I listened to Don Lucia’s last press conference late Saturday night in Worcester, Mass., then I bugged him again on Sunday afternoon at his home for some last comments. Then I heard him again on KFAN-radio on Tuesday morning.

That’s one thing I would not like to do, having to be a coach and answering the same questions over and over again.

Here’s a recap of what he said. “It’s always difficult to lose the last game of the season,” he said.

“They did not want their legacy to be no Final Five and no NCAA tournament.”

Or as senior Ben Gordon said, this team loves to prove people wrong. Many people had this team bowing out in the first round of the WCHA playoffs after a mediocre regular-season. Somehow, by the slightest of margins, it kept winning. Give the team credit for that.

And, in the second period on Saturday, the Gophers outplayed Boston College. But BC eventually had too much offense beat the U and Miami to reach its eight Frozen Four in 11 years. What a run.

I thought the Gophers, the way Alex Kangas was playing, had a chance to go to the Frozen Four. And I became convinced it would happen between the first and second period. Why?

The cheerleaders were shooting Frozen Four T-shirts into the crowd with big slingshots. And I was typing away on my computer. So guess what happened?

I am on the third level. It would take a tremendous shot to hit me. But I felt something hit my right shoulder and bounce into my lap. It was a peice of cloth, in a nice tight bundle becaue of two rubber bands.

Everyone around me was laughing. I opened it up, saw it read Frozen Four and was convinced I and the Gophers were going.

And it almost happened. In the most bizarre fashion imaginable. If you did not see the game, with 45 seconds left and the score 5-1 BC, the officials took a goal away for the Eagles, added one for Minnesota and put almost 3 minutes on the clock.

Destiny? I’m convinced if the Gophers had scored early in the 3:27 they had to cut the 4-2 lead to 4-3, they would have scored again and gone into overtime.

Would that have been special or what?

“They are good around the net,” Lucia said of BC.

Lucia said he was happy with the way the year ended. His team played good in the Final Five and had a great run in the playoffs.

One big offseason question is the future of Blake Wheeler, the junior center who stopped scoring goals the last third of the season. Lucia said he expects Wheeler to sign with the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes.

Looking at the Frozen Four, Lucia said he is happy for his alma mater, Notre Dame, which made it in as a low seed. “Thad had won four games in the previous month, but Jeff Jackson is an outstanding coach,” Lucia said. “It’s great for the CCHA and great for college hockey.”

Notre Dame is in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association as is Michigan, which also made the Frozen Four in Denver. The other teams in are North Dakota of the WCHA and BC of Hockey East.

Lucia calls it a real competitive field but he has a soft spot for the Irish; the son of Mike Guentzel, one of his assistants, plays for Notre Dame. Ryan Guentzel is a freshman forward with four assists in 24 games.

Next season, Lucia said, the Gophers’ goal will be to return to the NCAA tournament with a lot of young guys. He expects to bring in at least 10.

Now that’s a big turnover. The Gophers have eight signed and expect to sign Roseau defenseman Aaron Ness next month. They also need a third goalie, who could be a walk-on,

He said the team has to score more goals next season and improve its power play, which was dreadful for long stretches of time. Those two go hand in hand, he said.

Why are the Gophers bringing in so many player when only six seniors are leaving? Well, as Lucia said, he will probably lose Wheeler and he wants to have more bodies next season.

At the end of this season, with injuries to Ryan Stoa and Tom Pohl, and Kyle Okposo’s departure, the team was down to 22 players. That meant Lucia could not make many moves and the players playing were assured of spots in the line-up. He wants competition for jobs.

Lucia said he expects to have a good blend of speed, skills, strength and toughness.

“We were good enough to play with anybody,” Lucia said on KFAN, “we were not good enough to beat the best teams.”

Lucia, throughout the season, said the Gophers had a small margin for error.

How would you assess this Gophers’ season? I think overall the Gophers underachieved a bit during the regular season, but did well in the playoffs in beating Minnesota State Mankato and reaching the title game of the Final Five.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 4:12 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.