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Things started off well for the Gopher hockey team Friday night against top-three team Wisconsin when Ryan Flynn notched a short-handed goal four minutes into the game. However, Bucky eeked out a victory in the first game at Target Center, winning 3-2.
Craig Smith scored the game-winner for the Badgers with under five minutes remaining to allow Wisconsin to escape the Target Center with a victory over Minny for the second time in eight tries.
With the Gophers' loss and Colorado College's victory over Denver means the Gophers will finish seventh in the WCHA standings this season. Their first round opponent remains to be determined pending the results of Saturday's games. However, it renders Sunday's finale with the Badgers meaningless, as Wisconsin will finish second by virtue of the win over the Gophers. UW's first round opponent is yet to be decided, as either Minnesota State or Alaska-Anchorage can still finish ninth.
So, to recap quickly, positions one (Denver), two (Wisconsin), six (Colorado College), seven (Minnesota), and ten (Michigan Tech) are locked in for the WCHA. St. Cloud State, UMD, and North Dakota are jockeying for positions three-five, and Minnesota State and Alaska-Anchorage are fighting for positions eight and nine. All will be decided after Saturday night's action.
Roman Augustoviz has a good breakdown of first round possibilities in his blog. The Gophers should have their opponent known by 9:30pm Saturday night. It's looking like a strong possibility that the Gophers may be heading to Grand Forks next weekend, which was definitely a worst-case scenario going into the weekend.
Friday night's loss also quaranteed the Gophers a sub-.500 mark in WCHA regular season play. Six months ago, that seemed an impossibility.
Elsewhere around the WCHA:
As the regular season enters its final weekend, the top five is locked in for the first round of the WCHA playoffs. Denver is the MacNaughton Cup champion; Wisconsin, St. Cloud State, UMD, and North Dakota have all clinched home ice. Of that group, North Dakota can finish no higher than third, but UMD and St. Cloud State can still end up bouncing Wisconsin out of second place. All this means is that there will be plenty of jockeying for positioning among first division teams.
At the bottom of the bracket, things are clearer. Colorado College, Minnesota, Alaska Anchorage, Minnesota State, and Michigan Tech all are resigned to opening the playoffs on the road. Michigan Tech has "clinched" last place; Colorado College and Minnesota will finish either sixth or seventh; Alaska-Anchorage and Minnesota State will finish either eighth or ninth.
The final weekend's matchups are:
- Wisconsin at Minnesota - The Gophers and Badgers split their prior series in Madison last November. The offensively-potent Badgers lead the WCHA with 105 goals scored, 17 more than the next-highest total. Sconnie comes into Minneapolis with a 9-3-1 in WCHA play during the new year and has won six of seven. Wisconsin is solidly in third place in the PairWise rankings and seems a lock for a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. A win this weekend will assure the Badgers play either UAA or MSU in the first round instead of CC or Minny. The Gophers also need wins to improve their NCAA Tournament chances, but it's looking increasingly likely they'll need to run the table in the post-season just to get an invitation.
- UMD at Alaska-Anchorage - The Bulldogs are still in desperation mode after the previous weekend's split with Minnesota. UMD is tied for 12th in the PairWise and needs wins to stay off the NCAA bubble. The 'Dogs are 3-7-0 in their last ten and have dropped far in the rankings. Still, this is a dangerous team come playoff time, with one of the nation's most potent power plays, and high-scoring threats like Mike Connolly, Jack Connolly, Justin Fontaine, and Rob Bordson. The two teams have not yet met this season.
- Colorado College at Denver - This series looked huge a few weeks ago, but CC's 5-9-0 WCHA mark since January 1, highlighted by its current four-game losing string, has dismissed the Tigers from the NCAA Tournament bubble - for now. CC needs wins, and a series win over the Pioneers would help it tenuous PairWise (currently 18th) situation. The Pios, on the other hand, have clinched the MacNaughton Cup as WCHA regular season champion and are currently first overall in the PairWise. This series obviously means much more for CC than DU. Denver scored a win and a tie against the Tigers back in November.
- St. Cloud State at Minnesota State - The Huskies had last weekend off after splitting series the previous two weekends with Wisconsin and North Dakota. SCSU is currently fourth in the PairWise and is holding off a late charge from North Dakota for the final #1 regional seed. Of course, there are still three weekends of hockey left to play, so many factors could change. However, the Huskies need a couple of wins this weekend to keep its position. Dropping to fourth place means having to play Minnesota in the first round playoffs instead of Alaska-Anchorage or Minnesota State. The Gophers are not as good of a matchup for the Huskies as those other two teams. Plus, it keeps SCSU's PairWise ranking in good standing. This is a big series for St. Cloud State.
- Michigan Tech at North Dakota - UND took a while, but it is on its seasonal end-of-season roll right now, The Siouxies still have a shot at third place and are currently tied for fifth in the PairWise rankings. Winners of their last five, the Sioux would love to crack the top three to avoid Minnesota or Colorado College in the first round, but that looks to be difficult.
The fact that the Gophers are on the outside looking in this weekend is disappointing. Still, the WCHA is still wide-open outside of Denver and plenty of good teams have much on the line this weekend as the playoffs - and NCAA Tournament - loom.
Michigan 83, Minnesota 55. Proper words to use to describe this loss - the second in as many tries this season to a rotten Michigan team:
- Awful
- Unacceptable
- Disgusting
- Pitiful
- Pathetic
Feel free to join in to add others.
Even though Myron Medcalf reported the experts are split on Minny's chances of getting an at-large bid to the big dance, two losses to a sub-.500 Michigan team will certainly not help its cause.
Michigan shot 60% from the floor, for chrissakes!
One goal short.
The US Olympic hockey team battled back from a 2-0 deficit to force overtime in the most improbable of circumstances. With an extra attacker on the ice in the game's final minute, Zach Parise (U. of North Dakota, New Jersey Devils) knocked home a rebound past Roberto Luongo (Vancouver Canucks) to tie the game at two and send the gold medal game to overtime. In the extra session, Sidney Crosby's excellent individual effort led to the game-winning goal, and Canada captured its eighth gold medal - and its first on home soil - with a 3-2 victory.
One night after playing inspired hockey in a 3-2 victory over UMD, the Gopher hockey team sleepwalked its way through a 3-0 loss to the Bulldogs, assuring they will open the first round of the WCHA playoffs on the road.
Justin Fontaine scored twice for the 'Dogs and Brady Hjelle picked up his first collegiate shutout, which was also UMD's first of a Gopher team since 1980.
Minny just didn't have it Saturday night. The intensity wasn't there. The team hit two posts in the first period, and Hjelle stopped three Gopher breakaways in the game. It just wasn't meant to be for the Gophers in this one.
With North Dakota's victory over Colorado College, the Gophers are assured of playing on the road in the playoffs. However, they can finish no lower than seventh place and still have a shot at sixth place. More importantly, the team has two games next weekend at home against red-hot Wisconsin. The Badgers are ranked high in the PairWise, and any victory against the Badgers will help the Gophers' prospects for an NCAA Tournament berth. At this point, however, that seems unlikely without the team winning the Final Five tournament.
To say next weekend is a critical series for the Gophers would be an understatement. Of course, it's looking far more likely that this team will need to run the table in the playoffs to get a tournament bid, regardless of what happens against Wisconsin next weekend.
Elsewhere in the WCHA:
The Gopher basketball team had a 19-point lead over Illinois with 7:30 remaining in the game Saturday afternoon. The Illini were ice-cold from the floor and the Gophers were playing one of their best games of the season. However, Illinois went on a 28-8 run over the next six minutes to cut the lead to one point with one minute remaining. Damian Johnson made a critical steal of the ball, leading to a perfect pass from Ralph Sampson III to Paul Carter, and the Gophers were able to escape with the victory 62-60.
Devoe Joseph had 16 points to lead Minnesota, which won at Champaign for the first time since 1996. Carter and Lawrence Westbrook each added 10 points.
The Gophers are now 17-11 on the season and an even 8-8 in Big Ten play. If the Big Ten Tournament started today, Minny would finish sixth and play Penn State in the first round. Finishing in the top five in regular season play means not having to play on Thursday (i.e., a first round bye). With two games remaining in the regular season (vs. Michigan and Iowa), the Gophers' win on Saturday meant they still have a shot at finishing in the top five. Of course, the other side of that equation is that the Gophers desperately need wins, and being able to play on Thursday against a team it should beat will only add to the win total. However, nobody has won the Big Ten Tournament from the play-in slot, and the Gophers are getting into territory where they need to win the tournament - or at least get to the title game - in order to get an invitation to the big dance.
Saturday's game was a microcosm of the season: good stretches and a disturbing trend of letting other teams back into games. This time, the Gophers closed the victory out; against Purdue last Wednesday, they didn't. This season will still be deemed a disappointment unless the team is able to run off 4-5 consecutive wins over the next two weeks.
Of course, taking away the five losses either in OT or by one point means this season would look much different than it currently does, no?
The Gopher hockey team just won't go away.
Despite facing an uphill battle for home ice in the first round of the WCHA playoffs and an NCAA Tournament bid seeming like a pipe dream, the U finds itself on a three-game winning streak after defeating UMD Friday night 3-2 at the DECC in Duluth.
Despite being out-shot 34-24 by the 'Dogs and allowing UMD to hit on two of five power play opportunities, the U held on for the victory, thanks to some timely goaltending by Alex Kangas. The junior turned aside 32 shots and seemed to see the puck well all night long.
Nick Larson's goal midway through the first period gave the Gophers a 1-0 lead, which they held throughout the first frame and just about all of the second. However, after a terrible goaltender interference call against Mike Carman put UMD on the power play, David Grun scored with just three seconds remaining in the period to give the Bulldogs a tie and some momentum going into the third.
Duluth native Cade Fairchild scored nine minutes into the third to put the Gophers back on top, but UMD's Travis Oleksuk tied things up just over a minute later with a power play tally. However, Jacob Cepis's goal with just over five minutes remaining sealed the deal for the Gophers and gave the team a nice road victory.
Minny played well Friday night, despite allowing the two power play goals and going 0-4 on their own power plays, including a five-minute advantage in the second period. The U held the high-scoring tandem of Mike Connolly, Jack Connolly, Justin Fontaine, and Rob Bordson to just two assists in the game. They withstood the pressure, battled adversity, and scored a good victory.
The second game in the series is Saturday night, and a quick look at the standings shows the Gophers just one point back of sixth-place Colorado College and three points behind fifth-place North Dakota. The bad news there is those two teams play each other Saturday night, meaning the Gophers will not be able to gain ground on both of them. Still, the victory helps the PairWise, although these rankings show the Gophers still have a long way to go.
The past two weekends have shown that the Gophers are capable of beating good teams in the WCHA and tease fans somewhat into seeing what this team should have been playing like all season long. A victory on Saturday night will do much for this team's confidence going into the regular season's final weekend.
Elsewhere in the WCHA:
