Sioux 3rd in INCH preseason WCHA poll.

Interesting read. I was wondering where Jess Meyers of INCH was going to pick UND to finish this season. I think the WCHA could be very close race again this season. I also predict that you will see 5 - 6 teams in the NCAA playoffs this season. There is going to be a lot of exciting players in this league this year.

1. Denver The Pioneers have everything in place, talent-wise, to finish on top. They also have the jinx of being the consensus favorite, which means they almost certainly will not.
2. St. Cloud State Add a hot freshman goalie to the likes of Lasch, Roe, and Raboin, and all of the pieces are in place for the Huskies to make another run at the NCAAs.
3. North Dakota After wave upon wave of eye-popping offensive talent coming from the Ralph, the duo of Genoway and Eidsness are prepared to do it with defense this season.
4. Minnesota Gopher players expect to be better. With trips to North Dakota and Wisconsin and a home duo with Denver among the first eight games, we’ll know soon.
5. Wisconsin Goaltending is a question in Madison. Although with the array of blue line talent
wearing red this season, you or I could be competitive in goal there.
6. Minnesota Duluth An exciting crop of freshmen, and an even more exciting run last March, has Bulldog fans expecting home playoffs in the DECC’s final full season.
7. Minnesota State The last two teams we’ve picked for seventh have won the MacNaughton Cup. If the senior-laden Mavs find goaltending, they could make it three.
8. Colorado College The schedule gods are smiling on the Tigers, who play 11 of their first 15 games at home. But the holes to fill on offense and in goal are considerable.
9. Alaska Anchorage A respectable 7-10-3 post-holiday record last season gives Seawolf fans confidence that the days of fading away in February are over.
10. Michigan Tech The duo of Jordan Baker and Brett Olson combined for 50 points last season. Those two, and better team health, provide hope in Huskyland.

Here was something that I agree with Jess about, the WCHA has to be better in non-conference play this season. Last year was not a good season for the WCHA. This season I think the WCHA is going come back with a vengence and kick some non-conference foes ass. It starts this weekend with DU vs UVM, MTU vs NMU, C.C. vs NE, SCSU vs MU, MSU-M vs BGSU, UMD vs LSSU, and UND vs MC. It's time to make a statement.

The 10 (soon to be a dozen) coaches of the WCHA might haven take a moment to look around the Verizon Center in downtown Washington D.C. last April, noticed the dearth of league members there, and realized that we’re a long way from Columbus.

You’ll recall that the 2005 affair in central Ohio was the notorious all-WCHA Frozen Four, which was cheered nearly everywhere west of Jefferson County, Wisconsin, and jeered pretty much everywhere else. In sharp contrast, for just the fourth time in Frozen Four history (1993, 1998 and 1999 being the others) there was no WCHA team at the 2009 Frozen. Although the strongest league backers will claim future member Bemidji State’s run to D.C. ought to count. Not likely.

But the 2008-09 doldrums went beyond a rough patch in rounds one and two of the NCAA playoffs. As evidenced by the fact that just one WCHAer (league MVP Jamie McBain from Wisconsin) made the list of Hobey finalists, and the fact that for the second year in a row the MacNaughton Cup champion (this time, North Dakota) ended the season on a 0-3 streak. It was clearly a down year for the WCHA.