Minnesota Gopher Football: What We Know

As college football kicks off this week, it's time to look at the teams local people (allegedly) care about. One of those is Minnesota. The Gophers open up Thursday at home against UNLV. You might remember last year, when Minnesota needed three overtimes to topple the tenacious (and awful) Runnin' Rebels.

Before you settle in for kickoff of the season, here is what you need to know about the Gophers.

Philip Nelson will be better.

Not many top-flight college football teams start true freshmen at quarterback and succeed. Nelson was not really one of them, but the seven games he got to start provided him with valuable experience heading into a big sophomore season. No more does Nelson have to stand in the shadow of athletic enigma MarQueis Gray, who has moved on. Max Shortell, who played as a freshman in 2011, has transferred.

This is Nelson's team. Look for him to take advantage of the confidence his coaches have shown in him.

I'm not proclaiming Nelson a Heisman candidate or anything, but he will improve as he learns more about the level he's playing at.

He should have strong protection from right tackle Josh Campion and left tackle Marek Lenkiewicz (or Ed Olson, I guess), so the hope is he won't be harassed into bad decisions and take a lot of unnecessary hits.

Nelson has a good arm, is a good athlete, and has a better grasp of the offense than ever before. With Mitch Leidner available to play but not pushing Nelson, this is his time.

I don't know who Nelson will throw to.

Part of Nelson's development will be the Gophers coming up with some quality options on the outside. There have been times recently where Gray, a freaking quarterback, looked like the team's best option at receiver. Guys like Derrick Engel and Isaac Fruechte are the best experienced receivers, and they combined for 34 catches last year.

Minnesota figures to be quite young in the passing game. Engel and Fruechte are both juniors, as are receivers KJ Maye and Logan Hutton. Tight ends Drew Goodger and Logan Plsek are both sophomores.

Someone has to step up and give Nelson a target, or all of this is naught.

Donnell Kirkwood can play.

He didn't crack 1,000 yards, but Kirkwood became the most valuable player on Minnesota's offense last year. The Gophers averaged a decent 150-plus yards per game, but didn't do well in short-yardage or goal line situations.

Kirkwood isn't a big dude, and neither is promising freshman Berkley Edwards (he's out at least the first game with an ankle injury). But they have speed to burn, and given how Jerry Kill limited Kirkwood's snaps in the spring sessions and fall camp, he should be plenty fresh and ready to be Minnesota's bell-cow back this fall.

Minnesota has to improve in short yardage, but at least part of that comes from blocking, and the offensive line is big, experienced, and more talented than last year.

Ra'Shede Hageman is legit.

There are no guarantees in football, especially for linemen, where one guy falling onto your leg can alter your career.

But Hageman is developing into a guy who will get his name called by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell at the 2014 draft. In other words, he is a budding first-round pick.

Hageman had six sacks last season, and appeared to finally start tapping into his huge potential. The 311-pounder provides the Gophers with a lot of push in the middle. He's a great athlete for his size, and he has a better understanding of how to beat blockers.

I look at Hageman and see a guy who could potentially play as an under tackle in a 4-3 defense, or as a defensive end in a 3-4 look. In Minnesota's 4-3, he's a great fit as a tackle. If he continues to fulfill his potential, Hageman will win some awards this season, and he will get paid next spring.

The schedule is entirely too difficult for the Gophers to be a contender.

The team has too many holes. I like Nelson, but don't know that he's a star yet. The wide receiving corps is really thin and lacks a true star. Despite Hageman's presence, there isn't enough play-making ability in the front seven for the defense to take a huge step forward.

Oh, and the Gophers will come off a month's worth of non-conference layups to face this Big Ten gauntlet: Michigan (away), Northwestern (away), Nebraska (home), Penn State (home), Wisconsin (home), Michigan State (away).

The talent is there for seven wins, which would be nice, or eight wins, which would be a breakthrough. But 6-6 isn't out of the question, and how would "Gopher Nation" react to that?

Mike Connolly's Special Night

A lot happened over the weekend, but as much as I want to crow about the Packers winning, I also want to make absolutely certain that Mike Connolly's accomplishment isn't lost in the hoopla.

Connolly scored a couple goals as UMD beat Minnesota Saturday night. Here's video from the Northland's NewsCenter.



Our analyst, Kraig Karakas, probably said it best when he intimated that Connolly's big game was even more special because it happened to come against the Gophers.

I had a chance to visit briefly with Mike at Skate With The Bulldogs yesterday, and you have to love his team-first mindset. He had a chance to put the puck in the empty net for a sixth goal Saturday night, which would have been a school record, but he didn't want that. The win was more important, and UMD got it.

Mike Connolly had already gotten my vote as WCHA Player of the Year when I did an informal mid-season ballot. What he did over the weekend should open some eyes around the country. It's easy to forget -- given what happened Saturday -- that Mike was the best player on the ice Friday night, too. It was enough that head coach Scott Sandelin and I spent significant time in our pregame chat Saturday talking about his performance.

"He played Michigan Tech and wasn't 100 percent," Sandelin said Saturday. "(Friday) he was extremely competitive, finished checks. He's been one of our top players most of the year. The month before Christmas he really took off and brought his game to another level."

I'll freely admit my biases, but I'll also be the first one to argue for anyone in the league as Player of the Year. I don't blindly vote UMD players for awards or honors they don't deserve, and Mike Connolly is no exception, because he deserves the serious consideration of everyone who covers this league for that major honor.

As Jess Myers of Inside College Hockey pointed out Saturday night (and he should know, since he's a Hobey voter), the award isn't won in November or December. Last year, Blake Geoffrion separated himself by playing some unreal hockey in February and March, while other candidates (most notably Marc Cheverie) didn't distinguish themselves in those clutch games.

The lesson here? Voting hasn't happened yet, and decisions aren't made. This prestigious honor will go to a guy who plays great in February and March.

With that being said, Mike Connolly is off to a great start.

Game 27: Minnesota at UMD

After tying Friday, UMD cannot win the season series from Minnesota as hoped this weekend. What they can do, though, is at least tie for first place in the WCHA with a win. They haven't sat atop the league table this late in a season since 2004, the year they went to the Frozen Four.

Lines?

Lines.

UMD
Connolly (Mike) - Connolly (Jack) - Fontaine
Schmidt - Oleksuk - Brown
Grun - Flaherty - Seidel
Tardy - Hendrickson - Basaraba

Faulk - Montgomery
Bergman - Lamb
Olson - Palm

Crandall - Reiter - Gaffy

UMTC
Cepis - Haula - Barriball
Hoeffel - Bjugstad - Hansen
Condon - Matson - Larson
Gardiner - White - Sacchetti

Fairchild - Helgeson
Ness - Alt
Wehrs - Schmidt

Patterson - Kremer

Saturday Hockey Notes and Thoughts: No Need to Worry About the Pairwise

If you take a trip around the college hockey twitterverse, you'll usually have no trouble finding some sort of anxiety over the latest update of the Pairwise ratings. It's about as automatic as sunrise and sunset.

I've received a few texts and tweets from people over the last few weeks who were in full-on grip mode regarding the ratings, even though we are still six weeks away from them being remotely useful.

For UMD, a "fall" from a peak of second to fourth in the ratings after Friday's tie against Minnesota probably has people squeezing the life out of the mouse as they look online at the Pairwise.

Don't worry, fans. It's still nothing more than a meaningless discussion piece, a measuring stick of where your favorite team stands against the others. Not only that, but as long as your team doesn't go into a slump (and, no, saying "UMD hasn't won a game since Jan. 22" doesn't mean UMD is in a slump), everything is fine.

Not only that, but with it being so early in the season, we're going to see more turnover with the teams actually in the Pairwise. As teams like Robert Morris, Alaska-Anchorage, Bemidji State, and others drop off and come back on, it is going to lead to some volatility in the way the rankings shape up.

Once we get closer to March 20 and the selections, there will be less volatility and a bit more certainty as to which teams will actually be in the Pairwise when it's all said and done.

For now, just relax and enjoy the hockey. Especially if you're a UMD fan, because there's nothing to be upset about when your favorite hockey team is still in position for No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

******

Friday night, we saw the pitcher's duel we expected to see. UMD goalie Kenny Reiter and Minnesota's Kent Patterson were rock solid, and the teams skated to a 2-2 draw.

Patterson made a few more saves, but Reiter's stop of Jay Barriball on a breakaway was easily the best save of the night. Patterson made a beauty earlier in the second period to stop what inexplicably turned into a three-on-one UMD rush off the opening faceoff. I'm pretty sure I hadn't seen that happen above the Mite level before.

It was an entertaining game, and probably should have been a tie. Minnesota -- as they showed with the sweep at Colorado College and the win at North Dakota -- is capable of being a very dangerous group in the second half of the season, and it's simply a matter of playing with more consistency.

UMD simply has to find a way to generate some life in the power play. Too many times Friday, the Bulldogs played on the perimeter, and were simply incapable of getting serious pressure in front of Patterson. Given that Minnesota's penaly kill was last in the league entering the game, that's probably something that ate away at the coaches as they watched the video.

Before the game, Minnesota coach Don Lucia told me that he was hoping his team would hold UMD to a draw on special teams. He got better than that, as Cade Fairchild's power-play goal was the only goal in the game not scored five-on-five. Certainly, it's good that UMD could score five-on-five, but when you're up against a penalty kill as statistically bad as the Gophers, it isn't good enough to score twice in 17 chances over three games.

If UMD doesn't win the special teams battle Saturday, it could be a sign of trouble.

******

Minnesota State got an overtime goal from Channing Boe to beat Bemidji State 2-1. Considering that MSU outshot BSU 43-19, it's probably fair.

Nebraska-Omaha's 3-0 win over St. Cloud State was John Faulkner's fifth shutout of the season. That's Stalockian.

Colorado College beat Denver 3-2 to put themselves in position to win the Gold Pan at Denver Saturday night. The Tigers have taken sole possession of sixth, thanks to Minnesota's tie.

Michigan Tech has now lost 17 straight after falling 4-1 at Alaska-Anchorage. The Huskies managed just 14 shots on goal, which should sound familiar, since they had 14 in each of UMD's two shutout wins there two weeks ago.

Game 26: Minnesota at UMD

There might be a few people here for these games.

Rivalry weekend ... fun!

Lines?

Lines.

UMD
Connolly (Mike) - Connolly (Jack) - Grun
Fontaine - Oleksuk - Brown
Schmidt - Flaherty - Seidel
Tardy - Hendrickson - Basaraba

Faulk - Montgomery
Bergman - Lamb
Olson - Palm

Reiter - Crandall

UMTC
Hoeffel - Haula - Barriball
Cepis - Bjugstad - Hansen
Condon - Matson - White
Serratore - Larson - Sacchetti

Helgeson - Fairchild
Ness - Alt
Wehrs - Holl

Patterson - Kremer

The Stretch Run Begins

The next five weeks will decide a lot in the WCHA. Once we are through this weekend, there will be no difference in games played among the league's top eight teams (at least the top eight heading into the weekend), meaning we won't have to talk about games in hand, and teams won't have to sit out weekends and watch someone pass them in the standings.

At the top, it's a jumbled mess, with little separating Denver, UMD, and North Dakota. Or North Dakota, Denver, and UMD. Or UMD, North Dakota, and Denver.

You get the point.

North Dakota's schedule is very easy down the stretch, but that doesn't mean they've got a lockdown on the league title. Injuries to Chay Genoway and Danny Kristo have at least left the door open.

For UMD, a significant group of games awaits. The Bulldogs will be tested by the defense-minded Gophers, improving teams from St. Cloud State and Minnesota State, the always-tough-at-home Colorado College Tigers, and a Nebraska-Omaha team that is still a legitimate threat to make noise in this league.

Obviously, it's not reasonable to suggest North Dakota is going to play .500 hockey against UAA, St. Cloud State, Bemidji State, and Michigan Tech. Best case for the teams battling UND for the top spot is probably that North Dakota posts something resembling a 5-2-1 mark over these eight games. That leaves them 19-8-1 in league play for 39 points. To beat that, UMD would need at least seven wins over their last ten. I'm not saying that's too much to ask, but given the Bulldogs' schedule, it doesn't leave much margin for error.

Factor in the importance of winning season series (UMTC leads UMD 1-0-1 in the season series now), and this is a huge weekend for the Bulldogs, even if you don't take the opponent into account.

UMD is at full strength for the weekend, as forward Kyle Schmidt is back in the lineup. Look for Schmidt to skate five-on-five with Keegan Flaherty and Mike Seidel. The Schmidt/Flaherty combination is hard to beat in terms of speed, and Seidel is very good around the net. This allows UMD to keep the top two lines intact, with David Grun joining Mike and Jack Connolly, and Travis Oleksuk centering Justin Fontaine and J.T. Brown. The latter of these two was potent against Michigan Tech, and Grun looks to be working very well with the Connollys.

For Minnesota, there are a few things to be aware of. First off, goalie Kent Patterson has been in a zone lately. Even in games the Gophers have lost, it's not like you can really put it on Patterson. He's third in the league in save percentage, and in league play, he's one of the top goalies around. UMD's netminders -- Kenny Reiter (starting Friday) and Aaron Crandall -- are no slouches, but Patterson was a game-breaker against UMD in December, and if he does that again, the Gophers will be very tough to beat.

Offensively, the Gophers are heavily reliant lately on their transition game. The speed they generate with the likes of Jay Barriball and Jacob Cepis makes them potent off turnovers, so it's key for UMD to take good care of the puck. Minnesota is capable of turning neutral zone/blue line turnovers into odd-man rushes, but they're a less dangerous team when you make them go 200 feet with the puck and don't let them score off the rush.

Defensively, Minnesota has some physical guys like Mark Alt and Justin Holl, but they also have guys back there who aren't as noticeable in the hitting game. That's not to say Cade Fairchild, Kevin Wehrs, and Aaron Ness can't lay the lumber. It's just that they're more effective with the puck because of their passing and/or shooting ability. On the power play, Minnesota likes to use big bodies like Mike Hoeffel in front of the net, something UMD will have to be careful of.

The atmosphere should be electric this weekend, and UMD needs to raise their level of play. It's a huge key down the stretch for UMD to get points. Doesn't matter if they have to win ugly.

Just win, baby.

Stand By Your (Rival's) Man

While a legion of Minnesota hockey fans continues to hope for the return of alum Dean Blais to resurrect the men's hockey program from the depths of darkness (or, in their case, the fact they only won two national championships last decade), Don Lucia is still doing his best to make this season a success.

At the age of 52, Lucia has been written off by many Gopher fans, many of whom believe that if Joel Maturi would just commit to making a change, Blais would waltz in the front door and fix everything that's wrong with Gopher hockey.

As proven by the University of Michigan -- a fine institution with great football tradition that just fired their third-year head coach because they thought the big-name alum would never dream of turning them down -- this is a very dangerous assumption.

(Of course, Michigan fired Rich Rodriguez with the hopes that Jim Harbaugh would rescue them. Instead, they were stuck hiring their "Michigan man" in Brady Hoke, who has exactly two winning seasons as a head coach.)

Whether your coach has won over 500 games in his career, or he's perennially 15 games under .500, it's a tough sell for an athletic director to fire a coach without some sort of assurance that the school can do better.

Given what Lucia has accomplished, is it a slam dunk that the "Main U" can do better than him?

Probably not.

******

For fans, it's part of life to root for the backup quarterback/goalie and the replacement coach. The guy you have is never good enough, because THIS OTHER PERSON you really don't know anything about is automatically better.

The worst thing that a Gopher fan can say about Lucia is that he was late to the party when it came time to adjust to his early departures. The idea that this program is forever floundering under his leadership is so ridiculous it barely merits mention.

As he told College Hockey News in July, he believes the program is still doing just fine.

The Internet has a life of its own now. ... The bottom line, our kids graduate. We've won a lot. Are we where we want to be right now? No. The trick is, we need to keep our kids long enough. It used to be a guy was an All-American before he left. If you can keep those guys long enough — look at what RIT did in Atlantic Hockey, or Bemidji State before that. Why? It was a bunch of 22- and 23-year olds. They were grizzled vets. They aren't going to play in the NHL. We've got to find a way to have that. Some kids like (current senior) Mike Hoeffel wanted to stay and graduate. Most of them that are drafted, they can all leave if they want, at any time and more than likely (their drafted team will) sign them.

Lucia may have been late to the party, but he got the message.

College hockey teams need star players. Last year, Boston College had Cam Atkinson, but they also had older veteran types like Carl Sneep and Matt Lombardi. Atkinson may have been a big part of the offense, but the veterans brought the experience and leadership. Wisconsin had some young guns, but also older glue guys like Ben Street, Aaron Bendickson, Andy Bohmbach, and Michael Davies.

Minnesota needed more role players the last few years. Glue guys. Veterans. Guys who stay their four years, pay their dues, and bring the kind of "want to" that's hard to duplicate. Right now, many of their older guys are high draft picks who haven't panned out.

That could change, though.

Freshman Tom Serratore is all about heart and soul. Hell, he's a Serratore, so that should tell you all you need to know about his game. He won't dazzle anyone, but his skills are supplemented by an great competitive streak and a toughness that will serve him well as he grows up. He's 21, so he'll be 25 as a senior.

It's the older juniors and seniors that can make a team go in the spring. The reality is that you can't keep bona-fide future NHL stars in college long enough. You have to build a solid team around the stars, one that can sustain itself when the star leaves early.

Lucia recognizes that, and he appears to be making a more concentrated effort toward recruiting those types of players. That will make his top-notch recruits even more dangerous, because they won't have to eat those third- and fourth-line minutes when they should be getting power play time.

******

Minnesota plays UMD this weekend. UMD fans don't like Lucia, but I always have. From a professional standpoint, I couldn't ask an opposing coach to be more accommodating than he's been. But my favorite Lucia story has nothing to do with interviews or sound bites.

On Dec. 14, 2007, Lucia was in Duluth for a UMD game. His Gophers weren't playing. Instead, it was a chance for him to see the U.S. Under 18 National Team, a team that featured future Gophers Jordan Schroeder and Sam Lofquist.

During the second intermission, my father-in-law, who has rarely passed up an opportunity to schmooze with someone (something that is still hardly a strength of mine) decided to introduce himself to the coach, who was in the same section taking advantage of some empty seats.

After doing that, he decided that Lucia should meet my son, who was in his first year of playing little-kids hockey. Since it was close to Christmas, Lucia asked the boy, five at the time, if he was going to get a Gopher jersey from Santa.

My son's response? Looked at Lucia, totally serious, and said, "I am NOT a Gopher fan."

Good sport that he is, Lucia laughed it off, and probably crossed my son off his list of potential commitments for the 2021-22 season.

******

Reality is pretty simple.

Lucia has won two national championships and, literally, hundreds of games in college hockey. He hasn't lost his mind, and he hasn't simply forgotten how to coach kids.

If Minnesota thinks they can do better, they're probably mistaken. The Gophers have been hit hard by early departures, and they've been hit hard by the ability of the state's other four NCAA Division I programs -- along with nearby North Dakota -- to recruit Minnesota kids. Minnesota no longer has their pick of Minnesota talent. Instead, they have to 1) compete with UMD, St. Cloud State, Bemidji State, Minnesota State, and North Dakota; 2) realize that they won't win all those races; and 3) succeed in recruiting out-of-state players to make up for the in-state talent they don't get.

The sport isn't what it used to be. It's not easy to get to the NCAA Tournament, the Frozen Four, or the title game. It's not easy to get home-ice and make the WCHA Final Five.

For once, though, it would be nice if the fans could just support the team and let the coach do his job. If fans really did know everything, UMD wouldn't be playing .740 hockey for Scott Sandelin right now. After all, many UMD fans wanted him out three years ago. Instead, he stuck around, and while it's been 25 years since UMD posted three straight 20-win seasons, they're three wins away from making it happen.

Oh, and there are at least 12 games left on the schedule. I like their chances.

I like Lucia's, too, even if no one else does at this point. What I wrote about him last year still stands today.

Listen. You're not going to find excuses for Gopher hockey shortcomings in this space. They're not nearly as good as they should be, and Lucia deserves at least some blame for it.

However, this guy didn't win over 500 games and two national championships in college hockey by being a dummy. To suggest that the game has passed him by at age 51 is just silly. He's still sharp, still well-connected, and still knows how to win games.

Tell me I'm wrong, because I'm certain that I'm not.

Did SaveGopherFootball.com Harm Gopher Football?

This just in: People in Minnesota don't necessarily like Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi.

Some have taken their dislike too far, however.

The folks behind the website SaveGopherFootball.com might have a well-meaning plan. After all, they have been consistent in their stance that Maturi -- the same guy who headed a search that led to Tim Brewster -- shouldn't be allowed to search for Brewster's successor.

That's fine. There's nothing wrong with taking a stand and speaking out. Gopher football has stunk for so many years that the alumni and fans should take a stand.

However, actions that interfere in Maturi's ability to do his job ... well, that's just wrong.

Former All-Big Ten punter Adam Kelly went so far as to contact officials at other universities to warn them that Maturi might contact their coach without asking permission.

"That's unethical and reprehensible behavior," university President Robert Bruininks said. "To interfere in the process that way, I think it's indefensible."

Kelly, though, said Maturi was the unethical one, citing his hush-hush contact with San Diego State coach Brady Hoke before the Aztecs' season had ended. In addition to e-mails, he said he called Temple's athletic director, Bill Bradshaw, to point out a newspaper column critical of Maturi.

"He said, 'We already read the story, and it was his opinion that hundreds of other AD's around the country had read it and were shaking their heads," Kelly said. "Was it [the call] unethical? It's more unethical to contact a coach before his season's done."

Bruininks said he was surprised by the negativity from outside the program, calling it the work of "a relatively small and active group that I think is offbase.

"I don't think they've done the university any service, and I think they've done a disservice to themselves."

Kelly is right about Maturi being unethical in not asking permission to interview coaches. That's just a courtesy and has been part of virtually every school's protocol for many years.

But two wrongs don't make a right, and Kelly's wrong might have actually hindered his alma mater's ability to hire the kind of coach he wanted them to.

How ironic. In trying to help, his group may have harmed.

Gophers Hire Jerry Kill; Fans Would Have 'Killed' For Someone More Exciting

Here's the problem when it comes to hiring coaches.

There is no "tried and true" formula.

You can try to hire a guy with loads of experience who may have gotten a raw deal from his previous employer, and it turns into a guy like Tubby Smith. Unwanted in Kentucky, Smith's been great for Minnesota, and he isn't under this never-ending pressure to win national championships. He's making good money and likely enjoying himself while he does it.

Of course, going this route when making a hire might lead you to Rick Neuheisel. Jettisoned in Washington after a rather odd-looking "scandal," Neuheisel was hired by UCLA three years ago to take over his alma mater's floundering football program.

Well, they made the EagleBank Bowl last year (only because Army lost their last game and didn't qualify). Overall, Neuheisel is 15-22, 8-19 in Pac-10 play, and there are a lot of people calling for his head, especially considering that UCLA had a prime opportunity to gain relevance in Los Angeles because of USC's failings the last two years.

(Tyrone Willingham also qualifies here, thanks to the "work" he did at Washington after everyone accused Notre Dame of being racist when they fired him.)

You can hit home runs with guys like Dan Mullen, hired by Mississippi State despite never being a head coach in his life. He's got the Bulldogs playing in a Jan. 1 bowl game in just his second year on the job.

Of course, you can also strike out embarrassingly with the likes of Tim Brewster, hired by Minnesota despite never being a head coach in his life. He got the Gophers to a pair of Insight Bowls, but failed to impress at any point, especially points where he was required to actually coach and not just talk about coaching.

It's not an exact science. So when Minnesota fired Brewster and went about their search for a new coach, athletic director Joel Maturi had an important decision to make.

If he made a mistake, it was in his philosophy, not his execution.

As I wrote back when Brewster got fired, Minnesota needs a significant change to their football culture. Even before Brewster took the job, mediocrity had set in, and it became accepted. Glen Mason was a good coach, but he was never going to get Minnesota further than, say, the Sun Bowl. The Sun Bowl is a nice game that's well-run, but El Paso doesn't resonate among fans and alumni like Pasadena does. It's just a fact of life.

There are many programs that won't ever achieve anything better than the middle-tier bowls -- Peach, Sun, Gator, Holiday, and the like -- outside of an anomalous year or two. It's not a bad way to make a living, really.

But Minnesota wanted to aim higher. They determined Mason wouldn't get them there, and they fell for Brewster's bluster.

It could have worked, had Brewster possessed any real sense of how to run a football team (note: "into the ground" doesn't count).

Burned -- in part -- by Brewster's lack of experience, Maturi set out to fix that failing this time around. He wasn't going to settle for the hot assistant coach who lacked head coaching experience. The otherwise perfect candidate (Wisconsin offensive coordinator Paul Chryst) was out as a result. No chance.

When fans heard this, names like Mike Leach and Mike Bellotti floated around. Then Miami fired Randy Shannon, bring to light another name. No buyouts would be necessary for any of them.

But were they fits?

This is what I wrote about this search:

Look around the league right now. The most successful coaches -- Jim Tressel, Kirk Ferentz, Bret Bielema, Pat Fitzgerald, and Mark Dantonio -- spent time in the Big Ten as assistant coaches before becoming head coaches in the league. Of them, only Fitzgerald is an actual alum of the school (Northwestern) he is at now, but the point is that all these coaches have worked within the culture of the league.

The Big Ten isn't like witchcraft or anything, but you don't see a lot of successful Big Ten coaches getting jobs at Florida or anything like that (notable exception is Nick Saban, but he left Michigan State for LSU after the 1999 season). It's a different way of doing things, and you have to understand the types of student-athletes who can succeed at these schools.

Just hiring the offensive coordinator from Auburn (Gus Malzahn), for example, isn't going to guarantee you anything.

Same thing if you try to pluck a coach like Gary Patterson from his current job (TCU). Patterson is great at recruiting Texas high-school stars. That state is so rich in talent that it's ridiculous, and Patterson does well getting top players to go to a Mountain West school.

Of course, if he takes the Minnesota job, he can't be guaranteed any kind of similar success in recruiting. Why would the star running back from Southlake Carroll say "No" to Texas so he could go to Minnesota?

Leach would have been a sexy, newsworthy hire. It also would have been a potentially volatile one. In an interview with The Sporting News magazine, Leach details what he's looking for from a school that wants to hire him. Among the items on his list are a rich recruiting base (Minnesota? Nope.), an undervalued program looking to get better (Minnesota is only undervalued because they're so bad), and an administration that is stable and focused (Minnesota is changing presidents, and Maturi is thought to be somewhat on the hot seat. It's not the picture of stability.

Only in the perfect situation would Leach be a good fit. His ego is such that he isn't right for just any opening, and his pedigree is impressive enough to allow him to do whatever he wants while he waits for the right job.

Gophers fans who wanted him over anyone are dreaming. He would have clashed with the administration. He's the anti-Tubby Smith, a gentleman (at least on the outside) who oozes class and dignity. Leach oozes smarts and is an eccentric fellow, but he's also got quite the ego, and he isn't afraid to use it. Just comparing Leach and Smith is unfair, because they're very different people.

As far as finding the right fit goes, Maturi may have done well here. He pigeonholed himself by not considering coaches who lacked FBS head coaching experience, because it left Chryst off his list. He also made it clear he wasn't going to hire another Brewster, so NFL assistants who lacked head coaching experience (Darrell Bevell and Leslie Frazier, for example) weren't going to be considered.

Neither was Marc Trestman, a former Gopher who is a successful CFL coach in Montreal.

In Kill, Maturi found a guy who has a lot of experience building programs, and he's got roots in the Midwest. He doesn't have the Big Ten experience I wrote about and thought was a necessity, but he does have an understanding of how to win football games in the Midwest. If Maturi wasn't going to consider first-time head coaches, he was not likely to get a guy with Big Ten experience that would satisfy his fanbase.

Then again, outside of the wrong guy (Leach), Maturi wasn't going to win with his fanbase. They wanted the sexy name, and Maturi was right not to deliver it to them.

After all, Illinois wanted the sexy name in Ron Zook. Look what that got them.

Tim Brewster's Firing Should Lead to Significant Changes at Minnesota

Tim Brewster couldn't change the culture.

Promises of Rose Bowls, conference championships, and elite players were all left unfulfilled, as Brewster was fired Sunday with a coaching record of 15-30, only 6-21 in Big Ten play.

I know he was just a hair from going 45-0 and 27-0, but that just didn't happen. Instead, the Gophers have to start over, not even four years after they fired Glen Mason in favor of starting over with Brewster.

Having reached out to alum Tony Dungy and been rebuffed by him (though he says he'll help with the search), athletic director Joel Maturi is in full search mode, as offensive coordinator Jeff Horton finishes what is a lost season that will end up with Minnesota no better than 3-9 and probably much worse than that.

The reaction of fans varies. Some want the Gophers to shoot for a big name -- ala basketball coach Tubby Smith -- and others want Minnesota to hire a guy who will want to be with the program for the long run.

Either way, it's a crapshoot.

There is no safe bet when hiring a coach. Hot young coaches like Dirk Koetter and Dan Hawkins both struggled after leaving Boise State for BCS conference teams. Former assistant Randy Shannon is doing well at Miami, but longtime coach Ralph Friedgen has largely struggled at Maryland.

What Minnesota can do, however, is make sure they get a coach with a successful resume and much less "promise" and "bluster" than Brewster provided.

Here are some keys:

1. Get someone with experience as a head coach at something other than a high school. That might work at Houston, but high school coaching experience won't help as much at Minnesota. The Gophers need a more seasoned coach, either from college or the NFL (more on that in a second).

This isn't unlike the NHL, where guys like John MacLean and Scott Arniel couldn't get head-coaching jobs until they cut their teeth in the AHL, and now Kirk Muller is on that list. They were accomplished coaches, but that head-coaching experience is vital before NHL teams will let you run a bench.

Hiring Brewster proved to be a mistake, and you have to look at his lack of experience as a part of the problem. He may have known how to recruit, but he had no idea how to implement a plan, develop an identity on either side of the ball, or handle a coaching staff.

Now, Maturi has to get a coach who has experience as a head coach. It is a must.

2. Hire a coach who has ties to the Big Ten. Look around the league right now. The most successful coaches -- Jim Tressel, Kirk Ferentz, Bret Bielema, Pat Fitzgerald, and Mark Dantonio -- spent time in the Big Ten as assistant coaches before becoming head coaches in the league. Of them, only Fitzgerald is an actual alum of the school (Northwestern) he is at now, but the point is that all these coaches have worked within the culture of the league.

The Big Ten isn't like witchcraft or anything, but you don't see a lot of successful Big Ten coaches getting jobs at Florida or anything like that (notable exception is Nick Saban, but he left Michigan State for LSU after the 1999 season). It's a different way of doing things, and you have to understand the types of student-athletes who can succeed at these schools.

Just hiring the offensive coordinator from Auburn (Gus Malzahn), for example, isn't going to guarantee you anything.

Same thing if you try to pluck a coach like Gary Patterson from his current job (TCU). Patterson is great at recruiting Texas high-school stars. That state is so rich in talent that it's ridiculous, and Patterson does well getting top players to go to a Mountain West school.

Of course, if he takes the Minnesota job, he can't be guaranteed any kind of similar success in recruiting. Why would the star running back from Southlake Carroll say "No" to Texas so he could go to Minnesota?

3. Don't be afraid to take a chance. This doesn't mean hire another Brewster. Instead, it means don't be afraid to spend more money to get the right guy. Sounds like the Gophers are willing to do this, and that's a good thing.

Good coaches aren't just looking to get paid. They're looking for a school that has exhibited a commitment to the sport, and the willingness to make the sport successful in the long-term at some short-term cost.

They will want a lot of money for themselves and their assistants. They will want to make sure facilities are kept up at top-notch condition, and they will stop at nothing to make sure the program is promoted properly.

This is a great city in a great state, with a super new stadium, playing in one of the biggest conferences in college sports.

There are no excuses for what Minnesota has become, and now it's up to Joel Maturi to make sure things turn around.

TOP FIVE CANDIDATES (alphabetical order)
Paul Chryst, Wisconsin offensive coordinator --> Experienced Big Ten assistant who got a sniff from the NFL a few years ago. Knows how to help a successful program recruit, and could give the Gophers a few much-needed steals from Wisconsin, after the Badgers took so many Minnesota kids over the years.

Jim Harbaugh, Stanford head coach --> Could be tough to lure him out of the California sun, but he'll never do better than this at Stanford. Minnesota offers him a higher ceiling, and it brings him closer to his alma mater (Michigan).

Mike Leach, former Texas Tech head coach --> Probably got a raw deal, and it's reasonable to suggest he will get another head coaching job soon. Could be a Glen Mason-type, where his ability won't take a team to a BCS bowl, but he'll always be capable of leading his players to 7-10 wins and a bowl game.

Bob Nielson, Minnesota Duluth head coach and athletic director --> Brilliant coach at the Division II level, with a national championship at UMD and a stellar overall record. No Big Ten experience, but his roots are in the upper Midwest -- with stops in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota as a coach and athletic director -- so he isn't far from being a perfect fit.

Marc Trestman, Montreal (CFL) head coach --> Much to worry about here, including a nomadic career as an NFL assistant. He's done very well in Montreal, though, and his offense is among the better in Canada. Hasn't been involved with the Big Ten since he went to Minnesota, so it remains to be seen if he could win in college as a head coach. Will get play here because he's a Twin Cities native.

Sid Hartman's Out Of His Mind

We've driven down this road before, it seems.

After all, Sid Hartman has written for the Minneapolis Star Tribune longer than anyone reading this has been alive, I'll bet. The well-known columnist has become a parody in a way, because sometimes he writes stuff that is so crazy that not even he can believe it.

Thursday was the latest in a long line of that kind of stuff.

He decided to tackle the situation surrounding Minnesota Gophers football coach Tim Brewster. While a sane person could still defend embattled hockey coach Don Lucia at this point, it has to be assumed that even Brewster's family and close friends know he isn't going to last much longer at Minnesota.

Hartman says that shouldn't be the case. He invokes the names "Alvarez" and "Ferentz" to make his point, which is like using Bud Grant and Vince Lombardi to defend Chan Gailey.

Alvarez, now the Badgers' athletic director, went 11-22 overall and 5-19 in the Big Ten in his first three years. Wisconsin finished in 10th place in 1990, tied for eighth in 1991 and tied for sixth in 1992. In his fourth year, Alvarez was 10-1-1, tied for first in the Big Ten with a 6-1-1 record and then won the Rose Bowl with a 21-16 victory over UCLA.

... As for Ferentz, he was 11-24 overall and 7-17 in his first three years in the Big Ten. He was 1-10 overall and 0-8 in the Big Ten in his first year at Iowa in 1999 and 3-9 overall and 3-5 in the Big Ten in his second year. In his third year, the Hawkeyes were 7-5 (4-4 Big Ten), went to the Alamo Bowl and beat Texas Tech 19-16.

In his fourth year, Ferentz coached the Hawkeyes to a 11-2 overall record and tied for the Big Ten title with an 8-0 mark. Iowa went to the Orange Bowl, losing to USC 38-17, and has had only one sub-.500 season (6-7 in 2006) since 2001.

Really?

Now, I'm the first to preach patience, but here are the nuts and bolts of Brewster's first three seasons in Minnesota.

2007: 1-11 overall, 0-8 Big Ten, lost to a I-AA team, outscored by 10.4 points per game
2008: 7-6 overall, 3-5 Big Ten, lost bowl game, outscored by 1.6 points per game
2009: 6-7 overall, 3-5 Big Ten, lost bowl game, beat a I-AA newcomer by three points, outscored by 2.9 points per game
2010: 1-3 overall, 0-0 Big Ten, lost to a I-AA team, outscored by 4.5 points per game

Alvarez took over a moribound program, steadily improved it every year, and it culminated with a trip to the Rose Bowl as his first class of recruits matured and he made some of his predecessor's recruits into very good upperclassmen along the way.

Ferentz took over a moribound program, steadily improved it every year, and it culminated with a trip to a major bowl as his first class of recruits matured and he made some of his predecessor's recruits into very good upperclassmen along the way.

Brewster didn't take over a moribound program. Glen Mason tok the Gophers to bowl games in 2002, 2003 (ten-win season), 2004, 2005, and 2006. Joel Maturi overreacted to Mason's team blowing a huge lead against Texas Tech in the Insight Bowl, and he fired the coach for no good reason a year after extending his contract.

Brewster came in, blew the whole thing up, posted the worst single-season record in program history, and talked about Rose Bowls. With the kind of bluster Brewster spewed from the start of his tenure in Minnesota, he shouldn't be given a ton of time to prove he wasn't full of crap.

After all the talk, it's been back-to-back Insight Bowls, where the Gophers have lost to national powers Kansas and Iowa State.

Of course, Kansas is a national power in basketball, not football. And Iowa State is a national power in wrestling, not football. So those losses really aren't anything to write home about if you're a Brewster supporter.

Yes they are 1-3 now, but they are 0-0 in the Big Ten. Nobody knows what the rest of the season will bring.

No, Sid, no one knows anything. That's correct.

But the Gophers need five Big Ten wins to even qualify for a minor bowl game, and they have to do it against a schedule that includes five ranked teams.

What's more likely is that the team has a ceiling of about 4-8 for the season, and that's not exactly showing improvement.

In fact, it seems like a step back.

Oh, and that South Dakota team that walked all over the Gophers "defense" a few weeks ago? They lost Saturday to North Dakota State.

38-16.

Preach on, Sid. Surely, you converted someone in the Cities to Brewsterism with your cheerleading Thursday. Just don't take too much pride. It doesn't take a lot to convert the insane.

Gophers Lose Two More

Not much has been going right for the Minnesota Gopher hockey program. They hadn't left the state in 20 years for a first-round WCHA playoff series until they headed to Grand Forks in March. That was their second road trip for a first-round series in three years, and they've now missed a Final Five and been knocked out in the play-in game over the last two years.

Making matters worse, close rivals UMD and North Dakota each won three games in three days to win the last two Final Five titles.

Oh, and Minnesota has hosted NCAA regionals in each of the last two years, seasons in which they missed the NCAA Tournament.

What appeared to be a relatively calm offseason for early departures has blown up on the Gophers recently. They have seen two forwards decommit, they reported ticked off another prospect when they told him to stay in juniors one more year, and now we learn of two early departures involving active players.

The first was announced officially by the Gophers themselves early Tuesday afternoon. Forward Josh Birkholz, a sophomore, was apparently about to get suspended for "violating team rules" (use your imagination, I guess). Instead of sitting out however many games, Birkholz is taking his talents elsewhere.

Birkholz "has decided to leave the program," the school announced in a terse statement that offered no further comment. Reports have him heading to the Western Hockey League's Everett Silvertips, a Canadian major junior team. His college eligibility will be relinquished with the move.

It's unclear if the Florida Panthers -- who drafted Birkholz in the third round in 2009 -- had anything to do with this decision. If so, it's sad that the pro team stepped in and kept a college team from instituting discipline. Shipping him to the WHL teaches him nothing about what he did wrong -- whatever it was.

Birkholz wasn't the only player Minnesota lost today. The long-rumored signing of defenseman Nick Leddy by the Chicago Blackhawks has apparently happened. Leddy was traded by the Wild in the Cam Barker deal, then apparently had a heck of a prospect camp for Chicago. Since the Blackhawks are strapped on the salary cap, and the Gopher program is in tatters, it makes sense to start his professional clock maybe a year earlier than expected. Chicago needs cheap options for depth, and Leddy was a player who got better on a pretty mediocre team last season.

Since Chicago has typically been very supportive of college players, it makes me want to read more into this than there probably is. Reality is that Chicago has lost a lot of players because of the salary cap at the NHL level. The pressure is on for prospects to make an impact to keep the team competitive. That puts pressure on the scouts to replenish the system with more prospects to keep things moving in the organization.

Of course, you could also say they looked at the prospect in this case (Leddy), saw a program where things haven't been going well, and they convinced him to bail for his own good (and, ultimately, the Blackhawks' own good, too).

Either way, the Gophers' task of getting back on the good side of the WCHA's home-ice ledger just got more difficult. It was bad enough that the seventh-place team from 2009 saw two teams come into the league that could immediately be at least as good as them (Bemidji State and Nebraska-Omaha).

Now, head coach Don Lucia, with obvious pressure on him to right the ship, has to make due without a player who was going to be one of his top defensemen.

They haven't fallen as far as, say, Michigan football, but the Gophers don't appear to be on the rise this winter. It could be a very difficult season for Minnesota. That they could have two of those in a row is quite the rarity.

Report: Jake Youso Decommits From Gopher Hockey Program

This hasn't been a particularly good couple years for Minnesota Gopher hockey.

They've had two straight NCAA misses -- in years Minnesota was scheduled to host regionals -- to go along with the fact that they've played one game in the Final Five over the last two years (a 2-1 play-in game loss to UMD in 2009).

It was a birthright for the Gophers and their dedicated fans before. This program doesn't miss the NCAAs, they always host first-round series in the WCHA playoffs, and they don't miss the Final Five. Now, they've missed two straight NCAAs, missed most of the last two Final Fives, and the Gophers have played on the road for the WCHA playoffs two of the last three years.

This is hardly what we have come to know from the Minnesota program. The fall has been more stunning than what Rich Rodriguez has pulled off with Michigan football. At least there are excuses -- full coaching change, different style of play -- for Michigan. The Gophers have gone from 60 to zero in about three years after dominating college hockey for a long time.

Lately, we've seen cracks developing in the armor ... the kinds of things that point to this being more than just a minor blip in the program's long and storied history. Players have left early at an amazing rate, some of whom weren't exactly ready to leave. A defenseman -- Sam Lofquist -- bolted during the season for major juniors last year. The year before, then-freshman forward Michael Dorr -- who had already bailed on his UMD commitment a few years prior -- decided he wasn't playing enough, so he transferred to Minnesota State.

This summer, the Gophers have lost recruits, and they may have pissed another off.

Ryan Walters was told to get back in the USHL, so he decommitted and went to Nebraska-Omaha. Highly-touted Seth Ambrosz doesn't seem terribly pleased about being sent back to juniors, something we reported on a few weeks back.

(At the time, we were led to believe this was a mutual decision. More recent reporting makes it sound like a Don Lucia-driven decision, and one Ambroz and his family are not happy about.)

Now, word comes from Roman Augustoviz that former International Falls Bronco Jake Youso has decommitted.

Roman tweeted that Youso is eligible for a third year of juniors, but it doesn't seem he wants to go that route. At 20, Youso wants to play college hockey.

He apparently wasn't going to do that at Minnesota, where the Gophers have too many forwards and not enough ice time. It's the same reason Ambroz is going to play in the USHL one more year (assuming the CHL leeches don't latch on), and it's why Walters is headed to Omaha to play for Dean Blais.

Augustoviz tweeted Monday about the Ambroz decision, and he noted that Lucia has just two years left on his contract. Athletic director Joel Maturi has expressed support publicly, but there has been nothing leaked to the public about contract talks.

That would indicate perhaps a bit less support and more pressure than anyone will talk about in the open. Lucia needs to win. He knows he needs to win, and he figures he's better off trying to win with a more experienced group of forwards and a limited number of newcomers.

Of course, we might not be done. There are rumblings that another departure could be on the way soon. Speculation centered around sophomore defenseman Nick Leddy, who was so-so as a freshman for the Gophers but had an impressive prospect camp with the Chicago Blackhawks. Minneapolis Star Tribune Wild writer Michael Russo shot that speculation down -- at least for now.

If the exodus isn't complete, the Gophers' fall down the WCHA ladder might not be, either.

Seth Ambroz Decides College Can Wait

Say what you want about Minnesota hockey coach Don Lucia, but there is no question the man has some serious recruits coming his way.

Last year, we saw Jordan Schroeder leave after two years, and freshman defenseman Nick Leddy developed nicely as the season wore on. The Gophers weren't good enough to make the NCAA playoffs or WCHA Final Five, but they have more help on the way.

Possible top ten NHL Draft pick Nick Bjugstad joins this fall, and possible 2011 top five pick Seth Ambroz was supposed to join him. The thought was that Ambroz -- who left high school for the USHL after his freshman season -- would be ready to play what would normally be his senior season of high school hockey in the WCHA.

It's quite a jump, but for someone who has been on an accelerated path, it wasn't something seen as impossible.

Hold on, though. Gopher blogger Hammy reported on Twitter that Ambroz will not join the "U" this fall. His report is backed up by a story on U.S. Hockey Report, a subscription-based site.

The thinking is simple: Ambroz will benefit more from being an alpha dog in the USHL than he will from having to work his way up the ladder at Minnesota. Not only that, but the physically imposing Ambroz took over 100 penalty minutes last year for the Omaha Lancers. If there is one part about his game that really needs work, it's probably that discipline thing.

Jokes about how WCHA officials treat the Gophers aside, it's probably not a good idea for him to enter the WCHA when he's only 17, has a reputation for taking penalties, and has to deal with 24- and 25-year-old college seniors. His fearlessness in the corners will eventually suit the Gophers well, as they have been known for a shortage of hard-working, high-character players in recent years.

That size (6-3, over 200 pounds by the time he gets to college) will help him a lot, too.

In the meantime, one has to wonder what Ambroz will do this year. Will he be bored with the USHL, or will he light it up like Thomas Vanek did before he became draft-eligible and eventually started terrorizing WCHA defenses?

Worse yet, will he become a pawn in the NCAA/CHL war? Let's hope not. Ambroz is a Minnesota kid, and he grew up close enough to the Twin Cities that you have to figure he's going to live a dream of sorts by playing for the Gophers. Not only that, but his advisor is former Bulldog and NHL mainstay Shjon Podein, and I can't see him recommending a kid go play major junior when he's been committed to a college for this long.

It's a bit strange to see a guy who has been pro-active in accelerating his education and hockey development suddenly hit the brakes. But this could be a good move for Ambroz, both in terms of becoming a star at the next level and for his 2011 draft chances.

We won't know if he did the right thing until the scouts have their say next winter.

Source: Fairchild Returning to Gophers

For all but four teams in college hockey, the focus is now on next season.

Included in that focus is the stress over potential early departures.

Undoubtedly, there are cases where schools don't mind players leaving early, and usually the player in question is well aware of it.

Sometimes, the school is completely blindsided by the player's decision. That stinks, because it's likely they didn't plan for that departure. These are usually the ones that sting.

There are other times that the school -- while not happy about it -- expects the player to leave early, and has a chance to plan ahead.

Rarely, you'll get the pleasant surprise of a guy you thought would bolt that decides to stay.

It appears the University of Minnesota may have that in defenseman Cade Fairchild. I have learned from a source that Fairchild is planning on returning to school for his senior season. The former Duluth East Greyhound is a draft pick of the St. Louis Blues. He played two years with the U.S. National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, Mich., and was on a gold-medal winning Team USA at the 2006 World Under-18 Championship.

Fairchild led all Gopher defensemen with four goals and 21 points in 2009-2010, and he has 15 goals and 69 points over 114 games as a Gopher.

As recently as January, it seemed Fairchild, a good puck-moving defenseman who has improved his physical game at Minnesota, would be a virtual lock to turn pro. He wasn't having a breakout season, but was playing some consistent hockey and getting a ton of minutes. Keeping him in college one more year is a major plus for coach Don Lucia, especially considering that the Gophers were rather thin on the blue line this season and have already lost David Fischer to graduation.

Unlike other sports, there is no deadline for a player to declare himself pro or sign a pro contract. A hockey player can sign at any time, forgoing any remaining college eligibility. While this can never be totally ruled out, it sounds as if the Gophers can build their blue line around a talented and experienced senior next season. That'll be a plus for them as they look to improve on a .500 record and seventh-place WCHA finish.

Game 33: UMD vs. Minnesota

Hey, it's good to be back home again.

Now, time for us to break this skid before it becomes something worse.

Oh, and the Gophers are in town. Varmints.

Lines.

UMD
Oleksuk - Connolly (Jack) - Fontaine
Fulton - Connolly (Mike) - Bordson
Schmidt - Akins - Grun
Danberg - Hendrickson - Flaherty

Bergman - Lamb
Olsen - Montgomery
Olson - Huttel

Hjelle - Reiter - Crandall

UMTC
Cepis - Schroeder - Budish
Lucia - Carman - Sacchetti
Hoeffel - White - Birkholz
Hansen - Larson - Flynn

Leddy - Fischer
Ness - Fairchild
Wehrs - Helgeson

Kangas - Patterson

Bulldogs Searching for Mojo

2-6 in the last eight games.

Nine goals in four games.

10-3 aggregate last weekend in Grand Forks.

Yuck.

The UMD Bulldogs are surely looking for whatever magic -- mojo, if you prefer -- they had going earlier in the season. Instead of cruising to home ice and perhaps a WCHA title, UMD is left to wonder what went wrong.

Expect a jumbled line chart this weekend. Who knows what will happen in goal?

No matter what, the mission is clear. UMD has to regain the mojo before the playoff start, or they face the reality of a quick exit.

Hockey coaches have a reputation in general for being quick to panic and change everything. The reality is that no lines really ever stay together for an entire season. If you're so good that you can do that, you wouldn't have 12 losses in 32 games. Instead, chemistry wears out, guys get complacent, and you need to make changes once in a while to help your team find that ever-important spark.

While the offense has been a problem for around a month now, the issues that cropped up in goal last weekend in Grand Forks are new.

Yes, UMD's goaltending largely struggled against Bemidji State, but Kenny Reiter was outstanding in two games against Wisconsin and two against Michigan Tech. Very hard to blame anything bad that happened on him, because he was keeping UMD in a lot of those games.

However, Reiter wasn't sharp against North Dakota, and neither was Brady Hjelle. Each had their moments, but struggled with their consistency, and both goalies gave up costly goals that could (and probably should) have been avoided.

When looking for things UMD has to improve on this weekend, it starts with the goaltending, but it quickly transitions to the offense. They have to bear down in the offensive zone, get to the net, create havoc, and find the puck. It's easier said than done, but it's those second and third efforts that made this team so dangerous in January, and they have to get back to that.

It's not an issue that easily goes away. That's why the lines were tinkered with this week, yielding what could be some very interesting combinations.

(Based on what we saw at practice, look for Jack Connolly and Mike Connolly to break up, at least for now. Mike is centering Jordan Fulton and Rob Bordson, while Jack centers Travis Oleksuk and Justin Fontaine. I'll miss seeing the Connollies on a line together, but I have to think this will be temporary, because all line combinations are temporary.)

If UMD revives the offense and gets the kind of solid goaltending they've had for something like 90 percent of the season, things will be just fine. If only one of those things returns, they can still win games.

If neither of them back, the naysayers will have the last laugh.

Lucia Gets Vote of Confidence

Sitting in seventh place, and threatened with the prospect of being on the road for a WCHA playoff series for the second time in three years, the University of Minnesota is facing fan backlash against the hockey program.

This isn't terribly new. Gopher Hockey is a huge entity in Minnesota, and when it isn't going well, fans don't react terribly well. They're used to winning. They're used to being at home in the WCHA playoffs. They're used to a team that pounds the daylights out of Minnesota teams like UMD, St. Cloud State, Minnesota State, and Bemidji State.

This year, they haven't gotten that. Against the four Minnesota schools, the Gophers are just 2-6 this season. With the overall record sitting at just .500 (13-13-2), you can imagine the rumblings about head coach Don Lucia.

He isn't going anywhere.

Athletic director Joel Maturi spoke to our good friend and regular intermission guest Jess Myers, and he gave coach Don Lucia a vote of confidence.

“I can tell you that Don Lucia will be coaching Gopher hockey next year unless he chooses not to,” Maturi told InsideCollegeHockey.com. ... “I think we’ve got to just take a deep breath and stay the course,” Maturi said. “Nobody’s happy that we’re not winning more. I’m concerned and we’re all concerned. But I’m not concerned about the competencies and talents of Don Lucia.”

Listen. You're not going to find excuses for Gopher hockey shortcomings in this space. They're not nearly as good as they should be, and Lucia deserves at least some blame for it.

However, this guy didn't win over 500 games and two national championships in college hockey by being a dummy. To suggest that the game has passed him by at age 51 is just silly. He's still sharp, still well-connected, and still knows how to win games.

He also has a hella talented crop of players coming in next year, led by Blaine's Nick Bjugstad. We've heard about Gopher recruiting classes before, but this one seems like it has a ton of potential. Why the rush to throw out a proven winner?

Oh, yeah. Dean Blais is back coaching college hockey, and it's not at Minnesota. Can't have that.

(Hopefully) The Last Word on Bergman's Non-Goal Goal

Many UMD fans have asked my opinion of this since Saturday, but I've held off for a number of reasons. However, I figured I'd leave you for the holiday with a few words on the controversy that erupted in the third period of the UMD-Minnesota game.

It's a controversy that was rendered irrelevant by Mike Montgomery's late game-winner, but still one worth discussing.

If you missed it, UMD had an apparent goal taken off the board about halfway through the third period. The Bulldogs got the puck to Gopher goalie Alex Kangas, who couldn't find the biscuit to cover it up. Instead, it was free for freshman defenseman Wade Bergman, who crashed the net. As Bergman got to the net, he appeared to have his skates clipped by the stick of Gopher Tony Lucia, which sent Bergman crashing into Kangas. As he went down, he got his stick on the puck and tried to steer it past Kangas. Before anyone knew it, he had crashed into Kangas, and the puck was across the goal line.

Referee Don Adam stood over the net and signaled ... absolutely nothing.

Adam and partner Timm Walsh headed to the scorer's table, prepared to look at the play on video. More than five minutes later, Adam returned a "no-goal" verdict, and play eventually continued.

I had a couple problems with the call.

• The idea of video review is to look at a play and determine if the call on the ice stands. To overturn it, you need indisputable video evidence to show you, as the referee making the call, were wrong. It's very hard to do this if you don't make a call on the ice. Adam failed to do that, and so no one knew what he was trying to accomplish in the video review.
• Had Bergman kicked the puck into the net, the goal wouldn't have counted. While the final determination couldn't be made whether he had the puck go in off his skate or not, it was obvious that the puck did indeed touch his stick as he crashed into Kangas.

Our buddy Kevin Pates got on the horn with WCHA officiating czar Greg Shepherd this week, and the results were kind of interesting.

Shepherd, said Tuesday, first of all, that a call should've been made at the time by the on-ice officials before any video review. He said that not making a call was a mistake. He said that if an offensive player, on his own power, goes into the goalie and into the net, with the puck, there is no goal. He said that if an offensive player is pushed or tripped into the goalie and into the net by a defending player, along with the puck, then the goal is legal.

I'm not in favor -- believe it or not -- of throwing officials under the bus. They work hard, get paid little, put up with way too much grief, have a ton of pressure, and generally do a good job. Case in point: Adam and Walsh almost flawlessly navigated their way through a hard-fought two-game series. In both games, the visiting team (justifiably) had more power plays, and stuff was missed both ways. Since these guys are human, that stuff's going to happen. The point is that they were fairly consistent, let the kids play, but didn't let the overly flagrant stuff go.

(I saw a couple e-mails referring to the elbowing call on Drew Olson that launched the Gophers' five-on-three in the first period. Yes, that was an incorrect call, but it looked live like Olson elbowed a kid in the head, and the officials are under strict orders from the NCAA to crack down on head contact. Given that edict and the look of the play when it happened, it's hard to get too upset about the call.)

Unfortunately for Adam and Walsh, it was their second controversy in as many weeks (they were the ones who called a major penalty on the wrong guy in the St. Cloud-North Dakota series the previous weekend). Those things don't tend to sit too well with any officiating boss.

Game 14: UMD at Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS -- Listen, I'm the first to admit when the good guys get lucky a bit, right?

They kind of did last night. A 4-3 overtime win over Minnesota was rarely pretty, though Travis Oleksuk's wrist shot that eluded goalie Alex Kangas for the game-winner certainly had some beauty attached to it.

For UMD, this is a great opportunity. Head-to-head is a huge component in the Pairwise, and UMD can assure that Minnesota will need a DECC sweep and a WCHA playoff win would be needed for the Gophers to steal the season series. To do that, they have to win tonight. Anything less than that will not be good enough, and UMD will need to beat the Gophers again to clinch the season series.

I'll add to this if I need to after talking to Coach Sandelin, but here are tonight's lines.

UMD
Danberg - Connolly (Jack) - Connolly (Mike)
Bordson - Oleksuk - Fontaine
Fulton - Akins - Seidel
Schmidt - DeLisle - Flaherty

Olsen - Montgomery
Bergman - Lamb
Olson - Huttel

Hjelle - Reiter

UMTC
Hoeffel - Schroeder - Sacchetti
Lucia - White - Budish
Carman - Matson - Birkholz
Hansen - Larson - Flynn

Ness - Fischer
Fairchild - Schack
Wehrs - Helgeson

Kangas - Patterson - Kremer