WCHA leads all conferences in penalties

Doug Spencer, the WCHA associate commissioner for public relations, has noticed the penalty numbers, too.

"Maybe our officials are calling more penalties," he said. "And we've had lots of league games already. A couple of game can skew the game numbers."

Whatever the reason, the WCHA is easily the conference with more penalties than any other. Seven of the top 11 teams in average penalty minutes hail from the WCHA.

The leaders:

2. UMD, 22.9 minutes per game

3. Wisconsin, 21.2

4. Michigan Tech, 21.0

8. Minnesota, 20.2 (the Gophers had 19 penalties for 38 minutes last Friday vs. Alaska Anchorage)

10. Alaska Anchorage, 19.6

11. Minnesota State Mankato, 18.9

Others

28. Colorado College, 15.3

42, Denver, 13.2

"[The penalties] are still nothing like they used to be in the 1980's and '90's,," Spencer said. "It's rare for us to get incidents. We used to have a handful of fights every weekend.

AROUND THE WCHA

* WCHA Commish Bruce McLeod was in the Twin Cities last Friday. He met with officals at the Xcel about a possible new format for the Final Five when the conference expands to 12 teams next season. McLeod also was at the Alaska Anchorage vs. Gophers game. Spencer said he expects to make an announcement on the new format within a couple of weeks: "We're getting close."

* McLeod and Greg Shepherd, the WCHA supervisor of officals, were expected to review the play on which Gophers defenseman Nick Leddy suffered a broken jaw on Friday to see if a penalty of some kind is warranted for Seawolves forward Jade Portwood. Gophers coach Don Lucia has said a penalty is called for because Portwood's hit included a blow to the head even if it was unintentional.

DU won the game 4-3. Cheverie hopes to be back by Nov. 20-21 when North Dakota visits Magness Arena.