As the saying goes, “Opinions are like armpits, everyone has at least
             two, and they both stink.” Well, you get the idea -- time for preseason
             picks. I have a definite biases when making picks or ranking teams. One
             is that goaltending is most important. Second is that experience is just
             as important as goaltending. The combination of the two is exponentially
             important.

             The WCHA has clearly fallen to at best second place among national
             leagues behind the CCHA. The rise of the CCHA, started by Lake Superior
             State and continued by Michigan, was due to quality goaltending. The
             clear distinction between the two leagues was made than in Cincinnati
             where Michigan, led by sophomore Marty Turco, beat Colorado College in
             overtime. However, the WCHA got its revenge the following year when
             North Dakota, led by a freshman goaltender, captured the NCAA title. If
             the WCHA is to win the national title, it will require superior
             goaltending.

             First, North Dakota. Starting in goal with sophomore Karl Goehring.
             Finishing up front by seniors Adam Calder, Jeff Ulmer, Jay Panzer, Jesse
             Bull, and Jason Blake, among others, will provide plenty of goals to win
             most, if not all, of their games. The experience of the Sioux corps,
             experience at winning regular season games and playoff experience, will
             pay handsome dividends.

             Second, Colorado College. More firepower than Hades in Cam Kryway, Toby
             Peterson, K.J. Vorhees, Darren Clark, Scott Swanson and Brian Swanson.
             Scorers at forward, scorers at defense. I am not convinced about their
             defense ability or goatending (Zulianello is a sophomore), so second in
             the league is as high as I can go, though winning it all when it was not
             expected has been done by their coach before.

             Third, University of Minnesota-Duluth. If I had a nickel for every
             forecaster who has underrated this team, I’d be rich, but third is a
             simple accomplishment give Brent Nicklin in net -- the best goaltender
             in the league. Next year, with Nicklin, Shawn Progreba and Jeff Scissons
             being seniors, the Bulldogs could win the WCHA, but not this year.
              Fourth, University of Wisconsin. First, having Mike Valley in goal
             guarantees nothing but peaks for the Badgers. Senior defensemen Tim
             Rothering, Luke Gruden and Craig Anderson will make the Badger net
             slightly more impenetrable than the opponent’s net (the Badgers return
             very little on offense). But my respect for their coach, who brings an
             intangible to the Badgers that other teams cannot match, makes me place
             them above rather than below the following two teams.

             Fifth and sixth in no particular order is St. Cloud State and the
             University of Minnesota. Minnesota will play Jeckel and Hyde this
             season. They and Colorado College have the best offenses in the
             conference, and the Gophers have experienced snipers in Berg, Spehar,
             Anderson, Smith, and freshman Pohl. But, they also are loaded with
             freshmen. Freshmen in goal, on defense, and at forward. Given time these
             kids will mature into fine players, but the first set of series for
             Minnesota are against teams that finished above them last year (St.
             Cloud, Wisconsin, Colorado College, North Dakota, UM-Duluth) which will
             dig a deep hole for the Gophers to crawl out of. St. Cloud State has a
             similar problem in replacing Brian Leitza. There is a good returning
             nucleus in forwards Awada, Bailey, Goulet, and Noga; and on defense
             Parrish, McLaughlin, and Gaffney. But season success requires
             improvement and contribution by forwards Peter Torsson, Brandon Sampair,
             Mike Rucinski, and goalie Scott Meyer.

             Seventh to the bottom is not only too hard to exactly predict but also
             relatively unimportant -- except to those denizens of the conference's
             dungeon. Denver, Alaska-Anchorage, and Michigan Tech will again fail to
             win more games than they lose and fail to make it to the Target Center
             for the Final Five. However, neither team will be without its bright
             points, the problem being there are not very many of them. All three
             teams have excellent goaltending in David and Todd Weninger at Michigan
             Tech, Steven Wagner at Denver, and Doug Tesky at Alaska. But the scoring
             department is where all three teams come up very short. Outside of Eric
             Tuott at Alaska and Paul Comerie and Paul Veres at Denver, these teams
             will not be finding the back of the net very often.

             At the Target Center in Minneapolis I would expect to see North Dakota,
             Colorado College, Wisconsin, Minnesota-Duluth, and St. Cloud State. The
             playoff champion should be the same team as the regular season champion
             -- the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux.

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