The Gophers’ football team has recruited a few players from Ohio, but the university’s hockey team has rarely if ever looked there — until now.

Jacob (Jake) Cepis of Parma, Ohio, is joining the Gophers hockey team this week, maybe as soon as Wednesday. He can practice with the team the rest of the season but will not not be eligible until late December. A transfer in Division I men’s hockey has to sit out a year.

He is transferring from Bowling Green of the CCHA. He had a sensational freshman season there, but a bumpy sophomore season so far. He left the team Dec. 18 after scoring one goal and four assists in 18 games.

So why would the U want him? As a freshman he had 15 goals and 16 assists for 31 points in 38 games. He was Bowling Green’s second-leading scorer last season and was named to the Central Collegiate Hockey Association’s all-rookie team.

Two seasons ago, Cepis led the USHL in goals with 34 in his second season with the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. He was named to the USHL first team at the end of that season.

His career numbers at Cedar Rapids were 47 goals, 54 assists for 101 points in 135 games. Before playing in the USHL, he played for the Cleveland Barons of the NAHL and had 22 goals and 27 assists for 49 points in 58 games.

So he can score and has a lot of experience at the Junior A level. He turned 21 last month.

He is small, only 5-8, 165, but fast.

Cepis visited Minnesota last week. He also strongly considered Boston University. So why Minny? “I liked everything about it,” he said. “I played with Kevin Wehrs for two years in the USHL and it was a better fit for me” than Bowling Green.

Wehrs is a sophomore defenseman for the Gophers.

Cepis said he also liked all the coaches, from Don Lucia to his assistants John Hill and Mike Hastings.

At Bowling Green, Cepis and the head coach did not see eye to eye this season. “He was trying to make me not the player I wanted to be,” Cepis said. “I need to be happy, so I moved on my decision.”

He stopped his transfer explanation there. “I don’t want to badmouth anybody,” he said.

Cepis will be eligible to play in the 2009 Dodge Holiday Classis. So, it’s ironic, that the team the Gophers will play in the first game is — you guessed it — Bowling Green.

Cepis is already enrolled at the U and will start second semester classes with everybody else on Tuesday of next week.

As of midway Monday, the U had not received a signed national letter of intent from Cepis, so the Gophers coaches could not comment on him.

SIOUX NICKNAME RIPPED

The Grand Forks Herald on Sunday ran an opinion story saying that North Dakota should change its Fighting Sioux nickname and drop its logo, the head of an Indian.

It’s time, the paper, said if the school wants to become a member of the Summit Conference. Officials of that conference won’t talk to UND until the nickname controversy is settled.

“No, use of the nickname and logo were not intended to offend anyone.

“But offense is in the eye of the offended, and offenders often overlook that,” according to the editorial.

Which continued this way: “Enthusiasm for the nickname and logo has erodedto the point that change is politically possible.

“That change ought to come. Without delay.”

This entry was posted on Monday, January 12th, 2009 at 10:56 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.