College Hockey:

This Week in the NCHA-MCHA: Feb. 18, 2010

With the NCHA playoffs ramping up this weekend and the MCHA pairings all set despite one week of regular season conference action to go, what is there to talk about this week?

How about the fact the first public edition of the NCAA Regional Rankings was released this Monday? Here they are for the West Region:

1. St. Norbert
2. St. Scholastica
3. Gustavus Adolphus
4. Hamline
5. UW-River Falls
6. Adrian
7. Augsburg

As far as the implications for the NCAA prospects of NCHA and MCHA teams, its fairly straightforward for a change.

To word it one way, close is only going to count in horseshoes, hand grenades, or if your name is St. Norbert or St. Scholastica.

Though there are no guarantees, the Green Knights and Saints look to be the only teams who have strong enough rsums to buffer a loss in the conference playoffs. For the rest of the NCHA and MCHA, its win it all or go home.

Interestingly, Adrian lands at No. 6 despite two in-region losses to Hamline. Last season the Bulldogs failed to crack the poll despite being undefeated against West Region opponents.

Whos Next?

For many years the opening round of the NCHA playoffs was about the easiest thing in the world to predict as year after year the higher seeded teams advanced without fail.

UW-Stevens Point became the first road team in NCHA history to break through and score an opening round win as the Pointers dropped UW-Stout 8-3, 3-2 in a 2001 quarterfinal series. A road team didnt win again until 2005 when the then host Pointers fell 4-3, 6-1 to visiting Lake Forest.

Since the Foresters win at Stevens Point at least one road team has won an opening round series every season except last.

Stout took down rival River Falls in 2006, while in 2007 St. Scholastica hit the road and knocked off Superior in the quarterfinals and River Falls in the semifinals.

Two road teams scored opening round upset wins in 2008 as St. Scholastica once again eliminated River Falls while UW-Eau Claire made the trip to Superior and came home with its first playoff series win in school history.
The increase in opening round upsets is clear evidence of the ever-increasing parity within the NCHA, though all four home teams did advance a year ago. Recent history suggests a road team is likely to pull off an upset this year, so who will it be?

Well, it wont be St. Norbert as the Green Knights landed a spot right into the semifinals as a reward for their regular season NCHA championship.

That leaves St. Scholastica, River Falls and Stout as the home teams under fire this weekend. As a reminder, all series are first to three points. If the teams split the opening two games the series are settled by a 20 minute mini-game following the conclusion of the Saturday game. If the mini-game is tied after 20 minutes, its sudden death time.

Perhaps the most intriguing matchup might involve River Falls, as the No. 3 seed Falcons take on No. 6. Eau Claire. The 15-8-2 Falcons have slipped up at home twice in the previous four postseasons, while the Blugolds are 2-1-1 in their last four — including an impressive win over St. Scholastica just a week ago.

Obviously in the NCHA you have to beat everybody so it should be a great series, said Eau Claire head coach Matt Loen, who is 32-42-6 in his fourth year behind the Blugolds bench. I think its a great opportunity for our team. The only way we are going to get a NCAA bid is to win the NCHA tournament, so to come out and beat River Falls in the first round would be a huge confidence builder for our team.

The Blugolds are 0-2-1 against the Falcons this season, with a loss and a tie at home back in November and a 6-3 loss at River Falls two weeks ago. In the most recent loss, Eau Claire held a 2-1 lead after two periods but the Falcons erupted for five third period goals to score the win.

Depth-wise they have one of the better lineups in our league as far as forwards, Loen said. They have three or four strong lines that can come at you offensively. Stopping them is the key and that will be the challenge.

The Falcons boast the third highest scoring offense in the NCHA, but the Blugolds allowed the third fewest goals in conference play this year. According to Loen, defense remains a priority this weekend, especially as the Falcons have refused to roll over this season and have scored numerous key goals late in games.

I think weve played pretty well defensively. We only gave up three goals against them in our series at home so were going to try to match our defensive play from that series.

The Blugolds could go with senior Tyler Brigl or freshman Brandon Stephenson in net. Both have seen significant action this season, but Brigl garnered both starts last weekend.

Were comfortable with either one, said Loen. Tyler is a senior and was our goalie when we won that series up in Superior, and Brandon has stepped up and played well as a freshman. Whichever one of those guys plays will be a big part of our team defense.
In the 2008 upset in Superior, Brigl allowed four goals in a Friday loss but stopped 34 shots in a 5-0 shutout on Saturday before also keeping Superior off the board in the mini-game.

As mentioned, that was the first playoff series win in Eau Claire history. It was also an experience Loen hopes his team can draw from against River Falls.

We learned that we can win, he said. To go into a place like Superior who has a winning tradition and to go in and win was big. Now we have an opportunity to do that again as I think that Superior team and this River Falls team are similar.

No. 5 Stevens Point @ No. 4 Stout

There has been plenty of buzz this week about this matchup. Not only because the 4/5 NCHA meeting is often about as much of a tossup as one can find, but also because Stout has not played well down the stretch. The preseason favorite to win the NCHA, the Blue Devils are 0-5-1 over the last three weeks of conference play and fell 4-0 to Stevens Point to wrap up the season. As such, many are rating this one high on the potential upset scale.

That said, the Blue Devils are at home and the hostile confines of the DunnCo have not been friendly to the Pointers for some years.

The Blue Devils hosted the Pointers twice this season and won both times — including a dramatic 5-4 (ot) win in which Stout tallied in the waning seconds of regulation and again in overtime.

Those contests included, Stout has won eight straight at home over the Stevens Point. Included therein are opening round playoff sweeps in 2007 and 2008 in which the Blue Devils outscored the Pointers 23-7 along the way.

The Pointers on the other hand have been up and down as of late. The opened the NCHA season 0-7 but won six of their final 11 to finish 6-12. They split three of their final four NCHA weekends but were only 2-8 against the four teams that finished above them in the standings.

All told, who knows what to expect? Stevens Point has played better down the stretch while Stout has not, but the Blue Devils have owned the Pointers at home for the better part of five years. The proverbial tossup.

No. 7 Superior @ No. 2 St. Scholastica

If five years ago someone said that in 2010 it would be the Yellowjackets and Saints squaring off in the 2/7 series it wouldnt have surprised anyone. If that same person then specified the Saints would be the higher seed it no doubt would have raised some eyebrows.

Thats exactly the situation this weekend as St. Scholastica hosts Twin Ports rival Superior in the NCHAs final quarterfinal series.

The Saints won all three regular season meetings between the two, scoring a 6-3, 3-0 sweep at home in December and notching a 4-1 win at Wessman just a week ago.
On paper, the Saints appear to be clear favorites as they boast the second-ranked of