University of Minnesota Athletics
A Star's Rebirth: Forward Becky Kortum
11/4/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Hockey
By Charlie Armitz
Athletic Communications Student Assistant
Coming out of high school, Becky Kortum had high aspirations for her hockey career at the University of Minnesota. But her freshman year, things didn’t exactly work out.
So this year, Kortum proclaimed, things would be different.
She was right.
Nine games into the 2010-2011 season, Kortum is the leading goal-scorer for the No. 8 Golden Gophers. With five goals on just 11 shots, she has already surpassed the four goals she scored in 40 games last season. She also leads the team in power-play goals with two, and ranks second in plus-minus rating at +5. And all the while, she has remained disciplined on the ice, collecting just two minor penalties.
This was the norm for Kortum two years ago, when she starred on Hopkins High School’s state runner-up team. Her senior season there, she set the school record for points with 71, which included 43 goals. Everything seemed to come easy for her.
Not this time.
“It’s hard going from being the go-to person in high school to [college],” Kortum says. “Last year, I was kind of disappointed because my role changed. I wasn’t really the go-to girl to score goals.”
Determined to return to stardom, Kortum spent her 2010 summer training at her brother’s boys’ hockey camp at Minnetonka High School. There, she worked on stick handling, controlling the puck, quickness, and other technical skills. When she reported back to the team in the fall, head coach Brad Frost knew she was a different player.
“You could just tell that she had taken a step in her game from last year,” says Frost. “She played center for us all last year, and we wanted to try her out at wing. She’s a big, strong player who skates really well and has a big shot and understands the game well, so we wanted to give her an opportunity there. She has really taken it and run with it.”

The change in position has certainly proved beneficial for Kortum and the Gophers. And physically, she’s stronger and tougher than ever. But her biggest change, Frost says, was mental.
“I think [Kortum’s biggest improvement] is the confidence, which leads to her putting the puck in the net. She’s doing a good job on her power play, and she’s penalty-killing more this year. She just brings a good intensity to the game every time she steps on the ice, and makes an impact when she’s out there.”
To Frost, the intensity was there all along. Only the confidence was lacking.
“Last year was an okay year for her,” he says. “I think self-admittedly she would say that. Coming into her sophomore year, she was able to play with a little more confidence, and she got an opportunity to play with a couple freshman in [Sarah Davis] and [Kelly Terry] and she’s done a really good job.”
As Kortum’s linemates, Davis and Terry have been equally impressive. Davis ranks third on the team in points with eight, trailing only Amanda Kessel (11 points) and Terry (nine points). Kortum’s six points rank fifth on the Gophers.
Not that she’s keeping track. To Kortum, such individual success takes a backseat when the season rolls around.

“I don’t think that I’ve put any numbers on my goals or success this fall. I just want our team to go as far as possible, because that’s all that really matters.”
She says that attitude extends to the team’s goal of winning a national championship in 2011.
“No one’s going to remember who scored the most goals. People are going to remember who won the national championship, because hockey is a team sport. The reason that I score goals is for the person sitting next to me, not for myself. I just want to do what I can to put our team in a good place for success.”
Kortum has certainly done that lately. In the Gophers’ two shutouts against St. Cloud State on Oct. 22 and Oct. 23, Kortum totaled three goals, her career-high for a series. Things took a turn for Kortum and the Gophers the following weekend, when the sophomore was held scoreless in two close losses to No. 3 University of Minnesota-Duluth. But Kortum says she won’t let such losses affect her game.
“I’m not too worried about it,” she says. “Obviously, UMD is one of the best teams in the country. They’re the defending national champions. When you go to a game at their place, and they’re such a good team, it’s kind of hard to create offense. I don’t think I was the only one having problems with that this weekend. It was just an all-around team thing.
“I think that, when we don’t get the wins we need, everyone takes some responsibility. Hockey is a team sport, and if everyone does their role, we should win. I think that [the losses were] a combination of people not . . . doing their roles and little mistakes. But as a team, we still played great this weekend. . . . I think if we all take ourselves accountable and work our butts off . . . [wins] will come.”
Kortum and her freshmen linemates will have a chance to redeem themselves this weekend, when the Gophers host No. 1 Wisconsin in an always-pivotal series. Key to victory will be the Gophers’ ability to capitalize on their opportunities, which Kortum says they didn’t do against UMD.
“We weren’t connecting our passes and finding each other to score. When you get chances, you have to finish, because chances don’t come every other second.”
Kortum understands that as well as any Gopher. For the season, she holds a .455 shooting percentage, which is three times higher than any of her teammates (maximum 10 shots), and more than six times higher than her .071 shooting percentage of last year. She credits her ability to finish with the puck, combined with her linemates’ excellent play, for her successful start to 2010-2011.
With her offensive and leadership skills constantly on display, Kortum has proven that she’s here to stay. Now the question is, will she continue to improve her game?
“That’s going to be up to her,” Frost says, “and how she wants to . . . get better each and every day in practice. But we brought her here for a reason and think very highly of her, so we would expect her to continue to improve, and really start to play an even bigger role for us in the future.”
Kortum expects nothing less, although she says “expect” isn’t the right word to describe her plans for success. She just takes her success one step at a time—a journey that she hopes will culminate with a trip to the Olympics.
For now, though, Kortum is glad to be where she is.
“I’m a Gopher,” she says. “I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
