Second half of season offers challenge, opportunity for Gophers men’s hockey team

When Gophers men’s hockey coach Bob Motzko looks across the ice sheet at Pegula Ice Arena this weekend, he’ll see a Penn State team that can offer a blueprint on how to salvage a season.

In 2024-25, the Nittany Lions entered January with a 9-10 record and sat in last place in the Big Ten standings with one point.

Three months later, Penn State was in St. Louis for its first NCAA Frozen Four appearance, built on a 13-4-4 surge to close the season.

“There’s a great example,” Motzko said. “They’re in last place when Christmas ended, and those young kids emerged.”

The Gophers take an 8-10-1 overall record into the opener of the second half of the season, and they are tied with Penn State (12-6) for fourth in the Big Ten with 13 points.

Minnesota’s path to a sixth consecutive NCAA tournament appearance isn’t an easy one. They enter the Penn State series at No. 32 in the NCAA Percentage Index (NPI), the new formula that the NCAA uses to select and seed its 16-team tournament field. The Gophers likely would need to be in the top 14 or better to earn an NCAA at-large bid. Otherwise, they would need to win the Big Ten tournament and its automatic NCAA bid.

Stacking wins is the priority, and Motzko likes the way his team responded after back-to-back sweeps administered by Minnesota Duluth and Wisconsin left the Gophers with a 2-7-1 record. They are 6-3 since then.

“Are we a top-five team in the country, like we normally are? But we’re in the making.”

The Gophers welcome back sophomore Brodie Ziemer and freshman LJ Mooney from Team USA duty in the World Junior Championship. Ziemer (12 goals, seven assists) shares the Gophers’ scoring lead with senior Brody Lamb (9-10-19) with 19 points, and Mooney (4-11-15) ranks third with 15 points. Senior captain Luke Mittelstadt leads the team’s defensemen with 12 points.

Mittelstadt has noticed how the Gophers youngsters have found their footing. The 6-5 overtime win Nov. 29 at Denver serves as an example. Javon Moore scored the game-winner and had an assist, and fellow freshmen Mooney (one goal, one assist) and Tate Pritchard (one goal) found the scoresheet.

“We just started to play a little more comfortably together,” Mittelstadt said. “There were some nights where it’s just not Gopher hockey, as Coach would say. As it went on, you really saw it and it felt a lot more comfortable.”

If the Gophers are to make a run, they must do it against a rugged schedule. Starting against Penn State (No. 8 in the NPI), Minnesota has 12 games remaining against teams in the top eight of the NPI. They face No. 1 Michigan and No. 5 Michigan State four times each and No. 8 Penn State and No. 3 Wisconsin twice each.

Turning belief into reality starts at Penn State, which features high-end forwards Charlie Cerrato (6-28-24), Matt DiMarsico (8-12-20) and JJ Wiebusch (11-9-20), plus Canadian standout Gavin McKenna, a likely top-five NHL draft pick. The Gophers and Nittany Lions split their first series in November, with Minnesota winning the opener 3-2 but dropping the finale 2-1.

Motzko believes he has a team that’s rounding into a contender in the Big Ten and on the national scene. The Gophers will have a chance to prove him right.