Members of the University of Minnesota men’s hockey team played shinny on one of the ten pond hockey rinks set up adjacent to the NHL rink. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

“It’s such a wonderful atmosphere,” Wild coach Dean Evason said after the team’s fifth-consecutive loss. “Obviously, you want to leave with a good feeling but there are so many great things that have happened here the last couple of days.”

The coldest game in NHL history went on without a hitch, complete with multiple pond hockey games, a lumberjack demonstration, simulated ice fishing and a four-song first-intermission concert by country music star, Thomas Rhett. Nearly 40,000 people braved the frigid temps 

“I was looking over my shoulder for a polar bear, that’s how cold it was out there,” Wild assistant captain Marcus Foligno said.  “To see the fans stacked to the top, bracing the cold, that’s why we have the best fans, I believe. You could hear them and the cheer when we scored, too, was kind of an echo and it was a great feeling to play in this game.”

The Blues, who bussed to Target Field and entered the stadium adorned in beach wear, may have had a psychological edge early on in a game which saw the temp at -5.7 degrees Fahrenheit at puck drop and plummet from there. 

“You do suck a little wind out there,” Foligno said. “It’s tough to breathe that deep cold air but, I mean, you’re so caught up in the thrill of the game that it was a really fun atmosphere.”

St. Louis forward Jordan Kyrou watches his shot elude Wild goaltender Cam Talbot’s glove for his second goal of the game in the second period of Minnesota’s 6-4 Winter Classic loss to the Blues at Target Field. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

The game itself was primarily a 60-minute slog of a contest dominated by the Blues, a faster, more rugged squad for much of the night. Jordan Kyrou’s four-point (2-2–4) second period helped turn a 1-1 game into a 6-2 St. Louis lead after two periods and should have brought an end to Wild starting goaltender Cam Talbot’s rough night even if he hadn’t left the game due to a lower-body injury.

Wild coach Dean Evason doesn’t see it that way, however.

“We wouldn’t have taken him out of that game,” Evason said. “He’s a battler, he’s a competitive guy, we don’t take him out of that game because he’s still going to give us a chance to come back.”

Goals by Ryan Hartman and Kevin Fiala and some too-little-too-late inspired play in the final period, after Kaapo Kahkonen was pulled for an extra attacker with more than eight minutes remaining in regulation, made it semi-interesting. The question is, where was that effort for two lackluster periods in a game with so much riding on it in terms of both playoff positioning and national perception?

“It’s embarrassing, I think, the first two periods,” Wild forward Mats Zuccarello said. “You have 40,000 people coming, freezing their asses off and we’re playing like that. … There’s no excuses. It’s cold, it’s cold for both teams, the ice is bouncy for both teams, they just outplayed us for 40 minutes.

“It’s unfortunate it happened on a great night like this when a lot of people leave their house in this cold to support us and we give them a performance like that.”

Deer “roamed” Lake Winter Classic as people fished and made s’mores over a fire pit throughout the game. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Kirill Kaprizov came to play, potting Minnesota’s first goal just 25 seconds after Blues forward David Perron opened the scoring and chipped in two assists. But that goal, redirected off the stick of Blues defenseman Niko Mikkola, and Rem Pitlick’s shot that ramped up a stick before bouncing off the back of a completely unaware Blues goalie Jordan Binnington, was all Minnesota could muster for 40 minutes. 

“They got to their game quicker than we got to ours and we didn’t get to ours, obviously, until the end,” Evason said. “We talked to the group about our sense of urgency has to be way quicker than the last 10 minutes of a hockey game when we’re pulling goalies. 

“They advanced and then they used their skill to score goals once they got in there.” 

That’s troubling, even with Joel Eriksson Ek, Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin all sidelined. The same group somehow mustered 18 of its 33 total shots in the final period to finish with a flurry but it was still mostly a no-show performance. Opinions varied on the impact of the 11-day break between games leading up to the Winter Classic with Evason allowing for the fact his team was rusty.

“Hockey players need to play hockey, not practice hockey. We practiced well, got our touches and all that kind of stuff but, you know, you’ve got that rhythm of a season … and, unfortunately, now we’ve got another four days before we get going again.

“The situation is exactly what it is and we’ve got to find a way to correct our game here real quickly.”

Zuccarello, on the other hand, refused to let himself and his teammates off the hook.

“It doesn’t matter, it’s a big game for us. We lost four in a row, we’ve got to come out with some push and urgency and we didn’t do it. I don’t care when we last played, that is not acceptable for us as a team. I think we all know it.”

The post Winter Anticlimactic appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The problem is Perbix doesn’t, because he didn’t. Motzko’s triumphant return to the “House that Herbie built” Saturday night did not come without a little outside help.

In the opening moments of overtime, Minnesota’s Blake McLaughlin tugged hard on the back of the puck-carrying Perbix’s sweater, yanking him to the ice just to the left of Husky goaltender David Hrenak. So convinced of his guilt, McLaughlin stopped skating as he passed the NCHC official in the corner who watched the play unfold right in front of him. The Huskies did the same but Sammy Walker did not and once McLaughlin realized he had been spared a penalty, he picked up the loose puck and fed his Gopher co-captain who went in alone on Hrenak, burying the game winner 36 seconds into the extra session.

The controversial finish gave No. 4 Minnesota a split in its home-and-home series with No. 2 St. Cloud State and put a damper on SCSU’s homecoming celebration. Motzko improved his record at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center to 146-73-29 (.647) overall and 1-0-0 on the visiting bench.

“I eventually knew that it was gonna happen, you know; it’s different,” Motzko said of his return. “I have great memories here and then to see a crowd like this and the intensity. I’ve lived through this. This is a special place and … it was special tonight too.”

Considering Motzko’s contribution to the program, his “homecoming” might have been a bittersweet moment for some Husky fans under normal circumstances. However, things turned ugly as the standing-room-only crowd pelted the ice with beer cans, seltzer cans and anything else within its reach.

Amid all of it, players and coaches shook hands while St. Cloud State coach Brett Larson took a detour to berate the official responsible for ignoring the infraction. 

The explanation?

“No explanation,” a seething Larson said. “We just watched on video, it’s impossible, you can’t explain it. That’s why there’s no explanation; it’s impossible to explain.”

One observer, who I shall not name but it rhymes with Ryan, initially agreed with Motzko immediately after watching it in real time from behind the top row of Section 207, where students absolutely respected the area’s no-alcohol policy without exception.

His first instinct was, and I quote, “Elite dive.”

He even stood across from Motzko as the coach offered his opinion which seemed to confirm what the naked eye witnessed. Moments later, however, his son pulled out his phone and revealed the smoking-gun video proving otherwise and tarnishing his opinion of an otherwise phenomenal night of hockey.

“I’m embarrassed that that happened and that non-call really ruined a great hockey game,” Larson said. “Two teams that I thought played great tonight gave our fans just a treat, a back-and-forth game with two really good hockey teams. Unfortunately, that situation really left a tough taste in our mouth.”

2021 Minnesota Mr. Hockey Award recipient, Jack Peart, scored his first collegiate goal in Saturday night’s 4-3 OT loss to Minnesota. (MHM Photo / Rock Olson)

Decked out in retro uniforms resembling those worn in the 1985-86 season, Motzko’s final season playing for SCSU, the Huskies tilted the ice in their favor early on and jumped out to a 1-0 lead near the halfway point of the first period on a fluky goal credited to Sam Hentges. But Minnesota scored twice in the second on goals by Aaron Hulgen and Bryce Brodzinski to give the Gophers a 2-1 lead entering the third. 

In a reversal of Friday night’s contest, St. Cloud State wasted no time tying the score on freshman Jack Peart’s first collegiate goal just 19 seconds into the final period. This time, however, it was the Gophers who answered, with Walker quickly restoring the lead.

“We needed to do that,” Motzko said. “I wasn’t happy with a couple of those goals that we gave up, last night, especially. When you get in games like this, you know, with playoff intensity, you are going to make mistakes this early. Sometimes you’ve got to live through those mistakes to get to the other side, a learning experience.

“So, we’re learning.”

The Gophers were less than five minutes away from a regulation victory but a cross-checking call on Minnesota’s Ben Meyers with 4:16 to go put the Huskies a man up and Nolan Walker tied it just seven seconds later. Motzko felt, at worst, it should have been a 4-on-4 situation. 

“It shouldn’t have been in overtime, the guy was hooking Meyers and Meyers retaliated,” Motzko said. “You can’t do that but he let that go. So I felt we deserved to win that game and I know it’s going to be controversial how it played down, but it played the way it was supposed to tonight.”

That’s not exactly how Nolan Walker saw it, especially after his experience in the post-game handshake line.

“Even their own guy came up to everyone and said, ‘That’s horrible. It should have been a penalty,'” SCSU’s Walker said. “So that’s when you know, right there, that we got screwed.”

The post Unhappy Homecoming appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Minneapolis — The NHL made its first regular-season foray into outdoor hockey with the inaugural Winter Classic on Jan. 1, 2008 featuring the Buffalo Sabres hosting the Pittsburgh Penguins. Minnesota hockey fans waited eight long years and and watched 15 more outdoor games for their chance see one played in the State of Hockey.

It turned out to be worth the wait as Minnesota-bred players and college stars combined for three goals and five assists to lead the Minnesota Wild to a 6-1 NHL Stadium series game win over the Chicago Blackhawks in front of 50,426 at TCF Bank Stadium.

Former Gopher Erik Haula led the way for Minnesota-tied contingent with a pair of second-period assists in addition to being awarded his seventh goal of the season when Chicago’s Patrick Kane pulled him down on a breakaway with the Blackhawks’ net empty.

“I had a chance,” Haula said. “But Torch said that will be the easiest goal I’ll ever score and I’ll take it.”

The goal came nearly three years to the day since Haula last scored on the University of Minnesota campus on Feb. 22, 2013 against Minnesota Duluth across Oak Street at Mariucci Arena. Ironically, it was an empty-net goal.

“What a feeling,” Haula said. “First to get the win and the whole team to play that well and having 50,000 people being back where you, kind of where you started.”

White Bear Lake’s Ryan Carter assisted on Matt Dumba’s first-period goal to open the scoring and his sixth goal of the season made it 5-0 early in the third. Haula’s fellow former Gophers Thomas Vanek (goal) and Mike Reilly (assist) chipped in as did Minnesota-Duluth’s Justin Fontaine who added an assist of his own on Dumba’s goal.

In a strange twist, Bloomington’s Zach Parise, tied with Charlie Coyle for the team lead in goals, was kept off the score sheet.

“It was fun seeing those guys score,” Wild defenseman Ryan Suter said. “I think Haulsy was really loving it after the game. But it’s good to see those guys have fun here back where it all started for them.”

Vanek’s second-period power play goal gave the Wild a 2-0 lead just past the seven minute mark. It was Vanek’s first goal on campus since a March 12, 2004 6-1 WCHA first-round playoff game win over St. Cloud State. The proud Gopher enjoyed an uncharacteristically animated goal celebration.

“It’s been a while but it feels good to be back,” said Vanek who has seven points (3-4–7) in his past seven games. “I usually don’t celebrate too much but today here, back on campus, big game, big crowd, it was fun.”

Reilly, who along with Jason Pominville assisted on the the goal, said it was exciting for him and his fellow alums to contribute to such an important win.

“Vanek did a great job tipping that puck for the shot by [Pominville] and Haula played really well as well,” said Reilly who now has three assists in his past two games. “It’s great to have the alumni like us to kind of carry on the tradition a little bit.”

The players soaked in what was described as an incredible atmosphere and left with lasting memories.

“Definitely a few goosebumps, for sure, walking out there,” Reilly said.

“It’s something you’ll probably never forget,” Haula added. “And then to have, to play it here is extra special for sure.”

Carter, one of two native Minnesotans along with Parise (Reilly was born in Chicago) to play in the game called the experience “awesome” and took the time to reflect on  a lifetime of memories as the day wore on.

“Being back home and the setting was kind of set; the snow flew in the first,” Carter said. “I look up in the stands, there’s a group of White Bear jerseys too.  And you hear the band playing and it brings you back to your college days a little bit.  It was kind of like a time warp through my career and into pro hockey.  And in the third there we got up, what was it, 5-0 or something like that, 6-1, and I sat back and said this is pretty cool.  This is pretty neat.”

The post Home ice advantage appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Phil Housley’s journey to hockey immortality is complete

As an under-aged player, a young Phil Housley tried out for the Squirt A team in his hometown of South St. Paul, but the future NHL star did not make the cut. It wasn’t long, however before the phenom made his mark and was eventually called up during that season.

Housley went on to receive the Most Valuable Player award from a team that initially cut him. Today in Toronto, Housley receives hockey’s highest individual honor when he becomes one of seven new members inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Enshrined into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2004, Housley joins fellow NHL players Sergei Fedorov, Nicklas Lidstrom and Chris Pronger along with women’s Olympian Angela Ruggiero, Hockey Hall of Fame Chairman Bill Hay and Carolina Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos among the Hall of Fame’s class of 2015.

Housley becomes just the third Minnesotan to be so honored, joining White Bear Lake’s Moose Goheen (1952) and Eveleth’s Frank Brimsek (1966).

“Which is incredible because of all the great players that have come out of here,” Housley said. “You look at that 1980 team and a lot of those players had great careers so it was a little bit surprising to me but certainly I’m very honored.”

Housley is thrilled his wife Karin, a Minnesota State Senator, and children Taylor, Reide, Wilson and Avery will all be in attendance in Toronto along with several friends from his eight stops throughout his NHL career (Buffalo, Winnipeg, St. Louis, Calgary, New Jersey, Washington, Chicago and Toronto).

The absence of Housley’s parents, MaryLee and LeRoy, who have both passed away will not go unnoticed, however.

“I know they’re going to be looking down on me very proud and I’m sure they’re just gleaming up there,” Housley said. “That’s going to be a little bit emotional for me when I mention my mom and dad, because they had so much to do with it.”

(Photo courtesy Hockey Hall of Fame)

After starring at South St. Paul High School, Housley was selected by the Buffalo Sabres in the first round (No. 6 overall) of the 1982 NHL Draft. The 18-year-old defenseman so impressed Scotty Bowman, the Sabres Coach/GM at the time, Housley made the team the following Fall and was named to the 1983 NHL All-Rookie team.

He never spent a day in the minors in a career spanning 21 seasons and nearly 1500 games with eight teams. The seven-time All-Star’s 1,232 points (338 goals and 894 assists) were the most ever registered by a U.S. born player at the time of his retirement in 2003. Former Minnesota North Star and Dallas Star Mike Modano eclipsed that mark in 2007.

Housley won gold as a member of Team USA in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey and was an Olympic silver medalist in 2002 playing under coach Herb Brooks in Salt Lake City. He most recently made his mark internationally when he led Team USA to gold as Head Coach of the U.S. National junior team in the 2013 World Junior Championships in Ufa, Russia.

After nine years behind the bench guiding Stillwater High School’s boys team, Housley is in his third season as an assistant coach with the Nashville Predators, first under Barry Trotz and now under Peter Laviolette.

Nashville happened to be scheduled to visit Minnesota on Nov. 5, Housley’s final game with the Predators prior to his departure to Toronto for Hall of Fame festivities.

“It’s fitting that we’re playing Minnesota right before the induction ceremony takes place on Monday,” Housley said. “It’s been just a great summer, I had a grandson (born) about six weeks ago and, obviously with the call (to the Hall of Fame).”

Housley was joined on the ice by his entire immediate family during a pre-game ceremony honoring his accomplishment in which he dropped the ceremonial first puck between Wild captain Mikko Koivu and Nashville captain Shea Weber.

“He contributes an awful lot inside of our locker room with our team and our young players and to the coaching staff,” Laviolette said after the Predators defeated the Wild 3-2. “For him to get recognized for his career is pretty special.”

Housley has been charged with mentoring a young defensive corps in which five of Nashville’s blue liners are 25 or under, including Seth Jones the fourth overall pick in the 2013 NHL Draft. Jones, who was a rookie in Housley’s first year behind the Predators’ bench said he loves playing for him.

“A lot of the D on our team are kind of young and still learning the game,” Jones said. “It’s funny because we are all very offensive and like to skate the puck just like he did so whenever he gives insight everyone’s all ears.”

Fellow defenseman Mattias Ekholm referred to Housley’s resume` and the instant credibility that comes with it on the ice.

“His numbers speak for (themselves),” Ekholm said. “He almost has a point a game in the NHL. How many defensemen can do that?

“It’s a huge honor for him and I think it’s long, long overdue.”

Housley says he feels fortunate to be able to coach a defensive unit with such great work ethic.

“These guys come to work and they’re eager to learn, they want to get better, they’re great competitors,” Housley said. “They’re one of the strengths of our team and they’re all mobile so it sort of fits hand in hand.”

Housley spoke proudly of growing up and honing his skills in South St. Paul during a 2012 interview with Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

“We had 10 outdoor rinks and that’s all we did,” Housley said. “Hockey was just my passion whether it was in the winter or the summer playing ball hockey.”

Like most kids, Housley said he would head to the outdoor rinks after school but that wasn’t enough. He would also make his mom get up an hour early on school days so he could skate before school as well.

Housley vividly recalled getting up especially early on Saturday and Sunday mornings to be first at the rink because he knew the rinks were flooded on Friday and Saturday nights.

“I just loved driving up and looking at that fresh sheet,” Housley said. “It was fun just to be around by myself doing different things and eventually all the kids would come and we’d have some pick-up games.”

Last week Housley spoke about how much the community of South St. Paul meant to him and his development.

“You surround yourself with people that shape you at a young age, you know, all the coaches and just the community itself,” Housley said. “It’s a blue-collar town, you had to work hard … and it was great to grow up there.”

Housley fondly recalls many of his youth coaches including legendary South St. Paul Peewee A coach George Powers, along with his squirt coaches Tom Moore and his own father, LeRoy. But he singled out his Bantam A coach, Paul Moen, a well-known figure in South St. Paul, who spent several years as an assistant coach at South St. Paul High School in addition to his work with Minnesota Hockey.

“I really loved his intensity and just joy to see the guys together at practice and winning at games,” Housley said of Moen in that 2012 MHM interview. “He just had a passion for it and he’s still doing those things today.”

Although Housley was center throughout his youth hockey career, Doug Woog, his coach at South St. Paul High School, had other plans in mind for him.

“He decided to put me back to defense,” Housley said. “He thought I could see the game in front of me really well and thought I had pretty good mobility.”

“Or he maybe just wanted to play me more, I don’t know,” Housley added with a chuckle.

Whatever it was, the decision spawned a remarkable and well-decorated playing career for which Housley will now be immortalized in Toronto.

“You never really think when you enter the NHL that you’re playing to become a Hall-of-Famer, you’re just in the moment,” Housley said. “But certainly when you look back at all the hard work you put into it and all the great people and players that you played with that put you in this position I’m very grateful.”

Editor’s note: Dan Myers and Scott Tiffany contributed to this article.

The post From South St. Paul to the ‘Hall’ appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Struggles against Chicago only get tougher to swallow

It’s been nearly a year since the Chicago Blackhawks were gifted a 2-1 Game 6 overtime win over the Minnesota Wild in the second round of the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The puck ricocheted off of an Xcel Energy Center glass stanchion to Patrick Kane — of all people — who, in a split second facilitated Minnesota’s second straight postseason elimination by the Blackhawks.

Fast forward to Tuesday night’s Game 3 in which Kane scored the lone goal, his fourth of the series, in a 1-0 Chicago win in St. Paul to give the Blackhawks a commanding 3-0 second-round series lead.

The Wild may very well win Game 4 at home on Thursday and avoid a sweep, but to expect even this resilient group to become just the fifth team NHL history to rally from such a deficit is asking a lot. Wild defenseman Ryan Suter, however, offered a slightly different, albeit unrealistic, take.

“We’ve always seemed to make it harder on us than we need to,” Suter said. “Maybe this is a good thing for us.”

Chicago’s Patrick Kane continues to be a thorn in Minnesota’s side, especially in the postseason. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

Each of the aforementioned Kane goals was his sixth of the postseason and both, one unequivocally and one potentially, killed the Wild’s postseason.

But they also produced vastly different post-game reactions from players.

Kane’s overtime winner a year ago left Minnesota with a sense of disappointment and frustration in its failure to advance, but it was tempered by pride in advancing past the first round for the first time in 11 seasons and pushing the defending Stanley Cup champs as hard as they did.

“I thought we had our chances and that’s why it really sucks right now,” Wild captain Mikko Koivu said at the time. “It’s been a great run. It’s been the best time of my NHL career and when it ends like that it’s an empty feeling right now.”

Zach Parise added, “We did a lot of good things to get to where we are but it’s disappointing to be ending right now.”

Win, lose or “happy point,” Parise is generally not one to shy away from questions after a game, but it was clear Tuesday’s loss particularly stung Minnesota’s assistant captain. He responded to eight questions with a total of 101 words.

When asked where his team goes from here, Parise replied, “Win the fourth game. That’s about it.”

While others in the room may have offered more in terms of sound bites, the cloud hovering above them was a few shades darker than it was 51 weeks ago.

The faces, such as Parise, Koivu, Jason Pominville, Suter and Mike Yeo, remain the same but their expectations have since risen to a point where the Wild’s current conundrum is virtually inconceivable to them.

“We know what we’re up against, so I’m not going to get up here right now and give a big rah-rah speech,” Yeo said after Game 3. “We’ve got to win a game. It’s as simple as that. In all honesty, I’ve never been here before. It’s kind of unfamiliar territory. I guess what you do is try to draw upon previous experiences even though it’s not the same.”

Yes, it’s true this same cast of characters compiled a pitiful 18-19-5 record through 42 regular season games and stormed back to make the playoffs. But while its 28-9-3 mark to close out the season may reflect overachievement to a degree, it is by far a more accurate depiction of the Wild’s capabilities.

So, of course, Minnesota looked at this series as a chance to advance to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2003 — especially after the Wild dispatched St. Louis, considered by many a tougher matchup for them, in six games.

Scenes like this have been few and far between for the Wild in their series with Chicago. (MHM Photo / Jonathan Watkins)

But the playoff demons which have plagued the Wild against Chicago the past two seasons linger: Kane, Corey Crawford, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp, Marian Hossa and, let’s be honest, some pretty miserable puck luck.

“We had some good looks, weren’t able to find a way to put one in and they miss a play, get a bounce and end up scoring a goal,” Pominville said. “That’s the difference. We just got to find a way to put one in and lately we haven’t been getting those bounces go our way.”

Even the one Minnesota exorcised, its own goaltending stability, hasn’t made a difference as season-savior Devan Dubnyk hasn’t been up to par against the Blackhawks. When asked what happened on the Kane goal in Game 3, Dubnyk took the Parise approach.

“Well, he shot it through my legs. That is what happened.”

But none of the rest of it matters if the Wild can’t score.

Minnesota’s top-5 regular season goal scorers (Parise, Nino Niederreiter, Thomas Vanek, Jason Zucker and Pominville) have combined for just 11 playoff goals in nine games and only two against Chicago. That’s two fewer than Kane alone has scored against Minnesota.

“We have to make sure we play our heart out next game and make sure we get some goals,” Niederreiter said. “That’s the biggest thing, we can’t win if we don’t score and that’s exactly what happened tonight.”

The oft-criticized Vanek has zero goals to go with his four postseason assists which hardly make up for his defensive liabilities.

On the other hand, Chicago’s five best goal scorers in the regular season have scored seven of their 17 overall postseason goals in this series and while Hossa, too, is scoreless he’s also a tremendous asset in his own zone.

Looking back at how the series has unfolded, it would be easy to recall specific key moments in each game and ponder the “What if …?” scenarios and the impact they had on the overall outcome. But Koivu dismissed that notion without hesitation.

“We haven’t done that and we’re not starting to do that,” Koivu said. “We’re going to take every positive thing that we have and what we had throughout the season. Right now we’re going to get ready for Game 4 and not look any further than that like we’ve been doing all season long.”

The post 3-0 deficit a bitter pill for Wild appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.