Lake Forest @ Wis. River Falls
Meeting between last year’s NCHA regular season and tournament champion and a matchup of two undefeated teams. Even though Lake Forest will be without Kim Herring, I like a split between these two. Coach Zaban said it best that it will come down to which team has better defense and goaltending. Lake Forest takes the opener 3-2 and then River Falls scores a 4-2 win the next day.
Manhattanville @ Holy Cross
Important early season matchup to help determine the front runners for the ECAC East regular season crown. Both teams have identical 4-1 overall records and 3-0 league marks. I’m going with Holy Cross 4-3 with the home ice advantage.
Adrian @ Superior
Same deal as the River Falls/Lake Forest matchup. Both teams off to great starts and we’ll finally start to get our first look at how things might be shaking out this year in the NCHA. I’ll go with another split in this one. Adrian is notorious for splitting in these types of series. Adrian takes the first game 4-1 and then Superior scores a 3-2 win the next day.
St. Norbert/Stevens Point
Stevens Point keeps rolling along with a sweep even though St. Norbert gets the help of Emma Agen back after her stint with the Swedish national team at the Four Nations Cup. Pointers win 5-2 and 4-3.
