Departures, arrivals, banners and drama were all part of 2022 for the Minnesota Gophers

MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Gophers men's hockey team will face live ammo one more time before flipping their calendars to 2023, meeting up with Bemidji State on the Beavers’ home rink a few hours before the ball drops and 2022 comes to a close. They will begin the new year atop the PairWise rankings, with one of the most exciting forward lines in the century-plus history of the program scoring goals, and with real hopes of bringing a NCAA title to Dinkytown for the first time in two decades.

But 2022 was also a year of great transitions, triumphs, banners raised, milestones reached and where the foundation for those national title hopes was set. Here is a look back on some of the most important moments (in chronological order) from the year that was:

After an uneven start to his college hockey career, Jack LaFontaine transferred from Michigan to Minnesota and got his groove back. He backstopped the Gophers’ Big Ten tournament title in 2021 and was given the Mike Richter Award as the game’s top goalie a few weeks later. He earned a sweep at Michigan State in the Gophers’ first road trip of 2022, and then — POOF! — he was gone.

On a Sunday morning, the Carolina Hurricanes, who were depleted by injury and illness, announced they had signed LaFontaine to an entry level contract in the midst of the college season , effectively handing the Gophers’ crease to little-used walk-on Justen Close .

It was bitterly cold in the Twin Cities when the Gophers faced the US National Under-18 team on January 3. Still, star forward Logan Cooley took a walk around the U of M campus with his Team USA linemate, Gophers commit Jimmy Snuggrud , and apparently liked what he saw.

A little over a month later, just minutes after the Gophers’ plane had touched down for a series at Penn State, the coaches re-booted their phones and got the news that Cooley — who would eventually be picked third overall by Arizona in the 2022 NHL Draft — had changed his college course, and would be attending Minnesota, rather than Notre Dame. He was immediately called the Gophers’ biggest recruit in a generation.

Pegula Ice Arena at Penn State had been a house of horrors for Bob Motzko early in his time as the Gophers’ head coach. On this Friday night, they were facing a hostile crowd, an opportunistic Nittany Lions team and a rash of injuries and absences that had them playing shorthanded.

Jaxon Nelson was still out with a broken ankle. At the last minute, Chaz Lucius couldn’t play due to a foot injury. Three star players — Matthew Knies, Brock Faber and Ben Meyers — were still on their way home from China where they had skated in the Olympics. Still, what was left of the Gophers valiantly scratched and clawed their way to a 3-1 win to stay alive in the Big Ten title race.

At times last season, it looked as if a talented Michigan club would run away with the Big Ten title. But the Gophers won their first seven games in February, and got some help when the Wolverines faltered a bit.

Heading into the final night of the regular season, the Gophers were in the drivers’ seat, needing only a home win over conference archrival Wisconsin to grab the Big Ten. They got a Close shutout and goals from eight players to blow out the Badgers, and a huge crowd roared its approval a few minutes after the final horn when U of M athletic director Mark Coyle handed the conference title trophy to captain Sammy Walker at center ice. It was the sixth regular season or playoff crown won by the Gophers in the first nine seasons of Big Ten hockey.

The Gophers “reward” for getting invited to the NCAA tournament was a trip to Massachusetts to face UMass , the defending national champions, an hour from their campus. A decidedly pro-Minutemen crowd delighted as UMass took a 2-0 lead in the first period, and went up 3-1 in the opening minutes of the middle frame.

But the Gophers weren’t ready to leave the Bay State so easily. They got back within a goal before the second period ended, then tied it on a Knies power-play goal in the third. Overtime was required, where Aaron Huglen fought off a challenge behind the net and got the puck to Meyers, who silenced the UMass fans and ended their season. Two days later Knies got the game-winner and Close recorded another shutout as a 3-0 win over Western Michigan earned the U of M a trip to Boston for the Frozen Four .

With two national titles at Denver and another at Providence on his assistant coach resume, Steve “Killer” Miller has earned a reputation as one of college hockey’s top tacticians over the past few decades. Working under Steve Rohlik at Ohio State, Miller helped the Buckeyes win their first modern era conference championship in 2019.

When former Gophers assistant coach Garrett Raboin left in the spring to be Augustana’s first head coach , that opened the door for Miller to re-join Motzko — the pair had been assistant coaches together at Miami (Ohio) nearly 30 years prior — behind the bench. “We're so fortunate that Gopher hockey is going to have a guy with his background on the coaching staff,” Motzko said.

Talented kids from Minnesota heading east to places like Boston College or Harvard is not uncommon. A few weeks before the season started, that pipeline finally started to run east to west. After scoring 56 goals in 53 games for Shattuck-St. Mary’s last season, Cole Eiserman — a forward from Newburyport, Mass. — announced that the State of Hockey is part of his college plans as well, and he will be a Gopher likely in the fall of 2024.

Currently skating for the US National U-17 team, Eiserman has his prep school coach raving about what he will bring to the U of M. “He is going to get the people in Mariucci up out of their seats. He's an electric kind of player,” Shattuck coach Tom Ward said. “He's a flat-out goal-scoring machine.”

As talented as any player coming from high school or juniors might be, one always wonders how they will adjust to the speed and skill level of college hockey. For Cooley and Snuggerud, there was seemingly no break-in period. In the Gophers’ season opener versus Lindenwood , Cooley scored twice.

A week later versus Minnesota State Mankato, Snuggerud posted a hat trick . And neither player has stopped scoring for any significant stretch since then. The Gophers’ head into 2023 with those two rookies and Knies leading the way offensively, skating together on a line that Arizona State coach Greg Powers called the best three-man unit he has seen in college hockey, ever.

For a neighborhood rivalry that goes back to the days shortly after World War II, there’s nothing stale or routine when the Gophers and North Dakota meet on the rink. Overtime was required in their first get-together this season, played before a packed house at 3M Arena at Mariucci, with lots of Fighting Hawks fans and alumni in town, adding a bit of a minty green tint to the audience.

Tied 2-2 when the puck dropped for the fourth period, Knies looked like a guy who had to hurry and catch a cab, taking the puck shortly after it hit the ice and deciding to end the game right then and there, with an eye-popping solo rush to the Hawks’ net where he stuffed in a goal for a 3-2 win . The Hawks won in overtime the next night, adding another fun chapter in the story of this fantastic generations-old rivalry.

While the Gophers have not faced many serious injuries so far, the illness bug made a run through the Minnesota and Michigan locker rooms ahead of their first meetings of the season. The Wolverines were without six players, while the Gophers went into their series finale missing their top two centers (Cooley was suspended and Huglen was sick) and without Close, who missed both games.

Rookie Owen Bartoszkiewicz was in the visitors’ net, playing roughly 30 minutes from his suburban Detroit hometown. And star defenseman Jackson LaCombe took one shift at forward, scoring a goal before heading back to his normal spot on the blue line. The Gophers headed home from Ann Arbor with a sweep and a critical six conference points in the race for the Big Ten title.

The Gophers’ 6-4 come-from-behind win over Wisconsin in their final game of the current season’s first half was their eighth victory in their previous nine outings. It left them with a 15-5-0 overall mark which has included a few hiccups, but has the Gophers ranked atop one national poll and more importantly in line for the top seed in the NCAA playoffs come March.

That Knies-Cooley-Snuggerud line has fans at home and on the road reflexively coming to their feet whenever they touch the puck. And the second half of the Big Ten schedule is daunting, but it is worth noting that Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State all have to come to Minneapolis in 2023. Motzko has never been one to look ahead or buy into a lot of hype. Still, for this Gophers team and their hungry fanbase 2023 begins with high hopes for more banners, more trophies and a return to the Frozen Four on their wish list.