The big take away in the conference from the first full weekend was a decent weekend against Hockey East schools. ECAC only lost one game. They won one and tied twice Quinnipiac finished in a deadlock with Boston College with a 1-1 tie at the Conte Forum. They found themselves again in OT Sunday afternoon as they dropped a 3-2 decision to Boston University in their regular season home opener.
The Bobcats probably will want the game against the Terriers back, but they played well on the weekend against two quality opponents.
Colgate welcomed Merrimack for a two game series. They came away with a 3-2 win Friday night and came back Saturday night in the third period with two goals to force a 2-2 tie with the Warriors.
Both teams have Hockey East opponents next weekend also. The Raiders travel to the University of New Hampshire to face the Wildcats who swept UMass-Lowell. Quinnipiac hosts Vermont on Saturday
Tough weekend for the Dutchmen in Duluth
Union took part in the unofficial opening of the college hockey season in the “IceBreaker Tournament put on by College Hockey Inc. and hosted by University Duluth this season. In their opening game against the eventual champions, Michigan Tech, the Huskies jumped on the Dutchmen early. The Huskies took a 3-1 lead after one and a 4-1 lead after two periods. Union did a good job getting back into the game as they did make 4-3 at one point before the Huskies added two insurance markers.
In the consolation game, the University of Minnesota controlled the game with a 2-0 win. The Golden Gophers outshot the Dutchmen 38-26.
Maybe home cooking will help them next weekend after an 0-3 start as they host UMass on Friday and Vermont on Sunday.
Slow start on the power play
Coaches in the ECAC and you could say all the cross the country are going to be working on their power play this week. The conference is 4-for-53 for the first week plus. Teams are getting plenty chances.
Clarkson in their wins over Penn State and Michigan went 1-for-9 while St. Lawrence also went 1-for-9 against Michigan and Penn State. Colgate was 1-for-10 on the weekend and 1-for-16 on the season.Union went 0-for-8 on the weekend and 1-for-12 on the year. Quinnipiac started the season 0-for-7.
One coach isn’t overly concerned. Bobcats coach Rand Pecknold told Kyle Levasseur of Q30 Television: “It’ll just take time. (The penalty kill) usually (is) ready before (the power play) this early in the season.”
Power play units start slowly
Six NCHC teams opened their regular season slates this weekend (Omaha won an exhibition game Friday), and didn’t usually set the world alight while playing with a numerical advantage.
The conference’s teams that played counter games Friday finished with a combined two wins, a tie and two losses. Part of that can be put down to special teams play, as Colorado College, Miami, Minnesota Duluth (which defeated Minnesota in an Icebreaker tournament semifinal) and North Dakota together went 2-for-25 on the power play. UMD accounted for both goals.
Western Michigan pounded four power play goals of its own past Ferris State goaltender Justin Kapelmaster in WMU’s 6-1 win in Kalamazoo, Mich.
Saturday didn’t go much better on the power play front. CC, UND and St. Cloud State all won, but the six NCHC teams that played that night went a combined 5-for-30 when playing a man up. In the second game of a home-and-home series, WMU went 1-for-9 in a 3-2 loss at Ferris State.
Western (1-1) won’t have to wait long to get going again, as Bowling Green (0-0) visits Kalamazoo this Tuesday.
Huskies’ top defensemen, goalie dominate
St. Cloud State came out flying in its regular season opener Saturday, winning 4-0 on the road against a Minnesota State team that had swept the Huskies in Mankato this time last year. A big reason for the reversal in fortunes had to do with SCSU’s defense.
Jimmy Schuldt and Jon Lizotte, two of St. Cloud’s top four defensemen, played key roles at both ends of the ice. Schuldt scored the opening goal with a ripped shot from the blue line past Jason Palowski, later had an assist and finished plus-four. Lizotte doubled SCSU’s lead three minutes into the second period and was ultimately a plus-three on the night.
Huskies goaltender Jeff Smith was terrific, making 42 saves to record his first career shutout and his team’s first since just before last season’s holiday break. St. Cloud was outshot by MSU 42-26. Both teams went 0-for-1 on the power play.
SCSU (1-0) plays at home this next Friday and Saturday against Alaska (0-1-1), another non-conference opponent from the WCHA. The Huskies will wear pink jerseys in the second game of the series, and all proceeds from a silent auction for the jerseys will go to Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Central Minnesota.
Bulldogs finish second at Icebreaker
Minnesota Duluth hoped to use Parker Mackay’s goal 1:45 into Friday’s 4-3 overtime victory over in-state rival Minnesota as a springboard to further Icebreaker success in Saturday’s final, but that wasn’t meant to be.
Instead, Michigan Tech scored on four of its first nine shots and buried on its first three power-play opportunities in a 4-3 win at Duluth’s AMSOIL Arena. UMD led 39 seconds in on a Riley Tufte goal before Nick Wolff soon doubled the lead. The first period ended tied at 2-2, though, thanks to a Tech rally that began with a 5-on-3 power play goal at 11:47.
Scott Perunovich, one of 10 freshmen on this season’s UMD roster, briefly tied the game at 3-3 in the second period before Tech scored the eventual game-winner midway through the same frame.
UMD (1-1) faces in-state foe Bemidji State (0-0) next weekend in a home-and-home set.
On Friday, Daryl Watts’s first collegiate goal at the end of the first period was the game-winner, but that wasn’t enough as she followed it up with two more goals in the second period to help BC sweep UMD after a 4-3 win on Thursday night. BC captain Kenzie Kent opened scoring in the first while Duluth freshman Ashton Bell scored her second goal of the series to tie the game before Watts took over the scoring. Burt had 31 saves for BC while Johnson had 22 for UMD.
The win was the 250th career collegiate coaching win for BC Head Coach Katie King Crowley and Associate Head Coach Courtney Kennedy.
Friday, October 6 and Saturday, October 7 Army West Point at American International Dan: Nothing like traditional AHC rivals coming to start the season. This series dates back to 1954, and Friday will mark the 90th meeting between the Black Knights and Yellow Jackets. Army enters this weekend 63-29-7 all time. I think they make it up to 65 to start the season. Army West Point sweeps. Chris: We get down to business with conference games right out of the gate. AIC coach (and former AWP assistant) Eric Lang told the media prior to the season that while expects the Yellow Jackets to be better than last year, he can say that about every team in the league, including the Black Knights. I’m picking an Army West Point sweep.
Sacred Heart at Northeastern Dan: There’s a lot of credit due to Northeastern for their willingness to schedule Atlantic Hockey teams. I’m very interested in seeing how the SHU offense comes out against the Huskies, but since it’s the first game, there’ll be a lack of seasoning on both sides. I think Sacred Heart can make this tough, but I’m going with the Huskies. Northeastern sweep. Chris: SHU has a big challenge to start its season with a pair of games at No. 20 Northeastern. Early season upsets are to be expected, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see one here, but I’m going with a Northeastern sweep.
Air Force at Alaska Dan: Any chance I have to post this intro for the Alaska Nanooks, I’m going to do it. It’s a fun trip for anyone who makes the ride, and it’ll be made more fun by an Air Force sweep. Chris: The Falcons have made several trips to the 49th state over the years, and return after a two year hiatus. Air Force is ranked No. 17, and will technically be the favorite, but this trip always presents a challenge to visiting teams.That said, I’m picking a sweep for the Falcons.
Friday October 6 Robert Morris at Niagara Dan: To be the man, you have to beat the man. And to start the season, you could make a good case that Robert Morris is ‘”THE MAN.” I can’t promise I’ll stop making Ric Flair references this season. Robert Morris wins. Chris: This is a single meeting between with the second game scheduled for Jan. 9. RMU is the clear favorite here and that’s my pick. Robert Morris wins.
Tuesday, October 10 American International at Bentley Dan: This was originally an AIC home game but was switched a couple of weeks ago to the JAR. I’m really interested how AIC comes out of the Army weekend, but Bentley is emphasizing the need for a fast start. This is one of those games that will eventually come back into play later this year. Bentley wins. Chris: American International will open its season with three conference games in a span of five days. This will be Bentley’s first game of the season, and I think the Falcons will be ready. Bentley wins.
Let’s kick off the picks in Hockey East so that I may defend my title against Dave. Maybe he can keep it a little closer this year.
Friday, October 6
Connecticut at Maine
Jim’s pick: This could be a compelling series to start the season because it is being played in Orono. I think I’ll take the hosts on opening night. Maine 4, UConn 2
Dave’s pick: Although Alfond has been a bit of magic for the Black Bears, I’m going with the better team. UConn 3, Maine 2
New Hampshire at UMass Lowell
Jim’s pick: It’s difficult to image the Wildcats winning this one, but there are concerns on where Lowell’s goal scoring with come from. Still, not picking against the defending champs at home. UML 3, UNH 1
Dave’s pick: I think the Wildcats will have a tough time keeping it close. UML 4, UNH 1
Massachusetts at Arizona State
Jim’s pick: Let’s see if a couple of high NHL picks can make a difference for this UMass team. UMass 3, ASU 2
Dave’s pick: Arizona State swept this series last year on the road. This year, it’s at home, and I’m also betting it improved more than the Minutemen. ASU 4, UMass 2
Quinnipiac at Boston College
Jim’s pick: Part of me thinks BC is ranked right now on reputation. They get a chance out of the gate to prove people wrong. QU 3, BC 2
Dave’s pick: The 13th ranked team vs. the 14th. I’ll go with some home ice magic. BC 3, QU 2
Merrimack at Colgate
Jim’s pick: This two game series on the road for Merrimack is a challenging start. I’m feeling split here. MC 4, ‘Gate 3
Dave’s pick: I’d go with a Merrimack sweep if this were at home. I’ll stick with the Warriors on opening night. MC 3, ‘Gate 2
Providence at Miami
Jim’s pick: Let’s see how high-flying this Providence offense will be right out of the gate in an NCHC battle. PC 5, Miami 2
Dave’s pick: Unless Miami is markedly improved over last year’s squad, this won’t be close. PC 4, Miami 1
Sacred Heart at Northeastern
Jim’s pick: Slow starts have plagued the Huskies in recent year. Hopefully that’s not the case this year. NU 4, SHU 1
Dave’s pick: Those surprising early-season upsets can’t happen to the Huskies again this year, can they? NU 3, SHU 1
Colorado College at Vermont
Jim’s pick: CC played some teams tough last year, but there’s no reason to think UVM isn’t a big favorite at home. UVM 5, CC 2
Dave’s pick: CC was 8-24-4 last year. UVM 20-13-5. No contest. UVM 4, CC 0
Saturday, October 7
Connecticut at Maine
Jim’s pick: It is almost impossible for me to think this will be a sweep either way. UConn 5, Maine 2
Dave’s pick: I’m going with the UConn sweep, even on the road. UConn 3, Maine 2
UMass Lowell at New Hampshire
Jim’s pick: Different location but should be a similar result. UML 4, UNH 3
Dave’s pick: Agreed. Lowell is just too good. UML 4, UNH 2
Massachusetts at Arizona State
Jim’s pick: A two-game sweep on the road would be a great start for UMass. UMass 4, ASU 2
Dave’s pick: I’m going with the sweep the other way. ASU 4, UMass 2
Merrimack at Colgate
Jim’s pick: Like I said, this one feels like a split. ‘Gate 5, MC 3
Dave’s pick: It probably is a split, but I’m still sticking with the Warriors. MC 3, ‘Gate 2
Providence at Miami
Jim’s pick: Game two will be closer, but I think PC earns a sweep. PC 3, Miami 2
Dave’s pick: I don’t know if it gets closer, but I agree the PC sweeps. PC 4, Miami 2
Sacred Heart at Northeastern
Jim’s pick: I expect to see a lot of Huskies goals in this series NU 7, SHU 3
Dave’s pick: The Huskies show they’re clearly the better team. NU 4, SHU 1
Colorado College at Vermont
Jim’s pick: Catamounts put a stake in the ground right out of the gates. UVM 3, CC 1
Dave’s pick: Vermont does indeed come flying out of the gates. UVM 4, CC 2
Sunday, October 8
Boston University at Quinnipiac
Jim’s pick: BU continues its tough schedule to start. They passed the test last weekend against Union. Expect them to do the same this week. BU 4, QU 2
Dave’s pick: I, too, love the Terriers in this matchup. BU 4, QU 2
Hello everyone, it’s time to kick off another edition of our annual NCHC picks race. In our first four years, Candace has won the picks race and the six pack of beer that goes with it. Will Matthew finally break Candace’s stranglehold this year in the NCHC’s fifth season?
Just a reminder, you need to pick the correct winner on the correct night. Shootouts are recorded as ties, and any tie is worth half a point.
Friday, Oct. 6
No. 3 Minnesota at No. 6 Minnesota Duluth Candace: Boy this a tough opening game to call. Duluth has won the last few between these two teams; in fact, Minnesota last beat Minnesota Duluth in the Ice Breaker in October 2014. The Bulldogs also lost a ton from last season’s team, and taking on a loaded Gophers squad in their first game without last year’s talented seniors, plus Neal Pionk, Hunter Miska, and Adam Johnson, might be too tough an ask. Minnesota 4-3 Matthew: This should be a fantastic game and exactly what you want for the opening night of a first-week tournament. I want to take the homer pick here, but I’m curious to see what Duluth will look like in its own end without Messrs. Miska and Pionk. Gophers in a tight one. Minnesota 3-2
Friday-Saturday
No. 7 North Dakota at Alaska Anchorage Candace: I expect a lot from North Dakota this season, and this is a good opening series for them. North Dakota 4-2, 4-2 Matthew: North Dakota won its first five games last season, and I wouldn’t be terribly surprised to see something similar happen again. North Dakota 4-2, 3-1
No. 11 Providence at Miami Candace: I’d like to think home ice might be good for a win for Miami here, though I have no idea which night it might happen on. Decisions, decisions. Providence 3-2, Miami 3-2 Matthew: This is the first time in the Enrico Blasi era that Miami is opening the season with a non-exhibition matchup, and the Friars will be a very decent team this season. Split. Providence 3-1, Miami 3-1
Ferris State vs. No. 20 Western Michigan (home-and-home) Candace: This is a good series to learn what we can expect from the Broncos this season. Going with the league homer pick. Western Michigan 3-1, 2-1 Matthew: Ferris State struggled somewhat to score goals last season, and I’m excited to see what Ben Blacker does for Western after a very solid freshman season. This might come back to bite me, but I like Western to sweep here. Western Michigan 3-1, 3-2
Colorado College at Vermont Candace: I don’t know enough about Hockey East, but I’m not sure if Alex Leclerc will have shaken the off-season rust fully off yet. Vermont 3-2, 3-1 Matthew: CC lacks scoring talent but could sneak out of Burlington this weekend with a win or two against a Vermont team that didn’t finish games that well last season. Colorado College 3-2, Vermont 3-1
Saturday, Oct. 7
No. 9 St. Cloud State at No. 18 Minnesota State Candace: I think St. Cloud is going to a be a really tough team to beat this season. St. Cloud State 3-2 Matthew: MSU was terrific at home last season and swept St. Cloud in Mankato a year ago next week. I’ll take the Mavericks, but can certainly see SCSU winning. Minnesota State 3-2
Last weekend was a somewhat soft-open for the college hockey season. All of the teams were in action, but with the exception of Michigan Tech it was a collection of exhibition contests that leave something to be desired.
Tonight we get the real thing, and it’s a big opportunity for the WCHA to make some out-of-conference statements.
Let’s get picking…
Ferris State at/vs. Western Michigan
Jack: The Bulldogs kick off the season with their instate rivals for a home-and-home series. Last season, Ferris started the season with an eight-game winless streak. I think, which severely set the Bulldogs back down the stretch. I don’t think that happens this season. I think they’ll beat the Broncos in their home opener after dropping the first game. Broncos 5-2, Bulldogs 3-2
Sean: Out-of-conference games have been a stumbling block for the WCHA and Ferris State in recent year, and opening the season with a former CCHA rival should add some intensity to this series. I’m calling a slit, with the road team winning each game. Bulldogs 4-2, Broncos 3-1
Northern Michigan at/vs. Lake Superior State
Jack: NMU and LSSU kick off the season with a nonconference home-and-home series. Both teams were middle-of-the pack teams in the WCHA last season, and this one should be a good way to east both teams into the season without (too many) stakes. I’ll pick a split with both teams winning at home. Lakers 4-2, Wildcats 3-2
Sean: Since it’s a non-conference series between two WCHA teams it almost feels like a preseason game. The results matter, but they’ll have much bigger matchups in the future. It’s a nice soft opening for Northern Michigan to break in a new coaching staff, and I think he gets his first win at home. Lakers 3-1, Wildcats 2-1
Alabama Huntsville at Notre Dame
Jack: The Chargers have a brutal schedule to start the year: They’re on the road for eight straight games. A trip to South Bend to start the season is going to be difficult. I’ll go with an upset pick in game two, though. Let’s see if UAH can make things interesting. Irish 4-1, Chargers 1-0
Sean: As Jack pointed out, the schedule is a rough one for Alabama Huntsville. Notre Dame also isn’t an easy place to play. I smell a sweep. Irish 4-2, 5-2
North Dakota at Alaska Anchorage
Jack: The WCHA’s opening weekend, in general, is pretty brutal. Case-in-point: North Dakota is visiting Alaska Anchorage for a two-game series for the first time since leaving the WCHA. Interestingly, though, the Fighting Hawks haven’t exactly dominated the Seawolves in Alaska: They lead the all-time series just 17-14-1. I think the Seawolves will catch the Hawks tired after the long trip and steal one. Fighting Hawks 5-1, Seahawks 3-1
Sean: If Anchorage is going to knock off North Dakota they can do it at home. It’s a long trip for North Dakota and I think Anchorage will be motivated to make a statement in the season-opening series. But I still can’t see North Dakota leaving without a pair of victories. Fighting Hawks 3-1, 2-0
Air Force at Alaska
Jack: This could be another fun series to stay up late for. Air Force returns a bunch from their NCAA tournament team but lost goaltender Shane Starrett. Alaska has a solid defensive corps back. I’m not really sure how to pick these ones in the first week, so I’m going with another split. (Can you sense a theme?) Nanooks 4-1, Falcons 3-2
Sean: I don’t have the best read on Air Force, but I think Alaska has a solid defense heading into this season. It won’t be the most exciting series, but the Nanooks will get it done. Nanooks 3-1, 2-0
IceBreaker Tournament (at Duluth)
Friday: Michigan Tech vs. Union
Jack: The Huskies played well against Wisconsin last weekend, but not well enough to win. The Dutchmen, too, played a game early, falling to Boston U 4-1. I think Tech gets off the schneid first and beats Union in front of what should be a more Husky-friendly crowd in Duluth. Huskies 4-3
Sean: The WCHA desperately needs some out-of-counference success, and after a strong showing against Wisconsin I think the reigning WCHA champions will get the job done against Union. Huskies 3-2
Saturday: Michigan Tech vs. Minnesota Duluth
Jack: I’m picking UMD to beat rivals Minnesota at home. I’m also picking the defending national runners-up to beat Michigan Tech at home in the title game. Bulldogs 5-2
Sean: I’ve also got a Tech-Duluth title game, but I think the Huskies will surprise some people and pull off a close win. Huskies 2-1
St. Cloud State at Minnesota State (Saturday)
Jack: The overwhelming favorite in the WCHA takes on their instate rivals for a one-off game Saturday (they make the return trip to St. Cloud later this season). I think the Mavericks are going to take this one at home. Mavericks 4-3
Daniel Brickley is a force on the Minnesota State back end and is one of the WCHA’s preseason players of the year (photo: Shelley M. Szwast).
Ever since realignment in 2013, the WCHA has been the “Wild West” of college hockey conferences: It’s big. It’s volatile. And you never quite know what’s going to happen from one year to the next.
Case in point: Bemidji State came from nowhere to win the MacNaughton Cup by 10 points last season. Nobody picked the Beavers to win the league, but solid goaltending and defense propelled them to their first WCHA title.
This year, however, the general consensus seems to be that Minnesota State is going to be a force to be reckoned with. MSU was picked to finish first by both the coaches and the media, and for good reason — the Mavs have an absurd amount of firepower returning to the lineup.
Mavericks sophomore forward Marc Michaelis and junior defenseman Daniel Brickley were named the league’s preseason players of the year. They’re just two of the team’s returning scoring leaders — all six of MSU’s top scorers are back.
MSU coach Mike Hastings said he likes that his team is getting accolades but knows it won’t matter once the season starts.
“Obviously, we’re appreciative of the recognition but if you ask any coach, it doesn’t give us a lead on the scoresheet,” he said. “What we have to focus on is what we can control, and we’ve tried to do that since they’ve started school this season.”
Defending league champion Bemidji State was picked to finish second this season. The Beavers were chosen to finish sixth in the preseason in 2016, but went on to win it anyway.
“We’re in a league that is so tight, that has so much parity, that I don’t think it matters,” Beavers coach Tom Serratore said. “I look at us last year, I think we were the sixth-placed pick. We were fortunate enough to win the WCHA. Somebody else this year is going to start off hot. Somebody else is going to be the team to beat after four or five weekends.”
Indeed, although the Mavs look stacked, there are a few teams that could challenge them.
The Beavers return their entire defensive corps as well as their All-American Hobey Baker finalist goaltender, Michael Bitzer.
Michigan Tech has a new coach and lost a boatload of seniors, but have a solid forward group, including Brett Baltus.
Bowling Green will look to reload after losing to Tech in the WCHA finals, but boasts veteran defenders Chris Pohlkamp and Alec Rauhauser, as well as scorer Mitch McLain.
“This league has gotten better since I’ve been in it, and I think it’s going to be an exciting time for the entire league,” Michigan Tech head coach Joe Shawhan said. “I think a lot of the teams have geared their cycles to be extremely strong this year.”
Shawhan is one of three new coaches in the conference this season, along with Alaska’s Lance West and Northern Michigan’s Grant Potulny.
Potulny is new to the league after spending eight years as an assistant at Minnesota. Shawhan and West both were promoted within their respective programs.
“I’ve been around college hockey for a while, and I have a lot of respect for the coaches that are in our league,” West said. “So I know what kind of challenge I had ahead of myself here, and I want to thank all the guys who did reach out to me and congratulate me and give me some advice. So I appreciate and have a lot of respect for those guys.”
Whichever team ends up taking home the MacNaughton Cup (or the Broadmoor Trophy), one thing is clear to all the coaches in the league.
“When teams come out of our league, they’re battle-tested and I don’t think that’s going to be any different this year once the WCHA is done,” Hastings said.
TEAM PREVIEWS (in alphabetical order)
Alabama Huntsville
Last Season
9-22-3, 9-16-3 (9th in WCHA). Missed WCHA playoffs.
Names To Know
Junior blueliner Kurt Gosselin, an All-WCHA third teamer last season, anchors what should be an experienced Chargers defensive corps. Gosselin shared the team’s goalscoring lead (nine) last season with senior forward Josh Kestner, who led UAH with 22 points.
Three Questions
1. Will the Chargers’ goaltending hold up? Last season UAH had a team save percentage of .887 after a pair of down years from the now-departed tandem of Carmine Guerriero and Matt Larose. Jordan Uhelski wound up playing the majority of minutes in net last season and he’ll be their go-to guy this year.
2. How good will that defensive group be? Chargers head coach Mike Corbett touted his defense as the strength of the team, and it’s easy to see why: aside from Gosselin (a preseason all-league selection), the Chargers have experience on the back end with seniors Brandon Parker and Richard Buri and juniors Cam Knight and John Teets. The Chargers will be counting on that defensive unit to make up for any goaltending issues they might have early.
3. Who can score? UAH will want to find ways to get Kestner the puck, but they won’t be able to rely on one guy. Max McHugh and Brennan Saulnier both return, while freshmen forwards Connor Merkley and Andrew Dodson could see some playing time right away.
Crystal Ball
The Chargers have a solid defensive group and a few scorers, but goaltending is going to be the question. They’ll be a bubble team for the WCHA playoffs, and it will likely depend on how good they are at keeping the puck out if the net.
Alaska
Last Season
12-20-4, 11-13-4 (6th in WCHA). Lost to Minnesota State in WCHA first round.
Names To Know
New Alaska coach Lance West has been with the program since 2008-09, so his ascension to the head coaching gig after Dallas Ferguson departed for the WHL is a natural one. But two of the most notable names to know are guys who have battled back from injury and illness. Senior captain Justin Woods missed his entire 2014-15 season when he was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer. He’s now the team’s best defenseman. And junior defender Kyle Froese hasn’t played in nearly two years after suffering various ailments, but West says he’s healthy and will be one of the team’s anchors on the blueline.
Three Questions
1. How good can their defensive corps be? Anchored by Woods, Froese and all-WCHA honorable mention Zach Frye, West said the Nanooks have nine defensemen on the roster, all of whom have played important roles in some time in their Alaska career. West said his biggest challenge will be deciding who has to be a healthy scratch every night.
2. Who plays in goal? The Nanooks find themselves in the precarious and unique position of having zero games played in the nets. Davis Jones graduated and Jesse Jenks left the program somewhat late in the game. That leaves sophomores Niko DellaMaggiore and Anton Martinsson, neither of whom appeared in a game last season (although DellaMaggiore does have one stat line from last season — he was penalized for his role in a post-handshake skirmish). West said both have been solid in practice and that Martinsson especially could be a No. 1-caliber player for the team.
3. Will Nanooks make the most of their tough (and brief) nonconference schedule? Alaska has just two true nonconference series this season, and both come early in the season — they host Air Force to start the season before heading to St. Cloud State. If they can win even one or two games it would go a long way toward improving their mediocre record.
Crystal Ball
The Nanooks were sixth in the conference last season but, as a testament to how close this league usually is, were only four points behind home ice. If they can figure out their goaltending they could be a tough team to beat and could again be fighting for that home ice space.
Alaska Anchorage
Last Season
7-21-6, 6-16-6 (10th in WCHA). Missed WCHA playoffs.
Names To Know
Senior goalie Olivier Mantha had a .913 save percentage last season, which was rather impressive on a team with a sub-par record. Senior Matt Anholt had a team-high 22 points as a junior, while Jarrett Brown had 15 points from the blue line.
Three Questions
1. How will the Seawolves replace key player? Anchorage lost a larger part of its core as Aleksi Ainali, Sean MacTavish, Mason Mitchell, Chase Van Allen, and Eric Roberts all left the program early for a variety of reasons. Add in four key losses to graduations and a young team will be asked to step up.
2. How good can Mantha be? The goalie was good under heavy fire last season and he’ll be asked to handle a similar workload this season. His ability in the net could be key to Anchorage sneaking into the playoffs.
3. Who will score? Only one player (Mitchell) had double-digit goals last season and he signed a pro contract after the season. There seems to be a severe lack of offensive punch and the Seawolves will have to score by committee.
Crystal Ball
Mantha can only take his team so far and steal so many games. The Seawolves will likely be on the outside of the playoff race at the end of the season.
Bemidji State
Last Season
22-16-3, 20-6-2 (first in WCHA). Lost to Bowling Green in WCHA semifinals.
Names To Know
Hobey Baker finalist Michael Bitzer returns for his senior season in goal and will be a key player as the Beavers try to repeat as MacNaughton Cup champions. And who could forget the “Baby Genius” line of Gerry, Myles and Leo Fitzgerald? They’re seniors now, too, with Gerry being the team’s top returning scorer.
Tom Serratore has Bemidji State primed for another run at a WCHA title (photo: Bradley K. Olson).
Three Questions
1. Will defense be able to carry them again? Bitzer’s numbers last season were eye-popping — 1.71 goals against average, a .932 save percentage and six shutouts in 39 games played. He played nearly every minute for the Beavers — 2,355:22, to be exact — and sat out just two games. That’s a lot of work to put on a goalie, but the Beavers have one of the league’s better defensive corps to pick up the slack. All six players who were in BSU’s main rotation return, including all-rookie team selection Zach Whitecloud. BSU ended up finishing second in the country in scoring defense, allowing just 1.93 goals against.
2. Will they be able to score? BSU’s main downfall last season was scoring. The Beavers netted just 94 goals in 41 games (2.29 goals per game). But they lost three of their top five scorers to graduation (Phil Marinaccio, Brendan Harms and Charlie O’Connor), which won’t make scoring any easier. BSU does return the Fitzgeralds as well as the speedy Kyle Bauman. They also add a pair of high-scoring freshmen in Brendan Harris and Charlie Combs, both of whom lit up the BCHL last season.
3. Will BSU be able to get over the hump? If not for some nonconference hiccups, the Beavers night have been able to secure an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. However, they ended up going 0-7-1 in nonconference play. They then lost to Bowling Green in the WCHA semifinals. Their schedule does them no favors again this year, but a couple more wins might go a long way if they can take care of business in the conference.
Crystal Ball
The Beavers surprised just about everybody last year when they went on a 12-game unbeaten streak to start the season. That helped them win the league fairly handily. They won’t surprise anyone this year. If Bitzer and the defense stay consistent and the Beavers can find some players to step in and replace those departed scorers, expect them to be in the mix for the MacNaughton once again.
Bowling Green
Last Season
19-17-2 overall, 14-13-1-1 (fourth WCHA). Lost in WCHA Championship
Names To Know
The Falcons have some re-loading to do after a run to the WCHA championship game last season, but a majority of the defense returns. Alec Rauhauser and Chris Pohlkamp will anchor the defense, while Mitchell McLain will be asked to spearhead the offense.
Three Questions
1. How do the Falcons look in goal? Chris Nell signed a pro contract with the New York Rangers, leaving a void in the crease. Ryan Bednard is a Florida Panthers draft pick and appeared in seven games as a freshman last season. How well will he transition to a full-time starting role in Bowling Green?
2. Where will the goals come from? Kevin Dufour and Matt Pohlkamp are gone, so are reliable defenders Mark Friedman and Sean Walker — who both provided some zip from the blue line. The Falcons do have nine of their 12 forwards back from the WCHA championship game last season, and the window of opportunity is wide open after BGSU averaged 2.93 goals per game last season.
3. Can they stay competitive? Bowling Green has made major strides under Chris Bergeron, but is still seeking that elusive WCHA title. Can they stay in the title hunt in a re-building year? That’s often the mark of a strong program.
Crystal Ball
The Falcons will have some struggles early with all the changes, but they should still be in the running to host a first-round playoff series before finishing fifth and traveling in the first round.
Ferris State
Last Season
13-19-15, 12-12-4 (fifth in WCHA). Lost to Bowling Green in WCHA first round.
Names To Know
The Bulldogs have a nice tandem in net with Justin Kapelmaster and Darren Smith, while Kapelmaster should get the lion’s share of the starts after posting a .930 save percentage last season. Corey Mackin had 26 points last season and seems primed for a breakout season.
Three Questions
1. Who helps Mackin? While Mackin is back Ferris State did lose Gerald Mayhew and Jared Van Wormer. Their absence will require other players to step up, while it will also create new opportunities on the Bulldogs power play.
2. How good can Kapelmaster be? It’s one thing to have a strong season without any expectations, it’s another thing to build on it and live up to those goals in the second season. Kapelmaster seems to be in a good spot with a reliable defense in front of him.
3. Can the improve in non-conference play? This is a question for the entire conference, but Ferris State was one of the prime examples. While they were a playoff team and .500 hockey team in the WCHA, the Bulldogs went 1-6-1 in nonconference action.
Crystal Ball
Bob Daniels has the reliable goaltending and defense to compete for a title, while the offense is a little suspect. The Bulldogs may not win the regular season title, but they’ll be hosting a first-round series at the fourth-place team.
Lake Superior State
Last Season
11-18-7, 8-13-17 (fourth in WCHA). Lost to Michigan Tech in WCHA first round
Names To Know
J.T. Henke, Gage Torrel, and Max Humitz should be the offensive leaders for the Lakers, who pack some scoring punch. Nick Kossof should take over the starting role in net and has a reliable defense in front of him.
Three Questions
1. Which Kossof be the Lakers’ answer in net? Two seasons ago, Kossof had a .918 save percentage as a freshman in a 13 games. As a sophomore, he struggled in a more reduced role with a .881 save percentage in six games. How will he seize the starting role?
2. Can the Lakers start and finish strong? Last season, Lake State was one of the better teams in the WCHA for the first half of the season, but things cooled down and they stumbled to the finish line. How consistent can this group be throughout the season?
3. Can Henke hit 40? Henke had a team-best 30 points last season. With another year of experience and a potent lineup around him, could Henke hit the 40-point marker this season?
Crystal Ball
The Lakers have the firepower to outscore their problems early, but will that be enough of a cushion for the defense and goaltending to catch up? They’ll compete for a top-four spot, but will finish sixth and travel in the first round.
Michigan Tech
Last Season
23-15-7, 15-7-6 (second in WCHA). Beat Bowling Green in WCHA championship. Lost to Denver in NCAA first round.
Names To Know
New head coach Joe Shawhan takes over after spending three years as an assistant to Mel Pearson. Fifth-year senior captain Brent Baltus will return to lead a team that lost a good chunk of their roster from last year’s NCAA tournament team.
Joel L’Esperance registered 28 points to lead Michigan Tech in scoring during the 2016-17 season (photo: Jim Rosvold).
Three Questions
1. Will Tech be able to absorb all of their personnel losses? Pearson wasn’t the only notable departure from Michigan Tech in the offseason. The Huskies also lost seven seniors to graduation and saw the early departure of defenseman Matt Roy and goaltender Angus Redmond, both of whom went pro. That Baltus, who played in just 14 games last season before suffering a season-ending injury, was able to return for a fifth year will be a big boon for Tech, who will need some solid leadership after losing so many.
2. Will Packy Munson be the answer in the net? Losing goalie Angus Redmond after his freshman season was a big blow for the Huskies, but the addition of Munson, a transfer from Denver, will give the Huskies an experienced option this season. Munson started his career at Vermont and went 9-10-1 as a freshmen there before transferring to Denver, where he didn’t play. The Huskies also have the option of Devin Kero, who appeared in nine games as a sophomore, and freshman Robbie Beydoun.
3. Will the Huskies be able to score like they have in the past? Last season, Tech netted 2.91 goals per game, but four of their top six scorers are gone. Top scorer Joel L’Esperance does return, as does defenseman Mark Auk, but who else will be able to step in and fill the void?
Crystal Ball
The Huskies have been very consistent for the past four seasons, but are now faced with a bit of a rebuild after losing so many talented players. With a new head coach and a new group, I think they’ll finish in the middle of the table this season.
Minnesota State
Last Season
22-13-4, 15-9-4 (third in WCHA). Lost to Michigan Tech in WCHA semifinals.
Names To Know
The preseason league favorite, the Mavericks have no shortage of big names on their roster. Sophomore forward Marc Michaelis and junior defenseman Daniel Brickley were the preseason players of the year. Also of note: C.J. Suess is not a new addition to the Mavs. The senior forward was the team’s second-leading scorer as a junior but changed legally his surname from Franklin to Seuss in the offseason.
Three Questions
1. Can the Mavericks live up to the hype? Minnesota state was the consensus pick to finish first in the WCHA, and for good reason — they have a deep forward and defense group with plenty of high-end talent. They’ve been here before, but they’ve got some challenges right off the bat — a single game against St. Cloud, followed by trips to Boston University and Bowling Green. If they can get off to a good start in both nonconference and conference seasons they’ll be in a good spot.
2. How many goals can they score? The Mavericks return all of their top six scorers in Michaelis, Brickley, Suess, Brad McClure, Zeb Knutson and Ian Scheid. All six tallied more than 20 points, with the first three reaching the 30s. MSU is the only team in the league that really seems to have an unambiguous scoring punch. They could be really fun to watch if you like high-scoring, up-and-down hockey.
3. Will goaltending be an issue? The only thing that might be MSU’s downfall is lack of experience in the nets. Cole Huggins graduated, and while senior Aaron Nelson and junior Jason Pawloski have had their moments, they haven’t shown themselves to be among the elite goaltenders in the conference. If the Mavs can score in bunches, it might not matter, but if one of them can become a solid No. 1 they’ll be a tough team to beat.
Crystal Ball
The Mavericks seem to be one of the most talented teams in the WCHA, at least on paper, since realignment. They’ll almost certainly be in contention for the MacNaughton Cup again this season, and don’t be surprised if they’re in the running for a top seed in the NCAA tournament come March.
Northern Michigan
Last Season
13-22-4 overall, 10-15-3 (eighth in WCHA). Lost to Bemidji State in WCHA first round
Names To Know
Like any first-year coach, Grant Potulny is the big name this season. After 15 years under Walt Kyle there will be a new boss in Northern Michigan. Atte Tolvanen is one of the better goalies in the WCHA.
Three Questions
1. How will the new system fit? After 15 years of one coaching staff, making a change at the top is never easy. Potulny seems to have the right energy and has brought a nice vibe campus already.
2. Is this the best goalie tandem in the WCHA? Atte Tolvanen has been known for his lengthy shutout streaks and there are times he’s simply looked unbeatable. He also has a more than capable back-up in Mathias Israelsson, meaning NMU should be set in the crease each night.
Atte Tolvanen looks to start the 2017-18 season as the No. 1 goalie for Northern Michigan (photo: Jim Rosvold).
3. Which young scorer steps up? Northern Michigan lost three of its top-five offensive players from last season. Who will fill that void and will it be enough?
Crystal Ball
Northern Michigan has the defense to be one of the better teams in the WCHA, but the offense is severely lacking. They’ll finish seventh, but could be a sneaky pick to pull off a first-round upset with strong defense and goaltending.
And just like that, it’s a brand new season. While Drew Claussen and I were otherwise engaged in writing our Big Ten season preview last week, Wisconsin was busy beating Michigan Tech, 3-2. We’re not counting that game in our picks blog.
Here’s how we finished the regular season last year:
Drew: 82-50-15 (.609) Paula: 82-50-15 (.609)
If I were a betting woman, I’d put money on Drew this season. Time will tell.
This week
Five B1G Ten teams will open regular-season play, six teams will play games that count and Michigan State hosts Toronto in exhibition play. All times are local. The most exciting thing about this weekend? There is actual Big Ten conference play and it’s only the second weekend of the season.
No. 19 Ohio State at No. 12 Wisconsin
Drew: It should be interesting having a conference series this early in the season. Wisconsin comes in with the advantage of having played a real game this season and having home-ice advantage. I think Ohio State should be a decent middle-of-the-conference-standings-type team this year, but this looks set up to be a Wisconsin sweep. I say Wisconsin takes advantage of an unsettled Ohio State goaltending situation and wins one close game and one blowout.
Paula: Isn’t this delicious? B1G hockey right now? And Drew is calling against Ohio State? The Badgers were picked third in the preseason coaches poll and the Buckeyes fifth. Wisconsin is 17-9-3 all-time against Ohio State but 5-8-3 against the Buckeyes in Big Ten play. Last season, Wisconsin was 3-2-0 vs. Ohio State, with that rubber match counting the most, a 2-1 win in the Big Ten tournament. These teams will also end their regular season facing off against each other in Columbus. Friday’s game, carried by Fox Sports Wisconsin begins at 7:07 p.m. Saturday’s game starts at 5:07 p.m. and is untelevised.
No. 3 Minnesota at No. 6 Minnesota-Duluth and vs. Union/Michigan Tech
Drew: I think the Gophers have more talent than Minnesota-Duluth this season and if this game was later in the season or a home contest for Minnesota, I would pick them. That being said, I’m going with the Bulldogs to open their season at home with a win in a close game. Whether they play Union or Michigan Tech in the second game, and I’ll pick Tech to win the other Friday match up just for kicks, and I believe the Gophers will win on Saturday.
Paula: This is the 21st annual Ice Breaker Tournament, hosted by Duluth at AMSOIL Arena, and it’s a strong field that should produce a good weekend of hockey. Minnesota is picked first in the B1G preseason coaches poll. The Bulldogs are picked fourth in the preseason NCHC poll. Union is picked sixth in the ECAC coaches poll and tied for sixth in the ECAC media poll. Michigan Tech is third in the WCHA preseason poll. My favorite note of the week: Friday’s game is the 232nd meeting all-time between Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth. The Gophers lead this series 134-80-17, but the Bulldogs beat the Gophers 3-2 when they met Jan. 27, 2017.
The last time Minnesota played Union was in the 2014 NCAA championship game, a 7-4 Union win. Should the Gophers face the Huskies Saturday, it will be the first time the teams have met since they both belonged to the WCHA. They split a two-game set in October 2012.
Friday’s game against Duluth begins at 7:37 p.m. and is televised by KBJR-DT2, Channel 6.2/Charter 9. Regardless of their opponent, the Gophers play at 4:07 p.m. Saturday and the game is not televised.
Drew’s picks: Minnesota-Duluth 4-3 over Minnesota, Minnesota 4-1 over Union. Paula’s picks: Minnesota-Duluth 3-2, Minnesota 3-2.
Alabama-Huntsville at No. 8 Notre Dame
Drew: Don’t really see anything other than an Irish sweep here. Any other result would be massively disappointing for Notre Dame.
Paula: I agree. The Chargers finished ninth in the WCHA last season, which is where they’re picked to finish this season. Notre Dame is 6-1-0 against UAH all-time and the teams last met in 2014, when the Irish outscored the Chargers 12-1 in a two-game sweep. Friday’s game begins at 7:35 p.m., Saturday’s at 7:05 p.m., and neither is televised.
Drew: I do believe Mel Pearson will get Michigan back on track eventually, but this season is looking like it could be a down one in Ann Arbor. Michigan and St. Lawrence have played 15 times over the years, but this will be the first time that the Wolverines will travel to Canton, New York since 1959. Michigan has won eight consecutive games against the Saints, but I’m going to say that ends this weekend.
Paula: The Saints were picked to finish seventh in the ECAC by the coaches in the preseason poll, eighth by the media. The Golden Knights were picked fourth by the coaches, fifth by the media. Michigan is 12-2-1 against St. Lawrence, but the teams haven’t met since 2011; the Wolverines are 3-1-0 against the Golden Knights, but the teams haven’t met since 2008. I think everything depends on Michigan’s goaltending this weekend, and I’m going to call against common sense. The Wolverines play the Saints Friday and the Golden Knights Saturday. Both games begin at 7:00 p.m. and neither is televised.
Drew’s picks: St. Lawrence 3-2 over Michigan, Michigan 4-2 over Clarkson. Paula’s picks: Michigan sweeps 3-2, 3-2.
No. 10 Penn State at Clarkson and St. Lawrence
Drew: Both of these opponents finished with winning records last season, so this should be a tough road test for Penn State. Clarkson is missing its top four scorers from last year, so I think the Nittany Lions will be able to out-gun the Golden Knights on opening night. On Saturday, I’ll pick Penn State to get edged in a high-scoring affair.
Paula: This series is the flip side of the B1G road trip to New York’s North Country. The Nittany Lions and Golden Knights have met just once, when Penn State beat Clarkson 5-1 during the 2015 Three Rivers Classic. St. Lawrence leads Penn State 2-1-1 all-time, but that PSU win was last season’s home opener in Pegula Arena. I honestly don’t know how the Nittany Lions will fare this season and I like both of these ECAC teams. Penn State plays Clarkson Friday and St. Lawrence Saturday. Both games begin at 7:00 p.m. and neither is televised.
Drew’s picks: Penn State 5-2 over Clarkson, St. Lawrence 5-4 over Penn State. Paula’s picks: Clarkson 4-3, Penn State 3-2.
Last weekend was Christmas Eve with soft opening of the College Hockey season. This weekend is like Christmas Day with the all the conferences having regular season games. As always our Ivy League friends still have a few more weeks before they can start going.
All times are EDT.
Friday’s Games
Union vs. Michigan Tech, at Duluth, Minn. (IceBreaker), 5 p.m.
Both teams will have a game under their belt heading into the IceBreaker. Both teams faced Top 20 opponents and both held their own. I expect a close game with a 4-3 scoreline. I will take the Dutchmen 4-2.
Quinnipiac at Boston College, 7 p.m.
This will be a good test for the Bobcats. The Eagles appear not to have the top end talent as in years past but have depth. This should be a low scoring affair with strong goaltending on both sides. I believe Quinnipiac can steal a game at Conte Forum. Quinnipiac wins 2-1.
Penn State at Clarkson, 7 p.m.
This should be an intriguing matchup as can Penn State continue where they left off from last season. Will the Golden Knights can make that next step. I think the Nittany Lions bring back too much skill. Penn State wins 4-1.
Michigan at St. Lawrence, 7 p.m.
Both teams have some question marks heading into the season. Will the Saints have the fire power to get past the Wolverines’ defense. Are Michigan’s freshmen ready to make an impact right away? I think Michigan defense and goaltending can carry them. Michigan wins 3-2.
Merrimack at Colgate, 7:30 p.m.
The Raiders got off to a positive start with their victory over Niagara. They have a step up in competition in Hockey East opponent Merrimack. I think having that one game under their belt will help them. Colgate wins 5-3.
Saturday’s Games
Michigan at Clarkson, 7 p.m.
I think the Golden Knights match-up better against the Wolverines than the Saints do. I think their offense is a little stronger than St. Lawrence heading into the year and have more experienced goaltending. Still I think Michigan has a little more depth. Michigan, 3-2
Penn State at St. Lawrence, 7 p.m.
While the loss of Gavin Bayruther hurts the Saints, they have experience defense coming back this season. Will that defense be ready to stop Penn State’s offense? That’s the biggest question I have. Penn State wins 6-2.
Merrimack at Colgate, 7:30 p.m.
In the second game of the weekend series, it’s always hard to win two games in a row against opponent. I think Merrimack will be comfortable in their surrounding. I believe they will leave Hamilton with a split. Merrimack wins 6-4.
Union at Minnesota-Duluth (IceBreaker), 8:30 p.m.
I am picking the Bulldogs to beat their in-state rival Minnesota. I don’t think it will be an ideal matchup for the Dutchmen against the national runners up. With their returning players and playing in Duluth. Bulldogs win 5-2.
Sunday’s Game
Boston University at Quinnipiac, 2 p.m.
The Bobcats finish the battle between Commwealth Ave. schools on Sunday as they host the Terriers. While BU have lost some highend talent like the Eagles, they have seemed to reloaded better than the Eagles. BU may be too much to handle. Terriers win 6-3.
Tanner Jaillet captured the 2017 Mike Richter Award as a junior at Denver (photo: Bradley K. Olson).
The 20 goalies named to the watch list for the 2018 Mike Richter Award, which annually honors the most outstanding goaltender in NCAA Division I men’s hockey, were announced Thursday.
Player's Name
Class
School
Michael Bitzer
Sr.
Bemidji State
Ben Blacker
So.
Western Michigan
Hayden Hawkey
Jr.
Providence
Kyle Hayton
Sr.
Wisconsin
Adam Huska
So.
Connecticut
Tanner Jaillet
Sr.
Denver
Cam Johnson
Sr.
North Dakota
Peyton Jones
So.
Penn State
Justin Kapelmaster
So.
Ferris State
Jake Kielly
So.
Clarkson
Merrick Madsen
Sr.
Harvard
Francis Marotte
So.
Robert Morris
Jake Oettinger
So.
Boston University
Jason Pawloski
Jr.
Minnesota State
Aidan Pelino
So.
Bentley
Eric Schierhorn
Jr.
Minnesota
Andrew Shortridge
So.
Quinnipiac
Atte Tolvanen
Jr.
Northern Michigan
Tyler Wall
So.
UMass Lowell
Joseph Woll
So.
Boston College
The winner of the fifth annual award will be announced at the 2018 Frozen Four in St. Paul, Minn., next April.
Well, Nicole and I both did OK in our first week, and I did get out to a one-game lead in our season picks race. Overall, I went 12-4-3 (.710) and Nicole went 11-5-3 (.657). We both have some different picks this week, so let’s see how it goes.
Thursday-Friday, Oct. 5-6
Minneosta-Duluth at Boston College Candace: I think both games will be close, but I’m picking the Eagles to sweep. Boston College 2-1, 3-2 Nicole: I expect this be close, but calling a split. BC wins game one, UMD wins game two. Boston College 3-1, Minnesota-Duluth 2-1
Friday-Saturday, Oct. 6-7
Northeastern vs. Boston University (home-and-home) Candace: Hard to pick this. I’ll go for the home ice split. Boston University 3-2, Northeastern 4-2 Nicole: Northeastern sweeps. Northeastern 4-2, 3-0
Merrimack at New Hampshire (home-and-home) Candace: I’m tempted to pick a sweep, but I think a home ice split is more likely. New Hampshire 3-2, Merrimack 3-1 Nicole: I’m going with Merrimack for the sweep. Merrimack 3-1, 2-0
Bemidji State at Clarkson Candace: Bemidji will use its usual defensive push to make it interesting, but Clarkson prevails. Clarkson 4-2, 4-2 Nicole: Clarkson takes the weekend. Clarkson 4-2, 3-0
St. Cloud at Colgate Candace: St. Cloud will be a tough out, but I think Colgate sweeps. Colgate 3-1, 3-2 Nicole: I wouldn’t be surprised if SCSU sneaks one after last season, but giving Colgate home ice advantage. Colgate 3-2, 4-2
St. Lawrence at Mercyhurst Candace: I don’t think Mercyhurst is strong enough. St. Lawrence gets the sweep. St. Lawrence 3-2, 3-1 Nicole: I’ll call a split. St. Lawrence 3-2, Mercyhurst 2-1
Union at Penn State Candace: If Penn State can score, I like them to sweep. Penn State 2-1, 3-2 Nicole: Penn State should sweep. Penn State 3-0, 3-1
Providence at Quinnipiac Candace: Really unsure of both teams at the moment. Providence can score, but its defense is suspect. Quinnipiac is the opposite. Quinnipiac 3-2, 3-2 Nicole: Not sure on both of these teams yet so I’ll call a split. Qunnipiac 2-0, Providence 1-0
Maine at Rensselaer Candace: Maine looked good last weekend, so I have to pick them. Maine 3-1, 3-1 Nicole: Picking Maine to sweep. Maine 3-1, 3-1
Wisconsin at Syracuse Candace: I think Syracuse might make it interesting, but the Badgers sweep. Wisconsin 4-2, 3-2 Nicole: Badgers take the weekend. Wisconsin 4-1, 4-2
Ohio State at Minnesota Candace: Ohio State will make the Gophers nervous in at least one game, but I think Minnesota comes out like gangbusters after the split last weekend. Minnesota 3-1, 3-2 Nicole: Ohio State has pushed each of the WCHA teams in recent years so I’ll give them a shot at stealing one here. Ohio State 3-2, Minnesota 3-1
Saturday, Oct. 7
Vermont at Connecticut Candace: Not sure on this game at all. I’ll go with home ice as the deciding factor. Connecticut 2-1 Nicole: Vermont wins on the road. Vermont 2-0
Saturday-Sunday, Oct. 7-8
Robert Morris at Minnesota State Candace: I think these will be one-goal games, but the Colonials prevail. Robert Morris 3-2, 3-2 Nicole: Robert Morris should sweep. Robert Morris 4-0, 3-1
Tuesday. Oct. 10
Union at Vermont Candace: I like the Catamounts here. Vermont 3-2 Nicole: Home ice is the difference. Vermont 2-0
Senior defenseman Savannah Harmon (Clarkson – 14). (Shelley M. Szwast)
Despite winning their second national championship in three years, it’s been business as usual in upstate New York at Clarkson University to start the season. Coach Matt Desrosiers has been very impressed with his team’s focus and work ethic. It was just weeks after their March win that the team was in the weight room and focusing on a new year.
“There hasn’t been a lot of talk about being defending national champions or preseason favorites or whatever because our players know that none of that stuff really matters because it’s a new year,” said Desrosiers. “We’re just focused on ourselves and our process and we know anything can happen. Just because we are the defending national champions doesn’t mean anything. We’ve lost players. Other teams have lost and gained players. It’s a totally new season, and I think our players are really focused on going out there and playing their best hockey.”
If the Golden Knights weren’t already on everyone’s radar, they are now. When they upset Minnesota to win the title in 2014, it felt a bit like a coming out party. But naysayers were quick to point out that the title was won in an Olympic year. With last year’s win, Clarkson solidified that they are a program to reckon with, and Desrosiers said his team feels vindicated with their second championship win, silencing anyone that may have doubted the team before.
As the parity in the game continues to rise and with some of the top talent in the country playing for their national teams in the Olympics, women’s college hockey is more wide open than ever. The results of the first two weekends prove it. Desrosiers and his team know that nothing is guaranteed, and nothing that happened last year matters when it comes to putting in the work for this season.
“Just think that teams are just getting that much better. That’s why things are so much more exciting week in and week out. Every single year there’s far more talent and more teams that have a legitimate shot at winning some championships, either league championships or national championships. You can’t take any weeks off. You have to make sure your teams are prepared each and every week no matter who the opponents are. I firmly believe any team can beat any other team on any given night. That’s just where our game is at.”
It’s that wide open field of a brand-new season that brings a new set of challenges — though Desrosiers said his team relishes the pressure that comes with everyone gunning for you.
“They know they have the big target on their back and they somewhat welcome that,” said Desrosiers. “They know they’re going to get everyone’s best game, but when you’re a high level team, you want to get everyone’s best game. You want to be able to go out there and play your best and prove to everyone you’re the team to beat.”
Though the women’s team at Clarkson has cemented itself as a program of national renown, Desrosiers said the titles haven’t made recruiting all that much easier. They are still a team at a small school in upstate New York after all.
While the coaching staff no longer has to introduce who Clarkson is to potential players and their parents, Desrosiers said they still have an uphill climb to convince recruits to head to Potsdam instead of Boston, Minneapolis, or Madison.
“Previously to our championships we weren’t a big name school. We had to work a little harder to get people to know who we are. People know Clarkson a little bit more now. We’re still a small, upstate New York school. We don’t have the flash and glitz and glam know of those big name schools. We still have to work to let recruits and parents know what Clarkson is about and what we do here.”
It’s also an uphill climb to return to the top. The Golden Knights opened the season with a win and a tie against Northeastern. With six new faces on the team, they have to work hard to find the chemistry that helped carry them to the top last season. Desrosiers said the team is extremely close-knit, and he feels like fans should be able to see how that relationship translates on the ice.
If Clarkson returns to the Frozen Four, it will be in large part due to the experience the team has gained over the past few years — not just in big-time games, but through the slog of a long season.
“Nothing can really make up for experience. Having players that have been in those types of situation before and … understand exactly what it takes to have a championship season (is crucial),” he said. “It’s not just the end goal that we’re focused on, it’s the entire process through the entire year. That type of experience is kind of invaluable.”
With key pieces back for 2017-18, Denver may be taking another photo like this next April (photo: Jim Rosvold).
As it enters its fifth year, the NCHC has established itself in a short time as the powerhouse conference in college hockey.
In each of the last three years, the conference sent two teams to the Frozen Four and had the best out-of-conference winning percentage in college hockey.
Last season, the NCHC went 48-21-14 9 (.663); in 2015-16, it was 48-26-10 (.631); and in 2014-15, it went 53-25-4 (.671). For comparison sake, the NCHC has been over half a percentage point better in winning percentage than the next-closest conference in each of those years.
On top of that, the NCHC boasts back-to-back national champions in Denver last season and North Dakota the season before, and last year, Denver had to beat another NCHC team, Minnesota Duluth, in the national championship game.
“It’s competitive,” said North Dakota coach Brad Berry. “When you look at it, you’ve got eight very good teams in the NCHC, and it’s funny because everybody has rankings and polls and different things like that, and it’s a lot tighter than you think every year, and I think that’s good. I think it makes a team battle-tested and ready to go and has a chance to win at the next level in the postseason tournament.”
The NCHC looks poised to be a dominant force again. Four NCHC teams — Denver, Minnesota Duluth, North Dakota, and St. Cloud State — were ranked in the top 10 in the USCHO.com preseason poll. A fifth, Western Michigan, was ranked 20th. The Big 10 and Hockey East also had five teams ranked in the top 20, followed by the ECAC with three and Atlantic Hockey and the WCHA with one each. However, neither the Big 10 nor Hockey East have as many teams in the top 10.
“You know when the dust settles like last year again we were almost 1-8 in strength of schedule and then our conference, we always seem as a conference to try to schedule very tough nonconference schedule games as well,” said St. Cloud State coach Bob Motzko. “That’s one thing I think our league’s very prideful of. … There’s no question that day in, night out, it’s a challenge. It’s exciting for athletes to play in a conference like this and going to year five now, you know we all talk about this; it’s accepted.”
The coaches also see a correlation between the grind of the league and its success in the postseason, as they feel playing such a competitive schedule in the NCHC prepares them for the intensity experienced in the postseason.
“I think when you come in here, I think the league talks about it a lot, I mean, the strength of our league,” said Minnesota Duluth coach Scott Sandelin. “The challenges are really good. I think when you’re playing weekend after weekend in our league, for me I think it really keeps your kids focused on the practice and really working hard to get better, because you have to. There are no easy nights, not just in our league but in college hockey, but especially in our league, and I think it’s a big reason why we keep pushing each other to get better.”
This season looks to be another strong one for the conference. Denver is the preseason favorite as conference champions, and the Pioneers, who return most of the offense from their championship-winning team of last year, as well as Mike Richter Award winner Tanner Jaillet, are on a short list of teams favored to win the national championship.
“I think our players that are returning are used to dealing with high expectations and having a little bit of a target on our back,” said Denver coach Jim Montgomery. “The key is going to be are we prepared as a group to work as hard as we did last year and be as hard as we were to play against in our details and our kids in order to have success again this year. I think we’re going to worry about ourselves and we feel that if we’re playing Denver hockey, that you know even though we have a target on our back that we’re still going to be able to do good things if we just worry about ourselves and our process.”
NCHC preseason picks
Candace
1) Denver
2) North Dakota
3) St. Cloud State
4) Minnesota Duluth
5) Miami
6) Western Michigan
7) Omaha
8) Colorado College
Matthew
1) Denver
2) North Dakota
3) Minnesota Duluth
4) Western Michigan
5) St. Cloud State
6) Omaha
7) Miami
8) Colorado College
TEAM PREVIEWS (in alphabetical order)
Colorado College
Last season
8-24-4 (4-16-4 NCHC)
Lost to Denver in the first round of the NCHC tournament.
Names to know
The bad news for Colorado College is the Tigers lost three of their top four scorers from last year’s team. The good news is that those three players didn’t account for too much scoring, with two averaging half a point a game and one averaging a third of a point a game.
Offense has been in short supply for the Tigers in recent years. Last season, they were ranked 58 out of 60 teams, averaging 1.94 points per game. The season before that, they were 56, averaging 1.97 points per game. You have to go back to 2012-13 to find a Tigers team that had potent scorers, when Rylan Schwartz led the way, coincidentally the last time the Tigers got close to the NCAA tournament, losing in the championship of the WCHA Final Five to Wisconsin.
“I mean, obviously it goes to recruiting,” said CC coach Mike Haviland. “You have to start recruiting guys who can play that end of the rink and make plays and we have to keep finding guys who can score goals. We need guys like Trey Bradley, who only played six games last year, to take the next step. And we bring back Mason (Bergh), our leading scorer, but guys like (Westin) Michaud and (Trevor) Gooch and (Nick) Halloran and (Alex) Berardinelli, now have a year or two under their belt, they need to take the next step and we need to do it more by committee here. We don’t have the prolific goal scorer that other teams in our conference have.”
One bright spot for CC last year was the play of Alex Leclerc in net. The freshman posted a .900 save percentage and helped CC beat conference powerhouses Minnesota-Duluth and North Dakota in the second half.
“I think he’s just got to build from there and has to be more consistent,” said Haviland. “I think he struggled with the beginning first half of the year, so looking for more consistency from him and then his play needs to be like he was in the second half, when he gave us a chance to win every night we felt. Again, we’re going to need that.”
Three questions
1) Can the Tigers start generating more consistent offense? One place that could help is the power play. Last year, the Tigers only converted on 11 percent of their power plays.
2) Can Leclerc duplicate his second half for an entire season? CC gave up 3.33 goals per game last year, but in the second half the Tigers were more effective, often finding at least one game per weekend series where they held the opposing team to two goals or less.
3) Can they win at home? CC won only one game at home last year. The bigger ice sheet favors players who can skate, but CC is more of a grinding team, and home ice is not friendly to them.
Crystal Ball
Colorado College just doesn’t have the scoring talent and defense of the other teams in the conference. While CC will probably improve on its win total from last year, it won’t be enough to get out of the NCHC cellar.
Denver
Last season
33-7-4 (18-3-3 NCHC)
Won the NCAA national championship.
Names to know
Barely had Denver left the ice last year at the United Center in Chicago before the departure watch began. Several SIDs last year in Chicago told me they thought Denver would be decimated by NHL departures. The day after winning the championship, it was reported by at least one source on Twitter that coach Jim Montgomery would go to Florida and coach the Panthers. High-scoring forwards Troy Terry, Henrik Borgström, and Dylan Gambrell were also reportedly going to bolt early for the NHL
Ultimately, all decided to stay, which means that the only players Denver lost were the nine seniors. Admittedly, that group was very important, perhaps none more than captain and Hobey Baker Award winner Will Butcher, but Montgomery also thinks finding people to replace the workmanlike players of the third and fourth lines is important for his team this year.
“You know, Will Butcher was special; the season he had, the way he led us, everything was special,” said Montgomery. “But also all those other eight seniors that were with them that were so hard to play against that were such glue guys, Evan Janssen, Matt VanVoorhis, Matt Marcinew, Emil Romig, and the Evan Ritt’s of the world, they made it hard to play against us night in, night out. And those nine seniors were desperate, and that’s where it falls upon our four seniors and our entire group to carry that torch. They’ve got to make sure that we’re practicing the right way and they’ve got to hold each other and the underclassmen accountable, and that’s what I thought our seniors did a great job of last year as they held the people accountable to make sure that we practiced at a high level so that we were consistent in games. That’s going to be our biggest challenge.”
Denver also has strong freshman class, with players who should see immediate ice time, including two defensemen.
“I think Ian Mitchell is someone that kind of jumped out at us in practice,” said Montgomery. “You know, him and (Griffin) Mendel the defensemen, have quickly assimilated themselves to how we pressure pucks up ice and how we take away time and space and both of them are really intelligent hockey players.”
Three questions
1) Without the steady presence of the seniors who provided leadership and drive to last year’s team, does Denver fall from its perch a little?
2) Will any of the team’s high-flying forwards suffer a slump in scoring output?
3) Can Tanner Jaillet duplicate his Mike Richter Award-winning season from last year?
“It’s good to have Tanner because he’s so calm and poised back there that it really settles our team down, and I think he’s going to get challenged a lot more this year because we don’t have as many veteran players,” said Montgomery. “I mean, he’s probably going to face a lot tougher shots early on before we get to become, hopefully, a well-oiled machine.”
Crystal Ball
With everyone back, Denver looks poised to possibly repeat as national champions, duplicating what they did in 2003-04 and 2004-05. They will also likely repeat as Penrose Cup champions for winning the NCHC regular season crown.
Miami
Last season
9-20-7, 5-14-5-3 NCHC (seventh)
Lost to Minnesota Duluth in the first round of the NCHC tournament
Names to know
A Miami team that carried 14 newcomers last season is a year older, but there’s still a lot of youth there.
The band has stayed almost entirely together, but 19 underclassmen make up the bulk of the RedHawks’ roster. The veterans will remember last season’s seventh-place finish well, but a high level of continuity could bode well for a Miami team seeking its first NCAA tournament berth since it won the NCHC playoff title in 2015.
It wouldn’t just be a few players that get the RedHawks there, though. That’s part of Miami’s ethos.
“I think some guys get the limelight a little bit more than others, obviously, and that goes with the territory but it all comes down to being a good team and playing within our strengths,” Blasi said. “Individuals will look good in the team environment, so we don’t try to have anybody stand out.
“We want our guys to play within themselves and play as a good team with structure, so we think those things will make our guys look good.”
Enrico Blasi enters his 19th season behind the Miami bench for the 2017-18 season (photo: Melissa Wade).
There are, of course, still players opponents will need to look out for. Miami’s top scorer from last season graduated, but Nos. 2 through 8 are all back, led by junior forwards Kiefer Sherwood (14 goals, 24 assists) and Josh Melnick (9 G, 18 A). Carson Meyer returns after a solid freshman season in which he supplied 10 goals and 26 points.
Captain and senior defenseman Louie Belpedio (6 G, 11 A), a preseason all-NCHC team pick, is one of six returning blueliners. Goaltender Ryan Larkin (.910 save percentage in 33 games) is back for his sophomore campaign.
All aspects of Miami’s game will have to be sound, and it’s partly up to Belpedio and the RedHawks’ two other seniors (defenseman Scott Dornbrock and forward Conor Lemirande) to make sure the machine’s running smoothly.
“They need to be the standard every day,” Blasi said of his seniors, “and not try to be anything that they’re not and just make sure we’re holding each other accountable.
“They’ve been through it, they’ve won a championship in our league on our level, and I think they want the rest of the team to experience that. In order to do that, we have to take it day by day and make sure the process is right and the preparation is right.”
Three questions
1. Can Miami shore up play in its own zone? The RedHawks finished seventh in the NCHC in team defense (3.46 goals per game) in league games. Add the fact that Miami was seventh in team offense (2.46) against conference opposition and the reasons for the RedHawks’ place in the final 2016-17 NCHC standings are clear.
2. Will Larkin keep hold of his No. 1 spot in net? He’ll have competition from three other goalies, including last year’s backup in Chase Munroe and Evan McCarthy, a junior who sat out last season after undergoing hip surgery.
3. How will the RedHawks’ power play units fare? Miami only scored on 17 percent of its man-advantage opportunities last season and finished sixth in the NCHC in that category.
Crystal Ball
The RedHawks will benefit from the experience they collectively lacked last season, but they might still be a year away from a top-four regular season finish.
Minnesota Duluth
Last season
28-7-7 (15-5-4 NCHC)
Lost to Denver in the NCAA championship game.
Names to know
Last season, Minnesota Duluth was led by a strong senior class with players like Alex Iafallo, Dominic Toninato, Kyle Osterberg and Willie Raskob. The Bulldogs had also entered last season with a concern in goal after Kasimir Kaskisuo left after his sophomore year, but Hunter Miska had an outstanding rookie season in net.
However, Miska left early for the pros, as did top defenseman Neal Pionk and forward Adam Johnson, the team’s second-leading scorer, leaving the Bulldogs and coach Scott Sandelin needing to rebuild. Junior goalie Nick Deery played only three games last season, while sophomore goalie Hunter Shepard played in only two. Those two will compete with freshman Ben Patt for the starter’s job.
“I think it’s going to kind of probably play itself over time,” said Sandelin. “I’m not putting a timeline on it. I think it’s going to kind of be how it goes, but I think those guys are going to get opportunities to play. It just might be a longer process than maybe last year as to who emerges. I’m good with that. As long as they keep battling and pushing each other, hopefully they’ll get better. But I think over time some things will become clear back there just like last year.”
Riley Tufte posted 16 points in 37 games a year ago for Minnesota Duluth (photo: Candace Horgan).
Duluth does have strong forwards back, including Joey Anderson, who had an outstanding rookie season with 37 points.
“We’ve got some high-end guys back, like Joey, like Riley (Tufte), Karson Kuhlman, guys like that, I think you know that certainly are capable of making a difference in a game and you know the biggest position we’re really inexperienced in is the back end. I really like the freshmen we have brought in and certainly different dynamics, certainly a pretty mobile group.”
Three questions
1) Can the Bulldogs rebound from the heartbreaking loss to Denver last year in the national championship game? Sandelin thinks that experience will motivate his players more.
“I think you have to have those experiences to really understand how hard it is to get to those spots during the year, let alone just in our league,” said Sandelin. “I mean early on it’s so hard, and I think those things will help those guys as well as all the rest of our returning guys, and I think the young guys, no matter how much you talk about it they still have to go through and experience some of that. Hopefully, the learning curve is as quick.”
2) Can one of the netminders step in for Miska and provide strong goaltending?
3) With five of the top six scorers from last year gone, can Anderson and Kuhlman and Tufte provide enough scoring punch until the rookies gel?
Crystal Ball
The Bulldogs came up just shy in the national championship against Denver. However, the Bulldogs, more than any other team in the conference, were decimated by departures to either graduation or early departure. There’s enough talent to probably make the NCAA tournament, but the Bulldogs will likely finish fourth in conference.
North Dakota
Last season
21-16-3, 11-12-1-1 NCHC (fourth)
Lost to Boston University in a West Regional semifinal
Names to know
North Dakota’s defense of its 2016 national championship veered from the script. The Fighting Hawks finished a game under .500 in NCHC play before falling in double overtime to Boston University in a regional semifinal played in front of essentially a home crowd in Fargo, N.D., an hour south of Grand Forks.
Several key pieces from last season’s UND team are gone. Only two seniors dotted the roster, but three of the Hawks’ top five point producers opted to leave school early.
UND’s top scorer, forward Shane Gersich (21 goals, 16 assists in 2016-17), returns for his junior season. He will play a key role again in an offense with holes that need filling.
“I think what it provides is excitement for opportunity as far as guys knowing there are roles available and as far as trying to fulfill that,” UND coach Brad Berry said.
“Obviously, losing good players that we have, we have very good players in our group here that have gotten a year older, we’ve got some good young players that have come in for their first year here, and I think it’s an opportunity for them to showcase that they can be that guy.”
Much is expected from senior captain Austin Poganski (12 G, 13 A), and Finnish junior Joel Janatuinen (8 G, 11 A) is among several veterans primed for a breakout season.
“He’s going into his third year now and he’s an upperclassman and he knows the lay of the land as far as what we do here,” Berry said of Janatuinen. “He’s one guy that’s very dependable not only on the offensive side but also on the defensive side. He’s a very good player that you can count on on a daily basis.”
Another headliner is senior goaltender Cam Johnson, fresh off a winter in which he posted a .903 save percentage and 20 wins. Behind him, though, are two understudies that will push for playing time.
“When you talk about depth, I think, in all positions, we have depth again at that position,” Berry said. “(Freshman) Peter Thome played a lot of junior hockey, not at the college level but at junior hockey and did very well, and then obviously Ryan Anderson, who’s going into his third year here, he’s been very good early here, too.”
Seven freshmen – perhaps most notably forward and U.S. National Team Development Program product Grant Mismash – and Nick Jones, a junior forward who previously played at Ohio State before returning to junior hockey, are looking to prove that they belong.
“Blue-collar, hard-working, respect, humility,” Berry said in describing what he views as his program. “There’s a lot of qualities that go into our culture that it’s kind of an earning-it-on-a-daily-basis kind of thing.
“When we do that, we have the guys inside the Ralph (Engelstad Arena) here that do it on a daily basis, and we have to recruit to that to make sure we preserve our culture.”
Three questions
1. Who will replace early departures up top in Tyson Jost and Brock Boeser? Gersich is a proven scorer, but he’s the Hawks’ only returner who netted more than 25 points last season.
2. How big of an impact will Mismash have? A second-round draft pick by the Nashville Predators, he has prior playing experience in Grand Forks from last year’s World Under-18 Championship.
3. How will Johnson fare in his senior season? A national finalist for the Mike Richter Award for 2015-16, he’ll want to end his collegiate career on a high note akin to his national title success as a sophomore.
Crystal Ball
This is not the NCHC’s preseason team to beat, but UND should improve on its showing from last season while vying for a No. 1 regional seed in the NCAA tournament.
Omaha
Last season
17-17-5, 9-13-2-0 NCHC (sixth)
Lost to Western Michigan in the first round of the NCHC playoffs
Names to know
There’s less newness in the Omaha hockey program than one might think, given its first-year head coach. A UNO alumnus, Mike Gabinet is working with a largely veteran team with just three freshmen.
Gone is the Mavericks’ leading scorer from last season, as is 38 percent of their goal production from 2016-17. For the returners plus a freshman defenseman and two new forwards, what happens now on the Baxter Arena practice sheet goes a long way.
“There’s a blank slate for everybody,” Gabinet said. “The guys who did well last year, we’re looking for them to continue to grow on that, and the guys who had maybe less of an opportunity last year, we’re looking for them to get a blank slate and prove themselves to the new staff.
“I think it’s kind of to be determined on that one on who’s going to step up for whether it’s a Luc Snuggerud or an Austin Ortega or an Ian Brady, but right now we’re in the evaluation phase of our training camp, so to speak, so we’re just looking at who wants to work hard, compete and learn and step up and help contribute to the team and help fill some of those voids that are left.”
The NCHC’s preseason all-conference team is without any UNO players, but several could be in line for similar postseason accolades. Up top, Tyler Vesel (14 goals, 21 assists last season) and David Pope (13 G, 18 A) headline a potent quartet of senior forwards. Three of them, including Jake Randolph (6 G, 17 A), were among Omaha’s top six point-scorers last winter.
Joel Messner is a key component of the Omaha blue line (photo: Candace Horgan).
Senior Joel Messner (2 G, 6 A) returns to help shore up a Mavericks defense that conceded 3.28 goals per game last season – only 13 other Division I teams fared worse. All three goaltenders from last year are back, led by Evan Weninger (.907 save percentage in 28 appearances).
Who plays key roles where will be decided soon enough. In the meantime, Omaha’s first new head coach since 2009 is taking stock.
“I think the biggest thing is we just worry about our culture, and by that I mean taking personal responsibility to get better every day,” Gabinet said. “We’re really focused on that right now: what are we doing to get better today than we were yesterday? How are we growing? How are we learning? How are we challenging our comfort zones?
“I think we’re just focusing on the little things right now and just sticking with that process right now, and the results will be the results.”
Three questions
1. Who succeeds Ortega and Snuggerud? Omaha’s top and fourth-highest scorers last season, respectively, had a combined 78 points and 31 goals. One in every four goals Omaha scored came courtesy of that pair.
2. Who becomes the workhorse in net? Last year’s stat lines for Weninger, Kris Oldham and Alex Blankenburg weren’t incredible, and while Weninger seems the favorite to start, all three goalies have something to prove.
3. How will the program’s new era begin? Entering its 21st season, Omaha hockey is at a point where not only is one of its own now in charge, but Gabinet’s staff includes two other former Maverick players.
Crystal Ball
There’s a lot of familiarity within Omaha’s camp, but questions at all positions must be answered before the Mavericks finish in the top half of the NCHC and lock up home ice for the playoffs.
St. Cloud State
Last season
16-19-1 (10-13-1 NCHC)
Lost to North Dakota in the first round of the NCHC tournament.
Names to know
While the return of top scorers Mikey Eyssimont and Blake Winiecki is probably enough to justify St. Cloud’s ranking in the preseason poll, St. Cloud coach Bob Motzko singled out senior Judd Peterson as one he expects big things from.
“I’ll tell you why I’m adding him in there,” explained Motzko. “Judd’s sophomore year, he had 16 or 17 goals. Then last year, very similar to Kalle Kossila’s junior year, he battled an injury all last year. We couldn’t talk about, but he had to have surgery and do it at Christmas. But it was one of the things he just fought through the year, and Kalle went through the exact same thing his junior year and it’s no fun for these athletes to be that way. And you know they live in pain. They fight with what that feels like. Judd feels great again. He’s healed 100 percent. I think Kalle Kossila did the same thing where his senior year he really picked back up. Everyone was questioning his good year. And ‘Petey’ went through the same thing last year, but he feels great that he can get back to where he was as a sophomore from a production level in places and roles.”
Motzko is also excited to see if goaltender Jeff Smith can build on the second-half success he had his rookie season.
“Jeff Smith played every game after Christmas. Jeff, at Christmas we were sitting with him at an 87 save percentage, which you’re not going to win in college hockey. He was 90, 92 save percentage after Christmas. He got himself in great shape, gained the experience, and he’s come back in phenomenal shape and with that upperclass attitude. He really seems to be driven right now. And so I’ve I got to go with the fact that our goaltending from Christmas on was strong. The big thing is we’ve added David Hrenak from Green Bay in the USHL and Czechoslovakia. And he had an outstanding year last year in the USHL. So we are we are light years ahead of the start of this year where we were a year ago with experience in that position.”
Three questions
1) Can the forwards step up in production? Eyssimont led the team in scoring, but only averaged .833 points per game. Many of the others were around .6 points a game. The Huskies need more offense from those players.
2) Can the defense and goaltending improve on goals allowed? St. Cloud gave up over three goals per game last year.
3) Will freshman Easton Brodzinski be the type of player for St. Cloud that his brother, Jonny, was?
“Brodzinski’s a Brodzinski,” said Motzko. “Whatever’s in their Wheaties as a family is crazy and it starts with the dad and how they can shoot the puck and go. He’s, it comes off his stick very heavily; he’s got the ability to score goals.”
Crystal Ball
The Huskies look to have all the pieces, and will challenge North Dakota for second place in the conference and likely return to the NCAA tournament.
Western Michigan
Last season
22-13-5, 13-9-2-1 (third)
Lost to Air Force in an East Regional semifinal
Names to know
When Western Michigan coach Andy Murray was told last Wednesday that a reporter had questions about the Broncos heading into their new season, Murray answered with a laugh, “So do I.”
That’s understandable. Western’s top three scorers in 2016-17 have moved on. Would-be juniors Matheson Iacopelli and Griffen Molino, last year’s Nos. 1 and 2 producers, signed with NHL teams, as did another promising forward in Frederik Tiffels, who opted not to return for his senior season in order to sign with Pittsburgh.
Add nine freshmen to the mix and it becomes safe to say WMU will sport a new look this season. Many talented veterans dot the lineup, though, and perhaps the best news offensively is that Colt Conrad (13 goals, 16 assists last season), Wade Allison (12 G, 17 A) and Hugh McGing (8 G, 14 A) all return from a line that scored 32 goals last winter.
Wherever they play, they’re expected to contribute again.
“I’m not sure they’re going to all play together this year, but they were certainly point producers and good players (last season), but we like our overall team speed and skill,” Murray said. “We were still a pretty miserable team to play against last year, but we certainly had more speed and skill than we’d had in the past, and we think our speed is as good if not maybe a little better than it was last year.”
Starting goaltender Ben Blacker (.915 save percentage and 17 wins in 29 appearances) is back for his sophomore season. He was a NCHC all-rookie pick last winter despite missing part of it with mononucleosis.
Junior defenseman Corey Schueneman (5 G, 17 A) returns to aid a team that scored plenty of goals last season (3.33 per game, tied for 10th in the country) but hopes to allow fewer (2.85).
“Corey’s had a really good start to the season here in the limited hours. He’s a junior now who was a 20-point producer last year and we’re going to need him to be good for us this year. Our defense corps is one area where we’ve got some depth back, and I think in hockey when you’re solid in goal and you’ve got defensemen, it’s a good place to start your base.”
Three questions
1. Who takes over for Western’s early departures? Iacopelli and Molino accounted for 35 goals between them, and another 16 came from graduated forward Sheldon Dries.
2. What will Blacker do for an encore? Sophomore backup Trevor Gorsuch will again compete for playing time, but Blacker played a key role in the Broncos’ first NCAA tournament berth since 2012.
3. How will the Broncos’ nine freshmen fit in? Goalie Austin Cain is competing with three veteran keepers, while seven forwards and one defenseman will also be eager to impress.
Crystal Ball
Many key pieces from last season have moved on, but Western faced three late departures two years ago and should work better in a similar situation now. Another national tourney berth is a very real possibility.
Will Jeff Kampersal raise Penn State’s profile? (Shelley M. Szwast)
Candace: Welcome back to our first Wednesday Women of the year, women’s college hockey fans! Well Arlan, our first full weekend of action is in the books. There were some interesting results out east, as Northeastern tied Clarkson in game one, and Maine upset No. 9 Quinnipiac on Saturday, 4-2. I think we both expected Northeastern to be close to Clarkson, but I have to wonder whether the Maine win says more about Maine being better than expected, or Quinnipiac being worse.
However, we can get to those discussions later. We have to open with THE surprise of the weekend. Last weekend, Merrimack raised some eyebrows by beating Boston University, though since the Terriers have often started slowly in recent years, I was willing to think that maybe it was just BU getting its legs. However, the Warriors followed that up by firing a shot across the bow of women’s college hockey this weekend, upsetting perennial powerhouse Minnesota on the road Friday, 4-3.
The Gophers righted the ship in the second game by winning 4-1 on Sunday. I think one of the surprises Friday is that Minnesota had leads of 1-0, 2-1, and 3-1 before giving up the final three goals of the game. Late goals in periods can often prove costly, and that was certainly the case. After Olivia Knowles scored at 19:30 of the first to put Minnesota up 3-1, Katelyn Rae answered for Merrimack just 17 seconds later, and Merrimack scored twice in the first 5:16 of the second for the final margin. Minnesota fired 57 shots on net in the game, including 40 in the final two periods in which they couldn’t score. Minnesota goalie Sidney Peters gave up all four goals before being replaced by freshman Alex Gulstene, who then got the start and the win on Sunday.
What did you take away from that series for both teams? Should we be expecting the Warriors to push all the top Hockey East squads this season and make a run for home ice in the Hockey East tournament? Is Minnesota in for a tough season?
Arlan: This weekend was my first look at Merrimack in person, and I saw some good things.
The Warriors are strong in net, although that doesn’t set a team apart. More often than not, I see goalies turning in performances that range from very good to excellent. If there is any position that is in good shape in the women’s game, it is goaltender. Nonetheless, both Léa-Kristine Demers and Samantha Ridgewell saw a lot of rubber and turned most of it away.
They were helped by a defensive corps of four juniors and two sophomores who kept the net front clean for the most part. The defensemen primarily stay at home, but Paige Sorensen and Dominique Kremer in particular have chipped in offensively throughout their careers.
Up front, I knew about Rae and Paige Voight, the top scorers in the program’s brief history, but sophomore Mikyla Grant-Mentis was a revelation to me. Did we talk about her last year? If not, we should have. She displayed both speed and quickness in Friday’s win, and when Minnesota defenders got caught on the high side, she made them pay.
As for where that will take the Warriors in Hockey East, I have no idea. This is Hockey East we’re talking about them, where I have no clue as to the outcome of any single game that doesn’t involve Boston College. I can hardly wait until next season when we add Holy Cross to the whole befuddling mix.
But is Merrimack’s start all that surprising? The Warriors beat BU by a 4-1 score in January, won a series from eventual NCAA tournament team Robert Morris, and lost by a single goal to mighty BC in their second playoff game. Merrimack will win more games in league play, some that we may expect, and likely one or two more that will sneak up on us.
While I’m sure Brad Frost was disappointed by the loss, I doubt that he was shocked by it. It wasn’t the biggest upset defeat he’s had to endure. In 2008 in Frost’s first game without an “interim” prefix, Minnesota lost to a fourth-year Robert Morris squad, 3-2, despite outshooting the Colonials 65-10. RMU did have a future U.S. Olympian in goalie Brianne McLaughlin, but the Gophers countered with four of their own in Gigi Marvin, Jocelyne and Monique Lamoureux, and Anne Schleper. The key to that game was that Minnesota senior Kim Hanlon yielded three goals on just seven shots; it’s hard to play from behind, especially when many of your best players are rookies in their first game.
Friday night, it took the Warriors just a dozen shots at Peters to score all of the goals that they would need. I can safely conclude that if the Gophers see a third of the opponents’ shots wind up in their net, then it will be a very tough season, and Frost will need the name and number of a good cardiologist.
Is that likely? I don’t think so. The debacle wasn’t entirely on Peters, as the players in front of her made a month’s worth of mistakes in 25 minutes. I’m sure that there will be more errors. This isn’t the Minnesota team that won four titles in five years. Only four players who played in the championship game versus BC two years ago are still around, and because of an injury, Taylor Williamson left the game around the same time as Peters.
For the first time in years, the Gophers put out a lineup that lacks proven scoring. They have no choice but to lean heavily on their highly acclaimed freshman class that, even without Amy Potomak, who would have been its centerpiece, still scored four of the team’s seven goals on the weekend. After graduating three seniors from the blue line, they’ll also need better goaltending to prosper. Despite her inconsistency through much of last year, Peters was the best option. With Gulstene on the roster, she’ll need to be steadier if she wants to avoid Hanlon’s fate of watching most of her senior season from the bench.
Looking around the country, I see a lot of teams like the Gophers that have plenty of minuses to cancel out the pluses. I can’t remember a year where it has been as hard to select a top five or top 10. I’ve been voting Clarkson no. 1 on my ballot, not because I think that the Golden Knights are a complete team, but because they look closer to it than everyone else. What are your first impressions of the collection of teams in this Olympic year?
Candace: I agree that things seem very up in the air for a lot of teams. I voted Wisconsin no. 1 this week, simply because Clarkson got a tie with Northeastern, and the Badgers have looked solid at least in their first four games. I had sort of thought Wisconsin would be the team to beat this year, until I remember that Annie Pankowski is centralized with Team USA and Emily Clark is centralized with Team Canada. Still, Wisconsin has a deep roster, and even if the Badgers don’t have Ann-Renée Desbiens in net, they have a solid D.
Regarding Clarkson, I was surprised the Golden Knights started the season at the top spot. I know you have to look at what a team keeps, rather than what a team loses to graduation, but the Golden Knights lost Cayley Mercer and Geneviève Bannon, who accounted for a large part of the team’s scoring last year. Perhaps I’m remembering Clarkson’s last post-title year, when they lost Jamie Lee Rattray, Brittany Styner, Carly Mercer, and Vanessa Gagnon, all top point producers. At least this time the Golden Knights kept their goalie in Shea Tiley.
I also think Minnesota-Duluth will struggle after losing their top four scorers to graduation and their starting goalie, Maddie Rooney, to centralization with Team USA. This weekend’s series against Boston College is huge for both teams, and could tell us a lot. BC lost Megan Keller and Kali Flanagan to Team USA, and Andie Anastos, the team’s leading scorer last year, graduated, but most of the rest of the scoring is intact, and the Eagles still have Katie Burt in net.
Ultimately, while it seems like more is in flux, to me it still seems like the same teams will emerge as the playoff contenders. They may suffer a few more losses than normal, but they are too strong overall to not be in contention at the end of the year. Would you agree?
Arlan: This year, I really don’t know. We’ve had the same quartet at the Frozen Four the last two seasons, and that foursome has combined for all but two of the 16 semifinal appearances in the last four seasons. For as much as it can look like teams are becoming more equal during the regular season, there is still a separation at the end.
As you say, those four teams all lost heavily, especially Wisconsin. The Badgers won’t be as strong in net even if one of its four goalies emerges to be a clear starter. Part of the reason that Wisconsin was so good defensively was that its forwards were so dangerous and controlled the puck, but four of its top six forwards are gone, as is the team’s best defenseman, Jenny Ryan. As daunting as the Badgers were last year, they sometimes spent too much time controlling games and not enough winning them, so maybe some roster turnover will be a blessing in Madison.
I still don’t see any threat to BC, so the Eagles should have the easiest path back to the Frozen Four. Who is set to challenge them in Hockey East? Nobody. We can convince ourselves that Northeastern could pressure the Eagles, but I’d have to spin it creatively before I’d choose the Huskies’ roster over BC’s.
Minnesota-Duluth and Minnesota were likely the fourth and fifth teams last year in some order, and both suffered losses comparable to Wisconsin, and they didn’t start with nearly as much horsepower. They both will need to assemble their pieces from scratch, and we’ll be into the 2018 portion of the schedule before we’ll know if either coaching staff has found some magic.
St. Lawrence graduated a couple of its best players and was also trending in the wrong direction late last year. Cornell would have had perhaps the best blue line in the country if Micah Zandee-Hart had not centralized with Canada. With her gone, a team that didn’t score much and graduated two of three players to hit double digits in goals doesn’t seem as likely to push upward.
So who gains on the leaders? I’d say Colgate in the ECAC. I thought a talented roster left a little potential unfulfilled last year. A number of its top players are now seniors: forwards Megan Sullivan, Annika Zalewski, Shelby Perry, and Breanne Wilson-Bennett, and defenseman Lauren Wildfang. Will they be inspired to leave a lasting mark on the Raiders program in their final campaign?
A couple of dark horses are Bemidji State and Ohio State. They’ll have a better chance of staying close to the powers of the WCHA when those teams are less explosive, plus they won’t get beat up by North Dakota four games a year. A few friendly bounces, and who is to say that they couldn’t sneak into an NCAA field?
Overall, I agree that the top teams will wind up with more losses.
Another top team that has already lost was Quinnipiac. The Bobcats have always started strong in recent years, while Maine did not even reach Hockey East’s postseason. Are the Black Bears better, or is this a signal that Quinnipiac is on the decline?
Candace: I think it’s a little of both, but I don’t expect Quinnnipiac to be a top challenger. The Bobcats do have their top two scorers back in Taylar Cianfarano and Melissa Samoskevich, but neither was exactly a Cayley Mercer. They each averaged about three-quarters of a point per game. Quinnipiac has always won with a stingy defense, anchored by Sydney Rossman in net, who usually posted save percentages of .930 and very low goals-against to go with it. However, Rossman graduated. Sophomore Abbie Ives only played six games last year. Her stats look impressive until you see that three of the games were against Brown and Union. Ives and freshman Allison Small will likely split time in net. Ives gave up one goal in Quinnipiac’s 2-1 win over Maine Friday, She replaced Small in the second period after Small gave up two goals on eight shots through a period and a half, but Ives got the loss because she gave up a four-on-four goal after Quinnipiac had tied it.
Quinnipiac likely has enough talent on its roster to make the ECAC tournament, but I’m not sure it’s enough to get home ice. The Bobcats lost to Princeton on the road in the first round of the ECAC tournament last year in three games; something similar seems likely to me this year.
As for Maine, Tereza Vanišová seems to have picked up right where she left off last year as a freshman with three points in the first two games, and freshman Michelle Weis matched that total, so Maine may have some more scoring depth this season. Carly Jackson had a solid if unspectacular season in net last year with a .911 save percentage and 2.84 goals against; she has slightly better stats so far, but she did give up two goals in each game to the Bobcats over the weekend.
Maine’s goal is to make the Hockey East playoffs, but with the improvement shown by Merrimack, and Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Providence all looking to build on what they achieved last year, it might be easier said than done.
Speaking of the Friars, they looked impressive last weekend, putting up seven goals on Union and six against Vermont in winning their first two games of the season. Do you think Providence has the skaters to move up from its fourth-place finish last year and possibly move to third, ahead of BU, or even challenge Northeastern?
Arlan: It’s possible, but I don’t think it is likely. The Friars will score more goals than most of the teams with similar records, but ever since Genevieve Lacasse graduated, their undoing has come in their defensive zone. As a senior, she helped Providence hold its opponents to under 80 goals on the season, but in her aftermath, that total has been well over 100 every year.
You’re right in that Providence can skate with teams, and its 4-1 defeat of BC in February speaks to that. It also tied BU once, but allowed the Terriers five goals in all three meetings, and the Friars dropped all three games versus Northeastern. The Friars finished tied with Vermont in the standings, and the two teams met in a quarterfinal series hosted by PC, which won the first game 5-4 on a goal in the closing seconds. However, the offense tailed off in the next two games, and the Friars did not advance.
Cassidy Carels graduated, so it falls to senior Brooke Boquist and junior Christina Putigna to lead the attack. Ten different players scored in the first weekend, so scoring depth will be part of the recipe for success. Providence was able to control the bulk of the play, holding each opponent to 13 shots on goal.
The concern is likely that such low shot totals still allowed five goals against. The Friars had to scramble out of an early 3-1 hole against Union, and they’d be ill-advised to rely on such comebacks going forward. None of the goaltenders stopped 90 percent of the shots faced last season, and I’d say that threshold is a must if Providence is to improve on its finish.
One intriguing possibility is 5-foot-11 freshman goalie Sandra Abstreiter from Germany. Europeans are usually on a roster for a reason, so it will be interesting to see if she gets playing time down the road and how the goaltending evolves.
While we’re on the topic of teams that start with “P”, after 21 seasons behind the Princeton bench, Jeff Kampersal moved to Penn State, while his former associate Cara Morey replaces him. What impact do you see that switch having on the two programs?
Candace: That’s a tough question to answer. Let’s address the latter first. Kampersal can’t have anything but a positive effect on Penn State. On paper, the Nittany Lions would seem to have a lot of upside. They play in the CHA, which more than any other conference has given each team a chance to advance to the NCAA tournament since it was given an autobid. The facilities in University Park are outstanding, so between the school’s reputation and the facilities, plus the chance to play in the NCAA tournament, I think recruiting will definitely improve at Penn State. That program has been in turmoil in recent years, and there have been allegations in the past about the players being deeply unhappy with the previous coach, including emotional abuse.
I don’t know what happened there, but there were rumblings around the CHA even prior to an article that was published in the Daily Collegian, an independent student-run newspaper, about the coaching situation. Kampersal is a proven coach, and he’s had success at motivating his players. I think it will take a few years, but I expect that the Nittany Lions will be challenging Mercyhurst, Robert Morris, and Syracuse for the league crown within a year or two. Penn State had what could be looked at as a good weekend last week. They didn’t score, but they were playing in Duluth and only lost 1-0 and 3-0. Knowing they can skate with power teams like that will benefit Penn State when the CHA schedule starts in earnest.
Last year’s season ended on a disappointing note, as they lost to RIT in the first round of the CHA tournament. They beat Robert Morris 3-2 and then lost their last four games, only scoring a single goal in two of them and getting shutout in the other two. Penn State lost Laura Bowman and Amy Petersen, their leading scorers last year, to graduation. Bowman was almost a point per game player, and Petersen not far behind. No one else on the team except freshman Brooke Madsen was above a half a point per game, so scoring will likely still be an issue. Goalie Hannah Ehresmann is a senior, and started both games against Duluth, posting a .938 save percentage, so she will likely keep the Nittany Lions in every game.
As for Princeton, the Tigers could conceivably get home ice in the ECAC tournament again, but advancing past either Clarkson or St. Lawrence might be tough. They lost two key seniors in Molly Contini and Kelsey Koelzer who contributed a lot of points, both being near a point per game. However, Princeton does have their leading scorer, Karlie Lund, back, as well as sophomore Carly Bullock, who put up points in bunches last season. Steph Neatby was one of the best goalies in the league last year; she’ll need to be again for Princeton to have success.
You mentioned Holy Cross earlier. The Crusaders play a transitional schedule this year, with games mostly against a handful of D-II schools in a scheduling alliance, but they also have some D-I opponents on their schedule, opening with a pair against RIT this weekend, then playing Dartmouth and New Hampshire the following weekend. The Crusaders did well in their two preseason games, putting up a ton of points against two Canadian schools, Laurentian and Nepean. The latter played New Hampshire last weekend and lost 2-1 before falling to Holy Cross 5-2. The Crusaders also play a pair against Harvard in November, plus one more against Dartmouth. What do you think of the Crusaders’ chances of a quick and successful transition to D-I? Can they follow in the footsteps of RIT and have success immediately? Merrimack is only a third-year program, and seems to point how to build a program quickly.
Arlan: That’s likely a better question for Nicole in coming weeks if you want something more than an uneducated guess. What I don’t know about Holy Cross is a lot.
I do know that while the Crusaders win considerably more than they lose every year, they aren’t coming in off the high of an NCAA Championship like RIT did. The other thing that timed nicely for RIT is that the Tigers came into the CHA at a time when Mercyhurst was in a bit of a downswing.
Yes, the Lakers did reach back-to-back Frozen Fours around that time, but they didn’t have the power in their lineup that they had a couple years earlier. Certainly, Mercyhurst wasn’t at the level of the Boston College team with which Holy Cross will soon be sharing a league. The Eagles have proven to be a formidable roadblock to Northeastern’s national tournament aspirations, as the Huskies were only able to break through in Kendall Coyne’s Patty Kazmaier season. If BU gets back into the national tournament picture after a couple of down years, then the opportunities for the remainder of Hockey East dwindle.
As for whether or not the players on coach Peter Van Buskirk’s roster are fast enough, strong enough, and skilled enough to make an impact in Division I, I haven’t a clue. We should get some indication of that in mid November when the Crusaders play a home-and-home series with Harvard. While they will face other D-I teams, I think that Harvard, despite the nosedive that it suffered through last year, has more top-end talent than the other D-I programs that Holy Cross will see.
The announcement that Holy Cross would be joining Hockey East was just one development in the women’s hockey world since the last edition of Wednesday Women. The victory of the U.S. national team members gaining more financial support was quickly followed by North Dakota’s announcement that it was dropping its women’s hockey program. What a strange bunch; they put up a protracted fight to keep their old nickname, but couldn’t be bothered to search for ways to save a varsity program. Maybe UND can have a conditional women’s hockey program and only compete in years when oil prices are above a certain threshold.
What do you make of the events of the off season and what they indicate about the state of the women’s game?
Candace: It’s always sad when a program contracts. We’ve had a few teams fold in recent years, such as Niagara and Wayne State and Findlay, the latter two of whom also folded their men’s programs, but North Dakota was such a high-profile program. They were always in the hunt in the WCHA. Jocelyne and Monique Lamoureux did so much to build that program in their home state. It was also distressing to see how the news was leaked while many of the players were on the ice for a practice, and a recruit was in town from the East Coast. I think we will be covering this story in more depth this season in a feature, but I’ll just say it’s still hard for me to think about.
That it came on the heels of the USA women winning such a major victory for more pay, and then capturing the World Championships on home ice in a epic overtime game in front of a sold-out audience, made the optics look even worse. I was in Chicago for the Frozen Four during that game, and was with a crowd of media watching the game live on TV in a bar, and let me tell you, we were all riveted, and when Hilary Knight scored the winning goal in OT, a huge cheer was let out. It was such an amazing game to watch, with great play from both teams. I think it sets up a lot of great stories for the Olympics in February. Can Team USA finally get over the hump? They seemed to have control of the game four years ago in Sochi before Marie-Philip Poulin put Team Canada on her back and willed them to gold.
Even with the North Dakota program folding, I think the state of the women’s game overall is very good. I think there is a lot of excitement, and from I have seen, the growth of the women’s game in Team USA’s junior ranks has been explosive. I’d like to think more schools will eventually add women’s programs, perhaps schools like Michigan and Michigan State; I think it’s disgraceful that neither of those longtime hockey schools has a women’s program. I’ve heard rumors that Bentley plans to add a team that will probably apply to the CHA. I’d love to see Denver start a team, but I doubt that will happen anytime soon. There is a club team at DU that plays in a local women’s adult hockey league.
You’ve put me on the spot, so I’ll do the same. What do you think of the current state of the women’s game?
Arlan: I think it has untapped potential. The game needs to grow, but I think that it is important that it grow stronger at this point, rather than just expand. Otherwise, it could pop like an over-inflated balloon.
With four programs folding during the brief NCAA history of the sport, the survivors need to learn from those casualties to avoid also falling victim to cuts. It’s an expensive sport, and from the outside, North Dakota looked to be in the top quartile in terms of what it spent on its program. Findlay, Wayne State, and Niagara may not have enjoyed as many bells and whistles, but all four teams likely had higher travel costs than the average D-I team. That would seem to present a big obstacle to a team located as far south and west as Denver. A new program in a similar location would need a large budget, because all road games would mean air travel, and it would likely need something to entice opponents to visit. It would present a similar problem as having an Alaska team in a men’s league.
One way to offset that would be to bring more funding into women’s college hockey, either through sponsorship or media deals. For regular season games, I think that hockey can be more easily packaged for a time slot than some popular women’s sports that are televised more frequently, such as tennis or volleyball, where a match can be seconds away from ending or last for another hour. Hockey obviously has a similar issue with sudden death overtime, but at that point, it is balanced with the drama and high stakes of the postseason.
A handicap that hockey needs to overcome to gain popularity is that the personalities of its student-athletes are mostly hidden beneath protective equipment. Other sports such as auto racing enjoy immense popularity in spite of that, but it does make the media exposure more crucial.
While I’d love to see the growth in popularity, I also enjoy the quaintness of the women’s college game at its current size. It’s a much more family-friendly event as far as cost and access to games as it is now. Fans don’t have to plan attendance weeks or months in advance. And with all of the nut cases roaming around in the world, the comparative obscurity of women’s hockey isn’t all bad.
David Quinn and Boston University are early-season favorites in Hockey East (photo: Melissa Wade).
Prior to the start of last season, Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna wanted to make sure his staff was prepared in case of a tie for first place.
The league purchased a second regular season trophy just in case two teams tied for first place at the end of the regular season.
But come March, Bertagna and the league were still one trophy short as three teams – UMass Lowell, Boston University and Boston College – all ended up tied.
When you look at the Hockey East coaches poll for the 2017-18 campaign, purchasing a third trophy might still prove futile.
Five different teams garnered first-place votes in the poll. Defending champion UMass Lowell got the most – five – but also picked up enough lower votes that the River Hawks were not atop the poll.
That honor went to Boston University, which only earned two first-place votes but still edged out the River Hawks.
What does that tell us coming into the season? Right now there are far too many unanswered questions to predict how this season will proceed.
The Terriers are loaded with talent, though a large portion of it comes in the form of freshmen and sophomores. It’s a similar position to where BU was a year ago when coach David Quinn said that talent means nothing if a team doesn’t come together. A year later, he echoes that sentiment.
“I say this every year. There are so many characteristics you need to win,” said Quinn. “Talent is the first one and I think we have enough talent to be successful. But your team has to acquire all those other characteristics collectively in order to have success.”
Quinn, who for the second straight year may arguably have one of the top recruiting classes in the country, calls this year’s freshman class “mature,” something that may be helpful for the Terriers which a year ago wasn’t able to win any tournament titles – not the Beanpot, not Hockey East and not the national championship.
“It’s a different feel,” said Quinn of this year’s rookies. “Not that last year’s group wasn’t serious about hockey, it’s just a different feel. We have some older guys in the class and that helps.”
Older, in fact, seems to be a trend around the league. Certainly a blue chip 18-year-old will always be welcome, but it does seem like the age of the average recruit is increasing. And for good reason.
Coaches and fans alike have seen the success of older teams like UMass Lowell (three Hockey East title in five years) and Providence (national championship).
Not surprisingly, both of those clubs are again favored to finish near the top.
Lowell returns all but five players, though that quintet accounted for 55 of the River Hawks 151 goals last season.
“I think we have really an unknown attack,” said Lowell coach Norm Bazin. “I think we’ve got good goaltending, I think we have a solid defense.”
One area the River Hawks might find increased scoring comes from a trio of sophomores – Ryan Lohin, Kenny Hausinger and Colin O’Neill. The all-freshman line from a year ago continually improved as the season progressed, and, whether or not they’re together this season, all three will be counted on for contributions.
“I think those are three good hockey players that served a very vital role here last year and really cemented themselves in the lineup in the second half,” said Bazin. “There’s no question in my mind that they can take a step. They’re three good hockey players that will be relied upon.”
Providence returns its core offensive nucleus from last year’s NCAA tournament team, including senior Brian Pinho, who has increased his scoring totals all three years to a career-best 40 point a year ago. The question mark for the Friars, though, is the blueline where the graduation of Josh Monk and Anthony Florentino along with the early departure of Jake Walman leaves a big hole.
“[Defense] is our big question mark,” said Providence coach Nate Leaman. “Jake Bryson, Vinny Desharnais and Spence Young, those three return and we need those three to step up and make an impact for us. They need to log the minutes and manage the game and as a group we need to support our younger D and bring them along.”
Except plenty of offensive punch to come from Northeastern, which returns 50-point scorers in Dylan Sikura and Adam Gaudette. They will also have a healthy Nolan Stevens, who missed 21 games a year ago as a junior after potting 42 points while healthy as a sophomore.
If there is a question mark for the Huskies it is defense. Last year team defense was a weakness, something coach Jim Madigan hopes to improve significantly.
“We return a lot of firepower,” said Madigan. “The major emphasis for us this year is defending in our own zone. We’ve got to get better.
“That’s not just defenseman. It’s all three groups. Forwards, defenseman and goaltending.”
Perennial power house Boston College might be in the one of the most unique situation as there are no members of the senior class remaining. That leaves more questiona than answers for the Eagles, which missed the NCAA tournament last season for the first time since 2009.
The Eagles, though, do return goaltender Joseph Woll, thought of as one of the best in the nation between the pipes. Last year’s team rode Woll to the Hockey East finals and coach Jerry York hopes he can be even stronger as a sophomore.
“We’ve got a game-changer in Joe Woll,” said York. “If you’re going to have your pick [of game changers] you’d put him in the goal.
“I think he’s shown he’s even better this year than he was last year. He looks like he’s even more confident.”
While the five aforementioned teams all received first-place votes in the coaches’ poll, it’s possible one of the remaining six could take a major step forward and, at a minimum battle for a top-four spot. In some cases, some could be dark horses to win it all.
Vermont returns arguably its most veteran team in years. Connecticut puts forth its first full “Hockey East club. Every player was recruited to play in Hockey East for a team that elevated from Atlantic Hockey four years ago. New Hampshire packs some offensive firepower and has the emotional push of playing for coach Dick Umile in his final season.
And then there is Massachusetts. Still picked for the basement by the coaches (tied with Maine), the Minutemen blueline will feature the top overall collegian selected in last summer’s NHL Draft in Cale Makar along with fellow rookie Mario Ferraro, a second round NHL pick.
There is also one other elephant in the room worth mentioning: the Olympics. For the first time since 1994, the American and Canadian Olympic teams will not be comprised of NHL players meaning a number of collegians may be selected to represent their countries.
Unlike 1994, when Olympic team members missed the entire season, this year players will miss a maximum of three weeks. Those weekends, though, will all come in February when teams are battling for position in the final standings.
Boston University and Providence seem to face the biggest Olympic threat, but other lineups could be impacted as player evaluation takes place throughout the season.
“If a kid gets to play for his country, that’s terrific,” said commissioner Bertagna. “From a marketing perspective, if [the Olympic teams] take eight college players and [Hockey East] has four, that would be great.
“But on the other hand, you talk about competitiveness and you [might] have four teams fighting for first place, and five teams fighting for fourth, and all of a sudden teams lose players, not to mention what the effects might be of flying back and forth to South Korea, what does that mean when you get back?
“It’s a once in a lifetime experience. But you’ll also take guys in the February in the middle of the stretch run.”
TEAM PREVIEWS (in alphabetical order)
Boston College
Last season
21-15-4, 13-6-3 Hockey East (t-1st); lost to UMass Lowell in Hockey East finals
Names to know
In what may be the strangest roster Jerry York has ever coached, the Eagles don’t sport a single senior. Boston College also lost all of its top five scorers from a year ago either to graduation or the NHL. David Cotton and JD Dudek, two players who recorded double-digit goal totals last season will help pace this offense. But, in truth, BC needs to depend on its back end. Casey Fitzgerald and Matthew Kim have both proven to be talented blueline players, while returning sophomore Joseph Woll will be among a handful of goaltenders battling for tops in Hockey East.
Boston College Joe Woll needs to continue to improve for the Eagles (photo: Melissa Wade).
Three questions
1. Where will Boston College’s scoring come from? The Eagles always have that hallmark offense and the ability to generate goals. There certainly is returning talent that can be fortified by incoming players, but few have been responsible to be offensive leaders in the past.
2. Can Joe Woll continue to thrill? And, even more so, can the sophomore even take a step forward. Woll did a lot to carry the Eagles to the Hockey East finals a year ago. But with a concern about offense, he’ll not only have to be as good as last year. He likely needs to be better.
3. Could we see an NCAA drought by BC standards? In the last 19 years, Boston College has qualified for the NCAA tournament 17 times, reached 12 Frozen Fours and won four national title. What the Eagles have not done in that stretch is miss the NCAA field in back-to-back years. Hardly a drought for many teams, but in Chestnut Hill it would be somewhat shocking.
Crystal ball
Jim Connelly picks Boston College to finish fifth Dave Hendrickson picks Boston College to finish third
Boston University
Last season
24-12-3, 13-6-3 Hockey East (t-1st); lost to Boston College in Hockey East semifinals; lost to Minnesota-Duluth in NCAA West Regional final
Names to know
Is there really enough room to list them all? Sure, the Terriers lost some big-name players like Charlie McAvoy, Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson, Clayton Keller and Kieffer Bellows, but this BU team also returns an all-star like lineup. Patrick Harper is the leading returning scorer, but Jordan Greenway might have the most potential heading into his junior year. Dante Fabbro leads a blueline loaded with NHL draft picks while Jake Oettinger, a second-team all-Hockey East goaltender a year ago, could be the straw that stirs this talented pot.
Three questions
1. Can a team of all-stars gel? It was the same question we were asking a year ago and last year’s BU team proved the answer, at least at that point in time, was not always. BU’s David Quinn says he likes the feeling in the locker rooms better coming into this year, but it’s still critical that even the best players embrace their roles on this team.
2. How much might the Olympics impact BU? For the first time since 1994, college players will make up a portion of the players representing Team USA (and Team Canada) at the Winter Olympics. The good news is that BU players will only miss, at most, five league games (and the second night of the Beanpot). The bad news is that those games will come in the crucial final three weeks of the regular season. Time will tell how many Terriers will be selected, but they seem poised to lose by far the most in the league.
3. Just how good is this rookie class? The nine-person freshman class for the Terriers has received plenty of praise before their arrival on Commonwealth Ave. Six players were selected in this summer’s NHL Draft led by first-rounder Shane Bowers. When you supplement the returning team with even more blue chip talent, you can understand why BU is called a team of all-stars.
Crystal ball
Jim picks Boston University to finish first Dave picks Boston University to finish first
Connecticut
Last season
12-16-8, 8-10-4 Hockey East (9th); lost to Northeastern in Hockey East first round
Names to know
This summer, Connecticut had a coming-of-age moment when Tage Thompson became the team’s first early pro signing since joining Hockey East. And while Thompson’s massive size and slapshot will be missed, there’s plenty of talent remaining. Leading the way is Max Letunov, who was also considered an NHL flight risk but cooled offensively last year after a 16-goal rookie campaign. Seniors Spencer Naas and Kasperi Ojantakanen should also be big contributors to a UConn team that need to improve in goal scoring. In net, Adam Huska will be in position to own the starting job with the graduation of Rob Nichols.
Three questions
1. Where will goal scoring come from? Offense, at times, was a struggle for the Huskies and the fact that after Naas (15 goals), no other returning player scored more than nine goals last season. There is plenty of scoring talent, now someone (or better multiple players) need to take a step forward.
2. Can Huska handle the workload? As a rookie, Adam Huska was phenomenal at times and maintained a more-than-respectable .916 save percentage. He did that, though, splitting the workload. Now in his sophomore campaign, is he ready to be that go-to-guy?
3. Will UConn’s special teams improve? When the Huskies are successful, they can rely on strong special teams play, particularly on the power play. A season ago, UConn was a middle-of-the-pack 39th on the power play and 34th on the penalty kill. Both could stand improvement if the Huskies want to hop into the top half of the league.
Crystal ball
Jim picks UConn to finish seventh Dave picks UConn to finish eighth
Maine
Last season
11-21-4, 5-15-2 Hockey East (11th); lost to Vermont in Hockey East first round
Names to know
With Blaine Byron and Cam Brown graduating, look for senior Nolan Vesey and sophomore Chase Pearson to take over this offense. Both are great finishers, Vesey with 28 career goals, 13 coming a year ago, and Pearson coming off a 14-goal rookie campaign. Hard-shooting defenseman Rob Michel can provide a lot of punch from the back-end, which coach Red Gendron says he hopes he can depend on for increase offensive skill. Goaltending might be a concern though returning junior Rob McGovern, who will get the majority chunk of the work, has decent numbers through two seasons in Orono.
Rob McGovern has the ability to steal games for Maine between the pipes (photo: Shelley M. Szwast).
Three questions
1. Can this team play with tempo? When Maine has an upbeat pace to its game last season, it was a difficult team to beat. Early in the season at home, the Black Bears looked like contenders. But as the year wore on, Maine often looked lethargic.
2. Will McGovern be the man? At 6-foot-4, McGovern is a prototypical Maine goaltender who takes up plenty of net. If he performs to his full ability and limits the soft goals against, he is a guy who can steal games, something Maine needs.
3. Will this team be better away from Alfond? The road has been pretty miserable of late for the Black Bears. Last year, the team went 0-13-4 in enemy rinks, their only win away from home coming at Fenway Park. Over the past two season, Maine has just two road wins, both coming at Massachusetts in January of 2016. At some point, this becomes a mental block. But Maine has to overcome, particularly given an eight-game road trip over a 36-day span midseason.
Crystal ball
Jim picks Maine to finish 11th Dave picks Maine to finish 10th
Massachusetts
Last season
5-29-2, 2-19-1 Hockey East (12th); lost to Providence in Hockey East first round
Names to know
Usually we talk about some of the biggest returning players to a roster. And while UMass has some good players coming back (Austin Plevy comes to mind), you have to think that rookies Cale Makar and Matt Ferraro are the two names we’ll be talking about most of the year in Amherst. Both are offensively talented blueliners who this summer became the two highest-drafter players in school history (Makar 4th overall; Ferraro 49th overall). It’s difficult to believe that they alone came be saviors of the Minuteman team that a season ago was a minus-1.64 goals a game team.
Three questions
1. When will Greg Carvel’s stamp be placed on this team? Carvel’s track record for success leads one to believe that he’ll turn around this UMass team. At St. Lawrence, Carvel had his team competitive almost immediately but he also took over a program in a little better shape than UMass. He understands that he needs to populate the locker room with players who will execute his system and his first recruiting class should help.
2. Who will lead? Carvel is beginning the season with an interesting approach: he’s not naming captains. He wants to see who will emerge as leaders before he puts a letter on a sweater. So who will lead? It honestly may be an underclassman, something Carvel says he’s ready to embrace.
3. What is progress? Coming off a five-win season, progress can be measured in many ways. But what is progress that will make this team, its staff and its fans happy? Playing a massive arena like the Mullins Center without a large, enthusiastic crowd isn’t must of a home ice advantage. But if this team is entertaining and has some early success, might UMass hockey become more appealing to the student body?
Crystal ball
Jim picks UMass to finish 10th Dave picks UMass to finish 11th
UMass Lowell
Last season
27-11-3, 14-7-1 Hockey East (t-1st); won Hockey East championship, lost to Notre Dame in NCAA Northeast Regional final
Names to know
Though the River Hawks lost just five players, four of them – Joe Gambardella, Dylan Zink, Michael Kapla and C.J. Smith (early departure for NHL) – were leaders on one of Lowell’s most prolific offenses in program history. The good news is that there is still a depth of talent led by John Edwardh, who will have the chance to prove his talent when players like Gambardella and Smith aren’t alongside. Last year’s all freshman trio of Kenny Hausinger, Ryan Lohin and Colin O’Neill will look to continue success into year two. On the blueline, look for Tyler Mueller and Mattias Gorannson to be two of the tops in Hockey East, while in goal Tyler Wall will look to improve on his school record 26-win season.
Three questions
1. How do you replace 55 goals? This is something that might be a problem for some teams, but Lowell under coach Norm Bazin has proven a team that can reload and replace year to year. In honesty, all 55 goals may not be replaced and Lowell’s offense might not have the same pace as a year ago. But in years when Lowell’s offense has been down, defense has proven it can win games for the River Hawks.
2. Does Tyler Wall take a step forward? When you set the school’s Division I record for wins as a rookie, it’s hard to imagine improving on that. But Wall likely has the ability to do that. The River Hawks have become a goaltender factory thanks to associate head coach Cam Ellsworth and every number one goaltender he has mentored (Connor Hellebuyck, Kevin Boyle) has been better in year two than year one.
3. Is another back-to-back on tap? UMass Lowell played 29 season in Hockey East before winning a title. They then put two together in a row. If not for a couple of bounces the River Hawks could be talking a six-peat having won three of the last five titles and reaching the finals in the other two seasons.
Crystal ball
Jim picks UMass Lowell to finish second Dave picks UMass Lowell to finish second
Merrimack
Last season
15-16-6, 8-8-6 Hockey East (7th); lost to New Hampshire in Hockey East first round
Names to know
Though Merrimack’s offense wasn’t exactly considered prolific a season ago (46th nationally), the team returns five of its top-six point getters. The glaring loss is Hampus Gustafsson, whose 15 goals led the team, but senior Brett Seney may be ready for his breakout season. Last year, Seney posted a career-high 31 points to lead Merrimack and has proven he has a nose for the net, twice recording double-digit goal season. The key player for this team, though, may be Drew Vogler. It’s hard to call Vogler a backup goaltender in his first two seasons, but he was playing alongside Collin Delia, who signed with Chicago in the offseason. Vogler will now be the go-to guy and have the chance to prove he can lead a team from the back end.
Three questions
1. Will size be a strength? Make no bones about it: Merrimack is a big team. Though that’s often been a hallmark of Warrior clubs, the concern often turns to mobility, particularly on the back end. If the Merrimack blueliners prove they can skate with the best, their size could be a major asset, particularly in the close quarters of Lawler Arena.
2. How good is Drew Vogler? As a rookie forced into action two seasons ago, Vogler was impressive. Last season, though still able to put together some solid performances, he allowed three of more goals in eight of his 18 appearances, something that doesn’t work well when the offense struggles. Merrimack expects to ride Vogler this year, so his performance may significantly impact the team’s overall results.
3. Will the road help or hurt the Warriors? There is nothing soft about Merrimack’s schedule whatsoever. Early road trips to Colgate and defending national runner-up Minnesota-Duluth are sandwiched around a single game against Wisconsin. Later in the year, Merrimack continues being road warriors when it travels to defending national champ Denver and Colorado College right after the break. These trips can certainly be beneficial, particularly if Merrimack has success. But playing the most difficult portion of your non-league slate away from home can doom a team with NCAA hopes if the club struggles.
Crystal ball
Jim picks Merrimack to finish ninth Dave picks Merrimack to finish ninth
New Hampshire
Last season
15-20-5, 7-11-4 Hockey East (10th); lost to UMass Lowell in Hockey East quarterfinals
Names to know
If the trio of Michael McNicholas, Jason Salvaggio and Patrick Grasso play together, it will be among the strongest returning offensive lines in the league. That’s the good news for UNH. The not-to-good is that after those three, there could be a major drop off offensively unless someone ups their game. Players like Ara Nazarian, Brendan van Riemsdyk and Shane Eiserman all have the talent. But this team may rely on goaltender Danny Tirone, who put together a yeoman effort in the postseason a year ago, to limit goals against should the Wildcats be offensively challenged.
Patrick Grasso scored 20 goals for New Hampshire in 2016-17 during his freshman campaign (photo: UNH Athletics).
Three questions
1. Will Dick Umile’s retirement be an emotional lift? Legendary bench boss Umile announced his retirement at the end of the season finishing a prolific 28-year career in Durham. But can this be an emotional lift for this team? It seemed in last year’s playoffs, when Umile’s status seemed uncertain, that it was. UNH rallied from a game down to win their first-round series at Merrimack and then took eventual champion UMass Lowell to the brink in the quarterfinals before eventually falling.
2. How much can Tirone impact the team? The senior goaltender has saved his team’s bacon plenty of times during his career. But this is a club that wants to make a significant improvement in the Hockey East standings, meaning it can’t be all Tirone. That said, if he can limit goals against like he did when he was a freshman (at one point allowed two goals against or less in nine straight games), this team could be a top-six.
3. Who takes Cleland’s place? With puck-moving defender Mattias Cleland graduated, who can take his place on the blueline? The most likely candidate is Cameron Marks, who may see significant ice time as a senior. UNH needs to find that offensive defenseman to help this club’s transition game.
Crystal ball
Jim picks New Hampshire to finish eighth Dave picks New Hampshire to finish seventh
Northeastern
Last season
18-15-5, 9-10-3 (8th); lost to Boston University in Hockey East quarterfinals
Names to know
Both Dylan Sikura and Adam Gaudette certainly benefitted when they played alongside graduate Zach Aston-Reese last season, but both also got red-hot at times. The ability to make those flashes of brilliance an everyday occurrence would make this one of the league’s best one-two punches. Add in senior Nolan Stevens, who is dominant in this lineup when healthy, and Northeastern could be the top scoring team in the league. The questions come on the backend where goaltender Ryan Ruck needs to return to form of freshman year when he led his team to a Hockey East title.
Three questions
1. Who besides Sikura, Gaudette and Stevens will score? There are plenty of candidates on this roster, especially talented offensive-defenseman Jeremy Davies and sophomore forward Matt Filipe.
2. Will Ruck be the goalie of choice? As mentioned, Ruck endeared himself to Huskies Nation when he helped bring home this team’s first Hockey East title in nearly 30 years in 2016. But he was inconsistent at times last season and with rookie Cayden Primeau, son of former NHLer Keith, joining the team, we wonder if this might become tandem goaltending.
3. Will this team commit to team defense? Ruck’s inflated numbers last season had a lot to do with the team in front of him, which wasn’t as committed to playing team defense. Coach Jim Madigan says that is a major theme in the locker room this year, now we have to see if this team can execute.
Crystal ball
Jim picks Northeastern to finish sixth Dave picks Northeastern to finish fifth
Providence
Last season
22-12-5, 12-7-3 (5th); lost to Notre Dame in Hockey East quarterfinals; lost to Harvard in NCAA East Regional semifinal
Names to know
Brian Pinho had a breakout season as a junior as will be the offensive leader of this team that has plenty of talent up front. Josh Wilkins was an impressive freshman and Erik Foley will once again be a threat at both even strength and on the power play. The team’s biggest need in on defense needing to replace both Jake Walman (early departure) and Anthony Florentino. Jake Bryson will likely be the puck-moving defenseman to fill that hole. But possibly the most important name to remember is the best hockey name: Hayden Hawkey. He seeks to put together another strong season between the pipes and will be looked upon to carry this team.
Brian Pinho will serve as Providence’s captain this year and may have an opportunity to play for the United States at the 2018 Winter Olympics (photo: Melissa Wade).
Three questions
1. Will Pinho or Foley be Olympians? Providence may not face the Olympic threat of Boston University, but Brian Pinho and Erik Foley are names being thrown around. If both were to make the Team USA roster, it would severely impact the Friars down the stretch of the regular season.
2. Does Hawkey have another gear? Coach Nate Leaman wants to see more from his goaltender, namely an improvement in his save percentage. He sees a benchmark of .920, noting that all of the league’s top netminders have save percentages north of that mark (he was .913 a year ago).
3. Is Scott Conway the Friars breakout man? Conway showed strong signs offensively at times last season and could be the goal scorer this team needs. His seven power play goals were a team high and his ice presence often puts him in position to score.
Crystal ball
Jim picks Providence to finish third Dave picks Providence to finish fourth
Vermont
Last season
20-13-5, 10-8-4 Hockey East (6th); lost to Boston College in Hockey East quarterfinals
Names to know
Ross Colton, Brian Bowen and Craig Puffer all reached the double-digit mark in goals a season ago and are the likeliest trio to pace the Catamounts offense. This team would like to increase production and could receive larger contributions from players like Derek Lodermeier and Matt Alvaro as they enter the sophomore campaigns. The biggest loss to replace might be Rob Hamilton who had a great offensive season on the blue line as a senior. Look for Stefanos Lekkas to be the No. 1 goaltender throughout after a freshman year where he unseated senior Mike Santaguida for the starting role.
Three questions
1. Can the defense contribute offensively? The Cats don’t return a ton of points from their back end. That could be a cause for concern should the offense struggle at any point in the season.
2. Can this team become closers? Simply put, Vermont didn’t close out games terribly well last season. The most notable was a 4-4 tie at Notre Dame that Vermont led, 4-2, late in regulation. Coach Kevin Sneddon wants his team to have more killer instinct to put away opponents.
3. How will a young defensive corps react? It’s possible that Vermont could play four freshmen defensemen every night. That’s something that concerns any coach. Should these young talents perform well, though, expect Vermont to battle for home ice.
Crystal ball
Jim picks Vermont to finish fourth Dave picks Vermont to finish sixth
Harvard will be led in 2017-18 by senior goaltender Merrick Madsen (photo: Melissa Wade).
ECAC Hockey has sent a team to the Frozen Four in five of the last six years, with two of its teams winning a national title.
The league’s presence on the national stage is unquestioned, but it’s making an impact internationally as well.
For the third straight season, the ECAC will send representatives to the Friendship Four tournament in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Clarkson and Rensselaer will meet on Friday, Nov. 24 in the opening game of the tournament.
The league will also be represented in the Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, this coming February as Yale head coach Keith Allain was named to the coaching staff for the U.S. men’s hockey team over the summer.
“I’ve been blessed with the opportunities that USA hockey has given me,” said Allain, who prior to coming to Yale was an on the U.S. staff for the 1992 and 2006 Olympic Games.
Allain, who said he will be involved with pre-game preparation and pre-scouting as well as work with the goalies, will miss a part of the stretch run in ECAC Hockey, but knows the Bulldogs will be in good hands.
“I hate to even miss a practice with our hockey team at Yale,” he said. With Allain gone, the coaching duties will be handled by assistants Josh Siembida and Ryan Donald. “They’re great young coaches,” Allain said. “My absence will give them an opportunity to step outside their comfort zone a little bit, give them a different voice and give our players the opportunity to hear from a different coaching staff. So I do think that over the long haul that we’ll all be better for that opportunity.”
Allain could potentially end up working with some familiar players, as the NHL has said it will not allow its players take part in the winter games. That opens the door for college players to make Team USA’s roster.
“The Olympics to me is one of the greatest sporting events on so many levels,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato, who played for Team USA in the 1992 winter games. “We’ll be pulling hard for any of our players that get that opportunity and certainly it will be a lifetime memory that they will cherish.”
In addition to Allain, Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold was on the coaching staff for Team USA in the IIHF Men’s World Championship last spring, and will look to use his experience to help the Bobcats this season.
As for the league itself, several teams enter the year with plenty of questions, especially in goal. Harvard and Quinnipiac look to be in good position to finish in the top two spots in the standings, but after that the league looks to be wide open.
Three of the five top goalies in save percentage in ECAC Hockey play are gone, and one of the holdovers, Quinnipiac sophomore Andrew Shortridge, could get pushed for playing time by incoming freshman Keith Petruzzelli.
Petruzzelli was a third-round pick by Detroit in the third round of June’s NHL draft, which is the second highest a Quinnipiac player has been drafted.
Overall, five teams lost their leading goalie in terms of minutes played, while several others, including Brown and Dartmouth, will be looking for more consistency this season.
Shortridge and Petruzzelli give the Bobcats a solid duo in goal, while Harvard returns junior Merrick Madsen, who played well down the stretch for the Crimson last season.
Harvard graduated a trio of dynamic seniors in Alexander Kerfoot, Tyler Moy, and Sean Malone, but return plenty of skill and have several talented freshman, including a pair of third-round picks from June’s NHL entry draft in forward Jack Badini (Anaheim) and defenseman Reilly Walsh (New Jersey).
Quinnipiac dropped out of the top four and failed to make the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2012 last season. Inconsistent scoring was a problem last season for the Bobcats, but goaltending and a deep defensive group should be strengths for QU this year.
Cornell is one of the league’s team that will need to replace its primary goalie following the graduation of Mitch Gillam, but the Big Red appear to be in good position to finish with another first-round bye.
The Crimson, Bobcats and Big Red should finish in the top of the league this season, but move past these three teams and it’s hard to find a team without a lot of questions entering the year. St. Lawrence and Union, the other two teams with a first-round bye last year, took a hit in the offseason, losing the league’s best goalie (Kyle Hayton) and forward (Mike Vecchione), respectively.
Those departures could open the door for Clarkson or Princeton to earn a top-four spot in the league standings. But the Golden Knights lost their top four scorers, while Princeton returns virtually its entire impressive young core, but will need to find a goalie to replace the graduated Colton Phinney.
Like nearby Quinnipiac, Yale also had a bit of a down year last season, finishing below .500 overall for the first time since the 2006-07 season, which was Allain’s first season as coach in New Haven. The Bulldogs have several important players to replace on offense, but for any real improvement to take place it needs a better performance its own zone. Yale finished with a .898 save percentage last season.
Dartmouth, Rensselaer, Brown, and Colgate all finished last year in the bottom four of the standings. The Big Green might have some of the pieces necessary to move up in the conferene, but will need more consistency in goal. The same could be said for Brown, although coach Brendan Whittet said it’s on the whole team to improve defensively, not just the goalies.
Colgate graduated goalie Charlie Finn, but looks to have a solid replacement in Colton Point. But any really improvement for the Raiders will need to come offensively, where Colgate averaged just over two goals per game last season. The Raiders got off to a good start with a 5-1 win over Niagara in the season opener.
It might be a rough season for RPI under first-year coach Dave Smith, but it can’t possibly be any worse than last year, when the Engineers won only eight games, the fewest wins in a season for the school since 1970.
TEAM PREVIEWS (in alphabetical order)
Brown
Last season
4-25-2, 3-18-1 (12th)
Lost to Quinnipiac in the first round of the ECAC tournament
Names to know
After a tough year, the good news for the Bears is that they have their top returning scorers — Sam Lafferty, Charlie Corcoran, Max Willman and Tyler Bird — all returning.
Lafferty led the way with 13 goals and 22 assists. Corcoran led the club in goals with 15 while adding 13 helpers. Willman, a Buffalo Sabres draft pick, lit the lamp 11 times and chipped in 15 assists. Bird who heard his name called by the Columbus Blue Jackets, had seven goals and five assists. All four will be seniors.
Three questions
1. Will the goaltending get help in front? After allowing 132 goals, their 4.26 goals allowed per game was second worst in the country.
“I think it’s all encompassing,” Brown coach Brendan Whittet said. “Statistically, you look at our goaltenders [and] we have struggled. It’s not all on them — we have to be much better defensively and I think some of those things get sorted out through competition through our goaltenders the opportunity to grow. We put a lot on Gavin Nieto last year as a freshman for a team that struggled defensively. Statistically, it’s not a year (Nieto) would look back on, upon reflection I should say. It’s a situation we need to get better.”
2. Who will provide secondary scoring? Brent Beaudoin had seven goals and five assists as a freshman. Will anyone else step up?
“Secondary scoring is something everybody could use,” Whittet said. “It’s nice to relieve the pressure off the top guys. It’s something we are constantly preaching and working at. We’ve had some injuries, but I think somebody will step up to the forefront. Our goal is to put them in roles where they will succeed.”
3. Lack of nonconference games early on — will that hurt them? With any team who struggled the year before you want to build early on the following season. Brown starts ten ECAC games in their first eleven games. Being behind the eight ball can happen very early for them. Who knows it may be a blessing in disguise as they could start hitting their stride once they get to the non conference schedule which will lead into the second half of the season for them.
Crystal Ball
Expectations are low for the Bears as the media tabbed them to finish 11th and the coaches put them in the basement. They are starting from the bottom up, so they can easily make vast improvements on a dismal 2016-17 in terms of wins and losses. They have pieces they can build around not only for this season, but for the future.
Clarkson
Last season
18-16-5, 10-9-3 (6th)
Lost to Cornell in the ECAC Hockey quarterfinals
Names to know
Clarkson lost its top four scorers from last season, but returns the freshman trio of Sheldon Rempal, Nico Sturm and Devin Brosseau. That group played together for much of the year and will be counted on to improve their offensive production. Classmate Haralds Egle had a solid freshman year as well, posting 17 points on six goals and 11 assists.
There is potentinal for the Golden Knights to have more chemistry among its newcomers this year, as incoming freshmen forwards Jack Jacome and Josh Dickinson spent last season together with the Georgetown Raiders of the Ontario Junior Hockey League. Jacome led the OJHL in points and was named the top forward in the 132-team Canadian Junior Hockey League as well as the OJHL’s MVP.
Sophomore goalie Jake Kielly started 35 of Clarkson’s 39 games last season, finishing with a .911 save percentage and 2.56 GAA. He’ll be backed up this year by incoming freshman Chris Janzen and Nicholas Latinovich, the latter who was a teammate of Jacome and Dickinson last season in Georgetown.
Clarkson lost last year’s ECAC Hockey top defenseman James de Haas to graduation, but returns plenty of talent on the backend. Seniors Kelly Summers (Ottawa) and Terrance Amorosa (Philadelphia) are both NHL draft picks and excellent two-way players on defense, while freshman Jere Astren attended Clarkson last season as a partial qualifier and practiced with the team despite not seeing any game action.
Three questions
1. The Golden Knights have appeared to be on the verge of putting together a top-four season in ECAC Hockey for several years. Will this be the year everything finally comes together?
2. Will Kielly build upon a solid freshman year? He had some bumps, but played well overall for the Golden Knights. A step forward would be a big boost for a team that lost a lot of offense from last season.
3. How will the Golden Knights handle the first month of the season? Clarkson opens its season by playing seven of its first eight games against teams that made the NCAA tournament last season. It could be a valuable learning experience for a team that has 16 freshmen and sophomores. “I think the ECAC is a fantastic league,” coach Casey Jones said. “A few of my years here, and I’ve said this before, I didn’t think were prepared when ECAC opened play and we got hit hard in the early season games. That set us back in the league games.”
Crystal Ball
At a minimum, the Golden Knights should have home ice in the first round of the playoffs. However, if things go right for Clarkson, it could push for a first-round bye and make a trip to Lake Placid for the league’s championship weekend.
Colgate
Last season
9-22-6, 6-13-3 (tenth)
Lost to Princeton in the first round of the ECAC Hockey playoffs
Names to know
There are two ways to look at the Raiders entering the 2017-18 season. The first is that Colgate, a team that finished last in ECAC Hockey in scoring last year, lost its two top scorers in graduated seniors Jake Kulevich and Tim Harrison. The second is that the Raiders return two of its top four scorers in freshman Bobby McMann and Jared Cockrell.
Regardless, Colgate will need to possess the puck more this season if it wants to improve offensively. The Raiders’ opponents averaged nearly seven shots more per game in league play last season.
Don Vaughan enters his 25th season at Colgate for the 2017-18 season (photo: Melissa Wade).
“We chased a lot of games and it was frustrating all of us,” Vaughan said. “First and foremost, we have to find a way possess the puck a lot more. A big part of that is that you have to work pretty hard to go get it back after you lose it. I think are young guys last year didn’t quite understand how hard you do have to work at this level to retrieve pucks and get them back.”
In addition to McMann and Cockrell, Colgate returns sophomore forward Adam Dauda, who missed time with an injury last year but had the highest faceoff percentage in the nation.
Incoming freshman Josh McKechney played alongside Cockrell in junior hockey with the Brooks Bandits of the AJHL.
“Having those two together has been fun already,” Vaughan said of the duo.
Senior forward Evan Peterson hasn’t scored much at Colgate, but put up good numbers in junior hockey, and Vaughan is looking for him to contribute this year.
In their season opener Saturday, the Raiders scored five goals in a win over Niagara. Cockrell scored twice, while McMann added a goal of his own. Colgate only scored five goals once all of last season.
Sophomore Colton Point, a Dallas Stars draft pick, is set to take the place of graduated senior Charlie Finn in goal. Vaughan said Point would have played more last season, but missed eight weeks with an illness. Point finished strong, posting a .936 save percentage over his final six appearances, but Vaughan noted that seniors Bruce Racine and Zac Hamilton were ready if Point didn’t pick up where he left off last season.
Three questions
1. Can Colton Point continue his strong play in goal from the end of last year? A good performance in net could take some pressure off a Raiders team that will need to press for goals this year.
2. Where will the goals come from? Colgate only has two players with more than ten career goals.
3. Will Don Vaughan reach his 400th career win? The long-time Raiders coach enters the year ten shy of that mark and won’t reach it this year if Colgate repeats in nine-win performance from last season. The Raiders play at St. Lawrence in February – what a story it would be if Vaughan got his 400th win at his alma mater, although he’d surely prefer to reach it a little earlier in the season.
Crystal Ball
Point should be solid in goal, but until the Raiders can prove they can score, Colgate might have a hard time getting home ice for the playoffs.
Cornell
Last season
21-9-5, 13-4-5 (3rd)
Lost to UMass Lowell in the first round of the NCAA tournament
Names to know
It was a return to form last year for the Big Red, who made the NCAA tournament for the first time in five years and posted its best overall winning percentage since the 2009-10 season.
Cornell had made the NCAA tournament three times in four years prior to its five-year drought that came to an end last spring.
The Big Red return plenty of important players from last year’s team, including leading scorer Mitch Vanderlan, who had only six penalty minutes all season and was an important part of Cornell’s penalty- kill unit.
Classmate Anthony Angello, who skated with Vanderlan for much of last season, is back as well. Sophomore defenseman Yanni Kaldis added a playmaking presence on Cornell’s blueline last year and will look to continue to do as a sophomore.
Kaldis’ style of play represents a shift that coach Mike Schafer and his staff have implemented at Cornell, as the Big Red have focused on recruiting players with more speed to match the changing style of play throughout the game.
Still, Schafer said speed isn’t the only aspect a player needs to be successful.
“I think [graduated senior] Jake Weidner was one of our best players last year and he wasn’t the fleetest afoot. Players come in all different shapes and sizes and we just hope this group of freshman can contribute.”
The Big Red’s incoming freshman group includes eight skaters and two goalies. Forward Morgan Barron was taken by the New York Rangers in the sixth round of June’s NHL draft, while defenseman Matt Cairns was drafted by Edmonton in the third round of last year’s draft. Fellow rookie Cam Donaldson was named the BCHL’s rookie of the year last season after scoring 32 goals and adding 37 assists in 54 games.
In goal, senior Hayden Stewart saw a decent amount of time as a freshman, but only played in four games the last two years as graduated senior Mitch Gillam took hold of the starting job.
Three questions
1. Who starts in goal? Gillam was a stalwart in goal for the last three years. In addition to Stewart, Cornell has freshmen Matthew Galajda and Austin McGrath. Last year, Galajda was the MVP of the BCHL’s Island Division, while McGrath was a finalist for the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s rookie of the year award.
2. Vandeerlan and senior forward Trevor Yates both increased their production last season. Which returner will do so this year?
3. Can the Big Red stay healthy? Cornell was among the best defensive teams in the country despite have a number of injuries on its backend. Senior Ryan Bliss returns after missing all of last season due to an injury.
Crystal Ball
Cornell might not be at the level of its Ivy League rival Harvard, but there’s no reason why the Big Red shouldn’t secure a first-round bye and make a push for its second straight NCAA tournament appearance.
Dartmouth
Last season
10-18-3, 7-13-2 (ninth)
Lost to Yale in the ECAC first round
Names to know
Cory Kalk has improved each of his first three seasons. Now in his senior year, will he have a giant year after an 11-goal, 13-assist campaign? He’s Dartmouth’s top returning scorer. Connor Yau is expected to lead the blue line as the team’s top returning defenseman. He had a goal and 11 assists in 29 games.
Cameron Roth could be a major contributor on the back end as a junior after his two-goal and six-assist sophomore year and is a solid defensive defenseman.
Three questions
1. Can Devin Buffalo put everything together? He kept Dartmouth in games, but will he be able to steal games for the Big Green in 2017-18?
“(Buffalo) came in great shape this fall,” Dartmouth coach Bob Gaudet said. “It was his first season as a starter last year. He was behind (Charles) Grant and Jim Kroger for a couple years, so as a junior he had a chance to play. He did a good job for us. What we are looking for from (Buffalo) is a little bit of more consistency. He’s a mature kid and he’s an older kid now. He will have great competition with Adrian Clark and Dean Shatzer. They will be pushing Devin Buffalo. Buffalo is a great guy and worked really hard for us and a real leader on our team.”
2. How will the nonconference schedule help the Big Green? In addition to playing two league games against Harvard, they also face the two other Frozen Four teams in the national title participants in Denver and Minnesota Duluth.
“As like Casey (Jones, Clarkson coach) mentioned, we want to play a great schedule,” Gaudet said. “A schedule that helps us that’s gets ready for a tough ECAC league. I think it’s the finest league in the country. It’s respirical thing, we played Denver a couple of years ago and we are going out to Denver to play the defending National Champions. We also have minnesota-Duluth at home. Those are a couple fine teams outside the league along with a bunch of other ones. I think it will help us prepare for the ECAC schedule. We play seven ECAC games in 2017 so we play the bulk of our schedule is in 2018.”
3. Breakout year for the sophomore class?
If the Big Green will have success, the 11 player sophomore class will have to have an impact. Will Graber made solid contributions as freshman with five goals and 14 assists. Cam Strong was third in goals with ten last season. If the class as a whole steps their game up, the Big Green could surprise some people.
Crystal Ball
Dartmouth is young so if they can survive and build off the early season challenges of a tough non conference schedule. The Big Green who are predicted to finish ninth by both the coaches and the media. If everything goes right for them, they could end up in the top half of the league.
Harvard
Last season
28-6-2, 16-4-2 (first)
Lost to Minnesota Duluth in the Frozen Four
Names to know
The biggest name to know on the Crimson is Ryan Donato. He really picked up his play in the second half of the season, where he had 25 of his 40 points after the new year. He will be the main guy in 2017 with the graduation of Sean Malone, Alexander Kerfoot, Tyler Moy and Luke Esposito. The 2014 second-round draft pick of the Boston Bruins is on the short list of college players for consideration for the Olympic team.
Might Harvard’s Ryan Donato represent Team USA at the 2018 Winter Olympics? (photo: Melissa Wade).
Lewis Zerter-Gossage and Nathan Krusko should be guys Ted Donato looks to for support for his son Ryan. Zerter-Gossage was a solid contributor as a sophomore as he had 11 goals and 14 assists in 36 games played. Krusko had 17 points as a freshman as he had nine goals and eight assists in 35 games.
Newcomer Jack Badini has had himself quite the 2017 so far. He helped the Chicago Steel to the USHL’s Clark Cup championship as he had 28 goals and 14 assists in 5. regular season games. He added another ten goals and seven assists in the playoffs. He saw his named called in the second round of the NHL Draft by the Anaheim Ducks. Had a good showing at the USA World Junior camp to cap his summer off.
Three questions
1. Is their unfinished business? The Crimson were two wins away from a National Championship and Harvard is hungry for those two wins.
“If you make it that far and you don’t finish the job, you want to get back and get another opportunity,” Donato said. “To echo what Ron (Fogarty, Princeton coach), every year is different, but I think there’s benefit of having your players in those big games and in those big venues. I think there’s a balance to it that you don’t to forget all the hard work and preparation and improvement that you need to undergo to have success at the end of the year. Certainly it was a nice run, we have to start at scratch like everybody else.”
2. What’s Donato’s mindset if one of his players gets the Olympic call?
“The Olympics to me is one of the greatest sporting events on so many levels,” Donato said. “To have a chance to represent yourself, your community, your university, your family in that kind of world event is unique and special. In general, we will be pulling hard for any of our players that get that great honor and opportunity I think it will be a live memory that they will cherish.”
3. How will Adam Fox follow up his freshman campaign?
The Calgary Flames draft pick made an immediate impact in Cambridge in 2016-17 as he had six goals and 34 helpers 35 games. Can he eclipse those numbers as a sophomore or do teams catch up to the dynamic offensive threat. How far the Crimson go in 2017-18 depends on the play on Fox
Crystal Ball
Despite the loss of impact seniors, the Crimson come into the 2017-18 season as the team to beat in the ECAC. They were named the top team in the conference by both the coaches and the media in the preseason polls. Ryan Donato, Fox and Merrick Madsen were named to the coaches All-League team.
Princeton
Last season
15-16-3, 8-11-3 (seventh)
Swept by Union in the ECAC quarterfinals
Names to know
Jackson Cressey nearly averaged a point per game as a freshman for the Tigers and was the Tigers’ third leading scorer, He had seven goals and 26 assists on the year. Coach Ron Fogarty said while he had a good year, he didn’t do it all by himself, nor are they expecting him to carry the offense as a sophomore.
“It’s just not him — Jackson is a byproduct of his two wingers that he played with last season and he’s going to play again this year,” Fogarty said. “For us to be successful, we can’t rely on one player, we have to be collectively improved from last year and collectively good each and every game to give us a chance to win. If we rely on one player, we will have a lot of downfall. We need players like Jackson to improve what he did last season.”
The two players ahead of him in team scoring will be juniors in 2017-18 in Ryan Kuffner and Max Véronneau. Kuffner led the team with 19 goals and added 17 assists for 36 points. Véronneau had 11 goals and 24 assists.
Three questions
1. Can Princeton make that next step and get a first-round bye? They made a 10-win improvement from the 201-16 season and were the No. 7 seed in 2016-17 season. They won their ECAC first-round series against Colgate before ultimately falling to Union in the quarterfinals. Forgarty isn’t looking ahead.
“We aren’t even looking at that,” Forgarty said of a first-round bye in 2017-2018. “If you are looking at the end product, especially how our philosophy is, we aren’t even close to making that. There are so many good teams, everyone in the media bases everything on last year’s performances, people returning, people coming back. If you believe you are getting a bye or be in the top four, if we do, we will be in dead last.”
2. Will there be more offense from the defense this season? Only Josh Teves had a double-digit point totals last season as he had four goals and 21 assists as a sophomore. Forgarty isn’t overly concerned about the blue line putting up points.
“We need our defense to better in our (defensive) zone,” Forgarty said. “We still have a number of defensemen that were minuses from last year. They realize that. Everything starts from your own zone and taking care of your responsibilities, identifying your player in that zone. We have to get better in that area, we have to get better in special teams and we have to get better in every area.”
Princeton coach Ron Fogarty has the Tigers trending in an upward direction (photo: Shelley M. Szwast).
3. Who will start in goal? Colton Phinney, who was a three-year starter for the Tigers, has graduated and moved onto the AHL with the Manitoba Moose. His backups the past few years haven’t seen much playing time. With Benjamin Halford, a senior and Austin Shaw, a junior, plus freshman Ryan Ferland, it’s anyone’s net.
“It’s wide-open week in and week out,” Forgarty said. “The good thing is we will have ample opportunity to see the whole team. We have the Unversity of Western Ontario coming in and our scrimmages, then we start the season off with Holy Cross before we start league play in November. We have ample opportunity through practice and a couple test week one in the season. Hopefully, all three play well and one emerges. It will be up to them.”
Crystal Ball
Both the coaches and media are high on the Tigers this season as they are ranked fifth by the coaches and fourth by the media. With Fogarty’s cautious optimism on the upcoming season, they have the potential to finish in that 4-5 spot. Offensively, they didn’t lose anyone, so you believe all those guys will put up similar numbers , but the biggest question is the goaltending. It’s an inexperienced group.
Quinnipiac
Last season
23-15-2, 17-10-1 (fifth)
Lost to Harvard in ECAC semifinals
Names to know
With Chase Priskie and Kārlis Čukste, the Bobcats have two solid defensemen, but coach Reck Pecknold hopes he doesn’t have to rely on just them and transfers Brandon Fortunato and John Furgele can bring solid contributions on the back end.
“We have two transfers that practiced with us last year in Fortunato and Furgele,” Pecknold said. “Both have played college games. Both are ready to step in the lineup and make an impact for us.”
Fortunato comes to Hamden after spending two years with Boston University from 2014 to 2016. His freshman season he had a goal and 17 assists in 41 games while his sophomore season, he had five goals and 17 assists in 38 contests. Furgele also comes from a Hockey East school where he played seasons with New Hampshire. He played two seasons in Durham where he had two goals and eight assists as a freshman and while adding a goal and 12 assists his sophomore year.
Pecknold expects his freshmen to contribute up front. Odeen Tufto comes to campus from a while traveled year in the USHL where he played for the Fargo Force, Sioux City Muskateers and the Tri-City Storm where he had 16 goals and 32 assists in 59 games. In the 2015-16 season he put up 25 goals and 40 helpers of the Vernon Vipers of the BCHL. Matthew Creamer spent tis past two seasons with the Nanaimo Clippers of the BCHL. He had 19 goals and 17 assists in 59 games last season. Devin Moore had 23 goals and 29 helpers in 59 games with the Brockville Braves of the CCHL in 2016-17
“We have some good freshmen, we’ve got ten freshmen on this team,” Pecknold said. “With ten freshmen and two transfers, we have 12 new players available to us. We are a young team, but we are excited for the season.”
Three questions
1. Will the Bobcats get back to the NCAA tournament? After making the NCAA tournament four years a row, Quinnipiac missed the tournament 2017. Pecknold hopes his team can be less streaky this season.
“Last year, I thought we really still had a good team, a really good year,” Pecknold said. “We just had a couple of small short spurts where we sputtered a little bit and lost our way That cost us, that cost us the NCAA tournament. It doesn’t take much, it’s really difficult to make the tournament, they don’t take that many teams. You have to be good and consistent all year long.”
2. Who will take reigns in net? Reck Pecknold has a problem, but a good problem to have as they have two goalies. Andrew Shortridge returns as a sophomore while Keith Petruzzelli is an incoming freshman.
“We are very excited our goaltending,” Pecknold said. “Andrew Shortridge had a great second half of the season last year. He has really matured. Keith Petruzzelli coming as a high draft of the Detroit Red Wings. He has a ton of potential and ton of talent. We are looking forward to that as being the strength of the team.”
3. Will the overall offense get back where it’s use to? Quinnipiac averaged 3.02 goals a game in 2016-17. The previous year it was 3.79.
“We lost a lot of good players from that previous year with our senior class,” Pecknold said. “Sam (Anas) and Devon (Toews) signed early with their NHL teams. The previous year we lost a lot too with Peca. So we are have been cleaned out pretty good there. But yeah, we hope to get back to our old ways and being a better offensive team and possess the puck more in the offensive zone.”
Crystal Ball
The Bobcats were ranked second in both the preseason coaches and media polls. That’s about right for them. After Harvard, who’s the class of the conference, Quinnipiac leads that next pack of teams. Defense and goaltending should carry them this season as they try to chase down the Crimson. They should get enough offense to be the No. 2 seed.
Rensselaer
Last season
8-28-1, 6-16 (11th)
Lost to Clarkson in the opening round of the ECAC Hockey playoffs
Names to know
After showing some promise two seasons ago, the bottom fell out for RPI last year, as the Engineers tumbled to an 8-28-1 overall record. It was the first time since 1982 that the school did not reach double-digit wins in a season.
That collapse cost coach Seth Appert his job after 11 seasons at RPI. The school hired Canisius’ Dave Smith last spring to take over the program.
“We’re going to want to compete against ourselves first,” Smith said. “We want to do all the things that everybody talks about. We want to possess the puck and show the energy and enthusiasm to get it back when we don’t have it. I think you’ll see all five guys active and involved in all three zones.”
Junior Chase Perry returns in goal. A Detroit draft pick, Perry struggled early on last season, but showed some potential later in the year, including a 41-save shutout over Harvard in January. He took over as the team’s primary goalie following the suspension of Cam Hackett, who is no longer with the program. Joining Perry will be freshman Linden Marshall, who played for the Trail Smoke Eaters in the BCHL last season.
On defense, Mike Prapavessis is a good skater and can move the puck, while Jared Wilson broke out with 11 goals last year. Sophomore Will Reilly is another defenseman to watch.
The Engineers took a few hits up front. In addition to graduating leading scorer Riley Bourbonais, Drew Melanson transferred to Boston University as a graduate student, while Lou Nanne decided to forgo his final year of eligibility. Forward Alex Rodriguez is also no longer playing for the program.
However, RPI does have several promising forwards returning. Junior Evan Tironese had a solid year after missing much of his freshman year with an injury, while Jacob Hayhurst and Viktor Liljegren contributed offensively as well.
2. Can RPI generate any offense? A few more goals could take some of the pressure off the goaltending and defense, which look to be the backbone of the team this year.
3. How will Smith change the direction of the program? It likely won’t happen right away, but RPI fans can look at Ron Fogarty at Princeton as an example of a new coach bringing a program on the upswing. And it’s arguable that Fogarty had less to work with the Tigers, a team that had three straight losing season priors to Fogarty taking over. RPI was over .500 in two of Appert’s last five seasons.
Crystal Ball
The Engineers will still be near the bottom of the league, but won’t be as bad as last season. If any turnaround is to happen under Smith, it will likely take a few years to materialize.
St. Lawrence
Last season
17-13-7, 12-6-4 (4th)
Lost to Quinnipiac in the ECAC Hockey quarterfinals
Names to know
After consecutive trips to Lake Placid, the Saints were knocked out in the ECAC quarterfinals last season in Mark Morris’ first year as head coach.
It doesn’t get any easier this year, as St. Lawrence graduated four defensemen, including leading scorer Gavin Bayreuther, one of the more dynamic players in the league the last several seasons.
The Saints’ defense took another hit when junior goalie Kyle Hayton finished his undergraduate work a year early and transferred to Wisconsin as a graduate student, leaving a gaping hole in net.
Hayton, who holds the school record for career shutouts, played over 90 mpercent of the team’s minutes in net during two of his three years at St. Lawrence.
“Though we were aware earlier this summer of Kyle’s intentions to graduate with the class of 2017 and then enroll at Wisconsin, both privacy laws and university policy prohibited us from making any public statement until the university registrar had officially certified him for having satisfied all requirements for a St. Lawrence degree,” Morris said in a statement.
With Hayton gone, junior Arthur Brey is the most experienced goaltender on the roster. He’s been impressive in limited time during his collegiate career. He’ll be joined by sophomore Daniel Mannella and freshman Cameron Gray.
On defense, the Saints return sophomore Ben Finkelstein and senior Nolan Gluchowski, but bring in several promising freshmen.
“We feel like we’ve got some real stalwart young defensemen that are going to some real fine things for us,” Morris said.
The four incoming defensemen come in with a variety of skills. Jake Stevens averaged nearly a point per game with the Victoria Grizzlies in the BCHL last year, while Bo Hanson had a strong year for Muskegon in the USHL. Dylan Woolf is a “big, strong kid that plays a heavy game,” Morris said, while Philip Alftberg is a “nifty little Swedish defenseman.”
Morris is also counting on R.J. Gicewicz to add defensive depth. The junior has only played in 11 games for the Saints due to injury, but is healthy entering the season.
Up front, forward Mike Marnell was one of the Saints top forwards last year when he was healthy. Keeping the senior in the lineup will be important for the Saints, as they hope to avoid the same situation as last year when Alex Gilmour joined St. Lawrence early from juniors due to the team’s mounting injuries.
Senior Joe Sullivan and junior Jacob Pritchard are also important scoring threats for the Saints.
Three questions
1. Who will start in goal? Hayton’s departure coupled with the loss of several important defensemen leaves a lot of spots to fill on the backend. It appears Brey has the advantage in the early going.
2. Can the Saints generate enough offense to compensate for their losses on defense? In addition to being steady defensive presences, Bayreuther and Sweetman were important parts of the offense.
3. Can St. Lawrence stay healthy? The Saints survived numerous injuries last year, but it might be hard to weather that many injuries to key players again this season.
Crystal Ball
The Saints still have some talent on defense, and while Brey doesn’t match Hayton’s numbers, he’ll be a solid replacement. Another top-four finish might be a stretch, but the Saints should have home ice in the opening round of the league playoffs.
Union
Last season
25-10-3, 16-4-2 (T-1st)
Lost to Penn State in the opening round of the NCAA tournament
Names to know
Sebastian Vidmar is the lone holdover from what was arguably the top line in Division I last season. Vidmar skated with Mike Vecchione and Spencer Foo for much of the season. Both of those players are now playing professionally, but Vidmar returns after averaging more than a point per game last season.
Juniors Brett Supinksi and Cole Maier gave the Dutchmen good scoring depth last season, and will look to increase their production this year. Supinksi had Union’s lone goal in the season-opening loss to Boston University last Saturday.
Incoming freshman Parker Foo, Spencer’s brother, and Jack Adams, were both drafted in the NHL entry draft in June and will look to pick up some of the offensive production that Union lost in the offseason.
Adams and Foo headline Union’s nine-member freshman class. Also amongst that group is Liam Morgan, who received the OJHL’s top prospect forward award in 2016.
Junior defenseman Greg Campbell doesn’t put up flashy numbers, but he played a number of important minutes for Union last season.
Freshman Vas Kolias and junior J.C. Brassard are among the experienced returners on Union’s defense as well.
“It’s been a work in progress the few times we’ve been on [the ice],” Union coach Rick Bennett said of the Dutchmen’s newcomers. “They’ve just got to adapt as quickly as they can and go on from there.”
Three questions
1. Can Union improve defensively? Defense hurt Union all season, and really showed in the Dutchmen’s ugly 10-3 loss to Penn State in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.
2. Who will replace Alex Sakellaropoulos in goal? Junior Jake Kupsky drew the start against the Terriers last weekend and played well, but the Dutchmen have junior Joe Young and freshman Darion Hanson as well.
3. How will the newcomers adapt to college hockey? It may take some time, but if the freshman can adapt quickly, it will go a long way towards any success the Dutchmen may have this season.
Crystal Ball
The loss of its two top forwards, starting goalie, and two top-scoring defensemen is tough for any team to overcome. Union likely won’t challenge for another regular-season title, and it wouldn’t be surprising if the Dutchmen are on the road for the first round of the league playoffs.
Yale
13-15-5, 9-13-4 (eighth)
Lost to Harvard in the ECAC quarterfinals
Names to know
Ryan Hitchcock will be returning to the lineup from an injury that kept him out for most of the second half of the season. He returns as a captain for the Bulldogs for his senior season. When he got injured, he was eclipsing a point per game pace as he had three goals and 16 assists in 17 games played.
“When Ryan got injured, he was our first-line center and leading the team in scoring,” Yale coach Keith Allain said. “He’s one of those guys that plays on the power play and plays on the penalty kill and takes important faceoffs for you. As everyone up here can tell you, you lose guys during the year. Losing Ryan was a blow to us. He comes back, he had a great summer, he’s our captain this year and he’s really excited to be coming back. If we can get him healthy for a full season, he will make a difference.”
Ryan Hitchcock looks to be Yale’s offensive catalyst this season (photo: Shelley M. Szwast).
Everywhere Evan and Mitchell Smith have played, they have put up points, whether it was midgets with the Toronto Nationals, the Salisbury School or the Dubuque Fighting Saints in the USHL. As freshmen last year, their scoring prowess was kept in check. Evan only had six goals and four assists in 33 games while Mitchell only had three goals and an assist in 30 games. With a year under their belts, they may be more comfortable at the Division I level.
Phil Kemp could contribute on the back end as a freshman. The seventh-round draft pick by the Edmonton Oilers this past June has spent the previous two seasons with the U.S. National Team Development Program where he was a captain for both years. He’s isn’t a point producer from the blue line, but will provide some defensive support.
Three questions
1. How will Allain juggle his head coaching duties and his assistant coach duties with Team USA at the Olympics?
“With (Team USA) we have a deep staff, there will be a lot of overlap in our responsibilities,” Allain said. “My primary roles will be pregame preparation. So that means, pre scouting our opponent and running the meeting for our next opponent in the pregame. I will also be directly working with our goaltenders which is something I did in the past. In terms our team in New Haven, obviously with as great the opportunity the Olympics is I hate to miss a practice with our hockey team at Yale. But with my two assistants in Josh Siembida and Ryan Donald, they are great young coaches. My absence will give them an opportunity to step out of their comfort zone a little bit, give them a different voice. Give our players here an opportunity to hear from a different coaching staff. I do thing over the long haul we will all be better because of the opportunity.”
2. Will Joe Snively be Ryan Hitchcock’s running mate?
Snively had a breakout year a sophomore in 2016-17 season as he had 14 goals and 25 assists in 33 games. Can he backup that production again? Part of of the Bulldogs success this year will be on the play from the Herdon, Virginia native.
3. Will continuity on defense be key to their success?
The Bulldogs only lose one defenseman in Dan O’Keefe who only appeared in eight games. Senior Adam Larkin and junior Charlie Curti each had 14 points to lead the team this past season. Larkin had three goals while Curti had a pair of goals. Don’t be surprised if the blue line gets stronger as the year goes on with Matt Foley, Billy Sweezey and Chandler Lindstrand are all sophomores and the addition of Kemp.
Crystal Ball
Yale is in that middle cluster as the media have them finishing sixth while coaches have them in the eighth spot. The one uncertainty for Yale, like a lot of ECAC teams, is goaltending. If Sam Tucker plays well, the Bulldogs may be able to sneak into the top four.
Andrew Oglevie potted 21 goals in 40 games for Notre Dame during the 2016-17 season (photo: Melissa Wade).
As the fifth season of Big Ten hockey begins, so much seems new.
The field of teams increases to seven with the addition of Notre Dame, which pushes the number of regular-season conference games from 20 to 24.
The conference playoffs will move from a single, neutral site on a single weekend at the end of the season to a three-week format with all games played in the campus rinks of teams with higher seeds, including the championship game. The first week of quarterfinal play will be a best-of-three series.
We’ll also see actual Big Ten conference hockey in October, far earlier in the season than we have in the past.
And, of course, there are two new coaches, Mel Pearson at Michigan and Danton Cole at Michigan State.
But there is so much about this league that seems like old times. Notre Dame once played in the WCHA with Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota and Wisconsin, and the Fighting Irish beat the Wolverines in the last-ever CCHA playoff championship game at the end of the 2012-2013 season – in the now-defunct Joe Louis Arena.
While Penn State is new to college hockey since the formation of the Big Ten, Guy Gadowsky was no stranger to this general vicinity when he took the job at PSU, having coached Alaska-Fairbanks in the CCHA from 1999 to 2004.
Pearson spent 22 years as a coach at Michigan, first as an assistant behind Red Berenson and then as an associate head coach before returning to his alma mater, Michigan Tech, as head coach in 2010. Cole played four years with Michigan State (1985-1989), served as an assistant at Bowling Green in the CCHA for a season (2006-2007) and has spent the last four years coaching for the U.S. National Development Program in Plymouth, Mich., a quick drive from both Yost and Munn Arenas.
The addition of Notre Dame feels so much like the return of an old friend that Pearson himself slipped and called it that – in a manner of speaking – during the Big Ten preseason coaches teleconference call. “With Notre Dame coming back in the league,” said Pearson, “I think it bodes well for us and renewing the rivalry we had back from the CCHA days.”
It was a small but telling slip: Notre Dame has never played in the Big Ten, having spent the last four years with Hockey East. Pearson has never coached in the Big Ten, having left for Michigan Tech before B1G hockey was a thing.
But – oh! – it sure feels good to get the band back together. And everyone seems to agree that the Big Ten is on the verge of big things.
Ohio State’s Steve Rohlik said, “I really believe this is going to be the most competitive year of the Big Ten. I think adding Notre Dame to our league just adds another quality opponent with a quality coaching staff and a quality program.”
Said Gadowsky, “With adding Notre Dame to the Big Ten, I think the league is getting tougher and tougher and better and better.”
Tony Granato, in his second year as Wisconsin’s head coach and tapped to lead the 2018 U.S. men’s Olympic team, said that the Big Ten “is going to be respected nationally” and “could have four and potentially five teams talked about making it to the tournament.”
Ah, the tournament – as in, the NCAA championship tournament, an event in which the Big Ten as a whole has been glaringly underrepresented since the conference’s inception. B1G hockey has made seven NCAA appearances since the end of the 2013-2014 season, including Minnesota’s three appearances (2014, 2015, 2017). Last year, the league had three representatives in the tournament for the first time, with Penn State’s first appearance and Ohio State’s first return since 2009 as well as Minnesota’s return after having missed the 2016 tourney.
This is a conference that is all too aware that it should be a bit more visible on the national stage, and adding a seventh team – any seventh team – helps the league in that regard. With just six teams in its first four years, the Big Ten played a lot of nonconference hockey and a lot of that nonconference hockey did not work to the league’s advantage. Last year, the league finally began showing signs of a national presence, finishing with a .583 nonconference win percentage, edging out Hockey East (.573) but falling far behind the NCHC (.670), the league that everyone has been chasing since it debuted the same year as B1G hockey.
But Big Ten hockey didn’t add just any seventh team. Notre Dame made NCAA tournament appearances in three of its four seasons with Hockey East (2014, 2016, 2017) and the Fighting Irish are picked to finish second in the Big Ten coaches preseason poll. Notre Dame also came in at No. 8 in USCHO’s preseason poll.
“I think that a combination of adding Notre Dame, having 24 league games as opposed to 20 … the strength of the conference is really growing right now,” said Minnesota coach Don Lucia. “You kind of saw it start to happen last year. With Michigan and Michigan State, they’re going to be on the rebound now and better days ahead. I just look as the conference as going to be ultracompetitive. The league is going to be without question better than it has been.”
There is a lot to be said for the optimism surrounding the start of any season, but the 2017-2018 season could be the Big Ten’s breakout year. There are questions surrounding goaltending, which was shaky throughout the entire conference last season. There are questions about two teams with new coaches, but maybe Granato’s turnaround of Wisconsin in a single season last year mitigates some of those. The conference didn’t lose as much offense as it had in previous seasons – but, then again, it didn’t have a lot to lose.
For a league that has every resource at its disposal, the Big Ten has been underwhelming. The addition of Notre Dame heightens the league’s profile even more, and every coach in the conference seems confident that the usual start-of-the-season optimism is more than just hype.
“We’re adding conservatively, a top-ten program to the conference and that bodes real well for us in the competition,” said Cole.
“I think the conference is going to be extremely tight and I think it’s going to be extremely tough,” said Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson. “I think anybody can finish anywhere in the conference. It’s going to be like finishing in Hockey East without the bottom five teams, so I think it’s going to be a challenge every night.”
Tough competition, renewed rivalries, more conference hockey play – but will this lead to anything beyond a few “shows improvement” marks on the end-of-season report card? Mel Pearson seems to think so.
“We saw some growing pains,” said Pearson, “and I think now that the Big Ten is ready to prove itself as the premier conference in college hockey.”
TEAM PREVIEWS (in alphabetical order)
Michigan
Last season
13-19-3, 6-12-2-2 Big Ten (fifth).
Lost to Penn State in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten championship tournament.
Names to know
The Wolverines return their top four point-scorers from a season ago, but only one of them, senior forward Tony Calderone, netted more than 10 goals in 2016-2017. Other forwards to watch are junior Cooper Marody and sophomores Will Lockwood and Jake Slaker. Michigan returns all but one contributing blueliner from a year ago, and freshman Quinn Hughes is a highly touted defensive prospect.
Tony Calderone led Michigan with 15 goals last season (photo: Rachel Lewis).
“We had an off year last year, but when you go through the roster, you’ll see it’s sprinkled with a lot of youth,” said first-year head coach Mel Pearson. “Some of those young players were put in positions that they weren’t ready for, but I think that experience that the young men got last year will really help us going forward.”
Three questions
1. How will Michigan respond in its first season after Red Berenson’s 32-year tenure?
2. Will the Wolverines be able to build on the little late-season improvement they saw last year?
3. Will Michigan’s sophomore netminders provide the Wolverines with the kind of goaltending that has been missing from this program for at least the last five years?
Crystal ball
The Wolverines will show real improvement under their new head coach, but this will be a rebuilding year for Michigan as everyone adjusts and the talent on the team slowly begins to realize why it’s playing for a program that was once one of the elite of Division I hockey. There is a good chance that Michigan will finish higher than its predicted sixth place, but not that much higher.
Michigan State
Last season
7-24-4, 3-14-3-1 Big Ten (sixth)
Lost to Ohio State in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten championship tournament.
Names to know
Picked to finish last in the Big Ten this year, the Spartans have no names on the league’s preseason watch list, but that doesn’t mean that the team isn’t returning talent. Sophomore Sam Saliba is the only returning player who scored 10 goals or more last season, but both he and classmate Tiro Hirose showed promise a season ago. Two freshmen forwards from Michigan, David Keefer and Mitch Lewandowski, put up good numbers in the USHL last year. Senior defenseman Carson Gatt was a bright spot on a bad blue line for the Spartans last year. Freshman Tommy Miller is expected to help shore up the defense.
“We have a lot of guys returning. I think it’s going to be a pretty young team,” said first-year head coach Danton Cole. “I think we’re at 19 freshmen and sophomores this year, so we’ll get a lot of ice time for a lot of young guys. We’ll look at our three seniors to give us some leadership. Interestingly enough, the three seniors are just 21, so even our old guys are young. The energy and enthusiasm is commiserate with that and seems to be really good around here, and I’ve been impressed with how hard they’ve worked.”
Three questions
1. Who will emerge as Michigan State’s goaltender, senior Ed Minney or sophomore John Lethemon?
2. After finishing the 2016-2017 season with a defense among the bottom five teams in college hockey, will the Spartans be able to improve defensively enough to be competitive regularly?
3. What kind of bounce will Michigan State get from having a new coaching staff?
Crystal ball
The Spartans are picked to finish last in Big Ten play and that’s as safe a bet as any in this league this year. There is significant rebuilding to be done beginning with this season, but even last year, Michigan State showed real signs of life and a tenacity that was second-to-none in college hockey. They’ll struggle, but they’ll improve and they should not be taken for granted.
Minnesota
Last season
23-12-3, 14-5-1 Big Ten (First)
Lost to Notre Dame in its first game at the NCAA Northeast Regional
Names to know
Tyler Sheehy was Minnesota’s point leader last season with 20 goals and 33 assists. Forwards Leon Bristedt and Rem Pitlick, whom both had 32 points, will also help pace the Gophers offense.
“I think we’ll be pretty good up front,” head coach Don Lucia said during the Big Ten preseason teleconference. “And deeper, maybe, than we were a year ago.”
Casey Mittelstadt was taken in the first round last June by the Buffalo Sabres at the 2017 NHL Draft (photo: Dan & Margaret Hickling/Hickling Images).
One promising player that the Gophers have coming in is freshman Casey Mittelstadt. The Eden Prairie, Minn., native had 21 goals and 43 assists during his high school senior season and accumulated 30 points in a 24-game stint with the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL. He was drafted eighth overall in the 2017 NHL Draft by Buffalo.
“We’ve only had some 30-minute practices, but obviously he’s a talented player,” Lucia said. “You don’t get picked that high in the draft without a tremendously high skill level.”
Lucia added that he was particularly impressed by Mittelstadt off the ice, using words like “humble” and “team-based.”
Lucia also noted that Tommy Novak, who sat out the rest of the season after suffering a lower-body injury in January, and Ryan Lindgren, who suffered a broken leg late in the season, have both recovered from said injuries. Novak had five goals and 9 assists last season and Lindgren had seven points.
Three questions
1. Who will pick up the goal-scoring void left by Justin Kloos and Vinni Lettieri?
Sure, the Gophers are returning their goal-scoring leader in Sheehy, but the two players that ranked second and third in that category have moved on. Mittelstadt, Bristedt and Pitlick look to have the most potential to rival the 20-goal mark.
2. How will the Gophers navigate their early-season schedule?
Minnesota will open the season by playing Minnesota-Duluth on the road and then face the winner of Union and Michigan Tech the nest night.
Next there is an early-season conference bout with Penn State. Minnesota went 4-1 against the Nittany Lions last season, with most of the contests being close.
Then there’s the series that fans on both sides probably have circled, North Dakota. The Gophers tied and defeated the Fighting Hawks last season at home and this year’s series will be at North Dakota.
After the first six games the schedule, at least on paper, looks a little lighter so a good mark could set Minnesota up for a successful first half of the season.
3. Can the Gophers get back to having postseason success?
Minnesota’s run to its last Frozen Four was three seasons ago, it has since missed the tournament all together and the last national championship has become a distant memory.
With an experienced roster, a veteran goaltender and a freshman phenom that could realistically only be on campus for one season this could be Minnesota’s best chance to make a deep postseason run in recent memory.
Crystal ball
Minnesota was picked to win the Big Ten and Gophers should win the league.
Notre Dame
Last season
23-12-5, 12-6-4 Hockey East (fourth).
Lost to Denver in the semifinals of the NCAA championship tournament.
Names to know
The Fighting Irish return a talented team with several players to watch, including a trio of sophomores. Andrew Oglevie netted 21 goals last year as a freshman, while his classmates Jake Evans and Cam Morrison had 25 between them. Freshmen forwards Pierce Crawford and Colin Theisen are expected to contribute, and the Irish are interested in what freshman Dylan St. Cyr may do in net following the departure of Cal Petersen. Senior defenseman and co-captain Jordan Gross will lead the blue line.
Coach Jeff Jackson said that the entire Notre Dame team will have to adjust to playing in a new program.
“Our whole current team has never played against Michigan or Michigan State – we did play Michigan in the NCAA tournament two years ago,” said Jackson. “We played Minnesota a few years back and Penn State’s the only team recently that we’ve played, so these guys have not played at Yost Arena. This group has not played at Wisconsin, they haven’t played at Ohio State or Munn Arena for that matter. It’s going to be an adjustment for the whole team, not just the young guys.”
Three questions
1. How will Notre Dame adjust to playing in a new conference?
2. With two freshmen and a sophomore who played 20 minutes in his rookie year last season, will the inexperienced Notre Dame netminding be up to the task?
3. Can the Irish get past reliance on a small committee of high-octane scorers to propel their offense into the top 10 this season?
Crystal ball
While the Big Ten is a new experience for every player on Notre Dame’s roster, this is hardly new territory for Notre Dame’s coaching staff. In fact, this season may feel like a bit of a homecoming for the Fighting Irish, who renew old rivalries and board the bus more often than they’ve done in recent years. Picked in preseason to finish second, Notre Dame will contend for the Big Ten title.
Ohio State
Last Season
21-12-6, 11-8-1 Big Ten
Lost to Minnesota-Duluth in its first game at the NCAA West Regional
Names to know
Forwards Mason Jobst and Matthew Weis were named to the Big Ten Preseason Watch List. Jobst led the Buckeyes in scoring last year with 19 goals and 36 assists. Weis had 31 points last year.
“He’s certainly been incredible for us for two years,” head coach Steve Rohlik said of Jobst during the preseason teleconference. “I look at his the same as our team, he can never be satisfied, certainly he has holes in his game that he wants to continue to improve. With his work ethic on and off the ice, I really believe that he can continue to become a better player.”
Junior Dakota Joshua was Ohio State’s fourth-leading scorer last season with 12 goals and 23 assists. Tanner Laczynski had 10 goals and 22 assists.
Ohio State’s Mason Jobst compiled 55 points in 39 contests in 2016-17, including 34 points in Big Ten play (photo: Rachel Lewis).
Maine transfer Sean Romeo and freshmen Tommy Nappier and Evan Moyse will compete for time between the pipes. Romeo started 21 games for the Black Bears during his freshman season, but only played in two games during the 2015-16 season. He sat out last season due to NCAA transfer rules.
“We’re going into a unique situation with all three new goaltenders,” Rohlik said. “The one thing that Sean Romeo has is he does have some college experience and he is going to be a junior and he was around our program all year last year.”
Three questions
1. How much will Nick Schilkey be missed?
The Buckeyes return a decent portion of their scoring from last season, including the top points scorer in Jobst, but gone is the guy that scored 27 goals. Schilkey led the Big Ten in goals and was third in the nation.
Ohio State returns five of the seven players that scored 10 or more goals last season, so one would think that the offense will be fine, but it’s not going to be easy to replace a guy that scored as often as Schilkey.
2. Will a goaltender grab the starting job?
Rotating goaltenders is fairly common in college hockey, but it’s always nice to have a bona fide starter in net. Romeo may get the early looks due to his previous college experience, but both Nappier and Moyse had winning records in the USHL last season.
3. How will the Buckeyes navigate the start of the season?
Bucking a trend of starting slow, Ohio State went 9-2-4 during the first half of the season last year. That start paved the way to an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament. This season, Ohio State starts with a pair of tough games at Wisconsin. A start that is similar to last year’s will go a long way towards the team’s postseason goals.
Crystal ball
The Buckeyes will finish middle of the pack in the Big Ten. They won’t be close to the top tier teams, but shouldn’t find themselves with the cellar dwellers either.
Penn State
Last Season
25-12-2, 10-9-1 Big Ten (Fourth)
Lost to Denver in its second game at the NCAA Midwest Regional
Names to know
Denis Smirnov led the Nittany Lions in scoring as a freshman last season. He scored 19 goals and had 28 assists. Most of his goals came during even-strength play, too, with only two being scored on the power play.
Penn State had coach Guy Gadowsky said during the preseason teleconference that he wouldn’t be surprised if Smirnov improved this season.
“What is going to make him get better and better is that he’s still a young guy,” Gadowsky said. “We’re very fortunate that Pegula Ice Arena has great training facilities, and he’s really taken advantage of that. He’s improved his strength and conditioning greatly since we saw him in September last year.”
Five of six Penn State players that scored 10 or more goals last season will return, including Andrew Sturtz who lit the lamp 22 times.
Freshman Evan Barratt joins Penn State after spending the last two years with the U.S. National Under-17 and Under-18 teams.
“I love his instincts,” Gadowsky said of Barratt. “He thinks so quickly, he processes what’s going on so quickly. I think when we finally get in and are able to practice for an extended period of time, I’m looking forward to see how he can create on the ice but initially he’s going to elevate our hockey I.Q. and the way we process the game.”
Three questions
1. What will Penn State do as an encore?
The Nittany Lions made their first NCAA tournament last year and won their first game in said tournament. They also won the Big Ten tournament and were briefly ranked No. 1 in the nation.
This season Penn State’s goal should be to finish closer to the top of the conference so maybe it doesn’t need results from the conference playoffs to make it to the NCAA tournament.
2. Can Peyton Jones follow up his successful freshman season?
A big reason Penn State made the NCAA tournament was Peyton Jones’ performance at the Big Ten tournament, where he went 3-0 and only allowed five goals over those three contests.
Gadowsky said it was funny how goaltending went from being a question mark going into last season to a strong point at the end of the year. If Jones can consistently put up strong performances behind what should be a good defensive unit, Penn State should find success again this year.
3. Will Penn State’s nonconference doom their postseason chances?
A .500 conference record last year meant that the Nittany Lions had to win the Big Ten Tournament to advance to the NCAA tournament, even though the team had an impressive nonconference record.
The problem was Penn State’s nonconference opponents didn’t help out its PairWise ranking much, and this season’s nonconference opponents look to have a similar skill level on paper. With the Big Ten postseason moving to campus sites, and the introduction of a best of three first round, winning the automatic bid will be more difficult than winning a couple games in a row over the course of one weekend at a neutral site. That will make the possibility of an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament even more of a luxury going into the conference playoffs.
Wisconsin
Last season
20-15-1, 12-8-0 Big Ten (Second)
Lost to Penn State in the Big Ten Tournament final
Names to know
The Badgers return three of their top five scorers from last season. Trent Frederic scored 15 goals and tallied 18 assists. Senior Cameron Hughes had 32 points last year and Seamus Malone had 10 goals and 19 assists.
Senior defenseman Jake Linhart will anchor the blue line for Wisconsin, he had six goals and 17 assists last season. In net, graduate transfer Kyle Hayton will more than likely be the starting goaltender. He won 16 games for St. Lawrence last year and posted five shutouts.
Three questions
1. How much of an impact will Luke Kunin’s departure have?
The first ever sophomore captain in school history signed with the Minnesota Wild after two seasons at Wisconsin, meaning someone else will have to cover for the 22 goals and 16 assists he had last year. Frederic, the reigning Big Ten Freshman of the Year, certainly looks like he has the potential to surpass the 20-goal mark.
2. Can the Badgers build on Tony Granato’s impressive first season?
Wisconsin won 20 games last season after only managing eight victories during the 2015-16 campaign. After coming up one game short, the only way Granato can really outdo last season is to lead the Badgers to the NCAA tournament. The Badgers last made the tournament in 2014 when they lost to North Dakota in the first game of the Midwest Regional.
3. Will Granato coaching at the Olympics affect Badgers’ finish?
The head coach is expected to miss at least four games at the end of the season. That included a road series against Minnesota and a home series against Ohio State.
The NHL not allowing its players to participate means that multiple college teams will have to deal without some top players, but it’ll be interesting to see how the Badgers manage without their head coach.
Crystal ball
Wisconsin finishes third in the conference and makes the NCAA tournament.
Phil Boje will anchor a strong Air Force blue line in 2017-18 (photo: Omar Phillips).
There’s a wealth of talent in Atlantic Hockey this season, possibly the most skilled and experienced group of players the league has ever produced.
With a few exceptions, teams were not hit hard by graduation, retaining the vast majority of their top players.
Remarkably, only five of the top 35 scorers in the league graduated. A whopping nine of the eleven AHC teams return at least eight of their top ten scorers; another returns seven of ten.
The exception is goaltending. All three all-league goalies have moved on. Canisius’ Charles Williams and Army West Point’s Parker Gahagen have graduated, while Air Force goalie Shane Starrett turned pro at the end of his sophomore season, signing a deal with Edmonton.
But teams like Mercyhurst, Robert Morris and Holy Cross will have experience between the pipes in addition to bevy of skilled skaters.
“Depth is the best that it’s ever been,” said Air Force coach Frank Serratore. “There are more teams than ever that can win the regular season, and even more teams that are capable of winning the playoffs. I think every team in this league can win the playoffs and go on to the NCAA tournament.”
“Every team has five or six guys that are worthy of all-star status,” said Bentley coach Ryan Soderquist. “Where before, you had two or three. I think the league has made tremendous strides in getting and developing talented players.”
“Looking at the league I can only say ‘wow'”, said Army coach Brian Riley. “Teams from one to eleven, you legitimately have a chance to win every night. I don’t think you used to have the parity that we do now.”
“The good news is I think we’re better,” said American International coach Eric Lang, now in his second season at his alma mater (’98). “The bad news is that everybody’s better. It’s exponentially better from when I was a player. It’s hard to climb up in this league.”
Deeper rosters means more parity as well as hopefully more non-conference wins, something the league has struggled with.
But for now the coaches are focused on competition within the conference, which they expect to be as fierce as ever.
I think (the final standings) will be the closest we’ve ever been when it’s all said and done,” said Riley. “If you don’t improve, you’re going to get passed.”
New faces behind the bench
After several seasons of stability in the coaching ranks, last season saw Lang begin his head coaching career at American International. This offseason brought more turnover, albeit for different reasons.
Dave Smith, fresh off leading Canisius to its first regular season title, was snapped up by Rensselaer. At Niagara, consecutive last-place finishes for the Purple Eagles led to the school cutting ties with coach Dave Burkholder after 16 seasons as a head coach and 21 seasons overall.
Canisius stayed the course and promoted assistant Trevor Large to head coach. While Large expects to put his own mark on the program, one important aspect will stay the same.
“We hope to continue the culture that Dave was able to create here,” said Large. “Legacy is our culture. I heard that message from the team through the (coach selection) process.
“We’re always looking for things to improve. We’re targeting some areas to improve, goal scoring being one of them. We had some success last year and we want to grow that.”
In April, Niagara announced Jason Lammers as its new head coach. Lammers came from Dubuque of the USHL, where he was the head coach and general manager. He was previously the top assistant coach at UMass-Lowell.
“I’m excited to be a part of this program and a part of this league,” said Lammers. “I’m impressed by this group of players, and the intent they’ve shown to work hard, and be hard to play against.”
“An addicting drug”
Air Force’s participation in the NCAA tournament last year, when the Falcons defeated Western Michigan and lost 3-2 to Harvard, brings extra motivation for Serratore’s team this season.
“It’s like an addicting drug,” said Serratore. “Once they go there, they want nothing more than to get back.”
The Falcons have made six NCAA appearances since joining the league in 2006, but prior to last season, the most recent appearance for Serratore’s team was in 2012.
“For all of our players last year, it was their first trip to to the NCAA tournament,” he said. “And it was a great experience that they want to have again.”
Earning it
According to the league’s coaches, Air Force has the best chance of making a return trip to the NCAA tournament. The Falcons were ranked No. 1 in the preseason coaches’ poll, getting eight of 11 first-place votes.
“Now we have to go out and earn that ranking,” said Serratore. “It’s going to be more difficult than it’s ever been. We lost our best player (Starrett), but we have the deepest team that I’ve coached here. We’re five lines and eight defensemen deep.”
Looking ahead
* The league continues to ramp up its scholarship limit, increasing it by one each season until reaching the NCAA maximum of 18 in the 2020-21 season, It’s at 15 for 2017-18.
* The conference championship will stay at Rochester’s Blue Cross Arena through 2020. It will be interesting to see if Atlantic Hockey follows suit with the WHCA and Big 10 and move to a completely on-campus tournament. Attendance has been dismal at BCA for games that don’t involve RIT. Last year’s championship game between Air Force and Robert Morris drew only 650 fans.
* This year marks the 15th anniversary for the Atlantic Hockey, and the league is commemorating it in several ways, including a new logo, a 15th anniversary team, a look at the professional careers of famous alumni, as well as the “Top 15 Moments in Atlantic Hockey” that will be announced periodically throughout the season.
Predicted order of finish:
1. Air Force
2. Robert Morris
3. Army West Point
4. Canisius
5. Holy Cross
6. RIT
7. Bentley
8. Mercyhurst
9. AIC
10. Sacred Heart
11. Niagara
TEAM PREVIEWS (in order of predicted finish)
Air Force
Last Season
27-10-5, 19-6-3 (second) in the AHC. Lost to Harvard in the NCAA East Regional finals.
Names to know
The Falcons return almost everyone from last year’s banner squad. All top ten scorers return, led by senior Jordan Himley (22 goals and 37 points last season) and junior Kyle Haak (33 points last season).
Senior Ben Kucera, hampered by injuries last season, was Air Force’s leading goal scorer in 2015-16 and is capable of doing that again if he stays healthy.
Senior blueliner Phil Boje (30 points) was first-team all-league last season, and heads up a defensive corps that features six upperclassmen, including fellow seniors Kyle Mackey and Dylan Abood.
The unexpected departure of all-star goaltender Shane Starrett has created opportunities for junior Billy Christopoulous (3.09 GAA in 18 career games) and a trio of rookie netminders.
“Last year we needed Shane Starrett to win some games for us,” said Air Force coach Frank Serratore. “The last three games of our tournament, two of them elimination games, we won and we scored a total of five goals. Goaltending won those games.”
Serratore says that this year’s team is deeper and more experienced and that may take some of the pressure off his goaltenders.
Besides the three new goalies, there are nine newcomers (six forwards and three defensemen) looking to crack a lineup that lost just three players to graduation.
Forward Zack Theisan had 97 points in 161 games for Coulee Region (NAHL), while classmate Walker Sommer put up 71 points in 78 games for New Jersey (USPHL).
Defensemen looking to make an early impact include USHL products Alex Mehnert (Omaha) and Zak Mirageas (Bloomington).
And finally, fans might do a double take when they see the nameplate on forward Alex Falconer’s jersey. He’s hoping to fit in well as a Falcon after posting 63 points in 156 NAHL games.
Three questions
1. How much will the unexpected loss of goaltender Shane Starrett affect the Falcons? Last season, Serratore was unabashed in his praise for Starrett, calling him the main reason for the Falcons’ success. Air Force returns almost intact, with this one glaring exception. Is the job Christopoulous’ to lose?
2. Is a Frozen Four possible? Before Starrett’s departure, this team would have been in the running to be just the second Atlantic Hockey school ever to reach the Frozen Four. Air Force was a goal or two away last season, losing 3-2 to Harvard in the East Region Final. Are the Falcons still a contender at that level without their all-star goaltender?
3. How much does the large rookie class need to contribute? The Falcons have eight seniors but also have 12 freshmen. Serratore often plays freshmen sparingly in the early part of the season, but the Falcons, as deep as they are, will need its rookies to step up as well.
Crystal ball
Air Force is coming off one of the best seasons in school history, including a trip to the NCAA East Regional Final and its highest ranking in school history (No. 12) in the final USCHO Poll.
This looks to be one of, if not the deepest Air Force teams in school history. The Falcons may take a step back in terms of goaltending, but they still have more than enough to defend their title. Anything less than another trip to Rochester will be a disappointment.
Robert Morris
Last Season
24-11-4, 15-10-3 (tied for third) in the AHC. Lost to Air Force in the AHC tournament. final.
Names to know
Stop me if you heard this one before: the Colonials return a load of talent. Like most of the league, star players return to build on their already successful careers. Senior Brady Ferguson already has 118 career points, including 58 last season. He’s the top returning scorer in Division I. Junior forward Alex Tonge had a breakout season in 2016-17, scoring 20 goals and adding 24 assists.
Senior Timmy Moore doubled his offensive output from his sophomore (12 points) to junior (25 points) seasons.
On defense, Robert Morris has four seniors including Brett Beauvais, who transferred from Bemidji State.
“(Beauvais) gives us even more depth and experience,” said RMU coach Derek Schooley. “He’s played in over a hundred WCHA games.”
Robert Morris players celebrate a goal by Timmy Moore during the 2016-17 season (photo: Omar Phillips).
Junior blueliner Eric Israel was an offensive powerhouse last season, tallying 30 points, including six power play goals. He’ll again quarterback a power play that was tops in the league and No. 7 nationally (22.7%).
A small rookie class includes forward Nick Prkusic, who had a whopping 76 points in 56 games last season for Brooks (AJHL).
In net, Francis Marotte had a fantastic rookie campaign, posting a 2.07 GAA and a .931 save percentage. He’ll be backed by senior Andrew Pikul and rookie Dyllan Lubbesmeyer.
“Frankie went through the wars last season, playing in 30 games,” said Schooley. “He came in and did an unbelievable job. We’re looking for him to do just what he did for us last year. And we’re confident Andrew Pikul, who played in some big games for us last year, can do the job for us as well.”
Three questions
1. Can the Colonials go dancing? RMU has been the most successful team in the league in terms of ins (70) over the past three seasons. But while claiming two regular season titles over that span, nobody on the roster has played in the NCAA tournament.
2. Will experience pay off? Robert Morris has just four freshmen compared to eight seniors and 13 upperclassmen overall. “We’re very deep right now,” said Schooley.
“We’ve got a group that’s comparable to the group that won 24 games a couple of years ago. We’re not so much teaching as refining our game.”
3. Is a fourth Three Rivers Classic in the cards? The host Colonials have claimed three of Three Rivers Classic tournaments, upsetting some top competition. The field this year (Providence, Arizona State, Lake Superior State) is not as strong as it has been in the past.
Crystal Ball
At the beginning of last season, the Colonials were expected to drop off a bit after graduating a class that contributed to one playoff and two regular season titles. But RMU won 22 games, just two less than it had racked up in 2014-15 and 2015-16.
Don’t expect that to change. If anything, RMU could put up even more victories in 2017-18.
“The window for winning is wide open right now and hopefully it doesn’t close any time soon.” said Schooley.
Army West Point
Last Season
18-14-5 overall, 15-10-3 Atlantic hockey (tied for 3rd place). Lost to Air Force in the Atlantic Hockey semifinals.
Names to Watch
The Black Knights return 10 of their top 11 players from last year, including five 20-point scorers. They have all three 10-goal scorers from a year ago back, including Brendan Soucie and Zach Evancho. Along with Conor Andrle, Dominic Franco, Tyler Pham, and Trevor Fidler, there’s enough firepower around to keep opposing defenses occupied.
Defensively, four players who played 30 or more games return, including Alex Wilkinson and Dalton MacAfee. Only Ryan Nick, who played in 133 games over four years, graduated.
Three Questions
1) Can Cole Bruns seamlessly replace Parker Gahagen as the team’s goalie? The firstie only played in four games last year and has only 21 games on his career, but he posted a .949 save percentage and a 1.30 goals against average in four appearances. Starting two games in place of an injured Gahagen, he’s made a believer out of his coach.
“Cole’s been waiting for this opportunity,” head coach Brian Riley said. “He has a different style than Parker, who was a big kid with size. But he’s very competitive, so we won’t change our style of play in front of him. The guys who play in front of him have confidence in him.”
It’s going to be tough to replace an all-conference goaltender who was one of the best in the nation. But with a defense designed to help him, Bruns could create a transition and make an immediate impact in his final season.
2) Can the offense replicate last season’s 100-goal output? Riley likes to say a team “can’t teach experience.” As a third place team returning a huge crop of veteran players, the Black Knights have the offense to remain as one of the league’s most explosive teams.
“This is a team with some of the most depth we’ve had up front and on defense,” Riley said. “I think the big difference for us over the last four years is that we’ve been able to change the mentality. We went from being a team hoping to win to a team that expects to win. That change in the culture made a huge difference to us and all the credit to the players in our program who did that.”
3) Is Army West Point the eastern team that can finally break the west’s stranglehold on the league championship trophy? The Black Knights outscored league opponents by over 20 goals last year and ripped off a 4-1-2 stretch at the end of the season to earn a first round bye.
But a loss in the semifinals to their archrival Air Force left them unsatisfied. So this year begins with the intention of not allowing the team to feel like last year’s accomplishment achieves anything for the upcoming season.
“We have experience up front and on the blue line,” Riley said. “But we haven’t done anything this year. We brought in nine new players, and we feel they’re pretty good. They’re pushing the older guys and that’s important. Once you think you’ve arrived, that’s when you run into problems, so none of our players have that attitude. If you don’t improve, then you’re going to get passed.”
Crystal Ball
An eastern-based team hasn’t won an Atlantic Hockey championship since Holy Cross lifted the trophy in 2006. Even with a change in goal, the Black Knights are still one of the teams to beat entering this season. If their returnees can move forward from last year’s run and if Cole Bruns becomes the natural heir, that 11-year streak of western dominance could come to an end in West Point.
Canisius
Last Season
21-11-7, 18-4-6 (first) in the AHC. Lost to Robert Morris in the AHC semifinals. .
Names to know
Canisius’ situation entering the 2017-18 season is similar to that of Air Force: on the heels of a record-breaking season, the Golden Griffins return all but a few players but lose their all-star goaltender.
League MVP and Hobey Baker finalist Charles Williams graduated, so new coach Trevor Large will be considering a quartet of hopefuls for the starting position. Back are junior Simon Hoffley (two appearances last season) and sophomore Daniel Urbani (five games) a well as sophomore Blake Weyrick and freshman Tucker Weppner (OJHL).
Up front, Canisius returns nine of its top 10 scorers from last season, including captain Ryan Schmelzer (30 points last season) and leading scorer Dylan McLaughlin (14 goals and 33 points). Both Schmelzer and McLaughlin were Atlantic Hockey all-stars in 2016-17, as was defenseman Cameron Heath (18 points).
Forward Nick Hutchinson’s 24 points was tops among all freshmen in the league last season, and classmate Matt Hoover looks to improve on a great rookie season (20 points).
Heath, the Co-Defenseman of the Year in Atlantic Hockey in 2016-17, leads a defensive corps that lost just one member (Geoff Fortman) to graduation. Juniors Jimmy Mazza and Ian Edmonton helped the Golden Griffins post the second-lowest goals allowed (2.18) in the league last season.
Three questions
1. Who will be the go-to guy in net? Canisius had Charles Williams, a graduate transfer from Ferris State, for just one season, but what a season it was. In order to repeat as regular season champions, the Golden Griffins will need goaltending that while probably not at the level of Williams last season, good enough to give Canisius a chance to win each night. Williams was particularly important in the first half of last season when the Golden Griffins found goals hard to come by.
“Our expectations are very high in net,” said Large. Our goalies have seen the effort that Charles put in last season. It helped seeing what it takes to be an all-American goalie.”
2. New coach, same result? Dave Smith, last year’s AHC Coach of the Year, parlayed his best season behind the bench at Canisius into the head coaching position at Rensselaer. Large, Smith’s top assistant, was elevated to head coach. While Large will certainly make some changes, there’s much to be said for sticking to the formula.
3. Can the offense pick up to where it left off? Canisius managed just 2.3 goals per game in the first half of last season but then turned on the jets, scoring 4.5 goals per game after the Holidays. With every forward back, Large’s team will look to keep things rolling as opposed to a slow start.
Crystal Ball
The question’s the same for every team coming off a championship season: Is a repeat possible? While Air Force has to be considered the favorite, it’s hard to ignore the Golden Griffins’ chances of repeating as regular-season champions, especially if they have good goaltending. Expect another first-round bye and another trip to Rochester.
Holy Cross
Last Season
14-15-7 overall, 11-10-7 Atlantic Hockey (5th place). Lost to Robert Morris in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Hockey playoffs.
Names to Know
Paul Berrafato enjoyed a breakout junior season in goal for the Crusaders, starting all 36 games en route to a 2.77 goals against average. He posted three shutouts and returns this year for his senior season.
An talented defensive unit helped buoy his transition into the starter’s role, and the Crusaders bring back a good chunk of that talent. Johnny Coughlin and Spencer Trapp both return for their junior season. Trapp had 17 assists en route to a 20-point season, while Coughlin posted a team-high +6 rating. Charlie Barrow and Tommy Muratore both return as well.
The offense lost Mike Barrett to graduation after nearly 150 career games, but it returns every other major contributor. Danny Lopez had 33 points as a junior, including 17 goals and a hat trick against AIC last season. TJ Moore recorded 13 goals and 25 assists, and Scott Pooley had 21 points. All three are seniors this year.
Three Questions
1) Can a consistently solid Crusader team take the jump and once again become a league powerhouse? Holy Cross won 14 games last year for the seventh straight season. An Atlantic Hockey blueblood, they earned a first round bye for a second straight year. But after failing to win a playoff series for the third straight year, they enter the 2017-2018 season with something to prove.
“This is the best team we’ve had from a depth perspective,” head coach David Berard said. “We have a strong senior class that played significant minutes during their first three years. We have a group of freshmen that we think will be really good, and coupled with a lack of playoff success over the last couple of years, we’re going to be really hungry and motivated to have a good year.”
2) Where do they find balance for their existing talent? The Crusaders only had two seniors on last year’s roster, and only one – Mike Barrett – saw significant time. So the coaching staff tinkered with the roster, bringing in five new freshmen to create new matchups and deepen the bench.
“From a coaching perspective, we played guys last year too much,” Berard said. “We didn’t play four lines or six defensemen with consistency. Sometimes it was a coaching decision, and sometimes it was an injury issue. We placed an emphasis that we can roll out four lines or six defensemen and play the way we want to play throughout the game and season.”
3) With four non-conference games against ECAC, is Holy Cross the team to elevate Atlantic Hockey’s profile in the region?
Holy Cross’s schedule establishes them as one of the early teams of intrigue. They have five straight home games to open the season, and they play the bulk of their non-conference schedule against ECAC teams. The ECAC is arguably the east’s best league in recent years, making the Crusaders a potential “team zero” to elevate the league’s stature.
Crystal Ball
Holy Cross is always good, and they continue to prove they deserve consideration for first round byes. There’s a natural hump to cross, which is winning a playoff series. Capable of receiving that bye, winning that first playoff series for David Berard would put them in the conversation for Rochester.
Rochester Institute of Technology
Last Season
14-22-1, 13-15 (tied for sixth) in Atlantic Hockey. Lost to Niagara in the first round of the AHC tournament.
Names to know
Twin defensemen Chase and Brady Norrish enter their senior campaigns as co-captains along with classmates Myles Powell and Matt Abt. Last year, the Norrish brothers suffered season-ending injuries within weeks of each other, and RIT struggled as a result, falling to a sixth place finish and a first round playoff exit.
Brady Norrish is a senior co-captain for RIT this season (photo: Omar Phillips).
If they can stay healthy, the RIT defense could be a dominant force, with the Norrish twins, Abt (18 points last season) and 2017 AHC Rookie of the Year Adam Brubaker (23 points).
The Tigers, like many teams in the league return most of their offense, with nine of their 10 scorers returning, led by junior Erik Brown (16 goals and 27 points last season) and Powell (23 points).
RIT had the third best offense in the league last season and looks to improve on that with newcomers Nick Bruce (67 points for Johnstown (NAHL)), Aiden Dupuis (68 points for Bonnyville (AJHL) and Bryson Traptow (58 points for Whitecourt and Camrose (AJHL).
Goaltending will be the biggest question mark for the Tigers. Junior Christian Short appeared in just three games last season. He’ll be pushed by rookies Logan Drackett (Goalie of the Year in the AJHL last season) and Ian Adriano, a two-time CCHL all-star.
Three questions
1. Was last season an outlier? After consecutive playoff titles in 2015 and 2016, RIT won only five games after the Holidays and made its earliest-ever exit in the conference tournament. The Tigers had a similar season in 2014 but returned to form the next year. Will history repeat?
2. Goaltending is a big question mark. Besides the injury bug, RIT suffered from inconsistent play in net last season. Two promising freshman and the former backup will compete for the starting job.
3. Can the Tigers take advantage of its early season home games? The Tigers are notorious for slow starts (they opened the 2009-10 season 0-5 before winning 28 games and making a trip to the Frozen Four) but they need some early success to help put last season behind them. RIT will have that opportunity, playing five of their first seven games on home ice.
Crystal Ball
When coach Wayne Wilson was asked if the Tigers were using last year’s struggles as motivation or looking to put them firmly in the rear view mirror, he said it would be a little of both.
“Last year obviously wasn’t what we hoped for,” he said. “We’re looking forward to redeeming ourselves.
“If I had to pick a word to describe this team, I would say ‘determined'”.
Expect RIT to have a better season than last time out, but there’s several teams ahead of the Tigers that could keep them from rising to the top of the standings. A middle-of the pack finish is most likely, with a first-round bye an attainable goal.
Bentley
Last Season
13-19-7, 10-12-6 Atlantic Hockey (tied for sixth). Lost to Air Force in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Hockey playoffs
Names to Watch
Kyle Schmidt had 18 goals and 15 assists last year and is the front runner to continue Bentley’s top-flight goal scoring tradition. In 116 career games, he has 89 career points entering his senior year.
He headlines a young roster brimming with talent. Ryner Gorowsky had seven goals and 16 assists last year, finishing with a +6 rating. His lone game-winning goal came in a huge spot, clinching Game Three against Sacred Heart in last year’s AHC first round in double overtime. They’ll pair with Jonathan Desbiens, a fellow rising sophomore who scored nine goals last season.
Bentley’s defense returns its entire unit, including five players who appeared in 30 games or more last season. Brett Orr (one goal and 17 assists) and Alexey Solovyev (seven goals and nine helpers) both have two way capability on a team that’s scored 100 goals every season since 2010-2011.
But the Falcons’ best asset might be in net. While other teams have to replace goaltenders, Bentley has two potential conference leaders on their roster. Jayson Argue has a career .915 save percentage, while Aidan Pelino posted a 2.41 goals against average with a .930 save percentage and two shutouts last season.
The Falcons had 13 players with 10 points last year; all but two are back in uniform. Of the returnees, eight played in more than 35 games. That sets the team up to deliver a new look harnessing the skill of multiple lines and incredible depth.
“We’ve had great success with one or two goal scorers,” Soderquist said. “Our depth is where we kind of got bit. We’re excited for this opportunity. These guys have stepped up, and our incoming class is one of the strongest classes we’ve ever had. I can’t say enough of how excited I am to get out on the ice every day.”
Three Questions
1) Can Bentley get off to a fast start despite a road-heavy schedule in the first month of the season? This year provides the Falcons with plenty of optimism. They return the bulk of their roster, including two first-string goaltenders. And there’s a new home on the horizon with an on-campus rink due to open later this year.
But the spotlight is “focused on October,” according to head coach Ryan Soderquist. The Falcons open the season for all but five games in the first half of the season, including eight straight conference games. They’ll play one non-conference game before Christmas, making a fast start critical.
“We had an extremely slow start last year,” Soderquist said. “We only had four wins prior to Christmas break last year, so it’s going to be our main focus to get out to a quicker start this year.”
2) Will the offense keep the streak of 100-goal seasons alive in what might be the league’s most competitive climate? They lost Max French’s 143 career points to graduation, but the Falcons are shaping up to change the perception of a team relying on one line or one superstar player.
“We have six seniors who are great leaders,” Soderquist said. “We have a much different team that we’ve had in the past. We’re not going to be relying on one or two goal scorers and have great depth in scoring. Nine out of our 10 top scorers and both goalies are back, and that makes us excited to get the season started.”
3) What’s in store for Jayson Argue and Aidan Pelino? Two of Atlantic Hockey’s top-flight goaltenders, they’re on the same team and split time last year while producing solid numbers. Both goalies saved over 90% of shots faced, with Pelino slightly better with a 2.41 goals against average.
Over the past three years, Argue’s had one of the best big game flairs, while Pelino established himself with two shutouts. Regardless how Soderquist chooses to use them, they have a player capable of putting the team in a position to win. Few teams can say that with one goalie, let alone two.
Crystal Ball
If they achieve a fast start, the Falcons stand to become a major player. Seven of their last nine games are at home, including their last five games of the regular season. So it stands to reason that Bentley could rise once again to the ranks of the top Atlantic Hockey teams. A year after they finished eighth only due to mathematical tiebreakers, a good Falcon team could challenge for a first round bye.
Mercyhurst
Last Season
15-20-4, 11-13-4 (seventh) in the AHC. Lost to Army in the AHC quarterfinals.
Names to know
Like several other Atlantic Hockey teams, the Lakers’ losses to graduation were minimal. Mercyhurst said goodbye to just three players from last season and returns nine of its top ten scorers as well as both starting goaltenders.
Mercyhurst placed two players on the league’s all-tournament teams last season: forward Derek Barach (a team-leading 37 points last season) and defenseman Lester Lancaster, who was also named Co-Defenseman of the Year in Atlantic Hockey.
Jonathan Charbonneau (16 goals last season) leads a group of six senior forwards, including redshirt senior Jack Riley (18 points). Also expected to keep pace are junior Taylor Best (18 points) and sophomore Matthew Whittaker (18 points).
Sophomore defenseman Joe Duszak’s 21 points last season were fourth on the team and second only to Lancaster in points by a blueliner.
Senior Brandon Wildung and sophomore Colin DeAugustine split time in net last season. DeAugustine had a slightly better save percentage (.913 vs. .908) while Wildung’s GAA was marginally better (3.08 vs. 3.11)
A small rookie class includes forward Corey Caruso, who scored 56 points in 57 games last year for Brockville (CCHL).
Three questions
1. Can the Lakers reverse the trend? Mercyhurst has made it to Rochester six times in the 11 years that the championships have been played at Blue Cross Arena. But a close quarterfinal loss last season to Army marked consecutive campaigns that the Lakers failed to get to the semifinals, the first time Mercyhurst was shut out twice in a row.
2. Will someone win the goaltending job outright? Wildung and DeAugustine split time last season, but that wasn’t by design according to Gotkin, who says he’d like to have a go-to guy.
“We’re hoping one guy will emerge and be that guy for us,” he said. “Right now it’s Wildung but we like all of our goalies.”
3. Will the offense improve? The Lakers are known for their high-tempo offense, but were a middle of the pack team in that department last season.
Crystal Ball
The Lakers return almost intact from last season, that saw them lose a close three-game series to Army in the quarterfinals. Picked to finish seventh in the preseason coach’s poll, they’re a legitimate dark horse to go much farther. Expect solid goaltending and a return to form on offense, which means a fight for home ice and a possible bye.
American International
Last Season
8-20-8 overall, 7-14-17 Atlantic Hockey (10th place). Lost to Mercyhurst in the first round of the Atlantic Hockey playoffs
Names to Know
AIC brings back virtually its entire core, including four forward who led the team in points as freshmen. Dominik Florian was the team’s only 10-goal scorer, but he finished one point behind Blake Christensen’s 21 for the team lead. Martin Mellberg and Hugo Reinhardt finished behind the duo in points in their respective rookie year, tying with 19 points.
Along with Shawn McBride, who had 14 points last season, the Yellow Jackets return five of their top six producing forwards from a year ago. Johno May only had eight points last year as a junior, but racked up 16 goals and over 30 assists in his first two seasons.
Andrew Debrincat is the team’s top blueliner, returning after a year in which he tallied 14 points in 34 games.
In goal, Zackarias Skog won five of the team’s games, saving over 90 percent of shots faced. He recorded one of the two shutouts while splitting time with Alex Murray, who finished the season with 15 appearances, including 13 starts, and the team’s other shutout win.
Three Questions
1) Can AIC take the next step in their program’s development? Eric Lang returned to AIC as a first-time head coach looking to create immediate change at his alma mater. He succeeded by creating infrastructure and a orchestrating a change in culture. If the program continues marching forward, it will be the foundation on which the school built the project.
“From the end of last season through the summer, our goal has been to improve the program and the team,” Lang said. “We celebrate small victories, and we feel our preseason was a complete success. We had so much uncertainty (last year), and it’s just a completely different feel around campus right now.”
2) Is home ice a real possibility? AIC finished five points behind Bentley for the last home ice slot in last year’s playoffs. If they convert some of last year’s ties into wins, it’s a very real possibility, especially since this team went on two distinct runs last year; they lost three games in an 11-game stretch early on, then bookended it with a 1-0-2 stretch to end the season.
“In no way have we arrived,” Lang said of the team’s modest accomplishment. With an emphasis on taking the next step, the Yellow Jackets can make tangible progress by catching the teams in front of them.
3) Can they keep improving defensively? Last year shaved more than a goal and 10 shots off of opponents’ totals per game. It established AIC as a team capable of learning how to defend, even as it forced them back into the film room.
“We just asked our group to defend harder (last year),” Lang said. “A lot of our video sessions were teaching habits and concepts. We have a way that we want to play, and we’re married to a structure we want to play in. But we mandated our guys to defend harder and backcheck better – some real simply hockey principles. We started it in day one, and it continued through the end of the season.”
Crystal Ball
AIC is all about converting nonbelievers, and the process is already started. The coaches picked them ninth, which is more of a credit to them than it is a knock against Sacred Heart. There’s going to be skepticism because of the program’s historical record, but if it stays on an upward trajectory, the Yellow Jackets will start the climb upwards.
Sacred Heart
Last Season
13-19-5 overall, 10-15-3 Atlantic Hockey (9th place). Lost to Bentley in the first round of the Atlantic Hockey playoffs.
Names to Know
The defense returns a foundational core that will buoy changeover up front. Three solid blueliners are all back – Liam Clare, Ruslan Rakhmatov, and Mike Crocock. Clare and Rakhmatov illustrated puck-moving capability last year, producing 32 assists from the point, while Crocock was a more traditional, stay-at-home option.
Sacred Heart coach C.J. Marottolo looks to elevate the Pioneers program this season (photo: Shelley M. Szwast).
They’ll form the core in front of junior Brett Magnus. After producing a 2.99 goals against average and a .901 save percentage, he’s now a mainstay in the Pioneer lineup with 62 starts over two seasons.
The biggest question will be who plays up front. The Pioneers bade farewell to its triad of scorers when Justin Danforth, Jordan Minello, and Evan Jasper graduated. Each played in over 145 career games, meaning this year creates a void at the top of the scoresheet.
There’s a silver lining, however, with the development of three new scorers. Junior Stephen Hladin scored 15 points last year, and Vito Bavaro debuted with seven goals in his first season. Zach Tsekos rounds out the list after adding 12 assists.
Three Questions
1) Can the young Pioneers’ youth be their advantage? Sacred Heart doesn’t return the same level of experience as some of the other teams in the league, and the Pioneers lost five major contributors from last year’s team – including their three top forwards and two defensemen. That will create opportunity for young players who are something of an unknown entering the year.
“We have a young, talented, motivated group that is really meshing together closely this fall,” head coach CJ Marottolo said. “Most importantly, they have a lot to prove. We have 10 new faces in the locker room. That’s been very refreshing during practices where we’re doing a lot of teaching in practice. This league is a challenge every night, but it’s something this young group is really looking forward to.”
2) Who steps to the front of the scoresheet? Sacred Heart needs to replace Jordan Minello, Justin Danforth, and Evan Jasper – three of the finest hockey players to suit up in the red and white.
But they return players who have some scoring touch. Stephen Hladin had nine goals last year while Vito Bavaro added seven lamp lighters. Zach Tsekos had 12 assists. These three players seem like candidates to become the next triumvirate of talent.
“Our returning guys are where we want them to be, and in some ways better, which is really great,” Marottolo said. “It’s hard to evaluate what you have until you play a game, but we feel our returning guys have all taken a nice jump. It’s been a really eye-opening month on the ice and it makes for an exciting time.”
3) Is Brett Magnus and the defense this year’s breakout goaltender? The Pioneers return three defensemen with experience in Liam Clare, Ruslan Rakhmatov, and Mike Crocock. They’ll work collaboratively with the goaltender Magnus, who gave the team its third straight season with goals against average under 3.00.
“We have three returners that played a lot of hockey for us,” Marottolo said. “We have three open spots that the freshmen are currently fighting for. But with Brett and even Nathan Perry back (in goal), we have some experience in net, which is nice to have. They’ve added a calmness to our game. But we need to do a better job with our team defense, especially five-on-five. That’s really been an emphasis.”
Crystal Ball
The coaches poll indicated Sacred Heart would take a step backwards after finishing consecutive seasons in ninth place. But there’s a palpable excitement in Connecticut as the Pioneers ready for the next generation of stars. If those freshmen can assimilate immediately, it stands to reason that SHU will shock and open some eyes as the season progresses.
Niagara
Last Season
5-31-3, 3-23-2 (eleventh) in the AHC. Lost to Canisius in the AHC quarterfinals.
Names to know
Niagara lost five players to graduation and another six to transfers and cuts. The Purple Eagles return four of their five top scorers: senior Stanislav Dzakhov (17 points last season), sophomore Kris Spriggs (16 points), junior Johnny Curran (15 points) and sophomore defenseman Noah Delmas (15 points).
The D-corps will be young this season as they look to improve on a league-worst 4.31 goals allowed per game. Senior James Roll, a transfer from Lake Superior State, looks to provide some leadership along with fellow seniors Keegan Harper and Larry Smith.
A pair of sophomores, Guillaume Therien and Joe O’Brien will compete for playing time in net with junior college transfer David Krejcik and rookie Brian Wilson.
A large group of newcomers include another transfer. Sophomore Jared Brandt, comes on board from Miami, where he had 10 points in 33 games as a freshman. Looking to make an impact right away are Nic Mucci (76 points in 50 games for Wellington (OJHL)), and Justin Kendall (50 points in 65 games for Coulee Region (NAHL)).
Three questions
1. Can the Purple Eagles stay healthy? Injuries have decimated Niagara the past two seasons, often leaving then-coach Dave Burkholder to play with less than a full complement. Staying healthy will be key if this young team wants to be in the chase.
2. What effect will the coaching change bring? Unlike Canisius, which stayed the course and promoted assistant coach Trevor Large to the top position, Niagara looked outside its program to land Jason Lammers, who was a head coach in the USHL and before that, a top assistant at UMass Lowell. He’ll look to bring a clean slate to a program that just a few years ago was at the top of the league.
3. Can Niagara traverse the rocky waters than come with a young roster? Eleven newcomers may make for some growing pains, but it may also bring a renewed atmosphere.
Crystal Ball
At the start of last season, the attitude at Niagara was, “We’ll be better because things can’t get any worse.”
And then they got worse. Even more injuries and even less success. The Purple Eagles posted the worst offense (1.95 goals scored per game) and the worst defense (4.31 goals allowed per game). Niagara didn’t help itself by taking a league-highest 20 penalty minutes per game.
Assuming the injury bug doesn’t hit as hard, and with the fresh slate that comes with a new coach, expect Niagara to still struggle, but be better than last season.
“Our goal is to be a hard team to play against,” said Lammers. “Do that and the wins will come.”
