WCHA Weekend Recap - 10/8

Now that the season is getting going, the WCHA Blog will have some new weekly features, including a weekend recap which will be published each Monday. We'll examine the weekend that was in the WCHA. This past weekend featured five exhibition contests.

Alaska Anchorage topped Southern Alberta Tech by a 8-0 score. The UAA Hockey Blog does a good job of recapping the action, which featured a hat trick by senior Merit Waldrop. Sophomore Josh Lunden and senior Peter Cartwright each had three points for the Seawolves, who open play this weekend by playing host to the Nye Frontier Classic, which welcomes Wayne State and Boston University to Anchorage.

On Saturday night, Colorado College topped the University of Calgary by a 4-3 score in front of 5,797 onlookers in Colorado Springs. The shots favored CC by a 30-27 margin, so this was certainly a competitive contest. Senior defenseman Jack Hiller had two goals and one assist, while Alaska Anchorage transfer Eric Walsky had a goal and an assist. CC has another exhibition game next weekend against the U.S. Under-18 team before starting WCHA play the following weekend by hosting Minnesota.

The Colorado Springs Gazette blog has more on the game here.

Also on Saturday, Michigan Tech dispatched of the University of Toronto by a 7-0 score. The Huskies outshot the Varisty Blues (yes, that's they nickname) 49-17. Junior Ryan Angelow had a goal and three assists, while Ryan Bunger, Justin St. Louis, Alex Lord, and Peter Rouleau each had multi-point nights. Tech kicks off their regular season this upcoming weekend by playing Northern Michigan (Friday) and Lake Superior State (Sunday) as part of the Superior Cup.

On Sunday night, the Dinos from Calgary traveled up the road a bit to take on Denver, and the results were not favorable. DU topped Calgary by a 5-1 score, and unlike the previous night, the shots heavily favored the WCHA team, as DU outshot the Dinos 43-23. Freshmen Anthony Maiani had a goal and two assists for DU, while fellow freshmen Chris Nutini and Tyler Bozak had two-point nights. Freshmen will likely need to carry the load for this young DU team this season.

Finally, the No. 1 team in all the land -- North Dakota -- topped the University of Manitoba Bison by a 9-3 score. Despite outshooting the Bison by a 20-2 margin in the first period, the Sioux were actually down by a 2-1 score at the first intermission. UND senior goalie Jean-Philippe Lamoureux let in a pair of fluky goals: the first was a deflection from a centering pass / shot from the right circle, while the second came off a centering pass from behind the net and hit off Lamoureux's skate and deflected into the net. Senior captain Rylan Kaip had a hat trick for the Sioux. Freshmen Matt Frattin skated on a line with Ryan Duncan and T.J. Oshie. Duncan and Oshie both scores, but the line as a minus two on the night. Chay Genoway had a goal and two assists. UND takes on defending national champion Michigan State in Grand Forks this Saturday in the annual U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game.

Brad Schlossman has more thoughts on the game here.