NCAA Hockey 2012-2013: Its the end of the WCHA as we know it!

Opener is less than three months away!

Who's excited?!

I look forward to another strong showing by my Michigan Tech Huskies after a promising year last year and the WCHA coach of the year, rookie coach Mel Pearson coming into a new season.

I'm distraught by the end of proper hockey conferencing in the name of profits (/CSM) but I look forward to a strong year and hope the competition level stays as high as ever!

Heres to MTU 2013 NCAA Champs!!!:eek1:eek1:eek1:eek1:eek1

I'm just waiting to hear whether Bjugstad goes pro or not. Haula is in town for the Wild prospect camp. Apparently he weighed in a 189, so he put on a lot of weight this off-season.

The UMN team had a lot of freshman and sophomores last year, only lost a few players, and should be formidable this year. We'll see.

Two letters: BC

I'll go for that.

After AFA and DU.

They can do what ever they want in the name of profit. As long as the cheap seats are <$13 and i'm drawing breath i'll want to be there.

Lets go crimson!!!!!!!!

Bjugstad is coming back!!! Some good quotes in this story about feeling he didn't perform to his potential in the tourney, wanting to finish his degree and try to win a championship.




http://www.gophersports.com/blog/2012/07/bjugstad-lucia-comment-on-bjugstad-staying-at-the-u.html

Maybe the new rink will help them win.

Have they redone the Mac further? I've been out of the U.P. for a while now so I dont keep up too well on current events. I did see they are going with some "new" jerseys

Well there were new skyboxes added a few years ago and now they just removed the old floor and coolers and replaced them all with new models. It's a whole new floor in the McInnes.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-62ZQPfn-KQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

http://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2012/09/27_gophers_are_good_as_gold.php

Sucks AFA plays CC and DU the same weekend the UNM Lobos travel to play AFA in football. And I have a conflict.

If you have some extra CC AFA tix, I know a guy...

With the NHL lockout, Gopher tickets are going to be fucking impossible to find.

no tickets here.

Went to watch MNF with a friend who is a big time Michigan Tech fan last night. Both of us are exiled far from College Hockey. Funny thing is, do to you guys, I knew more what was happening with the WCHA to NCHA than he did.

Do you think M-Tech would be a viable add? Or is it to small of arena? Other issues why they didn't take them already?

What do you think of Big10 hockey now as its own league?

I think it was a shitty moneygrab by big schools sick of traveling to Alaska who wanted to schedule more home games at the expense of smaller markets. MN is trying to book some mid-season tournaments, and there will be sort of a local version of a beanpot, but I don't think we'll know for 3-5 years whether it was good or bad.

The way I figure, it's a tough spot to get to, a small arena (although recent years have seen significant investment in the team / facility), and the team has been down for a long time. For a while now tech has been just who you want if you need to get your team straightened out. Not exactly high end hockey conference material, even though there is a lot of history there. Last year was a bit of a flash with Pearson at the helm, and I'm hoping for continued success.

Unfortunately, with the WCHA being relegated to secondary conference standing, I think recruiting may be hurt, making that success hard to continue. Time will tell. Tech has a good rep as an engineering school and many of the sports players are there for it just as much as a sport. I guess we'll just have a nerdy hockey team

There is still one more year of the WCHA and the CCHA as we know it. Also, I am pretty sure that the Alaskan teams must pay for all of the travel expenses of the visiting teams.
Not looking forward to the added travel next year as I chase my kid around to watch the games in person.