Gophers men’s hockey leading scorer Brody Lamb took a knee-to-knee collision during last Friday’s victory at Notre Dame. In doing so, his team dodged disaster by an inch or two.
Gophers’ top goal scorer Brody Lamb avoids long-term injury from knee-to-knee collision
Gophers men’s hockey coach Bob Motzko said, “We’re very fortunate there’s no ligament damage,” for Brody Lamb, who collided with Notre Dame’s Justin Janicke last Friday.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
November 28, 2024 at 9:21PM
Lamb went down and then out of the game after he had scored his ninth goal of the season in the first period. The juior forward didn’t play Saturday for the third-ranked Gophers and didn’t practice Tuesday. But Lamb could return for this weekend’s home series with Alaska — the first two of six home games before winter break — after medical examinations found no serious injury.
“We’re very fortunate there’s no ligament damage,” Gophers coach Bob Motzko said Tuesday. “When you see it on film, he just had gotten his foot off the ice. If his foot would have been planted, it would have been a different story.”
Irish senior forward Justin Janicke, from Maple Grove, stuck out his leg and sent Lamb down to the ice. Janicke received a five-minute major penalty for kneeing and a game misconduct. He didn’t play Saturday after the Big Ten suspended him for the game.
“Oh my gosh, that was scary and seeing [Lamb] lie on the ice wasn’t fun to look at,” Gophers junior defenseman Luke Mittelstadt said. “I doubt Justin did it on purpose, but that was pretty scary. When I heard it wasn’t serious, that was really good news.”
Lamb’s coaches and teammates held their breath when he went down in such pain.
“You know, it’s one of the more dangerous hits you don’t ever want to see,” Motzko said. “You don’t want your guy to deliver it. You don’t want any of your players to get hit because those are knees. Those are the bad ones and [Lamb] got his foot in the air so it was dangling, just a split second. He was pretty lucky.”
“That was a scary hit,” junior forward Jimmy Snuggerud said. “Obviously, it’s not what you want to see in the game. But super-fortunate and super-happy to get him back on his feet. I didn’t see it well. I watched the replay and saw how bad it was. To see him laying on the ice, you just hope he’s OK.”
Motzko was hopeful Lamb will be back after one game missed, just when his team is getting healthier. He said junior defenseman Cal Thomas is “inching his way back” after a month away because of a lower-body injury. Freshman forward Erik Påhlsson is expected back after the holiday break. Freshman forward August Falloon returned from injury last weekend.
The Gophers are 12-2 overall, unbeaten in six Big Ten games and 4-0 at home, with upcoming home series against Michigan and Michigan State before the break.
“I give our team a lot of credit,” Motzko said. “We’ve had a lot of adversity. It doesn’t even shake our group. It shows the strength of our leadership and resolve within our guys. Everyone played, everyone is getting a chance to share in the success right now.”
With leading scorer Dawson Garcia held to just four points, the Gophers needed two newcomers to deliver more, and they did.
