BOSTON – Gophers volunteer goaltending coach Brennan Poderzay is quite familiar with Minnesota State Mankato goalie Dryden McKay. After all, he coached him for three seasons.
Poderzay joined the Gophers this past offseason after spending the previous six years with the Mavericks, and on Thursday night he and the Gophers faced the Mavericks in the NCAA men's Frozen Four semifinals at TD Garden. He helped develop McKay into an All-America honoree and a finalist for both the Hobey Baker and Mike Richter awards last year.
Gophers coach Bob Motzko and Mavericks coach Mike Hastings are friends, and Motzko reached out to Hastings to bring Poderzay to the Gophers program.
"He was commuting [from the Twin Cities] for seven years and they just had a new baby,'' Motzko said Wednesday. "It was actually a way to keep him a little closer to home. They're volunteers; they don't get paid, so it also saved on his gas bill. … We're very fortunate. He did a great job there, and he's been terrific with our goaltenders.''
This season, Poderzay faced a big challenge. Jack LaFontaine, the Mike Richter Award winner as the nation's top goalie in the 2020-21 season, unexpectedly signed with the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes in early January. LaFontaine had started every game for the Gophers to that point, and his departure left the job to Justen Close, who had had four relief appearances and no starts in his career.
Close responded by going 14-4 with a 1.83 goals-against average, .929 save percentage and three shutouts entering Thursday's game.
What might have been
In a light moment during Wednesday's news conference, Gophers co-captains Sammy Walker and Ben Meyers were asked which social media platform Motzko would be best at and why.
