Hello  and  welcome  back  to the  weekly  rundown  presented  by  the  Minnesota  Daily. I'm  your  host,  Paul  Hodowanick, the  Sports  Senator  of  the  Minnesota  Daily. This  week  we're  going  to  preview an  upcoming  sport,  men's  hockey. There's  a  long  history  with  this  team, but  they  haven't  quite  lived  up  to  expectations  lately. So  what  will  they  bring  to  us  this  year as  they  start  their  season  this  weekend? To  find  out,  we  have  our  men's  hockey  reporter, Anna  lands  in  studio  to  give  us a  breakdown  of  this  year's  team.  Hanna  Hi,  Paul. Make  sure  to  check  out  all  of  Ana's  work this  season  covering  the  men's  hockey  team, as  well  as  her  continued  coverage on  the  women's  soccer  team  this  fall. All  right,  let's  jump  right  in. The  2018  season  was a  little  bit  of  a  roller  coaster  for  the  Gophers. They  were  1,816.4  right  around 51,110.3  excuse  me,  in  the  conference. So  not  seasons  that  maybe  Gopher  fans  of  old  are  used  to. Not  as  dominant  as  they  have  been in  the  past,  but  they're  rebuilding. It  was  the  first  year  in  Motscow's  system. A  lot  of  times  that  can  take  a  little  bit, but  nevertheless  they  were  a  team was  kind  of  on  that  roller  coaster. They  never  won  or  lost  more  than  three  games  in  a  row. And  it  looked  like  they  started  to turn  the  corner  late  in  the  season. And  then  they  had  a  really devastating  loss  to  Notre  Dame  and the  Big  Ted  semifinals two  to  one,  that  ended  their  season. So  how  has  the  team addressed  maybe  their  tendency  to  be  a  little  up, a  little  down,  not  super  consistent? Is  that  something  they  focused  on  at  all? What  is  Motzko  said  early  in  the  season  about  that? Yeah.  So  in  the  preseason  press  conference, I  sort  of  asked  him  this  question. And  I  was  like,  what  did  the  coaching  staff  like, did  you  guys  have any  conversations  related  to  that  and  how  to  fix  it? And  his  answer  was  basically that  anything  they  could  have  done  or  like, looked  to  improve  upon wasn't  really  something  that  was  really  relevant. Because  most  of  the  players  on  that  team  had  graduated. They  lost  11  players  last  season. I  believe  it  was  his  answer in  that  was  more  that  they  were  just  kind  of waiting  to  see  what  they  would  get this  year  with  so  many  freshman  coming  in and  the  freshman  from  last  year returning  after  summer  workouts  and  things  like  that. Yeah. And  I'm  going  to  go  through  the  leading scores  here  and  it  you're going  to  see  that  a  lot of  these  people  are  no  longer  here. M.  Pitlick,  21  goals,  24  assists. He  was  the  leading  goal  scorer and  the  leading  points  man  on  the  team. He's  gone  Brant  Gates  Junior,  13  goals, 18  assists,  he's  gone  Tyler  She  12  goals, 19  assists,  he's  gone. Starting  Goaltender  Matt  Robson. He  went  1,412.42  0.79 goals  against  average,  it's  pretty  good. Say  percentage  0.9  to  one  he's  gone. So  it's  a  lot  of  new  faces, a  lot  of  people  that  are  going  to  have  to  step  up. In  the  absence  of  key  contributors  of last  year  of  their  top  four  scores, only  one  person  is  returning. That's  Brandon  Mcmanus  returning  for  his  junior  year. He  had  14  goals,  12  assists  last  year. And  it's  not  just  those  key contributors  in  the  power  play. They  lost  one  of  the  top  units  in  the  nation. They  lost  everyone  that  was on  that  team  or  on  that  unit  as  well. And  the  power  kill  wasn't  bad  either. And  only  the  defensemen,  I  think,  are  returning. So  this  is  going  to  be  a  new  look  group. What  are  Motzcow's  expectations  heading  into  the  season? How  is  this  team  viewing  their  season, knowing  that  they're  going  to  have  to have  a  lot  of  players  that  are stepping  up  that  weren't in  roles  that  they  have  been  in  before. Yeah,  in  that  press  conference, Motzcow  and  the  players  as  well, they  talked  a  lot  about  how the  team  is  in  a  year  of  transition. And  since,  you  know  it's  so  early, they  don't  really  know  what  it's  going  to  look  like  yet. They  don't  know,  you  know,  power  play,  penalty  kill. They  don't  really  know  what  that  looks  like yet  because  they've  only been  practicing  for  a  little  bit. They  don't  really,  you  know, they  don't  have  set  roles  yet,  I  would  say. And  in  recruiting, in  getting  people  from  maybe  junior  college, what  have  they  gone  out  and  done  to try  to  replace  those  key  contributors? Well,  this  freshman  class  is  really large  to  replace  all  the  players  that  left, and  a  lot  of  them, they  have  a  big  resumes. Jackson  Lacombe,  he  went  39th  overall  in the  NHL  draft  to  Anaheim  defenseman  Ryan  Johnson. He  went  in  the  first  round  overall,  31st  to  Buffalo. Just  some  really  solid  players. And  they  also  went  and  they  got  Jack  Lafontaine, a  goalie  from  two  years  at Michigan  before  going  to  Junior. And  then  he  still  had  CA  eligibility to  come  back  to  Minnesota. And  he  is a  really  strong  goaltender  and  that  is  something that  is  extremely  to Minnesota's  advantage  having  lost  Robson, because  instead  of  having  three  freshman  goalies, they  have  someone  who  has  a  lot  of experience  and  a  lot  of confidence  coming  into  the  season. Yeah,  they  didn't  just  lose  the  Starter  Robson, they  had  two  other  goalies on  the  roster,  neither  of  them. Which  are  on  the  team,  so  it's  a  whole  new  group. I  know  during  the  media  availability, they  talked  about  La  Fontaine. He  talked  about  La  Fontaine  a little  bit  how  he  may  not  have  been  ready  at the  beginning  of  his  career  to come  in  and  play  at  this  level, but  now  he  thinks  that  he  is ready  and  has  the  chance  to  be  the  starter. And  so  far  in the  exhibition  game,  they  played  all  three  goalies. So  it's  a  little  bit  unclear who's  going  to  be  the  goaltender. From  your  indication,  from  who  you've  talked  to, have  there  been  any  indications  about  who might  be  that  leading  goaltender at  the  beginning  of  the  season? I  mean  Matzko  said  in  the  press  conference, it  was  something  that  the  coaches would  pick  who  started  the  game. But  it  would  be  sort  of  up  to the  team  who  they  thought  was  a  good  goaltender that  was  going  to  be  solid  enough  to  be  their  like first  goaltender  as  opposed  to  just  starting  the  game. That  was  something  I  thought  was  interesting. And  then  when  you  look  at  Lafontaine, he  is  coming  in  with a  lot  more  experience  than  the  other  two  goalies. Close  and  well,  in  the  exhibition  game  they  all  played, they  all  made  we're  all  getting  reps. But  Lafontaine,  he  has reps  that  the  other  two  goalies  they  just  don't  have. And  it's  not  a  fault  to  their  skill. It's  just  that  Lafontaine  has  been  in the  game  more  and  he's  been  able  to  go out  and  get  experience  in  the  Big  Ten, which  is  crucial  for  being able  to  get  that  college  experience in  the  same  conference  that  Minnesota  is  in. And  then  as  well,  going  to  juniors. Yeah.  So  it  sounds  like,  although  we  might not  know  for  sure,  nothing's  been  announced. La  Fontaine  might  have  the  leg  up, just  in  terms  of  experience. And  it  wouldn't  be  a  surprise  to  see  him  out  there  at the  beginning  with  all  these  new  faces. It's  a  little  bit  comparative  to  what  PJ. Fleck  has  been  saying  the  past couple  of  years  for  the  Gopher  team. That  they're  really  young, that  they're  going  to  have  time to  learn,  and  that's  evidenced. Sammy  Walker  was  announced  as  a  captain, he's  only  a  sophomore, I  believe  this  team, and  I  think  they've  liked  that  he's a  captain  because  he  can  kind of  mesh  with  a  lot  of  the  younger  guys. But  this  is  definitely  a  team  that  might  have that  roller  coaster  ability  at the  beginning  of  the  season  because  they're freshman,  they're  going  to  play  really  well. Some  days  they're  going  to  not  play  really  well. Some  days  they're  going  to  be  thrust  into some  opportunities  that  some  of  them  might  be  ready  for, some  of  them  might  not  be  ready  for. So  I  remember  last  season, there  was  a  little  bit  of  a  panic about  how  the  team  started. The  season  didn't  get  off  to  a  great  start. I  wouldn't  be  surprised  if  that potentially  is  how  the  team  starts  out. At  least  until  they  get  comfortable  with  everyone. Like  you  said,  only  a  couple  weeks of  practice  that  they've  had  so  far. So  when  looking  at  this  team, what  do  you  see  as  some  of  the  best  case, worst  case  scenarios  for  them? Because  this  team  could  be  so  sporadic, if  everyone  clicks,  everything  could  be  really  good. If  they  are  struggling and  the  freshman  aren't  really  feeling  it, like  their  confidence  levels  a  little shaken  might  go  downhill.  What  do  you  see? Well,  what's  interesting  is,  you  know, people  they  always  kind  of  talk  about,  oh, like  there's  always  a  lot  of Dna  players  on  Minnesota  rosters. But  in  this  scenario  with so  many  young  players  that  you  know, the  players  coming  from  like  suburban  Minneapolis  teams, I  think  really  plays  to  their  advantage. Because  these  players, whether  they've  played  together  before  or  not, they're  already  sort  of  familiar  with  each other  in  a  way  that  chemistry, I  think,  is  something  that could  really  play  to  their  advantage. And  they  do  have  a  lot  of  talent  and  I  think similar  to  women's  soccer  this  year, they've  kind  of  been  going  through  the  same  thing. They  have  a  lot  of  talent,  but  it's, you  know,  in  low  scoring  sports  like  that, you  can  play  well  and  then still  the  shots  don't go  your  way  every  day  and  things  like  that. But  the  main  thing  that  they  have  been  talking  about, or  they  talked  about  in  that  press  conference, was  that  this  group  has  a  lot  of  talent. We  just  need  to  now  get  on  the  ice  and  in a  game  and  put  it  all  together  and  then  see  what  we  have. And  they  got  a  chance  to  do  that. Last  Sunday,  it  was  a  tie, a  22  tie  to  Mount  Royal. Royal.  Mount  Royal.  Totally  sure. What  did  you  see  from  them  in  that  game? Was  there  any  indications  about which  freshman  might  be  playing  more than  others  who  is  just  looking  good? What  we  can  kind  of  expect  from  this  team? Yeah,  I  wasn't  at  the  game  in person  because  I  was  covering  women's  soccer, but  so  I  wasn't  there,  you  know, to  get  the  eye  test,  things  like  that. But  just  looking  at  the  stat, something  that  does  stand  out is  that  the  team  was  able  to  get, they  had  nine  power  plays  and  for  a  team  that  is  young, they  haven't  been  able  to practice  it  every  single  time  they're  on  the  ice. Something  like  that  is  huge. And  to  be  able  to  have  multiple  opportunities where  you  can  play  around  with, you  know,  who's  going  out  there and  who's  paired  up  with  who. That  is  something  that  is  really  important, especially  early  on  in  the  season, to  get  them  sort  of  accustomed  to  it. Yeah.  And  they  were  the  number  one  powerplay. And  a  lot  of  that  has  to  do with  probably  the  players  that  were  on  the  power  play, but  some  of  that  has  to  do  with  Motzko's  system. And  that's  obviously  going  to  stay  consistent. With  the  team,  so  them  getting  all  those  opportunities. If  that's  something  that  persists, there's  no  reason  to  think  that maybe  they  can't  jump  up  there. Again,  I  know  Motzko's really  excited  with  the  talent  that  they  have  in the  freshman  and  that  can  be shown  very  well  on  the  power  play  especially. So  it  will  be  interesting  to  see how  that  unit  does  especially  and the  penalty  kill  to  see  really  what  happens. And  it  will  also  be  interesting  to see  not  all  11  freshmen  are  going  to  play. And  it's  going  to  be  some  of  those  sophomores  that  were maybe  freshmen  who  are  on  the  team  last  year, sophomores  who  are  on  the  team  last  year  that  are now  getting  their  opportunity. So  we're  focusing  a  lot  on  those  guys, but  those  might  not  even  be  the  key  contributors. They  might  be  people  that  have  already  been  on the  roster  for  a  little  bit  and  now we're  just  going  to  start  getting  going. One  of  those  guys  that  did  get  going  though  last  year and  it  was  evidenced  by  how  he  played. He  got  injured  a  little  bit  in  the  middle  of  the  season. Was  Sammy  Walker?  Yeah,  Sammy  Walker got  picked  along  with  Tyler  Nanny, I  believe,  as  the  two  captains  of  the  hockey  team. And  it's  not  something  that  you  see very  often  that  a  sophomore  is a  captain  and  he  had  kind  of  an  electric  first  season. You  can  obviously  see  the  talent  there  with  him. What  is  Matzko  saying  about  Walker? One  of  his  fellow  players  said  about  Walker, how  they  feel  about  him  being  a  captain and  how  they  feel  about  him  just  heading into  the  season  and  kind  of  boss blossoming  in  his  second  year,  right? Well,  I  mean  as  a  player  he,  he  has  a  lot  of  skill. He  is  a  Tampa  Bay  Lightning  draft  pick,  I  believe. You  know,  coming  off  that  freshman  season, the  captaincy  was  decided  by  the  players. And  him  and  nanny  were, you  know,  two  that  the  team themselves  felt  were  good  leaders. And  something  that  Motco  said about  Sammy  specifically  was that  in  such  a  young  team  with  a  lot  of  sophomores, a  lot  of  freshman,  he  had  sort  of  emerged as  sort  of  one  of  the  leaders  of  that  group. And  so  when  they  make  up  such  a  large  part  of the  team  that  has  a  lot  of  influence,  I  think  so. Who  else  would  you  say  that  we  need  to  keep  an  eye on  as  we  head  into  the  start  of  the  season? Yeah,  I  would  say  the  players,  you  know, they  talk  about  their  other  teammates  that  they've  been watching  and  trying  to  emulate  or  that  they've  noticed. Ben  Meyers  is  someone  that  is  interesting, unlike  some  of  the  other  freshmen  that  are  coming in  straight  off  high  school  play. He  played,  he  played  at  Delano, he  was  a  Captain  his  senior  year  in  2016,  17. And  then  after  that,  he  went  and  spent two  full  seasons  in  the  USHL  with  the  Fargo  Force. And  he  kind  of  tore  it  up  last  season. He  scored  33  goals, I  think  65  points  in  that  league. And  that's  something  that  really  stands  out, especially  amongst  more  college  aged  players. And  not  just,  you  know, playing  in  high  school  where  it's, the  level  is  sort  of  a  step  up. And  then  also  Lafontaine, in  his  speaking  time,  he  said  sophomore  Garrett  Wait. He  called  him  a  sleeper  pick. And  he  was  someone  that was  someone  to  watch  out  for  that. He  said,  I'm  calling  it  right now  like  he  was  going  to  have  like a  breakout  year  just  from  his  position  and  goal, like  his  knowledge  of  like his  shot  and  his  accuracy  and  things  like  that. Well,  it'll  be  interesting  to  watch what  this  team  does.  Who  contributes? We  know  there's  going  to  be  those  senior  contributors. Tyler,  Nanny,  Zulsdorf,  Sammy  Walker. As  a  sophomore,  he's  going  to  come  in  and  contribute, but  there's  probably  going  to be  a  freshman  mixed  in  there. There's  probably  going  to  be  a  sophomore  mixed  in  there. So  it's  going  to  be  really interesting  to  see  how  the  team  does, especially  in  Motzko's  second  season. He  can  implement  more  of  what  he  wants. He  has  more  of  his  guys  per  se  to  work  with. So  it'll  be,  it's  just going  to  be  exciting  to  see  how  this  team  meshes and  kind  of  progresses  as the  season  gets  going  because they're  going  to  mature  as  the  season  goes  on. So  I  really  thank  you  for  coming  in  today,  Anna. Make  sure  to  follow  Anna  on  Twitter and  follow  Anna's  analysis  all  season  long. And  again,  we  can't  thank  you  enough  for  being  here. Yeah,  thank  you,  Paul. In  other  news,  the  Minnesota  Men's  Golf  team had  another  strong  showing  this  week. Led  once  again  by  Angus  Flanagan. Flanagan  held  the  lead  for  much  of  the  last  round before  being  overtaken  late  and  losing  by  one  stroke. The  team  finished  in  fifth  overall. The  women's  team  placed  14th  in their  latest  showing  at  the  Princess  Anne  Invitational. The  women's  cross  country  team  finished  second  in the  Joe  Pony  Notre  Dame  Invitational  last  Friday  and were  led  by  Anastasia  Korzanowski's  24th  place  finish. The  performance  vaulted  the  women  into the  national  rankings  as  they currently  sit  at  18th  overall. The  men's  team  placed  fifth  in the  Paul  Short  run  on  Saturday. Alec  Baston  finished  third  overall  to  lead  the  team  and posted  a  time  of  23  minutes,  26.7  seconds. Breaking  the  eight  kilometer  school  record, the  women's  soccer  team  lost  one  and  tied  one. Last  week,  they  were  held  scoreless  in  both  games  and gave  up  only  one  goal  in  a  losing  effort  to  Indiana. Their  record  stands  at  29.3. Volleyball  team  extended  their  winning  streak to  ten  with  a  pair  of  wins. First  came  a  31  win  against  Rutgers  on  Saturday. Then  another  31  win followed  against  Illinois  on  Wednesday. The  team  heads  to  Madison  for  a  showdown  against a  highly  ranked  Badgers  team  on  Sunday. The  women's  hockey  team  is  four and  on  their  season  so  far, and  they  swept  their  latest  series  in Mankato  against  Minnesota  State, where  they  outscored  the  Mavericks  131. They're  on  the  road  again  this  weekend  as  they  take on  Robert  Morris  on  Friday  and  Saturday. That's  all  we  have  for  you  this  week. We'll  be  back  again  next  week  to  give  you the  weekly  rundown  on  all  things  go  for  sports, Don't  forget  to  share,  subscribe  and  review. We'll  see  everyone  next  week.