The WCHA is the national leader in tie games this season — North Dakota and Wisconsin have six each and Alaska Anchorage five, while four teams have four each. There were two in the league Friday night as the mid-section of the conference remains tight with five teams separated by three points.

Minnesota Duluth is alone in eighth place after a 3-0 home loss to Denver. The News Tribune has a recap here and a Saturday live game blog will be here.

Also, Chris Heisenberg’s recruiting web site is reporting that defenseman Carson Soucy of Irma, Alberta, 6-foot-4 and 195 pounds, has made an oral commitment to UMD. He’s in his second season with Spruce Grove of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. He was 137th in the NHL Central Scouting Mid-Term Rankings. His statistics are available at the team web site here.

And in WCHA women’s play top-ranked Minnesota remained undefeated with a 5-0 victory over No. 10 Minnesota Duluth at Ridder Arena. U.S. College Hockey Online has a recap here.

At Omaha, Neb., Johnnie Searfoss and Ryan Walters (16) gave No. 14 Nebraska-Omaha an early two-goal lead on the way to a 4-3 win over Michigan Tech. John Faulkner (14-4-2) had 13 saves for the win. Michigan Tech led in shots 29-28. Omaha is 5-1-1 the last seven games. Omaha sophomore center Joe Krause of Hermantown had an assist, his first point of the season. Attendance 8,023. From the Omaha World Herald here and Houghton Daily Mining Gazette here.

At Bemidji, Minn., Nic Dowd, Brooks Bertsch and Ben Hanowski scored three goals in three minutes in the first period as league-leading St. Cloud State beat Bemidji State 4-0. Ryan Faragher had 24 saves for the shutout. Andrew Walsh was replaced in the Bemidji goal after allowing three goals on five shots. The No. 12 Huskies took zero penalties. St. Cloud led 29-24 in shots. Attendance 3,507. Bemidji is 0-7-2 the last nine games, St. Cloud is 4-0-1 the last five. From the Bemidji Pioneer hereand St. Cloud Times here.

At Grand Forks, N.D., goals 13 seconds apart in the first minute of the second period left No. 7 North Dakota and No. 19 Wisconsin tied 1-1 in overtime. Wisconsin is 10-1-4 the last 15 games (and 8-0-3 the last 11 in the WCHA), and North Dakota is 0-2-3 the last five overall. North Dakota’s Danny Kristo scored 25 seconds into the third period and Wisconsin’s Michael Mersch at 38 seconds. The 16th for each. In goal, Wisconsin’s Landon Peterson and North Dakota’s Zane Gothberg. Each team had 14 penalties for a total of 99 minutes. Wisconsin led in shots 30-22. Attendance 11,864. From the Grand Forks Herald here and Wisconsin State Journal here.

At Anchorage, Alaska, Scott Allen scored with 3:55 left in the third period to give Alaska Anchorage a 2-2 overtime tie with Colorado College. Andrew Hamburg’s power-play score with 6:33 remaining in the third had given CC a 2-1 lead. Anchorage led in shots 31-21. Anchorage is 0-11-2 the last 13 games. Attendance 2,630. From the Anchorage Daily News here.

WCHA Standings and Summaries Courtesy of College Hockey Stats.net

 1 St. Cloud State   27  19 13- 5- 1 .711  64- 39   27 16-10- 1 .611  89- 64
 2 Nebraska Omaha    26  19 12- 5- 2 .684  70- 56   27 16- 9- 2 .630  99- 74
 3 Minnesota         24  18 10- 4- 4 .667  61- 42   26 18- 4- 4 .769  98- 48
 4 Denver            22  19  9- 6- 4 .579  60- 54   26 14- 8- 4 .615  88- 67
   North Dakota      22  19  8- 5- 6 .579  61- 52   27 13- 8- 6 .593  85- 70
   Wisconsin         22  19  8- 5- 6 .579  43- 40   25 11- 8- 6 .560  57- 49
 7 Minnesota State   21  20 10- 9- 1 .525  58- 51   28 16- 9- 3 .625  85- 65
 8 Minnesota Duluth  19  19  8- 8- 3 .500  50- 54   25 10-12- 3 .460  64- 71
 9 Colorado College  16  19  7-10- 2 .421  62- 68   27 10-14- 3 .426  90- 96
10 Bemidji State     12  19  4-11- 4 .316  40- 60   25  5-15- 5 .300  52- 77
   Michigan Tech     12  19  4-11- 4 .316  47- 65   24  7-13- 4 .375  66- 75
12 Alaska Anchorage   7  21  1-15- 5 .167  36- 71   25  3-16- 6 .240  47- 82

  Denver             3 at Minnesota Duluth   0       Box   
  Michigan Tech      3 at Nebraska Omaha     4       Box   
  St. Cloud State    4 at Bemidji State      0       Box   
  Wisconsin          1 at North Dakota       1, tie  Box   
  Colorado College   2 at Alaska Anchorage   2, tie  Box