For the fifth-straight year, the Minnesota men’s hockey team will send three players to the International Ice Hockey Federation Under-20 World Junior championships.

After losing to Michigan 6-3 last Friday, Minnesota men’s hockey captain Ryan Stoa said the hard part about being the top team in the country wasn’t getting there, but staying there.

After starting the season with a 12-game unbeaten streak, the Minnesota men’s hockey team has a new record — one that will likely cause them to drop off the perch of the national polls:

Three games, zero wins.

Despite losing its first game of the season in Saturday night’s 4-0 shutout against Denver, the Minnesota men’s hockey team retained its No. 1 ranking in both national polls.

The Minnesota men’s hockey team broke a streak of starting four-straight weekends with a tie on Friday when the top-ranked Gophers outplayed Denver 5-2 on the road.

In a rematch of last year’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association Final Five championship game, the top-ranked and unbeaten Minnesota men’s hockey team will travel to Denver this weekend for a two-game series with the No. 10 Pioneers.

Freshman forward Jordan Schroeder said he anticipated being one of the Minnesota men’s hockey team’s top six scorers this season.

The Minnesota men’s hockey team was unanimously voted as the No. 1 team in the nation Monday in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Men’s College Hockey Poll. It’s the first time the Gophers have been ranked first since Jan. 22, 2007.

The Minnesota men’s hockey team skated to another three points again this weekend, but there was one Gophers line whose offensive presence was standout.

Switching this weekend’s men’s hockey series to Saturday-Sunday didn’t break the Gophers’ trend of tying first and winning second, but it did get sophomore netminder Alex Kangas his first collegiate shutout in Sunday’s 3-0 blanking of Michigan Tech.