WCHA Weekend in Review: October 23-24

This WCHA season is turning out to be unexpected. One may say that parity has come to the league, others may say that it “another down season,” or one may say that it is time to treat all schools based on what they do, not who they are. If a “lower” team such as Michigan Tech or Alaska-Anchorage started off as poorly as Minnesota, people would say, “…same old, same old.” But it must be different for the perennials……or maybe not. Note multiple down years for Michigan football as of late.

Not only a power outage, but a full shut down occurred in Minneapolis this past weekend. Not only are the Gophers 0 for 20 on the power play this season, yes the whole season so far, but they have been shutout three of their four games for an average of 0.75 goals per game. That coupled with giving up 13 in those four games for 3.25 goals against, it is widespread. I think it has even affected their brains as evidenced by captain Tony Lucia’s comment, “They outworked us at times but I think we deserved at least one this weekend.” Is he talking about a game, a goal, or just trying to say “Help us!” in another way?

It is only Michigan Tech, and that is painful to say as my second team I follow, but CC had to score to beat the scoring and not defending Huskies in a sweep in Colorado Springs. Howe wasn’t stand on his head, but he was good enough to win the games.

Another perennial, Wisconsin, seems to having their problems starting out this year just like their rival, the Gophers. Coming out and making a statement Friday in Mankato in a 6-0 isn’t as impressive when followed up by a 3-2 loss the next night against the lowly Mavericks.

Anchorage pulled one off! It must be a difficult trip to Alaska and then play two nights in a row, but many good teams do it. So are the Sioux also down or just having a bad night? I think time will tell, but let us lean towards the latter at this point.

So that leaves CC on top of the heap after one partial weekend and one full weekend of conference play. It must be noted that championships are not won and lost in October and November, but you can set a tone or dig a hole that cannot be recovered from at any time in the season.