No. 1 Minnesota-Duluth (14-3-3, 10-2-2 WCHA) at Nebraska-Omaha (10-8-4, 7-4-3 WCHA) Tyler: The CenturyLink Center is a big building that’s going to be packed and wild this weekend to greet the nation’s No. 1 team. So was Western Michigan’s barn but the Bulldogs went in and pushed the Mustnags around in UMD sweep last weekend. UNO’s top … Read more
What Huntsville really exposed Alabama-Huntsville shocked the college hockey world once again when it upset Denver, 3-2, Friday night. No one saw that coming. Not anyone who looked at the matchup going into the weekend, not George Gwozdecky and neither did us when we picked Denver to sweep the series. The Chargers did it by erasing a … Read more
No. 5 Notre Dame (12-6-3, 8-3-3-0 CCHA) at No. 3 Minnesota (15-6-1, 11-3-0 WCHA) Saturday only Brian: The Irish have proven to be notoriously slow starters thus far this season having allowed the game’s first goal in 12 of 21 games and fallen behind by two in half of those contests. Opponents have outscored Notre Dame … Read more
Happy Friday and welcome to this week’s edition of WCHA picks (brief pause to allow the applause to die down). Today we give you five of the weekend’s seven match-ups as we focus on the Friday-Saturday series. But wait, there’s more! As an added bonus, check back tomorrow for a special Saturday picks blog as … Read more
Michigan Tech (9-10-1, 6-7-1 WCHA) vs. Boston College (12-7-0, 9-4-0 HE) at Great Lakes Invitational — Friday Brian: Third-ranked Boston College ruined what should have been the most intriguing matchup of the weekend by losing to Michigan and robbing us of the first head-to-head meeting between Michigan Tech coach Mel Pearson and his long-time mentor, Red … Read more
After a one-week hiatus, the “ever-popular” picks blog makes its triumphant return today but only in sneak-peek fashion as we only have a pair of Thursday games. As an added bonus, however, we opted to pick Western Michigan and St. Cloud State as a series. No need to thank us. The rest of our apparently … Read more
With precisely half of the WCHA’s 2011-12 season schedule in the rear view mirror as we travel to our various holiday destinations, we thought it appropriate to take a look back before visions of sugar plums begin dancing in your heads. As we head into the first college-hockey-free weekend in nearly three months, we find … Read more
With only four matchups this weekend, the biggest news in the past seven days came from off the ice. Nebraska Omaha coach Dean Blais dismissed senior forward Alex Hudson last week after his second violation of team rules. With Hudson gone, where does that leave the Mavericks up front? Hudson (4-6–10) was scoring on around … Read more
Michigan Tech (9-8-1, 6-7-1 WCHA) at Northern Michigan (8-7-3, 5-6-3-2 CCHA) Tyler: Both teams are better in this year’s matchup than when the teams met last season. The Wildcats are in the PairWise Rankings top 16 (where teams typically need to be to make the regional tournaments). The Huskies are in a week-in, week-out fight to … Read more
Minnesota State scored more goals in one game than it had in nearly eight years as the Mavericks routed Alabama-Huntsville 9-1 on Saturday night. But that eight-goal blowout was an aberration in an otherwise thrilling weekend of WCHA action. Seven of the 12 games on the schedule were decided by one goal or less and … Read more
No. 1 Minnesota-Duluth (11-3-2, 9-2-1 WCHA) at Wisconsin (7-8-1, 4-7-1 WCHA) Tyler: The Bulldogs can cash in on the power play, facing one of the nation’s worst penalty kills (73.5 percent) but the Badgers have played well in their own building this season with a 7-3 home record. Wisconsin is rested and desperate for a WCHA win; … Read more
No. 4 Minnesota-Duluth (9-3-2, 7-2-1 WCHA) at No. 20 Michigan Tech (8-5-1, 5-4-1 WCHA) Tyler: Michigan Tech has been on the run the last couple weeks and Minnesota-Duluth spent last weekend resting. Kenny Reiter has been as hot of goaltender as anyone the last month and he’s out to prove the week off won’t affect … Read more
Princeton (2-6-1, 2-5-0 ECAC) at No. 10 Denver (5-3-3, 4-2-3 WCHA) Tyler: The Pioneers are unbeaten in five of their past six games but they need to start finishing games. The Pioneers lost third-period leads in two of those ties. Denver has scored only one goal in third periods in the six-game stretch dating back to Oct. … Read more
No. 19 Nebraska Omaha (6-5-1, 5-2-1 WCHA) at No. 11 Denver (4-3-2, 3-2-2 WCHA) Tyler: Nebraska-Omaha’s goaltending situation, between John Faulkner and Ryan Massa, has held the Mavericks back but Adam Murray hasn’t exactly put a lid on Denver’s net either. This weekend will see a couple of high-offense shootouts out on the range. Neither … Read more
Nebraska-Omaha (5-5-0, 4-2-0 WCHA) at Bemidji State (4-6-0, 2-4-0 WCHA) Tyler: Andrew Walsh is having a decent freshman season, splitting time with Dan Bakala in goal for BSU, but in this matchup, Tom Serratore has to start Bakala. Bakala was the x-factor in the Beavers’ domination of UNO last season. He saw 226 shots in … Read more
Well, here we go, another week of picks in the books. Alaska-Anchorage has the week off so Bemidji State heads east to play red-hot Lake Superior State. One team aims to continue validating its start, another looks for a bounce-back weekend at home, a well-respected bench boss coaches his 500th game, one series could easily … Read more
It was a weekend chalk full of upsets, comebacks, shutouts, ejections, and redemptions in the WCHA. Here’s just a hat trick’s worth of “knowledge” we gleaned from Friday and Saturday’s tilts. 1. Huskies go from pretender to contender. Michigan Tech stunned No. 2 Denver, Friday, and most people who looked at Friday’s WCHA scores. The … Read more
Well here we are at the season’s most league game intensive weekend thus far. CC’s non-conference date at RPI and Minnesota State’s open weekend is all that stands in the way of a full WCHA schedule. There are some interesting match-ups out there this weekend and, without further ado, we take our best shot picking … Read more
Michigan Tech (4-0-0, 2-0-0 WCHA) at Bemidji State (1-3-0, 0-2-0 WCHA) Tyler: The Beavers are battle tested after splitting with then-No. 2 Miami before losing a couple tight games at then-No. 7 Colorado College. Tech had to sweat out a couple of close ones against one of the worst teams in the land, American International, a … Read more
No. 14 Minnesota (2-0-0, 0-0-0 WCHA) at No. 9 Minnesota-Duluth (1-1-0, 0-0-0 WCHA) Tyler: This one is a battle of youth and Minnesota’s freshman class is more talented. Six of the seven freshmen who played against Sacred Heart last weekend scored at least a point. Mind you, that was a bad Sacred Heart squad. Both … Read more