Colorado College came into last weekend's series with the best power play in the WCHA, but the Tigers left wondering how to fix that special teams unit.

"[The Gophers] are a top three defensive team in the country and they showed it," said Owens after his team's 2-1 loss to the Gophers on Saturday. "There was not a lot of room out there [at Mariucci Arena] despite it being an Olympic sheet [200x100 feet].

"A lot of the credit has to go to them and their defensive play. That being said, I don't think I have seen our power play this out of sync in a couple of years. And obviously that was a big part as far as generating chances. We gave up a short-hander. We take a penalty while we are on the power play and then we didn't generate very much."

CC was 0-for-8 on the power play in two games and had only five shots.

"All in all, 2-1 [for CC], 2-1 [for Gophers] -- we didn't have a power play over the weekend," Owens said. "Generally that is a big part of our offense. I liked our compete level, but there just wasn't a lot of room and that is one of the reasons we could not get a lot accomplished.

"We are not moving our feet, we are not making good, safe passes to get things started. On the short-hander, we made a diagonally, hope play that they ended up converting. A lot of shots getting blocked. We are just not moving our feet very well.

"We need this week off, we need to rework it a little bit and come back fresh."

CC's power play has slipped a spot to second in the WCHA at 23.1 percent. The Gophers are third on the power play at 22.6 percent in all games and first on the penalty kill at 84.4 percent. CC is sixth on the pk at 80,2 percent.

After the split at Mariucci, the No. 11 Tigers are four points behind the first-place Gophers and two behind second-place UMD.

Sophomore goalie Josh Thorimbert was solid in both games for CC. He had 38 saves on Friday -- and a shutout until the last two minutes -- and 35 saves Saturday.

"Obviously, Josh is a huge story," Owens said. "He was so strong, consistent. To play back-to-back games like this. We really haven't put him in this position all year long except for at Mankato. And I thought he gave us a chance.

"We were able to keep them at bay. We We did a nice job killing their power play. All in all, I was pretty happy with the way we played. I was hoping maybe we could sneak a point out of here [Saturday]."

The Gophers were 0-for-7 on the power play with 16 shots.

* The Tigers, in third with 22 points, are at the top of a pack of seven teams just six points apart in the middle of the WCHA standings. "It is all so close," Owens said. "UNO, Denver, St. Cloud. It is just all over the place."

OLDEST SON DOING WELL, TOO

Mike Guentzel's middle son, Gabe, played with Colorado College this weekend. He is a senior defensemen. But the oldest son of the Gophers' associate head coach Mike Guentzel is in Europe.

He is playing for EHC Klostersee of Grafing, Germany in the Oberlinga, a third level hockey league in that country.

Ex-Gopher Patrick White leads Klostersee in scoring with 23 goals and 30 assists for 53 points in 30 games. Guentzel is second with 17 goals and 31 assists for 48 points in only 23 games.

Guentzel has been out for 3-1/2 weeks with an injury, his father said, but recently started skating.

"[Klostersee recently] won its first game and scored more than two goals in a game since he has been hurt," Mike Guentzel said.

* How big was the Gophers' win over Colorado College on Saturday? Look at it this way, both teams have 10 games left. If the Gophers finish 6-4, CC would have to go 8-2 just to tie the maroon and gold.

Here are the top five in the WCHA:

Gophers 26 points

UMD 24, with two games in hand

CC 22, idle next weekend

UNO 21, Gophers play there

Denver 19, Gophers play there

* Had an average week picking WCHA, going 7-3.5-0.5. Almost got the tie I expected from first Gophers-Colorado College game on Friday.