Inaugural WCHA Website/Blogger Preseason Poll

Thanks to the help of RWD, and the 15 who voted, we've put together the first ever WCHA Website/Blogger preseason poll. In a perfect world, we would have had the same amount of people voting from every WCHA team. Since this is our first attempt, and It's not a perfect world, we scrounged up enough opinions to make this worth while.

Like the WCHA Media and Coaches polls, North Dakota was the run away winner. Duluth forward Jack Connolly was voted preseason player of the year and Colorado College freshman Jaden Schwartz was voted Rookie of the Year.

1. North Dakota (12) 177
2. St. Cloud (2) 158
3. Duluth (1) 154
4. Denver 125
5. Minnesota 117
6. Wisconsin 113
7. Nebraska-Omaha 81
8. Colorado College 77
9. Bemidji State 73
10. Minnesota State 39
11. Michigan Tech 30
12. Alaska-Anchorage 26

WCHA Player of the Year:

Jack Connolly-Duluth (6)
Garrett Roe-St. Cloud (5)
Jacob Cepis-Minnesota (1)
Chay Genoway-North Dakota (1)
Jason Gregoire North Dakota (1)
Matt Read-Bemidji (1)

WCHA Rookie of the Year:

Jaden Schwartz-Colorado College (6)
Beau Bennett-Denver (2)
Derek Forbort-North Dakota (2)
Nick Bjugstad-Minnesota (1)
Erik Haula-Minnesota (1)
Matt White-Nebraska Omaha (1)
Mark Zengerle-Wisconsin (1)
Sam Rendle-Bemidji (1)

Thanks to all those that voted.

Voters:

Goon-Goons World (North Dakota)
RWD-Runnin' With The Dogs (Duluth)
Brandon-Sioux Yeah Yeah! (North Dakota)
Chuck Schwartz-Sixty Minutes (Wisconsin)
Exile on Dayton Street-Sixty Minutes (Wisconsin)
Gandalf The Red-Sixty Minutes (Wisconsin)
Hammy-Gopher Hockey Blog (Minnesota)
Dirty-Dirty's Diatribe (North Dakota)
Jeremy-Husky Hockey Blog (St. Cloud)
USAFA Bulldog-The DECC is Stacked (Duluth)
Jon-Mav Puck (Nebraska-Omaha)
Fade to black and gold-Michigan Tech Hockey Blog (Michigan Tech)
Exiled One-College Hockey Recruit Exchange & DaHuskies.com (St. Cloud)
Donald-UAA Hockey Fan Blog (Anchorage)
Millsy-The Beaver Pond (Bemidji)

Badgers Open #13 In Both National Polls

Last week the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine released their preseason poll which had Wisconsin checking in at #13.

Today, the other major poll done by United States College Hockey Online debuted thier rankings, where Wisconsin also finds itself at #13.

Both polls look almost identical. BC, North Dakota, and Miami hold down 1-3 in both polls. Michigan, Yale, and St. Cloud State comprise the second "tier," just ranked slightly different in both polls.

Both polls have 6 WCHA teams in the top 15, and all 6 are the same. North Dakota (#2 in both), St. Cloud (#6 USA Today, #4 USCHO), Duluth (#9 USA Today, #8 USCHO), Denver (#11 USA Today, #9 USCHO), and Minnesota (#15 in both) to obviously go along with Wisconsin.

Wisconsin is set to open it's season this Friday vs Boston University at the Ice Breaker tournament. Game time is 8:30 Central time.

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WCHA Media, Coaches Polls Released

You have to love technology. The WCHA Coaches and Media pre-season ballots were scheduled to be released on Wednesday. Both polls were released mere minutes after mid-night. When you're craving college hockey news, you have to love stuff like this.

Little bit about the polls, for the coaches ballot, each head coach sends in a ranking of teams 1-11 not voting on their own squad. They also pick a Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year (can come from their own team). The media do the same. This season there were 29 media members that voted (come on Ciskie, next year let me vote and make it to 30 even voters, I promise I can make a better ROY pick than Radoslav Illo or Rob Gunderson).

The heavy WCHA favorite this season is North Dakota (with good reason). They were picked by both the media and the coaches to win the league. They lose practically nothing, add a solid recruiting class, and get Chay Genoway back for a fifth season of eligibility. I too had UND at #1, you can find my ballot here. The Media voted Wisconsin to finish 5th in the league and the coaches have the Badgers finishing 7th.

The clear cut rookie of the year was Jaden Schwartz from Colorado College. Again both the coaches and media agreed on Schwartz as the favorite. I also had Jaden as my winner. Badger forward Tyler Barnes (Waterloo, USHL) received one vote in both the coaches and media polls.

The biggest discrepency seems to be on the pre-season Player of the Year. More than a third of the media members who voted picked North Dakota defenseman Chay Genoway to win the award more than doubling runner up Garrett Roe from St. Cloud. The coaches winner was Jack Connolly from UMD, who finished fourth in the media voting, and second on his own team behind talented forward Justin Fontaine. Genoway was the runner up in the coaches voting.

LINK to the 40th annual Grand Forks Herald Preseason Coaches Poll
LINK to the 94X WCHA Preseason Media Poll

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Wisconsin Opens Season #13 In USA Today Poll

The first USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll was released this afternoon and your University of Wisconsin Badgers check in at #13 to start the season. In my opinion it's just about perfect for where I thought we should be. Five other WCHA teams were also ranked to start the season. North Dakota checks in at #2, St. Cloud at #6, Minnesota-Duluth at #9, Denver at #11, and Minnesota at #15. My sleeper team, Nebraska-Omaha was in the receiving votes category.

Polls Don't Matter (But We Have Time...)

Well...we all know that that the only poll that matters is the one that you hang your National Championship banner from, but we have time so we might as well post them.

USCHO.com Men's Poll
1 Miami (45) 22- 4-6
2 Denver ( 5) 20- 6-4
3 Wisconsin 18- 7-4
4 St. Cloud State 19- 9-4
5 Yale 16- 6-3
6 Minnesota-Duluth 18-11-1
7 Colorado College 17-10-3
8 Boston College 17- 9-2
9 Bemidji State 19- 7-2
10 Cornell 14- 7-3

USA Today/USA Hockey Men's Poll
1 Miami University (32) 22- 4-6
2 University of Denver (2) 20- 6-4
3 University of Wisconsin 18- 7-4
4 St. Cloud State University 19- 9-4
5 Yale University 16- 6-3
6 University of Minnesota Duluth 18-11-1
7 Bemidji State University 19- 7-2
8 Colorado College 17-10-3
9 Boston College 17- 9-2
10 Cornell University 14- 7-3

USCHO.com Women's Poll
1 Mercyhurst (15) 23-2-3
2 Minnesota 21-6-5
3 Minnesota-Duluth 22-8-2
4 NewHampshire 18-6-5
5 Harvard 17-6-4
6 Clarkson 20-8-4
7 Connecticut 19-7-6
8 Wisconsin 17-12-3
9 Northeastern 16-8-6
10 Cornell 13-8-6

Yes more Polls!!!

The USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine pre-season coaches poll is out! I know you have all been waiting for this day! The Badgers are ranked #14, a good spot to start the season. Miami (OH) is #1 even though Denver cleaned up on 1st place votes w/ 13 (2nd in the poll) & BU was right behind them w/ 12 in the 3rd spot.

Other WCHA teams are minnesota at #6 (did Woog and the Rug get extra votes?), North Dakota at #8 and St. Cloud at #13. Duluth and CC are receiving votes, not sure who voted for CC.

Two other blogs have given their stab at predicting the WCHA standings. "This is the WCHA" (don't bother reading we have more WCHA coverage here then he does) places the Badgers 6th. Over at Goon's World, he thinks the Badgers will finish 2nd.

Yes, CHN's Pre-Season Poll!!!!

College Hockey News is the first to bust out a pre-season poll, isn't that just wonderful! Thanks to Goon for the link. Here is the top 10:

1. Denver
2. Miami
3. Boston University
4. Cornell
5. Michigan
6. minnesota
7. Princeton
8. Notre Dame
9. UMass-Lowell
10. Yale

None of this really matters, its just fun for discussion's sake. Reading the comments over at CHN and on Goon's blog, no one really sees the ECAC worthy of three teams in the top 10. I'd have to agree, simply because the PWR favors three good teams from the same bad conference doesn't mean they belong in the top 10 of any poll or in the NCAA tourney. Does an ECAC fan really want to debate that Cornell, Yale and Princeton all belonged in the NCAA tourney last year over Wisconsin and minnesota? See when you play a panzy ass schedule like the ECAC (or the CCHA) the PWR favors you because you can rack up wins against bad teams, only facing tough competition on occasion. In the WCHA, where are the bad teams? Oh sure Tech and UAA and Mankato are regularly at the bottom, but while they are bad by WCHA standards they are still better than any team outside of the top 3 in the ECAC, and probably just as good as those. Last season Wisconsin had something like 30+ games against TUC's in the PWR, I think Yale or Princeton had just enough (10) to use the criteria in the ranking. So they skate in w/ just enough TUC's, meaning that 2/3 of their games were against teams not in the PWR top 25, and that is suppose to be impressive?

This doesn't even bring in the KRACH rankings from last season. Yale ranks 10th, Cornell 17th and Princton 20th. Wisconsin was 11th, BC was 12th, the gophers 13th and UMASS Lowell 14th. So you really want to tell me that these ECAC teams are better than those four teams and Cornell and Princeton deserved spots in the tourney over them?

I wasn't even planning on going on that tangent until I started in and realized once again the facts are there, and the ECAC has no business getting the respect it does, playing the weak ass schedules they do.

What I really wanted to point out was CHN's reason for putting the gophers at #6.

6. minnesota: A usual NCAA postseason staple, the gophers fell short of expectations last season, but if their late-season run showed anything, it was that they'd be back with a vengeance in 2009-10. They lose top scorer Ryan Stoa to the pro ranks, but return Jordan Schroeder, who excelled as a freshman, and Jay Bariball on a deep offense that will be complemented by a defense led by Cade Fairchild and Aaron Ness, both of whom matured nicely as the roller coaster season continued. The biggest piece of the puzzle will be seeing which Alex Kangas shows up in net -- the one who gave up 42 goals in a 12 game mid-season stretch, or the one who allowed just 19 over the final nine matches of the season.

I was unaware that INCH fired all their idiots and CHN gave them jobs. Late season run? You mean the three games in a row they won before losing to Duluth at the Final Five play-in game? I guess they forgot about them going 2-7-2 in the 11 games before that; quite the late season surge. They almost blew home ice by losing to Tech on the last friday of the regular season and they were making a run? That was Tech's second win in WCHA play.

I don't really care who is in any top 10, the only rankings that matters is first the WCHA standings, and second the PWR after the last buzzer sounds to end conference tourneys, but I expect a little more out of CHN, since someone is paying this writer to put this together (edit: I'm assuming this is true), they at least should qualify an absurd statement like "late season run," especially when one didn't happen. They are spot on about Kangas though, like poison in a well.

I'm glad Wisconsin is under the radar, good place to be to start the season.

Badger Men fall out of polls

Wisconsin fell out of the USCHO poll entirely this week for the first time since Nov. 3, 2003. As Todd at TCT points out they were ranked or received votes in the previous 122 polls. Todd includes how he voted.

I care very little about polls, but I do find it odd that a team (Wisconsin) goes on the road in the WCHA and splits, and the votes they received last week evaporated. While Wisconsin was beaten bad on friday they shutout the #17 team in the country in their own house the following evening. They are obviously less deserving of those votes??? I'm not saying Wisconsin deserves to be in the top 20, but if someone thought they did before St. Cloud, not sure why they changed their minds. All the really matters in the PWR following the WCHA Final Five.

Wisconsin is still ranked in the LetsGoDu Superpoll. In a very early version of the pairwise rankings, Wisconsin is not ranked, while the Badgers are #31 in the RPI. Its obviously very early w/ Air Force, Cornell and Princeton as the top 3 teams in both.

The Badger Women on the other hand continue to dominate the polls. They received all 15 first place votes on their way to continue their death grip at #1. Rolling the #3 team in the country over the weekend certainly didn't hurt.

Badgers continue to be ranked #9 on LetsgoDU

Normally I don't post about rankings, because frankly other than the pairwise what poll really matters. While the Badger Men fell out of the rankings a few weeks back due to the poor start, they are still in the top 10 over on LetsgoDU.

9). Wisconsin - May be the best 1-6-1 team in college hockey history. Who selected their schedule? Attila the Hun or the guy who thought that Patrick Wiercioch (4 goals, 4 assists in 8 games) wasn't ready for NCAA hockey?

Over at USCHO, the Badgers are still receiving 7 votes and Todd Milewski of TCT provides us his top 20 as he voted.

Brooke Ammerman: WCHA/BTD Rookie of the Week . . . & other items . . .

• In recognition of her 5 point weekend (1 G on Fri, 1 G and 3 A on Sat), Brooke Ammerman was named WCHA Rookie of the Week. The uwbadgers release notes that Ammerman has scored at least 1 goal in 7 consecutive games (wow) and is currently just 1 goal shy of UW's record for goals in consecutive games. By the way, Ammerman is 2nd on the team in points and assists, and she leads the nation in points per game by a rookie. Outstanding!
  


• The fine folks at Beyond the Dashers have also picked Ammerman as their NCAA DI Rookie of the Week. Nice!


• As previously reported, the Badger Women are #1 in the USCHO and USA Today polls, and not surprisingly, BTD has picked them as #1 as well. BTD has Minnesota (who swept OSU big time) ranked #2 and UMD (who was swept by SCSU) ranked #7. Here are the poll and the poll story. (In case you forgot, USCHO and USA Today had Minn #2 and UMD #8/#4.)
  


• The #1 Badgers and #2 Gophers meet this weekend at the Kohl Center. What Fun! Here's the short release from the WCHA website, and here's the full release (PDF). The UW team notebook section of the full release is nice and includes the following:

  … Wisconsin leads the nation in almost every category … Wisconsin is first in scoring offense, scoring margin, power-play, combined special teams, team winning percentage and current unbeaten streak … They are second in penalty-kill and scoring defense … Sophomore Hilary Knight not only leads the team in almost every category but also the nation …

  Also, here are series previews by uwbadgers and The Badger Herald.
  


• Badger Alumna Carla MacLeod has been named CWHL/WWHL Defensive Player of the Week by Beyond the Dashers.
  

Badger Women odds & ends

• Mark Johnson addressed the media today in his weekly press conference, talking about the upcoming series v. minnesota. He also had some nice things to say about Hilary Knight.


• Uwbadgers has a video interview with Meghan Duggan. I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but you know I'll watch it soon, as she's one of my favs!


• The Badger Women hold the top spot in the USCHO and USA Today polls. I'll try to post the BTD poll after it comes out tomorrow.


• USA Hockey has a nice article about USA goaltender Chanda Gunn. Chanda played 1 season for the Badgers before leaving school due to poor control of her epilepsy. After her health care team got her epilepsy under control, she played 3 years for Northeastern, and now she is participating in the Blaine Residency. (Really too bad that Chanda was not able to return to the Badgers.)


• Mercyfan on the uscho fan forum has indicated that Breann Frykas has committed to the Badgers. I don't know much about her, but I'm sure she's a good one -- I'll try to get more info for you later.
  

Badger Men odds & ends

• Milewski has a nice article today about the Badgers' confidence.
  


• In the above article, Todd also mentions that the 1982-83 Title Team will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of their national championship this weekend. The actual anniversary was over 6 months ago, but they're celebrating in conjunction with Homecoming, and team members will be introduced during the Friday night hockey game and the Saturday football game. I hope John Johannson is there.
  

• Mike Eaves had his weekly press conference today. The transcript isn't up yet, but you can find the video here. It's pretty interesting. Eaves backs off from his previous statement that the team isn't very good right now and points out things the team did well, including blocking 22 shots on Friday and 19 on Saturday. He also indicates that the team is excited for this weekend.


• DPlaya has some thoughts about the Badgers' 1st four games. Pointing out that the freshmen have played relatively well and the veterans have struggled, DPlaya argues against Mike Eaves' claim of youth as a reason for the 0-4 start. I'm with DPlaya on this one. To be honest, I was surprised that Eaves pointed to youth, especially given his praise of the freshmen after the BC/UNH games, indicating that they played well and were as good as anybody on the ice. And let's not forget that McBain/McDonagh were called out by Oz for playing poorly @ BC/UNH, and McBain was benched at the end of the 1st period on Saturday @ Denver for his poor play. (I'm not trying to pick on McB/McD, as McD was much better this weekend and I think McB got the message on Sat. I'm just trying to make a point regarding Eaves' assertion that youth was part of the reason for the 0-4 start.)
  


• The Badger Men have fallen out of the USCHO poll (nope, Todd didn't vote for them) and remain out of the USA Today poll. They also didn't make the INCH Power Rankings.
  

The latest polls -- Badger Women # 1, Badger Men #20

In this week's polls, the Badger Women are ranked #1 by both USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine and USCHO. Both polls have Minnesota at #2 and Harvard at #3. UMD, which was ranked #1 in each poll last week, dropped to #4 and #5 in the polls, respectively.

BTD has their poll out as well, and Wisconsin has gained sole ownership of the #1 spot that they shared with Harvard the past 2 weeks. Like the other polls, BTD has Minnesota at #2 and Harvard at #3. UMD, which had previously been #3, fell to #5.


The Badger Men managed to barely stay ranked in the USCHO poll, coming in at #20. Milewski voted for the Badgers at #16. Needless to say, as the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll only ranks the top 15, the Badgers fell into the "received votes" category.

Badger Women polls and other items

• The Badger Women were ranked 2nd in both the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine and the USCHO polls. (Both polls rank UMD 1st.) Additionally, the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll points out that the Badgers' upcoming series @ #9 Ohio State is one of the 3 match-ups this weekend between top-10 teams.


• Our friends at Beyond the Dashers have the Badgers tied for 1st with Harvard this week. (They have UMD 3rd.)


• We previously reported on the U22 Series between Team USA and Team Canada, and now the Badger Herald has a nice article on the 4 Badgers who played in the series. Erika Lawler, Meghan Duggan, and Hilary Knight played for Team USA, and Brittany Haverstock played for Team Canada.


• If you can't wait until the "It's Almost Friday Linkorama" tomorrow or "It's Friday I'm in Love", here's the uwbadgers.com preview of this weekend's series @ OSU.
  

Defenseman U and other items

• Todd Milewski has a FANTASTIC article today about the Badgers' blueline. Yeah, yeah, I know; I always say Todd's articles are fantastic, but this time I'm saying it's FANTASTIC. With 5 blueliners drafted in the top 2 rounds, Milewski wonders if the UW has become Defenseman U.
  
  This article is full of all sorts of fun stuff -- some 1990 references, some quotes from the the Hurricanes, the Canadiens, the Blue Jackets, and the Ducks (Dave McNab!) about the Badgers' program, some quotes from the Badger defensemen, and of course some quotes from Mike Eaves. Good stuff!
  


• INCH must not have gotten the Defenseman U memo. They've released their preseason All-American teams, and they put Jamie McBain on their 2nd team, not their 1st team. But hey, it's INCH, and I guess we should be glad they put McBain on a team at all.


• I just found another quote about Jack Skille. (For some reason I always seem to stumble upon Skille articles at least 2 days late. So sorry, Jack.) This article was published on Monday before the Hawks final roster was set but after it appeared Skille would make the team.
  

  "It looks good for Versteeg and Skille," Tallon said. "They're quick, competed hard and just played with a lot of energy and skill. It was good to see."

• In other NCAA news -- I haven't really been following the whole Canadian universities applying to the NCAA situation, but James Mirtle has a nice article about the University of British Columbia. He points out that the UBC would fit in well with UAA and UAF, as both schools are DII but play DI hockey, and they'd likely play in the same DII conference.
  
  My question is this -- if they apply to and are accepted by the NCAA, which hockey conference would UBC be a part of, as the WCHA and CCHA aren't looking to expand. Especially as UBC's hockey program was not exactly stellar last season -- a 12-16-0 regular season record in the CIS is not going to translate into a competitive record in either the WCHA or CCHA. Does either league really want another bottom-half team?
  

News & Notes: Badger Men, WCHA

• In today's TCT, Todd Milewski has a nice article about freshman forward Derek Stepan. On the top line with Ben Street and Podge Turnbull, Stepan is the only freshman among the top 6 forwards, and it appears he has good chemistry with Ben Street.
  

  "It just seems kind of natural," Street said. "We kind of know where each other is going to be on the ice, which has been a really cool thing. We've only really had captain's practices and a few team practices to try to work that out, but things have been pretty natural, and it's been lots of good chemistry there."

• Andy Baggot found voting in WCHA preseason polls to be a difficult task. In his votes, he placed Wisconsin 2nd.


• All men's games will be broadcast on the Wisconsin Radio Network. For those outside of the listening area, the broadcasts will be available online (for a fee) on yahoo sports (although I don't see hockey listed there yet). Brian Posick will be calling the games with Director of Hockey Ops Mike Cerniglia.
  


• I didn't catch tonight's broadcast, but Brian Posick kicked off his Wisconsin Hockey Show on the Wisconsin Radio Network (WIBA in Madison). Looks like the show will air mosts Tuesdays at 7 PM.
  


• CHN has released Part 1 and Part 2 of their WCHA preseason preview. They are projecting Wisconsin to finish 7th.


• CHN has an article on CC's Richard Bachman and the strenght of goaltending in the WCHA.


• Today, the WCHA conducted it's annual preseason media teleconference with Bruce McLeod and the 10 head coaches.
  

Monday evening linkorama

• A couple more articles on the Badger Women's sweep of Syracuse:
  Storlie (Daily Cardinal): Ammerman scores 5 goals as Badgers pitch two shutouts
  Donohue (Badger Herald): Women's hockey sweeps Syracuse
  


• The Badger Men are #14 in the USCHO/CSTV Preseason Poll. Todd Milewski ranked the Badgers 10th in his vote. If you remember, the Badgers ranked #13 in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Preseaon Poll released 2 weeks ago.


• Mike Eaves gave a press conference today. The transcript isn't available yet, but here's the video.
  


• Hockey's Future has released #s 1-10 of its Top 50 Prospects, and Kyle Turris checks in at #3.
  

  3. Kyle Turris, C – Phoenix Coyotes
  
  As the Coyotes top prospect, big things are expected from first-year pivot Turris. A clear frontrunner in the Calder chase, the former 2007 Entry Draft pick is ready to take-on a top six role in the desert. The 19-year-old spent just one year at the University of Wisconsin before turning pro. Turris possesses good speed and great stick-handling abilities, which will be crucial on a team that wants its players to be light on their feet and ferocious on the puck. After getting a brief taste of the NHL last year and spending the summer in Phoenix, Turris should hit the ground running.
  

• Hockey's Future has released it's WCHA preview.


• The Chicago Blackhawks have cut 4 players, including Troy Brouwer, with whom Jack Skille was competing for a spot on the 3rd line. The press release indicates that the Hawks now have 15 forwards, but looking at the roster I count 14. Looks like the Hawks still need to cut a few defenseman and a goalie, but it looks like Skille has earned a forward spot on the opening day roster.


• Hockey's Future has released its preview of the AHL's Chicago Wolves. The Wolves are coached this season by Badger alumnus Don Granato. I can't find a 2008-09 roster for the Wolves, but last season Badger Brian Fahey played for them, and it looks like Badger Alex Brooks might be playing for them this season.
  

Wednesday afternoon link-o-rama: Badger Women

• The Badger Women have been ranked 2nd (behind UMD) in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine preseason poll. In the WCHA coaches poll, the Badger Women tied for 2nd with Minnesota (again behind UMD). Badgers who recieved votes for post-season awards include Meghan Duggan and Erika Lawler for league MVP and Carolyne Prevost for league rookie of the year.


• The fine folks at BTD have done their own national poll. The Badgers placed 2nd behind Harvard, followed by Minnesota in 3rd and UMD in 4th.
  

• Mark Johnson addressed the media on Monday, and here's the transcript.

• Hockey Canada's September evaluation camp for the Women's National Team is over, but you can find game results here. Participating in the camp were Carla MacLeod, Meaghan Mikkelson, and Bobbie Jo Slusar. HC indicates that they'll name the 2008-09 roster "in the coming days".