The Pursuit Begins Again

“THE GOPHERS WIN! THE GOPHERS WIN!”

Wally Shaver's voice crackles over the radio as longtime broadcast partner Glen Sonmor howls in the background.

Grant Potulny has just buried a loose puck behind Maine goaltender Matt Yeats, 16:58 into overtime. The Xcel Energy Center erupts. On April 6, 2002, after a 23-year wait, Minnesota is the national champion again.

A year later, the Gophers do it again.

This time, there is no overtime drama. Minnesota breaks open a 1–1 game with four third-period goals and beats New Hampshire 5–1 in Buffalo, becoming the first program in 31 years to win back-to-back NCAA championships.

Another yellow banner goes up at Mariucci Arena.

Twenty-three years later, it remains the most recent one.

Five national championship banners now hang from the rafters at 3M Arena at Mariucci. The last two read 2002 and 2003.

And this weekend, in Houghton, Michigan, another pursuit of No. 6 begins.

Only almost everything surrounding that pursuit has changed.

College hockey in 2026 is almost unrecognizable from the sport Minnesota conquered in 2003. Four-year careers are no longer something coaches can count on. Players transfer, sometimes more than once. Name, image and likeness money has become part of roster construction. Players from Canadian major junior hockey can now play in the NCAA, expanding the talent pool and changing recruiting almost overnight.

The Gophers themselves are almost as different as the sport around them.

Brett Larson takes over behind the Minnesota bench after eight seasons under Bob Motzko. Six players arrived through the transfer portal this offseason. Others came from the USHL, NTDP and Canadian Hockey League. New coaches have arrived, familiar faces have taken on new responsibilities, and a program coming off one of its most difficult seasons in recent memory is trying to establish a new identity.

The pursuit hasn't changed.

Almost everything around it has.

A lot has happened since that fifth banner went up.

There was Blake Wheeler, flying through the air in overtime at the 2007 WCHA Final Five, somehow lifting a puck past North Dakota goaltender Philippe Lamoureux to win the Broadmoor Trophy.

A year earlier, there was one of the wildest games the Final Five ever produced: an 8–7 overtime loss to St. Cloud State in which Ryan Potulny scored four goals and added an assist.

There was the breakup of the old WCHA and the birth of Big Ten hockey, fundamentally altering rivalries and rhythms that had defined Minnesota hockey for generations.

There was Justin Holl, shorthanded, with 0.6 seconds left against North Dakota in the 2014 Frozen Four semifinal. And two nights later, there was Union, scoring seven goals and sending Minnesota home one win short of another championship.

Don Lucia's tenure eventually ended. Motzko's began.

And then came Tampa.

That one still hurts.

The 2022–23 Gophers were loaded. Logan Cooley, Matthew Knies and Jimmy Snuggerud formed one of the most dangerous forward lines in college hockey. Brock Faber and Jackson LaCombe led the blue line. Fourteen players on Minnesota's roster had been selected in the NHL Draft.

Minnesota entered the national championship game as the tournament's No. 1 overall seed and built a 2–0 lead over Quinnipiac.

The Bobcats cut it to 2–1 in the second period. Minnesota carried that lead deep into the third.

Then came a late penalty, an extra attacker and Collin Graf's tying goal with 2:47 remaining.

Ten seconds into overtime, it was over.

Jacob Quillan won the opening faceoff, drove toward the net, took a return feed from Sam Lipkin and beat Justen Close.

Quinnipiac 3, Minnesota 2.

A sea of maroon and gold that had descended on Tampa was left staring at the ice.

Banner No. 6 had been 10 seconds of overtime away.

Minnesota remained a national contender over the next two seasons, but the program reached a breaking point in 2025–26.

The warning signs had arrived a year earlier.

After the 2024–25 season, Minnesota lost an extraordinary amount of talent. Jimmy Snuggerud, Oliver Moore, Sam Rinzel, Connor Kurth, Matthew Wood and captain Ryan Chesley all left college hockey with eligibility remaining.

The following season required young players to assume larger roles quickly. Minnesota showed flashes of what it could be, but rarely found consistency.

The problems were often visible.

The Gophers could get stuck in their own zone for long stretches. Clean breakouts were difficult to establish. Sustained forechecking pressure could disappear. The penalty kill was especially damaging: opponents converted on 29 of 94 power-play opportunities, a staggering 30.9 percent.

There were bright spots. Brodie Ziemer scored 23 goals. Young players including LJ Mooney, John Whipple, Javon Moore and Mason Moe provided reasons for optimism.

But the results were impossible to ignore.

Minnesota finished 11–22–3.

Six days after the season ended, the university and Motzko mutually agreed to part ways.

Eight seasons after Minnesota hired the former St. Cloud State head coach to replace Lucia, athletic director Mark Coyle went back to St. Cloud for another.

This time, he brought Brett Larson to Minneapolis.

Larson arrives talking about many of the things Minnesota appeared to lack last season: compete, accountability, structure and culture.

And his first offseason suggested that the roster-building approach would change, too.

Minnesota added six players through the transfer portal: forwards Austin Burnevik and Christian Humphreys, defensemen Tanner Henricks, Finn Loftus and Evan Murr, and goaltender Melvin Strahl.

Larson brought Burnevik, Henricks and Loftus with him from St. Cloud State. Murr, a senior defenseman from Minnesota State, adds experience to a blue line that badly needed it.

The incoming class also reflects college hockey's new reality.

Freshman defenseman Tarin Smith arrives from Everett of the WHL. Jacob Kvasnicka comes from Penticton of the WHL. Other freshmen arrive through more familiar paths, including Wyatt Cullen from the U.S. National Team Development Program and Brooks Cullen, Jackson Nevers and Axel Löfgren from the USHL.

The coaching staff changed with the roster.

Ben Gordon remains as an assistant. Former Gopher Cory Laylin joins Larson's staff. Paul Martin moves into a full-time assistant role, and three-time Stanley Cup champion Matt Cullen joins the program as director of player development.

This is not simply a new coach inheriting the same team.

It is a significant reset at a moment when college hockey itself is being reset.

The challenge for Larson will be turning all of those new pieces into something coherent.

Talent has rarely been the problem at Minnesota.

The question is whether this group can become a team capable of surviving the moments when talent isn't enough.

So here we are.

October 3, 2026.

Twenty-three years after Minnesota last celebrated a national championship, the Gophers begin again in Houghton against Michigan Tech — an old WCHA opponent in a sport that barely resembles the one those programs once shared.

Larson will stand behind the Minnesota bench for the first time. Around him will be new coaches, coaches in new roles and a roster dramatically reshaped from the one that finished last season.

And I'll be watching differently, too.

For nearly 30 years, I've watched Gopher hockey as a fan. Over time, though, I've found myself wanting something more than the result. When Minnesota wins, I want to understand why. When it loses, I want to understand what broke down. I want to understand the systems, the roster decisions, the adjustments and all of the things happening away from the puck that determine what eventually happens on the scoreboard.

That's part of why The Gold Post exists.

This is an opportunity for me to learn the game more deeply, to follow this program closely and critically, and to chronicle whatever comes next.

The timing feels appropriate.

A new coach. A radically different roster. A rapidly changing sport.

And the same five banners hanging overhead at Mariucci.

Maybe another will join them someday.

The next attempt starts now.

Hey! Drop the puck!