How does the Gophers' loss to Notre Dame impact their NCAA Tournament outlook?

Gophers men's hockey was surprisingly eliminated from the first round of the Big Ten Tournament last weekend. No. 7 seed Notre Dame came into the 3M Arena at Mariucci and knocked off the No. 2-seeded Gophers. They will now have to wait two weeks before learning the NCAA Tournament field and their first-round opponent.

Related: Gophers men's hockey team bounced by Notre Dame in Big Ten quarterfinals

Will Minnesota still be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament?

The Gophers will likely hold onto a No. 1 seed, but they will certainly have an interesting resume. The top four teams in the PairWise Rankings will get a No. 1 seed, but Minnesota fell from No. 3 to No. 4 overall after last weekend's games. Maine jumped them by .0001 of a point, and the Black Bears will have a first-round bye in the Hockey East tournament into the quarterfinals, which will take place this weekend.

Minnesota is firmly .0052 ahead of No. 5 Western Michigan, but they will open the NCHC Tournament this weekend as the top seed against St. Cloud. If the Broncos win out, it will be interesting to see if that's enough to jump the Gophers for the final number-one seed.

Who will the Gophers play in the first round?

X user @CollegePuckNXT posted a potential Bracketology outlook for the NCAA Tournament on Tuesday, and they projected Minnesota as a one seed in the Fargo, North Dakota region. They would play Quinnipiac in a rematch of the 2023 National Championship game, according to the projection.

The Gophers' NCAA Tournament outlook didn't change too much after their shocking first-round loss, but they will have to wait 13 more days until the Selection Show on March 23 and then at least four more days until their first-round game on March 27 or 28. There were a lot of reasons for concern in Minnesota's series last weekend against Notre Dame, but they no longer have any time to fix them, and it's single-elimination hockey from here on out.

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