MINNEAPOLIS - When players on the Minnesota Gophers men's hockey team walked into their locker room this week, reeling from two losses to St. Cloud State last weekend, they were greeted by a sight for sore eyes.
"A lot of people have been wondering if we're down in the dumps right now," Gophers captain Mike Vannelli said. "But we came here Monday, and the coaches had something posted up on the board that showed the national Pairwise rankings.
"Sure enough, we were still rated No. 1."
Maybe in the ranking that mimics the NCAA selection criteria, but nowhere else.
Minnesota dropped to No. 4 in the national polls this week, and its players adopted a sense of urgency as they prepared for their final regular-season series against Michigan Tech tonight and Saturday night in Mariucci Arena.
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"We just didn't play to our potential and to our expectations," said goaltender Kellen Briggs, who played the second of the two losses against St. Cloud. "I think we just have to get back to that consistency, and that starts with hard work in practice.
"We only have about six weeks at the most left here, so it's not too much to ask the guys to commit all their time and all their energy to practice and games, to just kind of block everything out and focus on hockey for about a month and a half."
The Gophers looked like the runner-up in a boxing match after both games over the weekend, frustrated with their play and frustrated that they failed to get even the one point necessary to earn at least a share of the MacNaughton Cup that goes to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association champion.
"It felt almost like our season had ended," defenseman Derek Peltier said, "because that's how much the game had meant to both teams. After we lost, everyone was down."
