Two new teams, two new arenas, revised Final Five make 2010-11 WCHA season special

The WCHA recently issued this news release on the upcoming season ... This is slightly edited and has comments:

MADISON, Wis. – The Western Collegiate Hockey Association, marking it's 59th season of on-ice competition in 2010-11 and owning a record 36 NCAA Men's Frozen Four titles since it's founding in 1951, recently released it's 2010-11 men's composite schedule, highlighted by the addition of new league member teams Bemidji State University and Nebraska at Omaha, a new format for the highly-successful WCHA Final Five, and the appearance of both the Final Five and the 2011 NCAA Men's Frozen Four at Xcel Energy Center.

(Last time the FF was at the X was 2002 and the Gophers won it. That seems like so long ago doesn't it?)

League members Bemidji State and the Minnesota Duluth will unveil new arenas this season while Michigan Tech will serve as host school for both the 2011 (and 2012) NCAA Midwest Regionals at Resch Center in Green Bay, Wis.

(The Gophers will play at UMD on Dec. 10-11 and at BSU on March 4-5, the last weekend of the regular season.)

Bemidji State will open the Robert H. Peters Rink at the Bemidji Regional Events Center on Oct. 15 vs North Dakota while Minnesota Duluth will open the new Amsoil Arena in Duluth against the Sioux on Dec. 30 in the non-conference U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game.

"It's going to be a tremendously exciting season … no doubt about it," said WCHA Commissioner Bruce M. McLeod. "The addition of Bemidji State and Nebraska at Omaha are going to make an already great WCHA even better. If you thought we were good at 10 teams just wait until you see us at 12.

(The new Final Five format might work. There will be two quarterfinal games on Thursday, two semifinals on Friday and only a championship game on Saturday. That's five games, so the Final Five name still makes sense. And the Wild will play Columbus at 1 p.m. Saturday, so that means two big hockey crowds the final day and no third-place game.)

Under the leadership of Commissioner McLeod, who has built a thriving partnership between the WCHA, Xcel Energy Center and the NHL's Minnesota Wild, the annual Red Baron™ WCHA Final Five has developed into college hockey's most prosperous conference tournaments.

The 2011 WCHA Final Five will mark the event's 11th consecutive season at Xcel, where the playoff championship has drawn 792,791 fans in 10 previous appearances – an average of 79,279 per tournament and an average crowd of 15,856 per game.

The initial on-ice action of 2010-11, scheduled for Oct. 2-4, will consist of a series of exhibition contests matching league-member teams Denver and Colorado College vs the U.S. Under-18 Team and DU, CC, Michigan Tech, Nebraska at Omaha, Alaska Anchorage, Minnesota, St. Cloud State, North Dakota and Minnesota State against Canadian-based opponents.

The first regular season action, all non-conference matchups, will occur Oct. 8-10. Denver opens at Vermont, Minnesota Duluth and Michigan Tech alternate at Lake Superior State and Northern Michigan in the Superior Showcase, Minnesota hosts Massachusetts, Minnesota State entertains St. Lawrence, Nebraska at Omaha hosts St. Cloud State, RIT and Clarkson in the Mutual of Omaha Stampede, Alaska Anchorage hosts North Dakota, Air Force and Alaska Fairbanks in the Kendall Hockey Classic, Wisconsin joins Holy Cross, Notre Dame and Boston University at the Ice Breaker Tournament in St. Louis (Saturday/Sunday), and Colorado College hosts Rensselaer.

The pursuit of the annual WCHA Playoff Championship and the Broadmoor Trophy will get underway the weekend of March 11-13 and feature a new format as six first round conference playoff series will include all 12 member teams. The top six ranked teams in the final regular season standings will all host best-of-three playoff series, with the No. 12 seed at the No. 1 seed, No. 11 at No. 2, No. 10 at No. 3, No. 9 at No. 4, the No. 8 seed at the No. 5 seed, and No. 7 at No. 6.

Those six-round playoff winners will then be re-seeded (according to their regular season finish) and advance to the 2011 Red Baron™ WCHA Final Five, which is set for March 17-19 at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. North Dakota is the defending WCHA playoffs champion.