WCHA Preseason Prediction: The Perfect Storm

We are now only two weeks away from St. Cloud's first preseason game against Manitoba so I think it is time for my preseason predictions:

1. St. Cloud State University (SCSU)
   
2. University of North Dakota (UND)
   
3. University of Minnesota- Duluth (UMD)
   
4. Denver University (DU)
   
5. University of Wisconsin (UW)
   
6. University of Minnesota (UMN)
   
7. Colorado College (CC)
   
8. Bemidji State University (BSU)
   
9. University of Nebraska- Omaha (UNO)
   
10. Minnesota State University- Mankato (MSU)
    
11. University of Alaska- Anchorage (UAA)
    
12. Michigan Tech University (MTU)
    

I believe that many things have come together for St. Cloud this hockey season to form a sort of "perfect storm" where SCSU will lead the WCHA. First, SCSU had arguably its best season in SCSU history last year highlighted by the programs first NCAA win (despite a respectable 8 appearances in the 20ish years as a Div. 1 program). Despite a few key losses in scoring machine Ryan Lasch and captain extraordinaire Garrett Raboin, St. Cloud retains a majority of its team from last year including 12 of its top 14 goal scorers and both of its goaltenders. This brings me to my next point, SCSU has not only arguably the best netminding duo in the WCHA, but quite possibly the nation in Mike Lee and Dan Dunn. Both of these goalies are good enough to be starting goaltenders in the WCHA (which says a lot about their talent), so the only question SCSU now has to settle on is who will be in net. SCSU also has one of the best recruiting classes in the WCHA including four NHL draft picks. Newcomers Dowd, Reid, and MacMillian will add awesome offense to an already great line up and Gravel and Jensen will help to solidify the team on the blueline. You can see more about all eight of the incoming class here. Finally, St. Cloud has recently had a change in its coaching staff with the addition of coaching great Steve Johnson, and is arguably better for it. Each of these things (last year success, few losses, goaltending, recruiting class, Johnson) has paved the way for St. Cloud to have the best team in the WCHA and I could not be more excited to see how this year turns out for the Huskies!

So what are others saying? Here are a few other WCHA predictions I found:

The College Hockey Blog:

1. UND
2. SCSU
3. UMD
4. CC
5. BSU
6. DU
7. UNO
8. UMN
9. UW
10. MSU
11. MTU
12. UAA

Goon's World

1. UND
2. SCSU
3. UMD
4. DU
5. UW
   
6. UMN
7. UNO
8. BSU
9. CC
10. MSU
11. UAA
12. MTU

Runnin' with the Dogs

1. UMD
2. UND
3. SCSU
4. DU
5. UW
6. UMN
7. CC
8. UNO
9. BSU
10. MTU
11. MSU
12. UAA

Inside College Hockey (Top 10 for '11- WCHA teams)

1. UND
4. SCSU
8. UMD

College Hockey News (Preseason Top Ten- WCHA teams)

2. UND
6. SCSU
9. UMD

So preseason predictions put St. Cloud (at least) as one of the top 3 teams in the WCHA. Where do you think they will land?



Also, let me know of any other WCHA predictions you find or share your own if you would like.