For the first time this season, all 10 WCHA teams are in action against one another. It should make for a more exiting weekend than we’ve seen before this season — all five series will have four league points on the line. Which teams will separate themselves from the pack? Will Michigan Tech remain undefeated? … Read more
Getting things started a day earlier since there’s a game tonight … It’s been a tough year making picks so far, but I finally had a good week and am closing in on you, Jack! Looking back at last week, I saw we got ripped by Alaska assistant coach Lance West for expecting the Nanooks … Read more
This post was all going to be fun and games until we learned late Wednesday night about the deep sanctions imposed on the Alaska athletic department by the NCAA. Now, I don’t know what to think. Said sanctions include a postseason ban on the Nanooks hockey team for this season, along with scholarship reductions and a $30,000 … Read more
I’ve never been a big fan of the slow, unbalanced rollout of the WCHA schedule. I’d love to see everybody begin league play together and then have the schedulers do their best to keep games in hand to a minimum as the season progresses. Yes, this comes from the it-was-my-understanding-there’d-be-no-math department, but I think everybody … Read more
We’re into week four of the college hockey season and this is the first weekend that everybody in the WCHA is playing. No byes. Which means that although Shane and I currently have identical 19-11-1 overall records picking games, these ones will decide a lot. Also, we have three conference series: All four Michigan schools … Read more
It’s the second full week of the season, and Jack and I are wondering how to pick better. Each of us correctly called some splits last week but picked the wrong teams on the wrong nights. Based on the Frederick-Wellens rules of last year, those go down as losses on our records. So it goes. … Read more
The first full week of games is finally here! And seeing as how this is my first official blog post on USCHO I’m a bit nervous that Shane is going to humiliate me in this year’s pick ’em standings. I’m bad at predicting things, which is why I don’t gamble. Luckily for me, we’re not … Read more
First things first: Welcome aboard Bemidji’s Jack Hittinger to our WCHA coverage this year, and we bid adieu to Matt Wellens, who did a great job last year and will be missed. I cannot confirm that Matt got out because he lost to me in the picks. We’ll see if Jack can overtake me. But … Read more
The WCHA Final Five is upon us with an entirely different look compared to year’s past. In essence, it’s become almost a cross between the CCHA’s old Super 6/championship weekend at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit and the Final Five we all came to love and cherish at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, … Read more
It’s playoff time, and there are some intriguing matchups to kick off the WCHA tournament. The fact that the first round pits former CCHA teams against leftover WCHA teams (following the league’s breakup) adds to the interest. But the tournament is bigger than bragging rights. A trip to the Final Five is on the line, … Read more
WCHA awards We were disappointed to learn last week that the WCHA scrapped tradition and shut the media out of this year’s vote for league awards. All that research and number crunching down the tubes, right? Wrong! Matt and I put our lists together, shuffled some things around, played some rock-paper-scissors and finally came to … Read more
Unlike the WCHA standings, there’s no question how this regular season pick ’em battle will end. First place: Shane Frederick. Last place: Matt Wellens. Unlike the last place team in the WCHA standings, however, I still get to make the playoffs for redemption. Here is how Shane and I predict the final weekend of the … Read more
Heading into the last week of the regular season in the WCHA, here is what I think I learned from last weekend. You couldn’t ask for a more exciting final weekend From the MacNaughton Cup, to the pursuit of home ice in the first round of the WCHA playoffs, to just making the league playoffs, … Read more
According to the WCHA (via collegehockeystats.net), there remain 387,420,489 scenarios for the league’s final finish and playoff seedings. And that’s with just two weekends and 18 games remaining in the regular season! Shane and Matt won’t go through all of them. We’ll just make our predictions for this weekend … Bowling Green at Northern Michigan … Read more
Matt here, with a moment of honesty to start. Last week, you may have noticed I picked a lot of sweeps. That’s pretty crazy since splits seem to rule this year in the WCHA. I did it because I was trailing Shane and hoping to pick up a few wins. Since he picks splits so … Read more
Shane here. Matt’s closing the gap on me in the overall standings. We’ve both been picking splits correctly; I’ve just been picking the wrong teams on the wrong days lately. With all 10 teams in action against each other (finally!), this weekend figures to have some a few intriguing matchups, as well as plenty of … Read more
Eight of the WCHA’s 10 teams are in action this weekend while Alaska and Bowling Green take the weekend off so the rest of the league can catch up to them in games played. After the weekend, everyone in the WCHA will be within two games played of each other. Ferris State, Northern Michigan, Lake … Read more
Kind of a quiet week in the WCHA with only three series going on. But each of the three could have a big impact on the standings. Michigan Tech at Bowling Green Shane: The biggest surprise in the standings right now might be that the Huskies are flirting with missing the postseason. While there’s a … Read more
Eight of the league’s 10 teams are involved in conference play this weekend, meaning the standings are once again due to be shuffled. Meanwhile, Minnesota State participates in the North Star College Cup and Alabama-Huntsville gets a week off. Here are the picks: Lake Superior State at Bowling Green Shane: These two teams are going … Read more
Six WCHA teams are involved in conference play this week while Bemidji State and Lake Superior State play nonconference series. Michigan Tech and Bowling Green both are on the bye. Here are the picks. Alaska at Northern Michigan Shane: The fun thing about the WCHA this year is that there’s not just a race for … Read more