The Golden Gophers represented the University of Minnesota in the 2022–23 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, were coached by Bob Motzko in his fifth season, and played their home games at 3M Arena at Mariucci Minnesota lost several key players from their Frozen Four team of '22, however, coach Motzko brought in a highly regarded batch of freshmen as replacements.
Cooley centered a line with fellow first-rounder Jimmy Snuggerud and US Olympian Matthew Knies that turned into one of the top offensive units in the nation.
On the defensive side, to a corps that already included top prospects Ryan Johnson, Brock Faber and Jackson LaCombe, Minnesota added a trio of talented blueliners.
The team responded with four convincing wins to finish out the first half of the season and sat squarely at the top of the Big Ten standings.
Minnesota regained their spot at #1 at the beginning of February after sweeping their season series over Michigan State, however, the Gophers dropped back down to #2 when a down Wisconsin team was able to eke out a 1–3 win.
Michigan State ended up arriving in Minneapolis a week later and the time off seemed have negatively affected the Gophers as the team surrendered the first goal to the Spartans on the power play.
With Canisius having to abandon its defensive effort to throw everything at Justen Close, Minnesota had a much easier time scoring and posted seven goals in the third period, turning what had once been a nail-biter into a runaway victory.
Minnesota's fast and physical defensive corps stopped the rest of the Huskies' opportunities and carried the Gophers to a 4–1 win.
After that, however, BU got into penalty trouble and Minnesota made them pay; the Gophers scored twice on the man advantage to take the lead before the start of the second.
The Terriers got their own power play goal in the second to tie the game but Luke Mittelstadt scored twice in the first four minutes of the third to put Minnesota ahead for good.
A pair of empty netters at the end extended their lead and ensured that Minnesota reached the championship game for the first time in 9 years.
While that may have played into Quinnipiac's hands, as the Bobcats were the top defensive team in the country, a fanned clearing attempt was intercepted by Connor Kurth and, after drawing Yaniv Perets out of position, he slipped the puck in front of the cage where John Mittelstadt knocked in his fourth of the season for the game's first goal less than six minutes into the game.
Early in the second, after a faceoff win in the Bobcat's end, Brock Faber purposefully fired the puck from the blueline wide.
However, while Quinnipiac was the #1 defense, they also possessed the #3 offense and the Bobcats began leaning a bit more on the gas and were finally able to solve Justen Close a few minutes later.
While they were widely outshot in the final half of the game, Minnesota did get several opportunities to extend their lead but bouncing and rolling pucks ended up causing all chances to miss.
Almost immediately after the ensuing faceoff, Minnesota broke in on the Bobcats' goal and had a chance to regain their lead but a strong defensive effort stopped the Gopher attack.
On the ensuing draw, also at center ice, the Bobcats took control of the puck and, using a set play, engineered a quick 2-on-1 that resulted in the winning goal by Jacob Quillan.