WCHA bids 4 aces into NCAA puck tournament
Can North Dakota maintain its hot streak? Can Denver recover from losing two straight for the first time all season? Can Wisconsin channel its consistency into sudden-death mode? And can St. Cloud State turn its back on its curious 0-forever NCAA record?
All are valid questions awaiting those four WCHA teams, all of which earned slots in this weekend’s NCAA regional hockey tournaments. At stake in the four regionals are opportunities to go to Detroit on April 8-10 to take part in the Frozen Four, in hopes of becoming the 37th WCHA team to win a national championship since the league was organized in 1951. It would, however, be the first WCHA national champ in four years, because, in a rarity, no WCHA team reached the final game the last three years.
The WCHA Final Five tournament is such a taxing and emotional event that perhaps it has become a challenge to maintain or reacquire momentum or flow from the Final Five to the NCAA tournament. This would seem to be the ideal opportunity for the WCHA to regain its stature, with four of the 16 NCAA entries.
The prime opportunity would seem to come in the West Regional at Xcel Center in St. Paul, where Wisconsin (25-10-4) is the No. 1 seed and will face No. 4 Vermont (17-14-7) in the 8 p.m. (CDT) Friday semifinal, after St. Cloud State (23-13-5) rides the No. 2 seed against No. 3 Northern Michigan 20-12-8) IN THE 4:30 game. Those winners meet Saturday at 8 p.m. for the West Regional title. An all-WCHA final, between Wisconsin and St. Cloud State, is certainly feasible, as the two teams are returning to the scene of the Final Five, where the Huskies topped the Badgers 2-0 in the semifinals.
League champion Denver (27-9-4) is the No. 1 seed in the East Regional at Albany, N.Y., where the Pioneers face Rochester Institute of Technology (26-11-1) at 2 p.m. Friday, followed by No. 2 seed Cornell (21-8-4) against No. 3 New Hampshire (17-13-7) in the 5:30 p.m. second game. Those winners will decide the Frozen Four entry at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
Denver proved its superiority in winning the league title, behind goaltending champ Marc Cheverie, and league scoring champ Rhett Rakhshani, but the Pioneers have to try to get back in proper rhythm after losing both games — to North Dakota and Wisconsin — at the Final Five. Snapping back into form is not automatic.
North Dakota (25-12-5), riding a hot streak that includes a three-game surge to the Final Five’s Broadmoor Trophy, heads east also, where it will be the No. 2 seed in the Northeast Regional at Worcester, Mass., taking on No. 3 Yale (20-9-3) at 4 p.m. Saturday, preceded by a 12:30 p.m. match between No. 1 seeded Boston College (25-10-3) and fourth-seeded Alaska Fairbanks (18-11-9). Those winners collide Sunday at 4:30 p.m.
North Dakota is riding a hot streak of 12 victories in 13 games, with junior Evan Trupp contributing the latest hot hand. Trupp scored the clinching goal in the 2-0 victory over UMD to open the Final Five, then added two goals and assisted on the winner in the 4-3 victory over top-seeded Denver in the semifinals, and assisted on both goals when the Sioux countered from a 2-0 deficit against St. Cloud State and went on to a 5-3 victory for the Final Five title. Trupp, who came into the Final Five with 5-23–28, added 3-3–6 out of the first eight goals scored by the Sioux at Xcel Center.
The Midwest Regional at Fort Wayne, Ind., is the only one without a WCHA team, although it does have Bemidji State, which will be joining the WCHA next season. The Beavers (23-9-4) rate the No. 2 seed and will face Michigan (25-17-1) at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, following the 3 p.m. game between Miami of Ohio (27-7-7), the No. 1 seed overall, and No. 4 seed Alabama-Huntsville (12-17-3). Huntsville earned the slot after Niagara upset Bemidji State by beating Niagara in the College Hockey America final. That outcome, combined with Michigan’s upset of Miami and victory over Northern Michigan to win the CCHA’s automatic berth, conspired to bump Minnesota Duluth out of the 16-team field, or the WCHA would have had five entries.
An interesting aside is that Denver had never lost two games in succession all season, but was stung by North Dakota 4-3 in the WCHA semifinals, then also lost to Wisconsin 6-3 in the third-place game. The question facing the Pioneers is that those losses are meaningless if they regain their touch — unless they find it difficult to get back into their impressive form. It doesn’t help the Pioneers that Anthony Maiani, top scorer after the Rhett Rakhshani-Tyler Ruegsegger-Joe Colborne line, is out after being injured against North Dakota.
Wisconsin also has an impressive run of having not lost two in a row all season, a record the Badgers extended by beating Denver 6-3 in the third-place game after losing 2-0 to St. Cloud State in the semifinals of the WCHA Final Five. In that game, the Huskies lost Garrett Roe, their offensive co-leader with Ryan Lasch, when he slid into the boards trying to block a shot. Roe missed the 5-3 title loss to North Dakota, but will be back for the West Regional.
“He was more hurt than injured,” said St. Cloud State coach Bob Motzko after Thursday’s practice at Xcel Center. “He’ll be back, although he might have a sore neck.
“We’re playing well as a team, and we’re doing that the best we’ve done right now,” Motzko added. “I think we just have to keep chugging along. I’ve really liked our team from the start, and we’ve had a couple of good runs, and a couple of pops in the nose.”
The worst of those pops was an 8-1 loss to North Dakota in St. Cloud, but the Huskies responded by going to Wisconsin to win their next game 5-1. “We’ve had real battles through the playoffs,” Motzko said. “First we had to battle to beat Mankato in the best-of-three, then we had a great battle with Wisconsin, and then a great game against North Dakota.
“We went to Miami to open the season, and we lost two tough games, but we haven’t been swept since. When all else is equal, everything comes back to our penalty-killing. When we’re aggressive, we’re good killing penalties, but we gave up three poer-play goals against North Dakota. I’d have to say, though, that for 12-14 minutes of that game, North Dakota played great and put us back on our heels.”
The other thing the Huskies have going for them, when all else is equal, is the penchant for timely scoring from Roe and Lasch, both of whom have scored 19 goals, 27 assists, for 46 points. Penalty killing is vital, but so is the ability to generate scoring.
The Huskies also have something of a large hurdle to overcome, although Motzko points out that such history means nothing to the current crop of players. But this is the eighth time St. Cloud State has reached the NCAA tournament — third under Motzko — and the Huskies have yet to win their first regional game. It also is the first time the Huskies have been able to play in the West Regional, where the familiar Xcel Energy ice sheet should be surrounded by Huskies fans.
For now, Northern Michigan consumes the attention of Motzko and his Huskies. If they win, they can start worrying about Wisconsin — or Vermont. But that doesn’t prevent Motzko from seeing strong potential from WCHA teams at this year’s tournament.
“Our four teams that are in right now — all four — are playing their best right now,” said Motzko. “And I think any of the four have a good chance to win.”
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About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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