University of Minnesota Athletics
Men's Hockey Profile: Ben Gordon
2/13/2008 12:00:00 AM | Athletics
The rivalry between Minnesota and North Dakota is special to most everyone in the neighboring states, but it holds even extra importance to Ben Gordon.
Gordon grew up in International Falls on the Minnesota-Ontario border among a mix of Golden Gopher and Fighting Sioux fans. But aside from just living amongst the adversarial fans, Gordon and his family actually bought their house from former Fighting Sioux and International Falls High School coach Dean Blais.
Blais, a former Gopher hockey player who was the most recent International Falls native to play at Minnesota prior to Gordon, coached two national championship teams from 1994-2004 at North Dakota and recruited Gordon to join the Fighting Sioux. However, Gordon only had one place in mind for his future as a college hockey player.
“He was kind of pushing hard for me to go there and probably thought it was an easier sell because I knew who he was, he knew my family and we had quite a few connections,” Gordon said. “I weighed all my options, but what it came down to in the end is that I wanted to be a Golden Gopher.”
The decision has been a perfect fit for both the Gophers and Gordon, a senior, who will take on the Fighting Sioux for the last time in a regular season series this weekend. Many of Gordon’s greatest memories in a Minnesota uniform came against North Dakota, including last year’s thrilling Final Five championship game the Gophers won in overtime at the Xcel Energy Center.
“The Final Five (title game) was the greatest game I’ve ever played in,” Gordon said. “Pretty much every game we play the Sioux it’s just a battle. They hate us and we hate them. It’s nothing personal, it’s just the way the rivalry plays out.”
Gordon’s bloodlines in hockey run deep, getting his first pair of skates as a one-year old from parents Kevin and Kelly and eventually playing high school hockey for his dad, who was an All-American at Augsburg College and replaced Blais as head coach at International Falls.
“It was one of the greatest experiences of my life,” Gordon said of playing for his father. “I love my dad very much as a coach and even more as a dad. It was an unbelievable experience that not a lot of people get to experience.”
Gordon has had plenty of great hockey moments and lists one of his biggest from a game few Gopher fans probably even remember a 9-0 rout of Alaska-Anchorage on Nov. 11, 2005. After playing 24 games as a freshman and posting 10 assists, but not a single goal, Gordon got his first two career goals in a span of less than five minutes against the Seawolves. He’s been putting up plenty of points ever since and hasn’t gone more than two consecutive games without a point since before Christmas of his sophomore year. Gordon has the most career points of any current Minnesota player with 33 goals and 57 assists for 90 points.
“I always knew I could play college hockey,” he said. “What got me recruited here wasn’t my size and my strength, it was my skills with the puck and my vision. Once I got those first couple goals I was excited and was like, okay we’re going to get on a roll here now’ and I can finally start playing the way I know how to play.”
Gordon hopes there’s plenty more to be added to his hockey career as he aims to play professionally after college. However, even if things don’t work out on the ice, he’ll graduate this spring with a degree in communication. A sports fanatic who will readily recite any Minnesota high school’s nickname, Gordon hopes to work in sports media whether it’s by International Falls (Broncos) or his birthplace of St. Michael-Albertville (Knights) near the Twin Cities. Either way, he’s looking forward to returning to his roots as a Minnesota outdoorsman.
“The outdoors were a big part of my life and haven’t been since I’ve been in college since hockey takes up a lot of your time,” he said. “Nothing’s better than going out on Rainy Lake and going fishing in the summer, catching tons of fish and being with your friends you haven’t seen in a while.”
The friends he’s made with the Gophers have provided the best memories of his time at Minnesota and they’ll surely be setting up some of those fishing trips sometime after the rivalries with North Dakota and all the other WCHA teams come to an end.
“When that last game winds down, it’s going to be pretty emotional. Especially when we play that last game here in Mariucci, it’s going to be pretty sad.
“When you spend four years of your life here it definitely becomes a big part of it. It’s something you’ll never forget and it’s definitely going to be a sad day when it comes to an end, but it will also be a happy day because you’re moving on.”
story by Jim Strick
