St. Cloud State Owns First Place at Break

Huskies Sweep MSU-Mankato to Stake Out Five-Point Lead in MacNaughton Cup Race; SCSU, Minnesota and Denver Ranked 1-2-3 in Men's Div. I National Polls at Break; Holiday Tournaments Next for Seven WCHA Teams; League Teams Own Combined 35-13-2 Non-Conference Mark; 2002 WCHA Final Five Tix On Sale

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Field of Five Nationally-Ranked Teams, Top Playoff Seeds Set to Head to Saint Paul for This Week's 2010 Red Baron WCHA Final Five at Xcel Energy Center

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Dec. 26, 2001

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MADISON, Wisc. - Seven Western Collegiate Hockey Association-member teams - including No. 2- ranked University of Minnesota and No. 3-ranked University of Denver - will be involved in holiday tournament action later this week while No. 1-ranked St. Cloud State, Minnesota State-Mankato and Alaska Anchorage will be idle until the New Year.

Coach Craig Dahl's league-leading St. Cloud State Huskies (17-2-1 overall, 13-2-1 WCHA) concluded first-half play this past weekend (Dec. 21-22) with a 3-1, 8-1 WCHA sweep over visiting MSU-Mankato to give the Huskies a five-point advantage over second place Denver in the race for the 2001-02 MacNaughton Cup. Coach George Gwozdecky's Pioneers (14-2-0, 11-1-0 WCHA) do, however, have four conference games in hand on the Huskies while Coach Don Lucia's Golden Gophers (12-2-3, 6-2- 2) are in third place and have played six fewer league games than SCSU.

Upcoming this week are four Christmas tournaments that will be hosted by WCHA teams and will involve a total of seven league teams. On Dec. 27-28, Wisconsin welcomes Colorado College, New Hampshire and Brown to the Bank One Badger Hockey Showdown at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. On Dec. 28-29, Minnesota hosts Western Michigan, Ferris State and Providence College in the Mariucci Classic at Mariucci Arena, Denver entertains Bowling Green, UMass-Lowell and Harvard in the Wells Fargo Denver Cup at Magness Arena, Michigan Tech plays host to North Dakota, Michigan and Michigan State in the Great Lakes Invitational at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, and Minnesota-Duluth welcomes defending NCAA-champion Boston College, Miami and Yale to the Silverado Shootout at the DECC. Through Dec. 23, WCHA teams have a 35-13-2 (.720) combined record in non- conference play this