As usual, Golden Gopher winter sports teams have been in the middle of the March tournament mayhem.
The women's hockey team is headed to the Frozen Four again—its 14th appearance. The Gophers survived a tough test from Princeton in the NCAA quarterfinals at Ridder Arena on March 16, but prevailed 5-2 on a go-ahead goal by Kelly Pannek and two empty-net tallies. The No. 2 ranked Gophers will face Cornell in the semifinals next Friday at Hamden, Conn., and the winner will advance to the title game against the winner of Wisconsin-Clarkson.
The men's hockey team likely needed to win the Big Ten Tournament to reach the NCAA Tournament, but fell at Notre Dame in the semifinals 2-1 in overtime.
And the men's basketball team used a nice run in the Big Ten Tournament—beating Penn State in overtime and upsetting Purdue in the quarterfinals—to assure its second trip to the Big Dance in three years. The Gophers were tabbed a No. 10 seed and will face No. 7 Louisville in the opening round of the East Regional in Des Moines.
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