Just listened to Gophers associate head coach Mike Guentzel being interviewed by FSN's Kevin Gorg on KFAN.
Jotted a few notes down on the back of my bank statement.
"I do think we have talent," he said "and some of the talent is showing itself. We are starting games well."
The Gophers were picked to finish sixth in the WCHA in the coaches' and media's preseason conference polls. But Guentzel said people underestimated the skill on this team. The Gophers are 7-1-0, in first in the the WCHA at 4-0-0 and rated No. 5 nationally going into a home series with North Dakota this weekend.
Guentzel is high on senior goalie Kent Patterson. Called him a strong, sturdy, athletic, confident player who is a great story. "He didn't play a lot his first two years," Guentzel said.
He said teams will start marking Erik Haula harder, but the Gophers also have other scorers like Kyle Rau and Nick Bjugstad. Guentzel called Haula, who leads the nation with 17 points, one of the team's hardest workers. He said coaches like to see that work ethic in their best players, it encourages others to follow.
Rau, Guentzel said, is a small player who nobody has ever been able to tell he can't do something: "He has won five or six state championships from pee wees on up. He is a winner. He gets it," Guentzel said. "He is a coaches' dream. He competes. Here is a player who has been a center all his life and you put him at left wing and he doesn't say a peep about it."
The Gophers were already set at center on their top two lines with Bjugstad and Haula.
