WCHA Preseason Preview

Andy Sorensen’s 2011-12 WCHA Preview

                 In what was arguably the most volatile off-season since the NCAA ended D-II hockey in 1999, the WCHA has verged into three directions; either by joining the Big 10, the NCHC, or by staying put. With the clock already ticking to the decisive 2013-14 season, the conference is saying good bye to eight of 12 conference members and welcoming at least four new members to the fold in Alaska Fairbanks, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, and Northern Michigan.

Even with this much change, there could still be more as the conference is waiting for definitive word from Bowling Green, and rumors abound about several Atlantic Hockey programs ready to increase their scholarships and join the “new” WCHA, along with the elephant in the room known as Alabama-Huntsville. But before we can be look forward to September 2013, we have hockey to be played starting this weekend as every program except St. Cloud and Wisconsin have exhibitions against Canadian collegiate counterparts. So without further ado, here’s how I see the WCHA shaping up this season.

1.       Colorado College

The Tigers are my favorite for the MacNaughton Cup this season. They have a good, young core returning, including sophomore Jaden Schwartz, who when healthy, lit the conference on fire with his point scoring abilities. This, combined with the addition of several high power  offensive additions from the USHL, notably Charlie Taft, Jordan DiGiandio, and Scott Wasgamz, reminds me very much of a Minnesota-Duluth team who last season won themselves a national championship with their high scoring and sound goaltending. They may not come out of the gate running, but they will be a force to be reckoned with.

2.       Denver

The Pios are a very close 2^nd for me in the WCHA race. They, like CC, are very deep and can play with one of the best teams in the country. They even have an answer for losing Sam Brittain in Adam Murray, who did well in his time with the USNTDP but has struggled in his time in college.  Obviously, the big question for Denver will be how Murray holds up.  Even if things go haywire in net, DU won’t suffer mightily with their strengths elsewhere on the ice.

3.       North Dakota

Yes, theFighting  Sioux lost a lot of talent in Matt Frattin, Ryan Malone, Chay Gennoway, Brett Hextall, and Jason Gregoire all leaving. That doesn’t mean though that it’ll be a down year in Grand Forks; far from it in fact. The Sioux still return several key players including Aaron Dell, who was the surprise of the year between the pipes last season in the WCHA, Derek Forbort, Brock Nelson, and the always physical Ben Blood. Oh yeah, and there’s the recruiting class which includes Rocco Grimaldi who plays a strong offensive game and was a steal for the Florida Panthers in the 2^nd round of June’s NHL Entry Draft.

4.       Minnesota-Duluth

It’s not often you find the defending national champions ranked 4^th in their own conference, but it’s where the Bulldogs sit this season. Like UND, they lost a lot of talent to graduation and the NHL. Unlike UND, they don’t have all the answers (at least not yet).

5.       Nebraska-Omaha

The O-Mavs caught some by surprise (including myself, as I had them 10^th in last season’s preview) last season. They did hit a couple roadblocks last season with goalie John Faulkner, who was inconsistent to say the least. Faulkner returns between the pipes this season, however, coach Dean Blais has a consistent backup in Ryan Massa, who ranked in the Top 10 for wins last season playing for Fargo of the USHL. If the Mavericks want to reach their potential, whoever’s in goal must play smart, consistent hockey.

6.       Minnesota

The Gophers were another that suffered major losses losing, among others, Jay Barriball, Jacob Cepis, and Alex Kangas. Like the situation Omaha’s facing, the Gophers have found their answer in goal with Kent Patterson but was a victim of inconsistent play. To Don Lucia’s credit, I do applaud him for bringing Mike Guentzel back on staff and the Gophers finally get to see USHL standout Seth Ambroz take the ice in maroon and gold. There’s optimism to be had in Minnesota, but it’s cautious.

7.       Alaska-Anchorage

The Seawolves showed the rest of the conference that they’re on the up and up last season with their playoff sweep of the Gophers. Even with the loss of Tommy Grant and Craig Parkinson, the Wolves are no longer a cupcake opponent and should be taken seriously every step of the way.

8.       Bemidji State

I like this Beaver squad, I really do. They have a lot of returning players coming back and like Anchorage, can’t be taken lightly as evidenced by their upset of Omaha in the first round of the playoffs. They play a tough game and as a home playoff team, I would fear playing both the Beavers and Seawolves.

9.       Wisconsin

It’s a good news bad news story in Madison this season. First, the bad news: The Badgers lost a lot of talent to the NHL and graduation. The good news is that Mike Eaves can squeeze talent out of his players like water out of a sponge. Still, I see the Badgers just missing a home playoff spot.

10.   St. Cloud State

St. Cloud is a hard team to pinpoint; they had what was thought to be a talented team and bottomed out before surfacing in the 8^th position in the final standings. Mike Lee provides much stability in net, but if the rest of the team plays a full season is the question.

11.   Michigan Tech

In my non-hockey life, I’m a Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Cubs fan. Like the Vikings and Cubs, the Huskies haven’t been the most successful team recently and fans latch onto any sense of optimism they can. This latest sense is very real, as Tech hired alum and right hand man to college hockey legend Red Berenson, Mel Pearson. While Pearson won’t turn things around in Houghton this season, Tech is taking the right steps towards a successful future.

12.   Minnesota State

Where to start with the Mavericks? There’s stability on the blue line and outside of Michael Dorr and Eriah Hayes, too many questions on offense.

All-WCHA Team

Jaden Schwartz, Colorado College

Drew Shore, Denver

Jason Zucker, Denver

Justin Schultz, Wisconsin

Matt Carlson, Bemidji State

Aaron Dell, North Dakota

WCHA Freshman of the Year: Rocco Grimaldi, North Dakota

WCHA Player of the Year: Jaden Schwartz, Colorado College

WCHA Coach of the Year: Scott Owens, Colorado College

How does your preseason ballot rank?

-Andy Sorensen, CHW Blogger

An Early Look at the WCHA Schedule

With the release of the 2011-12 WCHA Schedule, I took some time to break down five series or matchups that I’ll be following closely this upcoming season:

• McGill University at Denver (Oct. 1^st) and Colorado College (Oct. 2^nd)

The Redmen of McGill come from Montreal as the runner ups in the CIS finals last season, losing to fellow Canadian collegiate powerhouse New Brunswick in the championship game 4-0. How the Pioneers and Tigers, two WCHA favorites this season, do against their Canuck opponent will be fun to watch as the Canadian collegiates play a more fundamentally focused game. This is because fighting is barred, unlike the major junior leagues that many Canadian collegiate players come from.     

• Michigan Tech/Northern Michigan (at Northern Dec. 16^th, at Tech Jan. 21^st)

Nothing says “Welcome back to the conference” to Northern Michigan (Albeit in 2013) than the annual meeting of these UP rivals. Hope springs eternal in Houghton as Red Berenson’s right hand man and Tech grad Mel Pearson steps behind the bench to try and turn the sled around for the Huskies. Up the road in Marquette, the Wildcats come off a disappointing season in which they followed up a 2010 NCAA Tournament appearance with a losing campaign, their first since 2006-07.

• Alaska Anchorage/Nebraska Omaha (In Fairbanks October 14^th, Omaha October 22^nd and 23^rd)

The two surprise teams in the WCHA last season meet up three times in just over a week thanks in part to the Alaska Gold Rush tournament in Fairbanks. Because of WCHA policy, as a tournament game, the October 14^th contest will not count in the conference standings. That next weekend, the series shifts to Omaha where the points will count, and the intensity increases between these two up and coming programs.

• Minnesota/North Dakota (at Grand Forks Jan 13^th and 14^th)

One of college hockey’s most notorious rivalries takes the stage at the Ralph to begin the 2012 portion of the conference schedule. Both teams return a good young core, and as some people watch auto racing watch for the crashes, some people will tune in to see if there are fights like last year.

• Norte Dame/Minnesota-Duluth (at Duluth Oct 7^th and 8^th)

A rematch of a Frozen Four semifinal from this past season happens rather early on in the season. The national champion Bulldogs look to defend their title after losing several key players from their team last season, while the Irish return a strong nucleus from last year’s team. This will be an early test for the Bulldogs to see if despite their losses they can still run with the big dogs.

-Andy Sorensen, CHW Blogger

Moorhead Next in Line?

A week after many considered the WCHA dead, one school has stepped up to continue the league, while another looks to boost membership. Northern Michigan returns to the conference after a 16 year absence in time for the "great shift" in 2013, while MSU-Moorhead made the rather bold statement Friday of announcing they'd hopefully be ready for the 2013-14 season as they would be fielding a Division I team if they raised $37 million for an endowment to fund the program. According to Moorhead president Edna Szymanski, the university is about 40 percent towards the endowment. If realized, the Dragons would play out of Fargo's Scheels Arena, with a capacity of 5,000, just a smudge smaller than the Verizon Wireless Center which seats 5,280.

 I am of the opinion that any growth for the sport is good growth, especially in a market like Fargo-Moorhead where the Force of the USHL has started to build a following and their attendance has grown every season they have been in the league. While the support for hockey is there, is the money? Not every college who wants to start a D-I program is as fortunate as Penn State was, where a check for $88 million from a billionaire alumnus to fund the program and the arena lands on the doorstep. While Moorhead may have the heart, will, desire, and MNSCU support to add D-I hockey, the money, especially in the economy, may not be there, and that would be a shame for not only F-M who would lose on getting D-1 hockey to the area, but also the WCHA would also lose out for adding another hockey rabid market in Fargo-Moorhead.
-Andy Sorensen, CHW Blogger

Ding Dong the WCHA Is Dead

If the WCHA were to have a tombstone, it'd read something like this:
WCHA
1951-2013
"Money Kills"

In the end, it was the almighty dollar that killed the West's premier collegiate hockey conference. The first symptoms were the Gophers and Badgers in step with their Big 10 (Now 12) brethren who play hockey in their own conference and what will give the six teams in that conference a captive television platform come the 2013-14 season. The money illness then spread to Colorado, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Ohio as teams from those states picked up their sticks for their premier conference, called the Collegiate Hockey Conference, and left their conferences en masse to end the conference and put the CCHA in jeopardy.


As a college hockey and WCHA fan and blogger, I'm split on this issue. While the obvious feelings of sadness and anger of slamming the door on the remaining schools is there, I also can't blame the schools for doing what they did. After all, we live in America where capitalism is king and the want to up the ante with the CHC I get. Why play programs in your conference like Michigan Tech, Mankato, or Bemidji that do get some people in the house while programs like UND, UMD and Denver have RABID fan bases, travel well and fill the building weekend after weekend?

This doesn't excuse the reports in Friday's edition of the Anchorage Daily News where the members of the CHC outright lied to the rest of the WCHA of the plans saying nothing was going on. If the CHC was in the works, they could have been outright with their plans and given the leftover schools time to figure out their own plans. Instead, these schools and those in the CCHA who have been left behind are left to wonder where they'll play come 2013-14 if at all. Thanks CHC, you and your greed have made the world of college hockey more uncertain than Brett Favre's football season!

-Andy Sorensen, CHW Blogger

CCHA, meet the WCHA (and Huntsville and Robert Morris)

It's another day, another super league rumor, this time from the Duluth News Tribune and Omaha World Herald. Both are reporting that the seven or eight team league is set to be announced either this month or by Labor Day and would start play in the 2013-14 season.

The conference?
UMD
UND
Denver
CC
UNO
Miami (OH)-from CCHA
Notre Dame-from CCHA
Western Michigan-from CCHA

This is not only bad news for those who remain in a very skeleton WCHA, but for our brethren in the CCHA as well. If Western Michigan makes the jump, each conference would be left with 5 teams each, one below the 6 minimum for the NCAA to recognize you as an official conference. Before we try to put together this very delicate puzzle, let's see what we have.

CCHA remainders:
Alaska-Fairbanks
Bowling Green
Ferris State
Lake Superior
Northern Michigan

WCHA remainders:
Alaska-Anchorage
Bemidji
Michigan Tech
Mankato
St. Cloud

Independent:
Alabama-Huntsville

The solution is simple: Merge the CCHA and the WCHA into two, name TBD. The divisions, named the East and West divisions (Not that creative but in my estimation it beats “Legends” and “Leaders” out behind the woodshed). The only exception in the naming would be the Alaskan schools being split up so that all schools can take advantage of the rewards the Last Frontier reaps (Namely, road games in Alaska don’t count against the number of games you can play in a regular season among others). To make things everything round and even at 12 teams, let’s bring Robert Morris into the picture. This brings the rabid hockey market of Pittsburgh into things and gives RMU another shot at full scholarship hockey.

East Division

Alaska-Fairbanks
Bowling Green
Ferris State
Lake Superior
Northern Michigan
Robert Morris

West Division

Alaska-Anchorage

Alabama-Huntsville

Bemidji
Mankato
Michigan Tech
St. Cloud

Teams would play two series (one home and one away) against their divisional opponents putting things at 24 games, 22 games against your 34 games if you leave the Alaskan trip out of the equation. Additionally, you would play two games against an intra-divisional “rival”. With 10 games to work with, this gives you two non-conference series, which sets the stage for the conference tournament. The tournament would take the format that both conferences are familiar with: a best of three series at the higher seed, top 6 teams earn home ice. The 6 winners advance to a neutral site (My bet? Grand Rapids’ Van Andel Arena) to see who earns the NCAA’s automatic berth. The real question that is left to be answered though is if there will be any casualties by the shakeups. I tried to make the divisions as travel friendly as possible, but I find it very likely that a school or two may drop because they don't have or want the money to keep up with the Joneses of college hockey.

-Andy Sorensen, CHW Blogger

Charging For the Future: WCHA realignment

According to Brad Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald, the Fighting Sioux are the latest team to explore leaving the WCHA. The Sioux would not become the 7th member of the Big 10 but instead be an anchor member of a "power hockey conference" mixing teams from both the CCHA and WCHA. Link

While details of who would join this conference are unknown, the two big prizes up for grabs are Miami University and Notre Dame. Both the Redhawks and Fighting Irish are current members of the CCHA, another conference hurt by the Big 10's raiding as Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State bid adieu after the 2012-13 season. Both the Redhawks and Irish have sparked interest from the WCHA, but if both programs were to join the WCHA, plans for the conference would be off the table.

If the WCHA can score both programs, it would be a major coup for the conference. Both schools have strong programs with great history and tradition. Notre Dame also opens the door to the Chicago market, which is in the heart of the Big 10. Miami would extend the conference's footprint from Alaska to Ohio, covering nine states and 12 schools.

Adding Miami and Notre Dame are fine well and good when it comes to raking in the money like autumn leaves. However, money isn't always the biggest priority in life, and that's the case here. Instead of going after two major programs, the WCHA should turn its attention southward to Alabama and the University of Alabama-Huntsville Chargers. The Chargers are by far college hockey's southernmost program, and in my belief, hold the key to expanding the college game into non-traditional markets. Since being displaced in the aftermath of the breakup of the CHA and being denied membership into the CCHA, the Chargers have been relegated to being an independent team and have struggled both on and off the ice.

It is my belief that if the WCHA can come into Huntsville, it can do great things not only for the Charger program, but also for college hockey's future in the Southeast. If you attach the UAH program to the WCHA, one of college hockey's premier conferences, the recruits and fans will start to come. Much like Rome wasn't built in a day, hockey won't be a sport kids in the Southeast will gravitate to immediately, but it can (and does) happen, as in the case of Chris Kamal, Anchorage's starting goalie and a native of suburban Atlanta. 

While Gary Bettman may be slammed for his Sun Belt expansions in the 90's, it has helped lead to a growth in the youth hockey numbers in the Southeast and successes in the markets as well. This past season, five youth hockey teams from the Southeast advanced to the USA Hockey National Championship Tournaments. Four got second place in their tournaments. The other team, the Richmond (VA) Royals, won the Tier-II 18-Under 2A championship. If these programs can keep these successes coming, I can envision UAH becoming a regional hub for college hockey for players in the Southeast. Unfortunately, when the time comes for realignment, I doubt the WCHA will do what's best for the game and instead money will talk bringing the Fighting Irish and Redhawks into the WCHA and leaving the Chargers out in the cold once more.   
-Andy Sorensen, CHW Blogger

Minnesotans and WCHA Players Drafted on Day #2

Minnesota and WCHA players selected on Day #2 of the Draft:

Rocco Grimaldi (UND recruit) 33rd overall to Florida

Scott Mayfield (Denver recruit) 34th overall to the NY Islanders

Mario Lucia (Wayzata HS) 60th overall to the Wild

Steven Forgarty (Edina HS) 72nd overall to the NY Rangers

Nick Shore (Denver) 82nd overall to the LA Kings

Andy Welinski (UMD recruit) 83rd overall to Anaheim

Kyle Rau (Eden Prairie HS) 91st overall to Florida

Dillion Simpson (UND) 92nd overall to Edmonton

Josiah Didier (Denver recruit) 97th overall to Montreal

Mike Reilly (Shattuck, Gopher recruit) 98th overall to Columbus

Joseph Labate (Holy Angels, Wisconsin recruit) 101st overall to Vancouver

Michael Mersch (Wisconsin) 110th overall to the LA Kings

Seth Ambroz (Gopher recruit) 128th overall to Columbus

Tony Cameranesi (Wayzata HS, UMD recruit) 130th overall to Toronto

Nick Seeler (Eden Prairie HS) 131st overall to the Wild

Edward Wittchow (Burnsville HS, CC recruit) 154th overall to Florida

Josh Archibald (UNO recruit) 174th overall to Pittsburgh

Travis Boyd (Gopher recruit) 177th overall to Washington

Adam Wilcox (S St. Paul HS, Gopher recruit) 178th overall to Tampa Bay

Aaron Harstad (CC recruit) 187th overall to Winnipeg

Patrick Daly (Benilde-St. Margret's, Wisconsin recruit) 189th overall to New Jersey

Zac Larraza (Denver recruit) 196th overall to Phoenix

Brad Navin (Wisconsin recruit) 197th overall to Buffalo

Alex Broadhurst (UNO recruit) 199th overall to Chicago

Max Everson (Eden Prairie HS) 203rd overall to Toronto
-Andy Sorensen, CHW Blogger