The discussion of UAF's schedule highlights again why the WCHA couldn't
possibly switch to a travel partners situation.  Despite at least one
complaint about 'chauvanism', the dominating fact is that it just wouldn't
work.  Other than Fairbanks, the CCHA schools are fairly close together.
(It's not called 'The Diesel League' for nothing.)  Let's look at the WCHA:
Anchorage would have to adopt the same kind of ridiculous schedule that
Fairbanks has.  Getting to either Marquette or Houghton in January is tough
enough; getting to both is silly.  (Okay, I know that to get to Houghton,
one generally has to get to Marquette first.  It would add to headaches,
though.)  Wisconsin and North Dakota are more than 200 miles from any other
conference school.  The kind of home&home series that are so common in the
other leagues just are not a regular feature of WCHA play.  Minnesota does
it with St. Cloud, CC and DU and NMU and MTU are the only others I know of.
 
  If people want to offer constructive criticism, offering some sort of
*practical* solution to the dearth of WCHA non-conference games, I'd be
willing to listen, but I'm tired of carping by people in the Boston area
who can practically walk from one arena to the other.  States are much
bigger out in this area.
 
On a more pleasant note, at least for us Gopher fans, was that the defense
we had been expecting finally arrived this weekend.  Jeff Moen and Steve
DeBus both looked very good, but the dominant feature was the team 'D' in
front of them.  The number of meltdowns was cut dramatically and the effort
was there on backchecking. Mike Crowley had another fine series; along with
his talent, though, it's important to note the way that the forwards rotate
back when he moves in on net.  There were several times he was trapped in
deep, but someone was always there to cover the hole.
  This was vastly superior to last Sunday's game vs. Denver.  They didn't
let a large lead distract them from the mission of keeping the puck out of
their own net.  Here's hoping that this is the sign of this team coming
together rather than merely a blip.  I'm really looking forward to testing
ourselves against the rest of the Big 10 teams this weekend.
 
J. Michael Jackson
 
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