WCHA Teams 2011-2012

[archerystud]

Okay I'm getting excited for college hockey (and bow) season so I thought I'd start a WCHA thread. The other one seems to have gotten hijacked by the new conference changes. I'm looking for your insights for your team this year. Hear are my thoughts on St. Cloud.....

Offense: Leading scorer Drew LeBlanc returns. Freshman Cam Reid (29 points) and Nic Dowd (18 points) finished last season strong. Ben Hanowkski finished the season with 13 goals despite playing with a shoulder injury the entire year (he had surgery in the offseason). David Eddy's return to the lineup sparked them last year and the teams play was much better after he returned.

Defense: Definite weak point last year. The one bright spot was that I liked the play of Fr. Kevin Gravel at the end of the season. Nick Jensen proved to be a good puck moving defenseman and got 23 points in his freshman season.

Goal-tending: Should be solid with Mike Lee. He needs help from his defense. Like most teams I think they will lean on their #1 goalie to lead them.

Impact Freshman: Need to have at least one Fr defenseman step in and play well. Best candidates are probably Andrew Prochno or Jarrod Rabey. There are some incoming forwards who put up great numbers in other leagues but it doesn't always seem to translate into the WCHA, so I'll hold off judgement there.

In short I don't think scoring will be a problem unless there are a bunch of sophomore slumps. Lee will at least be solid in net. Defense needs to do a better job of covering opposing players in front of the net. Lack of D-men depth will probably be the biggest concern.

Prediction: Could finish anywhere from 3rd-9th. Since most people are picking them to finish in the bottom, I'll go with 4th but I am a homer. In typical Husky fashion they do well when no one expects them and flounder when the expectations are high.

[PierBridge]

St Cloud State will not win a NCAA playoff game. Good news is you'll probably stick another monster buck this fall so all is not lost

Kidding aside and being the fair weather fan I am I haven't even begun to think about it yet..

I'll start with the Gophers will be much improved this year..

[archerystud]

St Cloud State will not win a NCAA playoff game.

Got that monkey off the back two years ago!!!! Blah, blah, blah....

[solbes]

Still mulling over our chances this year. Some things I'm very optimistic about, others not so much.

I think St Cloud has exorcised that NCAA demon. The challenge is consistently placing in the top 4-5 WCHA so that you are in the hunt come selection time. They could easily be in that position if they play more like they did in the 2nd half of last year.

[Bear55]

I thought last year would be the year the gophers would pull out of their slump but it was not to be. They did get my hopes up with a decent 2nd half surge that was stopped cold in its tracks by a rabid seawolf. We were led by a lot of Sr's last year so this year we look to be making a strong youth movement.

The gophers as usual will have plenty of talent in the lineup but getting that talent to work hard and play together is a whole other story. Mike Guentzel might be our best addition this offseason!

On paper we don't have a ton of points returning, offense will most likely be led by Nick Bjugstad with Budish, Hanson, Haula, and Condon chipping in. Any one of those guys could break out and have a big year, we will need them so if we want to make any noise. I also think our new captain Taylor Matson will have a nice year but probably not put up huge numbers. I do expect an impact out of our freshman, Rau should be good, Ambroz maybe but hopefully the rest of them can chip in more than expected. We need all the help we can get.

I think our D will be better than last year, Helgeson Holl and Alt will be a year older. We will have to fill in the rest with freshman and spare parts but I think we will be ok. Hopfully Ben Marshall is ready to play and contribute on the PP because we need him in a big way. Ness leaving early was a big loss, he wasn't great but he would have been a Sr and those guys are valuable assets in the WCHA.

In goal I just hope Ken Patterson can stay health all year, kid has been great for us.

I honestly don't know if this is the year we contend for anything, we seem to one year away but then again Bjugstad probably goes pro so hey, it's now or never!!!

[solbes]

Here's my thoughts on tDogs chances in '11/12. Raising the banner on October 7th should get them off to a good start.

Offense: Everyone knows we lost Fonzie and MCon and their 110+ combined points last year. Are they replaceable this year, ummm no. JT Brown had a fantastic freshman campain though, finishing strong after a mid season slump. Ahtough I hate the thought of separating him from Oleksuk, he should do very well being paired with one of the Hobey hopefuls in centerman Jack Connolly (tStud). The position for winger opposite of JT is still open, I'm assuming Mike Seidel takes this in his Junior year. Oleksuk had a great FF last year and remains a very solid #2 centerman. One of the keys to the season will be guys stepping up to fill the 2nd line Winger positions. Should be a battle betwen Basaraba, Hendrikson, Tardy, or even freshman Herbert. UMD lacks depth in it's 3rd and 4th lines, just like last year.

Defense: Here we lost a lot from last year, and it is irreplaceable for this coming season. Duluth gets a player of Justin Faulk's talent maybe once every 10-15 years and sadly college was not for him with his freshman exit. We also lost C Mike Montgomery who had some smooth defensive skills. On the plus side we have some good defensiveminded blue liners in Brady Lamb and Wade Bergman. Lamb will have to step up more in the offensive zone like he did in the FF. The loss of Mike Connolly will be felt as much in the defensive zone as the Ozone, he played like a man among boys out there.

Goal-tending: Who knows, but we do have 2 seniors. I would say last year Reiter played very inconsistently until the NCAA's. He'd follow up a shutout with a 4 or 5 goal thumping. He did put together his best 4 game stretch in the FF and was a big part of the championship effort. He saved our bacon so many times in that Union game, it was unbelievable (9 PK shut out). Can he take that experience and get to the next level this year? I dunno. Crandall will be a good backup, but also has inconsistency issues. McNeely comes to UMD next year after a year in the USHL.

Freshman class: Not a lot of big number guys coming in this year. tDogs have some in the 12/13 and beyond. Caleb Herbert from Bloomington might be our one point scoring freshman this year. 50 points in 51 games for Sioux City last year. 2 other forwards and 3 Dmen are coming to the team this year.

Prediction: We need the special teams playing very well to place in the top 3. It will be impossible to replicate a Fontaine-Connolly-Connolly-Brown-Faulk type line. Good news is many of our PK guys are back. If Reiter steps up this year and PP/PK are firing, I'm going with a 3rd place finish. If the PP suffers greatly and Reiter goes back to his inconsistent play, I'll predict 6-7th. Crowded in the top 6 this year!

[Bear55]

Those darn Connolly's have been giving me nighmares for years, Jack will be Sr this year right? Can't take much more of that guy.

[solbes]

Both Connolly's were/are undrafted. So I was happy for Mike to get his contract from San Jose after his junior year. Jack's a native of Dultuh, and yes he's now a senior.

Not looking forward to the rebuilding in store for '12/13, but it looks like Duluth could be very competitive this year.

[archerystud]

I think it looks like CC and DU are making it a 2 horse race. Out of the rest I really only give UNO a good chance of competing with those two. I think that even the Sioux have way too much to replace to keep up with those guys.

But then again that's why the play the games. Usually seems like at least 2 teams kind of come out of no where every year.

[solbes]

Apparently Gopher blogger Roman from the Strib has been reading our predictions here. See his Strib article here:

Strib Article on WCHA predictions from Roman

Can't argue with teams in 1-6, although team position could be. His argument that the Gophers ascend to #4 is based on their underachieving past. I would attribute a possible rise to a coaching change, of which there could be some overlap. My surprises from his predictions were AA at #7, St Cloud all the way down to #9, and Wisconsin at #10.

[Bear55]

It's hard not to like a list with Wisconsin at 10.