Minnesota forward Travis Boyd’s performance against Ohio State last weekend earned him a pair of honors this week as the Hopkins, Minn. native was named Big Ten First Star of the Week and NCAA Third Star of the Week.

Boyd notched both game winners in the Gophers’ sweep of the Buckeyes and registered his first collegiate hat trick on his way to a career-high four-point night in Saturday’s 6-2 win.

The awards mark the fifth time Boyd has been honored by the Big Ten, and third this season, but the first time the Washington Capitals prospect has been recognized by the NCAA.

The senior has been hot of late, registering 20 points (10 goals, 10 assists) in his last 14 games and leads the Big Ten in game-winning goals with six (fourth nationally) and power-play goals with seven (tied fourth nationally).

Michigan State’s Zach Nagelvoort earned the Big Ten Second Star of the Week with PJ Musico of Penn State picking up Big Ten Third Star honors.

The post Gophers’ Boyd picks up Big Ten, NCAA awards appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Boyd was named the Big Ten First Star of the Week on Oct. 28.

The Hopkins, Minn. native picked up four points as the Gophers tied and beat Wisconsin over the weekend and extended his point streak to five games during which he has accumulated five goals and eight points.

After notching an assist in Friday’s disappointing tie with the Badgers (won by Wisconsin in a shootout), Boyd scored twice, including his conference-leading fourth game winner. Boyd also added an assist to bring his season total to 16 points, including a career-best nine goals in 20 games.

The post Boyd named Big Ten’s Third Star appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Border battle ends in split decision

Minneapolis, Minn. — Travis Boyd said he was embarrassed by the result on Friday night. The senior center took charge Saturday by potting two goals, an assist, and was a leader in Minnesota’s (11-7-2) 5-2 win over Wisconsin (2-13-3) in front of 10,834 at Mariucci Arena.

“I’m not a captain, but being a senior I think you have to step up and be a leader. I thought all together the senior class had a good game tonight,” said Boyd. “Christian Isackson had a goal, Sam [Warning] played well, Kyle [Rau] always brings it, [Seth] Ambroz was good, and [Ben] Marshall was good too. So overall as a senior class we all had good games tonight and I definitely think that’s part of the reason we had a good result.”

The Gophers in the middle of a 3-6-2 stretch came into this weekend with a reshuffled lineup. Don Lucia split longtime pairs Kyle Rau and Hudson Fasching, Travis Boyd and Seth Ambroz, and Justin Kloos and Taylor Cammarata. The decision produced 49 shots on goal and 91 shot attempts Friday night, but only two goals and a tie. The coach decided to hold his lines going into the rematch.

“You play with energy, you play hard, it really doesn’t matter who you play with,” said Lucia. “That’s really the bottom line. Tonight we played pretty intelligent. We didn’t make the big breakdowns like we did Friday night.”

Boyd in particular stood out on the big ice of Mariucci Arena. Lucia noted that the senior center knew he was one of the guys directly responsible for that line change goal last night.

“I think as a senior he took it to heart, and came out and had a great game tonight,” said Lucia. “I told the guys in our meeting we had 27 shots in the good scoring areas last night and they had seven. So just stay with it, stay with the process, every season is a journey and this journey has meandered a bit, but at some point you got to find your game.”

Minnesota outshot Wisconsin 50-26 in front of Mariucci’s biggest crowd of the season, but it wasn’t the quantity of shots that was the difference.

“We wanted to be really hungry around the blue paint. Like Coach Guentzel said this morning I want you guys to be like piranhas around the net, get to the net and bury ‘em hard,” said Connor Reilly. “We wanted to focus on taking away [Rumpel’s] eyes and when we were in the blue paint we had to find the rebounds, we can’t be getting our sticks lifted up by their defensemen.”

Minnesota’s top ranked power play took advantage of an early first period opportunity. The unit worked the puck up top from Mike Reilly to Connor Reilly for a one-timer. Badger goalie Joel Rumpel spilled the rebound to the left wing circle, and Boyd pounced on it for his eighth of the season at 4:30.

Missouri native Sam Warning had a hat trick last year on Hockey Day Minnesota, and came through again this year with some scoring. The senior patiently pulled the puck across the top of crease and tucked it past the goalie for his seventh of the season at 12:51 into the first period.

Boyd got his second goal of the game by jamming away at the puck after a Warning shot wasn’t handled cleanly by Rumpel. The play went to video review and was confirmed a good hockey goal for Boyd’s ninth of the season.

“[The referee] said it was very clear on the video what happened,” said Mike Eaves. “You have to trust them. This is what they’re hired to do and they’re honest guys. If they see it that way, they have to call it as they see it. “

Connor Reilly scored his team leading 11th goal of the season at 1:56 of the second period when he bombed a one-timer off a Kloos pass into the net making it 4-0.

Isackson tallied his first goal of the season 7:36 into the second period. He collected the puck off a Vinni Lettieri shot behind the net and converted on a wrap-around move for the Gophers fifth goal.

Grant Besse continued a good weekend of play by getting the Badgers on the board late in the period. The sophomore’s line had a strong shift coming off of an Eaves’ timeout and he shoveled home the puck loose in the crease at 15:27.

The third period contained the fireworks of two teams getting frustrated with each other after 110 minutes of hard hockey. The teams combined for 88 penalty minutes including five 10-minute misconducts and two contact to the head majors.

“I saw my brother Mike jumping in there—that’s surprising,” said Connor Reilly. “It’s good to see him get in there, and all the guys just sticking up for each other, it shows we care for each other.”

Coming out of the penalties Wisconsin took advantage of a long 5-on-3 stretch as Besse scored his second of the night and third of the weekend at 17:12 to make the score 5-2.

Minnesota heads into an important North Star College Cup next weekend. They’ll face top ranked Minnesota State at Xcel Energy Center and then either #5 Minnesota-Duluth or St. Cloud State. Wisconsin continues their schedule with a series against Michigan before both teams meet in Madison the following weekend.

“Now we can’t play North Dakota, this is kind of the number one rivalry,” said Boyd. “Especially with how it ended it’s kind of like a rivalry reborn. Last couple years we haven’t had any games like that, it makes the games more fun to play in.”

The post Gophers Beat Badgers 5-2 in Border Battle 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.

Gopher junior forward Travis Boyd (Hopkins) was named the league’s No. 1 star of the week after leading all Big Ten players with a four-point weekend (two goals, two assists) in Minnesota’s win and tie at the Mariucci Classic. It’s the first Big Ten weekly award for Boyd who Tallied a career-high three points (one goal, two assists) in Saturday’s 6-2 victory over RPI and was named to the Mariucci Classic All-Tournament Team.

With two goals and an assist in the Mariucci Classic, Minnesota junior captain Kyle Rau was honored as the week’s No. 2 star. Rau’s assist on Boyd’s game-tying goal on Friday was the 100^th career point for the former Eden Prairie star to become just the third active Big Ten player to reach that milestone. Rau followed that up by scoring twice against RPI and earn his second career Big Ten weekly award after being named Third Star on Oct. 15, 2013.

Wisconsin junior defenseman Jake McCabe received the week’s No. 3 star for his three-point effort (2-1—3) in the Badgers’ split with Alaska-Anchorage in Madison.

The post Gophers Top Big Ten’s Three Stars 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.

Featured Image:
Gophers F Seth Ambroz, shown in action Nov. 24, 2013 against UMD, scored twice in Minnesota’s 4-1 win over Wisconsin. (MHM Photo / Jeff WeggAmbroz, linemates.

Ambroz-Boyd-Serratore line “breathtaking” in inaugural Big Ten win.

MINNEAPOLIS–Years from now when Seth Ambroz reflects back on his “welcome to Big Ten hockey moment” the story he will be able to tell will be nothing if not unique.

Just 8:15 into Friday night’s first-ever Big Ten hockey conference game at Mariuccia Arena, Ambroz felt the magnitude of its impact delivered by none other than teammate Tom Serratore. After whiffing on his intended target, Wisconsin defenseman Eddie Wittchow, Serratore collided violently with Ambroz as the two converged behind the Badgers’ net leaving Ambroz face down on the ice for a few minutes.

“When Tommy hits, he hits hard and I couldn’t breathe for a while there,” Ambroz said. “I was going northbound on a southbound freeway right there.”

The junior 6’ 3”, 215 lb. forward from New Prague soon recovered and, along with Serratore and fellow linemate Travis Boyd, led Minnesota to a come-from-behind 4-1 win over Wisconsin in the Big Ten’s inaugural contest. The trio combined for four points (2 goals, 2 assists), 11 shots and were a plus-5 on the night.

Not bad for a third line mostly known for its checking ability and playing just its third game together this season. Despite falling victim to Serratore’s miscue, Ambroz says he is having a lot of fun playing with his current linemates who each factored into one of his two goals against the Badgers.

Brothers Mike and Connor Reilly also scored for Minnesota and goaltender Adam Wilcox earned the win with 24 saves.

“I feel like we bring a lot of energy, we’re a pretty physical line, and at the same time we’re able to get pucks to the net and they’ve been going in for us,” Ambroz said of his line which has accounted for 10 points (4-6–10) in its three games as a unit. “We cause turnovers and just kind of do a lot of the little things.”

Little things indeed.

Nearly seven minutes after Minnesota native Joseph LaBate (Eagan) scored the conference’s first-ever goal at 6:31 for a 1-0 Wisconsin lead, and five minutes after his collision, Ambroz tied the game from where he and Serratore met earlier.

Serratore’s sharp-angle shot from the left circle bounced off Wisconsin goaltender Landon Peterson right to Ambroz at the scene of the previous crime. Peterson, who turned aside 42 Gophers shots overall, failed to seal off the post and Ambroz exploited the opening by banking the puck off the back of the knee of the stunned Badgers goalie for his fourth goal of the season.

“That’s a little bit of a hockey IQ shot,” Minnesota coach Don Lucia said. “I’m sure if you ask him he did it on purpose but it was a good, smart play.”

“It kind of seemed like the goalie lost his footing and I wanted to see what happens,” Ambroz said, confirming Lucia’s assertion. “Coaches talk about throwing pucks at the net from bad angles all the time. I just tried it and was fortunate enough to get a nice bounce and put it in the back of the net.”

Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves, whose 267 career points (94-173–267) rank him at the top of the Badgers’ all-time scoring list, knows a thing or two about a scorers mentality and called Ambroz’s goal “a percentage play.”

“He was playing percentages that [Peterson] was off the post, hit him on the back of the knee and it went in,” Eaves said. “That’s a goal scorer’s goal, they play that percentage.”

Late in the game with Wisconsin surging and Peterson on the bench for an extra attacker trying to cut into Minnesota’s 3-1 lead, Ambroz, with Serratore alongside him, fired a shot into an empty Badger net for his second goal of the game. Lucia, too, was playing the percentages.

“That’s the line we wanted out there,” Lucia said. “They all three kill penalties (Wisconsin’s power play was 0-5 with eight shots on Friday), they’re good defensively and, with how young we are up front, they’re our most veteran group. It was kind of fitting for that line to get the open-net goal tonight.

The post Second wind sparks Minnesota over Wisconsin appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Zach Budish’s goal on Friday, the first of the season for the Minnesota captain, turned out to be the difference in a win over Minnesota State (Photo: University of Minnesota Athletics)

A Zach Budish power-play goal at 5:40 of the third period–Minnesota’s third of the night with the man advantage–lifted the University of Minnesota men to a 3-2 win over a plucky Minnesota State team in the first game of a home-and-home series between the in-state rivals at Mariucci Arena on Friday night.

“It was a good hockey game, we’ve just got to find a way to kill a penalty,” said Minnesota State coach Mike Hastings. “It’s something that we’ve talked about and we’ve got to get better at but I thought the compete was better tonight.”

Minnesota State sophomore defenseman Zach Palmquist got the Mavericks on the board first against Minnesota on Friday. (Photo: Minnesota State University Athletics)

The teams traded goals in the first two periods with sophomore defenseman Zach Palmquist and freshman forward Teddy Blueger giving the Mavericks one-goal leads in each period. Palmquist’s first-period goal, off of a pretty back-door feed from Jean-Paul Lafontaine, was, itself, a power-play goal for MSU (2-3-2, 0-3-0 WCHA) which was 1-3 with five shots in such situations.

“I thought Teddy [Blueger] was good tonight, not only offensively, but defensively and I think I’ve got to find a way to get him more ice,” Hastings said of the rookie. “I thought he was a good hockey player tonight and he’ll get more ice tomorrow.”

But Travis Boyd and Nate Schmidt answered for the Gophers (5-1-0, 2-1-0 WCHA) with Schmidt’s blast from the high slot at 15:07 of the second tying the game 2-2 heading into the second intermission. After the Mavericks failed to clear their zone, Schmidt stepped around a would-be shot blocker and fired a rocket over Mavericks goaltender Phil Cook’s left shoulder.

Minnesota finished 3-6 with the man advantage firing nine shots on Cook who turned away 29 Minnesota shots in taking the loss, but played well and perhaps deserved a better fate.

“One thing about [Minnesota’s] power play is if you don’t get clears when you have an opportunity to clear, as you saw with Schmidt’s [goal], he can shoot the puck,” said Hastings. “If you give them another opportunity they have a tendency to, once you’re down, to be able to find late guys and he just shot it through them.”

The Mavericks were giving the Gophers all they could handle through 40 minutes but what Hastings referred to as his team’s “Achilles heel” cost them once again. Minnesota State’s Brett Knowles went off for interference 4:49 into the final period and Budish poked in a loose puck through a scrum just 51 seconds later giving Minnesota its one and only lead.

The Mavericks pressed hard late but were unable to bury the equalizer behind Minnesota goaltender Adam Wilcox who finished with 23 saves.

“Tonight was a step from the compete end but, at the end of the day, it’s about wins and losses and we’ve got to find a way to get that first win in the WCHA,” Hastings said.

The Mavericks get that chance tomorrow night in Mankato when they host the Gophers in the series finale.

The post Special teams the difference as Gophers topple Mavericks appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.