Gophers Get in First Skate of Season
Minneapolis, Minn. — Minnesota men’s hockey hit the ice for their first skate of the season Monday afternoon and while Head Coach Bob Motzko is happy with his roster, he could probably use some tape and a sharpie to get names on the front of the gold helmets for all of his new players. Half of the Gophers 14 forwards are newcomers to campus this season and defensively only Cal Thomas, Luke Mittlestadt and Leo Gruba return with a lot of game experience. Between the pipes Luca Di Pasquo is the newcomer joining Nathan Airey and Zach Wiese, although Di Pasquo’s green breezers and green helmet gave his identity away pretty easily during the skate.
Motzko shared with GopherPuckLive that he’ll ease into the season with familiar and simple drills to start as everyone gets comfortable with each other. The season opener against Michigan Tech on October 3 is still a few weeks away and there’s plenty of time to teach systems leading up to then. Getting comfortable on the ice and seeing the chemistry for his roster is the most important thing right now.
Coaches ran an up tempo skate focusing on breakouts, winning puck battles and getting into transition. Motzko said that years ago there wasn’t hardly any time to get into the season, but with the new rules now his team is one of the last to get started and he’s just fine with his timeline as it’s such a long season from now until April. The coach likes his team’s depth down the middle with centers Jimmy Clark, Tanner Ludtke, Erik Påhlsson, John Mittelstadt and Mason Moe, he values the experience Luke Mittlestadt and Cal Thomas add on the blue line and likes the competition they’ll have in goal.
The Gophers will surely have plenty of time to shuffle lines and Motzko always jokes that he’s never picked the right lines to start the year, but Minnesota started practice with these lines:
Javon Moore – Jimmy Clark – Brody Ziemer
Bennett Hendrickson – Erik Påhlsson – LJ Mooney
Graham Harris – Tanner Ludtke – Brody Lamb
August Falloon – John Mittelstadt – Tate Pritchard
Teddy Townsend – Mason Moe – Rotating Third
Motzko tends to like shaping his line up starting with pairs of forwards and then shuffling a third player in and out of spots. If I were to prognosticate pairs based on this initial line chart, then I think there are a couple likely duos that could stick for the first bit of the season.
Clark and Ziemer played at times together last season showing some chemistry and both appear primed for a jump in production. The ending drill for practice was a 3 on 3 quick transition game pitting the defensemen and a line of Thomas’ choice against the rest of the team. Thomas picked the Clark line and then that group ended up coming out on top against the rest of the forwards to close out practice.
Hendrickson and Påhlsson could make sense as a duo to move forward with this year. Dubuque acquired Hendrickson for a USHL playoff push and that staff paired him with the Swedish center during a run to the Clark Cup Final. Påhlsson moved around a bit during the second half of the season dealing with an upper body injury after he seemed to just find his stride as center in the first half, but he’s healthy to start this year.
Falloon and John Mittelstadt made names for themselves last season when they were hard to play against. Mittelstadt in particular embraced that role as an energy player and it makes a lot of sense to lean on these two for some steady play in the lineup.
The other pairs mentioned so far are composed of returning players, but Ludtke and Lamb skated together this afternoon and there seemed to be some chemistry between the two of them. Ludtke had an injury impacted season with Nebraska-Omaha last year, but he had a great freshman season for the Mavericks and came to Minnesota via the transfer portal to provide some talent at the center position. Lamb has had two good seasons for the Gophers and might be poised to be one of the top point producers in the right situation. Both players are experienced and that’s why putting them together could work.
Newcomers up front making impressions today were led by LJ Mooney who has a unique jump to his game that flashes every time he takes a shift. His season last year was cut short by injury, but it’s easy to see that he could join any pair and boost their play. During the World Junior Summer Showcase, Mooney was one of the top performers with USA Hockey and it’s clear his confidence is high heading into the season. Moore also stood out at times making a few plays today while benefitting from skating with Clark and Ziemer. The big forward made some direct plays in transition for goals and looked smooth receiving passes during the transition drills.
Defensively, the coaching staff is going to have to find some players who are comfortable playing on their off side since the only right shot player on the roster is Gruba. The pairs were shuffled up during the initial portion of practice and the closing half, but Luke Mittelstadt played on the off side with John Whipple during the first part of practice and then returned to the left side to play with Leo Gruba during the second half. Finn McLaughlin played on the right side with Jacob Rombach during the first half and then on the right side with Max Rud during the second. Cal Thomas played on the left side with Axel Begley during the first half, but then also played on the right side with Rombach a bit during the second half.
Finding offensive production from the blue line will be a crucial piece of the Gophers this season. Gruba had a great season in the USHL, but came up to speed slowly last season as Sam Rinzel and Ryan Chesley took most of the opportunities during the year. Luke Mittelstadt and Cal Thomas often played in more support roles from the back end last year, but both certainly have the tools if given more opportunity. McLaughlin’s addition to the group will be one to watch as the year gets going. He produced about a half point per game last season in the USHL and looked smooth picking up pucks on day one.
One last note is that the Gophers did just dress 25 players for practice today and it’s expected that this is the roster they’ll start the year with under the new rule of a 26 player limit.
