WCHA Picks

Minnesota Twin Cities Our Pick

In our ramp up for the college hockey season to start up we are going to start large and work our way towards the team preview.

Here is the College Hockey HighHorse picks for 2012-13:

1. University of Minnesota Twin Cities:  They have enough returning scoring to overcome the lack of any goaltender with experience.
2. North Dakota:  Big losses, but good new guys coming in and some have experience at the NCAA level.
3. Denver:  The Pioneers always seem to find a goalie to get hot (Brittain or Olkinuora this year). Even with the scoring losses they should be a contender.
4. Colorado College:  Joe Howe should bounce back and the Tigers will be a home ice playoff team.
5. University of Minnesota Duluth:  It is hard to replace a Hobey winner and a lot of other scoring, but with the defense and guys that know how to win returning for the Bulldogs they should be middle WCHA.
6. Wisconsin:  With Zengerlie and Rumpel coming back the Badgers have a good foundation to build on.
7. Saint Cloud State:  Hanowski and Prochno might be the best all around players in the league at their positions, but big goal tending questions remain. 
8. Nebraska – Omaha:  Scoring lost will be tough to make up and lack of goal tending could make for a tough season.   
9. Michigan Tech:  The loss of Brett Olson and Josh Robinson will be too much to overcome.
10. Minnesota State – Mankato:  The youngster Mavericks will have to carry this team under new coach Hastings.  Defense and goal tending will be the biggest issues.
11. Bemidji State:  Can Jordan George score enough to make up for the loss of Dan Bakala in net?
12. Alaska – Anchorage:  Last season was a down year and there is no reason to think they made a significant fix.

Again, our picks for the last season of the WCHA as we have known it for years.  one last shot at the MacNaughton Cup for many teams.  Game on... soon.

Compiled with Andrew Fiskness