By the tone of Jay Barriball's voice, a reporter could tell he was feeling pretty low after the Gophers' 1-0 loss to Alaska Anchorage. He also was putting some of the responsibility for the loss on himself.

The senior captain plays right wing on the Gophers' top line, which was held pointless in both games last weekend. Minnesota won 5-1 on Friday, getting one goal from one player on the second line, one on the third and from two on the fourth line and the fifth goal from defenseman Aaron Ness.

On Saturday, nobody scored for the U of M and the Gophers lost 1-0.

"We played well [Saturday], but we had our lapses of five," Barriball said. "Ten minutes here and there that were not good. I didn't think we played bad. I thought we carried most of the play. We played really well in the second. We just couldn't put the puck in the net."

The Gophers outshot the Seawolves 16-4 in the second period and 30-22 for the game. Barriball alone had four shots, one in the first, two in the second and one in the third.

"I had a bunch [of chances]," he said. "That's what you try to do, is get chances. But sooner or later you have to put them in, especially as these games get bigger toward the end of the year. It is on me, it is on the first line. We've got to score some goals. To go scoreless two games, two big games against Anchorage is pretty bad for the first line. We got to pick it up."

Barriball had seven shots in the two games and had a zero plus-minus rating.

Freshman Erik Haula, the center of the first line, had four shots Friday, one Saturday. Senior left wing Mike Hoeffel had four shots, two each night. Both had zero plus-minus ratings.

"Obviously, we could have used a bounce here or there," Barriball said, "but their goalie [Chris Kamal] played good, too. You have to give him some credit. He came in [Saturday] and played real well.

"We outshot them. I didn't think we played a great game, but I didn't think we played a terrible game. It just comes down to scoring goals and we didn't do that."

The Gophers haven't really done that for a while. In the 10 games before the UAA series, the Gophers had 21 goals which easily calculates to an average of 2.1 goals per game. The five goals on Friday seems like the aberration in hindsight.

"They played like a 1-4 for most of the game" on Saturday, Barriball said, meaning the Seawolves usually tried to have four players back to prevent odd-man rushes. "We turned some pucks over early because of that trap-type thing they were playing. But we adjusted and got pucks deep and started working down low. That worked out for us for a while, but it all comes down to scoring goals.

"We knew they were going to come out and play better [Saturday]. In this league, that is what teams do. We gave ourselves a chance to win. Like I said it comes to scoring goals, we outshot them, I think we outplayed them for a good majority of the game. We just couldn't score. They played real good defensively."

THE DON SAYS

* On Gophers' scoring chances: "Condon had a breakaway. We had some good looks [Saturday]. And there were some pucks lying around there."

* On UAA's defense: "You have to give credit to their goaltender [Chris Kamal]. He played extremely well. And they battled in front of him hard, especially when they got the lead. ... It was going to be a grinding-type game -- it's just the way they were going to play. They played a good road game. ... Their goaltender was the player of the game."

The three stars were Kamal, Matt Bailey, who scored UAA's goal, and Gophers defenseman Aaron Ness.

* On whether UAA's goal deflated the Gophers: "You knew once it got into the third period it was going to be a 1-0, 2-1 type of game. I think the shot went off one of our defenseman's sticks and changed direction a little bit. You think if you give up one, you will still have a chance to win or get something [a tie] out of it, but we couldn't get anything by him."

UAA ON GOALIE SWITCH

Seawolves coach Dave Shyiak has two freshmen goalies, but Rob Gunderson has been playing every game recently until Saturday. So why replace him with Chris Kamal, had only one victory in five games played?

"Gunderson has played a long string of games right now," Shyiak said, "and obviously we didn't win the last three games. He has been playing well for us, but it was more of a mental break [for him]."

Shyiak also made some defensive changes in front of his goal the second game. "We made a few adjustments," he said. "[Friday] night they had about 12 odd-man rushes, and they scored five of their goals off the rush. And [Saturday] we didn't give up any odd-man rushes. We forced them to dump the puck. And they really didn't have a whole lot of clean looks at the net. And, when they did, Kamal came up big.

"We wanted to be aggressive when we could get the puck. And if not, we wanted to make sure we had numbers back."

On offense, Shyiak just wanted his players to throw pucks at the net: "And [Matt Bailey] squeaked one through. It was a big goal, obviously."

Asked if he thought one goal would be enough, Shyiak said, "Normally, not in the WCHA. But look at a lot of scores, especially going down the stretch. Except for [Friday] night and a couple more, there are a lot of one-goal type games because every point earned is hard to get. I am happy we are able to come away with a split and keep us in the pack."

The Gophers, tied for sixth place with Colorado College, would have the last home-ice spot for the first round of the WCHA playoffs if they were starting today. Both the U and CC have 18 points but the Gophers have the first tiebreaker with the Tigers.

St. Cloud State and UAA are both tied for eighth with 16 points, so that's the pack Shyiak was referring to.