Fifteen minutes after the Gophers responded to a lousy performance Friday night by earning the split against Nebraska Omaha with a 3-2 victory Saturday, Don Lucia yawned as reporters walked to him.
"I'm tired," the Gophers coach said. "Didn't sleep very well [Friday] night."
That's why Lucia sent a loud and clear message to his team Saturday.
He scrambled his lines. He scratched struggling Mark Alt, showing nobody's untouchable as the junior defenseman's consecutive games streak ended at 92. And, even during this second game of the series, Lucia juggled his lines and benched players from start to finish.
"There are some guys that have to play better, and the lines were adjusted accordingly," Lucia said. "Even in the game, you saw a lot of different guys playing with different players. We did it based on who was playing well, who's ready, who's playing hard."
In front of a soldout Mariucci Arena crowd of 10,103, the Gophers looked like a different team than the night before, getting pucks behind the Mavericks' large defensemen, cycling down low, skating hard and being responsible with that puck (Lucia counted 50 turnovers Friday).
They got into the scoring areas, and only UNO goalie John Faulkner kept an initial deficit from growing vaster than 1-0 in the first.
"For a while there, I was thinking touchdown," said Mavericks coach Dean Blais, whose team fought back from a 3-0 deficit. "They were moving pretty good. We got our butt kicked pretty good in the first period."
