Since opening in 2013, Pegula Ice Arena has been regarded as one of the better home-ice environments in college hockey.
Lately, though, Minnesota probably hasn’t been a massive fan of the building.
The second-place Gophers, two points behind Michigan, look to keep their momentum rolling this weekend at Penn State and nab a road victory from the Nittany Lions for the first time since the 2016-17 season.
The Gophers did get off to a strong start in their Big Ten career with a 6-2 record at PSU, but four straight losses to end the 2017-18 campaign derailed that success and Minnesota went 0-2-1 in the next two seasons.
“I haven’t played (there) since freshman year, with last year getting canceled and all, but it was definitely one that I remembered,” Gophers junior forward Bryce Brodzinski said of playing at Pegula. “It’s a really fun place to play. I always like playing in front of away fans because they’re always in your ear and kind of getting you going. They have a really good crowd all the time and we’re really excited to play there.”
Last year’s series between the two was among the eight games that Penn State had canceled during February because of COVID concerns and the two teams were scheduled to meet at Pegula before the 2019-20 season was suspended, so this is the first opportunity for Minnesota to turn the tides back in a positive direction in almost two years.
Minnesota coach Bob Motzko said there wasn’t much extra emphasis put on where they were playing this weekend.
“We don’t talk about the place as much as we talk about the team, because we play a lot of places like that,” he said. “We talk about Penn State and what we have to do and the discipline we have to have in the game.”
One thing going for Minnesota is the fact that it’s on a roll right now, coming off sweeps of Ohio State and Michigan State. Those four victories have come despite missing three top platers to the Olympics, too.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Motzko said at his media availability of how well the team has been playing while knocking on the wooden podium. “Our guys are just playing good hockey. People are picking up the slack, our freshmen are scoring, our defensemen are jumping into the offense and we’re getting goaltending.”
Even if they are coming in with a recent record of 5-1, the Gophers will face a different style of play this weekend than what they’ve recently seen from Notre Dame, Michigan State or Ohio State.
“There’s no patience to (Penn State), this is a different animal,” Motzko said. “You have to be dialed in. We have to be very dialed into our structure and making sure it’s there, because they’re dangerous.
“We’ve got to find a way to keep going this weekend.”
Brodzinski agreed with his coach, adding that it was important to not accidentally create offense for the Nittany Lions.
“They’re kind of waiting to capitalize on turnovers, so getting pucks on net and not missing the net and kind of creating a breakout for them and just holding onto the puck and not throwing it deep for them,” he said. “We’re trying to stop them from having as many odd-man rushes as they want.”
With both Minnesota and Michigan rolling right now, and the fact that both will have their Olympians back for next weekend’s regular-season finale, the Big Ten looks set up for another close finish.
The Wolverines host Ohio State this weekend and travel to Notre Dame next week. Minnesota closes the regular season by hosting Wisconsin.
