Ten years ago, Erik Haula knew nothing about Minnesota --"definitely not" -- let alone the Golden Gophers hockey team which won the NCAA title in 2002.
"I was all focused on Finland, not knowing anything that was going on here," said Haula, a sophomore center from Pori, Finland. "It is weird how things happen."
But 13 members of that championship team a decade ago were at Mariucci Arena on Saturday, including two U of M coach Grant Potulny and Justin Johnson. They signed autographs before the game, and were introduced to do the sellout crowd of 10,000-plus between the first and second period of the Gophers game with Bemidji State.
The Gophers won 4-1, with Haula scoring twice and assisting on one goal.
Now, Haula knows about the Gophers' rich hockey tradition. "As I was making my decision coming here, I probably watched that video of the '02 championship 10 times because my buddy from Shattuck who is from Eden Prairie had it."
He said it was nice to see the 2002 players in person this weekend. "And obviously, we wanted to play great in front of them," Haula said.
The Gophers swept the Beavers after winning the first game 3-0 on Friday.
"[The sweep] was huge," Haula said. "It is all about us. Everything is in our hands. We just keep winning, we just keep playing great and we can accomplishment everything we want to here."
