The WCHA opens it’s regular season with two big series as North Dakota travels to Wisconsin and Denver heads to Saint Cloud.  St. Cloud has to most to gain from the weekend as a strong showing will move the Huskies up in the polls and give all the other teams in the west something to stew over.  North Dakota and Wisconsin lost their entire rosters to the NHL so it should be fun watching the freshmen skate all over each other.

The Nye Frontier Classic opens with what will be the best game of the tournament as Colorado College and UNO face off in the first game.  UNO get’s to show off Hobey Baker finalist Scott Parse while Colorado College looks to find replacements for their big guns who left in the offseason.  The second game of the Classic features host Alasksa-Anchorage and Merrimack.  One team has to win, common sense says Alaska-Anchorage.  But that’s why they play the games.

The CCHA opens up with Western traveling to State and LSSU travelling to Columbus.  The LSSU, Ohio State match-up will be the better of the weekend as both teams are trying to establish an identity in the league and neither team has a high calibur scoring threat.  Call it a hunch but I think LSSU will take both on the road here.

In out of conference action this weekend has a first week of NCAA football feel to it as Alabama-Huntsville travels to Ann Arbor, Canisus heads to Oxford to take on Miami, and Wayne State heads to Minneapolis to take on the Gophers.  While these games aren’t too exciting to preview, an upset early can have major reprocussions later on.

Friday, October 13th, 2006 - 4:34 pm | Regular Season