Gophers men's hockey hopes to use Wisconsin loss as a catapult

Wisconsin entered Saturday's series finale against the Gophers having won only three of 19 Big Ten games but exited Kohl Center with a 3-1 victory over the top-ranked men's hockey team in the nation.

Frustrated and, yes, embarrassed, the Gophers vow to respond to that attention-getter — a swift kick in the breezers delivered by their border rival.

"We've got to get some fire under our butts here and get working,'' senior defenseman Jackson LaCombe said.

"It's good that we're learning from it now and not in Game One of the playoffs,'' junior defenseman Mike Koster added.

"Maybe now Coach gets the [locker] room back a little bit,'' Bob Motzko said, referring to himself in the third person.

The second-ranked Gophers can determine if their words become deeds on Friday and Saturday when they face No. 7 Penn State in State College, Pa., in their next-to-last series of the regular season. They'll go into the series knowing that they've repeated as Big Ten regular-season champions.

Thursday night, second place Michigan tied Ohio State 3-3 but lost the shootout point. The Gophers lead Michigan by 10 points in the conference standings, and the Wolverines cannot catch Minnesota in their three remaining games. As regular-season champions, the Gophers are the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten tournament and receive a bye into a semifinal game on March 11 at 3M Arena at Mariucci.

The Gophers certainly will miss the two blue-liners, and their absence is another obstacle they'll face in an effort to fine-tune their game as the postseason approaches.

While Minnesota has a 14-4-2 record against teams that entered Thursday in the top 16 of the PairWise Ratings — teams in contention for an NCAA tournament bid — Motzko hasn't liked the sloppiness that has crept into his team's play. Wisconsin, for example, took advantage of a blue-line turnover and a missed assignment to grab momentum on a goal with 22 seconds left in the first period last Saturday.

Motzko's hope is that the result can be a cleansing loss that provides a reset before one-and-done play begins.

"There were things that we did in the game that we can't do, but it had been coming,'' he said. "… [The loss] came at a good time for us. You'll hear a coach say that once in a while. There are some tendencies we had that we need to get cleaned up. And this is a weekend now to start cleaning that up.''

LaCombe was blunt in his assessment, too.

Penn State should grab the Gophers' attention, especially at Pegula Arena, where the Nittany Lions are 12-4 in front of an average of 6,078 in the 5,782-seat venue. The "Roar Zone'' student section and its glass-banging fans bring the noise and try to rattle opponents.

"It's a great challenge,'' Koster said, "especially in their rink.''

On the ice, the Nittany Lions never have met a shot they didn't like, credited with 40.3 shots on goal per game. They have a balanced roster that features 11 players with 14 or more points. "They shoot from everywhere,'' Motzko said.

Motzko's focus, though, is getting his team playing the way it needs to as the stakes begin to ramp up. He hopes a sense of urgency takes over.