The Gophers opened their hockey schedule in Duluth on Oct. 6. The 2018-19 season will end on April 13, 2019, with the Frozen Four championship game in Buffalo, N.Y.
That latter event seems irrelevant to the Gophers for now, and is used to make a point: There is nothing as discombobulated and overextended in NCAA sports as a Division I men's hockey schedule — a period of 189 days that includes strange breaks in the first three months of the marathon.
The Gophers and the Bulldogs played a week earlier than most, with the Gophers earning a tie with the defending national champions in Duluth, and then an impressive 7-4 victory the next night in Mariucci.
Over the three weeks that followed, the Gophers played two exhibitions and then were beaten by North Dakota in Las Vegas. They did not have another weekend series until Nov. 2-3 vs. Minnesota State Mankato, and lost twice to the Mavericks.
There was also the mindless December break that has become part of D-I hockey: the Gophers playing their fourth Big Ten series at Michigan on Dec. 7-8, and not playing again until 20 days later vs. Ferris State at Mariucci.
Now, it's January and logic prevails: Nine consecutive weekend series, eight the traditional Friday and Saturday nights, eight in a row in the Big Ten, and then a regular season finisher vs. suddenly relevant Arizona State.
Coach Bob Motzko was in his office this week and was asked: "Considering the start-and-stop nature of October-to-December games, does this weekend always seem as though it's the real start of the hockey season?''
Motzko smiled — only slightly — and said: "I'd say that if not for what happened on Saturday night. It looked like we were off the roller coaster. And then Saturday in the third period … here it came again.''