Cepis says a trip is a trip, what is fuss about?

"We played 10 times better" than Friday, junior winger Jacob Cepis said after the Gophers' 4-2 victory over the Sioux on Saturday.

"We won our battles tonight. We kept at it and we got our breaks and I missed another breakaway. I don't know what is wrong with me. But thank God I got that shot off and it went in."

Cepis' goal, at 12:10 of third period, came on a power play and tied the score at 2-2. Mike Hoeffel, all 6-2, 200 of him was in front of the net trying to screen Sioux goalie Brad Eidsness.

"I don't think the goalie saw it," Gophers coach Don Lucia said.

It was one of three power-play goals for the Gophers on four chance.

"I was trying to go around [defenseman Ben Blood] and he tripped me," Cepis said, asked about the two tripping calls he drew, one on goalie Brad Eidsness in the first period and another on Blood in the third. The Gophers scored on both power plays.

"Obviously they are complaining about it but a trip is a trip," the 5-7, 165-pound Cepis said. "And the goalie tripped me with his stick so I don't even know what they would be complaining about on that one."

"This is the way our season has been all year. We have always given ourselves an extra day to live. That's a quality team. They are a very good team, they work very hard. It's obviously home ice advantage here. I think the series, what is it, 2-2-2, so like Don [Lucia] said, it's fitting that it comes down to this.

"As a hockey player what more could you ask for, this is what you want as a team. You want to match yourself up against the best teams and they are a very good team and I think we have played well. This game [on Saturday] has really given us a lot of momentum.

"A lot of guys were jittery. I was jittery the first night. We relaxed [Saturday] and it turned out well for us."

LUCIA EXPECTED STRONG GAME SATURDAY

Lucia said he knew his team would play well the second game. "The guys have responded like this for the most part all year," he said. "It reminded me a little bit of Thanksgiving weekend when we played very poorly at Michigan [a 6-0 loss] and came back and beat Michigan State [2-1] on Saturday.

"And I thought we were better along the walls. They are very good in that area. Not only physically, but the little stick battles, you are lifting sticks or coming out with pucks. And those are areas we did not do a very good job on [Friday] night."

"Watching the video, we gave some goals away [Friday] night and North Dakota is too good of a team to give them any goals."

Now everything, the continuation of the season, a trip to the Final Five depends on Sunday's game.

"We have been here before," Lucia said. "With these goup of seniors, this is the third time we have been in game threes. They understand what you have to do. We have great respect for North Dakota. That's a heck of a team. It's going to take a terrific effort for us to have a chance to be there late in the game [Sunday] night and give ourselves a chance to win. That's what we did [Saturday]."

In 2007, the Gophers beat Alaska Anchorage 3-1 at Mariucci in the third game of their first-round series.

Can the Gophers make it 3-for-3 in third games in four years tonight?

LUCIA WANTS GRIT FROM HELGESON

Lucia said he sat Helgeson on Friday so he could learn about playoff intensity. "We need him to play with a little more bite to his game," Lucia said. "And he's got to learn that. I thought he was a presence physically [Saturday] and that's what we need from him."

Lucia said the players were disappointed Friday. "That's the first time we have played poorly in a long time," he said. "But it was not a great time to do it, in Game One of the playoffs. It says a lot about them to come back, dig in and play as hard as they did [Saturday]. That's what we are going to have to do [Sunday].