The lofty expectations were due mostly to the quality of returning players, which included starting goaltender and co-captain, Jack LaFontaine who was the reigning Mike Richter Award winner.

Due to playing three top-10 non-conference teams, as well as three other ranked clubs within their conference, Minnesota was still on pace to earn a bid to the NCAA tournament.

The Gophers opened the second half of their season with a sweep over lowly Michigan State but then suffered a massive loss.

On January 9 Jack LaFontaine, who had played all but 28 minutes in goal for the team to that point, signed a profession contract with the Carolina Hurricanes and ended his college career.

Once the calendar turned to February, Close began looking like a top-flight goalie and he backstopped the Gophers to their best performance all season.

Though they had lost Brock Faber, Ben Meyers and Matthew Knies to the US Olympic team,[2] Minnesota won their final eight regular season games and shot up both the standings and the rankings.

[3] The winning streak placed Minnesota atop the conference standings and gave the Gophers a bye into the Big Ten semifinals.

The loss caused Minnesota to drop just enough to receive a #2 seed in the tournament and were set against the defending national champion, Massachusetts.

Early on it looked to be a bad match for the Gophers when UMass scored twice in the first but a late goal by Ryan Johnson got Minnesota back in the game before the period was over.