Gophers' stakes for Notre Dame series 'as high as they get'

The Gophers held a hockey team meeting Monday morning. The mood wasn't exactly buoyant, after the Gophers failed to win a game in their final two regular-season series, costing them the Big Ten title and jeopardizing their NCAA tournament chances.

While they clung to the No. 4 seed and home-ice advantage in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals, setting up a best-of-three series against No. 5 Notre Dame, the situation became a lot more tense. At No. 16 in the PairWise Rankings, the Gophers face the daunting possibility of this weekend being their last.

Yet coach Bob Motzko had only one message for his team this week: Chill.

"He just basically gave it to us straight, like, 'Relax, we're fine,' " freshman defenseman Matt Staudacher said. "The past two weekends haven't gone our way, really. But I mean, it's just because we're thinking too much. Now we've just got to play."

That tunnel vision has been a trademark for the Gophers (14-13-7) all season. From going 5-9-4 in the first half to turning it around in the second, the Gophers have never lingered on the good or bad. Instead, they've used a collective single-minded concentration on the immediate future.

"The stakes are as high as they get," senior defenseman Tyler Nanne said. "You've got Big Ten tournament, you've got PairWise, so there's two things to think about. But really, what we need to focus on is Friday."

There is a lot for the Gophers to overanalyze, with failing to make the NCAA tournament being paramount. While they have recent success against Notre Dame, including an overtime and regulation win only three weeks ago, the Fighting Irish ended Minnesota's season with a 2-1 overtime victory in the Big Ten semifinals last year. And now the Gophers have the youngest team in college hockey with an average age of 20.56 years old, and 11 freshmen will be experiencing the collegiate postseason for the first time.

"You've also got a big freshman class that didn't have to deal with that. They didn't lose anything," sophomore forward Blake McLaughlin said. "… I think it's kind of better for us that [the] guys that were on the team last year can just put it behind them and not worry about it. I mean, half our team was there last year and knows what it feels like, and the other half has yet to experience not making the tournament."

Those newcomers also don't remember how the Gophers' quarterfinal series in 2019 drew an announced crowd of fewer than 2,000 people each game. But Nanne said the team won't let crowd size affect the effort. McLaughlin added the "do or die" mentality of this time of year is something he and his teammates live for, while Motzko said he hopes his team plays with some "desperation."

The Gophers might have lacked that the past two weekends in overtime and regulation losses against Penn State and Michigan. Motzko said those series had a playoff feel, and he saw those opponents rely on their older players, who knew how to handle a tighter, more physical game. Meanwhile, the Gophers showed their youth a bit, with players "swinging for the fences" every shift instead of sticking to the game plan.