GopherPuckLive is going to give you six thoughts to think about a couple times throughout the season as they chase an elusive sixth NCAA Championship. Coach Bob Motzko doesn’t expect that his team will win the league by 19 points again this year, but he’s not shying away from the high expectations either. […]
Tampa, Fla. — Coming into the Frozen Four there were high hopes for the pace of play based on the sheer volume of skill amongst the teams in Tampa. The Gophers boasted 14 draft picks in their line-up and the Terriers tallied 11 in theirs. Neither team disappointed during an intense Minnesota 6-2 win over Boston University during the first semi-final of the weekend. However it wasn’t necessarily the Gophers top line or the Terriers heralded freshman defensemen that made the most noise, it came from some of the team’s depth players. […]
Minneapolis, Minn. — Looking over a roster of 14 NHL draft picks, plenty of pundits think it is an easy job to put together a lineup for Minnesota. The reality is that it’s always a challenge to find the right chemistry and every fall the concern over early lineups are brushed aside by Bob Motzko with a grin and a cliche that the lines he sets at the start of the year have never been […]
Minneapolis, Minn. — When the University of Minnesota men’s hockey program decided it was time to make a change in leadership behind the bench, it wasn’t necessarily because the team was losing the majority of their games, it was because they were losing the wrong ones. The Gophers seemed to struggle on the biggest stages and the losses during the postseason and the losses to the other in-state programs were adding up. Now as Gophers […]
Gophers have games in hand with Buckeyes, but key upcoming series will have huge implications for conference race and best chance to make an impact to their PairWise Ranking during rest of regular season Minneapolis, Minn. — Players coming into the locker room to start a crucial February stretch of Gopher Hockey noticed a new message on the team’s white board last week, ‘We Have What We Need.’ Storylines throughout January focused on goaltender Jack […]
Fifth-year goalie will immediately join Carolina taxi squad Minneapolis, Minn. — Gophers men’s hockey coach Bob Motzko was watching the Minnesota Vikings wrap up their season Sunday when his phone rang and it brought the type of news that usually doesn’t come until after his own team wraps up their season — fifth year player Jack LaFontaine informed him that he was signing a professional contract with the Carolina Hurricanes. “According to him, he got […]
The number of season ticket holders continues its decline, the actual number of fans coming to the rink reversed its trend in 2019-20. The numbers of tickets scanned grew from the 5,284 attending in 2018-19 to 5,799 in 2019-20, a ten percent increase. […]
During availability Bob Motzko said after getting five of six from Michigan he did what all old coaches do, go through the film and pick out all the things the team did wrong. The head hockey coach has said during the first ten games that he has to remember to be patient with this team and he quickly turned his focus back to the things they did well. The Gophers killed off all nine shorthanded […]
Big Ten Network’s Paul Caponigri joined the show for the 12th time. We talked about the split at Penn State. What Bob is wishing for Christmas. And previewed the weekend against Ohio State. […]
State College, PA – With a chance to sweep the Nittany Lions and gain some momentum leading into the holiday break, the Gophers shot themselves in the foot Saturday night. Costly turnovers resulted in three of Penn State’s five non-empty net goals in a 6-3 loss. After stealing the game Friday night, Minnesota (8-5-3 Overall (2-0 OT), 3-4-1-2 B1G) found itself on its heels again early, as Penn State (9-5-3 (0-0), 2-3-1) scored twice near […]
State College, PA – If you’re going to wait 15 minutes to register your first shot on goal, you’d better make it a good one. The Gophers did just that Friday night, even going two-for-two for good measure. After going down 1-0 with a 12-0 shot disadvantage 16 minutes into the game, the Minnesota Gophers (8-4-3 Overall (2-0 OT), 3-3-1-2 B1G) scored on their first two shots late in the first, taking the lead and […]
Always fun to have the “Kinger” on the podcast. The show and overtime never lets us down. We recapped the Michigan State series. Previewed the Penn State series. Also got in to a few interesting topics with John as well. Audio You can listen to the podcast here, or on Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , Spotify , Amazon Music and Audible . It is also available on just about any podcast website or player. […]
Minneapolis, MN – After an overtime affair Friday night, Sunday’s matinee between Minnesota and Michigan State again needed extra time to settle the score. This time, however, no shootout was required (thank goodness). Jimmy Clark scored the game-winning-goal in the 3-on-3 overtime session as the Minnesota Gophers (7-4-3 Overall, 2-3-1-2 B1G) pulled out an overtime win over the Spartans (10-4-2, 5-0-1-2). Michigan State had scored two goals in the final five minutes of regulation to […]
Minneapolis, Minn. — The Gophers threw 80 pucks towards the Sparty net on Friday night and had three leads, but only came away with one conference point in a 3-3 tie after losing the shootout. No. 8 Minnesota (6-4-3, 2-3-2) got nice goals from Connor Kurth, Bryce Brodzinski and Rhett Pitlick that all came from great plays getting the puck to right player in the right spot, but No. 7 Michigan State (10-3-2, 5-0-2) found […]
We celebrated 250 episodes of the podcast with Gopher Hockey legend, Pat Micheletti! Talked about the split vs Notre Dame. The slow start for the team. And previewed the series with Michigan State. Audio You can listen to the podcast here, or on Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , Spotify , Amazon Music and Audible . It is also available on just about any podcast website or player. Video
Minneapolis, Minn. — Gophers coach Bob Motzko challenged his team to be more mature Saturday after underclassmen made three immature mistakes to feed the Fighting Irish offense in Friday’s 4-2 loss. No. 6 Minnesota’s (6-4-2, 2-3-1) response satisfied their coach during their 4-1 win over No. 17 Notre Dame (7-4-2, 3-1-2). The Gophers got a pair of goals from Rhett Pitlick, one from Jaxon Nelson and one from Ryan Chesley to split the series with […]