After backing up its Western Collegiate Hockey Association regular season championship with a conference playoff title last weekend, the Minnesota men’s hockey team earned the top overall seed in the NCAA tournament set to begin this weekend.
But despite the top spot, its road to the Frozen Four in St. Louis is anything but easy.
If the Gophers hope to make it past their West Regional in Denver this weekend, they will have to go through Air Force in the first round, followed by a second-round matchup with Michigan or North Dakota.
And while Minnesota is familiar with both the Wolverines and Sioux – the Gophers played Michigan once and North Dakota three times this season – the trio make up arguably one of the toughest brackets in the tournament.
In fact, the Sioux were favored to win the WCHA championship game against the Gophers on Saturday – a 3-2 Minnesota win.
Had North Dakota won, the Sioux would have locked up a No. 2 seed and could have made a case that they deserved a No. 1 seed.
Coming into the contest, North Dakota was 15-2-4 since Christmas and is still considered one of the hottest teams in college hockey.
But members of the Gophers’ team don’t seem to mind. The general consensus of the team is, once in a single elimination setting, any team can walk away with a victory against anyone.
“All the seedings and all the matchups don’t really matter,” senior defenseman Mike Vannelli said. “We’re worried about how we’re playing as a team and how hard we’re playing.”
All things considered, Vannelli’s mindset might be the biggest lesson from Minnesota’s first round loss to Holy Cross last March, a 4-3 overtime decision.
Which is why, despite the hype of a potential rematch with North Dakota hanging in the balance for Sunday’s regional final, Vannelli emphasized what the team needs to key on in order to beat Air Force on Saturday.
“They have one of the leading scorers in the nation (junior forward Eric Ehn, a Hobey Baker finalist) and put a lot of shots on goal, so we’ve got to be ready for them,” senior defenseman Mike Vannelli said.
The name of the game is taking one game at a time, Vannelli said.
Coach Don Lucia said he’s familiar with the academy teams like Air Force stemming from his time coaching Colorado College, and said he knows how hard they battle on the ice.
“Those kids compete,” Lucia said. “They’re going to play hard. That’s our focus, and we need to play our best in order to advance to Sunday.”
WCHA rundown
For the first time since 2000, the WCHA will not send at least four teams to the NCAA tournament.
Just three teams – Minnesota, North Dakota and St. Cloud State – will be representing the conference that has won the last five national championships.
With the Gophers and Sioux holding the No. 1 and 3 seeds, respectively, at the West Regional in Denver, the Huskies are the No. 2 seed in the East Regional, held in Rochester, N.Y.
St. Cloud State will play third-seeded Maine in the opening round Friday and, if they advance, will play the winner of No. 4 Massachusetts and No. 1 Clarkson on Saturday.
