After Losing Two to Denver, Minnesota Drops in the Polls The University of Minnesota Gophers men's hockey team rolled into Denver last weekend looking to bury the Pioneers in the standings and extend its own Western Collegiate Hockey Conference lead. Denver had other plans. Minnesota was coming off of a home-and-home sweep of St. Cloud State but the Pioneers returned the favor and swept the Gophers at Magness Arena, winning 5-3 on Friday and 4-3 in overtime on Saturday. The Gophers scored first on Friday when Nate Condon notched his 10th goal of the season. The Pioneers countered by scoring the next three goals of the contest. Early in the second Minnesota's Kyle Rau made it 3-2 on a power play goal. Denver's Jason Zucker scored a power play goal to once again extend the Pioneer's lead. Later in the second Rau was given a game misconduct for a late hit he laid on Zucker; Rau was suspended one game by the W.C.H.A. for the hit. "We respect the league's decision; it's based on player safety and you understand that," Minnesota head coach Don Lucia said. They're in a difficult position; ultimately we have to make sure that we protect the players and I think Kyle understands that and our whole team does. Both teams added one more goal in the second; there was no scoring in the third. Minnesota hoped to avoid its first sweep of the season Saturday and left itself in a good position scoring the contest's first two goals. However, Denver scored one late in the second and another early in the third to knot the game at two. Nico Sacchetti scored with 10 minutes remaining in regulation and gave the Gophers a lead, a lead they held until the last two minutes. After a Justin Holl high-sticking penalty, Nick Shore tied the game for the Pioneers and sent the game to overtime. Seventeen seconds into the extra period Shore finished off the game, beating Minnesota goalie Kent Patterson on a backhand off of a rebound. "I thought we played really well on Saturday night," Lucia said. And that's why it becomes so disappointing that you're a minute and a half away from having a good weekend and then we gave up the goal and gave up the overtime goal - so you go from having a good weekend and splitting at Denver to not getting any points. The sweep dropped the Gophers to No. 7 in the USCHO.com poll and No. 14 in the PairWise Rankings, the latter being important because they are used to seed the N.C.A.A .Tournament. On average the top-16 teams in the PairWise make the N.C.A.A. Tournament, with some exceptions coming from automatic bids to conference winners. With the Gophers being ranked No. 14 it is safe to call them a "bubble team" despite the fact that they currently sits atop the W.C.H.A. standings. Minnesota holds a one-point conference lead over Minnesota Duluth and a two-point lead over Denver. "It's so close with everyone right now, and the system was meant to be looked at when the final game has been played and there's a lot of hockey to be played," Lucia said. We're in a good position right now. I like where we are in the league and even overall, we control our own destiny. The Gophers will play Bemidji State this weekend at Mariucci Arena. Minnesota holds an 8-8-1 record against B.S.U. The Beavers have been hot the last couple of weekends and are coming off of a home sweep of Colorado College. "Everyone has tough games with [Bemidji State]," Lucia said. They have certainly one of the top goalies in the league, they have very much a junior/senior team, they play pretty mistake-free hockey and they make you beat them; they're not going to beat themselves.