Saturday, March 12, 2011

Multiple WCHA elimination games tonight

It's strange to think about but tonight could be the end of the season for multiple WCHA teams. Tonight serves as no only an elimination game from the WCHA Playoffs for some teams that lost last night, but also would eliminate teams from NCAA tournament contention.

Colorado College who entered last night's game on the NCAA tournament bubble at #14 in the PWR fell to #20. A loss tonight eliminates them from tournament consideration and ends their season.

Minnesota, St. Cloud State, Michigan Tech, and Minnesota State are in the same boat. All four schools are down 1-0 in the best of three first round WCHA series and a loss tonight would would end their seasons as none of them are high enough in the PWR to get an at large birth without at minimum advancing to the Final Five next weekend.

The only school who is down 1-0 this weekend and won't see their season come to a close with a loss tonight is Nebraska-Omaha. The Mavericks are currently 12th in the PWR right now but a loss to Bemidji State wouldn't hurt them that significantly since Bemidji already owns the comparison between the two teams.

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