WCHA Early Season thoughts & Preditions

[wisconsinprephockey]

Ok for most teams we have two weekends in the books, weve all had a chance to hear what the experts have to say about how the WCHA shakes down and had a chance to see some of the teams in early season action. What are your predictions on how we finish and what are your thoughts on the individual teams and what to expect from them?

Inside College Hockeys Predicted Finish

1 UND
2 Denver
3 CC
4 U of M
5 SCSU
6 Mich Tech
7 Wisconsin
8 UMD
9 Mankato
10 Alaska-Anchorage

_________________________________________________________

Overall Records thus far

UMD 3-0-1
Alaska-Anchorage 3-0-1
Wisconsin 3-1-0
Denver 3-1-0
Mich Tech 3-1-0
UND 2-0-1
CC 2-0-0
Minnesota 2-2-0
SCSU 1-2-1
Mankato 0-2-0
__________________________________________________________

My predicted finish

1. UND
2. UW
3. Denver
4. Gophers
5. CC
6. Alaska-Anchorage
7. SCSU
8. Mich Tech
9. UMD
10. Mankato

[MNRinkRat]

End of the year predictions

1/North Dakota
2/Minnesota
3/Colorado College
4/Wisconsin
5/Denver

[pacman]

1. Minnesota Golden Gophers (i have to stay true to my team)

2. North Dakota Fighting Sioux

3. Colorado College Tigers

4. Wisconsin Badgers

5. UMD Bulldogs

[boblee]

1. North Dakota
2. Colorado College
3. Minnesota
4. Wisconsin
5. Denver

Pretty much a shot in the dark. I have only seen Minnesota play. I have heard about UND and CC enough to know something...

[east hockey]

Ok for most teams we have two weekends in the books, weve all had a chance to hear what the experts have to say about how the WCHA shakes down and had a chance to see some of the teams in early season action. What are your predictions on how we finish and what are your thoughts on the individual teams and what to expect from them?

Inside College Hockeys Predicted Finish

1 UND
2 Denver
3 CC
4 U of M
5 SCSU
6 Mich Tech
7 Wisconsin
8 UMD
9 Mankato
10 Alaska-Anchorage

_________________________________________________________

Overall Records thus far

UMD 3-0-1
Alaska-Anchorage 3-0-1
Wisconsin 3-1-0
Denver 3-1-0
Mich Tech 3-1-0
UND 2-0-1
CC 2-0-0
Minnesota 2-2-0
SCSU 1-2-1
Mankato 0-2-0
__________________________________________________________

My predicted finish

1. UND
2. UW
3. Denver
4. Gophers
5. CC
6. Alaska-Anchorage
7. SCSU
8. Mich Tech
9. UMD
10. Mankato

I'm curious as to what Bucky has done so far to merit your picking them to finish 2nd in the WCHA this season? Considering that they lost three of their four top scorers from a team which was middle of the pack, that is. Admittedly, I haven't seen them play yet, so maybe I'm missing something here.

Lee

[elliott70]

1 North Dakota
2 Colorado
3 Denver
4 Minnesota
5 St Cloud
6Wisconsin
7 UMD
8 Mankato
9 Mich Tech
10 Alaska

[wisconsinprephockey]

I'm curious as to what Bucky has done so far to merit your picking them to finish 2nd in the WCHA this season? Considering that they lost three of their four top scorers from a team which was middle of the pack, that is. Admittedly, I haven't seen them play yet, so maybe I'm missing something here.

Lee

Naturally I am optimistic about the talent we returned (I am aware they dont look great on paper) and the talent of our recruiting class has me on high hopes.

Heres what I have seen and what I see happening to merit my picking them second. Yes we have lost a big chunk of our scoring from last season, as we lost 4 of our top 5 point getters totalling for 95 points. Keep in mind now that none of these players we lost were considered prolific goal scorers or big time play makers (exception of Jack Skille). However we return a handfull of players that can easily step up and fill the holes we were left with.

Basically what I am trying to say is we lost Joudrey, Dowell, Carlson and Skille who attributed for 95 points. However we return Davies, McBain, Street, Ford, and Klubertans who attributed for 85 points. Other capables are Geoffrion, and Drewiske. So as I see it we are more than capable of filling those shoes. Now we turn to our recruiting class we have a prolific scorer that looks to make a big impact immediatly (Turris), and along side him a couple of guys that know how to find the back of the net and make plays (Smith, Johnson, Turnbull, and McDonagh).

So yes, we do have some question marks but we can also get the job done, goaltending can and will be solid if Connely can endure the wear and tear of playing back to back nights for a whole season(he had good numbers last year, just needs to do it week in and week out).

I will leave you with this:

Badger goals scored in 06-07 season: 93 (through 41 games)
Badger goals scored in 07-08 season: 23 (through 4 games)

All Eaves needs to win in his system a pair of guys that can score...

[Lopresti]

That wasn't a bad sell for the Bucky. I hope they fall flat on their face, but I will take them a little more serious.

[Lopresti]

8 WCHA squads in the latest top 20. Michigan tech will be a pain in the ass for everybody all year the way they play defense.

[wisconsinprephockey]

It defenately looks as if it could be a close race in the WCHA this year, with more teams that appear to have the potential to win big games. It does however have me kind of worrying that if a lot of our teams beat up on each other we could be under represented in the National tourny

[Lucia4President]

UMD. I hope the Bulldogs can keep it up, but with trips to Denver, Colorado Springs, and NoDak in their near future, I think the Dogs go from 3-0-1 to 4-7-1 by the time late November rolls around. The Beer Song might be heard from the DECC now, but when North Dakota rolls into the Twin Ports come March, the Bulldogs could be lost in the pack in the WCHA yet again.