By Ryan Stieg
As you know, my birthday was last week. It was a quiet day, but overall, pretty good. Then I finished my “birthday weekend” with something I’ve been striving for the past few weeks and that was a second perfect week.
Last weekend, there were only two series to predict, so it could’ve gone either way for me. I could’ve achieved perfection, or been dealt my first ever winless week. Thankfully, it was the former as both series were splits and I dodged a bullet.
So this week, I’ll be looking for back-to-back perfect weeks, and that’ll be a tall task as there’s five series going on. The odds aren’t in my favor to achieve perfection again, but the odds I’ll go winless are fairly safe, so I’ve got that going for me.
This week is definitely interesting as some teams could lock up home ice, while another could lock up the MacNaughton Cup. In fact, let’s start off with that first-place squad as it makes the long trip to the eastern edge of the Upper Peninsula.
No. 15 Minnesota State at Lake Superior State
Yes, once again, the mighty Mavericks are on the verge of winning the MacNaughton for the umpteenth time since the creation of the defunct WCHA/new CCHA era. Since Augustana has zero league games remaining in the regular season, a sweep of the Lakers would earn the trophy for Mankato. In fact, depending on how the rest of the series go, the Mavs could win it with just one victory. It won’t be easy as LSSU is trying to stay in contention for home ice, so it’ll have some extra motivation. I think it’ll be a split, but the Mavs will still win the Cup. Mankato wins Friday 5-3, but the Lakers win Saturday 4-2.
St. Thomas at Northern Michigan
The Tommies’ chances at home ice aren’t stellar, but two wins this weekend would help them out a lot. The good thing is they’re traveling to my old home of Marquette to face the league’s worst team. Let’s face it, this season has been a disaster for the Wildcats and they’re a distant ninth in the standings, which means they’re not making the playoffs. NMU has a chance to play spoiler during its last home series as a sweep of the Tommies would kill UST’s chance at home ice, but I don’t see it happening. The Tommies sweep the series, winning 3-2 Friday and 4-1 Saturday.
Ferris State at Michigan Tech
Let’s stay in the U.P. as the Huskies try to lock up a home ice spot in Houghton against the Bulldogs. Right now, Tech is fourth in the standings, just ahead of UST and LSSU, but only a few percentage points behind third place Bowling Green. A sweep of the Bulldogs and some help from Mankato and NMU could get the Huskies a home ice spot, but Ferris won’t be phoning it in this weekend. The Bulldogs’ hopes of home ice are very slim at this point, but it could get a higher seed if it takes down Tech twice. However, I think it’ll be a split. The Huskies win Friday 3-1, but Ferris wins Saturday 4-3.
Bowling Green at Bemidji State
Here are two teams that are going in opposite directions. The Falcons are doing much better than expected this year, while the Beavers’ dam has collapsed after a great 2023-24 season. BG is in third right now and a sweep of Bemidji should get them home ice and depending on how the final weekend goes, it could even earn the second seed in the first round. The Beavers still have something to fight for though. If they get two wins from the Falcons, it’ll keep their rapidly dwindling home ice chances improve. Once again, I’m picking a split here. BG wins Friday 4-2, but Bemidji wins Saturday 3-2.
Alaska Fairbanks at Augustana
The Vikings have already earned home ice, which is quite an accomplishment for a team only in its second season of existence. At the same time, you could also make a case that Augie shouldn’t be eligible for the playoffs considering it didn’t play a full conference schedule, but there’s nothing that can be done about that now. The Vikings are in and now, they can just sit back and wait to see what seed they’ll get as they close out the regular season with the Nanooks. Since this is a somewhat meaningless nonconference series, I’m predicting a split. Alasks wins Friday 4-3, but Augie wins Saturday 5-2.