Top-ranked Gophers men's hockey squad motivated entering new campaign
MINNEAPOLIS -- It took Don Lucia more than four months before he could finally bring himself to watch it.
Lucia's Gophers men's hockey team lost, 7-4, to Union in the national championship on April 12, a bitter ending to an otherwise promising season for a Minnesota squad that was ranked No. 1 in the nation for most of the season. It wasn't until early September that Lucia finally replayed the title game loss that he and the Gophers suffered, and watching it wasn't easy to stomach.
"It stinks to lose," Lucia said Wednesday at Mariucci Arena during Minnesota's media day. "You're disappointed because you don't get that many chances to play in the final game. It's hard to play in the final game of the year. You have to be good. You have to be lucky. You need to get a bounce. You need to be healthy. All those things have to come in to play."
Those stars nearly aligned perfectly for the Gophers last year as Minnesota finished with an overall 28-7-6 record. It was that seventh and final loss, though, that still stings as the Gophers prepare for the 2014-15 campaign.
Minnesota does so with a big target on its back as the preseason favorite to win it all. Aside from being the runner-up in last year's national championship, the Gophers enter the season as the No. 1 ranked team in the country in both the USCO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls. They're also predicted to win the Big Ten Conference, something they did last year in the conference's inaugural hockey season.
These preseason expectations are nothing new for Lucia and his team, who year in and year out are pegged to finish at or near the top of the college hockey ranks. Nobody puts more pressure on the Gophers to win it all, though, than themselves.
"You don't worry about it too much," junior goalie Adam Wilcox said of the team's No. 1 ranking. "You're going to fluctuate. You're going to move up and down. It's not like we're going to go undefeated this year. You can expect to have a couple games where you're off or you might not get that win that you want, but we're obviously going to shoot to win every game. When looking at the preseason polls, it's just something for the fans and the media to look at and see where teams are pre-ranked."
Perhaps one reason for heightened expectations is the level of talent Minnesota returns this year. Wilcox is back for his junior year after setting a school record for goals-against average (1.88) en route to earning both the Big Ten Player and Goaltender of the Year awards, as well as second team all-America honors. The Gophers' top seven scorers from last year's team are all back, too, led by senior captain Kyle Rau, who had 14 goals and 26 assists as a junior.
There was a chance that a few of Minnesota's players -- including Rau, Wilcox and defensemen Mike Reilly and Brady Skjei -- might leave early to pursue professional careers, but there were no early departures this year. That means the nucleus of last year's tem remains intact.
"Once the first guy said, 'I'm staying,' it kind of made it easy for the next guy," said Rau, a draft pick of the Florida Panthers. "We've got something special. Everybody loves that. Hopefully we can make another run."
When asked Wednesday about the team's No. 1 preseason ranking, Lucia offered a word of caution, noting that previous years' national champions didn't necessarily start the year atop the rankings. Union, which beat Minnesota in the title game, was ranked No. 16 to start the year, while the No. 1 team, UMass-Lowell, didn't make it to the championship and No. 2 Miami missed out on the tournament entirely.
The Gophers were ranked No. 5 to start the year last year but eventually maintained the No. 1 ranking for most of the season. In the end, though, the ranking had very little meaning. Minnesota would have much rather won that final game than held the top spot in the polls.
That's the Gophers' goal again this year, and they feel they have the talent to do it.
"The ratings are based on maybe some name-brand schools and maybe based on what teams did last year," Lucia said. "Obviously we have some good returning, but there's a lot of good teams. We've seen the depth of college hockey expand and grow over the last number of years. We don't get to start with how it ended. This is a new team. It's a new challenge."
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