Montreal Canadiens: Cole Caufield’s NCAA Postseason Begins Tonight
Montreal Canadiens top prospect Cole Caufield has had a tremendous season for the Wisconsin Badgers so far.
He led the entire country in goals with 25 and points with 46. He helped lead his team to a first place finish in the Big Ten Conference in the regular season and he has them looking to do far more damage in the postseason.
Their conference postseason begins tonight, but it will be a short ride no matter how good it goes for Caufield and the Badgers.
Seven teams made the Big Ten postseason and three of them have already been eliminated. The Badgers earned a bye to the semifinals thanks to their regular season title, but all games are single elimination so the entire playoffs will be completed in just three days. The two winners of today’s semifinals will advance to the final tomorrow night.
The Badgers will face the Penn State Nittany Lions this evening in the first semifinal. Penn State was ranked 5th but took out the 4th ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish with a convincing 6-3 victory yesterday.
The matchup against Penn State is a promising once for Caufield. The Canadiens first round pick in 2019 has scored at will against them this season. In four games, Caufield scored six goals and eight points against Penn State, including a hat trick early in the season.
Wisconsin won three of those four meetings, outscoring Penn State 21-12 in the process.
There is no question that Wisconsin is the favourite heading into tonight’s semifinal, but anything can happen in a one game playoff. If the Badgers do advance, Caufield will be playing for a Big Ten banner tomorrow night.
No matter what happens over the next two days, Caufield’s Badgers will be advancing to the national playoffs. 16 teams are selected by a committee and though nothing will be announced before next weekend, there is no question that a Big Ten regular season title will get the Badgers an invitation, even if they get blown out tonight.
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It will be interesting to see how well Caufield plays in the postseason, but it is even more interesting to see when his season comes to an end, because we are all anxious to see him sign his entry-level contract and make his pro debut in the near future.