Pressure Of "The Curses" Haunting Coach Motzko

(left) WCHA curses aren't fun and you can't hide from them as SCSU coach Bob Motzko is finding out the hard way

The pressure of the "Curses" seems to be haunting St. Cloud Head Coach Bob Motzko. St. Cloud hasn't won an NCAA tournament game, ever. Additionally, St. Cloud has been famous for late season collapses of epic proportions nicknamed "The Swoon" by rival University of Minnesota fans and now add the "Kohl Center Calamity" to his problems. Its enough to drive the WCHA's back to back Coach of the Year crazy.

Last weekend St. Cloud blew two leads in consecutive leads to the University of Wisconsin. Madison has become a house of horrors for the Huskies. The Huskies have a 12-game winless streak at the Kohl Center and a 13-game winless streak against Wisconsin overall. The last time the Huskies won in Madison was February, 2001.

“We’ve got a curse here, no question,” St. Cloud State coach Bob Motzko said. “There’s got to be a curse for us (against them).”

SCSU beat writer Kevin Allenspach described Motzko's latest breakdown this way:

One moment, Bob Motzko was trying to stay positive. The next, it looked like all that snow that fell Saturday night might melt on him. That was probably the frustration of the Huskies' 4-3 loss to Wisconsin -- extending their winless run in Madison to 12 games. They haven't won here (still) since Feb. 17, 2001. And, while Motzko wasn't a part of the streak until the fall of 2005, he's sick of hearing about it.

So, who bore the brunt of his angst? Yours truly.

"We've got a curse, no question," Motzko told a group of reporters in a hallway outside the Huskies' dressing room at the confounding Kohl Center. "You want to write it, go ahead."

Then he nodded at Allenspach.

"I don't know, he writes about it all the time," Motzko said. "I don't know how to explain it. He (me again) makes a living on this. He's got every WCHA team figured out, their longest losing streaks in somebody else's building. Who really cares?"

Motzko's DU Connection - In 1991, Bob Motzko was named associate head coach at Miami University (Ohio) under George Gwozdecky, where he helped the Red Hawks to a Central Collegiate Hockey Association title and an NCAA tournament berth in 1992-93. He then moved to the University of Denver from 1993-94 as associate head coach.