Gophers handle tough stretch well, ascend to top in women's hockey ratings

"Challenging'' would be an understatement when describing the two-week stretch that the Gophers women's hockey team just finished. A home series against two-time defending national champion Wisconsin and a road trip to Frozen Four participant Ohio State would be daunting for any team and emerging with a pair of series splits would be a positive.

Instead, the Gophers emphatically aced their test, following up their Ridder Arena sweep of the Badgers with a four-point weekend in Columbus, where they rebounded from a 2-1 overtime loss in the opener on Friday to beat the Buckeyes 5-3 on Saturday. That's 10 of a possible 12 points gained against a pair of national and WCHA powers.

"As a staff, we're really proud of our team and our group and the way they battled,'' Gophers coach Brad Frost said.

On Monday, the Gophers (20-7-1) ascended to the No. 1 spot in the U.S. College Hockey Online poll, moving up from No. 2 on the strength of their showing at Ohio State. The Buckeyes also moved up a spot to No. 2, followed by Northeastern, Wisconsin and Minnesota Duluth in the top five.

More importantly, the Gophers also seized the top spot in the PairWise Ratings, the formula that the NCAA uses to help select and seed its tournament field. Left out of the eight-team tournament a year ago, Minnesota would seem to be a lock for the expanded 11-team field this year. The Gophers finish the regular season with series against Bemidji State, St. Cloud State and St. Thomas, the teams occupying sixth through eighth place in the WCHA.

The NCAA expanded the women's tournament to 11 teams this year, bringing it more in line with representation of the 16-team men's tournament. The top five seeds will receive first-round byes into the quarterfinals, with the top four being on-campus hosts and the No. 5 seed visiting one of the top four seeds. Three first-round games, which will be played two days before the quarterfinals, will be held at three of the top four seeds.

The Frozen Four will be played March 18 and 20 at Pegula Ice Arena in State College, Pa., and the Gophers are serving notice that they intend to be there.

No sweep, but four points for Gophers men

The Gophers men's hockey team also secured four points on the road, beating Notre Dame 5-1 on Friday before falling 3-2 in three-on-three overtime on Saturday, giving up a two-on-one rush for the winner only 22 seconds into the extra session.

The weekend left the Gophers at 15-11 and at No. 11 in the PairWise. That's a spot that likely would get them into the NCAA tournament, but avoiding a losing streak is key as the Gophers begin the final four weeks of the regular season by playing host to Michigan State on Friday and Saturday.

Though he would have preferred a sweep, Gophers coach Bob Motzko saw much to like in South Bend.

"We played our tails off tonight. I'm proud of our guys,'' Motzko said Saturday, after his team rallied from a 2-0 deficit with strong second and third periods. "… Since Christmas, we've been playing awfully good.''

Minnesota's depth will be tested beginning this weekend. Top-liners Ben Meyers and Matthew Knies and defensive QB Brock Faber are with Team USA for the Winter Olympics and will miss the MSU series plus trips to Ohio State and Penn State.

"We were using everybody all weekend, and we did that on purposes because we're going to need this group to hold the fort down,'' Motzko said.

No. 1 with Mr. 100

Minnesota State Mankato (25-5) remained the No. 1 team in the USCHO men's rankings after its home sweep of Arizona State. In the Mavericks' 5-3 win on Saturday, senior Dryden McKay became only the third men's goalie in NCAA history to reach 100 career victories, joining the Michigan pair of Marty Turco (127 wins from 1995-98) and Steve Shields (122 from 1991-94).

McKay, 25-4 with a 1.33 goals-against average and .927 save percentage this season, already has the NCAA career record for shutouts with 35.

Three other Minnesota teams are ranked in the USCHO top 10: Minnesota Duluth at No. 6, St. Cloud State at No. 7 and the Gophers at No. 8.

Men's bracketology

As the season reaches February, here's my first projection of what the NCAA men's field might look like. It's based on games through Sunday and projects current conference standing leaders as the winners of league tournaments for automatic bids. Seedings are based on the PairWise Ratings, except for automatic bids outside the top 16, which are designated with an asterisk.

Worcester (Mass.) Regional

1. Michigan vs. 16. American International *

8. Massachusetts vs. 9. Minnesota Duluth

Allentown (Pa.) Regional

2. Minnesota State vs. 15. Providence

7. Michigan Tech vs. 10. Ohio State

Loveland (Colo.) Regional

3. Denver vs. 14. Notre Dame

5. St. Cloud State vs. 11. Gophers

Albany (N.Y.) Regional

4. Western Michigan vs. 13. UMass-Lowell

6. Quinnipiac vs. 12. North Dakota

The bracket required one adjustment: No. 5 St. Cloud State would have been in line to play No. 12 North Dakota, but that intraconference matchup is broken up by moving the Huskies to Loveland and Quinnipiac to Albany.

Women's bracketology

It'll be interesting to see how the selection committee views the battle between bracket integrity vs. fewer airplane flights when picking where the 11 teams end up. Here's a look at a projected bracket based solely on the PairWise:

Minneapolis

First round: 8. Quinnipiac vs. 9. Yale

Quarterfinal: Winner vs. 1. Gophers

Boston

First round: no game

Quarterfinal: 5. Minnesota Duluth vs. 4. Northeastern

Columbus, Ohio

First round: 7. Colgate vs. 10. Clarkson

Quarterfinal: Winner vs. 2. Ohio State

Madison, Wis.

First round: 6. Harvard vs. 11. Syracuse *

Quarterfinal: Winner vs. 3 Wisconsin