October 25th, 2024: Minnesota’s scoring depth continues as the Gophers put seven up on St. Thomas in their home-opener.
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Minneapolis, Minn – The Gophers have opened the season with 32 goals in the first five games of the season. They have scored seven goals in a single game, three times this year.
The best part is, all the goals have been spread out.
All 12 forwards who suited up on Friday night against the St. Thomas Tommies have now recorded a goal. August Falloon got his first of the year in the first period. Every line has shown they can score this year and that is a luxury for Minnesota.
“The only problem is we have to start a line, that means one line has to be fourth,” Gophers head coach Bob Motzko said on his depth scoring. “We are trying to build it into,we have to play selfless hockey one line after another with the attack. I love how hard they are working, I love their compete, and we have four lines that can get after it.”
Funny enough the Gophers “fourth line” has been the Kurth-Clark-Wood line the last few games. That trio has combined for nine goals and 28 points in just five games.
Connor Kurth leads the way with five goals and 11 points, Jimmy Clark has one goal and eight points, and Matthew Wood has three goals and nine points.
Offense is great and all but the Gophers do understand that it is more important to play with an edge. To balance skill and speed with playing hard and responsible defensively.
“If you’re going to win big, the compete in this sport has got to be number one,” Motzko said. “You recruited the talent. And we all know they have a history of having that. But playing with that tenacity, grit, ground game and being selfless, that’s a learned skill.”
Call it an early start or a wakeup call that your cross-city rival opened the game with the first goal but the Gophers were quick to answer.
Liam Malmquist opened the scoring for St. Thomas on the Tommies’ second shot of the game. Nathan Airey was able to turn aside the next 19 shots he saw and walked away with his third win of the season.
“We were turning it over right off the bat, like we were trying to be a little cute. We didn’t get our engine going and then maybe that got us going,” Motzko said on if St. Thomas’ goal got the team going. “Once we got it deep and started to put pressure on their defense, but kind of found our group.”
One thing that seems to be a big difference early in the season is the way the Gophers defensemen have been playing. Out of the seven dressed defenders who played on Friday, they have combined for seven goals.
Ryan Chesley has three goals and two assists and Sam Rinzel has four goals and three assists.
The Gophers defensemen have combined for seven goals in 2024-25. Last year, the Gophers D-Corps had seven total goals by game 33 of the season and finished with nine total goals from their defensemen.
Rinzel, 20, is off to a quick start already. Maybe it was his number change, or his new nickname ‘Big Bird.’ Nonetheless, he has scored more goals in the first five games this year than he had all of last season.
“Our goalie coach came up with it, I hate it,” Rinzel said. “I did not like it at first but then it kind of grew on me. I thought it would be funny to put on my stick.”
The 6-foot-4 defender is now the first defenseman with four goals in the team’s first five games since Jordan Leopold did it in 2001-02.
“Just getting the spots, kind of shooting and finishing my chances. I’ve been kind of having that poise and with the confidence,” Rinzel said on what is working so far. “Just being able to get my head up and not trying to shoot it as quick, just being able to look for my spot.
“We want to get our D up in the play. And, you know, you want to make it off defense. So, whenever we can get our D in the play, that’s what we want to do.”
It sure seems that once other defensemen like Luke Mittelstadt and Leo Gruba find their groove, this Gophers’ D-Corps has the makings of becoming one of the best in School history.
“We really thought in the off-season that our D-Corps was going to be much higher-end offensively this year,” Motzko said. “Obviously you get Mikey (Koster) back. But then, the three juniors and upperclassmen have much more confidence.
“Luke is not even going yet, and Luke is playing as good as any defenseman I’ve seen in a long time. Just not being rewarded offensively yet. Gruba has yet to come too. So offensively, we’ve got a D-Corps that can push it, it’s being led by a couple of guys right now but we felt that could happen.”