Mike Machnik wrote: > Something I found interesting in perusing the Wisconsin schedule is > that for the second straight year, UW will have Alaska-Anchorage as > one of the two teams it plays only 2x. And, also for the second > straight year, those two games will take place in Alaska, allowing UW > to exempt them from the 34 game limit. > > It's probably no coincidence that the Badgers are involved in two > in-season tournaments (College Hockey Showcase and Badger Showdown) > for a total of four NC games. After all, if the two UW-UAA games were > to take place in Madison, then UW would not be able to play in both of > those tournaments. > > My question to observers is, is it right that Wisconsin (and possibly > also Minnesota, which plays in the Showcase and the Mariucci Classic) > gets to always play UAA in Alaska even when facing them only twice > just because they wish to appear in these other tourneys? And is it > right that the desires of one or two member teams to play more NC > games than other league members should always be upheld? Well, I haven't checked the schedule, but I suspect that you'll find Wisconsin's WCHA schedule consists of just 14 home games and 18 away games, as Minnesota's did last year. Minnesota chose to play both of its 2-game series on the road. Apparently Wisconsin made the same choice Minnesota did: to move what are basically THEIR 2 home games against UAA to Alaska so that they could play in both tournaments. I'm sure that the exemption for games in Alaska was a prime factor in letting UAA into the league in the first place. I don't think anyone ought to get too worked up about Minnesota and Wisconsin getting any favoritism from the league in this situation. -Pam Go Gophers!!! 1995 NC$$ Phinal Phour!!! Ski-U-Mah!!!