The state of Colorado has a stronghold on the WCHA after the first two months of the college hockey season, as Colorado College and Denver have established themselves as the two best teams in the conference. The Tigers have 20 points while Denver has 18.

Colorado College’s dominance is the result of consistent contributions from its entire team. With 17 points this season, including two shorthanded goals against Wisconsin in November, junior forward Chad Rau is partly responsible for their success.

Denver sits in second place in the conference as a very young team. Seven out of its nine top scorers are underclassmen, such as sophomore forward Rhett Rakshani, who seems to have a knack for finding the net in crunch time. Along with scoring an overtime goal in Madison last season, Rakshani scored three straight goals in the last six minutes of the third period Saturday to overcome a 2-0 deficit against St. Cloud State, earning himself The Daily Cardinal’s WCHA Player of the Week honor.

After that, the WCHA becomes a traffic jam. Minnesota-Duluth sits in at third place, with a sub .500 record in conference play. The Bulldogs benefit from having played two more WCHA games than any other team this season. Since starting off 3-1-0 in the conference, including a win at Denver, the Bulldogs have sputtered and gone 2-5-3.

These Bulldogs are a little more indicative of what one should expect the rest of the way, as they simply do not have the talent that many of the other WCHA teams boast.

Perhaps the most talented team in the conference sits in at fourth in North Dakota. Touted by many as the preseason favorite to win not only to conference but also the Frozen Four, the Fighting Sioux have split every WCHA series thus far for a 6-6-0 conference record. If head coach Dave Hakstol informs his bunch that a good outing is required every game, expect the Fighting Sioux to climb up the standings.

A few spots down sits a Minnesota team that seems far from where it was last season when it won the WCHA regular season title and tournament. The Gophers started off 0-4 in the conference this season, and have struggled since then to play consistent hockey, much like North Dakota.

Perhaps they are still affected by the losses of Alex Goligoski, Erik Johnson and Mike Vanelli, three of college hockey’s best defensemen, but Minnesota continues to struggle to get on track. With such a young yet talented squad, do not be surprised if Minnesota produces a second half surge.

At the bottom of the standings is St. Cloud State, a team two weeks ago that was a top-ten team in college hockey. However, four straight losses to conference opponents have quieted the once surging Huskies. They blew two third period leads in Madison two weekends ago, and then were dominated by Rakshani in the final period in Denver this past weekend.

The upcoming college hockey winter break will decide the second half fate of each WCHA team. With so much youth and inexperience flowing throughout the conference, most teams will welcome the time off so they can regroup and
reenergize.

However, the fact that Denver is so young and already playing like a seasoned group shows that they will be the team to beat throughout the second half of the season.