:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/9362407/198054_501298539900406_49679800_n.0.jpg)
Friday night's action cleared up the WCHA playoff race a bit, especially on either end of the league, and eliminating a lot of the crazier tie possibilities. Here is what we know about the WCHA playoff seedings for now:
1. St. Cloud State
2. Minnesota or North Dakota
3. Minnesota or North Dakota
4. Minnesota State or Wisconsin or Denver or Nebraska-Omaha
5. MSU/UW/DU/UNO
6. MSU/UW/DU/UNO
7. MSU/UW/DU/UNO
8. Minnesota-Duluth or Colorado College
9. Minnesota-Duluth or Colorado College
10. Michigan Tech
11. Bemidji State
12. Alaska-Anchorage
St. Cloud has clinched a share of the MacNaughton Cup and just needs one point tomorrow, or one point lost from both Minnesota and North Dakota for sole possession of the title.
We worked out a bunch of the potential WCHA tiebreakers earlier in the week. Here's a reminder on some of the relevant ones heading into tomorrow.
At the top, it's fairly simple. St. Cloud wins the tiebreaker in either a three-way tie, or if either Minnesota or North Dakota tie them individually. Minnesota wins every tiebreaker over North Dakota, so UND needs to finish tomorrow night with more points than the Gophers.
4th through 7th is a mess. All the head-to-head tiebreakers are pretty easy to figure out. Here's all the multi-way tiebreakers:
Tie between Minnesota State, Wisconsin, and Denver: 1. Wisconsin 2. Denver 3. Minnesota State
Tie between Wisconsin, Nebraska-Omaha, and Denver: 1. Wisconsin 2. Denver 3. Nebraska-Omaha
Tie between Minnesota State, Wisconsin, and Nebraska-Omaha: 1.Wisconsin 2. Minnesota State 3. Nebraska-Omaha
Tie between Minnesota State, Denver, and Nebraska-Omaha: 1. Denver 2. Minnesota State 3. Nebraska-Omaha *Unless they are tied at 32 points, in which case MSU/UNO tie would be decided by WCHA goal differential, which MSU currently leads +22 to +8
Four-way tie between Minnesota State, Wisconsin, Nebraska-Omaha, and Denver: 1. Wisconsin 2. Denver 3. Minnesota State 4. Nebraska-Omaha
The battle for 8th place between Colorado College and Minnesota-Duluth is the only other spot up for grabs and is kind of a fun one. If Colorado College loses again tomorrow, while Minnesota-Duluth ties, Colorado College still wins the tiebreaker. But if Colorado College ties, while Minnesota-Duluth wins, the tiebreaker comes down to goal differential, which CC currently leads -11 to -14. So UMD would have to win by more than three goals to get 8th place(I have no idea what comes . A lot of things would have to go right for it to come into play, but Colorado College's game will go final first, which could make for an interesting situation if UMD has a two or three goal lead in the third period.