College Hockey:

This Week in the NCHA/MCHA

Welcome back for what should no doubt be another chaotic season. Though many things changed from a season ago, the preseason USCHO.com Division III mens poll is not one of them: it remains littered with NCHA teams, six in all.

Defending Peters Cup champion Stout was the highest of the bunch and checked in at No. 3 while Superior landed on their heels in fourth. The Blue Devils and Yellowjackets each garnered one first place vote.

St. Norbert and St. Scholastica showed up at Nos. 11 and 13, respectively. Both Stevens Point and River Falls also received votes but failed to crack the top 15.

As usual, Adrian is the lone MCHA team to receive votes and popped up in sixth. Its the highest preseason ranking ever for the Bulldogs.
The MCHA kicks off its regular season in earnest this weekend while the NCHA hosts a slew of MIAC opponents.
And now, without further ado

Go Figure

While the relative strength of the NCHA on the national level remains to be determined this season, the parity within the league itself has elevated itself to levels not seen in a very long time — if ever.

Last weekend marked the return to two game conference series and in somewhat shocking fashion it was the three road teams that skated away with all six wins. St. Scholastica, a NCAA tournament team a year ago, garnered a 4-2, 2-1 sweep in Stevens Point but surprisingly the other two NCAA representatives from a year ago are both off to 0-2 league starts.

St. Norbert traveled to Menomonie and dismantled preseason NCHA favorite Stout 2-0 and 4-1, while upstart River Falls traveled to Superior and took down the Yellowjackets 2-1, 7-4. Throw in the fact that Eau Claire dropped games to Marian and Lawrence, and what a way it was to kick the season off.

I was surprised by the sweeps across the board by the road teams and thats a real statement on the strength of the conference, said St. Norbert head coach Tim Coghlin, whose Green Knights moved to 3-0 on the year. If you look around the league you probably expected Stout, Superior and Stevens Point to really come out and have good series at home. I understand the series were all very, very close, but for the road team to win twice really is a strong statement.

Coghlins statements were very nearly echoed by River Falls head coach Steve Freeman.

I think this just shows how balanced the league is. The other thing to notice is how they were all real tight games. Our series up in Superior was two great games and if you look at the other series it was the same across the league.

Balance aside, the biggest waves of the weekend were almost certainly made by St. Norbert. Sweeping a weekend is nothing new for the Green Knights, but considering some of their struggles a year ago, going into Stout and serving up two dominant performances was an outcome few expected.

To put it in perspective, in the process of scoring the four conference points, the Green Knights outshot Stout 40-21 on Friday and 44-17 on Saturday, margins that are dumbfounding considering Stouts offensive prowess.

I think [Stouts Joel] Gaulrapp line is as good as any there is out there, so to do what we did really speaks to the quality of our defensive play and our goaltending, said Coghlin.

The prolific line of Gaulrapp, Scott Motz and Derek Hanson did connect for the
Blue Devils goal on Saturday, but that was it for the weekend.

Its hard to play a critical series this early in the year so special teams didnt look great, but 5-on-5 I thought we were the better team and to me that says a lot, he said.

The results are especially encouraging for the Green Knights as Stout manhandled St. Norbert in Menomonie a year ago. Considering the game was scoreless after two on Friday, Coghlin is especially pleased with the way they were able to win.

It was a little bit of reverse to what happened to us last year, Coghlin said. We couldnt find a way to get a W and we were getting outworked and outscored in the third period. Our conditioning looked extremely good this weekend and I thought we were the better team both nights.

Thats the kind of game that can help you become a better team quickly. I certainly hope thats something that happens for us, but with an 18 game schedule there are certainly going to be ups and downs. Nonetheless, when you put yourself in positions to win games you are going to win more than you lose and thats what we did.

River Falls victories in Superior move the Falcons to 3-0 overall and the four points land it atop the NCHA after one week, which for Freeman is a refreshing change of pace from the sluggish 1-6-1 overall and 1-3 league starts the Falcons limped out to a year ago.

Obviously we hope to win every game we play, but that was huge for us early on. Wessman is a tough to play and to go in there against a very good, big and physical team and get four points early on is real big for us, Freeman said.

The Falcons wins couldnt have been any more different from a stylistic standpoint. A third period goal by freshman defenseman Brady Horn capped off a 2-1 dogfight on Friday, while the Falcons offense, paced by a four point night by freshman Justin Brossman, exploded for a 7-4 win on Saturday.

Interestingly, River Falls was outshot 43-25 in Saturdays contest.

The first game was real tight and the second one opened up a bit, but there was a lot of physical play. This just goes to show that there are no sure things in this league even with home ice, Freeman said.

The Falcons are off to a much better start than a year ago. Much of this can be attributed to the fact their very young roster of a year ago has a year of NCHA experience under their belts, but Freeman also keyed on the contributions of this years newcomers.

I think some of the players weve added through our recruiting class have helped out a bit, he said. Were a little more skilled and a little quicker, especially in the back. Our special teams also held up well, and those things can come and go, but we scored four power-play goals and didnt allow one so that was the difference in the series.

This weekend the NCHA teams all square off against MIAC foes, and River Falls draws a pair of tough opponents in Gustavus Adolphus and Augsburg. The Golden Gusties return nearly everyone from last years NCAA finalist squad, while Augsburg is coming off a 2-0 weekend at the MIAC Showcase. Included in the Auggies two wins is a victory over the Gusties.

Both teams are playing well and it should be a great test playing Gustavus right away on Friday, Freeman said. Obviously they went to the Frozen Four last year and they are tremendously talented up front so it should be a real challenge for us. At the same time Augsburg is off to a good start so we certainly need to be ready to go this weekend.

The superb opening weekends of St. Norbert and River Falls are evidence the NCHA plans on remaining as quirky as always. With St. Scholastica also 2-0 in conference play it means the NCHA coaches preseason second, fifth and sixth picks are atop the standings while the first, third and fourth place selections all reside at 0-2.

Sixteen games to go. Welcome to the jungle.

The Adrian Gap

During the Cold War, the missile gap was a phrase coined in reference to the disparity in nuclear weapons between the United States and the Soviet Union. Numerous estimates contended that the Soviets possessed far more firepower than we did and that the gap needed to be addressed by our government most urgently.

History has shown that the concepts advocates knew all along that the purported gap was exagger