Coach Don Lucia said the Gophers had a great weekend at Colorado College, scoring 13 goals in a 4-1, 9-4 sweep of the Tigers.
"It was a weekend we needed, certainly the way we started the season," Lucia said Monday on his weekly radio show on WCCO (830-AM). "We dug ourselves a hole and when we went out there, we talked about not being satisfied to win a game. We got to get back to the .500 level."
Minnesota was 0-3 in its first three WCHA games, all at home, but has since gone 3-0, beating St. Cloud State and then winning twice on the road.
"It's interesting, we were a little more sluggish on Friday," Lucia said. "We had our legs more on Saturday than we did on Friday. But Kent [goalie Kent Patterson] had a really good game on Friday night and gave us a chance to win the game. Kept it at 2-1 'til late in the game when we were able to get that separation goal, the third goal.
"Saturday, we got off to a great start again. And really put the game away with the 4-, 5-minute stretch early in the second period to get a 6-2 lead."
The Gophers scored three goals early in the middle period.
Lucia said Erik Haula's and Taylor Matson's lines played well on Friday and carried the Gophers to a win along with Patterson's play in the nets. On Saturday, he said, the need for other players to step up was stressed in the pregame team meeting.
Lucia said he noticed early that Haula's line with Mike Hoeffel and Jay Barriball on the wings did not have the same legs they did on Friday. "I will take the blame for that because I played the heck out of them on Friday night," Lucia said. "Part of it is 5-on-5 and the power plays, but also all three of those guys kill penalties, too. And we are a little limited with a couple guys out that normally would be killers."
Freshman center Nate Bjugstad (mono) and junior forward Nick Larson (foot) both missed the CC series. Lucia said Larson may be back this coming weekend for Wisconsin, or certainly by Nov. 19-20 when the Gophers go to Michigan Tech. In between, Minnesota has a bye week.
Fortunately on Saturday, Lucia said, freshman center Nate Condon's second line had a huge game. "And Nico [Sacchetti]'s line scored a couple goals on Saturday night," Lucia said. "It was a good team effort."
Lucia also was impressed with several of his defensemen.
"Cade looked like the Cade we expect to see this year this past weekend," Lucia said, referring to senior defenseman Cade Fairchild. "And that's a good sign."
The Gophers had lost their last four games at CC's World Arena.
Of the Gophers' 13 goals, 10 came at even strength -- one was 4-on-4 -- two were short-handed and only one was on a power play.
CC had two power play goals on Saturday. "We have to do a little better job defending or get our sticks in some seams to prevent some of those passes," Lucia said. "But we were able to score enough. It is not very often you give up a couple power play goals in a game and win.
"But it was just one of those games on Saturday that, it was kind of a shootout at least early on," Lucia said. "You wonder what that final score is going to be. It was a little like old-time hockey. But about halfway through it settled in and we gave up only one [goal] the last half of the game."
MORE QUOTES FROM THE DON
* On freshman center Nate Condon, who had two goals and three assists and was a plus-5 on Saturday: "He had good legs. He had the energy. That line played very well. [Jacob] Cepis played well. And [Zach] Budish certainly has been coming on this year. He didn't play the year before [as a senior at Edina]. Now all of a sudden, he is moving his feet much, much better. He was very effecitive this weekend using his body down low, going after people and getting to that blue paint."
Budish is a 6-3, 225-pound sophomore winger. He had knee surgery as a high school senior after being injured in football.
* On junior defenseman Aaron Ness, who wore an "A" for assistant captain for the first time Friday: "Ness is playing terrific hockey for us right now. And Cade had a good weekend. Those two have to be the foundation on our back line."
* On goalie Kent Patterson, playing in back-to-back games for the first time in college: "Kent certainly played well this past weekend. You have to have that good, solid goaltending . And it's the timely save. I showed the first 20 seconds of the game on Saturday [to the team on film at Monday's practice]. We had a broken assignment on the backcheck and the [CC] guy was all alone and Kent makes a big save and 25 seconds later we score for a 1-0 game.
"It is not only how many but it's that timely save, that big save and that's what Kent did this weekend.
"He is 4-0 on the season. He is winning games. He has looked good in the nets. ... Maybe he wasn't quite as sharp on Saturday as he was on Friday but that's elevation, that's mental and physical a little bit. He really settled in and made some good saves the second half of [the game].
"He keeps earning the right to play more and that's what you want at every position."
