My WCHA top five:
 
1. Denver
        Lee Urton (or was it Tim Brule?) informed me at the Final Four that
all of their big guns were juniors, not seniors like I thought.  I've never
been impressed by Jim Mullin, but he threw up some big numbers against the
rest of the league last year.  If he comes through and Gwozdecky uses the
late season collapse properly as a motivating tool rather than as a
psychological drag, this could be a serious national title contender.
 
2. Colorado College
        They lost too much firepower from last year's team to be a dominating
team, but they have both goalies back and last year's freshmen were mighty
impressive.  Another good recruiting class should have them back at the top
for 97-98 and they'll be very good this year.
 
3. Minnesota
        I still have this nagging fear that the Gophs are going to have an
awfully hard time putting the puck in the net.  Given the fact that the only
big scorers up front last year were Bonin and whatever two guys were on his
wings, it could get dicey.  Crowley is going to have to carry a big load and
someone (Kraft?) is going to have to turn into a solid playmaker.  I think
they're going to have the opposite problem from two years ago: they now have
enough guys who can finish (Rasmussen, Spehar, Hankinson) and not enough
people to set them up.  The defense (which I think will be good despite
losing the top 5 d-men) and goaltending will carry them to an upper division
finish and the NCAA tourney, but they will not be in Milwaukee.
 
4. Wisconsin
        I think the Badgers play down the stretch is for real.  I could even
be talked into saying that they're a better team than Minnesota, but I
absolutely refuse to pick Bucky to finish ahead of the Gophers.  If the
defense continues to improve in front of Daubenspeck, Madison will once again
be an un-fun place to travel.
 
5. Minnesota-Duluth
        This is as much a heart pick as anything else.  At this point, a
reasonable case could also be made for St. Cloud or Michigan Tech.  I just
like Sertich and I thought the Bulldogs played very hard last year without
getting any breaks.  I also seem to remember that they were pretty young, so
I'll go with them.
 
J. Michael Jackson
 
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