Prospects Abound at WCHA Final Five

One of the biggest events in college hockey takes place this weekend in St. Paul, Minn. The Western Collegiate Hockey Association crowns its tournament champion at the annual Final Five, which begins Thursday at XCel Energy Center.

Current NHLers such as Blake Wheeler, Phil Kessel, Thomas Vanek, Jonathan Toews, T.J. Oshie, and Paul Stastny have played in the Final Five before, and now it's time for a crop of potential future NHL stars to take their turn under the bright lights.

A total of 55 players on the rosters of this weekend's Final Five teams have been drafted by NHL teams. Another high-profile freshman forward will be called to the stage at this summer's Draft. Other top players are free agents, and at least a handful of them could sign somewhere once the season is over.

Besides potential pro futures, there is much on the line this weekend. Five Division I leagues, including the WCHA, decide their automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament. Other teams will make their final push to earn an at-large bid.

FanHouse will be in St. Paul all weekend, updating you on the events and how they impact what happens on Selection Sunday. In the meantime, here's a quick look at the teams that made the WCHA Final Five. The ranking listed is from the Pairwise, a duplication of the rankings believed to be used by the NCAA when selecting teams for the national tournament. Teams in the top 12 of the Pairwise are usually safe to make the tournament, while anyone listed in spots 12-16 has to be considered a bubble team.

North Dakota Fighting Sioux
24-12-4 overall, 17-7-4 WCHA (1st), 5th in Pairwise

We've heard this song before. The Sioux start slow. They do that practically every year, and the fall of 2008 was no exception.

Instead of panicking, head coach Dave Hakstol kept rolling his four lines, knowing they would get better with experience. Boy, did they ever. After a 5-8-1 start, the Sioux are 19-4-3, including a 15-2-3 finish to their WCHA schedule that propelled them to their 14th league title. Now, North Dakota looks like a legitimate threat to make their fifth straight Frozen Four under Hakstol.

"Early on, we weren't able to get it done with balance," Hakstol said Tuesday. "Since we've been able to turn the corner, that's been what our strength is. We've had a lot of people chipping in."

North Dakota has great offensive balance, with 140 total goals spread out so that no one has even 20. Senior Ryan Duncan (undrafted) - the 2007 Hobey Baker Award winner - leads the team with 37 points, and he's been getting plenty of help from the likes of junior Chris VandeVelde (Edmonton), along with freshmen Brett Hextall (Phoenix) and Jason Gregoire (N.Y. Islanders). Hakstol says the freshmen "adjusted to this level quickly", adding they have "become reliable for us in all situations."

Freshman Brad Eidsness (Buffalo) took over in goal and has played very well, nearly winning the WCHA goaltending title. All-America candidate Chay Genoway (undrafted) leads a rock-solid defense.

Denver Pioneers
22-10-5 overall, 16-8-4 WCHA (2nd), 4th in Pairwise

Denver hasn't won a national title since 2005, and none of this year's players were a major factor in that last title team.

That's no reason to discount the Pioneers, traditionally one of the nation's tougher teams come tournament time. Veteran coach George Gwozdecky does have some problems, though, entering the Final Five.

The Pioneers are the biggest train-wreck in the tournament in terms of health. They could be without their top three centers for Friday's semifinal against Wisconsin. Sophomore Tyler Bozak (undrafted) has been out since December, and while Gwozdecky said Tuesday he has been cleared to practice, he won't be cleared to play until at least next week. Junior Tyler Ruegsegger (Toronto) suffered a knee injury last weekend and is likely out for the season, though Gwozdecky said they're trying some different braces and things that could leave Ruegsegger at least a slight chance of playing. Meanwhile, sophomore Jesse Martin (Atlanta) was injured Saturday and is "at best, questionable" for Friday's semifinal.

While North Dakota has relied on an experienced senior to lead the team, Gwozdecky has had to turn to some younger players, especially with the injury to Bozak hurting their depth in the second half of the season. One of the guys who has really stepped up his play has been freshman Joe Colborne (Boston). Along with defenseman Patrick Wiercioch (Ottawa), Colborne brought in big expectations, and while he didn't start all that impressively, he has delivered since the holidays. Wiercioch (pictured) is one of the top offensive defensemen in the league, and his defensive game has rounded into form nicely.

"They both had a lot of hype coming in, mainly because of their draft status," Gwozdecky said. "Both guys have had an outstanding year, making major contributions."

Wisconsin Badgers
19-15-4 overall, 14-11-3 WCHA (3rd), 18th in Pairwise

After suffering through an 0-6-1 start, Wisconsin managed to crawl to a third-place finish in league play. It's not good enough, however, to overcome a very pedestrian 5-4-1 record in non-conference games. Losses to Boston College and New Hampshire in October, coupled with a two-game sweep at the hands of Northern Michigan in early January, leave the Badgers in a very precarious position when it comes to the NCAA Tournament.

Making matters worse, the Badgers went 0-4 this year against Denver while being outscored 22-12. While head coach Mike Eaves says his team "welcomes the opportunity" to take another shot at the Pioneers, he knows it won't be a cakewalk.

The Badgers are scoring more goals, especially since Christmas. "We've produced more offense than any othe year," Eaves noted Tuesday. "We've always been under the gunbeing labeled as a defensive club."

Freshman Derek Stepan (N.Y. Rangers) has had a huge year, and junior defenseman Jamie McBain (Carolina) is the team's leading scorer. He'll find out Thursday if his season is good enough to net him league Player of the Year honors. Experienced forwards like Blake Geoffrion (Nashville), Tom Gorowsky (undrafted), and John Mitchell (undrafted) have had nice seasons.

As for the 11-goal, 111-shot outburst against Minnesota State (Mankato) in the first round of the playoffs, Eaves says he knew his team had it in them.

"In the playoffs, you want to have your team buy into the idea of getting pucks and bodies to the net. Force the goalie to stop it, and force the defense to turn and find it. The kids have been buying into it much more in the second half."

Minnesota Gophers
17-12-7 overall, 12-11-5 WCHA (5th), T-11th in Pairwise

Outside of actual Gopher hockey fans, not many people are going to feel sorry for them, no matter how much adversity they endure. It's like feeling sorry for the Red Wings because their first-round pick ends up selling insurance before his first contract expires.

That's not to deny, however, that there has been some real adversity for the Gophers. Just after Christmas, two-time national champion coach Don Lucia began to experience numbness in his face. He missed a home game during the team's holiday tournament, had to watch another home game from the press box, then missed altogether the Gophers' road trip to North Dakota so he could undergo further medical testing.

After close to five weeks of nail-biting, nerve-racking drama, Lucia was diagnosed with sarcoidosis. It's great to be able to report that he continues to feel better.

The team is feeling much better, too.

After a ghastly 1-6-2 stretch that began with the Gophers' first single-season four-game losing streak in eight years, Minnesota rallied from 3-2 down in the third period to beat Minnesota-Duluth 5-3 February 28. That started a run of four wins in five games, and goalie Alex Kangas (Atlanta) has two shutouts during that stretch. It all began when Kangas (pictured) was benched in favor of freshman Kent Patterson (Colorado) for a game.

"Getting Alex to play the way he can play was big for us," Lucia said.

The top line of Jay Barriball (St. Louis), Jordan Schroeder (2009 draft-eligible), and captain Ryan Stoa (Colorado) is one of the best in the country. Schroeder could be a top-ten pick in this summer's Draft, and Stoa is likely to go pro after this season, but should pick up All-America honors before he leaves. Oddly, Lucia thought Schroeder and Stoa would work well together even last summer.

"I don't think about who's going to play with who in the off-season, but I felt from day one that Jordan would be our number-one center, and with Stoa coming back I thought they would be really good together," Lucia said. The coach praised Schroeder for playing well even when matched against other teams' top centers, an impressive feat when you consider a lot of the juniors and seniors in the WCHA are 22 or 23 years old, and Schroeder didn't turn 18 until September.

It's very hard to argue. Schroeder is better as a freshman than either Vanek or Kessel were when they played for the Gophers.

Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs
18-12-8 overall, 10-11-7 WCHA (7th), 13th in Pairwise

Before they became the only road team in the WCHA to win a playoff series this year, UMD had easily the worst six-game stretch of the season.

A 1-3-2 finish to the regular season cost UMD a chance to play a home playoff series for the first time since 2004, and the Bulldogs were suddenly in danger of missing the NCAA Tournament.

Instead of folding the tents, UMD outscored fellow bubble team Colorado College 7-2 over a two-game sweep, effectively ending the Tigers' season. Because travel plans had to be made that accomodated the chance of a Sunday night third game to the series, UMD spent the better part of two full days in Colorado Springs. They didn't return to Duluth until around midnight Tuesday.

Thursday, the Bulldogs battle Minnesota in the tournament's "play-in" game. The winner plays North Dakota in the semifinals. While no team has ever advanced from the play-in game to win the championship, head coach Scott Sandelin believes in his bunch, especially after the way they played in Colorado.

"We played better in front of (goalie) Alex (Stalock)," Sandelin said. "He's a goalie that you have to let stop the puck. A lot of games we gave up easy goals, two on ones and bad decisions defensively. You put your goaltender in those situations, and you can't expect him to stop all of them."

Stalock (San Jose) stopped 65 of 67 shots in the Colorado series, and the Tigers were held without an even-strength goal.

UMD has the third-best power play in the country, keyed by a couple of seniors and a sophomore. Forward MacGregor Sharp (undrafted) is UMD's first 20-goal scorer since 2004 Hobey Baker winner Junior Lessard had 32. Sandelin says he's "been our best forward for the last month". Defenseman Josh Meyers (Los Angeles) has a team-leading ten power play goals. Sophomore Justin Fontaine (undrafted) has a team-high 30 assists and 45 points.

If the Bulldogs can get continued solid play out of a penalty kill that struggled statistically for much of the season, they're going to be in good shape. They have allowed just 46 even-strength goals in 38 games heading into the Final Five.

WCHA Final Five schedule (at XCel Energy Center, St. Paul, Minn.)
All times Eastern

Thursday
Minnesota-Duluth vs Minnesota, 8pm

Friday
Wisconsin vs Denver, 3pm
UMD/Minnesota winner vs North Dakota, 8pm

Saturday
Third-place game, 3pm
Championship game, 8pm