DON LUCIA /people/don-lucia DON LUCIA en-US Wed, 17 Jun 2020 20:07:59 GMT New CCHA commissioner, Bemidji State coach go way back /sports/new-ccha-commissioner-bemidji-state-coach-go-way-back Austin Monteith HOCKEY,BEMIDJI STATE BEAVERS,BEMIDJI STATE UNIVERSITY,CENTRAL COLLEGIATE HOCKEY ASSOCIATION,DON LUCIA,TOM SERRATORE,THE RINK LIVE Don Lucia is back in college hockey, albeit with a different job title. <![CDATA[<p>Don Lucia is back in college hockey, albeit with a different job title.</p> <br> <br> <p>The newly reborn Central Collegiate Hockey Association named the legendary coach as its commissioner in a Zoom press conference Wednesday afternoon.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;I&#8217;m really looking forward to the challenge,&rdquo; Lucia said.</p> <br> <br> <p>Lucia, 61, ranks sixth all-time in Division I men&#8217;s hockey history with a career record of 736-403-102 over 31 seasons. He served as head coach at Alaska Fairbanks and Colorado College before leading the University of Minnesota to two national championships in 19 seasons before retiring in 2018.</p> <br> <br> <p>CCHA consultant Morris Kurtz called Lucia in March to gauge his interest in the job.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;The game has been very good to me over the years and my family, having a couple of boys that have played college hockey, as well,&rdquo; Lucia said he told Kurtz. &ldquo;To me, I looked at it as a way to give back to the game. &mldr; I think there&#8217;s big things to come for the CCHA and college hockey in the future and I&#8217;m just very proud to be a part of it.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>The new CCHA was formed by seven departing Western Collegiate Hockey Association schools: Bemidji State, Bowling Green, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State, and Northern Michigan. The league is set to begin play with the 2021-22 season. The original CCHA existed between 1971-2013.</p> <br> <br> <p>BSU head coach Tom Serratore said Lucia is a great fit for the job, and cited his experience coaching within athletic departments ranging from NCAA Division III up to Division I.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;He&#8217;s one of the best coaches there&#8217;s ever been in college hockey,&rdquo; Serratore said. &ldquo;I&#8217;m going to use a Bob Peters quote: &#8216;The one thing you can&#8217;t buy at the supermarket is experience.&#8217; And Don is experienced in college hockey. To be a college hockey commissioner in our new league, I don&#8217;t think we could&#8217;ve found anybody better.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>The two Iron Rangers -- Lucia is from Grand Rapids and Serratore from Coleraine -- go way back. In fact, Lucia tried to recruit Serratore while starting his coaching career as an assistant at Alaska.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;I still give Tom Serratore grief because he was my actual first in-home recruiting visit back in the early &#8216;80s when I was trying to get him to come up to Fairbanks to come and play. He rejected me back then, so maybe I can get even with him a little bit now,&rdquo; Lucia joked.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;We grew up five miles apart,&rdquo; said Serratore, who is six years younger than Lucia. &ldquo;I have so much respect for Don Lucia and a lot of admiration for him.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>The pair share another bit of history.</p> <br> <br> <p>Serratore&#8217;s nephew, also named Tom Serratore (his father is AIr Force coach Frank Serratore), played for Lucia with the Gophers from 2010-14.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;I think Don and I have a strong friendship and a mutual passion for the game of hockey,&rdquo; Serratore said. &ldquo;Frank and Don go way back, as well. They&#8217;re one year apart, so they played against each other growing up, and then their friendship was rekindled when they were both in college hockey. You&#8217;ve got to remember, college hockey is a small fraternity.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>Lucia will begin his duties as commissioner July 1. He&#8217;ll have a lot on his plate as the sport navigates the coronavirus pandemic and the new league looks at adding an eighth member.</p> <br> <br> <p>With the reputation Lucia carries, league officials believe he&#8217;s the right man for the job.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;I think really we were looking for a collaborative leader, one with national exposure and prominence,&rdquo; said Perk Weisenburger, the Ferris State athletic director and search committee chair. &ldquo;Somebody that could certainly hit the ground running and really make an impact and get us in the right situation for what we&#8217;re going to be faced with.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br>]]> Wed, 17 Jun 2020 20:07:59 GMT Austin Monteith /sports/new-ccha-commissioner-bemidji-state-coach-go-way-back 3 with Minnesota ties are finalists for CCHA commissioner job /sports/3-with-minnesota-ties-are-finalists-for-ccha-commissioner-job Jess Myers HOCKEY,THE RINK LIVE,BIG TEN HOCKEY,DON LUCIA When play begins in the new Central Collegiate Hockey Association in the fall of 2021, the conference will have two teams and a commissioner from Minnesota. And there have been changes atop the hockey structure in the Big Ten. <![CDATA[<p>As things stand currently, two of the seven teams in the new Central Collegiate Hockey Association, which is scheduled to begin play in the fall of 2021, will be from Minnesota. And according to a published report, so will the new league&#8217;s commissioner.</p> <br> <br> <p>On Tuesday, Todd Milewski of the Wisconsin State Journal reported that the three finalists for the CCHA job are Minnesota State University-Mankato athletic director Kevin Buisman, retired former Minnesota Gophers coach Don Lucia and current U of M associate athletic director Tom McGinnis.</p> <br> <br> <p>The new CCHA is being developed after seven of the 10 teams in the current Western Collegiate Hockey Association — Bemidji State, Bowling Green, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State Mankato and Northern Michigan — announced last summer that they would leave the WCHA and form a new conference.</p> <br> <br> <p>Buisman, 54, has been in charge of Mavericks athletics since 2002 and has overseen Mike Hastings&#8217; teams dominating the new WCHA since its formation in 2013. He is originally from Iowa and played college football there.</p> <br> <br> <p>Lucia, 61, retired as the Gophers&#8217; coach in 2018 after leading the program to a pair of NCAA titles. He is currently residing in Alaska and was the head coach at Alaska (Fairbanks) and Colorado College before coming to the U of M in 1999.</p> <br> <br> <p>McGinnis, 45, has been in the U of M athletic department since 2011 and is the former chair of the NCAA Men&#8217;s Ice Hockey Committee. He has degrees from Indiana and Ohio State.</p> <br> <br> <p>All three men declined comment on their candidacy for the job when contacted by The Rink Live.</p> <br> <br> <p>Dr. Morris Kurtz, the former St. Cloud State athletic director who has been working on the formation and structure of the new conference on behalf of the seven member schools, told The Rink Live that the plan is to have a commissioner hired in June and have them assume the reins on July 1. It has widely been theorized that the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul could be added as the new conference&#8217;s eighth member if the Tommies are allowed to elevate their program to Division I status by the NCAA.</p> <br> <br> <p>The formation of the new CCHA left Alabama Huntsville, Alaska and Alaska Anchorage as the lone remaining members of the WCHA, with their future uncertain at best. On May 22, Alabama Huntsville announced that it would fold its hockey program effective immediately, although as of Tuesday there was a <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/uah-hockey-keep-the-dream-and-tradition-alive?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet" rel="Follow" target="_self">GoFundMe campaign</a> underway attempting to raise $1 million to keep Chargers hockey afloat.</p> <br> <br> <p>That news came as it was also announced that at least two players from last season&#8217;s UAH team had entered the transfer portal seeking new teams for 2020-21.</p> <br> <br> Berenson hired by Big Ten <p>As was first reported by Milewski, Brad Traviolia, who had been the Big Ten&#8217;s hockey commissioner for five seasons, left the conference in late April. The Big Ten had no statement regarding the circumstances of his departure, but a source confirmed to The Rink Live that Traviolia is no longer with the Chicago-based conference.</p> <br> <br> <p>In his place, the conference has named Red Berenson as special advisor to the commissioner, hockey operations. Berenson, 80, retired in 2017 after a storied career as a player and coach at Michigan, and led the Wolverines to a pair of NCAA titles in the 1990s.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Red Berenson to the Big Ten staff in this role,&rdquo; said commissioner Kevin Warren, who came to the Big Ten in 2019 after 14 years as an executive with the Minnesota Vikings. &ldquo;His career achievements and contributions to the sport of hockey are truly outstanding and he has a great understanding of what it means to coach and compete in the Big Ten.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>Penn State won its first regular season title in the seven-team Big Ten hockey conference in 2019-20. The playoff championship was not awarded, as the season was cancelled on March 12.</p> <br> <br> <div class="raw-html"> This season, <a href="https://go.therinklive.com/therinklive-site-button/?utm_source=Site-Button&amp;utm_medium=300x100&amp;utm_campaign=The-Rink-Live-Newsletter-Signup" target="_blank">sign up for The Rink Live newsletter</a> to get the best hockey stories from across the region delivered to your inbox! </div> <br> <br> <figure class="op-slideshow"> <figcaption> 3 with Minnesota ties are finalists for CCHA commissioner job </figcaption> <figure> <img src="https://fcc-cue-exports-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/fccnn/binary/Michigan_Berenson_binary_6509293.jpg"> <figcaption> Gordon "Red" Berenson (center) played for Michigan in the early 1960s, then coached his alma mater for 33 seasons, leading the Wolverines to NCAA titles in 1996 and 1998. Jose Juarez / Big Ten photo </figcaption> </figure> <figure> <img src="https://fcc-cue-exports-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/fccnn/binary/McGinnis%20Tom_binary_6507766.jpg"> <figcaption> Tom McGinnis joined the University of Minnesota athletic department in 2011. File photo. </figcaption> </figure> </figure> <br> <br>]]> Wed, 27 May 2020 14:25:07 GMT Jess Myers /sports/3-with-minnesota-ties-are-finalists-for-ccha-commissioner-job Degree in hand, former enforcer Stu Bickel hunting for his first coaching job /sports/degree-in-hand-former-enforcer-stu-bickel-hunting-for-his-first-coaching-job Jess Myers HOCKEY,THE RINK LIVE,BOB MOTZKO,DON LUCIA,BIG TEN HOCKEY,ECHL A decade ago, former Minnesota Gophers defenseman Stu Bickel was dropping his gloves for a living as a pro hockey player. Today, with his degree recently earned and a two-year stint as a Gophers assistant coach completed, he is ready for his first real coaching experience. <![CDATA[<p>MINNEAPOLIS -- The crowd was still roaring as New York Rangers defenseman Stu Bickel searched, briefly, for his helmet and gloves on the ice of Madison Square Garden early in the afternoon of Super Bowl Sunday, 2012. Bickel, a few years removed from his lone season with the Minnesota Gophers, had just finished a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLL3Ul2nhVc" rel="Follow" target="_self">brief scrap with Wayne Simmonds</a> of the Philadelphia Flyers, and the sellout crowd at the world&#8217;s most famous arena was loving it.</p> <br> <br> <p>As Bickel took a seat in the penalty box for five minutes of solitude, the video screens high above the ice flashed a scene from the 1976 classic Martin Scorsese movie &ldquo;Taxi Driver,&rdquo; where Robert De Niro played a New Yorker prone to fits of violence named Travis Bickle (no relation). On the big screen, De Niro sneered into a mirror in an iconic scene, practicing his tough guy lines. &ldquo;You talkin&#8217; to me?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;You talkin&#8217; to ME?&rdquo; And the crowd roared its approval again and again.</p> <br> <br> <p>Less than a decade later, things are much quieter in Stu Bickel&#8217;s hockey world. On a Thursday afternoon in the spring, he talked of his recently completed degree in communications, which technically took a dozen years, but was finished with just three full years of school work. Like many recent college grads in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic that has turned so much of normal life upside down, Bickel is looking for a coaching job remotely, and those who know him well like his prospects.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;He wants to be a coach and he&#8217;s going to be a hell of a coach. He has that presence with the players and loves the one-on-one instruction. He had their respect, and he&#8217;s a tiger on the ice with the guys,&rdquo; said Gophers head coach Bob Motzko, who had Bickel on his staff as a student assistant for the past two seasons. &ldquo;He&#8217;s willing to go wherever he needs to go to get a foot in the door in coaching, and once he gets in, he will rise quickly.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>Rising quickly, and those plays with the gloves off, were hallmarks of Bickel&#8217;s on-ice days. He was a forward at Eden Prairie High ÍáÍáÂþ»­ and for half a season in the United States Hockey League, where college offers were few. After another half-season in the North American Hockey League and a switch to defense, Bickel went to an open tryout for the USHL&#8217;s Sioux Falls Stampede, and decided to try a new, more aggressive use of his 6-4 frame to find a roster spot. The first chance he had to fight, he took it, and made the team.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;That ended up kind of being a role I carved out for myself,&rdquo; Bickel recalled of the season he was among the penalty minutes leaders in the USHL. &ldquo;It definitely wasn&#8217;t all I was doing because I knew that I wanted to play college hockey and obviously you can&#8217;t fight in college. But to find my role on a junior team, that was part of it. I don&#8217;t regret doing it at all. I think it helped me when I did get into pro hockey to have a little bit of that experience.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>The Gophers were coming off a few seasons where they had seen talented players like Erik Johnson, Phil Kessel and Kyle Okposo bolt for pro hockey after one full season. Then-coach Don Lucia liked the idea of bringing in an older freshman like Bickel for his on-ice presence, and expecting he would stick around for four years.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;We liked the fact that he brought some toughness, he was older, he could play wing or defense and had some versatility to him,&rdquo; Lucia said. &ldquo;He certainly added an element of toughness to that team. Stu wasn&#8217;t afraid to say &#8216;f-you&#8217; plus he was a good student. Stu was always soft-spoken, but he got on the rink and his personality would change. My only disappointment was that we only had him for one year.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>Indeed, after that solid 2007-08 season with the Gophers during which he carried a 4.0 GPA, an offer to play for a paycheck in the Anaheim Ducks system presented itself, and Bickel saw it as a natural next step in his career.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;I kind of had the attitude that I wanted to keep climbing as much as I could, challenge myself, push myself to take it to the next level always,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When the opportunity arose to sign, I was already a 21-year-old. I played two years after high school in the USHL, so I really wasn&#8217;t that young compared to the other rookies that were going to be going to the AHL. It was a combination of things, but I felt it was my time to move forward.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>He spent the next three seasons bouncing between the AHL and ECHL before getting in 51 games and playing in the Winter Classic in 2011-12 with the Rangers. Later Bickel signed as a free agent with the hometown Minnesota Wild, and got in nine more games at the NHL level before finishing his career with San Diego in the AHL. With injuries and concussions mounting, and facing the prospect of back surgery, Bickel listened to his body and hung up the pads two years ago, when he was 31.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;I&#8217;d been cut apart and put back together a couple times already. For me it wasn&#8217;t going to be worth doing another surgery,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I started thinking about life going forward, and without the surgery I didn&#8217;t feel like I was going to be able to get back to skating at 100 percent. So it kind of forced me into the decision a little bit.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>So he came back to Minnesota, signed on to be a student assistant with Motzko, and jumped headfirst into getting his degree, and a permanent coaching job. Outside the classroom, Bickel has learned that there are nuances to coaching that players don&#8217;t always see, and shared his newfound knowledge with his former Rangers coach.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;You realize pretty quickly when you get into coaching that you didn&#8217;t learn as a player, that maybe you thought you knew when you were playing,&rdquo; Bickel said. &ldquo;I had a talk with John Tortorella recently, after I got into coaching and explained that it kind of opens your eyes to some things.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>For now, Bickel is working the phones, getting his name out to teams that have openings on their coaching staff, and looking forward to rinks re-opening so he can get back on the ice. During all of the down time, he hasn&#8217;t yet watched &ldquo;Taxi Driver&rdquo; but has vowed to do so before too long.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;I still haven&#8217;t seen the movie,&rdquo; Bickel said with a smile. &ldquo;I&#8217;ve got to get it in.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <div class="raw-html"> This season, <a href="https://go.therinklive.com/therinklive-site-button/?utm_source=Site-Button&amp;utm_medium=300x100&amp;utm_campaign=The-Rink-Live-Newsletter-Signup" target="_blank">sign up for The Rink Live newsletter</a> to get the best hockey stories from across the region delivered to your inbox! </div> <br> <br> <figure class="op-slideshow"> <figcaption> Degree in hand, former enforcer Stu Bickel hunting for his first coaching job </figcaption> <figure> <img src="https://fcc-cue-exports-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/fccnn/binary/Stu%20Bickel%201_binary_6505623.jpg"> <figcaption> After getting his National Hockey League start with the New York Rangers, Stu Bickel returned to his home state and played nine games for the Minnesota Wild in the 2014-15 season. University of Minnesota Athletics photo. </figcaption> </figure> <figure> <img src="https://fcc-cue-exports-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/fccnn/binary/Bickel%20Stu%20048_binary_6505625.JPG"> <figcaption> In his lone season on the ice for the Minnesota Gophers, Stu Bickel (right) carried a 4.0 grade point average and brought an element of toughness to the team, according to former coach Don Lucia. Submitted photo. </figcaption> </figure> <figure> <img src="https://fcc-cue-exports-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/fccnn/binary/Bickel%20Stu%20Gophers%20mug%2018-19_binary_916587.jpg"> <figcaption> Gophers graduate assistant coach Stu Bickel. University of Minnesota Athletics </figcaption> </figure> </figure> <br> <br>]]> Sun, 24 May 2020 22:57:52 GMT Jess Myers /sports/degree-in-hand-former-enforcer-stu-bickel-hunting-for-his-first-coaching-job In hockey and aviation, former Gophers defenseman Steve Johnson is off to a flying start /sports/in-hockey-and-aviation-former-gophers-defenseman-steve-johnson-is-off-to-a-flying-start Jess Myers HOCKEY,THE RINK LIVE,BIG TEN HOCKEY,DON LUCIA,AVIATION,ECHL Post-hockey plans are up in the air for former Minnesota Gophers defenseman Steve Johnson, which is a solid career goal. While playing pro hockey, two years removed from the U of M, Johnson is also immersed in flight school, earning his pilot's license and aiming to follow his father into commercial aviation someday. <![CDATA[<p>EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — On the ice, playing defense professionally at one of the top levels of hockey in North America, Steve Johnson is used to making split-second decisions in high-pressure situations.</p> <br> <br> <p>So it is no surprise that a mechanical problem he encountered while flying solo a few thousand feet above the rolling farmland of central Minnesota last summer barely phased the former Minnesota Gopher.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;My alternator, which provides electricity to the plane, failed. I&#8217;d just flown over St. Cloud and had to make a decision on whether I thought I could make it back to Eden Prairie or make an emergency landing right now,&rdquo; recalled Johnson, who was alone in a six-seat, single-engine plane at the time. &ldquo;I didn&#8217;t want to head into the (Twin) Cities without any communication and some of the instruments. I wasn&#8217;t scared because I could fly the plane and I was still in control.</p> <br> <br> <p>"But I decided to play it safe. I landed in St. Cloud, they fixed the plane there and one of the instructors flew up to pick me up later that day.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>For Johnson, who skated last season with the Cleveland Monsters, the top minor league team for the NHL&#8217;s Columbus Blue Jackets, there are some definite parallels between what he does on the ice, with skates and a stick, and what he is learning to do in the air, at the controls of an airplane.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;Every game you play, or every time you go up in a plane, you have to be totally focused. If you&#8217;re not, that&#8217;s when things go wrong,&rdquo; said Johnson, 25, who skated four seasons for the Gophers under Don Lucia before starting his pro hockey career two years ago. &ldquo;Either you could get scored on, or something could go wrong in the airplane. You have to be focused every time you go play in a game and every time you go fly.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> Family business <p>Flying is a family business for the Johnsons of Minnetonka. Steve&#8217;s father, Scott, studied aviation at the University of North Dakota in the 1980s, and has been a commercial pilot for more than 30 years. Scott flew first for Northwest Airlines, and now for Delta after the companies merged a decade ago.</p> <br> <br> <p>While playing for the Omaha Lancers of the United States Hockey League after his time at Minnetonka High ÍáÍáÂþ»­ and considering colleges, Steve looked at both North Dakota and Minnesota State University-Mankato, which have aviation programs, but stayed closer to home.</p> <br> <br> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;At the end of the day, I wanted to be a Gopher,&rdquo; said Steve, who earned three Big Ten titles and degrees in agricultural finance and business management.</p> <br> <br> <p>With their standby privileges on Delta, the Johnson family was able to attend most of Steve&#8217;s road games his final three years with the Gophers. After his first full season of pro hockey, split between ECHL teams in South Carolina and Pennsylvania, and the Hershey (Pa.) Bears of the American Hockey League, Johnson decided it was time to give flight school a try.</p> <br> <br> <p>His father, who has seen three decades of changes in commercial aviation, offered realistic advice.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;The industry has been feast or famine, and the hills and valleys are crazy. So the only thing I said to him is you&#8217;ve got to really love this thing or don&#8217;t bother,&rdquo; Scott said. &ldquo;I wasn&#8217;t talking him into it. In fact, I was maybe leaning toward talking him out of it, but mostly I said if you&#8217;re lukewarm, don&#8217;t do it.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>Steve was not lukewarm, and found a real passion for flying from the first seconds the landing gear left the runway. He became a licensed pilot at the end of the summer of 2019, and celebrated by taking three hockey friends up for an aerial tour of Lake Minnetonka.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;I was a lot more trusting in him than my other two buddies were,&rdquo; said Jimmy Schuldt, a former St. Cloud State star defenseman who played alongside Johnson in youth and high school hockey in Minnetonka and with the Lancers for a season. &ldquo;There were four of us in the plane the first time and Tommy Vanelli, in particular, was very cautious and a little bit skeptical of the whole thing.</p> <br> <br> <p>"So I got to sit in the front and be Steve&#8217;s co-pilot for the whole trip, which was really fun.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> Trying to follow his dad <p>Steve has found a real joy in flying his friends and giving them a view of Minnesota from a few thousand feet up.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;That&#8217;s one of the biggest things I enjoy is taking other people up and watching them enjoy it,&rdquo; Johnson said, admitting that on the way to or from a road game, more than one Monsters teammate has jokingly asked, in case of a cockpit emergency, if Steve can land the plane. &ldquo;Seeing their faces and kind of experiencing it together. That&#8217;s the fun part of it.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>Hockey is on hiatus due to the pandemic, so Johnson has been taking more advanced flying lessons up to five times a week out of Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie. He's been flying with his father, learning skills like piloting in the clouds, when you have only the instruments to guide you.</p> <br> <br> <p>Typically, Scott Johnson flies a Boeing 737 for Delta, ferrying passengers to and from the Caribbean in the winter and between Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport and the West Coast in the summer. But he hasn&#8217;t flown in more than a month, with commercial aviation greatly reduced due to the coronavirus.</p> <br> <br> <p>Someday the crisis will be over. And Steve Johnson is realistic enough to know that so will time as a hockey player, sometime in the future. While working hard on the ice, hopeful of a place on a NHL blue line someday, he is also hard at work on the rest of his life, aiming to follow his father&#8217;s path to a career with an incomparable view.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;That&#8217;s what I&#8217;m going for. Nothing is set in stone, but I could definitely see it,&rdquo; Johnson said. &ldquo;I&#8217;m increasing my ratings and getting more licenses, so I think that following in my dad&#8217;s footsteps is kind of in the works after my hockey career.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <div class="raw-html"> This season, <a href="https://go.therinklive.com/therinklive-site-button/?utm_source=Site-Button&amp;utm_medium=300x100&amp;utm_campaign=The-Rink-Live-Newsletter-Signup" target="_blank">sign up for The Rink Live newsletter</a> to get the best hockey stories from across the region delivered to your inbox! </div> <br> <br> <figure class="op-slideshow"> <figcaption> In hockey and aviation, former Gophers defenseman Steve Johnson is off to a flying start </figcaption> <figure> <img src="https://fcc-cue-exports-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/fccnn/binary/BC385247-90EC-4393-AF98-AEBF639F0C7F_binary_6461394.JPG"> <figcaption> Steve Johnson earned his initial pilot's license late in the summer of 2019 after taking a few months of lessons at Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie, Minn. Johnson family photo. </figcaption> </figure> <figure> <img src="https://fcc-cue-exports-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/fccnn/binary/10%20Steve%20Johnson_binary_6461402.JPG"> <figcaption> Cleveland Monsters defenseman Steve Johnson </figcaption> </figure> <figure> <img src="https://fcc-cue-exports-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/fccnn/binary/68D91D9A-A206-4499-89C2-434EB0CAE229_binary_6461405.JPG"> <figcaption> With more than three decades experience as a commercial airline pilot, Scott Johnson (left) often accompanies his son Steve in the cockpit. Johnson family photo. </figcaption> </figure> <figure> <img src="https://fcc-cue-exports-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/fccnn/binary/Johnson_Steve-007_binary_6461409.jpg"> <figcaption> In four seasons with the Minnesota Gophers, Steve Johnson was a part of three Big Ten title teams and made two trips to the NCAA tournament before graduating in 2018. University of Minnesota Athletics photo. </figcaption> </figure> </figure> <br> <br>]]> Tue, 28 Apr 2020 23:01:00 GMT Jess Myers /sports/in-hockey-and-aviation-former-gophers-defenseman-steve-johnson-is-off-to-a-flying-start Former Colorado College, USHL coach Scott Owens retires after 40-plus seasons /sports/former-colorado-college-ushl-coach-scott-owens-retires-after-40-plus-seasons Jess Myers HOCKEY,THE RINK LIVE,DON LUCIA,BOB MOTZKO Opponents always knew they were in for a battle when they saw Scott Owens on the other bench, as he led Colorado College to seven NCAA tournament trips and three conference titles in 15 seasons coaching his alma mater. A year after leading Sioux Falls to the USHL title, Owens announced his retirement. <![CDATA[<p>SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — When he saw Scott Owens on the other team&#8217;s bench, sending waves of Colorado College Tigers out onto the ice, Bob Motzko always expected a spirited battle.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;They were great transition teams, very fast in the neutral zone, always had a great power play,&rdquo; said Motzko, who coached against Owens many times during the latter&#8217;s years at St. Cloud State. &ldquo;The most aggressive penalty kill that you ever played against. And look at the talent Colorado College had all those years.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>Owens, 64, announced his retirement on Thursday, March 26 after more than 40 years as an assistant coach, general manager and head coach in college hockey and in juniors in the United States Hockey League. He led the Sioux Falls Stampede of the USHL to the league playoff title in 2019.</p> <br> <br> <p>In 15 seasons running the program at Colorado College, his alma mater, Owens won a school-record 324 games, with seven trips to the NCAA tournament, a trio of WCHA titles and a 2005 NCAA Frozen Four appearance.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;They were there every year. They were always one of the top teams in the WCHA, and at that time, that meant you were one of the top teams in the country,&rdquo; said Don Lucia, who was Owens&#8217; predecessor at CC. &ldquo;He wanted to recruit smart kids who could skate and make plays with the puck, and then he let them play. He didn&#8217;t have a rope on them.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>With Owens as his assistant coach and recruiter, Lucia had led the Tigers back to national prominence in the 1990s before taking the Minnesota Gophers job in 1999.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;He did a great job recruiting and we were able to work together for a couple years. He was a big part of the success we had,&rdquo; Lucia said. &ldquo;One of Scott&#8217;s strengths was he was always a great GM-type of a coach who could identify talent, put the pieces together and get the right guys. When I got to CC, I remember him saying, &#8216;Our walk-ons are just as important as our scholarship guys because we need to try to build the depth.&#8217;&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>Owens&#8217; success running the program at Colorado College came after years with Madison and Des Moines in the USHL. As the Tigers head coach, Owens recruited and fostered the school&#8217;s first two Hobey Baker Award winners, Peter Sejna in 2003 and Marty Sertich in 2005.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;He was very structured, but at the same time he let guys who could make plays make plays,&rdquo; Sertich said. &ldquo;That was a great attribute of him as a coach. He taught discipline and accountability, which is why his teams were so successful, but at the same time he knew who needed that freedom offensively. He knew who to trust, and it paid off.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>After two consecutive sub-.500 seasons with the Tigers, Owens resigned in 2014 and took the Stampede job a year later. He led Sioux Falls to the Clark Cup last season.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;He showed his mettle when Colorado College let him go, and he goes back to the USHL and within a few years he wins a championship,&rdquo; Motzko said. &ldquo;Terrific recruiter, great operator. History will be very, very kind to Scott. There&#8217;s a lot to celebrate about his career.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>Per the Stampede press release, they will name the team&#8217;s new coach prior to the USHL draft, which is scheduled for May 4-5.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;That&#8217;s certainly one of the top jobs in junior hockey, from the ownership group right down to the facilities and location,&rdquo; Lucia said. &ldquo;It&#8217;s been a great job for whoever has been there.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <div class="raw-html"> This season, <a href="https://go.therinklive.com/therinklive-site-button/?utm_source=Site-Button&amp;utm_medium=300x100&amp;utm_campaign=The-Rink-Live-Newsletter-Signup" target="_blank">sign up for The Rink Live newsletter</a> to get the best hockey stories from across the region delivered to your inbox! </div> <br> <br>]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2020 14:08:27 GMT Jess Myers /sports/former-colorado-college-ushl-coach-scott-owens-retires-after-40-plus-seasons A decade of Gophers hockey, by the numbers /sports/a-decade-of-gophers-hockey-by-the-numbers Jess Myers HOCKEY,THE RINK LIVE,BOB MOTZKO,DON LUCIA,BIG TEN HOCKEY In the 2010s, the Minnesota Gophers won 218 games and a NCAA record six consecutive conference titles. They also played in two conferences, employed two head coaches and boasted two Stanley Cup winners. Those and other key numbers, good and bad, marked the decade for this renowned college hockey program. <![CDATA[<p>MINNEAPOLIS — On Jan. 2, 2010, the Minnesota Gophers opened the 2010s with a 3-1 win over Bowling Green in the opening round of the tournament then known as the Dodge Holiday Classic. On Sunday night, they Gophers beat St. Cloud State 4-1 to win the same tournament, now called the Mariucci Classic.</p> <br> <br> <p>Minnesota ended the decade with 218 wins, 138 losses and 35 ties, for a .602 winning percentage. Those are far from the only numbers of significance, as one looks back on the notable moments in Gophers hockey over the past decade. A few more digits of note:</p> <br> <br> <br> <br> <p>The Gophers begin the 2020s on Friday, Jan. 10, with a Big Ten contest at Michigan State.</p> <br> <br> <div class="raw-html"> This season, <a href="https://go.therinklive.com/therinklive-site-button/?utm_source=Site-Button&amp;utm_medium=300x100&amp;utm_campaign=The-Rink-Live-Newsletter-Signup" target="_blank">sign up for The Rink Live newsletter</a> to get the best hockey stories from across the region delivered to your inbox! </div> <br> <br> <figure class="op-slideshow"> <figcaption> A decade of Gophers hockey, by the numbers </figcaption> <figure> <img src="https://fcc-cue-exports-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/fccnn/binary/Kessel,%20Phil%20(2016%20Stanley%20Cup%20w%20Pittsburgh)_binary_4844094.jpg"> <figcaption> Former Gophers forward Phil Kessel won the Stanley Cup twice with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2010s, including here in 2016 when the Pens defeated the San Jose Sharks for the NHL title. University of Minnesota Athletics photo. </figcaption> </figure> <figure> <img src="https://fcc-cue-exports-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/fccnn/binary/jea%201703%20Gophers%20vs%20Notre%20Dame%20gm2_binary_4752662.jpg"> <figcaption> After agreeing to a five-year contract to coach the Minnesota Gophers in March of 2018, Bob Motzko has a 25-25-8 record with the team. John Autey / The Rink Live </figcaption> </figure> <figure> <img src="https://cdn2.forumcomm.com/fccnn/binary/copy/3d/ec/9e3205ff4f5b3a335377ad70efcd/4085778-lucia-binary-809955.jpg"> <figcaption> At the end of the 2017-18 season, Don Lucia retired after 19 seasons and two NCAA titles as the Minnesota Gophers head coach. John Autey / The Rink Live </figcaption> </figure> <figure> <img src="https://fcc-cue-exports-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/grandforksherald/binary/Sheehy+112318_binary_1028065.jpg"> <figcaption> Forward Tyler Sheehy was named the Big Ten's most valuable player in 2017 and was one of three Gophers who were finalists for the Hobey Baker Award in the decade. Jim Rosvold / Forum News Service </figcaption> </figure> </figure> <br> <br>]]> Mon, 30 Dec 2019 19:47:30 GMT Jess Myers /sports/a-decade-of-gophers-hockey-by-the-numbers New arena the latest development in CC hockey's notable history /sports/new-arena-the-latest-development-in-cc-hockeys-notable-history Jess Myers HOCKEY,THE RINK LIVE,NATIONAL COLLEGIATE HOCKEY CONFERENCE,DON LUCIA In 1948, what is now known as the NCAA Frozen Four got its start far away from the frozen ponds of traditional hockey hotbeds like New England and the Midwest. Now, after more than 75 years at two notable arenas in Colorado Springs, the hockey program at Colorado College is planning an on-campus move to a smaller rink. <![CDATA[<p>COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Had a mountain resort owner not gone to Chicago and witnessed legendary figure skater Sonja Henie perform in 1937, the event we&#8217;ve come to know as the NCAA Frozen Four might not exist.</p> <br> <br> <p>The Broadmoor, a posh and pricey golf resort in the Rocky Mountain foothills just southwest of downtown Colorado Springs, is one of the unlikely birthplaces of college hockey. Spencer Penrose, a Philadelphia investor who owned the resort, was taken by seeing Henie&#8217;s on-ice skills. He returned to Colorado and decreed that a large horse arena on the resort&#8217;s grounds would be converted into an ice arena, where hotel guests could be entertained by figure skating and hockey.</p> <br> <br> <p>Starting in 1948, Broadmoor World Arena — as the former equestrian facility came to be known — was the site of the first 10 NCAA hockey tournaments. Michigan won six of them. The 3,900-seat arena had a compact ice sheet, murals of outdoor scenes on the walls, carpeted aisles and curved wooden seats not unlike an opera house of the era. It also served as the home rink for the Colorado College hockey program, and the Tigers won their only two NCAA hockey titles, in 1950 and 1957, on home ice.</p> <br> <br> <p>Late Tigers and Wisconsin coach Jeff Sauer, who played at CC in the 1960s, once recalled that it wasn&#8217;t uncommon for games at the Broadmoor to start as late as 8:30 p.m., so the resort&#8217;s well-heeled guests would have time to finish dinner, dessert and coffee before the evening&#8217;s entertainment — college hockey — began.</p> <br> <br> <p>It all came to an end 25 years ago. In the 1993-94 season, Don Lucia took the Tigers from worst to first in his initial campaign behind their bench, which was the Tigers&#8217; last of 55 seasons on the resort grounds. In 1994 the arena was demolished to make way for high-end lodging, and the Tigers were forced to play at Air Force for a few years until the current Broadmoor World Arena, which seats 7,700 for hockey, opened in early 1998. It seemed as if CC hockey would be set, arena-wise, for the next 55 years.</p> <br> <br> <p>So there was some surprise in the college hockey world in July 2018, when the school announced a partnership with the city of Colorado Springs that will lead to Edward J. Robson Arena&#8217;s construction on campus as the new home of Tigers hockey starting in 2021.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;We&#8217;ve never played a game in the history of the program on our campus, so we&#8217;re really super excited. Two more years at World Arena and then we get our own building, with a little smaller, more intimate setting,&rdquo; said Tigers coach Mike Haviland, with a nod to the fact that current Tigers have to drive 15 miles round trip to games and practices. &ldquo;In the recruiting end of the world I think I will help us to have everything in one place. Guys won&#8217;t have to drive off campus, they can walk right across the street and we&#8217;ll try to make it a harder environment for teams to come and play.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>Like at many college hockey programs, empty seats have not been uncommon at Tigers games in recent years, as CC has gone through a sometimes rocky transition to life in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. With an enrollment of 2,000 students, which is roughly the size of some of the larger Twin Cities high schools, new Tigers athletic director Lesley Irvine thinks the rink, which will have just 3,000 permanent seats, will provide an ideal setting for the future of CC hockey.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;The national trend is to just build smaller. You want to create (ticket) demand and provide an intimate experience,&rdquo; said Irvine, who previously spent five years around college hockey as an administrator at Bowling Green. &ldquo;It&#8217;s a space that fits us really well when you think about the uniqueness of Colorado College and the intimacy of that experience. We thought that was a number where we could strive to fill that arena on a game-by-game basis, and provide an atmosphere that our student athletes would love playing in.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>After more than 75 years playing hockey games at a resort, at a military academy, and at a far-flung off-campus arena, it seems like the Tigers are finally headed home.</p> <br> <br> <div class="raw-html"><b> This season, <a href="https://go.therinklive.com/therinklive-site-button/?utm_source=Site-Button&amp;utm_medium=300x100&amp;utm_campaign=The-Rink-Live-Newsletter-Signup" target="_blank">sign up for The Rink Live newsletter</a> to get the best hockey stories from across the region delivered to your inbox! </b></div> <br> <br> <figure> <img src="https://cdn.forumcomm.com/dims4/default/8b70f9b/2147483647/resize/800x/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffcc-cue-exports-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Ffccnn%2Fbinary%2FMagazine%20Renderings1_Page_1_binary_4716264.jpg"> </figure> <br> <br>]]> Thu, 10 Oct 2019 21:56:32 GMT Jess Myers /sports/new-arena-the-latest-development-in-cc-hockeys-notable-history Part 2: Talking hockey with U of M athletic director Mark Coyle on the importance of regional rivalries /sports/part-2-talking-hockey-with-u-of-m-athletic-director-mark-coyle-on-the-importance-of-regional-rivalries Jess Myers HOCKEY,THE RINK LIVE,BIG TEN HOCKEY,BOB MOTZKO,DON LUCIA Since returning to the University of Minnesota in 2016, athletic director Mark Coyle has hired a new coach for the Gophers men's hockey program, has heard from fans still not at all sure about Big Ten hockey, and has dealt with dwindling attendance for home games. In Part 2 of a sit-down interview with The Rink Live, he talks about the importance of regional rivalries, the possibility of a new Big Ten team, and the future of the Gophers' home rink. <![CDATA[<p>MINNEAPOLIS — After stints at Kentucky, Boise State and (briefly) Syracuse, Mark Coyle returned to the University of Minnesota in 2016 as the school&#8217;s athletic director. As an administrator and marketing professional there from 2001 to 2005 he oversaw some of the best days of Gophers men&#8217;s hockey, when coach Don Lucia and assistant coach Bob Motzko won back-to-back NCAA titles. A year ago Coyle, 50, hired Motzko to take over after Lucia retired and he oversees a high-profile program that still means significant revenue for the school despite attendance challenges. In part two of a two-part interview, Coyle talked about the prospect of a new Big Ten hockey program, the importance of maintaining the Gophers&#8217; regional rivalries and the future of their home rink.</p> <br> <br> <p><b>Just to put the protestations of some Gopher hockey fans to rest, can you confirm once and for all that the program is not moving back to the old WCHA?</b></p> <br> <br> <p>We are a legacy member of the Big Ten Conference and we are very proud to be part of the Big Ten.</p> <br> <br> <p><b>With that said, how important are efforts to maintain rivalries with the four other Minnesota-based programs and North Dakota?</b></p> <br> <br> <p>That&#8217;s incredibly important, and I know it&#8217;s a priority for Bob (Motzko). We talked about it when he was first interviewed. As you know, hockey scheduling is unique. We have 24 conference games, which gives us 10 nonconference games. With the Mariucci Classic now you&#8217;re down to eight games and you&#8217;re trying to find those series. We&#8217;re playing North Dakota, we play (Minnesota) Duluth and we have some of those teams on our schedule and that&#8217;s something we want to make a priority. We think it&#8217;s important for hockey at the college level, and we think it&#8217;s important for hockey in the state of Minnesota that we have those games. But it does get tricky with the limitation on your nonconference games. Still, we recognize the value of doing that and we feel it&#8217;s important to have those games.</p> <br> <br> <p><b>Previously you were the marketing director for athletics at the University of Minnesota. What did you learn from that experience?</b></p> <br> <br> <p>I tell people I did a very poor job, and what I mean by that is when I was here before the building was sold out and we had those back-to-back national championships and things were going well. When I came back three years ago we won the Big Ten so that was six straight conference titles. So we&#8217;re winning conference championships, we&#8217;re competing at a high level and we still had some attendance challenges. And again, that&#8217;s on us. That&#8217;s nobody else&#8217;s fault. That&#8217;s what led to these conversations about looking at ticket prices and making it more fan friendly to get people to come to our games and getting more aggressive. We used to do a program called Skate with the Gophers when I was here before, where people would come down and skate at 3M Arena at Mariucci. Last year we took Skate with the Gophers on the road and we went out (in the community) and it&#8217;s the first time we&#8217;ve had to do that. We realized we have to go out. So a big part of what we&#8217;re trying to do is to make sure we build upon that emotional connection. When I was here before there was a deep connection and we need to do everything we can to strengthen that connection.</p> <br> <br> <p>We&#8217;re very confident in the type of young men that Bob&#8217;s trying to bring in to this program. Academically they&#8217;re doing it the right way. In fact I think we had one of our highest grade-point averages ever for men&#8217;s hockey, which is phenomenal. I get that people pay attention to what happens on the ice, but we&#8217;re different than other programs. We worry about the academic side, but athletically we&#8217;re very confident that we&#8217;ll start to get those wins. It will be interesting to see how our fans respond with those wins and how that affects our attendance numbers.</p> <br> <br> <p><b>The University of Illinois is openly exploring becoming the Big Ten&#8217;s eighth hockey program. Have they sought your advice, and if so, what have you offered?</b></p> <br> <br> <p>Josh Whitman, their athletic director, is doing a fantastic job down there. Selfishly, for Minnesota and the other Big Ten members who sponsor hockey, we&#8217;re hoping that Illinois does add hockey. Those are decisions that they have to make but we feel they would be a great addition to the Big Ten. It&#8217;s something we would welcome and would give us an even schedule. Right now one team has a week off, so I think it would solve some scheduling logistics for a lot of people. We&#8217;re hopeful and optimistic and I think they&#8217;re getting close to making a decision per the last articles I&#8217;ve read about the process. It&#8217;s a decision they have to make, but selfishly we&#8217;d be supportive.</p> <br> <br> <p><b>You&#8217;re originally from Iowa, where the loyalties for football and basketball are divided between the Hawkeyes and Cyclones. Minnesota is unique because Gopher football and basketball are the Division I teams for the entire state, but in hockey there are five or six teams if you include western Minnesota, where North Dakota is quite popular, that divide the hockey loyalties. How do you look at that?</b></p> <br> <br> <p>It&#8217;s awesome. It&#8217;s one of those things where we feel this state is the college hockey hotbed. We have great programs here and we all talk. I have a lot of respect for (Minnesota) Duluth and what they&#8217;re doing. I&#8217;ve gotten to be very close to Josh Berlo, their athletic director. About a year ago I went up and spent a day with Josh and got to meet some of his coaches, and I really respect what they&#8217;re doing up there. At Minnesota State I know their athletic director. At St. Cloud State I know (athletic director) Heather (Weems) very well. I think it&#8217;s great for hockey that all those teams are competing at a high level. There&#8217;s no doubt that we want to beat them and compete against them. There&#8217;s no doubt that we recruit against them. Again, it&#8217;s important when we can schedule those games and it&#8217;s great for hockey because hockey, especially at the college level, has that regional connection and that regional feel. Fans can drive to each other&#8217;s venues to watch the games and we love the intensity of the fans. We welcome those things, we think they&#8217;re great for hockey and we want to do everything we can to build that, not only in Minnesota but nationally.</p> <br> <br> <p><b>Amazingly, 3M Arena at Mariucci is more than 25 years old now. There has been talk of changing the seating capacity and changing the ice sheet size. What do you see in the future there?</b></p> <br> <br> <p>In full transparency, we&#8217;re having the same conversations about the ice and the size of the rink and what do we do about that. We&#8217;ve got a new president on board in president (Joan) Gabel. Those are conversations I had with president (Eric) Kaler when he was here, and those are conversations I will have with the new president. I do think we have to take an overall look at our program and our facility. I&#8217;ve never coached a game in my life. My coaching experience is being the dugout dad for baseball games. I love that because every kid is excited to bat so it&#8217;s the best job in the world. But when I talk to coaches, I always ask what&#8217;s the most important thing from a coaching standpoint. Whether I was at Boise State, Kentucky, Syracuse or Minnesota the answer is always recruiting. You have to get the right people to come into your program. And when we created the Athletes Village, when we made the renovations to the locker room at 3M Arena at Mariucci, when we do the next round of upgrades to the facility, those are all part of the &#8216;wow&#8217; factor. When young men come to your campus, you want them to say &#8216;wow&#8217; and be excited. When your fans come to the facility, you want them to say &#8216;wow&#8217; and be excited. So I think we need to take a really strategic look at the arena and explore some of the things we can do to enhance the experience not only for the student athletes but for the fans. Those are all things on the table and those are conversations we have to have as we move forward with a plan for all of our facilities on campus.</p> <br> <br><i>The Gophers are coming off an 18-16-4 season with Motzko at the helm for the first time. They finished third in the Big Ten and 19th in the Pairwise rankings, missing the 16-team NCAA tournament for the second consecutive season. They open the 2019-20 season on Sunday, Oct. 6, with a home exhibition game versus Mount Royal University of Canada.</i> <br> <br> <figure> <img src="https://cdn.forumcomm.com/dims4/default/dd3e0b6/2147483647/resize/800x/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffcc-cue-exports-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Ffccnn%2Fbinary%2FCoyle%20Mark_binary_4040195.jpg"> </figure> <br> <br>]]> Fri, 26 Jul 2019 17:48:10 GMT Jess Myers /sports/part-2-talking-hockey-with-u-of-m-athletic-director-mark-coyle-on-the-importance-of-regional-rivalries Inside the NCAA Frozen Four, Part 1: The Past /sports/inside-the-ncaa-frozen-four-part-1-the-past Jess Myers HOCKEY,THE RINK LIVE,NORTH DAKOTA FIGHTING HAWKS,DON LUCIA In the early 1980s, communities like Duluth and Grand Forks hosted the NCAA Frozen Four in arenas with 6,000 seats or fewer. In the last 40 years, the event has changed dramatically, and today is housed almost exclusively in NHL buildings with 17,000-plus seats. In part one of a three-part series, a look at how the event has grown. <![CDATA[<p>It&#8217;s a strange, but true, bit of college hockey history that a malfunctioning Zamboni may have helped the NCAA Frozen Four grow into the event it is today.</p> <br> <br> <p>On March 28, 1986, the Minnesota Gophers were on their way to a 6-4 win over Denver in the third place game of what was then known as the NCAA Ice Hockey Championship (the term &ldquo;Frozen Four&rdquo; was first used in 1999) in Providence, R.I., when the ice resurfacer broke down between periods.</p> <br> <br> <p>There was a lengthy delay while another machine was located and driven to the arena from across town. At one point while filling airtime, the Gophers&#8217; radio team noted a sparse crowd of a few thousand at the Providence rink, which had about 12,000 seats for hockey.</p> <br> <br> <p>A St. Paul attorney and civic booster named Joe O&#8217;Neill was listening while driving and happened to be passing the St. Paul Civic Center at the time. He was struck by a thought that Minnesota&#8217;s capital city could be a better host venue for the tournament.</p> <br> <br> <p>In the 1980s, the Frozen Four was a decidedly smaller-scale event, with arenas like the DECC in Duluth (1981), the original Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks (1983) and the Olympic Arena in Lake Placid, N.Y. (1984) playing host.</p> <br> <br> <p>The folks from St. Paul won the bids for the 1989 and 1991 NCAA tournament. Helped by the presence of the Gophers, who fell to Harvard in the 1989 title game, they sold out the 16,000-seat arena. Two years later they drew smaller but still notable crowds when Northern Michigan out-lasted Boston University for the NCAA crown, with 12,564 tickets sold for the title game and more than 35,000 sold for the three weekend sessions.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;St. Paul was tremendously successful and did push the NCAA to think about the hockey championship differently than it had before,&rdquo; said Phil Buttafuoco, who was the NCAA&#8217;s senior assistant director of championships for much of the 1990s. &ldquo;St. Paul had a tremendous local organizing committee that was energetic and wanted to make that event as special as it can be. It was tremendously successful in St. Paul.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>In the 1990s and early 2000s, the tournament still visited smaller venues in Providence and Albany, N.Y., a few times, but notable crowds at NHL-size venues in Detroit (1990), Boston (1998), Anaheim (1999) and Milwaukee (1993, 1997) signaled the beginning of a different era.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;Sites have continued to expand and do more things as the NHL teams have taken a more active role in the Frozen Four,&rdquo; said Kristin Fasbender, the NCAA&#8217;s director of championships and alliances who has been on-site at the Frozen Four every year since 2000. &ldquo;The bids are coming in from the building and the NHL host institution and the teams are embracing the fact that the Frozen Four is coming there. Those events continue to get better.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>The tournament was in Providence in 2000 and Albany in 2001, and since then has been exclusively housed in arenas with 17,000 capacity or better. Most of them have been home to an NHL team, with one notable exception.</p> <br> <br> <p>In 2010, the NCAA tried to emulate the football stadium setup of basketball&#8217;s Final Four, with overall disappointing results. Ford Field in Detroit -- home of the NFL&#8217;s Lions -- was set up for hockey and set attendance records as 37,592 tickets were sold for the title game between Boston College and Wisconsin.</p> <br> <br> <p>But there were myriad complaints about sightlines, fans&#8217; distance from the ice, the ice surface, and the overall quality of the hockey (the scores of the three games in that tournament were 7-1, 8-1 and 5-0). In the decade since, there has been little to no clamoring for college hockey returning to a NFL venue.</p> <br> <br> <p>Folks from the NCAA choose their words carefully when asked about the Ford Field event, noting that it was a unique twist on the Frozen Four, while tacitly acknowledging that they don&#8217;t have plans for returning to hockey in a mega-venue anytime soon.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;It was a great opportunity for us to really showcase the Frozen Four to a lot of people. The Detroit organizing folks really did an amazing job in working it so 35,000 people got to see the Frozen Four,&rdquo; Fasbender said, while mentioning the distance from the action did make it harder for many fans to follow the puck. &ldquo;I think if we were ever to do that again, there were definitely things we learned in the process. We haven&#8217;t seen people bidding on it in football stadiums since then. It has been very traditional NHL-size buildings.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>And in most cases, the NHL-size buildings are good fits, although the event can get lost in the larger cities that play host.</p> <br> <br> <p>In other cities, the Frozen Four is the main event. In Providence, North Dakota fans descended on the city, where they saw their team win titles in 1980, 1982 and 2000. In the hours leading up to the 2000 title game, when North Dakota rallied past Boston College in the third period for the national title, green-clad fans clogged the narrow streets around the arena, and the North Dakota pep band marched to the rink playing the school song.</p> <br> <br> <p>In considerably larger cities, like recent hosts Boston and Chicago, the Frozen Four is one of several events happening over the weekend -- and headlines from the local baseball team or upcoming NFL draft may relegate college hockey to inside the sports pages.</p> <br> <br> <p>Team buses have traditionally gotten a police escort to the arena and, starting in St. Paul in 2011, the players enter the arena via a red carpet, surrounded by cheering fans.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;From the fan fest to the red carpet treatment to the greetings at the airport, I think all of that comes into play. It seems like it&#8217;s a bigger event than it used to be,&rdquo; said retired Gophers coach Don Lucia, who took Colorado College to the Frozen Four in 1996 and 1997, and had five Gophers teams get there, most recently in 2014. &ldquo;It&#8217;s become a bigger deal with all of the events going on outside the arena. When we landed in Tampa (in 2012) there was a band that greeted us at the plane. That didn&#8217;t happen before.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>It is all vastly different than 35 years ago, said Bill Watson, who played in a pair of Frozen Fours for Minnesota Duluth in the mid-1980s and coached as an assistant with his alma mater in four more.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;That stuff is crazy,&rdquo; said Watson, who won the Hobey Baker Award in 1985. &ldquo;The only escort we got was if you got a game misconduct they showed you to the locker room. And there might have been a red carpet in the lobby at the Ramada Inn.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br><i>Coming tomorrow, Part Two: the Present. After years of being one of the true destination events in hockey for years, the 2019 NCAA Frozen Four in Buffalo failed to meet expectations, with more than 5,000 tickets left unsold for the title game between Minnesota Duluth and UMass. A look at what was different in western New York and how the 2020 Frozen Four organizers are learning from Buffalo in hopes of making the Detroit event a return to &ldquo;hot ticket&rdquo; status.</i> <br> <br> <figure class="op-slideshow"> <figcaption> Inside the NCAA Frozen Four, Part 1: The Past </figcaption> <figure> <img src="https://fcc-cue-exports-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/fccnn/binary/2010%20Frozen%20Four%201_binary_1009896.JPG"> <figcaption> More than 37,000 tickets were sold for the 2010 NCAA Frozen Four title game held at Ford Field in Detroit, but there were complaints about fans' distance from the action. Since then no football or baseball stadiums have bid to host the event. (Detroit Lions photo) </figcaption> </figure> <figure> <img src="https://fcc-cue-exports-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/fccnn/binary/Starship-96_binary_1009840.jpg"> <figcaption> Current Vegas Golden Knight Nate Schmidt (right) and members of the Minnesota Gophers were treated to a yacht tour of Tampa Bay when they arrived in Florida for the 2012 NCAA Frozen Four. (Tampa Bay Sports Commission photo) </figcaption> </figure> <figure> <img src="https://fcc-cue-exports-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/fccnn/binary/IMG_0997_binary_1009841.JPG"> <figcaption> In a tradition that started in St. Paul in 2011, NCAA Frozen Four teams are now given the red carpet treatment upon arrival. (Tampa Bay Sports Commission photo) </figcaption> </figure> <figure> <img src="https://fcc-cue-exports-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/fccnn/binary/nationalanthem_binary_1009834.jpg"> <figcaption> An audience of fewer than 6,000 at the DECC in Duluth watched the Wisconsin Badgers upset the Minnesota Gophers in the 1981 NCAA Frozen Four title game. (University of Wisconsin Athletics photo) </figcaption> </figure> </figure> <br> <br>]]> Tue, 23 Apr 2019 17:35:18 GMT Jess Myers /sports/inside-the-ncaa-frozen-four-part-1-the-past For former Gopher Lettieri, solitude is perhaps his greatest pro hockey challenge /sports/for-former-gopher-lettieri-solitude-is-perhaps-his-greatest-pro-hockey-challenge Jess Myers HOCKEY,THE RINK LIVE,BIG TEN HOCKEY,DON LUCIA Used to being surrounded by friends and fellow students, former Minnesota Gophers forward Vinni Lettieri often finds himself alone in the nation's biggest city while playing for the New York Rangers. But family is never more than a phone call away. <![CDATA[<p>NEW YORK -- There was much learning involved for Vinni Lettieri as he earned a communications degree in his four years at the University of Minnesota, all while helping the Gophers to a quartet of Big Ten titles and three trips to the NCAA playoffs.</p> <br> <br> <p>But the shoot-first forward, descended from Minnesota sports royalty, learned a lesson that you won&#8217;t find in a book when he was called up to the NHL level by the New York Rangers. Lettieri went to a big suburban high school, played college hockey at one of the nation&#8217;s largest colleges, always had multiple roommates in college and is used to a full house with his close-knit family.</p> <br> <br> <p>But in his stints with the Rangers, Lettieri has learned that even in the nation&#8217;s largest metro area, with 20 million people, and 18,000-plus showing up to watch you work, it&#8217;s possible to still feel alone.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;College was the experience of a lifetime. After that it&#8217;s different on your own,&rdquo; Lettieri said after a recent morning practice at Madison Square Garden, when he skated in a pair of games for the Rangers. &ldquo;Pro hockey is a very lonely life, traveling all the time. You just have your teammates, and a lot of them have families, so it&#8217;s not like you ask them to hang out after practice.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>So Vinni has developed a routine for game days -- 18 so far this season -- when he&#8217;s been on the ice with the Rangers. He gets out of his team-supplied apartment and talks a walk around Manhattan, grabs a coffee and soaks in the vibe of the city, to keep his legs moving and his brain engaged.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;I went to school with 52,000 people, so there&#8217;s always been a big crowd around me,&rdquo; Lettieri said. &ldquo;Wherever I went, there were a lot of other students around, so I like the big city. It brings a lot of passion to the arena every night and the fans are so passionate. It&#8217;s been awesome playing here.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>When former coach Don Lucia needed to find Lettieri during the four years he skated for the Gophers, Lucia would start his search in the weight room and, more often than not, would find him there.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;There were very few guys that put in more time in the weight room or on the ice, before and after practice, than Vinni,&rdquo; Lucia said. &ldquo;He just worked. First on, last off, always shooting pucks, getting really physically built and being hard to knock off the puck.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <figure> <img src="https://cdn.forumcomm.com/dims4/default/64cccd3/2147483647/resize/800x/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffcc-cue-exports-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Ffccnn%2Fbinary%2FUSATSI_11373826_binary_977613.jpg"> </figure><br> Hockey family <p>Lettieri&#8217;s grandfather, Lou Nanne, was a legendary player for both the Gophers and the NHL&#8217;s Minnesota North Stars, and was the general manager for the state&#8217;s first pro hockey team for many years.</p> <br> <br> <p>Lettieri&#8217;s father, Tino, was a fan favorite as a pro soccer goalkeeper for the Minnesota Kicks and Minnesota Strikers in the 1980s. Tino also represented Canada in both the Olympics and the World Cup.</p> <br> <br> <p>Vinni&#8217;s cousin, Tyler Nanne, plays defense for the Gophers, so there are many sports connections. Vinni said it&#8217;s not uncommon to hear from all of them after his games.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;I get advice from everywhere. It&#8217;s a hockey family and there are tremendous role models wherever you look. After every game I&#8217;ve got two or three people texting me and always offering good advice,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I have a great family, and all the way through they&#8217;ve helped get me to this point. I can always turn to them for advice, because they&#8217;re continually watching me home or away.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>Lou Nanne says he watches every one of Vinni&#8217;s games, either on TV or streamed by computer.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;It&#8217;s a thrill to have him play at the University of Minnesota, and then to see him develop enough where he could play professionally has been amazing for me and the whole family,&rdquo; Lou Nanne said. He also admitted that despite all those years calling players up and sending them down to the minors as a general manager, it&#8217;s different to see it happen to a family member.</p> <br> <br> <p>Several members of the Nanne/Lettieri clan were in attendance at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Dec. 29, 2017, when Vinni scored a goal early in the third period in his NHL debut to give the Rangers a lead.</p> <br> <br> <p>He hit the ice in 19 games with the Rangers last season, but the bulk of his time in pro hockey has been spent with the Rangers&#8217; AHL affiliate, the Hartford (Conn.) Wolf Pack. Lettieri leads the Wolf Pack in goals, despite playing a dozen or so fewer games than most of his AHL teammates. His role on the team changes, depending on whether Vinni is in Hartford or Manhattan.</p> <br> <br> <p>&ldquo;In college, and when I&#8217;m down (in the AHL), I&#8217;m a top six (forwards) guy and try to put the puck in the net. It&#8217;s no different here, but sometimes when you&#8217;re a fourth-liner, you need to change up your role a little bit,&rdquo; Lettieri said during one of his stints with the Rangers. &ldquo;It&#8217;s always a treat being back up here. But, obviously, you can never be satisfied with where you are, be it at the top or the bottom, you&#8217;ve always got to work to get better. We&#8217;re all men here. We all know our jobs.&rdquo;</p> <br> <br> <p>And as he keeps putting pucks in the net and drawing the attention of the top brass for a young and ambitious Rangers team, it&#8217;s not likely that Lettieri will be lonely for long.</p> <br> <br> <figure> <img src="https://cdn.forumcomm.com/dims4/default/ede0c35/2147483647/resize/800x/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffcc-cue-exports-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Ffccnn%2Fbinary%2F0b52dxj0kvwfrzwthalpwmepgnjg_binary_785939.jpg"> </figure> <br> <br>]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2019 20:20:54 GMT Jess Myers /sports/for-former-gopher-lettieri-solitude-is-perhaps-his-greatest-pro-hockey-challenge