Gophers Hockey – Page 28 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Lucia Anticipates New Contract Talks

Posted on March 1, 2017March 1, 2017 by David Shama

Veteran Gopher hockey coach Don Lucia told Sports Headliners yesterday he wants to talk with athletic director Mark Coyle about a contract extension after the season. “We’ll have a conversation this spring and see where things are at,” Lucia said.

Coyle became athletic director last spring when Lucia had only a year left on his contract. A two-year extension was signed last fall taking Lucia through the 2018-2019 season. Lucia said the two men agreed last year further contract discussions will happen after this season.

Lucia doesn’t want a situation where he will be coaching next season with just one year to go on his deal—prompting speculation about job security and being a deterrent to recruiting. “Mark, I think, will be very fair,” Lucia said. “We’ll just wait until the year ends and sit down and see where we’re all at.”

New athletic directors are sometimes known for wanting to hire their own coaches, and Tracy Claeys received that message when the first-year Gophers football coach was dismissed last January despite a 9-4 record. Lucia referred to any similarity between him and Claeys as “apples and oranges.”

“I think I have a pretty long track record that speaks for itself,” Lucia said.

Lucia, 58, is the longest-tenured Gophers hockey coach ever. He has coached Minnesota teams for 18 seasons, including consecutive national championships in 2002 and 2003. He wants to continue indefinitely coaching the Gophers.

“I still have energy,” he said. “I don’t look at (it as) is it three (more) years? Five years? One year? I don’t know. I don’t look at it that way as much as you just try to do everything you can to have the best year you possibly can. As long as you love what you do, you want to continue to do it.”

After not qualifying for the NCAA Tournament last year for the first time in five years, Minnesota is playing like a national power again. The Gophers are 21-9-2 overall and ranked No. 5 nationally in the latest USCHO.com poll. Lucia’s team is 12-4 in Big Ten games and alone in first place. The Gophers could be headed to their fourth consecutive conference championship.

Lucia likes this season’s team including senior forward Justin Kloos who isn’t big physically at 5-9 but has come up with six game winning goals. Kloos is one of the team’s three candidates for the Hobey Baker Award honoring college hockey’s best player. The others are senior defenseman Jake Bischoff and sophomore forward Tyler Sheehy.

“He’s an example of a player that because he is a little bit smaller, he didn’t get drafted, but yet he is an elite college player,” Lucia said. “Sometimes guys like Justin Kloos are far more valuable than a guy who gets drafted because he is bigger, but may go (on to) have a bigger impact at the pro level than the college level.”

Although the Gophers have shown the ability to come from behind in games, Lucia has a “magic number” in mind when he talks about the importance goalie Eric Schierhorn will play in determining how deep Minnesota’s NCAA Tournament run may go. “When he gives up two (goals), we’ve yet to lose a game, so that’s kind of the magic number for us,” Lucia said. “We gotta be able to count on him at the end.”

The Gophers have two weekends ahead of regular season conference games. The Big Ten Tournament will then be the weekend of March 16-18 in Detroit. Lucia doesn’t want to focus on NCAA Tournament hopes for multiple reasons including the fact parity in college hockey can interrupt plans.

“If the season ended today, three of the four teams that were in the Frozen Four wouldn’t be in the NCAA Tournament this year that played last year including the two teams that played for a national title,” Lucia said. “That’s how difficult it is in college hockey today versus 10 or 15 years ago.”

Lucia is referring to Notre Dame, Qunnipiac and Yale missing out, but defending national champ North Dakota qualifying.

For all the success Lucia has experienced coaching, he also likes to talk about the academic work of his players. All the players on his roster either have their degrees or are making progress toward graduation. Lucia believes that in the last 10 years only one player who was with the Gophers for four years didn’t earn a degree.

“That’s what it’s all about,” Lucia said. “We’re all judged on wins and losses. We get that, but I think as a coach you want to make sure that when the kids come to your program and play for you they leave with their degree. When it’s all said and done that’s gonna be the most important thing that they can do in their four years.”

Worth Noting

Richard Pitino’s Gophers, winners of seven consecutive Big Ten games, play their final home game tomorrow night and tickets are available. The Gophers have two sellouts this season, January 21 against Wisconsin and last Saturday versus Penn State.

For probably the first time ever, the Gopher men’s basketball postseason banquet will be held on the Williams Arena floor. Coaches, players, fans and others associated with the program will sit at tables on the floor of the historic arena Monday night March 27. The public is welcome, with more information available at the program’s booster club website, Goldendunkers.com.

The Minnesota Football Coaches Association is offering a Youth Coaches Clinic March 31 and April 1 at the DoubleTree Hotel in St. Louis Park. The clinic will offer various sessions including ideas for building a youth football program, practice planning, defensive drills and developing young quarterbacks. There will also be an opportunity for attendees to hear from new Gophers head football coach P.J. Fleck. More information is available by clicking on the MFCA advertisement on this page and visiting the organization’s website.

Mike Condo, a starting defensive back on the Gophers 1967 Big Ten championship football team, passed away a few months ago. A Pennsylvania native, Condo was an aggressive player and three year letter winner from 1965-1967. “Pound for pound as tough as they were,” said former teammate Jim Carter.

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Blackhawks Still Target for Wild

Posted on February 7, 2017February 7, 2017 by David Shama

It will be interesting to see how the Minnesota Wild plays this week and throughout the month.

The Western Conference leaders are a confident team and have made fans wonder if this could be the best club since the franchise’s inception in 2000. Tonight the Wild play in Winnipeg against the Jets and then players won’t have much time to rest before they go on the ice at Xcel Energy Wednesday against the Blackhawks, the team tied with the Sharks for second most points in the Western Conference. Tomorrow night’s game is the first of eight consecutive at home and despite fatigue the Wild should be full of adrenaline facing the rival Blackhawks.

The Wild defeated the Blackhawks 3-2 in Chicago last month and Minnesota has won eight consecutive games against the famous franchise. The two teams also have remaining games in St. Paul on February 21 and in Chicago March 12. More wins over the Blackhawks can only add to the Wild’s collective confidence and momentum.

But the Wild has a history with the Blackhawks that makes some fans anxious. Chicago has often dominated the Central Division during the past several years and has been a playoff pest to the Wild and other teams. Just two years ago, on their way to winning the Stanley Cup, the Blackhawks swept the Wild 4-0 in their best of seven games playoff. In the second round series the Wild scored just seven goals.

However, this doesn’t look like the 2015 Wild team. New head coach Bruce Boudreau has brought leadership, including a calming presence, to his players. That leadership has helped make for a remarkably consistent team group that so far has been able to avoid long losing streaks while also winning close games.

Boudreau has a team playing effectively as a unit. That togetherness is exemplified by the Wild’s balanced scoring. The club has nine players with 10 or more goals. Mikko Koivu, Eric Staal and Jason Zucker are tied for the team lead with 16 goals each.

This is a roster with depth and Boudreau is able to use four lines. That fourth line sometimes steps forward to make big plays and take pressure off the other units. Every game the Wild can count on depth and it’s something that distinguishes the roster from rivals.

Goalie Devan Dubnyk is among the NHL’s leaders at his position. He ranks first in the league in wins with 28. He is second in save percentage at .932.

The Wild has made a fast start without a lot of help sometimes from Zach Parise, the 32-year-old forward with the 13-year, $98 million contract. Maybe Parise isn’t right physically but even if that is a problem expect him to contribute to the team’s success by mentoring younger players.

The Wild could get another psychological boost with an impressive win tomorrow night. Are they better than Blackhawks? “I think right now they are,” a hockey authority told Sports Headliners. “But the Hawks are battle-tested. They have so much experience playing in big games in the past and are proven winners.”

The Wild hopes in a couple of years people will be saying the same about them.

Worth Noting

Gophers goalie Eric Schierhorn has been named Big Ten First Star of the Week. Schierhorn held the nation’s top-ranked offense to three goals on 69 shots last weekend when Minnesota swept Penn State at Mariucci Arena. Schierhorn, a sophomore, was Big Ten Goaltender of the Year last season, and currently leads the Big Ten in wins with 17. That total is tied for second best in the NCAA.

The Wild’s TV deal with FOX Sports North ends after this season. Ratings are impressive and the two organizations are likely to make a new deal.

New Gophers coach P.J. Fleck will do the “Let’s Play Hockey” call at Friday’s Wild-Lightning game.

For those who missed or couldn’t get enough of Lady Gaga’s halftime show at the Super Bowl last Sunday, she is performing at the Xcel Energy Center August 21. Tickets go on sale Friday.

Rivals ranks the Gophers football recruiting class No. 51 nationally. That compares with a No. 51 ranking in 2016 and No. 53 in 2015.

Among the best Gophers recruits in this year’s class is Marshall offensive tackle Blaise Andries who has known since seventh grade he wants to be an actuary, according to Fleck who joked about not knowing what the noun means.

Another recruiting prize could be tight end Jake Paulson from Louisville, who turned down a visit to LSU and has special parents in two former Navy pilots, per Fleck.

Fleck believes the “sleeper” of the class could be under recruited defensive lineman Austin Schirck from Carroll, Iowa. “He is special,” Fleck said. “I don’t know how he got out of that state.”

Fleck headlines the Minnesota Football Coaches Association Clinic March 30-April 1. Other prominent speakers will include Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi, North Dakota State’s Chris Klieman and San Diego State’s Jeff Horton. More information is available by clicking on the MFCA advertisement on this page and visiting the organization’s website.

Look for the Gophers athletic department to host members of the 1967 football team later this year as part of a celebration for the school’s last Big Ten championship.

The 1967 team will be honored with the Murray Warmath Legendary Team Award at the Minnesota Football Awards event May 7. The event is organized by the Minnesota Chapter of the National Football Foundation and will be at U.S. Bank Stadium.

The Gophers basketball team could get its second home sellout of the season Wednesday night against Iowa. Minnesota’s win last Saturday over Illinois, combined with the Iowa rivalry and an 8 p.m. start, puts the Gophers in a potential sellout situation. The Wild and Timberwolves also have home games Wednesday night so there is box office competition.

Boys high school basketball fans could hardly find a more fun start to the week. Last night the state’s best team, Champlin Park, defeated (70-60) arguably the second best club, Maple Grove. Tonight prep powers Apple Valley and Lakeville North play at Apple Valley.

Mike Max said on WCCO Radio this morning that NBC TV’s Harry Smith is planning a feature story on Sid Hartman, the local radio and newspaper personality who turns 97 next month.

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Super Bowl Security Puts Mpls. on Alert

Posted on February 3, 2017February 3, 2017 by David Shama

A notes column heavy with Super Bowl information:

A sports industry friend from Minneapolis was in Houston earlier this week. He was stunned by the security in place for Sunday’s Super Bowl and the events preceding the big game. The city blocks near NRG Stadium and other facilities related to the Super Bowl are so guarded it prompted the friend to say he has never seen such a security lockdown.

“It’s crazy. It’s almost like not welcoming,” he said. “I don’t even know how to get to stuff (places).”

From “eyes in the sky” technology to bomb-sniffing dogs, all kinds of security is being used by public and private agencies to watch for suspicious characters and activities in Houston. No doubt it will be a similar scene in Minneapolis next year when the Super Bowl and its companion events come to town.

It’s expected that the area surrounding U.S. Bank Stadium will be under “Big Brother’s” watch starting about two weeks before the February 4, 2018 game. A challenge for Minneapolis security planners is that the city’s light rail system runs right by the stadium and presumably will be operational.

Super Bowl related events are expected to take place at other sites in Minnesota including the Nicollet Mall for outdoor activities and at the Minneapolis Convention Center. I am told full planning for 2018 by the NFL doesn’t start until April of this year.

Minneapolis native Prince, who died last year, would have been an obvious choice to headline the 2018 Super Bowl halftime show in his hometown. Prince’s acclaimed performance during halftime of the 2007 Super Bowl in Florida is among the most remembered entertainment ever at the big game.

Minneapolis first hosted the Super Bowl in 1992. At that time Minneapolis became the second northern city in NFL history to host the event, which began in 1967.

Minnesota connections with Sunday’s game include Patriots receiver Michael Floyd who could become the third Cretin-Derham Hall alum to play for a Super Bowl winning team, according to a Tuesday Pioneer Press story by Chris Tomasson. Center Matt Birk and offensive tackle Ryan Harris won Super Bowls playing for the Ravens and Broncos, Tomasson reported.

It’s not certain whether the 27-year-old Floyd will see action Sunday. He was released by the Cardinals in December and picked up by the Patriots who were aware of his late season incident with alcohol. He has played minimally in four games with the Patriots, catching five passes including one touchdown reception.

Former Gophers coach Jerry Kill is now the offensive coordinator at Rutgers and he told Sports Headliners six Scarlet Knight alums are on the Patriots roster but he will be rooting for the Falcons on Sunday. That’s because two of his players as Gophers coach are key contributors to the Falcon defense.

Defensive tackle Ra’Shede Hageman, a Minneapolis Washburn alum, is a player Kill refers to as a ”freak of nature” because of his imposing size and skills. The former Gophers All-American, 6-6, 318-pounds, was drafted by the Falcons in 2014 after a personal and football life filled with obstacles. As a child Hageman was neglected and he also struggled with academics, and although he matured with the Gophers it’s probably fair to say he still needs more consistency on and off the field.

De’Vondre Campbell, a 6-3, 234-pound linebacker who the Falcons drafted in 2016, was recruited by Kill out of Hutchinson Community College in Kansas. “He is a kid that comes from a lower income family,” Kill said. “He worked hard. He went to Hutchinson because of adcadmics and got good grades. I always knew his best days were ahead of him.”

Kill said he will be “pulling for my guys” on Sunday and takes satisfaction in knowing Hageman and Campbell are late developers. “They will keep getting better,” Kill said.

This week ESPN Insider ranked every Falcons and Patriots player starting with Patriots quarterback Tom Brady at No. 1. Hageman ranked No. 48, Campbell No. 74 and Floyd No. 82 out of 106 players.

Eden Prairie native and former Viking Carter Bykowski is on the Falcon practice squad as an offensive tackle.

It was about 40 years ago that the Vikings played in their last Super Bowl. The Vikings lost 32-14 to the Raiders on January 9, 1977 in front of 103,438 fans at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. The game was the Vikings’ third Super Bowl in four years and all were losses under head coach Bud Grant who also lost to the Chiefs in the 1970 game.

Ex-Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton had a good line as re-quoted in Ross Bernstein’s book Sixty Years & Sixty Heroes: “What we’re trying to do is run through all the American Football League clubs to see if there’s one we can beat. …”

Former Gophers basketball coach Jim Dutcher talking about the current 3-6 Minnesota team that has lost five consecutive Big Ten games and now faces mediocre opponents against Illinois tomorrow and Iowa February 8, and then lowly Rutgers February 11: “They can’t have any hiccups.”

The Gophers hockey team, 6-2 in the Big Ten, has only league games remaining on the schedule. Minnesota is tied for first with Wisconsin in the Big Ten, just ahead of the 5-2-1 Penn State team that plays the Gophers tonight and tomorrow night at Mariucci Arena. The Nittany Lions men’s hockey program started in 2010 and like the Gophers is nationally ranked.

Minnesota is 27-5-2 all-time in home games against Big Ten opponents. This is the fourth season of Big Ten hockey.

Gary Trent Jr., who played for Apple Valley until this school year, is among those elite senior prep players who have been invited to participate in the McDonald’s All-American Game in Chicago March 29. Trent, now at Prolific Prep in Napa, California, will play for Duke next fall.

WCCO Radio newsman Al Schoch is in his sixth school year of public address announcing for University of St. Thomas football, volleyball, and men’s and women’s basketball.

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