Dave Spehar rattled off a list of reasons to explain how he went from being dazed and confused early in the season to one of the Gophers hockey team’s most consistent performers over the past dozen games.
He said the simple time factor — a gradual but consistent adjustment to college hockey after a brilliant prep career — played a big role. So did encouragement from his teammates and a constant belief in his ability.
But the biggest cause of Spehar’s turnaround isn’t something someone said or something he did; rather, it was something he didn’t do.
Following the Gophers Dec. 15 loss to St. Cloud State, players had the option of staying in the Twin Cities over the break or going home. Spehar decided he needed a change of scenery for a little while, so he went back to Duluth.
Minnesota coaches advised players who went home to work out while they were away, either at their high school or some other venue, to stay in good condition.
Spehar took his little cousin skating once. That was the extent of his holiday training regimen.
He returned to school on Dec. 26, the day before Minnesota’s game against Boston College, feeling refreshed. He even had the coaches duped because of how good he looked on the ice in a pregame skate-around.
“Coach (Doug) Woog came up to me and asked if I’d skated over the break, and I said, Oh, yeah,'” Spehar recalled. “He said, That’s good. I can tell.’ I just started laughing.”
Spehar said Gophers coaches still don’t know — check that, didn’t know — that rest, not activity, fueled his emergence as a scorer in the second half of the season.
Considering he had a 14-game point streak until last Saturday’s game against Northern Michigan, it’s likely that Woog and his staff don’t mind his ruse too much. The important thing is that he’s scoring.
Spehar had just nine points before heading back home for the holiday break. Since then, he’s averaged more than a point per game and has 11 goals and 16 assists overall. His 27 points are tied for third-best on the team and rank him first among WCHA freshmen.
“When you come into this league after having all the success in high school, and all the sudden you’re not scoring, you start to say, `Hey, what happened to my game,'” Gophers associate coach Mike Guentzel said. “He’s getting some confidence and conquering his inhibitions.”
Spehar said he knew going into the season that he wasn’t going to be successful right away.
Still, he occasionally got frustrated when he wasn’t scoring early in the season. During those rare times, several Gophers upperclassmen — particularly juniors Casey Hankinson and Ryan Kraft — were quick to intervene.
“I don’t have all the answers, but I try to offer advice every now and then,” Kraft said. “It’s kind of what (Brian) Bonin did for me when I was a freshman.”
These days, Kraft leads the team with 17 goals. Someday Spehar will be in that role, but until then, he still has things to learn.
He’s working on taking better angles when he’s on defense and increasing his offense even more.
And he’s still adjusting to life off the ice. Spehar’s taking 16 credits this winter, which is plenty to keep him busy.
All the prestige of playing for the Gophers at Mariucci Arena has lived up to his expectations. But he didn’t see the “student” part of student-athlete on MSC cable feeds to Duluth when he was in high school.
“That’s been the biggest surprise of all, the demanding schedule,” Spehar said. “When you’re young, you think, Yeah, these players go to class once in a while,’ but you don’t realize how much time it takes. When I’m alone I’m usually wondering what I have to do next.”
Lately, scoring goals is a good bet to be at the top of the list.