One week remains in the regular season and Minnesota Duluth and Minnesota will finish 1-2 in some order in the WCHA. Minnesota holds a two-point lead. The No. 4-ranked Bulldogs completed a home sweep of No. 16 Colorado College on Saturday night, 5-2, while No. 6 Minnesota completed a road sweep of Nebraska-Omaha, 3-2.

This weekend, UMD (22-7-5) finishes at St. Cloud State (14-16-4), while Minnesota (23-11-1) is home with Wisconsin (15-15-2).

UMD will almost certainly face Alaska Anchorage or Minnesota State-Mankato in the first round of the WCHA playofs March 9-11 at Amsoil Arena. UMD finished second in the WCHA in 2004 and won the MacNaughton Cup most recently in 1993.

UMD moved to No. 1 in the PairWise Rankings here.

In the top four of the U.S. College Hockey Online poll: No. 1 Ferris State tied and lost to Western Michigan; No. 2 Boston College swept Providence; No. 3 Michigan split with Bowling Green; No. 4 UMD swept CC.

In Division I scoring: No. 1 Maine senior Spencer Abbott 19-37-56; No. 2 Jack Connolly 18-36-54; No. 4 Travis Oleksuk 21-26-47; No. 9 J.T. Brown 20-22-42. UMD is No. 1 in scoring at 3.76. UMD’s power play is ranked tied at No. 10 at 21.7 percent. UMD’s five-game unbeaten streak (4-0-1) is behind Boston College (9-0), Holy Cross (7-0-1) and Miami of Ohio (6-0).

In WCHA games only, which decides annual statistical leaders — Scoring: No. 1 Connolly 16-26-42, tied at No. 2 Brown 17-18-35, Oleksuk 14-21-35 and Denver’s Drew Shore 12-23-25. (Last season UMD’s top WCHA finishers were: No. 2 Jack Connolly, No. 4 Mike Connolly, No. 6 Justin Fontaine.) In rookie scoring, Caleb Herbert is No. 3 at 10-15-25.

In UMD career scoring, Connolly is tied at No. 10 with 66-127-191 in 159 games (tied with Norm Maciver, 1982-86); Oleksuk is 45th at 45-64-109 in 127 games; Brown has 36-43-79 in 74 games. (UMD senior Haley Irwin is tied at No. 5 in the women’s program career scoring at 79-125-204, tied with Erika Holst, 1999-2003.)

Kenny Reiter had two assists Saturday night to match the only other UMD goalie to have two assists in one game, Isaac Reichmuth, Oct. 31, 2003 vs. Alaska Anchorage. Reiter has 49 career wins, one behind Reichmuth, who is No. 4 in program career victories.

OK, getting to Saturday games. Stories from Amsoil Arena from the News Tribune here and Colorado Springs Gazette here and here.

Also video, this is from Friday’s UMD 4-3 OT win, from Amsoil Arena’s Jeff Stark, including Brown’s sudden death winner here and the UMD women’s 4-3 Friday win over Ohio State here.

College Hockey News has a Division I men’s weekend wrap here.

At Omaha, Neb., freshman Kyle Rau had two goals (and another disallowed) as Minnesota swept Nebraska-Omaha 3-2 before 11,772 fans. A Matt White shorthanded goal with 9:21 to play got Omaha within the final margin. Kent Patterson got his 23rd win of season and 39th of career. The Gophers had two PP goals, were outshot 29-19, have have won four straight. Stories from the Omaha World-Herald here and Minneapolis Star Tribune here.

In Denver, after a scoreless first period, No. 9 Denver scored four in the second on the way to beating No. 14 North Dakota 5-3 for a series split in front of 6,178. The Pioneers were 3-7 on PPs. In a six-goal second period among the goal scorers were Jason Zucker (19) of Denver and Carter Rowney (16) of North Dakota. Denver led 36-30 in shots. Both teams clinched home ice for WCHA playoffs. Brad Eidsness started for North Dakota and Aaron Dell played the last period. North Dakota was delayed in its charter out of Denver because of…..snow. Stories from the Denver Post here and here and Grand Forks Herald here.

In Houghton, Mich., Blake Pietila scored with 98 seconds to play as Michigan Tech topped St. Cloud State 3-2 to split a series before 3,270 fans. St. Cloud State’s Nick Jensen had tied with game on a power play 4:58 into the final period. Tech led in shots 28-20. Josh Robinson got the win. Stories from U.S. College Hockey Online here and the St. Cloud Times here.

At Bemidji, Wisconsin scored the final three goals in beating Bemidji State 4-2 before 3,891 fans. After trailing by 2-1, the Badgers got goals from Sean Little, Justin Schultz (15) and Michael Mersch (13) into and empty net. Wisconsin led in shots 35-23 to complete a series sweep. Stories from the Bemidji Pioneer here and Wisconsin State Journal here.

At Fairbanks, Alaska, the Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks beat Alaska Anchorage 3-1, and then claimed a shootout 3-2, to win the Governor’s Cup in front of 4,595 fans. Stories from the Anchorage Daily News here and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner here.

WCHA Standings Courtesy of CollegeHockeyStats.net

 1 Minnesota         38  26 19- 7- 0 .731  85- 52   35 23-11- 1 .671 127- 73
 2 Minnesota Duluth  36  26 16- 6- 4 .692  99- 68   34 22- 7- 5 .721 128- 87
 3 Denver            32  26 14- 8- 4 .615  90- 77   34 19-11- 4 .618 119- 94
 4 North Dakota      29  26 14-11- 1 .558  75- 71   33 18-12- 3 .591 101- 92
 5 Colorado College  27  26 13-12- 1 .519  88- 84   32 16-14- 2 .531 103- 95
   Nebraska Omaha    27  26 11-10- 5 .519  81- 79   34 14-14- 6 .500 103- 99
 7 Michigan Tech     26  26 11-11- 4 .500  83- 80   34 14-16- 4 .471 100-102
 8 St. Cloud State   25  26 11-12- 3 .481  81- 70   34 14-16- 4 .471 107- 95
 9 Wisconsin         22  26 10-14- 2 .423  71- 80   32 15-15- 2 .500  96- 93
10 Bemidji State     21  26  9-14- 3 .404  65- 84   34 15-16- 3 .485  90- 96
11 Minnesota State   18  26  8-16- 2 .346  71- 95   34 12-20- 2 .382  95-115
12 Alaska Anchorage  11  26  5-20- 1 .212  55-104   32  9-21- 2 .312  76-118