There were about 70 people at Jax Cafe in Nordeast today for the first Blue Line Club luncheon of the season.

The group met in a downstairs room, appropriately sized for the crowd. The turnout, said moderator Frank Mazzocco of FSN, was good considering these luncheons were dropped last season.

But the Gophers are 5-0-3 and there are some people out there who want to talk hockey.

During this noon hour, coach Don Lucia, junior wing Jay Barriball and former U star Larry Olimb took turns speaking.

The highlights:

Lucia strongly indicated junior captain Ryan Stoa might turn pro after this season.

Not a huge shocker. What was a little surprising was how open Lucia was on the subject.

He said the only player who should think about leaving early is Ryan Stoa.

“He has been here four years, he is physically a man, he is ready,” Lucia said. “So, right now, I wouldn’t anticipate he would be back.

“For the rest of our guys, I don’t think anybody in our program should leave [early] after this year.”

Stoa is playing like a man among boys, too. He has seven goals, including two short-handed, and six assists.

MORE LUCIA

* On when sophomore goalie Alex Kangas might get a rest, he has started all eight games: “We will get [freshman backup goalie Kent Patterson] in there.

 ”Going into last weekend, I said if we win Friday maybe I will play Kent on Saturday. But then I saw the tempo of that [first] game. And I said, no, it is not fair to Kent to throw him into that [second] game for his first collegiate start.”

The Gophers tied New Hampshire 2-2 in overtime on Friday in an up and down game in which there were nearly 80 shots on goal.

Kangas will get several weeks off soon when the team is off for finals and the holidays. If Kangas does need a day off, Lucia said, he would rather rest him on a practice day and not a game day.

“Since I have been here the last 10 years,” Lucia said, “[Kangas] is the most consistent goaltender we’ve had.”

* On why freshman defenseman Grant Scott is not playing: “He is probably our seventh or eighth defenseman at this point in time. He just got his wisdom teeth pulled this week so that will put him back another week or so. … We haven’t had any injuries and we like the guys that are playing [on defense].”

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 13th, 2008 at 2:50 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.