Ache #10: 2017-18 Gopher Hockey Misses The Postseason

Minnesota is the State of Hockey. The state high school hockey championship attendance dwarfs that of NHL teams. There are five DI hockey programs in the state with easily the most talent.

But sometimes, things don't line up the way they should.

The 2017-18 Minnesota Gophers Men's Hockey team was a shoe-in to make the NCAA Tournament. In the middle of February, the team was ranked #8 in the country after beating and tying Ohio State and were on a 6-1-1 stretch. The Gophers lost their last two regular season games to Penn State, and then drew the Nittany Lions again to open the Big Ten Tournament.

The Nittany Lions won the three-game series 2-0, ending the Gophers chances at an automatic NCAA Tournament bid. The Gophers were outscored 21-11 in the four games.

The Gophers were now score-board watchers. After North Dakota beat Minnesota Duluth (the 2018 NCAA Men's Hockey champion), the Gophers were up to #12 in the rankings...the final spot for at-large bid.

There were six conference tournament games left to determine the majority of the 12 at-large teams for the tournament. Minnesota needed one of these teams to win to make the field: Providence (Hockey East), Clarkson (ECAC), Robert Morris (Atlantic Hockey), Northern Michigan (WCHA), St. Cloud State (NCHC) and Ohio State (Big Ten).

Just one of those team winning any of their respective championships would have put the Gophers in the Top 12.

Here are the scores from those conference championship games:

HOCKEY EAST:

Providence- 0

Boston College - 2

ECAC:

Clarkson- 1

Princeton - 2 F/OT (Clarkson tied the game with 7 seconds left in regulation)

ATLANTIC HOCKEY:

Robert Morris - 1

Air Force - 5

WCHA:

Michigan Tech - 2

Northern Michigan - 0

NCHC:

St. Cloud State - 1

Denver - 4

BIG TEN:

Ohio State - 2

Notre Dame - 3 F/OT

All six teams lost. The last result to come in, an OT winner by Notre Dame's Cam Mortenson 9:23 into the extra period, gave Notre Dame an automatic berth into the tournament and ended the dreams of the Gophers. The final PairWise rankings for the 2018 NCAA Men's Hockey Tournament:

1.  St. Cloud State

2.  Notre Dame

3.  Denver

4.  Cornell

5.  Ohio State

6.  MSU-Mankato

7.  Providence

8.  Northeaster

9.  Clarkson

10. Michigan

11. Minnesota Duluth

12. Penn State

13. Boston University

14. North Dakota (did not make tournament)

15. Minnesota (did not make tournament)

Teams that did not crack the Top 20:

Air Force (automatic bid)

Michigan Tech (automatic bid)

Gopher Head Coach Don Lucia stepped following the season after 19 years as head coach. Lucia had coached the Gophers to NCAA championships in 2002 and 2003, but hadn't won an NCAA Tournament game the previous four seasons.