It had been about a half-hour since the crowd of 10,069 roared its full-throated approval after the Gophers men's hockey team clinched the Big Ten regular-season championship on Senior Night with a rollicking, 8-0 rout of Wisconsin, and there Bob Motzko was, still coaching even during the news conference.
"Both games were way closer than the score,'' Motzko said Saturday night at 3M Arena at Mariucci. "We caught a break there in the first period [with an overturned Wisconsin goal]. We were getting our butts kicked, and we scored two quick goals. … Both nights, the game could have gone sideways on us.''
The sweep of the Badgers by a combined 13-0 score might have suggested otherwise, but Wisconsin made the Gophers work for two periods each night before the home team scored three third-period goals on Friday and five in the final stanza on Saturday. Motzko didn't want to make an overly big deal of the regular-season championship, not with bigger goals on the horizon.
"I'm always cautious,'' he said. "I love it. We were just a consistent hockey team from the start of the year through. We had a lot of things happen to us, and nothing fazed us. … Everyone's contributing. That's another great thing we've got going – everybody feels a part of this.
"… This is the time of year where I don't like this pageantry – Senior Night, league championships. You get this roller coaster, and we've got to stay even-keel. But we do need to enjoy this, and we've got a few days to do it.''
By sweeping the Badgers and getting a big assist from Notre Dame with its sweep of Michigan, the Gophers surged past the Wolverines on the final weekend of the regular season to grab that Big Ten crown. They'll have this weekend off while the other six conference teams play best-of-three, first-round playoff series. On March 12, the Gophers will be host to a one-game semifinal. If they win that one, they'll be back at Mariucci on March 19, looking to win their second consecutive Big Ten tournament title.
Their ultimate goal, of course, is winning the NCAA championship. An eight-game winning streak and 13-3 mark since the start of January has vaulted the Gophers to No. 4 in the PairWise Ratings – and on Monday they moved up two spots to No. 2 in the U.S. College Hockey Online poll. They'll play as many as six games and as few as two the rest of the way, and Motzko is relishing the challenge.
"It's kind of fun to get a trophy, but now we've got to get onto the next,'' Motzko said. "Now we go to the fun time of the year – the playoffs.''
