West Regional Preview and Picks

The West Regional will be held in Grand Forks, ND in the Ralph Engelstad Arena home of the North Dakota Fighting Sioux. This year the Sioux made the NCAA's so they get to play at the comfort of home rather than traveling.

This years version of the West Regional has three national powers, Michigan, Minnesota, and of course North Dakota. Minnesota is the one seed, but they were reward if they win, a road game basically if North Dakota can beat Michigan.

The other team in this region is Holy Cross. Last year Mercyhurst gave Boston College all they could handle, can their conference mate do the same thing to Minnesota?

Here is the breakdown of each team in this region.

#1 Minnesota- The Gophers were 13-0-1 in their previous 14 games prior to the WCHA semi-finals. A tough loss against St. Cloud State in overtime put them in the consolation game with Wisconsin and that did not go well either. The Gophers have many weapons with seven players scoring 10 or more goals, and lets not forget they have the leading goal scorer in the country in Junior Foward Ryan Poltuny who has 38 goals on the season. Lets not forget about Freshman Phenom Phil Kessel either who has 50 points on the year. Goaltending wise Kellen Briggs is solid, but he will have to forget about giving up 12 goals in his last two games including 8 against St. Cloud State. The question is which Gopher team will show up? If its the team who was unbeaten in the stretch run then they should make the Frozen Four, if it is the team who struggled in their last two games than it will be a dog fight till the end.

#2 North Dakota- Around this time of year is when the Fighting Sioux start to turn it on. They proved that last year when they beat Boston University and Boston College to make the Frozen Four in Worcester. Like mentioned earlier this is basically a home game for North Dakota as they host this region. 2nd year Head Coach Dave Hakstol has done a great job replacing Dean Blais which is not easy to do. Goaltender Jordan Parise again comes in as one of the top goaltenders in the country. Drew Stafford and T.J. Oshie lead a balanced attack on the Offense. The Sioux are playing in the comfort of home. Will that be an advantage to them? Hold on tight they should be exciting to watch.

#3 Michigan- This year was a rollercoaster ride for the Wolverines. They finished the season 21-14-5 and are 4-4 in their last eight games. T.J. Hensick is the leading scorer on the team. He has been the most dangerous threat to any team the past couple of seasons. Defensively the Wolverines struggled as they gave up nearly 3 goals a game. Goaltending is also an issue as the Wolverines had to replace Al Montoya and they had a difficult time doing that this season. Can the Wolverines pull of the upset of host North Dakota? I think they will need to play mistake free hockey to do so.

#4 Holy Cross- One of two regular season and tournament champions in the tournament, the Crusaders come in looking to pull off a huge upset. Goaltender Tony Quesada is capable of helping this team do that as this year he won 21 games and only lost five with two ties. Tyler McGregor is the leading scorer and the Crusaders will look upon him to lead this team if they have any hope of an upset.

So now you know the teams and it is time to pick the West.

Minnesota over Holy Cross
North Dakota over Michigan

Regional Final:

North Dakota over Minnesota

Tommorrow the final region will be brokedown as the Northeast regional will be mentioned.