Gophers open season with resounding win

MINNEAPOLIS -- Don Lucia looks at his University of Minnesota men's hockey team and sees a deeper lineup than the Gophers had last season.

Friday's season-opener at Mariucci Arena proved Lucia right.

Six different players scored for Minnesota Friday in the No. 5 Gophers' 6-0 win against Mercyhurst in the second game of the season-opening Ice Breaker Tournament. Goaltender Adam Wilcox made 25 saves for Minnesota, who will play No. 13 New Hampshire on Saturday. New Hampshire beat Clarkson 4-1 on Friday.

"I do think this team is a little bit deeper than last year," Lucia said after Friday's victory. "I think we were a little thin last year up front. I do think we have more depth up front and we're going to have to rely on that. Last year we kind of relied on a couple of lines to score. I think this type of team, it's not going to be two or three guys carry the mail. I think this team, at least what I see in practice, will be kind of a different guy carrying it every night."

Of course, Lucia is talking about a team last year which now has six players playing professionally. Erik Haula, Nick Bjugstad, Zach Budish, Nate Schmidt, Mark Alt and Seth Helgeson are all gone after combining for 60 goals last season.

In their place is a junior class led by Kyle Rau, the leading returning scorer with 15 goals and 25 assists last year, and a talented influx of freshmen.

Only fitting, the juniors got the Gophers started Friday.

Rau scored on the power play, finding the loose puck on the rebound after a point shot from junior Ben Marshall. Seth Ambroz scored a nifty goal in the second and Sam Warning added another.

"I think we all have to step up," Warning said of the juniors. "Right now we need more juniors to step up, along with freshmen, sophomores and seniors, too. So, it was good to see three juniors score first."

Ambroz scored on his own rebound. A hard shot initially rang off the crossbar back out to Ambroz, who caught the puck with his hand, dropped it to his stick and flicked a shot from behind the goal line that bounced off the Mercyhurst goaltender into the goal.

"I couldn't figure out what they were looking at," Lucia said. "They said they didn't know if he had thrown it at the guy and it went in. They made the right call by looking at the video."

Freshmen Justin Kloos and Michael Brodzinski scored the first goals of their collegiate careers and Mike Reilly added a goal for the Gophers, who had 11 players finish with at least three shots on goal. Rau and Warning each had a goal and two assists.
"Guys that scored tonight are some of the guys we need to score," Lucia said. "Those guys have to step up. They're going to get more ice time, they're going to get more opportunity and they have to do something with the opportunity and then we have to blend the young guys in."
Mercyhurst will play Clarkson in the first game on Saturday with the Gophers getting the chance against a ranked opponent in the final game of the tournament.

"We get to play who we wanted to play with UNH tomorrow because it will be a great test for us," Lucia said. "They've got a great program and they were in the NCAA quarterfinals a year ago, so we'll have a better idea. They'll expose us a little bit more tomorrow, which is good for us this early in the year."

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