The matchup of the weekend and maybe the matchup of the year between two titans of the ECAC West. Even though the Tigers have been rolling along this season, I like the fact that Plattsburgh has faced some stiffer competition as of late and I think that propels the Cardinals to a 3-2 victory the first night to stun a crowd of over 1500 at the Ritter. However, RIT bounces back on Saturday with a 4-1 win over the Cardinals to salvage a split.
Wis. Stevens Point @ Wis. Eau Claire
It seems like every week the NCHA has a marquee matchup. This week the Pointers and Blugolds will take center stage with a two-game set at Eau Claire. After starting 9-1, the Pointers have hit a bit of a rough patch over their last five games with just a 1-3-1 record over that span. Eau Claire on the other hand, was on a three-game winning streak until a 2-2 tie with St. Thomas. I think Stevens Point gets things corrected this weekend takes at least three points, maybe even all four. Point 4-1 and 5-2.
Superior @ St. Norbert
Here’s another big matchup in the NCHA with St. Norbert making headlines last week by putting the first blemish on Wis. River Falls’ perfect record by battling the Falcons to a 1-1 tie. The Green Knights are in just their first year as a program and Rob Morgan has the team headed in the right direction as they have stayed right aroud .500 all season in the always competitive NCHA. I think SNC manages a split this weekend with the Yellowjackets taking the second night’s game after losing the first. Superior 5-2, SNC 2-1 (OT)
Two ties last weekend – Adrian and Milwaukee School of Engineering’s 2-2 stalemate and Hamline and Bethel’s 4-4 draw – overshadowed an otherwise 4-0 week in the pick’s department. The overall mark stands at 19-17-2, or 19-19 if the ties count as losses. Either way, I won’t quibble.
The MCHA, MIAC and NCHA slate this weekend poses no less a challenge as there are some vexing match-ups interspersed with some low-hanging fruit.
With No. 2 St. Norbert and Wisconsin-Superior’s series moved up to Thursday night and Friday afternoon, here are the top games in the respective D-III West circuits. Jan. 21-22 Adrian at Lawrence: Fresh off a pair of wins at Finlandia, the Vikings (9-5-1, 7-3) pose a serious threat to the No. 9 Bulldogs with their Jekyll and Hide personna this season. Lawrence beat Wisconsin-Stevens Point, among others, to win six of its first seven games before hitting a three-game skid. The nadir of that downturn came in a 10-2 pasting at home to Marian Dec. 3. The Vikes, who are led by junior Matt Hughes’ 19 points on 7 goals and 12 assists, have won three of four in the new year. While a Top-10 team, Adrian has its demons, namely taking bad penalties as it did in last Saturday’s 2-2 tie with No. 11 MSOE. The Bulldogs held a 1-0 advantage before the Raiders scored twice on the power play. Zach Graham’s whirlwind goal to open the third period salvaged the draw. Speaking of draws, this Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association match up has the makings of a split. Lawrence 3-1, Adrian 5-2 Hamline vs. St. Thomas: This home-and-home series will decide who gets top billing in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Association, at least temporarily. The two teams are locked in a three-way tie for first with No. 15 Gustavus Adolphus, which has a home-and-home series with St. John’s this weekend. The No. 12 Pipers displayed the guile of a first-place team with Jordan VanGilder snatching a goal with 18 seconds left in regulation to grab a 4-4 tie with Bethel at home last Saturday. Hamline is unbeaten in the new year (3-0-2) and has four scorers on fire with Brian Arrigoni (9-11-20), Chris Berenguer (9-10-19), Ryan Kupperman (4-13-17) and VanGilder (5-12-17) finding the net with increasing frequency. The Tommies (10-7, 5-3) are 2-2 in 2011 and are coming off a 3-2 home loss to Concordia (Minn.) last Saturday. To stave off the Pipers, St. Thomas will need a lock-down performance as the team displayed in its 3-0 victory ove the Cobbers last Friday. Otherwise, Hamline continues its surging second-half form to prevail in a sweep. Hamline 4-2, 3-1 Wisconsin-Eau Claire at St. Scholastica: Both teams are eager to shake the new year doldrums. The visiting Blugolds are 2-2 in January while the host Saints are a tad better at 2-1-1. Last weekend, St. Scholastica secured a split at Wisconsin-River Falls, winning the series’ opener 3-2 on Alex Valenti’s game-deciding goal. Then the Saints (8-8-1, 3-7) dropped the finale 3-1, which has been emblematic of their inconsistent season. UW-Eau Claire (10-7, 4-6) is looking to rebound from a pair of tough losses at No. 2 St. Norbert, 6-3 and 3-2, last weekend. In Saturday’s finale, Blugolds clawed back on Isaish Bennis’ short-handed goal with 51 seconds left to shave the deficit to one. UW-Eau Claire’s fight-back spirit is the reason this series will likely end in a split. St. Scholastica 3-1, UW-Eau Claire 5-2
Another weekend slightly above .500. I should be grateful. Why don’t I feel grateful? Last week: 5-3-2 (.600) Season to date: 78-45-21 (.615)
Here are my picks for games this week. There’s a full slate of CCHA play. Bowling Green is the team on the sidelines this weekend. All games are Friday-Saturday. Start times are noted.
I’m covering the Friday Miami-Michigan State game providing some extra coverage of the Alaska-Michigan game Saturday. Please say hello if you see me. FSU at NMU. Fourth-place FSU is six points ahead of eighth-place NMU, but the Wildcats have a chance to make up some serious ground this weekend, as Northern has three games in hand on the Bulldogs. Last weekend, FSU dropped two to Michigan and the second loss, a 6-1 home loss, especially rankled; the game was televised, two Bulldog goals were disallowed, FSU had the top defense in the country heading into the weekend, and the game marked the first time since Jan. 2, 2010, that FSU had given up six goals to an opponent (Yale). The Wildcats were idle last week and are winless in their last four (0-3-1), and in that span NMU was outscored by opponents 18-6. Looks like both teams have something to prove. FSU and NMU are 2-2-1 in their last five meetings. 7:35 p.m. both nights. FSU 4-3, NMU 3-2. Miami at MSU. Last weekend, the Spartans came away from two games in Sault Ste. Marie with four points while the RedHawks swept Bowling Green at home. Freshman Will Yanakeff was the goalie of record for the Spartans in last weekend’s win and tie, and he’s 3-0-1 in his last four starts; the Spartans are 3-1-1 in their last five. Junior Cody Reichard had both wins against BGSU last weekend, allowing just two goals. Miami has won seven of the last 10 meetings between these teams. MSU is 67-26-5 all-time against Miami, including a 35-15-3 record at Munn. 7:35 p.m. Friday, 7:05 p.m. Saturday. MSU 3-2, Miami 4-2. ND at OSU. First-place Notre Dame holds that spot by a single point over Michigan, and the Wolverines have a game in hand on the Irish. Ohio State is no threat to the Irish in terms of the standings, but with 25 points, OSU is in that middle CCHA mix with six other teams. Last weekend, the Irish split at home with Alaska; head coach Jeff Jackson went on record with a personal mea culpa after the split, saying that he hadn’t prepared his team for the series. You can bet that’s a mistake that won’t be made two weeks in a row. The Buckeyes returned from Kalamazoo with two points after losing to and tying WMU. Even though ND earned more points on the weekend, OSU ended on a higher note – setting up a very interesting series in Columbus. Last season, ND went 1-0-1 against OSU. The Irish have more goals than anyone in the country (98) and are third in the nation (.3.77) in goals per game. The Buckeyes have the 15th-best defense in the country, allowing 2.43 goals per game. 7:05 p.m. both nights. ND 3-2, OSU 3-2. UAF at UM. The Nanooks may have surprised the Irish last week, but the Wolverines have the benefit of that series and won’t be able to make the same claim. In splitting with Notre Dame last weekend, Alaska won its first game in the Joyce Center in eight games, having last won there March 4, 2006. It’s been a little longer since the Nanooks won in Yost; UAF’s last win in Ann Arbor was Jan. 7, 2006. In sweeping the Bulldogs last week, the Wolverines posted their best defensive weekend of the year, allowing just three goals in two contests. UM is unbeaten on Saturdays this season (10-0-2)…which means that Fridays are a little different (3-5-2). One of those Friday losses came in Fairbanks, a 3-0 loss to UAF when the teams split (Nov. 5-6). Scott Greenham (1.97 GAA, .926 SV%) vs. Shawn Hunwick (2.45, .916) should be a good match-up. I confess that I enjoy watching Hunwick play, as he’s a little, um, extroverted. 7:35 p.m. both nights. UAF 3-2, UM 4-2. WMU at LSSU. The CCHA announced a one-game suspension of LSSU head coach Jim Roque today – and no, I don’t know the circumstances of it, yet, other than what the press release said, that Roque violated the league’s Good Conduct Regulations following LSSU’s 2-2 overtime tie against MSU last weekend. So Roque – a passionate, expressive coach, I’ve found, and a guy I like a lot – will return to the Lake bench Saturday. The Lakers took two points from the visiting Spartans last weekend with that shootout extra point Saturday; last weekend’s action was the first D-I play LSSU had seen since mid-December. The Broncos hosted the Buckeyes and earned four points with a win and tie; WMU now possesses the longest unbeaten streak in the country at seven games (5-0-2). That streak began with a Dec. 11, 2010, 5-2 win over LSSU. Last year, WMU defeated and tied LSSU in Kalamazoo (Nov. 6-7, 2009); the teams split a pair of games the last time they met in Sault Ste. Marie (Feb. 20-21, 2009). I’m not calling against a streak until it’s broken. 7:05 p.m. both nights. WMU 3-2, 4-2.
Our good friend BD – Mr. Benjamin Davis – is back again, and why not? He can’t help but beat me. He rolls out of bed each morning a better prognosticator than I, and the rest of the day is just downhill from there.
Prediction precision
Season record: Me: 91-46-15 (.648) Guest guessers: 70-45-12 (.598)
This is actually an interesting game: Brown only has a single home win in six games this season (last week against Yale, of all teams); St. Lawrence has to be feeling good after last weekend’s 10-goal win and tie weekend at Michigan Tech; and with Yale being Yale, Brown is now considered the must-win half of the weekend if a team hopes to grab any road points at all from the trip. I’m liking the direction Brown is heading, but this is a very difficult game to call. I’ll give it to Bruno, but really, who knows: 4-3 Brown.
BD: Brown is coming off a huge upset win vs. #1 Yale, and the Saints are coming into this game with a winning month so far (3-2-1). SLU has a game in hand on the Bears in the ECAC race but in order for St. Lawrence to have a chance at getting a home ice spot in the playoffs they need to start now. Saints win 4-2
Harvard at Rensselaer – 7:00
Harvard hereby becomes the fourth team, if I’m not mistaken (Brown, Clarkson, Colgate, now Harvard), for whom I’ve had to invoke The Brown Rule. 3-1 RPI.
BD: Harvard is coming off a shutout loss at Northeastern (Thank you Huskies it gained me my tie vs. Brian) and traveling to Houston Field House is no easy task. The only 2 league wins that are against an above .500 team are Union in OT and Dartmouth. I am not convinced yet that Rensselaer is worthy of their #14 national ranking. I will take RPI over the Crimson because Harvard just isn’t doing good. Engineers 4-3
Dartmouth at Union – 7:00
Not only are the Dutchmen unbeaten at home (9-0-1, 3-0-0 in the ECAC), but eight of their remaining 12 league games are at Messa Rink. As though Schenectady weren’t challenging enough as it is… 4-2 Union.
BD: #18 @ #12 nationally. In order for Dartmouth to have a chance at a top 3 spot in the league they must win this win. Union has outscored their opponents in the last 4 games 18-4. This will be a goaltenders dual with Kinkaid (Union) and Mello (Big Green) both posting GAA’s of under 2 goals per game. I am going to say the Big Green will cool down the Dutchman’s offense but not enough to score the win. Union in this one 2-1
Clarkson at Yale – 7:00
A popular saying holds that you learn more from your failures than your successes. Yale dropped the ball in the third period at Air Force, and then reeled off 10 straight wins. What will the split with Brown portend? Probably not a second consecutive loss, I’ll tell you that. 5-2 Bulldogs.
BD: Yale is coming off their first league loss of the year to Brown. Even with that loss they didn’t lose their #1 ranking. Clarkson is coming off a week off and their last game being a 8-1 shellacking from Union. Clarkson is once again no doubt the “underdog” in this one and hopefully like back in February 2002 (when Clarkson scored 5 straight in the 3rd to beat the bulldogs 7-5) they will leave the Yale Whale winners and the Bulldog fans shocked again. Knights win this one 4-2
Cornell at Colgate – 7:00
Brown Rule… two teams at once? Hey, it’s a rough year in Cambridge and Hamilton. 3-2 Cornell.
BD: The Central NY rivalry isn’t as exciting in my books as previous years. The 7th place Big Red vs. the 12th place Raiders. The weekend might provide some good games from some mediocre teams. Cornell in the weekend opener 3-2
Saturday, January 22
Clarkson at Brown – 4:00
Believe it or not, the young Golden Knights have a better road record (4-2-0) than home (4-5-2, 3-1-0 ECAC). Brown will have its hands full, as long as ‘Tech can rebound from the Yale game quickly enough for Saturday’s early start. 4-3 Clarkson.
BD: Hopefully if my predictions from Friday are right the Knights come out with a road sweep. Clarkson 3-1
Dartmouth at Rensselaer – 4:00
I have a real hard time believing that Dartmouth would lose both games this weekend… but I have an equally difficult time seeing either of the Capital District teams losing at home (combined 17-1-1; 5-1-0 ECAC). Betting on the hosts here, 4-2 RPI.
BD: Dartmouth has a winning record in league play. RPI did beat Dartmouth this year but it was only Dartmouth’s 3rd game of the year. Big Green are going to Troy and leaving with a split on the weekend. Dartmouth beats up the Engineers 5-1 (sorry RPI: no disrespect; prove me wrong)
U.S. Under-18 Team at Quinnipiac – 7:00
Exhibition
Colgate at Cornell – 7:00
Brown Rule. See, not only does it mean its invokee is terrible, but it also deprives you all of any formal write-up on the game! It’s just bad news all around. 3-2 Red.
BD: Colgate remains winless in the league but this one a little more of a blowout @ Lynah. Big Red 4-1
St. Lawrence at Yale – 7:00
This looked to be a pretty big mis-match, by ECAC standards, except that SLU may have flipped the switch on its goal machine: freshman Greg Carey has seven goals in nine league games, and 14 goals overall. He and sophomore Kyle Flanagan (five league goals) have combined more more than half of the Saints’ conference output. If they’re not kept in check, we could be in for a wild one in New Haven. That said, can’t pick against Yale this year: 5-3 ‘Dogs.
BD: If my predictions prove out right Yale will be losers of 2 straight. Sorry St. Lawrence but they have to take their frustration out on someone and you are next. Yale 3-1
Harvard at Union – 7:00
Brown Rule. Especially at Messa. 4-1 Union.
BD: Nothing on paper shows anything good for the Crimson. Union 4-1
Tuesday, January 25
Sacred Heart at Princeton – 7:00
Princeton is 2-0-0 at home against non-conference opponents (both UMass-Lowell). Sacred Heart is 0-6-0 against ECAC Hockey foes; 0-4-0 against ’em on the road. Tigers roar in a tune-up game, 5-2.
BD: The ECAC has just been downright brutal to the Pioneers this year. They have been outscored 40-8 in six games surrendering an average of 6.66 goals per game. Princeton wins this one and in a “below average” goals against. Princeton 6-2
It’s almost uncanny how often readers will ask questions that I’ve only recently addressed on Twitter, but not in an USCHO blog or article. Maybe more of them should be following me on Twitter then, eh?
The CCHA announced this morning that Lake Superior State coach Jim Roque has been suspended for tonight’s game against Western Michigan.
Roque was in violation of the league’s Good Conduct Regulations (Section VI – CCHA Code of Regulations) after an incident that occurred following the game with Michigan State on Jan. 15 which resulted in Roque receiving a game misconduct after reportedly confronting the on-ice officials and questioning the officiating.
Roque is eligible to return behind the bench tomorrow night.
Both of us had a pretty decent week with 9-3-0 records, but that was only good news for front-running Jim. Dave made up no ground.
Dave last week: 9-3-0 Jim last week: 9-3-0 Dave’s record-to-date: 58-24-18 (.670) Jim’s record-to-date: 69-22-16 (.720)
Here are this week’s picks:
Friday, January 21
Providence at New Hampshire
Dave’s pick: The Friars played Maine tough last weekend, losing in overtime, and will make life difficult for UNH too. In the end, though, the Wildcats will just be too good. UNH 4 PC 3
Jim’s pick: Home ice gives UNH the edge here. UNH 4, PC 2
Massachusetts-Lowell at Merrimack
Dave’s pick: The Warriors are enjoying a terrific season; the River Hawks are struggling. Do the math. Merrimack 4 Lowell 1
Jim’s pick: Yet another home win for the top-10 PWR Warriors. Merrimack 3, Lowell 2
Massachusetts at Vermont
Dave’s pick: Even though the Minutemen are coming off a sweep of Lowell, the Catamounts still look like the stronger club. Especially at home. UVM 3 UMass 2
Jim’s pick: I feel like this series is a split, so I’ll start with Vermont as the victor. UVM 3, UMass 1
Boston College at Boston University
Dave’s pick: Both teams are coming off losses, but in this series you can pretty much throw out recent results, statistics, and every other measuring stick. That said, I’m going with the Eagles. BC 3 BU 2
Jim’s pick: Having a tough time picking this one, but thinking that the Eagles will be hyper hungry after that loss to Maine. BC 5, BU 3
Saturday, January 22
Boston University at New Hampshire
Dave’s pick: The Wildcats take a big step to making this a two-team race for the regular season title. UNH 4 BU 2
Jim’s pick: Even though BU knocked off UNH at home, don’t see that happening in Durham. UNH 5, BU 4
Maine at Northeastern
Dave’s pick: I can’t say that I’ve got a handle on the Black Bears. One weekend they’re getting trashed by Merrimack, 7-1. The next they beat BC, 4-1. For this week, I’m going to believe. At least I think so. Maine 3 NU 2
Jim’s pick: I think Maine is back on the right track here. That will give them plenty of edge against NU. Maine 5, NU 2
Massachusetts-Lowell at Boston College
Dave’s pick: No offense intended toward Lowell, but a billion laps around Conte Forum for the Eagles if they lose this one. BC 4 Lowell 1
Jim’s pick: In full agreement with Dave. BC 5, Lowell 1
Massachusetts at Vermont
Dave’s pick: These two teams are so close, the percentage play is to pick a split, but I’m going with a Catamounts sweep that puts them back on pace for a playoff berth. UVM 3 UMass 2 (OT)
Jim’s pick: UMass will make the bus ride home a good one. UMass 4, UVM 2
Sunday, January 23
USA Under-18 Team at Providence
Dave’s pick: Exhibitions don’t count in our picks, but let’s go with the Friars anyway. PC 3 U-18 1
Jim’s pick: Providence should have enough talent to win this one. PC 4, U-18 1
Tuesday, January 2
Bentley at Massachusetts-Lowell
Dave’s pick: The River Hawks’ losing streak could be at 15 by game time so they really, really need this one. UML 3 Bentley 2
Jim’s pick: Let’s hope Lowell doesn’t go the way of Northeastern when it comes to Atlantic Hockey. UML 5, Bentley 2
Rough week last week in terms of the ol’ predictions.
Last week Theresa: 3-6-3
Season Theresa: 89-54-16
Last week Tyler: 5-4-3
Season Tyler: 90-36-12
This week: five conference series, including Dean Blais’ return to Grand Forks and one non-conference tilt.
Friday, January 21 and Saturday, January 22
St. Cloud State (9-11-2, 5-8-1 WCHA) at Bemidji State (9-11-2, 5-9-2 WCHA) Theresa: Both teams are riding mini hot streaks right now (BSU two games; SCSU four) and both teams really need this weekend in terms of points. If Bemidji sweeps, they’re right back in the thick of things and would be tied with idle Minnesota. The Huskies, well, they’re only a point behind the Beavers so you can do the math. Needless to say, this series is vital for both teams. The question is, who comes out on top? These two teams split last time they met and I think that’s realistically what’ll happen this time, as well. SCSU Friday, BSU Saturday.
Tyler: The Huskies have made Mike Lee their No. 1 goaltender and he’s won four straight games with a goals against average of 1.73 and a .935 save percentage and BSU is near the bottom of the league offensively with only 37 goals in 16 WCHA games. SCSU also has only 16 goals in league play and Lee can’t win on his own. Split.
Alaska-Anchorage (7-10-3, 6-8-2 WCHA) at No. 4 Denver (14-5-5, 10-3-3 WCHA) Theresa: I get to see the Friday night game in this series and am excited for it. I’m particularly excited to see how Anchorage plays coming off a huge sweep against CC last weekend. As you all hopefully read yesterday, DU is a very resilient team, whether over the course of a season or the duration of a game. However, the Seawolves are a team that, over the past couple years, have become one that you never want to count out. In the last two years, UAA has taken at least two points from the Pioneers during the season (split in ’08-’09; UAA took three of a possible 8 points last year). They’ve got one so far and I don’t call ties, so I’m going to, once again, go with a split - UAA Friday, DU Saturday.
Tyler: The Seawolves have a knack for stealing points from ranked teams this season but most of those wins and ties were in Anchorage. A win in Denver would be a big step for UAA but the Pioneers are unbeatable at home except for a pair of losses to No. 3 Boston College back in October. DU sweep.
No. 5 Minnesota-Duluth (15-5-3, 10-4-2 WCHA) at Michigan Tech (3-16-3, 1-12-1 WCHA) Theresa: With the way the Huskies have been playing this year, I almost want to adopt a version of my colleague Brian Sullivan’s “Brown rule.” For those who don’t know, the rule came about a couple years ago when Brown could/would not win. It’s invoked when a team is losing so consistently that he can’t pick them to win. So, even though I really want to see MTU’s winless streak come to a halt … Tech rule. UMD sweep.
Tyler: Yes, Tech beat UMD twice last season but that’s the past and besides, the Bulldogs outshot the Huskies badly in both those games. According to the Mining Gazette, Tech may have lost four players to injury last weekend. The Huskies have the second worst defense in the nation, on paper, and they’re going against UMD’s high-powered offense. UMD sweep.
No. 16 Nebraska-Omaha (12-8-2, 9-5-2 WCHA) at No. 2 North Dakota (17-6-2, 12-4-0 WCHA) Theresa: As we all know, these teams split each other in a fairly crazy series back in mid-November. Since then, UNO’s gone slightly downhill and UND started steamrolling the competition. It’ll be interesting to see what happens this weekend; not only because of Blais’ return to the Forks, but also because, according to the Grand Forks Herald, the last-second goal by the Mavericks in their 1-0 win that weekend has stuck with the Sioux team. So, what do we see? Some semblance of logic in my brain says “split,” but I think I’ll ignore it and give the boys in green the benefit of the doubt. UND sweep.
Tyler: Terry Broadhurst was probably UNO’s most consistent scorer, averaging more than a point per game. The Mavericks have a chance to win this weekend if Broadhurst is back in the lineup. UNO has a lot of trouble scoring and without him, the red-hot Sioux will sweep. I’ll call a UND sweep regardless.
Minnesota State (10-9-5, 4-9-3 WCHA) at No. 9 Wisconsin (15-8-3, 7-7-2 WCHA) Theresa: This series is tricky for predicting. Both teams have been playing well recently – UW is 8-2 in their last 10 and MSU is 6-3-1 in theirs. The Mavs’ record looks a little worse thanks to last weekend’s hiccup against Denver where they couldn’t hold the lead in two straight games. For the Badgers, their two losses in that streak were at the beginning of the 10 game stretch (to apparent upstarts UAA) and this past weekend, to league force UMD. What I think I’m trying to get at here is both teams are starting to come into their own. The question is, what happens when they face each other this weekend in Madison? I kind of want to call a Badger sweep, but MSU has earned the benefit of the doubt. Therefore, split – MSU Friday, UW Saturday.
Tyler: The Badgers have an impressive record this season at the Kohl Center but most of those wins came against inferior nonconference opponents or the WCHA cellar. MSU is in 10th place but the Mavericks have had third period leads against UND and Denver, only to let them slip away. If MSU converts on its scoring chances it will take a game at UW. Split.
Alabama-Huntsville at Colorado College (12-11-1, 8-8-0 WCHA) Theresa: The Chargers haven’t had a lot of luck this year, though it’s been tough playing as a D-I independent. Although they split with Bemidji State two weekends ago, I maintain some of that had to do with familiarity. UAH won’t have that advantage this weekend as they face a CC team undoubtedly looking to rebound after it was swept by UAA last weekend. Therefore, UAH, I’m glad you’re still fighting the good fight, but this weekend, the Tigers have you. CC sweep.
Tyler: After it was swept in Anchorage last week, CC gets the perfect rebound team, UAH, this weekend at home. CC sweep.
Finally!
A week where my winners outnumbered the losing picks by more than one. I would like to think, or at least I believe the coaches are letting me think that it is not my ineptitude as much as it is the level of play amongst all of the teams in the two conferences. Can i make it two weeks in a row of solid predictions? Only the action on the ice will determine whether or not I come out looking like I know something or not.
Last Week: 13-7-3
Overall Record: 69-63-14 (.521)
Winners in bold. Friday, January 21, 2011
Colby @ Conn College – A 10-0 white washing of Salve Regina maybe just what the Camels needed to get the offense going after a weekend that produced only two goals. Colby has been better away from home but not in New London – Conn College 4, Colby 2. Bowdoin @ Tufts – They say “on any given night” but Tufts losing to Suffolk this week is either going to get them focused to get some wins or continue their mid-season slide. Bowdoin is the wrong team to figure it out against – Bowdoin 6, Tufts 2.
UNE @ Babson – The Beavers are holding on to the final home playing berth but have plenty of teams in the rear view mirror. Can’t lose at home to a team that continues to struggle to score goals. Beavers take care of business – Babson 5, UNE 2.
Southern Maine @ UMass-Boston – The Beacons still have their sites set on catching Castleton and Norwich who are just ahead in the standings. The mid-week win over UMass-Dartmouth led by freshman Travis Daniel has them primed for a big weekend – UMB 5, USM 4.
St. Michael’s @ Trinity – St. Mike’s has surprised quite a few teams so far this season and the offense has carried those wins. Trinity needs goals and wins and has the better defense and goaltender. Like the home team in this one – Trinity 3, St. Mike’s 1. Norwich @ Wesleyan – A huge first time win in program history over Middlebury on the road has the Cardinals believing they can play with anyone… and then the National Champs come to town. This one is closer than you think – Norwich 3, Wesleyan 2.
NEC @ Middlebury – At some point this season the Panthers should be taking advantage of the home ice and large sheet that challenges many opponents. NEC has also had consistency problems and limited scoring from forwards other than Niko Uola. Panthers need a big weekend – Middlebury 5, NEC 3.
St. Anselm @ Williams - The Ephs got stung on a mid-week trip to Plattsburgh and return home looking to move back to the top spot they held at the break. St. A’s is another team looking to get on a run but not in Williamstown – Williams 5, St. A’s 3.
Skidmore @ Amherst – The Thoroughbreds need the win in the East and Amherst wants to keep the pressure on Bowdoin at the top of the league standings. Doesn’t seem to matter who plays goal for the Lord Jeffs – Amherst 4, Skidmore 1.
Castleton @ Hamilton – The dragon slayers that have knocked off Oswego and Williams as highly ranked teams will be ready for their next top ten knock-off. May be the best game of the weekend so hate to have to pick a winner – Hamilton 4, Castleton 3. Saturday, January 22, 2011 Bowdoin @ Conn College – this one could be an absolute shootout with two high powered offenses when they have it revved up. The Polar Bears have had better overall production and think it shows here – Bowdoin 6, Conn College 4. Colby @ Tufts – The White Mules are from out of anything so two points to wrap-up the weekend is a big deal. Tufts also needs points but has trouble playing consistent hockey for 60 minutes – Colby 4, Tufts 3.
NEC @ Williams – The top four NESCAC teams are in a position to create some distance from the pack and start dueling for position in the top four. That’s all the motivation the Ephs need – Williams 4, NEC 2.
St. A’s @ Middlebury –This may be the weekend that finally puts the Panthers above .500 as Coach Beaney has always had success against fellow Lake Placid native Ed Seney. It’s almost February for a team that won the league last year with a lot of the same players – Middlebury 3, St. A’s 1. Norwich @Trinity – Some of last year’s key freshmen are starting to get it going as sophomores. Forkey and Thomas have started producing like Schroeder and Olivier-Cotnoir so look out Wes Vesprini – Norwich 4, Trinity 2.
St. Michael’s @ Wesleyan – Chris Potter’s team has played everything close to the vest and continues to do so against the Purple Knights. The Cardinals are comfortable in the close ones and would like to see more W’s for the effort – Wesleyan 3, St. Mike’s 2.
Skidmore @ Hamilton – No Friday hangover for the Continentals. This team is starting to play its best hockey and Joe Houk continues to lead Hamilton towards on of the their best seasons in several years – Hamilton 5, Skidmore 4.
Castleton @ Amherst– The road trip is hard enough but both teams on either end are playing well and get to stay off the bus for the weekend. Don’t look for the road warriors to triumph here – Amherst 2, Castleton 1.
Southern Maine @ Babson – OK so all season I have been dead wrong when predicting a two game winning streak for the Beavers. Law of averages dictates I have to be right eventually – Babson 4, USM 3.
UNE @ UMB – The Beacons can get back into Norwich’s rear view mirror if they take care of business at home. UNE is not a team to look past and UMB won’t but not without a scare – UMB 6, UNE 4. Tuesday, January 25, 2011 Babson @Curry – This now annual event has produced some exciting games over the past few years and this one should be a lot of fun at “The Max” Ryan Warsofsky has been great for the Colonels but they still need goaltending to pull this one off – Babson 5, Curry 4. Bowdoin @ Assumption – A mid-week game for the Polar Bears facing a couple of solid forwards in Trevor Larsen and Pat O’Kane for Assumption. It’s not nearly enough to match the Bowdoin arsenal – Bowdoin 7, Assumption 1.
January is quickly coming to a close and the February sprint is not far off – time to get the boys moving and doing what it takes to make the all-important winning decisions on the ice.
Students are back in the house – drop the puck!!
One week after going almost perfect, I had a pretty dismal picking performance, going 10-7-1 (.583). I think the lesson to take away from it is that, barring Cornell, I should just stay away from ECAC games, as outside of Cornell, I was 0-3. Overall on the season, I am now 93-36-15 (.697). Let’s try and get back to my winning ways.
Friday-Saturday, January 21-22
Mercyhurst at Robert Morris: Though they were just shutout by Cornell, the Lakers are one the elite teams in the country, and just too strong for the Colonials. Mercyhurst 4-1, 3-0
North Dakota at St. Cloud: The Sioux got away from the splitsville trend on the weekend, sweeping Bemidji last weekend. I expect the Sioux to make it two sweeps in a row. North Dakota 4-0, 4-1
Minnesota at Ohio State: The Gophers have been playing awfully well of late, getting a win and a tie against arch-rival Minnesota-Duluth last weekend. The Buckeyes have shown signs of more consistency, getting a sweep against Minnesota State last weekend. On paper, I’d go with a Gophers’ sweep, but I think Minnesota will have a letdown after last weekend and split. Ohio State 3-2, Minnesota 4-0
Minnesota State at Bemidji State: This is a hard series to predict. Both teams have been struggling of late. I’m tempted to call a home-ice sweep for the Beavers, but I think this will be a split. Bemidji State 3-2, Minnesota State 3-2
Wisconsin at Minnesota-Duluth: The marquee series of the weekend pits the teams that have won the last five NCAA titles against each other. The Badgers have looked almost unbeatable this year, save for single losses to Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth. However, the Bulldogs have struggled somewhat lately. I’m going to call for a Badgers sweep, though a split wouldn’t surprise me. Wisconsin 3-2, 2-1
Boston College/Providence: An intriguing home-and-home series, with Providence hosting Friday. BC had a wrench thrown into their confidence when they were shutout by Boston University. Providence had shown signs of moving into a solid position in Hockey East, but lost to New Hampshire last weekend. I think BC will be extra-motivated to build momentum heading into the Beanpot. Boston College 4-3, 4-1
Colgate/Cornell: A home-and-home, with Cornell playing host on Friday. The Big Red looked very good in shutting out Mercyhurst on Tuesday. Honestly, I think Cornell could go undefeated in conference play this year. Cornell 5-1, Cornell 6-1
Saturday, January 22
Boston University at Vermont: Will the Catamounts again play the tie spoiler? They have nine on the year, including against some good teams. I think the Terriers take this though. Boston University 4-1
In the 10-year history of the NCAA sponsoring a Division III women’s hockey championship, only one team has ever gone a whole season unbeaten. The 2007 Plattsburgh Cardinals went 27-0-2 on their way to their first national championship.
This season, Plattsburgh will try to play the role of spoiler as the top-ranked RIT Tigers come into this weekend’s ECAC West showdown at the Frank Ritter Memorial Arena in Rochester with a perfect 17-0-0 record.
“It’s one of those weekends that you look forward to all year,” RIT coach Scott McDonald said. “Both teams should be very excited about it with two very competitive teams fighting for the top spot in the league and trying to get a home playoff weekend. We’re ready to go and get after it.”
For the first time in RIT’s four-year membership in the ECAC West, the Tigers are in prime position to host the conference playoffs due to Elmira and Plattsburgh splitting, as well as the Soaring Eagles having an early season tie with Oswego.
Entering this weekend’s two game-set, RIT holds its destiny in its own hands, and if the Tigers can take three points from the Cardinals, they’ll have a stranglehold on the regular season title.
“I think we finally have the experience now on our side, whereas the last couple years, Elmira and Plattsburgh have had older teams and I think they are kind of in their recruiting cycle where they are the young team,” McDonald said. “Our upperclassmen have been around the last few years where we’ve kind of been stung by them and now I’m hoping that we’re ready to take it to them.”
RIT has been steamrolling its competition this season, outscoring its opponents 110-14. The Tigers are averaging a stout 6.47 goals per game, which is exactly two goals a game more than Plattsburgh, who ranks second.
Leading the way is senior forward Katie Stack. She is one of the front-runner candidates for the Laura Hurd Award this year, with 13 goals and 15 assists for a nation-leading 28 points.
Fellow senior classmate Sarah Dagg has chipped in 11 goals and 16 assists to once again combine with Stack as one of the nation’s top 1-2 scoring punches.
However, the difference for RIT this season has been the emergence of a handful of freshman and sophomores that have taken the Tigers to the next level.
Sophomores Tenecia Hiller (7-19-26), Ariane Yokoyama (2-19-21), and Kim Schlattman (7-13-21), along with freshmen Kourtney Kunichika (4-20-24), Kolbee McCrea (15-4-19) and Erin Zach (11-5-16), have given the Tigers’ unprecedented depth.
“The overall balance on our team has been amazing this year,” McDonald said. “We’ve pretty much run the same four lines all year with a couple injuries here and there so the chemistry has been there all season. We have the young line of Yokoyama, Kunichika, and Zach that’s just a matchup nightmare for teams if they want to shorten it up to two lines, because we’ve got three we can roll with.”
McDonald said the key to the weekend will be RIT’s ability to play their game and not Plattsburgh’s, and whichever team gets there first will probably win.
“We have to settle down and dictate the pace of the game and not let Plattsburgh get us playing their game,” McDonald said. “We’re not afraid to run and gun if that’s what it takes to get some chances. We’ve got a solid goaltender in the net that’s been playing well for us and we’ve got confidence in her.”
McDonald was a bit modest calling his No. 1 goaltender, freshman Laura Chamberlain’s play, “solid” so far this season. The Norco, Calif. product is 11-0-0 on the season with a 0.84 goals against average and a .952 save percentage to help solidify the pipes this year for the Tigers.
If two top-five teams weren’t enough of a reason to pack the Ritter Arena on Friday and Saturday, the Tigers will also be hosting a fundraiser titled “Black Out Heart Disease” weekend.
RIT will be wearing special-edition black jerseys that are currently being auctioned off online.
“It’s a fundraiser for the Geneva General Hospital,” McDonald said about the special weekend. “One of the doctors saw we did “Pink the Rink” last year and wanted to know what they could to get on board with something like that. We wanted to keep going with the momentum we had last year with a special game while wearing a third jersey. Plattsburgh crowds are always big anyways and when you put the third jersey on and play for a good cause, it makes it even better for everyone.”
Plattsburgh has been the mirror image of RIT in most statistical categories this season. The Cardinals rank second in scoring offense and third in scoring defense, right behind RIT, who is second.
RIT boasts the nation’s top power play, clicking at 27.9 percent, while Plattsburgh is second at 25.7 percent. The Tigers’ penalty kill ranks third at 94.8 percent, while the Cardinals are 20th, killing off penalties 87 percent of the time.
Other Fundraisers
On top of the fundraisers I mentioned in my blog post this week that RIT, Norwich, and Plattsburgh will be hosting, Elmira hosted a fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen Foundation and raised over a $1,000 for cancer research during a weekend series with Potsdam.
On Friday Feb. 4, Castleton will be hosting a “Pink the Rink” for the second straight season. Last year, the Spartans donated $6,317 to the Breast Care Program in 2010.
Castleton is currently holding an online bid auction for game-worn special pink jerseys and there are still plenty available to purchase.
On Friday, February 4, the Castleton State College women’s hockey team, along with the Rutland Regional Medical Center and the Foley Cancer Center will join forces to “Pink the Rink” and raise breast cancer awareness.
All proceeds from the game’s ticket sales will be donated to the Breast Care Program at RRMC. Castleton will also wear collectors’ edition pink jerseys donated by RRMC during the game. All jerseys will be available to purchase through an online auction held prior to the game, with all proceeds being donated back to the Breast Care Program.
In the 80s, Leonard Nimoy, Spock of “Star Trek” fame, hosted a TV show that featured searches for proof of legends, myths and other creatures of questionable reality, such as the Loch Ness Monster and Sasquatch. While the show was interesting, it often led to inconclusive endings or lack of discovery, so the legends lived on and questions remained unanswered.
This year, hockey fans from schools all over New England may want to bring the old TV host and show back and ask to search for consistency that would produce better overall results and, hopefully, more wins. Regardless of who hosts the profiling of this subject, coaches are continuing to hunt for the high intensity and effort needed to make a run up the conference standings and playi their best hockey at the time of year it means the most.
“You must have heard my talk with the team last week after the 4-4 tie with Hamilton,” stated Amherst coach Jack Arena. “I don’t understand the up and down. When we really play with intensity and effort, we are a very good hockey team, but for whatever reason it is not there every night. With such a short season, or relatively short with 24 or so games, you would think it wouldn’t be an issue to have your team come and play every night they step out on the ice.”
The coach at Amherst isn’t the only coach talking about the lack of consistency game-to-game, as many of his peers have expressed the same sentiments regarding their teams and the level of performance exhibited over the course of two-game weekends.
“It is clear that the level of competition is at an all time high,” noted Arena. “There are no automatic two-point games for anyone in this league, so you can’t just expect to show up and pick up an easy two points with a win. So the need to be ready to play and match an opponent’s intensity for a full 60 minutes is key.”
At 7-3-4 overall and currently sitting in second place behind Bowdoin in the NESCAC standings, Amherst is obviously playing pretty well, but has bigger expectations based on recent past performance and the experience level on their current roster.
“Like every other team, we have had our share of injuries, including a recent rash in the past two weeks that has a few players out for the short-term. Everyone goes through those issues, and while there are certain players that you do not want to lose for any period of time, these injuries give others on the team a chance to step up and show their talent and help to contribute to the team’s success. I am hoping that we can get the most out of everyone that dresses for the games, get healthy and tighten up some weak spots in our game that have been part of some of the inconsistencies we see during games.”
One area where Amherst has traditionally excelled has been on special teams, and while this year’s numbers are good by many teams’ standards, they are not up to the level that recent Lord Jeff squads have exhibited. The penalty kill, where Amherst normally is among the leaders in the country, is below a 90 percent efficiency rate, which is new territory for a team that features one of the best goaltenders in the league in Cole Anderson.
“Yeah, it’s not quite where we would like to see it for sure,” said Arena. “Overall in the league, we are a little better and we have given up some power-play goals in the past few games that hurts our numbers a bit, but we think we can get better. We experimented with something new earlier in the season and abandoned that pretty quickly based on the results, so we will continue to tinker with things and hopefully push up that kill rate to where we usually see it.”
When you have one of the best in the nation between the pipes that has shown consistency over three seasons, you wonder about what happens if he goes down to an injury? While Cole Anderson continues to play exceptionally well under different circumstances this season, the team has also found a very viable backup to give their starter a break during the season and reduce his overall workload.
In just his second season, Nathan Corey is 5-0-2 for his career with a miniscule 1.06 goals-against average and a save percentage of .946. This season, Corey is 2-0-2 with a 1.62 goals-against-average, including a win and a tie this past weekend in back-to-back games against Connecticut College and Tufts on the road.
“It’s kind of funny that he is unbeaten here, but when we have asked him to play he has been solid, which is a credit to him being ready to play and staying focused,” commented Arena. “Obviously playing with Cole, he has not seen a lot of games so far, but the team has lots of confidence in him when he goes in the net and so far his record shows we play pretty well with him back there.”
Offensively, the Lord Jeffs are led by their spark plug Eddie Effinger. Despite missing last weekend’s games with an undisclosed injury, Arena feels his speedy junior forward will be back to jump start the offense in five-on-five play, on the power play, and even a man down, where he has two short-handed goals on the season.
“He really is the guy that makes us go up front,” stated Arena. “We miss him when he is out and definitely need his speed and aggressive play up front that elevates the play of all the forwards. Hopefully, we will have him back for the upcoming weekend.”
This weekend, the Lord Jeffs return home to face Skidmore and nationally-ranked Castleton in what should be a great hockey game with a playoff atmosphere. It is another chance to go in search of consistency and add to last week’s three point weekend and push Bowdoin at the top of the conference standings.
Lake Forest’s coach hopes to parlay last weekend’s pair of wins over Concordia (Wis.) into a better second-half campaign.
Interim coach Seamus Gregory makes the case his Foresters are a better team than their 4-11 overall record indicates. The team (4-6 MCHA) travels to Ashland, Wis., for games against Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association-rival Northland (4-11, 3-7) Friday and Saturday.
Prior to the 6-1 emphatic victory over the rebuilding Falcons (1-15, 1-10) on Jan. 12, Lake Forest was mired in an 11-game losing skid. Some of the losses came to ranked teams, where the fledgling Foresters were edged out by a goal.
Against then-No. 11 Milwaukee School of Engineering on Jan. 8, the Foresters led 2-1 before surrendering two goals in the last five minutes to lose 3-2.
The team also fell to then-No. 3 St. Norbert, 2-1, on Nov. 23,”which was kind of a moral victory for our team,” Gregory said.
A 3-1 loss (the third goal an empty-netter) to then-No. 12 Adrian and a 1-0 setback at St. Olaf Nov. 27 only added to the Foresters’ heartbreak tale during the first half.
“We’re not as mature as those teams,” said Gregory, a former assistant coach who was named to the interim role after Tony Fritz retired after 32 years. “The boys and myself are trying to find ways in which we are growing in the aspect of learning how to win those games. It’s very difficult.
“There’s nothing harder in the world than trying to win a college hockey game with the emotion, the crowd…I basically go back to it as testosterone hockey.”
Gregory, who’s eager to shed the interim in his title, has a plan to move the Foresters into the MCHA’s high-rent district.
The Harbour Grace, Newfoundland native is refocusing recruiting efforts to include U.S. East Coast prep schools, as well as Western Canada, to create a more “blended roster.” Nearly half, 12 of 28 players, on the team’s roster at season’s start hailed from Ontario.
He also wants to zero in on those character players who have the academic heft to succeed at Lake Forest.
Next season, the Foresters have added New England Small College Athletic Conference teams Amherst, Trinity and Salve Regina to their schedule to make Lake Forest hockey “a NESCAC school in the Midwest,” Gregory adds.
Gregory concedes his season as interim boss has been both humbling and honorable.
On the ice, the Foresters have struggled to score goals. The team’s 31 goals in 10 league games ranks No. 5 in the MCHA.
Some bright spots though, include the play of sophomore Thomas Bark, whose 3 goals and 10 assists for 13 points leads the team; as well as the leadership shown by defenseman and captain Trent Brown (2-5-7).
Off ice, the team did shed an unspecified number of players due to discipline problems, which Gregory declined to elaborate on.
“One of the things I’m very proud of is that I only assisted Tony Fritz for two years and then he passed the torch over to me,” Gregory said. “That being said, I do have the confidence in myself and my staff to turn the tide of Lake Forest College hockey back to where it was five or six years ago.”
Coghlin closing in
St. Norbert coach Tim Coghlin is a victory shy from becoming the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association’s all-time winningest coach.
The No. 2 Green Knights face Wisconsin-Superior tonight (Thursday) and Friday. The games were moved to Amsoil Arena due to ongoing repairs to the reat the Yellowjackets’ Wessman Arena home.
The 18-year coach captured victory No. 370 in his team’s 3-2 win over Wisconsin-Eau Claire at home Saturday. The win tied Coghlin with former Bemidji State coach Bob Peters. The NCHA’s Peters Cup is named in honor of the former Beavers coach.
“Coach Peters is a legendary coach in all of college hockey,” Coghlin said Thursday. “He is one of those famous guys and it feels odd for me to be using our names in the same sentence. It just doesn’t seem like it fits.”
Coghlin’s career record at St. Norbert is 370-97-38.
Players of the Week
MCHA Dakota Dubetz, Marian: The center was the Sabres’ go-to guy in the team’s two-game sweep over Northland Jan. 14-15. He pumped in three goals and added two assists in the team’s 9-1 victory Saturday, which came on the heels of a two-goal performance in Friday’s 6-4 win. The Chestermore, Alberta, sophomore’s 25 points on nine goals and 16 assists leads the Sabres.
MIAC
Jordan Van Gilder, Hamline: The junior forward netted a goal and six assists in the Pipers’ weekend series against Bethel, which resulted in a Hamline win and a tie. The right winger assisted on four goals, including Chris Berenguer’s game-winner in the second period, in the team’s 6-3 victory Friday. In Saturday’s 4-4 draw, the Lino Lake, Minn., product scored the tying goal with 18 seconds left in regulation.
NCHA Justin Faryna, UW-Superior: The Calgary, Alberta, sophomore racked up seven points (two goals and five assists) in the Yellowjackets’ two-game sweep over Wisconsin-Stout Jan. 14-15. The right winger slotted home a goal and added three assists in Friday’s 7-2 victory while notching the game-winner in the third period of Saturday’s 8-6 scoring fest. He finished the game with two goals and an assist, which locked Faryna (7-9-16) in a tie with teammate Talon Berlando (7-9-16) for the team scoring lead.
Over the course of the last six weeks, Neumann has experienced the ups and downs that are college hockey. The Knights have been caught in the rut of inconsistency and their record shows it. The last eight games show a repeating pattern: loss/win/tie, loss/win/tie, loss/win.
Neumann started out the season 6-2-1, but hasn’t been able to string together two games in a row since then.
“We’ve struggled to grasp some momentum,” said Neumann coach Dominick Dawes. “Our first game back from Christmas, we played a pretty good game and a ton of chances, but couldn’t finish. The next night, we played Plattsburgh and we played as well as we have all year. We fell a little bit short.”
Neumann played in Plattsburgh’s Cardinal Classic tournament New Year’s weekend. The Knights tied New England College in the first round and advanced after winning a shootout. The next night, they fell to host Plattsburgh, 2-1.
“In Potsdam the next weekend, we controlled play considerably the first night, but the next night I thought we were going to play a lot better than we did,” continued Dawes. “We were a little bit too comfortable.”
Neumann beat Potsdam, 5-2, Friday night that weekend, but came back with a lackluster performance on Saturday and had to settle for a 3-3 tie.
The trend continued this past weekend at Morrisville, with a lackluster loss on Friday followed by an overtime victory on Saturday. Junior Brent Tamane was the hero on Saturday. He tied the game 3-3 late in the second period and then tallied the game-winner on a power play with 32 seconds remaining in overtime.
After transferring in from Bemidji, Tamane scored seven goals last year at Neumann. He has already tallied eight goals this season, including a pair of game winners.
“[Tamane] has done well,” said Dawes. “He had a pretty big weekend this past weekend. He is a tremendously gifted athlete and has stepped up when we have needed it.”
Freshman Michael Ray has also jumped right into the mix for Neumann. He leads the Knights in scoring with eight goals and 11 assists, scoring three game-winners. Ray played much of the first half of the season with linemates Jordan Zalba and Steve Gervais. Zalba and Gervais have both missed the last couple of games, but Ray continues to contribute.
“From day one, {Ray} has contributed,” said Dawes. “He jumped on a line and the three guys clicked right out of the gate. He has been a big part when we have done well.”
The Knights have been sharing time in net between juniors Ross MacKinnon and Matt Tendler. Each has put up impressive save percentages, and they have split the wins evenly for Neumann, but Tendler is unbeaten so far with a record of 5-0-2.
“They have been going back and forth since before Christmas,” said Dawes. “Matty [Tendler] stepped in to play Manhattanville in his first start of the year and played very well. For both of them, it has been trying to find a groove. The scores may not indicate it, but they were the backbone of our team this past weekend.”
Neumann jumps back into league play this weekend, hosting Manhattanville for a pair of games. The Knights soundly beat Manhattanville 5-1 in mid-November, scoring three goals in the first 11 minutes of the game.
Back to the grind
Every team but Hobart returns to league play this weekend after nearly two straight months of nonconference play. No team could establish an advantage in the league games back in November.
Every team came out of those games with at least two losses, resulting in a very tight set of standings. The only thing that was made clear was how close the ECAC West teams are matched this season and how well the staffs are able to prepare their teams for each opponent.
“It doesn’t get any better than that,” said Dawes. “We’ve all beaten each other already. Every game is going to be a tight battle, who shows up, wins in front of their own net, and buries a few.”
With only eight games remaining in the regular season, the race couldn’t be tighter. Elmira and Neumann are tied for first place with six points each. Both teams have played five league games and have 3-2 records.
Right on their heels are Hobart and Utica with four points and records of 2-2 after four games.
At the bottom of the standings is Manhattanville with a 1-3 league record. he Valiants lost early season games to Elmira, Hobart, and Utica, but finished off a perfect 12-0-1 nonconference record last week.
The league has three teams included in this week’s USCHO poll: No. 5 Manhattanville, No. 10 Utica, and No. 14 Hobart. Neumann is also included in the “others receiving votes” category. While the poll is truly an “opinion” poll, it gives a bit of an indication how close the remainder of the season will be for the ECAC West.
ECAC West Weekly Awards Player of the Week: Gregory Ciciola (Jr.) — Hobart. Ciciola registered a team-high seven points in the Statesmen’s two games last weekend. He tallied a goal and two assists in an 8-1 win over Curry on Saturday. On Sunday, Ciciola recorded two goals and two assists in a 7-2 victory at Nichols.
Goaltender of the Week: Darren MacDonald (So.) — Elmira. MacDonald earned two wins this week against SUNYAC competitors Fredonia and Geneseo. Against Fredonia, he made 27 saves in a 3-1 win and at Geneseo he made 35 saves in a close 4-3 victory.
Rookie of the Week: Dylan Herold — Elmira. Herold scored his third goal of the season in a 4-3 win over the Knights of SUNY Geneseo. His goal came early in the third period which at the time tied the game at 3-3 and was the second of three straight EC goals.
Last week’s 4-3 win over Southern New Hampshire represented more then just a milestone for Nichols’ head coach Lou Izzi; it’s also a symbol of the drastic change the program has gone through during his tenure.
“It was brought to my attention; I knew I was approaching it,” Izzi said of the win mark. “When I came to Nichols, I don’t think I ever dreamed of getting to 100 wins, considering where the program had been at the time. We were just trying to have a winning season.”
After helping league rival Johnson and Wales transform its hockey program from a Division II club team to a varsity squad, Izzi came to Nichols in 2004-05 after spending six years with the Wildcats, including four winning seasons.
A winning season was something that had eluded the Bisons for sometime prior to Izzi’s arrival. Nichols won only 18 games in the five years prior to Izzi taking over, and hadn’t posted a winning mark since the 1978-79 campaign.
“What makes me happy is being 38 games over .500 in six plus years,” Izzi said. “When you look back at the history of the program, it was really regarded as one of the weakest in all of America when I was at JWU. It was a tough sell, trying to convince kids to come to a small school in New England where there was so much competition for players.”
After going 4-17-2 in his first year, Izzi and current Bowdoin assistant coach Jeff Pellegrini’s first recruiting class paid large dividends for the Bisons, as they went 18-7-2, marking the most wins in a season in school history.
Izzi said his experience at Johnson and Wales gave him a road map to follow in terms of turning around the program at Nichols.
“[We] went to the Midwest and found some good players and were able to weed out the guys who didn’t have the ability to play at this level or had a bad attitude. They all had an opportunity to go to other places, but we presented them with a chance to come here and carve out their own identity as opposed to going to established programs.”
Izzi said he didn’t expect to win right away at Nichols, instead hoping to stack together some solid recruiting classes for down the road.
“The biggest thing with building any team is that you can’t take shortcuts,” he said. “Sometimes when guys get in a rush, they take a chance with kids that they probably shouldn’t have. The second time around, I can definitely say that I was a better coach then I was at Johnson and Wales. I had a lot of perspective and experience and I was able to take a step back and figure out what went well and what didn’t and create a philosophy I wanted to live by.”
While there have been some bumps in the road, Izzi is proud of what he’s accomplished at Nichols, not just on the ice.
“We’ve been able to identify the quality of kids that give us an honest effort every day and approach academics the right way. That’s been our core philosophy for seven years. We were very fortunate to have a great group of kids at the start of the second season. They went on to graduate, get masters degrees and some are still playing pro hockey.”
Nichols’ current assistant, Nick Unger, was a goalie in that initial class.
When thinking of his milestone win, Izzi said he will most remember the players and the back-to-back 20-win seasons Nichols had in 2007-08 and 2008-09, including a trip to the NCAA tournament in the latter season.
While winning remains the goal this year, Izzi said the idea wasn’t necessarily to try and crack the 20-win plateau again. The Bisons are 7-7-1 and 1-3 in ECAC Northeast play, but have played a number of tough out-of-conference opponents, including defending national champion Norwich, along with Babson, Williams, Adrian, and Hobart.
While a tough out-of-conference schedule can better a team for conference play, Izzi said there’s a fine line between playing tough teams and overloading things, adding that getting pounded 10-1 and losing players to injuries against more physical teams won’t do much good down the stretch.
“You have to win conference games and non-conference games against teams similar to yours before you take on a schedule like this,” he said.
With 10 games left, all against ECAC Northeast opponents, Izzi said his team has adopted the viewpoint of this being a 10-game season.
“Every game is big,” he said. “I don’t want to say the nonconference games didn’t count, but really how our season is going to be defined will take place over the next ten games.”
Midweek Action
A couple of midweek games in the books for both the ECAC Northeast and MASCAC as teams are winding down their nonconference portion of the schedule. Suffolk edged Tufts, 4-3, in overtime Tuesday night behind an Andrew Monesi goal late in the third period. Salve Regina lost to Connecticut College 10-0, while Massachuesetts-Boston downed Massachusetts-Dartmouth 6-2. Check back on Friday for a full preview of all the weekend’s action as the conference races start to intensify.
Since November 2, 2003, Oswego has 19 of them. Plattsburgh has 15. Fredonia is next with 13. Brockport and Buffalo State each have eight. Cortland and Potsdam each have two. Even Morrisville, which hasn’t been around that long (since 2005-6) has two.
Geneseo has none.
What are we talking about? Shutouts.
That’s right, the Geneseo Ice Knights, who have had just one losing season, won two consecutive SUNYAC championships, and had an All-American goaltender in that time span, have not registered a shutout since November 2, 2003.
“When you talk about the goaltenders we’ve had, Brett Walker and he hadn’t had a shutout, Derek Jokic hadn’t had a shutout, the current goaltenders haven’t gotten one,” Geneseo coach Chris Schultz said. “Walker’s backup, Jeff Phelps, got the last shutout for us against Lebanon Valley.”
That was a 3-0 win where Phelps made 23 saves.
Perhaps the most amazing part of the streak, which was talked about often during his career, is how Walker never got a shutout. Is there any All-American goalie who never registered a single, solitary shutout in his career? It was quite a career, going 41-29-10 (.575), .904 save percentage, and 3.10 goals against average.
His numbers didn’t start out great, because he came onboard as Geneseo was beginning a major rebuilding program and he had, as everyone remembers, a hot head which got him into trouble often. Thus, he didn’t see a winning season till his junior year, when he also started calming down between the pipes. By his senior year, he went 14-4-2 (.750) with a .912 save pct. and 2.70 GAA, leading his team to a conference title and a NCAA berth.
Waiting in the wings was Derek Jokic, who led the team to a repeat title, but no shutouts. Currently, Adrian Rubeniuk and Cory Gershon make up one of the country’s strongest goaltending duos. Yet still, no shutouts.
“Our goalies are well aware of it,” Schultz said. “It’s funny how things happen. Against Franklin Pierce, the kid steps out of the penalty box with like a minute and a half left, and it just so happens the puck squirts out to center ice, and he goes in on a breakaway. Against Western New England, there were only a few minutes left in the game.”
Ironically, just this past week, Potsdam themselves broke a long streak of no shutouts when they beat Southern New Hampshire, 6-0. The Bears’ last shutout was February 7, 2004 against Brockport, 7-0. Vince Cuccaro made 37 saves back then. Kevin McFarland, the back up, broke the streak, having a much easier day, making 14 saves against SNHU.
“It’s actually comical,” Schultz said laughing. “It’s gotten to the point where I think I’m just going to shout out ‘shutout’ from the bench to try to reverse the curse.”
Of course, if you’re winning, it doesn’t really matter how you win.
“It’s not a huge concern for us,” Schultz said. “Our goals against average is very good. The goaltenders are getting the job done.”
However, Schultz couldn’t resist adding, “But a shutout would be nice…”
[Thanks to KnightsOfTheRound on the USCHO.com message board, who first brought to light this interesting statistic.]
Game of the Week
The second half of the conference schedule begins this weekend. This means for many teams, it’s time to buckle down and get to work. No more excuses over the next five weeks.
The one game which really stands out for a variety of reasons is Geneseo at Plattsburgh.
Geneseo is sitting in a tie for second place with Morrisville, one point ahead of Buffalo State. Since they are five points behind Oswego, logically the battle is going to be for the last bye position. Every point is going to be crucial.
Outside the league, against some very stiff competition, the Cardinals are 7-0-1, which means they are 4-4 in the league. That’s the reason Plattsburgh is in fifth place, three points behind Geneseo.
With a three-point separation, the two points on the line Friday is huge. A Plattsburgh win, and everything is up for grabs. A Geneseo win, and Plattsburgh has to consider settling for a home spot for the play-in round.
“The way the standings are, there are so many teams that can get that bye position,” Geneseo coach Chris Schultz said. “It’s cliché, but you really have to take it one game at a time, one shift at a time. If you worry about what the results might be, you’ll lose sight of the process to get there.”
Then, you have the direction Plattsburgh has been going in lately.
“Plattsburgh is the hottest team in the country,” Schultz said.
After a poor start, going 2-4, letting up 4.5 goals per game, they have gone 9-0-1, letting up 1.9 goals per game.
Geneseo can play up with anybody this season, and they are healthy after a banged-up first semester. If they win, it certainly won’t be by the 7-3 margin earlier in the season.
This is a mighty tough game to pick, but I’m going with the hot team who also happens to be home.
Other Picks
In the last week full of nonconference games, I went 11-1. Geneseo let me down with their loss to Elmira. Thus, for the season, I am now 65-20-6 (.747).
Plattsburgh also hosts Brockport, and no matter what happens on Friday, the Cardinals will have enough to beat the Golden Eagles on Saturday. This means Potsdam hosts Brockport, then Geneseo. I see a repeat of when these teams met last semester — Potsdam winning the first game while losing the second.
I see Oswego continuing their winning ways on the road, beating Buffalo State and Fredonia, though if they think it will be easy, the Lakers will be in for a surprise. Fredonia and Buffalo State should have no trouble with Cortland.
Morrisville is the odd team out in this weekend’s conference scheduling, so they travel to Hobart. The Mustangs have been playing well this year, but I don’t see them beating Hobart.
USCHO.com’s Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger are joined by Boston College coach Jerry York to talk about some of Hockey East’s top Hobey Baker prospects: BC’s own Cam Atkinson, Brian Gibbons and John Muse; New Hampshire’s Paul Thompson; Maine’s Gustav Nyquist; and Merrimack’s Stephane DaCosta.
We all knew Denver would be pretty good coming into this season, despite all of its offseason losses in important roster chunks and goaltending.
If you had given the Pioneers the benefit of the doubt by looking at their history, their second-place spot in the league makes sense.
Jason Zucker, shown playing for the United States in the World Junior Championship, and Denver have shown resiliency this season (photo: Angelo Lisuzzo).
What’s been surprising, however, is how they’ve done it.
Fate has thrown Denver a lot of obstacles this season, in many forms:
• Goaltender Adam Murray goes down with injury in the first few weeks of the season.
• Defenseman Paul Phillips is out for a few games due to a random nasal injury.
• Forward Jesse Martin gets checked and is done for the season.
• Forward Beau Bennett goes down with a knee injury.
• Forwards Jason Zucker and Drew Shore, the team’s top two scorers, leave for World Juniors.
• Defenseman William Wrenn leaves the team for major juniors.
Granted, the first half of that list happened in the first month of the season, which was, admittedly, the roughest for DU (3-3-2). Since then, however, the team has rolled with the proverbial punches, brushing the items of the second half of the list away as if they were nothing.
The question is, what’s Denver’s secret? How were they able to survive that first month and come out of it as one of the dominant forces in the WCHA?
In short, it comes down to the team’s mental makeup and leadership.
“This team has had many examples of that resiliency, whether it’s coming from behind or dealing with the injuries that we’ve had, dealing with the loss of one of our captains and our senior center, dealing with so many changes from last year’s team — turnover if you will, dealing with a very challenging, difficult early season schedule,” said coach George Gwozdecky. “I think that all boils down to what the mental makeup is of this team. They’re strong of character and they believe if they all work as one, good things are going to happen.”
Take, for example, last Saturday’s game against Minnesota State. Denver got into an early 3-0 hole, but over the course of the latter half of the game, the team kept clawing back and eventually won in overtime.
“It’s funny how this team continues to play,” said Gwozdecky. “It’s strange, normally when you’re winning a game, you have a feeling of comfort … where you’re up and you know you’re probably going to win the game.
“With this team, we’re down and I’ve got a really good feeling we’re going to win the game. That’s certainly not a comfortable feeling to have, but it’s a unique thing about this team,” he continued. “They don’t fear playing from behind and I think there’s no real surprise to them when they’re able to compete from behind and get back into the game.”
That lack of fear all stems from the team’s ability to respond to challenges, something Gwozdecky calls a “tremendous attribute, a tremendous characteristic.”
It’s also something that he believes stems from the team’s leadership.
“The first place you look at is our leadership. You have to,” he said. “You can talk about all the great talent we have in this class or this class but none of that would be as successful if it wasn’t for the leadership we have in that locker room. Kyle Ostrow and Dusty Jackson and Chris Nutini and Jesse Martin and John Lee … I think those guys have done a masterful job of making sure their game is in order and what they’re doing by example is the right thing and making sure everyone else understands and follows their lead and plays their role and understands that these are our goals and this is how we’re going to get there, understanding full well there are going to be challenges throughout the season because everybody else wants to be successful, too.”
Given the nature of the WCHA beast, the Pioneers are certainly going to end up facing a few more challenges before the season is over, starting this weekend with always tricky Alaska-Anchorage.
Luckily for Denver and its fans, it sounds as if Gwozdecky is gearing up for the ride.
“We still have seven weeks left before the best part of the season and the most important part of the season,” he said. “The part of the season where, unfortunately, as we’ve found in the past, everybody equates what you’ve done to what you do in the postseason.”
In other words, this team isn’t done rising to the occasion yet.
Matchups by the numbers: Resuscitation edition
In which we look at each of the upcoming weekly series, except Minnesota vs. the bye.
Head-to-head: DU leads the overall series, 42-15-7.
Last meeting: DU took three points back on Dec. 10-11: DU 5, UAA 3; DU 2, UAA 2.
PP/PK: DU 18.9 percent PP (t-23rd in nation), 83.8 percent PK (21st in nation). UAA 15.9 percent PP (37th in nation), 78.5 percent PK (48th in nation).
Streaks: DU six-game unbeaten. UAA three-game unbeaten.
Goaltending: DU — Sam Brittain (19 GP, 10-4-5, 2.15 GAA, .923 save percentage). UAA — Rob Gunderson (15 GP, 6-7-2, 2.39 GAA, .902 save percentage).
Leading scorer: DU — Drew Shore (14-14–28). UAA — Tommy Grant (10-10–20).
Notes: DU may play both goaltenders, both Brittain and Adam Murray (6 GP, 4-1-0, 3.99 GAA, .856 save percentage). … UAA had both the WCHA offensive player of the week (Grant) and the rookie of the week (Gunderson) this week. … Grant was also named one of USCHO’s Three Stars of the week.
Head-to-head: MTU leads the overall series, 118-78-18.
Last meeting: UMD swept back on Nov. 12-13: UMD 5, MTU 3; UMD 4, MTU 2.
PP/PK: MTU 21.1 percent PP (14th in nation), 72.5 percent PK (57th in nation). UMD 22.4 percent PP (6th in nation), 83.6 percent PK (22nd in nation).
Streaks: MTU 18-game winless. UMD one-game losing.
Goaltending: MTU — Josh Robinson (13 GP, 1-8-2, 4.55 GAA, .887 save percentage) or Kevin Genoe (11 GP, 2-8-1, 3.92 GAA, .893 save percentage). UMD — Kenny Reiter (15 GP, 8-3-2, 2.38 GAA, .909 save percentage) or Aaron Crandall (11 GP, 7-2-1, 2.42 GAA, .907 save percentage).
Leading scorer: MTU — Milos Gordic (11-6–17). UMD — Jack Connolly (9-23–32).
North Dakota vs. Nebraska-Omaha
Records: UND — 17-6-2 (12-4-0 WCHA). UNO — 12-8-2 (9-5-2 WCHA).
Head-to-head: The teams are tied, 1-1.
Last meeting: The teams split back on Nov. 19-20: UND 6, UNO 5; UNO 1, UND 0.
PP/PK: UND 21.3 percent PP (t-11th in nation), 86.4 percent PK (t-8th in nation). UNO 20.2 percent PP (18th in nation), 83.3 percent PK (t-24th in nation).
Streaks: UND one-game winning. UNO four-game winless.
Goaltending: UND — Aaron Dell (22 GP, 16-5-1, 1.93 GAA, .922 save percentage). UNO — John Faulkner (22 GP, 12-7-2, 2.47 GAA, .912 save percentage).
Leading scorer: UND — Matt Frattin (20-9–29). UNO — Matt Ambroz (13-11–24).
Notes: UND may also go with Brad Eidsness in net (5 GP, 1-1-1, 4.12 GAA, .805 save percentage). … The series marks UNO coach Dean Blais’ first return to Grand Forks as coach of another college team. He led the North Dakota to two national championships in 10 seasons. … “[C]oming back to Grand Forks as UNO’s coach — trying to take away their points and beat their Fighting Sioux — there’s going to be no love for me up there at all,” he told the Omaha World Herald‘s Chad Purcell this week.
Goaltending: UW — Scott Gudmandson (19 GP, 11-6-1, 1.79 GAA, .932 save percentage). MSU — Phil Cook (19 GP, 8-8-3, 3.01 GAA, .908 save percentage).
Leading scorer: UW — Craig Smith (14-19–33). MSU — Kurt Davis (7-12–19).
Colorado College vs. Alabama-Huntsville
Records: CC — 12-11-1 (8-8-0 WCHA). UAH — 3-21-2.
Head-to-head: CC leads the overall series, 3-0.
Last meeting: CC swept back on Oct. 10-11, 2008: CC 1, UAH 0; CC 5, UAH 3.
PP/PK: CC 23.1 percent PP (4th in nation), 84 percent PK (t-18th in nation). UAH 21.3 percent PP (t-11th in nation), 78.7 percent PK (46th in nation).
Streaks: CC three-game losing. UAH two-game losing.
Goaltending: CC — Joe Howe (20 GP, 10-9-1, 2.78 GAA, .905 save percentage). UAH — Clarke Saunders (14 GP, 3-11-0, 3.99 GAA, .886 save percentage).
Leading scorer: CC — Stephen Schultz (12-14–26) and Jaden Schwartz (11-15–26). UAH — Matt Baxter (9-11–20).
Odds and Ends
• The last time you heard from me in this spot, waaaay back on Dec. 9, I talked about Bemidji State, and how it was transitioning to the league. The Beavers had just swept UNO and were 5-8-1 overall.
Since then, they have gone 4-3-1 and are 4-1-1 to start the second half. If that doesn’t look too good, do what the Bemidji Pioneer‘s Eric Stromgren did: Compare BSU’s first 11 games (2-8-1) to their last 11 games (7-3-1). Quite a turnaround, eh? Well, Stromgren figured out the reason why — the last game of that first 11-game chunk was a 4-0 loss to Northern Michigan. The next night, BSU coach Tom Serratore switched up the lines, the Beavers won 3-0 and, well, you get the streak of the second 11-game chunk. Read here for the details.
• Due to Alex Kangas’ season-ending injury, Minnesota announced Wednesday that freshman Alex Fons joined the team as its third goaltender. Fons had been playing in the NAHL and, as far as I know (and can find), is not a future recruit brought in early.
It’s the third week in January, which means that something’s stirring in the world of college hockey, something that moves people to speculate, to connive, to second-guess, to hope and dream, even to forget about the more immediate prize of a conference championship.
I’m talking about a favorable PairWise Ranking, something that indicates that — if the season were to end at this very moment — your team would be playing in the NCAA championship tournament.
Jerry Kuhn has Western Michigan in the mix for a national tournament spot (photo: Alaska Sports Photography).
This week’s PWR includes several teams from different conferences that don’t usually find themselves in such lofty positions: Hockey East’s Merrimack (8th), the ECAC’s Dartmouth (10th) and Union (tied for 13th), and our very own Western Michigan (12th).
For each of these teams, such rankings are certainly confidence boosters and evidence of a few things going right this season. Western Michigan fans have certainly let me know that they see it as a sign that first-year head coach Jeff Blashill has the team on the right path, and I tend to agree, but Blashill himself has a message for the WMU faithful: Hold your horses.
“I know the PairWise well enough from the time I was at Miami, when we were a team competing in the national tournament … to know that that thing fluctuates — especially teams 10 through 20,” said Blashill. “It’s not a true indicator until the end of the season.
“There are so many things that are out of your control. You can not even play in a weekend and move way up or down.”
It’s not surprising to anyone who knows Blashill that he has the right perspective about the PWR. He knows that the old chestnut is true, that there’s a lot of hockey to be played between now and the end of the season. He also the value of keeping things at an even keel, something he learned while coaching at Miami with Enrico Blasi, who preaches in the Church of Never-Get-Too-High-Or-Low.
I wonder at the difficulty of the task at hand that Blashill and assistants Rob Facca and Pat Ferschweiler are facing; the Broncos have the longest current unbeaten streak in the country at seven games (5-0-2), and it’s difficult to keep a team unaccustomed to such success from getting too high — or too low, when that streak ends.
Like all teams riding a streak, the Broncos are riding the play of a good goaltender. Senior Jerry Kuhn has been the goalie of record during the past seven games, his longest stretch of consecutive starts in his career. During this streak, Kuhn has allowed 1.29 goals per game with a save percentage of .955.
“He’s been a huge reason,” said Blashill. “That position, everybody knows is so important. It disguises mistakes in other areas of your game, and Jerry’s done that for us.
“Jerry has worked extremely hard from Day 1 here to put himself in a position to be successful. It’s been a great lesson to guys on our team who aren’t in the lineup, about what it takes to be ready for an opportunity when it happens.”
Kuhn, who has played just 45 games through four seasons, got his opportunity this season when Nick Pisellini injured his knee in the first half of the season and opted for minor surgery just before the break.
“Pise had surgery just before the Union series,” said Blashill. “That took him out of that series, and Jerry knew that he was playing both games — and for the first time in his career.”
Blashill, who was a goaltender for Ferris State, knows that some goaltenders would cave under such pressure. In fact, Blashill said that Kuhn put a lot of pressure on himself at the start of the season. New coach, new season, competing with a freshman for the starting job, and Kuhn pressures himself into a 5-3 loss to Canisius in the first game of the season. Pisellini was the goalie of record in WMU’s 3-2 overtime win the following night.
But when Kuhn’s opportunity against Union came, he was up for the challenge, said Blashill.
“To be honest, there was a time there [during the first half of the season] when he was down and began to sulk a little,” said Blashill, “but he began to work hard and get better every day.
“He’s been very, very good [in games], but I also think he’s been very good in practice. And so it’s not something that I’ve been surprised by, his play in games. It’s the result of hard work. Over a course of probably two months, he was playing really well in practice. Pise was playing so well in games that I just kept playing Pise.
“I’ve always said that the goaltender’s position is an unfair position. It’s not like you can get into the fourth line and sneak your way up the roster. Either you play or you don’t.”
This weekend, the Broncos travel to Sault Ste. Marie for two against Lake Superior State, the team with which this current unbeaten streak began. The Lakers split a pair of games with the Broncos in Kalamazoo Dec. 10-11, winning the Saturday contest.
Blashill knows how difficult this weekend’s games will be — and therefore how precarious WMU’s current PWR is.
“They were a third period away from sweeping us in our building,” said Blashill. The Lakers led the Dec. 11 contest 1-0 going into the third and the Broncos scored four unanswered to win the game. “Now we’re going to their building where it will be a lot harder.”
Blashill cautions that anything can happen, that the parity we’re seeing this season in college hockey and especially the CCHA is real. “The differentiation in talent is so minimal. When you get those standout kids, the NHL is signing at an earlier rate than ever.”
Western Michigan’s quest to remain a viable tournament team begins in Abel Arena at 7:05 p.m. EST Friday.
We miss the scrappers, mostly
Last week, I asked you to e-mail me to tell me which former CCHA players you miss the most, from your team or from another.
The consensus seems to be that we miss the scrappers, the instigators, the blue-collar players.
One MSU fan wrote: “I miss Justin Abdelkader. I liked his scrappy, never-say-die approach to the game.”
A Miami fan wrote about missing Ryan Jones. “His intensity was great and his sportsmanship was great.”
Kevin Porter, wrote a Michigan fan, “seemed to be able to come up with goals from anywhere on the ice,” and Danny Fardig “would score timely goals in huge games.”
I miss all those guys, too. I miss Zach Pelletier, the former Buckeyes player that could change a game with a clean, open-ice check. I miss Aaron Voros, the Nanooks instigator who could draw opponents into sometimes favorable penalty situations.
Anyone else?
Someone else who will be missed
One of the best things about being around college hockey is getting to know people who remain with the game long-term. Some of the people I miss the most from my days in Columbus are the ushers and off-ice officials.
This week an off-ice official in Marquette called it quits. Robert Adamczyk, a.k.a. Zack, has been associated with Northern Michigan hockey for 33 years. Craig Remsburg had a nice feature on Adamczyk in this week’s Marquette Mining Journal.
It’s a good read and a good reminder of all the men and women who help keep the game going because they simply love to do so.
My ballot
Here’s the top 20 as I see it this week:
1. North Dakota
2. Boston College
3. Yale
4. Minnesota-Duluth
5. Denver
6. Michigan
7. New Hampshire
8. Wisconsin
9. Notre Dame
10. Maine
11. Boston University
12. Nebraska-Omaha
13. Miami
14. Union
15. Merrimack
16. Rensselaer
17. Colorado College
18. Western Michigan
19. Alaska
20. Dartmouth
Niagara’s first year in Atlantic Hockey has been a unmitigated success. The Purple Eagles, who won 12 games last season, are 13-7-2 overall and 10-5 in conference, good for a tie for second place with Robert Morris. Niagara has a game in hand on the Colonials and two in hand on first-place Rochester Institute of Technology, which it trails by five points in the standings.
Niagara is led by senior linemates Paul Zanette and Bryan Haczyk. Each has 18 goals so far, tops in the nation for goals per game.
Niagara's Brian Haczyk is tied for the team lead with 18 goals (photo: Niagara Athletics).
“They’ve played on the same line all four years,” said Niagara coach Dave Burkholder. “They’ve been in secondary roles in the past because we’ve had a lot of talented forwards here like Ted Cook and Les Reaney. Matt Caruana is in the AHL right now.
“They were on the third line and killing penalties and this year we kind of put the whole season in their laps. They’re our go-to guys and have taken a young team and put it on their shoulders.”
The Purple Eagles had to deal with the setback of a season-ending injury to rookie goalie Carsen Chubak on Nov. 23, as well as the departure of another netminder, Andrew Hare, who transferred to Division III Oswego at the semester break.
Niagara brought in Cody Campbell from Cedar Rapids in the USHL over the holiday break and Burkholder wasted no time getting Campbell into the action. The rookie made 35 saves in his first collegiate start on Jan. 7 in a win over Holy Cross.
“Chris Noonan had a good start for us in an overtime win against Colgate right before the break,” said Burkholder. “But both guys had a good week of practice and it was a last-second decision to play [Campbell]. They split time last week [in a sweep of American International] and it worked out well.
“We made the move to get Cody as soon as Andrew Hare left. You can’t really practice with two goalies, and if you’re down to just two you’re just a flu bug away from going out to Air Force with one goalie. We put some feelers out and were surprised to find at least 10 quality guys that were looking to make a move at Christmas, so we were able to get a very good goalie. Initially, I had thought we were looking for a practice goalie but we were able to bring in someone that can help right away.”
When a healthy Chubak comes back next season, Burkholder, a former All-American goaltender at the Division III level, will have a problem on his hands with three talented netminders.
“It will be a good problem to have, but we’ll work it out as long as guys put the team first,” said Burkholder.
Niagara will host Sacred Heart this weekend and then play teams from the western scheduling pod for the remainder of the season.
“Sacred Heart is a dangerous team,” said Burkholder. “There’s no night off in this league and almost every game is for points, which is an adjustment our guys have had to make coming from the CHA. There we had 18 league games and 16 non-conference games, and sometimes the non-conference games overshadowed our league games.
“I think this season the regular season is more meaningful. Every point counts and every game has ramifications.”
Hobey Watch
Hobey Baker’s birthday was last week (born Jan 15, 1892) so it seems fitting time to take a look at potential candidates from Atlantic Hockey.
Elliot Olshansky does a good job of breaking things down in USCHO.com’s Hobey Watchblog and I agree with his assessments.
When the AHA has had a Hobey finalist, it’s been someone who clearly dominated the league, like Air Forces’ Eric Ehn in 2007 and Jacques Lamoureux in 2009 and RIT’s Simon Lambert in 2008.
Last season, either Cory Conacher from Canisius or Sacred Heart’s Nick Johnson could have been a finalist, but they may have split some ballots. I think the same thing may happen this season with Zanette and Haczyk from Niagara and Robert Morris’ Nathan Longpre in the running but possibly canceling each other out if voters are going with just a single AHA candidate like in years past.
TUCked in
The NCAA Division I men’s ice hockey committee recently changed its definition of a “Team Under Consideration” for the national tournament from the top 25 in the Ratings Percentage Index to any team with an RPI at or above .500.
That means that Robert Morris is now a TUC, and games against the Colonials will count in NCAA selection criteria. Niagara and RIT are just off the bubble with RPIs of .499 and .492. You can see the PairWise here.
It’s Thursday, Jan. 20. Do you know what that means? It means that with the exception of the Beanpot, ECAC Hockey is done with non-conference play for the 2010-11 season.
That makes this an excellent time to take a look at how the conference actually stacked up against “the big boys,” the leagues whose fans constantly, consistently and often confoundingly ridicule our pack as the “EZ-AC” … the wannabes of D-I men’s hockey.
So let’s filter all that noise, and see who’s beating whom this year.
By the dozen
As a league, ECAC Hockey went 49-33-15 in non-conference play against non-league competition. (That means the Clarkson-St. Lawrence game in Lake Placid, one of the Union-RPI games and the Colgate-Cornell game in Newark, among others — while irrelevant to the league standings — aren’t counted as true non-conference games here, either.)
Mike Kramer and Princeton are 4-0 in non-conference play (photo: Shelley M. Szwast).
The league played 59 of its 96 true non-con games against Hockey East, WCHA or CCHA opponents, going 22-27-10 in those games. Against the WCHA, our dozen went 8-8-4, 8-9-4 against Hockey East, and 6-10-2 versus the CCHA.
Against Atlantic Hockey and independent Alabama-Huntsville, the ECAC was 27-6-5, for which we can be mildly content.
Halving it your way
The top half of the league (Yale, Union, Princeton, Dartmouth, Quinnipiac and Clarkson, at the moment) were 30-15-4 in non-league play overall, 4-3-0 against Hockey East, 7-5-0 versus the WCHA and 4-5-0 against the CCHA.
The lower tier (again, as the charts read today) was 18-19-10 against non-ECAC’ers, 4-6-4 against Hockey East, 1-3-3 vs. the WCHA and 2-5-2 against the CCHA.
Breaking it down
The team-by-team figures, broken down by overall non-conference results, WCHA results, Hockey East (HEA) numbers, and the CCHA:
Yale: 4-1-0, 1-0-0 vs. WCHA, 1-0-0 vs. HEA
Union: 8-4-1, 2-1-0 vs. WCHA, 0-3-0 vs. CCHA
Princeton: 4-0-0, 2-0-0 vs. HEA, 1-0-0 vs. CCHA
Dartmouth: 2-1-1, 1-1-0 vs. HEA
Quinnipiac: 7-4-1, 3-1-0 vs. WCHA, 0-2-0 vs. HEA, 1-1-0 vs. CCHA
Clarkson: 5-5-1, 1-3-0 vs. WCHA, 2-1-0 vs. CCHA
Cornell: 1-4-1, 0-1-0 vs. WCHA, 0-2-0 vs. HEA
Rensselaer: 8-1-2, 0-1-1 vs. WCHA, 1-0-1 vs. HEA, 1-0-0 vs. CCHA
Brown: 1-1-3, 0-1-0 vs. WCHA, 1-0-3 vs. HEA
St. Lawrence: 4-3-4, 1-0-3 vs. WCHA, 2-0-0 vs. HEA, 1-3-2 vs. CCHA
Harvard: 1-3-0, 0-3-0 vs. HEA
Colgate: 3-7-0, 0-1-0 vs. HEA, 0-2-0 vs. CCHA
Conclusion?
Well, before I start my rambling opine, here are some other inter-league numbers: Hockey East — the ECAC’s primary regional competitor — went 5-9-1 against the WCHA and 2-5-3 against the CCHA. (ECAC Hockey was 8-8-4 and 6-10-2, respectively, to save you some scrolling.) HEA went only 9-4-4 against Atlantic/independent competition. (ECAC went 27-6-5 against those foes, for those of you with frosty relationships with your mice.)
The WCHA boasts solid records against all leagues, but guess who gave the westerners the most trouble? ECAC Hockey, baby. None of the other conferences are even close.
Really, all these numbers do is back up what I — and many of you, I presume — have proclaimed all along: ECAC Hockey probably isn’t better, as a whole, than the “Big Three,” but it’s not worse, either.
Yale beat Colorado College (5-1, no less) on Olympic ice in Colorado Springs. Union upended Minnesota in the Twin Cities. St. Lawrence beat, and Brown all but beat, New Hampshire on the Whittemore Center’s Olympic sheet, and Dartmouth beat ’em at a (hardly) neutral venue last week. Quinnipiac swept high-flying Nebraska-Omaha and split at St. Cloud State … which Clarkson also beat.
To all you foreign interlopers, don’t misinterpret what I’m saying as a proclamation of dominance, or even a boast. Rather, I’d hope that the more rational majority of you will simply take a moment to recognize that — like it or not — this AC ain’t so EZ any more.
What’s a 1 worth?
While perusing the USCHO Fan Forum one day, I happened across a heated debate regarding the veracity of Yale’s No. 1 status in the USCHO poll. Obviously, Yale and ECAC fans defended the pick, while many “Big Three” fans derided Yale (and the Ivies, and ECAC Hockey) as a fraud.
Mr. Jonathan Falk (though I didn’t know that was his name at the time, of course) did some excellent research into the history of mid-season No. 1s, and how they fared the rest of the way. I contacted him to request elaboration, and he was kind enough to reply. I’d break it all down and paraphrase his response for you, but frankly, A, I’m not a stats major, so some of this stuff was a little bit over my head, and, B, he did a pretty awesome job explaining what I could understand already, so why take that away from him?
Follow this link to read his report. It should go without saying that history — like records — is made to be broken, but track records, tendencies and precedent are worth consideration, if nothing else.
Eyes on the prize
It’s early, but if the season ended today — and all league leaders won their conference tournaments — ECAC Hockey would place four teams in the NCAA tournament: Yale, Dartmouth, Union and RPI (updated PairWise rankings can be found here.)
Still a long ways to go, with a lot of intra-conference kneecapping yet to occur, but it’s nice to see. Unfortunately for our little utopian outcome, these four teams have yet to play five games against each other before all is said and done.
USCHO.com’s Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger are joined by Boston College coach Jerry York to talk about some of Hockey East’s top Hobey Baker prospects: BC’s own Cam Atkinson, Brian Gibbons and John Muse; New Hampshire’s Paul Thompson; Maine’s Gustav Nyquist; and Merrimack’s Stephane DaCosta.
