While Minnesota hockey fans are still trying to figure out what hit their team last Saturday night, and decide where any blame should be placed, it’s time to stop, take a step back, and realize that the Gophers just had a pretty great season.
About this time last year, we were all reeling from a shocking first round loss to Yale in the NCAA tournament, which followed a disappointing showing at the WCHA tournament. Everyone was offering up guesses as to which underclassmen were going to leave. Personally, I thought we’d lose one, maybe two of the players in question. I guessed Nick Bjugstad would be scooped up, and MAAAAAYBE Erik Haula would leave. But I truly believed Nate Schmidt would be back, and would be a captain of this years team. And I certainly didn’t expect Mark Alt to leave. So when Schmidt, Alt, Bjugstad, Haula and Zach Budish all decided to bolt, I saw a pretty bleak year ahead. I knew we had a crop of highly touted Freshman coming in, but after watching guys like Brady Skjei & Mike Reilly struggle as Freshman last season, I saw 2013-2014 as a year of hard lessons in preparation for a far more competitive team in 2014-2015. I couldn’t be more happy to be proven wrong.
In their first season in the Big Ten Conference, the Gophers easily took the league championship, although they did see Wisconsin in their rear view mirror, slowly gaining on them near the end of the season. In a season of many firsts, they got to experience playing at Penn State for the first time in school history. They also won the inaugural North Star College Cup, defeating in-state rivals St. Cloud State and UMD, and won the Hockey City Classic in front of 45,021 at TCF Bank Stadium. They stumbled briefly at times, including dropping a shoot out loss to Colgate in the Mariucci Classic. Otherwise they would have swept their season of tournaments and “novelty” games.
Head Coach Don Lucia guided this young squad through a very successful year, which exceeded his expectations all season. Hardly a week went by that Lucia wasn’t asked what he thought of the teams play to that point, and his answer was continually the same. He was very happy, and didn’t expect to be at the top of college hockey all season. He frequently downplayed the Gophers #1 ranking, therefore trying to downplay expectations. Coaching, from Lucia, to Mike Guentzel, Grant Potulny and Justin Johnson, they all played an important role in the shaping of this team. There is no doubting that the return of Guentzel to the staff, has had a lot to do with the turnaround this team has seen the past few years.
What are some other reasons for the Gophers success this season? To start with, leadership in the form of Captains Nate Condon and Kyle Rau, and positive role models in players like Condon, Mike Shibrowski and Tom Serratore. Leading the team by example, Rau was also honored along the way, by being named Second Team All-American. Shibrowski and Serratore are the epitome of a team player, doing whatever needs to be done in order to better the team, with little or no fan fair. For Shibrowski, most of his contributions came during practice, and from the bench. For Serratore, it was sacrificing his body to throw a big hit, or lay down in front of a slap shot. But throughout this season, those two players are the names that continually and consistently came up when their teammates spoke of dedication and sacrifice.
The coming of age of Mike Reilly and Brady Skjei on defense was also vital to the teams success. Reilly in particular dazzled, leading to the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, and First Team All-American honors. He is the first Gopher since 2009 to be awarded First Team All-American honors. Also lending to the Gophers success was the skill and confidence of a very talented group of Freshman, who stepped in from day one and contributed. Hudson Fasching, Justin Kloos, Taylor Cammarata, Vinni Lettieri, Jake Bischoff, Michael Brodzinski, Gabe Guertler and Connor Reilly (redshirt) offer a promising glimpse of Minnesota’s future. And you can’t talk about Minnesota’s success without mentioning Goaltender Adam Wilcox. As only a Sophomore, Wilcox was a Hobey Baker, a Mike Richter Award Finalist and was a Second Team All-American pick. He was that safety on the back end that gave his teammates the confidence to take some chances at the other end, and bailed them out when they made mistakes.
Now we’re back to the spring cleaning portion of the season. It’s always interesting to see who stays, and who goes. It’s certain that we’re losing Michael Shibrowski, Justin Holl, Nate Condon, Tom Serratore and Jake Parenteau to graduation. But what about the underclassmen? Rumors have been swirling about Mike Reilly since late in the season, that he would make the jump to the NHL following this season. Other names mentioned as possibly not coming back next year are Brady Skjei, Adam Wilcox and Kyle Rau. A majority of people seem to believe everyone will be back, even Reilly. Obviously, that would be ideal. But besides the guys who may have NHL contracts dangled in front of their faces, you also have to wonder about the future of players like A.J. Michaelson and Christian Isackson, who are very good hockey players, but who have had trouble staying in the starting lineup on a regular basis.
All that said, if we can keep what we already have, we have a team that’s going to contend for a National Championship again next season, and that’s before you consider the players tabbed to join the Gophers going forward. That list includes Leon Bristedt (Sweden), Robin Höglund (Sweden), Jack Ramsey (son of the legendary Mike Ramsey), Ryan Collins, Jack Glover and Steven Johnson, among others.
So, unless there are surprises in store for Minnesota hockey fans this spring/summer, the Gophers cupboard appears full.