Yet another item of interest culled from Gregg Wongs column (St. Paul
Pioneer Press, Feb. 25):
 
There is a "mini-storm brewing" regarding the scheduling of the WCHA
Final Five tournament.
 
The main question is whether to schedule the Friday semifinals to
maximize $ or to be fair. Usually, seeds 4 & 5 compete on Thursday night.
Then, The games on Friday are 2 vs. 3 in the afternoon, 1 vs. the winner
of 4/5 in the evening. The problem arises because the Gophers (assuming
they make it that far) will probably be either the #2 or #3 seed. Since
this years tourney is in St. Paul, it would financially benefit the WCHA
to have the home team play the Fri. night game. This would mean that the
Thurs. night winner would have to play against the #1 seed on Friday
afternoon, which some coaches deem as unfair. Even Gophers AD Mark
Dienhart is quoted as saying "That would be an unfair competitive
situation, and I think the tendency would be not to do that... It's a
matter of trying to balance off the revenue needs of the WCHA against
what is fair or unfair."
 
The WCHA Tornament committee will apparently make their decision after
the first round is done.
 
-Indy Rutks ([log in to unmask])
 
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