| | Wisconsin, North Dakota and St. Cloud State represent the
Western Collegiate Hockey Association this weekend in the NCAA
Division I men's hockey tournament, which gets underway at four
sites around the country.
Wisconsin is the top seed in the West Regional, despite losing
to North Dakota in the WCHA Final Five championship Saturday night
at Target Center. The Fighting Sioux are the No. 2 seed, so both
teams get a first-round bye.
St. Cloud State is the No. 6 seed in the East Regional.
North Dakota and Wisconsin entered the Final Five finale each
knowing they were assured of spots in the tournament. But that
didn't keep the teams from putting it all on the line in the
Fighting Sioux's 5-3 win.
"Winning this is good because it puts you on a roll going into
the NCAAs," said North Dakota senior wing Lee Goren, who scored
two goals and was named MVP of the Final Five. "We've won three in
a row now, and we're all excited and confident about what we can
do."
Wisconsin had defeated North Dakota in a pair of overtime games
in January to essentially clinch the WCHA regular-season title.
"This was two good hockey teams going head to head, and they
had more jump in the first and third periods and that was the
difference," said Badgers coach Jeff Sauer.
The West Regional gets underway Friday night at Target Center
with New Hampshire (23-8-6) playing Niagara (29-7-4) at 6 p.m.,
followed by Boston College (26-11-1) and Michigan State (27-10-4)
at 9:30 p.m.
North Dakota (28-8-5) plays the New Hampshire-Niagara winner at
6 p.m. Saturday, and Wisconsin (31-8-1) takes on the Boston
College-Michigan State winner at 9:30 p.m.
St. Cloud State (23-13-3), making its second trip to the
tournament, plays at noon Friday in Albany, N.Y., against Boston
University (24-9-7).
The Huskies finished third in the WCHA regular season and lost
to North Dakota 7-3 Friday in the Final Five semifinals. They beat
Minnesota Saturday to claim third place in the tournament.
Minnesota and the other team that competed in the WCHA Final
Five, Minnesota State, were not picked for the NCAA tournament.
Don Brose had hoped his last season as coach at Minnesota State
would last a bit longer, but the Mavericks missed out on an
at-large bid when seedings were announced Sunday. They lost to
Minnesota in the opening game of the Final Five after finishing
fourth in the WCHA regular season.
"I tried not to get my heart expecting too much," said Brose,
who is retiring after 30 seasons. "It was a Cinderella season
already, and maybe this was just asking too much."
The Mavericks, in their first season as a member of the WCHA,
were the surprise of the season with their fourth-place conference
finish and trip to the Final Five.
Despite being knocked out of the Final Five after one game, the
Mavericks thought they had a shot at the NCAA tournament because of
their strong showing during the regular season. | |
ALSO SEE
Division I men's championship schedule
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