October 5, 2010

Zuzana Tomcikova and Bemidji State travel to Wisconsin for a two-game series this weekend

MADISON, Wis. – The 2010-11 Western Collegiate Hockey Association season opens this weekend with three of the women's league's nationally-ranked teams in action in key conference matchups.

Defending NCAA and conference champion Minnesota Duluth, ranked No. 1 in the national polls with 12 returning players and four players back from competing in the Winter Olympics last season, gets a big test when it travels to improved and No. 8-ranked North Dakota for games Friday (Oct. 8) night at 7:07 pm CT and Sunday afternoon at 2:07 pm CT. The Fighting Sioux, which features Olympians Monique Lamoureux-Kolls and her twin sister Jocelyne, gave notice they were for real last weekend by beating then No. 6 Boston University, 6-2, before 2,855 in the season opener at Grand Forks on Oct.2, but BU rallied the next day, scored three shorthanded goals and took a 6-2 victory.

Lamoureux-Kolls had a four-point game in UND's win and a five-point weekend. Lamoureux-Kolls had an assist in the game's first goal last Saturday, an assist on the third goal and scored the last-lead goal and game-winning goal at 16:08 of the second period and 4:20 of the third period respectively. She was +2 in the game and led the team with 13 shots on goal. Jocelyne had a goal in each game.

In the other WCHA series being contested Friday (Oct. 8) at 7:07 pm CT and Sunday (Oct. 10) at 2:07 pm CT, Bemidji State (1-1) visits No. 5-ranked Wisconsin (2-0). The Badgers defeated Rensselaer 7-0 and 6-0 last weekend at the Kohl Center in Madison as coach Mark Johnson returned behind the bench after a one-year sabbatical with the U.S. Women's Olympic Hockey Team. Hilary Knight, who played for Johnson in the Olympics and was the WCHA player of the year in 2009, returned to the Badgers and had a six-point weekend, including three goals in the series finale.

Bemidji State got a 26-save shutout from junior goalie Zuzana Tomcikova, the WCHA co-player of the year last season, and won at Wayne State 3-0 on Oct. 1, but the home team took the series finale on Oct. 2, 4-2. Emily Erickson had a four-point weekend or the Beavers.

Ohio State and Minnesota State open their respective 2010-11 regular seasons this weekend in a pair of non-conference series. The Buckeyes skate at Robert Morris on Friday (7:00 pm ET) and Saturday (2:00 pm ET) while the Mavericks Minnesota State entertain Niagara at 7:07 pm CT Friday and 3:07 pm CT Saturday at All Seasons Arena in Mankato.

St. Cloud State, standing 0-2 after losing two games to No. 2-ranked Mercyhurst last weekend in Erie, Pa., hosts Wayne State Friday evening at 7:07 pm CT at the National Hockey Center while No. 4-ranked Minnesota (2-0 after beating Clarkson twice in a rematch of last year's NCAA quarterfinal) entertains Wayne State Saturday afternoon (2:07 pm CT) at Ridder Arena. The Golden Gophers and Huskies also both play the Minnesota Whitecaps in exhibition games this weekend, with the Whitecaps at UM's Ridder Arena Friday night at 6:07 pm CT and then at St. Cloud State at 4:07 pm CT on Saturday afternoon.

The battle for the 2010-11 WCHA regular season championship will again consist of a 28-game schedule for each of the league's eight clubs, with each team playing the other seven four times – twice at home and twice on the road. The league schedule concludes Feb. 19.

Games for Friday, October 8: Minnesota Whitecaps at Minnesota (EX), 6:07 pm CT; Ohio State at Robert Morris (NC), 7:00 pm ET; Niagara at Minnesota State (NC), 7:07 pm CT; Wayne State at St. Cloud State (NC), 7:07 pm CT; Bemidji State at Wisconsin (WCHA), 7:07 pm CT; Minnesota Duluth at North Dakota (WCHA), 7:07 pm CT.

Games for Saturday, October 9: Ohio State at Robert Morris (NC), 2:00 pm ET; Wayne State at Minnesota (NC), 2:07 pm CT; Minnesota Whitecaps at St. Cloud State (EX), 4:07 pm CT; Niagara at Minnesota State (NC), 3:07 pm CT.

Games for Sunday, October 10: Bemidji State at Wisconsin (WCHA), 2:07 pm CT; Minnesota Duluth at North Dakota (WCHA), 2:07 pm CT.

Last Week in the WCHA

Results of Friday October 1
Bemidji State 3 at Wayne State 0 (NC)
St. Cloud State 1 at Mercyhurst 9 (NC)
Minnesota 5 at Clarkson 0 (NC)
Minnesota Whitecaps 3 at Minnesota Duluth 3 ot (EX)
Rensselaer 0 at Wisconsin 7 (NC)

Results of Saturday, October 2
Bemidji State 2 at Wayne State 4 (NC)
St. Cloud State 1 at Mercyhurst 6 (NC)
Boston University 4 at North Dakota 5 (NC)
Wilfrid Laurier 0 at Ohio State 2 (EX)
Minnesota 3 at Clarkson 0 (NC)
Minnesota Whitecaps 4 at Minnesota Duluth 6 (EX)
Rensselaer 0 at Wisconsin 6 (NC)

Results of Sunday, October 3
Boston University 6 at North Dakota 2 (NC)

The Western Collegiate Hockey Association will continue to use shootouts and implement a three-point system in women's league play, Associate Commissioner Sara Martin has announced.

In a change this year the WCHA has adopted a standings format for league play where a team that wins in regulation or overtime receives three points, a team that wins a shootout is awarded two points, a team that loses a shootout gets one point, and a team that loses in regulation or overtime earns no points.

The standings will show wins, losses, ties and shootout wins – W-L-T-SW (W-L-T add up to games played, the tie column signifies how many times a team has been to a shootout and the SW column represents how many shootouts a team has won.)

A team receives three points for winning a game in overtime (in regulation or overtime) and one point for an overtime tie. NCAA rules do not recognize shootout wins and for purposes to figure out a team's RPI, a game which ends tied after 65 minutes and prior to a shootut is recorded as a tie.

To reiterate the new WCHA women's league policy: Teams are awarded three points for each win in regulation or overtime, and one point for an overtime tie. Conference games tied after 65 minutes advance to a three-player shootout with the winning team receiving an extra point in the standings (denoted in the SW column).

The Western Collegiate Hockey Association's official website – WCHA.com – is all-new for 2010-11! The WCHA has teamed up with SportDesigns.com to provide visitors with a full-service experience that features a significant number of upgrades, including new game-day live scoreboards and fully-functional mobile pages, a host of new features, and an all-new on-line store – TheWCHAShop.com.

Included in the all-new WCHA.com are new game-day live scoreboards, fully functional mobile pages that include press releases, game stories, box scores, team and league stats and live game box scores, a more seemless integration of schedules, rosters, standings, live box scores, and statistics in conjunction with collegehockeystats.net, and a new 'campus news' section that features the latest press releases from both men's and women's member teams.

In addition, the upgrades include:

• Easy access to standings and statistics right from the home page.

• A Live Game Day Scoreboard – with links to live box scores that will appear on the home page on any day there is a game.

• A Live Mobile Scoreboard – box scores via www.wcha.com/mobile. This is a fully functional mobile website that also includes game stories, statistics, etc.

• Game story integration with game stories posted from all games to make the all-new WCHA.com a place fans want to visit more regularly. For example, on Saturday morning fans can read what happened in all Friday night games in one cohesive location.

• An Upgraded Standings Page – includes information on head-to-head records within the league.

• New Sortable Team Statistic Pages – can be sorted by category at the top of the table.

• A New WCHA Against the Rest Page – with records for each WCHA team against teams from other leagues.

• New WCHA-member team pages that feature direct links to each school's website, tickets, and audio and/or video broadcasts.

Some of the new technology employed in the design of the all-new TheWCHAShop.com are upgraded photo zooming on the product pages, the ability for people to share product pages through places like Facebook and Twitter for added exposure, new TheWCHAShop.com Gift Certificates, and a new checkout process upgraded to a one-page checkout to make it easier for customers to shop. Additionally, TheWCHAShop.com is developing a mobile commerce website to allow for purchases from Smart Phones.

As a 'work in progress', the all-new WCHA.com will continue to evolve over the coming months as we build and integrate the history of the men's and women's leagues into the archives. Also in future plans for the all-new WCHA.com are Individual Player Pages which would include current season statistics, year-by-year stats and game-by-game stats.