Most agreed No. 20 (for now) Minnesota-Duluth would not be as strong as recent years past, but few expected the Bulldogs (2-5-1, 0-3-1 league) to be in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association’s basement at this point. Last-place UMD’s inconsistency continued during a road sweep at the hands of Nebraska- Omaha that concluded with a 6-3 … Read more
No. 2 Minnesota (5-2, 2-2 WCHA) at Alaska-Anchorage (2-2-2, 0-1-1) Tyler: Minnesota travels north to the Last Frontier needing a win more than any other team in the league. The Gophers haven’t proven the preseason hype, but it is common for even the best teams in the WCHA to go through a rough patch. The … Read more
Wisconsin lost its most valuable skater, Mark Zengerle, to a broken left index finger suffered while killing a penalty in Saturday night’s 3-0 home loss to Colorado College. Zengerle will be out five to six weeks, according to Andy Johnson of Bucky’s Fifth Quarter, who spoke with Zengerle after the game. The Badgers’ sputtering offense … Read more
Minnesota State (2-2-2, 0-2 WCHA) vs. No. 2 Minnesota (4-1, 1-1) Joe: Minnesota’s power play (15 percent) should find its footing against Minnesota State’s last-place penalty kill (71.4 percent) which would allow the Gophers, even though they are still trying to jell, to use their superior offensive talent to sweep this home and home series. … Read more
Here are three observations from this past weekend in the WCHA: Denver forwards are producing plenty of goals After preseason questions about their ability to score regularly, the Denver forwards have recorded 12 of the team’s 20 goals in the Pioneers’ 4-0 start, including victories against No. 11 Massachusetts-Lowell and an improved Michigan Tech team, … Read more
Alaska-Anchorage (2-1-1) at No. 4 North Dakota (1-1) Joe: There is only one number you need to know: 27. That is the number of games dating back to Dec. 9, 2011, since UND had a healthy scratch. They have a full complement of 18 skaters available this weekend which should be more than enough to … Read more
Fresh off a convincing road sweep of Maine, we’ll be joined by St. Lawrence head coach Greg Carvel on our Oct. 23 episode of USCHO Live! and by veteran Minnesota broadcaster Frank Mazzocco. Join us for the conversation and information, Tuesday, Oct. 23, from 8 to 9 p.m. ET at blogtalkradio.com/uscholive. If you can’t listen live, check out … Read more
It’s out in the open now. No team can sleep on Michigan Tech. No. 1 Minnesota made the trip to Houghton, Mich. to play the Huskies in the only WCHA matchup of the weekend and took a surprising punch in the mouth from the home team Friday night. The Huskies beat the Gophers, 5-3, using … Read more
No. 1 Minnesota (2-0) at Michigan Tech (1-1) Joe: The Huskies will not score eight goals at home like they did against Lake Superior State on Saturday. That is too bad because they might need to against a powerful UM offense. Gophers sweep despite a more challenging series. Tyler: The big Olympic sheet played into … Read more
No. 13 Minnesota Duluth (1-1) at No. 9 Notre Dame (2-0), Thursday-Friday Joe: The Bulldogs were called out by coach Scott Sandelin. They will respond. Senior Mike Seidel started off at the pace (three goals) UMD needs. The Irish looked pretty good at the Icebreaker, but the Bulldogs should garner a split. Tyler: Forced to … Read more
No. 16 Michigan State at No. 2 Minnesota Joe: Mariucci should be a loud place for the MSU rookies (12 on the roster) to handle with Gopher fans excited about this UM squad. Goalie Will Yanakeff (.922 save percentage) gives the Spartans a chance against Minnesota’s offensive firepower, led by Nick Bjugstad, the media and coaches’ … Read more
It’s the second week of October, which means the WCHA is back. Opening weekend features nine teams back in action and we’ll have the full picks edition up Friday morning. Here’s an appetizer to chew on for now. Joe Paisley, former Colorado College beat writer for the Colorado Springs Gazette, replaces Brian Halverson as a … Read more
North Dakota boarded its team bus in Bemidji on Nov. 20, following a 1-0 loss to the Beavers, carrying the weight of a tie for 10th in the WCHA standings and the burden of a 4-7-1 overall record with it on its trip home to Grand Forks. Ahead of them lie a date with Colorado … Read more
No. 9 Denver (24-12-4) vs. No. 2 Minnesota-Duluth (24-8-6) Tyler: UMD is going to reverse its fortune from last season’s early exit in the Final Five. Denver has let a lot of games go down to the wire lately against team’s they should put away and that’s not going to work today. UMD wins. Brian: … Read more
St. Cloud State (17-16-5, 12-12-4 WCHA) vs. No. 9 Denver (23-12-4, 16-8-4 WCHA) Tyler: Mike Lee’s past against UND, which includes zero wins in six starts, is going to rattle him Thursday. He never had a shot against UND this year (out with injury in four games vs. UND) and he’s red hot since he … Read more
Watch any hockey game and they are not difficult to identify. At times it seems they are constantly on the ice dazzling us with feats of skill and creativity which sets them apart from the rest. You hear their names called out over the P.A. system with far greater frequency than most and, long after … Read more
The postseason begins this weekend with six series making up the WCHA’s first round of playoff competition. By Sunday, half of these teams will be out of the conference playoffs and while a couple of those may still be able to squeeze into the NCAA’s they’ll need to rely on the success and/or failure of … Read more
Here’s a sampling of what interested us from this past weekend’s action and results. SCSU’s extra attacker: cell phone It occurred to St. Cloud State coach Bob Motzko before Saturday’s game against Minnesota-Duluth that whatever happened in Omaha directly affected the Huskies, and that the timing between the games would be critical. So, Motzko made … Read more
No. 9 Denver (19-11-4, 14-8-4 WCHA) at Nebraska-Omaha (14-14-6, 11-10-5 WCHA) Tyler: Denver’s stars are getting hot at the right time as Jason Zucker, Luke Salazar and Nick Shore are all on five-game point streaks and Zucker has goals in all five of those games. Nebraska-Omaha’s defense has been questionable and wildly inconsistent with UNO utilizing multiple goalies all season. Ryan Massa seemed to … Read more
No. 6 Minnesota (21-11-1, 17-7-0 WCHA) at Nebraska-Omaha (14-12-6, 11-8-5 WCHA) Tyler: Minnesota’s speed and skill is capable of overmatching Nebraska-Omaha in a time when the Gophers power play is clicking. The PP has scored six goals on 19 chances over the past five games and has scored once in each of the last five games. … Read more