While admitting that the Golden Gopher men’s hockey results have been less than expected, University of Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi gave his coach a vote of confidence on Monday.

“I can tell you that Don Lucia will be coaching Gopher hockey next year unless he chooses not to,” Maturi told InsideCollegeHockey.com.

The Gophers currently stand in seventh place in the 10-team WCHA and are looking likely to miss the NCAA playoffs for the second consecutive year. The non-typical on-ice results, coupled with health problems that led to Lucia missing a few games last season, have led to many questions raised by fans and others in college hockey media circles regarding Lucia’s future. Some have gone as far as to speculate that Nebraska-Omaha coach Dean Blais, a Minnesota alum, would coach the Gophers next season. Maturi acknowledged disappointment with the on-ice results, but said that Lucia has the athletic director’s full confidence.

“I think we’ve got to just take a deep breath and stay the course,” Maturi said. “Nobody’s happy that we’re not winning more. I’m concerned and we’re all concerned. But I’m not concerned about the competencies and talents of Don Lucia.”

Lucia, whose contract with Minnesota runs through 2012, has coached the Gophers to a pair of NCAA titles, two WCHA regular-season titles, and three WCHA Final Five championships in his first 10 seasons in Minneapolis. He has a career record of 548-294-76, spending six seasons each at Alaska-Fairbanks and Colorado College before coming to Minnesota prior to the 1999-2000 season. He coached CC to three WCHA titles and two Frozen Four appearances and has been named WCHA coach of the year three times. Lucia’s record at Minnesota is 269-139-47, which includes a 13-13-2 mark this year.

Minnesota, which has lost three of its last four games, is off this weekend before traveling to Denver for a two-game series Feb. 12-13.