Lucia unhappy about Saturday's penalties after whistle

All the penalties on the Gophers in their last game were a sore point with coach Don Lucia. His team had 16 penalties for 51 minutes on Saturday in a 5-2 victory over Michigan Tech at Mariucci. The power play was 3-for-7

"Our power play was critical [Saturday] and the guys did a good job on the kill, especially the 4-on-3, and 5-on-3," Lucia said after the game. "The only disappointment for me, we got a little undisciplined and took some penalties after whistles. That's something you have to learn from.

"When you get to the end of the year, a bad penalty can end your season.

"We want to play hard whistle to whistle. Some of that stuff happened a few seconds after whistles. We don't want that. We were short-handed in the back line there. We lost Jake and then Mark had a two and a 10 and Helgy had a two and a 10 and Aaron took a penalty, so we had two defensemen available there early in the third period."

U WAS HURTING ON D

Here's what happened to set up that worrisome scenario:

* Freshman defenseman Mark Alt received two minutes for roughing and a 10-minute misconduct at 15:30 of the second period. ... So he had to sit until 7:30 of the third period.

* Also banished at the same time as Helgy, was freshman defenseman Jake Parenteau. He received a five-minute major and a game disqualification at 18:51. He engaged in the best fight I can remember seeing at a Gophers game this season. He threw what seemed like at least a half dozen punches at Bennett Royer. ... So Parenteau was out for the game.

The Gophers somehow made it through the last 1 minute, 9 seconds of the second period, but then the third started and ...

* Junior defensemen Aaron Ness took a hooking penalty at 8 second,. Uh-oh. That left the Gophers with two actual defensemen -- Cade Fairchild and Kevin Wehrs, who normally don't play as a pair -- from :08 to 2:08 of the third period.

And from 2:08 to 7:30, they had only three.

And from 7:30 to 10:51, they had only four.

Good thing Saturday's game was not close. The Gophers had to make some major adjustments on the blue line. Junior winger Nick Larson and freshman center Erik Haula played some shifts on defense out of necessity. Early in his Gophers' career, Larson has been used at D in practice.

See why Lucia might have been irked?

Michigan Tech only had six shots on goal in the final period and scored one goal, but against a strong offensive team, the U's manpower troubles on defense could have meant a loss for the Gophers.

TIME FOR ROUGH STUFF GONE BY

"That stuff [physical confrontations] is maybe more important in the first half of the year and January," Lucia said. "Now we are a week away from the playoffs. We have more at stake right now. Once you get into the playoffs, you are not going to have that. It's no different than the NHL. You don't see a lot of fighting in the NHL in the playoffs, the games are too critical.

Michigan Tech was called for 14 penalties for 50 minutes.

SCORING UP

The Gophers are averaging five goals per game in their current five-game unbeaten streak [4-0-1].

"It is nice to see some guys scoring," Lucia said. "All of a sudden Taylor has 10 goals. And Hansen has 10 goals. We have five guys that have 10-plus goals."

The U's fab five:

Jay Barriball 12 11--23

Mike Hoeffel 12 11--23

Jake Hansen 10 9--19

Taylor Matson 10 3--13

"And now we will keep our fingers crossed that Jay can come back this week," Lucia said. "And maybe we can set some lines how we want to look going into playoffs.

BARRIBALL IMPROVING

"He skated the last couple days," Lucia said on Saturday. "He is getting stronger. We will have to make a decision Thursday to go up there. I am hoping we can get him a game this weekend to get him ready for the playoffs. But it is too early to know right now."

Will he be ready for the playoffs? "I feel real good about that," Lucia said.

Barriball skated on Tuesday. The team did not have a formal practice, but Barriball worked out with 12 other players. And, for the 30 minutes I stayed, he looked good, skating, shooting, etc. But will the knee that has been bothering him be too sore to skate on Wednesday? That's the question.

THE DON SAYS

The win also gave the Gophers a 9-8-3 home record. Yes, they have work to do in Bemidji for home ice, but not too much. The Gophers need one point for home ice, two for the fifth seed and three or four to keep their bid alive for an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

* On three power play goals on Saturday: "We have altered the units a little bit. They both looked good and are playing well. Cade [defenseman Cade Fairchild] has elevated his game. That is a big part of it because he has such good vision back there to find people. We are getting pucks to the goaltender and scoring some rebound goals, which is a big part of the power play."

Four of the same players were on the ice for all three power play goals: forwards Jake Hansen (two goals), Erik Haula (one goal, one assist), Jacob Cepis (one assist) and defenseman Cade Fairchild (two assists).