THE Red Baron™ Wcha Final Five
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2008-09 WCHA MEN’S YEARBOOK THE RED BARON™ wCHA FINAL FIVE 17 2008-09 WCHA MEN’S YEARBOOK THE RED BARON™ wCHA FINAL FIVE RECORD EXPOSURE GENERATED FOR FINAL FIVE LIVE TELEVISION VIA FSN, LIVE RADIO BROADCASTS, LIVE INTERNET AUDIO & StATISTICS CREATE WORLD-WIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR FANS TO TAKE IN SHOWCASE EVENT Exposure of the annual Red Baron™ WCHA Final Five, through Fox Sports North, the league’s official web site (wcha.com), and ever-increasing media coverage, continues to reach new levels. Produced by the Minnesota Wild and the WCHA, television coverage of the Red Baron™ WCHA Final Five by Fox Sports North includes live national broadcasts of all five games, pre- game and post-game shows, and rinkside reporters. FSN reaches more than 3 million homes throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and North and South Dakota and telecasts nearly 2,600 hours of locally produced programming per year. The Emmy Award-winning regional sports network provides comprehensive coverage of the Minnesota Wild, Minnesota Twins , Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Timberwolves and Milwaukee Bucks, as well as University of Minnesota and University of Wisconsin athletic events. For more information, visit www.foxsports.com. For 10 straight seasons, the WCHA Final Five has also been audiocast live around the world via the league’s official web site – wcha.com. The broadcasts are handled by Jim Rich, the voice of the league’s radio show ‘This Week in the WCHA’, and Jack Swanson, station manager at KJ102 in Roseau, Minn., while Kevin Falness of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild serves as producer. AttENDANCE HISTORy • wCHA PLAYOFF CHAMPIONSHIP/FINAL FIVE FINAL FOUR FORMAT • 1988-92 Year Site Game 1 Game 2 Game 3 Game 4 Total/Avg Game 1988 St. Paul* 12,270 13,829 12,051 13,657 51,807/12,952 1989 St. Paul* 12,271 12,911 12,237 12,813 50,232/12,558 1990 St. Paul* 12,316 11,137 10,688 13,704 47,845/11,961 1991 St. Paul* 13,476 10,310 9,473 11,028 44,287/11,072 1992 St. Paul* 10,094 11,384 9,983 12,618 44,079/11,020 Final Four: 5 Years 60,427 59,571 54,432 63,820 238,250/11,913 FINAL FIVE FORMAT • 1993-CURRENT Year Site Game 1 Game 2 Game 3 Game 4 Game 5 Total/Avg Game 1993 St. Paul* 8,848 11,319 9,281 8,832 12,457 50,737/10,147 1994 Milwaukee# 12,139 12,381 12,150 12,004 12,693 61,367/12,273 1995 St. Paul* 15,464$ 9,719 10,571 9,188 10,966 55,908/11,182 1996 Milwaukee# 8,978 11,429 8,401 8,958 9,538 47,304/9,406 1997 St. Paul* 9,272 9,528 14,013 9,577 14,317 56,707/11,341 1998 Milwaukee# 6,438 6,306 9,452 6,345 10,166 38,707/7,741 1999 Minneapolis^ 10,128 6,066 11,311 6,276 8,445 42,226/8,445 2000 Minneapolis^ 12,234 8,397 11,520 7,129 10,437 49,717/9,943 2001 St. Paul+ 9,966 10,375 18,409 11,299 17,563 67,612/13,522 2002 St. Paul+ 13,103 12,438 18,523$ 12,961 18,126 75,151/15,030 2003 St. Paul+ 14,305 12,292 17,012 12,509 16,668 72,786/14,557 2004 St. Paul+ 14,123 15,022 19,208$ 14,905 19,306$ 82,564/16,513 2005 St. Paul+ 15,583 13,132 17,794 14,730 16,507 77,746/15,549 2006 St. Paul+ 16,312 16,468 19,353 16,134 19,282$ 87,579/17,516 2007 St. Paul+ 16,449 17,511 19,359$ 16,118 19,463$ 88,900/17,780 2008 St. Paul+ 19,232$ 16,768 16,967 15,981 17,907 86,855/17,371 2009 St. Paul+ 17,611 14,722 17,729 15,254 16,749 82,065/16,413 WCHA Final Five: 17 Years 220,185 203,873 251,053 198,200 250,590 1,123,931/13,223 WCHA Playoff Championship Attendance: 22 Years 1,362,181/12,973 * St. Paul Civic Center; # Bradley Center; ^ Target Center; + Xcel Energy Center; Attendance records in bold face; $sellout 18 2008-09 WCHA MEN’S YEARBOOK THE 2009-10 SEASON LEAGUE COACHES TAB DENVER AS WESTERN COLLEGIATE HOCKEY ASSOCIATION FAVORITE DEFENDING MACNAUGHTON CHAMPION NORTH DAKOTA SELECTED SECOND AS CONFERENCE MARKS 58TH SEASON OF COMPETITION; FIVE WCHA TEAMS APPEAR IN Pre-SEASON NATIONAL POLl … DU AT NO. 2, UM NO. 6, UND NO. 8, SCSU NO. 13, UW NO. 15 … UMD, CC RECEIVE VOTES; SCSU FORWARD RYAN LASCH, UM FORWARD JORDAN SCHROEDER ARE Pre-SEASON WCHA CO-PLAYERS OF THE YEAR; SCSU GOALTENDER MIKE LEE NAMED Pre-SEASON WCHA ROOKIE OF THE YEAR; 74 NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE DRAFT PICKS ON 2009-10 MEMBER TEAM ROSTERS; 2010 RED BARON™ wCHA FINAL FIVE SET FOR MARCH 18-20 AT XCEL ENERGY CENTER IN SAINT PAUL; MINNESOTA TO HOST 2010 NCAA WEST REGIONAL AT XCEL ENERGY CENTER; 2010 NCAA MEN’S FROZEN FOUR TO BE HELD APRIL 8-10 AT FORD FIELD IN DETROIT HEAD COACHES TAB DENVER AS MACNAUGHTON CUP FAVORITE IN ANNUAL GRAND FORKS HERALD WCHA POLL by Brad Elliott Schlossman, Grand Forks Herald Grand Forks, N.D. – The Western Collegiate Hockey Association coaches believe the roles will be reversed this year. Denver is the preseason pick to win the league in the 39th annual Grand Forks Herald WCHA preseason coaches poll. The Pioneers gained eight of 10 first-place votes to finish ahead of UND, Wisconsin, Minnesota and St. Cloud State in the poll. The Sioux received the other two first-place votes. “We were fortunate enough not to lose too many players, other than our senior class and Tyler Bozak,” Denver coach George Gwozdecky said. “We have a majority of our team from last year coming back. Once the season begins, who knows? I don’t know how many times the coaches poll has been accurate, but I’d be willing to wager, more times than not, they’ve been wrong. “The monkey is on our back this year.” Indeed, the coaches haven’t always been able to pick the winner. Only twice in the past eight years have they been right. Last season, projected winner Colorado College finished fourth. UND is the defending league champion, but it lost a nine-player senior class that included a former Hobey Baker Award winner. The Sioux have the largest freshman class (10) and smallest senior class (three) in the WCHA, so the second-place projection in the poll surprised coach Dave Hakstol a little bit. “We’re a team that has to answer a lot of questions,” Hakstol said. “We have a lot of players that quickly have to develop into some key roles. Chemistry is such a big factor in this game. We’re going to have to develop chemistry real quick within a team structure. “The league is going to be very good this year. As you look through the league, there are a lot of guys who have the potential to be premier players on the national scene.” Two of those players – St. Cloud State senior Ryan Lasch and Minnesota sophomore Jordan Schroeder – are the co-preseason players of the year as voted by the coaches. Both Lasch and Schroeder received three votes as player of the year. UND senior defenseman Chay Genoway received two votes, while Denver defenseman Patrick Wiercioch and Pioneer forward Rhett Rakhshani both got one vote. Mike Lee, who led Roseau to a Minnesota big-school state championship as a sophomore in 2007, is the WCHA’s preseason rookie of the year. Lee, expected to be the No. 1 goalie at St. Cloud State, received five of 10 first-place votes. Minnesota defenseman Nick Leddy and Minnesota Duluth defenseman Dylan Olsen each got two votes, while Denver defenseman Matt Donovan got one. NORTH DAKOTA COACH DAVE HAKSTOL GETS HIS OPPORTUNITY TO HOIST THE MACNAUGHTON CUP “I think the poll makes for some interesting talk, but that’s about it,” Gwozdecky said. “Our players will look at it and say, ‘OK.’ They don’t have any bearing on how we play this coming he 2009-10 campaign marks the 58th champion North Dakota, Wisconsin in third Sunday night, and they don’t have any bearing on the games thereafter. The poll is just where in the storied history of the Western place, Minnesota in fourth, St. Cloud State in everybody thinks people are when the season begins. Collegiate Hockey Association, with fifth, defending WCHA Final Five champion “We’ve got to play hard and take care of the little things. In this league, things are so difficult T and competitive. There’s such a fine line between success and failure. It’s usually not determined the league owning a record 36 national Minnesota Duluth in sixth, Minnesota State, championships. Mankato in seventh, Colorado College in by better talent, but how the talent plays together.” It will also mark the final season with a eighth, Alaska Anchorage in ninth and Michi- membership consisting of 10 teams, as both gan Tech in 10th. 39th Annual Grand Forks WCHA Coaches Pre-Season Poll Bemidji State University and the University of Following the various conference tourna- Rk Team (first place votes) Points Nebraska-Omaha come on board as the 11th ments, it’s on to the four NCAA Regionals for 1 Denver (8) 80 and 12th members for the 2010-11 season.