Sophomore center Mike Carman, who was ineligible the first semester, will play for the first time this weekend against St. Cloud State.

“I’m very happy. It’s been a long time coming sitting out a semester,” he said after Wednesday’s practice. “But I learned from my mistakes and could not be happier to be back on the ice.”

He is optimistic the Gophers can turn the season around. “You look at North Dakota last year, they were a .500 team at this time of the year,” Carman said. “And they ended up being the team that beat us down the stretch.”

The Gophers beat the Sioux for the Finals Five title, but lost to them in a region final.

“The second half is a whole different story,” Carman said.

Whatever role he is given, he is ready, Carman said, adding: “I will try to keep playing the same game I have always played, two-way hockey, hard on both sides of the puck and bring energy out there and hopefully get some offensive production, too.”

Last season, Carman had nine goals and 11 assists and finished strong.

He is unsure who he will center on the Gophers’ second line this weekend. One day in practice, his wings were Jay Barriball and Mike Hoeffel, another day they were Ryan Flynn and Ben Gordon.

“It is not going to matter,” Carman said. “All the guys on the team, we know each other so well. You can put us with anyone and we will be ready to go.”

Carman has played in two international tournaments recently, one in Germany in November and the World Junior Championships in the Czech Republic last month.

“I feel I am well prepared to jump back in with the team now,” he said.

The U.S. team in the World Juniors went 4-0 in pool play to advance to the semifinals, then lost to Canada and, in the third-place game, to Russia.

“It was good to play a bunch of gams in a short period of time and get my legs back,” Carman said. “I feel it is going to help a lot.”

CSTV.com also has an interesting story on Carman. Read it at:

http://www.cstv.com/sports/m-hockey

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 10th, 2008 at 10:15 pm and is filed under Gophers men's hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.