Playoff Series (Sioux 7)

Well, last weekend saw a new WCHA Champion crowned, the Fighting Sioux claimed the title on Friday night with a 2-1 win over host Wisconsin, and then lost to UW 4-1 on Saturday. The suprising Seawolves sweep the host Bulldogs in Duluth. MTU and UM split in Houghton, the Mavericks took 3-pts from the Huskies of SCSU, and DU and CC played to their 3rd tie of the season.

When looking at the national stage DU and UND are pretty solid locks into the NCAA tourney. The boys from UM, CC, and UMD are still on the bubble, they need to put together some wins and get a little help or win the WCHA playoff title to get the auto-bid into the NCAA tourney.


2008-2009 FINAL WCHA Standings

1 North Dakota.................17-7-4...38
2 Denver...........................16-8-4...36
3 Wisconsin.....................14-11-3...31
3 Colorado College...........12-9-7...31
5 Minnesota....................12-11-5...29
6 St. Cloud State............13-13-2...28
7 Minnesota-Duluth......10-11-7...27
8 Minnesota State.........11-13-4...26
9 Alaska-Anchorage.......9-14-5...23
10 Michigan Tech............2-19-7...11


Other than the SCSU-UM series, all the other playoff match-ups have teams that only played each other in 2 WCHA games, what are the odds of that!


(The numbers in front of the teams are their current PWR, which mimic the NCAA tournament selections.)

Michigan Tech @ #7 North Dakota
Season head-to-head 1-1-1

MTU got its second WCHA win of the year last weekend against the Gophers (UAA is the other win). The Huskies from Houghton have had a rough season to say the least, and now going to Grand Forks for the first time this season isn't going to help them. The Sioux haven't lost a home game since Nov. 28th (Cornell), and have a 12-3-2overall record at the Ralph Engelstad Arena this season. The Sioux are the WCHA regular season champions for the first time since the '03-'04 season, that year MTU also finished 10th. I think this series will be like that one, Sioux Sweep.


#22 Alaska-Anchorage @ #4 Denver
Season series 1-1-0

These two teams played the end of January in DU and the results were a 6-2 DU win on Friday and a 3-2 overtime UAA win on Saturday. On paper DU is clearly the better team, BUT the Seawolves have 4 games in a row, 3 of them on the road. The boys from UAA have evened their road record to 7-7-1 on the season, while the Pioneers are 13-5-3 at home in Magness Arena. DU is 5-3-2 in their last 10 games and 2-2-1 in their 5 home games in that span. With the Seawolves on a roll right now and knowing they can win in the Mile High City they will give the Pioneers all they can handle and turn this into a three game series. In the end, we will see the better team prevail, DU in three.


#24 Minnesota State @ #19 Wisconsin
Season series 1-0-1 MSU-M leads

The Mavericks just took 3pts from the Badgers at the end of February, at the Alltel center in Mankato. Now they travel to Madison to play them their. UW just ended their 5-game winless streak by beating UND on Saturday. That was good for them, but doesn't carry much weight, since UND had wrapped up the WCHA title the night before. The Mavericks are heating up, they are riding a season best 5-game unbeaten streak (2-0-3) into the playoffs, and averaging 3.4 goals/game in that span. The Badgers need to score some goals in this series if they want to advance to the Final 5 in St. Paul. MSUM is 7-8-4 on the road, and UW is 10-8-2 at home, so the home ice advantage might not be as big as help to UW. I'm taking the Mavericks to win the series in 3-games.


#17 Minnesota Duluth @ #14 Colorado College
Season series 1-0-1 UMD leads

The Bulldogs enter this series limping in like, well, a dog that's been hit by a car. They are winless in 5-games (0-3-2) giving up 14-goals in their last three games, which were all loses. CC comes in winless in their last 3-games, not so hot themselves. Both teams have star goalies in Stalock (UMD) and Bachman (CC), if either of them heat up they could single-handedly win the series. The Bulldogs took 3-pts from the Tiger at World Arena back in early December. The Tigers still struggle to win open games in series all season long, they have won only 4 series openers, and 2 of them where back in October. Which ever goalie (and defensemen) steps up in this series will take their team to St. Paul for the Final 5. I'm going with the Bulldogs on Friday, Tigers Saturday, and Tigers on Sunday.


#21 St. Cloud State @ #13 Minnesota
Season series 4-0-0 UM leads

The Gophers have 2 sweeps on the season, and both of them were against the Huskies of SCSU. Minnesota has a 3-5-2 record their past 10-games and St. Cloud State has a 6-4-1 in their last 10-games. The last game these teams played against each other end in a 8-6 win for the Gophers. If the Huskies can score first they can quit the Gopher fans in their house. I don't believe the Gophers have won a game when they have given up the first goal, but have only lost one when scoring first. UM has had its share of goaltending drama the past few weeks, and like many have said they will only go as far as their goaltending will take them. The Huskies have taken points from teams in the top five earlier this season, but the Gophers have had SCSU's number this season. Of course, some people would say it is hard to beat a team 6 times in a season. I'm going with that philosophy, SCSU on Friday, UM on Saturday, and SCSU on Sunday.