Golden opportunity for Gophers slips away; Sioux pull away

The Gophers had a golden chance to put themselves into legitimate contention in the WCHA race on Saturday.

They couldn't do it.

Going into Saturday's games, North Dakota and UMD were tied for first place with 22 points. The Gophers were tied for fifth place with CC with 16 points.

Wisconsin beat the Bulldogs' 3-2 at Amsoil Arena, so if the Gophers could have swept the Sioux they would have been four points out of first place with 12 conference games left.

Now North Dakota sits alone at the top with 24 points and the Gophers stay at 16, an eight-point spread. They don't play again in the regular season.

Minnesota won 3-2 on Friday, but lost 4-1 on Saturday.

The Gophers had only 22 shots on goal in the second game of the series, five in the first period, seven in the second and 10 in the third. Their previous season low was 24.

Gophers coach Don Lucia said his captain Jay Barriball made a bad play when he was called for two penalties at the same time. He tripped defenseman Ben Blood near the Sioux blue line, then kept skating and cross-checked Chay Genoway behind the Sioux net.

Lucia said Barriball was frustated.

Over what? "He didn't play in the second period [Friday] night," Lucia said.

Was he hurt? Lucia had no comment.

Jacob Cepis had five shots on net for the Gophers, nobody else had more than two. Barriball had one and was a minus-1 for the game.

Again this weekend, the Gophers took one step forward and one step back. You can do that on the dance floor when doing the cha-cha, but in college hockey serious contenders for a conference title can't do that.