Alaska Anchorage and Minnesota State have only one WCHA series left. Everybody else has two.

So it's getting easier, with each passing week, to figure out the who will play who in the first round of the WCHA playoffs. My expected pairings:

Michigan Tech (12th seed) at North Dakota (1)

Bemidji State (11) at Denver (2)

St. Cloud State (10) at Nebraska Omaha (3)

Minnesota State (9) at UMD (4)

Alaska Anchorage (8) at Gophers (5)

Colorado College (7) at Wisconsin (6)

How they will get there:

North Dakota (17-6-1, 35 points): Sioux will sweep Bemidji State at home (UND beat Beavers 5-2, 5-2 early in the season), will sweep Michigan Tech ... UND finishes with 43 points to win MacNaughton Cup

Denver (15-6-3, 33): split at Nebraska Omaha, win and tie with St,. Cloud State .... DU finishes with 38 pts. for second after winning regular-season title last season

UMD (14-6-4, 32): win and tie at Colorado College, split at home with Nebraska Omaha ... UMD finishes with 37 pts.

Nebraska Omaha (15-7-2, 32): splits with DU and at UMD .... UNO finishes with 36 pts.

Notice the huge gap between the top four teams and the rest. It is seven pts. at present

Gophers (10-10-4, 24): sweep Michigan Tech, win and tie at Bemidji State ... U finishes with 31 pts.

Wisconsin (11-10-3, 25): splits at St. Cloud State and with Colorado College ... Badgers grab final home ice spot with 29 pts.

Colorado College (11-12-1, 23): tie, loss with UMD, split at Wisconsin ... CC finishes with 26 pts.

Alaska Anchorage (10-14-2, 22): play nonconference games, then split at Minnesota State ... UAA finishes with 24 pts.

St. Cloud State (8-12-4, 20): split with Wisconsin, tie, loss at Denver ... SCSU finishes with 23 pts.

Minnesota State (8-14-4m 20): idle, then split with UAA ... Purple Mavs finish with 22 pts.

Bemidji State (8-12-4, 20): swept at North Dakota, tie, loss with Gophers ... BSU finishes with 21 pts.

Michigan Tech (2-20-2, 6): lost last four at Gophers and home series with North Dakota ... MTU finishes with 6 pts.

PAIRWISE TALK

The most important ratings in college hockey this time of the season are the PairWise rankings, They mimic how the 11 at-large teams for the 16-team NCAA tournament are picked.

Five champions of postseason conference tournaments get automatic bids -- and the Atlantic Hockey champion will not be a top 16 team in the PairWise.

So you start with five teams, one an underdog for sure, maybe two if another conference champion is a longshot, then take the top PairWise teams not yet in. Let's say two underogs make it. Then only the top 14 PairWise teams get in.

So if the NCAA field was being picked today, North Dakota, No. 2 in the PairWise rankings, would be in and be one of the top four seeds. Also in are four other WCHA teams, Denver, tied for No. 4 with Merrimack, No. 7 UMD, UNO, tied with Union for No. 8 and -- the last team in -- No. 14 Wisconsin.

The Gophers? They are inching up. They are No. 18 in the PairWise rankings, one spot ahead of Colorado College.

Minnesota is the highest ranked team with just 13 wins. Everybody above them has at least 15. And one key part of coming up with a PairWise ranking is RPI, which looks at the winning percentage of a team, its opponents and its opponents' opponents.

It's starting to look like the Gophers won't have to win the Final Five to advance to the NCAA tournament. A strong finish in the last four games, at least three wins preferrably four, a two-win sweep in the first round of the playoffs and maybe a win or two in the Final Five might be enough.

The U needs to jump over only four or five teams.