An interesting stat.

While trying to look for the silver lining in last night loss to the Michigan Tech Huskies, I found this ineresting stat reading Todd Milewski's Ice House blog.

The home team has won Game 1 70 times in 95 chances since the WCHA started playing best-of-three series in 1988. The road team has forced Game 3 only 10times, and won it only once.

All the home teams won the first game of WCHA series last night, with the road teams combining for a grand total four goals (three of them by Minnesota-Duluth, one by Alaska Anchorage).

WCHA Tourney Time

Herald photo by John Stennes
The match-ups have been finalized and all we have left to do is play the games. I am also happy that we won't have to listen to the other leagues fans complaining about how many WCHA teams are in the mix for a NCAA tourney bid. The Fratricide begins this weekend. I predict when it is all said and done there will be 5 WCHA teams in the NCAA tourney.

#1 CC sweeps #10 UAA

This series will be over on Saturday night.
Tigers roll winning two games 6-0 and 5-2.

#2 UND vs #9 MTU

It will be interesting to see which Huskies come to Grand Forks to play the Sioux this weekend. At the beginning of the season the Huskies were picked by some to finish third in the league, so I would have to say that the Huskies play this season has been a disappointment. Prediction: Sioux in two games.

#3 DU vs #8 DU and

UMD and DU have a history, UMD ended DU's season in the 2006 WCHA playoffs. I could see the Bull Dogs ending the Pioneers WCHA playoffs once again this year. Prediction: Dog in three.

#4 MSUM vs #7 UM

The Gopher fans are already licking their lips about the prospects of playing the Mavericks; but they shouldn't be. This is not the same Mavericks team that the Golden Goofs beat earlier in the season. Prediction: Mavericks win series in three games. Gophers coach Don Lucia appeals to the league office to get the Friday night game at the WCHA Final Five anyways, saying it isn't fair that they can't play in the Final Five. Lets Go Mavs blogger faints in the arena in Makato and has to be rushed to the hospital.

#5 SCSU vs #6 UW

SCSU will end the BADgers season in three games. SCSU is playing pretty good right now and the BADgers don't have an answer for the Huskies offense. Prediction: Garrett Roe has a conniption but the Huskies still win the series in three games.

You heard it here first folks the final five is held this season without the BADgers or the Gophers; and they will still hold the game(s) regardless of whether the two big ten teams are there or not.

KRACH and PairWise

The Rat takes a look at what the Brackets would look like for the Fighting Sioux like KRACH vs the PairWise Rankings. Keep in mind that there will not be 7-8 WCHA teams in the NCAA tourney when it is all said and done.

PairWise-Based Bracket(s)

Worcester
No. 1 North Dakota vs. No. 15 Bemidji State
No. 6 Denver vs. No. 9 Boston

CollegeColorado Springs
No. 4 Colorado College vs. No. 14 Minnesota Duluth
No. 5 Miami vs. No. 12 Minnesota

Madison
No. 3 New Hampshire vs. No. 13 Wisconsin
No. 8 Michigan State vs. No. 11 Minnesota State

Albany
No. 2 Michigan vs. No. 16 Army
No. 7 Clarkson vs. No. 10 St. Cloud

KRACH-Based Bracket

Madison
No. 1 North Dakota vs. No. 16 Army
No. 8 St. Cloud vs. No. 10 Wisconsin

Worcester
No. 4 Miami vs. No. 13 Minnesota Duluth
No. 5 New Hampshire vs. No. 11 Minnesota

Colorado Springs
No. 3 Colorado College vs. No. 14 Clarkson
No. 5 Denver vs. No. 12 Boston College

Albany
No. 2 Michigan vs. No. 15 Bemidji State
No. 7 Michigan State vs. No. 9 Minnesota State

Elliot on Clarkson, the No. 7 seed in the actual projected bracket, is No. 15 in the KRACH system, and only gets into the "bracket" based on being the ECAC Hockey frontrunner (cue "EZAC" comments from the peanut gallery out west).

You said it so we don't have to.

Seems as if the new rule never existed.

EDIT: Yesterday College Hockey news was tipped off by their reporters Brett Gobe and Ron Ayers, about the handbook containing the following new line: "To be considered during the at-large selection process, a team must have an overall won-lost record of .500 or better a team with a sub .500 record would not qualify for the NCAA tourney unless they won their conference tourney." Seems that was untrue and happened to be a miss-print. Hum, that does seem odd that this new wording would appear in the hand book and then be deemed a misprint.

Seems the complaining about which teams are going to get into the NCAA tourney is starting even before the selection committee meets. If I am not mistaken the selection committee will on or about the 23rd of March after all of the conference tournaments have been decided.

There are a number of college hockey fans that are upset with the high number of WCHA teams with less than stellar records sitting above the likes of Notre Dame, Princeton, Harvard in the PairWise Rankings. Also, there is a good chance that there will be teams with winning records that will not make the NCAA tourney. There is also a slight possibility that teams with a losing record might qualify for the NCAA tourney despite having a sub 500 record, this is based on their strong strength of schedule. While highly unlikely that is the reality of the NCAA tourney selection based on the PairWise Rankings.

The likelihood of that happening really isn't as good as it appears. Currently 8 teams in the WCHA are in the running for an NCAA bid with three weeks left in the season. The key word is currently, a lot will change between now and March 23rd. UND, C.C., DU, SCSU and Minnesota State University are looking like they have a good chance of dancing when the NCAA selection committee makes it's selections for the NCAA tourney. Minnesota, Wisconsin, UMD are going to need some serious help. That is why I believe some are getting way too excited about nothing. I do think eventually you will see a rule that states that a team needs to have a record above .500 to be considered for an at large bid, unless you qualify by winning your conference tourney.

Not so fast folks the rule never existed.

If you look at the PairWise Rankings you will see that there are 4 WCHA teams sitting in the 11-13 spots that could get into the NCAA tourney if the selection committee met today. In reality this is not going to happen because there is going to be a massive fratacide that is going to take place during the WCHA playoffs. In reality there are only going to be 5-6 teams that make the NCAA tourney. More than likely their will be 5 WCHA teams that make the NCAA tourney. These five teams will be participants from the Final Five.

11 Minnesota State 17-13-4 .5588 (10th)
12 Minnesota 14-13-9 .5139 (8th)
13 Wisconsin 15-14-7 .5139 (3rd)
13 Minnesota-Duluth 12-14-6 (2nd)
15 Providence 14-13-5 4688 (17th)
16t Notre Dame 22-12-4 .6316 (27th)
16t Princeton 17-12-0 .5862 (34th)
18 Boston University 15-15-4 .5000 (12th)
19 Harvard 14-11-4 .5517 (33rd)

Strenght of Schedule (ranking)

So when is a loss an improvement?

From today's Herald I had to take a second look at this.
Since when is a loss an improvement?

Denver 1, Michigan Tech 0: Dustin Jackson scored a power-play goal with three seconds left in the second period to lift Denver over Michigan Tech.

The win lifted Denver into a second-place tie with UND in the WCHA standings.

Denver had a 22-21 edge in shots on goal.

Tech improved to 11-17-5 overall, while the Pioneers improved to 22-10-1.

Goon's What if?

I played around with the numbers and this is what I came up with.
I now owe Sioux7 a beer after totally picking the C.C. and MTU series wrong.
MTU basically bitch slapped the Tigers this weekend.

1 CC 28 42
2 UND 28 38
2 Denver 28 38
4 MTech 28 30
5 UW 28 27
6 UMN 28 26
7 UMD 28 23
8 Mankato 28 23
9 SCSU 28 22
10 AA 28 11

My Question on CSTV: The Writers' Round Table

Here is a question I posed for the CSTV round table. The writers didn't go where I was hoping they would go, they kind of danced around the issue and didn't answer my question like I had hoped. No one is denying the fact; Miami and Michigan are good to decent teams, however, how battle tested are they? The strength of schedule of the CCHA isn't very impressive.

Miami will have played basically three teams in the top ten Michigan State University and Michigan (02-08-2008) and Notre Dame by the second week of February. The rest of their schedule is very week and almost laughable. Michigan has beaten Minnesota, Wisconsin and B.C. but Minnesota and Wisconsin are down this year so Michigan has to date played one team in the top ten. So I say again; what is so impressive about racking up a majority of your 21 wins against the likes of these teams. I will break it down for you using the KRACH Rankings, that's 4 wins against UNO #30, 2 wins against Canisus the #54, 3 wins against OSU #44, 2 wins against NMU #36, 1 win against Alaska #40, 2 wins against 32 Vermont, 1 win against BGSU #26 and 2 wins against Rensselaer #43. Include loses against #40 Alaska and #26 BGSU. Again; why are those 16 wins impressive?

Eric Grand Forks, ND: Are the Pundents giving the CCHA getting way too much credit? If you look at the Srenght of Schedule for two of the top teams in the CCHA; Michigan has played the 31st toughest schedule, while Miami has played the 28th toughest schedule. Why are these teams still impressive?
Paula Weston: The "pundents" giving the CCHA too much credit? Because the two best teams in the country are Miami and Michigan, and three of the four top 10 teams are CCHA teams?
Elliot Olshansky: I say it all the time...hockey games are played on sheets of ice, not sheets of paper, and having seen Michigan and Miami, these teams look like the No. 1 and No. 2 teams.
Paula Weston: It's not just the press that votes in the polls. I'd be willing to wager that many, many coaches around the country would say that Miami and Michigan are the top two teams in the nation right now.
Paula Weston: And while hockey games are played on sheets of ice and not paper, RinkRat, you would be out of work if people didn't want to see the endless banter about our sport.
Elliot Olshansky: Of course, I tend to like Miami a bit more than most, because I do still wonder about some of those Michigan freshmen hitting the wall.
Paula Weston: It's always foolish to underestimate Michigan. I think that may be the one true thing I've learned covering hockey these last dozen years.

Goon's WCHA picks for the 19-20 October

Goon's Picks for the Weekend

MSU-Mankato and Michigan Tech Tech Sweeps Sorry Amy.
UND and B.C. Fighting Sioux win
UND and North Eastern Fighting Sioux win
C.C. and Minnesota Split
SCSU and UMD Split
Wisconsin and RMU Wisconsin Sweep
Denver and Notre Dame DU Sweep
UAA and Alaska Fairbanks Split We are wondering if Donald sobers up by Monday Morning?

Sweet Goal


I have read where there are people wondering where the Fighting Sioux's goals are going to come from this season, I belive that this is only the beginning of many more from number 29.

UAA Hockey Fan Blog: Looks at the WCHA race.

UAA Hockey Fan Blog: Donald looks at the teams

Although I do enjoy reading Donald's rants on a regular basis; I actually have to repectfully take issue with what Donald said. I am sure he is also not going to be happy that I picked his Seawolves to finish last in the WCHA again this season. Maybe we can have a blogger summit on our picks and where our teams will end up by season end.

University of North Dakota

I definitely underestimated UND last season. I guess what I really missed badly was the performance of Hobey Baker winner Ryan Duncan. I didn't even mention the guys name in my preview. I certainly wouldn't have pegged them as a Frozen Four participant. But there's definitely something to be said for their continued excellent 2nd half performances. It was a trait of the team under Dean Blais and it has continued under Dave Hakstol. Goal tending in my mind is a big question in Grand Forks. Lamoureux played 37 games last season and would have played more but for an early season injury. Consider me a Lammy skeptic. There'll be a lot of pressure on him to play a lot of games this coming season and while he had good numbers I'm attributing much of that to team defense and limiting quality shots. Lots of folks would disagree with me about Lammy. They have a bit of a tougher schedule this year as well, though that isn't reason enough to downplay their chances. This squad has the potential to finish in the top half of the league (lots of people expect them to win the league) but I believe last year was exceptional and unlikely repeatable. I'm not sure they'll be an NCAA participant. Sue me

While I have never been a big fan of Lamoureux (I think for a goalie he is too emotional and excitable) I don't think he is a bad goalie either. I am actually a Grieco guy and I hope that he can recover from a few bad performances after looking good against the SCSU Huskies.

Also, I do think that Lamoureux's deficiencies can be over looked by the fact that UND returns if not the top defensive unit in the conference, one of the top two or three defensive units. The only team I think that might be better than UND's is Michigan Techs defensive unit. Wisconsin is good but they no longer have the stone wall Brian Elliot between the pipes.

UND will be a participant in the NCAA tourney this season. Just a hunch...

Goon's WCHA Pre-Season poll

Goon and Abby watching TV.


I know it's like 8 day short of two months before the college hockey season begins but since I was at home from work today watching/parenting my new born daughter and being there was a break in the action I decided that now is good to get my pre-season WCHA poll out there.

While this poll might be out a little early I can already see the beginning of the change of seasons. Just around the corner is the North Dakota resident Duck hunting opener is only 5 weeks away. In anticipation of that historic opener the other night I went out with my buddy and his kid to scout for waterfowl and get the dog in the water. I can hardly wait. I am ready to put the golf clubs away for the winter, clean up the shot gun and cheer the Sioux to another run at an NCAA title. Well maybe not just yet but soon enough, I really like fall golf because the courses aren't as crowded.

1.) Sioux
2.) Gophers
3.) SCSU
4.) DU
5.) UW
6.) C.C.
7.) Tech
8.) MSU-M
9.) UMD
10.) UAA

The past three season the Sioux have pretty much proved that winning the league title is nice but is not as important as doing well when the playoffs start. I have watched a few UND teams win the league title only to get bounced in the NCAA tourney. Don't get me wrong, while league titles are nice to have, Frozen Fours and NCAA titles are what I believe is the key to success in any college hockey program. In Dave Hakstols first three seasons UND has finished secon, third and third respectively. Not too bad of a job for the young Fighting Sioux coach. I do however, expect that one of these years the Sioux will realize greatness again and win the NCAA title under Hak's watch.

Sioux the Favorites

While I believe that UND returns the most of all the teams in the WCHA winning the league title is not a given and if the Sioux finish a little lower it should not be a shock to anyone. The WCHA top to bottom is the toughest league in all of college hockey. The battle tested Sioux have the experience but seem they seem to do better when they are in second through fifth place. This season I would like to see the Sioux get off to a better start before the second half so they don't have to expend as much energy making a run at number 8.

Message board fodder on Toews

Some interesting reads

There has been some interesting things written on the Internet since the Sioux and Jonathon Toews finished their season. The speculation about what Jonathon Toews is going to do could fill many reams of paper. It's no mystery that Jonathon Toews is a great player who is barely 19 and just finished his sophomore season at UND.

There is a lot of excitement amongst Black Hawk fans; rightfully so. Toews is a dynamic player and will go on and make an impact in the NHL. From what I have read many of the Chicago Black Hawks fans are already penciling him to the lineup or making the assumption that Toews is gone and will sign a professional contract as well.

Now mind you; these fans KNOW NO MORE than Fighting Sioux fans do, they probably know less that us up here in Grand Forks. I doubt many of them have actually seen the kid play, but they are making the same assumption many of us are as well. While I think that Toews will in fact be leaving the Fighting Sioux during the summer, I don't think he is going to make the instant impact the fans in Chicago think he is. Toews might even start the season in Rockford, Il.

Look to what other talented players from the college ranks have done in their first year of professional hockey. Phil Kessel is the first player that comes to mind Phil a simular talent has a whopping 29 points in 71 games. I just hope the Chicago fans aren't putting undue pressure on this kid and expecting too much from him.

This is what I am talking about
This is what Joe Six Pack is writing about in Chicagoland. I would be willing to bet Tallon is happy this guy isn't on staff. I don't think he even has a clue how much Drury is going to cost for Buffalo to sign. I can see at least 4-5 million to resign him. Chicago isn't known to be big spenders.

Havlat-Toews-Cherpanov
Ruutu-Drury-Skille
Bourque-Bolland-Makarov
Bickell-Hamilton-Brouwer


1)anything to sign Drury, Overpay who cares, he plays in ever aspect of the game, dump aucoins 4 mill. Put Ruutu and Skille together and watch them produce on both sides.

2)Draft Cherepanov, he broke the greatest russians totals as a rookie this year...he led WJC in points and goals , Havlat Toews and Cherepanov could possibly be the most potent line the Hawks have ever seen touch the ice.

3)Keep bourque around good bang for the buck type of player, play him with the likes of Makarov and Bolland and this young line could shine bright. Makarov is a poster boy for the NHL nowadays, I've watched him play, he;s pretty shifty and skilled.

First off you have to take this stuff with a grain of salt, Let be real, Buffalo isn't going to let Drury go and look for Buffalo to sign Drury and Daniel Briere when the season is over. Look for Skille to be in the Chicago farm system all season long. There is no way he is going to do much in the NHL. Skille was barely a factor with the Badgers in the WCHA. Lets get real, Jack Skille scored 39 points in two seasons at Wisconsin, Toews had 86 in two seasons.

Finally the only person that knows what Jonathon Toews is going to do is Jonathon Toews and the Towes family and probably his fellow team-mates. Bloggers in Chicago or St Louis can tell us what they think he is going to do or pontificate on what Toews is going to do but honestly they don't know for sure until you read the press clipping of the impending announcement. If Toews comes back to the Sioux the D.O.T. will probably go down as one of the most prolific lines in college hockey history.