The Wild make some Wild moves (RW77) - UPDATED

Alternate logo since 2000. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Free Agency has started and with it comes some interesting moves.

First, the Wild traded away Devon Setoguchi for a 2nd round pick, but that's a "who cares" kindof trade.  The big news?

THE CHEAPEST HACK IN THE NHL IS NOW A MINNESOTA WILD!

Matt Cooke, more famous for ending careers than winning games, signed a 3 year contract with the Minnesota Wild.


Ok, the upside to this:  Matt Cooke is a big hitting forward that is an obvious replacement of Cal Clutterbuck.  He has been on winning teams in the past.  He can score goals on occasion.  He was nominated for the Masterton and lost to current Wild Josh Harding.

The downside?  This is a player that is almost universally reviled.  I say almost because the Pens fans still defend him for the same reason, invariably, that Wild fans will inevitably defend him:  He's on your team.  Another downside?  He's one blindside Savard-esque hit from being McSorley'd.  This guy skates on thin ice everywhere he goes.

CORRECTION:  3 years $7.5 million contract or $2.5 million a year.  THAT, my friends, is OVERPAYING worse than Stalberg's new contract.

He did have a decent year last year blocking shots but then again, someone had to because Marc Andre Sievry couldn't.

Trust me when I say it:  This was a BAD idea.  If the Wild really did want Cooke's services, they should have gone for a 1 year contract with a club option (if that's possible) for a second year.  He may have only had 36 PIM in 48 games last season, but he's still one of the most if not the most dangerous skater in the NHL and that's saying something (as a Red Wings fan who couldn't defend the Wings' signing Bertuzzi).

Chad Graff (@ChadGraff) on Twitter said it best:  The Wild traded 1 year contract of Devon Setoguchi for 1 2nd round pick and 3 years of Matt Cooke.

Be Proud Minnesota.

Wild to buyout Tom Gilbert

English: Tom Gilbert in 2009. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

According to Michael Russo, the Minnesota Wild might have found their first candidate for one of the two compliance buyouts. I think it would be a great move. Gilbert was absolutely brutal last season on the blue line for the Minnesota Wild.

Michael Russo, Russo's Rants -- The Wild plans to place Tom Gilbert on unconditional waivers, sources say. That is the first necessary step to buy out the remaining one year of the veteran defenseman’s contract.

When Gilbert clears, the Wild plans to use one of its two allowable compliance buyouts on the 30-year-old native of Bloomington.

What's unclear, and we'll know soon, is whether Gilbert will go on unconditional waivers today or tomorrow. A correction to yesterday's blog: Teams have until tomorrow to put somebody on unconditional waivers for the purpose of using a compliance buyout by tomorrow's 4 p.m. CT deadline.

Gilbert will receive $1 million in each of the next two seasons (two-thirds of his $3 million salary), but it will free up an additional $4 million of salary cap space this summer for the Wild.

The move is designed to give Minnesota more flexibility this offseason. One can assume the Wild will need to add a defenseman or two this offseason. Gilbert would be free to sign with any team once free agency opens at 11 a.m. CT Friday.

Here was my grade season ending grade for Tom Gilbert that I submitted for the Hockey Wilderness. Incidentally, I look like I will be getting my wish as Justin Falk was traded this week to the New York Rangers.

Tom Gilbert: D

The former Wisconsin Badger Tom Gilbert is an utter disappointment in my opinion, that Wild are being cheated, he’s not worth the money he’s being paid. Gilbert is being paid a hefty four million a year to be a turnover factory and an unimpressive top-six defenseman. If I was a general manager for a day, he would be the first Wild player out of Minnesota; Justin Falk would be number two. The Wild should consider his four million dollar contract for an Amnesty buyout this summer as well. If they Wild could trade him for a bag of wood hockey sticks I would urge them to consider the deal. One positive is that he can’t play any worse than he did this season. Nowhere to go but up for Gilbert, I don’t think he can play any worse. Looking at the stats, in the plus/minus department, -11 is brutal.

Related articles

• Tom Gilbert: Wild Trade Bait? (hockeywilderness.com)
• Minnesota Wild Final Season Grades: Right D (Staff Writers Grades) (hockeywilderness.com)

Wild send Clutterbuck’s rights to the Islanders

English: Minnesota Wild forward Cal Clutterbuck during warm-up prior to a National Hockey League game against the Calgary Flames in Calgary. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This weekend, My buddy Redwing77 sent me a text to tell me that Cal Clutterbuck had been traded to the New York Islanders. The text caught me off guard. At least the Wild were smart enough to not send him to a conference opponent.

Mike Doyle, Minnesota Wild --- The Minnesota Wild has acquired right wing Nino Niederreiter from the New York Islanders in exchange for to the rights to Cal Clutterbuck and a third-round pick (70th overall) in today's NHL Entry Draft.

Niederreiter was the fifth-overall pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. In 2012-13, the Chur, Switzerland native played in 74 games with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, the Islanders' American Hockey League affiliate, scoring 28 goals and adding 22 assists. The 20-year-old was second on the team in scoring. He is the highest drafted Swiss player in NHL history.He also led Switzerland with five goals, and added three assists in the 2013 IIHF Men’s World Championship, as the Swiss earned a silver medal – its first World Championship medal in 60 years.

Needless to say, I am shocked that the Wild didn't try to re-sign their hit leader.

Satisfaction waning for ticket buyers in two of Badgers' biggest sports

s/t Sioux Volley... There was an interesting article that was posted in the Madison Newspaper on June 11, 2013, that was written by Todd Milewski.

I think that you will find some of the points of the article to be very interesting to why Wisconsin Badgers "might" have experienced a drop off in attendance and ticket sales last season.

That comes after a season in which the Badgers did not lead the nation in men's hockey attendance for the first time since 1998.

"I think hockey's in a little bit of what will ultimately be a positive transitional phase in the scheduling in that you're going to have all the games against the Big Ten schools plus the games against nonconference opponents that people are familiar with," Doherty said.

Athletics officials received no shortage of comments from hockey fans. Among them:

• "Take steps to improve game-day atmosphere such as increased marketing to increase attendance, allow signs, etc., in student section."

• "Allow signs, noisemakers, other items to enhance the environment."

• "Allow beer sales at the Kohl Center."

• "The value is severely diminished when you do not get Minnesota and/or North Dakota at home."

Last season, the Badgers sold one of their home games against archrival Minnesota to a company that staged it outdoors at Chicago's Soldier Field.

"Sending your premier rivalry game to Chicago shows disrespect to your fan base," one comment read.

Despite the dip in game-day satisfaction with men's basketball, the report indicates that the athletic department should not expect a decline in renewal rate next season.

Read more: 

Bryan Bickell hits Tom Gilbert

In football we used to have a saying, it's better to be the hammer, than the nail. Ouch! Check out this big time hit by Chicago Blackhawks forward Bryan Bickell puts on Minnesota Wild Defenseman Tom Gilbert.

(Video) Charlie Coyle scores his sixth goal of the year against the Blue Jackets

Minnesota Wild forward Charlie Coyle is up and coming forward in the NHL, the former Boston University Terrier and 2011 WJC star has been welcome addition to the Minnesota Wild this season and he scored his 6th goal of the season on the power play. In 27 games with the Wild, Coyle has (6g-3a—9pts).

Minnesota beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-0.

UND’s Hakstol: “regionals pinnacle of our season and should be played in a great atmosphere.”

und v. usa (Photo credit: intersubjectiv)

This past weekend, UND played in the NCAAWest Regional tourney in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  If you watched the games you will see that the games were sparsely attended,just like I had predicted.

So the NCAA wants the teams to play in empty arena’s posing as quite mausoleums during prayer time.

Come to think of it, I have probably been to churches that are louder than last week’s West and Midwest regionals.

The announced attendance for Friday’s game between Niagara and UND was 2289 and for Saturday’s game, the announced attendance was 1918 fans.

Seriously!

If mathematically challenged, that’s a grand total for 4207 fans to see the NCAA West Regional hockey games for the weekend. My words, “that’s pathetic.” The NCAA should be ashamed. There are high school hockey tourneys in North Dakota that have more people attend them then this regional.

Today was the last press conference of the year for UND hockey head coach Dave Hakstol was asked about his thought on the NCAA tourney being played in building with atmospheres like last weekend’s regional in Grand Rapids, Michigan?

“The pinnacle of our season should be played in a great atmosphere,” Hakstol said. “I think the players that are involved in the national tournament deserve that. “I think It’s something that has garnered a fair amount of discussion over the last couple of year, but no action.” We have to fix things. We’re not doing this the right way at the regional level – to play in front of… I saw a stat within out program we had 5500 people on a live chat, and there was maybe 1500 people in a building watching a great hockey game between Yale and North Dakota on Saturday night. That’s not right. That’s the pinnacle and that’s the spotlight of our season. Yeah, we have to change things. Certainly, I would like to work towards doing that, sooner, rather than later. The best regionals that I have been involved in, that I can remember, atmosphere wise, was here, in 05-06, where we hosted, competitive environment. The regional in Minnesota; last year at the Xcel Energy Center; in front of 10,000 people, we came up one game short. Great atmosphere to play in, spotlight event, the way the national tournament game should feel. Third one would have been; at the Kohl Center, where the University of Wisconsin hosted. We had the good fortune of coming out of that regional. That was a tough game, there was about 15,000 people cheering against us and 1,000 of our fans with us, but that was atmosphere, and that’s the stage that our national tournament should be played on, we need to get back to one shape or form. “

It’s pretty clear that the UND’s head coach would rather play in a raucous, loud arena filled with passionate fans, even if they’re another fan bases’  than an empty arena, in a nameless town with empty seats posing as fans for the sake of having a regional championship at a neutral site, in an empty building on Saturday in March.  I agree.

Cross-posted at the Hockey Writers-Combine.

(Video) UND 2 NU 1

I decided to put the game winning goal up from the Yale vs. Minnesota game as well. When I .fast forwarding to the UND goals I thought what the heck. I was in the car on my way to Hugo's,  and I was listening to the game on 1500ESPN and Frank and Wally had barely got set when the overtime was already over. Not really a memorable call to the end of the Gophers season.

UND grinds out win against Niagara Purple Eagles

This was a typical hard fought regional semifinal playoff game, this is what I call a grind it out win. This wasn't a lot of fun to watch, but UND still moves on. Mac's goal to tie the game was your typical timely, big time goal.

Coming into this game, when you look at both team's schedules, you would think that game shouldn't even be close, but this is the NCAA playoffs. I thought we might see about a 6-1 game, but after the first period, I figured this was going to be a war. I also thought that this was a nasty game as well. In the end, UND was able to do what good teams do, they found a way to win.

Related articles

• UND Finds Tough Sledding Against Tech (insidehockey.com)
• Day 2 Reflections From WCHA Final Five (insidehockey.com)

Links of interest NCAA Hockey

Those that want to watch the games on ESPNU here is the link to the games today. [click to view]

Here is the TV schedule for the NCAA tourney games.  [click to view]

Here is the link to listen to the Gopher game against Yale on the Radio [click to listen]

Here is the link to listen to the UND Hockey game(s) on the Radio [iHeartRadio]

UND Officials Web Page

UND Official Press Guide for the NCAA Playoffs.

UMN Official Minnesota Hockey Web Page.

Yale Bulldogs Hockey Official Web Page.

Niagara Official Web Page

Related articles

• Time to move the NCAA Hockey Tourney back on campus (thehockeywriters.com)
• College Hockey's March Madness Continues: This weekend's NCAA Division one television schedule (3/29 - 3/31) (thehockeywriters.com)

CC's Joe Marciano hits Minnesota's Tom Serratore from behind

Colorado College Tiger defenseman Joe Marciano received a five minute major for this cross-check on Minnesota Gopher forward Tom Serratore. I think Marciano was lucky to remain in the game and I am not sure what he was upset with. These are the kind of hits that I would like to see gone from "all" levels of hockey.

Related articles

• Tom Serratore the heart and sole of the Beavers (thehockeywriters.com)
• Gophers ruin Beavers senior night (thehockeywriters.com)

Badgers defenseman John Ramage destroys Mavericks forward Teddy Blueger

“That’s contact to the head, that’s a no brainer,” FSN television analyst Kevin Gorg said on viewing the hit by  Wisconsin defenseman John Ramage on Minnesota State Maverick Teddy Blueger. The funny thing with Gorg, he’s supposed to know hockey, but every time he opens his mouth he removes all doubt. I haven’t seen many guys that get hit in the head grab their shoulder.

Look at the video, Teddy Blueger is holding his shoulder.

In the press box, we had the luxury of getting a few good looks at this hit, to me this appears to be another legal shoulder-to-shoulder hit that was called a major penalty. For those people that want to call penalties for hard hits, they're going to call foul, but hockey is a physical game. I don't think John Ramage who plays the game straight up should be penalized for being a physical player.

[Click to watch video]

Cross-posted at the Hockey Writers Combine. 

Stoykewych shocks UND in OT

Seal of the University of North Dakota (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Saint Paul, Minn. – The University of North Dakota started off the day, by putting two players, senior forwards, Corban Knight and Danny Kristo, among the top 10 national finalists for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award. The Hobey Baker is given annually to the top player in NCAA Division I men’s hockey.

Then, it was off to the quarter final game of the Red Baron WCHA Final Five where 17,038 fans watched the match-up between the University of North Dakota (21-11-7, No. 3 seed) and the Colorado College Tigers (16-18-5, No. 6 seed) at the Xcel Energy Center.

The University of North Dakota doesn’t get fazed when they give up the first goal of a game, anymore. In fact, it happens a lot.  In 19 games where the opposition scored the first goal, the Green and White are 9-5-5.

Make that­­­­­­ 9-6-5, with the loss to the Colorado College Tigers tonight.

“Here we are. If you would have said that on the fifth of January after we got swept in Omaha that we would be playing and winning game over North Dakota, I would have said that you’re crazy,” Head coach Scott Owens said on beating  North Dakota 4-3 in overtime of the quarterfinal game of the WCHA Final Five.”

The game had a lot of drama and probably didn’t go as planned.

With freshman forward Drake Caggiula in the sin bin for charging, the Colorado College Tigers would get on the board first with a power play goal from senior forward Rylan Schwartz at the 03:06 mark of first period.

That slim one goal lead would last 11:17 as freshman forward Drake Caggiula would make up for his blunder by scoring his seventh goal of the year at the 14:23 mark of the first period. That was Caggiula’s first goal since January 19^th, 2013.

UND would start a parade to the penalty box in the waning moments of the first period, but fortunately UND was able to stop the Tiger power play with a tenacious penalty kill, before the Tigers could do any damage on the power play.

Senior forward Danny Kristo would stop the bleeding at the 19:50 mark of the first period with his 25^th goal of the season.

UND would outshoot C.C. 11-4 in first period.

The second period was more of a grind out kind of period and the Tigers took advantage of a miscue to score shorthanded at the 07:54 mark of the second period as Alex Krushelnyski shot the puck past UND goalie Clark Saunders.

That was all of the scoring either team would generate the rest of the second period. UND would again outshoot C.C. 9-6.

Things would really get interesting for UND. At the 03:42 mark of the third period, Tiger forward Hunter Fejes took a shot from the top the circle that Saunders missed.

Make that 3-2 Tigers.

UND freshman Drake Caggiula would score at the12:45 mark of the third period to knot the game at 3-3, sending the game to overtime.  UND would out Tigers 12-10 in the third period.

At the 04:52 mark of the first overtime, sophomore Tiger defenseman Peter Stoykewych ended UND run for at four consecutive Final Five championships.

When asked how it feels to not be moving on to play for a four WCHA Final Five playoff championship. This is what Danny Kristo had to say. “I have never felt like this before,” Kristo said. “Obviously we won the last three. That was our goal coming in this year. Obviously, we wanted to four peat, or what not. You just go day-by-day. I thought we took about 20 minutes off there, between the second and third period and kind of got lulled to sleep, maybe we deserved to win the game, but we didn’t play to our potential, so at this time of the year you’re not going to win games. You can’t leave the game to a bounce of the puck.”

This is what coach Hakstol had to say.

“Congratulations to C.C., UND head coach Dave Hakstol said. “They’re grinding out wins. They’re doing a great job. They got the job done tonight. Overall, we played a pretty good hockey game. Pretty good doesn’t get the job doesn’t get it done this time of year against the quality of teams that are here. So, tough ending tonight, that’s our fate, We’ll regroup and get back to Grand Forks and work on our next project.”

Colorado College (17-18-5) moves on to play Minnesota in the 7:00 p.m. game and UND (21-12-7) goes home to find out who they play next weekend in the NCAA regionals.

Cross-posted at the Hockey Writers Combine

Final 5 Match-Ups (by Donn)

This is it, the last WCHA Final 5 as we have known it for decades.  Three out of last weekend’s first round series went to three games, which is not too surprising, given the depth and talent of the conference as a whole.  I’m looking forward to this long weekend of hockey and hopefully will take a lot of good memories from it. Most of the teams that are not going to St. Paul are done for the year, with the exception of DU.  The Pioneers could get an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament; they are currently sitting at #13 in the pairwise.

WCHA FINAL STANDINGS 2012-2013

Team………………………W-L-T………Points

1. St. Cloud St……………18-9-1.……….37
2. Minnesota……………...16-7-2……..…37
3. North Dakota.………….14-7-7………..35
4. Denver…………..……..14-9-5..….......33
5. Wisconsin…....………..13-8-7………...33
6. Minnesota State………16-11-1....…….33
7. Nebraska-Omaha…......14-12-2…....…30
8. Colorado College …….11-13-4..….….26
9. Minnesota-Duluth….….10-13-5……….25
10. Michigan Tech………..8-16-4…..…..20
11. Bemidji State……..…..6-15-7......…..17
12. Alaska-Anchorage…....2-20-6.....…..10

The # numbers below are now the PAIRWISE rankings.

Thursday Games

Colorado College @ #6 North Dakota

Last weekend NoDak ended MTU’s season in three games (5-3W, 2-1L, 6-0W) in Grand Forks and the Tigers beat their archrival Pioneers in three games (5-3L, 2-1W, 4-3W) in Denver.

2012-13 series – Tied wins 2-2-0

The first series was in Colorado Springs Nov30/Dec1 with the Tigers winning the first game (5-3) and UND winning the second in overtime (3-2).  They met for the second series in Grand Forks in mid-January with the Tigers again winning the opening game (4-3) and UND winning the finale (5-3).

UND has a chance to be the first four-peat champion this weekend and it starts with a stiff test in CC.  The Tigers have the offensive power to compete with anyone in the league; the big question is their defense and goaltending.  The same could be said about UND, they too have has some blips in their own zone too.  Both have a short week after playing three games (Fri/Sat/Sun) and then a short rest and travel before this Thursday night game.  The Tigers need to keep winning to extend their season, UND could lose and still make the NCAA tournament.  I’m going with UND in this game, since they have been getting more consistent play in the net.  NODAK WINS

(I also want them to win so we all get to see another UND/UM game.)

#9 Minnesota State @ #16 Wisconsin

Last weekend the Mavericks took out the UNO Mavericks in three games (4-3Wot, 2-1L, 3-1W) in Mankato and the Badgers ended the UMD Bulldogs season by sweeping them (3-1, 4-1) in Madison.

2012-13 series – Tied 2-2-0

The first series was in Madison on Nov23/24 with the Mavericks sweeping the series (4-2, 4-2).  They met for the second series in Mankato in mid-January with the Badgers returning the favor in dramatic fashion, by sweeping the Mavericks in overtime in both games (4-3ot, 2-1ot).

The Badgers have clawed their way back in the NCAA tournament picture, now they are firmly on the bubble with their #16 rank.  The Mavericks would be in the NCAA tournament if it started this weekend, but if get some wins this weekend they can move up the rankings and improve their seeding. 

This game I’m not sure about who is going to win, I don’t have a feeling right away for one team or the other.  Both are playing well and need/want to advance to Friday’s game against SCSU.  Even with UW being the “home” team in this game, I’m going to go with the “visitors” for the win, in overtime.  MAVERICKS WIN

Friday Games

#12 St. Could St.

Last weekend the Huskies swept the Seawolves (6-1, 5-1) in St. Cloud.

Season Series
vs MSUM – SCSU wins 2-0-0
vs UW – Tied 1-1-0

Since the Huskies are the top seed they will “host” the winner from Thursday’s MSUM/UW play-in game.

If my prediction from Thursday hold true, the Huskies will be facing in-state foe Mankato for the right to advance to the championship game.  SCSU had to settle for “sharing” the MacNaughton Cup and now will want the Broadmoor Trophy all to themselves.  The Huskies have not captured the playoff title since 2001 and the Mavericks have never hoisted either piece of hardware.  HUSKIES WIN

#2 Minnesota

Last weekend the Gophers swept the Beavers (2-1ot, 4-3) in Minneapolis.

Since the Gophers are the second seed they will “host” the winner of the CC/UND from Thursday’s play-in game.

Season Series

vs UND – UM wins 1-0-1
vs CC – UM wins 1-0-1

Again, if my Thursday predictions hold true, the Gophers will face long, long, time rival UND in the evening tilt at the Xcel Center.  Last year these team clashed in a semi-final game, remember… the Gophers staked themselves to a 3-0 lead, UND called a time out, and then rattled off 6 unanswered goals for a 6-3 win.  (Then UM and UND met a week later again at the Xcel Center in the NCAA tournament with the UM winning.)  I don’t think we will get that kind of game this time around, but who knows, that’s why they play the games.  I’m inclined this time around to give the nod to the Gophers in this game, to set-up a rubber match with the Huskies.  GOPHERS WIN

Saturday - CHAMPIONSHIP Game

Well this as far as I’m allowed to stretch my predictions.  We’ll know by the end of Friday if I’m even close to correct.  But if I am, it’s a SCSU/UM game for the Broadmoor trophy, a title that cannot be shared, and the auto-bid for the NCAA tournament.  I’m thinking the Gophers might be spent emotionally if they beat UND the evening before.  The Gophers are a pretty solid lock on a number one seed, whereas the Huskies could use another quality win to solidify their spot in the tourney.  HUSKIES WIN

Related articles

• WCHA Power Rankings: Week 22 (thehockeywriters.com)

Results of the 2012-13 Blogger/Website All-WCHA Awards

Western Collegiate Hockey Association logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

s/t to A Tradition of Excellence for putting on the Second Annual Blogger/Website All-WCHA Awards. This is how the vote shook out.

* Asterik denotes a unanimous selection

All-WCHA First Team:
F - Ryan Walters, Nebraska-Omaha
F - Erik Haula, Minnesota
F - Danny Kristo, North Dakota
D - Nate Schmidt, Minnesota
D - Nick Jensen, St. Cloud State
G - Stephon Williams, Minnesota State

All-WCHA Second Team:
F - Drew LeBlanc, St. Cloud State
F - Corban Knight, North Dakota
F - Rylan Schwartz, Colorado College
D - Mike Boivin, Colorado College
D - Joey LaLeggia, Denver
G - Adam Wilcox, Minnesota

All-WCHA Third Team:
F - Matt Leitner, Minnesota State
F - Josh Archibald, Nebraska-Omaha
F - Eriah Hayes, Minnesota State
D - Andrew Prochno, St. Cloud State
D - Andrej Sustr, Nebraska-Omaha
G - Juho Olkinuora, Denver

WCHA All-Rookie Team:
F - Alex Petan, Michigan Tech
F - Tony Cameranesi, Minnesota-Duluth
F - Jonny Brodzinski, St. Cloud State
D - Nolan Zajac, Denver *
D - Andy Welinski, Minnesota-Duluth
G - Stephon Williams, Minnesota State

WCHA Player of the Year: Ryan Walters, Nebraska-Omaha

WCHA Defenseman of the Year: Nate Schmidt, Minnesota

WCHA Rookie of the Year: Stephon Williams, Minnesota State

WCHA Coach of the Year: Mike Hastings, Minnesota State


Here's the rundown of the voters.

Ryan, Gopher Puck Live
Matt, Bulldog Country
Joe, Colorado Springs Gazette
Travis, @nodakhockey/Fighting Sioux Hockey Facebook Fan Page
Emily, Beyond the Pond
Taylor, The Hockey Writers Combine
Eric, Goon's World/The Hockey Writers Combine
Tim, Tech Hockey Guide
Matthew, USCHO
Nate, College Hockey News/SB Nation Team Minnesota
Donn, Goon's World
Andy, Bucky's 5th Quarter
Andrew, College Hockey High Horse
Jeff, Mav Mania
Dave, Sioux Sports
Chad, A Tradition of Excellence

Related articles

• My 2012-2013 All-WCHA Ballot (thehockeywriters.com)
• WCHA Power Rankings: Week 22 (thehockeywriters.com)
• WCHA Power Rankings: Week 22 (insidehockey.com)
• Weekend Match-Ups (by Donn) (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• Another 2012-2013 All-WCHA Ballot (thehockeywriters.com)

Weekend Match-Ups (by Donn)

Here we are the middle of March and the playoffs have arrived in St. Could, Minneapolis, Grand Forks, Mankato, Madison, and Denver.  Congratulations to all those teams on a top half finish in the WCHA’s last season as we know it.  This is the first MacNaughton Cup title for SCSU, who are sharing it with UM (their 11^th).

I have included my preseason predicted finish number behind the points, I did okay on a few teams and completely missed on other…

WCHA FINAL STANDINGS 2012-2013

Team………………………W-L-T………Points…..Prediction

1. St. Cloud St……………18-9-1.……….37----------5
2. Minnesota……………...16-7-2……..…37----------3
3. North Dakota.………….14-7-7………..35----------2
4. Minnesota State………16-11-1....…….33---------11
4. Wisconsin…....………..13-8-7………...33----------8
4. Denver…………..……..14-9-5..….......33-----------1
7. Nebraska-Omaha…......14-12-2…....…30----------7
8. Colorado College …….11-13-4..….….26----------6
9. Minnesota-Duluth….….10-13-5……….25----------4
10. Michigan Tech………..8-16-4…..…..20-----------9
11. Bemidji State……..…..6-15-7......…..17-----------10
12. Alaska-Anchorage…....2-19-6.....…..10-----------12


The # numbers below are current PAIRWISE rankings.

1st Round of WCHA Games - Best of 3 Series

Alaska-Anchorage @ #10 St. Could St. 

Last weekend the Seawolves were swept by the Pioneers (7-1, 6-1) in Denver with the Huskies split with the Badgers (4-2W, 3-2L) in Madison.

2012-13 series – tied 1-1-0

These teams clashed back on Nov30-Dec1 in Anchorage, with the Huskies prevailing in the opener 4-3 in overtime, and the Seawolves extracting revenge the next night with a 3-1 win.  I don’t remember if or when the top seed has ever lost in the first round and I don’t see it happening this year.  SCSU has too much talent and depth for UAA to keep up in a three game series, if it even goes three games.  HUSKIES SWEEP

Bemidji St. @ #2 Minnesota

Last weekend the Gophers swept the Beavers in Bemidji (4-3, 5-1).

2012-13 series – UM wins 2-0-0

This is interesting, since these two teams just played each other last weekend in Bemidji.  I don’t care what level of hockey it is, it is hard to beat anybody four games in a row.  The downside for the Gophers is, does playing the same team two weekends in a row cause a problem in the next round for them?  The pressure is on the Gophers to dispose of the Beavers in two games.  The Beavers would like to gnaw on the Gophers this weekend in Minneapolis and stay there for play next weekend in St. Paul.  Remember when BSU made the Final 2011, by beating UNO on the road, and then beating UMD in a play-in game before losing to DU in a semifinal?  Well, I don’t think they are going to be making that trip.  GOPHERS SWEEP

Michigan Tech @ #5 North Dakota

Last weekend NoDak split with MSUM (4-3W, 2-1Lot) in Mankato and the Huskies split (2-0W, 4-3L) with the CC Tigers in Houghton.

2012-13 series – UND wins 2-0-0

These two longtime foes played in Houghton in mid-December with NoDak sweeping by scores of 6-1 and 4-1.  If I’ve looked up the numbers right the last time MTU beat UND it was December 28, 2008 at the Great Lakes Invitational Tournament.  This could also be the last time these teams play for years to come with the new conference changes coming next season.  The Huskies have been playing much better the second half of this season, but they don’t have what it takes to knock off a top tier team in a best of three series.  NORTH DAKOTA SWEEP

Colorado College @ #5 Denver

Last weekend the Tigers split with the MTU Huskies (2-0L, 4-3W) in Houghton and the Pioneers swept (7-1, 6-1) the Seawolves in Denver.

2012-13 series – DU wins 2-1-1

The Pioneers swept the Tigers back in November and in February the Tigers won and tied DU.  This being a rivalry and playoff series at once should be a humdinger to watch, almost makes me wish I was in Colorado.  I think this will be a three game series with the home team prevailing, but I’ve been wrong before.  PIONEERS IN 3

Nebraska-Omaha @ #9 Minnesota State

Last weekend the UNO Mavericks were swept by Bulldogs (5-4, 6-0) in Duluth and the MSUM Mavericks split with NoDak (4-3L, 2-1Wot) in Mankato.

2012-13 series – tied 1-1-0

The red and purple Mavericks locked horns back in mid-December in Omaha, Mankato won the opener 6-3 and Omaha won the closer 5-1.  Omaha has fallen hard the last two months, they have lost 7 of their last 9 games (8 of 10 if count the exhibition against the U-18 USA team) and their two wins are against UAA.  Before February rolled around, Omaha looked to be a top half finisher, and now they just look finished.  MINNESOTA STATE SWEEP

Minnesota-Duluth @ #18 Wisconsin

Last weekend the Bulldogs swept the UNO Mavericks (5-4, 6-0) in Duluth and the Badgers split (4-2L, 3-2W) with the SCSU Huskies in Madison.

2012-13 series – UW wins 1-0-1

It has been a while since these teams shared the ice, it was back in late October they played with the Badgers blanking the Bulldogs 2-0 and then they tied the following evening 2-2.  UMD is on their longest winning streak of the year at 4 in a row, sweeping UNO and UAH, and they tied the UM before to have a 5 game unbeaten stretch now.  UW has been one of the hotter teams in 2013 and have been playing good hockey as of late.  This is going to come down to which team wants it more and neither team is going to back down in these tilts.  I’m giving the nod to the home team, but just slightly.  BADGERS IN 3

2012-13 Blogger All-WCHA Awards Poll (by Donn)

Western Collegiate Hockey Association logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here is how I voted on my ballot.

2012-13 Blogger All-WCHA Awards Poll

All-WCHA First Team
F – Danny Kristo (UND)
F – Erik Haula (UM)
F – Drew LeBlanc (SCSU)
D – Nate Schmidt (UM)
D – Joey LaLeggia (DU)
G – Adam Wilcox (UM)

All-WCHA Second Team

F – Corban Knight (UND)
F – Rylan Schwartz (CC)
F – Ryan Walters (UNO)
D – Nick Jensen (SCSU)
D – Mike Boivin (CC)
G – Joe Rumpel (UW)

All-WCHA Third Team

F – Matt Leitner (MSUM)
F – Ben Hanowski (SCSU)
F – Alex Petan (MTU)
D – Jake McCabe (UW)
D – Dillon Simpson (UND)
G – Zane Gothberg (UND)

All-WCHA Rookie Team

F – Rocco Grimaldi (UND)
F – Nic Kerdiles (UW)
F – Blake Tatchell (UAA)
D – Jordan Schmaltz (UND)
D – Nolan Zajac (DU)
G – Stephon Williams (MSUM)

WCHA Player of the Year – Danny Kristo (UND)

WCHA Defensive Player of the Year – Joey LaLeggia (DU)
WCHA Rookie of the Year – Rocco Grimaldi (UND)
WCHA Coach of the Year – Mike Hastings (MSUM)
*WCHA Goaltender of the Year will be the First Team Goaltender