{"id":25707,"date":"2003-04-01T19:22:14","date_gmt":"2003-04-02T01:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2003\/04\/01\/first-and-foremost\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:55:26","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:55:26","slug":"first-and-foremost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/2003\/04\/01\/first-and-foremost\/","title":{"rendered":"First And Foremost"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a reason hockey types often describe goals in the first few minutes of a game as critical. They set up the plan for the rest of the game, determining whether a team will have to take some risks or be safe in its style of play.<\/p>\n

Get that crucial early goal and, a lot of the time, you’re on your way.<\/p>\n

\"Grant<\/p>\n
Grant Potulny has helped spark the Gophers’ early-game heroics (photo: Jason Waldowski).<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

So it shouldn’t be tough to draw the connection between Minnesota’s offensive inefficiencies in the first period early this season and its choppy start. Injuries played a role, but at Christmas, the Gophers were 9-4-4. In those 17 games, they scored only 12 first-period goals.<\/p>\n

No fast start, no fast start.<\/p>\n

“Boy, that first half of the year, I don’t know how many times — I think we were about halfway through the WCHA season and we’d scored about 12 goals in the first period,” Gophers coach Don Lucia said, “the lowest in the whole league.”<\/p>\n

But what Minnesota has done in its buildup to the Frozen Four has shoved that stat into a corner. The Gophers go into the national semifinals having scored 11 first-period goals in their last three games.<\/p>\n

Seven of those have been in the first 5 minutes, 25 seconds — goals that have put the Gophers in the enviable position of playing with a big lead.<\/p>\n

In the first 17 games, they scored only four times in the first 5:25.<\/p>\n

“We’re ready to play finally,” Gophers sophomore defenseman Keith Ballard said after Minnesota advanced to Buffalo, N.Y., with a five-goal-first-period-fueled 7-4 victory over Ferris State in the West Regional final. <\/p>\n

“It took a while and it took a few bumps in the road, a few games that we came out and we weren’t ready, but this weekend we were mentally prepared and it really helped getting a quick lead.”<\/p>\n

Junior captain Grant Potulny figured in five first-period goals in the last three games, including all three in the WCHA Final Five championship victory over Colorado College. But his absence with a broken leg and ligament damage early in the season, and the nine-game span without forward Barry Tallackson because of a shoulder injury, got in the way of the Gophers’ plans for a clean start this season.<\/p>\n

Lucia credits the play of his forwards with the turnaround.<\/p>\n

“When they get pucks deep, when they get up and after it on the forecheck, when they finish it, when they’re moving their feet, when they’re moving the puck, we’re a much better team,” he said. “When our legs are spread and we’re kind of watching and they don’t want to get after it, then we start to struggle.”<\/p>\n

It was no struggle in the regional final. Matt Koalska scored 13 seconds in, then Ballard put the Gophers up 2-0 after just 98 seconds. A night before, against Mercyhurst, they went ahead at 1:15 and went up by two at 4:33.<\/p>\n

“That might be one of those situations where you learn from your mistakes,” Ballard said.<\/p>\n

Freshman forward Thomas Vanek interrupted.<\/p>\n

“I was thinking all year,” he said with a grin, “I’m kinda sick of the coaches yelling at us.”<\/p>\n

Apparently, the Gophers got the message.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Minnesota, plagued by slow starts early in the season, has turned it up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"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":[4],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFirst And Foremost - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Minnesota, plagued by slow starts early in the season, has turned it up.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25707\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"First And Foremost - College Hockey | USCHO.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Minnesota, plagued by slow starts early in the season, has turned it up.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25707\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"College Hockey | USCHO.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OfficialUSCHO\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2003-04-02T01:22:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2010-08-18T00:55:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/uscho_featured-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Todd D. 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