Gophers show signs of late surge, but there's reason for skepticism

The Gophers have had two solid four-game stretches this season. They went 4-0-0 beating lightweights Minnesota State 6-2, Michigan Tech 3-2 twice and Bowling Green 3-1 from Dec. 5 to Jan. 2.

After a surprising 4-2 loss to Northern Michigan, the Gophers put together a 3-0-1 mark with a sweep of Harvard, 5-2 and 3-1, and a more impressive 3-3 tie and 5-1 win against North Dakota.

This weekend the Gophers need to put together a third streak. They beat Colorado College 3-0 and 7-4 and now the task gets even more difficult.

Although the Gophers' hopes of finishing fifth in the WCHA -- and getting home ice for the first round of the playoffs -- are slim, they still need to play their best hockey, playoff hockey, to get ready for the postseason.

Because once the playoffs starts, the Gophers will probably have to win a best-of-three series on the road -- my guess is at UMD although they could be at Wisconsin, North Dakota at CC. Then, if the Gophers get to the Final Five, they will need to duplicate what the Bulldogs did last season. UMD was the first team to win three games in three days in that tournament and get an NCAA berth as the conference champion.

So it's possible, although not likely if history is a guide.

The Gophers' chances will be much better if coach Don Lucia changes his tactics and if the players play with desperation.

Kangas has played great at times that in the past and he has to go into games with the attitude that the opponent can't beat him. His mindset has to be that he will give up one fewer goal than the other goalie.

Coach Lucia has rarely asked me for advice -- OK never -- but he also has to stop saying this team has to win games 3-2, that it's not good enough to score more than three goals. In playoff hockey, the Gophers have to score as many goal as it takes to win.

If they get in a shootout with somebody, than they have to keep popping goals in. This team is a real mystery that way. It"s got talented offensive players who seem to do little for weeks at a time and then have one good game here and there. It's surprising Lucia has so much hair and it's not all white already.

With the Schroder, Cepis and Hoeffel and a few others, this team should be able to score a lot more goals if it plays the way it did against Colorado College. Attack the net, over and over again. Get rebounds, distract the goalie, come in waves, put sustained pressure on. Put two players down low, just outside the crease if you need to.

I actually saw the Gophers do that in the second CC game. Mike Hoeffel and Patrick White were both on the edge of the crease, ready to pounce on a rebound. Hoeffel got it and scored. Hooray.

Has the sleeping giant awakened? Who knows. Ask me after the series against the Bulldogs. Lucia said the puck up there could be flying around like a pinball. It's the smallest rink the Gophers have played on, 190x85 although Lucia said the width might be even narrower than that on his radio show.

The Gophers haven't been at the DECC for a series in almost two years. On their last trip Jan. 18-19, they tied UMD 1-1 after a scoreless overtime and beat the 'Dogs 2-1.

There should be more goals this weekend. The key for the Gophers will be getting a lead -- they play better when ahead as many college hockey teams do -- and a few separation goals. On Nov. 20-21, UMD won 4-3 in OT and 3-2 after trailing 2-0 in both games.

Minnesota seems to have a bit of its confidence back, UMD is 2-6-0 in its last eight games and might be having doubts. The Gophers knocked CC out of a sure spot in the NCAA field by sweeping the Tigers -- unless they can regroup -- now Minnesota can cripple UMD's NCAA tournament chances, too.

So both teams should play with desperation in the old DECC and it should be loud. Somebody there loves to pipe in music and crank the volume way up. Got to remember to bring ear plugs.