breakthrough sophomore season, doubling his freshman
output and leading the Huskies in goals (20) and points
(40) in 42 games.
What He Does: Gordon says he does a
lot of things pretty well, if not anything great. His
model, then, is appropriate: Ryan Smyth of the Edmonton
Oilers. Like Smyth, Gordon does his best work around
the net, scoring most of his goals from the slot.
The Bigger Picture: Gordon
was perhaps the WCHA’s most anonymous leading
scorer last year, playing on a relatively under-the-radar
team where the bigger stories were the play of the first-year
goalie (transfer Bobby Goepfert) and the work of the
first-year coach (Bob Motzko). Gordon returns for his
junior year having scored more points last season than
all but four WCHA players, and none of them have his
anonymity – Phil Kessel, T.J. Oshie, Ryan Dingle
and Travis Morin. Expect the soft-spoken Nova Scotian
to garner his share of headlines, especially if his
team can fulfill his expectations, which include a return
trip to the WCHA Final Five and a run at the NCAA Tournament.
Wisconsin captain Andrew Joudrey
on Gordon: "I first started playing with
him in midgets, and he was the youngest guy on our team.
He was one of those guys who has the heart to play,
and worked as hard as he could all the time. He has
a great work ethic on and off the ice, and he is a team
guy. He has improved every year. I played with him [again]
in junior and [the difference] was night and day. He
has worked so hard and he has deserved all he’ll
get.”
