What had been taken for granted in the 1990s and early 2000s is now appreciated given the work it has taken to get back to this point. A record crowd of 10,894 for the second game of the Badgers series on Feb. 1 brought total attendance for the sweep to 21,641.

Connor Kurth and Cal Thomas celebrate a goal against Wisconsin in front of the packed home crowd cheering them on. (Photo courtesy of Minnesota Athletics)

“For all of us who work in the athletic department and on the external side, where we’re not on the ice every day, having a game-day environment like that is what we aspire to,” said Mike Wierzbicki, senior associate athletic director for the Gophers. “Providing an atmosphere that fans can enjoy and that gives you goosebumps.”

Telling the story of attendance and fan interest at what is now known as 3M at Mariucci Arena, isn’t as simple as throwing out a bunch of attendance figures.

That helps — the average of 9,769 tickets distributed this season is the highest it has been since 2015-16 and is up from 7,867 in 2021-22 — but it fails to address the most important thing: The electricity, as Motzko called it, that has returned to the 32-year-old building.

That is what so often had seemed to be missing until the last few seasons. A student section that wasn’t filled, or season tickets that had been sold to corporations or the general public, but weren’t used. The tickets might have been distributed, but that doesn’t mean sections were full or that the building had life.

The Dropoff
Motkzo was part of two NCAA championship teams during his time as an assistant on Gophers coach Don Lucia’s staff from 2001-05 and returned to replace Lucia in 2018 after spending 13 seasons at St. Cloud State. Motzko remembers the importance placed on getting fans back upon his return.

Bob Motzko has coached the Gophers men’s hockey team since 2018-19. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

“It was a major discussion at the administrative level, and they did a lot of things behind the scenes, too, on students and ticket prices,” he said. “It was the perfect storm. I always call it the breakup of the WCHA. That took a decade for people to forgive. I think we’re through that.”

As members of the Big Ten, the Gophers were forced to make the move from the WCHA to the Big Ten when the conference began to sponsor men’s ice hockey in the 2013-14 season. This was triggered by Penn State’s decision to start playing Division I hockey and enabled the Big Ten to have a six-team conference. It resulted in major upheaval for college hockey.

The Gophers had long-established WCHA rivalries with North Dakota, Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State. Throw in Minnesota State Mankato and Wisconsin, and five of Minnesota’s nine conference opponents were within driving distance. The Civic Center and then the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul were the regular hosts of the WCHA Final Five.

Suddenly, all of that was gone, and while tickets were still being sold to Gophers games, the amount of nights on which Mariucci felt like the place to be dwindled. This despite the fact the Gophers finished in first place in the Big Ten each of the conference’s first four seasons and went to the championship game of the 2014 Frozen Four.

Mike Wierzbicki, University of Minnesota senior associate athletic director. (Photo courtesy of Minnesota Athletics)

Wierzbicki, who grew up in Minnesota, arrived at the university as the assistant athletic director of marketing for the 2016-17 season. The Gophers won the Big Ten before losing in the NCAA regional semifinals to Notre Dame. There was an average of 9,595 tickets distributed as the Gophers qualified for the NCAA tournament for the fifth time in six seasons under Lucia.

The figure plummeted to 8,726 in 2017-18 as the Gophers finished fifth in the conference and did not make the NCAA tournament in Lucia’s final season. Motzko was hired to replace Lucia, but the work was just starting.

“There was a lack of WCHA rivalries and some changes there were not the most well-received things,” Wierzbicki said. “We also knew our team success wasn’t where we are nowadays and we didn’t perform on the ice the way we’re accustomed to.”

That wasn’t the only issue. The other was that a season-ticket waiting list that dated to the 1990s was “pretty much exhausted,” by Lucia’s penultimate season. That meant that when season-ticket holders didn’t renew for 2017-18, the athletic department was left with no built-in place to turn to replace them.

That wasn’t going to be easy, especially with the general public and corporations. The Gophers had the hockey market largely to themselves when the new Mariucci opened in 1993, the same year the NHL and North Stars left for Dallas. But by the time the season-ticket waiting list was gone, the NHL had returned with the Wild in St. Paul, the Twins were playing in a new stadium (Target Field) and the Vikings were opening U.S. Bank Stadium.

The sports dollar only goes so far and fans only want to attend so many events. Tickets to Gophers games weren’t cheap and there also was the issue of students no longer packing the place.

The road back
The low point came in March 2019. The Gophers played host to Michigan in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament. Minnesota swept the Wolverines in two games, but the headline was the attendance.

The Gophers’ 3-2 overtime victory in the opener drew an announced crowd of 1,835 fans. Numerous photos from inside the building indicated that figure might have been generous. According to a 2023 Star Tribune story, the Gophers had an average of only 5,325 tickets scanned per game during Motzko’s first season.

The average number of tickets distributed in 2019-20 decreased to 8,100 during the season in which the COVID-19 pandemic caused the season to be canceled before the end of the Big Ten tournament. Fans were not allowed into games the following season, and the low point of 7,867 for ticket distribution came in 2021-22.

The general public season-ticket sales for that season was 3,991 and the student season-ticket figure was 1,498. The Gophers, however, won the Big Ten and made it to the Frozen Four before losing to Minnesota State in the semifinals.

As disappointing as the attendance figures might have been, things were about to get a lot better. Some of it was in the control of Wierzbicki and his team and some of it was timing.

“Once students got through Covid, there was an opportunity to springboard off that and we saw them more interested in coming to games across the board,” Wierzbicki said.

Ticket distribution has been on the upswing for the past three seasons. (Photo courtesy of Minnesota Athletics)

The distribution of tickets has been on the rise the past three seasons: 9,129 in 2022-23 as the Gophers lost the NCAA title game after finishing first in the Big Ten; 9,221 in 2023-24 in which Motzko’s team lost to Boston University in the NCAA regional finals after finishing third in the conference; and 9,769 this season. The non-student season-ticket sales have been over 4,500 for two consecutive years and student season tickets have been over 1,500 for three years in a row.

“You have felt it ever since Covid with the students,” Motzko said. “If you remember, right before Covid, student attendance was falling all over the country in every sport. Then, the craziest thing is now we’ve got this uptick going on. For us, there’s no question. Our student section brings our building to life. We have such great diehard fans. They love that young energy. You can’t fool our fans, they want good hockey. But when you get that electricity in this building, I think it’s the greatest atmosphere in one of the greatest college sports.”

Wierzbicki points to the work done by the marketing, digital and social teams in the athletic department.

“We had to make it fun, right?” he said. “A cool and fun thing to do. So that played into giveaways, free food and creating demand and interest. All of those things need to come together. … But it all goes back to the post-Covid buzz and once there was reinvigorated energy to springboard off of that.”

Both season- and single-game ticket prices were dropped in different areas of the arena and a strategy was devised to get more fans into the building. One of those has been moving the faceoff time for Saturday home games to 5 p.m. That has helped the Gophers get more groups, such as youth hockey teams, and families to come to games and get home at a decent hour.

Giveaways also have helped.

“Our marketing team has done a good job of thinking outside the box,” Wierzbicki said. “We’ve done more unique things that students found value in. It might be a scarf giveaway or a unique stocking cap.”

Of course, “it doesn’t move the needle unless the team is successful,” Wierzbicki said.

The Gophers will enter their weekend series at Michigan in second place in the Big Ten, five points behind Michigan State with six games remaining. Their final regular-season home series will be Feb. 21-22 against Ohio State. The Gophers are a Big Ten-best 12-2-2 at home this season.

It feels like old times at Mariucci.

“You go back to (the Doug) Woog days and Lucia days, it’s been that before,” Motzko said. “We’re not creating anything new. Things go in cycles. We’ve always said, ‘Our fans haven’t gone anywhere, we’ve got to give them a reason to come back.’”

Both the team and the marketing department have done just that.

The post ‘Electric’ Crowds Are Back appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

A few weeks ago, Bethany Brausen officially became the head coach of the St. Thomas women’s hockey program after having the interim tag placed on her for 12 games following the abrupt resignation of then-head coach Joel Johnson.

After a successful playing and coaching career at the University of Minnesota, along with the Tommies’ sweep of then-No. 4 Minnesota Duluth during Brausen’s interim stage, it was no surprise that UST decided to put the future of the program in her hands.

Hockey is basically in Brausen’s blood, and some family influences helped guide her into fully embracing the sport she loves.

“My dad, he always kind of played, more informally though, so he would always kind of just do some pick-up hockey and stuff, so we definitely grew up in the rink,” Brausen said recently. “But a lot of the credit I give to my hockey involvement was actually for my cousin Connor, and he was like my best friend. I was attached at the hip with Connor, and he decided that he was wanting to play hockey, and so anything that he did, I was sold on as well. So, looking back, that was probably the biggest reason I got in was my best friend, my cousin. And then I feel like once I started playing, as most people know, it’s a hard sport to get out of. It’s just something you fall in love with pretty quickly.”

After earning Ms. Hockey honors as a senior and leading Roseville Area High School to a state championship in 2010, Brausen stayed in the Twin Cities and decided to suit up for the WCHA powerhouse Golden Gophers, even though it wasn’t as easy of a decision as one might think.

Choosing the Gophers
“When I was growing up, Minnesota was kind of the premier program in the Twin Cities,” she said. “It was really the only option in some ways for Minnesota kids just to get really high-level visibility, and so when I was growing up, there were people that I knew like Winny Brodt and Ronda Curtin, they were both Roseville people, and they ended up at Minnesota. So, I think I was kind of the traditional story of growing up in the Twin Cities and having the Gophers 10 minutes away from my home, and so that was definitely a big part for me when I went through the recruiting process.

“There were some other schools that I was considering. I thought about going out east. I even considered, you know, could I go to an Ivy League, things like that. But at the time just growing up in the Twin Cities and having an option that was close to home that had just such a rich tradition of success was definitely a big part of it.”

Brausen helped lead the Gophers to back-to-back national championships in 2013 and 2014 and then back to the title game in 2015. Then she decided to turn to coaching, which ended up being a perfect fit for her considering what she majored in during her time at Minnesota.

“I think to some degree I always knew that I wanted to coach in some capacity,” she said. “What’s interesting is I think growing up and even into my college years, I don’t know if coaches do a good enough job really kind of advocating and promoting a career profession of coaching. So, for me when I was at Minnesota, I’d never really thought about it as a full-time job. I actually originally got my master’s (degree) in counseling, and then I was pretty much set up with my PhD applications. I thought I’d go on and become a psychologist and maybe work in sports psychology, or industrial organizational psychology.

“So that was kind of my path originally and then at that point when I was starting my second year of my master’s program is actually when (Gophers head) coach (Brad) Frost called me and offered for me to come back and coach Minnesota. I think I always knew I wanted to coach. I coached at high school (at Breck) for a couple years. I coached in OS stuff all growing up but for me, I never really thought of it as a career profession until the opportunity presented itself. And then, similar to falling in love with hockey at a young age, it felt impossible not to fall in love with the coaching side of it as well later.”

When asked if her multiple degrees have helped her as a coach, Brausen said they definitely have played a role.

“My undergraduate was in psychology,” she said. “I think that that really applies to any sector that you go into and that’s kind of why I was drawn to that degree originally and then the masters in counseling. I actually did a internship with Premier Sports Psychology as well during that time and so, I really got pretty nuanced in the mental side of sports, and really just kind of the mental side of life, too, and how we can be the healthiest version of ourselves. And so, I think between those two programs and then the current one I’m in right now is actually in organizational leadership.

“So, for me, education has always been something I’ve been really passionate about and I just believe that everyone can and should be lifetime learners if we want to keep getting better. So, I definitely think between those three different types of degree programs it’s really set me up to be a really well-rounded coach.”

As far as her PhD goes, the soon to be Dr. Bethany is in her last year of her program and is in her dissertation stage before she’ll be defending it later in 2025. The topic is appropriately related to women’s hockey, which is a topic “near and dear to her heart.”

“I’m looking at four different coaches across the country Division 1 women’s hockey, and the question I’m trying to answer is what are the thoughts, beliefs, and practices of these four coaches who seek to help their student athletes flourish,” she said. “Essentially the question is really about how do we go above and beyond, kind of, traditional approaches to coaching. How do we go beyond kind of just black-and-white there’s a player you have their coach and it’s kind of old-school and traditional, but how do we go beyond that and actually develop these student athletes holistically and from a social psychological academic full life perspective?

“So that’s the answer, or the question I’m trying to answer, and I will get back to you in some months hopefully. If I get some good insights in that way.”

Brausen says all four of the coaches she’s researching are female and not just from the WCHA, which makes for an interesting study.

“It’s called purpose of sampling,” she said. “So, what you do is, if you were actually kind of ingrained or engulfed into a certain population or a certain demographic, you can actually hand select people based on your experience or feedback from others of who would be the best candidates, and so that’s how I went about selecting my participants. I can’t say specifically who they are from an anonymous standpoint, but they are all female and that was just by chance. It could’ve been a male, but just by chance, the four that were really the best fit for the study were females. I have a couple of head coaches, and a couple are associates or assistant coaches. I have one that’s an Ivy League coach, I have some from the WCHA, and some from other conferences. So, it’s really a nice blend to get some different perspectives from a wide range. So, it’s been fun.”

Joining the Tommies as an assistant coach
With a psych background and a successful tenure at Minnesota, Brausen joined the Tommies bench and there were a couple of factors that made her switch from maroon and gold to purple and gray.

“I think the biggest thing is that, number one, I had been with Minnesota both as a player and as a coach for so many years at that point, so nearly a decade, and it was fun and it was rewarding and it was so many great things, but it was a very seasoned program,” she said. “So, for me, the opportunity to go somewhere that was new and different and really building from the foundation up, was pretty much the opposite experience of what I currently had. Like with academics, I’m just a really high achiever by nature where I want to do things differently. I want to always keep pushing myself, and so for me, the opportunity to go coach somewhere that was new, and was different, and was building something from that foundation level was such a new challenge and very exciting for me.

“And the other part of it is I went around and I walked the St. Thomas campus when I was considering coaching there. I vividly remember the thought of ‘Gosh, it’s going to take some years. It might take three or four years to really kind of start to build that program, but that is not a program I want to recruit against in the future.’ I just remember vividly having that thought because as a potential student athlete when I walked around that campus, this is where I would’ve wanted to go. If I could do the recruiting process now today, the fact that it’s this beautiful, small private school in a very safe part of the Twin Cities, your professors come to your games, they know you by name, they know your family members’ names. It was just a different academic and athletic experience. Just being a lot more intimate. Our athletic director (Phil Esten) and our sports administrators, they’re at almost every single game.

“So, it’s just a different environment at St. Thomas. So, I think it was both of those things. It was this new and different challenge that was so different than anything I’ve experienced and then on the other side of it, it’s not for everyone necessarily, but for the right people looking for something different in our conference. St. Thomas offers a completely different experience than any other school in the WCHA.”

The post New Boss On The Bench, Part 1 appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Here are five rules from the Frost’s first regulation loss of the season:

1. Saturday included homecomings and Hill-Murray/Wisconsin reunions for some of the Montreal players.

There were no graphics or lengthy video tributes, but the Frost welcomed back two former players during the game’s first TV timeout Saturday with an announcement in the arena. Montreal forwards Abby Boreen and Clair DeGeorge each had a chance to wave to the crowd via the videoboard and receive a nice round of cheers. Both were part of the Walter Cup Champion Minnesota team last season.

Boreen, a Wisconsin native who played with Hill-Murray and the Gophers, was a reserve with Minnesota who contributed four goals and five points in nine regular-season games before needing to enter the PWHL Draft in June; Montreal selected her in the third round (17th overall). Boreen came into the game as Montreal’s leading scorer with two goals and four points this season, also fresh off being named the PWHL Second Star of the Week on Dec. 23.

She said she’s had a fun season with her new team.

“Moving to a whole new city, meeting literally everyone from scratch,” Boreen said. “I’ve had a blast, honestly. So, I’m really happy to be here.”

Well, Boreen had at least one familiar face on her new team. She and defender Mariah Keopple, another Wisconsin native and a Hill-Murray teammate, have known each other for about a decade. Saturday’s game was a homecoming for Keopple, too, who had about 60 family members at the game.

“They were scattered all around the rink,” Keopple said. “It was incredible to do it in front of them and also fellow Wisconsin people on my team.

2. Three players scored their first goals of the season.

Of the five goals in Saturday’s game, three marked the first of the season for each player. Keopple scored her first goal to tie the game 1-1 in the first period when her point shot made it through traffic. Then Victoire center Alexandra Labelle gave her team the lead with 37.8 seconds left in the opening period as she whacked away at her own rebound in front of the net. Labelle had only one goal in 24 games last season with New York.

Early in the second period, Frost rookie Brooke McQuigge (a fourth-round draft pick) tied the game at two for her first professional goal. The Frost crashed the net creating a flurry of chances before the fourth-line winger McQuigge cashed in. Liz Schepers and Claire Butorac assisted on the play.

“I think my line fed off each other’s energy and we just forechecked well there,” McQuigge said. “Each of us had a swing at the puck. So, it could’ve been either one of my linemates’ goals. Just happy to get the first one.

3. Minnesota makes the right call on a challenge for goaltender interference.

About halfway through the second period, Montreal appeared to take a two-goal lead when winger Laura Stacey crashed the net as Keopple took a shot from far out that ended up in the net. The official on the ice signaled a good goal. But the Frost challenged the play as Stacey skated through the crease and appeared to get tangled with goaltender Maddie Rooney.

Following the video review, the officials, in consultation with the PWHL Central Situation Room, reversed the call to keep it a one-goal game. They determined goaltender interference indeed occurred on the play.

Though challenges aren’t ever easy, it was the right call this time around, said Frost coach Ken Klee.

“The replays are kind of slow for us to get on the bench,” Klee said. “I was watching on the jumbotron like everybody else.”

Klee added that he’s instructed his goaltenders to let him know if they were interfered with on a play, which also helps make his calls easier. Kendall Coyne Schofield was on the ice for the play and noted that Rooney spoke up right away about being interfered with on the play.

“I try to have them take a little bit of ownership of it, too,” Klee said. “Because they’re around the net, and they see what’s happening.

Britta Curl-Salemme celebrates scoring her third goal of the season to give the Frost a 1-0 lead in Saturday’s game against Montreal. (Photo courtesy of PWHL)

4. Britta Curl-Salemme, Claire Thompson and Taylor Heise keep adding to their point totals.

The Frost had a slow start, captain Coyne Schofield acknowledged postgame. But they still got on the board first for the fifth time in six games this season. About nine minutes into the game, a bouncing puck found its way into the net for a 1-0 Frost lead. Defender Claire Thompson’s shot bounced in front of the net and off of Britta Curl-Salemme for her third goal of the season.

She’s the eighth player in the league to reach three goals this season. She has four points in six games.

With the primary assist on the goal, Thompson leads the league in assists with seven and points with eight. She’ll carry a four-game point streak into the team’s next game on Jan. 2 against Boston.

Taylor Heise also earned an assist on the play, tying her for second in PWHL scoring with seven points (one goal, six assists). She has a point in five consecutive games

5. The Frost lost for the first time in regulation but remained in first place in the PWHL standings.

The loss snaps a four-game winning streak for the Frost, but they’re still atop the PWHL standings with 12 points. Montreal has won three in a row and moved into second place with 10 points.

The Frost were the last team to lose a game in regulation. Montreal’s game-winning goal came only a few minutes after McQuigge tied the game in the second period. Veteran forward Marie-Philip Poulin finished off an odd-man rush to score her second goal of the season after a late pass in deep from Stacey.

The post Rink Rule: Victoire vs. Frost appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Not for himself, Souliere was the backup goalie, but rather for goaltending partner Nathan Airey. Souliere felt such urgency to secure the puck from Airey’s first collegiate shutout that he is still uncertain if the final horn sounded before jumped on the ice.

“Was the game over?” Airey asked Souliere.

Souliere’s response: “I might have been on the ice before the game was over. No joke, I might have.”

Souliere got the puck for Airey following his 32-save performance, and the sophomore delivered a message right back. “OK, your turn. You go get one.”

Souliere didn’t disappoint as he stopped 22 shots in a 2-0 victory last Saturday to give the Gophers a sweep of then-No. 6 Wolverines and move Minnesota into the No. 1 spot in both college hockey polls this week.

No plan? It’s working.
Bob Motzko has his team atop the rankings doing something he usually eschews: Employing a goalie rotation. Since Motzko took over as Gophers coach in 2018-19, he has had two goalies start double-digit games only twice in a season. The last time it happened was in 2021-22, when Jack LaFontaine turned pro in January, forcing Motzko to turn to Justen Close. Close started 92 games over the next two-plus seasons.

Gophers goaltender Liam Souliere spent four seasons at Penn State before arriving at the University of Minnesota and becoming part of a successful goaltending duo. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

But Close’s departure after last spring created an opportunity for Airey, who missed almost the entire first half of 2023-24 because of injury, and also led Motzko to bring in Souliere, a graduate transfer who had spent four seasons at Big Ten rival Penn State.

The fact Motzko hasn’t picked a primary starter is a credit to Airey and Souliere.

“We have no plan,” Motzko said when asked about his goalie plan. “Just keep doing what we’re doing. We didn’t set it out to be a plan; it’s just working out that way right now. Both guys are doing great.”

Souliere’s 1.37 goals-against average is the best in Division I, and Airey isn’t far behind at 1.99. Airey’s 9-0-1 record makes him one of only two goalies in Division I to not have a loss. Souliere has a .943 saves percentage; Airey is at .918.

They have rotated all season, except for a late November series against Notre Dame when Airey got back-to-back starts in a pair of victories. Otherwise, it’s been Airey in the opener and Souliere the following night. Souliere made 28 saves in a 1-0 shutout against his former team on Nov. 2, a night after Airey stopped 21 of 22 shots in a 3-1 win against Penn State.

Tight friendship off the ice
One reason this system has worked so well is because the two have become so close. Talking to them in a lounge just outside the Gophers locker room on Tuesday, you got that feeling that they are more like brothers than hockey buddies.

Airey, 21, is from Cochrane, Alberta, and Souliere, 25, is from Montreal. The two had never met before the offseason and chatted a few times once Souliere arrived. But they hit it off during a trip to the Minnesota State Fair to help promote Gophers hockey.

“We’re both Canadian,” Airey said. “There was poutine and whatnot (at the Fair), so we were kind of comparing that and right away when you have two Canadians on a team, obviously, with Matthew (Wood, who is from British Columbia) as well, you jell right away, that’s just the reality of it. Going around that day we were talking about everything. Whether it was our pasts, or our futures and what we wanted everything to look like, we kind of went through a lot of stuff.”

Souliere appreciated the patience Airey showed in answering his many questions.

“I think I got to kind of show him my curious side,” Souliere said. “He’s a farm boy, and I knew that about him. When we went to go see the animals I was asking a bunch of questions and he was answering them. And he was happy to answer them. He could have been like, ‘Oh, this guy is weird, why is he asking me about, why do goats act like this?’ I knew that he knew a lot about all these types of different things that were happening at the State Fair and just getting to learn them. I also loved his maturity. For a younger guy, he’s super, super mature and calm. I take after that and I’ve learned a lot about that. It’s been great.”

Sophomore Gophers goaltender Nathan Airey has typically gotten the nod in net in series openers. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

Airey could have decided that after a season recovering from injury and then getting into only three games, with one start, playing behind Close, that he wanted to be the main goalie. But he welcomed the news that Souliere was coming to Minnesota and even requested the two be roommates on the road.

Airey said he had been impressed watching Souliere at Penn State and wanted to be pushed. “It was a no-brainer, I was pumped,” he said.

Airey, though, probably didn’t expect to get along this well with his goalie partner. Souliere already has a degree in finance and in some ways plays a big-brother role in a relationship that goes well beyond just talking about goaltending.

“Our interests are aligned, and that really helps,” Airey said. “We talk finance and I go to him. He’s got a lot of experience with that. We’ve talked relationships before, we’ve talked about a bunch of stuff. Whether it’s on the bus or wherever it is, we always enjoy each other’s company and we’re always on the same page.”

Rotation helps both of them
Their rotation has enabled both to pick up things from the other. Souliere can go to school on an opponent by watching Airey on Friday, and Airey can see how his veteran teammate approaches things on Saturday. The goaltenders offer different styles in part because Airey is 6-foot-3 and Souliere is 5-foot-11.

“Michigan, obviously is a super-skilled team, super-good team, and Nathan did a really, really good job of having calm feet and keeping his hands high,” Souliere said of what he picked up on Friday. “He made so many hard saves look easy and just being able to see that and understand that the success he had was because of those decisions. Not over moving his feet, keeping his hands up, tracking the puck, all those little things.

“I am going to school on Fridays and it’s awesome. I get to just feel the game out and see how he handles it and the things he’s doing that led to success.”

So what does Airey pick up from Souliere?  

“Two things for me,” he said. “First of all, his movement, it’s amazing. Whether it’s sliding, whether it’s feet-to-feet movement, it’s so smooth and crisp and it’s also quick and fast. Powerful. Another thing is he’s got so much experience, his puck movement is amazing. … Just his confidence with playing the puck is top notch. Whether it’s passing it up to a wing and bypassing the d-man sometimes. It’s just plays like that where I can just learn and watch and understand that maybe I have a little more time (to move the puck) than I think.”

Sophomore Gophers goaltender Nathan Airey, shown here in practice this week at Mariucci Arena, enters the weekend with a 1.99 goals-against average. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

The Airey-Souliere Show will return to Mariucci Arena tonight, Dec. 13, as the Gophers face a Michigan State team (12-2-0) that fell from first to third in the rankings this week.

Souliere, as usual, will be Airey’s biggest fan in the opener.

“It’s easy. I love the guy. He’s a great kid and well raised,” Souliere said. “This is a team game and whoever is doing the job is doing the job, and right now we’re both doing it. It’s wonderful and, to be honest, it’s kind of nice. We get to just talk about the game together after games and we kind of just feed off each other.

“He’ll go on Friday and do fantastic, and it kind of just pushes me to have to do the same. I’m pretty sure that if I do great on the Saturday, he feels the responsibility to keep it up on the Friday and it’s kind of like a give-and-go kind of thing we have going and it’s been awesome.”

Subscribe to Judd’s Substack: juddzulgad.substack.com.

The post Gophers Goalie Tandem appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

So, she was not expecting a call with the news that she’d been selected for the Hockey Hall of Fame.

“Initially, just shocked,” Wendell-Pohl said. “You don’t ever expect that phone call.

“Once it settled in, it was just really cool. Then to hear the news that… Natalie Darwitz was also going in. It made it that much better.”

Wendell-Pohl, along with her friend and teammate Darwitz, will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto on Nov. 11. The Hall of Fame induction weekend is Nov. 8-11.

Wendell-Pohl, 43, built a hall-of-fame career with eye-popping stats and awards as a high-scoring forward. But it’s not like she was a one-sport athlete as a kid. Whatever sport or game her older brother was playing, Wendell-Pohl wasn’t too far behind him.

“It’s funny, I don’t know what it was about hockey,” Wendell-Pohl said. “I literally grew up playing every sport possible from baseball to tennis to made-up games of hot box in the backyard.”

Her other claim to fame as a youth athlete came on the baseball diamond, becoming the fifth girl to play in the Little League World Series.  

But whatever it was about hockey, it was a sport Wendell-Pohl said she loved right away. She loved being at the rink. Loved skating on outdoor rinks. Loved any chance she could get to put on her gear and skate in a game. The competitiveness, the pace, the skating. She was drawn to it all from a young age.

That passion for the sport carried her through, especially because there initially weren’t many opportunities to look forward to for a future in women’s hockey. Playing in college or the Olympics “wasn’t even really an option.”

“So, for me, it really was just the love of the game and being able to play the sport,” Wendell-Pohl said.

Good timing
Turns out, timing was on her side. She may have been one of the most notable girls’ hockey players in Minnesota, who grew up playing with the boys, but doors started to crack open. It started with the addition of women’s hockey to the Olympics in 1998. That led to more opportunities with women’s college programs popping up.

Wendell-Pohl hadn’t even played on a girls’ hockey team – she was still playing bantams with the boys – before she went to the 1998 Olympic team tryout. But then she came back home and played another year with the boys before two years of girls’ high school hockey with Park Center, leading the team to a state championship in 2000. She also trained and played in the world championships and was part of the U.S. Women’s National Team program from 1998-2007.

She’s a two-time Olympian (2002 and 2006) and competed in six IIHF Women’s World Championships, including in 2005 when she helped the United States win its first-ever gold medal in the event. She led the tournament with nine points that year.

She forged a similar path to Darwitz – playing for the national team before playing college hockey. It’s a path that Darwitz noted is a bit in reverse.

“I feel like I got really, really fortunate with the timing,” Wendell-Pohl said. “There were so many people ahead of me that paved the way and was kind of just the beneficiary behind it just being able to enjoy playing and live in the moment.”

Wendell-Pohl moved to Lake Placid to train with the national team after she graduated from Park Center. With her training, she took nearly a two-year gap between schooling. She started college back home with the University of Minnesota Gophers at age 21.

Her journey left Wendell-Pohl with a new appreciation for coming home and being near her friends and family again.

“For me, it was interesting and unique, for sure, to go play in the Olympics and then almost come back and play college,” Wendell-Pohl said. “I certainly enjoyed and looked forward to coming home, and I absolutely loved my time playing college hockey here.”

She scored 106 goals and 237 points in 101 career games across three seasons (2002-05) with the Gophers. Skating with Darwitz, they helped lead the Gophers to back-to-back NCAA championships in 2004 and 2005. Wendell-Pohl was a Patty Kazmaier Award winner and two-time WCHA Player of the Year.

Similar paths for the Krissy-Natalie duo
Because Wendell-Pohl didn’t start college immediately following high school, it worked out well enough that she and Darwitz, already teammates for Team USA, played on a line together with the Gophers, along with Kelly Stephens. Darwitz is two years younger in age.

It’s fitting that this duo will be inducted in the same Hockey Hall of Fame class; they’re both already members of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. Even though they didn’t play together in their youth, and only faced each other once in high school. They played together for their country and their hometown college.

“I think people obviously look at the stats and say, ‘ok, they’re teammates,’” Darwitz said. “I think it goes way beyond that. Krissy and I, we basically saw each other grow up. We left home at an early age.

“We have a similar track record of playing with the boys and then going into the Olympics, and then doing college after that. … It’s just a really cool story.”

Wendell-Pohl agreed that seeing each other grow up was a good way to describe her and Darwitz.

“I do think that people probably pair us together,” Wendell-Pohl said. “I’ll happily take that pairing. If you’re going to pair me with Natalie, I’m happy to tag along with that, because she’s certainly a leader and a driver for women’s hockey.”

Memories surrounded by family
Looking back on her playing career, Wendell-Pohl has plenty of memorable moments from the various stages of her career. She credits a lot of her later opportunities to the positive experiences she had in her youth hockey days playing with boys, where a community was willing to embrace having a girl on the team.

“I just feel so fortunate that… for me, I got to live out a lot of my dreams,” Wendell-Pohl said. “I got to play in the Olympics, I got to go play and win national championships with some of my best friends that I grew up with here in Minnesota.

“Sometimes I almost have to pinch myself. You have no idea when you’re living in the moment until you look back that you realize how lucky and fortunate you really were.”

Wendell-Pohl will celebrate the Hall of Fame weekend with her family, including her parents, brother and sister. Her husband, Johnny Pohl, and their three daughters will also attend. It’s a chance to spend time all together, taking a break from busy lives.

Krissy and Johnny are longtime hockey coaches and just started their second season behind the bench of Hill-Murray’s girls’ team, now coaching their two older daughters on the varsity squad: Emily (sophomore) and Anna (eighth grade).

“To see where the game is now and have my own daughters grow up and have those kind of experiences and memories, to be able to play on all-girls teams and play in the summer and be able to go to different camps is really cool,” Wendell-Pohl said. “It’s a sport that unifies a lot of people. It’s a small world. But it certainly brings a lot of people together.

“I just feel really fortunate that I was able to have the journey I did.”

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“I beelined it for my dad’s and (with) my brother to go to the hockey rink,” said Natalie Darwitz. “I kind of grew up as a rink rat.”

Good choice, young Darwitz.

Her exposure to the rink, and continued requests to play hockey, paid off when her parents granted her wish on her 5th birthday. She was going to play hockey.

“For me, it was my passion,” Darwitz said. “I always had a stick in my hand.

“There were pictures of me in My Little Pony roller skates with a Christian hockey stick in my hand playing in the driveway or trying on my brother’s equipment.”

Natalie Darwitz set numerous state tournament records during her time with the Eagan High School girls’ team. In the 1998 consolation final, a 5-3 Eagan victory over Anoka, Darwitz scored two goals 11 seconds apart, a state tournament record for the least amount of time between goals scored by the same player. (Photo courtesy of Natalie Darwitz)

Jump ahead 30-plus years later, and that rink rat from Eagan, Minn. is getting inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto on Nov. 11. The Hall of Fame induction weekend is Nov. 8-11. Darwitz, 41, is one of the most successful and notable hockey players to hail from Minnesota, with a lengthy list of hockey accomplishments spanning from her youth to the Olympics.

Not an uncommon story, Darwitz played on boys’ teams until she was in seventh grade. She credits a lot of her success to those early years playing with the boys, who she said were great and treated her like any other teammate.

Topping out at her 5-foot-3 height, she switched to girls’ hockey and played for Eagan High School, coached by her dad, Scott, from seventh grade until her sophomore year, racking up 468 points across four seasons. She led Eagan to three state tournaments where she scored plenty of goals and set a few records.

Skating backward, sort of
Beyond her high school career, Darwitz skated a path somewhat in reverse: She became an Olympian first, and then played college hockey. That’s how things were set up at the time, as momentum for girls and women’s hockey really took off after the 1998 Olympics, the first Olympic Games which included women’s hockey.

Darwitz was the youngest to make the U.S. national team at 15 years old, and she competed at her first Olympics at 18 years old in 2002, winning a silver medal.

Following her first Olympics, Darwitz played three seasons with the University of Minnesota Gophers, winning back-to-back national championships in 2004 and 2005. Darwitz, who racked up scoring records and awards, skated on a line with U.S. national teammate Krissy Wendell-Pohl and Kelly Stephens.

Wendell-Pohl, who is getting inducted into the Hall of Fame with Darwitz, describes her former teammate and friend as a quiet leader with a skillset that speaks for itself, “but her will to win and her will and determination is just unmatched to anybody I ever played with or against.”

“She just had this compete level that she made those players around her that much better,” Wendell-Pohl said. “Even more so just her IQ of being able to break down a team. She was almost like the second coach for me. I would learn from just playing with her and around her.”

Playing for the Gophers was also a full-circle moment for Darwitz. She’d watched plenty of Gophers hockey games over the years before lacing up her skates at the college rink.

“I remember growing up, every Friday, my family would order pizza and we’d watch the men Gopher hockey team play,” Darwitz said. “So, it just kind of was in your blood that that’s what you’re going to do.”

Years later, Darwitz was also behind the bench as an assistant coach for the Gopher women’s program.

Hall of Fame friends
Darwitz, and Wendell-Pohl, are two well-known women’s hockey players, and that reach goes beyond the boundaries of Minnesota. Only two other U.S.-born women are in the Hockey Hall of Fame: Cammi Granato (2010) and Angela Ruggiero (2015). Darwitz and Wendell-Pohl will go into the Hall as the third and fourth on that list, and representing Minnesota makes it that much more special for them.

Krissy Wendell-Pohl and Natalie Darwitz played hockey together for Team USA and the University of Minnesota Gophers. Now, they’re going into the Hall of Fame together. (Photo courtesy of Natalie Darwitz)

“We saw a lot of things together and experienced a lot together,” Darwitz said. “It just makes it more memorable.”

Of the seven members of this year’s Hockey Hall of Fame class, Darwitz and Krissy Wendell-Pohl are the first two women since 2010 to enter the Hall in the same year. They’re already in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, inducted in 2018 (Darwitz) and 2019 (Wendell-Pohl).

While they were teammates on various hockey stages, their connection runs much deeper than sharing a locker room or space on a line. Besides growing up in the Twin Cities metro area, they each left home as teenagers to pursue their Olympic aspirations.

“We kind of got thrown into the fire together,” Darwitz said. “We kind of saw each other grow up.

“So, I think it’s a really unique, fun situation that not only were we teammates, but we really saw each other in the growth phase. We went through stressful situations. Going through an Olympic process isn’t rainbows and butterflies. You’re going through seeing teammates get cut. You’re going through that process, too, yourself. So, we really experienced a lot of memorable moments.”

Being a couple of years apart in age, the first time they played together was at the U.S. national program. Darwitz, the younger of the duo by two years, was a constant, supportive presence for Wendell-Pohl, someone she could lean on. It brought about confidence for Wendell-Pohl, having Darwitz by her side as someone who navigated a similar hockey journey.

Natalie Darwitz is a three-time Olympic medalist, three-time IIHF women’s World Championship gold medalist and five-time IIHF women’s World Championship silver medalist. (Photo courtesy of Natalie Darwitz)

“It would almost feel weird if I was going to this weekend without her,” Wendell-Pohl said. “Just because I do feel like any time I went into battle, whether it was with the U.S. team or college, I always had Natalie.”

As far as memories go, little snippets from each phase of her hockey career stand out to Darwitz, including skating on outdoor rinks with her older brother and his friends, to having her dad coach her in high school. She took pride in playing for her community and seeing the “good luck at the state tournament” wishes around Eagan.

Leaving home to play hockey at such a young age, it also made Darwitz appreciate home a lot more. Home is where her parents are. Every time her mom and dad attended a game – whether in Minnesota or further away – Darwitz always found them in the crowd from her on-ice view after warm-ups and gave them a wave.

“That’s an emotional thing for me,” Darwitz said. “Because they let me play hockey number one, when it wasn’t a norm to have a girl play hockey. So, I have to give them credit for going against the grain and allowing their daughter to follow her passion even though it wasn’t normal at the time.”

Darwitz is grateful for her hockey career, which includes all the people she’s met along the way, too. “Hockey’s funny,” she added, in that she’s receiving an individual award even though it’s a team sport. She credits the great teammates and coaches on her career path, too, whether they helped in a big or small way.

“All walks of life, it’s just coming full circle, and I’m super grateful for all that,” Darwitz said.

The post Hockey Hall Of Fame: Darwitz appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The line of Jimmy Clark between wingers Connor Kurth and Matthew Wood was listed fourth. That had been one of the Gophers’ hottest lines entering the weekend and proceeded to combine for two goals and six points in a 7-1 victory over the Tommies on Friday at Mariucci Arena. A night later, it was first line winger Brody Lamb who scored three goals, all on the power play, in a 6-2 victory over St. Thomas at Xcel Energy Center.

Bob Motzko, in his seventh season as the Gophers’ coach, was asked about having such an embarrassment of scoring riches.

“The only problem we have is we have to start a line, that means one line has to be fourth,” Motzko said. “We’re trying to build it into how we have to play selfless hockey and one line after another with the attack. I love how hard they’re working. I love their compete (level) and we have four lines that can get after it.”

This comes as no surprise — at least from a talent perspective.

Talent, compete level have Gophers off to strong start
The Gophers might no longer get all of the top players in the state, but recruiting top-level talent from both inside and outside the state isn’t an issue. The challenge for Motzko is getting that talent to jell into a cohesive unit that wants to grind as much as they want to score.

This is what makes Motzko so happy about a 5-1-0 start in which his team has outscored opponents 33-12, including having seven goals three times, six goals once and five in another.

“If you’re going to win big, the compete in this sport has got to be number one,” Motzko said. “You recruited the talent. They all have a history of having that. But playing with that tenacity and grit and a ground game (forechecking) and being selfless, that’s a learned skill as well. It’s a short snapshot (of the season). I was asked how many games does it take? I said that I usually like the month of October.”

Motzko said this last Friday and the Gophers won’t play again until opening the Big Ten season against Penn State this weekend.

Spend time around the Gophers and the fact they embrace the grit and grind isn’t a surprise. Players talk about how many of them stuck around this offseason to work in the weight room and bond away from the rink. This type of talk can be cliched, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

“It started in the summer,” defenseman Sam Rinzel said. “All the guys being in the weight room competing, trying to outlift each other or whatever it is. But we can get on each other and we can kind of hold ourselves accountable. I think that’s important for our team … we’re like glue together. So, our team is pretty close.”

The closeness of a team is important, in large part because of what Rinzel said. It enables players to hold each other accountable, without creating division.

“I think everyone on the team has good chemistry,” Wood said. “Everyone loves each other, and that’s a big part of it. Off ice, everyone is just a really good person and I think that really helps.”

Motzko has taken the Gophers to the NCAA tournament in each of the past four seasons, and two years ago his team fell short with an overtime loss in the Frozen Four championship against Quinnipiac. These Gophers are seeking their first title since 2003.

Minnesota’s four lines aren’t the only ones who can produce goals.

High-end defensemen contributing offense
Last season, the blue line combined for only nine. This season, that number is at eight through six games, thanks to four goals apiece by Rinzel, a sophomore, and Ryan Chesley, a junior. Mike Koster’s decision to return for a fifth season after missing the first month of last season because of injury was a big boost to the blue line.

“We really thought in the offseason that our d-corps was going to be much higher-end offensively,” Motzko said. “Obviously with Mikey (Koster) back, but then the three juniors, or upperclassmen, with much more confidence. And Luke Mittelstadt is playing as good as any defensemen I’ve seen in a long time. He’s not being rewarded offensively yet. And (Leo) Gruba is yet to come. So offensively we’ve got a d-corps that can push it and be led by a couple of guys right now. We felt that could happen.”

The biggest question mark is in goal, where sophomore Nathan Airey and transfer Liam Souliere split the St. Thomas series.

Souliere, who was the primary starter for Penn State the past two seasons, is the best bet to take over the full-time role. Souliere had his goals-against average rise from 2.43 to 3.38 from 2022-23 to 2023-24 and his save percentage sank from .917 to .874. Airey was the backup to Justen Close as a freshman but only played in three games.

Close and the Gophers got to the final game of the NCAA Sioux Falls Regional before losing to Boston University. This team is hoping that talent combined with work ethic can take them to a place this program hasn’t been since 2003.

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That wasn’t the case for the St. Thomas men’s squad Saturday night at the Xcel Energy Center. After getting handed a 7-1 defeat Friday at the hands of No. 5 Minnestota, the Tommies were looking to bounce back, but a costly major penalty by Matthew Gleason in the second period led to two Golden Gophers goals and Minnesota ended up cruising to a 6-2 victory to complete the series sweep.

“Obviously, the better team won tonight,” said Tommies coach Rico Blasi. “I thought we played hard. I thought we came out really well again. Our emotions got the best of us, and we took a couple of undisciplined penalties. You can’t do that against a good team.”

When asked if tonight was a learning experience for his team in regard to physical play, Blasi said that playing hard and physical was part of the Tommies’ identity, but they didn’t make better decisions.

“Obviously, we’ve got to keep our hands down and be smart about it, and we didn’t do that tonight,” he said. “So, we’re going to have to continue to focus on that. I think it’s just a mindset in making sure that we do that. We know that. Our guys know that. We got caught up in the emotion tonight, and it’s unacceptable.”

For the Gophers, it was another strong victory as they’ve now won four games in a row with impressive offensive showings. Coach Bob Motzko said that their power play unit needed to step up, and it did as they picked up three goals.

Cooper Gay (No. 20) scored his third goal of the season on Oct. 26 to give St. Thomas a 1-0 lead over the Gophers in the first period at Xcel Energy Center. (Photo courtesy of Shannon Stieg)

“There was a lot of 50-50 hockey last night, and then tonight was special teams,” Motzko said. “Our power play needed to answer the bell, and you have to do that in the season. We needed to get our power play going and got three of them tonight, and that was big. I didn’t like the shorty we gave up at the end, but I also liked some maturity in our team. We kept our cool. We tried to stay out of it and just play hockey and get through it. We got pucks deep at the end, and we made smart line changes and some things you probably don’t want to hear about. But we played with some maturity tonight with a lead, and I liked that.”

Motzko also said that he and his staff emphasized the importance of taking all of the games against the fellow Minnesota schools like UST seriously, since the smaller schools see it as a big event.

“We addressed it this year with our guys at the start of the year,” he said. “There’s been some years that hadn’t been great for us at times, and we kind of challenged our guys. It started with our exhibition game with St. Cloud. That we wanted to really be on top of our game and take our nonconference against in-state teams seriously because they take it seriously against us and they want to come after us. We’ve got great leadership and great veterans that have taken hold of that, and I’m proud of them.”

Lamb takes advantage of Gleason’s major penalty
Just like Friday’s contest, UST struck first. At the 4:19 mark, Tommies defenseman Mason Poolman sent a pass from the point to forward Cooper Gay and he tapped it past Gophers goalie Liam Souliere to make it 1-0.

However, the Gophers weren’t deterred and continued to put pressure on the Tommies and goalie Aaron Trotter. Minnesota caught a break at the 10:42 mark as Trotter made a save on a Ryan Chesley shot, but the shot trickled through his pads and into the back of the net, tying the game 1-1.

Minnesota got on the scoreboard again less than two minutes later while on the power play. A Sam Rinzel shot was saved by Trotter, but the puck was free by the left post and the Gophers’ Brody Lamb tapped it into the open net to put them up 2-1 heading into the second period.

That’s when the Gophers broke the game open. Gleason was whistled for a contact to the head major penalty and a game misconduct. Lamb took advantage, scoring two goals on the lengthy power play to complete his natural hat trick. His second goal of the game came at the 6:43 mark when he one-timed a pass from Luke Mittelstadt into the back of the net, and then his third came at 8:36 when he beat Trotter to the right post to push Minnesota’s lead to 4-1. With less than a minute left in the period, the Gophers’ Aaron Huglen made it 5-1 going into the third.

UST got a goal back while trying to kill another major penalty early in the third as forward Liam Malmquist slid past the Gophers’ power play unit and scored on a shorthanded breakaway at the 4:02 mark. However, any hopes of a Tommies comeback were squashed at the 6:57 mark when Minnesota’s Connor Kurth scored his sixth goal of the season.

Next weekend, the Tommies host CCHA foe Augustana for the first time, while the Gophers open Big Ten play against Penn State.

The post Gophers Sweep Tommies appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Ryan Stieg catches up with the Mittelstadt brothers. Hockey is a family sport with Casey, John and Luke.

This story was originally published in the April 2024 Year In Review College/Frozen Four digital issue.

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Drew Cove recaps the 2023-24 season for the Minnesota Gophers men’s hockey team. 

This story was originally published in the April 2024 Year In Review College/Frozen Four digital issue. 

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