A strategic plan hatched about a year ago has produced results far earlier than expected.
College Hockey Inc. executive director Mike Snee appeared on the USCHO Live! talk show Tuesday from Arizona, where earlier in the day Arizona State announced it would launch a Division I varsity program starting next season.
On the program, Snee detailed a meeting about a year ago in Tampa, Fla., where the ownership group of the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning called together representatives of College Hockey Inc., the NHL, USA Hockey, Penn State and others for a full-day meeting to set a course for developing more college hockey programs.
A subsequent get-together two months later at the NHL offices in New York gave further clarity.
“From that came a strategic plan on how we felt that we could affect the growth of college hockey and how we would go about that,” Snee said on USCHO Live! “I don’t think any of us thought that we would have a success story just 11-plus months into it. But it’s happened.”
Listen to the full episode, which includes appearances by Minnesota-Duluth coach Scott Sandelin and Michigan Tech coach Mel Pearson, here; Snee’s interview starts at about 9:15.
Snee talked about College Hockey Inc.’s role in the Arizona State decision.
“We introduced the idea to them and they saw the potential and they got excited about it,” he said. “Clearly here you have three important parts to it. One is a visionary for an athletic director. He’s bold. I don’t know if he wants to just have business as usual. He was involved and he was brand new. He started last January.
“We had a tremendous club hockey program, so that infrastructure was in place. And they have a number of people connected to the school, connected to the current hockey program that believe in it and have the financial resources to be part of the elevation to Division I.”
Snee said the group used as an example Penn State’s transformation from a successful club program to Division I varsity status.
There are similarities between Penn State and Arizona State — both situations involved a concept that was made possible by a large donation.
Still, Snee acknowledged that might not be the exact blueprint for all future growth in college hockey. The availability of facilities and the cost to maintain a hockey program are obvious reasons why a school would shy away from the sport, he said.
But after Tuesday there might be others who see that what once was just a dream is possible.
“All it takes is somebody to say, well, why not us?” Snee said. “I think tonight after this announcement, all of those Pac-12 schools as well as perhaps other schools feel that their school is actually a little closer to adding hockey than it was yesterday.”
In what athletic director Ray Anderson called a “historic and bold decision,” Arizona State announced Tuesday that thanks to $32 million in combined donations, including “the single-largest donation ever to Sun Devil athletics,” the school will begin competing in Division I men’s hockey starting in 2015.
The donations, from an anonymous donor and Don and Chris Mullett and their families, will also be enough to launch a women’s team to keep the school in Title IX compliance; ASU is looking at adding either women’s lacrosse or rowing in 2016.
“It’s critical to note that the donors’ willingness to financially support the addition of new women’s sports programs as part of this hockey initiative is phenomenal,” said Anderson. “On behalf of all of us at ASU, we thank you for that participation and that commitment. That is very meaningful to this university.”
Earlier story: Arizona State gets $32 million donation to launch varsity men’s team
Anderson also said that the Pac-12 Conference, of which ASU is a member, is supportive of the move, and hopes it might lead other Pac-12 schools to elevate their hockey programs to Division I status.
“It will hopefully tip the dominos in the northern schools in Washington and Oregon and our folks in California, who have many programs, and probably don’t want to see Arizona State competing when they are not,” Anderson said. “We are getting a lot of support from a lot of folks, but they recognize that we are being ASU, which is being entrepreneurial and innovative and out there, and we are willing to do that.”
ASU hockey is the reigning ACHA Division I champ, winning the Murdoch Cup last year by defeating the Robert Morris ACHA team 3-1.
Anderson also announced that Greg Powers, the coach of the club team, will be the varsity coach, acknowledging his “passion and commitment” to the club team, which he worked as a second job.
Powers thanked Anderson and senior associate athletic director Dave Cohen for the opportunity, and said that the 90-day turnaround from the initial exploration of elevating the program “is nothing short of a miracle. I think it speaks volumes to the future and the initiatives that Sun Devil athletics overall has, and I am thrilled to be a part of it.”
In 2015-16, ASU will play a hybrid schedule, competing as a Division I independent and also playing ACHA D-I teams. In 2016-17, the Sun Devils aim to play a full independent D-I schedule with hopes of moving in 2017-18 to a “to-be determined conference,” Powers said.
ASU has not yet decided on a home rink for its new team. They currently play at Oceanside Ice Arena in Tempe, but Powers indicated he expects to have a facility on campus. The Sun Devils also could play at US Airways Center in downtown Phoenix, the former home of the Arizona Coyotes.
“We have a lot to figure out,” said Powers. “The most important thing is we have very viable options that will be suitable for first-class college hockey. I can tell you that my goal personally as the head coach is to be on campus as soon as possible.”
“We certainly have the commitment to have a Division I-quality home for our varsity team, and we’ll accomplish that,” Anderson said.
When asked what would enable ASU to succeed where U.S. International and Northern Arizona failed as Division I hockey schools in the 1980s, Powers said: “We’re Arizona State; that’s the difference. We are a large, successful, committed university, not to say that U.S. International and certainly NAU are not, but we are in a different market. It’s a different time now than it was when those two programs launched.
“Hockey in general on the West Coast, to say it is growing is a gross understatement. Last year alone, 59 kids from the state of California played Division I hockey, 14 from Arizona. We have the NHL here in Phoenix, and two of the last four Stanley Cups belong to a West Coast team in the Los Angeles Kings.”
Powers also addressed how quickly fans can expect ASU to be a competitive NCAA squad, and pointed to what he believes are ASU’s recruiting advantages.
“Are we going to be a national championship contending team very quickly, within a couple of years at the NCAA level? No, that’s why we have a ramp-up period where we play a hybrid schedule and then an independent schedule and then go into conference play,” Powers said.
“We have proven at the ACHA level with student-athletes turning down scholarship opportunities to come play here that we pushed the most unique college hockey experience in the country. Now we truly are the most unique college hockey experience in the country, and we are going to exploit that.”
College Hockey Inc. executive director Mike Snee was in Tempe for the announcement and said the college hockey community was excited by the news.
“It is always exciting when a school announces it is going to add varsity hockey,” Snee said in a statement. “But this is different. Arizona State elevating its successful men’s ACHA team to NCAA Division I is a defining moment for college hockey. The tremendous growth of hockey participation in the southwestern United States has been well documented, and having an NCAA Division I school offering hockey in this part of the country is actually overdue. Hopefully Arizona State will be the first of many schools in new areas to offer the sport.”
Each week during the season we look at the big events and big games around Division I men’s college hockey in Tuesday Morning Quarterback.
Jim: Well, after remaining at the top since the beginning of the season, Minnesota has been unseated as the No. 1 team in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll.
Michigan Tech is the somewhat unlikely team at the top. I feel like Tech, at 10-0, was the ultimate choice with Minnesota, North Dakota and Massachusetts-Lowell all losing. This sort of reminds me of Quinnipiac a couple of seasons ago. Voters tried to keep the Bobcats from the top spot for a while but ultimately QU became the obvious choice.
This was hardly a unanimous vote for Tech, but I think the Huskies would love to follow the footsteps of that Quinnipiac team that reached the national title game.
Todd: I spent some time Sunday night trying to decide between Michigan Tech, North Dakota and Boston University for the top spot on my ballot. In the end, I fell back on some statistics: Taking out games played against the team in question, Tech had the best opponents’ record of the group.
It’s really an incredible story. The Huskies’ 10 wins so far this season is more than they had in the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons combined. There have been a lot of dark days in recent years for Tech — a 13-season stretch from 1998 to 2011 where it cracked the 10-win mark only three times stands out — but Mel Pearson’s transformation of the program has really taken off.
Jim: I think there has to be a tremendous amount of pride for Tech fans for taking such major steps forward. Another team whose fans can be pleased is Miami.
Hardly a school familiar with difficult seasons like Michigan Tech, Miami is still coming off a last-place finish a season ago. Enrico Blasi’s team had a great postseason run to the NCHC title game last season and might be riding some of that momentum this year. So is Miami a legitimate contender in your eyes?
Todd: I think time will show last season to be an anomaly for the RedHawks. This seems much more like the Miami program we’ve seen over the last decade-plus.
That being said, I don’t know if there are any areas where the RedHawks as a team have been outstanding so far this season. I think that will have to change for them to be an NCHC contender, but with players like Sean Kuraly, Austin Czarnik and Riley Barber to go with a defense that has shown the ability to be solid, there is a good chance of that happening.
Speaking of teams trying to do a 180 from last season, Boston University earned another road victory last weekend, beating Maine on Friday to improve to 4-0 away from home. The Terriers were 1-12-1 on the road last season. What’s been key in that turnaround?
Jim: I think there are a number of factors that contribute to BU’s success. The most obvious is the powerful recruiting class led by Jack Eichel, easily Hockey East’s most prominent recruit since Paul Kariya.
The conversion of defenseman Ahti Oksanen to forward has kick started the offense. But most importantly the fact that these players seemingly buy into coach David Quinn’s system in his second year at the helm is most important.
Todd: We’ve gone this far without mentioning one of the most impressive performances last weekend: Minnesota-Duluth holding Minnesota to one goal and 42 shots on goal in a home-and-home sweep. Friday’s 3-0 victory was a complete performance from the Bulldogs, who never gave the Gophers much of a chance.
In each of their first four weekends, the Bulldogs started with a loss and finished with a win. Now on a four-game winning streak, it seems like UMD has something going with a big series at Omaha on deck. Those games might tell us which of those teams will be a real NCHC contender, don’t you think?
Jim: While I agree this weekend’s series is important, I think both teams are going to be contenders in the NCHC come season’s end. In fact, the only team I see as out of the picture in that league is Colorado College, which is defining the term “rebuilding” this season.
Todd: An 8-1 loss to your closest rival, as CC suffered last Friday at Denver, has to put a lot of things in focus for the Tigers. There has to be a long view for new coach Mike Haviland and the Tigers, and maybe someday they’ll point to that loss as a time it became clear how much needed to happen.
To Rochester Institute of Technology’s Matt Garbowsky, who scored all three Tigers goals in Friday’s 3-3 tie vs. Canisius. He followed that up with a goal and an assist in a 3-0 win on Saturday.
To the eight misconduct penalties in the final 27 minutes of last Friday’s Denver-Colorado College game, two of which were game misconducts that accompanied major penalties. It’s a rivalry game and the score was 7-1 when those incidents took place, but give it a rest, guys.
There are three series between ranked teams on the docket this weekend:
• New No. 1 Michigan Tech hosting No. 9 Minnesota State. Raise your hand if you had this being a meeting of top-10 teams before the season.
• No. 2 North Dakota plays at No. 16 St. Cloud State. The Huskies won three of the four games played between the NCHC’s top two teams in last season’s standings.
• No. 13 Omaha hosts No. 8 Minnesota-Duluth, with the Mavericks looking to extend a six-game unbeaten streak.
Our scheduled guests on the Nov. 18 edition of USCHO Live! are College Hockey, Inc. executive director Mike Snee to discuss today’s announcement at Arizona State, Minnesota-Duluth coach Scott Sandelin, whose Bulldogs swept then-No.-1 Minnesota last weekend, and Michigan Tech coach Mel Pearson, whose 10-0 Huskies are No. 1 in the USCHO.com poll for the first time in school history.
Join us for the conversation and information, Tuesday, Nov. 11, from 8 to 9 p.m. EST at blogtalkradio.com/uscholive. If you can’t listen live, check out the podcast of USCHO Live! available on the player at the right (click through if you’re reading this via RSS.)
Be part of the conversation! Call (657) 383-1910, send your tweets to @USCHO, or your emails to [email protected]. Each episode of USCHO Live! features a look at news around NCAA hockey, a look ahead at upcoming games and events, and conversation with people who coach, administer and play college hockey, and journalists who cover the sport.
Jim Connelly is a senior writer at USCHO.com and has been with the site since 1999. He is based in Boston and regularly covers Hockey East. He began with USCHO.com as the correspondent covering the MAAC, which nowadays is known as Atlantic Hockey. Each week during the season, he co-writes “Tuesday Morning Quarterback.” Jim is the winner of the 2012 Joe Concannon award, and is a studio analyst for NESN.
Ed Trefzger has been part of USCHO since 1999 and now serves as a senior writer and director of technology. He has been a part of the radio broadcasts of Rochester Institute of Technology hockey since their inception — serving as a producer, studio host, color commentator and as RIT’s play-by-play voice for eight seasons. Ed is VP and general manager of CBS Sports Radio affiliate 105.5 The Team in Rochester, N.Y.
This past weekend in the NCAA Division III ranks made for some great action across the country.
ECAC EAST
No. 3 Norwich topped New England College 5-0 on Friday night as the Norwich defense held NEC to just seven shots on goal, including zero in the second period. Massachusetts-Boston scored in the opening minutes of the first period (Angela Dandreo at 3:47) and the last two minutes of the third (Samantha Fallon at 18:32) to beat Nichols 2-1 on Friday night. Sydney Helmbreacht’s 27-save shutout helped the University of New England down Plymouth State 2-0 Friday night. Gabriela Moscato and Emily Corrales notched UNE’s goals. Manhattanville goalie Kirsten Shaughnessy stopped all 30 shots in blanking Massachusetts-Boston on Saturday night. Amanda Kempainen’s second goal of the game 2:50 into overtime Saturday night lifted St. Michael’s over UNE 4-3 as Tina Frasca stopped 34 shots in goal. Norwich blanked Plymouth State 4-0 on the strength of Loren Carrier’s 15-save shutout. Salve Regina fired 64 shots in a 6-0 win over NEC Saturday night. Marisa Ketterman’s goal with 3:24 to play in the third period stood as the game-winner in Franklin Pierce’s 2-1 win against Holy Cross Saturday night. Rachel Bombardier’s goal 6:58 into the game was all Castleton needed and Jess Cameron made 31 saves in a 1-0 win Saturday over Nichols.
ECAC WEST
Buffalo State topped Neumann 3-2 Saturday on Bri Carroll’s winner at 1:52 of overtime. Bek Lucas had tied the game 2-2 at 16:10 of the third period. Top-ranked Plattsburgh blanked Chatham 6-0 Saturday night in front of 648 spectators at the Stafford Ice Arena. Bridget Balisy scored two goals and netminder Ally Ross finished with 19 saves. On Sunday, Kayla Meneghin scored three with an assist as Plattsburgh drubbed Chatham 11-1. Ashton Hogan posted a hat trick and Ashley Ryan six assists in No. 2 Elmira’s 10-2 win Saturday night over Cortland and then Sunday, Louisa Lippiatt Durnell scored twice with a pair of helpers in an 8-1 win for Elmira. The Utica-Oswego home-and-home series was postponed with rescheduled dates to be announced.
MIAC
Augsburg tied No. 10 Bethel 1-1 on Friday night as Erika Allen made 27 saves in net. Allen then came back Saturday night and made 32 stops as Augsburg blanked Bethel 2-0. Rachel Hennessy and Megan Robertson scored and Hallie Gudmonson assisted on both. No. 7 Gustavus Adolphus beat Concordia (Minn.) 3-1 Friday night and then 2-0 Saturday night to get the sweep as Lindsey Hibbard pitched an 18-save shutout in the finale. No. 8 St. Thomas beat St. Mary’s 4-1 Friday, but then settled for a scoreless tie Saturday night as Tori Herrmann made 43 saves for St. Mary’s and Paige Kittelson 29 for St. Thomas. St. Benedict swept St. Olaf with scores of 5-3 and 6-3. St. Catherine and Hamline tied 1-1 Saturday night after St. Catherine took a 3-1 win Friday in the opener.
NCHA
Marian swept Finlandia in convincing fashion, with a 7-4 win Friday and then a 6-1 win Saturday. Nina Laurie tallied a hat trick on Saturday night. Concordia (Wis.) and Lake Forest split their weekend set as Lake Forest won 5-1 Friday night and Concordia rallied for a 3-0 shutout on Saturday as Bridget Slater turned aside all 33 shots she faced. St. Norbert and St. Scholastica also did the splits as four different goal scorers led SNC Friday night in a 4-3 win and then the Saints scored three unanswered Saturday night for a 3-1 victory.
NESCAC
Allie Aiello scored twice Saturday night in No. 4 Middlebury’s 7-1 win over Colby and then Madeline Marsh recorded a 13-save shutout in Middlebury’s Sunday afternoon 2-0 shutout. Neither team scored more than two goals each game, but Trinity took a 2-1 win Sunday over Connecticut College after the two squads tied 2-2 Saturday. Amherst blanked Hamilton in consecutive games, 2-0 Saturday and 1-0 Sunday. Brenna Sullivan scored both goals Saturday and Yuna Evans stopped all 14 shots and then Sunday, Erin Martin scored and Evans finished with 18 saves. Williams topped Wesleyan 3-1 Saturday, only to have Wesleyan goalie Laura Corcoran throw a 28-save shutout in a 5-0 win Sunday as Cara Jankowski registered a pair of goals.
WIAC
No. 5 Wisconsin-River Falls and No. 6 Wisconsin-Stevens Point split their series in River Falls. Friday, Wis.-River Falls won 3-2 on Amy Auran’s game-winner midway through the third period. Meredith Ingbretson’s goal with 1:59 left in regulation gave Wis.-Stevens Point the 3-2 win on Saturday night. Ninth-ranked Wisconsin-Superior swept Wisconsin-Eau Claire with 5-3 and 4-2 victories. Dani Schultz scored twice for Wis.-Superior on Friday, while Paige Dale scored two of her own for Wis.-Eau Claire Saturday, Haley Olmstead had a two-goal, one-assist game as Wis.-Superior won its second in a row.
Nonconference
Sacred Heart swept Canton by scores of 4-0 and 6-3. Amanda Fontaine made 13 saves Friday and Megan Ofner scored twice, while Casey Stathopoulos tallied two goals and an assist Saturday.
Well, what with Harvard’s 2-1 home loss to Yale on Saturday, ECAC Hockey is officially out of the “Last of the Unbeatens” race. In fact, Quinnipiac is the only team still unbeaten in league play (4-0), having edged Union and Rensselaer in the Capital District this weekend. With all dozen teams playing league games over the last 72 hours, only the Bobcats and Bulldogs took the full four points. (For the record, Michigan Tech out in the WCHA – at 10-0-0 – is the only undefeated team in Division 1 at this point.)
There were a lot of people buying tickets for Brown’s Dark Horse Express before the season started… I’m guessing many of them have since disembarked. The Bears have struggled mightily through five games, scoring nine goals while allowing 21 (5-19 in league play). Reliable junior point-producer Nick Lappin nearly doubled his career penalty-minute total in two games, earning him a two-game suspension to match; Bruno lost those two Lappin-less games by a combined score of 12-2. There is no one major problem with the Bears right now: The power play (.077), penalty kill (.611), team save percentage (.883) and team shooting percentage (6.1) are all bad to awful. The team’s leading scorer is senior Massimo Lamacchia, with one goal and three points. There is a lot of potential in Providence, but boy, it isn’t exhibiting itself in the slightest right now.
Nobody should have any excuse for overlooking Quinnipiac anymore, yet here we are two months into the season, and the Bobcats are still managing to sneak up on us. Sophomore Sam Anas is absolutely red-hot right now with seven goals and 15 points in 10 games, including five goals on one of the nation’s second-best power play (30.4 percent as a team, trailing only Bentley’s 36.4). Perhaps equally remarkable, Anas is the only player in the country to average more than six shots on goal per game (6.2); D-I’s leading SOG/game totals over the past two years have been 4.54 and 4.91, to give you some sense of scope. Not surprisingly, linemates Matthew Peca (senior) and Landon Smith (freshman) are having good years-to-date as well, with seven goals and 21 points combined. Second-line center Travis St. Denis notched a hat trick at RPI on Saturday, so look out if that line stays hot… and junior goaltender Michael Garteig may have a sub-optimal .903 save rate overall, but in league play that percentage shoots way up to .956. Heads up, ECAC… this is no rebuild; it’s a reload.
It was a very interesting of hockey involving Big Ten teams. Very. Interesting. Now I have questions.
1. Has Penn State finally earned some legitimacy?
The Nittany Lions are 6-2-2 after their weekend road split with No. 4 Massachusetts-Lowell. Not only that, but Penn State scored six consecutive goals against the River Hawks, having netted the final two in the third period of Friday’s 5-3 loss, three more in the first period of Saturday’s 4-1 win, and another in the second period Saturday before Lowell scored on the power play in the third period of that contest. Averaging 3.80 goals per game, the Nittany Lions are still tied with Minnesota for second nationally in scoring. Junior Casey Bailey (8-4–12) added three more goals this weekend, including the first goal in the loss and Saturday’s game winner. And when junior Matthew Skoff was pulled midway through Friday’s game after allowing four goals, sophomore Eamon McAdam gave the league a reason to believe that the Nittany Lions have two capable goaltenders, earning allowing two goals on the weekend and earning a .953 save percentage for his two-game effort.
2. Will the Golden Gophers get swept again any time this season?
Minnesota lost to Minnesota-Duluth 3-0 and 2-1 as the Bulldogs swept the Gophers for the first time in five seasons. Additionally, the Gophers were kept off the scoreboard until freshman Leon Bristedt netted his second of the season at 11:18 of the third period of Saturday’s game, giving Minnesota its first goal since the second period of the Gophers’ 4-2 win over Notre Dame the previous Sunday. For a team averaging 3.88 goals per game coming into the weekend, that was a concern.
After Saturday’s game, Minnesota coach Don Lucia said, “You just need some goals to give yourself some momentum, and we just couldn’t get the momentum. We just need some guys to start to score some goals for us.”
The Gophers were swept once in 2013-2014, a pair of 2-1 losses to Wisconsin in Madison (Feb. 6-7).
3. Will anyone in this league split a series the way I call it this season? Just once? Please?
Both Drew Claussen and I knew that the Ohio State-Bowling Green and Nittany Lions-River Hawks series would be interesting. Drew, however, had the good sense to call the Buckeyes and Falcons to split with each winning on the road and for the River Hawks to win their Friday contest. Me? Not so much. I did know, though, that Penn State would return home with a win. Why Saturday and not Friday for the Nittany Lions? Well, that’s a little more obvious to me this morning: Penn State plays determined hockey and learns from mistakes game to game. Why did the Buckeyes and Falcons split, winning in each other’s barns? I have no idea, but it’s clear that once OSU finds some consistency in its team defense in front of two capable goaltenders, the Buckeyes will have a chance to be in every game. I think.
At least the Wolverines did what they should have done — twice beating a visiting opponent that doesn’t possess the same weapons that the Wolverines enjoy and scoring 11 goals in the process — and the Spartans did all they could against a Boston College team that was hungry for a win after four losses. This gives me a little hope for the two Big Ten teams withing driving distance of where I reside. I think I’ll see a lot of interesting hockey from the Spartans this season, in particular.
These are the three things I think I learned this week.
1. Split is the word.
“Every point is a tough point,” has been a cliché within Hockey East for years, but this week provided more than ample evidence. Seven league teams played in four series and they all ended in splits.
Home ice didn’t matter. Although New Hampshire and Northeastern both held serve in their home-and-home series, the other three were all played in the same venue on Friday and Saturday. Massachusetts-Lowell, Providence, and Merrimack hosted Penn State, Vermont, and Notre Dame, respectively, and not one of them could manage any better than two points.
National rankings also didn’t make a difference. Fourth-ranked Massachusetts-Lowell predictably defeated Penn State on Friday, but even with the strength advantage on paper and the home crowd advantage the River Hawks still lost 4-1 in the rematch, avoiding the shutout only via a mid-third period power play goal.
Parity is here and it is spelled S-P-L-I-T.
2. Northeastern gets off the schneid.
It took the Huskies ten games, but they finally got their first W. They had tied Lowell a week ago, but otherwise the season had been a nonstop succession of losses. That changed on Saturday.
Tied going into the third period, they surrendered an even-strength goal two minutes in and could have been forgiven if they thought, “Here we go again.” But they rallied with the equalizer a minute later and the game-winner at 8:21.
Will that carry over to this upcoming weekend’s series with Merrimack? We’ll have to see.
3. My enthusiasm for Connecticut may have gotten out of control.
But could you blame me?
When UConn defeated Boston College and tied Boston University (ranked third and fifth, respectively, at the time), it was hard not to let the optimism boil over. If you weren’t going to let loose after those two upsets, when were you?
A Friday night loss to Sacred Heart, however, let some of air out of that party balloon. UConn now stands at 2-5-3, despite its effectiveness at slaying the Commonwealth Avenue dragons.
But while expectations have necessarily been reset, it’s worth noting how well the Huskies have played in their own end. To date, they’ve allowed more than two goals only twice all year, and one of those times was the 4-4 tie with BU.
It’s still tough figuring where they’ll finish in the standings, but clearly this team is no cream puff.
A couple things I may or may not have learned during a weird weekend in the WCHA:
Ferris finds its scoring touch
After scoring just 11 goals through nine games nearly matched that in their series opener against Alaska-Anchorage. Maybe it was just the odd (for the WCHA) Thursday night game catching the road-weary Seawolves off guard, but the Bulldogs pounded Anchorage 10-2. By the time the weekend was over Friday night, Ferris had scored four more goals and won 4-0.
It’s the kind of offensive explosion the Bulldogs, now 6-5-0 overall and 3-3-0 in the conference, needed if they want to get back on track and defend their MacNaughton Cup title. Goaltender CJ Motte started the season as a legitimate Hobey Baker frontrunner, but he can’t win games by himself — he definitely needs his teammates to start scoring if they’re going to make a Frozen Four run.
Huskies off to best start ever
Undefeated Michigan Tech is already the talk of the college hockey world. Now, the 10-0-0 Huskies are in the midst of to the best start in the school’s 94-year hockey history. That’s a lot of hockey history, so to be this good for this long at the beginning of the season is pretty significant. With their 2-1 win over Bemidji State Friday night, the Huskies moved to 9-0, which got them the record. Any subsequent win is gravy.
One sign of Michigan Tech’s staying power: During Saturday night’s game — a 4-2 comeback victory — the Huskies trailed for the first time since their Oct. 4 opener at Lake Superior State. In both games, Tech was badly outshot and outplayed but still found a way to win.
That streak might be in danger this weekend, though — the marquee matchup in the WCHA, if not all off college hockey, finds the Huskies hosting Minnesota State. The Huskies and the Mavs are Nos. 1 and 2, respectively in the early-season USCHO Pairwise rankings.
Those rankings obviously need to be taken with a grain of salt (every team hasn’t played enough games for them to be 100% accurate). But would anyone have guessed those two teams would be at the top of the heap more than a quarter into the season?
Splitsville for Chargers & Lakers, Falcons
Three other teams were active this past weekend, and all went 1-1.
Alabama-Huntsville hosted Lake Superior State in Huntsville, and the teams split with a pair of wildly entertaining games. The Lakers won 1-0 Friday night, while the Chargers won 5-2 Saturday night. Saturday’s game was Huntsville’s first win at home against a Division I team since Jan. 8, 2011.
It might be true that the Lakers are significantly worse this year than they were last season (they lost a lot of pieces from a decent team in 2013-14), but as I wrote last week, the Chargers are a much-improved team as well. They’re starting to look like a Division I team again, which was difficult in the years that they wandered in the Independent desert. Neither the Chargers and the Lakers are great teams, but both have a legitimate spot at a WCHA playoff spot since Alaska is ineligible this season. The Lakers have two WCHA wins and four points, tied with Bemidji State for sixth in the standings, while the Chargers have just one conference win and two points (their tie against Northern Michigan wasn’t a league game) and are tied for Anchorage for eighth in the league table.
Meanwhile, No. 19 Bowling Green split a home-and-home series with instate rivals Ohio State. Each team won 3-2 games in the other teams’ rinks. The Buckeyes won in Bowling Green Friday while the Falcons won in Columbus Saturday. The Falcons (8-3-1) also split their home-and-home series earlier this season against another instate rival (Miami), both by 3-2 scores.
Bowling Green, tied for second in the WCHA standings with Minnesota State with 10 points, returns to conference play this weekend hosting Bemidji State.
Three (actually four) things from the weekend that was in Atlantic Hockey:
Robert Morris’ rookies experienced a first on Saturday: what it feels like to lose a college hockey game. The Colonials entered the day as one of only three undefeated Division I programs (Harvard and Michigan Tech were the others – Harvard also lost).
RMU (7-1-2) had come from behind to earn a 3-3 tie with Air Force on Friday, and again on Saturday to force overtime, but the magic ran out on a Scott Holm goal 29 seconds into the extra session to giver Air Force the win. Falcons goaltender Chris Truehl made 44 saves for the win. Robert Morris outshot Air Force 45-25 in the contest.
“Hats off to (Air Force),” said RMU coach Derek Schooley after the game. “I thought the better team did not win the hockey game. If we play the way we played this weekend, we’re going to get rewarded more often than not.”
We all know that parity reigns in Atlantic Hockey, and Friday was a perfect example, with all four conference games going to overtime. Rochester Institute of Technology/Canisius, Mercyhurst/Bentley, and Air Force/Robert Morris all settled for ties, while Army defeated Holy Cross 5-4 thanks to a goal by Conor Andrle with ten seconds left in the extra session.
It was almost the same story on Saturday, with three of the four league contests needing an extra period. Bentley and Air Force both notched wins in OT, while Holy Cross and Army ended scoreless after 65 minutes.
After the dust settled, just two points separate places three through eight in the standings.
Connecticut has had some success in its inaugural season in Hockey East with a win over Boston College and a tie against Boston University. Throw in a win against state rival Quinnipac and the Huskies were flying high coming into their game on Friday with former AHA rival Sacred Heart, played at a neutral location with proceeds going to the family of Jason Pagni, who was killed in an auto accident in January and was a close friend of Sacred Heart coach C.J. Marottolo.
Played in front of a packed house at the Taft School, the game was a nail biter with an early goal by the Pioneers’ Drew George standing up as the lone tally in a 1-0 win, the first career shutout for SHU senior goaltender Andrew Bodnarchuk.
Tuesday morning the league will announce its player of the week, and I have a feeling that RIT’s Matt Garbowsky will get some serious consideration.
The senior tallied four goals and an assist in a pair of games at Canisius, including all three RIT goals in a 3-3 tie on Friday and a goal and an assist in a 3-0 victory on Saturday.
Tigers coach Wayne Wilson called out the rest of his squad on Friday in a sarcasm-filled post game interview, accusing everyone not named Garbowsky of being “spectators”.
On Saturday, Garbowsky got some help in a more balanced effort, according to Wilson.
“I thought we played a better game than we did last night,” he said. “I thought we competed hard. I thought it showed up defensively. We created a lot of turnovers, made it very difficult for them to come up the ice. Overall, a better team effort for us tonight than last night.”
Nobody’s perfect
The last two teams with perfect records, No. 4 Harvard and No. 10 Dartmouth, journeyed to the North Country, and each went winless on the trip.
The Big Green fell twice, 2-1 at St. Lawrence and 3-0 at No. 7 Clarkson. Kennedy Marchment’s second-period goal proved decisive on Friday, after she had earlier assisted on Amanda Boulier’s power-play tally. Dartmouth’s attempt to rally only produced Laura Stacey’s fourth goal of the year. Carmen MacDonald made 27 saves to take the win.
On Saturday in Potsdam, the Big Green offense continued to sputter, with Shea Tiley turning away 24 shots in earning the fourth shutout of her debut season. Shannon MacAuley assisted on Cayley Mercer’s goal in the final minute of the first period, and then MacAuley scored two of her own late in the game.
The Golden Knights began the weekend by escaping a two-goal hole to tie Harvard, 2-2. Haley Mullins and Sydney Daniels staked the Crimson to their lead by the halfway point, but Olivia Howe reduced the margin at 19:24 of the second period. Renata Fast tied it up after the intermission, and that’s how it ended.
Both the Saints and the Crimson got their offenses clicking on Saturday, and Kayla Raniwsky scored 66 seconds into overtime to give SLU a 5-4 triumph. Miye D’Oench forced OT when she broke in and placed a snipe under the bar with less than two minutes left in regulation. Samantha Reber had a goal and two helpers to pace Harvard’s offense. St. Lawrence got two goals and an assist from Jenna Marks and three assists by Jacqueline Wand.
Still unbeaten
No. 1 Boston College and No. 5 Quinnipiac have yet to lose, with the only blemish on the record of each being a single tie.
The Eagles drubbed New Hampshire twice, 10-0 and 5-0, in a home-and-home series. Alex Carpenter and Haley Skarupa each had a trio of goals to go with three helpers over the 120 minutes. Kristyn Capizzano and Tori Sullivan also had two-goal games. Katie Burt played five of the periods in net and saved all 24 shots she faced.
No. 5 Quinnipiac continued its march through overmatched opponents by dismantling Rensselaer, 6-1, and Union, 5-0. Erica Udén Johansson powered the offense with three points in each contest, including three goals on the weekend. Nicole Connery hit the net twice in the victory over the Engineers. Coach Rick Seeley described his team’s effort against RPI as “sloppy,” but he felt the domination of the Dutchwomen may have been one of his club’s “best 60 minutes of the year.” The Bobcats outshot Union, 63-8, including not yielding a shot on goal in the opening period.
Winless no more
Cornell started to find the range in skating to home wins over Brown, 5-1, and Yale, 6-2. Brianne Jenner and Jillian Saulnier tallied twice, Erin O’Connor had three primary assists, and Paul Voorheis recorded 22 saves in toppling the Bears. Taylor Woods made her first start on defense and responded with two goals, and O’Connor had three more points as five of the six defensemen got onto the score sheet against Yale; Emily Fulton led the forwards with three helpers.
Providence tasted victory for the first time on Saturday, stopping Northeastern by a 4-1 decision. Allie Morse made 42 saves and received offensive support from goal scorers Allison Micheletti, Brittney Thunstrom, Cassidy Carels, and Beth Hanrahan. The Huskies got revenge on Sunday with a 6-2 reversal, sparked by two goals and an assist by Kendall Coyne and three helpers from Heather Mottau.
How the rest of the top 10 fared
No. 3 Wisconsin unleashed an offensive barrage in pummeling Minnesota State, the last remaining winless team, 8-2 and 8-0. Annie Pankowski’s hat trick highlighted Thursday’s game. Sydney McKibbon led in the goal-scoring department with two on Friday in support of Jorie Walters’ 18-save shutout. Blayre Turnbull contributed three points in each outing.
No. 6 Boston University had its week get off to a shaky start when it dropped a 6-3 decision on home ice to Northeastern on Tuesday. Coyne netted a hat trick and added two assists; McKenna Brand had the first two-goal game of her young career. The Terriers regrouped by sweeping Connecticut in a home-and-home series and got Marie-Philip Poulin back from injury in the process. Maddie Elia’s second goal of the game with 30 seconds remaining nudged BU to a 3-2 victory in the first game. Poulin scored twice in the 4-2 win at home on Sunday, and Victoria Bach potted a goal in all three games on the week.
No. 2 Minnesota rebounded from its first series loss in over four years with a sweep of Ohio State by 4-2 and 5-3 scores. Both teams had players break out of scoring slumps. OSU’s Taylor Kuehl scored her first three goals of the year, with two of them coming on Friday. After not finding the net in a month, Minnesota’s Meghan Lorence broke out with a four-goal series, including a hat trick on Saturday. Teammate Kate Schipper moved from center to wing and responded with a goal and an assist in each skate, her first goals as a sophomore, and Rachael Bona had a five-point weekend. Buckeyes Sara Schmitt and Claudia Kepler had a goal and two assists in the series.
Also traveling to Columbus was No. 8 Mercyhurst for a Tuesday night game with Ohio State. The Lakers squelched OSU’s offense, holding it to 16 shots in goaltender Amanda Makela’s fifth shutout of the season. Sarah Robello, Hannah Bale, and Jenna Dingeldein supplied the goals in the 3-0 victory, with Dingeldein hitting an empty net.
No. 9 Minnesota-Duluth swept a series at St. Cloud State, 6-1 and 1-0. In the opener, Ashleigh Brykaliuk contributed three points, and Katerina Mrázová hit the twine twice. Kayla Black recorded 18 saves to get the shutout, while Brienna Gillanders scored the game’s only goal on Saturday.
Back and forth
In the wildest series of the week, Vermont claimed a pair of see-saw battles at Syracuse, 6-5 in overtime and 5-4. The Orange raced to a three-goal lead after 20 minutes of the opener, but the Catamounts turned the tables in the next stanza to produce a 3-3 stalemate. Each team was unable to hold a lead in the third frame. Brittany Zuback scored for the second time 1:42 into OT to end matters. Dayna Colang had a hat trick and Amanda Pelkey four points to fuel UVM to that point. For the Orange, Stephanie Grossi supplied a three-point game and Jessica Sibley tallied twice.
On Saturday, Pelkey scored twice to give the visitors a two-goal lead by the 7:23 mark, but Melissa Piacentini had a goal and two assists for Syracuse as it scored four of the next five tallies to claim a third-period lead. However, Casey Leveillee netted her first goal of the year while short-handed, and rookie defenseman Amanda Drobot knocked in the first goal of her career 99 seconds later to win it for Vermont.
Other action
Bemidji State kept rolling by sweeping North Dakota, 4-1 and 2-1. UND scored the first and last goal of the series, but the Beavers rattled off six straight in between. Friday’s win was keyed by a goal and an assist from Kaitlyn Tougas and a goal and a helper by her linemates, Stephanie Anderson and Alex Citrowske. Kristin Huber and Hanna Moher scored on Saturday. Brittni Mowat made 57 saves over the two contests.
Princeton let two third-period leads slip away, but prevailed in overtime over both Union and Rensselaer. Haley Welch scored an extra-attacker goal for the Dutchwomen with 34 seconds left, but Molly Contini produced a 3-2 win for the Tigers. Jaimie McDonell and Kelsey Koelzer assisted her after scoring goals of their own back in the first period. On Saturday, RPI’s Laura Horwood knotted the game after Morgan Sly had opened the scoring, but Cristin Shanahan decided the 2-1 affair in Princeton’s favor. Kimberly Newell made 20 saves.
RIT scored once in each period and Ali Binnington made 22 saves in a 3-0 win over Penn State. Mackenzie Stone led with a goal and an assist. Penn State bounced back with a 3-2 win when Caitlin Reilly scored her second goal of the day 3:02 into overtime.
Yale’s Jaimie Leonoff made 18 saves to blank Colgate, 3-0. Jackie Raines, Stephanie Mock, and Krista Yip-Chuck supplied the goals.
The Raiders rebounded to defeat Brown, 4-3. Megan Sullivan struck 2:15 into overtime after assisting twice in regulation, foiling the Bears, who had fought back from three one-goal deficits.
Hottest team
While fans of undefeated Michigan Tech might take exception, it’s hard not to wonder if Minnesota-Duluth is the hottest team in the country.
Even if they aren’t, the Bulldogs are the hottest team in their home state after sweeping top-ranked Minnesota this weekend by 3-0 and 2-1 scores.
The sweep marked back-to-back weekend sweeps of an in-state rival for the Bulldogs, who swept NCHC rival St. Cloud State the previous weekend.
Friday in Minneapolis, Bulldogs netminder Kasimir Kaskisuo stopped 17 shots as the Bulldogs blanked the Gophers, ending Minnesota’s home unbeaten streak at 17 games. It was also the first time since 2003 that Minnesota had been shut out on home ice.
Saturday in Duluth, the Bulldogs made it a sweep behind Kaskisuo’s 24 saves and goals by Dominic Toninato and Karson Kuhlman. The Gophers finally ended Kaskisuo’s shutout streak at 11:18 of the third period, ending 149:37 of shutout play by the freshman phenom.
The last time the Bulldogs swept their in-state rivals was November 2009. The Bulldogs are currently 8-4, a record made more impressive by the fact that every game they have played so far has been against a ranked team. The lowest-ranked team Minnesota-Duluth has played so far was ranked 12. While one team has since dropped out of the top 20, two of the others have moved into the top 10.
Gold Pan strike one
In Denver coach Jim Montgomery’s first year, Colorado College claimed the Gold Pan, awarded to the winner of the season series between the two schools, by sweeping Denver in the last two games of the season between the schools. Given how often CC has won the trophy (12 times out of 21), one could wonder whether a first-year coach appreciated the storied rivalry.
Montgomery showed some flare last week during his radio interview on Wednesday, Nov. 12, referring to the Tigers as “the kittens.” Perhaps Montgomery’s psychological warfare worked, because CC certainly played like kittens and Denver played like tigers, defeating CC 8-1 on Friday night at Magness Arena in Denver.
Denver scored twice in the first two minutes of the game, once by Danton Heinen and once by Nolan Zajac, and never looked back, building a 4-1 lead after one period. Denver defenseman Joey LaLeggia scored the seventh goal, notching his 100th career point.
“I couldn’t have done it without great teammates and the freedom coach Montgomery gives me and Nolan Zajac to be aggressive offensively and take chances jumping into the play,” said LaLeggia. “It’s a nice milestone and better to get against a rival like Colorado College.”
The loss was the seventh in a row for CC, which hasn’t won since its opening weekend against Alabama-Huntsville.
NCHC foes split
The only match-up of top 10 teams this weekend paired No. 7 Miami against No. 2 North Dakota. Fittingly, the series ended in a split, with the RedHakws winning game one, 3-2, and North Dakota taking the rematch 4-1.
Friday’s win by Miami ended an eight-game unbeaten streak for North Dakota, and may have put aside memories of the 9-2 drubbing the RedHawks took the last time they played in Grand Forks. Sean Kuraly had two goals and an assist, including scoring the game-winner on a third period power play.
The series was notable also for the return of North Dakota forward Mark MacMillan, who had been injured against Providence on Oct. 24. On Saturday, MacMillan provided the spark, scoring North Dakota’s first goal after Miami had opened a one-goal lead and assisting on the third goal.
MacMillan’s return comes at a fortuitous time, as UND has two series looming against ranked conference foes in No. 15 St. Cloud State and No. 14 Nebraska-Omaha.
Here’s how the teams in the Nov. 10, 2014, USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll fared from Monday, Nov. 10 to Sunday, Nov. 16:
| RANK | LAST WEEK’S RESULTS | RECORD | THIS WEEK’S GAMES | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Minnesota |
Friday: lost to No. 13 Minnesota-Duluth 3-0 Saturday: lost at No. 13 Minnesota-Duluth 2-1 |
7-3 | Friday: vs. U.S. Under-18 Team |
| 2 |  North Dakota |
Friday: lost to No. 7 Miami 3-2 Saturday: beat No. 7 Miami 4-1 |
8-2-1 | Friday-Saturday: at St. Cloud State |
| 3 |  Boston University |
Friday: won at Maine 3-1 | 6-1-1 | Friday: vs. Maine Saturday: at Connecticut |
| 4 |  Massachusetts-Lowell |
Friday: beat Penn State 5-3 Saturday: lost to Penn State 4-1 |
7-2-2 | Thursday-Friday: at Notre Dame |
| 5 |  Michigan Tech |
Friday: won at Bemidji State 2-1 Saturday: won at Bemidji State 4-2 |
10-0 | Friday-Saturday: vs. Minnesota State |
| 6 |  Colgate |
Friday: beat St. Lawrence 5-2 Saturday: tied Clarkson 2-2 |
8-3-1 | Friday: vs. Brown Saturday: vs. Yale |
| 7 |  Miami |
Friday: beat No. 2 North Dakota 3-2 Saturday: lost to No. 2 North Dakota 4-1 |
8-4 | Friday-Saturday: vs. Western Michigan |
| 8 |  Boston College |
Tuesday: lost to Harvard 6-3 Friday: won at Michigan State 3-2 |
5-5 | Friday: at MassachusettsSaturday: vs. Maine |
| 9 |  Minnesota State |
Off | 7-3 | Friday-Saturday: at Michigan Tech |
| 10 |  Vermont |
Friday: lost at No. 16 Providence 3-0 Saturday: won at No. 16 Providence 2-1 |
7-2-1 | Friday: at Connecticut Saturday: at Massachusetts |
| 11 |  Denver |
Friday: beat Colorado College 8-1 | 6-3 | Friday: vs. Air Force Saturday: vs. Wisconsin |
| 12 |  Union |
Friday: lost to No. 20 Quinnipiac 4-3 Saturday: beat Princeton 6-1 |
6-5-1 | Off |
| 13 |  Minnesota-Duluth |
Friday: won at No. 1 Minnesota-Duluth 3-0 Saturday: beat No. 1 Minnesota 2-1 |
8-4 | Friday-Saturday: at Nebraska-Omaha |
| 14 |  Omaha |
Off | 6-1-1 | Friday-Saturday: vs. Minnesota-Duluth |
| 15 |  St. Cloud State |
Friday: won at Western Michigan 4-3 Saturday: tied at Western Michigan 1-1 (SOL) |
4-5-1 | Friday-Saturday: vs. North Dakota |
| 16 |  Providence |
Friday: beat No. 10 Vermont 3-0 Saturday: lost to No. 10 Vermont 2-1 |
4-5-1 | Friday-Saturday: at New Hampshire |
| 17 |  Robert Morris |
Friday: tied Air Force 3-3 Saturday: lost to Air Force 2-1, OT |
7-1-2 | Friday-Saturday: at American International |
| 18 |  Northern Michigan |
Off | 6-1-1 | Friday-Saturday: at Alaska-Anchorage |
| 19 |  Bowling Green |
Friday: lost to Ohio State 3-2 Saturday: won at Ohio State 3-2 |
8-3-1 | Friday-Saturday: vs. Bemidji State |
| 20 |  Quinnipiac |
Friday: won at No. 12 Union 4-3 Saturday: won at Rensselaer 3-1 |
7-2-1 | Friday: at Clarkson Saturday: at St. Lawrence |
Here are images from No. 2 North Dakota’s 4-1 victory over No. 7 Miami on Saturday in Grand Forks, N.D.
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Here are images from Yale’s 2-1 victory over Harvard on Saturday in Boston. Goaltender Alex Lyon was the first recipient of the Tim Taylor Cup, which will be presented to the MVP of Yale at Harvard games to honor the late Harvard alum and Yale head coach Tim Taylor.
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