BleedGopher
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per FSN:
Last year's Gophers men's hockey team nearly personified the sports cliche that preaches how defense wins championships.
Minnesota ranked third in the nation during the 2013-14 season in scoring defense, allowing just 2.10 goals per game. That stingy defense was a big reason the Gophers advanced to the national title game before falling to Union in the championship.
Now, as Minnesota has limped to a 12-9-3 record entering this weekend's home series against Ohio State, a glance at the defense will indicate how the Gophers got to this point. Though coach Don Lucia's team is averaging the 10th-most goals per game (3.42) in the nation, Minnesota is surrendering 2.71 goals a night -- 36th in Division I.
Why the drastic change in the defensive prowess from one year to the next?
"Looking at our struggles this year, it kind of all comes down to making little itty bitty mistakes and little details to the game that we're maybe not doing," said Gophers senior forward Travis Boyd. "You don't think something as little as not getting a puck out of the zone or losing a faceoff or blocking a shot has anything to do with it, but I think this year our mistakes like that are little details that we're not really doing too well that are really hurting us.
"Maybe it didn't hurt us as much last year and it wasn't as evident, but it just goes to show that to win a game, it takes doing a bunch of little things right."
http://www.foxsports.com/north/story/struggling-minnesota-gophers-plan-to-get-defensive-020515
Go Gophers!!
Last year's Gophers men's hockey team nearly personified the sports cliche that preaches how defense wins championships.
Minnesota ranked third in the nation during the 2013-14 season in scoring defense, allowing just 2.10 goals per game. That stingy defense was a big reason the Gophers advanced to the national title game before falling to Union in the championship.
Now, as Minnesota has limped to a 12-9-3 record entering this weekend's home series against Ohio State, a glance at the defense will indicate how the Gophers got to this point. Though coach Don Lucia's team is averaging the 10th-most goals per game (3.42) in the nation, Minnesota is surrendering 2.71 goals a night -- 36th in Division I.
Why the drastic change in the defensive prowess from one year to the next?
"Looking at our struggles this year, it kind of all comes down to making little itty bitty mistakes and little details to the game that we're maybe not doing," said Gophers senior forward Travis Boyd. "You don't think something as little as not getting a puck out of the zone or losing a faceoff or blocking a shot has anything to do with it, but I think this year our mistakes like that are little details that we're not really doing too well that are really hurting us.
"Maybe it didn't hurt us as much last year and it wasn't as evident, but it just goes to show that to win a game, it takes doing a bunch of little things right."
http://www.foxsports.com/north/story/struggling-minnesota-gophers-plan-to-get-defensive-020515
Go Gophers!!