A star player on the University of Minnesota’s back-to-back NCAA national championship men’s hockey teams has been charged with his fourth drunken-driving offense in Minnesota in recent years.
Star on Gophers back-to-back national title hockey teams is jailed on felony DWI charge
Troy Riddle has three drunken-driving convictions on his record.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
February 18, 2025 at 4:42PM
Troy Riddle, 43, was arrested Feb. 6 on a warrant in the Milwaukee area where he lives, then booked into the Hennepin County jail Saturday night and released on a $50,000 bond several hours later ahead of a court appearance Tuesday.
Riddle was charged with felony drunken driving based on him having at least three convictions for the same offense within the past 10 years. His attorney declined to comment about the allegations.
At the time of the crash, according to a state Department of Public Safety spokesman, Riddle was under court order to only drive a vehicle with an ignition interlock device. The mechanism requires a motorist to give a breath sample to ensure sobriety before hitting the road.
In his four years as a forward with the Gophers, Riddle scored 82 goals and played a key role during the regular season and the playoffs in helping Minnesota win NCAA championships in 2002 and 2003.
Following the end of his professional playing career in the minor leagues in the U.S. and in Europe, Riddle coached the sport at his alma mater, as an assistant for Benilde-St. Margaret High School in St. Louis Park and in Milwaukee as head coach for Marquette University’s club team.
According to the latest charge:
Shortly before 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 13, Maple Grove police were alerted by a 911 caller who reported seeing a man, later confirmed to be Riddle, who could barely walk at a gas station near Grove Drive and Elm Creek Boulevard, then seeing the man drive away.
The caller followed Riddle a short distance until he arrived at Mallard Ridge apartments and parked in the garage. Officers arrived at the apartments and learned from the caller that Riddle briefly drove on the wrong side of the road.
Officers found Riddle still behind the wheel of his vehicle. He showed signs of being drunk and smelled of alcohol.
Riddle appeared to be hiding something in his right hand and put two empty shooter bottles of Pink Whitney, a hockey-themed liquor, into the center console before he got out of the vehicle. Another two bottles of Pink Whitney were recovered from his jacket pocket.
He denied having been drinking and refused to perform roadside sobriety tests. After his arrest later that day, a preliminary breath test measured his blood alcohol content at 0.19%, nearly 2½ times the legal limit for driving in Minnesota. He was released on Dec. 16 pending further police investigation.
Riddle’s previous drunken-driving convictions occurred in 2020, 2019 and 2016, according to court records.
Minnesota, which had lost five of its past six, benefitted from big games by Grace Grocholski and Sophie Hart.
