View complete weekly press release »

Skating against the University of Alaska Anchorage for the sixth time this season, in the fourth different city, Colorado College makes its first appearance at the WCHA Final Five since 2008 on Thursday with a shot at ultimately earning an automatic or at-large bid to the 2011 NCAA playoffs.

Faceoff at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., is 7:07 p.m. CT.  

If 13th-ranked CC can get past the Seawolves, who have won three of the five previous encounters between the teams in 2010-11, it will take on the top-seeded University of North Dakota in Friday's semifinals.           
 
All games at the Final Five be telecast live regionally and carried on both FSN North and FSN Rocky Mountain.

Bemidji State University and Minnesota Duluth meet in Thursday's other quarterfinal action, with the winner playing the University of Denver on Friday. Winner of the championship game, scheduled for 7:07 p.m. Saturday, will receive the league's automatic bid to the 16-team NCAA tournament. That field will be announced on Sunday.

Thursday's game marks the 71st all-time contest between the teams in a rivalry that started on Jan. 5, 1984. While Colorado College leads the overall series by a commanding 50-17-3 margin, UAA swept the Tigers (4-1, 2-1) in Anchorage just two months ago. CC defeated the Seawolves, 4-3, in a non-conference game at the Alaska Goal Rush tournament in Fairbanks on Oct. 15, then earned a split at the World Arena with a 2-0 victory on Nov. 27 after falling 4-3 in overtime a night earlier.

Alaska Anchorage won the only previous meeting at the WCHA Final Five, claiming a 4-1 triumph in 2004.