Gopher athletic director Joel Maturi said he and hockey coach Don Lucia have spoken about some day adding seats to Mariucci Arena (present capacity 10,000).   There are no plans now but if there ever was an expansion it would likely involve dropping the floor and making the rink smaller.

The first basketball games ever played in the hockey arena will be held there on March 26 and 27.  Several boys’ state high school tournament games will be played at Mariucci because the usual site, Williams Arena, will be occupied with a robotics (yes, robots) competition.

The Gopher hockey team, seeded seventh, will open the WCHA playoffs on the road for the first time since the 1999-2000 season when they play a three game series starting on Friday night at Minnesota State Mankato.  The Gophers’ total of 15 wins (15-14-9) is the program’s lowest since 1972-73 when Minnesota was 15-16-3.

The Minnesota Minutemen announced yesterday that Aaron Ness from Roseau High School is the recipient of the 24^th annual Mr. Hockey Award, given to the outstanding senior boys player in the state.  Joe Phillippi of Hill-Murray School received The Frank Brimsek Award, in recognition of Minnesota’s top senior goaltender.  Ken Essay (Mankato West) and Curt Giles (Edina) received The John Mariucci Award, given to the Class A and Class AA high school coaches of the year.

The Mr. Hockey Award winner is selected by a panel of judges, including NHL scouts, Division I coaches and selected media from around the state. Other finalists for this year’s award: Tyler Barnes (Burnsville High School), J. T. Brown (Rosemount High School), Cory Fienhage (Eastview High School), Jake Gardiner (Minnetonka High School), Joe Gleason (Edina High School), Justin Jokinen (Cloquet High School), Zack Lehrke (Park Rapids High School), Drew Olson (Brainerd High School) and Jake Youso (International Falls High School).

On Friday, 19,559 fans attended the boys’ hockey tournament Class AA semifinals at Xcel Energy Center, setting a new record for the largest crowd to ever attend a hockey game in the state. The record breaks the total of 19,463 set on March 17 for the 2007 Red Baron™ WCHA Final Five championship game. Also, a new all-time tournament attendance record was set with 129,721 fans attending Class A and AA sessions at Xcel Energy Center and Mariucci Arena. The previous all-tournament attendance record was in 2006 when 125,201 attended the tournament.

The Wild recalled center Steve Kelly, 31, on Saturday from Houston.  He had scored 28 points there, ranking third on the team in scoring.  He led the Aeros in game winning goals with six. He’s played previously in the NHL with Edmonton, Tampa Bay, New Jersey and Los Angeles.

The Big Ten Conference will have minimal representation in the McDonald’s All American Basketball Games showcasing the nation’s best prep boys and girls.  Twenty-four boys and twenty-four girls have been selected for the games to be played on March 26 in Milwaukee, according to a press release from PRNewswire.  Two boys, guard William Buford from Toledo and center B.J. Mullens, and one girl, guard Samantha Prahalis, will play in the Big Ten, all of them attending Ohio State.

The state hockey tournament always stirs the public’s passions, but there’s extra juice when Edina, Roseau and Warroad make the trip to St. Paul.  Welcome to something special in 2008 with the Hornets and Rams in the Class 2A tournament, and the Warriors in Class 1A.  The script could get even better if Edina (in the Class 2A upper bracket) meets Roseau (lower bracket) in Saturday’s finals.

Edina, perceived as the affluent school with all the advantages, has long been viewed as Public Enemy No. 1 in the state tournament.  Roseau and Warroad, the small town schools from up north, rank at the top among all-time underdog darlings.

Former Gopher and North Star coach Glen Sonmor, who now scouts the high schoolers for the Minnesota Wild, remembers the zesty rivalry of 1969 when the Henry Boucha-led Warriors lost to the Hornets in a state tournament game for the ages.   Boucha was injured by an Edina player in the game and wasn’t around when his teammates lost 5-4 in overtime.

It was hard work finding someone who didn’t live within the Edina city limits that wanted the Hornets to win. “They all rooted for Boucha and Warroad,” Sonmor agreed.  “Nobody wanted Edina to win.”

To this day a whole lot of hockey people believe that had Boucha played the entire game the Rams would have won.  He was a prep superstar who later played in the NHL.  Sonmor remembered that for years there’s been a tale that Boucha, who did suffer a punctured ear drum, wasn’t injured badly enough to leave the arena but had to because an “EDINA doctor” sent him to the hospital.

Sonmor laughed while recalling how years ago the innovative Edina student section padded its reputation for snobbery during player introductions.  “They all read newspapers when the opposing team’s players were introduced and then they would put the papers down and yell, ‘who cares!’”

Sonmor said on Wednesday he thinks “there’s a good chance” Edina and Roseau will meet in the championship game.  He begins any discussion of the tournament’s elite players with Roseau star defenseman Aaron Ness.  “He may be good enough to lead them (to the finals),” Sonmor said.

Edina, though, is his pick to win the Class 2A title.  He likes the Hornets’ overall talent and depth.  That would mean an end to Roseau’s storied undefeated season, 29-0 and counting after destroying Blaine 8-0 in a quarterfinals game.

Sonmor has been watching every state tournament since 1966.  He said it’s much more difficult now for one player to dominate the tournament like Boucha and other legendary old timers once did.  The reason is there are so many other skilled players that bring more competitiveness and balance to the tournament scene.   Today’s players, he believes, are the best ever.

What doesn’t change are rivalries including the regular season meetings of Roseau and Warroad, a community that long ago labeled itself as Hockey Town USA.  “When you think about all-time rivalries in sports, Roseau versus Warroad is as good as it gets,” Sonmor said.

During the 2007-08 regular season, the Rams defeated the Warriors twice, 5-2 and 8-0. The two communities are absorbed by hockey all year.  When one populace travels to the other’s home town on game day, there aren’t many folks left in the community whose team is on the road, Sonmor said.

It was better, of course, years ago when it was a one class tournament, not two.  Now it’s not possible for Warroad to mix it up with Edina and Roseau.  But the Warriors won their opening tournament game on Wednesday and are after a third Class 1A title in six years.  Warroad defeated Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato 4-0 to advance to the semifinals today at 11 a.m. against Duluth Marshall.

No wonder Sonmor describes this as a “most enjoyable” time of the year.