Lucia found success quickly as coach at CC

Gophers coach Don Lucia started making a national reputation when he coached at Colorado College from 1993 to 1999.

CC, of course, is where the Gophers play this weekend. It was a struggling hockey program when Lucia arrived there for the 1993-94 season. The Tigers had had 13 losing seasons in a row.

Lucia changed that trend quickly. In his first season as coach, the Tigers were 23-11-5 and wont the WCHA regular-season title for the first time in 37 years. Lucia was named the National Coach of the Year.

CC repeated as conference regular-season champion in 1994-95 and 1995-96 and, in 1996, the Tigers reached the championship game in the Frozen Four. A year later, CC was in the Frozen Four again but lost in the semifinals.

Quite a run for CC. Lucia had a record of 166-68-18 at Colorado College, that's a winning percentage of .694. He is the second winningest coach in CC history; actually he shares that honor with Jeff Sauer, the former Wisconsin head coach.

* The last time the Gophers played at Colorado College they were swept. CC won 4-3 and 5-3 on Feb. 20-21, 2009.

* Present Tigers coach Scott Owens is first in longevity and victories at CC. His record is 261-152-39 early in his 12th season as CC coach.

MOTZKO MUSINGS

St. Cloud State coach Bob Motzko said officials have missed a handful of things in Huskies' games already.

"It is like everything," said Motzko on his weekly radio show of Monday. "Early season, we've got some new officials, new linesmen. They are no different than players. They have to get warmed up and get used to it."

Motzko on Huskies' 2-1 loss to Gophers on Sunday: "Minnesota came out and they got a lead. They outworked us in the first [period]. I've got to give our guys credit because I thought we woke up in the third. Fairly entertaining game. Some sloppiness on our side.

"But they had a lot of resolve. They sold out. They blocked shots. They outworked us on the penalty kill on our power play. We weren't sharp early."

The Gophers blocked 16 shots, defensemen had eight blocks, forwards eight.

Motzko said Gophers goalie Kent Patterson played well Sunday. "He made a big key save on the power play at the start of the third [period]," Motzko said. "We didn't have many quality shots the first half of the game. We were sitting at 10 shots after two periods [actually 13, not much better]. I know four came on the power play. So we didn't really test him [early].

"You can't come on the road and play just one period. We were sluggish early and [the third period] wasn't enough late."