The Gophers lead the all-time series with Alaska Anchorage 48-15-7 and are 15-2-2 in the past 19 games. The series started in 1986. Around Halloween, the Gophers beat the Seawolves twice, 5-1 and 4-1.
Minnesota will practice at home on Thursday morning before flying out at midday. Coach Don Lucia expects the team to arrive in Anchorage around 2:30, 3 p.m. Alaska time, which is 3 hrs. earlier than CST.
Lucia said the flight, depending on headwinds, can take from 5 to 6 hours.
"We are not going to worry about practicing up there because of the legs and all that," Lucia said on his weekly radio show on Monday. "We will just get in, eat and try to keep them up. That's the big thing. We don't want them because of the time change -- you know 7, 8 o'clock at night [there], is 10, 11 o'clock our time.
"You start to get tired. So we will probably send them out to a movie and get back 9 or 10 and then try to get back on schedule. I know, I myself, I will be waking up at 5 o'clock on Friday morning because I am used to getting up at 6, 6:30 here. You are just laying in bed, trying to get back to sleep.
"When we play at 7 there, it is 10 o'clock here. The hardest part, it seems when you go up there, you have one game you have really good energy and one game you don't have great energy. So the trick is trying to find a way ... and it can be Friday, it can be Saturday it just depends from year to year with your group.
"[The Seawolves] are playing well," Lucia said. "It is a good trip. It is whether we bus Houghton for six hours or we get on a plane ... But I would rather bus six hours, at least you can move around the bus a little more than being cramped up in a middle seat on a flight.
"You go get some videos to watch. It's where I can catch up on a couple movies on my way up."
