=46rom today's (3/7/96) Daily:
WCHA's final five fight to be Milwaukee's best
Jeff Sherry - Staff Reporter
The WCHA Final Five has arrived, and, as always, the stakes are high.
Three teams -- St. Cloud State, Michigan Tech and Wisconsin -- need to win
the playoff title to advance to the NCAA tournament. Minnesota probably
needs the title to keep its hope of an NCAA first-round bye alive. Colorado
College, which appears to have the No. 1 seed in the NCAA West Regional
locked up, is looking for its first league tournament title.
The tournament comes after the wildest first round of the WCHA playoffs
ever. Never before have three road teams advanced to the second round.
Here's a quick look at this weekend's tournament finalists:
No. 5 St. Cloud State vs. No. 4 Michigan Tech -- St. Cloud State won the
season series (3-0-1) and is coming off the biggest upset of the playoffs
against Denver. SCSU's only other Final Five appearance was also at the
Bradley Center, where it lost to Minnesota in the 1994 title game.
Michigan Tech should feel at home on the small Bradley Center ice surface.
MTU is 1-3 in two Final Five appearances under coach Bob Mancini.
No. 3 Wisconsin vs. No. 2 Minnesota -- The rivals will meet in a building
where both teams have had success. Wisconsin is 13-3-0 at the Bradley Center
and Minnesota is 4-0, including the 1994 playoff title and two wins earlier
this season at the College Hockey Showcase.
The Badgers bring their 11-game (9-0-2) unbeaten streak, thousands of rabid
fans and loads of confidence into Friday's game. Goalie Kirk Daubenspeck may
be the hottest netminder in the country. He has made an average of 45 saves
in the past five games to keep Wisconsin alive. The Badgers are the
defending playoff champions.
The key for Minnesota -- this weekend and for the rest of the season -- is
goaltending, Gophers coach Doug Woog said. Minnesota appears to have
rebounded from its February slump, and Woog thinks the team can go as far as
goalies Jeff Moen and Steve DeBus can take them.
"If our goaltending is good, we'll have a real good shot at winning it,"
Woog said. "We need good goaltending. If we can get that I think the rest
will take care of itself."
No. 1 Colorado College -- The Tigers, who set a WCHA record for win
percentage (.875) this season, will be fresh against the road-weary winner
of Thursday's game.
"They are a very good, very complete team," Woog said. "But one of the
things they face is they haven't lost a game this year that they've been
outplayed in. Somewhere down the line that's going to happen. To me that's a
little scary, because when is this thing going to happen to you?
"On the other hand, you can have the attitude that you're cocksure and you
can deliver. And that's really a positive."
Sealing NCAA fates
Depending on what happens this weekend, the WCHA could end up with as few as
two teams in the NCAA tournament. Minnesota and Colorado College have their
spots wrapped up, but the remaining teams would need the automatic bid that
comes with the playoff title to get in. Wisconsin's late run won't be enough
to overcome its 17-18-3 record.
Denver's recent slide knocked it out of the top 12 eligible teams in Tim
Brule's national tournament selection simulation. The Pioneers need to hope
for an upset when the ECAC, CCHA and Hockey East playoffs start this
weekend.
"There's going to be some upsets in the other leagues," Woog said. "That's
going to change some of the rankings. We haven't seen the other (leagues')
casualties yet."
The Gophers probably need either Lake Superior State or Michigan --
co-champions in the CCHA -- to make a relatively early exit in their league
playoffs for Minnesota to get the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye in the
NCAAs.
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=A9The Minnesota Daily
Pam Sweeney
Go Gophers!!!
Ski-U-Mah!!!
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