In many ways, Colorado is where it all began for Golden Gopher captain Tony Lucia. He was just six when his father, Don, moved the family from Fairbanks to the Front Range, to be the head coach at Colorado College.
Aaron Ness and the Gophers begin a difficult home stretch this weekend in Denver.
This weekend, with Minnesota visiting Denver and the Gophers facing the most critical stretch of their schedule left this season, the younger Lucia senses a chance for another new beginning, for him and his team, in Colorado.
If Tony Lucia’s college hockey career is to end in a NCAA tournament game, the Gophers have some ground to make up on the WCHA field.
“We know we dug ourselves a hole early in the season,” Tony said, after the Gophers practiced in Denver on Thursday. Minnesota enters the weekend seven points behind CC and Wisconsin in the race for the final home playoff spot. Catching the Badgers is unlikely, but overtaking the Tigers is somewhat less of a long-shot. Minnesota has two games in hand on CC, and two head-to-head meetings with the Tigers, in Minneapolis, later this month.
But the league’s top team (despite what the standings may currently tell you) looms in the foreground. Denver swept the Gophers in Minnesota earlier in the season, and is a tough place to start for a team in desperate need of wins in its final eight games.
“We’re going to have to rely on our defense and special teams this weekend, and make it a race to three,” Tony said. “We feel pretty confident that if we can score three goals in a game, we can win.”
The burden of scoring that needed trio of goals lies with a trio that has clearly established itself as Minnesota’s top line. With Jordan Schroeder centering newcomer Jacob Cepis and hulking freshman Zach Budish, the Gophers feel they have a line that can compete with any in the league. Schroeder was the story of the first half for the Gophers, and not for good reasons. Touted by many (including INCH) as the league’s preseason MVP, he needed a month to score his first goal, and at one point the school went so far as to issue an official statement denying he was leaving Minnesota early. In Dinkytown, they call that “Pulling an Okposo.”
Since returning from a gold medal-winning turn with Team USA at the World Juniors, Schroeder has notched at least a point in all but one of Minnesota’s games and has worked well with the high-energy Cepis, who has five goals in his first 10 games as a Gopher. Tony Lucia sees a more self-assured Schroeder since his triumphant trip to Saskatchewan.
“Half of the battle is confidence,” Tony said. “Since coming back from the World Juniors, Jordan has played really well and that line has really come together.”
They had last weekend off, giving the players a much-needed chance to step away from hockey, and an opportunity to rest and recuperate. That was most critical for forward Mike Hoeffel, who has missed the previous four games with mononucleosis.
Still the Gophers see a mountain they need to climb looming ahead, and it has nothing to do with the view of the Rockies from their downtown Denver hotel rooms. After the visit with the Pioneers, Minnesota has two at home with CC, a pair on the road at Minnesota Duluth and two at home with high-scoring Wisconsin.
“You look at our league top to bottom and all of those teams are in the top half,” Tony said, noting that they expect to need four or five more regular season wins, two first round playoff wins and two wins at the WCHA Final Five to get into the NCAA tournament. “This is going to be a tough stretch, and we know it’s critical that we come out with a winning record.”
If you need to climb a mountain, Tony Lucia knows that Colorado is the perfect place to start.
SHUT UP AND SHIVER
In the wake of Wisconsin’s hugely-attended outdoor game last week, and amid the talk of a similar event at Minnesota’s football stadium in the near future, we heard a funny suggestion from a friend of INCH not too long ago.
Bob Nygaard, the long-time sports information director at Minnesota Duluth suggested to us that for the sake of keeping up with WCHA rivals, the Bulldogs should consider hosting an outdoor game at 4,000-seat Griggs Field next season.
Let’s see: poor sightlines for hockey, 2,500 fewer seats than the new DECC and a chance to sit outside for three hours in the middle of a Duluth winter? Let’s just say there would be plenty of tickets available.
CHASING A LEGEND
Congratulations to Michigan Tech coach Jamie Russell for a milestone last weekend. While the Huskies 3-1 win over Minnesota Duluth was just their fifth this season, it gave Russell 66 career victories which tied him, with Herb Boxer, for second-most in school history.
Of course, Russell has a long way to go if he has designs on the top spot. The late John MacInnes, for whom the Huskies’ rink is named, won 555 games in 26 seasons behind the Tech bench. That included three national championships and seven WCHA titles.
