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The Gophers’ men’s hockey schedule has taken on an odd shape with the University of Colorado coming to Minneapolis for back-to-back games on Sunday and Monday in early January.
Gophers coach Bob Motzko was asked, “The holidays are over, but what do we get?”
“We owe the University of Colorado a series, and both of them had openings in their schedules this week,” Motzko said.
Okay, but why Sunday to Monday instead of Friday to Saturday?
“We wanted the possibility of getting guys back in the lineup,” Motzko said. “We scheduled it for Sunday at 5 p.m. and then Monday night because every series is so important considering the NCAA ratings of the tournament.”
Those “guys” would be the four Gophers who were members of the U.S. team that won Friday’s World Junior Tournament, defeating host Sweden 6-2 in Gothenburg.
Although the Gophers released their schedule in late August and the 29-candidate varsity junior team wasn’t announced until early December, Motzko knew, as always, that the Gophers would be on the final roster.
To be eligible, players must be 20 years old as of Dec. 31, and four of the Gophers’ 25 gold medalists are forwards Jimmy Snageld and Oliver Moore and defenseman Ryan. It was Chesley and Sam Lindsell.
”[Logan] Cooley might have been on this team too if he was still in college,” Motzko said.
Cooley won’t turn 20 until May. He was a star freshman on the Gophers’ 2022-23 team and initially planned to stay in school for another year before signing with the Arizona Coyotes as the No. 3 overall draft pick beginning in 2022.
The Gophers currently have five NHL national runners-up: forwards Cooley and Matthew Nyes (Toronto) and defensemen Brock Faber (Wild), Ryan Johnson (Buffalo) and Jackson Lacombe (Anaheim). .
“It will be difficult to recreate a crew like that, but we still have a lot left,” Motzko said. “Before the break we were in tatters, now we are healthy and the gold medal winning team will be back on Sunday.
“They should get on a plane in Sweden on Saturday night and be here by Sunday morning. It’s up to them whether they want to play or not. Usually when players come back from juniors, they spend their first weekend on the ice. flying around above.
“Then they can feel a little bit of that high-energy hockey in their legs in Week 2, where they played the best on the best from all over the hockey world.”
Motsuko knows what she’s talking about. He attended St. Cloud State University and served as an assistant to Gophers coach Don Lucia on the 2014 U.S. Junior Team in Malmo, Sweden, where that team lost to Russia in the quarterfinals.
Motzko was the U.S. head coach in 2017. In the final, the Yanks defeated Canada 5-4 in Montreal. Motzko coached again in 2018, when the U.S. again defeated Canada in a billiards match held outdoors at Bills Stadium in Buffalo, New York.
“There were about 100,000 Canadians there, as well as our friends and family,” Motzko said. “What a game that was.”
Motzko did everything he could for the committee trying to bring the 2026 World Junior Hockey Tournament to the Twin Cities. The campaign was a success last week when it was announced that the World Juniors will be held from December 26, 2025 to January 5, 2026.
“It will be held at the X and our arena in St. Paul, but what’s even better is the exhibition games each team plays against each other before the tournament begins,” Motzko said. “They’re going to play all over the state, including Bemidji, St. Cloud and Mankato.
“There are really very few great players in the NHL today that we didn’t see at the world juniors.”
Motsuko stopped and said: “If you like fast hockey, it’s actually all about the offensive stuff, because the skills are pretty extraordinary.”
The World Juniors were held in Minnesota in 1982, when Kirill Kaprizov had the potential to become a superstar before disappearing behind the Iron Curtain.
Non-North American players are essential to the NHL right now…and the development of American players is not backed by Minnesota or New England, where there are a few stragglers.
Yes, there are seven players from Boston College among Friday’s gold medalists, but one is from Scottsdale, Arizona, and one is from Melbourne, Florida.
Despite the alligators, water moccasins and no ice in pond hockey, a total of three players on the team were from Florida.
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