Entering last Saturday's game against then-No. 6 St. Cloud State, Minnesota Duluth was in a slump. Admittedly, the slump was only three games, but for the team that has won the last two national championships and played in three straight national championship games, it was cause for concern that the Bulldogs had lost three straight. While a win wasn't necessarily going to be a surprise, it's likely that few expected the Bulldogs to roll to a 5-1 triumph over St. Cloud.

As we approach the end of this strange pandemic season, Hockey East columnist Jim Connelly needs to put aside something he's said publicly a number of times and speak up on a topic that bothers him.

Going nearly three weeks without a game in the stretch run of the season usually isn’t ideal for most teams, but it appears to be working out well for Clarkson.

It is natural to assume that college hockey coaches are cordial, especially when they share the same conference. It would also be very normal to assume that coaches in a given conference actually despise each other, given that they are often in competition for the same potential student-athlete, whether to an incoming freshman or a transfer student. What is happening in the WCHA in its final season in its current iteration is a microcosm of what seems to be happening throughout college hockey.

It's an old cliché, but in rivalry games, you throw out the records.

There’s no denying that Dylan St. Cyr has earned his opportunity in net. Notre Dame’s senior netminder appeared in only 11 contests during his first three seasons on campus after being a mainstay for the USA Hockey National Team Development Program the two years prior.

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.