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