WCHA Preview

It’s hard to believe that College Hockey is already back, but as we start play in a couple weeks, here’s how I think the WCHA will shake out this season (NHL Draftees).

    1.     North Dakota

The Sioux in my opinion are not only the favorites from the WCHA but for a national championship as well. When your roster reads of such names as Derek Forbert (LAK) and Brock Nelson (NYI), two first round picks in June’s draft, alongside a stifling defense of which Forbert will be a key part and the return of Chay Genoway and most of the squad returning, you have yourselves a winner both in the WCHA and the national level.

    2.     St. Cloud State

Even though I have the Huskies second, I have a feeling they could surprise some on the national stage. They did lose a major cog in their offense in Ryan Lasch due to graduation, but I expect both Garrett Roe (LAK) and former Minnesota HS star Ben Hanowski (PIT) to step up tremendously, along with their experience in goal with the combo of Mike Lee (PHX) and Dan Dunn (WSH) to help get the Huskies into the Final Five and possibly a NCAA Tournament appearance.

    3.     Minnesota-Duluth

If you like offensive firepower, UMD is your pick with three 40 point scorers Jack & Mike Conolly and Justin Fontaine from last season. However, their goaltending is very suspect with a junior in Kenny Reiter, a former NAHL player who has seen little action being stuck behind Alex Stalock who is now in the San Jose system and Brady Hjelle who left the Bulldog program this summer to play for Cedar Rapids of the USHL. Reiter now gets his chance as he will start ahead of freshmen Christian Gaffey and Aaron Crandall. Additionally, beyond the Conolly and Fontaine trio, there isn’t much offense depth as the Bulldogs ranked 6^th in the conference for scoring last season.

   4.     Bemidji State

Part one of the newcomers to the league comes in at #4. Interestingly, a lot of the Beaver roster from their Cinderella run to the Frozen Four two years ago remains intact and brings the ability to score goals, averaging 3.5 goals a game last year.

   5.     Denver

This Denver team has more questions than answers at this point. The Pioneers lost many of their key players to the pros or graduation, but that doesn’t mean that there won’t be excitement as head coach George Gwozdecky is always fun to watch. The intriguing story this year out of Magness Arena might be the arrival of three very interesting pro prospects at forward: Beau Bennett who was drafted 20^th overall by Pittsburgh and Jason Zucker was picked up in the 2^nd round by the Wild in the NHL Draft. The third piece to the puzzle is Nick Shore, who is eligible for the 2011 Draft and is projected to be a first round pick. His brother Drew (FLA) will be a sophomore on the team. The Shores were the first family in the history of the US Development Program to have two brothers in the program at the same time. The Shore tradition continues as the next oldest brother Quinton will play for the USNTDP this season and is highly speculated to be a Pioneer come 2012.

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   6.     Colorado College

This Tiger team, much like their rivals an hour north on I-25, have two brothers leading their team in Rylan and Jaden (STL) Schwartz. Also returning goalie Joe Howe with some experience helps the Tigers cause as well. Despite this, they still have a ways to go to crack the elite level of the WCHA.

   7.     Minnesota

Gopher fans, complain all you want, but here’s the facts:

1.     Last year was the first losing season since Doug Woog’s last year in 98-99 when the Maroon and Gold went 15-19-9.

2.     While they did have a good year recruitment wise picking up such names as Nick Bjugstad (FLA), Max Gardiner (STL), Mark Alt (CAR) and Justin Holl (CHI), one cannot expect this quartet to stay together all four years and/or carry the team all season.

Expect another long year at Mariucci if you are a Gopher fan as I don’t see the offense helping out Kangas any more than they did last season.

   8.     Wisconsin

The Badgers are another legendary program that will have an off year. Wisconsin, much like Denver, lost a lot to graduation and the pros this off-season including Hobey Baker winner Blake Geofferion. However, unlike Denver and Minnesota, the Badgers’ recruiting class doesn’t contain that collective punch outside of Joe Faust (NJ) on defense and Jefferson Dahl, a high shooting wing who helped continue a dynasty in Wisconsin high school state hockey with Eau Claire Memorial.

   9.     Nebraska-Omaha

Quite honestly, the UNO Mavs are the hardest team in the WCHA to figure out this year. While under the leadership of Sioux coaching legend Dean Blais, they lost senior goaltender Jeremie Dupont and offensive defender Eddie DelGrosso. While I believe Dean will do his best with the squad he has, the program will face growing pains in more ways than one.

  10.     Minnesota State-Mankato

The MSU Mavs will go through a season of the great unknown this year offensively. With more notable players such as Tyler Pitlick and Kael Mouillierat leaving than coming back, the question is who will carry a team who will lose four of its top six scorers this past year. However, there is stability in goal with the duo of Phil Cook and Austin Lee while the Mavs do return defensemen Ben Youds and Kurt Davis which will help them defensively.

    11.     Michigan Tech

It’s a coin flip between the Huskies and the Seawolves for last in the WCHA, but I give the edge to Tech. Why?  The word is goaltending. Kevin Genoe as a freshman showed why he’s a rising star in the WCHA. If you read past the fact that Tech is not that great of a team (Thus the unusually low win percentage and record and high GAA), he does have a good save percentage, and from when I saw Tech play last season, he seemed to keep his cool in net. Genoe will better himself with time and experience.

    12.     Alaska Anchorage

The Seawolves last season finished dead last in every offensive category in the WCHA with the exception of goals scored.  Unfortunately for the Seawolves, leading scorer Kevin Clark has graduated and is now playing for his hometown Manitoba Moose of the AHL. To illustrate the loss the Wolves will have on offense, Clark scored 23 goals, five off league leader Blake Geofferion of Wisconsin. The highest scoring players returning this season, Sean Wiles and Tommy Grant had 9 goals each. As for the goaltending, senior Bryce Christianson is expected to be the man between the pipes. Christianson will be the exception to the rule in Anchorage however, as there are 19 underclassmen on the roster this year.

While we’re at it, let’s look at my preseason All-WCHA Team:

Player of the Year: Garrett Roe, St. Cloud State

Forwards:

Garrett Roe, St. Cloud State

Justin Fontaine, Minnesota-Duluth

Anthony Mailani, Denver

Defense:

Ben Blood, North Dakota

Chay Genoway, North Dakota

Goalie:

Scott Gudmanson, Wisconsin

         ~ Andy Sorensen

College Hockey Weekend Blogger

Knocking at the Dorrstep

Michael  Dorr, is getting ready to enter what is hopefully his first full season as a college hockey player. A midseason transfer from the University of Minnesota, Dorr had to sit out the second half of his freshman year and first half of his sophomore year due to NCAA's transfer rules. Michael has traveled a bit under the radar, partially because of his limited playing time. But, that doesn't mean he hasn't had an impact for the Mavericks. Dorr played in 22 games last year scoring five goals and adding 11 assists to lead the Mavericks with .727 points per game.

If the Mavericks are looking to have success this year they will not only need strong play between the pipes, but a scorer to light the lamp at the other end of the ice. Michael Dorr can be that guy for the Mavericks. Coach Jutting has stated that Michael is a scorer and has the ability to put the puck in the back of the net. A perfect example of that was his first game as a Maverick when he scored the game winner and added an assist in a 3-2 win over perviously fourth ranked Bemidji State. Keep on eye on #23 for the Mavericks this year as there are big expectations for Mr. Dorr to help lead the Mavericks in the scoring column.

~Marcus Taplin

It's going to happen, or at least all signs point that way

There has been a lot of talk about Penn State announcing their plans to add varsity hockey this week. Subsequently there has also been talk about the Big Ten creating a hockey conference. After reading an article from the Capital Times out of Madison, Wisconsin in which they interviewed Barry Alvarez Wisconsin's athletic directer, it seems like it is a done deal. Alvarez seems to be exploring what the time table is for leaving WCHA, "I don’t know the logistics — how long it takes to get out of a league, all of that — but I sense that we will move in that direction." This is the first big step in the process and Alvarez goes on to say that the hot topic will be on the agenda at the monthly Big Ten meeting. 


This seems like the first domino in the sequence of teams leaving the WCHA and CCHA to join a Big Ten conference which sources say could be the 2014-2015 season, if not earlier. In the last post I laid out multiple reasons how this could effect college hockey negatively.  Information will start to percolate after these quotes spread and information for the Big Ten's meeting is disclosed.


So get ready college hockey fans the Big Ten is coming to college hockey whether you think it's good or bad.


Also make sure to check out Ben Youd's Blog. He will be blogging exclusively for College Hockey Weekend all season long about the the Minnesota State Mavericks and also talking about his daily routines as a Division I hockey player.




~Marcus Taplin

Big Ten Won't be a Big Hit for College Hockey

There has been talk in the recent years about the Big Ten starting a conference in College Hockey. Now with the news about Penn State planning to formally announce the launch of a new men's hockey program the talk is starting to heat up behind doors and in the public. If Penn State does announce the start of a new program, that would mean six of the now 12 Big Ten teams would have college hockey as a varsity sport. The minimum teams needed in a conference to get an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.


There are many questions to be asked and to be answered before Penn State laces up the skates for their first season. Which conference do they join? WCHA? CCHA? Will teams like Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan leave their respected conferences to create this new Big Ten Conference in college hockey?


Here are some reasons why it would be a bad idea for the Big Ten to create a conference.


1. Breaking up great conferences like the WCHA (Minnesota & Wisconsin) and CCHA (Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State)

2. They would only having six teams in the new conference. Yes one of them is guaranteed an auto bid and most of the teams in the conference are good enough to get an at large bid, but they won't help themselves out in the Pairwise after everything shakes down. Continually beating up on one another throughout the season will have an effect on their records when it comes time to pick teams to make the NCAA tournament.

3. If teams like Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan leave their respected conferences, do you think the WCHA and the CCHA are going to want to schedule non-conference games with teams from the Big Ten? There will be some feelings of betrayal for money. Which is ultimately the main reason for this. The Big Ten Network will be shelling out lots of zeros to get the TV rights. So why would other conferences and schools want to schedule non-conference games with these teams?

4. This would make three average conferences and not two top tier conferences. Hockey East would then be crowned as college hockey's best conference. Not saying that's a bad thing for college hockey, but as a fan of the WCHA, it's a bad thing.

5. With the WCHA and college hockey battling the Canadian Hockey League for recruits the loss of Wisconsin and Minnesota to the WCHA would lower the level of play in the WCHA and give less reasons for recruits to choose the WCHA and college hockey over the Canadian Hockey League.

Don't confuse this with being anti Penn State adding hockey to their varsity sports; it's not that at all. This just gives a solid argument against the Big Ten creating a conference in college hockey. It's great that Penn State is adding hockey, they have a large enrollment, a great name, and the tradition academically. Their club team has also been successful for a while now and that will help them make the transition.

 When Penn State adds college hockey they should join the CCHA, not only because geographically it makes sense, but also it would give them an even number of teams at 12. I don't think the WCHA will make a push to add Penn State because they don't want an odd number of teams. They are also probably at their max of teams with the recent addition of UNO and BSU.

Hopefully college hockey thinks about all the ramifications that could happen if the Big Ten creates a conference.

Marcus Taplin Producer