The #2 ranked Gopher Hockey team held their weekly press conference at Mariucci Arena. Head Coach Don Lucia met with the media, as the team prepares to take on Bemidji State this weekend at Sanford Center in Bemidji. The Gophers are coming off a weekend split last weekend with Denver at home, losing Friday night 2-0, and then beating the Pioneers 5-1 on Saturday night.
Head Coach Don Lucia:
Regarding the growth of Bemidji State's program over the years… "I don't think some people understand what a great tradition that Bemidji's had over the years. They had a little anonymity up there playing at the Division II level with Bob Peters. But he's had one of the most successful records in the history of college hockey with their program. They're always very good, whether it was in the NAIA for a while. Bemidji deserved to be a Division I member. As the WCHA, we fought very hard for that to happen. It's just great to see that they have the program that they have, and a great facility to play in, like they do. If the WCHA hadn't taken them in, I'm not sure they'd even have a program right now, which would have been sad when you look at the history and the tradition that they've had in that school and their program"
Regarding the Bemidji State series this weekend… "It's certainly going to get us ready for the playoffs. I think the most important thing for us, we have to be patient. Bemidji State is a team that's going to go off the glass, they're going to wrap it around the boards, and they'll catch you if you're being a little too aggressive. We have to make sure we play patient, just like they're going to do, be a good transition team, and try to be good on our specialty teams. If you get overly aggressive, that's when they catch you with odd man rushes"
Regarding the drama of the final weekend… "It's the most dramatic in my twenty years in the WCHA. If you go back through and look at the conference standings over the years, you don't find this many teams so close together. Usually somebody is up by a few points, or maybe there's one other team you're battling with. But certainly not a situation where five different teams can still get a piece of the WCHA going into the last weekend. Like many people have said, this is probably the way it should be in the final year, with the conference configuration the way it is. Obviously, we want to just play well. We don't control whether we can get a piece of it, that part of it's out of our control. But you certainly don't want to leave points on the table, if you're in a position that second night. Our focus is just trying to win on Friday night, and see where we're at. The top teams are all on the road this weekend, so that makes it a little more interesting. But we can't worry about what may happen, or what's happening in another city. We have to worry about what's happening in Bemidji, and nothing else. You get to this point, it has to be a little bit motivating. But again, we don't control that. We can't win anything on Friday night, other than beating Bemidji. We just want to try to win the game on Friday and see where we're at going into Saturday. I think we all feel the same way, that it would be nice to even get a piece of it. But again, that's out of our control. St. Cloud, if they win two games, or get three points this weekend, they have it themselves. But they've gotta go down to Wisconsin with the way their playing. It's unique, because teams are still fighting for home ice. I think a lot of teams are fighting to get to Saturday and see where things are at. And I think we're included. Let's just do our best on Friday, and try to get a win, and see where we're at when we wake up on Saturday morning"
Regarding the lessons of last Friday's loss… "I think they were disappointed. The good thing is we only gave up the one goal. For me, that's the most disappointing. You give up one goal, you should win the game, and we didn't. We just didn't do anything at all offensively. Fortunately, we came back and scored some goals on Saturday. If we can play like we did on Saturday every game from here on out, I'll take it. That's up to the players. They have to play at that pace, they have to play at that tempo, with that commitment level, physically, and taking care of the puck. Doing whatever it takes to win games this time of the year"
Regarding "chewing out" the team on Friday night… "I'm usually pretty even keeled, but we were a little upset on Friday. Between Coach Guentzel and myself Friday and Saturday, they heard it. I think they knew it was coming, and they deserved it. The motivation has to come from the players. If we think we're going to yell and scream at guys all year long, they're going to tune it out. It's just the way it is. And they should. They have to have the want. They have to have the commitment to play their best every night to give themselves a chance to win. Obviously it's about winning and losing, but it's about how you play the game, and playing it the right way. That's our job to try and get them to play the right way. As coaches you get frustrated when they don't. You try to motivate them in many different ways. You can pick and choose a couple times a year when you can have your little tirade. But that's it. I'm sure In the back room they probably got a chuckle out of it a little bit, maybe not at the time, but… They heard it. The good thing is, I think they respected what we said, they took it to heart, and responded the way they needed to respond on Saturday night. And that's leadership too. If you look at who scored on Saturday, who had the points, and who played poorly on Friday. When you get outshot 8-2 on the power play, that's not your third and fourth line guys on your power play. They responded and picked up the scoring on Saturday, as they should, and as the need to do for us from here on out"
Regarding the health of the team… "Yeah, I think we're healthy. The guys are probably excited because we're over at Ridder this week. We're kind of limited to the amount of ice time we can get. They probably like the fact that we can only practice for an hour, an hour and a half, and we can't keep them out there any longer. They're healthy, and I think they're excited. We've had a good week of practice so far. And now we have to have two good days, today and tomorrow, and then get on the bus and enjoy ourselves this weekend"
Head Coach Don Lucia:
Regarding the growth of Bemidji State's program over the years… "I don't think some people understand what a great tradition that Bemidji's had over the years. They had a little anonymity up there playing at the Division II level with Bob Peters. But he's had one of the most successful records in the history of college hockey with their program. They're always very good, whether it was in the NAIA for a while. Bemidji deserved to be a Division I member. As the WCHA, we fought very hard for that to happen. It's just great to see that they have the program that they have, and a great facility to play in, like they do. If the WCHA hadn't taken them in, I'm not sure they'd even have a program right now, which would have been sad when you look at the history and the tradition that they've had in that school and their program"
Regarding the Bemidji State series this weekend… "It's certainly going to get us ready for the playoffs. I think the most important thing for us, we have to be patient. Bemidji State is a team that's going to go off the glass, they're going to wrap it around the boards, and they'll catch you if you're being a little too aggressive. We have to make sure we play patient, just like they're going to do, be a good transition team, and try to be good on our specialty teams. If you get overly aggressive, that's when they catch you with odd man rushes"
Regarding the drama of the final weekend… "It's the most dramatic in my twenty years in the WCHA. If you go back through and look at the conference standings over the years, you don't find this many teams so close together. Usually somebody is up by a few points, or maybe there's one other team you're battling with. But certainly not a situation where five different teams can still get a piece of the WCHA going into the last weekend. Like many people have said, this is probably the way it should be in the final year, with the conference configuration the way it is. Obviously, we want to just play well. We don't control whether we can get a piece of it, that part of it's out of our control. But you certainly don't want to leave points on the table, if you're in a position that second night. Our focus is just trying to win on Friday night, and see where we're at. The top teams are all on the road this weekend, so that makes it a little more interesting. But we can't worry about what may happen, or what's happening in another city. We have to worry about what's happening in Bemidji, and nothing else. You get to this point, it has to be a little bit motivating. But again, we don't control that. We can't win anything on Friday night, other than beating Bemidji. We just want to try to win the game on Friday and see where we're at going into Saturday. I think we all feel the same way, that it would be nice to even get a piece of it. But again, that's out of our control. St. Cloud, if they win two games, or get three points this weekend, they have it themselves. But they've gotta go down to Wisconsin with the way their playing. It's unique, because teams are still fighting for home ice. I think a lot of teams are fighting to get to Saturday and see where things are at. And I think we're included. Let's just do our best on Friday, and try to get a win, and see where we're at when we wake up on Saturday morning"
Regarding the lessons of last Friday's loss… "I think they were disappointed. The good thing is we only gave up the one goal. For me, that's the most disappointing. You give up one goal, you should win the game, and we didn't. We just didn't do anything at all offensively. Fortunately, we came back and scored some goals on Saturday. If we can play like we did on Saturday every game from here on out, I'll take it. That's up to the players. They have to play at that pace, they have to play at that tempo, with that commitment level, physically, and taking care of the puck. Doing whatever it takes to win games this time of the year"
Regarding "chewing out" the team on Friday night… "I'm usually pretty even keeled, but we were a little upset on Friday. Between Coach Guentzel and myself Friday and Saturday, they heard it. I think they knew it was coming, and they deserved it. The motivation has to come from the players. If we think we're going to yell and scream at guys all year long, they're going to tune it out. It's just the way it is. And they should. They have to have the want. They have to have the commitment to play their best every night to give themselves a chance to win. Obviously it's about winning and losing, but it's about how you play the game, and playing it the right way. That's our job to try and get them to play the right way. As coaches you get frustrated when they don't. You try to motivate them in many different ways. You can pick and choose a couple times a year when you can have your little tirade. But that's it. I'm sure In the back room they probably got a chuckle out of it a little bit, maybe not at the time, but… They heard it. The good thing is, I think they respected what we said, they took it to heart, and responded the way they needed to respond on Saturday night. And that's leadership too. If you look at who scored on Saturday, who had the points, and who played poorly on Friday. When you get outshot 8-2 on the power play, that's not your third and fourth line guys on your power play. They responded and picked up the scoring on Saturday, as they should, and as the need to do for us from here on out"
Regarding the health of the team… "Yeah, I think we're healthy. The guys are probably excited because we're over at Ridder this week. We're kind of limited to the amount of ice time we can get. They probably like the fact that we can only practice for an hour, an hour and a half, and we can't keep them out there any longer. They're healthy, and I think they're excited. We've had a good week of practice so far. And now we have to have two good days, today and tomorrow, and then get on the bus and enjoy ourselves this weekend"
