Lucia: Gophers control own destiny; Rau deserved suspension perhaps

"You have to have a little bit of amnesia," Gophers coach Don Lucia said Monday on his weekly radio show. "And talk about what went wrong [but then] start to gear up for the next weekend because -- like I said today, 'We like where we are at. Eleven rounds down in this season of the WCHA play, we have three more to go.' "

The Gophers, who are coming off 5-3 and 4-3 in overtime losses at Denver, play Bemidji State this weekend at home, then travel to Nebraska Omaha and finish with Wisconsin at Mariucci Arena

"Four of them are at home," Lucia said, referring to his team's remaining conference games. "We have been good at home and hopefully that can continue here this weekend."

The Gophers are 12-5-0 at home versus 7-6-1 on the road. Since Dec. 31, though, even the friendly atmosphere at Mariucci has not prevented a 2-3-0 skid.

OK, back to amnesia ... "We are still in first place in the league," Lucia said, "and there are three weeks to go. We control our destiny. We are the only team that has that ability."

The Gophers, who have not won the MacNaughton Cup since 2007, have a one-point lead on UMD and a two-point lead on rapidly rising Denver.

RECAP OF RAU'S SUSPENSION

WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod called Lucia that night, the Gophers coach said, to tell him the league was going to review the play. He watched it on video that night after not seeing it live.

The next morning Lucia said he talked to McLeod again and was told Rau would probably be suspended.

"At that time, we had the right to appeal the suspension, which would have allowed Kyle the right to play Saturday night," Lucia said. "But 99.9 [percent of the time] we probably would have lost the appeal and he would not have been allowed to play the next Friday night against Bemidji."

Lucia decided the best option was not to appeal, so he could prepare his lines better for the Beavers.

He said the difficult part of the situation was the supplemental discipline. "There were a couple of other major penalties on the weekend," Lucia said. "You can go back to incidents -- what deserves extra and what doesn't?

Lucia said the hard part for him as a coach is what constitutes an extra game and what doesn't? There is nothing concrete written down.

"We played fine without [Rau]," Lucia said. "Some other guys stepped up, had an opportunity. We certainly put ourselves in a position at the end to win that game."

Lucia said the 5-8, 172-pound Rau, even though he is a small forward, is as competitive as any player on the Gophers and "is not afraid to hit."