More and more, athletes and coaches around the sports world are increasing their commitment to positive cultural changes while making their spheres more welcoming. The same goes for college hockey, including in the NCHC. League commissioner Josh Fenton, Omaha assistant coach Paul Jerrard and North Dakota forward Jasper Weatherby are each involved in College Hockey for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, a task force that was unveiled earlier this month but has been meeting since last summer.

On Tuesday of this week, Todd Milewski wrote in the Wisconsin State Journal that the Big Ten will likely be moving up the start date of the playoff tournament to Sunday, March 14. That is something that Wisconsin coach Tony Granato let slip, apparently, before anything official had been announced by the league.

Three weeks ago, Boston University freshman goalie Vinny Duplessis wasn’t sure he’d see much -- if any -- action this season. Then he was in net against Boston College, the top team in Hockey East, and he shut them down in one of BU’s best wins all season, a 3-1 victory on Feb. 6.

The preseason media call is always an exercise in routine. Coaches talk about their excitement for the upcoming season and touch upon the optimism of their team’s hard work and commitment, and everyone stresses the need to get better as the season advances. The goal, everyone says, is the same every year: to be playing “your best hockey” when the March postseason rolls around.

The WCHA schedule has done nobody any favors this season. Or maybe, the better way to put it: The COVID-19 pandemic has done the WCHA schedule absolutely no favors this season.

In a very challenging year, one thing was clear to first-year commissioner Steve Metcalf early in the 2020-21 Hockey East campaign It took just a couple of weekends of canceled games and teams and the league working to change opponents to make Metcalf realize come season’s end, there would be a significant imbalance in both number of games played as well as the strength of opponents each team faces. Thus, Metcalf turned to a somewhat familiar formula to help determine the Hockey East standings: the PairWise.

Despite the challenges of COVID-19, the NCHC is on the verge of accomplishing what it set out to do when the conference announced the regular season plans of the Omaha pod and then weekend series: have each team play a 24-game regular season.

What makes a line combination does not always make sense when coaches put a trio together on paper. No. 18-ranked Michigan Tech coach Joe Shawhan seems to have found a trio that has quickly developed chemistry in captain Alec Broetzman, freshman Arvid Caderoth, and sophomore Jake Crespi.

At 6-2-0, Canisius is currently in second place in the Atlantic Hockey standings, which are kept this season based on points percentage. The Griffs have captured 18 out of a possible 24 points so far. The magic formula has been special teams and goaltending.

With Wisconsin coming into town, Michigan didn’t exactly get to ease back into things after a COVID-19-related pause forced it to take 22 days off.

It took a while for St. Lawrence to get started its season underway, but the Saints have shown a marked improvement from last year as ECAC Hockey enters its final two weekends of the regular season.

Minnesota State made a big statement last weekend against Bowling Green. In the first (and only) regular-season series between the consensus two top teams in the conference, the Mavericks swept the Falcons in fairly convincing fashion. They won 4-1 and 5-0, showing off their depth and their defensive prowess in the process.