Bob Motzko's grief remains, yet this Gophers season is helping to heal

BOSTON — Bob Motzko has been a hockey coach for 36 years, starting with a season under the legendary Herb Brooks. He's handled the endless bus rides in the USHL, honed his skills as an assistant at four schools, led Team USA to World Junior Championship gold and guided both St. Cloud State and now the Gophers to the NCAA Frozen Four.

None of those experiences, however, could prepare him for what he's endured this season: coaching through unspeakable grief.

In late July, Mack Motzko, 20, the second of Bob and Shelley Motzko's three children, was killed in a car crash in Orono, along with Sam Schuneman, the boyfriend of the Motzkos' daughter Ella, 22.

James D. Blue, 52, on Tuesday pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal vehicular homicide — establishing a 7.5-year prison term — after driving his Bentley up to 99 miles per hour before crashing in a wooded area. Blue's blood-alcohol concentration was 0.175%, more than twice the legal limit, and testing found THC in his blood.

Suddenly and devastatingly last summer, everything changed for the victims' families.

"Nobody ever handed me a manual on how to deal with this,'' Motzko said Sunday as the Gophers prepared for Thursday's Frozen Four semifinal game against Minnesota State Mankato in Boston.

In a season full of twists and turns, absences and the surprising departure of All-America goalie Jack LaFontaine, Motzko's steady hand guided the Gophers (26-12) to the Big Ten regular-season championship and their first Frozen Four berth since 2014. Minnesota is seeking its sixth NCAA championship in program history, and Motzko was part of the last two in 2002 and '03 as an assistant to Don Lucia, the man he replaced as Gophers coach four years ago.

The Gophers enter the Frozen Four on a roll, winners of 10 of their past 11 games. They're 15-4 since the holiday break, a team playing its best hockey when it matters most. With a 4-3 overtime win over defending national champion Massachusetts and a 3-0 triumph over top seed Western Michigan in the Worcester (Mass.) Regional, the Gophers are back on college hockey's biggest stage.

All the while, Motzko and his family — their youngest child is Beau, 17 — have dealt with constant emotional pain.

"I lost my hero,'' Motzko said. "Your life is changed forever. … I'd be lying if I didn't tell you I look at my kids differently. You can't help but look at them differently, with more compassion. … I look at my players differently today.''

The hockey season is one of the longest in collegiate sports. Games begin in early October, and players report in late August. For Motzko, the start was a whirlwind. Mack's death came July 24. The celebration of life and funeral were Aug. 2 in St. Cloud, the Motzkos' home from 2005 to '18, when he was coaching St. Cloud State. When Gophers practice began, he admitted he wasn't fully prepared but that the routine of coaching was helpful.

"I didn't know what to do. I was not ready for anything,'' he said. "Yet when I did find myself driving into the office and being around my team, being around my staff, it was definitely an outlet for me.''

Facing a tough nonconference schedule that included 2021 Frozen Four teams Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State, plus rival North Dakota, the Gophers went 10-8 through December. The team was working five key freshmen into the mix and hadn't yet hit its stride.

"We needed to crank it up a notch,'' Motzko said, "and what we went through in the first half helped us get to that point.''

A sweep of Michigan State in East Lansing on Jan. 7-8 was a good start to the new year, but stunning news came the next day, when LaFontaine left the team to sign with the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes. LaFontaine, the 2021 winner of the Mike Richter Award as the nation's top goalie, had started every game for the Gophers, and suddenly the job went to Justen Close, who'd appeared in four games in his career, none of them starts.

The gloom and doom among Gophers observers were palpable, and the team went 3-3 in its next six games. After that, though, the Gophers took off, sweeping their next three series even with Olympians Ben Meyers, Matthew Knies and Brock Faber away from the team for five contests. On the final weekend of the regular season, the Gophers swept Wisconsin by a combined 13-0 to move past Michigan for the Big Ten title.

Motzko was named Big Ten Coach of the Year and was among eight finalists for the Spencer Penrose Award given to the National Coach of the Year, which went to Minnesota State Mankato's Mike Hastings. Bemidji State's Tom Serratore, a longtime Motzko friend, raved about the growth of the Gophers.

"This is one of Bob's best coaching jobs, and he's a heck of a coach,'' Serratore said. "There has been a lot of adversity. When LaFontaine left, everybody thought that was a huge void. Their team came together, their goaltending has been very good, and they haven't missed a beat.''

That was on display in Worcester, where the Gophers twice rallied from two-goal deficits to edge UMass before turning in another solid defensive effort against Western Michigan. Critics often knock the Gophers program for a lack of grit, but Motzko has instilled it in this group.

"Everyone wants to talk about the Gophers with skill and talent and getting up and down the ice, but I'll tell you, they're hard to play against,'' Serratore said. "They're very good defensively, and if you want to win at this time of year, you've gotta get goaltending and you've gotta play well defensively. You've gotta know how to win 2-1, and they know how to win 2-1.''

Motzko credits his team's calm demeanor throughout the season. Not wanting to be a distraction, he didn't bring up Mack with his players until the regional title victory, when he saluted them for their efforts during his trying times.

"They've been awesome to be around,'' he said. "Obviously, the year for me, I probably needed them more than they needed me.''

Serratore and Motzko are part of the tight-knit Minnesota hockey coaching fraternity that also includes Hastings, Minnesota Duluth's Scott Sandelin and St. Cloud State's Brett Larson. They've been there for Motzko, and he appreciates the support.

"The coaching fraternity, the sports world have been — I can't even put it into words, going through what we've gone through, which I wish to nobody — how much love and support has come,'' he said. "In a world where you don't think there are good people, there are so many. ... They've helped carry us, and especially the hockey community has helped carry us.''

Motzko's cellphone has a sticker on its back with "Mack'' in royal blue and gold, the colors of his alma mater, St. Cloud Cathedral. The coach often wears a silicone wristband with his son's name. These are little things that Motzko uses to salute Mack, who planned to continue his hockey career with the Penticton Vees of the British Columbia Hockey League last fall. His influence still is felt.

"The hockey world's a small world. Probably the greatest thing we've learned about our son is he made an impact that we didn't realize,'' Motzko said. "That has been one of the more rewarding pieces to come out of this tragedy. We knew he was special; we didn't know other people knew he was. And it's real.''