Derek Hammer collected four goals and five points in seven games last season for UW-Eau Claire (photo: UW-Eau Claire Athletics).
Wisconsin-Eau Claire has been selected to win the 2022 WIAC men’s hockey championship, according to a preseason poll conducted by the league’s head coaches and sports information directors.
The Blugolds have claimed three WIAC regular-season titles and three Commissioner’s Cup trophies in program history – with the most recent in 2020.
The conference will have a new point structure for the 2021-22 campaign and introduce shootouts following the five-minute three-on-three overtime period. If a shootout is needed, both teams will be awarded a tie in their overall record with the shootout determining the winner and which team will be awarded an additional point in the conference standings. Teams will be awarded three points for a win in regulation, two points for a win in overtime or shootout, and one point for a shootout loss or overtime loss.
All six teams will qualify for the WIAC tournament (Commissioner’s Cup), which begins Feb. 18-19 with first round series between the No. 6 seed and No. 3 seed, as well as the No. 5 seed and No. 4 seed. The two first-round winners will advance to the semifinals at the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds for a semifinal series Feb. 25-26. Both semifinal victors will face off for the Commissioner’s Cup on March 5. All games will be played at the higher seed.
Wesleyan has announced that the school has hired Joe Ferriss as an assistant coach for the Cardinals’ men’s hockey team.
Ferriss was a three-year graduate assistant at UConn from 2018 to 2021, assisting the program with video breakdown of games and practices, developing scouting reports and practice plans.
Ferriss graduated from UConn in 2016 with a degree in exercise science after playing 120 games during his four-year career on the ice for the Huskies.
During his playing days with the Huskies, Ferriss had 32 career points on 14 goals and 18 assists. Off the ice, he was a Dean’s List student-athlete from 2012 through 2015, a three-time recipient of all-academic honors from both Atlantic Hockey and Hockey East and named a UConn Senior Scholar-Athlete award recipient.
Senior Sami Miller looks to finish her college career at UW-River Falls on a high note in 2021-22 (photo: S. Silver Photography).
Wisconsin-River Falls, the defending conference champion, has been selected to win the 2022 WIAC women’s hockey title, according to a preseason poll conducted by the league’s head coaches and sports information directors.
The Falcons own seven regular-season first-place finishes and six O’Brien Cup championships in program history.
The conference will have a new point structure for the 2021-22 campaign and introduce shootouts following the five-minute three-on-three overtime period. If a shootout is needed, both teams will be awarded a tie in their overall record with the shootout determining the winner and which team will be awarded an additional point in the conference standings. Teams will be awarded three points for a win in regulation, two points for a win in overtime or shootout, and one point for a shootout loss or overtime loss.
All five teams will qualify for the WIAC tournament (O’Brien Cup), which begins Feb. 22 with a first-round game between the No. 5 seed and No. 4 seed. The first-round winner will advance to the semifinals Feb. 25-26 against the No. 1 seed, while the No. 2 seed and No. 3 seed will square off in the other semifinal. The semifinal winners will meet for the O’Brien Cup on March 5. All games will be played at the higher seed.
It has been about 600 days since Harvard last played hockey after the Ivies decided to cancel their 2020-21 season. Head coach Ted Donato joins hosts Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger to discuss what the lost season was like, preparing for this season, this year’s Harvard team, and Friday night’s game at Dartmouth.
We also preview UMass Lowell at No. 19 Boston University, No. 13 Western Michigan at Colgate, No. 14 Notre Dame at No. 7 Minnesota, and Bowling Green at No. 17 Bemidji State.
Mitchell Gibson is back between the pipes this season for Harvard (photo: Harvard Athletics).
Anyone taking a government course at one of the six Ivy League schools is no doubt familiar with the concept of a “blank slate.”
Developed by the English philosopher John Locke, it’s the idea that humans are born with an empty mind that is filled up with knowledge and ideas as they move through life. It’s also something that many of the Ivy League’s hockey coaches have likely experienced firsthand this fall as they worked with their teams in preparation for the start of the season.
This weekend will be the first time that the six Ivy League hockey schools – Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale – play a meaningful hockey game in over a year and a half. That long layoff started when the sports world shut down at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and continued when the Ivy League canceled all sports last season.
As a result of graduations and transfers, many of the Ivy League teams start the season with a drastically different look compared to the last time they took the ice.
“I really feel like we’re starting over and building from the ground up again,” Cornell coach Mike Schafer said.
The Big Red were the No. 1 team in the country in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic ended the season, but enter this year with only 13 players with collegiate experience.
None of Cornell’s three goalies have played in a NCAA game. It’s the first time Cornell has entered a season with no collegiate experience in goal since 1984 – when Schafer was a sophomore defenseman for the Big Red. Senior Nate McDonald and freshmen Ian Shane and Joe Howe will compete for the starting goalie job this season.
“One thing that is consistent over time, when you’re involved in the game long enough, you know that somebody will step up,” Schafer said of the Big Red’s goaltending situation. “You just don’t know who it is going to be. We have three great kids that are working really hard to prove themselves and I’m sure one of them will rise to the occasion.”
Like Cornell, Yale also enters the season with a large group of newcomers. Only nine of the Bulldogs’ 24 players have appeared in an NCAA game.
“I don’t have a choice,” Bulldogs coach Keith Allain said. “The past is the past and we’re looking forward. This is the first time in my career that I’ll have 13 freshmen and sophomores, guys that have never played in a college hockey game.”
The opening of the season is an extra challenge for first-year Dartmouth coach Reid Cashman, as all 28 players on the Big Green are new to Cashman and his staff.
“We will take baby steps, we’ll put in our base, and then we’ll just build as the year goes. There’s just no way to incorporate everything you want to be as a team from Day 1.”
Harvard is one of the few Ivy teams that wasn’t entirely gutted entering this year, as the Crimson return Mitchell Gibson in goal along with four of its top seven scorers from 2019-20. Even with a lot of familiar faces back, there’s still more excitement than usual entering this season for Harvard.
“Obviously, we’re all understanding of the circumstances that led to that situation,” Crimson coach Ted Donato said of not playing last year. “I think for us, were just very excited to be back in school full-time and be around the team and to be back playing the game we love. There’s a certain energy and excitement around the team early on that had been a really breath of fresh air.
“Everybody is really excited to kick the season off.”
Adrian won the Peters Cup title in 2021 and hopes to repeat in 2022 (photo: Adrian College Athletics).
Peters Cup champions for the second consecutive season a year ago, Adrian has been picked by league coaches to place first in the upcoming NCHA regular season, according to the results of the coaches preseason poll.
The Bulldogs finished the 2020-21 campaign with a 16-6-1 record and went 8-0 in NCHA conference play to win the regular-season title.
Adrian and Trine battle in a game from the 2020-21 season (photo: Adrian College Athletics).
Adrian has again been picked by league coaches to place first in the upcoming NCHA regular season, according to the results of the coaches preseason poll.
The Bulldogs are seven-time defending regular-season champions and are coming off an undefeated campaign in which they went a near-perfect 20-0-1, topped by a victory in the Slaats Cup championship to close out the winter.
The team received eight first-place votes and 64 points total in the poll.
Wisconsin-Eau Claire enters the 2021-22 season as the favorite to win the WIAC. Photo Credit: UW-Eau Claire Athletics
It should be another competitive year in the WIAC.
Wisconsin-Eau Claire is the favorite going into the season and is seeking its fourth conference title in program history. The Blugolds have also won three league tournament titles.
Wisconsin-Stevens Point and Wisconsin-River Falls will also be in the hunt. The Pointers enter the year as the reigning national champions and are going to make a run at the WIAC crown.
Wisconsin-River Falls is motivated by the fact that it didn’t get to finish what it started after COVID-19 issues ended its conference tourney run. The Falcons were the top seed in the tournament last season.
Wisconsin-Superior won the league title last season, it’s 11th WIAC championship in program history, and has the experience in place to repeat while Wisconsin-Stout and Northland could play spoiler on any given night to a team’s championship hopes.
Wisconsin-Eau Claire (4-3-1, 4-2-1 WIAC)
Matt Leon begins his 15th season as the head coach of the Blugolds, who are aiming to maintain the offensive success they enjoyed last season when they cranked out 29 goals in just eight games.
Jon Richards should play a big part in keeping things rolling. He’s coming off a season where he scored five of those goals to go along with an assist.
Derek Hammer punched in four goals and also tallied an assist while Charles Weiland was a productive defenseman, finishing with a goal and three assists. Both were all-conference selections last season.
Simon Sagissor will also be looked upon as a key contributor for the Blugolds, who are always in the mix for a league title and more.
Northland (0-8-1, 0-7-1 WIAC)
The Lumberjacks have optimism as they lost just one player to graduation. They hope that leads to success during the 2021-22 campaign.
Chris Curr is back after earning all-conference honors (honorable mention) last season. He started in goal and fashioned a .924 save percentage.
Cameron Coutre is the top returning goal scorer for Northland, racking up three goals last season, and Cole Woodliffe finished second on the team in points (1 goal, 4 assists).
Matt Murphy and Connor Evans will help anchor the defense for the Lumberjacks, who begin their third season in the WIAC.
Wisconsin-River Falls (6-3-1, 5-3 WIAC)
Experience shouldn’t be a problem for the Falcons, who have 19 returning letter winners, including all three of their goaltenders.
Among the key returnees is Vilho Saariluoma, who was the WIAC Newcomer of the Year last season. He scored five goals and dished out eight assists.
Cayden Cahill is back for a fifth season and that experience and familiarity with the program will prove invaluable for the Falcons as they take aim at a conference title run. Cahill finished with four goals and six assists last season.
Dean Buchholz and Dysen Skinner are both back in goal, with Buchholz earning first-team all-conference honors while Skinner was an honorable mention pick in the WIAC. Buchholz was 2-2 and made 117 saves. Skinner finished 3-1 and racked up 135 saves.
As if the depth wasn’t already solid enough, River Falls added four transfers, including Caleb Anderson from Gustavus, who was the MIAC Player of the Year in 2020 as well as an ACHA second-team All-American.
River Falls goes in feeling as if it has a little unfinished business after its semifinal game of the WIAC tournament was canceled because of COVID-19 protocol. The Falcons were the top seed in the tourney last season.
Wisconsin-Stevens Point (7-4-1, 4-4 WIAC)
The Pointers are the last team to win a national title in Division III hockey after winning it in 2019. There was no NCAA tournament in 2020.
It remains to be seen if they can win it again this season, but they’ll certainly be in the mix for a conference title. Carter Roo is among the players back and tied for third in scoring with five goals and four assists.
Jordan Fader will also be counted on offensively after tallying three goals and two assists last season. Brandon McReynolds also returns for the Pointers. Both he and Fader are seniors.
In goal, the Pointers will be able to count on Eli Billing, who started five games and earned two wins. He made 104 saves.
The Pointers’ depth should be bolstered by a handful of transfers, including three from Alabama Huntsville in Mick Heneghan, Noah Finstrom and Connor Witherspoon. Those three have found a new home after the Chargers brought a halt to their hockey program last May.
Tyler Krueger is looking forward to seeing how things go for his team, especially with a return to a little more normalcy.
“There’s a different buzz, a different level of excitement than last year,” Krueger said. “There;s no replacing fans at Willett and this team is excited to experience that again.”
Wisconsin-Stout (4-7, 4-6 WIAC)
Raphael Gosselin was the leading scorer for the Blue Devils a year ago. He’s back ready to build off that success after scoring four goals and dishing out seven assists.
Logan Nelson also returns for Stout after tallying four goals and three assists.
The defense will be anchored by Zach Cloutier, who fashioned a goals against average of 1.63 and recorded a 3-1 record. He racked up 116 saves.
But while the Blue Devils have some experience on the roster, they also have a lot of newcomers. A total of 13 to be exact.
Head coach Mike MacDonald is expecting his team to be an improved one.
“Through recruiting and development, I know we are a better team this season,” MacDonald said. “I am hoping that our growth as a team is reflected in our overall record. I know it won’t be easy because most of our competition this year has improved as well.”
Wisconsin-Superior (7-3, 5-3 WIAC)
The Yellow Jackets won the conference tournament title a season ago. It marked their 11th WIAC crown in program history.
They have a good chance of winning another considering their roster features nine seniors and 11 juniors.
What’s even better is that five of their top six scorers are back, led by top scoring threat Artur Terchiyev, who finished last season with three goals and seven assists.
Chad Lopez also returns. He came through with seven goals and two assists. He finished third on the team in scoring and was the team leader in goals scored.
Dylan Johnson ranked fourth in scoring and is coming off a year where he scored five goals and dished out four assists. Jordan Martin (2 goals, 5 assists) and Coltyn Bates (4 goals, 1 assist) are also back to help lead the way offensively.
Myles Hektor brings experience to the goaltending position. He went 3-0 and fashioned a 1.75 goals against average while making 110 saves.
The Yellow Jackets have added four transfers as well. Two are from Canisius in MacGregor Sinclair and John Stampohar. They also added netminder Landon Pavlisin from Norwich. He played in two games for the Cadets last year and won 49 games in his junior career.
If Superior can build off last season and navigate a challenging start to its season where it will play its first five games on the road, it will have a shot at being one of the top teams in the WIAC.
Holy Cross players celebrate a recent goal (photo: Mark Seliger Photography).
New Holy Cross coach Bill Riga is a rookie in a league known for coaching longevity.
The average tenure for an Atlantic Hockey coach is currently 15 seasons, and the last change was the addition of Canisius’ Trevor Large and Niagara’s Jason Lammers five years ago.
It’s the first collegiate head coaching stint for Riga, who spend the last 13 seasons as an assistant at Quinnipiac.
His Crusaders earned their first win of the season, and Riga’s first win as coach, last Saturday with a road 3-2 victory over Bentley.
“It’s been a bit of a process so far,” said Riga. “We’ve been getting better every game.”
Riga was hired in May, so the team he inherited from David Berard, who left to become an associate athletic director at Providence, was already set with a few exceptions.
“The transfers were mine,” he said. “Because of the timing, those came even before the assistants.”
The two transfers, sophomores Tyler Ghirardosi (Quinnipiac) and Matt Guerra (Robert Morris) are first and tied for second, respectively, on the team in scoring.
Riga said at the beginning of the season there were a lot of details to consider in preparing for his first stint as a head coach. Now, it’s mostly about the hockey.
“Many of the distractions went away,” he said. “It’s more hockey-intensive now.
“As we move along, it’s not about learning and doing new things, like we were before the season. It’s more about adjusting rather than re-teaching. (Before the season), everything we did was new. Now we’re trying to improve and adjust.”
Riga noted that one of the big differences between an assistant versus a head coach is being responsible for the overall mood on the bench.
“A head coach is more in control of the emotional tone,” he said. “Everything affects a team’s mentality and how they handle play.
“It’s about keeping the bench calm and speaking with one voice, especially with officials. If somebody’s going to get warned, I’d rather it be me.”
When asked to compare his new conference to others in college hockey, Riga points to improvements in several areas of Atlantic Hockey.
“As a whole, it’s getting better and better,” he said. “The transfers have clearly made a difference so far this season. It’s upped the anti. Teams are older and have added skilled players, guys in some cases that have played 100 games.
“When you combine that with the (new) facilities, it’s very promising.”
The Crusaders, like a lot of AHA teams, have an aggressive nonconference schedule. Holy Cross has already played Northeastern and Boston College and travels to Notre Dame next weekend.
“(A tough schedule) helps with recruiting,” said Riga. “The guys here want to play those teams. Games like that set the standard and let you know where you’re at.”
This week, Riga squares off against his former team, Quinnipiac.
“It will certainly be special,” he said. “Seeing all the players and everyone that works in the rink. At the same time, I’m trying to to stay focused on what we’re doing. Hopefully it will be a really competitive game.”
Hosts Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger are joined by Providence head coach Nate Leaman. The discussion includes a look at the Friars’ 5-2 start, how transfers and fifth-year players are affecting college hockey, mentoring assistant coaches, and this weekend’s games with New Hampshire.
Tate Singleton has been an early-season impact player offensively for Ohio State (photo: Ohio State Athletics).
When the coaches poll came out in September, the Big Ten opener between the teams predicted to finish sixth and seventh probably didn’t cause many to bust out the Sharpie.
That being said, both Ohio State and Michigan State have, at least to a point, navigated their early-season nonconference schedule successfully and will be looking at this weekend’s series at OSU as a potential springboard for the rest of the first half of the schedule.
After dropping the season-opener to Bentley, Ohio State comes into this weekend with a 3-1-0 record. The Buckeyes also garnered a few votes in this week’s USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll and are coming off an early-season bye week.
“I think (the bye) came at a good point for us,” Buckeyes coach Steve Rohlik said Monday. “It kind of gave us a little restart to look at things that we need to continue to work on and get charged up for three Big Ten weekends in a row.”
In their four games, 17 players have registered at least one point for the Buckeyes. The days of relying on a players like Mason Jobst or Tanner Laczynski to pace the offense have passed and scoring by committee is now the law of the land.
“There’s a lot of guys that contribute and that’s our team,” Rohlik said. “We need everybody to contribute up and down the lineup, (and) we need goals from every line and every single one of our guys can contribute to each win. That’s one thing that we’re realizing that our whole group has to play because we can’t count on one or two guys.”
Even with the committee approach, Tate Singleton has been the cream that Buckeyes’ fans have hoped would rise to the top of the proverbial crop so far this season. After a tough 2020-21 season where he recorded 11 points, the junior has three goals and two assists through four games this season.
“You, me and everybody else, last year was a challenging year for everybody,” Rohlik said. “It was no different for Tate or anyone else on our team, what our guys had to go through. The one thing I love about Tate is his work ethic never changes, and maybe it didn’t show up on the score sheet last year, but he brought the work ethic every day and eventually that’s going to pay off.
“For him, it doesn’t always have to matter to be on the score sheet for him to be an impact player.”
With Tommy Nappier’s graduation, goaltending was also a question mark for the Buckeyes heading into the season. Junior Ryan Snowden started opening night, but freshman Jakub Dobes has made a strong case for himself in the next three games, allowing only four goals while recording three wins.
“All three of my goalies have been working hard in practice, (volunteer assistant coach Dustin Carlson) has done a fantastic job with them,” Rohlik said. “Snowden went in there and he made some fantastic saves and played well, even though we lost that first night out in Bentley. He did his job and he gave us a chance. (Dobes) came in and he’s been very good. Now it’s about being consistent over the long haul.
“I like our goalies. Certainly, it’s an area everyone looked to, as far as Nappier played so many games over his career, but I like what we have. We’ve just got to learn to be consistent and show up every day.”
With Michigan State coming into town, Ohio State is basically looking into a mirror. Rohlik loves to preach team defense from the goaltender out and the Spartans seem to like to play the same style of game.
“They just try not to give you a lot of space or a lot of room,” he said. “They get the goaltending and they clear things out, they don’t want to give you second and third opportunities. If they can shut you down with their five men and goaltender and then create some chances at the other end, that’s exactly how they play. When they’re on, they’re tough to beat.”
At his press conference on Monday, Michigan State coach Danton Cole echoed Rohlik’s thoughts on the series.
“They work extremely hard, they’re really good defensively, they put a lot of pressure on you that way,” Cole said. “The penalty kill has always been outstanding for them, the goaltending has always really good.”
Jody Hodgson currently serves as the general manager for Ralph Engelstad Arena.
For Ralph Engelstad Arena general manager Jody Hodgson, looking back three years to North Dakota’s last destination game sometimes feels like it happened a decade ago.
The world has changed immensely since the COVID-19 pandemic started, let alone since UND beat Minnesota 3-1 in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game three years ago this Wednesday in Las Vegas.
UND was set to play in another high-profile neutral-site game last Oct. 17 against Penn State at Bridgestone Arena, home of the NHL’s Nashville Predators. That game was completely sold out before being postponed, and a lot of work went into having the game rescheduled to this Saturday back at Bridgestone.
Contracts with 32 hotels had to be redone, and in many cases, fans had to make new reservations and handle reworked travel arrangements. As for on-site event logistics, Hodgson said that Bridgestone Arena and Penn State staff were very accommodating.
There were, however, drawbacks to not being able to play the game as originally scheduled.
“Certainly there were some costs of the 2020 event that we won’t be able to recuperate or get back,” said Hodgson, who oversees operations of UND’s arena in Grand Forks and will be traveling to Nashville on Wednesday.
“Even now, there’s a certain number of people who won’t travel to the event that had previously purchased tickets and were going to go to the event. I think, like everything else in the world today, the pandemic has had some impact on our event.”
A big point of discussion for fans has been the event organizers’ decision to require that fans who attend the game will either have to show proof of either a negative COVID-19 test or vaccination against the virus.
Testing is available this Wednesday and Thursday at Ralph Engelstad Arena, and additional testing will also be available Friday and Saturday at the Cambria Downtown Nashville hotel. Saturday’s testing event runs from 8:30 a.m. until 2 p.m., with the game starting at 7:07 p.m.
“We’ve certainly gotten lots of different feedback on that,” Hodgson said of the COVID check regulations for attending the game. “I think one thing that was rather interesting was when we sent a survey out to our ticket purchasers for Nashville, approximately 80 percent responded back to us that they were fully vaccinated. That’s a high number, and a number that I think certainly was a good number when you talk about either the need for a vaccination or a negative test to get in.
“We didn’t have to set up (for testing in Nashville), but we thought there was a pretty significant number of our fans that were going to need to test in Nashville, based on the timeframe in which a negative test must be pulled. There are people traveling to Nashville before the testing window here in Grand Forks, and there were people who were going to be in Nashville who would need to test there. Some of our survey results showed us that there was a pretty strong demand for testing in Nashville on Friday and Saturday.”
It won’t be long before all the hard work of making the rescheduled Hall of Fame Game a reality, and Hodgson is excited to see the show that UND and Penn State will put on.
“We’ve been planning this ever since the Las Vegas game, and at times it felt like it was a long way away, and now it’s upon us,” Hodgson said. “It’s been a rough stretch for everybody, and we’re certainly happy that we’re coming out of it, and we’re happy to be heading to Nashville.”
ECAC Hockey announced today it is extending its rights agreement with ESPN+ to stream more than 350 games each season through 2028-29.
Every regular-season and post-season game (conference and nonconference) hosted at an ECAC Hockey venue will be streamed on ESPN+ with no blackout restrictions. That includes the annual women’s championship, and men’s championship in Lake Placid, N.Y.
“We’re truly excited to announce the extension of our deal with ESPN through the rest of this decade” said ECAC Hockey commissioner Steve Hagwell in a statement. “ESPN has been a great partner for ECAC Hockey, and we look forward to growing and enhancing our relationship for the benefit of our programs and fans.”
In addition to the 350-plus ECAC Hockey games on ESPN+ each year, the leading sports streaming service continues to establish itself as the new “home of hockey,” covering more than 1,000 NHL games this season, along with every game from the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF).
According to an ECAC Hockey news release, the renewed agreement “puts ECAC Hockey at the cutting edge of collegiate hockey streaming, which mirrors ESPN’s commitment to provide fans with the best streaming experience through an ESPN app that is intuitive and easy to use.”
Streaming for ECAC Hockey fans outside of the U.S. will continue to be available through Stretch Internet.
Keith Aucoin and Bill Torrey are two of the newest members of the AHL Hall of Fame.
The AHL announced Tuesday that Keith Aucoin (Norwich) and Bill Torrey (St. Lawrence) are two of the four individuals selected for induction into the league’s hall of fame as the class of 2022.
“For more than eight decades, the American Hockey League has been built on principles of excellence both on and off the ice,” said AHL president-CEO Scott Howson in a statement. “Each of these four distinguished individuals exemplified those principles at the highest levels throughout their careers, and the AHL Board of Governors unanimously endorses the selection committee’s recommendation for their induction into the American Hockey League Hall of Fame as the class of 2022.”
Aucoin skated at Norwich from 1997 to 2001, recording 238 points on 114 goals and 124 assists.
Undrafted, Aucoin broke into the AHL with his hometown Lowell Lock Monsters in 2001-02. He went on to record 857 points in 769 games over parts of 13 AHL seasons with Lowell, the Providence Bruins, Cincinnati Mighty Ducks, Albany River Rats, Hershey Bears, Toronto Marlies and Chicago Wolves, retiring as the seventh-leading scorer in league history.
Aucoin won the Calder Cup with Hershey in 2009 and 2010 and was the AHL’s MVP and scoring champion for the 2009-10 season after tallying 106 points in 70 games. He played in a record-tying six AHL All-Star Classics, and was voted a First Team (2009, 2010, 2012) and Second Team (2006, 2007, 2011) AHL All-Star three times each.
Torrey played on St. Lawrence hockey teams in 1954-55 and 1955-56 – years in which the “Larries,” as they were called, were among the dominant squads in Eastern U.S. college hockey.
He began his front-office hockey career as the publicity director for the AHL’s Pittsburgh Hornets in 1961. He remained active with the AHL throughout his illustrious career as an NHL executive, which included four straight Stanley Cup championships as general manager of the New York Islanders and 25 years of service with the Florida Panthers.
A trusted advisor and mentor, Torrey served on the executive committee of the AHL Board of Governors for two decades, and was a member of the AHL Hall of Fame selection committee from its inception in 2006.
Torrey passed away in 2018 at the age of 83.
In addition to the class of 2022, this season’s induction ceremony will include longtime AHL president-CEO David Andrews, who was previously selected as the lone member of the class of 2021. The induction and awards ceremony is scheduled for February 7, 2022 in Laval, Que., as part of the festivities at the 2022 AHL All-Star Classic.
The other two inductees are Nolan Baumgartner and Dave Creighton.
Bill Riga (center) picked up his first head coaching win as Holy Cross topped Bentley 3-2 last Saturday night (photo: Mark Seliger Photography):
Each week during the season, we look at the big events and big games around Division I men’s college hockey in Tuesday Morning Quarterback.
Ed: Another week, another new No. 1 in the USCHO.com men’s ice hockey poll, with St. Cloud State gaining the top spot after Michigan split with Western Michigan. The Wolverines are the third straight team to lose a game in the weekend following the poll voters declaring them the top team in the country.
Let’s start with that intrastate non-conference series. Friday’s win on the road at Yost by Western Michigan was a big one for first-year head coach Pat Ferschweiler’s team. They bounded out to a 3-0 lead by the middle of the game and had five different players score in a 5-2 win.
On Saturday, with the other half of the home-and-home series played at WMU’s Lawson Ice Arena, it took overtime for the Wolverines to avenge the previous night’s loss, 3-2.
While teams like North Dakota, St. Cloud, Minnesota Duluth, and Denver all seem to get the notice and get the hype in their conference, are the Broncos (pun absolutely intended) the dark horse in the NCHC?
Paula: I’m not sure you can call the Broncos a dark horse, given the strides they made in two seasons (2018-19, 2019-20) before the dive they took in the first part of last season. In their last 10 regular-season games in 2020-21, the Broncos were 7-3-0, with three wins over St. Cloud State and a two-game sweep of Minnesota Duluth.
There are 15 sophomores on the Western roster. Last year was a rebuilding year, for sure, and rebuilding during truly unusual circumstances. I think the Broncos should be considered part of the always excellent NCHC mix. That they were picked sixth in the NCHC preseason media poll this year after finishing last in 2020-21 says less about Western Michigan, I think, than it does about the strength of the five teams picked ahead of them: St. Cloud, Minnesota Duluth, North Dakota, Denver and Omaha.
I put the Broncos ninth in my poll this week, and I think that’s a fair representation of where they are. For what it’s worth, I dropped the Wolverines to fourth. Western climbed to No. 13 this week and Michigan fell to No. 4. These are snapshots, as we know.
And, yes, this was a big weekend for the Broncos and Ferschweiler.
Speaking of the poll, I do find it interesting that St. Cloud is the new No. 1 and that the votes were so split. Last week, Michigan received 45 votes for the top spot. This week, St. Cloud swept Wisconsin and earned 22 first-place votes and Michigan still 17 votes for first place. Meanwhile, Minnesota Duluth swept a really tough Minnesota team – demonstrably tougher than Wisconsin – and improved to 5-1-0 yet earned only three votes for first place. Also, last week’s second-place team, Minnesota State, didn’t play but slid to third with eight votes for the top spot.
Ed, what do you make of the movement among the top teams in the poll? It’s hard for me to fall back on the old strength-of-schedule argument, given Minnesota’s and Wisconsin’s relative differences. Is it too soon to make anything of this, or are voters just trying get a grip on things in the early going?
Ed: Well, Paula, I think there are a few things going on. And some of this will reveal my thinking when I’m assembling my ballot.
First, Michigan’s continued strength in the poll after a loss is a recognition that Western Michigan is very good and that no team is going to be unbeaten this season. Even the best teams will have a bump in the road. Meanwhile, the first-place votes for St. Cloud reflect their record thus far as well as the trouncing the Huskies gave Wisconsin over the weekend.
Voters also look at what the teams in the previous week’s poll have done. When six of the top 10 teams have losses on the weekend, the next step in ranking them is to see whether there are teams to move up, or whether you vote the status quo. When I see a loss by a ranked team to an unranked or much lower-ranked team, I try to dig into the details of the loss. Did the losing team dominate in shots? Were power plays lopsided? Did a goalie stand on his head? These are all factors that go into subjectively evaluating teams. (I’ll use this opportunity to note that the Pairwise Rankings are essentially meaningless this early in the season and have more validity as we reach January.)
And yes, there is a sense of getting a grip.
While we’re talking poll movement, Quinnipiac climbed two spots in the poll to No. 5 while North Dakota stood pat in sixth after the two teams split a series in Connecticut. The Bobcats are the first team from an eastern conference to crack the top five since UMass got bounced from the preseason No. 1 after its season-opening sweep at the hands of Minnesota State.
Speaking of numbers behind the numbers, it was impressive to me that Quinnipiac limited North Dakota to 16 shots on Friday and 19 on Saturday, while racking up 28 and 35 respectively. That combination of a solid offensive attack and a throttling defense can take you a long way.
Even though it’s still early, what can we take away from this series? Are the Bobcats shaping up to be the best in the east this season?
Paula: It’s funny that you ask about the Bobcats, because they’re a team I always have a difficult time warming up to. I had them 16th in my poll last week and eighth this week – not an unusual jump for me at the start of a season, when I’m figuring out who may have the goods while also trying to provide a reflection of what’s going on in the here and now.
Quinnipiac, though, is a puzzle for me. The Bobcats had an outstanding season last year in a conference where the four league teams had to scramble to create full schedules for competition. They welcome five transfers – including goaltender Dylan St. Cyr from Notre Dame and forward Oliver Chau, both solid players additions – who provide even more depth and maturity to a team that has a lot of experience.
Since 2018, the Bobcats have been steady and competitive but seem to have lacked that thing, that whatever-it-is, to convince me that they’re an upper-echelon team, but this year’s squad looks as though it has the ingredients to challenge for a national title.
One thing that Quinnipiac has that only three other teams in the ECAC also possess is the experience of last year. I think that year away from hockey for everyone other than the Quinnipiac, Clarkson, Colgate and St. Lawrence is going to impact the ECAC in ways that we haven’t yet seen. Those four teams that played have worked out most – and worked with – most issues that arise from life in COVID times, and even though the other coaches will benefit from the advice of those who have lived it, there’s nothing like experience.
It will take a while for things to come together overall in that league, I think.
Add the talent and maturity of the Bobcats to that experience, and I definitely see that they have an advantage this season. It’s early, but the ECAC may be theirs to lose.
As it is early and we are extrapolating on very little data, what do you make of RIT’s split with Notre Dame? An OT win for the Tigers followed by a decisive thumping by the Fighting Irish – and you were there. Can you shed any light on either team?
Full confession: Notre Dame, like Quinnipiac, is another team from whom I need proof before I buy in.
Ed: Both teams will contend for their league championship and Notre Dame for sure on the national scene.
On Thursday, RIT probably had the best forward line and got superb goaltending from junior Kolby Matthews, who is 3-0-1 with a 1.96 GAA and .942 save percentage. Matthews made a huge save 17 seconds into overtime which led to the game-winner 13 seconds later.
On Friday, Notre Dame jumped to an early lead against a freshman goalie in his first game and didn’t look back, while the Irish got spotless goaltending from former Cornell standout Matthew Galajda. Performances like Matthews’ and Galajda’s will take each team a long way.
Let’s wrap with a trio of firsts.
Holy Cross coach Bill Riga and Colorado College’s Kris Mayotte are both longtime former assistants with successful programs and each got their first win last weekend, while at St. Thomas, Rico Blasi saw his Tommies notch their first D-I victory.
Both Riga and Mayotte are bound to move their programs forward, and after a couple of years away from coaching, Blasi gets to build a new one.
You covered Blasi at Miami in his journey from a 27-year-old rookie to a veteran with a team that contended every season. What does Rico at 49 bring to this new program with the experience of those great years at his alma mater under his belt and maybe some adversity at the end?
Paula: Well, Blasi brings a lot to St. Thomas. His Miami team won the CCHA tournament title in 2011 and the NCHC title in 2015. Under Blasi, Miami made 10 NCAA tournament appearances and back-to-back Frozen Four appearances in 2009 – when the RedHawks lost to Boston University in the title game – and 2010.
All of that is an asset, but the Frozen Four appearances are especially valuable for a coach who’s building a new program. Blasi knows exactly how hard it is to get a team to that point.
He’s also brought in two assistants with complementary skillsets in Northeastern alum Leon Hayward and Minnesota alum, Cory Laylin. Hayward coached most recently with Colorado College and his pro career spanned six years in the ECHL and AHL. From 1992 through 2008, Laylin played for a variety of teams in North American and Europe, and he most recently coached the D-II Hamline University team in St. Paul, Minn. Hayward and Laylin have overlapping hockey communities from which to recruit, and Laylin’s Minnesota ties are helpful.
And something that shouldn’t be overlooked is that Blasi returns to coaching in a conference that feels familiar. Four of the teams in the new CCHA played Miami in the old CCHA, and everyone in that conference is someone that Blasi had at least a good acquaintance with prior to taking the job at St. Thomas. It’s a league that should feel familiar to Blasi, and he has a lot of support from the coaches in the CCHA who want to see the new program at St. Thomas succeed.
St. Cloud State players celebrate a goal during their weekend sweep over Wisconsin (photo: St. Cloud State Athletics).
St. Cloud State is the new No. 1-ranked team in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll, garnering 22 first-place votes in this week’s rankings and jumping two spots from last week’s poll.
Michigan falls one to No. 2 and earned 17 first-place votes.
Minnesota State drops one spot to No. 3, picking up eight first-place votes, while Minnesota Duluth rises one to No. 4 with three first-place nods from the voters this week.
Quinnipiac rounds out the top five, jumping two spots in this week’s rankings.
North Dakota remains No. 6, Minnesota tumbled three spots to No. 7, Providence jumps four to No. 8, Boston College is up one to sit ninth and idle Omaha is up one to No. 10 this week.
No new teams enter the top 20 this week and 15 other teams received votes in this week’s poll.
The USCHO.com Poll consists of 50 voters, including coaches and beat writers and sports professionals from across the country.
As part of a 4-0 win Saturday, UMass Lowell players celebrate after a goal at home against Michigan State (photo: UMass Lowell Athletics).
Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.
1) Another new No. 1?
Friday night marked a seismic event for the national radar when No. 1 Michigan lost 5-2 to a 17th-ranked Western Michigan squad at home at Yost Ice Arena. Five different players scored for the Broncos, who struck first behind Aidan Fulp’s goal with less than a minute remaining in the first period. They added two more in the second period before Michigan finally scored close to the halfway point, but Dylan Wendt’s goal slammed the Wolverines’ rally.
Michigan rallied the next night for a 3-2 win, but being pushed to overtime in Kalamazoo on Saturday opened the door for potentially the fourth different No. 1 team in the nation in as many weeks after St. Cloud beat Wisconsin.
2) St. Cloud badgers Wisconsin
Speaking of those Huskies, they staked their claim to the No. 1 overall ranking by outscoring Wisconsin 9-2 in two games at home in the State of Hockey. Both Spencer Meier and Kevin Fitzgerald scored twice on the weekend for St. Cloud, which split its last two weekends against Minnesota and Minnesota State.
The wins marked the first games for St. Cloud against an opponent from outside its state borders, but the Badgers, who swept Army West Point at home last weekend, have now lost four of six games to start the season. With the weekend against Michigan Tech, Wisconsin has now been outscored 19-5 in games lost to those two opponents.
3) Duluth plants flag in state of hockey’s ship
A Lee Corso-esque “not so fast, my friend” to St. Cloud’s possible No. 1 ranking came from less than three hours away, though, after Minnesota Duluth completed its sweep over Minnesota for an in-state battle.
In a game fit for an instant classic, Tanner Laderoute and Blake Biondi scored in the first period on Saturday to build on a 5-3 win from Friday night. Biondi’s goal lifted him to two goals on the weekend after five different goal scorers tallied red lamps for UMD on Friday night.
Minnesota-Duluth is now 5-1 with its only loss coming against Michigan in the IceBreaker Tournament held last weekend, while the Gophers fell to .500 after starting the year with the No. 4 overall ranking. Following the split against St. Cloud, Minnesota has now lost three of its last four games with only an overtime 4-3 win over the Saints coming after the season-opening sweep over Mercyhurst.
4) Splitsville in Hamden
The western teams took center stage this weekend, but New England’s college hockey programs created a massive thunder clap when No. 7 Quinnipiac earned a split over No. 6 North Dakota in a two-game series in Connecticut.
The Bobcat win, which was the first-ever victory for the program over North Dakota, occurred on Friday night with four unanswered goals pacing a sweeping, overpowering performance between the midway point of the first through the midway point of the third. Quinnipiac scored two power play goals as part of that run, which overtook a 1-0 UND lead, before Jake Sanderson brought the Fighting Hawks within two goals.
The next night, Wyatt Bongiovanni scored to give Quinnipiac a 1-0 lead just over six minutes into the game, but three consecutive goals by North Dakota evened the weekend series with a 3-1 win for the visitors.
5) So long, Sparty
UMass Lowell’s bid for similar eastern dominance didn’t receive the fanfare of the North Dakota-Quinnipiac series, but the River Hawks’ hosting of Michigan State went similarly as good compared to the Bobcats’ role as New England enforcers.
UML rallied twice in the first game against Sparty to tie a 2-2 result, scoring goals from Andre Lee and Brehdan Engum to pull back from one-goal deficits each time. But after tying the game with 90 seconds left in the first contest, the team exploded for four goals in the second game with two coming in the second. The River Hawks scored twice via special teams, punctuating the weekend with a shorthanded bid from Andranik Armstrong-Kingkade, the first of his two goals down the stretch of that game.
6) RIT takes one, SHU takes one, Canisius … almost takes one
Atlantic Hockey has long been recognized for its need to fight for better results in the non-conference schedule, and while the league likely hasn’t done enough to earn a second bid to the NCAA Tournament this year, its week’s performance is impossible to discount against some stingy, tough competition.
It started with a Tuesday night tilt for Canisius at Clarkson where the Golden Griffins erased a 3-1 first period lead for the Golden Knights with four unanswered goals. The four different goal scorers involved six different players on assist and overtook Clarkson for a 4-3 lead before Zach Tsekos, who scored his team’s first goal, tied the game on the power play with less than a minute remaining.
The tie was still a positive for the conference, which summarily watched both RIT and Sacred Heart tally big wins over both Notre Dame and Maine. The Pioneers were particularly effective in beating the Black Bears 1-0 on Friday before tying them in a second game on Saturday, but the drama of the Tigers’ 3-2 overtime win over the No. 13 Fighting Irish sent AHA supporters into a frenzy when Carter Wilkie scored 30 seconds into the extra frame.
Notre Dame rallied for a shutout win after the Friday victory, but outside of Penn State’s sweep over Niagara, it was a very good weekend for the peskiest league in the nation.
7) Purple firsts
Not to be outdone, Holy Cross coach Bill Riga celebrated his first-ever win as a head coach on Saturday when his Crusaders knocked off a Bentley team bidding for a weekend sweep in the 20-year rivalry between the teams.
The Crusaders had previously cost themselves a chance at the win when they watched the Falcons rally from a 2-0 deficit two nights earlier, but their 3-0, first period lead earned the coach and freshman goalie Thomas Gale their respective first victories.
A bigger first occurred further west for a different team clad in purple when St. Thomas earned its first Division I hockey win by beating Ferris State, 5-2. Luke Manning scored twice and Christiano Versich potted three assists for the Tommies, who had a 5-0 lead before the Bulldogs staged a late game rally with two goals over a three-minute span in the third.
8) Bemidji, baby
Nobody could fault Bemidji State for losing its first four games of the season, but the Beavers won a badly needed overtime game to earn a split last weekend against No. 6 North Dakota.
It was the third game against the Fighting Hawks as part of a season start that included two games at Minnesota Duluth, which is why this weekend’s series against Northern Michigan, albeit on the road, represented a significant step forward for the team’s early prospects.
It was of crucial importance, then, that Bemidji won both games with one-goal margins to open its CCHA portion of the schedule. After trading five goals with the Wildcats in the first period, NMU scored twice in the second to take a 4-3 lead into the third, but Lukas Sillinger and Jakub Lewandowski scored, the latter on the power play, to push the Beavers to a 5-4 win in Marquette.
The next night, the Wildcats led by two after scoring seven minutes apart, but Alex Ierullo and Tyler Kirkup notched goals within a minute to tie the game before Ierullo scored a second goal late in the second period. NMU’s AJ Vanderbeck scored his second goal of the weekend to even the score at 3-3 before Austin Jouppi’s goal with 11 minutes remaining in the game gave Bemidji the weekend sweep.
9) Ivies nearing first weekend
It’s impossible to overlook the importance of the exhibition games for the ECAC’s Ivy League contingent this weekend after the teams sat out the 2020-21 season during COVID-19. The Ivy League was memorably the first league to cancel its spring season during the pandemic’s initial outbreak, and the withdrawal of the schools helped touch off the cancellation of the 2020 hockey postseason. All six schools sat out last year – along with Union and RPI – as part of the larger ECAC conference, which shrank temporarily to four teams.
The non-Ivies returned to the ice earlier this year, but the return of the six Ivies included a 3-2 win for Dartmouth over UMass and a 4-2 win by Cornell over the United States Under-18 national team.
The Ivy portion of the ECAC schedule formally kicks off on Friday when No. 14 Harvard visits Dartmouth and No. 15 Cornell hosts Alaska, but the full contingent all play on Saturday when Brown hosts Yale and Princeton, Cornell, Dartmouth and Harvard all compete in non-conference action. With their return, it will mark the first time every available Division I team is in action in 609 days.
10) Welcome home, LIU
Long Island University debuted very softly as members of the college hockey university last year after COVID-19 laid waste to the souffle of scheduling the Sharks attempted to compile.
After nonconference scheduling removed the independent from every team on its initial season, the Sharks joined Atlantic Hockey as the only nonconference opponent for the 11-member league. The affiliation was promptly scuttled over the course of the season after teams summarily paused with pandemic outbreaks. The Sharks eventually played 13 games and went 3-10 with an additional split at the ACHA club program at Liberty University, but they never hosted games at their home facility in East Meadow, N.Y.
That all changed this weekend when LIU hosted its first-ever hockey games at the Northwell Health Ice Center. The games were against two teams from the Division II Northeast-10 Conference, but the 7-0 win over Assumption on Friday preceded a 6-1 win over Post University on Saturday. Jordan Timmons, a transfer from Robert Morris University, scored four goals for the Sharks while Bowling Green transfer Carson Musser added two goals against Post. Spencer Cox, a freshman recruited to the LIU program, scored a goal in each game.
LIU returns to the road next weekend for two games at Omaha before a midweek game at UMass Lowell, but two games against Saint Michael’s College, another D-II team from the NE-10, precede the first-ever home game against a Division I opponent when the Sharks host Princeton on November 12.
The UCHC will expand its men’s membership by an additional team to 11 with Alvernia joining the league in 2022-23.
“It is exciting to see the great game of hockey grow and we’re honored to add Alvernia’s men’s program to the UCHC,” said UCHC commissioner Chuck Mitrano in a statement. “Alvernia’s leadership at all levels is top-notch and they will add quality experiences for our student-athletes and further enhance the high quality of the UCHC.”
Alvernia, located in Reading, Pa., is set to begin NCAA men’s hockey play in the fall of 2022 following a successful run at the AHCA level.
Former Bryn Athyn College head coach Andrew Burke will head up the efforts of assembling the inaugural Division III squad, and his staff also features assistant coaches Anthony Astorino, Eric Higgins and Mitch Harris. All three assistant coaches played for or coached with Burke at Bryn Athyn.
“Aside from hiring an excellent head coach, conference affiliation was most critical for building a successful foundation for the success of our men’s ice hockey program,” said Alvernia director of athletics Bill Stiles. “We’ve enjoyed our affiliation with the UCHC through our women’s team and have found it to be the perfect fit for spirited and fair competition among peer institutions with similar missions and values.”
According to a UCHC press release, “Alvernia is a strong fit for the current UCHC footprint.”
“The Golden Wolves are set to join many of their peers from their primary conference, the Middle Atlantic Conference, in the UCHC membership as well,” reads the announcement. “Alvernia’s membership allows them to strengthen their existing relationships with those peer institutions, while also allowing them to round out a highly competitive schedule. It also allows them to compete for the regular season MAC championship in conjunction with their UCHC schedule.”
Alvernia’s women’s ice hockey team joined the UCHC in 2019-20 and advanced to the postseason tournament in just its second season as a conference member in 2021.
The Golden Wolves will use the Body Zone as its home rink with plans in the works to build an additional locker room dedicated to the team. Alvernia will continue to enhance its relationship with The Reading Royals and the 7,083 seat Santander Arena, which could be a potential host for selected home games as well. The accommodations join several other arenas in the conference that have been in utilized for practice or games by an NHL or affiliated minor league team.
The first series between these teams as the top two ranked squads in the country did not disappoint. On Saturday, the Buckeyes came out strong in the first and headed into the break with a 1-0 lead thanks to a snipe from Gabby Rosenthal. The Badgers picked it up in the second, as Grace Bowlby scored from distance to even it up at one less than two minutes into the second. The Buckeyes did a great job of not giving Wisconsin space in front of the net, but the Badgers scored on a second goal from the blue line, this time with Casey O’Brien redirecting a deflected shot from Kendra Nealey. In the third, UW killed a penalty, but then could not get the puck out of the zone, setting OSU up for a long possession that created plenty of opportunities, but they could not capitalize. Daryl Watts scored an empty-netter, the 115 goal of her career, to secure the Badgers a 3-1 win. In game two, Wisconsin struck first as Nicole LaMantia picked out the top corner to beat Andrea Braendli in the first. Rosenthal tied the game up just a few minutes later by skating right by the UW defense and sniping a shot past Kennedy Blair. The game would stay tied until overtime when LaMantia once again picked out the top right corner and won the game for Wisconsin, 2-1.
(5) Minnesota at (3) Colgate
The Gopher senior class led the way for Minnesota on Friday as they scored all five goals in the teams win over Colgate. The first period of this game was a ride. Catie Skaja was called for hooking :11 into the game and Taylor Heise joined her in the box 26 seconds later on a tripping penalty. The Raiders took advantage, with Kalty Kaltounkova giving Colgate the 1-0 lead :66 into the game. In all, their were seven penalties called in the opening frame – four on the Gophers and three on the Raiders, but that first goal was the only special teams lamp lighter in the first. Amy Potomak and Abigail Boreen scored within 26 seconds of each other midway through the first to give Minnesota the 2-1 lead. Neena Brick’s goal toward the end of the first sent the teams to the locker room tied at 2. In the second, it was Potomak and Heise that put Minnesota ahead 4-2. Noemi Neubauerova scored on the PP late in the period to cut the lead to 4-3 heading into the final frame. Emily Oden’s goal late in the game secured the 5-3 win for the Gophers. On Saturday, goals from Emily Brown and Heise had Minnesota up 2-0. Early in the third, Colgate made it a new game with two quick goals from Delani McKay and Sydney Bard. But Skaja’s goal at the midpoint of the final frame would prove to be the game-winner as the Gophers earned the sweep.
Maine at (4) Boston College
The Eagles scored four goals in the first and cruised to a 5-2 win on Saturday. Goalie Abigail Levy had her third career assists (first at BC) on Abby Newhook’s one-timer to give BC the 1-0 lead. Hannah Bilka, Gaby Roy and Caroline Goffredo also scored in the first. Maine worked to comeback with goals from Morgan Trimper in the second and Ally Johnson in the third, but Bilka’s goal in the third stopped any momentum the Black Bears may have had and gave the Eagles the win.
Holy Cross at (6) Northeastern
The Huskies outshot the Crusaders 44-19 in this game, but Holy Cross carried a 1-0 lead into the second period and held the tie until midway through the third. Millie Sirum had the Crusaders goal, which was their first against the Huskies in the last nine meetings. Maureen Murphy’s power play goal a minute into the second tied the game for Northeastern. Katie Knoll scored the game-winner with about eight minutes to go in the contest and Murphy added an empty-netter to give the Huskies the 3-1 win.
(8) Minnesota Duluth at St. Thomas
On Saturday, Gabbie Hughes, Elizabeth Giguere and Clara Van Wieren each scored for the Bulldogs to lead UMD to a 3-0 win. On Sunday, Minnesota Duluth’s offense exploded, leading to a 7-0 win. Van Wieren scored first on the power play and then at even strength to put the Bulldogs up 2-0 midway through the first. Kylie Hanley and Naomi Rogge also lit the lamp in the first to make it 4-0 at the first intermission. Hanley and Gabby Krause made it 6-0 in the second and Hughes added her second of the day in the third.
(9) Providence at Union
Maren Friday’s power play goal in the first that gave Union a 1-0 lead held into the third period. But Providence netted an extra attacker goal of their own from Claire Tyo to tie the game at one. Lily Hendrickson’s goal with three minutes to go in the game proved to be the game-winner for the Friars as they took the 2-1 victory.
(9) Providence at RPI
The Friars attempted 76 shots on Saturday, but RPI goalie Amanda Rampando made 42 saves and the skaters added 20 blocks to keep Providence off the board as the Engineers picked up their fourth straight win. Per their game story, the victory was Rensselaer’s first ever at home over the Friars and their four-game winning streak is the program’s first since the 2012-13 season. RPI hasn’t won five or more consecutive games since the 2008-09 campaign. Ellie Kaiser scored on the power play midway through the first and Marah Wagner doubled the lead in the waning minutes of the match to secure the 2-0 win.
Mercyhurst at (10) Cornell
On Friday, Ena Nystrom made a season-high 31 saves to lead the Lakers to a 3-2 win. The teams traded goals in the first, with Grace Nelles scoring for Mercyhurst before Claudia Yu responded for Cornell. Liliane Perreault gave the Lakers the lead once again just 29 seconds into the third period. Gills Frechette’s goal midway through the final frame tied it at two. But Sara Boucher’s power play goal 90 seconds later proved to be the game-winner for Mercyhurst. On Saturday, it was all Big Red as four different skaters scored to earn Cornell a 4-0 win and weekend sweep. Rory Guilday opened the scoring in the first. Gabbie Rud’s power play goal in the second doubled the lead. In the third, Lily Delianedis and Bella Kang each lit the lamp to secure the win for Cornell.
