Lucia Says he is Sorry

Ice intelligence

Read the whole article right here at St Cloud Times Article

A nice play with words

All week we talked about playing smart," said Huskies sophomore John Swanson, who snapped a 10-game pointless streak with two assists. "Keep your feet moving and keep your stick on their stick and try to avoid taking penalties."

On the same day a Twin Cities newspaper quoted Gophers coach Don Lucia as saying it was easier to get a player into St. Cloud State than Minnesota academically, his team came out and matched its worst margin of defeat this season.

The Huskies, ranked fourth and fifth in the national polls, also sent the message that they can keep up offensively with any team in the nation. The No. 2 Gophers had the second-best offense in the country coming in.

"I've never played in front of a crowd like this before and you could tell before the game there was a buzz in the locker room," said Lasch, who was goalless in the past three series and scored as often Friday as he had in the past 17 games. "It was different. I can't explain it, but everyone had a jump in their step."

The second-place Huskies used it to move five points behind the first-place Gophers with three WCHA regular-season games remaining.

Another implosion coming?

By the time Brocklehurst capped it, the Dogg Pound was in vintage form. The students chanted "Overrated!" and "Husky Rejects!" among other unprintable words that have also rankled Lucia. Afterward, Gophers assistant Mike Guentzel could be heard screaming at his team in the dressing room. Lucia declined to reiterate the comments he made about St. Cloud State's academic reputation.

"I don't want to go there," Lucia said. "I did talk to (Motzko)."

Huskies athletic director Morris Kurtz said Lucia apologized.

"They were gracious enough to accept our apology, so we're certainly gracious enough to accept theirs," Kurtz said, referring to a scene the last time Minnesota played in St. Cloud when several giveaway novelty fans landed on the ice. This time they were replaced by several actual dead gophers.

"I've been to a few, and I don't remember one like this," Swanson, a St. Cloud Tech graduate, said of the Huskies-Gophers games at the Hockey Center. "You know it's going to be a good night when you drive down to the rink and the line is already out the ticket office. Then when you come out for warm-ups the student sections are already full. It makes the game that much more intense."

Tonight is sure to repeat, and with a win the Huskies can claim a cup of their own away from Minnesota: The DQ Cup, given to the state school with the best winning percentage among others in the WCHA.

"We haven't won anything yet," Gophers captain Mike Vannelli said. "We didn't play with a sense of desperation. We didn't play hard and we didn't play smart Gopher hockey. Some things needed to be said (by Guentzel) and it's better to air our dirty laundry now than in a few weeks."

Don't Say That

I was told along time ago that you never publicly talk down your opponent and give them fuel for the fire. It's called bulletin board material and Donny gave the Huskies a bunch of it this past week. I believe Don Lucia's comments about SCSU fired them up even more. One must wonder if another implosion is coming to a rink near the Twin Cities?