St. Cloud State goaltender Ryan Faragher and defenseman Tim Daly weren’t able to keep this shot by Minnesota’s Nate Condon out of the net last Friday (photo: Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com).
For 62 years, hockey fans in Massachusetts have eagerly awaited the playing of the Beanpot, which pits four Boston-area schools against each other. Though Minnesota has long been one of the traditional hockey hotbeds, the state didn’t have an equivalent.
This year, the launching of the North Star College Cup, which featured Minnesota, Minnesota-Duluth, Minnesota State and St. Cloud State, may have changed that.
“For the first year of putting the event together, we thought it was a great success,” said St. Cloud coach Bob Motzko. “Just around 15,000 people for the Minnesota games, and I think we all kind of feel that since all of us are in different leagues, and the proud tradition and history in this state, that this tournament has got a chance to be something very special.
“We thought it was great hockey. All four programs were playing great hockey, and I think the fans that showed up saw tremendous play. It has great Minnesota flavor from a media standpoint and the players and individuals from all the teams.”
This weekend, the Huskies return to NCHC play with a series against Nebraska-Omaha. St. Cloud trails Denver and North Dakota by one point in the NCHC standings, but has two games in hand. The Huskies, who spent the first half of the season atop the league standings, are also being challenged in the standings by UNO and Western Michigan.
“They’re a tremendously gifted offensive hockey team with some top-end players and upperclassmen that have led them over the years, like Ryan Walters and Josh Archibald, and it’s really a weekend where we have to have discipline in not letting them have power plays, discipline in our systems, and discipline in our puck management,” Motzko said of the series against the Mavericks. “We have to play our brand of hockey but be very disciplined at it to give us the best chance we can at the weekend.”
One area that Motzko and his players will want to shore up is defense. At the end of the first half of the season, St. Cloud was one of the top five teams in team defense nationally.
In the second half, the Huskies have given up more than two goals in every game but one, even their wins, and the one game they held an opponent to two goals was a 2-1 loss to Western Michigan.
“Going into Christmas, we’d only given up 32 goals; in our last six games, we’ve given up 20 and that’s a no-no,” said Motzko. “We’re obviously analyzing and going over the film and what we’ve been doing and we think we have a couple things really targeted that we have to get back on top of, and we think we are moving in a direction to get it solved.
“The big thing for us is we’ve done it before, so we’re not trying to find something new. We’re trying to get back to something we were doing before, and we just got off kilter at Christmas in a few areas and we just need to get some good habits going again in our defensive play and our penalty kill, our goaltending. We’re still not going to hit the panic button, but obviously we have to really shore things up from a defensive standpoint to give us a better chance.”
Motzko will also be focusing on the penalty kill, which ranks 51st nationally and is clicking at only a 77.5 percent success rate.
“The defense giving up goals, the penalty kill, that’s all under the same umbrella,” said Motzko. “We’ve been making some uncharacteristic mistakes. We’d only given up 10 goals on the penalty kill the whole first half, and I think now it’s six maybe since Christmas. Those are things that can be corrected, along with the other defensive areas we had and some individual play that we’re working toward getting better at.”
Coach Enrico Blasi and Miami are looking at their defense critically (photo: Bradley K. Olson).
RedHawks regroup
It hasn’t been a good start to the second half of the season for the Miami RedHawks. Truth be told, things have been off for coach Enrico Blasi’s club since November.
In mid-November, the RedHawks hosted Wisconsin and split the two-game set, getting a 2-0 shutout on Friday night and losing 3-2 in the rematch Saturday. After that, Miami was swept by Nebraska-Omaha, mustered a tie and win at Bemidji State, and split with Denver, winning the second game to end the first half on a hopeful note.
There were, however, some signs of potential difficulty down that stretch, as Miami gave up 21 goals in those eight games.
The second half started with an exhibition loss to the U.S. Under-18 team; no cause for panic, but it probably raised some eyebrows. However, things didn’t get better, as Miami then was swept at Western Michigan and got a tie/shootout win and loss against Nebraska-Omaha.
The RedHawks followed that up with a loss last Friday night to NCHC cellar-dweller Colorado College by a 4-1 score before rebounding for their first regulation win of the second half, a convincing 6-1 thrashing of the Tigers Saturday night.
Blasi said he thinks that his team has been the cause of its woes in the second half.
“I can’t put a finger on it, other than we do a lot of things that are basically self-inflicted, and played some pretty good teams where you make mistakes and they’ll make you pay, and that’s what we did,” said Blasi. “It’s one of those things you have to go through, and hopefully we can get better.”
Though Miami’s offense, led by Riley Barber and Austin Czarnik, scores at over a three-goals-per-game clip, the defense averages nearly as many goals given up. Blasi points to this as one area the team needs to work on during its time off this week.
“I think we have to get better in a lot of areas,” Blasi said. “Our puck management hasn’t been very good, which leads to turnovers, which has cost us some big goals at big times in games. Our puck management, things we can control as far as our position, especially defensively, obviously needs to get better. A lot of things to work on, and hopefully we can get better here down the stretch.”
While Blasi acknowledges that Barber and Czarnik have been prolific, the loss of Blake Coleman to injury in the Denver series has hurt the team’s offensive production after those two.
It has also affected the power play, which has been one area of concern. Until the RedHawks erupted for four power-play goals against CC Saturday night, the power play was mired in a dismal 1-for-29 stretch.
“I think if you look in the last month, our power play hasn’t been very effective, and when it’s effective, our team is successful,” said Blasi. “Special teams are a huge part of the game, and they have to be a difference.”
Miami returns to action on Feb. 7-8 with a series at home against former CCHA rival Western Michigan. Blasi made it clear that he is expecting more from all his players during the stretch run.
“It’s just one of those things where you have to strive to get better and that’s what we’re trying to do,” said Blasi. “We’re trying to teach the game and make sure everybody knows how hard it is to play at this level. We’ve got to continue to get better and play at a higher level.”
No nights off
Denver and North Dakota, which battled to a series split last weekend in Denver, sit atop the league standings with 24 points each, though St. Cloud State, Nebraska-Omaha and Western Michigan each have two games in hand and could pass both teams this weekend, especially since each league win is worth three points.
It points to the overall competitiveness of the NCHC, something North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol commented on after Denver blanked UND 3-0 Saturday night, one night after UND had defeated the Pioneers 4-2.
“I think it’s reflective of the entire league,” Hakstol said of the split. “Every series that we have played has been exactly like this series: It’s been a dogfight.”
Denver coach Jim Montgomery said much the same about the split, and how important it was for Denver to rebound after losing Friday night.
“In the NCHC, you can’t afford to be swept, and we found a way now to respond twice after being beat quite soundly by St. Cloud and North Dakota on Friday night,” said Montgomery.
Both Denver and North Dakota are off this weekend, and return to league play on Feb. 7-8.
Players of the week
Offensive player of the week — Jonny Brodzinski, St. Cloud State: Brodzinski notched four points for the Huskies during the inaugural North Star College Cup. Against No. 1 Minnesota in the first game, he notched the only goal for his team during a 4-1 setback. In the third-place game on Saturday, Brodzinski torched Minnesota State for two goals and an assist in a 6-4 win and was named the first star of the game. Brodzinski leads St. Cloud in scoring with 14 goals and 11 assists.
Defensive player of the week — Matthew Caito, Miami: Caito helped right the ship for the RedHawks on Saturday, as Miami rebounded from a 4-1 defeat to beat Colorado College 6-1 on Saturday. On Friday, Caito helped the penalty kill go 3-for-3, and also got three shots on goal. In Saturday’s win that broke a five-game winless streak, Caito notched an assist to tie the game in the first period and a goal on a power play in the second while helping Miami kill all five CC power plays.
Rookie of the week — Alex Iafallo, Minnesota-Duluth: Iafallo notched three points in the North Star College Cup, helping the Bulldogs get a runner-up finish in a shootout loss to Minnesota. On Friday against Minnesota State, he got two assists in the second period and scored the game-winning goal with 26.5 seconds left in overtime. Iafallo was named the game’s first star. This is the third time this season that Iafallo has earned rookie of the week honors.
Goaltender of the week — Sam Brittain, Denver: Brittain earned his sixth goaltender of the week honor and won it for the second consecutive week for helping Denver get a split with North Dakota. He stopped a season-high 43 shots in Saturday’s 3-0 shutout win and stopped 29 shots on Friday in a 4-2 loss. Brittain finished with a 2.08 GAA and .947 save percentage on the weekend, and his shutout was his fourth of the year, tying him for second nationally. Brittain has won 13 games this year.
Northeastern doesn’t consider itself to be a Cinderella team despite outperforming the predictions by a wide margin (photo: Melissa Wade).
The Beanpot starts Monday night and although it annoys fans of teams that aren’t involved, it’s a mighty big deal. So let’s start out with looks at two Beanpot schools going in different directions.
Northeastern: The Huskies and Cinderella
If you care about wins, Northeastern remains the best story in Hockey East. Picked to finish last by the league coaches and many others (including yours truly and Jim Connelly), the Huskies remain in second place and are ranked 10th in the country.
If you care about shots on goal, however, the last two weeks have provided cause for concern. Two weeks ago, the Huskies defeated Vermont 3-2 while getting outshot 48-19. Last weekend, they topped Notre Dame in its own barn 4-0 despite again falling on the lopsided low end of the shot totals, 30-14.
Is this just a case of goaltender Clay Witt (2.04 GAA, .943 save percentage) carrying the team on his shoulders?
“The media gets hung up on the number of shots,” Huskies coach Jim Madigan says. “I’m more interested in the quality shots. We outshot Notre Dame on Saturday night 36-33 [when we lost], but I thought our quality of shots were better on Friday night when we only had 14.
“For me, it’s the Grade A, the quality chances. Ideally, what we’d like to do is get a lot of the pucks to the net and get quality shots, but I’ll take quality opportunities versus quantity any time.
“Certainly, Clay has played well and some teams will get more pucks to the net than others just because that’s their offensive philosophy. Our offense is based more on puck possession so oftentimes we’re not going to get a lot of pucks to the net. As long as we get quality opportunities, that’s what counts.”
To be honest, I’ve considered Northeastern to be a Cinderella team this year, one for which I’ve constantly been expecting to hear the bells toll midnight. But the Huskies are 5-2 since the start of the year and show no signs of slowing down.
“I don’t think the Cinderella analogy fits,” Madigan says. “They’re certainly not looking at it that way. They believe in themselves and believe that we’re a talented group.
“Certainly, there’s been better goaltending this year and better team defense that’s allowed us to be in games and win games, but we have a bunch of quality young men who have a lot of character, believe in themselves and believe in their teammates. From the get-go, we haven’t really paid much attention to what [everyone else] thought of our team or where they’ve ranked our team.
“It’s a cliché and it’s an old one, but our guys just stay in the moment, they stay in the now. They’re taking it one game at a time. That’s what’s great about this team. We’re OK hanging out in the weeds. We don’t want to bring much attention to ourselves. We’re just a blue-collar team that works their rear ends off and wants to get better each weekend.”
While Witt has been a stud between the pipes and Kevin Roy and Braden Pimm mainstays up front, it’s been the freshmen class that has provided a level of scoring that belies its inexperience.
“We have seven or eight freshmen in the lineup every game,” Madigan says. “We’ve expected them to contribute. They had contributed at all levels of hockey before getting here.
“Mike Szmatula was the fourth-leading scorer in the USHL last year and was the MVP of the league. That’s a pretty good indication that he’s going to put points up in college. Johnny Stevens was a good two-way player and had a fair amount of points. Dalen Hedges was a top-five point producer in the Ottawa league. They’ve all had points, but they’ve played to their strengths.
“I knew that they’d be put in a position to succeed, and I knew that our upperclassmen would also help them make that transition offensively. If you’re a point producer, you’re going to get your points.”
While the Huskies rank as the third-best offense in Hockey East, their power-play results have been far more pedestrian than that. Although they’ve converted 18 percent overall (eighth-best in the league), they’ve scored at only an 11.3 percent clip within the league. Conversely, their overall penalty kill percentage of 81.6 jumps to 85.7 (third-best) in Hockey East.
“On the power play, we do have skill there and I think we can score more and I’m confident that we will,” Madigan says. “But it’s also timely goals, just like it’s the timeliness of the saves that Clay makes. A couple of games ago, we went 1-for-6 on the power play, but it was a game-winning goal.
“We want to get better in all areas and there’s room for improvement in the power play, but it’s not like I’m unhappy with it. But it can be better and it can be the difference between winning some games [and not].”
For some time now, Madigan has deflected any questions about the Beanpot, choosing to comment only on the upcoming game. Well, now the Huskies’ Monday night matchup with Harvard is the next game. And he’s ready to talk.
“It’s the next game up on our schedule,” Madigan says. “We can’t look beyond Harvard because they’re our next team. It happens to be the Beanpot on a big stage. What our guys have been able to do is bring a good mentality to every game and not get too high or too low. That’s the way we’re going to have to approach it on Monday.
“We’re not playing for the teams that haven’t had a chance to win it for the last 25 years. We’re just playing for this year’s team. If we take that approach and stay to our game plan, then I’m confident.
“The more we can minimize the significance of the tournament, the better it will be for our guys. It’s not just another game, I understand that. But when the puck drops, you have to execute, you have to play hard, you’ve got to stick to your game plan and then just focus on what you do. It becomes just another game.
“Leading up to it, it’s not just another game. Once the game starts, it is just another game.”
Playing at Frozen (aka Flooded) Fenway several weeks ago should help.
“I don’t look at [the Beanpot] as a distraction, but there’s just a lot of noise around the game,” Madigan says. “You’re at a different venue, a professional venue. We’ll be at the Garden and different locker room setups, and there’s more of a frenzied fever about it, wanting to get tickets and all the excitement on campus.
“So [Fenway] will certainly help us out. But last year [in the Beanpot], we were in the finals. So that will help us out, too. We’ve got enough returning guys on the club who can help our younger guys.”
As for the stretch drive, the Huskies are amazingly well set up to maintain their hold on second place. Of course, all Hockey East teams are tough and young teams are prone to pratfalls based on trap games. All that said, though, Northeastern has completed the toughest part of its league schedule.
The Huskies’ remaining league games consist of two-game sets against Massachusetts (ninth place, 3-8-2), Maine (0-8-2 on the road, where both games will be played), and Boston University (10th place, 3-8-1).
“Because of the playoff format, everybody’s got a chance,” Madigan says. “First round is one game, sudden death, and then you’re to the quarterfinals. So every team wants to be playing well, improving as they get to the end of the season.
“This is the most difficult league in the country. We’ve got seven teams in the top 20. It doesn’t matter if you’re situated in 11th place or you’re in first place, you’ve got to come to play every night.
“We were there last year, more on the bottom, and realized that we played hard and beat some quality teams. So it can happen both ways. Our focus is just going to be game to game. There’s no bad team in Hockey East.”
Boston University has already lost twice to Boston College this season. The teams play in Monday’s Beanpot semifinals (photo: Melissa Wade).
Boston University: Wait ’til next year?
If Northeastern has been the best positive surprise in the league this year, Boston University has got to be the biggest disappointment. Not only are the Terriers mired in 10th place with a 3-8-1 league record, they’re 1-8-1 since the start of December and arguably their best player, defenseman Matt Grzelcyk, is out for the season.
“Obviously, our record isn’t anywhere near we where want it to be,” first-year BU coach David Quinn says. “Nobody’s really happy with where we’re at. [But] I give the guys credit for having good morale. They seem excited to come to the rink every day.
“I say this a lot, and it’s a fact: When you’re playing nine freshmen every single night, it’s difficult, and our injury situation hasn’t helped. It’s a work in progress.”
Of course, the obvious potshot that some will take is that if only Jack Parker were still behind the bench, the situation wouldn’t be so dire. It’s never comfortable replacing a legend.
“Everybody’s entitled to their opinion,” Quinn says. “But they’re not here every day and know the situation we’re in. You certainly can’t get upset when people say those things. I don’t pay much attention to it. You do the best job that you can.
“I’m comfortable with where we’re at, meaning that you certainly don’t like the record that you have, but every day we come here as a staff and we try to make the situation better.”
Special teams haven’t helped. The penalty kill is ranked seventh, which isn’t too shabby, and the power play is ranked third at 20.8 percent. But that same power play has allowed an eye-popping eight short-handed goals against, far outdistancing any other team in the league. The result is that the Terriers rank last in the league in special teams net.
“It’s kind of a microcosm of where we’re at,” Quinn says. “When we’re good, we’re pretty good. The hard part for us is when we struggle, we really struggle. That’s what we need to learn as a group.
“You don’t have 34 great games every year. I guess we need to do a better job of managing when things aren’t going great for us. That’s our problem, not only from a special teams standpoint, but from a game-by-game standpoint. When we struggle, we really struggle.”
That holds true in the defensive end as well, where BU also ranks dead last in Hockey East. The Terriers have allowed 3.42 goals against per game. Other than Massachusetts, which is at 3.15 goals against, no other league team has surrendered an average of more than 2.65.
“We’ve given up 14 goals in two games to UMass,” Quinn says, not taking a potshot at the Minutemen, one of the league’s weakest offenses, but just pointing out a fact. “We’ve got three freshmen defensemen playing every night, and I think we’ve given up a lot of empty-netters, too.”
By all accounts, the Terriers have a stellar recruiting class coming in next year. So is it time to consider this season a lost one and look to the next?
“People may think that, but it’s certainly not happening here, that’s for sure,” Quinn says. “It’s never fun when you’re losing, without question, but that’s certainly not the feeling here within the coaching room or even the locker room. We come to the rink every day and we try to get better.”
Of course, the Beanpot also remains as one way to salvage an otherwise disappointing season, a feat the Terriers have pulled off more than once. Unfortunately, they have to take on second-ranked Boston College in the first round, a tall order indeed, even if they played reasonably well against the Eagles two weekends ago before losing 6-4.
“I thought it was a competitive game, and I thought we did a lot of things that we need to do if we’re going to have success against a team like BC,” Quinn says. “The history of the Beanpot is that an underdog seems to have success more often than not. But we’re not going to think of it that way.
“We’re going to try to do the things that we did that allowed us to have some success against BC, and do them a little bit better and do them a little bit more often on Monday night.”
Injuries making a difference
At this time of the year, there’ll always be injuries, but the stature of several sidelined stars is making an impact in the standings.
As noted above, BU’s loss of Grzelcyk for the season is a crushing blow to a staggering team. New Hampshire lost Trevor van Riemsdyk for at least six weeks. Those two could have easily been this year’s first-team All-Hockey East defensemen.
UNH also will be missing top forward Grayson Downing for several more weeks.
Massachusetts-Lowell lost four significant players last Friday night: Scott Wilson, Ryan McGrath, Jake Suter and Zack Kamrass.
UML coach Norm Bazin can be Belichickian at times regarding injuries, so it’s hard to say when the four will return, but they all missed Saturday night’s contest.
All these injuries (and some others I haven’t listed, no doubt) could have significant impacts on the race to the postseason.
And finally, not that it has anything to do with anything, but …
This should be my last column for a while. As I’ve noted before, I’m going into Mass General for open-heart surgery on Feb. 6 (edit: since moved to Feb. 11) and will be there for five to seven days. I’ll be recuperating for a while after that. If you’re so inclined, you can follow my progress on this CaringBridge site.
Thanks for all the well wishes I’ve received. It’s been very gratifying.
You’ll be in Jimmy’s exceptional hands until I return.
But before I leave, let me remind you about my two hockey novels. “Cracking the Ice” has been out in hardcover for two years now, but Pentucket Publishing has just released the first e-book edition. It’s available on Kindle with other formats coming online in the next few days. $6.99
I’ve also told you in past weeks about “Body Check,” my hockey romance novel. It’s available on Kindle, NOOK, Kobo, Smashwords, and other formats. $5.99
As always, you can follow my fiction writing news and sign up for my newsletter on my website.
Sophomore forward Brandon Gilmore leads Curry’s scoring attack as the Colonels look to get into the ECAC Northeast playoff picture (photo: Connor Gleason).
So far, Curry is liking the way 2014 is treating the Colonels compared to how 2013 ended.
Curry has a 5-4-1 record in the new year after a 2-5-1 start to the season.
For coach T.J. Manastersky, it’s a nice start, but there are plenty of things for his club to work on for the final month of the season.
“Even when weren’t winning a lot of games, we were doing a lot of good things, but we were hurting ourselves,” Manastersky said. “We were hurting ourselves because we were taking too many penalties, for one. We are starting to do a better job to be more disciplined in that regard, although our last game was terrible in the number of penalties we took. We still have a long way to go with that.”
Manastersky also added that his team still needs work on special teams, which have been a little better in 2014, but aren’t where he wants them to be. The power play is 8-for-93, which comes out to a mere 8.6 percent. The penalty kill is slightly over 80 percent.
Offensively, the team has been led by sophomore forward Brandon Gilmore, who has seven goals and seven assists in 18 contests this season. Michael Vallescuro is the only other player in double digits with 10 points (two goals and eight assists).
Manastersky said Gilmore is a guy who can be counted on a nightly basis to create offensive chances for the team.
Goaltender Dan Mohney has been solid with a 5-5-1 record, a 2.05 GAA and a .932 save percentage.
“I feel really good for him because now [Mohney is] getting some wins on his stats because he was playing well all along,” Manastersky stated.
Most of Curry’s wins have come from outside of ECAC Northeast play in 2014. The Colonels are currently sitting in seventh place in the conference, which is one spot out of the postseason conference tournament.
The team hopes their winning ways continue.
“When you go through a stretch of games where I think were were winless in six games, you start thinking if you are ever going to win again,” Manastersky said. “Why is it so hard? It gives you a respect of how hard it’s to win again and the way you have to play. It doesn’t matter if they are conference games or nonconference games. It doesn’t matter if they are against ranked [teams] or not, the bottom line everyone is good enough to beat you if you shoot yourself in the foot or don’t show up.”
Manastersky hopes the adversity his team faced early in the year will help them in the final 30 or so days in the season. He also added every game from here on out is a four-point game
The next four games, the competition gets stiffer with games against Western New England on Saturday, Nichols next Tuesday, Salve Regina on Feb. 8 and Johnson and Wales on Feb. 13
“It will be a good test,” Manastersky said. “We feel good, we have won some games and we have been able to do our jobs. Now we get to find out where we really stand here. Are we capable to step in the meat of the conference? Let’s be honest – there are a lot of great goalies in the league and the teams are really well-prepared by their coaches. Can we do that? Can we win some games and find some ways to win and play the disciplined game we need to? We are all anxiously waiting to see what happens.”
Nazareth captain Scott Dawson helped lead the Golden Flyers to the program’s two biggest wins last weekend over ranked opponents (photo: Dan Hickling).
Who saw this coming?
Anybody? Anybody?
Sure ya did. Uh huh … right.
Even the most rabid fans of Nazareth didn’t see it coming.
After all, the Golden Flyers, a program feeling all the growing pains of a second-year program, was still 0-for-the-season in ECAC West play, and 0-for-forever against nationally-ranked opponents.
Yet they pried both monkeys from their backs in one dizzying weekend (the one just past), by shocking league-leading No. 10 Utica in overtime (2-1) on Friday, followed by a 4-1 spanking of No. 14 Geneseo the following night.
The Eagles have known a precious few highs since last year’s hatching, but nothing quite like this.
“No question,” said Nazareth bench boss George Roll, “that those two wins against quality opponents are the best wins in the brief history of our program.”
The box score will tell you what happened, that Scott Dawson’s overtime tally finished off Utica, that goalie “Steady Eddie” Zdolshek played the game of his life in the face of a 46-shot Geneseo barrage.
But what the agate doesn’t explain is how it happened.
That’s best left to Roll.
“We have shown a resiliency that I have not seen in many teams who have lost as many games as we have in the past two years,” Roll said. “It would have been easy for our guys to quit on the season with only one win at the break, but they have remained steadfast in their work ethic and commitment to the program. We played very well the first half, but had no wins to show for it. Now, finally, we learned how to win close games instead of finding ways to lose them.”
The question now remains to be answered: what does Nazareth do for an encore?
With two games this weekend at Hobart, which trails league leaders Elmira by a single point, the answer may be soon in coming.
“Hobart is playing as good as anybody in our league presently,” said Roll. “[It] will take the same type of effort we had this past weekend. Whether we win or lose, I do not see this team having a tough time getting prepared for this weekend.”
Of course, foes will be looking past Nazareth anymore, either.
Wounded Warriors in Elmira
As if this weekend’s two-game series that brings Utica into Elmira wasn’t crucial enough.
The winner of said set could – depending on how Hobart fares with the giant killers from Nazareth – go to bed on Saturday as the ECAC West leaders.
Even so, the real winners on Saturday will be military veterans and their families who have fallen upon difficult times.
That night, Elmira will be hosting its third annual “Wounded Warrior Game,” with proceeds from the sales of tickets, jerseys and other items being donated to the Wounded Warrior Project.
The WWP is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that provides support and tangible help to severely injured service members upon their return from Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
The Soaring Eagles, who will wear specially-designed camouflage jerseys for the game, took the cause to heart two years ago.
“Everybody in their lifetime has been touched by a vet,” said Elmira coach Aaron Saul. “A brother, sister, father, mother. So many have defended our country for us to be free.
“We hope to raise a lot of money and give it back to the people who deserve it.”
The game-worn camos will be available for purchase (price tag: $125) at the rink, as well as online (email to [email protected]), with sweatshirts ($20) and tees ($10) for sale, too.
“I think our fans here and the whole community are behind it,” said Saul. “It’s a great event to be part of.
“This is something that our guys like to do. It’s a way of saying ‘thank you for everything you do for our country.'”
Tanis Lamoureux of Elmira ((Elmira Sports Information))
With two-thirds of the season completed, the inevitable question arises: Can the defending national champions reenact their victorious celebration from last spring?
With the arduous task clearly in sight, the resounding response from the Elmira camp is mutually optimistic.
“Although there is a lot of pressure in being the defending national champions, there are also some benefits that make us more prepared than we were last year going into playoffs,” said senior captain Tanis Lamoureux. “Now that the majority of our team has been to the national tournament, we know what it takes to not only get there, but to win the whole thing. In the past, we had talked about what we would have to do to win, but nobody really knew for sure. Now that we have been there before, we can take the new players under our wings and guide them in a direction that is going to make our team successful.”
Head coach Dean Jackson and Lamoureux are both in agreement that the current edition of the club will take on a somewhat different sheen in staring down the 2014 playoffs.
“At this point in the season, we are very aware of what lays ahead for us,” Jackson said. “Our team is prepared for the stretch run. I would not say we are more prepared this year than last, but this year is much different. We’re prepared for the weekends ahead because we have played in many different environments this season. To date, we have played 14 road games and three home games.”
The quality play of Lamoureux and junior forward Ashley Ryan, both in the midst of putting up career-best seasons, has lent credence to the club that a repeat is possible. During the title run, Lamoureux finished with 27 points in 30 games. Heading into the week, the Canton, Mich., native has collected 23 points in 17 outings. Ryan’s offensive output has increased dramatically as well; her 1.71 points per game average far exceeds her 1.03 number from a year ago. Both skaters have recently cracked the top 10 in career points for the program. Lamoureux has recorded nine points in her last seven games, while Ryan has 11 over the same period.
“The most positive surprise that I have seen on this team is how well players were able to step up and fill new roles after the class of 2013 had graduated,” said Lamoureux in deciphering the contrasts from last season. “The seniors that left were some of the best players on our championship team, so after they left it was encouraging to see that many of our underclassmen and even some of the incoming freshmen were able to step up and fill those roles.”
With his captain having been through the cacophony that surrounds the title game, Jackson is well aware of what an experienced Lamoureux brings to the Soaring Eagles postseason pursuits.
“She is in a very small category of elite players in the country, simply because she is a complete player,” Jackson said. “She plays both sides of the puck and 200 feet of the ice, and produces in every situation and is extremely consistent. Tanis is reliable on the ice, in the classroom, and among her teammates and friends. That is why she was looked upon by her peers and coaching staff to lead our team this year as captain.”
For Jackson, equipping his charges for another go is relatively clear-cut.
“Heading into the postseason, there are not many surprises, simply because there is familiarity among the programs,” said Jackson, who has compiled a 37-8-2 record in his short tenure at Elmira. “Every coach will have their team prepared and inspired to win the big games and every team is capable of winning. In my mind, what it really comes down to is the consistent execution of team systems and the game plan, out-compete and battle your opponent and believe in each other. That is what you will see from teams during tournament time. It will be very exciting.”
Lamoureux, for one, would expressly enjoy revisiting the podium for the second consecutive season.
“My experience has been more than amazing, especially after winning last year; my dream came true and I was able to experience it with some of my best friends (teammates),” she said.
Elmira will have the benefit of mixing it up on home ice for the next four games, taking on Buffalo State this weekend before hitting the iron in a two-game set with No. 1 Plattsburgh on Feb. 7-8.
Katie MacSorley (Northeastern – 3) – is third on the team in scoring. (Melissa Wade)
The 2013-14 season always figured to be challenging for Northeastern.
“You lose Kendall Coyne, Casey Pickett, Rachel Llanes — those kids are a lot offensively,” coach Dave Flint said.
Although they lost their top scorer to the United States Olympic Team and graduated the players ranking second and third, the Huskies won three of their first four games. They then went 4-9-1 over the remainder of the 2013 portion of the schedule.
“It was a combination of we were trying to find our identity, but also getting inconsistent effort from different kids on different nights,” Flint said.
Northeastern concluded the first half with a particularly disheartening 5-2 loss on home ice to Boston University.
“I was just disappointed that we battled back, tied the game, and then they scored kind of a soft goal, and I thought we gave up at that point in the game,” Flint said. “The one thing I always tell my team is the one thing I’ll get upset about is effort, and when the effort isn’t there, I feel like they’ve given up. That’s when I get discouraged.”
The other discouraging sign was the dwindling number of bodies available. The Huskies began the season with a roster that included 20 skaters and three goaltenders. When senior center Claire Santostefano was lost to an injury in the second period of a Jan. 12 game with Boston College, they were down to 13 healthy skaters. Northeastern ran out of gas in the third period of that game. BC was able to come from behind for a 3-2 win, but the Huskies haven’t lost since.
“So far this semester, even though we have a short bench, the kids are giving me a great effort every time we go out,” Flint said. “I think that’s one reason we’ve had some success here.”
Northeastern is in the midst of a four-game winning streak, it’s longest of the year.
“It’s kind of been a challenge for them and they’ve been thriving on it,” Flint said. “I read a book years ago called ‘Twelve Mighty Orphans,’ so I started calling them the 13 mighty orphans, and they thought it was pretty funny, so we’ve kind of been going with that theme. They’ve kind of embraced it, so I said the other day, 13 has been our lucky number lately. I’m just happy; I didn’t know what to expect when we went down to 13, what was going to happen. They’ve handled it pretty well.”
The Huskies have had to deal with a lot of things of late, but a shortage of shifts is definitely not an issue.
“We’re all pretty happy with our ice time right now,” senior forward Katie MacSorley said.
The team has managed to find positives amid the lack of depth.
“When you’re tired, you have more inspiration to motivate the players to keep going and do short shifts, and essentially because we’re trying to do all the little things right with being such few numbers and being efficient with everything we do,” MacSorley said. “I think that’s why we’re seeing these results, because we’re really focusing on the little things, and that is what is making a huge difference in our play. I don’t know if it’s because we’re forced to unite as a team more, or what it is, but I definitely think that we have come together as a team the second half of the season.”
A team with a dearth of players can’t afford some mistakes that a deeper team might overcome.
“There’s definitely more emphasis on trying not to get as many penalties and stuff like that, so we try to save our legs,” MacSorley said. “We’re definitely trying to be more disciplined as a whole.”
Practices have to change.
“You’re really limited on systems stuff you can do,” Flint said. “It’s been pretty good for us as coaches, because we’ve had to learn to adapt with it. Last week we had 11 kids for a practice. You really learn to come up with unique ways to run a practice and different drills to try to achieve what you want. It’s definitely been a challenge for us.”
In some cases, the systems themselves must be tweaked. For example, Northeastern usually likes to have its defensemen become involved all over the ice.
“This past weekend, our ‘D’ is so used to it, and two of them I had to grab them and say, ‘You’re not in a track meet here. There’s four of you, you’re going to play two games, so stay back,'” Flint said “We’ve changed our systems, not quite as aggressive, so we’re not going, going, going all the time, because you just can’t go hard for 60 minutes and expect the kids to have any legs come the third period or the second day of a back-to-back [series].”
On Saturday, the depleted group of Huskies got their first back-to-back test. After Brittany Esposito scored a game-tying goal and Kelly Wallace netted an overtime winner on Friday night against Maine, NU hosted the Black Bears in an afternoon game.
“I didn’t know what to expect, because Maine works hard and they’re a gritty team, and they can beat anybody,” Flint said. “I felt like we got some bounces and got some pucks in and then got a lead. That kind of gave our team a shot in the arm. I think if it was reversed and we were trying to play catch up, I think it would have been maybe a little different.”
As it was, Northeastern cruised to an 8-2 victory that featured a pair of goals by both Esposito and Wallace.
Challenging as it is to have just 13 skaters and a line chart with nine forwards and four defensemen, a further reduction could quickly prove to be unsustainable.
“I cringe every time somebody goes into the corner and gets bumped hard or goes down or slams into the boards,” Flint said. “It’s been a little stressful for me.”
The positive news on that front is that the shrinking bench may soon grow a bit.
“Best-case scenario is we’ll get two back, so best-case scenario we’ll have 15 at some point,” Flint said. “Right now we have one player who might be back this weekend; she’s day-to-day. It’ll probably be a game-day decision.”
Any reinforcement would be welcome, because after hosting Vermont for a Saturday game, the Huskies’ attention will focus on Tuesday’s opening round of the Beanpot.
“The two years past, winning Beanpot the first time was just unbelievable, and then the second time, winning it at home, it’s definitely something we’ll never forget,” MacSorley said. “It really helps to keep us motivated, I think, because with 13 players we can certainly try to get down and say that the odds aren’t with us and everything. Knowing that that is coming up, we have Harvard first game, and we didn’t beat Harvard this year, so it’s a lot to look forward to. There’s so much more to play for.”
MacSorley experienced a personal high in last year’s Beanpot final, scoring the deciding goal halfway through the third period versus BC.
“I’d say the shot from the point was really [why] we scored,” she said. “I was just lucky enough to get my stick on it and tip it. I can’t even describe it. I’ll always remember scoring that goal and rushing out to the point.”
Aside from maintaining a critical mass in terms of available players, the play of junior goaltender Chloe Desjardins figures to control the Huskies’ fortunes to a great extent.
“At times, she can lose focus, and when she’s not tracking pucks well is when she struggles,” Flint said. “We’ve really worked on that, especially this second semester, and her being more efficient with her movements and not overplaying shots. When she can do that, when she slows the game down and her movements are much more crisp and efficient, she’s a lot better goalie. And her team plays better in front of her, because they’re playing a little more relaxed versus when she’s fighting the puck, struggling with her rebounds, not tracking pucks. She’s been great this second semester. She’s really kind of been in the zone.”
The improvement in Desjardins and the skaters in front of her has doubled Northeastern’s points in the Hockey East race and moved it up to third place.
Flint said, “This week I told them, ‘Hey, you can’t even be thinking about the Beanpot, because Saturday’s matchup with Vermont is maybe the most important game of the year.’ They’re one point behind us; we’re two points out of second. We’ve got to just take this one game at a time. After Saturday, then we can start thinking about Beanpot. All the teams are strong again. Obviously with our short bench, we’re going to need good goaltending, we’re going to need some bounces, but anything can happen.”
Some things have yet to happen. Northeastern has never reached the NCAA tournament, having narrowly missed in each of the last two years.
“I think the hardest part about being a Boston team is we put so much into Beanpot and that’s certainly a focus,” MacSorley said. “The past two years, I wouldn’t say we were satisfied, but it was almost like that was our high, and then we had to realize, no, essentially we’re playing to go to NCAAs. I think this year, our heads are in the right place. We definitely know what our goal is, especially for us seniors. We’ve won a Beanpot now, and we haven’t been to an NCAA tournament.”
Because of how the first half unfolded for the Huskies (11-12-2, 7-6-2 Hockey East), they likely need to win the league tournament and its automatic bid to reach the NCAAs. With BU struggling recently, the field beyond Boston College looks wide open.
“If you had asked me at the beginning of the semester with all of our injuries and where we were at, I wouldn’t think it was a possibility, but the way we’ve been playing now, and if we can get a couple bodies back, anything is possible,” Flint said. “It would be pretty ironic if it did work out that way, considering how strong our team was the last two years, when we were right on the cusp of making the NCAAs and just fell short. That’s the great part about hockey and sports in general is those Cinderella stories. It would be pretty great if we can make that happen.”
Bowling Green and Minnesota State have a chance to move up the standings this weekend (photo: Jim Rosvold).
Winning the WCHA regular-season title means getting the historic, 100-year-old MacNaughton Cup as a prize.
The reward after that might not be as meaningful.
Changes to the league’s playoff format mean there are close races up and down the standings.
There’s a race for the trophy, a race for home ice and a race just to make the playoffs. With six weekends remaining in the regular season, a case can be made that there are a few teams involved in all three.
“Parity, it goes without saying,” said Minnesota State coach Mike Hastings, whose team travels to Northern Michigan this weekend.
The Mavericks are four points out of first place and could move into a tie with idle Ferris State with a sweep. Bowling Green, which hosts Michigan Tech, sits one point behind Minnesota State.
“The difference between winning and losing is minute,” Hastings said, “and part of it is, we only get to control a little bit.”
The top four finishers will get a home series for the first round of the league playoffs, March 14-16.
Alaska-Anchorage is in fourth place, two points behind Bowling Green and one ahead of Bemidji State. Both split league series last weekend. The Seawolves split with Northern Michigan, which is four points out of fourth.
“It became huge,” Anchorage coach Matt Thomas told the Anchorage Daily News following Saturday’s win over the Wildcats. “[Wins] always become bigger when you lose the night before late in the season. Every loss is devastating and every win is joyous, and hopefully, something positive for down the road.”
Then there’s the race for the final playoff spots.
When the WCHA scrapped its controversial “Alaska Plan,” which would have pit the two Alaska schools against each other in the first round regardless of their finish, it opted to eliminate the bottom two finishers from the postseason.
While Alabama-Huntsville, with just three points, seems destined for 10th place, there is real completion for those final spots. Lake Superior State, Michigan Tech and Alaska are tied for seventh place, although the Nanooks have played two more games than the others. At 16 points, the three teams sit one point behind Northern Michigan. The Wildcats have two games in hand over the Lakers and Huskies and four over the Nanooks.
The seventh-place teams also sit just five points out of fourth.
From here on out, every weekend could see big swings in the standings.
“[Bemidji State was] only two points ahead of us, and it was going to be a playoff-type game, and we didn’t bring it tonight,” Alaska forward Colton Beck told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner after Saturday’s home loss and series split with the Beavers. “That’s what happens when you don’t bring it.”
And once everything shakes out at the end of the season, there will be no cakewalk to the Final Five for the team carrying the MacNaughton Cup.
The winner doesn’t get to host Huntsville (if the Chargers indeed finish last), and, likely, a pretty solid team will be sitting home, its season over, that weekend.
“You better be good — you better be really good in the first round,” Hastings said. “And you could be good in the first round and still get beat.”
Bemidji State went winless in nonconference play this season (photo: Jim Rosvold).
Nonconference woes
Typically the MacNaughton Cup is an easy ticket into the NCAA tournament, but with the exception of Ferris State, the rest of the WCHA is going to need to win the Broadmoor Trophy at the Final Five to advance after a dismal nonconference season for the league.
The Bulldogs are the only WCHA team in the mix for an at-large bid as of this week, sitting in a tie for fourth in the PairWise Rankings. Minnesota State is the next highest team at No. 24.
The Mavericks’ two costly losses in the Minnesota North Star College Cup wrapped up nonconference play for the WCHA, which finished 25-44-12 overall.
The league posted a winning record at home of 14-7-5, but was 4-7-1 on neutral ice and 7-30-6 on the road.
The WCHA was near-perfect against Atlantic Hockey (9-0-1) and posted a winning record against ECAC Hockey (7-5-2), which could put as many as five teams in the NCAA tournament.
The WCHA went 5-13-3 against the Big Ten, 4-14-6 against the NCHC and winless at 0-12 against Hockey East, which is also in a position to put five teams in the NCAA tournament.
Alaska-Anchorage (4-2), Alaska (3-1-2), Ferris State (5-3-1) and Lake Superior State (4-3-1) all posted winning nonconference records, while Bowling Green (3-3-2) finished at .500.
Minnesota State (2-6), Michigan Tech (2-6-2) and Northern Michigan (2-5-1) all finished with two wins while Bemidji State (0-5-3) and Alabama-Huntsville (0-10) went winless.
Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan, Bemidji State and Alabama-Huntsville played nonconference games against only the NCHC, Big Ten and Hockey East. Minnesota State played all three leagues plus future Hockey East member Connecticut, which is currently a part of AHA.
Bemidji State played five of its eight nonleague games at home, going 0-3-2.
Around the WCHA
• Alabama-Huntsville is making its second trip to Alaska this season as it plays at Fairbanks. The Chargers went to Anchorage Nov. 8-9. They will make just one trip there next season.
• Alaska-Anchorage is idle this weekend but continued to improve its impressive home record with last weekend’s split. The Seawolves are 10-3-1 at home, their best 14-game mark as a Division I program and best overall since going 13-10 in 1983-84. Their overall mark of 13-10-3 is their best start since 1991-92.
• Sean Cahill’s shutout on Friday was Alaska’s first since Nov. 26, 2011, against Bowling Green and first at home since Nov. 18, 2011, against Ferris State. Cahill stopped 27 shots to beat Bemidji State. The next night, Bemidji’s Andrew Walsh returned the favor and shut out the Nanooks on 25 shots.
• This weekend’s series at Northern Michigan concludes a stretch for Minnesota State in which it’s played 10 of 12 games away from Mankato. The Mavericks are 3-5 so far in that stretch, dating to Dec. 13-14, and 5-11 overall on the road. Six of their final eight games will be at home, where they are 9-1.
• Northern Michigan had only four healthy defensemen with it on Saturday at Alaska-Anchorage. In addition to senior CJ Ludwig, who is out for the season, freshman Brock Maschmeyer and senior Wade Epp both missed the trip due to upper-body injuries. On Friday, junior Luke Eibler got injured and had to be replaced during warmups on Saturday. The Wildcats played junior forward Nate Taurence on defense Friday and Saturday, then moved junior forward Ryan Kesti into Eibler’s spot after warmups and replaced Kesti on the fourth line with sophomore forward Cohen Adair. Epp, Maschmeyer and Eibler are all questionable for this weekend’s series against Minnesota State.
• Bowling Green saw its six-game unbeaten streak snapped by Lake Superior State last Friday, but the Falcons are still 5-1-2 in their last eight games to take over third place in the WCHA. In their last eight league games, they’re averaging 3.8 goals scored and 1.8 goals against. The Falcons are a point back of Minnesota State and five back of league-leading Ferris State.
• Bowling Green hosts Michigan Tech this weekend in the first series between the two schools since Oct. 28-29, 1983. Tech hasn’t played in the state of Ohio since Jan. 13-14, 1984, at Miami. Both series came when the Huskies were members of the CCHA. After making its return to Ohio for the first time in 30 years, the Huskies are home for five straight games. They close the season with a game at Northern Michigan and two at Minnesota State.
• Ferris State snapped its three-game losing streak not with junior CJ Motte in goal, but with sophomore Charles Williams, who recorded his first collegiate win and shutout Saturday at Michigan Tech. Williams started in a pair of losses at Colgate and at home against St. Lawrence to start the year, then came on in relief both nights at Minnesota State. In Saturday’s shutout at Tech, Williams and the Bulldogs killed all six Huskies power plays.
• Just six WCHA teams are in action this weekend (Minnesota State at Northern Michigan, Michigan Tech at Bowling Green and Alabama-Huntsville at Alaska), and eight will play each other the following weekend. The next time all 10 conference teams will play each other is Feb. 14-15.
• WCHA players of the week were Bowling Green forward Mark Cooper (offensive), Northern Michigan defenseman Mitch Jones (defensive) and Michigan Tech forward Reid Sturos (rookie).
On Monday, ECAC Hockey added suspensions to players involved with Saturday’s postgame brouhaha between Rensselaer and Union.
The coaches learned their punishments on Wednesday.
The league tacked on an additional two games to the school-issued two-game suspension to Union’s Rick Bennett and handed a one-game suspension to Rensselaer’s Seth Appert.
The two were involved in a postgame confrontation on the ice after the Engineers’ 2-1 victory in Albany, N.Y., on Saturday.
Bennett shoved Appert as players were scuffling after the final horn sounded, and the coaches had to be separated by assistants and players.
“ECAC Hockey has continued to review the entire situation that occurred Saturday,” ECAC Hockey commissioner Steve Hagwell said in a statement. “After additional review and consideration, and discussions with league administrators, additional sanctions have been assessed.
“The league members pride themselves on adhering to the highest level of sportsmanship. Those objectives were not attained Saturday.”
Bennett will miss the fourth-ranked Dutchmen’s games this weekend at St. Lawrence and Clarkson and home games Feb. 7 against Brown and Feb. 8 against Yale.
Appert will miss Rensselaer’s game Friday at St. Lawrence.
Union issued an unsigned statement Wednesday, reading: “We accept the league’s decision. As we have stated previously, we regret the incident. At this point, our focus is on moving forward.”
Rensselaer’s statement also was brief: “ECAC Hockey has taken the action it feels is necessary, and we fully support the decision of the league.”
Referees handed out 125 minutes of penalties after the game, including game disqualifications to Union’s Mat Bodie and Eli Lichtenwald and Rensselaer’s Mike Zalewski and Luke Curadi. Those penalties come with an automatic one-game suspension.
The league on Monday added another game to Bodie’s suspension and gave one-game suspensions to Union’s Daniel Ciampini and Rensselaer’s Bo Dolan and Ryan Haggerty.
Brooks Bertsch and St. Cloud State could be headed back to the Xcel Energy Center, where they split games last weekend at the North Star College Cup (photo: Jim Rosvold).
It’s time once again to do what we like to call Bracketology, college hockey style. It’s our weekly look at how I believe the NCAA tournament will wind up come selection time.
It’s a look into what are the possible thought processes behind selecting and seeding the NCAA tournament teams.
Those of you that are veterans of the college hockey scene know that it is all about the PairWise Rankings. This is USCHO’s numerical approach that simulates the way the NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Committee chooses the teams that make the NCAA tournament.
The criteria are tweaked every so often — every so often being every year lately — in order to give what the committee believes will be the best tournament.
There were some major changes this year to the selection criteria. In short:
• PairWise comparisons are now done against all teams. There is no cutoff for the amount of teams, so the most PWR comparison wins that a team can have is 58 since there are 59 teams.
• There is now a home and away wins weighting applied to the Ratings Percentage Index. In calculation of the index, wins on the road and losses at home have a weighting factor of 1.2. Wins at home and losses on the road have a weighting factor of 0.8. All neutral-site games have a weighting factor of 1.0. A tie is one-half of a win and one-half of a loss, so home/road ties are treated accordingly for the teams involved.
• There is a quality wins bonus for wins against teams in the top 20 of the RPI. A win against the No. 1 team in the RPI is worth 0.05 points, and is scaled down by 0.0025 points for each place until you reach No. 20, where a bonus of 0.0025 points will be given.
The changes are a little complicated, so it is best to check out our FAQ.
Since USCHO has begun the PairWise Rankings, we have correctly identified all of the teams that have been selected to the NCAA tournament.
For the past three years, I am the only prognosticator to have correctly predicted the exact brackets for the NCAA tournament, meaning that I have predicted how the committee thought when putting together the brackets.
This is the next installment of our Bracketology, and we’ll be bringing you a new one every week until we make our final picks before the field is announced on March 23.
If you want to skip the inner workings and get to the results of the analysis, then click here.
Here are the facts:
• Sixteen teams are selected to participate in the national tournament.
• There are four regional sites (East — Bridgeport, Conn.; Northeast — Worcester, Mass.; Midwest — Cincinnati; West — St. Paul, Minn.)
• A host institution that is invited to the tournament plays in the regional for which it is the host and cannot be moved. There are four host institutions this year: Yale in Bridgeport, Holy Cross in Worcester, Miami in Cincinnati and Minnesota in St. Paul.
• Seedings will not be switched. To avoid undesirable first-round matchups, including intra-conference games (see below), teams will be moved among regionals, not reseeded.
In setting up the tournament, the committee begins with a list of priorities to ensure a successful tournament on all fronts, including competitive equity, financial success and the likelihood of a playoff-type atmosphere at each regional site. For this model, the following is a basic set of priorities:
1. Once the six automatic qualifiers and 10 at-large teams are selected, the next step is to develop four groups from the committee’s rankings of 1-16. The top four teams are No. 1 seeds and will be placed in the bracket so that if all four teams advance to the Men’s Frozen Four, the No. 1 seed will play the No. 4 seed and the No. 2 seed will play the No. 3 seed in the semifinals. The next four are targeted as No. 2 seeds. The next four are No. 3 seeds and the last four are No. 4 seeds.
2. Step two is to place the home teams. Host institutions that qualify will be placed at home.
3. Step three is to fill in the bracket so that first-round conference matchups are avoided, unless it corrupts the integrity of the bracket. If five or more teams from one conference are selected to the championship, then the integrity of the bracket will be protected (i.e., maintaining the pairing process according to seed will take priority over avoidance of first-round conference matchups). To complete each regional, the committee assigns one team from each of the remaining seeded groups so there is a No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 seed at each regional site.
Given these facts, here is the top 16 of the current PairWise Rankings (PWR), and the conference leaders through all games of Jan. 28:
1 Minnesota
2 Boston College
3 Quinnipiac
4t Union
4t Ferris State
6 St. Cloud State
7t Providence
7t Northeastern
9 Massachusetts-Lowell
10t Michigan
10t Cornell
12 Notre Dame
13 Wisconsin
14t Minnesota-Duluth
14t Colgate
16 Clarkson
— Mercyhurst
Current conference leaders based on winning percentage:
Atlantic Hockey: Mercyhurst Big Ten: Minnesota ECAC Hockey: Union Hockey East: Boston College NCHC: St. Cloud State WCHA: Ferris State
Notes
• Bracketology assumes that the season has ended and there are no more games to be played — i.e., the NCAA tournament starts tomorrow.
• Because there are an uneven amount of games played inside each conference, I will be using winning percentage, not points accumulated, to determine the current leader in each conference. This team is my assumed conference tournament champion.
Step one
From the committee’s report, choose the 16 teams in the tournament.
We break ties in the PWR by looking at the individual comparisons among the tied teams, and add in any current league leaders that are not currently in the top 16. The only team that is not is Mercyhurst.
From there, we can start looking at the ties and bubbles in a more detailed fashion.
The ties and bubbles consist of Union and Ferris State at 4, Providence and Northeastern at 7, Michigan and Cornell at 10, and Minnesota-Duluth and Colgate at 14.
We break all of our ties based upon the RPI.
Therefore, the 16 teams in the tournament, in rank order, are:
1 Minnesota
2 Boston College
3 Quinnipiac
4 Union
5 Ferris State
6 St. Cloud State
7 Providence
8 Northeastern
9 Massachusetts-Lowell
10 Michigan
11 Cornell
12 Notre Dame
13 Wisconsin
14 Minnesota-Duluth
15 Colgate
16 Mercyhurst
Step two
Now it’s time to assign the seeds.
No. 1 seeds: Minnesota, Boston College, Quinnipiac, Union
No. 2 seeds: Ferris State, St Cloud State, Providence, Northeastern
No. 1 Minnesota is placed in the West Regional in St. Paul.
No. 2 Boston College is placed in the Northeast Regional in Worcester.
No. 3 Quinnipiac is placed in the East Regional in Bridgeport.
No. 4 Union is placed in the Midwest Regional in Cincinnati.
Step four
Now we place the other 12 teams so as to avoid intra-conference matchups if possible.
Begin by filling in each bracket by banding groups. Remember that teams are not assigned to the regional closest to their campus sites by ranking order within the banding (unless you are a host school, in which case you must be assigned to your home regional).
If this is the case, as it was last year, then the committee should seed so that the quarterfinals are seeded such that the four regional championships would be played by No. 1 vs. No. 8, No. 2 vs. No. 7, No. 3 vs. No. 6 and No. 4 vs. No. 5.
So therefore:
No. 2 seeds
No. 8 Northeastern is placed in No. 1 Minnesota’s regional, the West Regional.
No. 7 Providence is placed in No. 2 Boston College’s regional, the Northeast Regional.
No. 6 St. Cloud State is placed in No. 3 Quinnipiac’s regional, the East Regional.
No. 5 Ferris State is placed in No. 4 Union’s regional, the Midwest Regional.
No. 3 seeds
Our bracketing system has one regional containing seeds 1, 8, 9, and 16; another with 2, 7, 10 and 15; another with 3, 6, 11 and 14; and another with 4, 5, 12 and 13.
No. 9 Massachusetts-Lowell is placed in No. 8 Northeastern’s regional, the West Regional.
No. 10 Michigan is placed in No. 7 Providence’s regional, the Northeast Regional.
No. 11 Cornell is placed in No. 6 St. Cloud State’s regional, the East Regional.
No. 12 Notre Dame is placed in No. 5 Ferris State’s regional, the Midwest Regional.
No. 4 seeds
One more time, taking No. 16 vs. No. 1, No. 15 vs. No. 2, etc.
No. 16 Mercyhurst is sent to No. 1 Minnesota’s regional, the West Regional.
No. 15 Colgate is sent to No. 2 Boston College’s regional, the Northeast Regional.
No. 14 Minnesota-Duluth is sent to No. 3 Quinnipiac’s regional, the East Regional.
No. 13 Wisconsin is sent to No. 4 Union’s regional, the Midwest Regional.
The brackets as we have set them up:
West Regional (St. Paul):
16 Mercyhurst vs. 1 Minnesota
9 Massachusetts-Lowell vs. 8 Northeastern
Midwest Regional (Cincinnati):
13 Wisconsin vs. 4 Union
12 Notre Dame vs. 5 Ferris State
Northeast Regional (Worcester):
15 Colgate vs. 2 Boston College
10 Michigan vs. 7 Providence
East Regional (Bridgeport):
14 Minnesota-Duluth vs. 3 Quinnipiac
11 Cornell vs. 6 St. Cloud State
Our first concern is avoiding intraconference matchups. We have only one in Massachusetts-Lowell vs. Northeastern.
What is the best way to handle this one? We can swap Massachusetts-Lowell with either Notre Dame or Cornell. But what if we moved some stuff around?
Michigan to St. Paul, Massachusetts-Lowell to Bridgeport and Cornell to Worcester: How about that?
West Regional (St. Paul):
16 Mercyhurst vs. 1 Minnesota
10 Michigan vs. 8 Northeastern
Midwest Regional (Cincinnati):
13 Wisconsin vs. 4 Union
12 Notre Dame vs. 5 Ferris State
Northeast Regional (Worcester):
15 Colgate vs. 2 Boston College
11 Cornell vs. 7 Providence
East Regional (Bridgeport):
14 Minnesota-Duluth vs. 3 Quinnipiac
9 Massachusetts-Lowell vs. 6 St. Cloud State
OK, that is now done.
Let’s examine the bracket and see if there are any things that we would like to change.
I would love to get St. Cloud State to St. Paul. I think that’s a no-brainer of an idea. But how to accomplish that?
There’s no way of doing that without moving Lowell back West. What matchup makes more sense in St. Paul?
I think I want St. Cloud State in Minnesota.
West Regional (St. Paul):
16 Mercyhurst vs. 1 Minnesota
9 Massachusetts-Lowell vs. 6 St. Cloud State
Midwest Regional (Cincinnati):
13 Wisconsin vs. 4 Union
12 Notre Dame vs. 5 Ferris State
Northeast Regional (Worcester):
15 Colgate vs. 2 Boston College
11 Cornell vs. 7 Providence
East Regional (Bridgeport):
14 Minnesota-Duluth vs. 3 Quinnipiac
10 Michigan vs. 8 Northeastern
What else? How about swapping one matchup for a little bit of a geography boost for some teams.
Let’s match Cornell vs. Providence and Michigan vs. Northeastern.
West Regional (St. Paul):
16 Mercyhurst vs. 1 Minnesota
9 Massachusetts-Lowell vs. 6 St. Cloud State
Midwest Regional (Cincinnati):
13 Wisconsin vs. 4 Union
12 Notre Dame vs. 5 Ferris State
Northeast Regional (Worcester):
15 Colgate vs. 2 Boston College
10 Michigan vs. 8 Northeastern
East Regional (Bridgeport):
14 Minnesota-Duluth vs. 3 Quinnipiac
11 Cornell vs. 7 Providence
I think that does it for me. it looks as good as I can make it.
So that is it.
See you here next week for the next Bracketology.
Here’s a summary of everything that we have covered.
This week’s brackets
West Regional (St. Paul):
16 Mercyhurst vs. 1 Minnesota
9 Massachusetts-Lowell vs. 6 St. Cloud State
Midwest Regional (Cincinnati):
13 Wisconsin vs. 4 Union
12 Notre Dame vs. 5 Ferris State
Northeast Regional (Worcester):
15 Colgate vs. 2 Boston College
10 Michigan vs. 8 Northeastern
East Regional (Bridgeport):
14 Minnesota-Duluth vs. 3 Quinnipiac
11 Cornell vs. 7 Providence
Conference breakdowns
Hockey East — 5
ECAC Hockey — 4
Big Ten — 3
NCHC — 2
Atlantic Hockey — 1
WCHA — 1
On the move
In: Minnesota-Duluth, Colgate
Out: Clarkson, Yale
Attendance woes?
None.
Last week’s brackets
West Regional (St. Paul)
16 Mercyhurst vs. 1 Minnesota
9 Massachusetts-Lowell vs. 8 St. Cloud State
Midwest Regional (Cincinnati)
15 Michigan vs. 4 Union
11 Notre Dame vs. 5 Ferris State
East Regional (Bridgeport)
14 Yale vs. 3 Quinnipiac
12 Clarkson vs. 6 Providence
Northeast Regional (Worcester)
13 Cornell vs. 2 Boston College
10 Wisconsin vs. 7 Northeastern
Interesting …
It’s almost a real nice geographic bracket. We’ll see what the coming weeks provide us.
Niagara’s Adrian Ignagni followed his first collegiate shutout last Friday with 40 saves in a 5-1 win over Rochester Institute of Technology (photo: Omar Phillips).
Despite a prediction to repeat as Atlantic Hockey regular season champions in the league’s preseason poll, Niagara coach Dave Burkholder knew his team was facing an uphill battle.
The Purple Eagles lost Hobey Baker Award finalist Carsen Chubak to the professional ranks at the end of last season when the goaltender decided to forgo his last year of eligibility.
Lost to graduation were two of the Purple Eagles’ top three scorers: Marc Zanette and Giancarlo Iuorio, a first-team AHA all-star.
A trio of senior defensemen, including second-team all-star Dan Weiss, also moved on.
And then, shortly before the beginning of the season, Ryan Murphy, who led Niagara in scoring last season with 36 points, was suspended for the first half of the season after a DWI arrest. Murphy has since been removed from the roster.
It’s taken time for Burkholder to fill those gaps, but a convincing sweep of Rochester Institute of Technology last weekend may signal a corner turned for Niagara. The Purple Eagles played a near-flawless 120 minutes of hockey, getting timely goals, winning the special teams battle, and benefiting from solid, often spectacular goaltending by freshman Adrian Ignagni.
For 120 minutes, at least, everything came together.
“It’s been a natural progression of hard work,” said Burkholder. “The team that got on the bus [after the game] on Saturday was a pretty giddy bunch, players and coaches. They’re starting to believe in the locker room.
“I really can’t find fault with anything, other than some untimely penalties on Saturday. Other than that, we executed the way we thought we could in practice.”
Ignagni stopped all 29 shots he faced on Friday for his first collegiate shutout. He followed up by making 40 saves the following evening in a 5-1 win.
Junior Isaac Kohls, the Purple Eagles’ leading scorer this season, added to his totals with three goals in the series. Kohls had a total of 12 goals over his first two seasons, but already has 10 so far this year.
Freshmen also made big contributions. Rookie Pat Conte had a pair of tallies on Saturday, and classmate TJ Sarcona had a breakaway goal on Friday and Saturday.
But Burkholder emphasized the sweep of RIT was a total team effort.
“I point to our team’s passion and commitment,” he said. “Our goaltending has kept us in games but we didn’t win a lot of those games. [Last weekend] we had great backchecking and pressure. RIT is a team that likes to come at you, and we knew we needed to be ready for that.”
The Purple Eagles dominated in blocked shots, a key to keeping the Tigers to a single goal on the weekend.
“We know [RIT] has a top-ranked power play and it was important to get in their way,” said Burkholder. “Frankly, we had an alum comment after last weekend [when Niagara was swept at home by Holy Cross] that we weren’t blocking a lot of shots. We took that to heart and tried to emphasize it in practice. Last Monday we got all the chuck-a-pucks out and did drills blocking shots.”
Everything indeed came together for Niagara last weekend. Will this be the start of a run leading back to the top of the standings? The Purple Eagles are four points from a top-four finish with 10 games to play. They travel to Sacred Heart this weekend.
“We need to remember the good things we did and build on it,” said Burkholder. “We need to keep focused.”
Thanks for the memories
On Saturday, RIT continued the countdown to its final game at Frank Ritter Arena, home of the team since 1968. The Tigers will move to the Gene Polisseni Center, which is currently under construction, next season.
Ceremonies on Saturday included recognition of RIT’s 1983 Division II national championship, its 1985 Division III title and the 2012 national championship won by RIT’s women’s team in its final season at the Division III level.
Members of those squads were on hand to be honored. Included was Burkholder, the goalie on the 1983 title team. While the other former players were introduced on the ice, Burkholder made a brief appearance at the glass outside of the Niagara dressing room.
“[Former teammate] Gump Whiteside was waving for me to come [out]”, said Burkholder. “But I had a chance to talk to him and the other players before the game. It was a special moment and those are great memories.”
Zac Frischmon and Mercyhurst lead Atlantic Hockey by two points (photo: Jim Rosvold).
Hot and cold
In eight seasons of covering Atlantic Hockey, I can’t recall so many teams going through lengthy streaks of both the winning and losing variety. Just about everyone’s been on and off:
• Mercyhurst had just one win in its first eight games to open the season, but has feasted on conference play, going 12-2-3 so far. The Lakers were undefeated in 2014 (5-0-2) before a 7-4 loss to Canisius last Saturday.
• Bentley also opened the season ice cold, with just one win in its first six games. But since then the Falcons are 11-1-3 in their past 15 contests.
• Connecticut had a decent first half of the season at 7-6-2 in the 2013 portion of its schedule. But the New Year has so far seen the Huskies go 5-1-2.
• Air Force went through a 7-1-1 stretch early in the season, then went winless for five straight from Nov. 22 to Dec. 7. The Falcons then righted the ship to the tune of 7-0-1 in their next eight games before being swept last weekend at Robert Morris.
• Speaking of the Colonials, RMU is 6-1-1 its last eight games after going 2-12-2 in its previous 16 contests.
• Canisius is the outlier, consistently inconsistent so far this season. The Golden Griffins haven’t been able to string more than three straight wins together, but also haven’t lost more than three in a row.
• Niagara has gone on stretches of five and seven games without a victory. The Purple Eagles’ sweep of RIT was just the second time this season they have been able to win back-to-back games.
• RIT’s bright spot was a six-game unbeaten streak from Nov. 11 to Jan. 14. Since then the Tigers are 2-6.
• Holy Cross opened with five straight losses and was winless for an eight-game stretch from Dec. 6 to Jan. 11. The Crusaders are yet to string two wins together.
• American International was a solid 3-2 to open the season but went through a rough patch (Nov. 23 to Dec. 14) where the Yellow Jackets lost nine games in a row. AIC is 3-5-1 since.
• After 2-1 start, Sacred Heart dropped its next seven games. The Pioneers are just 1-4 so far in 2014.
• Army opened the season with six consecutive losses and is currently riding a seven-game skid. Maybe last Saturday’s 5-2 exhibition victory against Royal Military College will get the Black Knights started on a roll of the winning variety.
Better late than never
As if fans didn’t have enough reason to be at this weekend’s Bentley-Mercyhurst series, a battle between the first- and second-place teams in Atlantic Hockey, the Lakers are expecting an important visitor on Saturday.
The Stanley Cup will be on display at the Mercyhurst Ice Center, thanks to Mike Folga, the trainer/equipment manager for the Lakers. He was on the New York Rangers’ staff when they won the cup in 1994. Folga never got his day with the Cup, until now.
Mercyhurst will be accepting donations to the Wounded Warrior Project.
USCHO weekly awards
I’m in agreement with just one of the three candidates selected by the league this week:
Player of the week — Daniel Bahntge, Mercyhurst: The league went with Bahntge’s linemate, Matt Zay, who had a goal and four assists in a split with Canisius. But I’m going with Bahntge, who had three goals and an assist, including the tying and winning tallies in a 3-1 come-from-behind win by the Lakers on Thursday.
Goalie of the week — Adrian Ignagni, Niagara: The freshman stopped 70 of 71 shots in a sweep of RIT.
Rookie of the week — Robby Nichols, Connecticut: The freshman improved to 3-0-2 on the season with a career-high 34 saves in a 3-2 win against American International. It was the first conference win for Nichols, who made 18 of his 34 stops in the third period.
The AHA selected Niagara defenseman Joe Muto, who had a trio of assists last weekend. He leads all Lakers defensemen in scoring with 11 points.
Just three weeks after being swept at Wisconsin, Luke Moffatt and Michigan get the Badgers in their arena (photo: Omar Phillips).
Three weeks after Wisconsin swept Michigan at the Kohl Center, it’s time for the rematch between the two teams at Yost Ice Arena.
“That’s what the whole idea of the balanced schedule is — you get to play these teams home-and-home,” Michigan coach Red Berenson said. “We thought we deserved better in Wisconsin, but we didn’t get it and we’ve got to bounce back against them.”
In the two closely contested games between the Wolverines and Badgers earlier this month, Wisconsin was victorious 5-2 and 3-1.
“They had a good string of home games and they had some momentum and some confidence,” Berenson said. “They scored timely goals and again the games were close, the first game got out of hand late but it was a close game. We played well enough to win — we just didn’t win either game.”
Since the two played, Michigan swept Michigan State last weekend and Wisconsin split a series with Ohio State. Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves said that even though the Badgers took the first two from Michigan, wins at Yost are going to be no easy task.
“They come and they play with speed, attitude, tempo and skill,” Eaves said. “Red’s philosophy hasn’t changed that much. I heard him once say that he’ll play anybody, anywhere, anytime and any place. That’s kind of the mind-set that they have, so we’re going right into the hornets’ den coming up this week.”
Berenson said that he hopes the momentum from the Michigan State sweep will continue. The Wolverines had lost four straight going into last weekend, and the team had a lot of off weekends to think about those losses.
“We played two games in the Great Lakes Invitational and then were off for a week, then we played Wisconsin and were off for another week,” Berenson said. “When you look at the calendar you realize, ‘Geez, we’ve only played four games in six weeks.'”
This series will also be important in terms of the Big Ten standings, as Wisconsin and Michigan are second and third behind Minnesota.
“We’re just starting to look at the standings because we just really started into the meat and potatoes of the Big Ten conference schedule,” Berenson said. “We only played two games in the Big Ten in the first half of the year and now we’re playing, recently we’ve played Michigan State and Wisconsin. So at this point I think we’ve played the fewest number of conference games, but every weekend from now on will be conference games.”
Eaves echoed Berenson and said that the standings were “going to put more emphasis on the series.”
For Wisconsin to finish near the top of the conference standings, it will need to perform on the road. The Badgers, who have a 1-5 record away from Kohl Center, will play eight of their final 12 regular season contests on the road.
Eaves saw this as a fun opportunity, because a lot of the games will be in new buildings for his players.
“Every weekend is going to be a challenge, especially going into barns like Michigan,” he said. “I’ve heard great things about the Penn State rink in terms of the atmosphere in there. I watched the Michigan and Michigan State game, and Munn Arena was packed again. Every venue we go into is going to be really fun.”
As the Big Ten conference schedule finally gets into gear, it seems the fans are taking to the new conference, and the new foes for their favorite team, fairly well.
A crowd of 15,021 people took in last Saturday’s game between Ohio State and Wisconsin.
“We’re in Big Ten play right now and it’s exciting for our players,” Eaves said. “Based on the attendance we’ve had recently, it looks like the people are enjoying it as well.”
When asked if he could see Wisconsin and Michigan becoming rivals in the new conference, Berenson said:
“I think if you ask that question whether a month from now or a year from now or a year from now I could give you a better answer. Let’s face it, Wisconsin hasn’t even played here yet, either has Minnesota. We’ve only had one home game against a Big Ten opponent. So I think it will be a good rivalry and I think the fans will embrace it, but right now they haven’t had a chance to.”
Anastos disappointed with Michigan State’s performance against Michigan
Heading into a series with No. 1 Minnesota this weekend, it’s safe to say that Michigan State probably had a hard week of practice. In this instance, however, that may be because of last weekend and not in anticipation of the Gophers.
After Friday’s game, coach Tom Anastos sounded off with this opening statement to a 10-minute news conference:
“An unacceptable performance tonight. And it wasn’t just the third period. It was the whole game,” Anastos said after about a 20-second pause.
He then went on to question his players’ approach to the game, drive and passion.
“I didn’t like our approach to the game. I felt it earlier in the day, I didn’t like it,” he said. “We have to grow up. You get humbled in your own building. You’ve got take pride wearing that jersey, representing the people you represent. And it takes 100 percent commitment, 100 percent of the time.”
Anastos said he felt like the Spartans took a step forward after Thursday’s close loss, but his tune had changed after Michigan took Friday’s game on MSU’s home ice.
“I know it was 2-2 going into the third period. The game aside, so much of sports is your mental approach,” Anastos said. “And when I went to our team meal today, I just had a sense that I wasn’t going to be happy with it. And I told the guys that at the time, I said, ‘I may be wrong.’ But my sense was telling me, ‘I don’t like where we’re at, approaching this game tonight. But I’ll judge by our performance.’ So, I can now.”
Michigan scored three times in the third period in Friday’s game; its last goal was short-handed.
Anastos said he was displeased with his team’s discipline and frequently used the word “unacceptable” to describe the Spartans’ play.
“Discipline isn’t a sometimes thing, it’s an all-the-time thing,” he said. “There’s certain components and toughness in our game, and I get all that. And there’s way to show toughness and play with toughness and, yet, remained disciplined. And I thought we lost it at the end of the game.”
Michigan State’s power play lit the lamp twice on Friday, but Anastos said that was overshadowed by everything else in the game.
“They moved the puck around, they created some good scoring chances, and it worked,” he said. “But this game is, in some ways, like golf. Special teams have to be good, your team defense has to be good.”
The Spartans and Gophers will play Friday and Saturday at Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis. Minnesota swept Michigan State in a two-game home series to open last season and earned a win and a tie at Munn in December.
Three stars of the week
First star — Michigan freshman forward JT Compher: Compher had three goals and two assists in Michigan’s sweep of rival Michigan State. He had a career-high four points (two goals and two assists) in Friday’s game at Munn Arena. One of those goals was short-handed, his third of the year. This is Compher’s second weekly award of the season.
Second star — Ohio State freshman goaltender Christian Frey: Since joining the Buckeyes in the spring semester, Frey has a 3-1 record. Last Saturday he had a possible season-defining game for Ohio State in its 3-1 win over Wisconsin at Kohl Center. In the win, which garnered a series split for the Buckeyes, Frey stopped 36 of the 37 shots he faced. This is his first weekly award of the season.
Third star — Minnesota sophomore goaltender Adam Wilcox: Wilcox recorded 76 saves over the weekend at the inaugural North Star College Cup and was awarded the tournament MVP. Minnesota defeated St. Cloud State 4-1 on Friday and tied Minnesota-Duluth 4-4 on Saturday before winning a shootout to take the tournament title. Wilcox had a career-high 38 saves in Friday’s game against the Huskies; he also assisted on one of Minnesota’s goals. His 17 victories this season are first in the Big Ten and tied for second nationally. This is his second weekly award of the season.
Big Ten in the poll
Here’s how the six Big Ten team stand in this week’s USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll:
No. 1 Minnesota (Last week — No. 1)
No. 9 Wisconsin (LW — No. 9)
No. 12 Michigan (LW — No. 14)
This week’s matchups
Michigan State at Minnesota (Friday and Saturday, Mariucci Arena)
Wisconsin at Michigan (Friday and Saturday, Yost Ice Arena)
Penn State at Ohio State (Friday and Saturday, Value City Arena)
Phoebe Staenz of Yale will be at the Olympics for the next few weeks; her absence could impact Yale’s chances of making the postseason. (Sam Rubin/Yale Sports Publicity)
Arlan: We’ve reached the point in a season, particularly in an Olympic year, where who is out of a lineup can be just as significant as who is in it. Minnesota-Duluth played without a couple of Olympians in Lara Stalder and Tea Villila in Madison and was swept by the Badgers. North Dakota was minus Finnish players Michelle Karvinen and Susanna Tapani as well as an injured Meghan Dufault, but took five of six WCHA points from Bemidji State. Northeastern is down to 13 skaters but managed to sweep, while Boston University can still fill a line chart despite its injury woes, yet is headed in the opposite direction. Boston College continues to win despite not having injured star Haley Skarupa. Cornell didn’t play usual starter Lauren Slebodnick in net during its road trip to St. Lawrence and Clarkson and managed just a tie from the excursion. Then there is Robert Morris and Mercyhurst splitting a series; most of the shortages in that one were caused by people sitting in the penalty box. The shortages figure to get worse over the coming month, because players named to Olympic rosters like Tanja Eisenschmid at North Dakota and Phoebe Staenz of Yale were still in action this past weekend.
What stands out to you?
Candace: Well, that list also leaves out players who have been centralized since the start of the year, such as Amanda Kessel of Minnesota and Alex Carpenter of Boston College. From that list, the two that stand out are the injury to Meghan Dufault and the injury to Haley Skarupa. North Dakota struggled over the weekend at Bemidji, as we anticipated without Karvinen and Tapani, but if Dufault goes down for this coming stretch, particularly when UND plays Minnesota this weekend, North Dakota could have some struggles ahead. The team is still talented enough that except for Minnesota, it should escape its final WCHA stretch unscathed.
Skarupa is another key cog at BC, particularly with Carpenter playing with Team USA. The Eagles should be able to hold up without her, especially since Boston University has gone into a minor tailspin, but the Eagles need Skarupa for the Hockey East playoffs and the NCAA tournament, should BC make it. If I were Eagles coach Katie King Crowley, I’d do anything possible to rest Skarupa and make sure that she is ready and healthy for the playoffs. Skarupa is such a dynamic offensive player, and while BC still has weapons in players like Andie Anastos and Emily Field, Skarupa gives the Eagles a huge boost.
Speaking of the Terriers, they were just swept in Vermont, something I can’t remember happening, and have lost their last four games and five of their last six. Neither game against the Catamounts was particularly close either. Vermont won 4-2 on Friday, and shots on goal were even. In fact, Vermont outshot BU, so it’s not like Roxanne Douville stole the game for the Catamounts with a tour de force performance. On Saturday, coach Brian Durocher elected to rest normal starter Kerrin Sperry and went with Victoria Hanson in net instead; she was tagged for five goals on 30 shots, while BU could only muster one goal on 33 shots against Douville in a 5-1 loss.
With those two losses, and BC’s sweep of New Hampshire even without injured star Skarupa, BC is now almost a lock for the regular season Hockey East crown, barring a complete collapse by the Eagles in their last month of play. A month ago, it seemed BC would have difficulty overtaking the Terriers; what do you think is wrong with BU?
Arlan: When a team gets outscored 9-3 by an opponent with a losing record, the odds are that it has more than one shortcoming. BU had some wins that were squeakers in the first half, so one school of thought would be that after Kayla Tutino was lost to injury, it lost a difference maker in those close contests. But it blew away the Catamounts, 6-0, earlier in the year, so one player shouldn’t make that much of a difference. We saw something similar from the Terriers a couple of years ago when they lost Jenelle Kohanchuk and Marie-Philip Poulin to injury and slumped. They then recovered and made a postseason push, but on that occasion they got Poulin back. Sarah Lefort and Louise Warren carried the team offensively for a time after Tutino was hurt, but that’s no longer the case. At least, they can’t score enough to overcome the current defensive shortcomings. BU has surrendered at least four goals in all five of its losses this month. That isn’t a formula for an NCAA tournament berth. Even when it won at Maine, it allowed three goals.
The foremost problem is that the defense is drifting toward the middle of the pack. The power play was an issue when the Terriers were winning; that ranks in the bottom half. But given this is the second time in three years we’ve seen something similar from BU, a severe slump in response to key injuries, there could be some mental explanation. Maybe the team starts to doubt when things go wrong and no longer plays with the same confidence. In any case, the Terriers need to figure it out quickly if they want to be a postseason factor in 2014.
The Boston University situation is in sharp contrast to Northeastern. The Huskies are facing an even more severe injury problem that has reduced the depth chart to 13 skaters. Instead of packing it in and saying, “Oh well, let’s wait until next year when Kendall Coyne returns,” they have rallied to win their last four games. I’ll have more thoughts on Dave Flint’s squad in this week’s column, but what are your impressions of the way the Huskies have responded to adversity?
Candace: Northeastern has snuck under the radar a bit, but if you look at the Huskies’ results this year, they shouldn’t have. Yes, they are a game under .500, and they have a couple of puzzling losses, such as the thumping Cornell administered, as well as the loss to Providence. However, a lot of their games have been close. This is a team that lost by identical 3-2 scores to No. 2 Wisconsin and No. 5 Harvard, a team that has a tie against Boston College and also a one-goal loss against the Eagles, and a one-goal loss against Boston University. I think perhaps Coyne’s absence was felt more acutely at the start of the year, as was that of Casey Pickett and Rachel Llanes. However, Kelly Wallace is putting up points at a good clip, as is Paige Savage, and goaltender Chloe Desjardins has gotten steadier. The Huskies are also getting good numbers from Brittany Esposito, who missed the month of October.
I always felt that Northeastern was better than its record showed, and it’s good to see the way the team has pulled together and is becoming a threat at the right time of the year. Northeastern is once again the team you hope you don’t face in the Hockey East Tournament, if you are the favorite.
One thing that really stands out to me from this past weekend is where the conference races are at. Four-time ECAC defending champ Cornell no longer controls its own destiny after losing to Clarkson and tying St. Lawrence on the road this past weekend. It looks like Harvard has a good chance to return to the top again; if the Crimson win out, they will take the ECAC regular season title. However, a HUGE game looms with Clarkson, which is in second place, on Feb. 14. The Golden Knights trail by three, but have a game in hand, so if Clarkson beats Harvard, it might take its first ECAC title, just as you predicted.
Meanwhile, perennial CHA champ Mercyhurst earned a split with Robert Morris, but trails the Colonials by two points with a month left. If Robert Morris wins out on the rest of its schedule, the CHA will have its first sole champion other than Mercyhurst in its history; the Lakers tied Wayne State a few years ago for the regular season crown.
It would be good for the game, I feel, for these divisions to have new winners, don’t you think? How likely do you think that is?
Arlan: Even if the winners ultimately wind up being the same, it is good for the game if more programs are contending, or at least competitive. In terms of the number of teams capable of competing, I think this is the best year in my memory. We had years where Union was dreadful, and Cornell was a perennial bottom dweller. Then Brown sank to the bottom and Yale was beset by injuries and could barely win a game. In this year’s ECAC, I don’t think that there is that truly bad team. Brown can’t score and Colgate is having a rough year, but in any given game, either can jump up and upset a top team. Hockey East is down this year, but at least within the league, I don’t feel there are any games where the favorite can just show up and take the points. Downtrodden as Lindenwood and Penn State are as new programs in the CHA, they have goaltending capable of ruining the plans of a Robert Morris or Mercyhurst. Ohio State can be in the WCHA basement halfway through and charging up the standings a few weeks later. It gives more meaning to any single game.
Sorry, back to your question. Robert Morris definitely has a good shot at being the first solo champion in the CHA not named Mercyhurst. In part, that is because the Lakers are down a little bit from their usual dominance. However, most of their disappointing results have come out of conference, so it isn’t like the Colonials have backed into the lead. Should RMU lose a game, then things will get interesting. Per the CHA website, the league’s first tiebreaker is, “Comparison of conference game results between tied teams (head to head).” The Lakers and Colonials split their four games, two wins apiece. It just says “comparison” as opposed to wins, so that could mean total goals as well, where Mercyhurst had a 10-9 advantage. If it just means wins and losses, forget goals, then the second tiebreaker is conference wins. RMU has a one-win advantage, but if it loses a game, then that tiebreaker would theoretically be deadlocked as well. The third tiebreaker is results versus the top two teams, but in this scenario, that’s the same as our original tiebreaker. The fourth and last tiebreaker given is results against the top four. The difference as of now is Mercyhurst’s loss to RIT, so at the moment, Robert Morris would hold the fourth tiebreaker. However if the Colonials drop a game, it would likely be to a top-four team, RIT or Syracuse. Should the teams wind up tied, I’d expect that Mercyhurst either holds the tiebreaker via total goals on the head-to-head results or neither does. Of course, all that assumes the Lakers don’t lose any more points, and that hasn’t been a given in recent years.
In the ECAC, a first-time champion is less likely just because Harvard holds the lead and Cornell is right in the mix. I do think that Clarkson is playing the best of the three, but they will likely need to win on the road at Harvard if the Golden Knights want to make that conference crown a reality.
I’d say the most likely first-time champ is Boston College. It seems strange with the number of Frozen Four appearances that they’ve made, but the Eagles are still looking for that first Hockey East season title. Can they safely check that off of their bucket list, or can you dream up a scenario where they fall out of first?
Candace: I honestly can’t at this point. The Eagles have played 15 games and have 27 points. BU is in second place with 18 points, having played 14 games. Northeastern is in third with 16 points, having played the same number of games as the Eagles. BC and BU play two more conference games, plus a nonconference clash in the Beanpot. Say the Terriers get things together and their game in hand becomes a win, and they beat BC in the two conference clashes. That gives them 24 points to BC’s 27. BC has four other Hockey East games: one against Providence at home, one on the road at Connecticut, and a pair at Maine. BC has won all its games against those opponents to date, though Connecticut and Providence both pushed the Eagles. For BU to surpass BC at this point, BC has to lose two of those four games, plus lose both conference games against BU, and BU has to win all its remaining games. For Northeastern to pass BC, the Eagles would basically have to lose all their remaining Hockey East games and Northeastern would have to run the table.
I’m not saying those scenarios are impossible, but I find them unlikely. For one thing, on paper BC has the easier schedule of the three teams. Northeastern has a game with Vermont, one with Providence, two with Connecticut, and two with New Hampshire. BU has two with Providence, two with Connecticut, and one with New Hampshire. BU hasn’t been able to win lately, and so I could see the Terriers losing one or two of those games, and Northeastern might be challenged as well. Of course, all is moot if BC were to beat Providence this Saturday and then beat Connecticut the following weekend. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. At this point, it seems that BC will be the first team in the country to clinch a conference crown.
As you mentioned however, BC has been to four Frozen Fours, so while winning the regular season title is nice, it’s not where the Eagles turn their ultimate focus. At this point, BC should be looking for any ways to move up in the PairWise and avoid having to travel to Minnesota to face the Gophers, assuming that Minnesota doesn’t have any more hiccups and maintains the top spot in the PairWise.
Speaking of hiccups, North Dakota did take five points this past weekend, as you mentioned earlier, but the tie with Bemidji Friday hurt UND’s PairWise position. North Dakota hosts Minnesota this weekend, so it could gain some ground back, especially since UND has generally done better against the Gophers than against second-place Wisconsin. Any chance UND could sweep? And how do you see the WCHA playing out? Minnesota has a one-point lead on Wisconsin, but has two games in hand. Wisconsin faces Minnesota in Madison in mid-February in a series that will likely decide the WCHA regular-season champ. Can the Badgers pass the Gophers?
Arlan: Yes, there is a chance that UND could sweep Minnesota. It happened three years ago, back when they were still the Fighting Sioux. I think Kayla Berg is the only player on the North Dakota roster who was around to see it. I thought the Gophers were kind of sloppy at times last weekend against St. Cloud State, playing the puck rather lackadaisically and committing some needless penalties. Megan Wolfe was out for that series and she was missed on the blue line, but that’s been about the only lineup hole that the Gophers have had to plug thus far in 2014. The Huskies don’t have the weaponry to take proper advantage, but UND would, if it was at full strength. Karvinen is one player who has had success against the Gophers, and we know she’ll be absent. Dufault is another, so it would help UND’s chances if she is available and close to full strength. If its offense is compromised, North Dakota will need to win a 2-1 style game as it did on Saturday over Bemidji State. Minnesota didn’t finish particularly well against the Huskies, and UND was able to limit the Gophers’ offense in three of the teams’ last four meetings. I’m not sure that UND’s goaltending is at the same form that Shelby Amsley-Benzie displayed in the postseason last year. Her numbers are down, and Lexie Shaw has less than 10 games worth of minutes in her career. A common theme in North Dakota versus Minnesota games in recent years has been that the team that gets the best goaltending wins. So if you bet your last dollar on UND to sweep, hold out for some attractive odds.
Wisconsin has a better shot at passing Minnesota in the standings. The Gophers’ games against UND this weekend are the two that Minnesota has in hand, since the Badgers have already completed their UND games and are heading into a bye week. If North Dakota can take even one point from Minnesota, then the Badgers regain control of their conference destiny. That knowledge could give Wisconsin a boost when the top two meet in Madison. If the Badgers are more than two games or six points down heading into that series on Feb. 14-15, it’ll be very tough for them to emerge on top. However, it still is not as tough as that scenario you outlined for Northeastern to win Hockey East — that sounded impossible.
Beyond the teams contending for the top spot in each league, there are some other squads making second-half runs. Ohio State, buried in last a couple of weeks ago, now looks to be a good bet to finish fifth, even though the Buckeyes have only four WCHA wins. Could they be at least a spoiler in the league tournament? And Dartmouth looks to have rejoined the living. If the Big Green take a playoff spot, at whose expense will it be?
Candace: I could definitely see Ohio State playing spoiler. The Buckeyes have been playing well. Lisa Steffes has improved in net, and Ally Tarr is starting to score at the pace we expected of her. The Buckeyes aren’t deep enough offensively, so Steffes would need to be on her game, but if Ohio State moves into fifth by the time the WCHA Tournament starts, I could see the Buckeyes possibly beating Minnesota-Duluth, especially since they did well and got two ties and split the shootouts in Duluth a couple weeks ago. OSU also did well against Duluth earlier in the year when the Buckeyes were still struggling, losing a couple of close games.
I guess the other team in the WCHA that could play spoiler is Bemidji State. The Beavers played well against North Dakota last weekend, and they also beat Duluth earlier in the season. Assuming that North Dakota doesn’t displace Wisconsin, I think the series between 3 and 6 and 4 and 5 should be very competitive and entertaining, and possibly produce at least one upset.
Dartmouth has been playing better of late, and currently is tied in the eighth spot with Rensselaer, and is only one point behind Yale and Princeton. The Big Green certainly have some winnable games down the stretch, including one with Princeton that could go a long way toward determining where they end up. They also play Yale, so if Dartmouth can win those two games, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them finish sixth. There’s even an outside stretch where Dartmouth could finish fifth, as St. Lawrence only has 15 points to Dartmouth’s 13, and the two play each other in mid-February.
I think Dartmouth is likely to displace Rensselaer. The Engineers have been a puzzle, up one weekend and down the next, but they have a brutal schedule down the stretch, facing Clarkson twice, Cornell once, and St. Lawrence twice. They also play Yale. RPI could go anywhere from .500 to 2-6 in its final eight, so it will be hard to hold off Dartmouth.
Yale also has a hard stretch, facing Cornell, Quinnipiac, and Harvard in its final eight, and Princeton still has games with Harvard, Clarkson, Cornell, and St. Lawrence in its stretch run, in addition to the Dartmouth game.
The ECAC Tournament does look very volatile. Do you see anyone playing spoiler down the stretch?
Arlan: There are many mysteries in the ECAC. Before its Tuesday night game versus Penn State, Princeton had been idle for so long that I’d kind of forgotten about the Tigers, but they have the kind of DNA that could produce problems for opponents at crunch time. Princeton has a highly regarded goaltender, seniors in key roles, and a lot of speed. But it is tough to tell at a glance, and the Tigers’ inactivity makes them even harder to predict. I remember looking at the Dartmouth at Harvard matchup in the quarterfinals a year ago and thinking it had potential, but the Big Green fell very quietly, not even scoring in the series.
Yale is a team that I really like in many ways; it’s rare that somebody that has been absent from the postseason for so long has a player like Staenz who ranks in the top 10 in points per game. It’s similar to when Rebecca Johnston first appeared on Cornell’s roster. But now the Bulldogs will have to get along without her for a few weeks, and by the time she returns, they could have fallen short of the playoff field yet again.
The Bulldogs play Cornell next, and it is hard to say what is going on with the Big Red, who are winless in their last three games. Jessica Campbell has been suspended by the ECAC for Friday’s game Yale, so both teams’ lines will be disrupted. In addition, we don’t know who we’ll see in net for the Big Red. Slebodnick was out for a bit after getting injured against BC, and then returned. Is she hurt again, sick, taking a break, or was it a case of just wanting to give Paula Voorheis a shot? No idea.
So much of the ECAC seems to be about matchups. Harvard can go undefeated against the top teams, yet fall to an RPI or Yale. Cornell has had more success at brushing aside the lower-ranked teams, so does the tie with SLU signal that the Saints are improving or that a Cornell slump is in progress? Maybe we just chalk that up to Carmen MacDonald stealing a point and move on.
Even the very top squads in the ECAC have had a moment or two where they looked susceptible to the kind of team that will be the eighth seed come playoff time. The best-of-three format makes it a little less volatile than Hockey East, where a single quarterfinal loss knocks a team out. However, there are likely to be a few anxious moments for all on the eve of the postseason, and until we get a bracket, it is near impossible to say who is most at risk.
We haven’t looked at our Patty Kazmaier predictions in 2014. Is it time to revisit those?
Candace: Sure. Jamie Lee Rattray of Clarkson is still the frontrunner in my mind, and if she keeps playing like she has been, I would expect her to be one of the final three, and probably the winner. Back in December, I mentioned Kelly Babstock of Quinnipiac and Christine Bestland of Mercyhurst as locks for the initial 30 and the top 10, and I’d stay with that. I also think Hannah Brandt and Rachael Bona will make the first list, and both are likely for the top 10. Others I expect to see include Sarah Lefort of Boston University and Brittany Ammerman of Wisconsin. Those latter two are interesting, because they are really top scorers on team’s whose offenses are more by committee. I’d expect to see Alex Rigsby finish in the top 10, and I think Erica Howe will at least be on the first list of 30 that comes out in February. I think the voters will want to avoid making the top 10 too Minnesota-heavy, but expect Sarah Davis and Kelly Terry to be on the first list of 30. It wouldn’t surprise me if they give Brittany Howard of Robert Morris a nod for the first 30, even if she is a freshman. Skarupa of Boston College should make the first 30, but her being injured may hurt her chances of finishing in the top 10. Others I expect on the first list include Jillian Saulnier of Cornell, Carly Mercer of Clarkson, Amanda Pelkey of Vermont, and Staenz of Yale. I think Karvinen of North Dakota should at least make the top 30, even if her scoring totals only have her tied for 41 nationally, because she has played a lot fewer games and has a good points-per-game average. The same applies to Staenz, and I think you could make an argument for Corinne Buie of Providence.
What about you? How is your Kazmaier list looking?
Arlan: If anything, my Kazmaier list is more up in the air than it was back in December. First, some comments regarding players that you mentioned. I wouldn’t say that BU’s offense is by committee, as there is a pretty big gap from Lefort and Louise Warren back to the rest; the timing of BU’s current slump hurts Lefort. In essentially 10 games, Ann-Renée Desbiens put up very similar numbers to Rigsby, so I don’t know if that impacts her candidacy. I’d still expect Rigsby as a top-10 finalist before Ammerman, someone who is still outside of the top 10 in points per game. For Robert Morris, I’d be tempted to look to Rebecca Vint before Howard; Howard has a couple more points, but Vint has to be the player that opponents target to a greater extent. Karvinen is 20th in points per game, and I could see her getting consideration for her value to her team. Some captains leave you wondering why they are wearing the “C,” but it is very evident in her case. But Karvinen has only played 18 games and Staenz only 17. Both are big-time players, but I don’t know how far down the scoring list voters will look for players who will have just over half as many games as some others by the time the Olympics are done. Buie has a similar problem, but there aren’t a lot of big scorers in Hockey East beyond Lefort, Warren, and Skarupa, so she may get a nod. If we are talking about nominations, then I like all of them.
Howe would probably have been on my preseason top 10 list, but a few things work against her, one being Clarkson’s less-than-expected first half. Granted, it is better to be hot now, but it has kept the Golden Knights under the radar for much of the year. Another is the seasons that Rattray and Erin Ambrose are having. Rattray has to be in the top 10, and I think if she keeps it up, Ambrose does, too. Her 1.38 points per game is eighth in the country, and for a defenseman, that’s impressive. For comparison, the next defenseman is averaging 1.00. Can Clarkson get three players in the top 10? Howe’s numbers are comparable to those of Amanda Leveille. The two are roughly equivalent in minutes played, goals-against average, save percentage, and shutouts. Leveille has a big advantage in wins and winning percentage, so Howe would need a boost from being a senior and having the bigger career body of work.
I still like Rattray, Babstock, Bestland, Brandt, Rigsby, and Maschmeyer from my December list. Ambrose is moved up from a maybe, and same for Bona, but that could change should one of her senior teammates, Davis or Terry, have a huge weekend. As of now, Saulnier is ahead of Emily Fulton. I’ll complete the list with Skarupa if she gets back into action and makes a big impact, or Lefort if Skarupa remains on the sidelines and the Terriers awake. That makes my current list: Rattray, Babstock, Bestland, Brandt, Rigsby, Maschmeyer, Ambrose, Bona, Saulnier, and Skarupa/Lefort. Others like Fulton, Howe, Davis, Terry, Vint, and Ammerman are waiting in the wings and could still demand recognition with their on-ice play.
Senior defenseman and captain Brad Schuler has been piling up the points for the Thoroughbreds this season (photo: Bob Ewell).
One may look at the overall record at 7-7-6 and think that is about the true definition of a .500 hockey team.
But a look a little deeper into the Skidmore schedule and results shows that 40 percent of their games played have gone to overtime. In those overtime games, the Thoroughbreds are 1-1-6.
A bounce here or a deflection there could be the difference in a few more wins and points for Skidmore and that is a clear focus for their coach Neil Sinclair.
“I really like our compete level,” stated Sinclair. “Last weekend was a really good weekend for us and getting one in overtime was a big lift and big win over a very good New England College team. It was also alumni weekend for our program and one past player referenced that it seems like all season we have been pushing the rock up the mountain. Maybe last weekend’s results will have a positive carryover in our remaining games, but this is a great group of guys and their commitment has been there all season, regardless of the outcome.”
Among the key performers on Sinclair’s team are three seniors who are leading the team by example on and off the ice and currently fill the top three point positions on the scoring table.
Seniors Aaron Beck (13-4-17), Vlad Gavrik (8-9-17) and Brad Schuler (5-12-17) are tied for the team lead in points and according to their coach, have been keys to the team’s overall competitiveness.
Both Gavrik and Schuler had two points apiece in Saturday’s 3-2 overtime win against the Pilgrims and have been offensive leaders coming up with timely goals and points when their team needs it most.
“Our seniors have been great in supplying leadership and focus to the team,” said Sinclair. “Adam has had a great year and has scored some big goals for us this season, along with Vlad and Brad. They have helped our freshmen immensely and now it’s back to the mantra I think you have heard for several years. We want to be the best hockey team we can be, especially now as we come down to the remaining games on the schedule. All of the opponents are good, so it really doesn’t matter where you are in the playoffs – you are going to be playing a good team in our conference. We have had three or four teams nationally-ranked all season which speaks volumes to the quality of play in the ECAC East, so we just need to continue to play hard and bring a disciplined and competitive game for every game we play.”
Another area of satisfaction for Sinclair has been the play of freshman netminder Jack McDonald and the recent consistency of sophomore Ben Freiberg. McDonald has not necessarily reaped the benefits in terms of conference wins with his solid play, but his overall .920 save percentage and 2.68 goals-against-average has helped his team be in every game this season.
“Jack his seen the lion’s share of the minutes so far this season,” stated Sinclair. “He has been very good and very consistent this season. It was Ben who played and got the win against New England College on Saturday and played very well. It is great to get both guys going for us at this time of the year and the fact they are a freshman and sophomore, respectively, really helps the program moving forward through the remainder of this year and beyond. They are really good teammates and it goes without saying the good goaltending is a key to us being in hockey games.”
With the number of overtime and one-goal games this season, the Thoroughbreds have been battle-tested in close playoff-like games. That fact is not lost on their coach who finds value in the season to date and what is to come in the final month.
“We schedule some tough nonconference games to make sure we are prepared for the challenges of our league,” Sinclair said. “Games with Plattsburgh, Potsdam, Buffalo State and Nichols or Salve Regina all are quality teams that have helped us to be a better hockey team. Friday night, we face Babson and we know it is going to be a challenge based on how consistent they have been this season. [Coach] Jamie [Rice] has been very consistent at Babson for years and Peter [Belisle] has really raised the Beacons program up to a level where they have been nationally-ranked. We have our work cut out for us, for sure, but this group of kids has had a great attitude and has played hard each and every night, so I don’t expect anything different this weekend on the road.”
It only took eight overtime games to get that first favorable bounce and a game-winner in extra time for the Thoroughbreds. One guy in particular hopes that is a sign of good things to come.
“If we have been pushing the rock up the mountain, then maybe Saturday’s goal is a sign of good things to come,” said Sinclair. “We aren’t going to change our approach and if it takes some extra time to get the result, these guys are ready to compete with anyone.”
Connecticut College junior forward J.C. Cangelosi has brought consistency and offense to the Camels’ lineup this season (photo: Paul Brandon).
“It’s not about how you start – it’s about how you finish.”
The above quote represents the mantra that is the focus and commitment Connecticut College has adopted forthe second half of the season and the Camels’ final regular-season games over the next four weekends.
An 0-7-0 start, including a 6-0 shellacking by Manahattanville, was hardly the start in the first half that coach Jim Ward envisioned for his team, but the improvements and more importantly, the recent results, leave reason for optimism in the February stretch of games and drive for the NESCAC conference tournament.
“It was hardly the start we were looking for,” Ward said. “It was tough and we were learning the hard way with key mistakes in each game that led directly to losses. We were hanging our goalies out to dry early on and now, we have the team playing pretty well and learning to win. We have played in seven overtime games and five of those have been in-conference, so the guys are starting to believe in their compete level. The win at Bowdoin was big before the break on the road and even the overtime the next day at Colby showed we can play well with anyone in this conference. This past weekend was a big win for us on Sunday against a really good Wesleyan team, so the things we are focusing on are starting to reap results and we will need to continue to improve over the remaining eight games in the regular-season schedule.”
A critical area of focus for a change that would impact the Camels in a favorable way can be found in the recent turnaround in special teams play.
“Both our goals on Sunday came on the man-advantage,” explained Ward. “We really struggled on special teams in the early part of the season and have made it a focus in the second half and are seeing some good results. In the conference, our power play is up around 20 percent now and our penalty kill has improved dramatically from somewhere near 68 percent to where it is now, over 80 percent in successfully killing off penalties. It also helps that we are staying out of the box, but improvement in those aspects of our game and overall team defense have us competing at a high level against everyone in this very competitive conference.”
Junior forward J.C. Cangelosi leads the team in points and has scored 27 percent of the Camels’ total goals so far this season. More balanced scoring in the lineup will be important for Connecticut College moving forward, but Ward likes what the team is doing and believes they are getting their chances and just need to start burying some of them more frequently.
“We just got Tim [DiPretoro] and Adam [Patel] back from injuries recently that have kept them out of almost half of our games,” noted Ward. “Tim was our leading goal-scorer last season, so we are getting healthy and improving our game at the right time of the season. Hopefully, they will be able to contribute at the level they have shown in the past and help create some better balance for goals with our team. Other guys who have been struggling offensively haven’t dwelled on it, but instead have made sure they are playing solid team defense and contributing in other ways to our success.”
Team defense has been a significant improvement for the Camels in the second half of the season. It has been a goal for improved play overall in the second half and even the freshmen have made big strides in this aspect of adjusting to the college game.
One freshman in particular has garnered the attention of the entire Camel coaching staff and has played his way into a top four role on the blue line for the Camels.
“Freshman defenseman Greg Liautaud made the adjustment to the college game almost immediately since he arrived on campus,” said Ward. “He has really developed nicely and I would be hard pressed to think of maybe more than one situation where he struggled for any period of time. He has a very good stick and jumps into the play at the right times and can be physical when he needs to be. He is a smart and disciplined hockey player and he continues to do nice things and improve every week while earning quality minutes for our hockey club.”
The beneficiaries of all of this improved play and team defense have been the goaltending duo of Mike Petchonka and Tom Conlin. While the numbers haven’t been great and no one has really seized the No. 1 job, the Camels are seeing better consistency and some big saves from both guys when they need them most.
“The stats aren’t great for either guy,” commented Ward. “We thought one guy would assert themselves coming out of the first half and neither really did. They have been better in the second half and we have been better as a team, which has helped them out, too. We aren’t hanging them out to dry like we did in the first half and that has made a difference. Mike has played the last three games and I think overall, he has been pretty good. He certainly kept us in the hockey game against Trinity and also gave us a chance to win against Wesleyan. You can’t ask your goaltenders to do much more than that every night.”
This weekend, the Camels hit the road to face Williams and Middlebury. The earlier matchup with the Panthers ended in an overtime loss, but history has the coach excited about the road trip.
“Historically, we have played pretty well on our past trips to Williamstown and Middlebury,” said Ward. “We haven’t always got the result we wanted, but we have been very competitive and I like our chances the way we have been playing the last few weeks. They are all like playoff games now, so no reason not to put it all on the ice for the games we have left.”
Five of the final eight are on the road for the Camels where they have struggled thus far this season. With a focus on a strong finish, the road trips are just another hurdle Ward is looking for his team to overcome in February.
John McLean continues to play solid between the pipes for Gustavus Adolphus (photo: Laura Westphal/SportPix).
We have reached the stretch run of hockey in the MIAC and the battle for the top spot is tight.
Gustavus Adolphus enters the final week of the month on top of the conference standings. It has 26 points. St. Thomas is second with 22 points and St. Olaf sits in third with 17 points.
It will be interesting to see how things play out over the next few weeks, but one thing is for sure, it should be interesting and a fight to the finish.
Here are some notes from around the league as we head into February.
Record Setter: St. Thomas goalie Drew Fielding broke a 10-year-old conference record over the weekend as he posted two shutouts in the Tommies’ sweep of Hamline.
St. Thomas won 8-0 and 2-0, giving Fielding a record seven shutouts this season. Adam Hanna of St. John’s tallied six shutouts during the 2004-05 season. Fielding needs only one more shutout to tie Hanna’s career record of 14 shutouts.
Fielding leads the nation in shutouts. Notre Dame’s Steven Summerhays is second in the country with five. With three more shutouts, Fielding would tie the Division III record of 10 in a season.
Fielding made 35 saves over the weekend and has tallied 403 saves on the season. He has allowed only 22 goals for the Tommies, who are 12-3-2 overall and 6-0-2 in the MIAC.
In the Poll: Gustavus swept St. Mary’s over the weekend and broke into the USCHO.com Division III Men’s Poll for the first time this season at No. 15.
The Gusties topped the Cardinals 4-1 on Friday and earned a 5-1 win on Saturday as it stretched its win streak to four games.
In Saturday’s series finale, Gustav Bengston scored two goals and Gavin Tufte tallied two goals as well to help Gustavus maintain its hold on first place in the standings.
Darren Lapic also scored a goal for the Gusties, who are 11-4-3 overall and 8-1-1 in the MIAC.
John McLean won his 10th game of the season and stretched his unbeaten streak to nine games against MIAC opponents. McLean tallied 25 saves and is 10-3-3 on the year. The sophomore goalie hasn’t given up more than two goals in a game since November.
Gustavus was also sharp defending the power play again. It turned away all six of the Cardinals’ opportunities on Saturday and have killed 16 consecutive power plays since Jan. 18.
Tough Goalie: John Sellie-Hanson turned in a strong performance despite the fact that Hamline lost 2-0 to St. Thomas on Saturday night.
Sellie-Hanson racked up 23 saves and allowed just one goal until an empty-net goal was scored with nine seconds remaining in the game.
Sellie-Hanson has played in eight games this season and has given up 27 goals. He has racked up 184 saves as well.
The Pipers have had a tough year and sit and are 2-14-1 overall and 1-7 in the conference.
Hamline has lost five games by two goals or less and has lost its last four games. Its last win was on Jan. 11 when it beat Northland 5-4.
Kevin Novakovich has paced Hamline with five goals and six assists. Joe Rubbelke has tallied two goals and nine assists and Brandon Zurn has tallied four goals and four assists.
Wisconsin-Superior senior forward Pat Dalbec has started to get untracked – just when the Yellow Jackets need it most (photo: Dave Harwig/viewthroughmylens.net).
Pat Dalbec admits he hasn’t been the most consistent player this season for Wisconsin-Superior.
The senior forward has had his share of up-and-down moments, but lately, he believes he is starting play with more consistency.
“I’ve been inconsistent at times, but during the second half of the year, I’ve started to play much better,” Dalbec said. “I think part of that comes with the familiarity of playing against league opponents.”
Dalbec has certainly had a good season if you look at the stat sheet. He is tied for the team lead in points as he has scored eight goals and dished out eight assists.
A year ago, Dalbec finished with 27 points, finishing with career-bests in goals (15) and assists (12). He still has time to increase this season’s numbers as the Yellow Jackets have six games remaining in their WIAC schedule.
Yet, in terms of having the opportunity to play college hockey in his hometown, Dalbec has enjoyed every moment. The former Superior High School star played junior hockey for the Janesville Jets of the North American Hockey League before coming to Superior.
“The four years have gone fast, but it’s been a lot of fun,” Dalbec said. “It’s been a blessing to be able to play in my hometown. I’ve been watching Yellow Jackets hockey since I was little and it’s an honor to be able to play college hockey for them.”
Dalbec has the made the most of his time at Superior. As a freshman, he scored eight goals and dished out 11 assists. A year later, he came through with 13 goals and nine assists as he led the team in goals and points.
Last season, Dalbec took his game to another level and even put together a 15-game point streak as he earned first-team All-WIAC honors.
“Looking back from where I was as a junior hockey player to where I am now, I have gone from being more of a playmaker to being more of a shooter,” Dalbec said. “I’m happy with the progress I’ve been able to make.”
As a team, Superior has shown signs of promise throughout the year. It earned an impressive win at the PrimeLink Great Northern ShootOut in November, stunning nationally-ranked Norwich 3-0. Dalbec scored two goals in the win and was named to the all-tournament team.
It also earned a 3-2 win over St. Scholastica in November and battled nationally-ranked Wisconsin-Stevens Point to a 4-4 tie in Friday’s series opener against the Pointers.
Superior is 6-10-3 overall and 1-3-2 in the WIAC.
“We’ve shown how good we can be at times, but at other times we’ve been inconsistent,” Dalbec said. “If we can play the way we are capable of playing, and be consistent every night, we have a chance to finish strong. The conference is still wide open.”
Superior has had several players step up this season. Michael Rey has tallied eight goals and eight assists, while Cody Hotckin has come through with five goals and 10 assists.
Jeff Forsythe has racked up four goals and seven assists and Eric Shand has come through with one goal and 10 assists.
Drew Strandberg and Dayn Belfour have split time in goal. Strandburg has played in 12 games and has racked up 261 saves while Belfour has tallied 158 saves in eight games.
As for Dalbec, he said his focus is on doing what he can to help the team play at its best down the stretch.
“I just want to continue to work hard and be as consistent as I can in every game,” Dalbec said. “If I do that, hopefully that will help inspire my teammates and we can be successful in these last six games.”
Streaks End: Wisconsin-Eau Claire had a pair of streaks end over the weekend, including an impressive five-game shutout streak on Friday night against Wisconsin-River Falls.
But the Blugolds still managed to win Friday’s game, taking down the Falcons 8-3. On Saturday, their eight-game unbeaten streak, which included seven consecutive wins, also came to an end in a 3-1 loss to River Falls. It was the first loss for Eau Claire since Dec. 7.
David Donnellan scored the only goal for the defending national champions in the loss.
Blake Huppert, Jeff Bergh and Ryan Doner all scored goals for the Falcons, who improved to 11-5-2 overall and to 4-2 in the WIAC. Eau Claire is 12-4-1 overall and 1-2-1 in the conference.
Near Comeback: Stout’s final nonconference game of the season was a thriller as it nearly rallied from a three-goal deficit in a 4-3 loss to St. John’s on Saturday.
The Blue Devils, who were tied at 1-1 at the end of the first period and down 4-1 after two, battled back in the third behind goals from Zach Vierling and Logan Maly.
Chase Hollender stepped in at goal with the Blue Devils down 4-1 and did not allow a goal as he racked up 21 saves, including 12 in the third.
Stout fell to 6-11 on the season and the loss was its fifth of the season by one goal.
A Massimo Lamacchia disqualification penalty against Yale last Saturday helped put Brown in a hole (photo: Shelley M. Szwast).
What with all the hullabaloo (yes, I had to spell-check that) in ECAC Hockey last weekend, this seems like a perfect opportunity to find out what really goes on in the mind of a coach when everything is spiraling out of control. Let’s listen in, shall we?
“It was not smart hockey. We’ve got to understand that there’s a time and a place, and that was not intelligent.”
Those two sentences could have come out of any coach’s lips, but in this case, those lips were owned by Brown coach Brendan Whittet, and the sentences were spoken shortly after Yale’s 6-0 erasure of his Bears in New Haven, Conn., on Saturday. Yale earned 11 power plays — scoring on four of them, including two five-on-three goals in the first period, plus another first-frame two-man advantage that went unconverted by the Bulldogs.
Yale was up 3-0 after four shots and 5:03 of game time; the Bulldogs tacked on a fourth goal before 15 minutes had run off the clock. By that time Brown was not only down four on the scoreboard, but also two on the bench. Freshman forward Zack Pryzbek took an early shower just 86 seconds in following a major hitting-from-behind penalty and a game misconduct. Junior forward Massimo Lamacchia followed the rookie to the locker room 13 minutes later, saddled with a major and disqualification for slew-footing.
This is where things get tricky behind the short bench.
“It’s hard, because you’re down to 10 forwards. You’ve gotta mix and match and just try to get something going on the offensive side,” Whittet said, gesticulating. “We didn’t give up — their goalie actually made some really good saves as the game went on — but it makes it hard.”
“It’s not unbelievably complicated. You have to be thinking, you’ve got to be really locked in as a coach on not only who’s playing well, but also who’s up,” Rensselaer coach Seth Appert explained, “because instead of saying ‘Mike Zalewski’s line’s up,’ or ‘Milos Bubela’s line’s up,’ you have to call all three positions every time, alerting the guys — including the guys on the ice — who’s playing [which position] next shift.”
Whittet noted that special-teams players had to pull double duty, suddenly having no one to spell them. Players who weren’t used to playing often, have to play often … and the top-line guys are in for a long night.
“We’re going to roll out [the top line of Mark] Naclerio, [Matt] Lorito and [Nick] Lappin as much as we can, and [beyond that] you just try to find complements for each other,” Whittet said. “Everyone’s gonna play. It’s not like you’ve still got a fourth line that’s getting out there a few shifts a game.”
For Appert, “in terms of who’s playing, it’s really more based on their performance.” RPI’s helmsman admitted that on-the-fly combinations are equally dependent on “hunch, [player] compatibility and luck”.
To be sure, Whittet was visibly displeased with the 13-4 penalty disparity during the game — Brown was whistled for the first eight infractions of the game — but he refused to blame the officials for the outcome, or even for their judgment. While you see it on regrettable occasion, the fiery Whittet sees no value in showing up the officials by, say, emptying the bench onto the ice.
“Chucking water bottles just does no good. Absolutely no good,” he said. “The calls are the calls, and what we’ve got to do is respond and either kill a penalty or execute on the power play. We did neither and just compounded it.”
Rensselaer’s Scott Diebold made 53 saves on 56 shots last weekend (photo: Jim Rosvold).
Engineers manufacture key four-point effort
The first two weekends of 2014 were weekends worth forgetting for RPI. The Engineers dropped four straight against Ferris State, Minnesota, Princeton and Quinnipiac (all away from home) by a 20-7 aggregate score.
The bye week couldn’t come soon enough … and, according to Appert, couldn’t have been used any better. Per the coach, the Engineers got in two solid weeks of practice and rolled into last Friday’s home game against Dartmouth with a confidence that belied their record. RPI dispatched of the Big Green 4-2 and then edged archrival Union for the first time in 11 meetings in Saturday’s much-discussed Mayor’s Cup match.
To head this query off at the pass: I did not discuss Saturday’s post-game brawl with Appert, as I can assure you he has nothing new to say. Furthermore, every previous speck of speculation and information has been published, Tweeted, and YouTube’d to death. There is ample material out there, and once it’s exhausted, I doubt there is any more to be unearthed.
Back to the product on the ice. Appert was pleased with junior goaltender Scott Diebold’s play last weekend, bouncing back from some seriously lackluster performances.
“[Diebold] struggled against Ferris State. We played a real good game against Ferris, and he struggled,” said Appert, himself a former Ferris State goalie.
Diebold fared no better against Minnesota — though RPI did not play well in front of him — and he looked overmatched at Quinnipiac the following weekend as well. The goalie’s play to that point led many RPI observers to wonder what might have been had No. 1 Jason Kasdorf not been lost for the year with season-ending surgery.
“Any time you lose a player of [Kasdorf’s] caliber, it’s a big loss, but that’s life. You can’t sit around and feel sorry for yourself,” Appert said.
Diebold responded with 53 saves on 56 shots in the recent wins, illustrating what Appert calls Diebold’s “hyper-competitive spirit.”
And while the goaltending improved, so did the offense. Top goal-scorer Ryan Haggerty (19 goals) notched a goal and two assists on the weekend, but his performance may have been eclipsed by some rising stars, or so says the coach.
Sophomore forwards “Mike Zalewski and Milos Bubela really stepped forward and had really strong weekends. They were maybe our two best players over the course of the weekend,” Appert said.
“We need those guys. I’ve always believed that the strength of our team, offensively, would have to be our depth. Through the first half of the season, that was not the case. We were not getting consistent production from too many guys throughout our second through fourth lines. That’s not just offense [numbers], it’s consistency of play. I think what we’ve started to see is that certain guys have pulled out of some funks, certain guys are starting to step up and play better, and we’re just trying to move forward and play with four lines, because that’s the best way to win.”
Playing with precedent
Using previously discovered patterns (and you know how much I love patterns), let’s take a peek at how far each team has to go to get somewhere desirable in the ECAC first round. For those too lazy/digitally impaired to read the link, here’s the pertinent gist:
• Historically, 34 points has been good enough for first place come playoff time.
• Teams that finish with 27 points or more have generally enjoyed a week off before the second round.
• An imaginary line between 19 and 20 points has delineated home teams from visitors in the first round.
Union already has 20 points with 10 league games to play. Not too shabby. Four more wins should secure a bye; seven takes the crown.
Colgate and Quinnipiac each have 19 points with nine games to play. The Bobcats are done with Union for the regular season, but the Raiders still have another shot at the current leaders. If each squad can muster a .500 record the rest of the way, they should be in the clear for a maintenance week.
Clarkson is battling with Cornell for the fourth spot, but the Knights have a game in hand. While they aren’t scheduled to face each other again, Clarkson does take on Union and Quinnipiac, twice each; Cornell can make up ground on Colgate, Union and Quinnipiac in single head-to-head meetings.
Yale is barely above .500 with 13 points in 12 games, and will need to turn it up with seven or eight wins in its remaining 10 if the Bulldogs want a bye.
Brown and Rensselaer each have 11 points in 12 games, and are all but out of the running for a bye. Instead, the Bears and Engineers should have their sights set on at least a .500 finish, clearing the teams for a friendly first-round venue.
St. Lawrence, Harvard, Princeton and Dartmouth have their work cut out for them. Each will need to play well above .500 hockey over the last five weeks in order to finish in the middle third of the standings, a benchmark for success that no one in the quartet has come close to exhibiting thus far.
PairWise? PairWise.
Hey, why not? At least it gives us an early indication of who’s in good shape and who’s not, in a national context.
First off, it’s worth noting that this is about the time of year that many pollsters begin to get lazy, ditching their pet matrices and spreadsheets in favor of a simple copy-paste operation. They surf on over to the latest PairWise Rankings, say “Hmm, OK!” and presto, some uncannily similar rankings. There are some anomalies — Wisconsin, Yale and Denver are thought better than their numbers — but you must admit, the similarities are beyond coincidental.
In any case, Quinnipiac and Union occupy top-four spots, putting them in strong contention for an at-large bid, if not a No. 1 regional seed. Cornell is tied for 10th in the PWR — like anyone else, fluctuations beyond the Big Red’s control will have a large impact on their final seeding — so the Ithacans still have significant work to do before booking NCAA accommodations.
Colgate and Clarkson are just within the top 16, which is better than being outside the bubble … but it’s not worth much right now. It’s just fun for Raiders and Golden Knights fans to consider themselves in the running, I imagine; nothing more.
Surprisingly, Yale is outside the bubble at this moment. The Bulldogs can lump themselves with Colgate and Clarkson in knowing that they’ve got a good shot if they keep winning, but it’s not a terribly happy position for the defending champions with February looming.
Remember: Game results from beyond ECAC Hockey action can significantly affect ECAC teams’ spots in the PWR, and there are a lot of league games remaining in which conference members will knock each other around in both the standings and the rankings. Don’t get too attached to today’s PairWise order, is what I’m saying … it’ll have a completely new look by Saturday morning, I promise.
Boston College has won the last four Beanpot titles, including in 2011 when Brian Gibbons held the prize (photo: Melissa Wade).
BOSTON – It’s one of the great traditions of college hockey: The calendar turns to February, and we turn our attention to the Beanpot.
It is without a doubt the most unique in-season tournament in college hockey. The event serves as a collective two-week homecoming for alumni from the four schools and a launching pad for the final month of the regular season.
Love it or hate it, the Beanpot grips the sporting consciousness in Boston for two weeks.
The festivities officially got under way on Tuesday, when all four head coaches (Ted Donato of Harvard, Jim Madigan of Northeastern, David Quinn of Boston University and Jerry York of Boston College), their team captains, and members of the media gathered at TD Garden for the annual pre-tournament luncheon.
We took the opportunity to ask each coach the same set of questions, to compare how each views his team’s performance to date and what will be the keys to victory over the next two weeks:
USCHO: If you could describe your season to date in one word, what would it be and why?
Donato: Close. In our league, we’ve lost a lot of close games. We’re learning how to win. Eight out of 10 losses have been by one goal. We’re very close.
Madigan: Resilient. It’s a team that was faced with some obstacles early. From the preseason poll, people from outside didn’t believe we could win. When we got into the season, guys worked hard and showed a lot of resiliency in games. It’s been borne into their approach this season.
Quinn: Inconsistent. When we’re good, we can be pretty good, but when we’re bad, we can be pretty bad. I think a lot of it has to do with youth — nine freshmen in the lineup every night. Not only are we young in class, but their ages too: We don’t have a bunch of 20-year old freshmen.
York: Two words — more cohesive. I think we’re playing better as a team. We stress all the time that the team that plays best [each] night will win the game. Records don’t matter. That’s our mind-set.
USCHO: Give us an outlook of your team’s chances for the tournament. What’s the one thing that needs to go right for you to win?
Donato: When you play in this atmosphere and want to have success, goaltending is a key for any possible championship.
Madigan: Goaltending. It’s a short tournament. Any team I’ve been on that has won this tournament — it’s been three — we’ve had great goaltending. It can be a cliché, but you’re talking about two games. If you get great goaltending, you build momentum that way, and only need a couple of goals to win.
Quinn: We’re going to have to play simple hockey. We get into trouble when we try to play special hockey and make special plays. If we can manage to keep things simple for 60 minutes, we give ourselves a chance night-in, night-out.
York: Discipline. Not just in penalties, but defensive zone coverage, discipline to be in the right position for yourself, [line] changes … anything that involves doing the right thing at the right time.
USCHO: If there’s an X factor, or perhaps a story that we haven’t heard of yet that might emerge from your team in this tournament, what do you think it’ll be?
Donato: Offensively, we have another gear that we haven’t gotten to yet. We’re a skilled, fast team, and we’re close to being an explosive team offensively. Hopefully we’ll be able to have things clicking for this Beanpot.
Madigan: It’ll be some of the secondary scoring, which we’re just starting to get.
Quinn: I’m going to say Robbie Baillargeon. He was great on Friday (vs. Vermont). Maybe the Baillargeon-[Danny] O’Regan-[Evan] Rodrigues line. Hopefully if Rodrigues is healthy — he’s still not quite there yet — I’m anxious to see what that line can do.
York: I’d like to see more balanced scoring from our club. We’re getting a lot of goals from the same players. That could put us over the top. It might be a defenseman or a forward, but I’d like that to happen. They don’t necessarily have to put up big numbers, but winning their shifts on the ice is one of our goals.
USCHO: One last “one word” question: What one word would you use to describe the Beanpot, what it means to you or your club?
Minnesota garnered 44 first-place votes in this week’s USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll and maintains its spot at the top of the national rankings.
The Gophers won the inaugural North Star College Cup last weekend, beating St. Cloud and then Minnesota-Duluth in a shootout.
Boston College earned wins over Merrimack and Penn State and sits second again this week, also taking the other six first-place votes.
Idle Quinnipiac moves up one to No. 3, while Union topped Harvard and lost to Rensselaer to fall one to No. 4 and St. Cloud stays fifth with its loss to Minnesota and a win over Minnesota State.
Ferris State remains sixth with a split against Michigan Tech, Providence split with Massachusetts-Lowell to stay at No. 7, while Lowell remains eighth. Wisconsin split with Ohio State and maintains the No. 9 rank. With a split against Notre Dame, Northeastern climbs one to No. 10.
At No. 11, Cornell is up one after tying St. Lawrence and beating Clarkson, Michigan swept Michigan State to move up two to No. 12, Yale falls three to No. 13 after splitting with Brown, Notre Dame is up one to No. 14 after its split with Northeastern and Clarkson tumbles two spots to No. 15 after losses to Colgate and Cornell.
Denver earned a split with North Dakota to sit tight at No. 16, while North Dakota is up one notch to No. 17. Colgate enters the rankings this week at No. 18 with victories over Clarkson and St. Lawrence. Vermont split with Boston University and falls two to No. 19 and idle Western Michigan drops one place to No. 20.
The USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll consists of 50 voters, including 28 coaches from the Division I conferences and 22 beat writers and sports professionals from across the country.
