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WCHA Playoffs Are Here!
ROUND ONE!

2010 WCHA Playoffs Get Underway Friday; First Round, Best-of-Three Series to Feature #10 MTU at #1 DU, #9 UAA at #2 UW, #8 MSU at #3 SCSU, #7 UM at #4 UND, #6 CC at #5 UMD

WCHA regular season and MacNaughton Cup champion Denver (25-7-4), the No. 1-ranked team in the national, is also the No. 1 seed for the post-season tournament and will play host to No. 10 seed Michigan Tech (5-28-1) at Magness Arena (6,026). Face-offs are 7:37 pm MT on Friday, 7:07 pm MT on Saturday and 7:07 pm MT on Sunday (if necessary). During the course of the regular season, the Pioneers won both matchups against the Huskies, 5-2 and 5-3 on Feb. 19-20 in the Mile High City.

No. 2 seed Wisconsin (22-9-4) will entertain No. 9 seed Alaska Anchorage (11-21-2) at the Kohl Center (15,237) with face-offs set for 7:07 pm CT each evening. The No. 3-ranked Badgers were 2-0-0 vs the Seawolves during the regular season, claiming 5-1 and 6-2 verdicts in Madison back on Nov. 13-14.

No. 3 seed St. Cloud State (20-11-5) will take on No. 8 seed Minnesota State (15-18-3) for the second straight weekend, hosting the Mavericks at the National Hockey Center (5,371) on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (if necessary) at 7:07 pm CT each evening. The No. 7-ranked Huskies are 0-1-1 vs the Mavericks this season, after dropping a 4-2 decision in Mankato last Friday (March 5) and then earning a 2-2 (ot) tie last Saturday (March 6) in St. Cloud.

Longtime rivals North Dakota and Minnesota will hook-up in first round WCHA playoff action at Ralph Engelstad Arena (11,634) in Grand Forks, with Friday's opener set for 7:37 pm CT, Saturday’s contest at 7:07 pm CT, and a potential third game on Sunday at 7:07 pm CT. The No. 5-ranked Fighting Sioux (20-11-5), sporting a current nation’s best seven-game winning streak, and the Golden Gophers (17-17-2) split their four-game regular season series 1-1-2. On the opening weekend of the 2009-10 conference schedule, Oct. 16-17, host North Dakota won 4-0 and tied 3-3 (ot) to take three points from UM. Then on Jan. 15-16 in Minneapolis, the two clubs tied 3-3 (ot) in game one before the Gophers captured a 5-1 triumph in game two. Both teams scored 11 goals and yielded 11 in the series.

And up in Duluth this weekend, No. 5 seed and defending WCHA Final Five champion Minnesota Duluth (20-15-1) will entertain No. 6 seed Colorado College (18-15-3). Face-offs at the Duluth Entertainment & Convention Center (5,303) are 7:07 pm CT each evening. The No. 14-ranked Bulldogs posted a 3-1-0 season series advantage over the No. 15-ranked Tigers. On Nov. 6-7 in Colorado Springs, UMD won the opener 4-3 with CC taking game two 6-2. In the rematch in Duluth on Jan. 8-9, UMD swept the Tigers 5-2 and 4-1.

Following the first round of WCHA playoffs, the five winning teams will be re-seeded No. 1 through No. 5 according to their regular season finish and advance to the 2010 Red Baron™ WCHA Final Five, set for Thursday, March 18 through Saturday, March 20 at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. On Thursday, the No. 5 seeded team will play No. 4 at 7:07 pm CT. On Friday, there will be two semi-final matchups at 2:07 pm and 7:07 pm CT. On Saturday, the third place game will be at 2:07 pm and the Broadmoor Trophy championship game at 7:07 pm CT.

Information courtesy of the WCHA.