For Minnesota fans, the next chapter of a popular rivalry is one thing to be thankful for this weekend.
The No. 11 Gophers will travel to Ralph Engelstad Arena to play No. 6 North Dakota on Friday and Saturday.
“This is probably one of the great rivalries in college hockey, North Dakota and Minnesota,” Gophers coach Bob Motzko said Monday on his weekly radio show. “With COVID, we couldn’t play last year, and I haven’t been back (to Grand Forks) since I was with St. Cloud. This is a fun weekend for us to go play North Dakota and get up there and renew this rivalry.”
The two teams have quite the history from the old WCHA, from postgame handshake line fights to a dead gopher being tossed onto the ice. That led to a brief hiatus when both teams bolted from the conference in 2013.
They met again during the 2016-17 season and have played regularly since. Minnesota has an all-time 148-134-16 record against UND, but it has struggled against the Fighting Hawks on the road to a tune of 58-72-8 and UND has won the last four contests between the two teams.
The Gophers might be more concerned about more recent history on their drive northwest, namely the struggles in the first game of a series this season. Including last week against Penn State, Minnesota is 2-5-0 in Friday games this season.
“Once again, we found a way to give up five goals in what I thought was a much closer game,” Mozko said, referring to Friday’s loss to the Nittany Lions. “We’ve had breakdowns in back checking, of all things. We work on it, and the thing is you shouldn’t have to work on back checking.”
Saturday games have been better, Minnesota is 6-1-0 and has swept both series that it did win on Friday, but Motzko is looking for a better start to the series this weekend.
“I want us to, start to finish, play a game,” Motzko said. “In those Friday games we had a 3-0 lead and a 2-0 lead and didn’t finish them. We haven’t played bad, but we haven’t done the things you need to do to finish a game off.”
The Gophers got two goals from senior Sammy Walker on Saturday night after the captain had gone scoreless in three straight contests. Motzko moved Walker from center to wing in the game and both parties seemed to enjoy the switch.
“We’ve been wanting to do it for a while,” Motzko said. “Just let Sammy stop worrying about getting down low and playing defense. He’s got great speed, he wants to anticipate offense. I really think that’s where Sammy will be in pro hockey.
“We can always go back. I just met with Sammy this morning and said, ‘Let’s try this a little bit,’ and we’ve got time right now to do that, and we’ve got options. We’ve got talent and depth and we’ve got to use it.”
On the other end of the age spectrum, the Gophers are also enjoying the production coming from 19-year-old freshman Matthew Knies, who had five points last weekend and leads the team with 14.
“He’s a heck of a player and is feeling it and playing great,” Motzko said. “We need that enthusiasm and that energy that a young player, he’s playing with Ben Meyers, that they’ve developed, really to catch on now with other guys. That’s what we’re moving towards, getting more guys on the same page.”
UND is led in scoring by sophomore defenseman Jake Sanderson, who Motzko called one of the best defensemen in the world. The Gophers defensive corps was thought to be one of their strongest attributes heading into the season, but the unit as a whole has struggled to contribute to the team’s offense.
“It’s one of the big things that’s impacting our game right now,” Motzko said. “They just got off to a, I’ll call it a sophomore slump. Last year, that ‘D’ corps was one of the elite in college hockey and I think that they just got off to a sophomore slump that blindsided us and them.
“They’re going to be just fine. It’d be a great weekend to snap through it and get some offense from our defensemen.”
