We are now at the last weekend of the first half of the season. The only real surprise last weekend was UMD managing only a point at the Gophers. I picked a split in the series, but there wasn't a scenario, given the current lineups and states of the teams, that would've led me to believe that the Gophers would take three of four points from the Dogs.
Bemidji was swept by Wisconsin. Yes, I picked a split, but a sweep wasn't surprising in the least. CC swept SCSU. Definitely no surprise there. Omaha and the Sioux also completed sweeps of Tech and Mankato, respectively. The other series of the weekend saw Denver take three of four points from Anchorage. Again, no surprise there.
Be looking for my mid-season report late next week or early the following week with rundowns of each team and my new predictions on the final standings of the WCHA. Once March hits I'm also going to start a bracketology segment each week, so be looking for that, too.
We have a total of three GAMES this week in the WCHA (excluding the Sioux exhibition game, of course). Last week I went 7-5 and am now 73-60 on the season. That's not too bad considering what a crapshoot it is picking games every week in this league.
Non-conference
Tech @ Northern Michigan, Friday 6:35
Tech and NMU have squared off twice already this season with Tech taking the first game in OT and the second game ending in a tie. Northern has managed to keep a .500 record going this season while Tech has stumbled since the early weeks. I'm going to go with NMU in this one.
NMU wins 5-4
League Games
UNO @ CC, Saturday 8:07, Sunday 7:07
If the last six games are any indication of how a team is performing, the winner is CC. The Tigers are 5-1, with their only loss coming at the hands of the mighty Seawolves in OT. Omaha, on the other hand, is 3-3 with losses against the Sioux (1) and Bemidji (2). The loss against the Sioux doesn't bother me so much. It's being swept by Bemidji that does. Now, I don't know if it was just hot goaltending, or what, but that doesn't sit well with me. By looking at the box score it looks like UNO outplayed the Beaver's both nights, but came up empty. This is a tough series to pick. You have two good teams. One playing well, the other not. I think I'm going to go the safe route and pick a split.
CC wins Friday 4-2, UNO wins Saturday 3-1
