We’re back for the 2023-24 season of USCHO Edge. And the beginning of a new season is always a good opportunity for bettors.
As much as we all as college hockey fans want to believe that everyone loves the game that we all love so much, the reality is that it is still a niche sport. And even sports betting sites, known for their ability to properly handicap any sports match, probably don’t have a lot of inside information when it comes to college hockey.
Thus in the early stages of any given season, this is the time to pick out the lines that are slightly askew.
You will actually see most books reducing the number of games this weekend for which they will accept wagers. As of Friday morning, DraftKings only posted six games for Friday night, about half of what the site had in early March during the final weekend of regular-season play. These books understand if they get it wrong, sharp bettors will make them pay.
Let’s take a look at five matchups that USCHO’s writers picked their winners:
No. 1 Boston University (-350) at New Hampshire (+280); o/u 5.5
Certainly the Terriers are an offense that potentially could be explosive and run away with this game. But this BU team also needed overtime to get past Bentley – a team that last year finished in the bottom 10% of the nation – last Saturday.
New Hampshire was one of the strongest finishers to the second half last season and brings back a good amount of scoring. Add in the fact that UNH is a home underdog, a popular early-season betting bias, and this could be the upset of the week waiting to happen.
Still, BU has caused plenty of problems for UNH of late, the last Wildcats win coming in the 2015 season.
Wisconsin (-115) at Bemidji State (-115); o/u 5.5
The line on this game says it all – this is a pure pick ’em. So is there a place where you can find an edge within this non-conference matchup?
Maybe we should look more at the coach than the teams, with Mike Hastings now the boss behind the Wisconsin bench. While Wisconsin and Bemidji don’t have a ton of historical data, Hastings coached plenty of game against Bemidji while at Minnesota State. And though there were some great battles, a season ago, Bemidji State had a 3-1 regular season advantage over the Mavericks.
Is that enough to bet the home Beavers? Tough call. But when you don’t have a ton of historical data to rely on, it’s a decent point to consider.
No. 18 Penn State (-210) at Clarkson (+160); o/u 5.5
This feels like it might be one of those games where early-season bias has skewed the betting line.
Penn State has historically been strong in recent seasons, while Clarkson took a small step back last year after 3-4 strong years. So to make Clarkson a +160 underdog at home opened my eyes.
Am I telling you to bet the house on Clarkson. Heck no. But for two teams that didn’t face one another a year ago, it does seem quite skewed to make Penn State that much of a favorite at this point in the season.
No. 10 St. Cloud State (-110) at Minnesota State (-120); o/u 5.5
There are a lot of questions surrounding this year’s Minnesota State team with new head coach Luke Strand taking over behind the Mavericks bench. Add in the fact that Mike Hastings was able to convince some significant players to transfer with him to Wisconsin, you feel the questions mounting.
But this is another good example of sports books using historical bets to form the line. For the last five seasons, most of the money when Minnesota State plays heads to the Mavericks. That is reason to bump the line toward Minnesota State.
St. Cloud State also dropped its opener to relative unknown (especially in Vegas) St. Thomas and then escaped game two with a 1-0 win. Right now, it feels like the Huskies are significantly undervalued.
Northern Michigan (+170) at No. 17 Minnesota Duluth (-220); o/u 5.5
Here he have another significant favorite and underdog. This time, though, there is a little more sense to the line making the home team, Minnesota Duluth, a -220 favorite.
The two clubs have only played six times with the all-time series split, 3-3. The most recent matchup was in 2021, a 5-2 Northern Michigan victory in Marquette. Friday’s game, in fact, will be the first time these two have met in Duluth since 2015 when the Bulldogs completed a two-game series sweep.
This game may be one where it is smarter to look at the over/under (currently 5.5 goals) for a bet. If Northern Michigan is to win, they’d like have to keep the AMSOIL Arena crowd out of the game, thus keeping things low scoring. Thus, if you like Northern Michigan, take the under. Like the Bulldogs, you should like the over as well.
