Jeff Jackson’s Fighting Irish have made the NCAA tournament four years straight, and the Frozen Four four of his previous fourteen seasons (photo: Matt Dewkett).
Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson joins us to preview the weekend series as his No. 5 Fighting Irish head to Minnesota in Big Ten action. Jackson discusses this year’s team, senior leadership, and the competitiveness of the conference.
Hosts Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger also look at No. 7 Wisconsin at No. 12 Penn State, No. 3 UMass home-and-home with No. 10 Northeastern, No. 15 Boston College at No. 8 Providence, No. 18 Bowling Green at No. 2 Minnesota State, and No. 9 Quinnipiac at Arizona State, as well as a pair of rivalry matchups: St. Lawrence at No. 11 Clarkson for a pair of non-league games, and Dartmouth at UNH.
Bryan Yoon has compiled four assists in four games thus far for Colorado College (photo: Bradley K. Olson).
So far this season, Colorado College has been an up-down team, going 2-2 in its first four games by splitting series with Minnesota and Michigan State.
The Tigers have won both Friday games before falling on Saturday.
After a strong 3-1 win Friday against Michigan State, the Tigers let in three goals in the first minutes of the game and never got untracked in a 5-1 loss.
Colorado College coach Mike Haviland sees some positives from his squad’s early play.
“I thought we played really well Friday night against Michigan State,” said Haviland. “We came back on Saturday, and the first two shots go in and you chase the entire game. It’s not the way to play. We had some really good looks. We had two breakaways in the first period and we can’t finish them, and the night before we did. I think then you get a little frustrated and you try to do things maybe that are outside of the structure, try to do a little bit more individual things and play that way, and that’s not going to work. That was basically what happened on Saturday night. We had some power-play chances and got one, then had some to start the third and don’t get cash in and don’t give yourself a chance maybe to come back in the game.
“To be honest with you, against Minnesota we played well both nights. We took penalties in the second game, four consecutive and they scored two when we were up 3-1, and you can’t do that. That was something we talked about and addressed, and we didn’t take a lot of penalties the next week. So, it’s a process, and it’s still young season.”
Entering the season, one question mark for the Tigers was how seniors Chris Wilkie and Nick Halloran would play after missing much of last year injured. So far, the two have paced CC’s offense, with Wilkie notching six points in four games and Halloran getting five points in three games.
“They’ve been real good,” Haviland said. “Nick was kind of day-to-day going into the series against Michigan State and missed Friday, played Saturday. He’s back to being healthy now this week heading into Western Michigan. Chris has got an NHL release, and when he skates all the time, he’s an elite player. Certainly, Chris has done that, and ‘Holly’ looks like he did that sophomore year. You’re going to need those two guys to lead the charge.
“Certainly, we have secondary scoring with guys, but those guys are going to have to lead your team. I think when you look around the country, a lot of teams say that with two or three guys. When they go, the team goes. I think they’ve been good so far, and now it’s about being consistent throughout the entire year.”
Another question mark for CC was how the Tigers would replace standout netminder Alex Leclerc, who departed early after his junior season. In the first two weekends, Haviland has platooned his goalies, with Northeastern transfer Ryan Ruck getting both starts against Minnesota and rookie Matt Vernon playing Friday against Michigan State and starting Saturday before being replaced by Ruck in the first period after giving up three goals early. Haviland states that he’s been pleased with their play this early.
“To be honest, I like it,” Haviland said. “You’ve got a veteran guy who’s in his fifth year as a grad transfer in Ruck who has won a Hockey East championship and has played NCAA games. You get that calming presence. I think he’s seen everything in college hockey, so it’s a nice thing to have. ‘Vernie’ is a kid who was the MVP last year in the North American League, which is known for goaltenders. He’s a guy who went on to win the championship there. He battles, he competes, he’s athletic. They’re kind of two different goalies. You get a big guy in Ruck who’s very structured, and you get the athletic guy in Vernon.
“I like the mix. I think they complement each other very well.”
Another reason for Haviland to be happy has been the play of sophomore defenseman Bryan Yoon, who shows no signs of a sophomore slump after a standout rookie season. In his first six games, Yoon has four points and has quarterbacked the power play.
“Bryan is a very competitive young man, and he wants to win,” said Haviland. “He wants to perform at the highest level. He did a great job with his offseason training, and he came back ready to go. Bryan is a guy that runs our power play up top, but certainly has played well the first four games, and we’re going to need him to continue to play that way all year.”
This weekend, CC will host Western Michigan, ending its six-game homestand. After this weekend, CC is on the road until the last game of the first half, when the Tigers host arch-rival Denver in the second game of a home-and-home.
“It’s just the way the schedule is,” said Haviland. “The road thing, we’re going to have to go into those buildings anyway and play our league games, whether it’s here or in February. If you look at the schedule, we’re at home the last couple of weeks of the year, and I know those points will mean an awful lot too. Maybe with less travel in the back half, you’re hoping that’s going to help you with some things and rest going into the playoffs.
“Western Michigan is a very, very good team, very skilled. I thought they’d lose some guys to NHL contracts. It just didn’t happen. I think when you read some of their articles, they talk about they had some unfinished business. So, they’re a team on a mission. I think they’re super skilled. I think they’re one of the best teams in the country. Again, it’s early. I don’t look at records that much this early on, because I think there’s a process, a learning curve. Certainly, they’re a very good hockey team. They can skate, they’re big, they’re heavy. We’ve got to match the intensity that I know they’re going to bring and make sure we can match it, if not better that, and then make sure that we’re ready.
“It’s going to be a battle, and that’s what you get in this conference. I think you’ve got to prepare your team the right way each week against that opponent and make sure that you’re ready to work. That’s the bottom line, is you’ve got to work or you’re not going to get success.”
Minnesota Duluth back on track
It wasn’t quite reason for panic, but two-time defending national champion Minnesota Duluth’s 1-3 start to the season certainly raised eyebrows. Especially notable was how many goals Duluth’s vaunted defense, which the Bulldogs used to win their titles, had been shellacked for, giving up 12 goals in those three nonconference losses.
It turns out all the Bulldogs needed to get back on track was a series with in-state rival Minnesota. UMD swept the Gophers, continuing their recent domination of the series. On Friday at Mariucci arena, the Bulldogs built a 3-0 lead late in the second period. Minnesota pulled within one after Sammy Walker scored at 8:36 of the third, but UMD pulled away on a goal by Kobe Bender, and dynamic defenseman Scott Perunovich sealed the win with a power-play goal at 15:11 of the third.
At Saturday at home, Hunter Shepard stopped all 21 shots and Quinn Olson’s goal at 6:04 of the first period proved the only offense UMD would need in a 2-0 shutout win. Jackson Cates added an empty-netter at 19:22.
The second win was very Minnesota Duluth, as the Bulldogs stifled the Gophers. On the weekend, UMD limited the Gophers to 41 shots and held the Gophers to 0-for-5 on power-play opportunities.
Minnesota Duluth has dominated the rivalry in recent years. In the last decade, UMD is 14-8-5 against the Gophers, and since the 2014-15 season UMD is 10-1-1.
Former CC star makes splash at North Dakota
In the offseason, former Colorado College standout Westin Michaud transferred to North Dakota as a graduate student for his last year of eligibility. In his first six games, Michaud has three goals, including a big one Friday night when he scored 52 seconds into overtime to complete North Dakota’s rally for a 2-1 win against Bemidji State.
“He’s a good player, so I’m happy for him that he did that,” said Haviland. “It’s a long season. Guys get their choices to do whatever they need to do. So that was his choice. I didn’t see the goal, but good for them.”
Boston University goalie Sam Tucker and defenseman Domenick Fensore defend the net against UMass Lowell in a game played Oct. 24, 2019 at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, Mass. (photo: Rich Gagnon).
At first glance, Boston University’s early season results could be categorized as “what might have been.”
Take away the blowing of two three-goal leads that resulted in unsatisfying ties, and erase a third-period Northern Michigan power-play goal fueled by a five-minor major penalty, and the Terriers would be 4-0-1. They’d be one of the top ranked teams in the country and the talk of Hockey East.
Instead, they’re 2-1-2 and in the “also receiving votes” category outside the top 20 of the USCHO.com poll. Not exactly chopped liver, but not the stuff of champions.
BU coach Albie O’Connell, however, disagrees.
“The only game we really squandered was the one against Northern Michigan that we were up 4-1,” he says. “We took a tough penalty, they scored a power-play goal that put us on our heels, and then scored [again a minute later].
“We liked the way we played for 55 minutes.”
Which is not to say O’Connell is satisfied with the results, including a 3-3 tie at UMass Lowell in which the Terriers led 3-0 in the second period.
“There are some goals this year that we’d want back,” he says. “Some goofy goals. Strange ones. The puck caroming off a few players.
“And we had some untimely, undisciplined play against Northern Michigan.
“But on the whole, we really like the way the team is playing.”
With the departure of Jake Oettinger, goaltending was a significant offseason concern. Fortunately, Sam Tucker was available as a graduate transfer from Yale, where he had split the netminding duties since his sophomore year.
Tucker, along with Craig Pantano at Northeastern and Michael Lackey at Providence, have been graduate transfers who have filled gigantic holes in the nets of three of the league’s presumed top contenders. Pantano and Lackey have played all six of their team’s games. Tucker has played all but one of BU’s. Collectively, they can boast a 10-3-3 record.
“There’s a confidence about an older kid,” O’Connell says. “You’re getting an experienced guy who has faced tough games and has experience dealing with difficult situations.
“If you look at the highest level, it usually takes goaltenders longer to get there. They have their ups ad downs.
“If you looked at Tucker, Pantano, and Lackey in their freshmen years, it would have been a different story from how they look today. All three teams were fortunate to get high quality kids and athletes.”
Tucker posted a 3-0 shutout against New Hampshire on Saturday, but O’Connell points to the tie with Lowell as a critical one for the goaltender.
“That was a statement game for him,” O’Connell says. “In overtime, he made a big save, and he stopped a breakaway earlier. He made the saves when the team needed it.
“The team is confident in him, and plays confidently in front of him.”
At the other end of the experience spectrum, the highly regarded freshman class has also delivered.
“We’ve had a slew of injuries to regulars so the younger guys have had to respond,” O’Connell says. “We’ve got a lot of young guys in the lineup. Four freshmen D are playing, and they’ve done a good job. The gaps are good.”
Trevor Zegras has a goal and four assists. Robert Mastrosimone has two goals and two assists.
“Other [freshmen] are contributing in ways that don’t show up on the score sheet. Jamie Armstrong has 30 hits. [Markus Boguslavsky] has 25 hits.
“If we didn’t have a dynamic freshmen class from top to bottom we’d be in a tough spot now. I’m excited about the freshman group from the top of the food chain down.
They have ability, character, and coachability.”
O’Connell likes what he has from graduate transfers to freshmen and everywhere in between.
“We’re good enough to win,” O’Connell says, “if we play the right way.”
Last week’s biggest winner?
Arguably, the team with the best weekend was UMass Lowell, rallying from a 3-0 deficit against BU (as recounted above) to gain a 3-3 tie, followed by an impressive 3-2 overtime win at Providence.
If only that previous weekend against an underwhelming Colgate team could be wiped away. Lowell could manage only a tie and an overtime loss against a team that is otherwise 0-4-1 on the season.
Unfortunately, the games all count. And you can’t ask the college hockey equivalent of “other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?”
Two out of three ain’t bad
Over the last three weeks, three Hockey East teams have headed West and returned with well-earned splits. Lowell got the party started by stunning the defending national champions (and at the time also ranked No. 1), Minnesota Duluth 3-2 before having to settle for a split one night later. This past weekend, Northeastern reprised that feat, taking the opener at St. Cloud State (ranked 14th at the time), before dropping the back end game.
Count both of those long-and-winding road splits as positives.
Unfortunately, all the recent Western sojourns haven’t been as successful. Boston College dropped both of its games at Denver in the middle of the three weeks.
Speaking of which…
A rocky start on Chestnut Hill
There’s no shame in getting swept by top-ranked Denver. The opening night 3-0 loss was really 1-0 with two empty-netters, and the rematch 6-4 loss included three Pioneers power-play goals.
And a loss to eighth-ranked Providence is similarly no humiliation. But losing at home to the Friars by a 6-2 margin is a concern, especially as it extends the Eagles losing streak to three games.
Hockey East coaches (and yours truly) picked the Eagles to finish first this year, giving great weight to the stellar freshmen class headed to Chestnut Hill. So it won’t be any surprise if this team is night-and-day different–that is, dramatically improved–in the second semester.
But you never want to dig too deep a hole, and the Eagles face two tough road games this weekend, first at UNH then a rematch with Providence.
Micah Zandee-Hart is one of the seniors leading Cornell in a push for a national title this season.(Photo: Cornell Athletics)
The NCAA Ice Hockey Rules and Interpretations Manual is 174 pages long. The Ivy Manual, an additional handbook for Ivy League school athletic teams, is an additional 179 page of rules and guidelines.
When Cornell took the ice last weekend for their first games of the competitive season, they and their Ivy League counterparts (Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton and Yale) were five weeks and up to eight games behind the rest of the teams in the country. Ivy rules say they can’t start practicing until October 15 and their competitive schedule can’t start before three Fridays prior to Thanksgiving.
On October 15, Wisconsin and Minnesota each already had six wins on their resume. Clarkson was 4-0. The three teams that joined them in last season’s Frozen Four were well past the early season learning curve and are smoothing out their rough spots before Cornell ever even took the ice.
There’s nothing to be done for it – it is what it is, it’s what all the Ivy League teams are faced with and it’s all the players know. But it presents a challenge for coach Doug Derraugh and his staff to get his team up to speed as quickly as possible.
“You hope that you can weather the first period or two and hope that you’ve done the things in practice to create habits that are going to make you successful in those games,” he said. Cornell did that remarkably well in their opening series, dispatching a Robert Morris team that proved pesky for (2) Minnesota and (4) Clarkson in the weeks prior to visiting Ithaca. Now the Big Red start right into ECAC play, hosting Quinnipiac and (6) Princeton this weekend.
The short prep time means an accelerated start to the season and little room for mistakes. But a thin margin of error is something the Big Red are more than familiar with.
It’s unlikely that any team in Division I women’s hockey is as aware of how important each decision, each pass and each second of a game are as Cornell. Their last few seasons have hinged on the smallest of margins where one single moment over the course of the season had a massive effect.
In 2018, postseason predictions showed the Big Red missed an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament by a 0.0052 margin. If they’d won just one of their six ties or six losses, they would likely have been in the tournament. Sure, they could also say that if Northeastern hadn’t won the Hockey East tournament to earn an auto-bid, they’d also have been in. But that’s out of Cornell’s control. Ultimately, their season ended because they’d failed to prevent one too many goals or they’d converted on one too few shots.
There was one pass that went astray or one turnover that went the other way. One shot was off target or one defender was deked. And that’s all it took, over the course of 33 games, to send them home early.
“It’s just a play here or a play there that makes the difference in whether you survive and move on or go home for good,” said Derraugh.
Cornell made the Frozen Four last season, losing to Minnesota 2-0 off a power play goal and an empty-netter that sealed their defeat. They won three of their seven postseason games in overtime, eking out a victory and surviving until the second-to-last day of the season. They were regular-season ECAC champions despite heading into the final weekend a point behind Princeton. They swept their games while the Tigers were swept and the Big Red won their first regular season title in six years.
The team would rather have a title, but the consolation prize of the lessons they’ve learned over the past few seasons puts the team in prime position to succeed this season.
“Our leadership – not just our captains, but our juniors and seniors – have come close a couple of times and have come to realize just how important your preparation is during the season,” said Derraugh. “We’ve come to understand the importance of playing consistently throughout the year and the importance of the details.”
The past two seasons’ results are motivation for this year’s team, but Derraugh is careful to make sure his team is only focusing on the present.
“You can’t get stuck in the past, you can’t look too far in the future. It’s the attention to details on a daily basis, trying to get better each and every day and preparing for the future. That’s going to be the key to having success in the future. We just want to make sure we’re doing our best on a moment by moment basis to be better. If we do that, in the end we’ll be the best team that we can possibly become, wherever that may lead.”
To that end, Derraugh doesn’t even like setting goals for the end of the season – he sees that as assuming his team will lose games, something he isn’t interested in doing. If the team takes care of all of the details, they win every play, every period and every game and things like conference or even a national championship are the natural byproduct – they’re inevitable.
“We want to go into every game with the mindset that we’re going to win that hockey game,” he said. “That year is over. This is a new year, this is a new day, it’s a new moment. We’re taking care of each of those moments and doing our best, each and every one of us, to be the best we can be, and wherever that leads us at the end, you’ve got to be (happy).”
Penn State’s Cole Hults is third in Nittany Lions scoring with four goals and five points through five games this season (photo: Craig Houtz/Penn State Athletics).
“We’re just not who we are yet.”
This is how Penn State’s Guy Gadowsky describes his team five games into the season and on the eve of the Nittany Lions’ Big Ten opener against visiting Wisconsin.
At 4-1-0, Penn State has had a solid start to the year, but Gadowsky is concerned specifically about his team’s last two games, a 4-0 loss to Alaska and a 2-1 win over Robert Morris. The two-game two-goal output has created a crisis that can only be described as bordering on existential.
“I don’t think we’re still where we want to be in terms of where we play, our identity,” said Gadowsky.
For Gadowsky and the Penn State coaching staff, that identity includes scoring a lot more than goals, no matter the outcome. The Nittany Lions averaged nearly seven goals in their first three games to open the current season and they finished 2018-19 with the best scoring offense in the nation, averaging 4.54 per game.
On average, though, the Nittany Lions also gave up 3.56 goals per game last season, the fifth-worst team in the country defensively.
“Obviously, our goal at the start of the season was to get better defensively, but that’s only half the goal,” said Gadowsky. “Our goal, really, was to get better defensively and not give up any of the offense.”
Gadowsky said that he and the Penn State coaching staff believe that better defense doesn’t have to come at the expense of offense.
“I don’t think any of the coaches are happy with how we’re playing identity-wise offensively, but that’s the area where really we’re not quite there yet,” he said.
To open B1G conference play, Penn State faces off against another team in flux, a team whose start to the season mirrors that of the Nittany Lions. Wisconsin is 4-2-0 and split a home series last weekend against Clarkson with a 4-0 shutout loss Friday followed by a 4-3 win Saturday. After averaging nearly seven goals per game in their first three starts, too, the Badgers are now scoring 4.50 per game, a hair ahead of Penn State.
The emphasis in Wisconsin is on defense as well, said Tony Granato, especially when facing a team as potentially explosive as Penn State.
“They leave the zone, they make it hard on your ‘D,’ they try to spread the rink out real fast, so if there’s a change of possession, they’re taking off,” Granato said. “We’re going to have to be on our toes and be alert differently than we have the last couple of weekends.”
There are significant differences, though, in the ways that each coach sees his team at the start of conference play. While Gadowsky is looking for his team to figure out a way to continue to pour the puck into the net – Penn State’s mantra of many goals from many shots – Granato is looking for a little useful variety and a bit of patience.
“I think that to win in college hockey – to win at any level, to win in any league – you have to be flexible on how sometimes you win,” said Granato. “I think we have the guns to open it up to be able to score seven or eight if we need to, but I think more importantly, we’ve got to play a certain way and not get that in our minds that we need to score seven or eight.”
In the shutout loss to Clarkson, said Granato, the Badgers ran into a very hot goaltender in Frank Marotte, who had 38 saves in the game. The Badgers “tried to get away from it and open up more,” said Granato, but that’s not what Wisconsin needed.
“I think if we were more patient and knew to be more patient, we would have been better off in that game, so I think that part of learning [that] we don’t have to adjust to the game to try to figure out a win,” said Granato.
The top scorers for the Badgers include a trio of talented freshmen, Cole Caufield (7-2-9), Owen Lindmark (4-3-7) and Alex Turcotte (3-5-8). For the Nittany Lions, senior Brandon Biro (4-5-9) and junior Cole Hults (4-1-5) lead the team in goals. A dozen Wisconsin skaters have registered at least a goal so far this season and for the Nittany Lions, 13 players have scored.
Granato said that he thinks the games will be “a different style” and added, “It doesn’t mean it’s going to be high scoring, but when you put these two teams together, it’s a good chance that it could turn into one of those games.”
These are familiar foes, too. Penn State has played Wisconsin more than any other opponent with a 17-12-3 edge over the Badgers all-time. Last year, the teams met seven total times: four regular-season games and three in the Big Ten tournament. These will be the sixth and seventh consecutive games the teams have played at Pegula Arena as well.
In late February, the teams split a series with Penn State winning 8-2 and losing 7-3. In the playoffs, Wisconsin won the first game 4-3 before Penn State forced a third game with a 6-2 win. The Nittany Lions won that deciding game 4-3 in overtime when Liam Folkes scored at 10:50 in OT.
Folkes, incidentally, is injured and his status for this series is day-to-day.
“I think there’s a rivalry type of mentality going into this series,” said Granato. “I think we’ve played them enough to know them. They knocked us out last year in an overtime game that we played pretty well in that we felt like we deserved a little bit better.”
Gadowsky said that facing a team like Wisconsin at the start of the Big Ten schedule may be exactly what the Nittany Lions need to rediscover themselves.
“Right now maybe this is a welcome thing,” said Gadowsky. “We haven’t been able to quite do it intrinsically, but maybe this is a little bit of a kick from a Big Ten team and maybe we’ll get there.”
Said Granato: “It’s a great way to start the Big Ten. It’s what the Big Ten is. The Big Ten’s exciting. It’s great teams, great players, so this will be a really nice place to kick the season off.”
“Be a hockey player”
“At the end of the day, when the puck drops, be a hockey player.”
Is there any better advice than this in the world – for any given situation?
This is what Steve Rohlik is telling his players to do this weekend as Ohio State opens conference play at home against arch-rival Michigan.
How big a rivalry is it between the Buckeyes and Wolverines?
“You can ask 35 other sports here on campus,” said Rohlik. “I think that’s an easy answer.”
It’s always an emotional series when these two teams meet and Rohlik said that the emotion is great – to a point.
“There’s just a fine line and you try to get to that line and you want your guys to be pumped up and emotional and all that, but sometimes when you get above that line, you try to do too much and all of a sudden you start hurting the team,” Rohlik said.
Last year, the Wolverines were 2-1-1 against the Buckeyes, with the teams splitting in Columbus. Ohio State is 6-3-1 against Michigan in the last 10 meetings.
A biggish start to the season
As the Big Ten begins conference play, the league as a whole is 24-11-2 against nonconference opponents with the overall best win percentage (.676) in inter-league play, at least for now.
Every B1G team enters this coming weekend with an overall record of at least .500 or above, and while it’s super early to consider the PairWise Rankings – super, super early – five of league’s seven teams are among the top 13 teams in the PWR, including Michigan State who currently sits at No. 10.
What this will mean in March is anyone’s guess, but it’s a good overall start for a conference that struggled last season.
Steven Quagliata scored the game-winner in overtime in last season’s national title game. (photo: UWSP Athletics – Kylie Bridenhagen)
The WIAC always tends to be one of the more competitive conferences in NCAA Division III hockey and is the home of the 2019 national champion in Wisconsin-Stevens Point. The league has a new look this year as Northland is now part of it. Below is a look at the season ahead in the conference.
Last year’s Champion: Wis.-Stevens Point swept the regular season and conference tournament championships on its way to winning the national title during an unbeaten season. The Pointers beat Wisconsin-Eau Claire 3-2 in the WIAC final.
The Contenders: The Pointers are the clear-cut choice until someone proves otherwise. But don’t count out Wis.-Eau Claire. The Blugolds are always a force in the WIAC and this year shouldn’t be an exception.
Dark Horse: Wisconsin-Superior picked up six wins in its last 10 games to close out the season and has the talent to contend, returning its top five scorers from last season.
Players to Watch:
The cupboard isn’t bare for Wis,-Stevens Point as it takes aim at another national title this season. The Pointers return seven of their top players and have added two Division I transfers. Four of the top five scorers lead the way, including Zach Zech, who finished second with 10 goals and 20 assists.
Carter Roo tallied 11 goals and 14 assists, Luke McElhenie came through with 10 goals and 15 assists and Colin Raver struck for a team-high 14 goals to go along with eight assists. What the Pointers will need is a new goalie as Connor Ryckman transferred to Northern Michigan.
Wis.-Eau Claire has every reason to believe it can contend for the WIAC crown. The Blugolds return two-time all-conference picks Jake Bresser and Adam Parsells. They lead a team that won 19 games last year behind an attack where no player hit double digits in goals. Bresser scored four goals and led the team in assists (17). Parsells finished with seven goals and six assists. Andrew McGlynn is coming off a year where he tallied six goals and seven assists.
Wisconsin-River Falls has two all-conference players back and looks to contend in the WIAC. Cayden Cahill was one of the best scoring threats for the Falcons last season, scoring eight goals and tallying 13 assists. Christian Huasinger came through with two goals and 14 assists. Both players were honorable mention all-league picks.
Troy York was the leading scorer for Wis.-Superior last season, punching in 15 goals and dishing out 10 assists.Chad Lopez came through with eight goals and nine assists. Troy MacTayish and Artur Techiyev combined for 21 assists and Andrew Durham scored nine goals.
Logan Nelson is poised to lead the way for Wisconsin-Stout. He scored 10 goals and earned honorable mention all-conference honors as a freshman. Hunter Anderson led the Blue Devils in assists with 11. Lucas Carroll finished fifth in points (14), scoring seven goals and dishing out seven assists.
Northland has two of its best players back. Gus Ford scored seven goals and dished out 19 assists. Cole Woodliffe came through with 10 goals and 11 assists. Ty Kraus (11), Kyle Pouncy (11) and Kurt Sonne (10) all recorded 10 or more assists for the Lumberjacks.
Noteworthy:
Wis.-Stevens Point enters the year as the reigning champs and riding a 31-game unbeaten streak. Head coach Tyler Krueger as named the USCHO and ACHA Coach of the Year for guiding his team to a title.
Matt Leon, a former player for the Blugolds, ranks sixth all-time in wins among WIAC coaches. He enters this season just 10 away from 200 for his career. Leon’s team gets the opporutnity to play in the presigious PrimeLink Great Northern Shootout in late November, facing Plattsburgh State Nov. 29 and either Norwich or Middlebury the next day.
Steve Freeman is in his 24th year as the head coach of Wis.-River Falls. He has won 388 games in that time and should get to the 400-win milestone this season.
Wis.Superior features players from seven different countries, including goalie Oscar Svensson, who hails from Sweden. Svensson won six games and made 375 saves for a Superior team that finished third in the standings, its best finish in the WIAC since it branched off from the NCHA.
Wis.-Stout head coach Terry Watkins is just one win away from moving into second all-time on the WIAC wins list. He is currently behind former Wis.-Stevens Point head coach Joe Baldarotta, who won 265 games.
Northland begins its first season in the WIAC. The Lumberjacks played in the NCHA tournament last year and in their sixth season under the direction of Seamus Gregory.
Logan Drackett stopped 79 of 80 shots as RIT went on the road and swept Air Force last weekend (photo: Omar Phillips).
Air Force coach Frank Serratore has been known to say, “Sometimes this game shouldn’t be called hockey. Sometimes it should be called goalie.”
Serratore had a ringside seat to a pair of games that supported his axiom, watching Rochester Institute of Technology sweep his Falcons on home ice 2-1 and 1-0, despite Air Force holding an 80-22 shots advantage in the two games.
It was the first time in 14 visits to Cadet Ice Arena that the Tigers came away with a sweep, all the more astounding considering the wide disparity in scoring chances.
Junior goaltender Logan Drackett was exceptional for RIT, stopping 79 of 80 shots that he faced.
Despite the Tigers earning six points, coach Wayne Wilson wasn’t happy with his team’s effort, especially on Thursday, when RIT was outshot by a factor of four, 44-11.
But Drackett stole a win.
Probably two.
“We were just standing around watching,” Wilson said about Thursday’s win. “(Drackett) came up big in certain situations where we needed him. (Air Force) was trying to generate offense, throwing everything at the net and looking for rebounds and deflections. (Drackett) was there for us.”
Friday’s shutout was already the second of the season for Drackett. He currently sports a .966 save percentage and a 1.17 GAA. This is a step up from last year’s .911 and 2.59 numbers, which were second in the league behind the graduated Billy Christopoulos (Air Force).
Two seasons ago, Drackett was a highly touted rookie competing for time with two other goalies. None of them could win the starting job, and RIT finished with the lowest team save percentage in Division I.
“They all had a chance and none of them grabbed it,” said Wilson of RIT’s goaltending woes at the time. “We didn’t want to go through that again. After the (2017-18 season), when we couldn’t find that one guy, we told them that who ever played the best in camp was going to start the season. In our opinion, coming out of training camp, Logan was going to get the opportunity to start, and he made the most of it.
“He was obviously the number one coming into this year. If he wasn’t playing well, we might have shifted gears. But he’s earned the right to be the number one.
“Last year was the kind of year we expected from him. And we expect all of our guys to get better each season.”
Next up for the Tigers is Holy Cross this weekend at the Gene Polisseni Center as RIT opens the home portion of its 2019-20 schedule.
When asked what needs to be improved over last weekend, getting more offensive chances is a given, but Wilson said, “Everything. Until we’re perfect, which we will never be, there’s always something to work on. We’re always trying to get better.”
More goose eggs
Drackett wasn’t the only netminder standing tall last weekend.
Shutouts were also posted by Bentley’s Aidan Pelino (5-0 over Army West Point) and Sacred Heart netminder Josh Benson (4-0 over Niagara). Benson allowed just a single goal in his other start last weekend, a 3-1 win by the Pioneers over the Purple Eagles to complete the sweep. In all, Benson stopped 57 of 58 shots in the series.
Not getting a shutout this past weekend, but tied with Drackett for the most so far in Atlantic Hockey this season is Robert Morris’ Justin Kapelmaster, who has blanked Bentley and Army West Point so far. Kapelmaster, a graduate transfer from Ferris State, has six career shutouts including four in three years with the Bulldogs.
Anticipation
Change is hard.
I’ve lost count of the number of times Atlantic Hockey coaches and sports information directors have referred to “getting four points” in conference series so far this season.
It’s six points now, thanks to the league adopting a new overtime format that includes three points for an outright win, either in regulation or the first (five on five) overtime, and two points for winning either the ensuing three on three session or a shootout, should be teams still remain deadlocked. The loser of the three on three or the shootout earns a point.
None of the 10 conference games played so far have gone to even a five minute overtime, and the league isn’t using the new format for non-conference games played at home, so we’re still waiting for the first instance of the new system.
In non-conference overtime games, AHA teams are an impressive 4-2-3 so far. Those have all been played under the old format due to either league or location, or didn’t need an overtime beyond five minutes to settle.
Games to watch this week
Some intriguing matchups to follow this weekend:
– Air Force at Sacred Heart: The Falcons have opened the season 0-6 and are desperate to get a win. The Pioneers, who always seem to play Air Force tough, are looking to build off a sweep of preseason No. 1 Niagara.
– Niagara at Denver: Niagara goes right back into the fire with a series against undefeated and top-ranked Denver. The Purple Eagles gave Minnesota all it could handle two weeks ago, but this is a taller order.
– American International vs. Army West Point – The Black Knights host on Friday with the action shifting to Springfield on Saturday. Former Army assistant and head coach of the defending champions, AIC’s Eric Lang, will go up against his mentor, Black Knights coach Brian Riley. This is a rematch of last year’s first round tournament series, won by the Yellow Jackets in three games.
The Detroit Sports Commission announced Tuesday that Greg Hammaren has been named chairman of the 2020 NCAA Frozen Four Local Organizing Committee.
The Frozen Four, hosted by Michigan State and the Detroit Sports Commission, will be played at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday, April 9, and Saturday, April 11.
“The Frozen Four in Detroit is a great opportunity to showcase the city’s passion for hockey, our great people and downtown’s resurgence,” said Hammaren in a news release. “The NCAA, city of Detroit, Michigan State University and the Detroit Sports Commission are all looking forward to hosting college hockey fans from across the country and Canada. Little Caesars Arena is an incredible venue to host the Frozen Four and we welcome everyone to Hockeytown.”
Hammaren has served as the senior vice president/general manager of the Fox Sports Detroit regional sports network since 2002.
The Frozen Four will be in Detroit for the seventh time overall and the first time since 2010, when Boston College claimed the national championship at Ford Field.
Patrick Polino has registered three goals and six points over six games thus far for Rensselaer (photo: Bradley K. Olson).
For the last several seasons, Union and Rensselaer have begun conference play in ECAC Hockey with a home-and-home series between the two travel partners.
Traditionally, Union has been perceived as the favorite in those matchups, although that wasn’t the case this year.
The Dutchmen entered the weekend winless in their first six games, and that streak extended to seven before a desperate Union team broke through with a 2-1 win over the Engineers Saturday.
“I was talking last night [Friday] about how it was one of the hardest losses since I’ve been at Union, and it’s funny, 24 hours later, it’s one of our best wins,” Dutchmen goalie Darion Hanson told the Schenectady Daily Gazette.
While RPI couldn’t come away with the sweep, it’s been a solid start to the season for the Engineers, who are on pace to surpass last year’s win total.
However, coach Dave Smith said RPI is still working on the “little things necessary to win.”
“To me, what our group is learning what it takes to win every shift, every minute. And that’s a really hard lesson to teach,” Smith said.
While it’s easy for a team to come in with an edge after a loss, Smith said good teams know how to bring get up for a game after a win.
“The teams that win consistently find that edge after a win,” he said. “It’s not hard to bring the effort; we know how to play. What we’re learning is how difficult that is and what it takes. To me, that’s the most important item that we’re trying to solve with our leadership group, who have been terrific, is that you if you want to win it starts the moment last night ended.
“It needs to burn and burn, so that now all of a sudden, you bring it.”
Ivies getting underway
The first major milestone of the college hockey season takes place this weekend, when the six Ivy League schools will become the final teams in Division 1 to play a game this season.
The late start is due to Ivy League rules defining the starting dates and practice dates for all sports. As a result, that means some Ivy teams will be starting their season against teams that have already been playing for several weeks.
One of those teams is Princeton, which travels to St. Cloud State for a two-game series this weekend. The Huskies, last year’s top-seeded team in the NCAA tournament, have already played four games this season.
“It’s going to be a fast game,” Tigers coach Ron Fogarty said of facing St. Cloud. “They’ve obviously going to have a chip on their shoulder after an early exit from the [NCAA] tournament. We like that challenge to set us up for a tough ECAC conference.”
The late start is just one of several challenges facing Ivy League schools, which also have higher academic expectations and no athletic scholarships. However, those hurdles haven’t stopped several schools, notably Cornell, Yale, and Harvard, from becoming national contenders.
“There are challenges for any school out there, and with us at Princeton, we know what it is and we find solutions for those issues,” Fogarty said. “We believe every incoming freshman group can help us. The biggest part is that we may not be able to get the best players, but we believe we get the right players that fit our culture.”
While the Ivy League starts play this weekend, several of the league’s former players have already made their NHL debuts this year.
Defensemen Adam Fox and John Marino were stalwarts for Harvard’s NCAA tournament team last season, and each has started the year in the NHL for the Rangers and Penguins, respectively.
Marino is joined on the Penguins by former Brown forward Sam Lafferty. The 2018 Bears graduate grew up less than two hours from Pittsburgh and made his NHL debut on Oct. 8.
Also making his NHL debut is former Cornell forward Cole Bardreau, who has appeared in four games for the Islanders so far. It’s a good story for the 2015 graduate, who suffered a severe neck injury as a sophomore, but returned to the ice and finished his career as a solid two-way contributor for the Big Red.
Clarkson splits
A split with a top-10 team on the road is never a bad outcome, but Clarkson nearly came away with more last weekend at then-No. 6 Wisconsin.
The Golden Knights shut down the Badgers’ high-powered offense in a 4-0 win on Friday, and then rallied to turn a 3-0 deficit into a 3-3 game Saturday before Wisconsin scored in the closing seconds to come away with a split.
“It was a really tough loss but it’s even tougher when you start with the faceoff in the offensive zone and win it,” Clarkson coach Casey Jones said. “I don’t know what the percentages are that with 15 seconds left that it ends up in the back of your net.”
While the last second loss was disappointing, it was still a positive series for Clarkson.
“I thought we started to play our style this weekend. It was a good stepping stone for us,” Jones said.
Goaltending strong for St. Lawrence
Not a lot went right for St. Lawrence last season, but the Saints’ inability to possess the puck led to a lot of extra stress on the teams’ goalies. St. Lawrence’s goalies faced 1,450 shots last season and the team was outshot by nearly 16 shots per game.
It’s been better this year, as the Saints are only getting outshot by a little less than three shots a game, and that’s translated to better goaltending numbers in the first month of the season. Senior Daniel Mannella has a .938 save percentage, while the Saints have a .923 mark as a team.
Mannella was named the league’s goalie of the week after stopping 55 of 57 shots against Holy Cross and Bentley last weekend. He’ll face off this weekend against one of the league’s other top goalies in the early going in Clarkson’s Frank Marotte, who has a .945 save percentage in six games.
The Saints and Golden Knights will play both games of their series at Clarkson’s Cheel Arena due to ongoing renovations at St. Lawrence’s Appleton Arena.
Can Lindsay Reed by the key to bringing Harvard our of their recent slump? (Photo: Harvard Athletics)
Nicole: We finally had a full slate of games as the Ivies started their schedule and we were able to get a look at all the top teams this week.
Arlan: The Ivies offer something for everyone. A couple of teams trying to get better who have some ground to make up: Brown and Dartmouth. A couple of teams looking to make the postseason: Yale, who has a decent chance because other teams have even greater problems; and Harvard: a squad that was perennially in the hunt for conference titles, but apparently, no longer. Meanwhile, Cornell and Princeton have occupied the power vacuum that Harvard’s decline left behind.
Nicole: It’s become pretty clear that there are more questions than answers in Potsdam right now, as Clarkson had another weekend where they struggled against an opponent they should have beaten. Their 5-1-2 record doesn’t really tell the complete story.
Arlan: If you look at the series versus Lindenwood in totality, then the Golden Knights did fine, outscoring the Lions, 8-1. The problem was that only one of those tallies came in the opening 65 minutes, when they did out-shoot the visitors by more than two to one.
Has everything gone to Clarkson’s liking thus far? No, but I’m not going to cast any aspersions its way, at least not in October. For one, Matt Derosiers is still trying to sort out his goaltending. Marie-Pier Coulombe sports the better save percentage and goals against average, but Amanda Zeglen is unbeaten in the early going. Clarkson added three senior forwards to last year’s lineup. Caitrin Lonergan got hurt in the opener and hasn’t played since then. Rhyen McGill was injured in that game and has been limited to five games, as has Kayla Friesen. So the Golden Knights haven’t gotten the type of boost that they might have hoped from three veterans who can provide some punch.
If you’re not liking Clarkson to this point, what has impressed you in the ECAC?
Nicole: I’ll reserve any blanket comments until we’ve seen a few more games, but Cornell handled Robert Morris in a way both Minnesota and Clarkson could not. Seems we might have underestimated the Big Red and they should be further up the rankings. The focus is usually on offense, but a big story for Cornell again this season will be their defense. They returned all six members of their blue line corps and even though they have to replace Marlene Boissonault in goal, it may not matter all that much. The defense gives whichever goalie they go with a huge cushion and allows them to settle in.
Arlan: Speaking of the goalies, Doug Derraugh has quite the range of heights from which to choose. Sophomore Kaity McKenzie is 6’ 3” and stopped the only shot she saw last year. Junior Ally Dalaya is 5’ 10” and has never played for Cornell. Lindsay Browning is only 5’ 3”, but who cares when she is stopping everything that gets through that defense that you mentioned. I’m guessing that Derraugh gives Browning the nod most of the time.
Nicole: The big surprise for me this weekend was Providence’s win over Northeastern. The win itself is a big one, but so is holding the Huskies scoreless. They outshot the Friars 33-20, but could not find the back of the net. Providence is relying on goalie Clare Minnerath, who has little collegiate experience prior to this season and I’m impressed with her play so far. We know Hockey East is tough and the separation from top to bottom is as narrow as it’s ever been, but I still found this a surprising loss for Northeastern. On the other hand, Boston College is looking better than I’d expected. They look crisp and fast and are playing well and winning the games they should be winning – something they’ve struggled with in recent years.
Going into this season, I thought this was Northeastern’s conference to lose, but now I’m thinking it’ll be more of a fight to the finish than I anticipated.
Arlan: Ah, Hockey East. I’m trying to remember if that league singlehandedly was the inspiration for me banishing myself from the picks contest, or if it collaborated with the CHA. Either way, anytime that I think I’m getting a handle on where teams stand, one of those New England squads is bound to do something that forces me to rethink the meaning of life.
Yes, Minnerath was impressive in blanking the Huskies, but it took New Hampshire just 96 seconds to snap her shutout string the next day, and the Wildcats’ offense kept going in a 6-2 beatdown of the Friars. We’ve written that UNH looks to be improved, but it’s a pattern that is often repeated by teams that are jockeying to break into the at-large picture. An impressive upset is soon followed by a demoralizing loss to a lower-ranked team.
The Eagles suffered their first blemish of the campaign, salvaging a 3-3 tie on home ice versus Maine on a late goal by Hannah Bilka. The Black Bears were coming off a convincing, 3-0, win on the road at UNH, but prior to that had only scored twice in a three-game stretch.
It’s Hockey East. I don’t know what is going to happen, but I promise you that it will be something that I didn’t see coming. For example, I thought that BC was the class of the conference, and it started out 7-0, but five of those wins were over rebuilding Merrimack and still-building Holy Cross. The other wins are over Syracuse, a team that’s played a tough non-conference schedule and made it look even tougher in starting off 0-9, and Vermont. The Catamounts might be resurgent, but do we really know?
Will we get any answers when BC hosts UNH and Providence this weekend?
Nicole: BC made me have regrets about writing that bit about them before they finished playing on Saturday. Go figure. I should know that I spend the whole season watching games and highlight videos trying to get a read on each team and the moment I feel like I’ve got something figured out, those teams do something to turn it all upside down.
You mentioned giving up on picks – I’m definitely not sad that I’m not competing or keeping track of game picks this year. It was hopelessly demoralizing to have that stark reminder of feeling like I have no idea what’s going on. In a larger sense, I love the chaos and that teams are constantly getting better and surprising us. It’s good for the game and it’s great for the future of the sport. But as someone who tries to cover Division I as a whole and sort of distill it down to share with others, it’s so frustrating. Sometimes I have to remind myself this is fun.
All of that is to say that I don’t feel like I have any idea what will happen with BC against UNH and Providence. Not in the slightest. I’m very wary of believing that Boston College will respond to a disappointing outing by picking it up a notch after last season when we said we thought they’d do that time and again and they never really did. Both Providence and UNH are teams they lost to last season, as well, and both have improved since then, I believe.
You mentioned Harvard and their recent struggles earlier. Do you think we will see the Crimson return to prominence any time soon? They did put seven goals in on Friday, but they also took until well into the third period to really put away Dartmouth. I really like Lindsey Reed in net, but I’m not sure that’s going to be enough for them to build from.
Arlan: I’m having difficulty adjusting to the new reality concerning Harvard. For the first decade of a national tournament, Harvard was the most consistent power in the East, winning an AWCHA championship and finishing second in the NCAA for three straight years. Those teams featured some of the best offensive players in the country: A.J. Mleczko, Jennifer Botterill, Angela Ruggiero, Nicole Corriero, Julie Chu, Sarah Vaillancourt. Obviously, Ruggiero played defense, but she could rack up points with the best of them.
What those Harvard teams often lacked was elite goaltending, and if they did have a promising goaltender, she’d battle injury problems. Finally, Katey Stone did get a top-tier goalie in Emerance Maschmeyer, who got the Crimson back to the title game in 2015, but by then, the offensive firepower wasn’t the same. Leading scorers career totals resembled what stars in Harvard’s glory days posted in a season.
Two years after their most recent runner-up finish, the Crimson managed only five wins, a number that they used to routinely achieve in the postseason alone. In the aftermath of that collapse, I have no clue as to where Harvard is headed. It used to battle Brown and Dartmouth for the pinnacle of the Ivy League and the entire ECAC. When the Bears and the Big Green declined, they never made it back to the top. The Crimson don’t seem destined for the bottom third of the ECAC, but neither do they look like they’re ready to contend with Clarkson, Cornell, and Princeton for the top.
I think that Colgate is at least a year away from being a serious threat in the ECAC and nationally; the Raiders have talent, but most of it is unproven. I’d lump Harvard in a group with Quinnipiac and St. Lawrence. While each has potential to move up a bit if things unfold optimally, they will likely be road teams for the ECAC quarterfinals.
Speaking of the Saints, freshman forward Anna Segedi is off to a nice start, averaging 1.5 points per game. Of the rookies who have been in action for a month, only BC’s Hannah Bilka and Gabrielle David of Clarkson are scoring at a higher rate. Have you seen enough of these or other freshmen to hazard a guess as to whom will be the scoring leader for that class by season’s end?
Nicole: One dark horse pick might be Brooke Bink at Ohio State, who doesn’t have quite the same numbers yet, but who is also finding a prominent role on a team that could use some more scoring threats to take the heat off Emma Maltais. At this moment I’d go with Bilka, though if the injuries Clarkson has end up eating up more of the season, I may change my mind. She gets my vote over Segedi simply because the Saints aren’t as high-scoring an offense.
One of the reasons I wouldn’t pick David is just that there’s so much other fire power on her team that I think she could be relegated to a less prominent role. That’s not to say that there’s not talent at BC, I just think Bilka has solidified her role already and I don’t see her being shifted off that top line. Her position in that offense is very clear and she’s found chemistry and success immediately.
Looking ahead, next weekend brings some great top-10 matchups with Northeastern at Boston University and Princeton at Cornell, but the highlight is the repeat of last year’s national championship game and a meeting of the top two teams in the country as Wisconsin travels to Minneapolis to face Minnesota.
I have a hard time imagining anything other than a split every time these two play as the margins are usually super thin. Statistically, they’re very similar, in most every category but the power play. Wisconsin has been ridiculously prolific with the player advantage, scoring at a nearly 50% rate, though they were 0-for-5 against Bemidji last weekend.
Wisconsin has succeeded so far by moving quickly through the neutral zone, moving the puck quite a bit and being aggressive on the forecheck, all things the Gophers will make it difficult for them to do with any regularity. If a Wisconsin/Minnesota game guarantees one thing, it’s that no one will hold possession very long. The games are chippy and disruptive because they know each other’s style so well. The winner is usually the team that can adapt to that and not be flustered by being pushed out of their comfort zone.
Have you seen anything from either team so far that makes you think one is more likely to sweep? What have you seen from Minnesota that gives you a feeling how they’ll handle this weekend’s Border Battle?
Arlan: If there is to be a sweep, I think that most people would look to the Badgers, who come in riding a 17-game winning streak that dates back to last season and they are unbeaten in their last 24 contests. Wisconsin is No. 1 for a reason, or more likely, many reasons. In defeating Minnesota in the championship games of both tournament meetings in March, the Badgers took advantage of turnovers midway through the first period to grab a lead that they wouldn’t relinquish.
So it figures that the start will be crucial, and that’s not a particular area of strength of late for the Gophers. After starting quickly in their first two series, taking leads in each first period that they’d expanded to multi-goal leads by the second intermission, five of Minnesota’s next six games have been tied at some point of the third period.
A quick glance at the statistics suggests that Wisconsin has the edge offensively, but I believe that is a mirage conjured by the Badgers drubbing Long Island University. Looking just at WCHA play, both teams have scored an average of nine goals per weekend. In league play, the Badgers have defended better, allowing just over two goals per series, while Minnesota yields three tallies every two games.
If we were to compare various categories of each team and hand out check marks, I’d say that the penalty kill to date has been even, with both kills yielding two goals while netting a shorthanded goal. I’d give Wisconsin the check for power play, goaltending, overall team defense from all six players as a unit, and forwards — thanks in large part to having the more prolific top line. Minnesota has a slight edge on the blue line, although its least-experienced duo just got abused for three goals in the loss to Ohio State. The Gophers also get an intangible check for being the home team and having more to prove.
Maybe we just ignore the previous paragraph because one can’t use the check in women’s hockey? Anyway, you’re probably right that it will be some sort of split. Perhaps we’ll get to see how the premier rivalry in the sport of late handles a three-on-three overtime.
Damon Whitten says his 2019-20 Lake Superior State team will get better by playing nationally-ranked programs (photo: Mark Vasey/Lake Superior State Athletics).
A quick scan of records shows that Lake Superior State is 2-6-0 on the young college hockey season.
However, if one looks a little deeper, those six losses come with a big caveat, coming to No. 1 Denver, Michigan and No. 5 Notre Dame, with the last four also coming on the road.
For coach Damon Whitten’s squad, the losses, while difficult to swallow, should be part of a bigger push once the Lakers open the WCHA portion of their schedule this weekend at home against Ferris State.
“We’ve talked for years that, obviously, we’re very proud program and we’ve got those national championships, great history and tradition,” said Whitten. “Our challenge, our goal, is to get back to that level. You can’t get back to that level without playing with and beating the best in the country.
“Part of our focus is to play a great schedule and great competition. Certainly, when you have No. 1 ranked Denver and No. 4 Notre Dame, and you go down to (Ann Arbor) to play Michigan, you’re getting some real powerhouse programs and strong programs.”
Despite playing top competition, Whitten feels there is still plenty of room for growth in the Lakers’ game.
“We’re not happy with where we’re at,” he said. “We want to do win every single one of those. (It’s) a little bit frustrating and challenging.
“I think on the other side of that, we’ve learned a heck of a lot about our team, some of the areas that are strong and that we really liked and certainly some areas that we’ve got to pay a lot of attention to and improve really quickly as WCHA play starts off. So, yeah, a little frustrated, a little disappointed, but a lot wiser about our team and where we want to be and how we need to get there.”
In their first loss to the Pioneers, the Lakers held a 1-0 lead into the latter stages of the second period before giving up three goals over the game’s final 21:40. In their second loss, they fought back from a 3-1 deficit with two goals in a two-minute span in the third to even things before the Pioneers struck with just 20 seconds left to steal the sweep.
“I think it speaks volumes about our locker room, our ability to play a full 60-minute game, and where we can be, Whitten said. “We’re not there today, and that was over the talking point after the Notre Dame series. We just got used to best in the country to measure ourselves. We fell a little bit short, but the good new is that it is October with a lot of time to get there.
“We know what that looks like in the way we have to play for 60 minutes to have a chance to be successful.”
The Lakers have six seniors and seven freshmen on their roster. Among those veteran faces are Max Humitz up front and Collin Saccoman as the lone senior defenseman. Both have been instrumental in helping the younger skaters learn what it means to play at the Division I level and be successful.
Humitz, a Livonia, Mich., native, is off to a great start for the Lakers, with a team-high four goals and seven points through eight games.
“(He’s a) very intelligent player very poised and that’s really showing this year,” said Whitten. “There’s no panic to his game. He’s an elite playmaker and can also finish show us that, you know, arguably the best sport on the ice every night and every series.”
Saccoman learned to play with poise in own end as a sophomore. As a junior, he led the blue line with a 10-goal, 25-point campaign. He has continued to make things happen offensively in 2019-20 with three goals and five points.
“He plays a very complete game that can get it done at both ends of the ice,” Whitten said. “I think our young guys can look at that and know that we’re a team and a style of play that wants to be involved at both ends of the ice. So I think he’s done a great job. He’s a role model for our back end. He’s our only senior on the back end, but our sophomores are pretty experienced group.”
As the Lakers prep to host the Bulldogs this weekend, Whitten and his staff want to see improvement in their team’s defensive approach.
“It’s about being much better defensively as a team,” he said. “We’ve given up way too much. It’s spread out there, there’s been fault with each position group on certain nights. So (we need) a consistency to our game, getting all position groups on the same page on a given night. You’re not going to win a lot of games at our level of you’re giving up as much as we’ve given up.”
Beydoun-ing it
Michigan Tech turned to junior Robbie Beydoun for his first start of the season Saturday night on the road at Bowling Green.
All the third-year goaltender did was make 25 saves, including 21 in the final 40 minutes, to earn his first win, and the team’s first WCHA win, of the season.
Beydoun had some help. Sophomore winger Tommy Parrottino picked up his first career hat trick in the contest, scoring twice in the second and adding one more in the third.
Governor’s split
After two games, the Governor’s Cup is still up for grabs.
On Friday night, Alaska Anchorage took 1-0 lead late in the first period before Max Newton evened things in the final minute of the opening frame for Alaska.
Tristan Thompson put the Nanooks ahead for good midway through the second. From there, Anton Martinsson shut the door.
In Saturday’s contest, Nick Wicks struck twice in the second to sandwich a goal by Tanner Schachle as the Seawolves used a three-goal second period to their advantage in earning a 4-0 win.
A run of fours
In a pair of wins on the road at Ferris State, the Northern Michigan Wildcats scored at least four goals in both contests, giving them four straight games where they have scored at least that many times. In Friday’s 4-3 win, Griffin Loughran’s tally 13:15 into the third was the difference in the contest.
Saturday, Loughran scored three times as part of a six-goal night by the Wildcats.
The NCAA on Tuesday voted unanimously to permit students participating in athletics the opportunity to “benefit from the use of their name, image and likeness in a manner consistent with the collegiate model.”
The Board of Governors’ action directs each of the NCAA’s three divisions to immediately consider updates to relevant bylaws and policies for the 21st century, said Michael Drake, chair of the board and president at Ohio State.
“We must embrace change to provide the best possible experience for college athletes,” Drake said in a news release. “Additional flexibility in this area can and must continue to support college sports as a part of higher education. This modernization for the future is a natural extension of the numerous steps NCAA members have taken in recent years to improve support for student-athletes, including full cost of attendance and guaranteed scholarships.”
Specifically, the board said modernization should occur within the following principles and guidelines:
Assure student-athletes are treated similarly to non-athlete students unless a compelling reason exists to differentiate.
Maintain the priorities of education and the collegiate experience to provide opportunities for student-athlete success.
Ensure rules are transparent, focused and enforceable and facilitate fair and balanced competition.
Make clear the distinction between collegiate and professional opportunities.
Make clear that compensation for athletics performance or participation is impermissible.
Reaffirm that student-athletes are students first and not employees of the university.
Enhance principles of diversity, inclusion and gender equity.
Protect the recruiting environment and prohibit inducements to select, remain at, or transfer to a specific institution.
“As a national governing body, the NCAA is uniquely positioned to modify its rules to ensure fairness and a level playing field for student-athletes,” NCAA president Mark Emmert said in a statement. “The board’s action today creates a path to enhance opportunities for student-athletes while ensuring they compete against students and not professionals.”
The board’s action was based on comprehensive recommendations from the NCAA Board of Governors Federal and State Legislation Working Group, which includes presidents, commissioners, athletics directors, administrators and student-athletes. The group gathered input over the past several months from numerous stakeholders, including current and former student-athletes, coaches, presidents, faculty and commissioners across all three divisions. The board also directed continued and productive engagement with legislators.
According to the news release, the working group will continue to gather feedback through April on how best to respond to the state and federal legislative environment and to refine its recommendations on the principles and regulatory framework. The board asked each division to create any new rules beginning immediately, but no later than Jan. 2021.
Third-year Northern Michigan head coach Grant Potulny joins hosts Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger to talk about his No. 20 Wildcats, competing in the WCHA, the Marquette community, and more.
A gathering of the veteran NCAA hockey community took place at the Legal C Bar on Oct. 3, 2019 in Lynnfield, Mass. (photos: Rich Gagnon).
A few weeks ago, I received a phone call from former UMass and Princeton men’s coach Donald “Toot” Cahoon, informing me that he was organizing a reunion of some hockey friends who grew up in the local (Northeast Massachusetts) hockey community.
Toot had done this before and it was nice of him to organize another event.
Shortly after this call, Toot sent a text indicating the event was growing in numbers and that we would have to change the date and move to a larger venue. A week later, he texted with a request: can you find a photo-journalist who might come and memorialize the evening? This was starting to look like something other than the usual effort to meet friends for drinks after work.
And so, on the evening of Oct. 3, at the Legal Seafoods in Lynnfield, Mass., 19 hockey friends assembled, most with spouses, to raise a glass, have an appetizer or two and catch up on life, in and out of hockey. Oh, and maybe to share an old hockey story or two.
Who was there? I’m not sure how to begin. Or how to organize the roster. Let’s start with coaches. There were nine college hockey coaches, all but one of whom was now retired. Together, they have accounted for 4,329 wins. They were, in order of career college hockey wins, Jack Parker, Mike McShane, Dick Umile, Joe Marsh, Mike Gilligan, Bob Gaudet, Billy Riley, Toot Cahoon and Ben Smith.
What about Olympians? Six of the attendees served on Olympic teams and four of them won medals. Chronologically, there was Jim Logue, the long-time BC assistant who tended goal on the 1968 U.S. Olympic Team. One of his teammates in 1968 was Larry Pleau, whose name was connected to successful teams throughout his career. As a player, he was on a Montreal Canadiens team that won a Stanley Cup, though he didn’t play enough games to land his name on the Cup. Later, he was an Assistant GM with the 1994 New York Rangers when they won the Cup and he was the GM of Team USA in the 2002 Olympics when the U.S. won silver. (He also had a hand in the 2019 St. Louis Blues’ Cup run, having been a Blues GM not that long ago.)
Then there is Stu Irving, the long-time Merrimack assistant coach, who, fresh from the jungles of Vietnam, won silver with the 1972 U.S. squad. Then some guy named Eruzione, who, you may have heard, had something to do with the 1980 “Miracle” team. Next up would be my humble role as Tim Taylor’s assistant GM on the 1994 Lillehammer Olympic squad. Then on to Ben Smith, the Hall of Fame coach who won three medals, including gold in 1998 with the U.S. Women’s Team.
Referees were represented by former Hockey East supervisors Dick DeCaprio and Brendan Sheehy. Their resumes also include championships, as DeCaprio, a former BU player, won titles as a player and coach at his alma mater, Arlington High School, and Sheehy assisted Thom Lawler when Merrimack won the 1978 NCAA Division II championship.
That leaves three others who don’t fall neatly under these headings. John Marsh played for the legendary “Snooks” Kelley at Boston College and spent time with the U.S. National Team during the 1964-65 season. A high school coach after his playing days, he also co-authored a Sports Illustrated-produced tome on training with weights. His co-author was Robert B. Parker, who created the Spenser for Hire series of books. Oh, John also had something to do with younger brother Joe’s sense of humor.
John Gummere was a defenseman on some very good St. Lawrence teams in the early 1960’s, dabbled a bit in Europe after that, and earns trivia stripes for being the college roommate of the late Ron Mason. (Note: Gummer was also a blueliner on the Depot Café Bombers, a senior team for whom I tended goal. Other defensemen included 1983 Hobey Baker Award winner Mark Fusco and current New York Rangers head coach David Quinn. While other netminders rely on mastery of the “reverse VH,” I preferred spending my time securing good defensemen.)
And then there was Jack Turco, a product of the Melrose, Mass., and Harvard University hockey cultures, who once scored five goals against Boston College in an ECAC Quarterfinal game. He has worked as Dr. Jack Turco at Dartmouth’s Hitchcock Memorial Hospital for the past few decades.
As one might imagine, the conversation shifted from the current — observations that retired coaches look so much younger than when they stood behind benches — to the past. And, as is so often the case with hockey people, the stories of the past reveal connections between so many of these attendees.
When Jim Logue and Stu Irving pose for a photo, their connection is not only that they coached at Merrimack or that their names appeared on consecutive Olympic rosters. But, more significantly, it was Logue’s appeal to Olympic coach Murray Williamson in 1971 that got Irving out of Vietnam and into a Minnesota tryout. (“Hey, Murray, no pressure but if you cut the kid, he is going back to Vietnam.”)
Parker chatting with Eruzione looks like another Friends of BU Hockey outing. But then you hear how Mike was heading to Merrimack when Parker was reffing a summer league game in which Eruzione was playing, the summer after graduating from high school. A post-game conversation changed Eruzione’s college plans and a quite a bit more.
Same with a Parker-Riley conversation. Old BU teammates chatting. Then you find out that it was Riley who gave up a job as the assistant coach at Medford High School to take a job at Lehigh. It was Riley who said to Parker, “Hey, Jack, are you interested in a high school coaching job? The Medford coach (George Boudreau) wants an assistant who can implement Jack Kelley’s systems at BU. Now that I’m leaving, why don’t you take it.” Just think, if that had not happened, how much more enjoyable my time in Hockey East would have been.
There is Joe Marsh posing with McShane, who gave Joe his start in coaching. Oh wait, there are the two old UNH teammates, Umile and McShane. McShane gave Umile his start as a college coach while at Providence.
Jack Turco’s wife, Mary, poses for a photo with Ben Smith. Her book, “Crashing the Net,” provided one of the best accounts of how the 1998 Women’s Olympic Team captured the gold medal in the first Games featuring women’s ice hockey.
There’s John Gummere posing for a photo with John Marsh. They played against each other in the 1963 ECAC Semifinals at the Boston Arena. That was just the second ECAC tournament.
Old friends. Old players. Eleven of them played in the Beanpot. Many were teammates at one time or another. Some played Senior Hockey. (This writer still does.) And on it goes.
These were hockey people from a different era, or maybe hockey people who crossed eras. They came from towns that run into one another. Hockey towns. Arlington, Somerville, Belmont, Medford, Wakefield, Melrose, Saugus, Winthrop, Lynn, Swampscott, Marblehead, Beverly and Gloucester. They battled in the state high school tournament. Most attended public high schools and went directly to college. They entered college when they were 18 years old. Or maybe 17.
They played 10-minute periods in the winter. Perhaps at the old Boston Arena on a Saturday afternoon, when two games were intertwined. Arlington and Medford played their first period, followed by Waltham and Brookline playing their first. Then came the second period of the first game and then ice was made.
They played in the Mayflower League at the Boston Skating Club in the spring. Their summer hockey was played at the Lynn Arena or the old “Hockeytown” rink in Melrose, on teams of friends who organized themselves and found a local league. There were no showcase events. And they played other sports through high school.
As college coaches, when they competed against each other, they wanted to win badly. But when the game was over, they retained their relationships. They were civil. They might even grab a meal or a beer after a game.
As I work through my final season with Hockey East, I am vulnerable to looking back. To waxing nostalgic. While I still have work to do and need to stay in the present tense (like I tell all the goalies I coach), I can be forgiven if, on this one particular night, my thoughts are of hockey years past.
On this fall evening, amid the beers and appetizers, these friends had smiles from the time they entered the restaurant until the tab was paid. Photographer Rich Gagnon chronicled the smiles, the handshakes and the hugs. (Rich asked me how many college hockey goals the group had scored. When I told him I had no idea, he said, “Well, if you figure it out, add one. I scored one goal for Worcester State against Plymouth State.”)
While there was some talk of “the next time,” what was left unsaid was the possibility that this particular group might never again occupy the same space at the same time. We are getting older. Hell, we are old. Most of us. We still like the feel of a newspaper in our hands each morning and we might give equal time to the “Sports” as to the “Obituaries.”
We left the restaurant and returned to life in 2019.
But for this one night, this unique group of hockey friends cherished the moment, their common past, and their fondness for a hockey world that bears little resemblance to the one that exists today. We marvel at what the game has become, how talented the players are, and how the sport has grown. But, at the same time, we feel privileged to have lived and played when we did and how we did. That stays with us forever.
Atlantic Hockey announced Tuesday a one-game suspension to Army West Point junior defenseman John Zimmerman.
Zimmerman was whistled for a contact to the head major penalty midway through the third period in the Black Knights’ 5-0 loss to Bentley on Friday night, Oct. 25.
Zimmerman will be unable to suit up for Army on Friday, Nov. 1 at home against American International.
Jack Ahcan has posted one goal in four games so far for 1-1-2 St. Cloud State (photo: Bradley K. Olson).
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.
Jim: First off, let me welcome back to TMQ Dan Rubin, who will fill in for Paula this week while she travels. Always good to have you along, sir.
This week was a pretty tame weekend by college hockey standards. All of the top five teams in the USCHO.com poll held their position and there weren’t too many major upsets along the way.
That said, there was plenty of great hockey starting with a barnburner of a series in Madison between Clarkson and Wisconsin. The upstart Badgers got thrown back a peg on Friday night when Clarkson whitewashed the high-scoring Wisconsin offense 4-0.
Wisconsin did bounce back with a win on Saturday. In that game, the Badgers jumped to a 3-0 lead, watched Clarkson rally to tie the game late before Owen Lindmark poked him a rebound with 6.1 seconds left to salvage the split for Wisconsin.
I’ve been pretty bullish on both of these teams this season. But I guess I did walk away from this weekend wondering just how good this Wisconsin club is. What do you think, Dan?
Dan: I think there are two ways of looking at it.
The loss to Clarkson was the third time in their six games that the Badgers gave up at least four goals, though one of them was the 11-5 thumping they laid on Merrimack, so it’s a little easier to overlook. That was a problem last year, especially in the second half of the season when offense had no problem scoring goals. There was a period last year when Wisconsin scored four goals in five out of six games but only won once, and that doesn’t include a 6-2 loss in an exhibition game against the US Under-18 national team.
On the other hand, the two losses this year were to Boston College and Clarkson, and it’s still incredibly early to view anything as a long-term problem or goal. For all intents and purposes, I’m throwing out that Merrimack game because things can become so unconventional when a team goes over 10 goals. Those two losses are to good teams that I think will be factors at the end of the year, so I’m not hitting the panic button on the Badgers yet.
I am, however, hitting the panic button on St. Cloud State. I was really hoping for a bounce-back weekend at home after the two ties against Bemidji State, and a split wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. That 4-1 loss was a little disconcerting to me because of the shot disparity – the Huskies had 27 shots in the first two periods. I’m not sure what to make of this team right now, and I admit that I don’t see them as often as I would watch teams in Hockey East, ECAC or Atlantic Hockey, but this is starting to dig an early hole.
The RPI rating is down around the 30s, and even though it’s early, I’m starting to feel like this weekend represents a must-win scenario. Princeton isn’t a team expected to be at the top of ECAC this year, and if the Huskies lose a home game to the Tigers, it could pose a huge issue later down the road.
Besides St. Cloud, I’m trying to find some other teams that could face some early-season must-win scenarios. Who is on your radar in that regard, even though I always throw the asterisk that what happens now may not necessarily dictate anything before Thanksgiving.
Jim: See, I’m not that concerned about St. Cloud State. I know that the two ties at Bemidji State weren’t ideal, but it was their opening weekend.
If the Huskies got swept by Northeastern, I may raise a warning flag, but the split resets things in my mind. That said, you’re right that taking two at home this weekend against Princeton is paramount to prove that this team remains on the right track.
As for teams that concern me right now, until this weekend I might say Minnesota Duluth, but they responded well against Michigan. Even Boston University was about to get my panic button before they shut out New Hampshire on Saturday to earn three of four points on the weekend.
I guess if there is a team heading in the wrong direction right now, it’s Boston College.
After opening the season with a nice win over Wisconsin and then following it up two days later with a road shutout at Colgate, BC’s two losses at Denver two weekends ago didn’t concern me too much given it was against the nation’s No. 1 team.
But last Friday’s 6-2 loss to Providence at home certainly wasn’t the rebound that Jerry York and his team needed. Certainly, Providence is an excellent team and a more-than-worthy opponent, but BC fell behind early in that game and didn’t chase the game with any success, something I wouldn’t expect after an empty road trip the week prior.
On another note, the Ivies are about to get play underway. I know you get to call a lot of games in that league anything you look forward to? And do you ever think we’ll see the Ivies jump into college hockey’s modern era and play a full slate of 34 games in our lifetimes?
Dan: I don’t think the Ivy League will ever raise its number of games, and I’m still not sure how I totally feel about it.
The Ivy League football schedule is still 10 games, and basketball only held its first league tournament in 2017. ECAC commissioner Steve Hagwell explained the scheduling process to me last year, and the league has a good thing going with the teams. They tend to play each other at the beginning of the year, so there isn’t a total need to reinvent the wheel there. I will always advocate for more hockey, but at the same time, if it ain’t broke, I don’t see a need to fix it, either.
As to the other point, I am beyond excited for the Ivies to get into the college hockey mix, and I think this might be one of the most talented groups of hockey teams coming out of ECAC’s sub-grouping of programs. Every Ivy team hosted a playoff series last year except for Princeton, and they all advanced out of the first round, except, once again, for the Tigers, who lost in that triple overtime epic at Brown last year that I had the privilege of calling on the air. Three of the four teams in Lake Placid were Ivy League teams, even though the one that wasn’t (Clarkson) wound up winning the ECAC championship.
Among those teams, I have Cornell flagged as a legitimate national championship contender, and I know Harvard will always find its way into the league’s mix for top four spot. Dartmouth finished fifth for the second straight season and is one of those teams that could very quietly make some noise, and Yale overcame a tough finish to its regular season to at least advance out of the first round of the postseason tournament.
But the one team I’m actually incredibly high on this year is Brown.
Last year’s team finished the regular season within a game of fifth place and had a mathematical shot at the spot in the final weekend of the regular season before a disappointing sweep loss. But the two defeats sent the Bears into another memorable playoff run that began with that sweep of Princeton. Their sweep of Quinnipiac in the quarterfinals was a resounding stamp on the round, and from that team, Brown returns a handful of incredibly key components. I have one concern around the offense after Tommy Marchin’s departure, but the defense marked the program’s best output in five years.
As a full disclosure, I call games for Brown on occasion with my brother, Mike, so I’m willing to admit the obvious conflict there, but there’s a lot of excitement surrounding this team. I have them pegged as a dark horse to really make some noise.
Jim: Aside from Harvard and their home opponents, I typically see the Ivies from afar. But last season I had the chance to watch Cornell in the NCAA East Regional.
I was very impressed with their team and believe everything that improves makes them an even better team this season.
The only caveat I say about the Ivies and the ECAC is that the league often tends to cannibalizes itself. It doesn’t seem in league play that many teams sweep a weekend. Maybe it is because you have to prep for a different opponent each night, but upsets in the regular season often times may eliminate a team that could succeed in a single-elimination tournament like the NCAAs from participation.
That is likely an over-generalization, so I will allow you to provide feedback to this ECAC outsider.
Dan: So I’m in the middle of this argument because I like the travel partner format but agree with you about the cannibalization.
I’m not saying that it’s the direct reason, but I think there’s going to be an impact somewhere along the line. Union finished 18th in last year’s PairWise Rankings and missed out on becoming the fifth ECAC team to qualify for the national tournament after losing nine league games across seven different weekends. The team did a very good job of not getting swept throughout the year, but it also didn’t help itself by not sweeping a full four points all that often.
I think a couple of weekends probably didn’t help the situation. In one scenario, the Dutchmen blew two leads against Brown, including a 2-0 first period advantage, and finished with a 3-3 tie. The next night at Yale, they lost 3-0 to a Bulldog team coming off of a dominant 4-2 win over RPI. They got bit again later in the year at Colgate, when they pounded the Raiders for 28 shots in the latter two periods but lost 5-1. The next night against Cornell, it happened again in a 3-1 loss where the Dutchmen offense outshot the Big Red 14-3 in the second period but got outscored 1-0 in the period.
I don’t think those weekends ultimately killed Union’s chances at an at-large bid, but the 18th-place team in the Pairwise is usually left one or two games away from getting into the tournament (see also: North Dakota finishing 20th because it lost two games to Canisius). In the long run, these things always have a way of ironing out, but I know that the second half of a weekend can be especially tough if a team has to travel the wrong direction to face the wrong opponent.
I really believe ECAC is the standard-bearer conference in the east right now, but I also feel like the regular season battery sometimes hurts some of its teams. Then again, it’s unique and compelling, so in the end, that’s what makes it worth watching.
The WCHA announced Monday a one-game suspension for Ferris State junior forward Lucas Finner.
The suspension is a result of Finner’s five-minute major penalty and game misconduct infraction for contact to the head, which occurred at the 9:28 mark of the third period in Ferris State’s home contest on Saturday, Oct. 26, against Northern Michigan.
Ferris State’s next game is Friday, Nov. 1, at Lake Superior State.
Finner is eligible to return for the Bulldogs’ Saturday, Nov. 2 game at Lake Superior State.
Minnesota Duluth is up two spots to No. 6, Wisconsin falls one to No. 7, Providence is down one to No. 8, Quinnipiac remains No. 9, and Northeastern moves up one notch to No. 10 in this week’s rankings.
New to the rankings this week are UMass Lowell at No. 17 and Northern Michigan at No. 20.
In addition, 12 other teams received votes.
The USCHO.com Poll consists of 50 voters, including coaches and beat writers and sports professionals from across the country.
St. Cloud State’s Nolan Walker and Northeastern’s John Picking face off in Saturday’s matchup between the two Huskies at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud, Minn. (photo: Bradley K. Olson).
Hosts Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger look at the weekend of October 24-27, including a split between No. 11 Northeastern and No. 14 St. Cloud State, and sweeps by No. 2 Minnesota State, No. 5 Notre Dame, No. 8 Minnesota Duluth, and unranked Northern Michigan and RIT – plus a quick discussion on whether it’s time for the Ivies to play a full 34-game schedule.
