CHICAGO — Greetings from Soldier Field, where today we’ll see games that are pretty important to the CCHA and WCHA standings.
More coverage
• Notre Dame 2, Miami 1: Notre Dame beats elements, history in downing Miami at Soldier Field
• Photo gallery: Hockey City Classic
• Blog: A quick update from a bright day at Soldier Field (with video)
Let’s hope that playing outside in what is right now a pretty blinding sunshine doesn’t negatively impact No. 3 Miami against No. 12 Notre Dame or No. 2 Minnesota against No. 18 Wisconsin. Both games are part of the Hockey City Classic, and by the time the day is done the race for first place in both leagues could have a very different look.
Miami leads Western Michigan by two points and Notre Dame by six in the CCHA, where wins are worth three points. After today, everyone has four games remaining so the RedHawks could build themselves a fairly solid lead. The Irish could keep themselves in the mix with a win.
In the late game, a Minnesota win would pull the Golden Gophers within one point of WCHA front-runner St. Cloud State with three weeks to play.
Wisconsin is battling for one of six home-ice spots for the first round of the WCHA playoffs and needs a point to pull ahead of Denver, with which it is tied for sixth. The Badgers, however, have just four league games remaining after Sunday; Denver has six.
Here are a couple of videos from around Soldier Field before Sunday’s game. First is a look around the parking lot where tailgating was in full swing two hours before the first game:
[youtube_sc url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXsJJY6p0CY width=500]
And here’s how it looks from field level:
[youtube_sc url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xHxb2VnQ_c width=500]
