Junior winger Nico Sacchetti of the Gophers was a popular fellow Friday night. Everyone wanted to talk to him after he scored the game-winner.

And he wasn't shy about talking.

On the Sioux's aggressive style: "That's how North Dakota plays, they are going to try and play a run-and-gun game and try to get us to be intimidated and that's what they were doing at the end of the [second] period there."
Brad Malone checked Gophers defenseman Kevin Wehrs hard into the endboards -- leading to a big scrum.
"We just matched it and it kind of pumped us up. We were ready for the third."

On Saturday's game: "We didn't come here for one win. We've got to come back and match our energy [from Friday] and even have more energy because they are going to come out harder."

On goalie Alex Kangas being out for season after hip surgery Friday: "Alex -- it's too bad. But he has to think about himself and his future."


On Gophers trying to shoot the puck more: "One of our main points before the game was to shoot the puck, especially playing in a smaller rink than Mariucci. We have the tendency to pass up shots and make the pretty play. One of the points of emphasis was: Get everything on net. No shot is a bad shot, even from a bad angle."

On Gophers trying to keep one-goal lead in last minutes: "[I was] not nervous. That's when it is the funnest."

On team's play early: "Starting off the first perod 2-0 is a great way to take the crowd out of it."

On his game-winning goal: "It felt unreal. It felt good."

THE DON'S ASSESSMENT
"[The Sioux] were able to get momentum off their power play," Lucia said, "and they were able to score a couple [goals]. But five-on-five, for the most part, we did a nice job of getting pucks in.
"Not allowing them to get us in transition. And, defensively, we dug in pretty good in our own end."
"Mentally, there was focus [Friday] night. We had a good week of practice and they followed up with a good performance right from early on. The first five minutes, we came out and played pretty darn well. You are going to have to weather some things. They get going, the crowd gets going. But our kids handled it pretty well tonight."

Even so, the Sioux rallied and tied the score at 2-2 early in the third period ...
"You think, 'Here they go,' but we were able to even the game back out after that. And it was hard after that because we had four forwards in the penalty box. So we are trying to play four minutes with eight forwards. But guys battled."

Lucia has often said the road trip to Grand Forks is his favorite. But he likes other away trips, too ...
"It's fun. When we go on the road, we are going to get sold- out buildings. We understand we are everybody's [big or biggest?] rival whether it is here or Duluth or Wisconsin, it doesn't really matter where we go. It is a great atmosphere to play in and, if you are an athlete, you want to play in an atmosphere like this.
"You are not going to score five [goals] up here. You've got to dig in defensively and wait for your chances. The power play came through with a couple [goals Friday] night. The guys did a good job of doing what we wanted them to [Friday] night.


"We have pretty good defensively the last month and a half. The hard part has been us scoring goals."