Don Lucia's goalie rotation experiment was supposed to last three weeks.
Week 3 ended Sunday with freshman Adam Wilcox in net for a 20-save shutout and a 1-0 Gophers victory over scrappy Canisius, as the home team rode Kyle Rau's goal 12 seconds in all the way to the final buzzer at Mariucci Arena.
Wilcox, who played two years of junior hockey after playing three years at South St. Paul High School, is 3-0 with a 1.13 goals-against average and .934 save percentage.
Is that enough to land the 19-year-old Tampa Bay Lightning draft pick the Gophers' No. 1 job over Michael Shibrowski and consecutive starts next weekend against Minnesota State Mankato?
Lucia wouldn't exactly say, other than the fact that after two tremendous saves by Wilcox in the last five minutes to preserve Sunday's victory, he offered: "You start to develop confidence in your goalies. That's important. That's three real strong starts for Adam right now."
Lucia said the coaching staff will make a decision by Thursday whether to continue the rotation; maybe change it up to where Wilcox starts Friday and Shibrowski on Saturday; or let one goaltender play both games against the Mavericks.
"They've probably played equally well at home, but Adam obviously outplayed [Shibrowski last weekend] at [Michigan] Tech," Lucia said.
The Gophers (4-1) got off to a super-fast start, scoring on their first shot when Rau -- who missed Friday's exhibition game against the U.S. Under-18 team because of an ankle injury -- deflected Jake Parenteau's blast from atop the left circle.