Sorry about the length of the two previous weeks, but I was out of town for one and just flat forgot about last weeks until it was too late. Oops! Well, that's not going to happen again. I'm back in full form this week, and have a full slate for you this week.
The Huskies of SCSU went into Duluth on Friday night and absolutely dominated the Dogs in theie new arena. They won 8-2, if you didn't catch the final. Of course Saturday struck where they, once again, blew a three goal lead. Although, this time they managed to hang on and tie the Dogs to take three of four points on the weekend.
With points being a premium, and the Huskies having a horrible season, these points are HUGE. First, it kept them at 9th, and, second, it keeps them within five points of fifth place and within three of sixth and a home playoff spot. It's going to be brutal for the Huskies down the stretch as they play UND and UW at the NHC the next two weekends and then travel to Denver to close the year out.
The Saturday game between Denver and Minnesota saw the Gophers take it to the Pioneers like we haven't seen too often this season. The Gophers took a commanding 6-0 lead and wound up winning the game by a 7-3 final score. I'm not sure what got into the Gophers on Saturday. It could've been Hockey Day Minnesota, maybe Lucia lit a fire under their butts, or maybe they were just scared of the possibility of ending up in 10th place on the weekend. Whatever it was, it worked.
One of the most interesting stories of the weekend was the struggles the Beavers had against Tech. I understand that it's tough to win on the road in the WCHA, but this Tech team is horrible and the Beavers should've had no problem dispatching this team. As I was watching the back-and-forth game on Friday I was really beginning to believe that Tech would finally pull off a win. Sadly, I was wrong. The Beavers managed to tie the game and hold on for the remainder. They did win on Saturday by a 1-0 score to take three of four from Tech.
Since I didn't have time to get the record updated for the previous week, I'll tell you that I went 7-3 on that weekend which improved my record to 117-91. I went 8-4 last weekend and now stand at 125-95 on the season. I think I've done a fairly good job predicting the games each weekend, especially in this league. We have all twelve teams participating in league games, so we have six series going on.
Conference
UMN @ UW, Friday 7:07, Saturday 8:07
I'm not sure what's happening with the late start on Saturday, but for whatever reason it's an 8:07 start time. Anyway, this series always seems to be a good one to watch. This is one of the most intense rivalries in all of hockey and I don't expect this one to be anything short of great. The Gophers are coming off a huge win over Denver on Saturday and the Badgers are coming off of being swept at UNO. I think the Gophers are going to come in and surprise the Badgers, but the Badgers will get their revenge.
Split. Gophers win Friday 4-3, Badgers win Saturday 4-2
UND @ SCSU, Friday/Saturday 7:07
I'm not sure where to start on this one. The Huskies and Sioux have some bad blood between each other dating back to last year. However, I feel that we should be back to normal now. The Sioux are a tremendous team and the Huskies have been up and down at best this season. The Huskies do have a lot of talent that, when they decide to play, are one of the tougher teams to beat. It doesn't seem to matter where these two teams meet, the Sioux almost always dominate the show. Unless the Huskies find something deep down inside, they're not going to come away with anything.
Sioux sweep 4-2, 4-3
CC @ BSU, Friday 7:37, Saturday 7:07
I'd like to sit here and tell you that the Beavers are a tough team to beat in Bemidji, but they really haven't been. For some reason their new building hasn't been kind to them. CC has been a .500 team on the road. The Tigers and Beavers have both been struggling as of late, so I really don't know what to expect out of this one. I'm going the safe route...
Split. CC wins Friday 4-3, BSU wins Saturday 3-2
UMD @ MSUM, Friday 7:37, Saturday 7:07
Duluth and Mankato are fairly even offensively, but Duluth is the runaway winner defensively between these two teams. Mankato plays a run-and-gun style, but their defensemen take too many risks which bites them in the butt too often. Duluth is a great power play team and they'll take you apart if you let them. I could see the Mavs stealing one here.
Split. UMD wins Friday 5-4, MSUM wins Saturday 4-3
MTU @ Denver, Friday 8:37, Saturday 8:07
Do I really need to say anything. Tech hasn't won since the October and Denver's a pretty good hockey team. This should be one of the easier series for Denver, but they had better not take the weekend off. This is still the WCHA and any team can win on any given night.
Denver sweeps 6-1, 5-2
UNO @ UAA, Friday/Saturday 10:07
This one is somewhat of intriguing series to me, but only because Anchorage hasn't been absolutely horrible this season. With that said, the Seawolves aren't playing that great right now, and UNO is an in your face team. Anchorage should be able to, somewhat, counter that with their size, though. This could end up as a split, but I'm going with UNO on this one.
UNO sweeps 3-2, 4-1
