Shortly before 8 a.m., the announced time, the Gophers men’s hockey team took the ice at Mariucci Arena for its first official practice of the season.

An arena employee told me that, I didn’t arrive until 8:45 or so. I wasn’t even going to go, but at 6 a.m., we had a problem at home. A bunch of wasps were in my youngest daughter’s room. I couldn’t get back to sleep thinking about that. About 7 a.m., I took the initiative, killed them all with a electric shock fly swatter, and decided this had to be an omen. So I decided to go to the rink which is about 17 miles away.

First thing you notice is, most hockey players don’t walk around campus. There were 15 scooters and three bikes outside of Mariucci.

Once inside, comfortably seated high in the stands, what you see is a swirl of colors. Looks like the Gophers have five lines this practice. (There are 16 forwards on the roster). Each line wears a different color jersey: maroon, gold,white, green or blue.

The defensemen all wear black jerseys, how appropo. Makes them more menacing. The three goalies wear tan jerseys.

It’s really hard to tell who is who. I spotted returning goalie Alex Kangas once when he took his helmet off, otherwise I was clueless.

 The jerseys had no numbers or names. The helmets, on the other hand, had small numbers on the back of them. I needed my binoculars to see them, but without a roster with numbers to look at and the players moving around so much, that didn’t help me much.

Next time I go to practice I’ll bring one. There are 12 freshman on the team and I have memorized the number of only one of them so far. Aaron Ness, the defenseman for Roseau, is No. 10. He told me so the other day. The others … no clue.

When I got to practice, the first thing the Gophers worked on were faceoffs in the neutral zone, followed by one side going to the net.

Lucia was giving instructions, then dropping the puck on faceoffs. One assistant was on one side of the ice, the other on the other side.

Lucia and John Hill both wore Gopher caps so it was hard to tell them apart. Their frames are similar. Mike Hastings, the new assistant, was easy to spot. He was hatless even though he has a bald spot — not that anything is wrong with that, I’m thinning too hairwise, not weightwise.

At 9:05, there was a group huddle on the ice. Then the Gophers worked on one-on-one and two-on-two battles on each side of the rink.

“Keep that stick on the ice,” Lucia shouted at one point.

There were two men in the stands when I arrived at Mariucci. The team’s equipment manager, Harry Broadfoot, was one of them. Two other spectators arrived later, then one more. At about 9:30 p.m., eight members of the Robert Morris women’s hockey team showed up in shorts.

They stayed only about 10 minutes. It was cold. One of them was Maria Stoa, the sister of Gophers captain Ryan Stoa. The Colonials had upset No. 3-rated Minnesota 3-2 the night before.

“We’re going to beat them again tonight,” Maria Stoa said.

But you were outshot 65-10 on Friday? “Doesn’t matter,” she said. “It’s what the scoreboard says.”

Mariucci looked a little different. There was new glass and boards around the rink, but the advertising was missing. That’s coming, a rink employee said.

 A black net, stretching from the top of the glass to almost the rafters, was up to protect fans behind the net in games this seaosn. The net at the other end will be up soon. Mariucci is the last WCHA rink to get those nets.

Near the end of practice, which lasted until 9:40 a.m., defensemen practiced one-timing long shots, forwards worked on banging the puck off the side of the net or the goalie so it bounces out front. There two forwards, tyring to score, and a defenseman battle for it.

 After one more group huddle, the coaches leave the ice but many of the players stay behind for a while to work on their shot or something else.

After lunch, they have be back for a second practice at 3 p.m. The long college hockey season has begun.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, October 4th, 2008 at 9:37 am 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.