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This Week in ECAC Hockey: Nov. 12, 2009

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Here’s an old tried-and-true column format: the hot-and-cold list. Join me as we narrow a big-picture view of ECAC Hockey down to a few noteworthy teams, units, and players.

Who’s Hot …

Colgate

Specifically, the offense and Charles Long. The Raiders have scored 16 goals in their last four games, and eight in each of the last two weekends. The ‘Gate hasn’t scored that many goals in a four-game stretch since late February 2008, and that was mostly thanks to an 8-0 win over Union to kick-start the run. Want to know the last time that Hamilton Hockey potted three goals in four consecutive outings? Try Jan. 13-21, 2006. Every team craves consistent productivity over unpredictable pyrotechnics, so take heart Raider fans; you just might have something to work with.

Sophomore Austin Smith has a half-dozen goals already, and Hobey candidate David McIntyre has nine assists and 11 points through nine games. This success on the scoreboard all comes in spite of a power play that ranks 53rd of 58 Division I teams, scoring only five goals in 51 advantages to date.

Long is making sure the offense’s efforts are worthwhile, holding a 1.70 goals-against average and .946 save rate in two league games, and has allowed five goals on 76 shots in his last three appearances.

Quinnipiac

The Bobcat offense is always fierce, and this year is no exception as the Q has 29 goals in seven games and hasn’t scored fewer than three in any one outing. But here’s a change of pace: the QU defense may finally be coming around.

After years of high-scoring, up-and-down, run-and-gun hockey, Rand Pecknold may have gotten his message through to what has long been a second-rate defense. If you can throw out Halloween’s 8-5 loss at Robert Morris, the ‘Cats have given up a measly nine goals in six games, and that eight-goal blemish marks the only contest in which the squad surrendered more than two.

“Absolutely, we’ve been very good defensively as a team for six of our seven games,” said Pecknold. “It’s definitely been a strong point on the team, it’s been something we’ve been focusing on, and fortunately we’re also finding a way to score goals.

“We’ve got a ton of freshmen D — we’ve got five on the roster — so we are young back there. We actually have 13 freshmen, so we’re a young team. There are some positives to that: they’ve certainly infused a lot of energy into our program; I think that’s been a positive. I think a huge positive, probably more than anything, has been my senior class. It’s really stepped up and responded from a leadership standpoint, and the chemistry in our locker room has been excellent so far. Overall, guys are just buying in.”

The goaltending triumvirate of freshmen Mathieu Cadieux and Eric Hartzell and sophomore Dan Clarke each post save percentages at .924 or better, and Clarke’s 2.6 goals-against average is the worst of the three by more than half a goal.

“The media keeps asking me about the goalie thing,” Pecknold said of his current three-way rotation, “and my answer across the board is textbook: It’s going to play itself out.”

Quinnipiac players are still spending a hefty amount of time in the box — see the 15 penalties, 41 minutes, and 13 shorthanded situations absorbed against the Saints on Saturday — but the penalty kill is holding so far at 88.4 percent overall, and the power play — when it gets its chance — has lit the lamp on one power play out of five.

“I thought we took some bad [penalties] on Saturday, a couple … I guess I would just call them stupid,” stated Pecknold, “and a couple were selfish. We need to clean that area up. I didn’t think it was a huge concern before Saturday — I certainly thought we could get better in that area, but Saturday was bad. We just took some really bad ones, and we need to clean that area up.

“I don’t think, by any means, that we’re as good as we can be,” reiterated the coach. “We need to get a lot better. But what’s happened is that in some of these games where we haven’t played our best, we’ve still found a way to win. I’m not sure if that’s because we’re a good team, or if it’s a little bit of luck. I guess once we get a bigger sample size on the season, we’ll have a better idea of that.”

Cornell

Has anyone noticed that the Big Red power play is scoring four times out of nine?

Seriously?

The PK unit has killed 16 of 18, the Red are blowing the opposition out 7-1 in the third period, and Ben Scrivens — remember him? — holds a .922 save percentage and a goals-against average under 2.0. More than a dozen skaters (13, to be precise) have been written into the scoring through three games.

Just another indomitable-looking team out of Ithaca, I suppose.

Broc Little

The Yale third-year has four goals in three games, including a game-winner, a power-play goal, and a shorthanded tally. He looks good to beat his freshman-year 11, and likely his sophomore-year 15. At this rate, he’ll beat them both combined.

Chase Polacek

RPI’s junior striker has six goals in his last six games, with six helpers to boot. He’s already matched his seven rookie-year goals, and doesn’t have far to go to meet last year’s 11-goal, 21-point total.

Rookies

Harvard phenom Louis Leblanc (2-3-5, three games), Yale’s Andrew Miller (1-3-4, three games) and St. Lawrence’s Kyle Flanagan (4-7-11, nine games) rank one-three-five on the national rookie scoring list, listed by points-per-game. Combined, this trio has 20 points in 15 games. Keep an eye on first-year Engineers Brandon Pirri (6-4-10) and Jerry D’Amigo (3-6-9) as well. That’s a lot of points in a significant number of games already (10).

… and Who’s Not

The rest of the Ivy League

First, one error to correct: In remarking on Yale’s five-goal outburst at Princeton last week, I mistakenly noted that Tigers goalie Zane Kalemba had allowed five goals in two of his last three games. This was erroneous, as the Bulldogs only scored four of their five goals against the Hobey Baker candidate — the fifth was planted in an empty net.

Besides that, though, five of the six Ivy programs have been perfectly capable of making their own mistakes thus far. Apart from 2-0-0 Cornell, the Ivy League is a combined 2-8-2, with last year’s overachieving sensation — Dartmouth — bringing up the rear at 0-3-0.

The Big Green have been outscored 13-6 in their three ECAC Hockey contests to date, and it’s no coincidence that the team’s penalty kill has been a positively abominable 10 for 17 — worst in the nation at 58.8 percent. The power play is a disaster as well with two goals in 18 opportunities, and the squad is already serving 23 minutes a game in the box. These issues have undeniably factored into sophomore Jody O’Neill’s .863 save rate, but he’ll have to step up as well if the Green are to secure another home playoff series.

Sure, Yale beat Princeton in the Garden State, but what have you done for me lately? That game was a non-conference contest, and in the Bulldogs’ league-opening weekend, the unanimous conference favorites slunk out of the Capital District with a single point to show for their mileage. RPI piled on the Blue & White with three unanswered goals in the last 37 minutes of Friday’s 5-2 decision, while the Elis required a Sean Backman extra-attacker goal with seven seconds left on Saturday to salvage a draw with Union. Yale was 1-of-10 on the power play on the weekend, and was beaten 7-3 in five-on-five play.

Yale’s travel partner Brown may not carry the same burden of external expectations that the other Ivies do this year, but under new head coach Brendan Whittet, the reinvented Bears can’t be happy with the way last weekend evolved. Friday’s 3-1 lead after 24 minutes at Union evaporated into a 3-3 tie thanks to two Mike Schreiber goals, and Bruno’s only offense on Saturday was found in a 5-on-3 power play in a 3-1 loss at Rensselaer. Goaltender Mike Clemente stopped 54 of 60 shots on the road trip, but his offense mustered a mere 38 — 19 each night. The special teams will need work, as the power play went 1-for-9 and the kill allowed three goals in 13 shorthanded situations.

Down in Jersey, Princeton has all the pieces to be an elite team in college hockey … but it’s still early, and the pieces don’t make a pretty picture just yet. The penalty-killing unit is gorgeous, a perfect 13-for-13, but that’s not an especially desirable number of unmatched penalties to be taking in a single weekend. Defending ECAC Hockey and Ivy League Player of the Year Zane Kalemba has had an uncharacteristically pedestrian start, posting a 2.7 goals-against average and .917 save percentage with a 1-2-0 record. The stalwart senior may feel a little heat from junior Alan Reynolds, who helped the Tigers rebound from Friday’s 5-2 loss to St. Lawrence with a one-goal, 31-save show in Saturday’s 4-1 victory over Clarkson.

Harvard may have beaten Dartmouth to open its season, but letting consecutive 3-1 second-period leads at Colgate and archrival Cornell end in losses is sure to drive coach Ted Donato to an unhealthy Pepto habit. On Friday, the Crimson led 3-0 after one and 4-1 after 40 minutes, but with under 10 minutes to play the Raiders scored three goals in 5:23 to steal two points. In Saturday’s tilt at Lynah Rink, Donato switched out Friday starter Kyle Richter in favor of junior Ryan Carroll. Once again, the Cantabs built a 3-1 lead — this one held through 37 minutes of play — before the Big Red erupted for five goals over the following 16 minutes of hockey. This sent the Crimson home with a solid cup-check of a loss, 6-3, and no protection in sight.

Readers’ Poll

Last week’s shootout poll received more posts and votes than any of the three previous surveys, apparently because people feel pretty strongly about their old-school hockey.

Despite forgetting an option regarding in-season tournament scenarios, a whopping — and yes, you can actually hear the majority “whop” on this one — 39 of 53 voters struck down shootouts as the most unholy of all Satan’s cruel designs. A small but significant five voters, on the other hand, can’t get enough of shootouts, voting in favor of the tiebreaker in all applicable situations. A few more individuals rallied for the format’s regular-season appearance, and one Brown fan declared himself a Communist.

Intrigued, I e-mailed ECAC Hockey’s head-coaching fraternity to ask its opinion. Six coaches got back to me (there are a few others who don’t even own computers, I’m beginning to suspect), with a few differing opinions.

Four coaches support the idea of regular-season shootouts to determine league standings, but not PairWise rank (those games would go down as ties, in the NCAA’s eyes). The remaining two coaches declared themselves totally opposed to the idea, with one elaborating that with so few league games compared to other conferences, such a format would have a correspondingly greater (and ergo less desirable) impact on the standings than it might in other leagues.

That will be a tough question to compete with, but let’s give it a shot: when, if ever, is it acceptable to boo a collegiate hockey player? This inquiry is sure to get a rise out of some of you, so by all means, make your voices heard. I look forward to the forthcoming carnage.

This Week in Atlantic Hockey: Nov. 12, 2009

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Sweet Sweep

Canisius swept Mercyhurst last weekend, 6-4 in Erie on Friday and 4-3 in Buffalo on Saturday. It was the first time ever in the 21-year history of the rivals that the Golden Grffins had defeated the Lakers on consecutive nights. The games were the 59th and 60th played between the two schools.

“Our team worked extremely hard,” Canisius coach Dave Smith said. “It was a very gritty and determined effort. We are finding ways to win right now and I am very proud of our guys.”

The Griffins had suffered from a first-period power outage so far this season, scoring just three times in eight games. But last weekend, Canisius opened 3-0 and 2-0 leads on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

“Getting the lead after the first period makes a huge difference,” Canisius senior forward Josh Heidinger said after the game on Saturday. “We struggled early in the season to start games but it is a huge momentum boost for us now.”

The highlight of the weekend for Canisius was a game-winning penalty shot by Cory Conacher with 4:36 to go in regulation on Saturday. After Mercyhurst defenseman Kevin Noble covered the puck in the crease, Canisius was awarded the penalty shot, and Conacher potted it for his team-leading fifth goal of the season.

Weekly Awards

Player of the Week for Nov. 9, 2009
Jordan Cyr — Holy Cross

Cyr had four points (three goals and an assist) last weekend to help the Crusaders split with Scared Heart. Cry leads the team in scoring with 11 points.

Goalie of the Week for Nov. 9, 2009
Jared DeMichiel — RIT

The senior stopped 47 of 49 shots to lead the Tigers to 6-1 and 2-1 wins over Army. On Saturday, he made several key saves in the latter stages of the game to help RIT to the 2-1 comeback.

Rookie of the Week for Nov. 9, 2009:
Jeff Larson — Connecticut

Larson made 48 saves on 50 shots to help Connecticut to a sweep of AIC (see more below).

Deserving a Better Fate

I do radio for RIT, and in that role I have to be a bit of a “homer” since the majority of our listeners and viewers on B2 are Tigers fans. But I’ve got to admit: Last Saturday night, I was rooting for Army goaltender Joe Spracklen.

Spracklen, a senior, was making his ninth career appearance in net for the Black Knights. He was 0-2-2 all-time coming into the game, and played very, very well. Looking for his first career win, Spracklen shut down for two periods an RIT offense that had scored 19 goals in its previous three games.

But it wasn’t to be. Bad bounces and questionable calls cost Spracklen and his team the game, as RIT scored twice in the final nine minutes to escape with a 2-1 win.

“[Saturday] was what we expected both nights,” said RIT coach Wayne Wilson, whose team won 6-1 over the Black Knights on Friday. “This was a real goaltender’s duel.”

Army had scored early in the second period on a beautiful 3-on-5 shorthanded goal thanks to a two-on-one rush by Eric Sefchik and Cody Omilusik. Sefchick stripped a defender of the puck for the breakout and then dished to Omilusik to make it 1-0 Army.

That lead would stand until RIT’s Dan Ringwald poked home a loose puck at 11:42 of the third period.

With just under four minutes to play, Tiger Chris Haltigan got his stick around Army’s Kyle Maggard. What would have been a late power play for the Black Knights was negated when Maggard was called for embellishment on the hook.

The Tigers would get the game winner just over a minute later, when Andrew Favot took a shot from a tight angle that Spracklen got a piece of as Tiger Sean Murphy crashed the net. Murphy, Army defenseman Cheyne Rocha and the puck all seemed to cross the goal line at the same time, with the net coming off as well.

I’ve seen the replay several times and can’t for myself determine if it was a goal. Both coaches after the game commented that they weren’t sure, either. After a brief pow-wow between the officials, Favot was credited with the goal.

“It wasn’t the goal that I had a problem with,” Army coach Brian Riley said. “I had a problem with the embellishment call. I watched the tape. I don’t know how the ref could call that an embellishment. I couldn’t really see if it crossed the line before the net came off.”

More bad luck for Spracklen, who played well enough to win, but came up short.

Centennial Shutout

Air Force’s Andrew Volkening celebrated his 100th career game in style, posing his 12th career shutout on Saturday. The senior stopped all 27 shots he faced in a 3-0 win over Bentley.

Rebounding

After giving up 13 goals to RIT in a pair of losses two weeks ago, Connecticut’s Jeff Larson came back with a vengeance last weekend. The rookie goaltender stopped 48 of 50 shots to lead the Huskies to their first two wins of the season in a 3-1, 4-1 sweep of AIC.

For his efforts, Larson was named AHA Rookie of the Week.

“He’s played well,” UConn coach Bruce Marshall told USCHO.com. “Last weekend was a total blowup for us a team and for a young kid to go from giving 13 goals on the weekend and to come back … will help him down the road.”

Saturday Night’s All Right

Sacred Heart defeated Holy Cross 4-3 on Saturday to keep an unusual streak going. The Pioneers so far this season have not won on a Friday night (0-3) but are undefeated on Saturday (2-0-1).

Five More Years

The Air Force Academy and hockey coach Frank Serratore have agreed on a new five-year contract that runs through the 2013-14 season.

“Frank has committed to building a successful program on and off the ice,” associate athletic director Dermott Coll said. “The success the team has had the last few years is a direct reflection of the hard work and effort he and his staff have put into this program. The Academy is proud of the team and coaches and all that they have accomplished on the ice, in the classroom and in the community.”

Brutally Honest

The Quote of the Week comes from Mercyhurst coach Rick Gotkin after his team was swept by Canisius last weekend. In both cases the Lakers fell behind early and attempted comebacks that fell short.

“We’re not very good,” Gotkin said. “Good teams don’t go down 3-0, 2-0. Comeback hockey, come-from-behind hockey, is losing hockey. The good news is we have some time to think it out, sort it out, but right now, we’re a very average to below-average hockey team.”

Thanks to the USCHO arena reporters who contributed to this column: Russell Jaslow, Ben Kirst and Nate Owen.

This Week in the ECAC West: Nov. 12, 2009

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More Offensive

The Manhattanville offense is clicking nicely three weeks into the season, averaging 6.67 goals per game to lead the nation. Coming off a strong weekend against Lebanon Valley (whom Manhattanville scored 16 goals against) some might scoff at the garish numbers. Not so fast.

“I was impressed with Lebanon Valley,” said Manhattanville head coach Keith Levinthal. “I think they have made great strides and worked hard for 120 minutes. We played well too, but despite the scores that is a much improved hockey team we played. We had to earn what we got against those guys. In the past, we haven’t. For whatever it is worth, I’ll be happy when I am done playing them because they are going to beat somebody.”

Leading the way on the scoreboard last weekend were junior Mickey Lang and senior AJ Mikkelsen. Lang scored four times and assisted on another Friday night, tying a school record for goals in a game set by Chris Trafford back in 2008. Lang’s linemates, senior Arlen Marshall and freshman Scott Hudson, certainly helped on the big night.

“The line of Lang, Hudson, and Marshall were absolutely on fire,” said Levinthal. “It is a pretty quick and skilled line. They scored some really nice goals. Mickey is an exceptionally fast skater and plays tough. He was the beneficiary of a good line.”

Mikkelson had two helpers on Friday, and then chipped in a pair of goals and added two more assists Saturday to rack up six points on the weekend series.

“He had a little bit of a disappointing season last year so it was good to see him put some points on the board,” said Levinthal. “As he goes, our power play goes.”

Scoring is not something that the Valiants have excelled at the past two seasons. During that span, Manhattanville averaged less than four goals per game and finished fifth and third respectively in conference offense. The early success at lighting the lamp this year could portend a turn around on the scoresheet for Manhattanville.

“We’ve only played three games but it does appear, based on some of the goals we are scoring, that we have significantly more firepower than we have had in the last two years,” said Levinthal. “Three years ago, we led the country in scoring. It looks like, at this early stage, that we have more offensive potential than we have had since that year. We have shown some offensive flair.”

In other news this week, Manhattanville has hired Hamilton’s long-time former coach Phil Grady onto its coaching staff as an assistant. After serving as head coach for 24 seasons and amassing 304 wins, Grady retired citing health reasons and family concerns. Coach Levinthal had a prior relationship with Grady and had an open position on his staff. A few preliminary conversations later and Grady is now a Valiant.

“I’ve known Phil Grady for a long time and I heard he was itching to get back into coaching,” said Levinthal. “We were fortunate enough that he was able to join our staff. It is a huge addition to our program given his experience and stature in the game. He has the ability to bring a lot every day. He has an unbelievable work ethic. To have somebody who has been in the game as long as he has, he brings some major experience to our team. We are lucky to have him.”

The added experience comes at a good time for Manhattanville as they have a bye this week before heading right back into league play on November 20. The Valiants will be on the road against Lebanon Valley Friday and then head to Neumann, a place they haven’t had success in well over a year.

“I hate the bye week because it will be a challenge for us to have a week of practice with nobody to play,” said Levinthal “It will be an issue for us to make sure we are sharp that Friday at Lebanon Valley. Plus we are playing a team for the third straight time and it only gets harder the more you keep playing a team back-to-back-to-back.”

Manhattanville was swept at Neumann in early November last season, accounting for half of the team’s total losses all season. And the Valiants also lost their only game at Neumann two seasons ago. The Knights home rink, the Ice Works, has not been a friendly place for Manhattanville and that will be playing on the mind of the Valiants team for the next two weeks.

“We’ve lost three in a row at Neumann,” said Levinthal. “I think those two losses at Neumann last year cost us getting into the [NCAA] tournament. That was kind of our Waterloo last year. We have to go in there and find a way to win a hockey game against a team that is obviously very good. I hate the two week layoff.”

Early Starts

Hobart endured a rough weekend last Friday and Saturday. It started early at Geneseo when the Knights scored twice in the opening four minutes of the game, the first of which was shorthanded while the other was a 2-on-1 breakaway.

The Statesmen climbed back into the game mainly on the shoulders of junior Matt Wallace, who finished off a hat trick six minutes into the third period to cut Hobart’s deficit to 4-3. But that was as close as the Statesmen could get.

“We spotted Geneseo some grade A chances right off the bat,” said Hobart head coach Mark Taylor. “We had plenty of chances to win. We missed a breakaway. We had a couple of guys that didn’t have their best game, and that factored into it, but at the same time that’s not all of it. We have to be ready to play.”

Hobart didn’t get much help from the referees either, who disallowed three Statesmen goals during the game. While one was clearly not a goal, the other two were a bit more controversial and hindered the Statesmen as they tried to dig out of their early hole.

On Saturday at Brockport, Hobart was much better from the opening faceoff. Junior Daniel Organ scored just 28 seconds into the game and classmate Christopher Bower added another eight minutes later to pace the Statesmen to a 4-1 victory.

Entering the season, there were two big question marks hovering over the Hobart team.

The first was how 13 freshmen would meld with the team. While the jury is still out on this, five of the freshmen have amassed at least a point this season and Christopher Cannissaro is tied for the points lead on the team with three goals and three assists. However, the freshmen have struggled at times as seen at the start of the Geneseo game.

“We’re feeling some growing pains early this year but we’ll get rid of them,” said Taylor.

The other question mark was in net as Hobart tries to replace an All-American goaltender. Newcomer Nick Broadwater has seen the majority of starts and has played all but 30 minutes between the pipes for the Statesmen. Broadwater has impressive stats, including a 1.74 goals against average and a 92.9 save percentage and appears to be settling into the starting role quite nicely.

“Right now, he has established himself as the front runner,” said Taylor. “He has had the opportunity to do it and has done well. I’m sure the other guys will keep the challenge coming.”

Game of the Week

Neumann travels to the Thunderdomes to take on Elmira in the Game of the Week. The Knights are used to playing in front of hostile fans, though, as they are coming off a tough two games at the Utica Aud.

Neumann failed to hang on to a two goal lead two weeks ago, settling for a 4-4 tie, but then got blown out in a 7-3 special teams barnburner this past Friday. The Knights gave up six power-play goals on 10 chances and you can be sure that coach Dominic Dawes has been focusing on that area of the game this week.

Elmira is coming off a harder-than-it-should-have-been game against Fredonia, in which the Soaring Eagles watched the Blue Devils score a pair of shorthanded goals in the third period to tie the game, 4-4. Sophomore Rick Acorn scored midway through the period to preserve the victory for Elmira. Every tally was accounted for via special teams.

With special teams dominating, you can expect a wild affair as Elmira and Neumann meet for the first time this season.

This Week in the CHA: Nov. 12, 2009

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And the beat goes on for Bemidji State.

Honestly, this is a team that’s looking like it will not only keep up with the rest of the WCHA next year, but for the time being will be a team that looks unstoppable in CHA play.

The facts don’t lie.

The Beavers are one of three unbeaten teams in the nation and are off to their best start in 25 years at 7-0-1. That seven is also lucky as it’s their ranking this week in the USCHO.com/CBS College Sports Poll — the school’s highest ranking ever.

Goaltending was looking like a big-time issue heading into this season after Matt Dalton bolted for NHL money with Boston. Two freshmen and an unproven sophomore were what BSU was leaning on this season.

Now, that unproven sophomore, Dan Bakala, is 6-0-1 in his last seven starts with a goals-against average of under 1.00 and a save percentage hovering near 98 percent.

Wow. Matt who?

Look at last weekend when Robert Morris and a proven goaltender, Brooks Ostergard, came to town. The Beavers allowed just one goal over both games and swept the series from the Colonials.

This weekend, though, BSU travels to Minnesota for a series with the unranked 3-4-1 Gophers, who have struggled this year and had sophomore defenseman Sam Lofquist leave the team this week for the OHL’s Guelph Storm.

Minnesota isn’t even ranked and one Minneapolis blogger, Roman Augstoviz of the Star Tribune, this week wondered if it’s the Gophers who are going into this series as the underdog.

Methinks he’s bang-on.

History is on Minnesota’s side, however.

Minnesota has won all six previous meetings with Bemidji State, outscoring the Beavers by a 35-9 count.

Ouch.

The past five matchups have been played at Mariucci Arena with the most recent series being Feb. 6-7, 2004. The teams first met on Oct. 14, 2000, in Bemidji. Aside from a 2-1 win on Feb. 6, 2004, the Gophers have won each of the other five games by at least four goals.

Alas, that’s why they play the games.

Bemidji State Handles Robert Morris

Tyler Lehrke scored in Bemidji State's 6-1 victory over Robert Morris last Saturday (photo: BSU Photo Services).

Tyler Lehrke scored in Bemidji State’s 6-1 victory over Robert Morris last Saturday (photo: BSU Photo Services).

In Friday night’s 2-0 win, Bakala made 23 saves and made goals by Matt Read and Jordan George stand up.

The game was scoreless after 40 minutes and RMU had the best scoring chance of the game 13 minutes into the second period.

Bakala moved to the right post to make a save, but was unable to corral the loose puck, leaving the net wide open for J.C. Velasquez. Just as Velasquez fired the shot, BSU freshman defenseman Brady Wacker dove across the crease to deflect the shot wide.

Jake Areshenko recorded his first NCAA point with an assist on Read’s tally.

Ostergard finished with 37 saves.

The next night, BSU had 13 skaters register points in a 6-1 rout of the Colonials.

Brad Hunt had three assists in the game.

Darcy Findlay, Tyler Lehrke and Ian Lowe gave the Beavers a 3-1 lead through two periods with a Denny Urban goal late in the second being the only blemish.

Read, George and Emil Billberg finished the scoring barrage in the third.

Bakala turned aside 27 shots for the ‘W,’ while Eric Levine made 34 saves in the loss.

Niagara Still Winless After UMass Sweep

Niagara came into its delayed home-and-home set with No. 19 Massachusetts looking to end its winless drought, but came up empty with a 4-1 defeat Friday night and a 4-2 loss Sunday afternoon.

In the series opener Friday night on the road, the Purple Eagles had a 1-0 lead on a goal by Ryan Olidis 22 seconds into the second period. UMass scored two to take a 2-1 lead into the third period, where the Minutemen added two empty-netters to seal the deal.

“A lot of our game I like, even with the tight loss,” NU coach Dave Burkholder said. “We played a great road game, but sadly we sputtered on our last power play in the second period. We ended up taking a penalty and they converted on the man advantage. When you play a team as good as UMass, they will make you pay for your mistakes.”

Andrew Hare finished with 29 saves for Niagara.

NU dropped to 0-7-1 in another tight game Sunday.

On a day where Niagara honored the 1999-2000 team that earned the program’s first NCAA tournament berth, the Purple Eagles came out strong early.

Again, Niagara had an early lead when Egor Mironov scored six minutes into the first period.

“I think that we came out with a lot of energy,” Burkholder said. “We were excited to finally be back at home after a six-game stretch.”

The Purple Eagles held a 1-0 advantage until early in the second period when UMass struck twice in a 50-second span to take a 2-1 lead. Burkholder then yanked starting goalie Adam Avramenko for Chris Noonan.

Niagara would tie it halfway through the second stanza when Chris Moran found Olidis in the slot for the one-timer.

UMass scored two goals late in the third to put the game away.

“We were too sloppy today,” Burkholder said. “UMass played a patient and good road game and in the end got the victory.”

Noonan made 25 saves coming off the bench. Avramenko stopped 11 shots in his 24:56 of work.

NU Gets Commitment From Austrian Black Hawk

No stranger to having European players in their program, Niagara will have Austrian-born Patrick Divjak in its lineup starting next season.

The Waterloo Black Hawks forward is playing his third year in the USHL and his first with Waterloo after the past two years with the Sioux Falls Stampede. During his time in Sioux Falls, he also participated in the World Junior Championship for Austria.

“We felt we had a big opportunity when Patrick became available over the summer,” Waterloo coach P.K. O’Handley said.  “He’s been a good fit with our power play centering a veteran group.”

Divjak will play for former Black Hawks forward Tim Madsen, who is a member of Niagara’s coaching staff. Madsen skated for the Hawks in 2003-2004, winning a Clark Cup title, before joining the Purple Eagles in the fall of 2004.

Niagara has dressed Finland natives Hannu Karru, Timo Makela (a former captain), Mikko Miettinen and Mikko Sivonen throughout the course of its history.

CHA Commish Discusses Status of League

In the Niagara Gazette this week, acting CHA commissioner and Niagara AD Ed McLaughlin sat down for a Q & A session with Gazette sports writer Tim Schmitt.

McLaughlin, who has always been up-front and straight to the point, held nothing back when asked about the situation that happened over the summer between Alabama-Huntsville and the CCHA.

“I talked with athletic directors in the CCHA and I talked with Huntsville,” he told the newspaper. “I didn’t play a part in any of the application process or anything like that, but I unsuccessfully campaigned for them. I campaigned for them, though. It was our hope that we’d find a home for everybody. If the home wasn’t together, we wanted everyone to have one. It’s disappointing, but you can’t tell people how to do their business either.

“I think there are geographical obstacles that make it hard for the CCHA teams to wrap their brains around it. You’re already going to Alaska, and they don’t see Huntsville as a hockey place, even though they have great tradition. The CCHA has minimum operating numbers in terms of dollars, and that’s certainly not anywhere near where the CHA teams have been. I think Huntsville committed to getting there, but I think it was night and day, what they’ve been spending and what we’ve been spending.”

McLaughlin was also asked if he feels powerless at times, if he feels like he’s being twisted and his thoughts on Bemidji State getting accepted into the WCHA.

“It’s one of the single most bizarre things of my professional life,” he told the newspaper. “And we’ve had some bizarre experiences. Bemidji is a big rival for us. And while I’m happy for them and their progress, you want them to do well, but as the Niagara AD, not this year. I was happy for them last year too. It was great for our league [and] it was great for college hockey that it happened. But it’s a really bizarre dynamic because it’s hard to close down a league and to keep focused on things. You don’t want people to say that it doesn’t matter.

“The championship game back on CBS College Sports this year, that was an important thing for me because I don’t want the kids to ever think that we don’t care. It’s a sad thing, but we can’t have the kids experience not be the same.”

And Then This From Don Lucia

Minnesota coach Don Lucia, on his weekly radio show this past Monday, gave praise to his squad’s opponents this weekend from Bemidji State and also touched on the ever-changing landscape of college hockey.

“Bemidji State has an unbelievable tradition in hockey with Bob Peters going back 40 years,” Lucia said. “And they have won countless Division II titles, NAIA titles, and All-Americans, NHL, Olympians. I think it’s great that there is going to be another [WCHA] team in the state of Minnesota. They are going to have a great facility to play in.

“I was a huge proponent of Bemidji State being a member of the WCHA because it is good for college hockey. We always have to be looking at the big picture and what is good for college hockey. And college hockey is unique because we are a sport where Bemidji State can compete with Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. You can’t do it in other sports, but hockey is the one-sport where it doesn’t matter whether you are Division III like Colorado College or a Big Ten member.

“Everyone is basically on an equal footing.”

This Week in SUNYAC: Nov. 12, 2009

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Oswego Makes First Big Statement

Oswego accomplished two tasks early in the 2009-10 season. The Lakers broke a 10 game winless streak against their arch nemesis and they became the team to beat in the SUNYAC. And they did it on the road.

They accomplished these tasks be defeating Plattsburgh, 5-2, after blowing a 2-0 lead.

“We’re happy,” Oswego coach Ed Gosek said. “What we’re happiest about is that there is no complacency. We know we can get better. We know we can correct [our mistakes].”

Eric Selleck and Jon Whitelaw scored power-play goals within 1:18 late in the first period for the first intermission lead.

After an even first, the second period was all Plattsburgh, as they outshot the Lakers, 18-3. Two of them went in to tie the game up. First it was Kyle Kudroch on the power play early in the period followed by a late even-strength goal by Vick Schlueter.

“We had some rookie mistakes,” Gosek said. “The guys weren’t ready to be challenged with the kind of speed that Plattsburgh has.”

However, the Lakers struck back with a tick left on the clock.

“We got lucky to get one back late in the second,” Gosek said.

“We were outshooting them in the second period,” Emery told the Press-Republican. “The goal took some of the wind out of our sails.”

Chris Laganiere did the honors.

With 3:06 left in the third, Whitelaw scored his second of the night for the insurance tally with a 2-on-1 counterattack. With 2:08 left, Selleck got his second to clinch the game with an empty netter.

“Many times, we’ve gone up there and played very well, but their goaltender was better than ours,” Gosek said. “This time, our goalie was better than theirs.”

With Paul Beckwith, the early season choice, out with the flu, Kyle Gunn-Taylor got the call for the second night in a row. He made 32 saves for the win.

The Lakers are now 5-1 overall and 4-0 in the conference, alone at the top. What’s enabling Oswego to get out to a strong start?

“The biggest thing is with all the guys we have, all the guys have been able to play,” Gosek said. “We’ve been rotating them around, and no one has stood out. Therefore, we keep rotating them through the lineup. They are more worried about playing than who we’re playing, and that takes some of the pressure off worrying about whether they are going to get up for a certain team or have a letdown.”

Speaking of letdowns, their next game is a proverbial trap game as they travel to Cortland. The Red Dragons may be 2-3 overall while only winning one league game, but they have exploded offensively twice (against Lebanon Valley and Fredonia), have scored an average of 4.40 goals a game, and two of those three losses have been by one goal (Buffalo State and Potsdam), including one in overtime.

“We certainly respect Cortland,” Gosek said. “They play hard. They’re well coached. Our guys know that, too. But, the mind set is sometimes, ‘Oh, we’re playing Cortland.’ It takes focus. You can’t have any letdowns in our league anymore. The scores this year are proving that. What used to be the weakest team in the league are now knocking off teams every week. It’s a dogfight every night.”

Meanwhile, Plattsburgh suffered their first loss of the season as they fell to 3-1 with all conference games played so far. The Cardinals hope to turn it around at Morrisville in their only contest of the weekend, which, as Gosek explained, is no longer a gimme game.

“This is the first adversity we’ve faced in quite a while,” Emery said. “Now, we’ll see where we go from here.”

SUNYAC Short Shots

Sean O’Malley scored 27 seconds into overtime to give Brockport a 4-3 victory over Morrisville … The next night Morrisville beat Geneseo, 4-3, in overtime on a Matt Salmon goal, his second of the night … The other overtime game over the weekend was also a 4-3 score when Potsdam defeated Cortland on a goal that bounced off the defender’s chest after deflecting off the goaltender’s stick.

Plattsburgh scored twice in the first 1:48 of the second period to break open the game en route to a 5-1 win over Cortland … Justin Fox scored twice and Oswego scored their last two goals 33 seconds apart in an 8-1 route at Potsdam … The winning goal for Fredonia’s 4-2 victory over Buffalo State was a shorthander by Steve Rizer.

Two other games ended in a 4-3 score … Geneseo defeated Hobart on two goals by Dan Brown … Fredonia fell to Elmira after tying the game at three with two consecutive third period shorthanded goals.

Game of the Week

More like the round robin of the week. The Buffalo area teams visit the Rochester area teams, and the set up could not be any closer. All four teams have played three conference games with identical 1-2 records in a six-way tie for fourth place. Still early in the season, but these are the type of weekends that teams look back on as either lost opportunities or moments that turned their season around.

It starts with Buffalo State playing at Brockport and Fredonia visiting Geneseo on Friday the 13th. Then the road teams will head in opposite directions on I-390 to switch opponents.

“We expect SUNYAC hockey,” Buffalo State coach Nick Carriere said. “Brockport has Sheridan, a good, big goaltender in the pipes. Geneseo has been playing some good teams. They both went up to the North Country and had some pretty good contests against some good teams up there. There’s a lot of parity in our league. We can’t take anybody lightly. It’s going to be tough in our first conference road trip.”

Tough and exciting with some much needed points on the line.

On The Periphery

It’s a conspiracy, I tell you. A conspiracy.

First Philadelphia and now Buffalo.

Last week I mentioned how they ran out of pretzels while touring Philly. This past weekend I walked up to the concession stand at Buffalo State during the first intermission and watched the person in front of me leave with a pretzel. I reached the cashier.

“Sorry sir, we’re all out.”

I’m surprised I didn’t need a paper bag.

This week, I will be in Brockport, home of the Best Pretzel in SUNYAC. If they, too, run out, then I will become very paranoid.

I may even start thinking a certain rival attempting to usurp the crown of USCHO food critic is weaving a conspiratorial web.

This Week in the CCHA: Nov. 12, 2009

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Old Business

Last week, I registered my discontent with the issues surrounding the Oct. 30 shootout in Omaha, when Bowling Green was awarded the extra shootout point despite an ineligible player scoring the deciding shootout goal. To refresh the memories of those unfamiliar with the case, BGSU freshman Jordan Samuels-Thomas was the only one to score in the shootout, and Samuels-Thomas should have been ineligible because he was in the penalty box at the end of overtime.

In my attempt to illustrate what I see as a greater problem — the shootout being a distinctly different beast from the game itself — I unintentionally created the impression that the CCHA could have acted in a way different from how it did to resolve the situation.

I never said in last week’s column that the league should have allowed a shootout the following day, as UNO coach Dean Blais suggested in his statements post-game, statements that I quoted, nor was it my intention to imply that such action should be taken.

One of my contentions was then and remains theoretical. I was questioning when a game ends. I did not mean it in the literal sense — that a game ends when a buzzer sounds, or when all parties have made their collective ways into their respective locker rooms.

Instead, I was using the situation in Omaha to illustrate the difference between what occurs on the clock and what occurs off, to reiterate my position that the shootout is extracurricular, not part of the actual game.

What I wrote did, however, create confusion that I did not intend.

To wrap up this particular subject, I’ve received quite a bit of e-mail informing me that the officiating crew involved in that game was let go by the CCHA. That is simply not true. The league has disciplined those officials, but has not released the nature of the discipline.

And that’s the end of that.

Old Business, Part 2

Maybe I was born skeptical. Maybe I’m just not a nice person.

After reading my esteemed colleague Danny Martin’s interview with former Alaska head coach Doc DelCastillo in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner this week, I remain unconvinced that DelCastillo was the victim of a vast player-led conspiracy to get him fired from his position as Nanooks coach.

This is an article that I know Danny Martin and the News-Miner worked hard to produce. The News-Miner filed a public records request in April of last year to obtain documents related to this case, and for Martin’s article, University of Alaska-Fairbanks officials seem tight-lipped.

In the article, DelCastillo claims he was released by the University of Alaska-Fairbanks based on unsubstantiated accusations of sexual harassment and that the University “deliberately” put him “in a situation to make it look like something happened that didn’t happen.”

In the article, DelCastillo also admitted to having contacted by cell phone the two women who brought the accusations of sexual harassment, one of whom was a student.

I have several problems with DelCastillo’s whole story. I do not understand what these women would stand to gain personally by accusing DelCastillo of sexual harassment. Many victims of sexual harassment — men and women alike — do not report what they’ve experienced for fear of backlash, of not being taken seriously, or because of the shame associated with reporting. Given the potential negative effects on the lives of his accusers, I don’t see them fabricating their reports.

Another problem I have is the way DelCastillo describes his cell phone contact with the women who accused him. In fact, I have a problem with DelCastillo calling these women at all — not because it’s de facto proof that he sexually harassed either of them, but because it reveals an incredible level of either poor judgment or arrogance. In other words, DelCastillo didn’t realize the potential repercussions for a married man in a public position to carry on private cell phone conversations with these women, or he thought himself to be untouchable if there were repercussions. Yes, it’s a he-said, she-said. It just raises a flag for me.

The third issue I have is with DelCastillo’s notion that the entire team was conspiring to get him fired. This is a red flag for me for many reasons. I have a hard time believing that the University of Alaska-Fairbanks was duped by its own men’s ice hockey team into firing an upstanding local citizen. I also have a hard time believing that a team could or would plot such an operation. I have met several of the Nanooks players who were allegedly involved in this plot — players recruited by current coach Dallas Ferguson — and I simply do not believe them capable of such wholesale, capricious malice.

Well, I don’t believe them capable of such wholesale, capricious malice without evidence, and that’s the biggest problem I have with DelCastillo’s entire story.

That having been said, I am not accusing DelCastillo of sexual harassment; I’m just reacting to what he’s elected to tell the media.

Old Business, Part 3

OK. Back to the hockey at hand. Sort of.

This week, the Michigan State Spartans and the Michigan Wolverines meet for the first time since a Jan. 24 game that saw defenseman Steve Kampfer leave Yost Ice Arena strapped to a gurney, Kampfer’s father storm into the Spartan locker room and confront Tropp, and Spartans Andrew Conboy and Corey Tropp suspended from the MSU team for the rest of the season.

We all know that Tropp has returned to the Spartan squad; he’s leading the Spartans in scoring (3- 3–6), is tied with six other CCHA players for second place in conference scoring and is tied for second in the nation in power-play production with five goals.

For his part, Tropp told my esteemed colleague at the Lansing State Journal, Neil Koepke, that he’s a different player today. “I made it a mistake,” Tropp said. “That’s not the player I am.”

Michigan coach Red Berenson told the Michigan Daily that what happened in that game “was unfortunate” and “uncalled for,” but that “it was dealt with well on the other end,” meaning by Michigan State hockey.

The Jan. 24 game was the fifth win of the season for Michigan over Michigan State; it was the most competitive and interesting game in the 2008-09 series between the teams until Conboy’s clothesline of Kampfer and Tropp’s subsequent slash of the defenseman as he lay on the ice.

The lopsided results of what is usually an entertaining and fairly even series involving the Wolverines and Spartans was a direct result of the awfulness of MSU’s 2008-09 series. Last season, Michigan State finished tied for 10th place in the CCHA, while Michigan tied for second.

Heading into this weekend’s series, MSU is all alone in second place, two points behind league-leading Miami. UM is tied for sixth place and a full seven points behind the Spartans.

New Business?

“Everybody’s contributing right now and our defense is playing pretty good and our goaltending’s pretty good.” So said Miami head coach Enrico Blasi after his RedHawks swept Michigan last weekend. The understatement was completely appropriate; Miami beat the Wolverines twice in Yost … which is home to the indisputable Master of Understatement, Berenson.

For his part, after being swept by Miami at home, Berenson said that his team played like “spoiled brats.” Yes, that’s a direct quote.

It’s Miami that’s the story of the week — or maybe the dopes associated with the CCHA should be the story of the week. The RedHawks were picked third in both the CCHA media and coaches 2009-10 preseason polls, behind Michigan and Notre Dame. I think before the season began there was some speculation about how the end of their 2008-09 season would affect them and questions about the legitimacy of their appearance in last year’s title game, fair or no. Miami didn’t play in the CCHA tournament, and I think some of us may have wondered if their run to the national championship was a fluke.

I picked them third this season, but for reasons wholly unconnected to Miami hockey; I thought that Notre Dame and Michigan would have stronger starts (and perhaps stronger teams) this year. I picked them to lose twice last weekend in Yost because they’d only won three games there before.

After having seen the RedHawks beat the Wolverines 5-1 Saturday night, I have no doubts about their legitimacy this season. They are absolutely for real, top to bottom. They played a hard, even game Friday and an intense contest Saturday. The result was a two-goal weekend for the Wolverines and their first sweep at home at the hands of an opponent since Northern Michigan beat them Oct. 26-27, 2001.

“Part of our team, part of our trademark is to play good team defense,” said Blasi. “You have to do that against Michigan. Otherwise, their going to bury you. I thought our guys did a good job of keeping sticks in lanes and deflecting a lot of things to the outside and not giving them much room.”

As Saturday’s game progressed, the Wolverines took dumb penalty after dumb penalty — 65 minutes in all for UM to Miami’s 30, leaving the Wolverines completely unable to break Miami’s dominance as the game progressed.

Even though the penalties were lopsided, Blasi said that he didn’t know “if anyone kept it together real well” during Saturday’s contest. “It’s an emotional game, it’s a rivalry right now, and we’re in their building,” said Blasi. “You know they’re not going to die. They fought hard and I thought we matched their intensity right off the bat.”

The Miami sweep was a complete team effort, which is how Miami is establishing itself as one of the best programs in college hockey. Every class contributed to the weekend in tangible, measurable ways. In Friday’s game, two seniors — Jarod Palmer and Brandon Smith — scored all three Miami goals. (Smith’s was the third of his career.) In Saturday’s contest, the juniors and freshmen scored. Sophomore goaltender Cody Reichard registered both wins, stopping 47-of-49 in the two-game set.

In Saturday’s win, Reichard looked amazing. He stopped things that came through heavy traffic. He made point-blank saves. He gave up few playable rebounds.

“Do I look surprised?” asked Blasi. “He’s been playing like that for the better part of a year, so it doesn’t shock us at all.”

Reichard said that Saturday’s game was much more intense after Michigan lost Friday, and that through the first period Saturday that ended tied 1-1, the RedHawks “were just hanging on there for a while.”

“They got on the board early,” said Reichard. “You never know. The crowd was in it and they were going.”

This week, the RedHawks will be tested again, but by another team that may have been overlooked at the start of this season. Ferris State is 7-3-0 to start the season with a 6-0-0 record at home.

Junior Bulldog goaltender Pat Nagle has quietly begun what could be a career season. In five games this season, Nagle has a .938 save percentage and 1.58 goals-against average, making him eighth and sixth nationally among goaltenders in those categories.

Nagle, however, is not alone in the FSU net. The Bulldogs have been rotating Nagle with sophomore Taylor Nelson, whose 1.80 GAA is 11th in the nation.

Monkey Business

According to this week’s USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll, six of the top 13 teams in the country call the CCHA their home. That’s half the league.

Complete disclosure here: I vote in this poll. My CCHA picks? No. 1, Miami. No. 6, Notre Dame. No. 9, Alaska. No. 10, Michigan. No. 12, Michigan State. No. 14, Nebraska-Omaha.

After seeing the polls in print, so to speak, I got to wondering. Can the CCHA be that good this season? I mean, is this league good enough to merit having half its teams counted among the 15 best programs in college hockey this week?

As I’ve said, I’m a born skeptic. However, there’s evidence that the CCHA is re-emerging as one of the premier leagues in college hockey. I’d argue that the league was down for a while in the early part of this decade, but three different CCHA teams — from three different CCHA states — ascending to the last three national title games is something that’s hard to ignore. That the first two of those teams finished fourth in league standings and last year’s team didn’t play in its own league championship tournament may actually provide better evidence that the league is not only good, but deep.

But I’ll defer to Blasi when it comes to the polls. This is what he said after sweeping Michigan last weekend.

“Rankings … we don’t really talk about. We don’t really care. We’re trying to get better every day and we’re trying to focus on the games we’re playing right now. Rankings don’t mean anything to us until the end of the year, and hopefully we can be one of those teams playing, but we’ve got a long way to go and there’s a long process involved to do that.”

Bits of Business

Here are a few scattered impressions from the last week of CCHA hockey.

• Michigan State is a fun hockey team to watch, and their place in the CCHA standings is no fluke. They’re relaxed and playing good team hockey — and enjoying it, after last year’s endless misery.

• The Spartan power play is a blast. They scored 20 power-play goals in all of 2008-09, and they’re already at 15 this season.

• Nebraska-Omaha doesn’t strike me as a top-ten team — yet. Even in UNO’s shootout “win,” I thought that MSU was the better team last Friday night.

• UNO head coach Dean Blais is a unique character. He bolted for a recruiting trip the moment last Friday’s contest was over. It was nice to catch up with Nick Fohr, however.

• Mike Johnson and Scott Greenham — does a goaltending battle get any better than that this season? Johnson (.957 SV%, 1.25 GAA) made 35 saves in Notre Dame’s 3-2 win over Alaska last Friday. Greenham (.939 SV%, 1.35 GAA) stopped 26 in UAF’s 3-1 win over ND Saturday.

• Ohio State should consider changing its mind on rotating its goaltenders. Dustin Carlson (.927 SV%, 2.43 GAA) is 0-5-0, all Friday games. Cal Heeter (.923 SV%, 2.17 GAA) is 3-1-1 with a shootout “win,” all in games on Saturday nights.

• Lake Superior State junior Chad Nehring leads the CCHA in conference scoring with five goals and two assists. In 10 games this season, Nehring has netted seven total goals, surpassing his previous two season totals. In 37 games last year, Nehring had six goals; in 37 games in 2008-09, he scored four.

• Bowling Green remains one of four teams nationally yet to record a win this season. Two of those teams — Dartmouth and Brown — have played just three games. BGSU and Niagara each have overall records of 0-7-1.

This Week in the NCHA/MCHA: Nov. 12, 2009

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The first regular season installment of the USCHO.com Division III men’s poll was released on Monday, and at first glance it looks pretty much as expected. Five NCHA teams grace the top 15 and Adrian is hanging out roughly where it has for the better part of the past two years.

The big mover was St. Norbert, who at 4-0-1 vaults all the way to the top spot in the land, up ten positions from the inaugural poll. The Green Knights landed seven first place votes, one more than second place Oswego.

Adrian and its two first place votes slid up one spot to number five, while River Falls, St. Scholastica and Stout landed at eighth, ninth and tenth, respectively. Superior rounds out the NCHA teams by holding onto 14th, down 10 spots from its preseason ranking of fourth

Though seeming like a conventional poll — as far as the NCHA and MCHA are concerned — further examination reveals otherwise.

A look at the “others receiving votes” shows Milwaukee School of Engineering landing 10 votes and Lawrence five. That makes this poll the first in the history of USCHO in which three MCHA teams received votes.

Not something that is bound to send shockwaves through the world of Division III, but empires aren’t built overnight. And in terms of the poll (which reflects the collective perception of numerous D-III coaches) it looks like we can add a third brick to the foundation of the MCHA’s castle.

First Impressions

After discussing the magnitude of the gap between Adrian and the rest of the league a week ago, the Bulldogs went out and scored a road sweep at Marian. Considering the Sabres were expected to be one of the Bulldogs’ biggest challengers, the 13-2 combined weekend score certainly seems to indicate, for now at least, that the Bulldogs are once again the team to beat — and once again it’s by a considerable margin.

They aren’t alone at the top of the league, however, as MSOE, Lawrence and Lake Forest are all undefeated in league play.

Lake Forest? Yep, that’s right.

As first year MCHA members, the Foresters ultimate place in the conference still remains an unanswered question, but for head coach Tony Fritz, last weekend’s 7-6, 3-0 road sweep over Finlandia is about as good of a start as he could have hoped for — and for more than just the obvious reasons.

“The most prevailing thought is that it’s the first week since ’05 that we’ve swept anybody,” he said. “We swept [University of Wisconsin-]Eau Claire and [UW-Stevens] Point that fall and then swept Stevens Point that spring in the conference playoffs and that’s the last time we’ve swept anybody.

“This was the first sweep ever for our seniors. Doing it on the road was very important as that’s a tough road trip. It’s important to your players that they are successful and that’s the key.”

Beyond that, the significance of a four point road weekend is not lost on Fritz as Lake Forest is expected to be in the mix with Lawrence, MSOE, Marian and Finlandia for the 2-6 spots in the league.

“That’s huge and it’s puts us in the driver’s seat for the first time in a long time. Here we are with four points in the second week and we’re pretty excited about that.”

The Foresters scored a wild 7-6 win on Friday in a game that featured a combined 110 penalty minutes.

They held a slim 4-3 lead after the second period but blew the game open in the third as freshman defenseman Trent Brown tallied twice and rookie forward Phil Bushbacher added another in the opening five minutes of the final frame.

The Lions scored twice in the next four minutes and added another with only 14 seconds to play, but it wasn’t enough and Lake Forest’s first foray into the MCHA ended with the “W”.

“I just sort of felt we were going to be okay. We were killing penalties alright and everything, but there are still always those unknowns,” Fritz said.

Saturday featured an entirely different style of game, but Lake Forest prevailed again, nothing a 3-0 victory. Freshman netminder Brendan Sullivan turned back 19 Lions’ shots to pick up his first career shutout.

The Foresters roster has 15 freshman so while growing pains will no doubt be a fact of life for some amount of time, the shutout was especially pleasing to Fritz considering they allowed eight goals in their opener at St. Norbert and six in Friday’s win.

“(On Friday) we were too helter-skelter,” Fritz said. “We were playing too much of a run-and-gun game and in our own end we weren’t playing very solid. We were relying on our goalie to keep us in it in the wrong way.

“The second game is where the transformation really took place. We took care of business defensively and that’s key for us and that’s the way we have to play. Anybody who wants to be successful has to first shut things down in their own end.”

Lake Forest will remain an intriguing team to follow this season as it’s not every year a team switches leagues. Despite being one of the more established programs in the West, they might as well be a first year program as it relates to the MCHA. Between that and the challenges that a young team presents, ups-and-downs are a certainty, but for now the Foresters are off to about as good of a start as they could have hoped for.

“It’s the first step and that’s very important. It puts us in the right direction and just gives us some confidence,” Fritz said.

“We’re just trying to be conservative and realistic because we’ve still got some really good teams to play. We still have Adrian for four games, Lawrence is better, MSOE is a good team, Marian is a good team and so on. We also play St. Olaf non-conference so it will be tough. There are a lot of good teams out there no matter where you play.”

A Sick Obsession

Considering the NCHA is so tight it’s almost impossible to figure out where everyone stacks up as of now, let’s try something a bit different this week.
As touched on in this week’s introduction, NCHA teams are all over the place in the national rankings. With four teams cracking the top 10 and another just outside of it, allow me to put the cart four months ahead of the horse and start talking about (gasp!), the NCAA tournament.

Over the past four seasons I have stressed numerous times that come selection time, one game can make or break a season. Within the selection system currently implemented, the key component of my contention is that it often doesn’t matter if that one key game was played last week or is in late February.

The NCHA landed three teams in the NCAA tournament field last season, the first time in 10 years that was the case.

So what are the prospects for this season? Well, pretty good in the sense the NCHA has as many quality teams as it does, but there have been numerous changes this offseason that, one way or another, will possibly have a profound effect.

They all stem from the fact the NCHA has switched to an 18 game conference schedule in which each team will play every other three times. Talk has circulated that this might raise the opponent’s winning percentage (OWP) component of the selection criteria for NCHA teams. OWP has carried significant weight in recent years and it has been purported that, like what seems to be the case in a league like the ECAC West, more conference games might raise OWP league-wide.

Having nothing better to do, I tried to quantify this to see if this theory might be accurate. As always, trying to predict the future involves some assumptions, but this is how it works.

Using last season’s results, I attempted to adjust last season’s results to determine what last year would have looked like had it been played under this season’s schedule format.

The assumptions:

— The adjusted playoff formats of the MCHA and NCHA have been accounted for
— The new MCHA divisional setup was accounted for
— Lake Forest simply “replaced” Crookston in the MCHA, but the Foresters record was adjusted to a likely realistic 10-10-0 in the MCHA (Crookston was 5-15-0) and the records of other MCHA teams were adjusted accordingly
— NCHA teams lose two conference games with Lake Forest and pick up a third with every other NCHA team
— NCHA teams lose four games with MIAC teams and MIAC teams lose four games with NCHA teams. In both cases the first four NCHA-MIAC games of each team’s season last year were the ones used
— The MIAC teams needed to pick up four games, so the “extra” four opponents they each play this season were used to simulate these
— Games against Eastern opponents are not counted
— This counts games played up through the conference tournaments in all leagues

Again, and as simply speaking as possible, last season’s results established trends. Last season’s schedules were then altered to match this year’s scheduling patterns, and the established trends were reapplied to determine results.

The NCHA ended up looking like this:

GP W L T Win % OWP

Superior 27 20 4 3 0.796 0.5115
Stout 29 22 5 2 0.793 0.5155
St. Scholastica 27 18 8 1 0.685 0.4985
St. Norbert 27 17 9 1 0.648 0.5476
Stevens Point 27 11 14 2 0.444 0.5217
River Falls 27 9 17 1 0.352 0.6091
Eau Claire 27 7 19 1 0.278 0.5833

When looking at the resultant OWP’s, the first thing that jumps out are the gargantuan OWP’s of River Falls and Eau Claire. Only problem is that in this scenario, neither is in the NCAA picture. So how about the top four teams in the league?

Last season’s OWP’s for Superior, Stout, St. Scholastica and St. Norbert were .5339, .5361, .5367 and .5725, respectively.

Comparing the hypotheticals calculated above to last season’s reality, the net changes were:

Superior: -.0224
Stout: -.0206
St. Scholastica: -.0382
St. Norbert: -.0249

An across the board drop, and the question is why? A few ideas come to mind.
Namely, the reduction of games against the MIAC serves to hurt the overall records of NCHA teams. This is of course predicated on the NCHA dominating the MIAC, which is what it did last season by going 30 games over .500 in the Interlock. Only one NCHA team finished below .500 a year ago, and rest assured that will not be the case this season.

As games between NCHA will always result in a composite .500 record it means the overall win percentages of the league will drop. Combine the lower overall winning percentages with six additional games against each other and a drop relative to last season appears inevitable.

St. Norbert is an easy team to look at to demonstrate this. Last year, the Green Knights played eight games against UW-Stevens Point, UW-River Falls and UW-Eau Claire, and those three had a combined record of 38-38-5 (.500).
After adjusting the schedule, however, the same Green Knights play Stevens Point, River Falls and Eau Claire a total of 11 times, and the three offer a combined record of 27-50-4. That’s nearly half of the season coming against teams with a combined .333 winning percentage.

Simply put, that is not going to help OWP.

An interesting sidebar here is this change overpowers the removal of two games against a 5-20-2 Lake Forest, the Foresters actual record a year ago.

Numerous other things arise, but would only serve to muddle the point. The only one I will point out, because it’s simple and interesting, is that the difference between playing Gustavus Adolphus and St. Olaf versus playing Concordia (MN) and St. John’s is quite significant. The same goes for playing, for example, MSOE and Lawrence instead of Northland and Concordia (WI). The magnitude of the impact from just a couple of games can be surprisingly large.

I’ll admit, this endeavor took on a life of its own just because I was curious to see what sort of an impact the 18 game league schedule might have on OWP, but ultimately I’m left with two grand conclusions:

First, the 18 game NCHA schedule makes perfect sense from a balance standpoint and the return of the two game series are wonderful for fans. Nonetheless, I purport that the changes will invariably hurt the OWP’s of the top NCHA teams. We’ll know the validity of this soon enough.

Secondly, it is fascinating in the sense that it shows how fickle some of these things can be, which means just win and keep on winning. After all, if you’re good enough …the numbers won’t matter.

Tasty Travels

The beneficiary, perhaps, of last weekend’s travel was none other Luigi’s Pizza in River Falls, Wisconsin. Located at 103 E Locust St. in its quaint downtown, this was my second visit to Luigi’s. In the name of full disclosure, I stopped there last season and was quite disappointed with the manicotti … and I’m not easily disappointed. Following that experience, a coworker chided me for not getting the deep dish pan pizza and was insistent on the fact that when visiting Luigi’s that “you have to get it”.

So I did. Before ordering, three things jumped out at me on the menu. The first was the claim of authentic Chicago-style deep dish, which, when applied literally is a tough standard to uphold. The second was the 45 minute cook time and the third was the promotion of a homemade tomato sauce that lauded its sweetness and garlic undertones.

Those are some pretty lofty proclamations from a no-frills operation in a not-so-big town in western Wisconsin, but wait the 45 minutes I did.

Forty-one minutes later, our server slapped the cast-iron pan baking pan right on the table and it was immediately apparent Luigi’s lived up to the first promise. No question it was legitimate Chicago-style deep dish. As for the tomato sauce, it was downright excellent and was everything the menu promised: sweet with a definite garlic presence. The key to its excellence, and it was excellent, was that the garlic did not overpower the other flavors working in the sauces’ favor, but was evident enough to make it a truly different sauce.

As for the rest of the pizza, it was loaded with cheese and toppings and the homemade crust maintained its firmness despite spending over a half hour in the oven. I’ve eaten a lot of pizza — some good and some not so good — and bottom line is that this thing was great.

In addition to the pie that surpassed expectations, our server was fantastic and actually asked if we were in town for the hockey game. She even seemed impressed when we explained what USCHO was. Winner! Drinks were refilled promptly and she took the time to make plenty of friendly conversation. Top marks across the board in this department as well, and trust me, her tip indicated as much.

A deep-dish at Luigi’s will run anywhere from $8 to $25 depending on the size and amount of toppings you wish to get, but it’s cheaper than it seems. A small accounted for two legitimate meals for me and ran about $13 with four toppings.

In summation, I don’t know who Luigi is, where he is from, and why he moved to River Falls, but we should all be happy that he did … and that he brought his recipes with him. I recommend his deep dish to anyone looking for some pregame eats should they be in town for a NCHA clash at Hunt Arena.

Truly a pleasant surprise and I leave with only one small word of advice: when they say a medium can feed three to four people, they aren’t joking.

Luigi’s receives: 3.5 pucks.

This Week in the WCHA: Nov. 12, 2009

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Though a few of the usual suspects have been hanging around the top half of the league, we’ve still got more of the same like last year, as only seven points separate first and 10th place.

Red Baron WCHA Players of the Week

Red Baron WCHA Co-Offensive Players of the Week: Evan Trupp, UND; Sean Wiles, UAA.
Why: Trupp scored three goals to help his Fighting Sioux sweep Michigan Tech. Wiles also scored three goals in the Seawolves’ split with Denver.
Also Nominated: Bill Sweatt, CC; Rhett Rakhshani, DU; Patrick White, UM; Blake Geoffrion, UW.

Red Baron WCHA Defensive Player of the Week: Alex Kangas, UM.
Why: Stopped 73 of 79 shots on goal in the Gophers’ split with Wisconsin, including a career-high 45 shots on Saturday.
Also Nominated: Gabe Guentzel, CC; Brad Eidsness, UND; Ryan McDonagh, UW.

Red Baron WCHA Rookie of the Week: William Rapuzzi, CC.
Why: Had three points (2g, 1a) in the Tigers’ split with Minnesota-Duluth.
Also Nominated: Zach Budish, UM; Danny Kristo, UND; Craig Smith, UW.

More Gopher Woe

If the injury news wasn’t bad enough, Minnesota has now lost a player off the roster completely. Sophomore defenseman Sam Lofquist left the program earlier this week and has signed with the Guelph Storm of the Ontario Hockey League.

Lofquist’s departure makes this the fourth year in a row the Gophers have lost a player midseason. It also means the Gophers are down to six healthy defensemen (basically the bare minimum) as well as 22 total players on their roster. (Teams typically carry 26 players. It should also be noted that one of the original 26 players is Bowling Green transfer Jacob Cepis, who will join the team in the second half.) Coach Don Lucia, on his weekly radio show, remarked that now, “We got the guys who want to be here.”

All this news is resulting in a firestorm of comments all over the Internet from fans, saying things ranging from, “Whatever, get the people who don’t want to be at Minnesota out of there” to “FIRE DON LUCIA NOW!” Who knows what will happen (I’m personally not one for speculating much), but it will be interesting to see how things play out at the U, whether it be this season or over the next couple years.

Thoughts and Comments from the Weekend

UM: While at CC Friday for the CC/UMD series, I was fortunate enough to catch a good chunk of the Gopher/Badger game on Fox Sports North. One of the stats FSN showed was the Gophers’ abysmal power play — at that point in Friday’s game, 1-for-32. Overall this season, Goldy is 2-for-35 with the man advantage, good enough for 56th of 58 teams, above only Alabama-Huntsville and Niagara.

CC: For a while this season, it seemed as though Tiger fans had listened to all the Debbie Downer news circulating around their team, as attendance had been noticeably lower than normal to start the year. However, as CC’s early season success has gotten out, the fans have returned to World Arena in kind. Friday’s crowd was CC’s biggest yet this season; even Director of Athletic Communications Dave Moross noticed, commenting, “We’ve got ourselves a crowd.”

The Tigers also had a penalty shot on Friday night. It’s unsure how many penalty shots CC has seen over the years (the school doesn’t keep track), but the event was definitely the first in coach Scott Owens’ tenure (11 years), making Stephen Schultz’s eventual miss a rare spectacle.

DU: Denver is hoping its bye week will be kind in terms of injury recovery. The Pioneers are already without goaltender Marc Cheverie, who hopes to be back in two weeks for North Dakota, but defenseman Patrick Wiercioch went down late in Saturday’s loss to UAA as well.

Cheverie, in his recovery, sat down with DU’s media relations office for an interview (teams often have player profiles/interviews on their respective Web sites) and, somehow, the question of how to eat an Oreo came up. Besides the fact that I think everyone over the age of 3 probably knows the proper Oreo-consuming process, I thought the exchange was amusing.

SG (DU media relations person): I asked (freshman) Drew Shore this question and he was confused …
MC (Cheverie): That sounds about accurate.
SG: So let’s see if you do a little better than him … How do you eat an Oreo?
MC: Split it, lick it, dip it and eat it.
SG: Nice. He was so confused.
MC: He’s too young to understand.

College hockey players: They’re just like us (whether in good ways or bad ways).

UMD: On a personal note, it’s nice to see Bruce Ciskie back on the call of UMD games. Over the years, one gets to know their fellow media members in the other cities and, quite frankly, it sucks not being able to see your friendly acquaintances year after year due to budget cuts and whatnot. So, Ciskie, nice to see you back traveling again.

UND: Danny Kristo, my random preseason pick for Rookie of the Year for the WCHA media poll, finally scored his first collegiate goal.

On Home-Ice Advantage

Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald had an interesting piece this week on the Fighting Sioux and their ridiculous home ice advantage at the (new) Ralph Englestad Arena.

From the article (you may be asked to log in): The last time the Sioux have lost at home was a year ago (Nov. 29, 2008, vs. Cornell). None of the current players on the SCSU roster (this weekend’s opponent), the MSU, M roster or the DU roster has won a collegiate game at the Ralph.

The Sioux went 7-9-1 in the first season at the new Ralph and since then, have gone 103-36-21 at home for a .709 winning percentage (compared to .693 at the old Ralph).

After reading these facts, I was curious about how the other teams in the league have fared at home and whether they’ve enjoyed the same home-ice advantage. Information was found primarily for teams with newer arenas. Also good to note is that not all schools said if their totals included exhibition games. CC’s did, so I went ahead and added in exhibition games for all teams when adding this year’s games to the overall totals. This may skew the numbers slightly, but not enough to make a huge difference. Hopefully.

Colorado College is 187-69-12 since the World Arena opened in 1997 for a .717 winning percentage at home.

Denver is 134-66-9 for a .663 winning percentage in the 10 years of Magness Arena.

Minnesota State is 130-81-34 at the Verizon Wireless Center since it opened for an even .600 winning percentage.

Since 1989 when the National Hockey Center opened, St. Cloud State is 232-122-38 for a .640 winning percentage.

The Seawolves are 238-202-52 at the Sullivan Arena for a .537 winning percentage.

Wisconsin is 125-93-23 at the Kohl Center for a .566 winning percentage.

The main thing to take away is that pretty much everyone enjoys home ice; the advantage is just larger for some. From those that I could find without compiling home winning percentages for hundreds of years of history, CC has the largest home-ice advantage while Alaska-Anchorage, understandably, has the worst.

You may notice that the DECC (Duluth), Mariucci Arena (Minnesota) and MacInnes Student Ice Arena (Michigan Tech) are absent. None of the schools mentioned their team’s home-ice record (as far as I could find). I can understand Michigan Tech somewhat (given their arena is quite a bit older), but I was surprised that the Gophers mentioned squat among all the other information about Mariucci.

Match-Ups By the Numbers

We get to see one of our future teams in action this weekend for the first time (Beavers at Gophers) and Denver gets a week to rest up.

St. Cloud State @ North Dakota
Overall Records: SCSU — 3-3-2 (2-1-1 WCHA). UND — 6-1-1 (4-1-1 WCHA).
Head-to-Head: UND leads the overall series, 50-27-10.

Colorado College @ Minnesota State
Overall Records: CC — 5-2-1 (4-1-1 WCHA). MSU, M — 3-4-1 (1-4-1 WCHA).
Head-to-Head: CC leads the overall series, 25-12-1.

Michigan Tech @ Minnesota-Duluth
Overall Records: MTU — 2-6-0 (1-5-0 WCHA). UMD — 6-3-1 (3-2-1 WCHA).
Head-to-Head: MTU leads the overall series, 116-72-18.

Alaska Anchorage @ Wisconsin
Overall Records: UAA — 4-6-0 (2-4-0 WCHA). UW — 4-3-1 (2-3-1 WCHA).
Head-to-Head: UW leads the overall series, 42-13-9.

Bemidji State @ Minnesota
Overall Records: BSU — 7-0-1 (4-0-0 CHA). UM — 3-4-1 (3-4-1 WCHA).
Head-to-Head: UM leads the overall series, 6-0-0
Of Note: UM has outscored BSU 35-9 in the all-time series … the closest game was a 2-1 UM win on Feb. 6, 2004 … BSU has outscored opponents 30-10 this year.

Future WCHA Team Watch

The Beavers continued their roll, sweeping conference foe Robert Morris last weekend. This weekend, they get to face their soon-to-be conference mate Minnesota in a Saturday/Sunday series. Nebraska-Omaha, on the other hand, managed to gain only two points against Michigan State, losing and then tying (though technically beating in a shootout) the Spartans. The Mavericks host Lake Superior State this weekend.

BSU: 7-0-1 overall, 0-0-0 vs. WCHA
UNO: 4-1-3 overall, 0-0-0 vs. WCHA

On the Flip Side of the Coin

For the past few years, you’ve read a piece in this column either about the Sioux’s slow start around about this time of the season or about their (supposed) second-half surge sometime in late February/early March.

This year, however, the Sioux have gotten off to a faster start than the rest of us have been accustomed to. So, it’s understandable that coach Dave Hakstol was asked at this week’s team press conference how it felt to not have to answer questions about a slow start.

His response? “I don’t know [how it feels]; I still have to answer all the other ones about not having a slow start so it’s not much different.”

Good to know that at least he has a sense of humor about it all.

P.S.

Last Friday, I was sent a video by Jay Levin of the Nashville Predators about the team’s prospects involved in the Gopher/Badger rivalry. Obviously, it was too late to stick in the column, but given that the two teams will face off once again at the end of the year, I figured it’d be interesting to share with everyone.

This Week in Hockey East: Nov. 12, 2009

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Up Is Down And Down Is Up

It’s enough to make you cue up Diana Ross singing “Upside Down.”

(I’m not going to infringe on the copyright of songwriters Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards by adding anything more than, “inside out and round and round.” Got the tune in your head now? OK, let’s roll.)

While the season is still young, its topsy turvy nature has led to a number of anomalies.

• Defending national champion Boston University is in last place, 1-4 within the league.

• The two Massachusetts state schools are atop Hockey East (Lowell at 3-1-1 and UMass at 3-1-0) an awfully short time after some questioned whether the two programs should be combined so they could be more competitive. (Of course, the phrase “programs combined” was nothing more than a euphemism for blowing up Lowell and its proud history.)

• Nine of the 10 league teams earned votes in last week’s USCHO.com/CBS College Sports Division I Men’s Poll. The lone holdout? Maine. Go back a couple years, and imagine the odds you’d have gotten on that one.

• Merrimack, picked to finish last, got more votes in the poll than New Hampshire.

• BU is tied for last in the league (with Northeastern) for overall offense.

• UNH is last in the league for overall defense and penalty kill.

Inside out and round and round …

Which Wildcats?

On the one hand, UNH’s 2-1-1 league record puts the Wildcats in a tie for third place, just two points out of first with a game in hand. On the other hand, their 2-5-2 overall mark is the slowest start in coach Dick Umile’s 20 years.

It’s been a roller coaster season so far for UNH. The team has shown its customary firepower, exploding for five goals in eight minutes against Miami, the consensus No. 1 team in the country. Last Friday, the Wildcats stunned Boston College with three third-period goals to force overtime, an extra session in which they almost pulled out the win.

Those heights, however, are more than matched by the depths of a weekend double-shellacking at Wisconsin and last weekend’s failure to get more than one point (the comeback point against BC) in two admittedly tough league games, the latter against fifth-ranked Lowell.

Which version of the Wildcats will show up this weekend?

“That’s exactly how we’ve felt,” Umile says. “We’ve been inconsistent. We’ve been making improvements and just as we make the improvements in our five-on-five game, we get penalties and [lose on the penalty kill].

“I consider Lowell to be a pretty good team, especially down there, and I thought we played well this past weekend for two periods. Then in the third period we came out and got penalties and made it very difficult for ourselves. They put us away a couple of times on the power play. There were penalties and a couple of mental mistakes on our part that cost us the game.”

The statistic for the weekend that leaps out at you is the UNH penalty kill. BC went 4-for-5 on the power play and spent the fifth opportunity in the offensive zone for virtually the entire two minutes. In fairness, a defender had lost his stick, making the needed clearing play all the more difficult. Additionally, three of the four power-play goals came from the point, one a deflection off a UNH stick.

But it didn’t get much better against Lowell, where the Wildcat PK allowed three goals in six opportunities.

Getting a single point out of a weekend in which the PK allowed a 7-for-11 conversion rate borders on the miraculous.

“You have to evaluate how they went in,” Umile says. “Most of them were scored from outside with a couple of deflections. They got the puck out to the point, got shots off, and there were screens.

“So I don’t know if it was fundamentals as much as us not getting in shot lanes and the other team executing. It’s hard to say.

“We’re obviously not playing great in special situations. We allowed seven power-play goals [last weekend]. It happened, it was disappointing and it cost us games.”

In large part because of the penalty kill struggles, UNH ranks last in Hockey East in overall defense, allowing an average of 4.22 goals per game. That’s over a goal per game allowed more than every other Hockey East team but one (Maine at 3.88).

Brian Foster, an All-Hockey East team runner-up last year while posting a 2.68 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage, has seen his numbers plummet to 4.19 and .871. However, Umile is quick to defend his goaltender.

“If you were to look at Brian Foster’s numbers, [you’d say that] they’re not good,” Umile says. “But he played well against Miami when we lost. He played well against Wisconsin. So I don’t know if those numbers really equate to what kind of goaltender he is.

“PK has been a big part of it. The percentage against us is not good. We struggled early on with team defense at Wisconsin.

“I think we’ve made improvements. Hopefully we’re getting better and we’ll just have to continue to look ahead and play each week and start over again. That’s how were going to approach it.”

At least the firepower up front remains.

“Offensively, we’ll be able to score,” Umile says. “Hopefully we’ll be able to score more often by playing better defense. I thought we played better team defense, especially five-on-five against Lowell.

“We just need to improve in that area. There’s no question.”

Given the slow start overall, this weekend looms large with two games at UMass. A strong showing will push the 0-4-1 nonconference record into the background as the Wildcats take their accustomed place at or near the top of the standings. However, UMass coach Don “Toot” Cahoon will have his boys prepared to make a statement themselves.

“I know that Donnie has got his team playing well,” Umile says. “They’re very good in specialty situations so we’ll have to pay attention there.

“It’s going to be a battle all year long. This weekend its UMass; next weekend it’s BU. So you just have to pay attention to your next game and continue to improve. That’s where our focus is right now.”

Catamounts Climbing

Vermont got off to a good enough start with a split at Denver and a 4-1 win over BC, but lopsided losses at Merrimack and Maine raised a few eyebrows. The Catamounts had been projected to finish well ahead of both teams and the 5-2 and 4-1 scores made matters even worse.

Last weekend, however, the Vermont team most people expected to see this year showed up. It battled back to earn a hard-fought 3-3 tie with fifth-ranked Lowell, then shut out Providence, which had entered the contest 5-2-0.

“They played really well,” UML coach Blaise MacDonald said after the tie. “They kept us disjointed for most of the game. I would say it was a very disappointing game for us and I think you have to credit UVM for making us play that way.”

From the other locker room, Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon waxed effusive in praise for his team.

“I’m not going to go negative tonight at all,” he said. “I don’t think our penalties [early that led to two Lowell power-play goals] were anything other than playing aggressive.”

“I just love the way our team played tonight. You can look at the result and say it’s not a win but if we play like that the rest of the year, we’re going to be a tough team.

“We played 65 of the hardest minutes we’ve played all year. As a coach, that’s what we’re trying to get out of our guys. We played a very good team and I thought we played very well against them.

“We certainly made mistakes, but we didn’t have any letdown moments, even down, 3-1. We fought our way back to make it 3-3, and we had some great chances to win the game.”

Sneddon spoke similar words two days later after the Catamounts shut out Providence, 3-0.

“I thought we gave it our all for 60 minutes,” he said. “We were excellent for two periods but a real intense effort for 60 minutes again. [It was a] very complete weekend for us obviously against two good teams.

“[We played] defensively some of our best hockey. We made the most of our opportunities.”

One obvious difference in the weekend lineup was Justin Milo, who returned from injury to play his first games of the season. And what a return. The senior scored a goal and added an assist against Lowell, then scored two goals against Providence.

“The thing we love about Justin is he loves to shoot the puck,” Sneddon said. “Most players nowadays want to pass first, then their second thought is to shoot. He knows what his job is. He knows what his role is, and that’s to get pucks going to the net.

“He’s a very special athlete. To play in a high-tempo game like [the one against Lowell] without much practice or conditioning just speaks volumes for what kind of athlete he really is.”

The Catamounts now must take their success on the road for two games at Boston College.

“I think we’ve got our confidence back,” Sneddon said. “Our guys are understanding their roles better now than ever before having gone through some adversity.

“We’ve got to take our energy and the way we played this weekend at Gutterson and play that way on the road. That’ll be our challenge.”

Thanks to Diana Giunta.

Schroeder: I’m Staying at Minnesota

USCHO Staff Report
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Minnesota forward Jordan Schroeder says all the speculation about his departure from the Golden Gophers is false.

In a rare response to Internet rumors that he was planning to leave Minnesota, Schroeder committed his future to the team.

“I am fully committed to this team and university,” Schroeder said in a statement released by the school on Wednesday. “I have no intention of leaving college early to play pro hockey.”

Schroeder was a first-round draft pick by the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks last season, following a stellar freshman campaign for the Gophers. He posted 13 goals and 45 points in claiming the WCHA’s top rookie honors.

Speculation on his future lingered through the summer, and even after he returned for his sophomore year.

“It is unfortunate that these rumors continue to come out and I have no idea where they begin,” Schroeder said. “I think it’s important for me to publicly state that I am going nowhere. I am dedicated to this team and plan to help us reach our goals for the remainder of this season and future years.”

Through eight games this season, Schroeder has no goals and five points.

Tuesday Morning Quarterback: Nov. 10, 2009

By Jim Connelly and Todd D. Milewski
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Todd: Well, Jim, we’re a month into the college hockey season, and we’re starting to get some answers on those nagging preseason questions. We’re seeing last season’s national championship game teams go in opposite directions so far this season. We’re seeing some surprises in the East and in the West. But I want to start this week talking about one of the biggest upward movers in the USCHO.com/CBS College Sports Division I Men’s Poll: Bemidji State. At 7-0-1, the Beavers are up to seventh in this week’s poll. Should it matter that they haven’t played a ranked opponent, or does their record stand on its own?

Jim: A year ago, we were in a somewhat similar position as Air Force remained unbeaten through much of the opening months of the season and it ascended the polls, despite a weaker-than-the-rest schedule. Personally, I feel until a team loses, it deserves all the credit in the world. The fact that you’re not playing a schedule made up of national powers night in and night out shouldn’t impact that. Remaining unbeaten is difficult. Any team out there knows that the difference between the best team in the country and the 58th-best team in the country isn’t large enough to question perfection for teams that win their games. This isn’t college football, where the 300-plus teams create tiers of ability levels. Thus, a team that is 7-0-1 after eight games deserves to be a top-10 team. Don’t you think?

Todd: I agree to a point. Bemidji can’t control its CHA schedule, and it has taken care of Alabama-Huntsville and Robert Morris so far. But I went on record last year saying something along the lines that Air Force wasn’t a top-10 team until it beat an upper-level opponent, and it didn’t really have a chance until playing Colorado College and Denver around Thanksgiving. I’m still of the same mind-set. I do think which teams you beat matters, and I think the way the RPI and the PairWise follow that logic to a certain extent. One could argue that Ferris State, at 7-3, deserves to be in the top 20. But a lot of people will look at that two of the three losses came to Alaska — arguably the toughest opponent on the schedule — and say they don’t merit a top-20 spot because of the way they played against a ranked team. Without a doubt, there are different ways of ranking teams, and I guess it’s a fair argument either way. And it adds a little more intrigue to the Beavers’ series this weekend against unranked Minnesota at Mariucci Arena.

Jim: This weekend is certainly a big weekend for Bemidji, so we’ll so how that shakes out. Two other movers in this week’s poll come out of Hockey East, though both are moving in opposite directions. Massachusetts-Lowell jumped to fifth with a tie at Vermont and a solid win at home against New Hampshire. I’d say the jump is warranted but also believe this isn’t going to be a cakewalk for Lowell as Hockey East has far too many landmines to make it easy on a team with little experience handling a national ranking. On the other hand, Boston University fell 10 spot this week. Yes, that’s right — the Terriers dropped from from seventh to 17th after losses to Northeastern and Maine, two teams that, in their own right, are struggling. BU has lost three straight one-goal games following back-to-back single-goal wins against Michigan and Lowell. Personally, I couldn’t even give them a top-20 vote this week as it’s difficult for me to justify a 2-5-0 team to be nationally ranked.

Todd: That’s exactly the way I felt, too. For a few weeks, I think you can give what you think is going to be a good team a pass on its record. But now that we’re a month in, a 2-5 record doesn’t cut it for the national rankings. I still think BU can be a good team, but it clearly will not be through the same path as last season. Plus, with Hockey East not giving out many free points as far as I can tell, it’s going to be a tough climb back up the standings. On a related note, Maine’s victory over BU on Sunday was interesting to me in that it followed a victory over Vermont a week earlier. The Black Bears are still just 3-5 this season, but do you think there’s more reason now than before to be optimistic about Maine’s chances this season?

Jim: I’ve had a difficult time figuring out Maine this season and, for that matter, for the last two years. I was optimistic about their chances preseason, worried about the slow start and now hopeful that this will be the year the Black Bears turn things around. For the sake of coach Tim Whitehead and the program, I certainly hope they can get back to winning ways. Proud hockey programs don’t like to lose and, while a mediocre record gets you by in some towns, Orono isn’t one of them. One the other hand, you mentioned Miami earlier. Did the RedHawks’ manhandling of Michigan this weekend further cement the fact that Miami is the best team in college hockey right now?

Todd: It did to me. I was in Denver’s camp for a while, but seeing what Miami did at Yost and that Denver got run over on Saturday at Alaska-Anchorage, now there’s no doubt that Miami is, at least in this small window of time, the best team out there. I think a lot of people will chalk that up to the motivation coming out of the way last season ended, with being so close to the national championship and then seeing it fade away. I’m sure that’s in there somewhere, but I’d be willing to venture that the RedHawks are where they are now because, plain and simple, they’re a solid team, top to bottom. So many of those forwards that we got to know during their NCAA tournament run last season are chipping in early this season, and goaltender Cody Reichard has been on top of his game. I think this team would be in this position no matter how last season ended. What’s on the radar this weekend?

Jim: Well, personally, I’ll be seeing the Maine team we talked about earlier take on a Northeastern squad absolutely decimated by injuries. I’ll also see the two-game Vermont at Boston College series as well. Out of the corner of my eye, though, I’ll be watching one of college hockey’s top rivalries when Michigan takes on Michigan State. I’ll also be interested to see how Yale, a team that had very high hopes entering this season, fare with Cornell and Colgate after getting just a single point a week ago against Rensselaer and Union. How about you?

Todd: To me, that Michigan-Michigan State series has a lot of drawing power. It’s a rivalry series. Both teams are ranked in the top 13. Michigan has some swagger to regain after being humbled by Miami in its own barn. Michigan State has to continue to prove it’s going to be in the elite loop this season. And it’s the first game between the teams since that ugly scene last season that led to the suspensions of the Spartans’ Corey Tropp and Andrew Conboy. Time heals all wounds, but we’ll see if enough time has passed there.

Jim: It’s difficult to forget the ugly incident that marred the last game between these great rivals. But I think this weekend’s series is a good step in doing so, particularly if fans are treated to the hockey they expect. Really, this is the first time since Michigan State won the national title three years ago that these two powers have been playing at the same level. Should be fun. Well, until next week …

Rising Out of the Crowd

By Justin A. Rice
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Carl Hagelin didn’t exactly stand out from the crowd when he attended Red Berenson’s Michigan Hockey Camp as a youngster almost a decade ago, even though he traveled all the way from Sodertalje, Sweden, to skate in Ann Arbor and in Berenson’s graces.

“No I don’t [remember him]; I remember his older brother, Bobbie, was a really good prospect,” Berenson, Michigan’s 26-year hockey coach said. “Carl was really young then but his brother was noticeably good.”

Berenson might not recall the younger Hagelin attending his camp, but Berenson and his camp left an awfully large imprint on the impressionable mind of the younger Hagelin. About seven years after attending camp in Ann Arbor for the first time, Hagelin was drafted in the sixth round (No. 168 overall) by the New York Rangers in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft but chose instead to play for the Wolverines.

“I was always the tiniest kid on the team. I was a late bloomer on and off the ice,” said the junior left winger, who didn’t start playing hockey until he was about 8 years old. “When I was 16 or 17 I grew and put some weight on.”

But even though his brother went pro (currently playing in Denmark) straight away, Hagelin turned down opportunities to take the same track. Instead the 6-foot, 181-pounder decided to follow in the footsteps of his father by attending school in Michigan. While his father went to Western Michigan, Hagelin turned down Ferris State and Northern Michigan to become a Wolverine.

Michigan's Carl Hagelin had 31 points as a sophomore (photo: Melissa Wade).

Michigan’s Carl Hagelin had 31 points as a sophomore (photo: Melissa Wade).

The 21-year-old left-hander, however, didn’t finally make a name for himself in Ann Arbor until his sophomore season when he set single-season highs for points (31), assists (18), goals (13), game-winners (four) and multi-point games (8).

Through eight games this season, Hagelin was the Wolverines’ second-highest point scorer with seven (three goals, four assists).

“I think Carl can have a better year offensively,” Berenson said. “He’s emerging as a top college player. If he can put the puck in the net he’ll go a long way with his game and he won’t surprise anyone.

“From my understanding he was not a high-end playing coming up. He was a late bloomer. Now he’s an elite skater. Something must’ve switched on in his body because he put it all together. There’s no question some humility comes along with [being a late bloomer]. Carl is a terrific individual. He’s humble and he works so hard. He earned the respect of the players before he ever stepped on the ice in the offseason workouts with his work ethic.”

This season Hagelin was added to the power play and going into a late-October, two-game sweep at Lake Superior State, Berenson said he would try using the Swede on two different lines simultaneously to try to spark the then 2-2 Wolverines. On Oct. 30 Hagelin registered the game-winning goal and an assist against Lake Superior State for his 13th career multi-point game and second of the season.

Being on the power play also means Hagelin is expected to produce around the net, an area of his game with which he has struggled. In a 3-2 loss against defending national champion Boston University on Oct. 24, Michigan scored twice in the final period to tie the game before losing. Hagelin missed several opportunities around the net during the game but said the loss was a good gauge of where the team was at.

“It’s always good,” he said of playing top teams. “We like playing all the good teams. Last year we lost to BU 7-2. We had a bad attitude and it decreased our self confidence. This year we showed we have a lot of character in that third period. By coming back we showed what team we can be, a hard-working team in the third period.”

And if Michigan continues that hard work it could make it all the way to the Frozen Four, which this year is 45 miles down the road from Ann Arbor in Detroit. Hagelin would be in good company among the Swede-heavy Detroit Red Wings, some of whom Hagelin has skated with during the summers.

“Before I came here I wasn’t that big of a [Red Wings] fan,” said Hagelin, adding that he only makes the trip from Ann Arbor to Joe Louis Arena about four or five times a season because it is too time consuming.

That wouldn’t be an issue come April, when the Frozen Four makes its way to Detroit’s Ford Field.

“Obviously that’s one of our goals this year to win the NCAA championship,” he said, “but we can’t look that far ahead.”

Back on Top: St. Norbert Again D-III’s Best

By Nicholas Jon Wood
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What is past is prologue.

Or so it must seem to the St. Norbert Green Knights who, a year removed from a national championship, can again lay claim to being the top team in D-III college hockey. Gaining any sense of comfort upon that throne, however, would probably prove unwise. Closely mimicking the preseason poll, four other teams received first place votes.

Ascending an astounding 10 spots to the top of the heap, St. Norbert’s 4-0-1 mark earned them seven first place votes. The Oswego Lakers, who also have returned to national legitimacy after a season that failed to meet their lofty standards, moved up six spots to second after a 5-1 start, including a 5-2 upset of formerly top ranked Plattsburgh. They received six top tallies.

Previously No. 1 Plattsburgh fell to third, but did have four staunch allies thinking they are still the top team in the country.

In another remarkable surge up the rankings, the Manhattanville Valiants moved up eight spots to claim the fourth position and earn one first place tally. Their three wins without a defeat include victories over Hobart and a sweep of Lebanon Valley.

The Adrian Bulldogs received two first place votes and are ranked fifth.

Teams six through 10 include defending national champion (and previously No. 2) Neumann, Middlebury, University of Wisconsin River-Falls, UW-Stout, and St. Scholastica.

Neither team having yet played a game, Amherst and Norwich are ranked Nos. 11 and 12, respectively.

Though Hobart fell eight spots after struggling to a 2-2-1 opening mark, the most precipitous fall down the poll belonged to the University of Wisconsin-Superior, who fell 10 spots after being swept by previously unranked (but newly eighth ranked) in-state rival UW-River Falls.

The Elmira Soaring Eagles round out the top 15 while Gustavus Adolphus dropped out of this week’s poll.

A Great Atmosphere More Should Experience (Hint, Hint)

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There are certain rinks in college hockey that are great atmospheres. For years my feeling has been that nothing compared to Yost (Michigan), Lynah (Cornell), Alfond (Maine) and the Kohl Center (Wisconsin).

There is no better event to see than Harvard-Cornell at Lynah. Michigan-Michigan State at Yost is a close second, especially this weekend when those two get together in Ann Arbor for the first time since the “incident” last season. New Hampshire-Maine is still a must-see in Orono.

Add a fifth venue to the list: Frank Ritter Arena at RIT.

Yes, RIT.

Sold out Friday night for a visit from Army, the place is exactly what college hockey is about. Full to the rafters and standing two to three deep behind the railing above the seating area, the atmosphere is electric. The orange-clad student section is alive from the drop of the puck, and while some of the chants are clichéd already (how rustic or unique is the “it’s all your fault” chant at this point?) the kids are into it and they are loud and it makes the game that much better.

Between the pep band, the small size of the arena (2,100), and perhaps the best public address announcer in college hockey, the RIT Tigers have created a buzz on campus that more people should see on a national broadcast.

RIT is smart and their administration is behind hockey. There is no big-time football program to compete with, so hockey is a major player in the athletic and social scene on campus. The school owns a high-definition TV truck and all games are televised on the local Time Warner stations. That shows some effort on the part of the brass, that they were willing to invest in the product to make it better.

RIT, because it is D-III in all other sports but hockey, cannot offer scholarships, much like Union College. That has not stopped coach Wayne Wilson from building a great program and a great atmosphere for hockey.

“Obviously being on TV helps recruiting, and this facility sells itself as a place to play and a great atmosphere to see a game,” Wilson said following RIT’s 6-1 win over Army Friday night. “One of our kids showed me a Youtube video the other day of a father and son here at the rink watching a game and the dad says to the kid on camera that he has no idea what he is watching but it’s a lot of fun to be a part of.”

Wilson has coached at RIT since taking over for the 1999-2000 season. A disciple of Jerry York from his days as a player at Bowling Green, Wilson has had great success as a player with a national championship in 1984 and as a coach in getting the Tigers into the NCAA tournament from 2000 to 2002.

“What tells me we have achieved success as a product is the homecoming game at Blue Cross Arena,” said Wilson, referring to the record crowd of 7,421 that attended the game against Colgate. “We want this sport to grow and this program to grow, and that is a great indication of how strong it is here.”

Ron Mason, in his days as coach at Michigan State, always said he didn’t want Munn Ice Arena too big because he always wanted a demand for his ticket. They sure have that at RIT, as droves of fans are turned away nightly due to the limited seating capacity. That is the downside of this success story but it does prove what was obvious last Friday night: RIT has a rabid following up here and people want to go to the games. It is not just students, it’s local youth hockey players, families, and grandfathers, fathers, and sons/grandsons sitting together at the games.

Is it time for more games downtown or is the downtown event a hit because it is a once-a-year situation? Is it worth it to play a couple more games there a season and see the turnout? Can you get 5,000 people for a game against Canisus, which is based in nearby Buffalo? Do you play a local ECAC opponent? Can you get a “big four” school here? Ohio State played a couple of games at the Igloo against Robert Morris and it was smart for them as Western Pennsylvania has been a great recruiting base for the Buckeyes. Would Ohio State benefit recruiting-wise from playing RIT in Western New York? I say yes, and because it’s Ohio State the attendance should be great.

It also underscores another point and that is the Atlantic Hockey teams, when playing “the big teams,” usually have to play them at their place. Think Michigan is looking for a weekend date at Ritter? How about Minnesota or Denver? BU or BC coming out here any time soon? Atlantic Hockey loses a lot of games against bigger name programs but usually those losses are on the road and college hockey might be among the hardest sports to win on the road.

I’d like to see BU play at RIT, see UNH play at Sacred Heart. Getting some of those teams to smaller venues eclipses the stigma college football has in terms of awful teams that travel to play Michigan or Alabama and get crushed there by padding the better team’s record with phantom wins. BU beating RIT at Agganis is a good win; RIT is a good team. BU winning at Ritter would be something; it’s a tough place to play with the fans literally on top of you all game and you out of the comfort zone of New England and familiar rinks.

Wilson is another of the many bright and progressive coaches in Atlantic Hockey who see the growth potential of the game. Like Rick Gotkin at Mercyhurst, Frank Serratore at Air Force, Brian Riley at Army and C.J. Marottolo at Sacred Heart to name a few. The success Bruce Marshall has had at Connecticut cannot be overlooked. These coaches have ideas and because they are not as quoted as the big boys at the big schools they tend to get overlooked. More importantly, their ideas get overlooked, and that has made some of these programs some of the best-kept secrets in the NCAA.

The fact that Air Force took out Michigan last year in the NCAA regionals and almost beat Vermont to win the regional was huge for the conference. Remember the big win Holy Cross had against Minnesota in Grand Forks a few years back. We were very close to an NCAA Frozen Four last season that would have had the CCHA, Hockey East, CHA and Atlantic Hockey members in it. The reality is that the gap has closed between Atlantic Hockey and the rest of college hockey.

Why?

One reason is that kids are smart. While getting fed a line from coaches that they fit into the future of a big-time program, the kids who are not Grade-A, bona fide NHL prospects are realizing they can get a scholarship or financial assistance from a school that is not perennially in the top 15 in the USCHO.com/CBS College Sports poll. Instead of sitting behind draft choices and top-notch players for two years, they can play immediately at the NCAA level and still be well coached.

When watching a school like RIT you can see three or four players and say, “How come that kid went to RIT and not BC? He can probably play the third line at BC.” The answer is that the kid is probably in the top six forwards where he is as a freshman or sophomore, playing PP and/or PK, and getting 22 minutes a night.

These are the kids who are making Atlantic Hockey a better league. Wayne Wilson and his colleagues are making it a better league.

Now the question is how do they get more people to see it? That answer falls into the hands of the league and the administrations of its member schools. Better buildings, nicer facilities, and on-campus arenas are vital. Sacred Heart has a good team but plays about 20 miles away from campus in a rink that would be good for pee-wee hockey. Junior B teams shouldn’t play there, nor should an NCAA Division I team.

This could be a situation worth watching. What is definitely worth watching is home games at RIT. Now let’s see some of the big boys help the little guys and get out there and play them.

• Switching gears for a second, nice job by Paula Weston and everyone else who took the CCHA to task for the shootout fallout in Omaha.

I’d say that this type of mistake is one that should have never happened but probably did because there was no protocol to eliminate an illegal shooter. That does lead to another point and that is the CCHA has a great track record of learning from its mistakes and making itself better because of it.

I’m going to give Bowling Green a pass here in that it didn’t intentionally use an illegal player. There is a chance it didn’t even know there was a rule in place or just plain forgot.

That leads me to propose this rule, which is one I proposed to the Central Hockey League in 1998 while an associate head coach in Macon. If a player is in the penalty box when the game ends and there is a shootout coming, that player needs to stay in the box during the shootout or if he chooses to, leave the playing area. We had no OT in the CHL in regular season, so it was: game ends, water break, shootout. If that player is nowhere near the bench, you can’t pencil him in to shoot. End of story.

The CHL, which at times could not get out of its own way, never adopted the policy. Then again, we never had this situation occur where a player was used illegally and it was pro hockey. I do recall one instance in Huntsville where I was talking to one of our top scorers (Jocelyn Langlois) after regulation ended in a tie game and mentioned to him that Huntsville goalie Derek Puppa tends to go down early on breakaways and he told me (in a combination of English and French) “Coach, tell someone else, I can’t shoot because I’m in the penalty box.”

I guess the point is that maybe we give the incident a pass because it was the first time it happened. What is harder to stomach is the CCHA saying there is nothing it can do about it. Yes, rules are rules and they are clear here. What could have come out is something to the effect of (minus the flowery press release language) “OK, this was embarrassing. We looked up the rules and we’re hamstrung here but starting tomorrow we will send out a proposal to the coaches and administrators of the league to change this immediately.”

Change what?

Change the way this could be handled. There is no one (except maybe BG) who would argue that they should have replayed the shootout again starting with the shot taken by the illegal player. That could have happened after warm-ups the next night.

To have a policy that protests will not be entertained is almost fascist. You as the league screwed up. Hear the protest. You might not overturn the situation but at least give the teams that have worked their butts off for 60-plus minutes the impression that if they are the victims of what we’ll call a paperwork error that they have some recourse. This wasn’t whether a penalty should have been called or a penalty shot awarded. This wasn’t an on-ice judgment call; this was an illegal player for goodness sake.

As mentioned, the CCHA has a great track record here to fix this and it will. It is why it is a well-run league. It lives up to its errors and usually makes sure they don’t happen again.

Miami Nears Unanimous Status Atop Rankings

USCHO Staff Report
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Miami strengthened its hold on the top spot in the USCHO.com/CBS College Sports Division I Men’s Poll on Monday, collecting 49 of the 50 first-place votes.

Related link: Full rankings

The RedHawks swept a pair of games at then-No. 4 Michigan last weekend, outscoring the Wolverines by a combined 8-2.

North Dakota moved up one spot to No. 2, while Cornell, Denver and Massachusetts-Lowell round out the top five.

Defending national champion Boston University fell 10 spots — the biggest drop of the week — to 17th after losses at Northeastern and at Maine dropped the Terriers to 2-5.

Bemidji State made its debut in the top 10, jumping four spots to No. 7. The Beavers swept Robert Morris last weekend to improve to 7-0-1.

No. 14 Massachusetts moved up five spots, while No. 9 Alaska and No. 13 Michigan State each advanced four places.

Wisconsin dropped out of the rankings. Quinnipiac reappeared in the poll at No. 20.

This week’s schedule brings five games between ranked teams: No. 3 Cornell at No. 12 Yale on Friday; No. 6 Michigan playing a home-and-home series with No. 13 Michigan State on Friday and Saturday; and No. 15 Vermont playing at No. 16 Boston College on Saturday and Sunday.

Serratore Gets New Deal at Air Force

USCHO Staff Report
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Air Force and coach Frank Serratore have agreed to a new five-year contract that will keep Serratore behind the Falcons’ bench through the 2013-14 season, the school announced Monday.

Frank Serratore

Frank Serratore

Serratore, who is in his 13th season with Air Force, has led the Falcons to three straight NCAA tournament appearances after Atlantic Hockey postseason championships.

He has a 200-216-32 overall record at the Academy and led the team to a program-best 28 wins last season.

“Frank has committed to building a successful program on and off the ice,” Air Force associate athletic director Dermot Coll said. “The success the team has had the last few years is a direct reflection of the hard work and effort he and his staff have put into this program. The Academy is proud of the team and coaches and all that they have accomplished on the ice, in the classroom and in the community.”

Details of the contract are being finalized, the school announced.

What I Think: Week 5

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Some random (and some not-so-random) thoughts after the fifth week of the season:

* Defending national champion Boston University is 2-5 overall and 1-4 in Hockey East play. There’s not much more you can say to illustrate how much things can change from one season to the next.

The Terriers had six overall losses and five Hockey East losses all of last season.

The Boston Herald’s Jocko Connolly points out how injuries have contributed to this season’s issues for BU, but he also quotes Terriers coach Jack Parker with what I think is getting right to the point:

“We have to be patient with our overall outlook here,” Parker told the paper. “We don’t know everything we knew last year. …”

Early November is no time to hit the panic button, but it also has to be the time a line is drawn before things get out of control.

* Care to guess which team ranks 41st among Division I men’s schools in attendance so far this season?

It’s Ohio State, which this season has started letting students in for free. Maybe instead they should ask for a two-month road trip at the start of the season to let football season end first.

The Buckeyes are averaging 1,604 fans per game at Value City Arena, which holds 17,500. That’s 9.2 percent full, by far the lowest percentage in the country. (American International is next at 17.2 percent for one home game.)

Being 2-4 at home and 3-6-1 overall probably isn’t going to help a lot, either.

* That was a heck of a shot by Massachusetts-Lowell defenseman Ryan Blair in Sunday’s game against New Hampshire. No-look, short side, caught the goalie sleeping.

Yeah, so it was in his own net. (Blair appeared to be trying to send the puck behind his net off a faceoff but, um, missed.) I still give him credit for a pretty good looking shot.

All kidding aside, I give Lowell credit for absorbing that blow and still beating UNH by three goals. And Blair ended up even in plus/minus in a game where his team’s starting line was a combined minus-7.

By the way, I’m starting to see what people liked about Lowell going into the season. It looks like they have quite a few ways to beat teams.

And by the way, South Carolina couldn’t have just won that soccer game in the first overtime, when it was dominating LSU? That had to go to penalty kicks, and then nine rounds of penalty kicks, before we got to see some hockey?

* I got an interesting e-mail on Saturday, and I suspect some of my USCHO colleagues got the same, from an anonymous sender (don’t you just love those?) looking to promote that Ferris State had just made history.

It seems that the Bulldogs swept three straight home series for the first time.

So there. Publicity.

* Great line from Michigan coach Red Berenson after his team got swept by Miami in a key CCHA series:

“I’m embarrassed,” Berenson told annarbor.com. “We played like a bunch of spoiled brats, and we’ve gotta suck it up.”

Three Michigan players got misconduct penalties in the third period of the 5-1 loss, and the Wolverines took 51 minutes of penalties in the final 20 minutes of a weekend in which the RedHawks seemingly had everything in hand.

* Tough week to pick the top 20. Here’s my best guess:

1. Miami

2. North Dakota

3. Denver

4. Cornell

5. Massachusetts-Lowell

6. Michigan

7. Notre Dame

8. Yale

9. Alaska

10. Nebraska-Omaha

11. Bemidji State

12. Colorado College

13. Michigan State

14. Vermont

15. Princeton

16. Boston College

17. Massachusetts

18. Quinnipiac

19. Minnesota-Duluth

20. Wisconsin

This Week in D-I: November 6, 2009

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Used to play “I spy with my wandering eye” with my kids, when both they (all six of them) and I were a lot younger.

Found myself doing so again this week as I perused the D-I landscape.

What Caught my Eye: WCHA

Da Badgers. Just when you think you’ve got Wisconsin figured out, the Badgers hit you with a crate full of knuckle pucks.

Yes, they are the defending national champs, but they’ve also lost their accomplished head coach – Mark Johnson – to the Olympic team. And yes, all their firepower (sophomore sniper Brooke Ammerman excepted) has been siphoned off to the Olympics, to graduation, or to both.

But when they sputtered to a 2-3-0 start, and were beaten by teams (Ohio State, Bemidji State, and North Dakota) they’ve manhandled in the past, one could sense a seed change was underway.

That’s when they go and outscore Ohio State, then upend high-flying Minnesota.
That’s what caught my eye there.

What Caught my Eye: ECAC Hockey

Gotta be Clarkson. You knew the program was building. You knew that the Desrosiers – Shannon and Matt – were probably the best married couple coaching tandem in womens hockey (okay, the sample size for that one is a little small).

But the way they handled New Hampshire (6-2) and Boston University (7-2) was very impressive. Connecticut transfer Dominique Thibault has indeed been the impact player that every one hoped she’d be (7-8-15), but she’s had scoring help with three fellow Golden Knights having joined her in the double-digit point club.

Clarkson has the second-stingiest defense in the country, but also the seventh-most prolific attack. Nice balance, which has vaulted Clarkson to the second spot in the USCHO poll … their highest ever ranking, if memory serves.
So, yeah, that’s what caught my eye.

What Caught my Eye: Hockey East

The roster that the WHEA will be putting on the wide Whittemore Center ice for the Nov. 22 tilt against the U.S. National team as part of the Qwest Tour.

The squad, with reps from all eight WHEA schools, isn’t long on experience with just six seniors among the skaters. Now the Nationals, with more than a dozen players who were playing college pucks last year, have been thrashing its collegiate opponents so far.

Its 6-1 rout of the WCHA All-Stars, and 11-1 blasting of North Dakota, stand in testimony. Neither could have been very pretty or entertaining to watch, for that matter.

One remains hopeful that the group sent out by the WHEA – headed by Player of the Month (and one of the most exciting skaters in the game today) Kelly Paton of UNH – will manage to keep matters close. Or hey, even pull off a stunner.

What Caught my Eye: CHA

A coupla things, there. The first is that Mercyhurst suffered its first loss of the season, a Halloween night 4-3 setback to Minnesota-Duluth, but was still able to hang on to its No. 1 poll ranking. The Lakers played a stiff non-conference slate, and will now get to work against its CHA sisters with a pair of weekend tilts at Wayne State.

The other is that Robert Morris will head out to Wisconsin (see above) for what on paper would be a pair of romps for the Badgers. However, last year, the Colonials made a similar trek out to Minnesota and shocked the Gophers – then ranked No. 1 – 3-2.

Caveat Badger, I guess.

Can Gophers Win Being Gritty?

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Part of the draw was to see which Minnesota team would take the ice at the Kohl Center on Friday.

(Part of the draw, of course, was the Wisconsin-Minnesota rivalry — something a college hockey fan should experience in either building at least once.)

Would it be the Golden Gophers that were shut out in three of their first four games of the season en route to an 0-3-1 record?

Or the team that gained separation from Alaska-Anchorage last weekend and at least temporarily righted the ship?

I can’t say it was either, but for most of the game, it certainly drifted toward the former.

Minnesota’s offense wasn’t effective at all through two periods of what turned out to be a 4-2 loss to Wisconsin. In the brief moments when the Gophers did look dangerous in the Badgers’ zone, they misfired. See Nico Sacchetti’s great chance at the side of the net in the second period, after a shot rebounded to the winger off the back boards. He got stuffed by Badgers goaltender Brett Bennett on the first try, but he had a second effort that he flipped over the bar. He showed the frustration that was evident regardless.

Full credit to Wisconsin’s defense for putting the clamps on the Gophers’ ability to get things started offensively. The Badgers blocked 30 of Minnesota’s 59 shot attempts (51 percent), and that kind of thing gets in a team’s head.

Minnesota’s offense did show life in the third period, but by that point, the Gophers were playing from behind. They made a run at a tying goal after cutting the deficit to 3-2, but Wisconsin held on.

So what do we make of these Gophers, now 2-4-1 both overall and in the WCHA? Are they destined for another middle-of-the-pack finish and spectator status for the NCAA regional not far from home at the Xcel Energy Center? They’ve already lost one of their key offensive forces, Jay Barriball, to season-ending surgery, but they can still field four forward lines of NHL draft picks, like they did Friday. No matter how goaltender Alex Kangas plays — and he gave up a doozy for Blake Geoffrion’s second goal of the game Friday — the offense has to drive the bus for Minnesota.

“It’s a long season, so we’re still figuring things out and guys are still identifying their roles,” Gophers winger Mike Hoeffel said. “But if we just stick to our plan of being a gritty team and being relentless and getting pucks behind their D and just grinding them out and getting scoring opportunities off of that, I think we’ll be a good team.”

If you want to be a team others will call gritty, though, you need to consistently wear down opponents with toughness, and while there were some flashes in that area Friday, it wasn’t enough to earn the moniker.

Here We Go Again

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We’re underway with the 2009-2010 season (at least most of the teams are by now). It’s going to be tough to top last season. Neumann College, the last team into the NCAA tournament, a team that finished fourth in the ECAC West and had to play a play-in game to get into its conference playoffs, stunned the Division III world by defeating Gustavus Adolphus, another Cinderella team, to win the national title. It seems like just a couple of weeks ago that I was in the press box at Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, covering the Atlantic Hockey championships but watching in amazement the Division III games from Lake Placid over the internet.

This season looks to keep the craziness going. From Bishops in net to the USCHO.com Division III men’s poll, wackiness is in the air.

Preseason polls tend to be unsettled. Teams that finish at or near the top last season are shown respect irregardless of what their teams may look like this season. Up and coming teams get their due, and then you have the perinnial powers who tend to reload and not rebuild.

This year’s first poll is exceptionally diverse with eight teams getting at least one first place vote and a total of 27 squads getting a mention.

Stay tuned for regular weekly polls beginning November 9.

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