Sports media types always try to be inventive. They look at the landscape out there, try to connect the dots and come up with something original.

So at one of his recent weekly media days, Gophers coach Don Lucia was asked about the MacNaughton Cup curse? Don't remember exactly what The Don's answer but did check out the facts.

Turns out the inquiring media member was right about the Cup being a liability, at least in recent years, when it comes to winning the NCAA title.

In the past 20 years, only one outright regular-season WCHA champion wenr on to win the NCAA title. That was Northern Michigan in 1991.

Two WCHA co-champions have won the national championship the same year the past two decades, North Dakota in 1997 and Denver in 2005. That's it.

But if there is a "curse" now, it didn't seem to exist in the first 38 years of the WCHA. Sixteen MacNaughton Cup champions -- or co-champions -- went on to win NCAA titles the same season from 1953 to '91. So it happened almost every other year.

Here are the specifics:

1950s, four times

1953: Michigan, co-champion with Gophers

1956: Michigan

1957: Colorado College

1958: Denver, co-champion with North Dakota

1960s, six times

1960: Denver

1961: Denver

1962: Michigan Tech

1963: North Dakota, co-champion with Denver

1964: Michigan

1968: Denver

1970s, once

1977: Wisconsin

1980s, three times

1980: North Dakota

1982: North Dakota

1987: North Dakota

1990s, three times

1990: Wisconsin

1991: Northern Michigan

1997: North Dakota, co-champion with Gophers

2000s, once

2005: Denver, co-champion with Colorado College