A night after the Minnesota Gophers couldn’t take advantage of the largest crown in Mariucci Arena history, they found out what the penalty would be. The NCAA Tournament pairings were announced Sunday night and the Gophers will be the #2 seed in the Worcester Region and will open play against #3 seed UMass Minutemen at 5 PM Friday night. Western Michigan is the #1 seed in the region and will play #4 seed Northeastern in the other semifinal earlier Friday morning.
Minnesota scored just 32 seconds into the Big Ten Championship game against Michigan Saturday night, but the Wolverines answered back less than a minute later and would take a 2-1 lead after a shot deflected off Gopher defenseman’s Mike Koster’s stick and past Justen Close late in the first.