Wild

NCHC Frozen Faceoff preview

Top-ranked St. Cloud State, No. 4 Minnesota Duluth, No. 5 Denver and underdog Colorado College gather in St. Paul to determine conference tournament supremacy.

By Randy Johnson

March 22, 2019 at 1:01PM

St. Cloud State coach Brett Larson. (St. Cloud State photo/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

NCHC Frozen Faceoff

Friday-Saturday, Xcel Energy Center

TV: Both semifinals and championship game will be on CBS Sports Network. Third-place game will be on NCHC.tv.

Friday's semifinals

No. 6 seed Colorado College vs. No. 1 St. Cloud State, 4 p.m.

Records, rankings: Colorado College 17-18-4, 9-12-3 NCHC, No. 23 PairWise; St. Cloud State 29-4-3, 19-2-3; No. 1 PairWise.

Tigers at a glance: Colorado College beat No. 3 seed Western Michigan in three games to advance to the Frozen Faceoff for the first time. The Tigers have won five of their past seven games, including a sweep of Denver. Senior F Trey Bradley leads CC in scoring with 14 goals and 18 assists, while junior goalie Alex Leclerc is 17-17-4 with a 2.55 goals-against average and .919 save percentage.

Huskies at a glance: St. Cloud State, which swept No. 8 seed Miami (Ohio) in the quarterfinals, is on a 15-1-1 run and has locked up the No. 1 overall seed for the NCAA tournament. Senior D Jimmy Schuldt (10-23—33) and senior F Patrick Newell (19-24—43) are among the 10 Hobey Baker Award finalists. Junior G David Hrenak is 22-3-2 with a 2.15 GAA and .906 save percentage. The Huskies went 3-0-1 against the Tigers in the regular season.

No. 4 seed Denver vs. No. 2 Minnesota Duluth

Records, rankings: Denver 21-10-5, 11-10-3 NCHC, No. 6 PairWise; Minnesota Duluth 23-11-2, 14-9-1, No. 4 PairWise.

Pioneers at a glance: Denver, under first-year coach David Carle, advanced to St. Paul by sweeping North Dakota. Senior F Jarid Lukosevicius leads the Pioneers with 17 goals and is a plus-18. Denver started freshman G Filip Larson (11-4-3, 2.14, .927) in both games against North Dakota, though he and sophomore Devin Cooley (10-6-2, 1.89, .933) split starts during the regular season.

Bulldogs at a glance: The defending national champions swept Nebraska Omaha in the quarterfinals. They'll try to improve on last year's 0-2 showing in the Frozen Faceoff. Sophomore forward Justin Richards (10-18—28) leads UMD in scoring, one point ahead of sophomore D Scott Perunovich (3-24—7), who missed last week's series because of injury and is day-to-day, according to coach Scott Sandelin. Junior G Hunter Shepard (23-11-2, 1.95, .914) allowed two goals last weekend after giving up 15 in his previous four games.

Saturday's games

Third place: Semifinal losers at 4 p.m.

Championship: Semifinal winners at 7:30 p.m.