On leave from his men’s Huskies Hockey team, Motzko, 55, helmed the under-20 USA Hockey national team to a 5-4 shootout win over Canada in the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship title game Jan. 5 in Montreal.
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Motzko’s team of mostly NCAA college stars — playing before a partisan crowd of 20,173 — earned America’s fourth title since the tournament began in 1977.
“Just great cameraderie,” Motzko said at a post-game press conference in Bell Centre. “And, then they showed heart as battlers to come through this tournament and not lose a hockey game.”
The Americans overcame a pair of two-goal deficits to force overtime. Following a scoreless 20-minute overtime, goaltender Tyler Parsons stopped five Canadian attempts in the tie-breaking shootout. Troy Terry scored the only shootout goal.
Frosh Huskies defender Jack Ahcan played regular shifts in every game, including more than 19 minutes in the gold-medal game. He finished the tournament with an assist and a plus-3 rating. St. Cloud State director of hockey operations, Matt Chapman, was the team’s video coach.
In his 12th season at St. Cloud State, Motzko has guided the Huskies to seven NCAA tournament appearances and a National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) Frozen Faceoff championship.
Motzko coached St. Cloud State to a Western Collegiate Hockey Conference (WCHA) regular-season title in 2013 and an NCHC regular-season title in 2014. He was a two-time WCHA coach-of-the-year. The NCHC named him coach-of-the-year in 2014.
The United States finished 7-0, the nation’s first flawless run in 41 tournament appearances. The Americans beat Latvia, Slovakia, Russia and Canada in the preliminary rounds. In the medal rounds they beat Switzerland, Russia and Canada.
