The WCHA Final Five has been set. With St. Cloud's upset victory over Denver Sunday night, 4-0 (which makes them the third of five teams to win their series on the road this weekend), there appear to be a couple good matchups ahead. Remember that all teams are re-seeded after the first round, and the records are overall records. Thursday, March 7 @ 7:05 PM CST (5) St. Cloud (13-21-4) vs (4) Michigan Tech (16-17-6) Out of all the possibilities, there has to be a matchup of the Huskies and the Huskies to complicate me writing this. St. Cloud won three of the four meetings so far this year. The home wins were 3-2 and 3-1, December 9 and 10. In Houghton, the teams tied 4-4 and SCSU won 7-5, during Winter Carnival, February 2 and 3. Don't let St. Cloud's record fool you. From what I've seen, they can be tough when they want to. Tech has some key victories under their belt this year. Early in the year, they beat Minnesota in Houghton, 5-2. In December, they came to Madison and split (even though this was when UW was on the down-swing). Friday, March 8 @ 2:05 PM CST (3) Wisconsin (17-18-3) vs (2) Minnesota (27-9-2) I'll tell you something; I have been waiting to see this for a LONG time. Wisconsin and Minnesota will face each other for the first time at the Bradley Center (I personally think that the Badgers should have one of their home games against Minn at the BC, but it's not going to happen). In the '94 Final Five at the BC, a Badger-Gopher championship-game matchup was prevented by St. Cloud, who beat the Badgers in overtime of the semifinal game. The two teams split the season series, 2-2, with each winning two games at home, including the series that no Badger fan who was at the games will ever forget, a sweep of the Gophs the last weekend of the regular season, 6-3, 7-4. The Gophers took the earlier series, 8-4 at Mariucci and 5-0 at the Target Center. Minnesota's pretty familiar with the Bradley Center. They won the Final Five there two years ago, and won the College Hockey Showcase there this season, defeating Michigan State and Michigan on successive nights. The Badgers are red hot, if you don't know by know. They are undefeated in their last 11, and are on a five game winning streak. However, they are only 1-3 at the Bradley Center this year, with losses to Michigan State, Michigan and Notre Dame, before winning the consolation game of the Badger Hockey Showdown over Princeton. I'd like to know who Minnesota will start in goal. Sophomore Steve DeBus is 1-3 against Bucky this year, including the two demoralizing losses in Madison. If anyone from the Minnesota end knows, could they please let me know before Thursday (when I leave my E-mail here at school in Madison)? Friday, March 8 @ 7PM CST Winner of Thursday night's game vs (1) Colorado College (30-3-4) Something to look at before you completely count out either SCSU or MTU: CC could only manage 2 ties in Houghton. They are 2-0-2 against Tech, and 4-0 against St. Cloud. While they CC is the MacNaughton Cup Champs, they have a recent history of slipping up in the WCHA playoffs. Saturday, March 9 @ 2PM CST Consolation game: Semifinal losers Saturday, March 9 @ 7PM CST Broadmoor Trophy Championship Game: Semifinal winners It's always hard to say what will happen in the Final Five. We'll have to wait and see. Todd D. Milewski [log in to unmask] "U-Rah-Rah Wisconsin!" HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.