You may be placing too much emphasis on one portion of the schedule.  Here's
part of a previous season in which the Gophers struggled in January and February:

1/23 Michigan          3-7 L
1/24 Michigan          3-5 L
1/30 Minnesota-Duluth  5-3 W
1/31 Minnesota-Duluth  6-3 W
2/06 Michigan State    2-4 L
2/07 Michigan State    4-5 ot L
2/13 Wisconsin         5-4 ot W
2/14 Wisconsin         3-9 L
2/20 Colorado College  4-1 W
2/21 Colorado College  3-4 L
2/27 Michigan          2-5 L

The year was 1976.  The season ended this way:

3/26 Boston University 4-2 W
3/27 Michigan Tech     6-4 W

Perhaps some would say that Minnesota didn't deserve to be one of the four
teams that made it to the NCAA tournament that year, considering that they went
4-7 between Jan 23 and Feb 27.

-- Erik


> Sorry Erik, I should have said Minnesota's recent record is garbage (which
> is true), not that they were playing like garbage (which may or may not be
> true).  I should be more careful how I phrase things.  Mea Culpa.
>
> But I will still maintain that no matter which league you are in (WCHA, ECAC
> or CHA) there is no excuse for being 0-3-1 at home to lower division teams
> if a club wants to claim to be a top 4 team in the country.  These are bad
> loses by the Gophers, and the selection criteria needs to be changed to
> reflect this in some way.
>
> William Sangrey Let's Go RED!!! Cornell '87&'94