My WCHA top five: 1. Denver Lee Urton (or was it Tim Brule?) informed me at the Final Four that all of their big guns were juniors, not seniors like I thought. I've never been impressed by Jim Mullin, but he threw up some big numbers against the rest of the league last year. If he comes through and Gwozdecky uses the late season collapse properly as a motivating tool rather than as a psychological drag, this could be a serious national title contender. 2. Colorado College They lost too much firepower from last year's team to be a dominating team, but they have both goalies back and last year's freshmen were mighty impressive. Another good recruiting class should have them back at the top for 97-98 and they'll be very good this year. 3. Minnesota I still have this nagging fear that the Gophs are going to have an awfully hard time putting the puck in the net. Given the fact that the only big scorers up front last year were Bonin and whatever two guys were on his wings, it could get dicey. Crowley is going to have to carry a big load and someone (Kraft?) is going to have to turn into a solid playmaker. I think they're going to have the opposite problem from two years ago: they now have enough guys who can finish (Rasmussen, Spehar, Hankinson) and not enough people to set them up. The defense (which I think will be good despite losing the top 5 d-men) and goaltending will carry them to an upper division finish and the NCAA tourney, but they will not be in Milwaukee. 4. Wisconsin I think the Badgers play down the stretch is for real. I could even be talked into saying that they're a better team than Minnesota, but I absolutely refuse to pick Bucky to finish ahead of the Gophers. If the defense continues to improve in front of Daubenspeck, Madison will once again be an un-fun place to travel. 5. Minnesota-Duluth This is as much a heart pick as anything else. At this point, a reasonable case could also be made for St. Cloud or Michigan Tech. I just like Sertich and I thought the Bulldogs played very hard last year without getting any breaks. I also seem to remember that they were pretty young, so I'll go with them. J. Michael Jackson HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.