Players, fans endure full spectrum of emotions in Philadelphia.

PHILADELPHIA — There are some times in which the inevitability of sports is painful. Nowhere is that more present that in college sports.

Someone always has to win and someone always has to lose. In that we forget that these players are just kids. Kids who play the games for fun, for love, for a college education and for the fans.

This weekend I had the pleasure of being able to follow the Gopher Men’s hockey team to the Frozen Four in Philadelphia. In fact as I am writing this, I am on a flight with a plane full of Gopher fans who feel pain, mixed with the excitement of what the last four days brought us.

On Thursday we learned that every second of every game counts (or at least they re-learned the lesson after last year’s loss to Yale in the NCAA regional).

The Gophers and North Dakota played for the first time this year, extending a series that almost seemed as if the hockey gods were not able to let it go. The all-time series was close, the post season series was close, heck the last time the two teams had faced each other before that game was a tie.

So it was apt that it should go down to the final second of the game which would send one team to a national title game.

With 0.6 seconds left on the clock Justin Holl scored his only goal of the year, in a way that we are all taught to; throw the puck towards the net and see what will happen. In this case it punched their ticket to the title game, made Holl a folk hero (some even had shirts made up with “0.6” on the front) and put the Gophers on ESPN’s repeated news cycle.

Just 48 hours later, I walked into locker room after the loss to Union in the championship game. Holl’s giggles had morphed into waling, his smile into a painful frown.

You see, in sports, the good never stays good for long and thankfully the bad never does either. But for this young man who had just finished his career and was wandering around the locker room in tears going from teammate to teammate for an embrace, it was especially painful.

He was far from alone.

Captain Nate Condon spoke to me just two days earlier about how this team refused to celebrate the win over North Dakota that much. They were excited for the win but, as he stated, it meant nothing if they didn’t finish the job.

Condon is a natural captain for this team. Not just because he was elected by his peers but because he was born to be. He is stoic, well-spoken and one heck of a hockey player.

He was also the guy who seemed to take this loss the hardest. After the loss to Union he sat motionless at his locker, face red with tears; which you could only see as he occasionally brought it up from being buried in his hands. He never undressed or wiped the sweat away, He just stared, seemingly watching his entire career at the University of Minnesota pass before his eyes.

After a few minutes of gathering himself, he stood up to take questions from the media. Now, Condon is always a great interview with insightful answers wrapped in a pleasant demeanor. But on this night, even he couldn’t hide the terrible feelings inside when asked what he felt they could have done differently tonight:

“Win,” he said with no follow up.

Condon and Holl are just two players in an entire locker room of disappointed kids. And they are just that … kids.

I know there will be people out there who criticize them and fault them from not playing their best game when on the biggest stage (something they said after their loss to Union) l, but lets please remember that these players are kids.

They don’t get the millions of dollars or the endorsement contracts. They put in long hours on the ice to be the best player they can be, and off of the ice to be the best student they can be. If you are thinking about publicly shaming them, don’t. I heard it last year after their loss to Yale and I am sure I’ll hear it again.

No matter the round a season ends in, it’s not OK to blast these kids. If you believe that you have the right to criticize an 18-23 year old kid because you’re a bleeding heart fan, or you’ve had season tickets for years, think again.

They are playing because they love the game and I assure you that no matter how badly you think you feel, they have it worse.

It is interesting though, losses always seem to catch you off guard. I mean, there is literally and statistically just as good a chance of winning as there is of losing.

Yet we are never prepared for the let- down, not as participants in the sport, or as fans of it.

The post Gophers Find Thrill in Victory, Agony in Defeat appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Featured Image:
Minnesota’s Justin Kloos celebrates after watching Nate Condon’s game-winning goal elude St. Cloud State goalie Ryan Faragher in the Gophers’ 4-1 win on Jan. 24 in St. Paul.
(Photo/Jeff Wegge)

Much of the focus leading into this weekend’s inaugural North Star College Cup tournament was on St. Cloud State’s No. 22 Jonny Brodzinski’s first time facing his younger brother, Minnesota freshman defenseman Michael Brodzinski, as an opponent.

While the elder Brodzinski did not disappoint, scoring his team-leading 12th goal of the year, it was the Gophers’ No. 22, junior Travis Boyd, who shined in scoring the game’s first goal and assisting on another in No. 1 Minnesota’s 4-1 win over No. 5 St. Cloud State before 14,388 in attendance at Xcel Energy Center on Friday night.

With the win the Gophers advance into the tournament’s championship game against Minnesota-Duluth which had to work overtime to beat Minnesota State earlier in the day.

The game marked the first-ever official meeting between the two schools as non-conference foes. The only other time the schools squared off outside of the WCHA came in the Hall of Fame exhibition game on Oct. 3, 1987 in Eveleth.

“Our game was efficient,” Minnesota coach Don Lucia said after his team extended its winning streak to six games. “I think we can play better in certain areas than we did tonight but anytime you can beat good quality team like St. Cloud State you have to feel good about that.

The Huskies outshot the Gophers 39 to 29 for the game but Minnesota sophomore goaltender Adam Wilcox turned aside 38 shots to earn his 17th win of the season. Captain Nate Condon’s second-period goal held up as the game winner while freshman Hudson Fasching scored his seventh of the year and, in turn, set up Boyd’s seventh at 8:58 into the contest.

Despite the loss which stretched St. Cloud State’s winless streak to four games (0-3-1), Huskies coach Bob Motzko was pleased with his team’s overall play.

“We came prepared to play, we played a good game,” Motzko said. “What killed us was their goaltender was outstanding tonight and special teams.”

The Huskies came out flying right off the bat, outshooting the Gophers 16-9 in the opening period. But Boyd scored the first of two Minnesota power-play goals on the night just seven seconds after the Huskies’ Kalle Kossila sat down in the penalty box.

Off a faceoff to the left of SCSU goaltender Ryan Faragher, Fasching outmuscled defenseman Andrew Prochno in the corner and fed Boyd on the doorstep.

“We didn’t come out very strong so getting the first one kind of maybe woke us up a little bit,” Boyd said. “I think we got better as the game went on but we still could improve a lot moving forward into tomorrow.”

Boyd’s goal held up past the game’s midway point until Brodzinski answered for St. Cloud State at 11:22 of the second. The former Blaine star took a trio of whacks at the puck in the crease before finally putting it behind Wilcox.

“It was a great pass by [Kalle] Kossila; [Cory] Thorson really created the whole play with that hit on the defenseman,” Brodzinski said. “It popped back to Kalle and it was just a 2-on-1 in front of the net and he made a great pass to me in front.”

Brodzinski led the Huskies with seven shots on goal on the night.

“He’s a good player, he’s physical, he’s got a heavy stick and he can shoot it a ton so he’s the wrong guy to have that many shots on goal,” Lucia said.

But Condon restored Minnesota’s lead just three minutes later and Fasching’s power-play goal, finishing off a rebound of a Boyd shot, ultimately finished off the Huskies.

“We got a puck through to the net on the power and Hudson was there to clean up the rebound, which was good for him because he hasn’t scored a goal in a while,” Lucia said. “We talked about our team kind of going through different guys going through a little bit of a drought so it was good to see Hudson get a goal.”

Fasching, who scored twice for Lucia and Team USA at the 2014 World Junior Championship in Malmo, Sweden, tallied his first on U.S. soil since scoring against Minnesota State on Nov. 16.

Charlie Lindgren replaced Faragher to start the third and St. Cloud State pelted Wilcox with another 13 shots in the final period but Wilcox, who was deservedly named the game’s No. 1 star, withstood the Huskies barrage and Seth Ambroz closed the scoring at 19:31 with yet another empty-net goal.

“They’re a good team, they put a lot of pressure on you, they’re well coached and they easily could have won the game tonight with a couple breaks,” Lucia said.

Motzko would undoubtedly concur with his counterpart.

“We made a couple critical mistakes that they capitalized on and their goalie stopped all the mistakes that they made.”

The post Gophers Win Efficiently Over Huskies appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Featured Image:
Colgate goaltender Charlie Finn watches a Minnesota shot in the third period at Mariucci Arena on Friday, January 4, 2014, in the Raiders’ 3-2 shootout win over the Gophers at the Mariucci Classic.
(COPYRIGHT: Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com)

Sluggish Gophers tie Colgate, fall in shootout in Mariucci Classic opener…

Twenty-six days can be a long time for a mid-season break. Maybe too long, as made apparent by a lifeless University of Minnesota Golden Gopher team Friday night.

The Gophers opened up 2014 as hosts of the Mariucci Classic, but didn’t retain their status as No.1 in the tournament with a 2-2 tie and eventual shootout loss to Colgate.

“We were just off, plain and simple,” said Gopher assistant coach Mike Guentzel.

Without Don Lucia, Brady Skjei and Hudson Fasching — who were on their way home after an early exit for the U.S. National Junior Team in the International Ice Hockey Federation’s World Junior Championships held in Malmo, Sweden — Guentzel took the reins and shook up the lines.

But while the lines appeared to work well together at first, something was off. Minnesota came out slow and struggled with smart plays. Maybe it was the holiday break lagging them down, but the energy was completely absent from the maroon and gold squad.

“Yeah, I really don’t know,”said Guentzel of his team’s struggles. “It’s tough, but you make the best of it. We have no excuses there. Whether it’s coaching or not scoring, being short-handed, there is no excuse for it. (Colgate) is a good team.”

Minnesota tested Colgate freshman netminder Charlie Finn early on, out shooting the Raiders 13-6 through the scoreless first period.. Minnesota sparked a flame in the middle of the second frame as Gopher freshman defenseman Michael Brodzinski continued to prove himself as an offensive threat. Brodzinski sailed one from just inside the blue line that skipped past Finn for a 1-0 Minnesota lead just 2:25 into the period.

Colgate responded with two of their own including Joe Wilson’s goal at 8:29 which he slipped between the pads of Adam Wilcox after the Gopher goaltender mistakenly assumed he had frozen the puck. Wilcox finished with 27 saves and appeared to be fighting the puck all night.

Just under seven minutes later the Raiders capitalized on a poorly executed Minnesota line change by turning a Nate Condon neutral-zone turnover into an easy 2-on-0 for Darcy Murphy and Daniel Gentzler with Murphy tallying for a 2-1 Colgate lead at the end of two.

“Ultimately, the bottom line tonight is that giving up the puck between the blue lines in the neutral zone, is going to cost you the hockey game,” said Guentzel.

And that go-ahead goal was a big turning point for Colgate according to Finn.

“I think just pulling in front of them for that lead against a No.1 team was a lot,” said Finn, who ended the night with 36 saves. “To do that here, obviously we’ve never played in front of a crowd like this, gave us that confidence to finish this game.”

The Gophers didn’t make it easy for the Raiders, however, as Travis Boyd slapped one in from the left side on the power play midway through the third for the tying goal. The final minutes were the most electric of the night, the announced crowd of 9,520 included. Each team had opportunities, but both goaltenders did their part to force overtime.

Colgate held an edge in the extra stanza but ultimately the teams were going to let a shootout decide.

Colgate’s Mike Borkowski scored leaving Kyle Rau with a must-score effort after two Gopher failed attempts. The Gopher captain prevailed, but Ryan Johnston potted one to end the game leaving the Gophers now 0-3 in shootouts this season.

What was supposed to be a prime match-up between the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the nation in Minnesota and Ferris State on Saturday is no more. Colgate and Ferris State now play for the championship at 4 p.m. while the Gophers will face RPI at 7 p.m. consolation title.

Additional Game Notes:

Kyle Rau tallied his 100th career point on the assist to Boyd. He joins an elite class of 80 Gophers to have reached the century mark. Erik Haula, now in the Minnesota Wild system, was the last Gopher to achieve the honor.

“It’s pretty cool,” said Rau. “I’m disappointed in the loss but that’s a positive take away.”

The post Far From A Classic appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.