Frustrated Lucia trying to stay positive

"We were all frustrated after the game on Saturday," Gophers coach Don Lucia said on his weekly radio shoow on Monday night. "The best part, what happens when you are a coach, you try not to overreact. Sunday, we got a Sunday off. Went to mass, which was good for my soul. Sunday morning I asked for a little divine intervention. Enough of these pucks going off of us into our own net.

"Then I had a chance to watch the video. After watching the vidoe and looking at the last four to six games, I can honestly say we deserve better. That might have been our best game of the year on Saturday. Scoring chances, we had 14, they had six five-on-five. We had eight on the power play, they had three. And we had three short-handed. So we outchanced them, the way I break it down, 25 to 9. You are certainly going to take that each and every game that you play."

(The Gophers did have chanced on Saturday in a 3-2 loss. Their power play looked as good as it has all year both nights versus UMD. But the Bulldogs re-invented themselves on Saturday. The team averaging 22 minutes of penalties per game -- second highest in the nation -- did not take any in the second and third periods on Saturday.

(The U kept taking penatly after penalty in the second period and UMD eventually scored on the third one. Scoring chances are obviously good to have, but hockey is about scoring goals. Most of the players on the Gophers seem to have forgotten how. Not sure what is is going to take to get the maroon and gold rolling.)

"[The UMD series] was frustratring because we easily could have had three to four points and you end up with nothing," Lucia said. "That was the hard part for us. Three of the four goals on Friday, two went off our skates. Actually the winning goal, hit our stick and kind of changed directions for the overtime winner. And then obviously the game=winner on Saturday going off our skate with two minutes to go in the game.

"The good thing is the guys -- I was worried about them [Monday] when they came back to the rink. But they were enthusiastic, they were talking and, you know what, we had a great practice [Monday]. To me, those are all good signs. We've had rough starts before and sooner or later I do believe our luck is going to change.

"The reality is, we don't have a great margin for error. And so, you are going to make mistakes in a game and, all of a sudden, if maybe we score a couple goals instead of being 2-2 that late in play, we are up 4-2. And if one goes off your skate, it doesn't matter, Because we are not scoring a lot right now, that one goal makes such a big difference.

"The guys just have to stick with it and know that sooner or later they are going to get rewarded."

CAN't HOLD LEADS

The Gophers led 2-0 on Friday and Saturday. In other seasons, they would have held those leads. Not against the Bulldogs.

"We couldn't make that next goal to really separate things," Lucia said. "We got into some penalty issues in the second period both nights, especially on Saturday. We had a really good first period. We took a penalty right at the end of the first and then three more into the second within the first 10 minutes and that changed the momentum. We don't have an opportunity to score and they score the one to make it 2-1.

"Geez, we killed penalties great all weekend long. They ended up with the one power play goal on Friday night that got batted and went down and hit Aaron [Ness]'s skate and went in. And on Saturday they actually made a nice play, a nice shot on goal and the guy calmly had the back door rebound.

* The Gophers practiced at Ridder Arena on Monday to get comfortable on a smaller rink. They play at Michigan and Michigan State this weekend, and both those rinks are 200x85, or 15 feet narrower than Mariucci.

* Lucia showed his players all the scoring chances they had against UMD in a video session on Monday.

AREAS TO IMPROVE

Lucia said the Gophers' defensemen need to shoot more. "They don't have enough shots on goal," Lucia said. "Both our goals on Saturday were one-timed. Wehrzy [Kevin Wehrs] one-timed the first one, Hoff [Mike Hoeffel] was able to deflect it. And the second one was on the power play.

""I think if we start to do that more, we will generate more rebound opportunities because nowadays if you get the puck on the blue line, and you hold it and look for a play, somebody is going to be in your shot lane. And people are so good at blocking shots, it makes it more difficult to get pucks to the net. You have to get the puck off in a hurry and you have to shoot if off the pass."

Wisconsin blocked a staggering 30 Gopher shots -- Minnesota attempted 59 -- in the Badgers' 4-2 win on Nov. 6.

Turnovers is another area of concern. Lucia said the Gophers had 29 blocked shots, 17 turnovers and 32 hits on Saturday which was a big improvement over the 30, 31 tuirnovers Minnesota had on Friday.

"That's where we get into trouble," Lucia said. "If we can keep our turnovers under 20, it is going to eliminate scoring chances against and give us a half dozen more scoring chances for. That's a big difference when you are at the offensive blue line and you can get pucks behind the D and keep up on the offense versus now it is coming back in your own end."

GOALTENDING, FIRST LINE FINE

Lucia said goaltending is not an issue with the team.

"We have to try to score a little bit more offensively. We are starting to score on the power play now, but five-on-five, we have to do a little bit more. But I do like -- I thought Jordan [Schroeder] and Hoff [Hoeffel] and Nico [Sacchetti] are starting to get some chemistry as a unit..

"They [the first line] is improving, now we have to get that -- find that next group of guys that can consistenly score for us and take some pressure off that [first] group. Both power play units looked good, did a good job on the weekend. So there are a lot of positive signs. But you know what? Close doesn't count. At some point, you got to win games, too."

Lucia said Nick Larson played his best game of the year on Saturday. "He was more involved, he was in on the stats with a couple of scoring chances," Lucia said.

"And Jake Hansen, we moved our lines around a little bit [on Monday]. He is goiog to get rewarded now based on what he has done the last couple weeks. Just getting a couple goals has made all the difference for him. And now hopefully he is another guy that can start to elevate and give us some offense."