WCRHL Division I - Stronger than ever

At the midpoint of the 2012-2013 season, WCRHL’s Division I teams seem stronger than ever. Regardless of who wins the WCRHL Regional Championship or which teams qualify for the National Collegiate Roller Hockey Championships (Ft. Myers, FL - April 10-15, 2013), they will give teams from around the country a run for their money and are, just like the previous 2 seasons, national contenders.

4 out of 5 WCRHL Division I teams will qualify for the Regional Championships, to be held on March 2-3, 2013 at Corona Inline in Corona, CA.  Currently Arizona State sits out of the running, but they are just 3 points away from UNLV, 5 from UC Santa Barbara and 7 from Cal Poly and Long Beach State, who lead the division.  ASU has played more games than any other DI team, actually 4 more games than both UNLV and Cal Poly, making their 2^nd semester climb a tough one.  ASU does have 2 games against University of Arizona (Division II), which count towards the regular season standings. These games will be played, along with games featuring both ASU and U of A B teams.  Not taking U of A lightly, but if ASU can win these 2 games, they will be within reach, and with 3 regular season games remaining at the final event of the season (Huntington Beach Inline, February 16-17, 2013), could find themselves moving into that 4^th spot.  ASU’s final opponents will be Cal Poly, Long Beach and UNLV.

It seems the race to get into the Regional Championships is the biggest focus, for a couple reasons. The top 4 teams believe, and have shown, that they can all beat each other on any given day.  Also, once into Regionals, there is no advantage, as all 4 teams will play in a 3-game round robin before being re-seeded into the semifinal round.  However, the team with the best regular season record will receive the 2^nd bid to the National Championships, regardless of their results at Regionals.

Looking at the top of the division, it is hard to talk about only Cal Poly and Long Beach, as UCSB and UNLV are right on their heels.  Cal Poly had a great event in Arizona last month, and is on a 3-game win streak (4 if you count their exhibition game win against U of A).  Cal Poly has the best goal-differential in the division, with 55 goals for and 32 goals against.  Long Beach, who sits tied with Cal Poly, has played 1 more game, and has 1 more win.  If you look at the standings, there have been 6 ties in just 3 events, even Arizona State having the same number of ties as UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly (3 ties each).

Leading the division in scoring are the Cal Poly duo of Chris Kumata and Ryan Newens with 24 and 22 points, respectively.  Rounding out the top 5 are Paul Linder (UCSB), Andrew Tamura (UNLV) and Taylor Abramson (CSULB), not far behind the leaders.  Newens, Abramson and Tyler Koressel (ASU) lead the division in goals with 13 a piece.  Goaltending leaders are Erik Long (Cal Poly) in GAA and Clay Taylor (ASU) in Save Percentage.  Travis Barendt sits in 2^nd in both categories, and Long/Taylor swap places for the 3^rd spot in each other’s category.

There are 3 events in the 2^nd semester – look for the pack to tighten or someone to pull away at the Santa Barbara event, and teams to fight to break out or catch up at the Huntington Beach event.  Both promise to have some amazing games!

WCRHL also will be updating its Facebook cover photo to feature the leading Division I team after each event, for the remainder of the season, finishing off with the WCRHL Division I Regional Champion on March 3, 2013.  See the new cover photo featuring Cal Poly and Long Beach State, the current leaders, on our Facebook page: http://facebook.com/wcrhl