Games to Watch:
#2 Michigan at #6 Alaska-Fairbanks
Who knew that this game would be so big, so early in the season. It's looking like this will be a match-up between two of the best teams in the league. Michigan's freshmen will get their first road test in a tough environment. Fairbanks finally gets to play in front of their home fans after starting the season on the road. I think this series has split written all over it.
#7 Denver at #8 North Dakota
It's a rematch of last year's national title game. It will also be Geoff Paukovich's first trip to the REA after almost killing Robbie Bina last season. North Dakota has the home fans on their side, revenge in mind, and a great goalie in Jordan Parise behind them. I like their chances this weekend.
#5 Minnesota at St. Cloud State
Former Gopher assistant Bob Motzko meets his old team for the first time. It's still going to be a struggle for the Huskies to score goals, but I think Alaska-Fairbanks showed the recipe for beating Minnesota. Outwork the Gophers and rely on stellar goaltending and they'll have a shot at winning.
#3 Michigan State at Cornell
Both teams are very good, but I think people are still a little skeptical of how good they really are. Michigan State has looked good so far this season, and they've never had trouble playing in big games, but I think it's going to be difficult for them to take more than one game at one of the toughest environments in college hockey.
Lake Superior vs. #9 Northern Michigan
For the second straight week, Northern plays a home and home series against a UP rival. On paper, it looks like an easy two wins for the Wildcats, but they've always had trouble dispatching the Lakers. Bill Zaniboni will get to feed his stats for the third straight week against a weak offense, but Laker goalie Jeff Jakaitis will match at least one of his performances and the Lakers will steal at least a point this weekend.
Players to Watch:
Ryan McLeod, Alaska-Fairbanks
McLeod has been excellent on face-offs so far this season, and he'll need to win a lot of big wins this weekend to help Fairbanks against Michigan
Geoff Paukovich, Denver
Just stating the obvious. I'm guessing it's a tough weekend for him.
Dominic Vicari, Michigan State
He's walking into a tough environment in Ithaca and the team in front of him isn't at full strength. He'll have to put up a great performance to give the Spartans a chance.
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5 comments:
Outworking the opponent and getting good goaltending is something every team tries to do when they suit up for a game. It isn't a "game plan" to only use against specific teams like Minnesota. Every team tries to do that in every game no matter who they play.
Any other earth shattering analysis? Hey, I bet you'll tell us that the best way to beat a team is to score more goals than they do.
The point was more that the Huskies had the ability to do that, where as a team like MSU,M couldn't.
It's funny how you act like I owe you something though. Go read another site if you don't like it here.
U-M , Alaska, "The two best teams in the CCHA" after one weekend of league play? Bit of a leap isn't it?
If you read what I said, it says, "two of the best teams," meaning they're up there with a couple other teams. That's certainly a fair statement given how well each team has played so far this season.
UAF definitely deserves to be considered among the CCHA's best this season thus far. I guess some people are still living in the past or off "name value" and don't think of UAF as credible, despite the fact that they have a pretty good team this year.
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