Lets get the West Region talk going. Anyone have insight from the various sub-regions in the West? Who’s up? Who’s down? Who may surprise this season?
I think these teams are a lock for Regionals or have a very good shot to get there
Williston State
NAU
Utah State
Northern Colorado
Denver
Grand Canyon
Weber State
Colorado State
Metro State
TCHC Auto Bid (most likely UTEP or Texas A&M)
These teams will be fighting it out for the final open spots
San Diego State
CSUN
San Jose State
Arizona State
Colorado
Boise State
I was able to watch Weber on Saturday night and agree they are a solid team. They are going to miss Fobair, who will miss the remainder of the season, from what I hear.
Pretty sure Dakota College at Bottineau is in the West this year. They should be a lock for regionals, with potential for an auto-bid. Colorado State also looks to be on a down year…they lost alot of guys and Denver took it to them last night 8-1.
Yes they are but first year teams aren’t eligible for the postseason. Yeah surprising result last night in that Denver game. CSU losing Jake Christofferson is huge for them.
Last year was considered a probation year for Dakota College to my knowledge, so I would be pretty surprised if they weren’t postseason eligible. Seems like a similar situation to Williston State from last year, who played their first full ACHA schedule and got the auto-bid to Nationals. But you may know something I don’t…
Ah, gotcha. You probably know better than me. Maybe someone can confirm or deny for us all. If they are eligible the other problem is currently they only have 12 games vs other D-2 West teams. I believe there is a new rule that to be eligible for Regionals you have to play at least 16 games vs teams in your own region.
Wondering why BYU has not been included here? 2-2 tie with Metro State last night.( 3-2 SO win). BYU stands a very good chance of not only making regionals but making some noise while they are there.
Yeah thats a tough blow but they have some solid players who can pick up the slack - gantt and eisenstat and christensen. goaltending is real solid too.
Are you guys talking about Brigham Young? …Wasn’t that impressed with what I’ve seen from them thus far. Maybe I’m crazy, not a BAD team, but I think it’s a bit early to say they do anything come playoff time. Small sample size (2 games) but from what I’ve seen, they have strong goaltending that’s kept them in games they had no business being in.
Hot starts thus far have been N. CO and N AZ. Those seem to be the teams to beat at this point. I know its early, but there are a lot of good teams with quality wins Friday and a poopy loss Saturday this season. Muddles the pool quite a bit…Interested in seeing first rankings.
Doober_2.0 this thread was about predicting what teams had a shot at regionals. BYU was ranked as high as 8 last season and ended ranked 12 and would of gone to regionals if not for the PAC-8 autobid garbage. they have a solid returning core of verteran players so they shoudl be in the discussion. not sure what game you think they shouldnt have been in. they were outshot by Metro, but it was only their first game of the sseason and metro already had liek 8 games. they beat metro in the shootout. then they killed Utah Valley as bad as either weber or USU had done. they lost to weber state last week by a goal, not counting the empty netter at less than a second left. shots were pretty much even. who knows if they’ll make any noise at regionals they should still be considered in talk about who is likely to make it there.
as for UNC and NAU, your right, they are really tearing it up.
All I am sayin’, is that BYU shouldn’t be happy with either of those performances if they are truly a top 10 team. Who cares about Utah Valley University, that’s a throw away to get the scratches/rookies ice time. BYU is 0-1-1 against teams who tie their own hockey skates.
Sidebar: shootouts are for the women and the children, not for the standings.
2nd Sidebar: Just to clarify, I’m rootin’ for BYU, you guys run a nice, clean, ship and did get jobbed last year.
Anybody have insight on Williston? They’ve had a slow start. I know 3 of their first 4 games have been against D-1 teams but that loss to Nebraska was surprising.