{"id":24216,"date":"2001-10-18T15:46:21","date_gmt":"2001-10-18T20:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2001\/10\/18\/this-week-in-the-wcha-oct-18-2001\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:54:19","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:54:19","slug":"this-week-in-the-wcha-oct-18-2001","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/2001\/10\/18\/this-week-in-the-wcha-oct-18-2001\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week In The WCHA: Oct. 18, 2001"},"content":{"rendered":"
Whether the goal is a league championship, a winning record or home ice in the playoffs, a good first step is essential.<\/p>\n
Denver, St. Cloud State and Minnesota-Duluth (yes, Minnesota-Duluth) took that step last weekend.<\/p>\n
Each of those teams went 2-0 to win a tournament championship. That, of course, does nothing for their chances for success in any of the postseason tournaments, but it at least gives them a starting point.<\/p>\n
“It was a big confidence booster for our guys to win on the road against Michigan and Nebraska[-Omaha],” said Minnesota-Duluth coach Scott Sandelin, whose Bulldogs won the Maverick Stampede. “Now it’s something that we want to try to build on. That road gets a little tougher this weekend because you get back to league play and this is for points.”<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs may not have expected to come home with a trophy from Omaha, but it was a nice bonus, Sandelin said.<\/p>\n
St. Cloud State finally has some championship history to build from after last season’s WCHA Final Five title, but this year’s freshmen — an integral part of the team — don’t have that experience.<\/p>\n
That’s why the Huskies’ title at the Ice Breaker Invitational was a good sign. Those newcomers now know a bit of what it’s like to play for a championship.<\/p>\n
“That’s what tradition is supposed to be about, raising expectations and helping them understand there’s a certain way we want to do things around here,” Huskies coach Craig Dahl said. “Obviously you can’t win them all, but the expectation is such that you hope they’re going to understand that if we do the things the way we’re supposed to do them, usually that ends up boding pretty well for the future.”<\/p>\n
Forward Mike Doyle was stellar in his first collegiate experience. He was named the tournament’s MVP after scoring three goals and adding an assist in wins over Clarkson and host Maine.<\/p>\n
Denver coach George Gwozdecky said flat out that the championship of the Nye Frontier Classic in Anchorage wasn’t as important as getting two wins, especially considering the second-night pairings were set before the tournament.<\/p>\n
“Whether we won the championship or not was not that important; winning the two games was,” Gwozdecky said. “It builds confidence and an understanding of the kind of team we are and the kind of team we’re capable of being.”<\/p>\n
These three teams will go out into the non-tournament world and, over the next months, find out if they are true championship caliber. Winning these trophies gives them no advantage in points for the WCHA title.<\/p>\n
The advantage they have gained is in team-building.<\/p>\n
While 5-3 and 4-4 are figures Alaska-Anchorage likes to see in its first weekend of play, two other numbers may have said more about the state of Seawolves hockey: 4,307 and 6,038.<\/p>\n
The Seawolves drew good crowds for the Nye Frontier Classic last weekend, coming close to selling out 6,206-seat Sullivan Arena for Saturday night’s 4-4 tie with defending national champion Boston College.<\/p>\n
The telling stat, though, is that ticket sales rose by over 1,700 from Friday’s crowd of 4,307 to Saturday’s 6,038. The Seawolves’ 5-3 victory over Northeastern on Friday may have had quite a bit to do with that.<\/p>\n
“I’m sure that people woke up and either read the paper or talked to someone who was at the game on Friday and said we were playing a pretty entertaining and up-tempo style of hockey and that they had enjoyed going to the game,” first-year Seawolves coach John Hill said.<\/p>\n
“I was surprised that we had that many on Saturday. I was happy for our kids, because most of these guys have not played at Sullivan Arena when it’s packed. That used to be the norm.”<\/p>\n
The feeling around Anchorage near the end of the Dean Talafous era was that the community was losing touch with the Seawolves. The hiring of Hill, a former Seawolves player and assistant coach, to replace Talafous could be seen as a move to renew interest as well as improve the team.<\/p>\n
The Seawolves have seen no great jump in season ticket sales this season, but Hill said the UAA ticket office received a good number of phone calls on Monday asking about season tickets.<\/p>\n
“To me, they won the championship,” said Gwozdecky, whose Pioneers actually won the title with two wins. “What I mean by that is they’re probably going to bring in a lot of fans and bring back some of those people who have stayed away for many years.”<\/p>\n
As successful as instant replay has been in the WCHA Final Five — just ask Derek Eastman and St. Cloud State — it appears logistical problems with implementing it league-wide will prohibit its growth into WCHA regular-season games.<\/p>\n
Replay was the subject of a lengthy discussion at the league’s offseason meetings, but the idea was shot down by the same old concern: consistency.<\/p>\n
The newer arenas in the league have television capabilities, but others don’t. Some teams have their games televised more often, bringing with it more camera angles for replays.<\/p>\n
The league’s stance seems to be that replay will be shelved until the league’s arenas all have the same capabilities.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know if it’s unfair, but it wouldn’t be really kosher to have it at Minnesota and Wisconsin,” league supervisor of officials Greg Shepherd said, “and don’t have it anywhere else.”<\/p>\n
Eastman and the Huskies were the benefactors of a review in their favor last season, one that kept their game-winning goal in the Final Five championship game on the board.<\/p>\n
Replay is scheduled to be used again at the Final Five this season, and will continue to be a topic for the coaches to discuss in the offseason.<\/p>\n
“I think someday you’ll see it in,” Shepherd said, “and we’ll be the pioneer of it.”<\/p>\n
St. Cloud State captain Jon Cullen is out two to four weeks after suffering a sprained knee midway through last Friday’s game against Clarkson.<\/p>\n
Given the Huskies’ schedule, Dahl would most certainly like to see Cullen return after two weeks. They host Michigan Tech this weekend and go to Minnesota State-Mankato the next. The two weekends following, however, are when SCSU could really use its captain: home series against North Dakota and Colorado College.<\/p>\n
Plus, Chris Purslow decided to quit the team because of a chronic groin injury.<\/p>\n
“We’re going to miss him big time,” Dahl said of Purslow. “That’s two quality forwards out of the lineup.<\/p>\n
North Dakota coach Dean Blais has said the new Ralph Engelstad Arena isn’t going to be a “corporate” building, meaning filled with suits and empty seats because companies buy tickets and don’t use them.<\/p>\n