Q & A with The Don

The Gophers are in seventh place in the WCHA standings with four games left. Depending what happens, here are the possible places the U could finish:

Seventh: Alaska Anchorage could catch them, creating a two-way tie for seventh. Or the Gophers could finish alone in seventh for the second time in three years.

Sixth: Alone or in a tie. The U could jump over one of these three teams, Colorado College, North Dakota or even UMD,

Fifth: Alone or in a tie. Won't be easy. But if they tie, the Gophers will have the tiebreaker over CC and probably North Dakota.

Fourth: Highly unlikely. UMD would have to collapse and lose its last four games, the Gophers would have to win their last four and North Dakota and CC would have to both stumble badly.

OK, got all that? Oh, theoretically, there also could be a four-way tie for fourth-place involving the Gophers, UMD, CC and North Dakota. Tiebreakers would settle the playoff seeding. I'd like to explain that but ... I need to see a more thorough explanation of the tiebreaking rules than I have. Can't find one in more detail on the web. Would be fun, though. Like getting a root canal.

So now to the questions and answers with The Don:

A. You are so consumed and worried about yourself, you are not worried about the other team. I think [their slump] just reinforces that you can play well and lose in this league. Sometimes you just get on the wrong side of a few scores.

They are a good team. We have to make sure our penalty killling does a real good job this weekend. That is going to be one of the important elements for us, to stay disciplined and have good puck support. They are a good team, They have played very well at home all seaosn long. They've had some road series in there the last few weeks. I am sure they are anxious and looking forward to getting back to playing at home.

Q. The Gophers scored 10 goals last weekend in sweeping No. 7-rated Colorado College 3-0 and 7-4. Can the goals keep coming?

A. I hope we can score a few because it just reinforces that, when we can score some goals, we can be a pretty good team. For us, if we can get to three [goals], it gives [us] a chance to win. It is not easy to win when you only score one or two goals in a night.

So [we have to] keep working to generate some opportunities. And hopefully, especially going back to a small rink, don't be afraid to shoot the puck. Their rink is not even 200 by 85 [true, it's 190 x 85], so things happen in a hurry and you have to be ready for that both offensively and defensively.

No matter what happens on the weekend, you kind of catch your breath on Sunday and go back to work on Monday. I am sure for the players they feel better when you have a couple wins against a good, quality opponent. You just have to get ready for that next weekend and see what the next weekend brings.

Q. Why did the defensemen come alive on offense with four goals on Saturday in Gophers' 7-4 win over CC?

A. We pounded some pucks and I thought we had some traffic in front. You can watch NHL [games] and watch the Olympics and hear the announcers say the same thing. If you are going to score goals, you have to get traffic and you have to get to the dirty areas and try to get some rebounds. And we did that over the course of this [past] weekend. We had some rebound goals, we had some net traffic and that is what we have to do each and every night if we are gonig to have a chance to score some goals.

Q. Is Mike Hoeffel completely recovered from mononucleosis?

A. He is back to 100 percent right now. Early on we managed his ice time a little bit coming back form mono because he wasn't giong to have the same stamina and also we didn't want him to have a relapse or anythnig like that. Right now we are to the point we don't have to manage his ice anymore and he can play as many minutes as he is capable of playing.

A. We don't look at it as a third line, it is one of our lines. We have pretty good balance in our lineup right now and that's one of the reasons why we wanted to do that. [Now] you feel pretty comfortable with any line playing against any other.

The way the lines are set up right now, those top three lines are pretty interchangeable when you look at who has the most goals on the different lines, they are all pretty close.

Q. How is goalie Alex Kangas playing?

A. Alex has had a good solid season. His numbers are good. The most important thing is to continue to eliminate any soft goals. Not that there has been that many but from here on out, make the other team earn every goal. If you can hold a team to two, we have a pretty good chance to win every night

He is going to have to be strong. He played well in Duluth a couple years ago. He gave up one goal each night, so he has been back in that building [the DECC] before. We talk about how quickly things happen and you have to be ready for it because you can shoot from anywhere and it is a decent shot.

A. We got to win on Friday and go from there. We are not going to get caught up in we have to do X, Y and Z over the last four games. Over the next two weeks we want to play well, we want to stay healthy.

Q. How is sophmore center Taylor Matson's recovery from ankle surgery going?

A. Taylor is going to start skating a little bit here and maybe he will be able to get back and play for the playoffs. We'll see how that goes.

So he is a little ahead of schedule.I don't think we anticipated him skating for another week or two. If he can get back to practice next week, there is a chance he play one of the Wisconsin games and maybe have a chance to play in the playoffs.

Q. What do you want to accomplish the last four games of the regular season?