Welcome to another week of Woog’s Wisdom where former Gopher coach and All-American Doug Woog sits down with Minnesota Hockey Journal editor Greg Anzelc to discuss all of the great action in the WCHA.

It’s WCHA Playoff Time!

Season ending note: It was an abnormal finish to the season with five teams turning in records of less than .500. Only three teams finished with records better than .500.

CC hosts Anchorage
Look for a two and out for the Seawolves in Colorado Springs. If Anchorage gets some goaltending they could make a game out of it, but CC has three solid lines, lots of depth and they have been consistent all year.
The Call: CC in two games

UND hosts Tech
The Sioux are nicked up a bit. TJ Oshie is hurt and probably won’t play. Chay Genoway has been out for about five games and Evan Trupp is out of the lineup as well. It will take good goaltending to beat the Sioux, and look for Tech to challenge them with their veteran and mature team.
The Call: UND in 3 games

Denver hosts UMD
This will be a good series. Although they finished in third place, Denver is just sort of an average team this year. The guys between the pipes for Denver (Peter Mannino) and UMD (Alex Stalock) are the best players on the team, and the best players will have to play the best.
The Call: UMD in 3 games

Mankato hosts Minnesota
9 of the 12 Maverick forwards are young and three of their defensemen are freshmen. Mankato has been one of the most improved teams of the year. They have balance but they don’t have the superstar. Trevor Bruess has eight goals and 20 assists for 28 points, while Mick Berge has 19 goals and six assists for 25 points. Mike Zacharias has started 26 straight games and has a 2.21 goals against average and .920 save percentage. The Mavericks are healthy and they have quality depth.

For Minnesota, they open the WCHA playoffs on the road for just the third time since their most recent seventh place finish in 1976-77. Their playoff slogan needs to be that they can’t win the game in the first ten minutes but they can lose it. Minnesota needs to play smart and not fall behind early. To have success they will need to execute on the power play. The top guns will need to light it up and their first line will need to have a good weekend. Goaltending will be a key.

The Call: Mankato in 3 games, primarily because of depth and game 3 will favor the home team.

St. Cloud hosts Wisconsin
There is not enough separation between these two teams for either to take the series in two games. The difference makers for St. Cloud: Ryan Lasch, Garrett Roe and Andreas Nodl. St. Cloud is a team to fear and if their power play clicks they will make some noise in the post season.
The Call St. Cloud in 3