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Crucial stretch starts with Trotter missing

Gwozdecky mum on why top scorer didn't make trip

By Pat Rooney, Special to the Rocky

Published February 1, 2008 at 12:45 a.m.

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The University of Denver hockey team will begin the penultimate stretch of the regular season tonight, but it will do so without its top offensive performer.

Brock Trotter, the Pioneers' leader in goals and assists, did not make the trip for DU's Western Collegiate Hockey Association series that begins tonight at Minnesota State.

Contacted on Thursday in Minnesota, coach George Gwozdecky declined to elaborate on why Trotter was left behind, neither confirming nor refuting the possibility Trotter had broken a team rule. The team typically discloses information when an injury or illness forces a player out of the lineup.

Gwozdecky indicated more information might be forthcoming after the weekend, and he would not comment on Trotter's status for next weekend's home series against Minnesota.

"I can't tell a lot about why he is not with us," Gwozdecky said. "All I can say is that each guy on our team has a private life and at this point in time, we have to respect his privacy. This was an internal decision to not have him on the trip."

The loss of Trotter, a redshirt sophomore, could not occur at a more untimely juncture for the Pioneers, who enter this weekend's series ranked third in the PairWise rankings.

Coming off a bye, DU plays its remaining 12 regular-season games without a break and will be toiling under the specter of consecutive late-season collapses that have kept the Pioneers out of the NCAA tournament the past two seasons.

Trotter has played left wing on a line centered by freshman Tyler Bozak throughout the season, and lately, Trotter has been DU's most consistent scoring threat. Trotter had compiled 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in the past eight games and he ranks 11th nationally with 31 points.

The contests tonight and Saturday will be the first Trotter has missed since a severed Achilles' tendon robbed him of all but the first five games of his true freshman campaign in 2005-06.

If there is a silver lining to Trotter's absence, it is that Gwozdecky has mixed his line combinations throughout the season, so DU's altered pairings this weekend should not cause a catastrophic adjustment period. Bozak and Trotter, for example, have played with five different right wings in the past five games, and Bozak is expected to center a line tonight with wings Kyle Ostrow and Tyler Ruegsegger.

"There is a little bit of an adjustment, but that is one of the things that has been consistent about this team - the mixing and matching of lines," Gwozdecky said. "It should be no surprise for anyone to move and play with other people."

Denver at Minnesota State

* When: 6:30 MST tonight.

* Where: Alltel Center (4,832 capacity), Mankato, Minn.

* Records: Denver, 18-6, 12-4 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association; Minnesota State, 11-10-4, 5-9-4.

* TV/radio: No television; KCKK-AM (1510) tonight, KRKS-AM (990) Saturday.

* Leading scorers

Denver G A Pts.

C Tyler Bozak 11 11 22

C Tyler Ruegsegger 10 10 20

LW Rhett Rakhshani 8 9 17

LW Kyle Ostrow 8 7 15

LW Patrick Mullen 3 12 15

Coach:

George Gwozdecky

Minnesota State G A Pts.

C Trevor Bruess 6 14 20

RW Mick Berge 14 3 17

LW Joel Hanson 4 11 15

C Zach Harrison 4 9 13

RW Kael Mouillierat 4 9 13

Coach: Troy Jutting

* Notes: DU swept Minnesota State at home in November (2-1, 7-0). . . . Gwozdecky said Mullen, who was shifted from defense to forward in DU's most recent game against Bemidji State, would remain at wing and senior Zach Blom likely would fill the sixth defenseman slot. Mullen is second on the team with 12 assists . . . DU is third in the WCHA, two points behind North Dakota and seven behind first-place Colorado College. . . . The Pioneers have gone 1-3-2 in their past six games on the road in the series. . . . Ostrow posted four consecutive two-point games before going without a point against Bemidji State.