The first round of the WCHA playoffs have come and gone, WOW, where some of those games fun to watch or what! CC, DU, and SCSU swept their series, while UND and UM played 3-games before prevailing in those series. The Final 5 starts this Thursday at 7pm in St. Paul, with the "play-in" game.
The Thursday night tilt will feature the SCSU Huskies versus the UM Gophers (SCSU will be the home teams, since they are the 4th seed, UM is the 5th seed). SCSU has had an extra day of rest compared to the Gophers, not counting all the overtime minutes the UM had to play at MSUM last weekend. I'm thinking this game will be SCSU's top line players (Roe, Lasch, Nodl) versus the UM defense, mainly Kangas. Whoever wins that battle will most likely win the game. If SCSU gets an early lead I think they will win the game, since it will force the UM to play an up-tempo game and the fatigue factor will come into play.
F5 PLAY-IN GAME WINNER - SCSU.
On a side note, everyone here at Goon's World are sending our prayers and well wishes to Mr. Pohl, and his family. We all hope that he will make a full and complete recovery from his tragecic head injuries, suffered on Sunday nights game, and be back to full strength in the near future.
Friday afternoons game, 2pm, will feature the the number 2 and 3 seeds, UND and DU. The question is this, "has DU gotten back to first half form?" The Pioneers have got some wins lately, but they have been against the bottom teams in the league. On the other hand UND is still on a hot streak, granted MTU ended their 18 game unbeaten streak, but 19-1-3 is not bad... Both goalies have been playing great as of late, so this could be a low scoring affair, on the other hand both teams have plenty of offense as well, so something has to give.
F5 SEMI-FINAL GAME #1 WINNER - UND
Friday nights game, 7pm, will have the UM/SCSU winner playing CC, the number 1 seed. The Tigers have been a steady eddie team all year. How will CC's freshman goalie Bachman hold up under the BIG TOP? I'm thinking that SCSU will put the pressure on CC's defense and try to outscore the Tigers, in what will be a bit of a shot-out. IF the UM wins and plays the Tigers, I think it will be more of a defensive struggle, with UM suffering from 5+ games in 7 days.
F5 SEMI-FINAL GAME #2 WINNER(S) - CC over UM, SCSU over CC
I'm not going to put up predictions on the Title and 3rd place games until late Friday, or early Saturday. We'll see how good (or bad) these three predictions turn out to be :)
The Goon, Sioux 7, and friends, will be invading the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul area around noon on Thursday. We will try and give everyone game recaps and predicts everyday of the Final 5. The Goon has a laptop, I don't :( but I'm sure he will share with me :)
Maybe the friends will share with you. ;-) Maybe Goon has an extra?
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