McLeod Blog: Gophers' Rau on a mission to win championship
Make no mistake, the Gophers men's hockey team thought it should have won the national championship last spring. When it didn't, and upstart Union College skated off with the hardware, it left a bad taste in the mouths of a number of Minnesota players.
Especially Kyle Rau.
The senior co-captain has won championships at every level in which he's competed: peewee, bantam, the Minnesota High School Hockey Tournament. Everything except the NCAA championship. Now, leading a team which looks on paper to be a national powerhouse again, Rau and the rest of the Gophers have their sights set on March 21, 2015, and the next NCAA title tilt. It's a team on a mission and it appears, at least early on, to have all the weapons it needs to accomplish the goal.
For the boss, Rau is Mr. Everything. Head coach Don Lucia doesn't mince words anyway (like Rau, actually), so when he goes all effusive about a player, you can bet it's the real deal. Here's what Lucia said about Rau:
"He does everything the right way. He is a class kid off the ice, a tremendous student in the Carlson School of Management, he's an extremely hard worker in practice -- and he's a winner. Kyle doesn't talk a lot, he just gets it done.
"We like to talk about The Gopher Way. He does everything The Gopher Way. From the way he handles himself on and off the ice and with the media to his everyday life. You know what you'll get from him every single day."
At last, the home opener: When Bemidji State clashes with the Gophers this weekend for Minnesota's home opener, the Beavers will have a tall order: overcome the top team in the nation on its home ice -- a team BSU has beat exactly once (Minnesota holds a 16-1-1 advantage).
Both teams are coming off bye weekends, which is not exactly what Lucia and his counterpart Tom Serratore in Bemidji probably wanted this early in the season. In their season-opening outings two weekends ago, the Gophers won their second straight Ice Breaker Tournament with wins over Minnesota Duluth and RPI. BSU split a home-and-home against North Dakota.
Honoring Reilly on Saturday: Prior to Saturday's game -- which I'll call along with former Gophers great Tom Chorske on Fox Sports North Plus -- Minnesota will celebrate defenseman Mike Reilly's first team All-American honor. Reilly led all Big Ten defensemen and tied for fifth in the nation with 33 points last season.
DOUG McLEOD is the play-by-play voice of Golden Gopher hockey on Fox Sports North. He began calling Gopher games on radio in 1978 and also spent 16 seasons in the National Hockey League as TV voice of the Minnesota North Stars, Pittsburgh Penguins and Phoenix Coyotes.
