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Catching up with Blackhawks prospects Sam Rinzel and Oliver Moore

Posted on by Dave Melton
Credit: University of Minnesota

Thanks to the continued support of the SCH community, Eric and I were out in South Bend on Saturday night where we watched recent first-round picks Oliver Moore and Sam Rinzel face Notre Dame and spoke with both players afterwards.

A pair of weekend games in South Bend gave Minnesota — the No. 3 team in the country in the most recent USCHO.com poll — a pair of wins over host Notre Dame: 6-3 on Friday night, followed by a 5-3 victory on Saturday. Forward Oliver Moore and defenseman Sam Rinzel were all over the ice and all over the stat sheets, as the Blackhawks prospects continued their strong sophomore seasons.

Rinzel had two power-play goals in Friday’s game and two assists in Saturday’s game, bringing his totals to six and eight, respectively, on the season. Moore had a goal and an assist on Friday and added another goal on Saturday, bringing his season totals up to four and seven, respectively.

We’ll start with Rinzel’s highlights first, beginning with this power-play goal on a shot from the point that found a lane into the net:

Here’s the other PPG from Rinzel over the weekend:

Rinzel picked up the primary assist on what proved to be the game-winning goal from Saturday’s game:

For Moore’s first goal of the weekend, he simply went to a high-danger area where teammate Matthew Wood found him with an excellent pass that resulted in a tap-in goal:

The sequence for Moore’s goal on Saturday started with him winning a draw in the offensive zone and then working his way towards the middle of the ice for this neat redirect into the Notre Dame net:

Going to the front of the net was a theme of Moore’s weekend, as the 6-foot, 185-pound forward never seemed to shy away from fighting for space on the difficult portions of the ice. In the clip below, Moore wins a draw in the offensive zone to establish possession during a Gophers’ power play, then provides a perfect screen for a Jimmy Snuggerud goal (Rinzel picked up an assist on this goal):

That willingness from Moore to get to the middle of the ice was something referenced by associate head coach Steve Miller, who discussed these two players on a Friday Show of our podcast in the summer:

His energy, his compete level, his skating is obviously elite. It’s just a matter of sometimes they go in and sometimes they don’t. He’s had great chances. When he’s around the net, good things happen. Sometimes it’s hard to get to the net, but it’s not from a lack of effort or him trying to be fancy — none of that stuff. He plays a 200-foot game, he’s a great F1, he’s been great defensively for us. Whether he’s produced or not, nothing’s wavered with his work ethic away from the puck and how he wants to get better every day as a player.

When draws don’t go Moore’s way, he’ll find other ways to retrieve the puck:

In open ice, Moore’s speed jumps off the screen. Watch how effortlessly he cruises past the Notre Dame defense here, clearly unwilling to step to Moore at any point because of how quickly Moore would breeze past:

Moore and Rinzel were often on the ice together, and here’s about 40 seconds of those two involved in plays across all three zones:

Like Moore, Rinzel’s skating ability is impossible to ignore, with Rinzel often serving as a one-man zone entry whenever Minnesota was on the power play:

Keeping the puck in the offensive zone helps on the power play, too:

Miller discussed some of the things Rinzel’s been doing that his kept his development arrow pointed up as a sophomore:

“One thing that he’s really embraced is the detail off the puck defensively and where you have to get defensively with your sticks. Just all of those little things, defensively. Obviously, he has his offensive skills. One thing that helped him last year was just moving pucks, moving pucks, moving pucks and all of the sudden positive things started to happen for him instead of him trying to end-to-end it all of the time. Our D corps is in a good place right now and he’s a big part of that.”

The clips above showed Rinzel taking the puck end-to-end when available but this next one shows him moving the puck when necessary, helping establish zone entry during a 4-on-3 in the second period. That pass helped set Rinzel up for a golden opportunity, although he wasn’t able to finish it:

This brief clip shows Rinzel’s play on the defensive side of the ice, where he uses his long reach to be a nuisance for a Notre Dame forward while also showing a willingness to be physical when necessary:

As Miller mentioned in the summer, it was this time last year when Miller sat down with Rinzel for a film session after a rougher night for Rinzel against Notre Dame. The following night, Miller said that it seemed like “the lights went on” for Rinzel, and he’s been steadily trending upwards since that weekend in 2023.

It’s that confidence, knowing you’ve made it through your freshman year, those ups and downs, and then it starts to even out for you so that you can start pushing it to another level. I think it’s all just part of maturing and getting older. He’s a driver for us. He’s fun to watch, he’s competitive. He’s a great teammate.

Both Rinzel and Moore discussed their continued development with us during postgame interviews before hopping on a plane back to Minnesota:

@davemelton.bsky.social and I spoke with Blackhawks defensive prospect Sam Rinzel after Minnesota’s weekend series against Notre Dame.

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— Eric Gegenheimer (@ericgeg.bsky.social) November 24, 2024 at 11:04 PM

@davemelton.bsky.social and I got the chance to catch up with Blackhawks forward prospect Oliver Moore after Minnesota’s weekend series against Notre Dame.

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— Eric Gegenheimer (@ericgeg.bsky.social) November 24, 2024 at 10:57 PM

It wasn’t all perfect for those two, though. In the first period, Moore and Rinzel took off on a 2-on-1 that didn’t result in a shot on goal:

That was part of the latter portions of our discussion with Moore and Rinzel, along with an opportunity to air some grievances on their fellow Gopher teammate and Blackhawks prospect:

Oliver Moore talks about his roommate Sam Rinzel and why the two of them didn’t convert on a 2 on 1 during Minnesota’s win on Saturday night in South Bend.

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— Eric Gegenheimer (@ericgeg.bsky.social) November 24, 2024 at 11:08 PM

Sam Rinzel on what it’s like to live with Oliver Moore and why the two of them didn’t convert on a 2 on 1 during Minnesota’s win on Saturday night in South Bend.

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— Eric Gegenheimer (@ericgeg.bsky.social) November 24, 2024 at 11:09 PM

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