There were no game threes in the WCHA quarterfinals. All the top seeds won and by a cumulative score of 32-6. There were just two games decided by a goal.

These four were all pretty close during the regular season. No one swept anyone in points  and everyone tagged everyone else with at least a tie except for Minnesota Duluth who lost all four to Minnesota, one in overtime.

Games are Friday, March 3rd

#1 Ohio State vs. #4 Minnesota Duluth

This is probably one of the closer 1 vs. 4 matchups that you’ll ever see with all four games decided by a single goal. Ohio State did get the better of UMD on shots by a bit, and on special teams by a lot.

Keys

Ohio State – Better 5 on 5 play. Taking out things that happened is silly, but it’s also a little concerning that OSU at best would have split this series without dominating on the power play.

Minnesota Duluth – Don’t let special teams ruin your day. With whistle-averse WCHA refs there’s a good change UMD can avoid this by simply not playing on them very much.

Prediction

OSU 3-0

#2 Minnesota vs. #3 Wisconsin

It’s a bit of a yikes that Minnesota couldn’t notch a single win against their interstate rivals. It’s even worse that the second series came late in the season at home with Minnesota needing key points to stay ahead of Ohio State. That series cost them the conference.

Keys

Minnesota – You ever want to start shaking a team yelling “you’re the better team here, act like it!”? I’d say score first, which they did not do in the first three games, but did in the fourth game going up 2-0 before letting Wisconsin score the next 4.

Wisconsin – Score first. Given how the season series played out if Wisconsin can continue the trend early they might get in the Gophers’ heads a bit.

Prediction

Minnesota 4-2