The NCAA started crowning a hockey champion in 1948 and Michigan was the No. 1 rival for the Gophers in the early decades. The formation of a Big Ten conference in 2013 and Wisconsin’s falloff have raised the possibility the Wolverines recently have regained that status.
Reusse: This Gophers hockey team is up for any challenge
Michigan came to town this weekend to face Gophers men’s hockey and loudly announced its presence, but it was the home team that made all the noise when it counted.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
December 7, 2024 at 3:16AM
That was the sound of it more than an hour before faceoff on Friday night at Mariucci. The Wolverines were gathered above the main deck at the closed end of the arena, engaged in team building that included some of the loudest shouts of profanities these callous ears have heard.
It was almost as if the Wolverines were preparing to storm the surface, break the home team’s hearts, and then skate en masse to mid-ice and desecrate the Minnesota “M” painted there.
Then, the puck was dropped. And the appeal voiced by Gophers coach Bob Motzko for his team to have a fast start was answered as if he were Herbert Paul Brooks talking to his Yanks in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Except, Motzko had no need to have goalie Nathan Airey stand on his head, as the Gophers took control in astounding fashion. The shots were 15-2 when Matthew Wood scored on a rebound at 12:31. The shots were 17-2 when Jimmy Snuggerud fired that sudden cannon of his to make it 2-0 at 13:26.
On it went, the Gophers flying and the Wolverines with no one they should be cursing except themselves. When Connor Kurth scored on the Gophers’ 29th shot at 10:55 of the second period, it was the home team’s sixth goal.
And that was the final Gophers six, foul-mouthed visitors 0. And the cheap stuff started on schedule later in the second. Eventually, Gophers captain Ryan Chesley delivered an elbow above the shoulders to a foe. Five-minute major and the veteran defenseman will not be able to play in Saturday’s 5 p.m. rematch.
As Motzko was asking for the fast start at mid-week, he also was asked about recent commitments from recruits. You do not find coaches in big-time hockey programs holding a signing day event to proclaim large recruiting success.
The coaches are getting commitments from development and junior programs and a share from high schools. There is a likelihood a player on a “signing list” will be back in juniors the next year.
“We signed them in November,” Motzko.
How many?
Motzko said: “I’m not sure.” (Pause) “They’re all good ones.”
The number was seven, and if they’re all good ones, that would fit with the recruiting that has been done by Motzko and his staff for the past several years.
There are five Gophers from the 2022-23 national runners-up playing in the NHL: forwards Matthew Knies and Logan Cooley, and defensemen Brock Faber, Jackson LaCombe and Ryan Johnson.
The Gophers were strong again last season, losing 6-3 the Boston University in the NCAA quarterfinals. Another NHLer-to-be, Snuggerud, was back in 2023-24; then, surprisingly, he returned again for this junior year rather than sign with St. Louis.
As this season approached, Motzko was declaring that “this group is special.” He went so far as to suggest the defense, led by sophomore Sam Rinzel, could compare with the crew from two years ago.
Faber, LaCombe and Johnson? Really, Bob?
“He’s optimistic about this team for good reason — their recruiting has been outstanding — but I don’t know if any college team is going to equal what the Gophers had with those defensemen,” Louie Nanne said. “I mean, Faber … he walked into the NHL and was very good immediately.”
Nanne wasn’t complaining; rather, more celebrating that Motzko could be feeling this good about his seventh version of Gophers.
Don Lucia left after the 2017-18 season and athletic director Mark Coyle recruited Nanne to join him in the search for a new coach.
“We had a couple of other candidates, but Motzko always was at the top of the list,” Nanne said. “He had everything you wanted ...
“He also has a leadership style that when a recruit meets him, they want to play for him. And then they want to keep playing for him.”
Snuggerud would be a fine example of that. The Blues wanted to sign him, but the legend is Faber told him to stick around for a junior season with the Gophers to be even better prepared for the NHL.
Faber knows of what he speaks, walking right into the playoffs with the Wild in 2023 after his college career ended with that overtime loss to Quinnipiac.
And there was Snuggerud on Friday, firing in his 50th Gophers goal — with another Motzko team that already looks primed to make a run.
The Gophers will lose senior setter Melani Shaffmaster, but they don’t expect players to leave via the transfer portal.
