And it's going to be another WCHA opponent in Friday's Semifinal. The Golden Gophers will face Wisconsin, which is unseeded, went to Hamilton, N. Y., ripped through Long Island U. 9-1 Thursday and upset host and third-Seed Colgate 4-2 yesterday/Saturday afternoon. But they are unseeded, so maybe this will be a laugher? If the Gophers do advance, the Championship Game is Sunday afternoon.
#0: Gopher men's hockey (Re-Entry!). And similarly, the Gopher men hockey team advanced in their tournament -- the Big Ten -- by routing Michigan St. at Mariucci before a packed crowd (some of which were students who stuck around campus even though it was Spring Break) 5-1 last/Saturday night. They face Michigan, also at home, Saturday in an effort to complete the double. They could lose that Game and possibly lose the #1 overall Seed for the NCAA Tournament, but the victory over the Spartans probably removes any chance the Golden Gophers will slip from the 1 band. So next Week's showdown isn't that important.
#-1: Wild (Last Week: 0). Lost to Calgary at home in a Shootout, then Wins in Winnipeg and San Jose has rocketed up the Central Division standings. They are now in second place, five Points clear of The Bastard Quebec Nordiques and only two Points behind The Bastard North Stars for first. But the main concern now is the injury to Kirill Kaprizov. He'll be out three-to-four Weeks; can this team weather that storm?
They did in beating the Sharks on the road. But they'll finish up a four-Game road trip with visits to Arizona and St. Louis. They return to face Inarguably The Best Team In The NHL, Boston, Saturday afternoon.
#-2: Gopher softball (Last Week: -3). Lost to Seattle and beat Loyola Marymount to finish the Judi Garman Classic, the moseyed on down to San Diego on Tuesday and lost to San Diego St., 2-1. They then started the home portion of their schedule with the Gopher Indoor Classic, where they began with Wins over North Dakota St., Central Michigan, and Idaho St. They finish up today/Sunday vs. Drake and St. Thomas, then participate in the Wichita St. Tournament, where they play South Dakota St. and the host Shockers on Friday and Northern Colorado and Wichita St. again Saturday.
#-3: United FC (Re-Entry!). Of course it had to be a "snowpener." And they tied 1-all with the New York Red Bulls last/Saturday night. It feels like a Loss, though, because MNUFC went up and allowed NYRB to tie it. Since they were ahead first, coughing up that lead makes the Tie more like a Loss, you know? At Colorado Saturday.
#-4: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -4). Hey, this ballclub actually won Games this Year? It was mid-Week one-offs over Northern Illinois and South Dakota St., but they still count! Sure, they finished getting swept at their own Cambria College Classic with a 4-0 Shutout Loss to Vanderbilt, and they ended the Week losing two-of-three at West Virginia. And they're 2-13 right now, and ... well, yeah, that's crap.
After finishing their series at the Mountaineers, they will host Gonzaga for a two-Game midweek series, then welcome Houston for a three-tilt series over the weekend. Gonzaga and Houston are great basketball programs, but how are they in baseball?
#-5: Timberwolves (Last Week: -1). I remarked to my friend on Facebook that you never know what Timberwolves team you'll see Game by Game. To wit: They presumably had home cooking with tilts with Philadelphia and Brooklyn. But they got blown out by the 76ers by 23, then lost in Overtime to the Nets by a single Point. They squandered a lot of goodwill by crapping the bed like this. But at least they're in seventh place in the West, in a statistical tie with Dallas. By the way, fourth and 13th place in the conference are only six Games apart. I've seen stranger things happen.
This Week is a busy one. They visit Atlanta tomorrow/Monday night, host Boston Wednesday, then travel to Chicago and Toronto back-to-back evenings.
#-6: Whitecaps (Last Week: -5). Holy mother of fucker, the wheels have entirely fallen off the Whitecraps. They returned home to Richfield for the final series of the regular season last/Saturday night and they got shut out by the Connecticut Whale, 3-0. That extended their losing streak to seven contests with this/Sunday afternoon's regular season finale left before the playoffs begin. Speaking of ... Minnesota is three Points ahead of Metropolitan for fourth, and assuming the standings are up-to-date, I don't think the Whitecraps are in any danger of losing what I presume to be home-ice advantage for the First Round of the PHF playoffs. But my goddamn God this team is in shitty form. You may not know this, but these players have lost their last six Games at home. Dafuq?
#-Infinity: Gopher men's basketball (Last Week: -2). Well, it's mercifully over. They hung tough in the season finale at home versus Wisconsin on Sunday night, but finally gave way, 71-67. They, as the 14th and last seed in the B1G Men's Baseball Tournament, surprised 11th-Seeded Nebraska Wednesday, 78-75, but no miracle run through the tourney for the Goofers as they got stopped by Maryland in the next night, 70-54.
Admittedly, they've been better the past couple Weeks. But, well, so what? I'm scared that that form of, uh, not shitty play is being overhyped by deluded fans into a thinking of, "See, it's gonna be so much better next year!" And you don't know that. There were more Weeks before these past two Weeks. This group had all the time in the world to improve, and they didn't until sorta the end. I think there are a bunch of people who are so desperately want to see this program not suck that they'll pour all their hearts into finding anything remotely optimistic about this season. Thus the talk we're hearing now. Hey, I want Ben Johnson to succeed. But it's still up to him to prove that he can turn things around. And I'm sorry, but his seat should be warm once next season comes around.
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