Bob Motzko

Photo credit: Ethan Fine, Gopher Sports
News

Gophers Give Up Three Leads to Sparty, End Up with One Point

November 24, 2023 Eric Vegoe Comments Off on Gophers Give Up Three Leads to Sparty, End Up with One Point

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 […]

Rhett Pitlick celebrates as goal. By Bjorn Franke from GopherSports
News

Gophers Earn Series Split with Fighting Irish

November 18, 2023 Eric Vegoe Comments Off on Gophers Earn Series Split with Fighting Irish

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 […]

Koster returns to the lineup against UMD
News

Gophers Best Bulldogs 5-1

November 3, 2023 Eric Vegoe Comments Off on Gophers Best Bulldogs 5-1

Minneapolis, Minn. — Since the breakup of the old WCHA, Minnesota Duluth sure has had Minnesota’s number. The Bulldogs have had quite the run going 13-3-2 against the Gophers after the 2013-14 season and Minnesota Duluth coach Scott Sandelin has often had a smile on his face when the two teams meet. However, smiles were rare on the No. 14 Minnesota Duluth (3-3-2) bench Friday as the No. 6 Gophers (4-3-0) controlled the game from […]

Charlie Strobel celebrates his first goal as a Gopher
News

Six Thoughts as Big Ten Standings Look Unfamiliar

November 3, 2023 Eric Vegoe Comments Off on Six Thoughts as Big Ten Standings Look Unfamiliar

There have only been four Big Ten conference games played so far this season, but it’s a little odd to see Wisconsin on top of the league standings to start the season. The Badgers came to Mariucci and left with all six points by sweeping Minnesota last weekend. “Guys… it’s October,” said Wisconsin coach Mike Hastings. “It’s big. I’m happy for people back in Madison and our followers, but at the end of the day, […]

NCAA Tournament

Gophers Depth Gets Them to Title Game

April 6, 2023 Eric Vegoe Comments Off on Gophers Depth Gets Them to Title Game

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. […]

Logan Cooley waiting for the puck
Features

Opportunity to Improve Against In-State Rivals Ahead

October 7, 2022 Eric Vegoe Comments Off on Opportunity to Improve Against In-State Rivals Ahead

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 […]

Features

COVID Cools Crowds Until Gophers Heat Up

April 15, 2022 Eric Vegoe 4

Minneapolis, Minn. — The Gophers men’s hockey program welcomed a venue record crowd of 10,744 fans for their final home game of the season as the host of the Big Ten Tournament Championship Game. Boosted by five full sections of students in 3M Arena at Mariucci, the venue also featured a record number of 10,252 tickets scanned.  Gopher Puck Live has been tracking data since 2014 and the previous high for the metric was 9,050 […]