Each week Doug Woog sits down with Minnesota Hockey Journal editor Greg Anzelc to discuss the all of the great WCHA action.

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WCHA Playoffs Are Here!

2010 WCHA Playoffs Get Underway Friday; First Round, Best-of-Three Series to Feature #10 MTU at #1 DU, #9 UAA at #2 UW, #8 MSU at #3 SCSU, #7 UM at #4 UND, #6 CC at #5 UMD

WCHA regular season and MacNaughton Cup champion Denver (25-7-4), the No. 1-ranked team in the nation, is also the No. 1 seed for the post-season tournament and will play host to No. 10 seed Michigan Tech (5-28-1) at Magness Arena (6,026). Face-offs are 7:37 pm MT on Friday, 7:07 pm MT on Saturday and 7:07 pm MT on Sunday (if necessary). During the course of the regular season, the Pioneers won both matchups against the Huskies, 5-2 and 5-3 on Feb. 19-20 in the Mile High City.

No. 2 seed Wisconsin (22-9-4) will entertain No. 9 seed Alaska Anchorage (11-21-2) at the Kohl Center (15,237) with face-offs set for 7:07 pm CT each evening. The No. 3-ranked Badgers were 2-0-0 vs the Seawolves during the regular season, claiming 5-1 and 6-2 verdicts in Madison back on Nov. 13-14.

No. 3 seed St. Cloud State (20-11-5) will take on No. 8 seed Minnesota State (15-18-3) for the second straight weekend, hosting the Mavericks at the National Hockey Center (5,371) on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (if necessary) at 7:07 pm CT each evening. The No. 7-ranked Huskies are 0-1-1 vs the Mavericks this season, after dropping a 4-2 decision in Mankato last Friday (March 5) and then earning a 2-2 (ot) tie last Saturday (March 6) in St. Cloud.

Longtime rivals North Dakota and Minnesota will hook-up in first round WCHA playoff action at Ralph Engelstad Arena (11,634) in Grand Forks, with Friday's opener set for 7:37 pm CT, Saturday’s contest at 7:07 pm CT, and a potential third game on Sunday at 7:07 pm CT. The No. 5-ranked Fighting Sioux (20-11-5), sporting a current nation’s best seven-game winning streak, and the Golden Gophers (17-17-2) split their four-game regular season series 1-1-2. On the opening weekend of the 2009-10 conference schedule, Oct. 16-17, host North Dakota won 4-0 and tied 3-3 (ot) to take three points from UM. Then on Jan. 15-16 in Minneapolis, the two clubs tied 3-3 (ot) in game one before the Gophers captured a 5-1 triumph in game two. Both teams scored 11 goals and yielded 11 in the series.

And up in Duluth this weekend, No. 5 seed and defending WCHA Final Five champion Minnesota Duluth (20-15-1) will entertain No. 6 seed Colorado College (18-15-3). Face-offs at the Duluth Entertainment & Convention Center (5,303) are 7:07 pm CT each evening. The No. 14-ranked Bulldogs posted a 3-1-0 season series advantage over the No. 15-ranked Tigers. On Nov. 6-7 in Colorado Springs, UMD won the opener 4-3 with CC taking game two 6-2. In the rematch in Duluth on Jan. 8-9, UMD swept the Tigers 5-2 and 4-1.

Following the first round of WCHA playoffs, the five winning teams will be re-seeded No. 1 through No. 5 according to their regular season finish and advance to the 2010 Red Baron™ WCHA Final Five, set for Thursday, March 18 through Saturday, March 20 at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. On Thursday, the No. 5 seeded team will play No. 4 at 7:07 pm CT. On Friday, there will be two semi-final matchups at 2:07 pm and 7:07 pm CT. On Saturday, the third place game will be at 2:07 pm and the Broadmoor Trophy championship game at 7:07 pm CT.

MINNESOTA AT UND
The first game of this series is huge, as is the first goal. You can’t win games like these in the first ten minutes but you can lose them, so the start is going to be important. If Minnesota can win the first game all of the pressure switches to UND. Look for lower scoring games, and if Minnesota gets down they can’t look back, they have to stay positive and focused. Faceoffs are critical this time of year so winning the draws will be a key to the game. UND has been consistent over the past few series while Minnesota has been up and down. Playing at home gives the Sioux a slight advantage, but if Minnesota gets a few bounces and good goaltending they can win this series. Another key will be the special teams, whoever gets goals on special teams will have a big advantage. Minnesota is due for some breaks and the law of averages would say that they will get a few this weekend. Minnesota needs to go out and fight like dogs and play hard in their own end. Will is more important than skill because there is not much difference in skill between these two teams. One thing fans might notice is that there won’t be many students in the seats as they are on break. When it was announced that Minnesota would play at UND, a line immediately formed around the building and 3,000 tickets normally sold to students were gone in a blink of an eye. Should be a great series!
THE CALL: Minnesota in 3 games

PROGRAMMING ALERT
Friday Men’s Hockey Game to Air on Fox Sports North Alternate Channel

Due to a conflict with a Minnesota Wild telecast, Friday’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoff game between Minnesota and North Dakota will air live on Fox Sports North’s alternate channel. If the Gophers and Sioux play a third game on Sunday, that would also air on the alternate channel.

The channel will be available on all major cable outlets across Minnesota. It will also be available to DishNetwork and DirecTV subscribers. Saturday’s game will be shown on the regular Fox Sports North channel.

The Gophers’ game at North Dakota on Friday will begin at 7:30 p.m., while games on Saturday and Sunday (if necessary) begin at 7 p.m. Live pre-game shows on Friday and Sunday will air one half-hour prior to faceoff and will be shown on the alternate channel.

A list of Fox Sports North alternate channel listings is below. For more information, check out foxsportsnorth.com.
Friday alternate channels:
Provider Channel
DirecTV 658
Dish Network 475
Cable One (Fargo/Moorhead) 44
Hiawatha Broadband (Winona) 20
Comcast 692
Mediacom Connections Channel

Sunday alternate channels:
Provider Channel
DirecTV 658
Dish Network 450
Cable One (Fargo/Moorhead) 44
Hiawatha Broadband (Winona) 20
Comcast 692
Mediacom Connections Channel

CC AT UMD
The CC UMD series is almost a coin flip. UMD has some high powered offense and the Tigers have good talent of their own. With home ice on their side the Bulldogs should advance to St. Paul after a third game.

MANKATO AT ST. CLOUD
St. Cloud could stumble this weekend. If Mankato wins the first game look for them to complete the upset.

TECH AT DENVER
Denver should handle Tech in two games, and the same should be the case in the Alaska/Wisconsin series.

Wisdom EXTRA - MSHSL STATE TOURNAMENT TIME!
The high school tournament is always a special time of year. The existence dates back to the days of St. Paul Book & Stationary organization and running the tournament prior to turning it over to the high school league. What started out in St. Paul at the auditorium has moved to the Met Center, Civic Center, Target Center and now back to downtown St. Paul at the Xcel Energy Center. There is so much great tradition with this tournament and this year Minnetonka looks to be the team to beat in the AA tournament while Breck has the momentum in the A division. Years ago they used to send out tickets and our family still today has a block of tickets from the original first 50 that were issued!