The MacNaughton Cup: What’s Left

The race for the MacNaughton has come down to three weekends of WCHA action. The top three teams are separated by one point. My new favorite website Playoff Status gives the following % chance of teams winning the WCHA: North Dakota, 48%; Wisconsin, 30%; Denver, 20%; minnesota and Colorado College, each 1%. Though the gophers and Tigers don’t have much of a statistical chance, I’ve included them anyway. Duluth and St. Cloud each still have a remote chance (less than 1%), but a miracle would realistically need to occur for them to take the league.

The following are the remaining schedules and SOS (based on opponents winning % during WCHA games) for each of these five teams.

North Dakota: @ UAA, vs CC, @ UW; SOS 0.522 (30-27-12)
Denver: @ UW, vs St. Cloud, vs CC*; SOS 0.565 (35-26-8)
Wisconsin: vs DU, @ Mankato, vs UND; SOS 0.565 (35-26-8)
CC: vs minnesota, @ UND, @ DU*; SOS 0.612 (36-21-10)
minnesota: @ CC, vs Duluth, @ Tech; SOS 0.406 (20-33-16)
*CC visits DU for a single game the last weekend

North Dakota and Wisconsin control their own destinies. I remember saying early in the season that their series to end the regular season was going to be big. At the time I thought it would be to decide which ones gets home ice, now it could definitely decide the MacNaughton. Let’s not jump ahead though. CC has the hardest road, and they usually suck one night of a series. On the flip side, minnesota has by far the easiest road. If they were to get hot, and perhaps if they pulled Soft Goal Wangas, they could potentially win out. Somewhere in between UND, UW or DU should be the next WCHA Champ.

Wisconsin is the only team to have four home games; they need to make the most of this opportunity. 36 points could be enough to hoist the Cup, its going to quite the race to see how this finishes.

Tuesday Evening Odds & Ends

• Per Todd, the Badger Men start working with coaches in groups of 4 tomorrow, Sept 3. On Sept 15, the coaching staff can begin skill work with the entire team 2 hours per week. Official practices begin Oct 4. Todd also has some height/weight info about this year's team in comparison to last year's team.


• Uwbadgers.com has finished updating men's bios to include stats and info from last season.

• Hey students -- uwbadgers.com reminds us that men's hockey student tickets are available, as are student Red Cards. Red Cards cost $25 and get you admittance to women's hockey, volleyball, softball, men's and women's soccer, and wrestling.

Friday Evening Odds & Ends

• Uwbadgers.com has updated the men's roster to include the freshmen. Pictures are available for the freshmen, but profiles are not. Profiles for returning players have not been updated to include stats from last year. Anyway, here are the freshmen by jersey number:
  
  4 Springer, Eric D 5-9 186 Fr/Fr Wrightstown, Wis.
  12 Thurber, Matt F 5-9 190 Fr/Fr Beaver Dam, Wis.
  18 Murray, Jordy F 5-9 175 Fr/Fr Faribault, Minn.
  19 Gardiner, Jake D 6-2 181 Fr/Fr Minnetonka, Minn.
  20 Little, Ryan D 5-11 178 Fr/Fr Fond du Lac, Wis.
  21 Stepan, Derek F 6-0 176 Fr/Fr Hastings, Minn.
  25 Hickey, Chris F 6-1 202 Fr/Fr St. Paul, Minn.
  
  The only number change I see among returning players is Tom Bardis, who will wear #6 this season.

• As mentioned yesterday, while the women's WCHA has opted to use the shootout, the men's WCHA has no current plans to do so. Bruce Brothers has a fun little article about this in the Pioneer Press.
  


• I should have posted this 2 weeks ago, but I didn't see it until 2 days ago. Terry Frei has a fantastic article about Cammi Granato and her induction into the US Hockey HOF. The article also mentions Mike Richter and the other HOF inductees.