Weekly Preview 2 Monsters collide in Madison

Two of the biggest names in college hockey will collide in Madison, WI as the Wisconsin Badgers host the North Dakota Fighting Sioux for two at the Kohl Center.

Tonight will be banner night as the Badgers will hoist their National Championship banner from last season. The Badgers will come in after a win and a tie against Northern Michigan, while the Fighting Sioux have momentum as well as they are coming in sweeping Quinnipiac last week at Grand Forks.

With big names such as Toews and Parise for North Dakota, and Elliott and Dowell for Wisconsin, it might be someone else who comes out with a big series this weekend. Just look at last weeks WCHA rookie of the week Michael Davies. In the first game against Northern Michigan, he scored two goals. Sophomore Tom Gorowsky, and Junior Matthew Ford each had three assists in the series.

When you think of the 2006-2007 North Dakota squad, the two names that come up the most often is Jonathan Toews and T.J. Oshie last years leading Freshman goal scorer. North Dakota has a Freshman of their own in Darcy Zajac who scored two goals against Quinnipiac on opening night. Also watch out for Sophomore Ryan Duncan, he could be a big factor in this series outcome.

In terms of goaltending, it is going to be a good matchup between North Dakota's Phillipe Lamoureux and Wisconsin's Brian Elliott. Elliott, a Hobey Baker finalist last season, started off strong with a shutout on opening night against Northern Michigan as he stopped all 23 Wildcat shots on goal. Lamoureux, who is replacing the departed Jordan Parise, stopped 46 out of 49 Quinnipiac shots on goal over the weekend in the sweep.

I do not know what to expect from these two teams. While they can both put up quite a few goals on the board, these two teams can also play a defensive game. Should be interesting.

Other games this weekend include:

Michigan State opens up this weekend as the Spartans play a home and home with Western Michigan.

Denver is put up with another tough task as they go to St. Cloud for two against St. Cloud State.

Clarkson travels to New England as they go to Providence tonight to face the Friars, and Amherst tommorrow to face UMASS-Amherst.

And Maine will look to keep the momentum going after defeating Minnesota as the Black Bears host the CHA favorite Bemidji State for two in Orono.

Exciting weekend in college hockey, so get ready college hockey fans it should be filled with great early season games.