Positive Numbers: Gopher women's hockey (Re-Entry!).
Well, the Wild might not make the playoffs, the Twins and Timberwolves still seem to be a year away, and the Vikings will have to overcome Blair Walsh's boner in that Wild Card game. Yet when it comes to local sports success, when it comes to local sports domination, you have to look up to Ridder Arena, where the Golden Gopher women's hockey team has just won their sixth NCAA national championship Sunday by beating previously undefeated Boston College, 3-1. (Well, I guess you can go to Target Center and admire the Lynx, too, but they've won only three titles in five years to this team's four-in-five. You do the math.)
The most impressive thing about this year's title is that this team had way more tribulations than editions past. They lost out to Wisconsin for both the WCHA regular season and tournament titles, and was only seeded third in the eight-team NCAA tourney. It seemed fitting that the Gophers and Badgers would go to Overtime of the semifinals of the NCAA tournament, but thank God for Sarah Potomak for, um, badgering the Badger Defenseman, stealing the puck in the U.'s offensive zone and deking successfully for the 3-2 win.
Potomak was named USCHO's Rookie Of The Year, and after scoring the opening goal in the title game just 13 seconds in and assisting on Amanda Kessel's game-winning slap shot, she was named Most Outstanding Player for the Frozen Four. Accomplished soldiers like Kessel, Hanna Brandt and Amanda Leveille leave here with three NCAA titles in their college career, but if there are more like Potomak (who, by the way, isn't One Of Us; she's from British Colombia), the Circle Of Life keeps going with this program.
And I really didn't think they'd be able to pull it off. How foolish of me not to believe. Congratulations to the team!!!
#0: Wild (Last Week: -7). OK. I admit I buried this team this time last week. I didn't think a return to good form was in this current collection of combative competitors. But looky-here; in a very busy screening week, the franchise won all four of their games, thereby leaping back in front of Colorado for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West. Those victories include a Shootout win over Chicago (a team they're undefeated against this year, which is weird) and a close 2-1 win over Los Angeles where Devan Dubnyk basically stole that game for his team.
If this keeps up, these guys will play ... gulp ... The Team That Was Stolen From Us in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. There will be blood ... in the stands. And hopefully it's spilling from Bastard North Stars fans. If that happens, of course.
There are seven games left in the regular season, but none may be more important than the first one: At Colorado. They then come back home to play Chicago (again) and Ottawa, the team that tied them late in regulation and then beat them again late in OT.
#-1: Gopher softball (Last Week: -2). It appears as though the Tulsa Golden Hurricane has got the U.'s number. Just four days after beating the Golden Gophers, they played the opener of the Rock Chalk Challenge in Lawrence, Kan., and not did they beat them again, they mercy-ruled them 10-1 in five innings. And I don't think that team's even ranked. Sheesh. But Minnesota did bounce back with double-up wins over Kansas (4-2) and Missouri-Kansas City (2-1).
They finish off the "preseason" with a record of 19-9 and still ranked (at 22nd) in the polls. They now begin conference play with back-to-back weekends on the road, starting with Purdue with three beginning this (Friday) afternoon.
#-2: Timberwolves (Last Week: -1). The Maturation Of The Woofie Dogs continues apace and successfully, even though they suffered a 1-2 screening week. They lost in Houston, but kept it to 116-111. They then had to fly back to host Golden State ... and they stood toe-to-toe with the defending champs. In fact, they had plenty of chances to win before succumbing to The Borg Of The NBA, by the team's second consecutive five-point loss, 109-104. They could have won, but the fact that the young'uns, led by Karl-Anthony Towns and Zach LaVine, didn't back down is something for them to look back on as an important path to the resurrection of this squad. And they then followed that up by defeating Sacramento at Target, 113-104, after the club erupted in the fourth quarter to put the game away.
Note that I left out Andrew Wiggins up there. With Towns demonstrating that he has already mastered much of the NBA, it's obvious that he is the one the franchise needs to build around, not Wiggins. This piece on online city blog MinnPost details the still-long path that a chronically underachieving organization has to convince its fans it knows how to walk. It's not going to be easy even if they do make the right choices. But speaking of that, here is one unpopular one: Move Wiggins. Yep, move him for a draft pick either this year or next. Robson points out in his story that Wiggins has mysteriously plateaued, especially on the defensive side. If this is his ceiling, would it be prudent to just cut him loose right now? Maybe LaVine could be the Pippen to Towns's Jordan. Maybe it should be this way.
This week: At Washington before a three-game homestand vs. Utah, Phoenix and the Clippers.
#-3: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -4). Lost two-of-three at Utah Valley. That the Goofs lost two-of-three to a university that I don't think played top-flight sports until the turn of the millennium, and may not have been a college at all until relatively recently, is a smack in the face. But they did play their first game at Siebert Field Tuesday, where they crushed Augsburg. They're back on the road for the final time in non-con to play at 23rd-ranked Missouri State this weekend.
#-Infinity (tie): Gopher men's hockey and wrestling (Last Week, respectively: -3 and -5). Well, yet another two male sports in Dinkytown end their seasons prematurely and quietly.
I was at the B1G men's hockey tournament final at Xcel Saturday, although not too many else were. The Goofers weren't bad, and I felt that going up against a Michigan club that had little to play for, maybe Minnesota would be good enough to get the win and the auto-bid to the NCAA Tournament that went along with it. However, the Wolverines have what I had heard was a dangerous first line of JT Compher, Kyle Connor and Tyler Motte. Those three have been scoring at will all season to the point where all three players are Hobey Baker Award finalists. I was worried that the young, raw, and maybe shitty Gophers team still couldn't beat a Michigan squad playing at, oh, 75% effort.
They didn't. Minnesota made it a game. After Michigan scored to make it 2-0 a guy behind me yelled, "Game over." I thought so too, but instead the U. came back with three goals to take the lead heading into the third period. Unfortunately, the Compher-Connor-Motte line, which was on the ice for both Wolverines goals, attacked again, figuring into the three tallies in that final period (where Michigan has been phenomenal; geez, why didn't I pick them to win the tournament in both of my brackets?) to give Michigan the 5-3 win and making sure that, once again, the Big Ten remains a one-bid conference. (#B1GMistake indeed, but that subject is for another time.)
I revisited that hit piece by Cory Zurowski of City Pages, and although I'm still convinced getting Don Lucia fired gives him a hard-on, what he wrote was very, very fair and honest. The heat is on now for Lucia, especially since Wisconsin fired their Head Coach, Mike Eaves, after horrible back-to-back seasons (even worse than the one Lucia suffered through), and Eaves actually won a national championship more recently than Lucia has (2006 as opposed to 2002 and 2003). Look, Lucia is still a legend, and I know he has one year. But the weakness and laziness in talent, plus the annual defections of the team's top players, will not make his job any easier, even in a weak low-major like the B1G.
Meanwhile, since wrestling is a non-revenue sport, J Robinson is going to stay with Minnesota until he says it's time for him to leave. He'd better clean up the abortion that was his season, though. No titles in the NCAAs at Madison Square Garden last weekend. In fact, the Golden Goofers finished ... I can't believe this ... in 17th place. How in the fuck does a rich program like Minnesota finished like that shit? Youth? Inexperience? Injury? Meanwhile, Penn St. wins the whole fucking thing again; can't see that team taking a powder for one year, can you?
Look, I highly doubt this is going to be the first of many years of precipitous decline for the U. Maybe. Last year I was horrified that the volleyball team failed to reach the tournament for the first time in, like, 17 years. But it turns out that Head Coach Hugh McCutcheon was breaking some young players in and waiting for depth to improve. That bad season turned into a Final Four year for the U., and I think they'll be a contender again next year. I hope to Buddha and God above that's the plan for this program and that they'll be back with a vengeance next year. Because what they suffered through this year is fucking depressing.
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