MSU-Mankato, North Dakota And St. Cloud State Share Early WCHA Lead
Joe Motzko has helped lead St. Cloud State to a 4-0 record. |
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Oct. 21, 2001
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MADISON, Wisc. - Minnesota State-Mankato, North Dakota and St. Cloud State share the early lead in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association race with identical 2-0-0 conference records, with the Mavericks and the Huskies going head-to-head next Friday (Oct. 26) and Saturday (Oct. 27) at the Midwest Wireless Civic Center in Mankato, Minn., while the defending MacNaughton Cup-champion Fighting Sioux will host Wisconsin at the new Ralph Engelstad Arena. One other upcoming weekend conference series will feature Denver hosting Alaska Anchorage at Magness Arena - the first league games of the 2001-02 season for both clubs.
In non-conference play this week, Minnesota-Duluth and Minnesota will host a pair of ECAC teams in RPI and Colgate, respectively. Colorado College and Michigan Tech are idle.
MSU-Mankato won twice at Minnesota-Duluth last Friday (Oct. 19) and Saturday (Oct. 20) to move to 3-1-0 overall while St. Cloud State opened their conference season with a pair of home victories over Michigan Tech. Last year's WCHA Final Five and Broadmoor Trophy champions, St. Cloud State has won four straight games to launch their new season and mark the best start in the program's Division I ice hockey history (since 1987-88).
Heading into the final weekend of October, WCHA-member teams have now combined for a 16-5-1 (.750) non-conference record and the league is now 85-45-10 (.643) against outside opponents dating back to the start of the 2000-01 campaign. After a 10-1-1 non-conference start the weekend of Oct. 13-14, the conference was a combined 6-4-0 this past weekend as Colorado College (over visiting UMass-Amherst of Hockey East) and Minnesota (vs Bemidji State of College Hockey America) both achieved two-game sweeps. North Dakota split at home against HEA-member Maine, host Wisconsin split with CHA-member Wayne State, and Alaska Anchorage dropped a pair at intra-state rival Alaska Fairbanks of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.
Last March, when the Western Collegiate Hockey Association received a Div. 1 hockey record five berths in the 2001 NCAA tournament, the league was 69-40-9 (.623) in non-conference play.
| 2001-02 WCHA Standings | |||||||||||||
| Conference | Overall | ||||||||||||
| Rk | Team | Pts | GP | Record | Pct. | GF | GA | GP | Record | Pct. | GF | GA | |
| 1 | MSU-Mankato | 4 | 2 | 2-0-0 | 1.00 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 3-1-0 | .750 | 21 | 18 | |
| North Dakota | 4 | 2 | 2-0-0 | 1.00 | 8 | 2 | 5 | 3-2-0 | .600 | 17 | 16 | ||
| St. Cloud State | 4 | 2 | 2-0-0 | 1.00 | 14 | 5 | 4 | 4-0-0 | 1.00 | 25 | 8 | ||
| 4 | Alaska Anchorage | 0 | 0 | 0-0-0 | ---- | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1-2-1 | .375 | 14 | 17 | |
| Denver | 0 | 0 | 0-0-0 | ---- | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2-0-0 | 1.00 | 7 | 3 | ||
| Minnesota | 0 | 0 | 0-0-0 | ---- | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3-0-0 | 1.00 | 21 | 8 | ||
| Wisconsin | 0 | 0 | 0-0-0 | ---- | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1-1-0 | .500 | 9 | 5 | ||
| Colorado College | 0 | 2 | 0-2-0 | .000 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 2-2-0 | .500 | 12 | 9 | ||
| Michigan Tech | 0 | 2 | 0-2-0 | .000 | 5 | 14 | 4 | 2-2-0 | .500 | 12 | 17 | ||
| Minnesota-Duluth | 0 | 2 | 0-2-0 | .000 | 8 | 10 | 4 | 2-2-0 | .500 | 16 | 14 | ||
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