When you are going through a tough stretch, some friends reach out with words of encouragement. Gophers men’s hockey coach Bob Motzko — whose team is off to its most challenging start in his eight seasons at the helm — has also heard from true friends who offer, well, other sentiments.

Motzko’s Gophers are 2-7-1 in their first 10 games. They lost twice at home to Minnesota Duluth to close the nonconference schedule, then opened Big Ten play with a pair of losses at Wisconsin last week, marking the first time in Motzko’s tenure at Minnesota that the Gophers have been swept in back-to-back series.

“I’ve been reminded of that,” Motzko said this week. “One of my good buddies called, said, ‘Good. This hasn’t happened to you. Glad you’re going through it. You live like the rest of us.’ ”

Motz

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