We're fastly approaching the end of the hockey season. We only have two weeks left in the regular season...
I feel that I have mention Michigan Tech this week. They finally have won a game again. Yep, the defeated Denver last Friday night by a 3-2 score in Denver. I don't know how you live that one down, Denver. That's a tough, tough loss to take.
As it's somewhat late, and I have an early morning and full day tomorrow, this one is going to be brief again. Sorry, folks.
I went 5-7 last week which dropped my record to 130-102 on the year. Not too bad, but it could probably be a little better. We have five conference series and one non-conference this weekend. Mankato is the lone team off this weekend.
Non-conference
UAA @ Alaska, Friday 10:05, Alaska @ UAA, Saturday 10:07
Each team wins on their home ice.
Split. Alaska wins Friday 3-2, UAA wins Saturday 4-1
Conference
BSU @ UND, Saturday/Sunday 3:37
The Beavers have been such an up and down team this year that it's tough to predict what they're going to do on a weekly basis. The Sioux, on the other hand, have been pretty steady. In fact, it's pretty much a given that they're going to win on Saturday, so if the Beavs wanna pull one out of Siouxland, they'd better do it on Friday. I don't see that happening, though.
Sioux sweep 4-1, 6-2
MTU @ UMN, Friday 6:37, Saturday 7:37
I'm not sure what's going on the with start times at Mariucci this weekend, but the certainly are different. The Gophers are taking on the worse team in the league, possibly the country, so this should be a fairly easy couple of victories for the Gophers. Then again, look what the Huskies did at Denver last weekend. Tech has nothing to lose at this point in the season, so they might as well try and play spoilers. Even so, the Gophers should win a couple of games in convincing fashion.
Gophers sweep 4-1, 3-2
UW @ SCSU, Friday/Saturday 7:07
The Huskies and Badgers are both coming off of one point weekends when both teams needed two or better. The Badgers are the better team here and the Huskies are just too up and down each week. However, if they're able to play the Badgers how they played the Sioux last weekend, the Huskies could walk away with three or four points easily. It'll be interesting to see which team shows up. The Huskies are in desperation mode if they want to try and grab home ice. It is looking like that's going to be impossible to do, though, as they're currently four points out of sixth with four games left. The teams in front of them have easier schedules, too. (The Huskies travel to Denver to close the season out.) The Badgers are fighting to hold on to fifth right now, so expect them to come out with some fire. I think Bucky gets the best of Blizzard this weekend in both games. I sure do hope I'm wrong, though.
Badgers sweep 4-3, 5-2
DU @ UNO, Friday 7:37, Saturday 7:07
The second and third place teams are squaring off in this one, and I'm expecting a good couple of games. Denver is one of the best teams in the league, again, and UNO has surprised a lot of people this year with their style, speed, and size. This one will probably be a split, but either team has the capability to sweep this. I'm going the safe route.
Split. UNO wins Friday 4-3, Denver wins Saturday 4-3
UMD @ CC, Friday 8:37, Saturday 8:07
The Tigers are coming off of a tough weekend at Bemidji which saw them get one point in a Friday night 5-5 tie. UMD was able to split its series with Mankato last weekend in Mankato. CC is trying to get itself back into home ice for the playoffs and Duluth is still in the hunt for the MacNaughton Cup. Given the way the Tigers have been playing, it's tough to see them come away with more than a point or two. It is tough to win on the road, though, so I have to give them one game, because they're still a fairly good team.
Split. UMD wins Friday 4-1, CC wins Saturday 4-3
