I tried to reach Nate Ziemski, the new volunteer Gophers’ goalie coach, but I think he was working. But I did talk to him on the phone today.

“I work with goalies 40-50 hours a week,” Ziemski said. “I was a goalie for 22 years.

“Robb [Stauber] came up to me with the opportunity and I did not blink an eye. It was something I got to do. I am already watching goalies and this was a chance to work with a program like the Gophers. I did not think twice about doing it.”

Stauber, the former Gophers All-America goalie, was the volunteer goalie coach for the U for nine years. But business, he owns two Goalcrease training centers, and travels around the country limited how much time he could spend at the U. So he went to Ziemski, who runs the Goalcrease center in Blaine.

Ziemski said he works with goalies of all talent levels, but at the U he would have a chance to work with high-level netminders. “I played college hockey, too,” Ziemski said. “I played in national tournaments, Final Fours.”

At the U, Ziemski said he will set up drills for the teams three goalies, sophomore Alex Kangas, and freshmen Kent Patterson and Jake Kremer. “It will be extra goalie time, goalie specific,” he said. “Those guys are driven to be better goalies, and I am driven to help them.”

Ziemski said he has worked with Kremer before, at Goalcrease, and met Patterson at the training center once. He met Kangas for the first time on Monday.

So far, Kangas has started every game for the Gophers. So how can the two freshmen stay sharp? “They have to treat every practice as a game,” Ziemski said. “Alex does that as well. Every shot that’s taken, treat it like someone is shooting a puck at you in a game.”

Ziemski said he hopes Lucia will agree to let him have good, hard goalie practices on Friday with the two goalies who are not playing. “They still need to get a workout in,” he said, adding other position players often workout on game days.

He plans to work with the goalies on Mondays and Fridays, but not this Friday. “I am going deer hunting,” Ziemski said. “But I will have [the game] on TiVo.”

Ziemski, 31, played for Duluth Central in the 1996 Class 1A state tournament. His team had an under .500 record.

He was an NCAA Division III first-team All-American goalie at Wisconsin-Superior in 2000-01 and 2002-03 and helped the Yellowjackets win the NCAA Division III championship in 2002, making 26 saves in a 3-2 overtime victory over Norwich, Vt., in the national title game.

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