Roberto Alvarez writes:
 
> It seems that the WCHA standings are a little weird.  Only the top 3
> teams have winning records, Minnesota, N Michigan and Wisconsin.
> Anyone like to comment on the apparent weakness of the WCHA this year?
> Or are
> i'm not sure if the teams are much more closely matched or if the league
> just has some weak teams.  Your opinions please!
 
> roberto alvarez
> university of north dakota
 
Hmmm, let's have a look at those standings.
 
3/2/92                 WCHA                       Overall
                       GP  W-L-T   Pts  GF-GA  บบ GP   W-L-T    GF-GA
                       ===============================================
 1  Minnesota          30 24-6-0   48  148-85  บบ 36  28-8-0   175-108
 2  Northern Michigan  32 17-12-3  37  184-133 บบ 36  20-13-3  199-146
 3  Wisconsin          30 17-11-2  36  118-100 บบ 32  19-11-2  127-103
 4  Colorado College   30 13-14-3  29  130-136 บบ 34  15-15-4  143-146
 5  Minnesota-Duluth   30 13-15-2  28  113-129 บบ 32  13-17-2  119-139
 6  Michigan Tech      30 13-16-1  27  106-126 บบ 34  14-19-1  120-149
 7  North Dakota       30 12-17-1  25  133-157 บบ 34  16-17-1  158-169
    St Cloud           30 12-17-1  25  114-127 บบ 32  13-17-2  131-135
 9  Denver             30  8-21-1  17  105-158 บบ 34   9-24-1  119-179
 
It looks like Minnesota won a lot of games, and the other teams beat up
on each other quite a bit.  Had the top three lost a few more WCHA games,
more teams would have winning records.  Would that make a stronger
conference?  If so, perhaps the WCHA would be strongest if all 9 teams
had .500 league records. ;-)
 
Note that the WCHA teams played few non-conference games this year, due to
a 32-game league schedule and the NC$$ schedule restrictions.  Still, if
you look at the overall records, 6 of the 9 teams had winning non-conference
records.
 
Since you ask for opinions, mine is that the WCHA is as strong as ever
this season and is certainly competitive with the other leagues and the
independents.  Three WCHA teams are in the top 8 in this week's NC$$ poll.
I have seen all of the WCHA teams play in Mariucci Arena this season, and
while some are better than others, there are no truly bad teams in the
bunch.  Did you get to see them when they played in Grand Forks?
 
-- Erik