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."