RSS
Home
Pioneers face Wisconsin in Final Five
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
The WCHA Final Five (clever name) begins tomorrow night in St. Paul, Minn., with the hometown Gophers facing off against their northern counterparts Minnesota-Duluth. The winner of said game plays North Dakota on Friday, in another regional rivalry.
The only team not from the Minnesota-Wisconsin-North Dakota region to make it into the Final Five is your very own Denver Pioneers, a team that sat atop the WCHA for most of the season.
In Friday’s semifinal, the Pioneers will take on Wisconsin, in what should be a rout. The Pioneers are 4-0 against the Badgers this season, outscoring Wisconsin 22-12 in those games.
Though they’ve put up unusually high numbers against the Badgers, the biggest factor for the Pioneers in this matchup will be making up for the loss of assistant captain and on- and off-ice leader Tyler Ruegsegger. Lakewood’s own Ruegsegger, who was injured last weekend against Alaska-Anchorage, had two goals and four assists in those four games against the Badgers but his presence goes far beyond that. In his absence, players like Rhett Rakhshani, Anthony Maiani and Luke Salazar will need to carry more of the offensive load if the Pioneers want to make another national title run.
Winning this tournament is not out of the question for the Pioneers, who are a lock for the national tournament. Should they win Friday, they will most likely play North Dakota, a team that the Pioneers are 0-1-1 against this season, including a game where coach George Gwozdecky marched across the ice to speak with the referees and was ejected from. If either of the other teams makes it to the final, the Pioneers should be OK; they were 3-1 against UMD and 1-1 against a surprisingly inconsistent (and young) Gophers squad.
In other news, the Pioneers set a league record with 18 WCHA All-Academic team members.
Friday’s game will be locally televised on FSN Rocky Mountain.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
The wait is over.Much-coveted center Tyler Bozak has agreed to terms with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the most important of reasons being the possibility …
With all the noise surrounding Denver forward Tyler Bozak and his impending professional career, there are several other players on this year's ousted …
