“It’s been a funny year.” That may seem like an unusual statement from a coach whose team is struggling, but Jeff Jackson isn’t really laughing here. Nor is he crying (photo: Jim Rosvold).

The doubters have been proven wrong. Massachusetts was not a one-year wonder that last year rode Cale Makar's coattails to the national championship game only to predictably settle back this year into their accustomed position in the lower half of the Hockey East standings. The clock hasn't struck midnight, turning them back into pumpkins. UMass is for real (photo: Rich Gagnon).

Last season was always going to be magic at American International. The Yellow Jackets, armed with their black and yellow-colored glass slipper, captured college hockey’s hearts by winning the Atlantic Hockey regular-season and postseason tournament (photo: Omar Phillips).

A goaltender named after one of the all-time greats was always going to have a lot of pressure piled upon him, but maybe that’s why Dryden McKay is, as his Minnesota State coach Mike Hastings described him, “not too excitable" (photo: Minnesota State Athletics).

The field for the inaugural Connecticut Ice Festival has suddenly gotten a little more competitive (photo: Nina Lindberg/Yale Athletics).

Here is a rundown of how the top 20 teams in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll of Jan. 13 fared in games over the Jan. 17-18 weekend (photo: Minnesota State Athletics).

How does Michigan get to follow up its first road sweep of the season, an upset of No. 14 Notre Dame? “We’re at Penn State,” said Wolverines coach Mel Pearson. “So it just gets easier.” Pearson then laughed (photo: Michigan Athletics).

Certainly, you don’t have to be a Hockey East superfan to know the name Tyce Thompson. But if you we asked who he was, say, on Oct. 1, what would you know about him? (photo: Rich Gagnon).

A logjam in the middle of the NCHC standings promises to make for stressful situations as the season progresses, but it also gives several teams big opportunities. Miami is getting its fair share of those chances, but not everything is going the RedHawks’ way. They’re only two points out of a home-ice playoff spot, but they missed a chance last weekend to put added pressure on fourth-place Western Michigan (photo: Bradley K. Olson).

Depending on who you ask, Northern Michigan winger Griffin Loughran stands either 5-foot-6 or 5-foot-7. The sophomore has been told at every level that he is too small and all he has done is find a way to be effective (photo: Northern Michigan Athletics).

This past weekend, the Atlantic Hockey shootout format enjoyed arguably its best moment during a raucous series between Army West Point and Air Force (photo: Army West Point Athletics).

A graduate student who played three seasons at Robert Morris, Marotte is one of the main reasons Clarkson is in first place in the ECAC, a point ahead of Cornell, and No. 7 in the national polls heading into games at Dartmouth and Harvard this weekend (photo: Clarkson Athletics).