Lucia is against the Shoot-out...

I suppose now that Don Lucia doesn't want or like the shootout, the WCHA won't adopt the shootout. God forbid, we would want pretty boy Lucia upset. Don what else do you want while we are at it? The Gophers have the next two regionals in his own back yard. I can't wait till the Sioux can bounce the Gophers in their own back yard to go to the Frozen Four.

I think with the WCHA women going with the shoot out I think one could infer that the WCHA is a experiments with how the shootout is going to work.

College Hockey Report / Shootout separates WCHA women, men
By Bruce Brothers

Don Lucia detests the idea.

Brad Frost likes it.

So go the opinions of the hockey coaches at the University of Minnesota concerning a shootout to decide ties in their sport, a practice Western Collegiate Hockey Association women's teams will begin using this season.

"Good for them," said Lucia, the men's coach. "I am adamantly opposed. And I think if you talk to the coaches in our league, they are uniformly opposed to the shootout."

True, WCHA Commissioner Bruce McLeod said.

"Right now, it's not on the radar screen," McLeod said, noting that the men's coaches simply "don't want to do it."

Frost, who coaches the Gophers women, believes the addition of a shootout to decide ties in WCHA women's games, which the league announced Friday, might be a predictor of the future in the sport.

As arguably the premier women's college hockey league in the country, the WCHA wants "to be leaders on the women's side of game, to do some things that will make it exciting for our fans," Frost said. "We don't know if shootouts are going to be the wave of future or not, but we thought at least we'd give it a try."

The WCHA women announced the league would install a shootout for league games only, joining Central Collegiate Hockey Association men's teams in a practice similar to that used by the NHL.

Sara Martin, commissioner of the WCHA women, said the league's coaches were unanimous in adopting the tiebreaking procedure, adding it "will add an extra element

of drama to our games."
The women will try it for one season, and then decide whether to continue it.

As in the NHL, teams tied after a five-minute overtime will alternate sending three skaters against the opposing goalie to sever the tie. They'll use additional skaters on a sudden-death basis if the score is still tied after three. The winner of the shootout will receive two points and the loser will still get one point for the overtime tie.

Shootout results will count only in league standings, however, according to a ruling by the NCAA Ice Hockey Committee. In national statistics and national won-lost records, the games will continue to be registered as ties.

"Let it count in the NCAA, if it's so great," Lucia said, adding he has "never been a fan" of shootouts. "It's not how the game is played," he explained, "and we only play 28 (league) games. If we played 80

games, maybe we'd look at it."

Two or three points could prove decisive in the conference standings, Lucia noted.

"I don't think a team should go on the road based on a gimmick; I don't think a team should win a championship based on a gimmick," he said. "To me, there's nothing wrong with a tie."

McLeod pointed out that the shootout, tried unsuccessfully by Hockey East men's teams in the mid-1990s, is more attractive to fans than coaches, adding, "The real value is entertainment."

Unlike the men's teams, the WCHA women almost never sell out their games, so making the games more fan-friendly is a goal.

"I've gone to a few NHL games myself," Frost said. "You're almost hoping no one scores in regulation so you can watch that shootout."

Lucia, whose team sold out every home game at the 10,000-seat Mariucci Arena last season, disagrees. "I don't think a fan is going to go to a game based on a shootout," he said.