#-1: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -1). In a week where no team had a clean sheet, the Gopher male icers somehow repeat on top after tying at #12 Wisconsin Saturday and whipping bottom-feeder Michigan Tech Friday. They are now unbeaten in their last four games. And Forward Jacob Cepis was named WCHA Co-Offensive Player Of The Week, in part for scoring a goal and an assist in the 3-3 tie with the Badgers. Cepis now leads the team with 27 points.
More importantly, the Gophers seem to be back in the rankings. They currently rank 20th in the USCHO.com Top 20. More imporantly, they are now tied for 19th in the Pairwise Rankings. In men's ice hockey, selections are essentially taken from the Pairwise list. If they can sweep the Huskies tonight (Saturday night) and beat Bemidji St. at Bemidjit St. Friday. ... I'm just shocked that the squad is in a position to be this close to the NCAA Tournament so late in the season.
#-2: Wild (Last Week: -3). I remember when Mario Lemieux scored The Five Ways you can score a goal: even strength, power play, short-handed, penalty shot, and empty net. The Wild's week reminded me of that. The club won, won in overtime, lost in a shootout, and lost. They just needed two more games this week to win in a shootout and lose in OT.
In a perfectly symmetrical screening week, they managed to get five points. Suddenly, and without me knowing it, they are tied for fifth in the Western Conference standings. Still, you are talking about the wild, wild West, and the Wild are just two points out of tenth. But, you have to feel good about the way they're playing right now. I haven't been this pleased with this club in several years. Let's face it; they are the best sports team in town right now.
This week: home to Chicago, then, in their final trip eastbound, they head to New York City to face the Islanders and Rangers back-to-back.
#-3: Gopher women's hockey (Last Week: -2). A bad, bad loss to #8 North Dakota in the regular season finale last Saturday busted them down to third place in the WCHA. Have they ever finished that low ever? (A caveat: They technically tied with UMD for second place, but they lose the tiebreaker.)
They began the conference tournament by defeating Ohio St. in Ridder last (Friday) night, 4-2. They can sweep the best-of-three series with a win this (Saturday) afternoon, and if even if they don't, they play at home for a series-deciding game Sunday afternoon. Whoever wins advances to the Final Faceoff which will be at, you guessed it, Ridder starting Friday.
As for the tournament that matters: The Gopher distaff icers currently are tied for fourth in the Pairwise. With auto-bids, they should be one of the four at-large teams to make it to the Ice Dance. But what if they lose the series to the Buckeyes? Could happen, but I shudder to think.
Oh, by the way, Defenseman Megan Bozek is this week's conference Defensive Player Of The Week. She assisted twice in the loss to the Fighting Sioux.
#-4: Swarm (Last Week: -7). A home loss to Boston followed by a road win against Colorado keeps the Swarm at .500 and a game behind Calgary for the lead in the Western Conference. One observation: The Swarm have scored the same number of goals as the Roughnecks while allowing one less goal.
There are regular season games this weekend, but the club doesn't have one. After Sunday's National Lacrosse League All-Star Game, in which four Swarm players are participating, the team will go back to Colorado and play the bottom-feeding Mammoth again on Friday.
#-5: Gopher women's basketball (Last Week: -8). Team's playing out the string, but they eke out a split on the road. They lose at Northwestern, which went to 6-9 in-conference as a result of the win, in an all-too-familiar way: Like many defeats this year, they choked away a lead (six points Sunday afternoon). Kiara Buford got to 1,000 career points in the loss.
Then somehow they bounced back and beat Michigan in Ann Arbor in double overtime, 82-78. The Gophers are now 4-11 in the Big Ten, yet they swept a Wolverines team that's 9-6 in conference play. One final regular season game: They have Senior Day Sunday afternoon against a Top Ten team in Michigan St. I'm taking a guess that it'll be downhill after the pregame ceremony. They then begin the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis. Since they suck, they'll definitely play Thursday ... and, in another guess, they'll lost Thursday, too.
#-6: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -6). A 1-2 week. On Saturday they upset ninth-ranked UConn, 3-2. But then they finish their portion of the Big Ten/Big East Challenge by getting shut out at #20 Louisville, 3-0. I didn't know there were two ranked teams from the Big East. Anyway, they lose the first game of the Wake Forest Tournament yesterday (Friday) by coughing up a 4-2 lead to the host Demon Deacons, who scored five runs in the seventh inning and beat the Gophs, 7-5. They finish the tourney with games against Towson and Delaware St., then begin the Dairy Queen Classic by playing South Alabama Friday.
#-7: Gopher wrestling (Last Week: -4). It was a huge showdown, but at the end they were exposed as incapable. The Gophers lose in The Barn to second-ranked Iowa, 19-12. They finish with a perfect conference record and the Big Ten title; Minnesota winds up in a second-place tie with Penn St.
So, you can say that at this point these guys are the third-best program in the conference. Can they change that fate in the Big Ten Championships, which start next week?
#-8: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -5). People scared that the Gophers wouldn't make the NCAA Tournament if it were to start before the week began needed to call down; all the bracket projections I saw had them as a nine-seed. Not anymore. This is now time to panic.
One game, but a sickening, disgusting loss to Michigan St. They led 47-39 with 4:31 left in the second ... and didn't score from the field the rest of the game. They only scored one free throw. Bad shooting plus an inability to hold onto the ball when it counted destroyed this team. The Spartans aren't good this year, yet they outscored the Goofs 14-1 to close out the game and win, 53-48. They have now lost six out of their last seven games. Seriously, what the fuck? They host Michigan this (Saturday) afternoon, then visit Northwestern on Wednesday.
One bright spot: Guard Blake Hoffarber was named Second Team Academic All-American Wednesday. If only he could play the point as well as studying finance.
#-9: Timberwolves (Last Week: -9). Lost all three games this week. Their streak is now seven. But at least Kevin Love now has 45 consecutive double-doubles! Yay!! This week: home to Golden State and The Team That Was Stolen From Us, then at Detroit and Philadelphia.
No comments:
Post a Comment