In the sixth WCCHA League KRACH Rankings of the 2019-2020 season, the top four teams - #1 University of St. Thomas, #2 University of Minnesota, #3 North Dakota State University and #4 Gutavus Adolphus College held pat. Only Minnesota and Gustavus were in action over the weekend, with Minnesota claiming two tight victories over Minnesota-Duluth and Gustavus sweeping Minnesota State.

Without playing, new #5 University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire moved up in part due to a point dropped by #6 University of Wisconsin. Although they managed a win and a tie against Winona State, the dropped point was enough to shift the Badgers down a spot below the Blugolds, who took 2 games from the Badgers earlier this season.

Remaining at #7 is University of Minnesota-Duluth, who lost twice to Minnesota. As of now, the final wildcard spot goes to #8 University of North Dakota - but the race for the wildcard tightened significantly. New #9 Winona State University moved up from #12 (!) via a tie and loss with Wisconsin. At #9 is St. John's University, unexepectedly idle due to weather that cancelled a home series against North Dakota State. 

At #11 is Minnesota State University, followed by #12 St. Cloud State University, who won a Sunday evening game against Bethel. Tied in 13th are Bethel University and University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

St. Thomas, the University of Wisconsin, and Gustavus Adolphus have automatically qualify from the Southeast by confirming a top 3 finish. In the Northwest, while Minnesota has also confirmed qualification while Minnesota-Duluth and North Dakota State would also automatically qualify from the Northwest. The wildcard entrants, then, would be UW-Eau Claire and North Dakota.

Based upon these rankings, the first round matchups at the 2020 WCCHA Tournament would be:

• #1 St. Thomas vs. #8 North Dakota
• #2 Minnesota vs. #7 Minnesota-Duluth
• #3 North Dakota State vs. #6 Wisconsin
• #4 Gustavus Adolphus vs. #5 UW-Eau Claire

The sixth rankings are illustrative of the records to date. There are two weeks left of regular season play prior to the final KRACH Rankings set to be released Sunday, Feb. 2, including a massive Interdivisional weekend upcoming. If Winona State's jump this week is any indication, a few big upsets could see a major shift - particularly between ranks 7-12 - so all teams will be focused on getting points in their final conference games.

FOR FULL RANKINGS, CLICK HERE

ABOUT THE WCCHA KRACH RANKINGS:

This season, the WCCHA will utilize KRACH Rankings for both Tournament Qualification and Tournament Seeding. 

Starting the week of Nov. 11, the WCCHA KRACH Rankings will be published each Monday after a WCCHA series is contested, with the final rankings on Feb. 2. The KRACH Rankings will use all WCCHA results, Divisional and Non-Divisional, to order teams according to their league-wide results. As a reminder, this season the top 3 finishers in both the Northwest Division and Southeast Division will automatically qualify for the 2020 WCCHA Tournament. Thereafter, the final two spots at the 2020 WCCHA Tournament will go to the 2 teams with the highest KRACH ranking not otherwise qualified. Finally, once the field of 8 is set for the 2020 WCCHA Tournament, the KRACH rankings will be used to seed the tournament in spots 1-8.