Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Haven't we seen this before?

Northern Michigan's Puckheads are busy trolling the Maverick nation in preparation for this weekend's 2nd round of the CCHA playoffs. Northern practically needs to clinch the Mason Cup to advance to the NCAA tournament, while College Hockey News feels UNO is a lock to get a bid at this point.

Thanks to the CCHA's tie-breaker mechanism, this series is in Marquette instead of Omaha. 4 week ago, UNO travelled to Northern Michigan and swept the Wildcats 2-1 then 8-3. The Puckheads point to their subsequent sweeps of Lake Superior State and Ohio State as evidence that the Wildcats have turned it around.

Only problem with that logic is that the Lakers and Buckeyes tanked down the stretch; the Lakers going winless in their last 7 (losing 6) and the Buckeyes losing 8 out of their last 10.

The Olympic sized ice at NMU is an advantage to UNO's high flying offensive players. Scott Parse, the nation's leading scorer, scored 4 points a month ago, and freshman Tomas Klempa is back in the lineup after missing the first series.

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