2009-10 wcha men’s yearbook
wcha history
MichigaN Tech and Colorado College
go Head-to-Head in 1960’s Western
Collegiate Hockey Association action
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2009-10 wcha men’s yearbook
the western collegiate hockey association story
celebrating 57 years of history, tradition & success
the first 50 years
by John Gilbert
A
look back through the history of the Western
Collegiate Hockey Association is filled with
spectacular achievements and stunning
surprises. It is a league that produced so many
highlights that it took 51 years for the WCHA to
celebrate its first 50 years.
The answer to that trivia quiz-level puzzle is that
the league didn’t play as a league for the 1958-59
season, so it took 51 years to play 50 seasons. And, the
WCHA celebrated its 50th anniversary throughout
the 2002-03 season, which was the 50th year since the
original Midwest Collegiate Hockey League was first
transformed into the Western Intercollegiate Hockey
League (WIHL) and then re-named the WCHA.
Confusing? Maybe. Dominant? Definitely.
There have been national collegiate hockey
championship tournaments since 1948, when Michigan beat Dartmouth for the title at Colorado Springs.
The first 10 national tournaments were held at the
figure-skating arena adjacent to the Broadmoor Hotel
in Colorado Springs, Colo., a wide but short rink that
became legendary as the Broadmoor World Arena.
Michigan took third and Colorado College fourth in
1949, with Colorado College winning the national
title in 1950, and Michigan regaining the throne in
1951.
Officially, the WCHA goes back to the fall of 1951,
when Michigan coach Vic Heyliger coaxed his peers
into organizing something called the Midwest Collegiate Hockey League. Michigan, Michigan State,
Michigan Tech, Minnesota, North Dakota, Denver
and Colorado College were the original entrants.
So in the annals of national championships, charter
members Michigan actually had two and CC one
before the league even began.
In those days, the Midwest Collegiate league was
filled with colorful characters. Colorado College won
the first league title with a 10-2 record under coach
Cheddy Thompson, while Denver and Michigan
tied for second at 9-3. But Michigan, which was 22-4
overall, went on to win its second of three consecutive
national titles by beating CC in the final,right there
on the Tigers home ice at the Broadmoor.
Colorado College forwards Tony Frasca, league
scoring champion Ron Hartwell (40-27–67) and
Omer Brandt swept the leagueπs first all-star spots,
and were joined by Tigers goalie Ken Kinsley, while
Denver defensemen Eddie Miller and Don Burgess
filled out the first team. Lurking on the second team,
however, was a freshman at Minnesota named John
Mayasich, a legendary scorer from Eveleth High
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Minnesota legend john mayasich in 1950’s wcha action against michigan state
School, who was just starting to carve out a Hall-ofFame college career with the Gophers by scoring 32
goals and assisting on 30 more for 32-30–62 rookie
points, in a 13-13 season.
Mayasich led the Gophers to the second conference title in 1952-53, with a 10-game winning
streak that earned a 16-4 record (22-5 overall). The
legendary John Mariucci replaced Doc Romnes to
coach his first season that year, and while Mayasich
scored an improbable 42-36–78 to top league scorers, teammate Jim Mattson also was the top goalie
with a 2.36 goals-against average and a .910 saves
percentage. Michigan, however, under the redoubtable Heyliger, captured the national title for the third
straight time and fourth in the event’s first six years
by beating Minnesota 7-3 in the NCAA final.
For Year Three in 1953-54, the fledgling league
changed its name to the Western Intercollegiate
Hockey League (WIHL), and Minnesota won the
title again, with a 16-3-1 record (22-5-1 overall), as
Mayasich won his second straight league scoring
title with 29-49–78, matching his sophomore points.
Again, however, the Gophers came up short in the
national tournament, this time beating Boston
College 14-1 in the semifinals, only to lose 5-4 in
overtime to RPI in the 1954 title match.
As a senior in 1954-55, Mayasich scored 41-39–80
for his third straight league scoring title, giving him
a four-year total of 144 goals, 154 assists and 298
points, a mark that still stands in the Gopher record
books. But winning league and national titles were
elusive for Minnesota, and Colorado College returned
to the league pinnacle in 1955, although the Tigers
again lost to Michigan, 5-3, in the national championship.
Michigan followed up by winning both the league
and national crowns in 1955-56, with Michigan Tech
the runner-up in both. The Wolverines outgunned
Tech 7-5 for the title, after depending all season on
the stout goaltending of Lorne Howes, who had a1.90
goals-against mark in 22 games. John Andrews of CC
won the league scoring title with 27-25–52, edging
North Dakota’s Bill Reichart and Tech’s Jack McManus
by one point.
Nobody had a knockout punch like Mayasich,
but Colorado College countered with a “Haymaker,”
of its own, as Bill Hay supplanted Mayasich as the
most prolific league scorer. Hay led CC to the league
title in 1956-57 for the second time in three years,
but this time they also tacked on the NCAA crown,
overrunning Michigan 13-6 in the title game. Reichart
(24-16–40) beat teammate Jim Ridley and Hay for the
league scoring title.
Hay led the WIHL in scoring the next year, in
1957-58, with 16-32–48, but North Dakota, behind
Bob Peabody’s league-leading goalie play, won the
league. Coach Murray Armstrong’s Denver outfit
rose from third place to sting the Sioux 6-2 in the
NCAA final, as the tournament left what had been
its only home at the Broadmoor for Williams Arena
in Minneapolis.
Difficult as it is to believe, hockey types sometimes
disagree, and hassles within the elite seven-team
WIHL led to the league disbanding for the 1958-59
below: WCHA action between north dakota
and minnesota in the early 1950’s.
2009-10 wcha men’s yearbook
history of the wcha
vic heyliger
john matchefts
bill steenson
al renfrew
reg morelli
murray armstrong
Colorado College won the wcha championship in 1952 and 1957 and the ncaa crown in 1957.
season, only to reform as the Western Collegiate
Hockey Association one year later. Meantime, league
cohesiveness or not, the West prevailed nationally
regardless, as North Dakota went to the NCAA tournament in Troy, N.Y., and beat Michigan State 4-3 in
overtime in the 1959 title game.
Armstrong’s Denver dynasty took command
when the WCHA played its first official season in
1959-60, the Pioneers winning both the league and
NCAA titles behind Bill Masterton’s scoring, Marty
Howe’s defense and George Kirkwood’s goaltending.
Michigan Tech and North Dakota were the closest
challengers, and Tech battled the Pioneers to the
national finals before yielding 5-3 at Matthews Arena
in Boston. Masterton, who won the league scoring
title at 17-27–44, helped Denver post a 27-4-3 overall
record.
Masterton returned for the 1960-61 term, on what
some veteran observers claimed was the greatest
Denver team ever. The league scoring title went to
Denver’s Jerry Walker (29-15–44), while Howe joined
teammate George Konik to the All-WCHA team.
Needless to say, Denver dominated the WCHA, and
bolstered its 17-1 league record with a second straight
NCAA title, winning a home-ice 12-2 rout over St.
Lawrence in the 1961 final, to finish a magnificent
30-1-1.
Denver also won the league crown in 1962-63, and
came back for more later in the decade, but competition from within the league was catching up to the
Pioneers. John MacInnes lured a goaltender named
Garry Bauman to Houghton, where Lou Angotti and
a herd of other blue-chippers made Michigan Tech a
major threat. Michigan had Gordon ‘Red’ Berenson
and later Gordon Wilkie and Gary Butler, while Minnesota followed the Ken Yackel era with a defenseman
named Lou Nanne, who led the league in scoring.
Bauman was All-WCHA goalie for three straight
seasons, beginning in 1961-62 when the Huskies
made old Dee Stadium on Houghton’s riverfront rock
with a 17-3 championship ledger, and a 29-3 overall
mark. Michigan finished 15-3 (22-5 overall) behind
Berenson’s 24-17–41 scoring title. The NCAA final four
– a term commonly used for hockey in those years
– was in Utica, N.Y., but the West inflicted its usual
superiority. Tech beat St. Lawrence 6-1, although
freshmen from the virtual professional breeding
ground of Canadian junior hockey was dominating
U.S. college teams comprised of high school graduates who come to college at age 18. Mariucci stressed
that the trend precluded the development of U.S.
talent. For his efforts, Mariucci is widely credited for
disrupting the WCHA by refusing to play Denver’s
Canadian-filled club. Privately, though, John gave
full attribution for that move to Minnesota athletic
director Marsh Ryman, who ultimately decreed that
Minnesota would not schedule Denver.
So the league sputtered along on a percentage
basis instead of points because of an imbalance of
games, with some entrants refusing to play others.
In the 1962-63
season, Denver (12-6-0) and North Dakota (11-5-2)
shared rights to the MacNaughton Cup, and the
Fighting Sioux settled the matter where it mattered
most, by beating Denver in the NCAA final. Denver
beat North Dakota 5-4 in overtime for the WCHA
playoff crown, but North Dakota reversed it to win
the national title 6-5 in Boston. Minnesota came in
fourth at 10-7-3 behind Tech as Nanne (9-23–32)
became the first defenseman to ever lead the league
in scoring. Nanne was a rare Minnesota recruit from
Canada, and Mariucci, who also had brought in Murray Williamson, a Canadian who gained All-American
honors, said he always tried to have a Canadian on
Clarkson edged Michigan 5-4 in the other semifinal.
No problem. Tech demolished Clarkson 7-1 in the
final, while Michigan whipped St. Lawrence 5-1 for
third place.
The WCHA survived some heavy-duty controversy in the ’60s. Minnesota Coach and Godfather John
Mariucci fought to establish new ground-rules for
the advancement of U.S. hockey players by seeking
to prevent college teams from recruiting their usual
streams of over-age Canadian players. Routinely
brought in after playing Canadian junior hockey
through age 20, it was obvious that the 21-year-old
above left: a game program for the colorado college vs minnesota tilt in 1958. Above right:
Colorado College coach tony frasca. right: Denver’s george konick, marty howe and bill
masterton with the wcha’s macnaughton cup.
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2009-10 wcha men’s yearbook
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lou angotti
red berenson
keith magnuson
MICHIGAN TECH’S NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM OF 1964-65. THE HUSKIES WENT 24-5-2 OVERALL.
tony esposito
john macinnes
the roster, “just to prove I don’t discriminate.”
The University of Michigan moved back on
top of the conference at 12-2-0 in 1963-64, while
Denver finished second at 7-2-1. Denver beat the
Wolverines 6-2 in a showdown in Ann Arbor to win
the MacNaughton Cup as league playoff champ,
but Michigan coach Al Renfrew gained revenge on
Armstrong by beating DU 6-3 in the NCAA final on
the Pioneers’ home ice, in Denver.
At Michigan Tech, MacInnes, a former goaltender,
followed up the career of Bauman with a pair of aces,
recruiting the exceptional duo of Tony Esposito and
Rick Best. Esposito went on to great fame in the
National Hockey League, but in college, Best was
equally as good, and the two alternated. Bauman had
been All-American in 1963 and 1964, Esposito was
All-American in 1965 and 1966, with Best claiming
that award in 1967. The Best/Esposito tandem led
the Huskies to second place (12-5-1) behind North
Dakota (13-3) in 1964-65. North Dakota had Don
Ross and Gerry Kell leading the way, but Tech beat
the Fighting Sioux in the league playoff final and
went on to prevail for the national title, whipping
Boston College 8-2 in the final at Providence, R.I. to
ron grahame
In 1966-67, North Dakota beat Denver, Michigan
Tech and Michigan for the conference title, but Minnesota-Duluth’s pint-sized Keith“Huffer”Christiansen
stole the spotlight, winning the league scoring title
with 15-31–46. Bruce McLeod, who would go on to
one day become WCHA commissioner, was runner-up
to his stocky linemate with 18-16–34. UMD played in
the short bandbox rink above the Duluth Curling Club
in its first WCHA year, but moved into the sparkling
new Duluth Arena. Christiansen christened the new
harborside facility in UMD’s first WCHA game there,
recording a school-record six assists in an 8-1 drub-
finish 24-5-2. Michigan’s Mel Wakabayashi won the
scoring title at 13-17–30, and Minnesota had a center
named Doug Woog.
The 1965-66 season was pivotal for several
reasons. For one, the WCHA let the University of
Minnesota-Duluth come into the league as its eighth
team. The league race was won by Michigan Tech,
which went 15-4-1 as Esposito recorded a .932 save
percentage. North Dakota, which added super-centers Dennis Hextall and Terry Casey, tied Minnesota
for second place. Doug Volmar of Michigan State won
the scoring title, although the Spartans finished 9-11
and in sixth place. Then Michigan State established
a standard for late-blooming teams by rising up
at playoff time to win 3-2 at Michigan and 4-3 at
Michigan Tech to reach the Final Four in Minneapolis.
Incredibly, the Spartans surprised Boston University
2-1 in the semifinals, then, after Clarkson beat Denver
4-3, Michigan State shocked Clarkson 6-1 to win the
NCAA tournament. The title for coach Amo Bessone
also left the all-NCAA tournament team wearing
green, as goaltender Gaye Cooley, defenseman
Don Heaphy, and forwards Mike Coppo and Brian
McAndrew earned spots.
NORTH DAKOTA’S 1959 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP AS HEADLINED IN THE GRAND FORKS HERALD.
Red Berenson was the WCHA’S MOST VALUABLE PLAYER IN 1962, WAS A TWO-TIME ALL-AMERICAN, AND
IS ONE OF THE LEAGUE’S TOP 50 PLAYERS IN 50 YEARS.
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bing of archrival Minnesota.
It took more than spectacular scoring to win
the WCHA in 1996-97, however, as North Dakota
won the league crown behind goaltender Mike
“Lefty” Curran at 16-6 in 1966-67. However, at the
NCAA tournament in Syracuse, N.Y., that year, the
unthinkable happened: The West was shut out of
the championship game for the first time. Cornell
beat North Dakota 1-0 and Boston University beat
Michigan State 4-2, then Cornell beat BU 4-1 for the
title.
Denver returned things to normal in 1967-68,
winning the league title at 15-3 and the NCAA title
by beating North Dakota in an all-Western final at the
Duluth Arena. The 4-0 championship victory meant
Denver, after starting the season 6-5-1, finished the
season with an incredible 22-game winning streak.
Goalie Gerry Powers (1.78 goals-against, .930 save
percentage) led Denver to its 28-5-1 overall record,
supported by defenseman Keith Magnuson, and
forwards such as Cliff Koroll and Craig Patrick.
Minnesota’s Bill Klatt (18-12–30) won the scoring title
and made an impressive tandem with Gary Gambucci
(7-22–29), while Bob Munro, Terry Abram and goalie
Curran starred in North Dakota’s “Barn.”
Denver (14-6) lost the narrowest of league races
to Michigan Tech (14-5-1) for the 1968-69 title, and
both teams advanced to the final four. Back at the
aging Broadmoor, but with speedster George Morrison leading the way, Denver crushed Harvard 9-2
and won the NCAA crown by beating Cornell 4-3 in
the final.
The decade of the 1970s arrived, and again the
look of college hockey and the WCHA changed
forevermore. Minnesota, under coach Glen Sonmor,
made its move to become a solid annual contender
by playing virtually an entire homestate roster, while
“Badger Bob” Johnson turned the new University of
Wisconsin Division I program into a national power.
Those two emerging contenders became the most
ferocious rivals of the next two decades.
In the 1969-70 season, Minnesota was led by
prize goaltender Murray McLachlan and a dashing
freshman centerman named Mike Antonovich, plus
another freshman center named Dean Blais, and
shocked the league to claim the first Golden Gophers
title since 1954 with a school-record-setting 18-8-0
league mark (20-12 overall). Thirteen times that
season, Minnesota rallied from being tied or behind
in the third period to win, beating out traditional
powerhouse teams from Denver and Michigan Tech.
But Tech and Wisconsin, which had finished 12-10-0
for a very solid fourth place in its first league season,
won regional verdicts to advance to the NCAA Final
Four. Both lost, however, in the semifinals, and Cornell
beat Clarkson 6-4 for the title in Lake Placid.
Michigan Tech (18-4) topped Denver and Wisconsin for the 1970-71 title, but again the playoffs
proved surprising. This time, sophomore Antonovich
led Minnesota from a 9-12-1 fifth-place WCHA ledger
through a string of upsets, defeating Wisconsin and
North Dakota in the Madison regional, to reach the
NCAA final four. At Syracuse, the Golden Gophers
came from behind with three late goals to tie, and
ambushed Harvard 6-5 in an overtime semifinal, but
the Gopher quest for Minnesota’s first national title
fell 4-2 to Boston University in the final. It was the
first of two straight titles for BU.
In 1971-72, Notre Dame became the 10th WCHA
entry. Denver won the league at19-9, Wisconsin was
one game back at 20-8, and North Dakota was third.
A tiny Colorado College center named Doug Palazzari
scored 27-30–57 to win the scoring race. In the NCAA
tournament at Boston Garden, Wisconsin wound
up beating Denver 5-2, but it was in the third-place
game, while Boston University beat Cornell 4-0 in the
final. For the first time, the WCHA failed to win the
crown for three straight years. Minnesota’s fortunes
had nosedived in 1971-72, with Sonmor leaving
in midseason to organize the Minnesota Fighting
Saints in the old World Hockey Association, and he
took Antonovich with him. Ken Yackel took over as
interim coach until he convinced athletic director
Paul Giel to entrust the Gopher program to a bright,
young coach named Herb Brooks.
Brooks took over in the fall of 1972, and the rest
of the decade was a dreamscape for long-suffering
Gopher fans. Brooks guided the program to fulfill
Mariucci’s all-Minnesota dream, zooming from last
place into contention in his first season, then winning
Minnesota’s first two NCAA championships the next
three years, while finishing as NCAA runner-up in
the year between those two titles. In all, Brooks led
NORTH DAKOTA CAPTURED THE PROGRAM’S SECOND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE IN 1963 UNDER COACH BARRY THORNDYCRAFT.
Minnesota to three NCAA championships in a six-year
span, as the enormous rivalry between Minnesota,
with Brooks, and Wisconsin, under Johnson, grew
ever hotter, with both schools taking turns outdoing
the other.
In 1972-73, Denver (20-8) beat Notre Dame (19-9)
for the conference championship, with Eddie Bumbacco of the Fighting Irish winning the scoring title
at 31-34–65 for Lefty Smith. But Wisconsin, a close
third at 18-9-1, got hot behind tourney most-valuable-player Dean Talafous and stormed to the NCAA
crown with a 4-2 victory in Boston over a Denver
powerhouse that included goalie Ron Grahame and
forward Peter McNab. Wisconsin wound up 29-9-2.
In 1973-74, Michigan Tech won the league title
at 20-6-2, but Minnesota, which finished a distant
second at 14-9-5, had league-leading goaltender
Brad Shelstad and a feisty centerman in Mike Polich,
and Brooks worked his first coaching magic to beat
Michigan and Denver in total-goal series to gain a
spot in the final four in Boston Garden. The Gophers
seemed to be fading in the face of a closing rally
by Boston University in the semifinals until Polich’s
dramatic shorthanded goal let the Gophers gain a
5-4 triumph. And Minnesota beat league-champ
Michigan Tech 4-2 for the school’s first NCAA hockey
title.
A year later, Minnesota won the WCHA title at
24-8, setting school records for league wins with a
31-10-1 overall mark. But Tech, second at 22-10 (32-10
overall), returned the favor and thrashed the Gophers
6-1 in the 1975 NCAA final at St. Louis. Michigan
State’s Tom Ross (32-48–80) supplanted teammate
Steve Colp for the league scoring title, while Brooks
convinced Larry Thayer to leave his job as Zamboni
driver at Edina’s Braemar Arena, come out for the
team, and tend goal. Thayer led the league with a
2.50 goals-against in 16 games.
In 1975-76, Minnesota and Michigan Tech did one
more post-season pirouette. Tech won the WCHA
title at 25-7-0, which broke the league record again,
and was 34-9 overall. Michigan State was second
with its explosive line of Steve Colp-Tom Ross-Daryl
Rice, and Minnesota took third. The WCHA playoffs
played down to two winners in those days, with both
advancing to the NCAA Final Four, and after winning
first-round sets, Minnesota and Michigan State
collided at East Lansing for a two-game, total-goal
series. They tied 2-2 in the first game, and they tied
6-6 on a Sunday afternoon in the second game, then
they played on … and on. Finally, Minnesota won
7-6 in the third overtime, missing its flight home but
gaining a spot in the NCAA tournament in Denver. In
the semifinals, the Gophers stung Boston University
4-2 in a game that featured a brawl near the Minnesota bench. Then the aroused Gophers upended
the Michigan Tech Huskies 6-4 behind tournament
MVP Tom Vannelli.
The WCHA was filled with great players in that
season. Michigan Tech had Mike Zuke (34-39–73) and
UNDER COACH MURRAY ARMSTRONG (FAR LEFT, MIDDLE ROW), THE DENVER PIONEERS WON NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS IN 1958, 1960, 1961, 1968 AND 1969.
PICTURED HERE IS THE 1969 NCAA TITLE TEAM.
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minnesota won three national championships in the 1970s under coach herb brooks. pictured here is UM’s 1976 NCAA Championship team.
George Lyle (38-33–71), among others. The Gophers
had future NHLers Tom Younghans, Reed Larson, Russ
Anderson and Warren Miller. Michigan State had the
league’s 1-2 scorers in Ross at 41-42–83 and Colp at
33-48–81, with Rice chipping in 19-46–65. Colp had
led the league in 1973-74 at 31-41–72; Ross upped
the ante to a league-best 32-48–80 in 1974-75; then
Ross put it out of reach at 41-42–83 in 1975-76.
Meanwhile, in Madison, Badger Bob’s Badgers
were mobilized for a frontal assault, and in 1976-77
the Badgers went 26-5-1 to win the WCHA by 12
points over Notre Dame. The Badgers swept three
two-game playoff sets to reach the NCAA tournament
in Detroit, where they beat New Hampshire 4-3 in
overtime in the semis and Michigan 6-5 in an overtime
final. Wisconsin goalie Julian Baretta, defenseman
Craig Norwich, and forwards Mike Eaves and Mark
Johnson led the way, although Michigan’s Dave Debol
won league scoring honors at 34-37–71.
The next season, Wisconsin coach Johnson said
he learned never to plan a celebration too soon. The
league gave out four points per game in WCHA-style
inflation, and the Badgers led second place Denver
by seven points going into the eight-point final series
of 1977-78. Denver swept both games in Madison
to wind up 27-5-0, one point ahead of the Badgers
(21-9-2). The league scoring race wound up a tie
michigan state’s high-scoring tom ross is the
wcha’s career scoring leader with 324 points
scored from 1973-76.
Colorado College players doug palazzari (left) and steve sertich (middle) pictured with art
berglund (right), a former tiger player who led USA Hockey’s international program
102
between power-playmates Mark Johnson, the coach’s
kid, at 39-31–70, and Eaves at 25-45–70. Meanwhile,
Colorado College upset Denver in league playoffs,
and only Wisconsin represented the WCHA at the
Final Four, losing 5-2 to Boston University. BU went
on to beat Boston College 5-3 in the first all-Boston
final.
Amid all those glittering WCHA seasons, if one had
to be picked where talent was absolutely the best, it
was 1978-79. North Dakota had David Christian, Kevin
Maxwell, Mark Taylor, Howard Walker, Phil Sykes, Marc
Chorney, Cary Eades and goaltender Bob Iwabuchi,
and went to Minnesota for the final weekend of the
season against a Gopher team that included Neal
Broten, Rob McClanahan, Steve Christoff, Eric Strobel, Phil Verchota, defensemen Bill Baker and Mike
Ramsey, and goaltender Steve Janaszak. The Gophers
won 5-2 to move to within one point of the Sioux for
first place, but North Dakota won on the final night,
with Christian getting his team’s last two goals in a
4-2 victory, to finish 22-10-0 to Minnesota’s 20-11-1.
UMD was third at 18-10-4, and Gus Hendrickson’s
Bulldogs included Mark Pavelich, John Harrington
and defenseman Curt Giles. Wisconsin was fourth
at 19-11-2, with Mark Johnson and defenseman
Bob Suter in the forefront. Colorado College was
not a contender, but CC’s Dave Delich (25-45–70)
won the scoring title.
After both Minnesota and North Dakota made it
through the league playoffs to reach the final four in
Detroit’s Olympia, the Gophers beat New Hampshire
4-3 while the Fighting Sioux beat Dartmouth 4-2. In
the final, freshman Neal Broten hurtled through the
air to stab a chip-shot up and over Sioux goaltender
Iwabuchi, who had come out to challenge. That
proved to be the game-winner as Minnesota gave
Brooks a 4-3 conquest of Gino Gasparini’s North
Dakota outfit, his third NCAA crown in six years of
what was only a seven-year tenure.
The next year was 1979-80, and Brooks took
those eight Gophers, plus Mark Johnson, Suter,
Harrington, Pavelich and Christian, with him. Those
13 WCHA representatives went off to Lake Placid,
N.Y., to slay the Soviet Union’s dragon and go on to
win the Olympic gold medal in the most incredible
sports story in U.S. history.
Back in the WCHA, North Dakota (21-6-1) won the
1979-80 league and NCAA titles, although Minnesota
was a surprising second in WCHA play, without five
underclassmen who were with the Olympic team,
and with former assistant Brad Buetow at the interim
helm. The Gophers still had Tim Harrer, who set a
Gopher record by winning the scoring race with 45
goals (45-24–69), plus Don Micheletti, Steve Ulseth
and freshman Aaron Broten, Neal’s brother. In the
playoffs, the NCAA granted newcomer Northern
Michigan a slot as the third West seed – essentially
the fifth team in the Final Four. The Wildcats had
to play a one-game showdown at Minnesota, and
won a controversial 4-3 overtime decision after a
regulation bullet from center ice by Aaron Broten
tore through the upper right corner netting, hitting
the plexiglass with such velocity that the referee
decided that it couldn’t have gone through the net.
Television videotape later confirmed the frustration
that left the Gophers at home, with the goal that
would have won it in regulation being disallowed.
North Dakota beat Dartmouth 4-1 in the semis and
smacked Northern Michigan 5-2 in the title game at
Providence.
Wisconsin got the name “Back-Door” Badgers for
the 1980-81 season, when they finished second to a
Minnesota team that appeared dominant. Enough of
Aaron Broten’s goals and assists were counted that
season to let him break the ancient scoring record of
Johnny Mayasich, notching an incredible 106 points
with 47 goals and 59 assists. League MVP Ulseth
won the WCHA scoring title at 28-35–63, and scored
41-52–93 overall to take second in team scoring to
Aaron Broten, while Butsy Erickson added 39-47–86.
Neal Broten, who returned from the Miracle on Ice
U.S. Olympic team to play another year with brother
Aaron for the Gophers, finished seventh on the
team scoring sheet at 17-54–71. That was the year
the Hobey Baker Award was inaugurated, and Neal
was named the winner, perhaps more for his gold
medalness than his season.
The Gophers had gone 20-8 to take the league
title, and 33-12 overall. While Minnesota was beating
UMD in a routine first round of WCHA playoffs, there
was nothing routine about the other final series, at
Madison. Wisconsin blew out Colorado College 8-2,
but was shocked when the Tigers came back to whip
the Badgers 11-4 in the second game and claim the
total-goal set 13-12. Minnesota then beat CC in the
second-round playoff series for the automatic NCAA
berth. That year, however, the NCAA had decided
to expand the tournament to eight teams, and the
committee voted to bring back Wisconsin from
elimination and into the tournament, which started
with four two-game, total-goal sets. Wisconsin went
to Clarkson and won 3-2, then battled to a 6-6 tie to
win the series and join Minnesota, Michigan Tech
and Northern Michigan in an all-West final four in
Duluth. Minnesota played close to a perfect game
to blitz Michigan Tech 7-2 in the semifinals, while the
2009-10 wcha men’s yearbook
history of the wcha
michigan tech all-american forward bob d’alvise in mid-1970’s action against wcha-rival
colorado college. The huskies were national champions in 1975.
Badgers surprised Northern Michigan 5-1. Then the
Badgers stunned Minnesota 6-3 in the championship
game, and red-clad fans took over an entire city block
on Duluth’s downtown Superior Street for a raucous
celebration.
One season later, in 1981-82, the WCHA suffered
a jolt when Michigan led regional league members
Michigan State, Michigan Tech and Notre Dame
to leave the WCHA, and they started the CCHA
(Central Collegiate Hockey Association). The WCHA
persevered as a six-team league, and goaltender Jon
Casey (.919 saves percentage) led North Dakota (19-7)
to the league title over Wisconsin (18-7-1). Wisconsin
beat the Sioux for the league playoff title, but North
doug palazzARI
MIKE ZUKE
HERB BROOKS
dave delich
bob johnson
charles ‘lefty’ smith
Dakota (35-12 overall) beat the Badgers (35-11-1
overall) in the 1982 NCAA final in Providence. Western
fans noted that the WCHA produced both finalists,
while nobody from the CCHA made it to the final
four, just in case anyone thought the league might
falter.
After the 1981-82 season, Jeff Sauer replaced
Bob Johnson at the University of Wisconsin, ending
another historic coaching tenure. Brooks and Johnson, such intense rivals, both later established their
talents at the pro level. Johnson, who later coached
the 1988 U.S. Olympic team, became president of
the Amateur Hockey Association of the U.S. and
changed that title to USA Hockey, and also coached
both Calgary and Pittsburgh in the NHL, where he
got a national stage for his favorite phrase: “It‘s a
great day for hockey.” After coaching the Penguins
to the 1991 Stanley Cup, Johnson was stricken by a
sudden and tragic bout with brain cancer and died
under coach mike sertich, minnesota duluth became a dominant team in the wcha. with a lineup that featured all-americans tom kurvers, norm
maciver and bill watson leading the way, the bulldogs won consecutive wcha championships in 1984 and 1985, then captured the league title
and macnaughton cup again in 1993.
before the next season started. Brooks, who forever
changed the course of U.S. hockey with the 1980
Olympic gold medal, later coached the New York
Rangers, New Jersey Devils, Minnesota North Stars
and Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL, then coached
the 2002 U.S. team to the Olympic silver medal at Salt
Lake City. Brooks died, also tragically, in a one-vehicle
rollover on August 11, 2003, while returning home
from a hockey fund-raising golf tournament on the
Iron Range.
Brooks and Johnson both were cut short with so
much more to offer the game, but their personalities,
and their legacies, will live forever in WCHA annals.
In 1982-83, Buetow guided the Gophers to their
second league title in three years at 18-7-1 (33-12-1
overall), with Scott Bjugstad (21-35–56) winning the
scoring title. North Dakota was second, four points
back, behind Jon Casey’s sparkling .921 saves percentage, and the Badgers were third. The Badgers,
in coach Jeff Sauer’s first season, hit the road for the
playoffs, and took the roughest route, going first to
Grand Forks to defeat the Fighting Sioux in total
goals with a 1-1 tie and a three-overtime 6-5 second
game, then to Minnesota to sweep the Gophers 5-1
and 3-2. Wisconsin kept winning in the preliminary
NCAA pairings and, by surprise, reached the NCAA
tournament in Grand Forks. More surprises were
coming, as the Badgers beat Providence 2-0 in the
semifinals and whipped Harvard 6-2 to win the NCAA
title.
A shift in the balance of power occurred when
Mike Sertich was named as a one-year replacement
when Gus Hendrickson was unceremoniously fired at
UMD. Sertich was voted coach of the year for igniting
a rise in Bulldogs fortunes, and he continued in what
he later joked was the longest interim coaching term
in history. He again won the award the next two
seasons, directing the Bulldogs to WCHA titles in
1983-84 and ’84-85. Sertich’s dazzling array of stars
in the 1983-84 term included the league’s top scorer
in slick Bill Watson (17-38–55), the league’s best
goaltender in freshman Rick Kosti, and the league’s
best defenseman in Tom Kurvers, who won the Hobey
Baker Award. After advancing from a 19-5-2 league
title (29-12-2 overall), Minnesota-Duluth made its
strongest bid for a national title. Rarely has any team
dominated the playoffs the way UMD did in routing
Wisconsin 6-3 and 9-0, then, in a final league playoff
series that had to be moved to Minnesota’s Mariucci
Arena because of a boat show at the Duluth Arena, the
Bulldogs wiped out North Dakota 8-1 before cruising
to a second-game 5-4 loss in the total-goal set. UMD
eliminated Clarkson to reach the NCAA Final Four in
Lake Placid, where the Bulldogs edged North Dakota
2-1 in overtime, the same score by which Bowling
Green beat Michigan State. In the final, UMD gave up
a 4-3 lead when Bowling Green scored late on an odd
bounce off a seam in the boards, then UMD battled
to exhaustion before falling 5-4 in the record-setting
103
2009-10 wcha men’s yearbook
history of the wcha
the Colorado college tigers became one of the top teams in the western Collegiate Hockey Association under coach don lucia in the mid-1990’s,
winning a record three consecutive conference championships and macnaughton cups in 1994, 1995 and 1996.
und’s greg johnson was a three-time allamerican & hobey baker award finalist in the
1990’s. He is the wcha career leader in assists.
fourth overtime.
In 1984-85, Northern Michigan and Michigan
Tech left the CCHA to join the WCHA, returning it to
an eight-team league. They finished seventh and
eighth, respectively, while UMD again soared to
the league title at 25-7-2, with a school best 36-9-3
overall ledger. UMD’s Watson repeated as scoring
champ (37-43–80), and again the Bulldogs reached
the final four, this time in Detroit. But it didn’t get
less painful, as RPI inflicted a 6-5 loss on UMD in a
three-overtime semifinal. RPI beat Providence 2-1
for the title. Watson gave UMD its second straight
Hobey Baker winner, while Kosti and defenseman
Norm Maciver joined him as all-league picks.
Denver, under coach Ralph Backstrom, performed
a remarkable turnaround to win the 1985-86 regular
season title at 25-9 (34-13-1 overall). Dallas Gaume
led the Pioneers and the conference in scoring
(24-49–73), while Garry Emmons led Northern, and
someone named Brett Hull blossomed for UMD. It
seemed UMD was heading for a third straight league
title when top-line center Matt Christensen was
felled by a stroke at mid-season. While Christensen
required a long recovery, his loss seemed to stun
the Bulldogs, who faded from first to fourth behind
Denver, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Minnesota and
Denver advanced to the NCAA final tournament,
but both lost in the semifinals at Providence, and
Michigan State beat Harvard 6-5 for the title.
In 1986-87, it was North Dakota’s turn to rewrite
the record books as the “Hrkac Circus” set up its
bigtop show in Grand Forks. Center Tony Hrkac won
the league scoring race (36-50–86) and wound up
with a whopping 116 points overall as the Fighting
Sioux won the WCHA at 29-6 and breezed to the
NCAA title with a 40-8 record under Gino Gasparini.
Hrkac’s winger, Bob Joyce, plus defenseman Ian Kidd
and goalie Ed Belfour also starred for UND. Hrkac won
MVP honors in the league and NCAA tournament,
and added the Hobey Baker award to his banner
year, as the Sioux beat Harvard 5-2 in the semis and
topped Michigan State 5-3 in the final, at Detroit.
Doug Woog brought Minnesota back to the
WCHA winner’s circle in 1987-88 and in 1988-89.
The Gophers had been second for three years in a
row with records of 21-10-3, 24-10 and 25-9-1, and
finally won the MacNaughton Cup with a 28-7 mark
(34-10 overall) in 1989-90. Brilliant goaltending by
Robb Stauber (2.91 GAA and .906 Sv%) carried the
Gophers to finish 11 points ahead of Wisconsin, and
after winning in the league’s first try at best-of-three
playoffs, the Gophers reached the NCAA final four in
Lake Placid. Stauber became the first goalie to win
104
the Hobey Baker, but St. Lawrence’s Peter Lappin
scored three times to deal the Gophers a 3-2 loss in
the semifinals. Lake Superior State beat St. Lawrence
4-3 in overtime in the final.
The next year, Stauber improved his statistics to
win league goaltending honors with a 2.33 goalsagainst and a .917 save percentage, as the Gophers
won the 1989-90 WCHA chase by a league-record 14
points over runner-up Northern Michigan. Remarkably, Curtis Joseph, a brilliant freshman goalkeeper at
Wisconsin, won first-team WCHA goalie honors over
Stauber, because the vote from the entire Minnesota
contingent failed to get sent in. But the Gophers,
with Dave Snuggerud and Tom Chorske back from
the 1988 U.S. Olympic team, ran up a 27-6-2 league
record, and headed to the NCAA tournament in
St. Paul. After beating Maine 7-4 in the semifinals,
Minnesota lost to Harvard, in a brilliantly played,
high-speed 4-3 overtime classic, which many observers still call the best-played national championship
game ever.
Minnesota’s back-to-back runaway league titles
were total aberrations for the WCHA, which returned
to normal in 1989-90 by going down to the final
weekend before Wisconsin (19-8-1) edged Minnesota
(17-9-2) for the MacNaughton Cup, as Minnesota was
upset at Tech and the Badgers outlasted third-place
UND. Denver’s crafty Dave Shields won the league
scoring race (21-29–50), but Wisconsin’s balance was
impressive, with John Byce, Chris Tancill and Gary
Shuchuk among the top five scorers. That group was
joined by shot-blocking defenseman Mark Osiecki
and captain Steve Rohlik, and the league’s best
goaltender, Duane Derksen. None of the Badgers
made first team all-WCHA, but that corps of seniors
led the team from midseason blahs to a whirlwind
hot streak – an 18-1-1 tear that carried right through
the league playoff and NCAA championships. The
determined Badgers swept Maine in a first-round
NCAA series to become the only WCHA entry among
the four finalists at Detroit, where they resolutely took
out Boston College 2-1, and brushed aside Colgate
7-3 for the title.
That brought the league into the 1990s, where
Northern Michigan kept WCHA tradition percolating
in 1990-91. The Wildcats were bristling with firepower
from scoring champion Scott Beattie (33-31–64),
Jim Hiller, Tony Szabo, and Dallas Drake, while Brad
Werenka led a defense that gave goaltender Billy Pye
a lot of easy nights. The Wildcats scored 185 goals
while going 25-3-4 in the league, while Minnesota
finished second at 22-5-5. Minnesota’s runner-up
slot meant the Gophers had two firsts and five
seconds over seven seasons. But when it came to
national titles, Woog’s Gophers were annually shut
out, while Northern Michigan took advantage of its
best chance. Coach Rick Comley’s Wildcats won the
WCHA playoff championship in the St. Paul Civic
Center, and returned to that site for an amazing
NCAA tournament, in which Northern beat Maine
5-3 in the semis, and won an incredible 8-7 triple-
overtime marathon against Boston University in
the NCAA championship game. Checker Darryl
Plandowski scored his third goal of the game for the
winner, and Beattie, who also had a hat trick in the
game, finished a 46-game season with 48-41–89 as
Northern Michigan wound up 38-5-4.
The 1992-93 season was highlighted by the reemergence of Minnesota-Duluth atop the league,
and four WCHA schools earned NCAA berths. Coach
Mike Sertich’s Bulldogs, led by a pair of All-Americans
in center Derek Plante, the league scoring champion
at 29-37–66, and talented defenseman Brett Hauer,
fashioned a 21-9-2 league record (27-11-2 overall)
and won their third MacNaughton Cup in 10 years,
five points ahead of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Plante,
the WCHA Player of the Year, finished with overall
totals of 36-56–92. Plante, Hauer, North Dakota
center Greg Johnson, Wisconsin defenseman Barry
Richter, and Michigan Tech goalkeeper Jamie Ram
earned All-America honors. Johnson, who set a WCHA
record for career assists, made it for the third time.
The biggest surprise in WCHA national tournament
history may have been when UMD, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Northern Michigan all skated to first-day
NCAA regional victories, but none reached the final
four, where Maine beat Lake Superior State 5-4 for
the title.
As the league headed into the 1993-94 season,
the balance in power shifted to Colorado College
and an upstart Tigers team under first-year head
coach Don Lucia. Playing the final season at the
historic Broadmoor World Arena, the Tigers skated
to their first WCHA Championship since 1957, and
the school’s first MacNaughton Cup, led by AllAmerican defenseman Shawn Reid and All-WCHA
center Jay McNeill. The Tigers, at 18-9-5; 23-11-5
overall, edged runner-up Minnesota by a point and
Wisconsin by two points in one of the best races in
league history. Individually, UMD’s Chris Marinucci
won the league scoring title with 27-26–53, the WCHA
Player of the Year Award, the Hobey Baker, and was
named first-team All-American. The CC Tigers were
derailed by All-American goaltender Jamie Ram in
an outstanding first-round league playoff series, as
last-place Michigan Tech beat first-place CC 3-2, lost
the second game 3-0, then won 3-2 in overtime. In the
WCHA Final Five, held for the first time at Milwaukee’s
Bradley Center, Minnesota defeated St. Cloud State
3-2 in overtime for the title, and Minnesota and
Wisconsin advanced to the NCAA Tournament, but
league champion Colorado College was inexplicably
ignored by the NCAA committee for the tournament,
which was held in St. Paul. Minnesota fell to Boston
University 4-1, and Lake Superior State won the title
by crushing BU 9-1 in the final.
Lucia guided his Colorado College Tigers (22-9-1;
30-12-1 overall) to their second straight WCHA Championship, something only six teams had ever done
before, led by the likes of All-Americans Ryan Bach
in goal, Kent Fearns on defense, and 33-goal scorer
Jay McNeill up front. CC claimed the MacNaughton
Cup by seven points over runners-up Wisconsin and
Denver. The Badgers, picked sixth in the pre-season
poll, were one of the surprise teams of the year, placing second during the regular season, winning the
1995 WCHA Final Five in Saint Paul, and joining CC,
vastly-improved Denver, and Minnesota in the NCAA
tournament. The only one to reach the Providence
tournament was Minnesota, which lost 7-3 to Boston
University in the semifinals, before BU beat Maine
6-2 in the final. Minnesota junior Brian Bonin won
the league scoring title with 27-19–46 in 32 games,
and added WCHA Player of the Year and first team
West All-American honors, while Denver’s first-year
coach George Gwozdecky was Coach of the Year.
In 1995-96, Colorado College became the first
team in the long and storied history of the WCHA
to win a third straight regular season championship,
with a superb 26-2-4 record that topped Minnesota
by 12 points. This time the Tigers reached the Frozen
Four, but after winning a double-overtime 4-3 semifinal thriller against a Vermont team led by small but
shifty Martin St. Louis, the Tigers lost 3-2 in overtime
to Michigan in the final. Bonin, the repeat league
scoring leader (25-39–64) won the Hobey.
The Tigers string was snapped in 1996-97 when
the WCHA produced another of its best races. Five
teams finished within five points of each other, with
North Dakota and Minnesota eventually sharing the
MacNaughton Cup at 21-10-1 as regular season cochampions. Minnesota’s Mike Crowley (5-37–42) and
Brian Swanson of CC (15-27–42) shared the league
scoring title, making Crowley the second defenseman
ever to attain that status. North Dakota defeated
Cornell, 6-2, at the West Regional, but saved its best
for last in at the Frozen Four at Bradley Center in Milwaukee. The Sioux upended CC 6-2 in one semifinal
while Boston University knocked off tourney favorite
Michigan 3-2 in the other. The youthful North Dakota
team, rejuvenated under coach Dean Blais, beat BU
6-4 to bring home the NCAA crown. Sioux winger Matt
Henderson went from super-checker to super-scorer
with 3-2–5 in the two games and won the tourney’s
MVP award. Basically a sophomore team, UND went
31-10-2.
As juniors, that North Dakota group won the
WCHA again in 1997-98, at 21-6-1, but lost 4-3 to
eventual champion Michigan in the NCAA West
Regional, to finish 30-8-1, leaving no WCHA entry
at the Frozen Four in Boston, where Michigan beat
Boston College 3-2 in overtime for the title.
So the big year for the Fighting Sioux would
be 1998-99, and it certainly was. The senior-dominated Sioux were ranked No. 1 by every poll in the
land, almost from start to finish, while romping to
another WCHA title at 24-2-2, 10 points ahead of
CC, and into the NCAAs. However, the Sioux were
derailed by eventual champion Boston College in
the quarterfinals, ending up 32-6-2. Those seven
seniors – Jason Blake, Jay Panzer, Brad Williamson,
David Hoogsteen, Jeff Ulmer, Jesse Bull and Adam
Calder – scored a combined 107 goals in that glori-
2009-10 wcha men’s yearbook
history of the wcha
otto breitenbach
bruce mcleod
john ‘gino’ gasparini
doug woog
ous, but ending-too-soon season. Their loss in the
regional game meant the WCHA would fail to send
a team to the national final four for only the third
time in history, but the second year in a row. Maine
beat New Hampshire 3-2 in overtime for the NCAA
championship, played at Anaheim, Calif.
The millenium was about to change, and so
did the Sioux. Coach Dean Blais replaced his seven
skilled seniors with seven unproven freshmen for
the 1999-2000 season, and although the youthful
UND outfit chased, but couldn’t catch, WCHA champ
Wisconsin (23-5), which was led by Steve Reinprecht
and freshman flash Dany Heatley, their time came
suddenly in the playoffs. North Dakota hit its stride
and ran through the WCHA playoffs, and continued
their surge in the NCAAs. At the 2000 NCAA Frozen
Four in Providence, Karl Goehring returned to the nets
from an injury and was brilliant in a 2-0 shutout over
defending national champion Maine, then the Sioux
rallied from a 2-1 deficit to stifle Boston College 4-2
for the championship.
North Dakota had seen to it that the proud WCHA
would end the 20th century in style, by winning the
league its 31st national championship in the league’s
first 50 years. Since teams later associated with the
WCHA had also won three of the first four national
tournaments before even the Midwest League began,
teams associated with the WCHA actually won 34 of
the first 54 national tournaments. Not a bad century.
But it’s just the beginning for the Western Collegiate
Hockey Association.
tony hrkac
brian swanson
who were 1-2-4 in league scoring, the goaltending
tandem of Goehring (10-3-4) and Andy Kollar (8-1-2),
plus swift sophomore defenseman Travis Roche. St.
Cloud State finished second, its highest placement
ever, and won the 2001 WCHA playoff title.
The Fighting Sioux reached the Frozen Four
by beating Colorado College 4-1, and once at
Albany, N.Y., they knocked off Michigan State 2-0
on Goehring’s semifinal shutout. Boston College,
however, beat UND 3-2 in the title game.
North Dakota passed the baton to Minnesota,
and the Golden Gophers took over under coach Don
Lucia, who took three years since leaving Colorado
College to put the sputtering Gophers in order. Minnesota hadn’t won an NCAA title in 23 years, since
Herb Brooks won his third title in six years in 1979,
and finishing third behind Denver (21-6-1) and St.
Cloud State (19-7-2) at 18-7-3 was not the perfect
formula for the NCAA title.
Nor was losing to Denver in the league playoff
final. But Lucia had the Gophers primed for the 2002
Frozen Four, held at Saint Paul’s Xcel Energy Center
– the same site where Denver had just beaten Minnesota for the WCHA Final Five crown.
Denver was 32-8-1 overall, but the West Regional
mike sertich
brett hull
half of the NCAA’s last 12-team tournament field was
at Ann Arbor, Mich., where Denver got a bye as top
seed but Michigan, with the benefit of its intimidating
home crowd, beat St. Cloud State, then beat Denver
5-3 to eliminate the top two WCHA entries. Playing
down to two Frozen Four entries, the other bracket
saw Colorado College eliminate Michigan State 2-0,
then Minnesota, which had a bye, beat Colorado
College 4-2. Both Minnesota and Michigan reached
the Frozen Four, but Minnesota avoided having to
play Michigan in Ann Arbor, and beat the Wolverines
3-2 in the NCAA semifinals in Saint Paul.
That created a memorable final. Minnesota tied
Maine 3-3 on Matt Koalska’s goal with :53 seconds left
in regulation, and the Gophers beat the Black Bears
4-3 on Grant Potulny’s goal at 16:58 of overtime.
Minnesota goaltender Adam Hauser and forwards
John Pohl and Potulny made the NCAA All-Tournament team.
Mark Hartigan of St. Cloud State was league scoring champ (24-25–49) and player of the year, and was
joined on the first-team All-WCHA by Pohl and Mark
Cullen of CC up front, defensemen Jordan Leopold of
Minnesota and Andy Reierson of UMD, and Denver
goaltender Wade Dubielewicz (1.80 goals-against).
Leopold was also Hobey Baker Memorial Award
winner.
With Pohl, Leopold, and Minnesota record-setting goalie Hauser graduating, the Gophers figured
to drop back in the pack in 2002-03, and Colorado
College won the WCHA title by six points, with a
19-4-5 record, over Minnesota and Minnesota StateMankato.
The CC Tigers also dominated the league’s awards,
as Peter Sejna (21-32–53) won the scoring title, player
of the year, and Hobey Baker Memorial Award, while
teammate Curtis McElhinney was the top goalie with
a 2.19 goals-against mark, and Tom Preissing was
generally considered the WCHA’s top defenseman.
They made up half of the All-WCHA First Team, with
Denver’s Aaron MacKenzie filling the other defense
slot, and Minnesota State’s 1-2 tandem of Shane
Joseph and Grant Stevenson the
other forwards.
Strangely enough,
history repeated itself at NCAA
tournament time in 2003, when
WCHA champion and top Western
seed Colorado College had to go
to Ann Arbor for the regional. The
NCAA had finally expanded from
12 to 16 teams for that tournament, which meant four regionals
instead of two, but Michigan, the
fourth seed, eliminated Maine 2-1
while top-seed CC beat Wayne
State 4-2. Michigan, again a lower
seed bolstered by its vocal crowd,
beat CC 5-3 to again reach the
Frozen Four.
In the new format, Minnesota was host of its own
regional, and the Gophers, after beating Colorado
College for the WCHA playoff title, romped 9-2 over
outmanned Mercyhurst, and caught a break when
Ferris State upset North Dakota 5-2. The Gophers
whipped Ferris State 7-4 to win the West Regional
and return to the Frozen Four, this time in Buffalo.
The déjà vu continued as once again Minnesota
faced Michigan in the NCAA semifinals, and once
again the Gophers prevailed, 3-2 in overtime.
Minnesota buried New Hampshire 5-1 in the
championship game, meaning that after a 23-year
national championship drought, Lucia had brought
two titles in a row back to Mariucci Arena. Shut out
of the All-WCHA First Team, Minnesota goaltender
Travis Weber, defensemen Paul Martin and Matt
DeMarchi, and forward Thomas Vanek all made the
NCAA tournament team, with Vanek voted most
outstanding player.
A year later, North Dakota won the 2003-04 WCHA
title by three points over upstart Minnesota Duluth,
while Wisconsin was third, eight points off the pace.
Denver and Minnesota tied for fourth, 12 points in
arrears. But once again, the playoffs provided the
perfect setting for a late-season surge, and this time
Denver stormed to the front of the class.
Denver spent much of the 2003-04 season trying
to recover from some injuries and disheartening
setbacks. Coach George Gwozdecky kept patching
holes and stressing how the setbacks built character.
In the WCHA playoffs, Denver beat Colorado College
3-2 in the first game, lost the second 4-3, then collapsed in a 6-1 third-game loss. Ironically, the same
computerized system that cost Denver a chance
to make the NCAA tournament in 2006 made the
Pioneers a borderline entry among the select 16 in
2004. Losing to CC meant Denver didn’t risk another
loss in the Final Five, insulating that computer ranking
for a week off, while several key injuries healed.
Colorado College lost to upstart Alaska Anchorage at the 2004 WCHA Final Five, which cost the Tigers
the Second century
by John Gilbert
T
he new century for the WCHA started off with a
rebuilding year for North Dakota in 1999-2000,
as coach Dean Blais replaced seven highlyskilled seniors with seven unproven freshmen.
The youthful UND outfit chased, but couldn’t
catch, WCHA champ Wisconsin (23-5), which was
led by Steve Reinprecht and freshman flash Dany
Heatley. But in the playoffs, North Dakota ran through
the WCHA, and continued the surge in the NCAAs
to reach the 2000 Frozen Four in Providence. Karl
Goehring returned to the nets from an injury and
was brilliant in a 2-0 shutout over defending national
champion and top-seeded Maine in the semifinals,
and the Sioux rallied from a 2-1 deficit to stifle BC
4-2 in the 2000 championship game.
In 2000-01, North Dakota responded again to the
Blais touch and won the WCHA title for an impressive
string of four league titles and one runner-up finish
in five years. The Fighting Sioux were led by the
explosive top line of Jeff Panzer (26-55–81), Bryan
Lundbohm (32-37–69) and Ryan Bayda (25-34–59),
Under coach dean blais, north dakota launched the wcha’s second century by capturing the 2000 NCAA Frozen Four championship with a 4-2
victory over boston college in providence, RI. UND’s Lee Goren was named most outstanding player.
105
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history of the wcha
for the first time in history one conference – the wcha – had all four teams at a ncaa frozen
four, 2005 in columbus. front (L-R): cc coach scott owens, um coach don lucia, und coach dave
hakstol and du coach george gwozdecky. back (L-r): wcha commissioner bruce mcleod and team
captains mark stuart (CC), judd stevens (UM), matt greene (UND), and matt laatsch (DU).
a chance to be the host entry for the West NCAA
Regional at Colorado Springs. The Seawolves lost to
North Dakota in one semifinal, while Minnesota beat
injury-stricken UMD 7-4 in the other, then Minnesota
won the final in a 5-4 thriller over North Dakota.
Denver, rested and ready, was invited to be the
fifth WCHA team to the 16-team tournament field,
as host entry at Colorado Springs. A longshot in the
West Regional, and having yielded 10 goals in their
last two games, Denver goaltender Adam Berkhoel
suddenly turned red hot. Denver defeated Miami
(Ohio) 3-2 in the first regional game and Berkhoel’s
scintillating 33-save performance gave the Pioneers
a 1-0 shutout victory over North Dakota – a team
that had outscored Denver 21-6 in winning three
and tying one during the season.
At Boston’s FleetCenter, Denver faced WCHA
runner-up and No. 3 ranked Minnesota Duluth in the
2004 national semifinals. Confident after sweeping
the Pioneers 1-0 and 6-3 in Denver, the Bulldogs
took a 3-1 lead after two periods, as WCHA scoring
champ and Hobey Baker winner Junior Lessard
scored twice. Those would prove to be the last goals
Berkhoel would give up. He shut down the ’Dogs,
and Gabe Gauthier and Ryan Caldwell scored :34
seconds apart early in the third period to gain a 3-3
tie. Lukas Dora scored at 8:25 to boost Denver to a
4-3 lead, and Connor James set up Greg Keith for an
empty-net goal to clinch a 5-3 victory.
In the NCAA final, the Cinderella Pioneers were
underdogs to No. 2-ranked Maine, but Gauthier
scored on a first-period power play, and Berkhoel
was sensational, stopping all 24 Maine shots and
withstanding a game-ending 6-on-3 Maine poweplay, to win another1-0 triumph and secure the
tournament’s outstanding player award. Gauthier’s
goal came off a feed from James, the speedy winger
who had missed the end of the regular season with
a broken leg, but came back to join teammates
Caldwell and Berkhoel, and UMD’s Lessard on the
NCAA All-Tournament team.
After Denver had given up 10 goals in its last two
WCHA playoff games against CC, Berkhoel yielded
just five goals in the four NCAA games as Denver
won its sixth NCAA title, but the first since Murray
Armstrong’s Pioneers did it in 1969. Denver was only
13-10-5 in WCHA play to tie for fourth place behind
North Dakota’s 20-5-3. Overall, North Dakota finished
30-8-3 and UMD 28-13-4, but a 13-0 record against
non-WCHA teams gave Denver a solid overall record
of 27-12-5. Hobey Baker winner and WCHA Player
of the Year Junior Lessard of UMD wound up with
32-31–63 as the league’s top scorer for 2003-04. He
was joined by North Dakota forwards Brandon Bochenski (27-33–60) and Zach Parise (23-32–55) on the
All-WCHA First Team, along with Minnesota’s Keith
Ballard (11-25–36) and UMD’s Beau Geisler (9-25–34)
on defense, and Wisconsin goaltender Bernd Bruckler,
DU, back-t0-back nCAA champs in 2004-2005, visit the white house and president george W. Bush
106
who had a 19-10-8 record, 2.09 goals-against, and
a .924 save percentage. In league games, Lessard
(19-20–39) and Bochenski (16-23–39) shared the
scoring title.
A tasty irony in Denver’s 2004 title run was that
Minnesota had been the unanimous preseason
pick as WCHA and NCAA champ, returning almost
its entire team from the 2003 championship ride,
which made the Gophers the first team to win two
NCAA titles in succession since Boston University in
1971 and 1972. Who could have guessed that the
Pioneers would come back to make it two successive
two-title runs for the WCHA?
Denver tied Colorado College for the league title,
then won the league playoff, and added the NCAA
title – but not without plenty of anxious moments.
North Dakota, making another of its late rushes,
had opened the 2005 WCHA Final Five by knocking
off Wisconsin 3-2 in the play-in game, then lost a
tense 2-1 game to Denver when Gabe Gauthier
scored his second goal of the game in overtime
in the semifinals, while Colorado College spanked
Minnesota 3-0. North Dakota beat Minnesota 4-2 in
the third-place game, and Denver outdueled CC 1-0
for the playoff title behind freshman Peter Mannino’s
goaltending.
At the 2005 NCAA Frozen Four in Columbus,
Ohio, the national championship became the WCHA
Frozen Four – with all four finalists from the Western
Collegiate Hockey Association. Denver beat Colorado
College and North Dakota toppled Minnesota in a
semifinal round that greatly resembled the renewal
of two of the WCHA’s top rivalries, then Denver beat
the Fighting Sioux for the title.
The luck of the draw put Denver right back up
against league-champion Colorado College, where
the question was whether Mannino and the Pioneers
could stop the league’s 1-2 scoring punch of Marty
Sertich and Brett Sterling twice in a row. They could,
winning 6-2 with every goal on power-plays.
If Denver was the best team, North Dakota was
the hottest, and the Fighting Sioux outshot Denver
45-24 in the final. But Mannino stopped 44 of the 45,
and Denver rose from a 1-1 first-period tie to claim a
4-1 victory. WCHA Freshman of the Year Paul Stastny
scored the tie-breaking goal in the second period,
added the clinching goal midway through the third
period, then made a great pass to Gauthier for an
open-net goal in the last minute. Outshot or not,
the Pioneers went home with the big prize.
Maybe Denver’s second straight two-year run in
the NCAA in 2004 and 2005 was inspiration to the
Wisconsin Badgers, who won it all again in 2006 at
the Bradley Center in Milwaukee and make it a hat
trick of another sort for the WCHA.
Even the most zealous WCHA boosters couldn’t
imagine matching that accomplishment on the
national stage in 2006. But Wisconsin did its part,
emerging to beat Boston College 2-1 for the fifth
consecutive NCAA championship for WCHA teams,
and extending a remarkable streak of domination.
That five-year streak started with Minnesota’s two
straight NCAA championships, in 2002 and 2003, and
was followed by two more by University of Denver in
2004 and 2005. The Badgers’ run to homestate glory
in 2006 was No. 5, and dominant as that seems, it
could be a working streak of six years for the WCHA,
but North Dakota dropped a 3-2 overtime game to
Boston College in the 2001 NCAA final. The Fighting
Sioux can be excused for that “misstep,” however,
because they had won the NCAA titles in 2000.
The five straight titles, and six of the seven since
2000, boost WCHA-affiliated teams to 39 national
championships in the 59 NCAA tournaments conducted since 1948. Eastern colleges have won 13,
with eight of them by teams that broke off to form
the Hockey East Association, while Central Collegiate
Hockey Association teams had won seven. Of those
20 non-WCHA national titles, seven came in the
1990s, when North Dakota’s 1997 championship
was the only one claimed by a WCHA school in the
eight-tournament span from 1992 through 1999.
The WCHA dominated the national rankings
throughout the 2005-06 season, with Wisconsin
hogging the No. 1 spot most of the first half, and
seeming to run away with the league title until star
goaltender Brian Elliott was injured. As if operating
by tag-team, when the Badgers struggled, Minnesota
came on with a rush to claim the No. 1 national ranking, and the Golden Gophers rode the momentum
through the whole second half to capture the season
title. At the same time, Wisconsin recovered its touch,
Denver looked poised for a run at its third straight
title, and North Dakota came out of nowhere with
a freshman-led outfit that proved it was the hottest
team in the country by winning the WCHA league
playoff title.
The three biggest trophies available were won
by three different WCHA teams – Wisconsin winning
the NCAA trophy, Minnesota the MacNaughton Cup
as league champ, and North Dakota the Broadmoor
Trophy for winning the WCHA playoffs.
No, the WCHA didn’t repeat by supplying all
four Frozen Four entries – the NCAA tournament
committee’s somewhat curious regional pairings
prevented any chance of that – but when the firing
stopped at Milwaukee’s Bradley Center, the rejuvenated Elliott had led Wisconsin to a 2-1 triumph over
Boston College in a scintillating title match that gave
the WCHA its fifth consecutive national championship. Wisconsin left no question that they deserved
their “official” return to the No. 1 spot and the NCAA
trophy, but the Badgers were the first to say they were
pushed to their pinnacle by the strength of league
rivals.
Denver was prevented from any chance at becoming the only team to ever win three straight NCAA
titles – and may stir further discussion of selection
criteria – when the Pioneers tied with Wisconsin for
second place in league standings at 17-8-3, behind
Minnesota’s 20-5-3 mark, but were bumped out of
the 16-team field by the mandatory inclusion of
at-large entries. Four worthy WCHA teams made
the 16-team field, but they were grouped into two
of the four regionals. With Wisconsin and Colorado
College going to Green Bay with Cornell and Bemidji
State for the Midwest Regional, while North Dakota
played host to Minnesota, along with Michigan and
Holy Cross, in the West Regional, the most the WCHA
could hope for was two Frozen Four entries.
Presto! Wisconsin won the Midwest and surging
North Dakota won the West, joining Boston College
and Maine in Milwaukee for the Frozen Four. The
turning point for Wisconsin’s ultimate NCAA triumph
was actually forged out of the intrigue of the WCHA
Final Five playoffs at the Xcel Center in Saint Paul.
Just reaching the Final Five proved the WCHA’s
strength. Ninth-place Minnesota Duluth sent
little-used No. 3 goaltender Nate Ziegelmann, a
sophomore transfer, into the nets at second-seeded
Denver, and he not only backstopped a 3-2 first-game
upset, but, after the Pioneers rebounded for a 3-2
victory in the second game, Ziegelmann anchored
a 5-2 victory in the deciding game, and his first two
collegiate victories sent the Bulldogs to the Final
Five. The same weekend, sixth-place St. Cloud State
went to Colorado Springs and knocked out Colorado
College behind goaltender Bobby Goepfert.
The Huskies kept rolling at the Final Five by
whipping Minnesota Duluth 5-1 in the “play-in”
game, then ambushing Minnesota 8-7 in a wild
overtime semifinal, before a record 19,353 fans.
Minnesota trailed 5-2 and 6-3 before Ryan Potulny
took over, scoring four goals, including his 38th of
the season with :15 seconds left for a 7-7 tie – only
to see Matt Hartman’s goal at 9:14 of overtime wrest
the victory for St. Cloud State. In the other semifinal,
North Dakota, which had ridden a late-season hot
streak to a tie for fourth place in the WCHA, rallied
from a 2-0 deficit to stun Wisconsin 4-3 in the first
semifinal.
North Dakota’s 5-3 playoff final victory over St.
Cloud State secured the Sioux a spot in the 2006
NCAA tournament, while the league’s two highest-ranked teams met in a third-place game that
had more significance than either team might have
realized. Minnesota and Wisconsin both knew they
were cinch selections for the NCAA tournament,
so the outcome of their third-place game seemed
meaningless. Or was it?
Coach Mike Eaves, who lived through the most
heated days of the Gopher-Badger rivalry as a player,
affirmed there is no way he could ever see any game
against Minnesota as ordinary, and he also stressed
the need for the Badgers to come off their loss to
North Dakota and regain their playing rhythm.
Playing with much more enthusiasm, Wisconsin
ripped Minnesota 4-0, which sent the Badgers soaring
into the NCAA Regional, while Minnesota seemed to
lose its enormous edge in momentum with the two
losses in the Final Five. At Grand Forks, the Gophers
were unceremoniously upset by at-large entry Holy
Cross, leaving the Gophers with an outstanding
27-9-5 final record, ended by three straight losses.
North Dakota beat Michigan and Holy Cross to gain
the Frozen Four.
2009-10 wcha men’s yearbook
history of the wcha
Wisconsin caPTURED A RECORD 36th NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP FOR THE WCHA in Milwaukee IN 2006
North Dakota Celebrates It’s 2009 WCHA and MacNaughton Cup Championship in Grand Forks
Once at Milwaukee, a Wisconsin-North Dakota
rematch in the final seemed likely, but the youthful
Fighting Sioux were caught off-guard by Boston
College’s quick-strike ability, which was ignited by a
3-0 BC lead in the first period, as the mercurial Chris
Collins got two goals of an eventual hat trick. The
Fighting Sioux, led by freshmen T.J. Oshie, Jonathan
Toews and Brian Lee, staged a memorable comeback,
from deficits of 3-0 and 6-3, but couldn’t quite pull
it off, and fell 6-5. Oshie was held off the scoresheet
but finished with 24 goals, including a nation-leading
seven game-winners, Toews scored his 22nd goal of
the season during the rally, and Lee, a defenseman,
assisted on the fourth Sioux goal and scored himself
with :13 seconds remaining to give the Sioux one last
gasp of hope, before they simply ran out of minutes
and their season ended 29-16-1.
Wisconsin, meanwhile, got two goals from Robbie Earl, and star goaltender Brian Elliott proved he
was in top form in a 32-save performance for a 5-2
semifinal victory over Maine, and Eaves’ stress of
team defense continued to prevail in the final.
The Badgers outshot Boston College 39-22, but
they had to rally from a 1-0 deficit for Earl’s 24th
goal early in the second period to gain a 1-1 tie, and
senior defenseman Tom Gilbert strode in from the
point to score the power-play game-winner midway
through the third. An explanation of how hot Elliott
was through the stretch is that he won eight of his
nine starts since regaining his touch, with a .967
save percentage and an 0.81 goals-against average
in those nine games.
The WCHA challenge in 2006-07 was to try to duplicate the seemingly impossible scene from the 2005
and hosted by the University of Denver. The Sioux
fell 6-1 to eventual champion Boston College in the
first national semifinal as Dave Hakstol became only
the third coach ever to lead his first four teams to
berths in the Frozen Four.
The WCHA also placed a Div. 1 conference record
six teams into the NCAA tournament in 2008, with
UND the No. 2 seed for the Midwest Regional in
Madison, MacNaughton Cup-winner CC the No.
2 seed for the West Regional in Colorado Springs,
playoff champ Denver the No. 2 seed in the Midwest
Regional, St. Cloud State the No. 2 seed for the East
Regional in Albany, N.Y., Minnesota the No. 3 seed for
the Northeast Regional in Worcester, Mass., and Wisconsin the No. 3 seed for the Midwest Regional.
At the conclusion of the season, the WCHA’s
non-conference record stood at 49-22-10 (.667). And
in the final 2007-08 Div. 1 college hockey polls, the
WCHA had seven teams ranked among the nation’s
top 17 with two others earning votes. UND was No.
3, DU was No. 4, CC was No. 6, SCSU was No. 8, UM
was No. 10, MSU was No. 14, and UW was No. 17.
Both UMD and MTU also received votes.
In home attendance, the WCHA again led the
nation with 1,508,499 fans, topping 1.5 millon for
a record sixth straight season and 1,000,000 for a
record 15th straight season.
Six conference players earned All-American honors in West First Teamer’s Richard Bachman (G, CC),
Jack Hillen (D, CC) and T.J. Oshie (F, UND). Named to
the West All-American Second Team from the WCHA
were DU defenseman Chris Butler, SCSU forward Ryan
Lasch, and CC forward Chad Rau.
CC goaltender Richard Bachman became the
second straight WCHA player to earn the Hockey
Commissioners’ Association National Rookie of the
Year, joining inaugural (2006-07) winner Andreas
Nodl from SCSU. Three WCHA players were among the
Top 10 Finalists for the 2008 Hobey Baker Memorial
Award in UND goaltender Jean-Philippe Lamoureux,
SCSU forward Ryan Lasch and UND forward T.J. Oshie,
and two WCHA coaches – MSU’s Troy Jutting and
UND’s Dave Hakstol – were finalists for the AHCA
Men’s Div. 1 Coach of the Year.
In 2008-09, and for only the fourth time in it’s
storied 57-year history, the WCHA was without a
team in an NCAA Men’s Frozen Four. The league’s
three national tourney qualifiers – Denver, Minnesota
Duluth and North Dakota – all fell short in NCAA regional play over the March 27-29 weekend. The three
previous seasons that the WCHA was not represented
in a Frozen Four were 1992-93 in Milwaukee, 1997-98
in Boston and in 1998-99 in Anaheim.
Denver (23-12-5), accorded the No.1 seed in the
West Regional at Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis,
fell 4-2 to No. 4 seed Miami in a semifinal matchup.
Minnesota Duluth (22-13-8), the 2009 WCHA Final
Five and Broadmoor Trophy champions and the No. 2
seed in the West Regional, won 5-4 in overtime over
No. 3 seed Princeton before dropping a 2-1 decision
to Miami in the regional championship tilt. North
Dakota, the WCHA regular season and MacNaughton
Cup champions and the No. 2 seed for the Northeast
Regional at Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester,
N.H., dropped a 6-5 (ot) decision to No. 3 seed New
Hampshire in their semifinal matchup.
NCAA tournament. Minnesota captured the WCHA
regular season championship and MacNaughton Cup
by four points over runner-up St. Cloud State and the
Golden Gophers also won the Broadmoor Trophy at
the 2007 Red Baron™ WCHA Final Five. North Dakota
made it’s third consecutive appearance in the NCAA
Men’s Frozen Four, this time in St. Louis, Mo., but the
Fighting Sioux’s bid for a sixth straight national title
on behalf of the WCHA fell short.
The league also had seven of it’s 10 member
teams ranked among the nation’s top clubs in the
final national polls, drew a record 1,606,686 fans to
home games – including a record 88,900 to the annual Final Five at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, UND’s
Ryan Duncan became the WCHA’s 13th Hobey Baker
Memorial Award winner, league-member teams
posted a 53-24-6 (.675) non-conference records,
five conference players earned All-American honors,
and St. Cloud State’s Ryan Lasch was named the first
National Rookie of the Year.
In 2007-08, Colorado College claimed the
program’s sixth WCHA championship since 1993 by
four points over runner-up North Dakota. The Tigers
were led by WCHA Player of the Year and Rookie of
the Year Richard Bachman in goal, WCHA Defensive
Player of the Year Jack Hillen on the blueline, and
all-league performer Chad Rau up front.
At the 2008 Red Baron™ WCHA Final Five in Saint
Paul, the Denver Pioneers took home the Broadmoor
Trophy before 86,855 at Xcel Energy Center for the
program’s third playoff crown in seven years.
For the fourth consecutive season, North Dakota
earned a berth in the NCAA Men’s Frozen Four, which
was played April 10-12 at Pepsi Center in Denver
the minnesota golden gophers celebrate their second straight wcha regular season
championship and macnaughton cup on ice at mariucci arena in march, 2007
All three WCHA teams that competed in the
national tournament also appeared in the 2009
Red Baron™ WCHA Final Five, held March 19-21 at
Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minn. Minnesota
Duluth won the Broadmoor Trophy and earned the
WCHA’s automatic bid into the NCAA tourney while
becoming the first team in the 17-year history of
the Final Five to win three games. The No. 5-seeded
Bulldogs won 2-1 over Minnesota, 3-0 over No. 1 seed
North Dakota, and 3-0 over No. 2 seed Denver in the
championship game. The Pioneers reached the title
contest by downing No. 3 seeded Wisconsin, 3-0. The
Fighting Sioux fell by a 4-1 count to the Badgers in
the third place game. The 2009 Final Five drew a total
attendance of 82,065, the fifth best total in the 17-year
history of the event, and even outdrew the 2009 Big
Ten Men’s Basketball tournament (68,098) for it’s fourday run at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
In the final 2008-09 regular season WCHA standings, North Dakota finished first with a 17-7-4 mark
and 38 points over their 28-game log, followed by
Denver in second at 16-8-4 with 36 points, Wisconsin
and Colorado College tied for third with 31 points
each, and Minnesota placing fifth at 12-11-5 with 29
points. St. Cloud State wound up sixth with 28 points,
Minnesota Duluth was seventh with 27, Minnesota
State was eighth with 26, Alaska Anchorage was ninth
with 23 points and Michigan Tech placed 10th with
11 points.
In addition to UAA’s league best six-win, 11-point
gain in conference play from 2007-08, both UW and
UM improved by four points and three victories, and
UMD was four points and one win better.
At the conclusion of the 2008-09 season, seven
WCHA teams owned winning records overall in
Denver (23-12-5, .638), North Dakota (24-15-4, .605)
and Minnesota Duluth (22-13-8, .605), Minnesota
(17-13-7, .554), Colorado College (16-12-10, .553),
Wisconsin (20-16-4, .550) and St. Cloud State (1817-3, .513). Four WCHA-member teams won at least
20 games overall in UND (24), Denver (23), UMD (22)
and UW (20).
In the final (March 23) USCHO.com/CBS College
Sports XXL Div. 1 Men’s Poll for 2008-09, there are
five WCHA-member teams again ranked among the
20 in the nation. Denver is No. 4, North Dakota is No.
7, Minnesota Duluth is No. 8, Wisconsin is No. 17 and
Minnesota is No. 19. Also receiving votes from the
WCHA were Colorado College and St. Cloud State.
And in the final (April 13) USA Today/USA Hockey
Magazine Men’s Div. 1 College Poll, Denver was No.
7, Minnesota Duluth was No. 8, and North Dakota
was No. 13.
Editor’s Note: John Gilbert has covered the WCHA for
40 years, 30 of them with the Minneapolis Tribune
(later the Star Tribune) and continues to cover men’s
and women’s college hockey for wcha.com.
107
2009-10 wcha men’s yearbook
history of the wcha
ALL TIME TEAM RECORDS • All Games
ALL TIME TEAM RECORDs • wcha games
Team
1st Year
Yrs
GP
W
L
T
Pct.
Minnesota
1922-23
87
2649
1606
874
169 .638
Wisconsin
1963-64
46
1791
1044
639
108 .613
Denver
1949-50
59
2168
1225
829
114 .591
North Dakota
1929-30
79
2256
1272
873
111 .588
Minnesota State
1970-71
40
1328
694
511
123 .569
St. Cloud State
1931-32
74
1706
873
742
91
.538
Colorado College
1937-38
70
2216
1053 1057
106 .499
Minnesota Duluth
1930-31
65
2006
913
971
122 .486
Michigan Tech
1919-20
87
2454
1089 1216
149 .474
Alaska Anchorage
1979-80
30
1019
415
512
92
.452
__________________________________________________________________________
Team
1st Year
Yrs
GP
W
L
T
Pct.
Minnesota
1951-52
57
1540
874
561
105 .602
Wisconsin
1969-70
40
1185
653
449
83
.586
North Dakota
1951-52
57
1521
820
622
82
.566
Denver
1951-52
57
1473
759
629
85
.544
St. Cloud State
1990-91
19
560
260
245
55
.513
Minnesota State
1999-00
10
280
113
130
37
.470
Michigan Tech+
1951-52
54
1431
606
733
92
.456
Colorado College
1951-52
57
1475
624
783
68
.446
Minnesota Duluth
1965-66
44
1270
517
665
88
.442
Alaska Anchorage
1993-94
16
464
119
287
58
.319
__________________________________________________________________________
Michigan*
Northern Michigan*
Notre Dame*
Michigan State*
Michigan*
Northern Michigan^
Notre Dame*
Michigan State*
1951-52
1976-97
1970
1951
29
20
10
29
896
798
403
852
491
418
179
378
382
337
206
452
23
43
18
22
.561
.551
.467
.457
* All Games records are while teams were members of the MCHL/WIHL/WCHA only
1951-52
1984-85
1971-72
1951-52
29
13
10
29
646
425
298
650
325
198
135
244
307
200
150
390
14
27
13
16
.514
.498
.475
.388
* left WCHA following 1980-81 season; + left WCHA following 1980-81 season but returned to WCHA for
1984-85 season; ^ left WCHA following 1996-97 season
conference rankings by team • season-by-season
Team
Colorado College
Denver
Michigan Tech
Minnesota
Minnesota-Duluth
North Dakota
Wisconsin
Michigan
Michigan State
Notre Dame
1952
1
2
7
5
–
4
–
2
6
–
53
5
4
6
1
–
3
–
1
7
–
54
4
4
7
1
–
3
–
2
6
–
55
1
4
4
3
–
6
–
2
7
–
56
3
5
2
4
–
5
–
1
7
–
57
1
5
4
6
–
3
–
2
7
–
58
3
1
7
4
–
1
–
6
5
–
59
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
60
4
1
2
6
–
3
–
5
7
–
61
7
1
4
2
–
5
–
3
6
–
62
7
3
1
6
–
5
–
2
4
–
63
5
1
3
4
–
1
–
7
5
–
64
6
1
4
3
–
5
–
1
7
–
65
7
6
2
3
–
1
–
5
4
–
66
7
4
1
2
8
2
–
5
6
–
67
7
2
3
8
6
1
–
4
5
–
68
7
1
2
5
8
3
–
4
6
–
69
7
2
1
5
8
3
–
4
6
–
70
9
2
2
1
8
5
4
6
7
–
71
8
2
1
5
6
7
3
9
4
–
72
8
1
7
10
5
3
2
6
4
8
73
9
1
5
6
8
7
3
10
4
2
75
3
9
2
1
8
10
4
6
5
7
76
6
7
1
3
7
7
7
4
2
5
77
8
4
6
7
10
5
1
3
8
2
Team
1978 79
Alaska Anchorage
–
–
Colorado College
5
8
Denver
1
6
Michigan Tech^
3
7
Minnesota
4
2
Minnesota Duluth
7
3
Minnesota State
–
–
North Dakota
5
1
St. Cloud State
–
–
Wisconsin
2
3
Michigan*
7
10
Michigan State*
10
8
Northern Michigan+ –
–
Notre Dame*
7
5
80
–
3
10
7
2
6
–
1
–
9
4
8
–
5
81
–
7
4
2
1
8
–
5
–
2
5
10
–
9
82
–
6
4
–
3
5
–
1
–
2
–
–
–
–
83
–
6
5
–
1
4
–
2
–
3
–
–
–
–
84
–
6
5
–
3
1
–
2
–
4
–
–
–
–
85
–
6
5
8
2
1
–
4
–
3
–
–
7
–
86
–
7
1
8
2
4
–
6
–
3
–
–
5
–
87
–
6
3
7
2
7
–
1
–
3
–
–
5
–
88
–
8
3
4
1
6
–
5
–
2
–
–
6
–
89
–
8
5
6
1
7
–
3
–
3
–
–
2
–
90
–
7
5
8
2
5
–
3
–
1
–
–
4
–
91
–
8
9
7
2
5
–
4
5
3
–
–
1
–
92
–
4
9
6
1
5
–
7
7
2
–
–
3
–
93
a
9
6
4
2
1
–
8
7
2
–
–
5
–
94
6
1
9
10
2
7
–
8
4
3
–
–
5
–
95
10
1
2
8
4
7
–
5
5
2
–
–
9
–
96
9
1
3
7
2
4
–
4
8
6
–
–
10
–
97
9
4
4
10
1
6
–
1
3
7
–
–
8
–
98
9
3
8
7
6
5
–
1
4
2
–
–
–
–
99 2000 01
6
7
9
2
5
4
3
9
6
8
10
8
5
6
3
9
8
10
–
4
7
1
2
1
7
3
2
4
1
5
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
02
6
4
1
10
3
9
6
6
2
5
–
–
–
–
03
10
1
7
9
2
5
2
4
6
8
–
–
–
–
Team
Alaska Anchorage
Colorado College
Denver
Michigan Tech
Minnesota
Minnesota Duluth
Minnesota State
North Dakota
St. Cloud State
Wisconsin
06
10
4
2
8
1
9
7
4
6
2
07
10
5
4
T6
1
9
8
3
2
T6
08
10
1
3
9
7
8
T4
2
T4
6
09
9
T3
2
10
5
7
8
1
6
T3
2004
8
7
4
10
4
2
9
1
6
3
05
7
1
1
10
3
6
8
5
9
3
74
9
3
1
2
6
10
5
7
4
8
a - affiliate member; * left WCHA after 1980-81 season; ^ left WCHA after 1981 season but returned with 1984-85 season; + left WCHA after 1996-97 season
108
2009-10 wcha men’s yearbook
history of the wcha
season summaries • 1951-2008
tony frasca • cc
john mayasich • um
jim mattson • um
T
he history of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association dates to 1951, when the forerunner
of the WCHA was first formed as the Midwest Collegiate Hockey League, or MCHL, with
seven original members in Colorado College, Denver, Michigan, Michigan State, Michigan
Tech, Minnesota and North Dakota.
The MCHL was then re-christened the Western Intercollegiate Hockey League, or WIHL,
beginning with the 1953-54 season.
In 1958-59, the WIHL disbanded for one season and then was reformed as the Western
Collegiate Hockey Association, or WCHA, beginning with the 1959-60 campaign.
The first expansion of the WCHA came with the 1965-66 season with the inclusion of Minnesota Duluth as the eighth member.
In 1969-70, Wisconsin was added to the WCHA membership to bring the total number of teams
to nine, followed by Notre Dame as the 10th member school for the 1971-72 campaign.
Following the 1980-81 season, Michigan, Michigan State, Michigan Tech and Notre Dame
left the WCHA for membership in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA), leaving
the WCHA with just six teams for the next three years.
Michigan Tech then rejoined the WCHA as of the 1984-85 season and Northern Michigan
was added as a new member to bring the total number of teams back to eight.
For the 1990-91 season, the WCHA added a ninth member in St. Cloud State, followed by
the admittance of Alaska Anchorage for 1993-94.
After the 1997-98 season, Northern Michigan left the WCHA to join the CCHA, and Mankato
State University (now Minnesota State University, Mankato) was granted membership as the
10th team for the 1999-2000 season.
1951-52 mchl standings
Rk
1
2
4
5
6
7
Team (Overall/Pct.)
Colorado College (19-5-1/.780)
Denver (18-6-1/.740)
Michigan (22-4-0/.846)
North Dakota (13-11-1/.540)
Minnesota (13-13-0/.500)
Michigan State (7-13-0/.350) Michigan Tech (2-18-0/.100)
GP
12
12
12
12
12
12
12
W
10
9
9
6
5
3
0
L
2
3
3
6
7
9
12
T
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Pts
20
18
18
12
10
6
0
phil hilton • cc
bill reichart • und
doug silverberg • cc
1953-54 wihl standings
Rk Team (Overall/Pct.)
GP
W
L
T
Pts
GF
GA
1 Minnesota (23-6-1/.783)
20
16
3
1
20 1/2
117
61
2 Michigan (15-6-2/.696)
16
12
3
1
18 1/2
83
54
3 North Dakota (14-12-1/.537)
16
9
6
1
14 1/2
70
47
4 Denver (16-9-0/.640)
14
7
7
0
11
74
71
Colorado College (14-9-1/.604)
14
6
8
0
11
48
58
6 Michigan State (8-14-1/.370)
18
4
13
1
6 1/2
56
69
7 Michigan Tech (7-17-1/.300)
18
2
16
0
2
36
114
Note: All games played by league members counted in the standings. When teams played each other twice,
two points were awarded for a win, one point for a tie. When teams met each other four times, one point was
awarded for a win, one-half point for a tie. Maximum 24 points available.
WIHL/WCHA Champion: Minnesota. NCAA 2nd Place: Minnesota. WIHL/WCHA Scoring Champion (all
games): John Mayasich, F, UM (28 gp, 29-49–78). WIHL/WCHA Goaltending Champion (all games): Jim
Mattson, UM (26 gp, 2.76 gaa). Denver Post All-WIHL/WCHA First Team: G - Jim Mattson, UM; D - Jim Haas,
Michigan; D - Ken Yackel, UM; F - Ben Cherski, UND; F - Dick Dougherty, UM; F - John Mayasich, UM. Denver
Post All-WIHL/WCHA Second Team: G - Gerald ‘Spike’ Schultz, UND; D - Bill Abbott, DU; D - Phil Hilton, CC; F
- Jack Smith, DU; F - Bill MacFarland, Michigan; F - George Chin, Michigan; F - Doug Mullen, Michigan. First Team
All-Americans: G - Gerald ‘Spike’ Schultz, UND; D - Ken Yackel, UM; F - John Mayasich, UM; F - Dick Dougherty,
UM; F - Ben Cherski, UND. Second Team All-Americans: D - Jim Haas, Michigan.
1954-55 wihl standings
Rk Team (Overall/Pct.)
GP
W
L
T
Pct
Pts
GF
GA
1 Colorado College (22-6-0/.786)
18
14
4
0
.778
19
73
48
2 Michigan (18-5-1/.771)
18
13
5
0
.722
16
78
55
3 Minnesota (16-12-2/.567)
24
10
12
2
.458
11
98
96
4 Michigan Tech (12-13-1/.481)
20
8
11
1
.425
10 1/2
72
68
Denver (18-11-1/.617)
18
8
9
1
.472
10 1/2
83
68
6 North Dakota (14-13-1/.518)
22
9
12
1
.432
9 1/2
63
100
7 Michigan State (9-17-1/.352)
20
5
14
1
.275
7 1/2
62
94
Note: All games played between league members counted in the standings. When teams played each other
twice, two points were awarded for a win, one point for a tie. When teams met each other four times, one point
was awarded for a win, one-half point for a tie. Maximum of 24 points available.
MCHL/WCHA Champion: Colorado College. NCAA Champion: Michigan. NCAA 2nd Place: Colorado College. MCHL/WCHA Scoring Champion (all games): Ron Hartwell, F, CC (23 gp, 40-27–67). MCHL/WCHA
Goaltending Champion (all games): Willard Ikola, Michigan (26 gp, 2.66 gaa). Denver Post All-MCHL/WCHA
First Team: G - Ken Kinsley, CC; D - Eddie Miller, DU; D - Don Burgess, DU; F - Tony Frasca, CC; F - Ron Hartwell,
CC; F - Omer Brandt, CC. Denver Post All-MCHL/WCHA Second Team: G - Willard Ikola, Michigan; D - Joe
deBastiani, MTU; D - Elwood Shell, UND; F - John Mayasich, UM; F - John McKennell, Michigan; F - Bill Abbott,
DU. First Team All-Americans: D - Eddie Miller, DU; F - Tony Frasca, CC; F - Ron Hartwell, CC. Second Team
All-Americans: G - Ken Kinsley, CC; D - Joe deBastiani, MTU; D - Jim Haas, Michigan; F - John Mayasich, UM; F
- Ben Cherski, UND; F - Omer Brandt, CC.
WIHL/WCHA Champion: Colorado College. NCAA Champion: Michigan. NCAA 2nd Place: Colorado College.
WIHL/WCHA Scoring Champion (all games): John Mayasich, F, UM (30 gp, 41-39–80). WIHL/WCHA Goaltending Champion (all games): Jeff Simus, CC (24 gp, 2.92 gaa). Denver Post All-WIHL/WCHA First Team: G
- Bob McManus, MTU; D - Phil Hilton, CC; D - Ken Yackel, UM; F - Clare Smith, CC; F - Bill Reichart, UND; F - John
Mayasich, UM. Denver Post All-WIHL/WCHA Second Team: G - Jeff Simus, CC; D - Bill Abbott, DU; D - Bob
Schiller, Michigan; D - Doug Silverberg, CC; F - Jack Smith, DU; F - Bill MacFarland, Michigan; F - Bunt Hubchik,
CC; F - Jack McManus, MTU. First Team All-Americans: D - Phil Hilton, CC; D - Ken Yackel, UM; F - John Mayasich,
UM; F - Clare Smith, CC. Second Team All-Americans: D - Doug Silverberg, CC; F - Bill Reichart, UND.
1952-53 mchl standings
1955-56 wihl standings
Rk
1
3
4
5
6
7
Team (Overall/Pct.)
Minnesota (23-6-0/.793)
Michigan (17-7-0/.708)
North Dakota (15-5-0/.750)
Denver (17-6-1/.729)
Colorado College (9-11-0/.450)
Michigan Tech (6-13-0/.316)
Michigan State (5-16-1/.250)
GP
20
16
16
16
14
16
18
W
16
12
11
10
4
3
2
L
4
4
5
6
10
13
16
T
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Pts
19
19
17
15
8
4
2
MCHL/WCHA Champion(s): Minnesota, Michigan. NCAA Champion: Michigan. NCAA 2nd Place: Minnesota.
MCHL/WCHA Scoring Champion (all games): John Mayasich, F, UM (27gp, 42-36–78). MCHL/WCHA Goaltending Champion (all games): Jim Mattson, UM (27 gp, 2.36 gaa). Denver Post All-MCHL/WCHA First Team: G
- Jim Mattson, UM; D - Eddie Miller, DU; D - Tom Wegleitner, UM; F - Ben Cherski, UND; F - Dick Dougherty, UM;
F - John Mayasich, UM. Denver Post All-MCHL/WCHA Second Team: G - Willard Ikola, Michigan; D - Elwood
Shell, UND; D - Alex MacLellan, Michigan; F - Gene Campbell, UM; F - John Matchefts, Michigan; F - Bill Abbott,
DU; F - Joe deBastiani, MTU. First Team All-Americans: G - Jim Mattson, UM; D - Alex MacLellan, Michigan; D
- Bob Monahan, MTU; F - John Mayasich, UM; Ben Cherski, UND.
Rk Team (Overall/Pct.)
GP
W
L
T
Pct
Pts
GF
GA
1 Michigan (20-2-1/.891)
18
15
2
1
.858
19
80
37
2 Michigan Tech (21-7-0/.750)
20
14
6
0
.700
17
82
61
3 Colorado College (17-11-0/.607)
18
10
8
0
.556
14
72
66
4 Minnesota (16-12-1/.569)
22
11
10
1
.523
12
63
60
5 North Dakota (11-16-1/.411)
20
7
13
0
.350
10
67
93
Denver (12-11-3/.519)
16
6
8
2
.438
10
58
58
7 Michigan State (5-18-0/.217)
18
1
17
0
.056
2
35
82
Note: All games played between league members counted in the standings. When teams played each other
twice, two points were awarded for a win, one point for a tie. When teams met each other four times, one point
was awarded for a win, one-half point for a tie. Maximum of 24 points available.
WIHL/WCHA Champion: Michigan. NCAA Champion: Michigan. NCAA 2nd Place: Michigan Tech. WIHL/WCHA
Scoring Champion (all games): John Andrews, F, CC (27 gp, 27-25–52). WIHL/WCHA Goaltending Champion
(all games): Lorne Howes, Michigan (22 gp, 1.95 gaa). Denver Post All-WIHL/WCHA First Team: G - Lorne
Howes, Michigan; D - Doug Silverberg, CC; D - Ken Yackel, UM; F - Jack McManus, MTU; F - Bill Reichart, UND;
F - Bill MacFarland, Michigan. Denver Post All-WIHL/WCHA Second Team: G - Bob McManus, MTU; D - Bob
109
2009-10 wcha men’s yearbook
history of the wcha
season summaries con’t
bill ‘red’ hay • cC
lorne howes • michigan
bill masterton • du
Pitts, Michigan; D - Ed Zemrau, DU; F - Clare Smith, CC; F - Tom Rendall, Michigan; F - John Andrews, CC. First
Team All-Americans: G - Lorne Howes, Michigan; D - Bob Schiller, Michigan; D - Doug Silverberg, CC; F - Bill
MacFarland, Michigan. Second Team All-Americans: F - Jack McManus, MTU; F - Ken Yackel, UM.
1956-57 wihl standings
Rk Team (Overall/Pct.)
GP
W
L
T
Pct
Pts
GF
GA
1 Colorado College (25-5-0/.833)
18
14
4
0
.778
19
93
69
2 Michigan (18-5-2/.760)
18
13
4
1
.750
16 1/2
76
55
3 North Dakota (18-11-0/.621)
22
13
9
0
.591
13
82
72
4 Michigan Tech (14-9-5/.589)
20
8
8
4
.500
12 1/2
80
76
5 Denver (12-14-2/.464)
18
6
11
1
.361
9
64
74
6 Minnesota (12-15-2/.448)
24
7
15
2
.333
8
69
92
7 Michigan State (7-15-0/.318)
20
5
15
0
.250
6
42
68
Note: All games played between league members counted in the standings. When teams played each other
twice, two points were awarded for a win, one point for a tie. When teams met each other four times, one point
was awarded for a win, one-half point for a tie. Maximum 24 points available.
WIHL/WCHA Champion: Colorado College. NCAA Champion: Colorado College. NCAA 2nd Place: Michigan.
WIHL/WCHA Scoring Champion: Bill Reichart, F, UND (22 gp, 24-16–40). WIHL/WCHA Goaltending Champion:
Ross Childs, Michigan (11 gp, 2.73 gaa). Denver Post All-WIHL/WCHA First Team: G - Jack McCartan, UM; D
- Don Wishart, CC; D - Bill Steenson, UND; F - Bob McCusker, CC; F - Bill Reichart, UND; F - Bill ‘Red’ Hay, CC. Denver
Post All-WIHL/WCHA Second Team: G - Tom Yurkovich, UND; D - Bob Schiller, Michigan; D - Bob Pitts, Michigan;
F - Tom Kennedy, MTU; F - Tom Rendall, Michigan; F - Jack McManus, MTU. First Team All-Americans: G - Jack
McCartan, UM; D - Don Wishart, CC; F - Bill ‘Red’ Hay, CC; F - Bill Reichart, UND. Second Team All-Americans:
D - Jack Petroske, UM; D - Bill Steenson, UND; F - Bob McCusker, CC.
1957-58 wihl standings
Rk Team (Overall/Pct.)
GP
W
L
T
Pct.
Pts
GF
GA
1 North Dakota (24-7-1/.766)
20
15
5
0
.750
16
87
60
Denver (24-10-2/.694)
22
12
10
0
.545
16
74
80
3 Colorado College (17-12-1/.583)
20
11
9
0
.550
15
97
74
4 Minnesota (16-11-0/.593)
24
13
11
0
.542
13
90
81
5 Michigan State (12-11-0/.522)
20
9
11
0
.450
10
57
68
6 Michigan (8-13-0/.381)
18
7
11
0
.389
9
53
63
7 Michigan Tech (11-16-1/.411)
20
5
15
0
.250
5
50
80
Note: All games played between league members counted in the standings. When teams played each other
twice, two points were awarded for a win, one for a tie. When teams met each other four times, one point was
awarded for a win, one-half for a tie. When teams met eight times (Denver and CC), one-half point was awarded
for a win, and one-fourth point for a tie.
WIHL/WCHA co-Champions: North Dakota, Denver. NCAA Champion: Denver. NCAA 2nd Place: North
Dakota. WIHL/WCHA Scoring Champion: Bill ‘Red’ Hay, F, CC (16 gp, 16-32–48). WIHL/WCHA Goaltending
Champion: Bob Peabody, UND (15 gp, 3.13 gaa). Denver Post All-WIHL/WCHA First Team: G - Jack McCartan, UM; D - Ed Zemrau, DU; D - Bill Steenson, UND; F - Bob McCusker, CC; F - Ike Scott, CC; F - Bill ‘Red’ Hay,
CC. Denver Post All-WIHL/WCHA Second Team: G - Joe Selinger, Michigan State; D - Mike Pearson, UM; D
- Bob Watt, Michigan; F - Murray Massier, DU; F - Jim Ridley, UND; F - Dick Burg, UM. All-Americans: G - Jack
McCartan, UM; D - Bill Steenson, UND; D - Ed Zemrau, DU; F - Dick Burg, UM; F - Bill ‘Red’ Hay, CC; F - Bob McCusker, CC; F - Bob White, Michigan.
1958-59 • no league play
Note: The Western Intercollegiate Hockey League (forerunner of the WCHA) disbanded in March, 1958 for one
year, and thus there was no formal league play. However, most of the WIHL/WCHA teams still played homeand-home schedules. North Dakota and Michigan State earned trips to the NCAA Championship.
The seven original WIHL teams then resumed formal league competition in 1959-60 under the new name
of Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA). Listed here are the 1958-59 overall records for the teams
that were in the WIHL in 1957-58 and went on to form the WCHA in 1959-60: Denver (22-5-1/.804); Michigan
State (17-6-1/.729); North Dakota (20-10-1/.661); Michigan Tech (16-10-1/.611); Minnesota (12-10-2/.542);
Michigan (8-13-1/.386); Colorado College (6-14-3/.326).
NCAA Champion: North Dakota. NCAA 2nd Place: Michigan State. All-Americans: G - Joe Selinger, Michigan State; D - Bill Steenson, UND; D - Bob Watt, Michigan; F - John Kosiancic, MTU; F - Bob White, Michigan;
F - Murray Williamson, UM.
110
marty howe • du
george konik • dU
reg morelli • und
1959-60 wcha standings
Rk
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Team (Overall/Pct.)
Denver (27-4-3/.838)
Michigan Tech (21-10-1/.672)
North Dakota (19-11-2/.625)
Colorado College (8-17-1/.327)
Michigan (12-12-0/.500)
Minnesota (9-16-2/.370)
Michigan State (4-18-2/.208)
GP
22
22
22
20
18
24
24
W
17
15
14
8
7
8
4
L
4
6
7
12
11
15
18
T
1
1
1
0
0
1
2
Pct
.795
.705
.659
.400
.389
.354
.208
GF
128
107
93
72
63
102
53
GA
55
72
80
101
71
109
130
WCHA Champion: Denver. WCHA Playoff Champions: Denver, Michigan Tech. NCAA Champion: Denver.
NCAA 2nd Place: Michigan Tech. WCHA Scoring Champion: Bill Masterton, F, DU (17 gp, 17-27–44). WCHA
Goaltending Champion: George Kirkwood, DU (22 gp, 2.32 gaa). WCHA Most Valuable Player: None Selected.
WCHA Sophomore(s) of the Year: Lou Angotti, F, MTU; George Kirkwood, G, DU. WCHA Coach of the Year:
John MacInnes, MTU. Denver Post All-WCHA First Team: G - George Kirkwood, DU; D - Henry Akervall, MTU; D
- Marty Howe, DU; F - John Kosiancic, MTU; F - Bill Masterton, DU; F - Reg Morelli, UND. Denver Post All-WCHA
Second Team: G - George Cuculick, MTU; D - George Konik, DU; D - Guy LaFrance, UND; F - Paul Coppo, MTU; F
- John MacMillan, DU; F - Gerald Fabbro, MTU. All-Americans: G - George Cuculick, MTU; D - Marty Howe, DU;
D - George Konik, DU; F - Paul Coppo, MTU; F - Reg Morelli, UND; F - Bill Masterton, DU.
1960-61 wcha standings
Rk
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Team (Overall/Pct.)
Denver (30-1-1/.953)
Minnesota (17-11-1/.603)
Michigan (16-10-2/.607)
Michigan Tech (16-13-0/.552)
North Dakota (9-19-1/.328)
Michigan State (11-16-0/.407)
Colorado College (4-20-0/.167)
GP
18
20
24
24
24
20
22
W
17
14
15
13
7
5
4
L
1
6
8
11
16
15
18
T
0
0
1
0
1
0
0
Pct
.944
.700
.646
.542
.313
.250
.182
GF
127
100
97
92
81
55
68
GA
31
68
79
58
133
90
161
WCHA Champion: Denver. WCHA Playoff Champions: Denver, Minnesota. NCAA Champion: Denver. WCHA
Scoring Champion: Jerry Walker, F, DU (18 gp, 29-15–44). WCHA Goaltending Champion: George Kirkwood,
DU (18 gp, 1.72 gaa). WCHA Most Valuable Player: Jerry Walker, F, DU. WCHA Sophomore of the Year: Jack
Wilson, D, DU. WCHA Coach of the Year: Murray Armstrong, DU. Denver Post All-WCHA First Team: G - George
Kirkwood, DU; D - George Konik, DU; D - Marty Howe, DU; F - Jerry Walker, DU; F - Bill Masterton, DU; F - Gordon
‘Red’ Berenson, Michigan. Denver Post All-WCHA Second Team: G - Bill Rowe, MTU; D - Henry Akervall, MTU; D
- John Palenstein, Michigan; F - Jerry Sullivan, MTU; F - Bill Colpitts, UND; F - Lou Angotti, MTU. All-Americans:
G - George Kirkwood, DU; D - Marty Howe, DU; D - Grant Munro, DU; F - Gordon ‘Red’ Berenson, Michigan; F
- Bill Masterton, DU; F - Jerry Walker, DU.
1961-62 wcha standings
Rk
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Team (Overall/Pct.)
Michigan Tech (29-3-0/.906)
Michigan (22-5-0/.815)
Denver (17-11-2/.600)
Michigan State (13-11-1/.540)
North Dakota (9-17-0/.346)
Minnesota (9-10-2/.476)
Colorado College (0-23-0/.000)
GP
20
18
18
16
18
16
18
W
17
15
11
6
7
5
0
L
3
3
7
9
11
10
18
T
0
0
0
1
0
1
0
Pct
.850
.833
.611
.406
.389
.344
.000
GF
101
95
83
57
62
69
56
GA
58
48
71
71
71
61
143
WCHA Champion: Michigan Tech. WCHA Playoff Champion: Michigan Tech. NCAA Champion: Michigan
Tech. WCHA Scoring Champion: Gordon ‘Red’ Berenson, F, Michigan (18 gp, 24-17-41). WCHA Goaltending
Champion(s): Dave Butts, Michigan (9 gp, 2.67 gaa); Bob Gray, Michigan (9 gp, 2.67 gaa). WCHA Most Valuable
Player: Gordon ‘Red’ Berenson, F, Michigan. WCHA Sophomore of the Year: Gordon Wilkie, F, Michigan. WCHA
Coach of the Year: John MacInnes, MTU. Denver Post All-WCHA First Team: G - Garry Bauman, MTU; D - Jack
Wilson, DU; D - Henry Akervall, MTU; F - Lou Angotti, MTU; F - Jerry Sullivan, MTU; F - Gordon ‘Red’ Berenson,
Michigan. Denver Post All-WCHA Second Team: G - Bob Gray, Michigan; D - Don Rodgers, Michigan; D - Elov
Seger, MTU; F - Gordon Wilkie, Michigan; F - Trent Beatty, DU; F - Gene Rebellato, MTU. All-Americans: G - John
Chandik, Michigan State; D - Henry Akervall, MTU; D - Elov Seger, MTU; F - Lou Angotti, MTU; F - Gordon ‘Red’
Berenson, Michigan; F - Jerry Sullivan, MTU.
2009-10 wcha men’s yearbook
history of the wcha
red berenson • michigan
don ross • und
doug volmar • michigan state
1962-63 wcha standings
Rk
1
3
4
5
7
Team (Overall/Pct.)
Denver (23-9-1/.712)
North Dakota (22-7-3/.734)
Michigan Tech (17-10-2/.621)
Minnesota (16-7-4/.667)
Colorado College (12-11-0/.522)
Michigan St ate (11-12-0/.478)
Michigan (7-14-3/.354)
GP
18
18
20
20
16
16
20
W
12
11
11
10
6
6
3
L
6
5
7
7
10
10
14
T
0
2
2
3
0
0
3
Pct
.667
.667
.600
.575
.375
.375
.225
GF
77
76
68
87
70
60
62
GA
54
62
53
67
91
90
89
1963-64 wcha standings
Team (Overall/Pct.)
Michigan (24-4-1/.845)
Denver (20-7-4/.710)
Minnesota (14-11-0/.560)
Michigan Tech (14-12-1/.537)
North Dakota (12-11-2/.520)
Colorado College (11-14-1/.442)
Michigan State (8-17-1/.327)
GP
14
10
16
16
14
16
14
W
12
7
10
9
5
4
1
L
2
2
6
7
8
11
12
T
0
1
0
0
1
1
1
Pct
.857
.750
.625
.563
.393
.281
.107
GF
90
33
65
57
37
57
42
GA
37
17
65
47
41
84
90
WCHA Champion: Michigan. WCHA Playoff Champion: Denver. NCAA Champion: Michigan. NCAA 2nd
Place: Denver. WCHA Scoring Champion: Gordon Wilkie, F, Michigan (14 gp, 8-22–30). WCHA Goaltending
Champion: Buddy Blom, DU (10 gp, 1.70 gaa). WCHA Most Valuable Player: None Selected. WCHA Sophomore of the Year: Tom Polonic, D, Michigan. WCHA Coach of the Year: Al Renfrew, Michigan. Denver Post
All-WCHA First Team: G - Garry Bauman, MTU; D - Tom Polonic, Michigan; D - Norm Wimmer, MTU; F - John
Simus, CC; F - Gary Butler, Michigan; F - Gordon Wilkie, Michigan; F - Bill Staub, DU. Denver Post All-WCHA
Second Team: G - Buddy Blom, DU; D - Carl Lackey, Michigan State; D - Jim Kenning, DU; D - Wayne Smith,
DU; F - George Hill, MTU; F - Scott Watson, MTU; F - Craig Falkman, UM. All-Americans: G - Garry Bauman,
MTU; D - Carl Lackey, Michigan State; D - Tom Polonic, Michigan; F - Craig Falkman, UM; F - John Simus, CC; F
- Gordon Wilkie, Michigan.
1964-65 wcha standings
Rk
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Team (Overall/Pct.)
North Dakota (25-8-0/.758)
Michigan Tech (24-5-2/.806)
Minnesota (14-12-2/.536)
Michigan State (17-12-0/.586)
Michigan (13-12-1/.519)
Denver (18-8-2/.679)
Colorado College (7-17-1/.300)
GP
16
18
18
14
18
12
16
bob collyard • cc
george lyle • mtu
1965-66 wcha standings
WCHA co-Champions: Denver, North Dakota. WCHA Playoff Champion: Denver. NCAA Champion: North
Dakota. NCAA 2nd Place: Denver. WCHA Scoring Champion: Lou Nanne, D, UM (20 gp, 9-23–32). WCHA
Goaltending Champion: Garry Bauman, MTU (20 gp, 2.65 gaa). WCHA Most Valuable Player: Lou Nanne, D,
UM. WCHA Sophomore of the Year: George Hill, F, MTU. WCHA Coach of the Year: Barry Thorndycraft, UND.
Denver Post All-WCHA First Team: G - Garry Bauman, MTU; D - Don Ross, UND; D - Lou Nanne, UM; F - George
Hill, MTU; F - Gary Butler, Michigan; F - Dave Merrifield, UND; F - Bill Staub, DU. Denver Post All-WCHA Second
Team: G - Joe Lech, UND; D - Jack Wilson, DU; D - Gary Begg, MTU; F - Al McLean, UND; F - John Ivanitz, MTU;
F - Dominic Fragomeni, DU. All-Americans: G - Garry Bauman, MTU; D - Lou Nanne, UM; D - Don Ross, UND; F
- George Hill, MTU; F - Al McLean, UND; F - Dave Merrifield, UND; F - Bill Staub, DU.
Rk
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
keith magnuson • du
W
13
12
10
7
7
4
2
L
3
5
8
7
11
7
14
T
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
Pct
.813
.694
.556
.500
.389
.375
.125
GF
75
78
86
69
68
34
51
GA
48
47
78
61
94
37
96
WCHA Champion: North Dakota. WCHA Playoff Champion: Michigan Tech. NCAA Champion: Michigan
Tech. WCHA Scoring Champion: Mel Wakabayashi, F, Michigan (18 gp, 13-17–30). WCHA Goaltending
Champion: Tony Esposito, MTU (10 gp, 2.00 gaa). WCHA Most Valuable Player: Gerry Kell, F, UND. WCHA
Sophomore of the Year: Gary Milroy, F, MTU. WCHA Coach of the Year: R.H. ‘Bob’ Peters, UND. Denver Post
All-WCHA First Team: G - Tony Esposito, MTU; D - Wayne Smith, DU; D - Don Ross, UND; F - Doug Woog, UM;
F - Mel Wakabayashi, Michigan; F - Gerry Kell, UND. Denver Post All-WCHA Second Team: G - Joe Lech, UND;
D - Tom Polonic, Michigan; D - Dennis Huculak, MTU; F - Doug Roberts, Michigan State; F - Gary Milroy, MTU;
F - Dennis Hextall, UND. All-Americans: G - Tony Esposito, MTU; D - Don Ross, UND; D - Wayne Smith, DU; F
- Doug Roberts, Michigan State; F - Mel Wakabayashi, Michigan; F - Doug Woog, UM.
Rk
1
2
4
5
6
7
8
Team (Overall/Pct.)
Michigan Tech (23-6-1/.783)
North Dakota (17-12-1/.583)
Minnesota (16-11-0/.593)
Denver (18-11-3/.609)
Michigan (14-14-0/.500)
Michigan State (16-13-0/.552)
Colorado College (9-18-2/.345) Minnesota Duluth (7-19-2/.286)
GP
20
22
22
20
18
20
18
20
W
15
13
13
10
9
9
4
3
L
4
9
9
7
9
11
12
15
T
1
0
0
3
0
0
2
2
Pct
.775
.591
.591
.575
.500
.450
.278
.200
GF
77
97
92
81
74
88
51
60
GA
48
85
76
61
72
85
93
100
WCHA Champion: Michigan Tech. WCHA Playoff Champions: Michigan State, Denver. NCAA Champion: Michigan State. WCHA Scoring Champion: Doug Volmar, F, Michigan State (20 gp, 18-23–41). WCHA Goaltending
Champion: Tony Esposito, MTU (12 gp, 2.0 gaa). WCHA Most Valuable Player: Mel Wakabayashi, F, Michigan.
WCHA Sophomore of the Year: Gary Gambucci, F, UM. WCHA Coach of the Year: John MacInnes, MTU. Denver
Post All-WCHA First Team: G - Tony Esposito, MTU; D - Bruce Riutta, MTU; D - Wayne Smith, DU; F - Dennis
Hextall, UND; F - Terry Casey, UND; F - Doug Volmar, Michigan State. Denver Post All-WCHA Second Team: G
- John Lothrop, UM; D - Bob Hill, UMD; D - Dennis Huculak, MTU; F - Gary Gambucci, UM; F - Mel Wakabayashi,
Michigan; F - Wayne Weller, MTU. All-Americans: G - Tony Esposito, MTU; D - Bob Hill, UMD; D - Bruce Riutta,
MTU; D - Wayne Smith, DU; F - Terry Casey, UND; F - Bob Lindberg, CC; F - Doug Volmar, Michigan State.
1966-67 wcha standings
Rk
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Team (Overall/Pct.)
North Dakota (19-10-0/.655)
Denver (22-8-0/.733)
Michigan Tech (18-11-1/.617)
Michigan (19-7-2/.714)
Michigan State (16-15-1/.516)
Minnesota Duluth (12-16-0/.429)
Colorado College (15-13-1/.534)
Minnesota (9-19-1/.328)
GP
22
16
22
18
20
23
18
23
W
16
11
14
11
8
8
6
5
L
6
5
7
6
11
15
12
17
T
0
0
1
1
1
0
0
1
Pct
.727
.688
.659
.639
.425
.348
.333
.239
GF
84
75
96
82
72
90
55
88
GA
70
47
61
68
81
114
86
115
WCHA Champion: North Dakota. WCHA Playoff Champions: Michigan State, North Dakota. WCHA Scoring Champion: Keith ‘Huffer’ Christiansen, F, UMD (23 gp, 15-31–46). WCHA Goaltending Champion: Tony
Esposito, MTU (11 gp, 2.45 gaa). WCHA Most Valuable Player: Keith ‘Huffer’ Christiansen, F, UMD. WCHA
Sophomore(s) of the Year: Keith Magnuson, D, DU; Bob Munro, F, UND. WCHA Coach of the Year: Bill Selman,
UND. Denver Post All-WCHA First Team: G - Tony Esposito, MTU; D - Jerry Lafond, UND; D - Keith Magnuson,
DU; F - Tom Mikkola, Michigan State; F - Jim Wiste, DU; F - Keith ‘Huffer’ Christiansen, UMD. Denver Post AllWCHA Second Team: G - Rick Best, MTU; D - Bruce Riutta, MTU; D - Paul Domm, Michigan; F - Bob Lindberg,
CC; F - Gary Milroy, MTU; F - Bob Toothill, MTU. All-Americans: G - Rick Best, MTU; G - Tony Esposito, MTU; D
- Jerry Lafond, UND; D - Bruce Riutta, MTU; F - Keith ‘Huffer’ Christiansen, UMD; F - Bob Lindberg, CC; F - Gary
Milroy, MTU; F - Jim Wiste, DU.
1967-68 wcha standings
Rk
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Team (Overall/Pct.)
Denver (28-5-1/.838)
Michigan Tech (22-9-1/.703)
North Dakota (20-10-3/.652)
Michigan (18-9-0/.667)
Minnesota (19-12-0/.613)
Michigan State (11-16-2/.414)
Colorado College (9-20-0/.310)
Minnesota Duluth (5-23-0/.179)
GP
18
20
22
18
22
20
20
24
W
15
15
13
11
13
6
4
4
L
3
5
8
7
9
13
16
20
T
0
0
1
0
0
1
0
0
Pct
.833
.750
.614
.611
.591
.325
.200
.167
GF
84
76
78
83
98
57
40
54
GA
32
47
57
60
71
82
106
109
WCHA Champion: Denver. WCHA Playoff Champions: Denver, North Dakota. NCAA Champion: Denver.
NCAA 2nd Place: North Dakota. WCHA Scoring Champion: Bill Klatt, F, UM (22 gp, 18-12–30). WCHA Goaltending Champion: Gerry Powers, DU (18 gp, 1.78 gaa). WCHA Most Valuable Player: Keith Magnuson, D,
DU. WCHA Sophomore of the Year: Murray McLachlan, G, UM. WCHA Coach of the Year: Murray Armstrong,
DU. Denver Post All-WCHA First Team: G - Mike Curran, UND; D - Terry Abram, UND; D - Keith Magnuson,
DU; F - Gary Gambucci, UM; F - Jim Wiste, DU; F - Bob Munro, UND. Denver Post All-WCHA Second Team: G
- Gerry Powers, DU; D - Dick Sieradzki, MTU; D - Dick Paradise, UM; F - Al Karlander, MTU; F - Cliff Koroll, DU; F
- Bill Klatt, UM. All-Americans: G - Jim Keough, Michigan; D - Terry Abram, UND; D - Keith Magnuson, DU; F
- Gary Gambucci, UM; F - Bob Munro, UND; F - Jim Wiste, DU.
111
2009-10 wcha men’s yearbook
history of the wcha
season summaries con’t
ron grahame • du
tom ross • michigan state
brian walsh • notre dame
1968-69 wcha standings
Rk
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Team (Overall/Pct.)
Michigan Tech (21-9-2/.688)
Denver (26-6-0/.813)
North Dakota (18-10-1/.638)
Michigan (16-12-0/.571)
Minnesota (14-13-3/.517)
Michigan State (11-16-1/.411)
Colorado College (12-16-0/.429)
Minnesota Duluth (6-23-0/.207)
GP
20
20
22
18
22
18
18
22
W
14
14
15
10
11
7
4
3
L
5
6
7
8
9
10
14
19
T
1
0
0
0
2
1
0
0
Pct
.725
.700
.682
.556
.545
.417
.222
.136
GF
86
94
97
75
74
51
47
64
GA
56
50
89
63
60
57
94
119
1969-70 wcha standings
Team (Overall/Pct.)
Minnesota (21-12-0/.636)
Denver (21-10-1/.672)
Michigan Tech (19-12-3/.603)
Wisconsin (23-11-0/.676)
North Dakota (14-15-1/.483)
Michigan (14-16-0/.467)
Michigan State (13-16-0/.448)
Minnesota Duluth (13-15-1/.466)
Colorado College (7-22-1/.250)
GP
26
22
22
22
26
24
22
24
20
W
18
13
12
12
12
11
10
10
3
L
8
8
7
10
13
13
12
13
17
T
0
1
3
0
1
0
0
1
0
Pct
.692
.614
.614
.545
.481
.458
.455
.438
.150
GF
106
96
98
84
98
106
86
89
70
GA
86
78
79
72
114
104
92
93
115
WCHA Champion: Minnesota. WCHA Playoff Champions: Michigan Tech, Wisconsin. WCHA Scoring
Champion: George Morrison, F, DU (22 gp, 18-19–37). WCHA Goaltending Champion: Wayne Thomas, UW
(13 gp, 3.00 gaa). WCHA Most Valuable Player: Murray McLachlan, G, UM. WCHA Sophomore of the Year:
Don Thompson, F, Michigan State. WCHA Freshman of the Year: Murray Keogan, F, UMD. WCHA Coach of
the Year: Glen Sonmor, UM. Denver Post All-WCHA First Team: G - Murray McLachlan, UM; D - Ron Busniuk,
UMD; D - John Marks, UND; F - Bob Collyard, CC; F - Murray Keogan, UMD; F - George Morrison, DU. Denver
Post All-WCHA Second Team: G - Wayne Thomas, UW; D - Wally Olds, UM; D - John Jagger, UW; F - Tom Gilmore,
DU; F - Murray Heatley, UW; F - Bernie Gagnon, Michigan. All-Americans: G - Murray McLachlan, UM; D - Ron
Busniuk, UMD; D - John Jagger, UW; D - John Marks, UND; D - Wally Olds, UM; F - Bob Collyard, CC; F - Murray
Keogan, UMD; F - George Morrison, DU.
1970-71 wcha standings
Rk
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Team (Overall/Pct.)
Michigan Tech (25-6-2/.788)
Denver (25-10-1/.708)
Wisconsin (20-13-1/.603)
Michigan State (19-12-0/.613)
Minnesota (14-17-2/.455)
Minnesota Duluth (16-17-1/.485)
North Dakota (14-17-2/.455)
Colorado College (11-17-1/.397)
Michigan (9-21-0/.300)
GP
22
22
22
22
22
24
26
18
22
W
18
15
13
12
9
10
10
7
5
L
4
7
9
10
12
14
15
11
17
T
0
0
0
0
1
0
1
0
0
Pct
.818
.682
.591
.545
.432
.417
.404
.389
.227
GF
112
114
102
101
77
98
92
81
77
GA
62
92
77
97
88
106
116
100
116
WCHA Champion: Michigan Tech. WCHA Playoff Champions: Minnesota, Denver. NCAA 2nd Place: Minnesota. WCHA Scoring Champion: Vic Venasky, F, DU (22 gp, 14-25–39). WCHA Goaltending Champion: Morris
Trewin, MTU (11 gp, 2.55 gaa). WCHA Most Valuable Player: Rob Murray, D, MTU. WCHA Freshman of the
Year: Mike Usitalo, F, MTU. WCHA Coach of the Year: John MacInnes, MTU. Denver Post All-WCHA First Team:
G - Morris Trewin, MTU; D - Rob Murray, MTU; D - Mike Christie, DU; F - Bob Collyard, CC; F - Don Thompson,
Michigan State; F - Walt Ledingham, UMD. Denver Post All-WCHA Second Team: G - Glenn ‘Chico’ Resch,
UMD; D - Wally Olds, UM; D - John Jagger, UW; F - Mike Usitalo, MTU; F - Vic Venasky, DU; F - Murray Heatley,
UW. All-Americans: G - Morris Trewin, MTU; D - Mike Christie, DU; D - Rob Murray, MTU; F - Walt Ledingham,
UMD; F - Don Thompson, Michigan State; F - Vic Venasky, DU.
112
mark johnson • uw
bob iwabuchi • und
1971-72 wcha standings
WCHA Champion: Michigan Tech. WCHA Playoff Champions: Michigan Tech, Denver. NCAA Champion:
Denver. WCHA Scoring Champion: George Morrison, F, DU (20 gp, 26-13–39). WCHA Goaltending Champion:
Rick Duffett, Michigan State (10 gp, 2.40 gaa). WCHA Most Valuable Player: Murray McLachlan, G, UM. WCHA
Sophomore of the Year: George Morrison, F, DU. WCHA Coach of the Year: John Matchefts, CC. Denver
Post All-WCHA First Team: G - Murray McLachlan, UM; D - Terry Abram, UND; D - Keith Magnuson, DU; F - Al
Karlander, MTU; F - Bob Munro, UND; F - George Morrison, DU. Denver Post All-WCHA Second Team: G - Gerry
Powers, DU; D - John Marks, UND; D - Paul Domm, Michigan; F - Bob Collyard, CC; F - Tom Miller, DU; F - Dave
Kartio, UND. All-Americans: G - Rick Duffett, Michigan State; D - Keith Magnuson, DU; D - John Marks, UND; F
- Bob Collyard, CC; F - Al Karlander, MTU; F - George Morrison, DU; F - Bob Munro, UND.
Rk
1
2
4
5
6
7
8
9
mike eaves • uw
Rk
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
10
Team (Overall/Pct.)
Denver (27-11-0/.711)
Wisconsin (27-10-1/.724)
North Dakota (21-14-1/.597)
Michigan State (20-16-0/.556)
Minnesota Duluth (16-18-1/.471)
Michigan (16-18-0/.471)
Michigan Tech (16-17-1/.485)
Notre Dame (14-20-0/.412)
Colorado College (13-19-0/.406)
Minnesota (8-24-0/.250)
GP
28
28
28
28
28
28
26
26
28
28
W
19
20
18
15
15
12
11
10
11
7
L
9
8
10
13
13
16
15
16
17
21
T
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Pts
54
48
44
42
40
32
30
28
28
14
GF
148
134
130
119
129
108
120
120
140
83
GA
104
87
109
103
123
163
124
121
165
132
WCHA Champion: Denver. WCHA Playoff Champions: Denver, Wisconsin. WCHA Scoring Champion: Doug
Palazzari, F, CC (28 gp, 27-30–57). WCHA Goaltending Champion: Jim Makey, UW (21.3 gp, 3.29 gaa). WCHA
Most Valuable Player: Doug Palazzari, F, CC. WCHA Freshman of the Year: Alan Hangsleben, D, UND. WCHA
Coach of the Year: Jeff Sauer, CC. Denver Post All-WCHA First Team: G - Jim Watt, Michigan State; D - Bob
Winograd, CC; D - Alan Hangsleben, UND; F - Tom Peluso, DU; F - Doug Palazzari, CC; F - Jim Cahoon, UND.
Denver Post All-WCHA Second Team: G - Jim Makey, UW; D - Rick Wilson, UND; D - Bob Boyd, Michigan State;
F - Don Thompson, Michigan State; F - Bernie Gagnon, Michigan; F - Walt Ledingham, UMD. All-Americans:
G - Jim Watt, Michigan State; D - Jeff Rotsch, UW; D - Alan Hangsleben, UND; D - Bob Winograd, CC; F - Walt
Ledingham, UMD; F - Doug Palazzari, CC; F - Tom Peluso, DU.
1972-73 wcha standings
Rk
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Team (Overall/Pct.)
Denver (29-9-1/.756)
Notre Dame (23-14-1/.618)
Wisconsin (29-9-2/.750)
Michigan State (23-12-1/.653)
Michigan Tech (24-13-1/.645)
Minnesota (15-16-3/.485)
North Dakota (17-17-2/.500)
Minnesota Duluth (19-17-0/.528)
Colorado College (10-24-0/.294)
Michigan (6-27-1/.191)
GP
28
28
28
26
26
28
30
28
28
30
W
20
19
18
16
16
12
13
13
5
4
L
8
9
9
9
10
13
15
15
23
25
T
0
0
1
1
0
3
2
0
0
1
Pts
52
48
47
47
44
35
32
30
14
11
GF
141
150
134
132
135
94
124
123
103
116
GA
85
119
101
114
106
102
131
131
171
183
WCHA Champion: Denver. WCHA Playoff Champions: Denver, Wisconsin. NCAA Champion: Wisconsin.
NCAA 2nd Place: Denver. WCHA Scoring Champion: Eddie Bumbacco, F, Notre Dame (28 gp, 31-34–65).
WCHA Goaltending Champion: Ron Grahame, DU (27 gp, 2.93 gaa). WCHA Most Valuable Player: Ron
Grahame, G, DU. WCHA Freshman of the Year: Mike Zuke, F, MTU. WCHA Coach of the Year: Charles ‘Lefty’
Smith, Notre Dame. Denver Post All-WCHA First Team: G - Ron Grahame, DU; D - Bruce Affleck, DU; D - Bob
Boyd, Michigan State; F - Peter McNab, DU; F - Eddie Bumbacco, Notre Dame; F - Rob Palmer, DU. Denver
Post All-WCHA Second Team: G - Jim Makey, UW; D - Jim Nahrgang, MTU; D - Bill Nyrop, Notre Dame; F - Pat
Boutette, UMD; F - Norm Cherrey, UW; F - Ian Williams, Notre Dame. All-Americans: G - Ron Grahame, DU;
D - Bob Boyd, Michigan State; D - Bill Nyrop, Notre Dame; F - Pat Boutette, UMD; F - Eddie Bumbacco, Notre
Dame; F - Rob Palmer, DU.