{"id":3895,"date":"2018-02-16T11:57:01","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T17:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/mens-d3-blog\/?p=3895"},"modified":"2018-02-16T11:57:01","modified_gmt":"2018-02-16T17:57:01","slug":"west-picks-feb-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2018\/02\/16\/west-picks-feb-16\/","title":{"rendered":"West picks: Feb. 16"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Friday, Feb. 16<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Augsburg at Concordia<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Auggies still have a shot to finish as the No. 1 seed in the MIAC tournament, but face a stern test on the road against a Cobbers team battling for its playoff life. The Cobbers are clinging to the fifth and final spot by a point at the moment. Nate Flynn leads the Auggies with 25 points, scoring 12 goals and dishing out 13 assists. The Auggies have 83 goals as a team. The Cobbers counter with one of the best playmakers in the league in Jon Grebosky, who has dished out 16 assists to go along with his six goals. <strong>Augsburg 5-3<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Saint John&#8217;s at Gustavus Adolphus<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Johnnies are ranked 14th in the country and atop the MIAC standings. They&#8217;ve won three in a row and look to keep the momentum going against the Gusties, who are currently fourth in the standings. Saint John&#8217;s has won seven of its last 10 and features one of the best goalies in the league in Andrew Lindgren. He owns the best goals-against average in the league at 1.89. The Gusties have a pretty good goalie of their own in Robbie Goor, who boasts a 1.97 GAA. Something will have to give. <strong>Saint John&#8217;s 3-1<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Saint Mary&#8217;s at St. Olaf<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Cardinals had their unbeaten streak snapped at seven last weekend, but are still alive in the playoffs. They are just one point behind Concordia for the final playoff spot, and need to take care of business on their end to stay in the picture. The Oles are in a similar position and enter the weekend one point behind the Cardinals in the standings. They need to take care of business both nights to have a shot at the postseason. Kevin Walz has been phenomenal for the Cardinals, scoring five goals and dishing out 12 assists, good enough to lead the team in points. The Oles are just 2-5-3 in their last 10 games, but have a lot to play for, and expecting anything less than their best effort is crazy. Gordon Wells and Drew Otto have scored eight goals apiece and have to be ready to rise to the occasion. <strong>Saint Mary&#8217;s 5-4<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Wisconsin-River Falls at Wisconsin-Superior<\/strong><br \/>\nThe winner moves on to the semifinal round to play conference champion Wisconsin-Stevens Point. The loser is headed home until next season. The Yellow Jackets have lost three in a row, including a 4-1 loss to the Falcons. Wis.-Superior won the first meeting, 5-0. Ian Ecklund leads the Yellow Jackets with 17 goals. The Falcons have won just once in their last nine games. Two of those games ended in ties. Eddie Matsushima has been a bright spot with 14 goals and nine assists. <strong>Wis.-Superior 4-2<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>St. Scholastica at Marian<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Saints and Sabres have both had solid seasons, but one of those seasons will end this weekend. St. Scholastica has struggled against Marian, losing both meetings. Playing on the road will make the challenge even tougher. The 13th-ranked Sabres are as hot as can be, winning seven in a row, the second-longest in the NCHA. Derek Thorogood and Hunter Stewart are two of the best in the league, with Thorogood punching in 15 goals and Stewart tallying 21 assists. <strong>Marian 5-2<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lawrence at St. Norbert<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Vikings have one of the toughest challenges of the tournament, taking on the second-ranked Green Knights, who have won their last five. Lane King leads Lawrence in points with 35, including 20 off assists. The Green Knights have hung their hat on great defense behind the play of goalie T.J. Black, who owns a 1.48 GAA. He&#8217;s given up just 34 goals in all. St. Norbert won both games in the regular season, including a 6-0 victory, and has a 12-0-1 home record. <strong>St. Norbert 5-1<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Milwaukee School of Engineering at Adrian<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Raiders have their hands full. Not only are the Bulldogs ranked No. 1 in the nation, they have won 13 consecutive games. They are seeking their third conference crown in four years. MSOE lost both games to Adrian in the regular season, including the finale, 6-0, and have to find a way to get their offense going early. Zach Simpson leads the team in goals with six. He has six assists as well. Adrian is an offensive machine, cranking out 110 goals this season. Trevor Boyd, Mathew Thompson, and Taylor McCloy have combined for 44 of those goals. <strong>Adrian 5-0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lake Forest at Concordia<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Foresters were swept in the regular season by the Falcons and are hungry for revenge. They&#8217;ll have to do it on the road, where they are 6-6-1. Goaltending will be key. Louis-Philippe De Courcy is having a great season, fashioning a 1.98 GAA and winning 10 games. The Falcons are no pushover, and have won three more games than they did a year ago to set a school record for wins in a season. Dante Hahn leads the team in goals with 10, and Braydon Barker is the points leader with 22, including 17 off assists. <strong>Concordia 4-2<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Saturday, Feb. 17<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Augsburg at Concordia<\/strong><br \/>\nIt&#8217;s the final game of the regular season for both teams. A lot is riding on it for both teams. The Cobbers are 7-3 at home. The Auggies own a 7-5 road record. <strong>Concordia 4-3<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Gustavus at Saint John&#8217;s<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Johnnies have an opportunity to wrap up the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. They&#8217;ll have the advantage of playing at home, too. <strong>Saint John&#8217;s 4-2<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Saint Mary&#8217;s at St. Olaf<\/strong><br \/>\nPlayoff hopes will be riding on this one for both teams. Expect a fight to the finish. <strong>St. Olaf 4-3<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Wis.-River Falls vs. Wis.-Superior<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Yellow Jackets will have an opportunity to close out the series and move on to the next round of the tournament. Playing at home should help. <strong>Wis.-Superior 6-4<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>St. Scholastica at Marian<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Sabres will take aim at avoiding a decisive mini-game and closing the door on the Saints&#8217; season. There is no reason to think they won&#8217;t get the job done. <strong>Marian 5-4<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lawrence at St. Norbert<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Green Knights are aiming for a repeat as conference tournament champs. They take the first step toward that goal with a series sweep. <strong>St. Norbert 4-0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Milwaukee School of Engineering at Adrian<\/strong><br \/>\nAdrian is just at its best at the moment, and it&#8217;s hard to imagine the Bulldogs doing anything but sweeping this series.<strong> Adrian 5-2<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lake Forest at Concordia<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Falcons have had a season to remember, and it will continue. <strong>Concordia 5-3<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Friday, Feb. 16 Augsburg at Concordia The Auggies still have a shot to finish as the No. 1 seed in the MIAC tournament, but face a stern test on the road against a Cobbers team battling for its playoff life. The Cobbers are clinging to the fifth and final spot by a point at the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1425],"tags":[1469,1470],"coauthors":[821],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>West picks: Feb. 16 - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Friday, Feb. 16 Augsburg at Concordia The Auggies still have a shot to finish as the No. 1 seed in the MIAC tournament, but face a stern test on the road\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3895\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"West picks: Feb. 16 - 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