#-1: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -2). A win and a tie will get you the top spot here if you take your opponent's #1 ranking. Emily West saved her team's bacon by scoring the tying goal in Sunday's 3-3 tie with less than two minutes remaining. Special recognition goes to Jocelyne Lamoureux, who scored three goals and an assist and was named WCHA Offensive Player Of The Week. Her twin sister Monique shared it last week. They host North Dakota for a pair this weekend, and they are nothing like the juggernaut the men usually are.
#-2: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -4). Only other area team to not lose this week. They eked out a two-point win against a Penn State team they should've drilled, then came back home to defeat Iowa in a close one. If you're new to the Lady Gophs, you just need to know two names: Emily Fox (who led the team to the former win) and Ashley Ellis-Milan (who did so the latter). Don't look now, but these women have won their last four games. They try and avenge a loss to Purdue at home tonight, they travel to play Michigan Sunday afternoon.
#-3: Wild (Last Week: -3). They finish their homestand 3-1, though they looked like shit in that 2-o loss to Nashville Friday. Doesn't it seem like they are always holding down the eigtht spot in the Western Conference playoff race? Their two games this week: at Detroit tonight, host Ottawa Saturday.
#-4: Wrestling (Last Week: -1). There is a sheer dropoff between the Wild and here; really, all these teams make a case for being at the bottom. For the grapplers, it's losing, at home, to a lower-ranked Michigan team by 1 on Friday. Oddly enough, on Sunday they nipped by two a Northwestern team ranked two spots lower than the Wolverines. It is more than obvious by now this team won't contend for the title this year. Their two opponents, both on the road, could finish off this team: Lower-ranked Wisconsin Friday, overall #1 Iowa Sunday.
#-5: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -5). They didn't lose at home, but they lost twice, one of them a biblical ass-kicking to a Michigan State team I still have doubts about. Sandwiched inbetween that and a win at home over an Indiana team that's better than most people give it credit for was a loss to Ohio State. They have a chance to move back into the Top 25 -- and, more important, rise in my survey, since they only have one game this week: At a Penn State team that, once not too long ago, harbored dreams of reaching the Tournament.
#-6: Swarm (Last Week: -7). Now we are scraping the bottom of the barrel; none of the rest of the teams won a game for the week. For the Major League Lacrosse team, that makes it three in a row. Yeah, I guess it's hard to play back-to-back games, especially if you have to go from on the road to at home, doubly especially if your first game is against an undefeated Calgary team. But to repeat a 13-8 loss to Colorado (they lost both games by that score, what a ca-winky-dink!) gives off a listlessness not even an excuse such as "Well, this isn't our full-time jobs" can explain. They'll be here even again next week, for they have the week off to recuperate, reflect, and work at the warehouse.
#-7: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -8). This is getting to be embarrassing. Make it four losses in a row now after dropping a pair of one-goal games to hated Wisconsin at home. We should start questioning the direction of this program. At the very least Coach Don Lucia has to wonder if he's recruiting blue-chippers whose only goal is to get drafted by an NHL club ASAP. The talent is there; also there is possibly the belief this team is nothing more than a stepping stone. Can they pull out of their funk hosting Alaska-Anchorage at home this weekend? They just came in, and boy, are their arms tired!
#-8: Timberwolves (Last Week: -6). Season's over. It was over to begin with, but goddammit, they had to be cockteases and start playing better at the beginning of the year. And just when they seemed to have turned the corner, Big Al Jefferson had to tear his ACL. Somebody needs to look into the very peculiar trend of Timberwolves being lost for the season because of knee injuries: First Rashad McCants, then Corey Brewer, and now Big Al? Suffice it to say, they lost that game Jefferson was in; even it occurred very late in their game against New Orleans, karma demanded that Sebastain Telfair throw the ball behind Mike Miller with the chance to go back ahead. That capped an 0-3 week and a 4-game losing streak to linger through the All-Star Break. They have a back-to-back at Washington and Miami the Tuesday and Wednesday after the All-Star Game. Says here they won't win another goddamn game.
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