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Q & A with coach Lucia on all things Gopher-related

Gophers coach Don Lucia said his team has played well the past three, four series but was not rewarded its last game.

January 7, 2010 at 6:45AM

Wednesday was the weekly media day with the Gophers hockey team. Gophers coach Don Lucia talked about a wide range of topics. Here are some highlights:

* On Friday's and Saturday's opponent, Harvard: "We expect a very good opponent. Everyone we talked to said they were a lot better than their record. They lost by a goal to Boston College right before Christmas. They had Boston University down with 2-3 minutes and ended up tying the game when they pulled their goalie. Like everybody else, it's not easy for us to win, and we are going to have to work hard to try to get some wins this weekend."

* On why Tony Lucia and Mike Hoeffel are tied for the team lead in points with 15: "They both are hard-working. They play the body. they get into some of those [gritty] areas and usually you are going to get results [when you do that,] And that's somethign we have tried to work hard with all of our forwards right now.

* On scoring problems: "The game becomes a lot more difficult to score every level you go up. We have to do a better job. Like [Sunday], we generate 50 shots, but how many rebound opportunities did we get? We have really worked hard to try to get our forwards to get to the net and get in that area where you get one that goes off you, or you are in a position to score off a rebound. But it hasn't been easy. It's just repetition, repetition, repetition. And hopefully they start to get rewarded and then they will see the results and they will want to do it even more."

(Gophers lost 4-2 to Northern Michigan on Sunday.)

* After Harvard series, talk about how tough the schedule is with games against all ranked WCHA teams except for Alaska Anchorage? "That's the WCHA. There are a lot of good teams in our league. And the good thing is, we got to climb the ladder. Every weekend we play is an opportunity to gain some points, If we take care of business, we will be where we want to be. But we are obviously going to have to play good hockey. We obvioulsy. have to have every phase of our game going. Our power play looked good this past weekend. Getting Jordan [Schroeder] back [from the World Junior Championships] is certainly going to help. [Transfer] Jacob Cepis is going to be a boost for the second half of the year. We have to try to stay healthy. That's an important thing from here on out because we don't have a lot of guys right now."

(The Gophers have two forwards injured, Jay Barriball and Taylor Matson, and one defenseman left the team, Sam Lofquist.)

* Play of late: "We want to focus No. 1 on continuing to play well, and we are playing well right now, We played very well both games back to back last weekend. The last three, four weekends we have played with some real good effort. And you hope with the effort comes reward. Obviously last [Sunday} that wasn't the case. But over time, you hope that reward comes."

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* What's wrong with the offense, which is averaging 2.5 goals per game? "The power play the first half of the year. If you look at 5-on-5 goals, we weren't that far off a lot of teams. We were right around two goals a game 5-on-5, and most teams are right around that. But all of of a sudden, we have eight or 10 power play goals the first half of the year. There are other teams with 25 and that's a big differential.

"What I would like to see us continue to do is No. 1, draw more penalties. And if we move our feet, especially our forwards and get up and on the forecheck and bottle teams up -- because most penalties are taken in the defensive zone when you are trying to defend and get people tired -- we will generate a few more power plays. And then if we can find some rhythm on the power play and score more goals there, now all of a sudden your offensive guys are scoring a little bit more, they feel good about themseleves, and that kind of energizes their game."

* Freshman forward Zach Budish and Josh Birkholz have shown flashes of talent. What do you expect from them the second half of the season? "When I look at our group, you can probably go up and down our line and say, that guy had a couple really good games here. But now what we have to have everybody put together that strong effort and good games, so we can all elevate because that is what we have to do.

"We have to score another goal a game. How many times if we can get a key goal in the second period, maybe give ourselves a bigger cushion than one [goal] then maybe we find a way to win that game. Becauase now a lot of times in hockey, it is the first one to three [goals] wins. And we have lost some games when our goalie has only given up two. As goaltenders and defensively, if you give up two goals, you should definitely win that game."

* Will you play both goalies this weekend? "There is a good chance we will play them both this weekend. Kent [Patterson] has earned that. We have a difficult six-game stretch after our last nonconference weekend. From here on out in conference play, we want them both to feel good about their game and feel rested and ready to go the second half of the season."

* Are you doing anything in practice to increase scoring? "As a coach, [practice] is the fun part. I love being out here Monday thru Thursday and working with the kids and trying to get them better. So we tried to design some drills with that in mind especially this week. And we really have all year long, and you keep showing them video but sometimee you are put in that [scoring] position, but you muffle and you fumble the puck or you shoot it wide or hit the post or hit a shin pad. So you want to keep reinforcing to do everything right and now the player has to be able to finish the play.

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"But to put themselves in the position, somebody might be shooting and a guy may be watching and not anticipating, I got to get to that area, 5 or 6 more feet [away] because that is where the rebound might come. Instead of watching, now the puck rebounds, now I am going to go. Now you are too late. That split second of anticipation, that's the teaching and the part you try to emphasize with these guys. And if they start to get a couple goals off that, then it will be reinforced.

"At a lower level, you score a lot. Maybe it came a little easier. There are plenty of articles we get out of the paper from the NHL. It's the same thing, we got to get to those areas. You watch NHL on the fly, how are goals scored? Unless you are an [Alex] Ovechkin and can hammer a puck from 40 feet out, not many guys blow it by goalies anymore especially without a screeen. You got to have a net presence, you have to be in a position to tip and you have to be in a position to score off rebounds.

"And quite frankly you have to score some goals off people nowadays. You see that all the time where it goes off an inadvertent stick or skate, or knee. Northern Michigan had two goals, one went off a guy's stomach, another was a nice deflection. Another goal. we block it, it goes right to their guy's stick and boom, right in the net off that one faceoff. We haven't had many of those goals. But we've had a lot against us this year. So we have to find a way to turn that and don't be afraid to throw the puck at the net. Maybe it is going to bounce off somebody."

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