MINNEAPOLIS — University of Denver coach George Gwozdecky stiff-armed tears on Friday when talking about his coaching protégé, Rico Blasi. And Gwozdecky just shook his head in disbelief when discussing his captain, senior defenseman J.P. Testwuide.
After being eliminated from the NCAA Tournament by Blasi’s Miami (Ohio) RedHawks in a 4-2 upset at Mariucci Arena, Gwozdecky appeared emotionally drained from pride.
Blasi played for Gwozdecky at Miami in the early 1990s and was a two-year captain, and began a four-year coaching stint under Gwozdecky at Denver in 1995. He became Miami’s head coach in 1999 at age 27.
“It’s a little like coaching against your son,” Gwozdecky said of Blasi, who is 208-150-33 at a program that nearly folded before his hiring. “I hate losing to a family member, but if we’re going to lose, it hurts less because we’re losing to a classy program, a classy coaching staff and a class young guy like Rico Blasi.”
Testwuide, a non-scholarship recruit from Vail, played Friday with a partially torn ligament in his left knee.
“He shouldn’t have played today,” Gwozdecky said of Testwuide. “His knee is real bad, and that took unbelievable guts and determination. The pain threshold he has is incredible.”
When told of Gwozdecky’s comments, Testwuide said: “That’s a big honor. Wow.”
Testwuide, who entered the game with a team-high plus-17 rating, didn’t practice with the team this week since he suffered the injury last Saturday in the WCHA playoff championship in St. Paul.
He called this season “a heck of a ride” and said “he wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
Footnotes
DU is 0-2 in its past two NCAA Tournament games after going a combined 8-0 to win the 2004 and 2005 national titles.
… Miami was playing on an Olympic-size ice surface for the first time this season.
… Advanced ticket sales for the West Regional topped 7,000, but only an estimated 3,000 witnessed the game. Most of those ticket buyers were University of Minnesota, and the Gophers failed to make the 16-team national field. It’s a scenario that DU faced in 2007 when the West Regional was at the Pepsi Center.
