Lucia on Maturi and himself: We all want the same thing

Gophers coach Don Lucia said he met Monday for lunch with athletic director Joel Maturi and discussed a lot of topics, including a contract extension for him.

"There is nothing written down or anything right now," Lucia said, "but we all want the same thing: To make this program better and it starts with me. Some day when I am not here anymore, when I leave I want to leave on top. I want to leave when the program is in the NCAA tournament every year."

There are 58 men's Division I hockey teams; 16 make the NCAA tournament. That's 27.6 percent. The Gophers did not advance to the NCAAs in Lucia's first season, in 1999-2000, but then made it eight years in a row.

Lucia, who turns 53 on Aug. 20, says he has the energy to keep coaching.

"The good thing for me, physically [is] I felt so much better this year," Lucia said. "The previous couple years, to be honest, I didn't know how much longer i wanted to do it because i was pretty worn down going through the [steroid] treatments I went through."

He was diagnosed with sarcoidosis in November 2008 and was not given a clean bill of health until July of 2010.

"This year I had a lot more energy in practice," Lucia said. "It requires a lot of energy. but you also have to have a strong belief in what you do. I have a strong belief in what we do."

One thing Lucia does is scout players himself at times.

"When we are recruiting, we have to make sure we bring in some older kids," Lucia said, "make sure we bring in some elite players and make sure we bring in some four-year players. ... We will get it figured out. ... I don't think we are that far away. We have a good mix of kids coming in next year that have played juniors. We have a good mix of kids that are 5-9 guys that, hopefully, we will have for four years, that will be really good college players. So I am excited and I am looking forward to next year."

Asked if the Gophers recent stuggles have hurt recruiting, Lucia said "no."

"If anything, if you are a kid you certainly have a good chance to come in and contribute," Lucia said. "That was evidenced this year. We had a lot of freshman that played a lot of minutes this year.

"Look at [Nick' Bjugstad, [Erik] Haula and [Nate] Condon, especially those three forwards. They were on the power play, they killed penalties, they played 4-on-4. So they all played major minutes for us.

THE DON SAYS

* On recruiting high NHL draft picks: "You have to have those kids if you are gonig to be successful at the end, But you also hope to have them long enough to reap the benefits as well."