Doug Woog, who is well connected with the Gophers’ hockey program, said on KFAN-radio Friday morning that U coach Don Lucia has been having bad headaches and getting tired easily.

Woog, the former Gophers coach and present color commentator on Minnesota games on FSN, also said Lucia saw a specialist today to try to determine what was causing these symptoms.

I’ll try to find out more about Lucia’s medical condition tonight at the Gophers-North Dakota game at the Ralph. Joel Maturi, the U’s athletic director, will be there. He rode the team bus to Grand Forks on Thursday.

Those weathermen got us again. The forecast for today was for snow, several inches at least. At the hotel I am staying at the clerk said a lot of people worried about a blizzard canceled their reservations.

Well, the only snow I saw on my six-hour trip to Sioux country was what was already on the ground. Some of it was blowing around a bit, but otherwise road conditions were near perfect as long as you kept the windows rolled up. It was cold. Real cold.

HOCKEY BIG IN GF

The Grand Forks Herald’s sports section devoted two pages to the Gophers-Sioux series. Brad E. Schlossman wrote an interesting story about senior captain Ryan Duncan, who two seasons ago won the Hobey Baker award. He is not putting up those kind of national eye-catching numbers this season — he has seven goals and eight assists for 15 points — but is working hard, setting a good example for his teammates.

 

When he was 15, attending Shattuck-St. Mary’s, his coach then told Duncan to follow the example of his roommate. He has tried. That roommie was Sidney Crosby.

Duncan has played in 154 consecutive games. Schlossman also wrote that Duncan is the NCAA leader in goals and points among active Division I players.

Duncan asked fans to all wear white tonight for the Gophers game. The Sioux Shop said they have sold thousands of T-shirts especially made up for this series.

Sports writer Kevin Fee of the Herald wrote a story on Gophers freshman defenseman Aaron Ness.

This is North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol’s 200th game as Sioux head coach. He has taken his first four teams to the Frozen Four.

The secret to beating the Sioux? It’s pretty simple when you look at the stats. North Dakota is 11-1-0 when the Sioux score at least three goals. If they score two goals or fewer, they are 0-9-1.

Keys to this game for the Gophers? Ryan Stoa has to get going again. He has not scored a goal in the past five games. That’s partly because the top line of Stoa, Jordan Schroeder (off to World Junior Championships) and Jay Barriball (knee injury) has not been together in that stretch.

If Stoa and that line gets going, I like the Gophers chances, especially with Alex Kangas in the nets for the U facing freshman Brad Eidsness of North Dakota.

Look for senior defenseman Joe Finley (6-7, 245) and junior forward Darcy Zajac (6-1, 195) to try to slow the Gophers down with some big hits. … It will also be interesting to watch much jump the three Gophers who played in the WJC — Schroeder, forward Mike Hoeffel and defenseman Cade Fairchild — have.

 They played eight games there, counting two exhibitions. That’s a lot of hockey, but at least the tournament was in Ontario so their sleep schedule is not all messed up. Schroeder and Fairchild also played in the WJC last year when the 10-team event was held in the Czech Republic.

Are you pumped for tonight’s game? Remember when they met the last time there was 160 minutes in penalties and a postgame rumble in the handshake line.

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 9th, 2009 at 5:11 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.