Gophers' penalty kill needs to play well against Mavericks

Gophers coach Don Lucia said on his weekly 'CCO radio show on Monday that his team, other than last season, has dominated the all-time series.

"But it is amazing how many games have been close," Lucia said.

Two years ago, in the first round of the WCHA playoffs, the two teams played three overtime games in a row in Mankato. Two went to a second overtime.

"Three of the four games were like that [close] last year," Lucia said. "They got a veteran team. I was looking at their lineup [Monday] night. Boy, they have got a lot of seniors and juniors in this group. And Austin Lee has kind of stepped forward as a goaltender. I know when the year began for Troy [Mavs coach Troy Jutting] that was his comment. That if they could find a goaltender he felt this might be the best team he has had.

"The one thing we have to do is to make sure we do a good job on our penalty kill. They run a 1-3-1 umbrella power play. They have for years and at times it has given us trouble. So we have to do a good job with the kill. Looking back at the boxscores last year, they had a couple in a couple of the games against us, power-play goals. And that can be the difference.

"They are a good-skating team, they are physical team. It should be a real good matchup. We are looking forward to it."

The Mavs play at Maroosh on Friday night, then the Gophers go to Mankato on Saturday night.

The Don said he will spending more time at high school rinks this season because his son, Mario, will be playing for Wayzata. "The good thing is those don't count as evaluations because we are limited as a staff on how many times we can see a team play for NCAA rules," The Don said. "We try to go out during tournaments which count as only one evaluation.

"Like the Schwan's Cup at Christmastime. We will see those. Usually the Edina tournament is really good before Christmas [and] three games count as only one. We try to mix it up and get to see as many teams as we possibly can."

The Don said he will usually be out watching high school hockey one day a week, while his assistants, John Hill and Grant Potulny, will usually average going out to games two days a week.