Early deficits have become normal for the Gophers. In eight of their 14 games the opponent has scored first and the story was no different in Saturday's 4-3 victory over Wisconsin.
The Badgers took an early 1-0 lead for the second straight night with a goal from Frankie Simonelli 4:23 into the first period.
As usual, though, the Gophers responded quickly. Less than a minute later Kyle Rau tied the game, 1-1.
"I'm used to looking up and seeing 1-0 against us on the scoreboard," Lucia said after the same result on Friday. "Luckily, we're so used to it, so it doesn't rattle us."
The Gophers weren't rattled at all on Saturday. They trailed twice and overcame the Badgers' late push to force overtime. The group was pleased the ability to continually come from behind, but they need to break the habit co-captain Kyle Rau said.
"It's not what we want to do. Any time you put yourself behind … it's going to catch up to us at one point," Rau said. "We gotta start coming out better."
Senior forward Seth Ambroz agreed. He's been impressed by the team's resiliency, but also wants change.
"It shows we have resiliency. It shows that we are able to come back," Ambroz said before expanding. "I think the past four games at our rink we gave up the first goal. That just can't happen. We gotta be able to get that goal in the first 10 minutes and build from there."
