On that particular Saturday night in Eveleth, Minn., the powerful Minnesota Gophers men's team, fresh off a trip to the Frozen Four and on their way to what would be two consecutive WCHA titles, took on an upstart bunch from St. Cloud State in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame game. It was the first time the Huskies, in their first season as an NCAA Division I independent program, took the ice at college hockey’s highest level.
By all accounts, it was a scrappy, penalty-filled game, won 6-0 by the Gophers. They wouldn’t play each other again for more than three years, until the Huskies became members of the WCHA themselves. But it was the start of a kind of Minnesota hockey growth that culminated last Sunday, during the 2021 NCAA Hockey Selection Show.
Minnesota Duluth head coach Scott Sandelin reacts after a call in the third period against Nebraska Omaha Wednesday, Dec. 16, at Baxter Arena in the NCHC Pod in Omaha. (Tyler Schank / tschank@duluthnews.com)
Everyone headed to the party
Today, the state of Minnesota has five D-I programs, and the ESPN hosts called the names of all five as members of the 16-team field that begins play this weekend, with trips to the Frozen Four on the line. It is far from the first NCAA tournament trip for any of them, as four of the five have been to the Frozen Four in the last dozen years. But it is the first time that all five of them — Bemidji State, Minnesota, Minnesota Duluth, Minnesota State Mankato and St. Cloud State — are all in the NCAA tournament in the same season.
While those teams’ five coaches all compete, on some level, for the same in-state talent pool and their head-to-head rivalries are fierce, they all have taken a congratulatory tone as they scatter to their respective regional sites.
“I think it’s awesome. It’s great for our state,” Bulldogs coach Scott Sandelin said. “It’s great for all the guys, the coaches, because they’re all good guys and they’re friends of mine. I’m just glad we won’t see any of them until later.”
Minnesota Duluth defenseman Wyatt Kaiser (5) takes the puck past St. Cloud State defenseman Nick Perbix (25) toward the goal in the second period Saturday, March 6, 2021, at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud. (Jason Wachter / The Rink Live)
Growth in the Granite City
This is the 100th season of Gophers hockey, and the program in Minnesota’s largest city was the pioneer of college hockey in the state. For four decades. the Gophers were also the only D-I program in Minnesota. That changed in 1961 when Minnesota Duluth, which had been running roughshod over the private schools in the MIAC for years, became a D-I independent and, four years later, joined the WCHA. It would be another 25 years before more Division I opportunities for Minnesota kids were recognized as a real need, by one of the game’s true legends.
Fresh off a stint coaching the NHL’s New York Rangers, and six years removed from the Miracle on Ice, Herb Brooks journeyed up I-94 from his home in the Twin Cities and set his sights on SCSU. There a forward from Austin, Minn., named Bob Motzko was just finishing up his on-ice career and looking to get into coaching.
In a TV interview this week, Motzko admitted that Brooks didn’t have any particular connection to or necessarily an affinity for St. Cloud State, but it was a convenient place where he could grow the game. Motzko also said that as a proud Minnesotan, Brooks was rankled to see Michigan and Massachusetts each had seven D-I programs, while his home state had just two.
In a short stint in Stearns County (he coached the Huskies for just one season), Brooks not only elevated the SCSU program to the top level of the game, he helped secure the funding for the National Hockey Center, which now bears his name. Seeing all five Minnesota schools get into the NCAA tournament on Sunday, Motzko admitted thinking of Brooks, and the fulfillment of his dream.
“I think that’s a really cool story. I was part of St. Cloud State and was just finishing when Herb Brooks came there, and I heard him talk,” said Motzko, who coached the Huskies for 13 seasons and now is in his third season coaching the Gophers. “His mission was to get more Division I teams in this state. Here we are all these decades later and all five teams are going to be in the tournament, and nobody slipped in, I can tell you that. All five teams earned their right to be there and any of the five have a chance.”
Minnesota State defenseman Jack McNeely, 3, takes the puck from Bemidji State forward Ethan Somoza during the first period of the Mariucci Classic Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019, at the 3M Arena at Mariucci in Minneapolis, Minn. (Jason Wachter/The Rink Live)
Mavericks & Beavers join, and Tommies coming soon
In Mankato, Minnesota State (then known as Mankato State) won a D-III national title in 1980, became a Division II team in 1992, then moved up to the D-I level four years later, joining the WCHA in 1999. The Mavericks are making their seventh trip to the NCAA playoffs this weekend.
Bemidji State was a true power at the D-III and NAIA levels, winning 13 national championships before elevating their program as well. The Beavers became a Division I program in 1999 in the now-defunct College Hockey America conference and joined the WCHA in 2010.
And next season, the Minnesota D-I ranks will grow to a half-dozen, with the University of St. Thomas elevating its program from D-III and joining the new CCHA alongside Bemidji State and Minnesota State Mankato. There will be 116 Minnesota kids dotting the rosters of 15 of the teams competing this weekend (Boston University, which faces the Huskies in round one, is the only Minnesotan-free squad) and six Minnesotan head coaches in the tourney. Enthusiasts like to point out that with a Minnesota team in each regional (and two — the Gophers and Mavericks — in the West) the concept of an all-Minnesota Frozen Four is in play.
A century since the start of college hockey in Minneapolis, and more than 30 years removed from a mostly-forgotten exhibition game played a stone’s throw from the Eveleth iron ore pits, one man’s dream of making Minnesota the true State of Hockey has already come true.
March 26, 2021 at 12:54AM
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As all 5 Minnesota teams head to the NCAA men's hockey tourney, Herb Brooks' dream has come true - Brainerd Dispatch
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