March 24, 2023
by Brad Schlossman/CHN Reporter
(photo: Russ Hons)
FARGO, N.D. Minnesota coach Bob Motzko can coach his team differently in the NCAA Tournament.
During the regular season, the Big Ten has one media timeout per period – at the under 10-minute mark.
Intermissions last 12 minutes.
At the NCAA Tournament, there are three media timeouts per period – under 15, 10 and 5. And they last a full two minutes.
The extra timeouts and longer intermission means more rest time, giving Motzko the option to shorten his bench and increase minutes for his prolific top line of Hobey Baker Award finalist Logan Cooley, Hobey Baker Award finalist Matthew Knies and Jimmy Snuggerud.
Trailing by a goal in the second period to underdog Canisius in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, Motzko took advantage.
He cut down the use of his bottom lines, increased minutes for its top players and the Gophers roared back to beat Canisius 9-2 in the Fargo Regional.
Minnesota scored six goals in the third period to pull away.
“I had to cut the bench short,” Motzko said. “I haven’t done that a lot. And we used the TV timeouts. I liked those tonight.”
Cooley finished the game with three assists – all in the third period. Snuggerud scored in the third while the Gophers were on a five-minute major power play.
“I thought we neutralized them very well for the first two periods,” Canisius coach Trevor Large said. “As they got the power play, they started to build more confidence, they had the puck a ton and obviously started to score. Good players start to gain momentum and that was pretty obvious for them in the third.”
Motzko said he hopes to use the extra media timeouts and longer intermissions to play his top players more throughout the NCAAs.
“We hope to use it to our advantage,” Motzko said. “I think it did tonight … like two minutes (extra for the top players). But we were able to use it to our advantage, and then a little extra time in between periods. Tonight, we used it to our advantage. We’ve got to try to get a little more out of all four lines on Saturday night.”
Minnesota now plays St. Cloud State in the Fargo Regional final at 6:30 p.m. (ET) on Saturday in Scheels Arena.
At the end of his press conference Thursday night, Motzko looked to the back of the room and saw Minnesota Duluth head coach Scott…
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