PHILADELPHIA<\/b> — From the start of the 2013-14 season, Minnesota coach Don Lucia cautioned that this year’s Golden Gophers squad was different from what fans had seen previously.<\/p>\n
“When the year was beginning, we knew we obviously had to replace a lot of talent, including three defensemen,” said Lucia. “We knew Kyle [Rau] was going to have to move from wing to center. So we had a lot of question marks on how the puzzle was going to be pieced together.”<\/p>\n
There was no question, however, about who would man the Minnesota net. Sophomore goaltender Adam Wilcox returned to follow up an outstanding rookie year with a season that earned him Big Ten player and goaltender of the year honors. His performance (1.89 GAA, .934 save percentage) helped the young Gophers team as it matured.<\/p>\n
“It was great knowing that we had a solid foundation to build off of,” said senior co-captain Nate Condon. “We do have a young team, so it’s hard for guys to step in and play right away. I think maybe that helped some of our freshmen defensemen really get in the hang of things, maybe some of the older guys finding new roles on the team.”<\/p>\n
“I think the biggest thing about having Adam in net,” said senior co-captain Kyle Rau, “is he lets everyone relax a little bit. If you make a mistake, you know Adam’s going to bail you out nine times out of 10, so it helps everybody play loose, especially the younger guys.”<\/p>\n
Lucia called Wilcox’s presence in net “comforting,” and said that the sophomore helped as the underclassmen learned their defensive game.<\/p>\n
“What Adam allowed us to do and what I think most about Adam as a goaltender is he makes the big save at a critical point of a game,” said Lucia. “If it’s tied in the third, he makes a big save to keep it tied to allow us to get the game winner. If we’re ahead by a goal, he makes a critical save with five minutes to go to allow us to win a game.<\/p>\n
“I think that, more than anything else, is what Adam has been able to do for this team and the consistency. I look at Adam and he probably had one game he was a little bit off, and that was a UMD game back in November.”<\/p>\n
That was Minnesota’s 6-2 loss to Minnesota-Duluth on Nov. 24, a game in which Wilcox surrendered five goals.<\/p>\n
“Other than that,” said Lucia, “for the most part, he’s going to give up one or two goals a night. If we get to three goals, most nights we’re going to win.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From the start of the 2013-14 season, Minnesota coach Don Lucia cautioned that this year’s Golden Gophers squad was different from what fans had seen previously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1426],"tags":[729],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n