Feature: When they needed it most, Gopher women found a way to beat the best (The Athletic)

With her team’s center of attention turning towards needing two wins, internally Sidney Peters spent much of the weekend focusing on a single droplet of water.

It’s a trick Peters, a kinesiology major, picked up to help concentrate. During stoppages of play Minnesota’s redshirt senior goaltender will spray her water bottle in the air and try to watch the droplets falling down.

“It’s a way to keep my eyes awake. You have all these little muscles in your eyes. When you’re zoning out and not getting a lot of shots, you can lose control,” she said. “It’s also a focal point for me. It helps me to stay focused and deal with the anxiety that’s inevitable as an athlete.”

Inevitably there was anxiety.

Two hours before Saturday’s WCHA Final Faceoff semifinal, any plans of the Gophers making the NCAA tournament as an at-large bid disappeared 1,100 miles away. Minnesota players and coaches found out through scoreboard watching that UConn upset Hockey East regular-season champion Boston College. Hockey East’s automatic bid would go to a team outside the top eight in the Pairwise Rankings, taking away an at-large spot in the eight-team field.

That spot would have been Minnesota’s.

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