The Meat of the Schedule Awaits

Let's take a look at where the team is and what is in the near future eh? With 6 conference games in the books the Seawolves are 2-2-2 in conference and 5-3-2 overall. In terms of conference points the team has bagged 6 our of a possible 12 and sits tied for 5th place with MSU-M and UND. Wisconsin is 1 point ahead in 4th having played 2 more conference games (8) than any other WCHA team.

It is early enough in the season that any 4 point weekend by any team will vault them up in the standings. That fact makes every single point available over the next few weeks very very important indeed.

Following this weekends series against the hostile and abusively named North Dakota team the Seawolves face Colorado College at home, then travel to Wisconsin before going on Xmas break. Not to restate the obvious here but that is only ONE home series remaining in 2008. The Seawolves have been at home or very close to home for all but their two games versus Michigan Tech. The fact that 8 of the next 12 points are to be contested in someone elses barn make this stretch of the schedule particularly difficult.

In one sense, it is an arbitrary definition to take any particular subset of the whole schedule and define it as somehow more important. But doing so in this case allows us to give that area a focus when considering the whole. There are 7 conference series in 2009 prior to the WCHA playoffs each of which won't be any less difficult than what faces the team over the next few weeks however the next six weeks can go a long way in determining the teams fate for the season.

All three of the upcoming opponents are perennial national contenders making the challenge the Seawolves face even greater. 6 points over these next 6 games honestly won't be anything to get excited about in my book. If the team can add 8 points though to their total then I'll be a happy camper at the beginning of 2009.

I don't think 8 points is too much to hope for. With the return of Jade Portwood the team should have an additional line capable of putting the puck in the net. Up to this point pretty much all the scoring has come from the 1st and 2nd lines. I'd characterize the season so far as having a fair amount of injury-related adversity so sitting in the middle of the WCHA pack isn't half bad. Maintaining that position will likely require the 8 points I've already mentioned.

Check back tomorrow for an honest to goodness (mostly normal) preview of UND.