Bracketology: Four Days to Go
With just four days to go until Selection Sunday for Division I men, U.S. College has a version of Bracketology here.
Yes, Minnesota Duluth is still hanging in there entering Thursday's WCHA Final Five play-in game. However there are a number of unranked teams or teams ranked below UMD that still can get an automatic berth by winning a league playoff title like -- Vermont (14), Michigan (16), Maine (18), Boston University (19), Union (20), and unranked Brown and St. Lawrence. That's one large list of maybe teams. Unranked Alabama Huntsville has already taken one of the 16 spots.
Also, USCHO makes a guess at who the Hobey Baker Memorial Award finalists will be here.
Also the 2010 WCHA all-star teams will be named Thursday afternoon in St. Paul. After taking a look at media members who have published their votes a good guess would be that Jack Connolly will be a first-team pick and Justin Fontaine a second-team pick.
Here's Jayson Moy from USCHO
2010 Division I Men Bracketology
Midwest Regional, Allen County War Memorial Colisuem, Fort Wayne, Ind., March 27-28
Minnesota Duluth vs. Bemidji State
Alabama-Huntsville vs. Miami of Ohio
Northeast Regional, Worcester, Mass. DCU Center, March 27-28
Boston College vs. Alaska Fairbanks
North Dakota vs. Yale
West Regional, Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, March 26-27
Wisconsin vs. Vermont
St. Cloud State vs. Northern Michigan
East Regional, Albany (N.Y.) Times Union Center, March 26-27
Atlantic Hockey champion vs. Denver
Ferris State vs. Cornell
Division I Frozen Four, Ford Field, Detroit, Mich., April 8-10
Conference Breakdown
WCHA — 5
CCHA — 4
HE — 2
ECAC — 2
CHA — 2
AHA — 1
Dropped In
Vermont, Alabama-Huntsville
Dropped Out
New Hampshire, Michigan State
Key Games
WCHA
Denver, Wisconsin, St. Cloud and North Dakota are all in. Minnesota Duluth has a good chance, but needs help. A loss does not hurt it, but a win helps tremendously. All four of the teams in still have a shot at a No. 1 seed. Denver is guaranteed a No. 1 seed.
Michigan needs to win to get in. Miami is in. Ferris State and Northern Michigan have good shots to get in. Alaska also has a good shot to get in.
Hockey East
BU and Maine have to win it to get in. Vermont has a chance. Boston College is in. New Hampshire has to sit and watch, but stands a great chance.
ECACHL
Union, SLU and Brown must win it to get in. Cornell and Yale have good shots to get in. Cornell can't really afford to lose two games, though.
CHA
Bemidji State is in. So is Alabama-Huntsville.
Atlantic Hockey
The winner is the only team in from the AHA.
Posted by: pates on 3/17/2010 at 11:18 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: bracketology, umd hockey, wcha
Gophers Lose Schroeder
This Wednesday afternoon story from Roman Augustoviz of the Minneapolis Star Tribune on the professional departure of University of Minnesota scoring co-leader Jordan Schroeder, a sophomore center:
Jordan Schroeder is gone.
Three days after the Gophers' hockey season ended, the sophomore center signed with the Vancouver Canucks.
The Canucks took Schroeder with the No. 22 pick in the first round of the 2009 NHL draft. Schroeder will probably be assigned to the Manitoba Moose, an AHL team in Winnipeg affiliated with the Canucks.
The 5-9, 180-pound Schroeder was picked to be the preseason WCHA Player of the Year by the media and co-Player of the Year by the coaches.
But Schroeder struggled as did his team, especially the first half of this season. He scored nine goals and had 19 assists for 28 points, tying for the team lead. But he was a minus-7 -- worst on the team -- and his offensive statistics dropped off substantially from his first college season.
As a freshman on the Gophers' first line, Schroeder had 13 goals and 32 assists for 45 points. His 35 points in WCHA games were one behind linemate Ryan Stoa, who led the conference in scoring. Schroeder was named the WCHA's Rookie of the Year and two leading college hockey web sites picked him as their national rookie of the year.
Schroeder helped Team USA to the gold medal at the world junior championships in January. He is the United States' all-time scoring leader in world junior play.
Gophers coach Don Lucia said he expected Schroeder to turn pro at the end of this season. "He is obviously an elite player with a bright future ahead of him," Lucia said. "And always accelerated the whole way up. He will have a great career."
Lucia said Schroeder's assist numbers would have been better if Jay Barriball, his right winger last season, stayed healthy. Barriball played only five games before a season-ending knee injury. Schroeder also lost his left winger when Stoa turned prol.
"[Schroeder] has great vision, he likes to be the set-up guy," Lucia said. "He always looked to pass."
Posted by: pates on 3/17/2010 at 5:57 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: jordan schroeder, university of minnesota
Fitger's 5K Full
This Wednesday release from the folks at the Figer's 5-Kilometer road race in Duluth:
Posted by: pates on 3/17/2010 at 3:43 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: running fiters 5k
Final Five Musings
While the battle for conference titles heads to the finish line this weekend, one league title was decided last weekend, in the NOW DEFUNCT College Hockey America. As you all know, Alabama-Huntsville won the CHA playoff championship and is in the 16-team NCAA field. Fellow CHAer Bemidji State is also going to get an at-large bid. That means, in essence, Huntsville's entry has taken a spot from another conference. Minnesota Duluth could be among those mose affected as Inside College Hockey points out Wednesday in trying to project the Division I tournament.
INCH writes:
Thought bubble: Last year, it was Miami that knocked Minnesota Duluth out of the NCAA tournament. That happened in the final of the West Regional in Minneapolis. This year, it looks like the Bulldogs will be ousted from the 16-team field by Alabama-Huntsville — two weeks before the tournament starts.
Unless the Bulldogs can advance to the WCHA Final Five championship game, it’s likely that they’ll watch the NCAAs from the wrong side of the velvet rope with UAH, the surprise winner of the CHA auto-bid, as the bouncer. The other teams on the bottom rung of the at-large ladder — Vermont and Ferris State, to name two — are hoping if they can’t win the auto-bid their respective leagues, then the favorites carry the way across the board. Sometimes, the “win and get in” approach is better than relying on someone else.
Also, below is Wednesday's entry from the site called Goon's World (Dedicated to Fighting Sioux Hockey, The WCHA, College Hockey, The Boston Bruins, Minnesota Wild and NHL hockey). The blog site is here.
The Goon's World WCHA Final Five predictions:
THURSDAY (Play-in Game 7:07 p.m.)
#11 Minnesota-Duluth vs #5 North Dakota (season series UND wins 3-1-0)
Last weekend the Sioux defeated the Gophers in 3 games in Grand Forks, and the Bulldogs beat the Tigers in 3 games in Duluth.
These teams met last year in the Final 5, with UMD taking that game (3-0) while riding a hot goalie named Stalock to the Broadmoor Trophy. This year the Bulldogs don’t have a shut down net minder and have gotten things done offensively. However, a good portion of their goals have come on the power play, and the Sioux have the best defense in the league. UMD really needs to win this game to solidify a spot in the tourney; they’re still on the bubble. The Sioux are still hot going 9-1-0 in their last 10 games, and the Bulldogs are 5-5 over the last 10 games. Part of me wants the Sioux to throw this game, so they can rest up for the NCAA tourney and the other part says win this and the Final 5, to get the auto-bid and possibly a number one seed. Whoever wins this game will be playing 6-games in 9-days. SIOUX WIN
FRIDAY (Semifinal game 2 p.m.)
#6 St. Cloud State vs #3 Wisconsin (season series tied 2-2-0)
Last weekend the Seawolves hosted the Bulldogs and split their series, and the Badgers and Gophers split a pair in Minneapolis.
The Badgers have not won more than three games in a row this season, and have not lost consecutive games. And after last weekend, they are now 2-0 heading into the Final 5. I wonder if the Badgers will want to get some measure of revenge against the Huskies Marvin in this game. I know the Sioux still want a piece of Marvin. UW is definitely the deeper team, where SCSU relies heavily on Roe & Lasch for most of their offense. If the Badgers blue-liners can live up to their NHL draft status and shut that line down, I see the Huskies going down. BADGERS WIN
FRIDAY (Semifinal game 7 p.m.)
North Dakota or UMD vs #1 Denver
Last weekend the Pioneers swept the MTU Huskies in Denver.
DU vs Bulldogs (season series tied 1-1-0)
DU vs Sioux (season series DU wins 4-0-0)
I’ll take North Dakota over DU in that match-up. Or if the Bulldogs play DU, I’m going with the Pioneers over the Bulldogs.
Posted by: pates on 3/17/2010 at 8:57 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: north dakota, umd hockey, wcha final five
North Dakota's Gleason Sidelined
Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald is reporting that North Dakota will likely be without defenseman Joe Gleason for Thursday's WCHA Final Five play-in game against Minnesota Duluth. He's listed as day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. Gleason, who leads all WCHA rookie defensemen in plus-minus, appeared to be shaken up after blocking a shot Sunday at home against Minnesota.
UMD is reporting no injuries. The Bulldogs practice at the DECC on Wednesday morning then head to St. Paul. It's expected UMD will start the same lineup used the past four games in going 3-1.
Also, for those wondering where UMD radio play-by-play voice Bruce Ciskie was on Sunday night at the DECC...he became ill late in the afternoon and was a scratch. In the bullpen was Mark Fleischer, the sports director at KQDS, 1490 AM. He had spent the week doing the Minnesota high school tournament and was ready for a quiet night of grilled food and relaxation. Ciskie says he expects to be back in the saddle for the Final Five.
Also the International Scouting Services has a list of the top 30 draft-eligible prospects for the 2010 NHL Entry Draft is here. Duluth defenseman Derek Forbort, with the USA Under-18 program in Ann Arbor, Mich., a North Dakota recruit, is No. 10.
Also Adam Wodon of College Hockey News is reporting that Ohio State has decided not to renew the contract of head coach John Markell, sources have confirmed. Markell has coached Ohio State for the last 15 seasons, compiling a record of 280-267-56. Markell has brought the program to unforseen heights since taking over, reaching the NCAA tournament six times, including a Frozen Four appearance in 1998. OSU also won its only CCHA tournament championship in 2004.
Posted by: pates on 3/16/2010 at 10:17 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: bruce ciskie, derek forbort, north dakota, umd hockey
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