The Minnesota Gophers just can't score. Sure, senior captain and leading scorer Jay Barriball didn't play with the dreaded "lower body injury", but this team did everything right in their Friday night tilt with #4 Denver: The Gophs held the high-powered Pioneers offense to just two goals on 28 shots, they threw 36 shots on net themselves, and had six power plays to Denver's two. Everything except put the puck in the net, losing 2-1. Each team had an even strength goal, but it was DU's 1-2 on the power play that made the difference.
0-6 on the power play? With or without Barriball, you HAVE to do better than that, especially against a team as good as the Pioneers. It's good the U is putting the puck on net, and they're going to need to do a lot more of that tonight to have any hope. Also, hard for the U to play much better tonight, but it shouldn't be too tough for Denver.
The only silver lining is that both CC and UAA lost too. UAA was expected to, getting thumped 6-1 up in Grand Forks. But CC getting shellacked 5-1 AT HOME by Mankato? Talk about returning the favor Minnesota gave them splitting with UAA, the Tigers just gave that gift back as the U are still in good shape to grab 6th. And if they could just freaking score some goals, Wisconsin is doing everything they can to keep the 5th seed up for grabs too, as they lost 4-1 to UNO. But none of those are the craziest result of the night in the WCHA- that would go to St Cloud St thumping Minnesota-Duluth 8-2. IN DULUTH! What in the H-E-Double-hockey-sticks happened up there last night?
Another crazy night in the WCHA, and we'll see what happens this evening. I have a bad feeling Minnesota missed their Golden (Gopher) opportunity to steal points from Denver last night, but on Hockey Day in Minnesota, you just never know. Enjoy the weekend, everybody.