North Dakota goaltender Zane Gothberg suffered a lower-body injury in practice Tuesday and will miss this weekend’s series at Denver.
At 8-0-1 in its last nine regular season games, North Dakota has been on a serious roll recently, one that has seen it climb up near the top of the NCHC standings.
If No. 18 UND’s recent success is to continue this weekend in a big series at No. 16 Denver, however, it will have to make it happen without one of the key pieces that has gotten the team to where it is.
UND coach Dave Hakstol confirmed Wednesday at his weekly news conference that sophomore goaltender Zane Gothberg, who has been the goalie of record in every game of UND’s nine-game unbeaten streak, suffered a lower-body injury in practice Tuesday.
Hakstol was vague about the nature of the injury, as hockey coaches are wont to do, and especially so in the later parts of the season.
“Zane is going to be out indefinitely with a lower-body injury that he sustained yesterday in practice,” Hakstol said. “So I won’t make any more comments and I won’t have any more updates on that for probably one to two weeks.”
Gothberg was statistically the NCHC’s best goaltender over UND’s current run, posting a .923 save percentage and a 1.76 GAA over those nine games. In all this season, he’s 10-5-3 in 18 appearances with a .914 save percentage and 2.26 GAA.
Back into the fold, then, comes senior Clarke Saunders, a transfer from Alabama-Huntsville before last season and the only other UND goaltender that has seen playing time so far this season.
He’s had a more difficult time of it than Gothberg, however, posting only a 2-2 record in seven appearances with a .900 save percentage and a 3.60 GAA.
Freshman Matt Hrynkiw will be bumped up into the role of the primary backup while Gothberg is out.
UND has performed better in its own end of the ice than it did before its current extended run of good form began. That said, Hakstol made it clear Wednesday that, although Saunders has done well recently in practice, the senior understudy is going to have to continue to improve in a hurry ahead of UND’s meeting with the Pioneers.
“I think Clarke went through some real ups and downs just before Christmas in his performance in practice,” Hakstol said. “And I think the bright side of that is he’s practiced extremely well over the last couple of weeks.
“He’s back, he’s settled, he’s competing and he’s been very good in practice, and now he just has to transition that into game action. And our guys have to work hard in front of him and give him the opportunity to do that, and vice versa.
“He’s got to work hard for the guys in front of him, and I think that’ll happen.”
Western Michigan keeps winning ‘survival’ games
Western Michigan is also rolling lately, but Broncos coach Andy Murray isn’t getting a big head about it.
Almost the opposite, in fact.
Western Michigan has played 12 games decided by one goal — only Clarkson (15) and Michigan Tech (14) have been involved in more. The Broncos’ current 5-0-0-1 streak — all of them one-goal games except the shootout win — is on the back of three one-goal losses in their previous four games.
It’s because of all those close calls going either way that Murray is keeping his team in what he calls “survival mode.”
“In the new league, every night you’re just in survival mode,” Murray said. “You’re just trying to survive, and the competition is so good that you’re just trying to survive. And if you ask our [players], they probably don’t know how many games we’ve won here in a row or whatever.
“We’re just trying to put everything we have into every game and see what we get, and there isn’t any sense here of real accomplishment yet.”
In a certain light, that sounds harsh considering what the Broncos have done lately and the competition against which they’ve done it. Since just after Christmas, Western has knocked off two in-state rivals to win the Great Lakes Invitational, swept preseason NCHC favorite Miami at home and, last weekend, picked up a shootout win and regulation win at first-place St. Cloud State.
Western Michigan had a bumpy first half of the season in which results on a given weekend often went really in the Broncos’ way or really not. Although they still sit in fifth place in the NCHC, they’re only three points below St. Cloud State.
That said, Murray doesn’t feel much has changed lately with the way his team has gone about its business on the ice.
“There isn’t a whole lot different to what we’re doing now than what we were doing earlier,” Murray said. “We’re getting an extra save now or we’re getting a goal when we need it, and it’s just a fine line every single night.
“That’s kind of what we’re at now, and I’m being very honest when I say we’re just in survival. I think every team in our league is, because you’re just trying to win whenever you can in each game because you don’t know how the league is going to shake out.”
With just one regulation win’s worth of points separating first place in the league from fifth, Murray couldn’t be more right.
SCSU, UMD prepare for inaugural North Star College Cup
The NCHC’s playoff championship weekend will have an air of unfamiliarity for all teams involved, but when St. Cloud State and Minnesota-Duluth play in St. Paul, Minn., this weekend, they won’t be entering entirely uncharted territory.
The North Star College Cup will go to the winner of the annual tournament between four of Minnesota’s five Division I men’s teams.
This weekend will mark the first time four of Minnesota’s five Division I men’s hockey programs come together to compete for the North Star College Cup at St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center, the former home of the WCHA’s Final Five.
The Bulldogs will play the tournament’s first game Friday afternoon against Minnesota State. Afterward, the fifth-ranked Huskies will take on top-ranked Minnesota in the second semifinal.
The bracket-style competition will conclude Saturday, with a third-place game taking place before Friday’s winners meet in the tournament final.
A rotation system will be implemented for the tournament, with one of the five Minnesota Division I teams sitting out in any given year. Bemidji State will make its debut in the 2015 edition, and St. Cloud State will sit that one out.
Minnesota-Duluth will sit out the 2016 edition of the tournament, while Minnesota State will stay home from it in 2017. The Golden Gophers, however, will take part in the tournament every year as host.
Players of the week
Offensive player of the week — Shane Berschbach, Western Michigan: If it seems like Berschbach has been named the recipient of this award a lot this season, there’s a reason for that. The senior forward picked up the award this week for a third time so far this season after picking up a goal in both games last weekend at St. Cloud State, including the Broncos’ game-winning goal in the third period of Western’s 2-1 win on Saturday.
Defensive player of the week — Kenney Morrison, Western Michigan: it’s an OPOTW and DPOTW sweep for the Broncos, as Morrison was also a beast for the Broncos against St. Cloud. The sophomore blueliner dished out four assists over the two games against the Huskies — three of them coming in Friday’s 5-5 tie and eventual shootout win for WMU — and also two blocked shots and a plus-1 rating.
Rookie of the week — Austin Ortega, Nebraska-Omaha: The freshman forward scored in each game of UNO’s series at Miami last weekend. Both goals came on the power play, and the second came in the third period of UNO’s 5-1 win Saturday that snapped the Mavericks’ seven-game winless streak.
Goaltender of the week — Sam Brittain, Denver: The senior netminder further strengthened his case to be named the NCHC’s goaltender of the season by winning the league’s GOTW honor for a fifth time. Brittain posted a .940 save percentage and 1.85 GAA last weekend in Denver’s two overtime contests at Minnesota-Duluth. He made 23 saves in a 3-2 Pioneers win Friday before making 40 through 65 minutes the following night and making two saves in a shootout loss to the Bulldogs.
Sophomore goaltender Gordon Ceasar, who transferred from Utica, looks to guide Plymouth State to a strong finish this season (photo: Kim Bownes/PSU Athletics)
Admittedly, Plymouth State had sub-par goaltending the first half of the season.
That looks to change with the addition of Gordon Ceasar, who played the past year and a half at Utica.
“In the first semester, it was no secret that our goaltending wasn’t great,” Plymouth State coach Craig Russell said. “It wasn’t absolutely killing us, but it definitely wasn’t helping us.”
That’s where Ceasar comes into play.
The sophomore goaltender played two games with the Pioneers last season, putting up a 1-0 record with a 1.22 GASA and a .952 save percentage.
Ceasar was looking to get more playing time, something he wasn’t getting at Utica.
In six games so far in 2014 with the Panthers, Ceasar has a 3-30- record with a 2.01 GAA and a .938 save percentage.
“It took a couple of games for me to get back in game shape after not playing for almost a year, which I wasn’t use to,” Ceasar said. “After a game or two, I regained my confidence back, seeing shots which was good for my transition. Since then, I have been trying to get wins for this team. It has gotten better and better as the weeks have gone on.”
Ceasar’s hope is to lead the Panthers to a second-half push at the MASCAC title and a possible chance at the NCAA tournament.
“I think there’s a lot of upside here, we have a lot of young guys here and a bright future,” Ceasar added. “Obviously, my expectations stay the same whether I am here or at Utica.”
This past weekend, Ceasar was named MASCAC goalie of the week with a 4-1 win over Fitchburg State on Thursday (Jan. 16) and a 1-0 win over Massachusetts-Dartmouth two days later.
“He’s a big kid (6-foot-1, 180 pounds), he takes up a lot of room,” Russell added. “He can track the puck well, he can see over traffic or around it. We have been trying to play well in front of him not to allow second and third opportunities.”
Russell recruited Ceasar when he was playing junior hockey with the Rochester Stars of the frrome Eastern Junior Hockey League. Ceasar was primarily looking at a couple ECAC West schools and ultimately chose Utica.
“Knowing him from junior hockey, I knew he was capable of stepping in right away, but he had to earn it,” Russell explained. “He had to earn the player’s respect right away and he’s a hard worker. The results have been decent, but not great personally. The team is starting to form around him.”
Ceasar also knew PSU junior defenseman Kyle Brumfield from his days with the Stars.
Bringing in Ceasar meant senior Tyler Ingerson, who finally got his chance to be the team’s starter after sitting behind Jack Astedt the previous three seasons, found himself back as the backup.
It wasn’t an easy decision for Russell.
“Any time when you bring someone in halfway through the semester, you wonder what the dynamic will be like, but Tyler, Zac [Enstrom] and Max [Motew], who is a freshman and hasn’t gotten his chance yet, have all accepted Gordon right away,” Russell stated. “They respected him right away because of how hard he has worked and has gone about his business.”
Western New England senior forward Chris Connors will need more of this if the Golden Bears are to make any noise down the stretch (photo: Bill Sharon/Spartan SportShots).
The ECAC Northeast has finally ended its nonconference portion of the schedule and returns to in-conference games this weekend.
The conference has seen mixed results playing outside of the conference, but the race remains wide-open for the regular-season title and conference tournament positioning.
Salve Regina is on top of the conference with a 4-1-0 record (6-10-0 overall) and eight points. Nichols is one point behind them with a 3-1-1 record (10-4-2). Johnson and Wales (13-3-0) and Western New England (9-7-0) both are 3-2-0 in league play.
Suffolk University is in fifth 2-2-1 (5-9-1) with five points. Last year’s conference champion Wentworth holds the final conference tournament berth one point back of Suffolk with a 2-3-0 (4-10-2) record.
Becker is the lone team to not have a conference victory as they sit 0-3-2 (1-12-2) with two points along with Curry, which is 1-4-0 (4-9-2)
“It’s a real exciting league to be watching, especially since the league has gotten better and better every single year,” Western New England coach Greg Heffernan said. “There is no night off and I think it’s fantastic. I think we got teams right now that could be anywhere from first to last. We only got five games out of the 14 that count under our belt, so the truth is it’s anybody’s season.”
Looking at his team personally, Heffernan is ready for a strong finish to the year.
“I don’t think the 2-4 in the six games accurately reflect what happened in those games,” Hefferan added. “We know where we are at. We are very confident we can put together another solid finish to the year this year. We are excited to get back into conference play.”
Overall, WNE was 6-5-0 outside of the ECAC Northeast.
Heffernan has been pleased with his team’s play at home with a 7-1 record, but knows it will need to better on the road.
“Where our Achilles heel has been, we haven’t figured out how to win on the road just yet,” said Heffernan. “That’s something I have to take better stock in, preparing our guys better on the road because if you can’t win on the road, you aren’t going to win down the stretch.”
Western New England gets its first test on Saturday traveling to Johnson and Wales and then back home to face Nichols next Thursday. Heffernan knows they have to face two solid goaltenders in Joey Ballmer (Johnson and Wales) and Alex Larson (Nichols).
“It’s the tale of the league, [but] we have a very goaltender ourselves in Eric Sorenson,” Hefferan added. “If I expect anything, it will be good, solid games. Nichols is a great club [and coach] Kevin [Swallow] has done a wonderful job with them.”
Hefferan also said Johnson and Wales has done great things for the league this year with its nonconference record of 10-1-0.
“We are definitely excited for the wins against some of the teams we have, the SUNYAC’s and Williams are all big for us,” Johnson and Wales coach Erik Noack said. “We are definitely excited what we have the last 10-11 games.”
The Wildcats face two of the four top teams in the conference this week in Western New England and Salve Regina.
“I talk to the guys about it a lot, what we have done in nonconference has been great, the best we have ever been in nonconference, obviously, but we are still 3-2 in the league,” Noack said. “Salve is 4-1 and Western New England is 3-2 . Obviously, they are two huge games for us.”
Noack hopes his team can take the confidence with them into the stretch run, but hopefully, they stay focused for the task at hand.
The Salve Regina game will be played at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center – the home of the Providence Bruins of the American Hockey League – in downtown Providence, R.I.
Noack hopes playing at that venue will become an yearly event.
“It’s expensive to get in there, our administration has made a commitment to doing things for the athletic department and this one of them,” Noack said. “It was going to be a big night for us. We’re hoping to get 5,000 fans, I don’t know, maybe we will get 3,000. Alumni are coming back, donors are coming in, there will be a big Chancellor’s dinner. We have really promoted it on campus and in the community as much as we can.”
Noack added despite Salve’s woes outside of the conference, his squad still has a strong group of forwards and the Seahawks beat them twice last season. He is also not overlooking Western New England, who they are tied with in the standings.
University of New England goalie Colby Drost has given the Nor’easters a chance to win each night out and has earned all seven wins for the club this season (photo: Dave Bates/Fotografix Studio).
With seven games remaining on the schedule, the University of New England has already surpassed its win total from last season and sits just three points out of fifth place in the conference following only their second-ever conference weekend sweep since their inception as a varsity program in the ECAC East conference for the 2009-10 season.
The balance of the schedule is not an easy road for the Nor’easters starting with Friday night’s matchup with league-leading Norwich, but optimism is growing as the Nor’easters have stayed with each and every opponent faced this season.
“We are striving to be competitive every night,” stated UNE coach Brad Holt. “We are getting better, but this league is really good so we need to continue to work hard and bring that competitiveness to the ice against everyone we play. Norwich will be a huge challenge for us on Friday night as will St. Michael’s, where we have not had any success over the years. I used to live about a mile from their rink and it is nice to go back and see friends, but it would be really nice to play well and get a good result.”
One of the keys to the recent success for Holt’s team has been the play of junior goaltender Colby Drost.
Drost was named co-goaltender of the week this week following his 39 saves against Castleton in a 5-3 come-from-behind win last Friday night that saw UNE outshot by a 2-1 margin. The following afternoon, Drost stopped 31 of 33 shots and 15 in the third period against Skidmore to preserve a 4-2 win and secure the conference weekend sweep.
Overall this season, Drost has been the goaltender of record in all seven team victories, sporting a 7-5-1 record overall and a save percentage at a solid .908. His 70-save performance this past weekend shows his durability and focus and confidence the team has playing in front of the reliable netminder.
“No question that Colby has kept us in games,” stated Holt. “He has been pretty consistent and obviously, last weekend gave us a chance to come back against Castleton and get it going in the second period against Skidmore. We need Colby to keep up his game and I give a lot of credit to our senior goalie, Ian Edwards, who pushes Colby in practice and really helps to keep him sharp with his overall level of competitiveness and effort to practice hard and stay sharp.”
While balance may be the key word to describe the Nor’easters’ offensive prowess this season, senior Zach Lokey currently leads the team with eight goals, including three last weekend. Two of the three goals came as crucial empty-net goals to provide the final margin in close one-goal contests. The senior has played 85 games in his career at UNE, which leads all rostered players this season, and his leadership on and off the ice have been key elements in the maturation process for a still-young team on the rise.
“Zach has proclaimed himself our empty-net specialist,” joked Holt. “Seriously, we have eight or nine first-years that are playing every night for us. Many of them are really now just starting to do things consistently on the ice like we saw them play in juniors before they came here. We love a guy like Trevor Fleurent, who I don’t think had a goal in the first half, but has worked really hard and has seen his game make a big jump in the second half. We only have three seniors that are really important for leadership with our young team. We just got Sean Sullivan back after breaking his thumb blocking a shot, so the leadership and focus has been important from the guys who have been a big part in building the UNE program.”
Last weekend’s wins came on home ice. The Nor’easters are building some momentum this season on the large ice surface in Biddeford and their overall record of 5-3-0 on home ice is proving they are a tough opponent in their arena.
One area where the Nor’easters clearly will need to show improvement if they want to continue their rise in the standings is their play on the road. To date, UNE is 0-5-0 on the road in conference play and 2-6-1 overall away from their home rink. The remaining schedule finds four of the seven played on the road, all in conference play and three against the top three teams currently in the standings.
The challenge is there for UNE, who now knows it can compete with the league’s best following a December win against nationally-ranked Babson by a score of 3-1. While that game took place at home just prior to the semester break and included 41 saves from Drost, including 32 in the final two periods of play, it clearly built confidence for UNE, who has posted a .500 record at 3-3-0 in 2014.
“Of course, we love playing at home,” noted Holt. “We have a beautiful rink and draw very well there, so it is an exciting place to play for the team and easier to get ready without the bus trip and hotels that the road brings to the equation. We need to bring a better competitive level to our road games. Everyone in this conference is good and usually pretty good at home, so we need to be ready to play. With our better depth this year, I think our practices are more competitive for players wanting ice time and I think on any night, players know that if they aren’t competing hard, there are guys not dressed in the stands that would love the chance to play.”
All of the remaining games are against teams the Nor’easters have faced earlier in the season. The coach loves the schedule format and hopes his team will continue to strive to play their best hockey at the right time of the season.
“We have seen everyone once already and know what they bring,” said Holt. “Now, the venue and order of the opponents changes the second time around. We can’t hurt ourselves with penalties and certainly, our special teams need to be better and I think we are getting better. Monday was our hardest practice of the season. We had a good weekend, a great weekend, but can’t sit back and expect it is going to be easy after a couple of nice wins. We are going to have really compete if we want to continue to get results.”
If Drost can keep up his magic in the crease and give UNE a chance, don’t count out the Nor’easters from a late-season move up the standings.
Whatever trepidation Adrian coach Chad Davis held coming out of summer camp has faded into a distant memory.
The Bulldogs (14-3-0 overall, 7-3-0 NCHA), seemingly on their way to eclipsing last year’s program-best 20-win season, have locked onto success in a way that rubs against the grain of conventional wisdom in regards to a roster occupied with new faces.
“On a game-to-game basis you can find eight to 10 freshmen in our lineup every night,” said Davis. “It really has been a seamless transition for most of the new players. When looking at our team dynamic, our returning players really embraced all the new players in our locker room this season.”
Davis’ group of rookies have aggressively attacked the proverbial learning curve from the beginning. Davis, now in his third season guiding the Bulldogs, envisioned a scenario where an incoming cadre of freshmen would offer up consistent contributions quickly.
“Our players know we expect them to contribute right away, and earn their opportunities; with that said, as coaches we try to find ways to set them up for success,” said Davis. “Our freshmen have also helped us create an extremely competitive situation when it comes to practice.
“The contributions from our young players, combined with returnees Kelsey Kusch, Hannah McGowan, and senior Danielle Smith to name a few, has given us a more balanced attack on offense then in the past.”
The Bulldogs are averaging a healthy 4.82 points per game overall, a significant uptick from the 3.85 last season.
Since opening her collegiate career with Concordia (Wis.), Kusch, the dynamic forward from St. Claire Shores, Mich., is methodically making a run at the Bulldogs record books. Kusch recently moved ahead of Brooke Zaleski (2008-2012) into third place on the all-time scoring list with 72 points. Kusch is now third in the nation in scoring.
McGowan (8-12-20), a junior, and Smith (7-12-19), have combined for three game-winners, six power-play markers and a short-handed goal.
Up front, forwards Kristen Lewicki and Kaylyn Schroka have made their presence felt in a very productive manner. Lewicki, a native of West Virginia, is second on the squad with nine goals and 20 points. Schroka has produced a dozen points thus far.
“Kristin has been a game changer,” Davis said. “She is a very dynamic player and has a gear most players can’t match with her speed. She has great hands to compliment her speed and is a threat every time she touches the puck.”
“My experience as a freshman playing on the best team I could ask for has been unbelievable so far,” Lewicki said. “The upperclassmen made us feel like a family right away; the first time skating on the ice together everything just clicked. Our season has been great so far. We’ve lost a few games we should have won, but we keep working hard and improving every day to show we have what it takes to win it all at the end of the season. Coming in as a freshman, getting to play every game and being on the second line is such a privilege.”
In their own end, the Bulldogs rely heavily on Lexie Tzafaroglou, who has joined Alix Vallee, the sole senior defenseman on board.
“Lexie is an outstanding addition to our blue line,” said Davis of the Livonia, Mich., native. “She has stepped right in and played a huge role for us. She plays a ton of minutes for us, which includes all special teams.”
Tzafaroglou has collected three power play goals.
“She’s very reliable and is going to be a key to our success late in the season,” said Davis of Tzafaroglou.
Averaging 1.12 points per game, Vallee is on track for her most productive season. She has netted two game-winning goals, tying her best from a year ago.
Freshman goaltenders Jade Walsh and Brooke Gibson have also joined the group of instant contributors. Walsh has a sparkling 10-2-0 record to go along with a .921 save percentage, while Gibson has filled in admirably, posting a 4-1-0 slate with a 1.77 GAA.
“They have given us the confidence we need as a team; Walsh has shown she will be a big-game performer and win, and we look forward to her leading our team down the stretch,” said Davis.
“The college experience was a brand new thing to us; we all connected fast and adapted to school and hockey quickly,” Walsh said. “We are currently on an eight-game winning streak, which we all want to keep going. We have great potential on our team and hope to take it to a championship.”
“We are not content with that (20-win season),” Davis said. “Our team’s goal is to compete on a national stage. The team knows we need to earn that privilege. We really respect our competition in the NCHA and the top teams can compete with anyone in the country. This means the NCHA championship is going to be a battle and it will take playing our best hockey of the season. We are a grounded team and know there is a lot of work ahead.”
When you watch enough movies or television programs in a certain genre, you start to get a feel for how the plot will unfold.
Following Mercyhurst hockey is a bit like that. It may look like their world is about to blow up around them, but the Lakers always manage to cut the right wire at the right time. They have reached the NCAA tournament a record nine consecutive years and have claimed regular-season titles in all 11 CHA campaigns.
As the seasons unfold in any drama, it gets tougher to convince the audience that the protagonist might fail to succeed. The creators of the current season of Mercyhurst have done a great job of producing a cliffhanger; the Lakers lost their opening game to Minnesota State and followed with losses to Ohio State and Providence, all unranked teams, and have been in scramble mode ever since.
“It almost feels like we’ve been playing must-win games since September, which can be pretty draining on a young team,” coach Mike Sisti said.
The Lakers have won most of those games after that shaky start of three losses in five games. They rallied with a win and a tie at Clarkson, a team ranked No. 3 at the time, to right the ship and get themselves headed in the right direction. There were a few stumbles along the way; November losses at Robert Morris and RIT put the team’s record at 7-5-2.
“On nights if you’re putting up two to four goals, you’ve got to limit your mistakes for sure,” Sisti said. “That’s something that a young team, the quicker they learn it the better, and sometimes they’ve got to learn it the hard way.”
Mercyhurst shows signs of learning, playing at a 7-1-1 clip over its last nine games, the blemishes coming the last time out against highly ranked Cornell. Sisti thinks his young team, with just three seniors and four juniors, is getting better.
“I think a lot of teams would be loving sitting here with only six losses heading into late January and just for our standards, we’re obviously not happy with it,” he said.
The unhappiness is derived from the fact that the team’s present mark of 14-6-3 and 7-2-1 in the CHA is not enough to take it where it wants to go.
“I love winning; I love making it into the national picture,” said senior assistant captain Christie Cicero. “I think that’s kind of how each team looks at it. We want to uphold the Mercyhurst tradition. I think that’s extremely important when talking about our school in particular, because we’ve had so much success, we never want to drop the ball. We want to play for each other. We want to play for our coach. We want to play for the players in the past and make sure that this school will always have a great reputation and always be known as Mercyhurst, that tough team, that team that always makes it.”
This season, Mercyhurst may not make it to the national tournament, sitting a precarious 10th in the PairWise Rankings and 11th in the Ratings Percentage Index that provides its foundation.
“We actually over the 15 years of our program, through graduation and what not, we’ve rebuilt it four or five times without ever having a rebuilding year, so to speak, which is almost impossible to do,” Sisti said. “I credit our past and present staffs and players for being able to do that. We’ve had a lot of new pieces over the last few years. We’ve managed to kind of figure it out as the season goes and win enough games along the way to be there when the smoke clears. It’s a very difficult challenge.”
The challenge has been made more difficult this year by the emergence of a new CHA power at Robert Morris. The Colonials established a program wins record of 19 games two years ago when Paul Colontino left his job on Sisti’s staff to take command at Robert Morris, and his current teams has already matched that total with five weeks remaining in its regular season.
“I think clearly [the Colonials] are one of the best teams in the country this year,” Sisti said. “They’re sitting there with only three losses, and they’ve got their best, deepest team they’ve ever had, and they’re getting great contributions through experienced players and young players, too. I believe [freshman goaltender Jessica Dodds] is undefeated, so obviously, that’s got to bring a lot of confidence for her and the team. They clearly have earned their rankings, and I personally think they should be ranked higher than they are, given what they’ve done this season, but they’re a quality team that’s really deep and can beat you in a lot of ways with great defense and explosive offense.”
No. 8 in the USCHO poll and fifth in the PairWise, Robert Morris also threatens to usurp Mercyhurst as boss of the league. RMU holds a one-game lead atop the standings as it prepares to visit Erie for a weekend series with the Lakers that will go a long way to deciding the title.
“The league has changed since I’ve been a freshman until now,” Cicero said. “We were definitely never the underdog, per se, in our league until probably last year, this year. When people say, ‘Oh, you’re playing Robert Morris,’ people kind of look over that essentially in the schedule. For us, this is us playing Wisconsin this year in the WCHA or North Dakota. It’s definitely a lot more fun and it gives almost like a playoff-type pace to the game, which makes it a little bit more interesting and a little bit more fun.”
When the teams met in November, the intensity spilled over and resulted in five majors and five game misconducts at the final buzzer that ended the series on a sour note.
“We all know that this is a huge game and we can’t do what happened at the end of the game,” Cicero said. “I’ve definitely grown and learned my lesson there. I don’t want to let my team down personally. We know that we just have to be mature and play our game and not let any big emotions get to us, because we obviously need these wins.”
Penalties can at times be Mercyhurst’s undoing. It is the second-most penalized team in the country, and those infractions have led to 20 power-play goals for opponents, a sizable chunk of the 44 goals that the Lakers have allowed.
“Coach always tells us that we need to limit to a maximum of four penalties a game, and that’s definitely been a big concern for our team this year,” Cicero said. “I think another reason why our PK has been maybe a bit down in the rankings is because of the amount of penalties that we do have to kill. I think when we kill fewer penalties we do a lot better and our players don’t get as tired as we normally would. It’s definitely a huge focus for us.”
Previous Mercyhurst teams have had success in spite of posting some sizable penalty totals in large part because the rosters contained a number of people like Megan Agosta, Bailey Bram, Jesse Scanzano, and Valerie Chouinard, all of whom racked up at least 200 points as Lakers.
“When you’re really deep and you have that offensive firepower to get five, six goals a night, you obviously have a greater margin of error and you’re able to get away with a few more mistakes,” Sisti said.
This year’s roster is less equipped to simply outscore opponents. Christine Bestland has surpassed that 200-point mark, but Cicero is next with 89 career points.
“We’re definitely more the type of offense [where] we need to work together,” Cicero said. “It’s not an individual process anymore, and we’re not going to win on talent alone. We need to work on hard work and grinding and battling. We’re the type of team that needs to go into a war every single Friday and Saturday night that we play.”
The outcome of those battles figures to hold the key to Mercyhurst’s face.
“Hockey, as complicated as it seems sometimes, it’s pretty simple,” Sisti said. “Hockey is hockey. You’ve got to do the little things well. The team that wins those battles and does the little things better usually is the team that wins. We’ve got to get a lot of wins here late in the season if we want to accomplish our goals. You can’t get them all at once. We can’t worry about factors that we don’t control. All we can do is try to be the best team we can be this season and win as many as we can along the way. Certainly, we’re not getting ahead of ourselves. We just want to play really good, smart, competitive games this weekend.”
If they do that and pick up wins over Robert Morris, that CHA trophy could land in Erie once again.
“We’re sitting here, late January, and we’re still in the mix,” Sisti said. “We’ve accomplished an awful lot over the years, and it is getting to make or break time for this team. I feel we’ve improved a lot over the season, and hopefully, we can just keep getting better down the stretch.”
Colby senior forward Ben Chwick has contributed to the Mules’ charge as of late in NESCAC play (photo: Dustin Satloff).
In the summer of 2012, then-new coach Blaise MacDonald arrived at Colby without the benefit of a recruiting class to call his own and started with a team that had seen the transition of three coaches in three seasons.
The Mules had struggled with any kind of success, lacked depth and found ways to beat themselves early in the season last year. But things began to change for the Mules towards the end of the season and this year, the results and confidence level have the Mules back among the league leaders in the ultra-competitive NESCAC.
“Believability is a big key to success,” stated MacDonald. “These kids that have been here through all of the transitions had not seen a lot of success or wins on the ice. We needed to change some things and that started with this year’s recruiting class. The first season, we only had six defensemen on the roster and used two converted forwards at defense to create depth. Lacking the bodies really makes it challenging to play, but also to practice effectively and develop. We have eight defensemen on the roster this season, including a transfer from Middlebury [Alex Walsh], and three freshmen, so that has helped. We also have received terrific leadership from our senior class and especially our captain, Nick [Lanza] and assistant captain, Brendan [Cosgrove].
“We started having some success late in the first season and now that positive attitude and confidence is showing itself on the ice and creating positive results the team can believe in.”
A perfect example of that confidence and believability might be found in the Mules’ improbable come-from-behind overtime victory at Wesleyan last weekend.
“There wasn’t an overwhelming feeling of overconfidence or overt attitude that we were coming back from two goals down being a man down with two minutes left in the game and having just surrendered a shorthanded goal,” explained MacDonald. “It was more a quiet confidence that we could get back into this thing with a goal and that we were not out of the game despite the circumstances.”
Robert McCormick scored a shorthanded goal with less than two minutes remaining and Lanza tied the game with just 10 seconds remaining in regulation and an extra attacker on the ice for Colby. The comeback was completed by Lanza, who scored the game-winning goal with an assist from Ben Chwick less than two minutes into overtime.
“Nick and Ben have been really terrific for us all season,” noted MacDonald. “It has been great to see the value of their leadership with the team this year and their terrific performance on the ice virtually every night for us. They are two of the most explosive players in the conference and really have scored NHL-like highlight goals for us this season. They are our leaders on the ice and have some special offensive skills that have led to some big goals for our team this season.”
For MacDonald, season two has been a settling into the rigors of NESCAC hockey and the traditions of Colby hockey. The expectations for Colby hockey are not lost on its new coach and the traditions are something he embraces and looks forward to building on in his tenure on campus in Waterville.
“You look at the history here with Charlie Holt and Jack Kelley and it is a program steeped in history,” MacDonald said. “My first recruitment letter back when I was looking at colleges was from Mickey Goulet, so I know the traditions that are part of this program and the history of great coaches that have been here through the years. It is the biggest sport on campus and without question, the rivalry with Bowdoin is among the best rivalries in college hockey. It definitely compares with a BU-BC or a BU-Maine. It is really great to be a part of the history of Colby hockey and of course, we want to bring the program back to successful years seen in the past.
“We don’t play for moral victories; we play to win here at Colby. We added a standings board for the locker room this season and we want to see where we are in the conference and compete at the top of this very competitive league. These kids have been great in working to bring the program back and we are excited about the games ahead and our ability to compete with anyone in the conference.”
This weekend actually adds another level of hockey lore to the Colby hockey tradition. The school will be honoring Kelley and over 75 alums and dignitaries from the hockey coaching community will be coming to pay tribute to Kelley, who now calls Waterville home year-round.
“The first letter I received when I took the position here at Colby was from Jack Kelley,” said McDonald. “I have conversations and lunch with Jack often and really relish his stories and coaching ideas from his lifetime history in the game. I think Jack Parker and “Toot” Cahoon are coming this weekend to honor Jack and it will be a great event to recognize one of the giants of the college game and mentor to so many players and coaches who are still in hockey today.”
The traditions are many and the belief in success is rekindled by a new coach and determined group of players. Williams and Middlebury come calling this weekend at Colby, so the road is challenging, but confidence is high and the success is being proven one game at a time.
Bowdoin raising awareness for Wounded Warrior Project
This Friday night at the Middlebury-Bowdoin game, the Polar Bears will be raising awareness and fundraising for the Wounded Warrior Project.
Sophomore goalie Max Fenkell has led the Bowdoin support and relationship with the WWP, which includes auctioning of special jerseys worn by the team for Friday’s game and sales to the public of replica shirts to the public to raise funds for the initiative.
For more information on purchasing a replica jersey and supporting the event, inquiries can be made to Fenkell at [email protected].
Minnesota State’s Teddy Blueger will miss Friday’s game against Minnesota-Duluth after getting a fighting major in last Saturday’s game against Ferris State (photo: Jim Rosvold).
When the college hockey season began, one of the encouraging aspects of the new WCHA was the geographic rivalries that existed in the league.
Alaska and Alaska-Anchorage ended up in the same conference for the first time. Northern Michigan and Michigan Tech were reunited in the WCHA 17 years after the Wildcats left for the CCHA. And Bemidji State and Minnesota State were left together after three other Minnesota teams excited.
But what the league needed was real rivalry.
Not one signified by state borders but one defined by the games themselves. Something more than bragging rights has to be at stake, and something might even have to carry over from meeting to meeting.
We’re talking Minnesota-North Dakota stuff here.
A little more than halfway through the season, the WCHA just might have its first big rivalry: Minnesota State and Ferris State.
“It’s rivalry for sure now,” Mavericks forward Jean-Paul LaFontaine said after the Mavericks swept the Bulldogs last weekend in Mankato, Minn.
The two teams went into the series as the top teams in the conference. The Mavericks got nearly all of the league’s preseason accolades, but the Bulldogs entered the weekend as the No. 2 team in the country and looked to be running away with the MacNaughton Cup.
Minnesota State won both games, including a 4-3 Saturday win before a boisterous crowd of 4,636 at the Verizon Wireless Center.
“It was a big playoff atmosphere, especially tonight,” LaFontaine said Saturday.
Mavericks coach Mike Hastings agreed.
“That was a playoff hockey game,” he said. “What wasn’t involved in that game, right?”
Following a 6-2 Mavericks victory on Friday, Saturday’s rematch was a tighter-checking, harder-hitting affair that heated up in the second period and boiled over in the third.
After Ferris State captain Scott Czarnowczan was ejected for a hit on Minnesota State’s Bryce Gervais in the second period, he egged on the Mankato crowd as he exited the arena. LaFontaine scored on the ensuing power play, and the fans went into a frenzy.
In the third period, a multi-player skirmish resulted in two Mavericks players being disqualified (Teddy Blueger and Zach Stepan) one Bulldogs player getting a DQ (Justin DeMartino) and several other game misconducts, including one to Ferris State goalie CJ Motte.
“At one time, I think they had one [defenseman] left, and we had three,” Hastings said. “The guys competed. I think Bobby [Daniels, Ferris State’s coach] would tell you the same thing: You don’t go into a game thinking that’s going to happen.”
In all, the two teams combined for 43 penalties and 216 penalty minutes. And at the end of the weekend, just two points separated them atop the WCHA standings.
Minnesota State will play in the inaugural North Star College Cup Friday and Saturday at the Xcel Energy Center, an event that also includes three of the Mavericks’ old WCHA foes — Minnesota-Duluth, St. Cloud State and Minnesota — in a four-game tournament.
While it will be nice for the Mavericks to face those geographic rivals again, they now know they have another real rival in their new conference.
Siemer makes big impact on home ice
Speaking to a small gathering of Northern Michigan Blue Line Club members last Friday before a series against Alaska, Wildcats coach Walt Kyle said the fans would notice true freshmen forwards John Siemer and Gerard Hanson in their first two games at the Berry Events Center.
While both scored Friday in their first home games with the Wildcats, Siemer continued to shine Saturday, adding what Kyle called two “major league assists” plus a goal in the third period to earn WCHA rookie of the week honors.
The first assist came on a give-and-go, two-on-one breakaway with senior forward Erik Higby. Siemer then went coast-to-coast on the second to set up Higby again.
“He’s legit,” Kyle said about Siemer. “He’s going to score a lot of points here. He may be our single biggest offensive dynamic guy.”
Siemer and Hanson both had to sit out the first part of the season because they were academically ineligible by NCAA standards. Siemer was able to make his debut with the Wildcats on Dec. 14 at North Dakota while Hanson had to wait until Jan. 3 at Bemidji State.
Siemer has five points in five games, though before last weekend he had only an assist against Bemidji.
Siemer’s teammates aren’t expecting him to slow down anytime soon, though.
“He’s a very skilled player,” Higby said. “He’s definitely going to be a big impact going down in the playoffs and late in the season. As long as we can keep the chemistry going, we should be good.”
Alaska’s Tyler Morley delivers a check last season (photo: Rachel Lewis).
Morley brothers rescue Nanooks
As good as the Wildcats’ Siemer was on Saturday with a goal and two assists, Alaska’s Morley brothers, Tyler and Brandon, were that much better, allowing the Nanooks to escape from Marquette with a split.
After both scored a goal in Friday’s loss, Tyler Morley, a sophomore, scored two goals while Brandon Morley, a freshman, had a goal and an assist on Saturday to lead the Nanooks to their first win in Marquette, Mich., since 2005.
“Both are tremendous competitors, that’s the thing that I love the most about them,” Alaska coach Dallas Ferguson said. “They compete hard every shift. They’re going to give you everything that they got.”
The Burnaby, British Columbia, natives and Alaska linemates both played in the BCHL. Tyler, now 22, was recruited as a 20-year-old out of Surrey. Brandon, now 19, also played for Surrey before being traded to Coquitlam.
Brandon has three goals and two assists in his freshman season, having appeared in all 24 games for the Nanooks.
Tyler, who had 10 goals and 11 assists as a freshman, has 12 goals and 11 assists this year, which tied senior Cody Kunyk for the team high in goals. He trails Kunyk by two assists for the team high in points.
“Brandon has come in and is getting better every day, every week. That’s the positive for him,” Ferguson said.
“Tyler is a guy who finds ways to score goals in tough areas. For his stature, to go out there and compete the way that he does, he’s a big asset to our team and to our program.
“They’re great kids to coach and we’re proud to have them in our program.”
Around the WCHA
• Alabama Huntsville picked up its third WCHA point this season, tying Alaska Anchorage 1-1 last Friday. The tie ended an eight-game losing streak for the Chargers. Huntsville has 12 conference games remaining. In recent years, the lowest point finish in the WCHA standings is six (Michigan Tech in 2010-11, Alaska-Anchorage in 2002-03).
• Alaska’s come-from-behind victory at Northern Michigan on Saturday snapped an 11-game-winless streak in Marquette. The Nanooks’ last win there came on Feb. 5, 2005. The two teams were both members of the CCHA before joining the WCHA this year.
• Lake Superior State’s losses at Notre Dame last weekend left the WCHA with an 0-12 record against Hockey East. All 12 of those games were in Hockey East rinks. The WCHA is 25-42-12 this year in nonconference play, with a 14-7-5 record at home. Minnesota State plays the league’s final two nonconference games this weekend in the North Star College Cup. Two wins could get the league’s neutral ice record above .500. It sits at 4-5-1.
• Bemidji State wrapped up nonconference play with an 0-5-3 record after tying and falling to North Dakota last weekend. Six of those games came against former WCHA members: St. Cloud State (0-1-1), Minnesota (0-2) and North Dakota (0-1-1). The Beavers also played Miami (0-1-1).
• This week’s WCHA players of the week are Minnesota State forward Johnny McInnis (offensive), Bemidji State defenseman Matt Prapavessis (defensive) and Northern Michigan forward John Siemer (rookie).
Hobart junior defenseman Ryan Michel contributed five assists last weekend and earned ECAC West player of the week honors (photo: Dan Hickling).
Let the jockeying begin.
After having tasted out-of-conference action for the past several weeks, the ECAC West’s sextet is set to battle each other in earnest for standings positions.
The top five teams, headed by Utica, are separated by just six points.
And who knows, for one or two clubs, maybe an NCAA tournament bid will be up for grabs.
That said, it’s probably a good time to take a tour of the league’s rinks for a little insight on each club.
ELMIRA: The Soaring Eagles’ offense has been clicking at a rate of better than four goals per game and it continued to do just that in Tuesday’s tilt at Fredonia. However, even a 52-shot barrage leveled at Fredonia goalie Jeff Flager wasn’t sufficient to prevent a 5-4 setback.
Elmira might have escaped Steele Hall with at least a tie if not for a power-play tally by Blue Devils’ forward Stephen Castriota with just 47 seconds remaining.
Netminder Sal Magliocco was named the league’s goalie of the week for stellar work in Elmira’s twin wins over Cortland and Oswego. Senior forward Jesper Strale made the ECAC West honor roll for garnering four points (goal, three assists) in Elmira’s win against Cortland.
The Eagles have a crucial two-game set at Neumann, against whom they hold a three-point standings lead.
HOBART: Speaking of goal-scoring, the Statesmen all but filled the net in carding two one-sided wins, scoring a total of 13 times against Cortland and Potsdam.
The effort earned Hobart a handful of ECAC West plaudits, with junior defenseman Ryan Michel taking the league’s player of the week honors for racking up a total of five assists.
Michel was joined in the limelight by freshman forward, who earned rookie of the week plaudits, and goalie Lino Chimienti, who made the league’s honor roll.
Hobart sits in third place in the conference and holds a one-point edge over Manhattanville, whom they will face twice this weekend.
MANHATTANVILLE: A mixed bag was the Valiants’ take in last week’s action, with a loss to nationally-ranked Williams followed by a win over Morrisville.
Junior blueliner Anton Racklin, who leads all D-III defensemen in scoring, upped his total to 19 by amassing seven points (two goals, five assists) on the weekend.
NAZARETH: The Golden Flyers head into the home stretch still looking for its first league win to go with its three nonconference triumphs.
One of those wins came during their last outing, a 4-2 count at Cortland.
Nazareth will have its hands full this weekend, when it will take on a pair of nationally-ranked squads.
Friday, the Flyers will play host to ECAC West-leading No. 10 Utica, then will travel to Geneseo to face No. 14 in its final nonconference tilt on the schedule.
NEUMANN: Lost twice last week to nationally-ranked Geneseo, 3-2 and 4-1.
The Knights got one goal each from Nick Perrucio, Casey Rogers and Dan McDougall.
Seated in fifth place with five points, Neumann could conceivable vault into second spot with a sweep of visiting Elmira.
UTICA: There are no “gimmes” in college hockey, which is why the league-leading Pioneers will likely not be looking past ECAC West cellar dwellers, Nazareth, whom they will visit on Friday.
Utica will follow that up the next night by hosting Hamilton in a nonconference tilt.
The Pioneers played just once last week and were held to a 2-2 tie by Brockport.
According to College Hockey Inc., the NCAA Board of Directors last weekend approved legislation that will allow college hockey coaches to contact prospective players beginning Jan. 1 of their 10th grade year, five and a half months earlier than the previous rule.
This new measure is effective immediately and is aimed to allow NCAA coaches to contact players prior to being drafted in the Canadian Hockey League.
“This should help more and more talented young players understand their options prior to making a decision that could jeopardize their NCAA eligibility,” the report read.
The new legislation also removes limits on the number of telephone calls, emails, social media direct messages and text messages that coaches can send to those players, also beginning Jan. 1 of their 10th grade year.
Previously, coaches could not contact prospective student-athletes or their families until June 15 of a prospect’s 10th grade year and even then, coaches were limited in the number of calls or emails they could make to an individual.
“As a result, many prospective players never knew that NCAA schools had interest in recruiting them – and those who were proactive and contacted schools on their own would not hear back until at least June 15 of their grade 10 year,” continued the report.
Coaches still have limits in the number of in-person contacts they can make with prospective players and they still cannot make their first off-campus contact with a prospect until June 15 of their 10th grade year
Atlantic Hockey has suspended Rochester Institute of Technology sophomore forward Dan Schuler one game under the league’s supplemental discipline policy after he was given a major for charging at the 13:11 mark of the second period last Friday night (Jan. 17) against Army.
In a news release, the AHA states that after reviewing video, it was determined that Schuler “could have and should have avoided contact with the Army goalie.”
Schuler is out for the Tigers’ next game on Friday, Jan. 24, against Niagara.
Atlantic Hockey has suspended Sacred Heart sophomore goaltender Alex Vazzano for two games under the league’s supplemental discipline policy.
Vazzano was given a major for contact to the head and a game misconduct at the 1:37 mark of the second period last Saturday night (Jan. 18) against Air Force.
According to an AHA press release, the league determined that Vazzano’s actions were “both dangerous and flagarant.”
Vazzano will miss the Pioneers’ next two games on Friday, Jan. 31, and Saturday, Feb. 1 against Niagara.
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. 21:
1 Minnesota
2 Boston College
3 Quinnipiac
4t Union
4t Ferris state
6t Providence
6t Northeastern
8 St. Cloud State
9 Massachusetts-Lowell
10 Wisconsin
11 Notre Dame
12t Clarkson
12t Cornell
14 Yale
15t Michigan
15t Vermont
— 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 6, Clarkson and Cornell at 12, and Michigan and Vermont at 15.
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 Providence
7 Northeastern
8 St. Cloud State
9 Massachusetts-Lowell
10 Wisconsin
11 Notre Dame
12 Clarkson
13 Cornell
14 Yale
15 Michigan
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, Providence, Northeastern, St Cloud State
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 St. Cloud State is placed in No. 1 Minnesota’s regional, the West Regional.
No. 7 Northeastern is placed in No. 2 Boston College’s regional, the Northeast Regional.
No. 6 Providence 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 St. Cloud State’s regional, the West Regional.
No. 10 Wisconsin is placed in No. 7 Northeastern’s regional, the Northeast Regional.
No. 11 Notre Dame is placed in No. 6 Providence’s regional, the East Regional.
No. 12 Clarkson 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.
But we have to place Yale first as the host in the East.
No. 14 Yale is sent to No. 3 Quinnipiac’s regional, the East Regional.
No. 16 Mercyhurst is sent to No. 1 Minnesota’s regional, the West Regional.
No. 15 Michigan is sent to No. 2 Boston College’s regional, the Northeast Regional.
No. 13 Cornell 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 St. Cloud State
Midwest Regional (Cincinnati):
13 Cornell vs. 4 Union
12 Clarkson vs. 5 Ferris State
Northeast Regional (Worcester):
15 Michigan vs. 2 Boston College
10 Wisconsin vs. 7 Northeastern
East Regional (Bridgeport):
14 Yale vs. 3 Quinnipiac
11 Notre Dame vs. 6 Providence
Our first concern is avoiding intraconference matchups. We have three of them, so let’s solve them.
We have Yale vs. Quinnipiac, Cornell vs. Union and Notre Dame vs. Providence. As always, even though there are five teams from both Hockey East and ECAC Hockey, history has shown that the committee will try to avoid first-round intraconference matchups if it’s possible.
We can swap Notre Dame and Clarkson. That brings Notre Dame to the Midwest and Clarkson to the East, which is a good swap. Note that we can’t swap Lowell back, because that would create another Hockey East-Hockey East matchup.
West Regional (St. Paul):
16 Mercyhurst vs. 1 Minnesota
9 Massachusetts-Lowell vs. 8 St. Cloud State
Midwest Regional (Cincinnati):
13 Cornell vs. 4 Union
11 Notre Dame vs. 5 Ferris State
Northeast Regional (Worcester):
15 Michigan vs. 2 Boston College
10 Wisconsin vs. 7 Northeastern
East Regional (Bridgeport):
14 Yale vs. 3 Quinnipiac
12 Clarkson vs. 6 Providence
Now we have a headache, or fun, whatever viewpoint you want to take it from.
The ECAC-ECAC matchups all occur in the 1 vs. 4 band. We have Minnesota, which must be in St. Paul and Yale, which must be in Bridgeport.
But because of conference, it means that Yale and Cornell have to face Minnesota and Boston College.
Or does it?
There are some glaring things to address with this, but let’s swap what we can first.
There’s only one, Cornell and Michigan.
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
Northeast Regional (Worcester):
13 Cornell vs. 2 Boston College
10 Wisconsin vs. 7 Northeastern
East Regional (Bridgeport):
14 Yale vs. 3 Quinnipiac
12 Clarkson vs. 6 Providence
We still have that sticky situation where Yale is playing Quinnipiac. Can we avoid it?
BC and Quinnipiac can swap, but then we still have an ECAC-ECAC matchup. Quinnipiac and Union are in the same boat.
We can’t swap Mercyhurst and Yale. Nor can we swap much else. There’s a way to avoid intraconference matchups but it conflicts with so many objectives (protecting the No. 1 overall seed, giving No. 1 seeds regionals close to their school, etc.) that it’s hard to imagine the committee going in that direction.
So it looks like we’re stuck.
And stuck with a championship rematch in Bridgeport in round one. Wow!
So my bracket for the week:
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
Northeast Regional (Worcester):
13 Cornell vs. 2 Boston College
10 Wisconsin vs. 7 Northeastern
East Regional (Bridgeport):
14 Yale vs. 3 Quinnipiac
12 Clarkson vs. 6 Providence
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. 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
Conference breakdowns
Hockey East — 5
ECAC Hockey — 5
Big Ten — 3
Atlantic Hockey — 1
NCHC — 1
WCHA — 1
On the move
In: Notre Dame
Out: New Hampshire
Attendance woes?
None.
Last week’s brackets
West Regional (St. Paul)
16 Mercyhurst vs. 1 Minnesota
9 Massachusetts-Lowell vs. 5 St. Cloud State
Midwest Regional (Cincinnati)
15 Michigan vs. 3 Ferris State
10 Wisconsin vs. 6 Union
East Regional (Bridgeport)
13 New Hampshire vs. 4 Quinnipiac
12 Yale vs. 8 Providence
Northeast Regional (Worcester)
14 Clarkson vs. 2 Boston College
11 Cornell vs. 7 Northeastern
Interesting …
Juicy rematch of last year’s championship game in round one in Bridgeport. The state of Connecticut salivates over that one.
Coach Casey Jones and Clarkson ended a 1-4-1 skid with wins over Yale and Brown last weekend (photo: Jim Rosvold).
It doesn’t take much to start a slump, but if last weekend is any sign, Clarkson looks to have avoided starting down that path.
After losing just three games in the first half, the Golden Knights entered the middle of January on a 1-4-1 stretch, which included a tie and two losses against No. 8 Massachusetts-Lowell.
But Clarkson put to rest any thoughts of an extended skid with a pair of 3-2 home wins over then-No. 8 Yale and Brown last weekend.
“I didn’t think we were that far off,” Golden Knights coach Casey Jones said. “We had some games that didn’t go our way where we played well enough to win. Over the course of the season, that’s going to happen.”
Still, Jones said the Golden Knights showed an uncharacteristic lack of discipline in a 4-0 loss to Merrimack on Jan. 11, as back-to-back penalties turned into two Warriors power-play goals in the second period.
Clarkson stayed in control against Yale and Brown, taking only six penalties in the two games, as it improved its record to 12-3 in one-goal games this season.
“We don’t get nervous; we’ve been in them before,” Jones said of playing in so many tight games. “We won some close games early, which helped our mind-set.”
The Golden Knights may not have the big names that teams like Quinnipiac or Union do, but they have plenty of depth through the lineup and deny their opponents space to work.
“We hunt down pucks and skate well,” Jones said. “That’s a trademark of our team. When we’re a step off, we give [the opponent] more time and space than they should have. We did a really good job pursuing pucks; that was probably the biggest thing this weekend.”
That aggressiveness carried over to the power play as well, as Will Frederick’s third-period goal on the man advantage was the game-winner Saturday.
“Sometimes we don’t have an attacking mentality; we look to get set up,” Jones said of the Golden Knights’ power play. “We just have to have a little more of a shooting mentality and generate some second-chance opportunities.”
No. 13 Clarkson’s depth will be tested this weekend when the Golden Knights travel to No. 12 Cornell and Colgate. Senior center and top scorer Ben Sexton will sit out Friday’s game after getting a game disqualification penalty last Saturday against Brown, while freshman center Troy Josephs is day-to-day after missing both the Yale and Brown games.
St. Lawrence will stay with Matt Weninger in goal, coach Greg Carvel says (photo: Bradley K. Olson).
St. Lawrence sliding
It’s been a rough go of it for the Golden Knights’ travel partner and North Country rival St. Lawrence. The Saints have lost seven in a row and 10 of their last 12.
“We’re not a long ways off,” St. Lawrence coach Greg Carvel said.
Goaltending and penalty killing have been the main issues for St. Lawrence, which Carvel estimates was one of the only teams not to have a bye week in the first half.
“At the end of the semester, we were just a tired team. Now it’s more of a mental thing,” he said.
Part of that has to do with getting out to slow starts recently. The Saints haven’t scored a first-period goal in four games and are just 2-7 when trailing after the opening period.
That’s a problem, even with a prolific offense that has the country’s best power play and is scoring nearly three and a half goals per game. The trio of Matt and Greg Carey and Jeremy Wick is averaging a point per game or better each, while senior Justin Baker has been an offensive force from the blue line.
“I guess we’re a fragile team. Maybe we’re expecting bad things to happen,” Carvel said. “Obviously, that’s not the way to win. To score first would go a long way.”
An improved penalty-kill unit and better goaltending would help, too. St. Lawrence ranks third-to-last in the country in short-handed efficiency, while goalies Matt Weninger, Tyler Parks and Kyle MacDonald have combined for an .858 save percentage.
“Our penalty kill has got to get a lot better,” Carvel said. “We don’t give up a lot of shots. The biggest factor is to get the saves.
“When we’re letting in goals we’re losing our aggressiveness and giving teams too much time. We really should be pressuring more on the penalty kill.”
Each of the Saints’ three goalies has started a game during the seven-game losing streak, but Carvel has no plans to go away from Weninger, a senior who’s started since arriving on campus.
“Matt is our guy; he’s proven that many times,” Carvel said. “We’re going to stick with him and work with him to help him find ways to get back on track.”
St. Lawrence dealt with a similar stretch last season, losing six of seven in the middle of the year before turning it around with a solid stretch run.
“This time last year, we found a way to turn things around and went six games without a loss,” Carvel said. “We need to transition that success to this year.”
Around the league
• Quinnipiac freshman Sam Anas’ goal Saturday against Merrimack was selected as the NCAA’s top play of the week. Check out the video here.
• Union and Colgate continue to be two of the league’s hottest teams, with each school earning a sweep on the road last weekend. The Raiders are 4-0-1 in January and haven’t allowed more than two goals during that stretch. Colgate gave up four or more goals seven times during in the first half. Union swept a pair of games at New Hampshire to push its winning streak to three. The Dutchmen have only three losses since Oct. 25.
• The ECAC announced Monday that Dartmouth forward Eric Neiley was suspended for two games as a result of his actions against Cornell last Saturday at Thompson Arena. The league action was taken after review of an incident that occurred after the final horn of the third period where Neiley was assessed major and game disqualification penalties.
• Brown’s Massimo Lamacchia also will also sit out Friday after he was given a five-minute major and game disqualification for fighting Sexton on Saturday.
• Quinnipiac defenseman Dan Federico was recently profiled in the New Haven Register. The junior defenseman was repeatedly praised by coach Rand Pecknold during last year’s playoffs, and he’s been even better this year. Federico has played in all 27 of the Bobcats’ games to date, and is plus-16 overall, the best of any ECAC player.
• Yale’s John Hayden had a career-best two goals and one assist against St. Lawrence last Saturday to earn the league’s player and rookie of the week awards. Union’s Colin Stevens set career highs with 38 and then 40 saves at New Hampshire last weekend to win the goalie of the week award.
According to the South Bend Tribune, Notre Dame senior defenseman Jared Beers has pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct stemming from an incident in February 2013 where he was accused of assaulting a female bar manager at Brother’s Bar and Grill in South Bend, Ind.
The report states that Beers entered into a plea agreement last week that allowed him to admit to the class B misdemeanor, but the prosecutor withdrew additional charges of battery resulting in bodily injury, criminal trespass and resisting law enforcement.
Junior defenseman Bob Marx has emerged as a leader on the blue line this season for St. Mary’s (photo: Chris Ebert/Ebert Media Group).
Maybe hope doesn’t look too bright on the surface for the St. Mary’s hockey team.
The Cardinals are just 6-8-1 overall and only 2-4-0 in the MIAC standings.
But head coach Bill Moore knows his team is far from being out of contention for a playoff berth and besides, the record of the Cardinals is a little deceiving.
St. Mary’s has lost three games to nationally-ranked teams and has suffered a couple of tough one-goal losses.
“Our guys have played hard and I think we’ve done a good job of battling every week,” Moore said. “But there is no doubt that we are a team with the potential to be a playoff team. It’s just a matter of putting it all together. I feel like we are on the right path.”
The Cardinals are coming off a split with Bethel this past weekend. St. Mary’s won the opener 4-1, but fell 4-3 in the finale despite racking up 38 shots and limiting the Royals to 22.
It was one of those games the Cardinals let get away from them, but they refuse to hang their heads.
In fact, despite a tough stretch where St. Mary’s has won only once in its last five games, the players have remained positive and focused.
“Our guys have remained upbeat and continue to work hard,” Moore said. “They are confident and they know we can still make the playoffs if we play well.”
Making it happen hinges on a few key improvements.
Moore wants to see his team get back to being effective in penalty kill situations and be more productive from a goal-scoring standpoint.
The Cardinals are cranking out 35 shots per game, but average only 2.3 goals per outing. Opponents are 16-of-75 on the power play against them.
“We need to be able to score more goals. We’re getting a lot of shots off, but we aren’t scoring enough off those shots,” Moore said. “And our penalty kill has to get better. We were were doing a great job earlier in the year, but lately, we’ve given up too many goals in those situations. Special teams is so important to success in college hockey.”
The Cardinals are led by Bob Marx and Bobby Thompson. Marx has scored six goals and four assists, while Thompson has tallied four goals and six assists.
Nick Albergo has come through with five goals and three assists and Martin Gruse has tallied three goals and four assists.
Christian Gaffy has spent most of the time in goal. In 10 games, he has allowed 25 goals and has racked up 253 saves. Phil Heinle has played in six games and has given up 14 goals. He has made 185 saves.
St. Mary’s has five two-game weekends remaining in the regular season and the Cardinals will need to capitalize on the chances they will get to earn points and climb back into the playoff hunt. Heading into this week, they are only four points out of fifth place.
“The big thing for us is we have to be able to at least split every weekend and because we let one get away last week, we need to steal one somewhere and get a sweep,” Moore said. “If we can play hard and create more scoring chances by getting more traffic in front of the net to score off rebounds or tipped pucks, we’ll have a chance to be successful.”
Dominant Weekend: Gustavus Adolphus surged into first place in the conference standings with a sweep of Augsburg.
The Gusties knocked off the Auggies 4-2 on Saturday to complete the perfect weekend and improve to 9-4-3 overall and to 6-1-1 in the MIAC.
Gustavus has a total of 20 points, putting it four points ahead of second-place St. Thomas.
Tyler Lapic, Corey Lievermann, Alex Gallen and Andy Pearson all scored goals for Gustavus, which racked up 35 shots and limited the Auggies to 25 shots.
John McLean earned the win and improved to 8-3-3 on the season. He made 23 saves, including 13 in the third period.
Gustavus won the opener of the series 3-1, which ended a three-game winless streak.
Johnnies Roll: St. John’s capped a weekend sweep of Concordia (Minn.) on Saturday with a 2-1 win over the Cobbers.
The Johnnies improved to 10-6 overall and to 5-3 in the conference. They are in third place in the standings.
Andrew Commers and John Haeg both scored for the Johnnies, who stretched their win streak to five games. St. John’s has yet to lose a game in 2014.
St. John’s held a 36-31 edge in shots and turned away all six of Concordia’s power-play opportunities. St. John’s has denied the last 30 power-play opportunities opponents have had against them.
The Johnnies have won or tied in 29 of the last 34 meetings with the Cobbers and are 23-4-2 in their last 29 games against them.
Wisconsin-River Falls senior defenseman Jeff Burke is leading by example and epitomizes what a team player is for the Falcons (photo: Kathy M Helgeson/UW-River Falls Communications).
Jeff Burke is in the midst of another stellar season for Wisconsin-River Falls.
The senior defenseman and two-time All-WIAC honorable mention selection is tied for second on the team in points with 12. He has scored three goals and dished out nine assists for the No. 13 Falcons.
“Things are going well,” Burke said. “I’ve definitely improved my speed this year and my hand-eye coordination has gotten better.”
Burke has helped the Falcons fashion a 10-4-2 overall record and a 3-1 mark in the WIAC.
Yet, he knows the success of the team is a credit to everyone in the lineup.
“We trust in each other as teammates and we know that anyone is capable of stepping up,” Burke said. “We complement each other on the ice and my teammates have a lot to do with how well I’ve been able to play.”
Willie Hess is one of those players. He leads the team in goals with 10 and has dished out three assists as well. Blake Huppert has come through with six goals and six assists, while Zach Schrotenboer has tallied five goals and five assists.
Ryan Doner (three goals, seven assists), Christian George (two goals, eight assists) and Mitch Kontny (five goals, three assists) have also been key contributors.
Alec Hagaman (three goals, five assists), Taylor Burder (two goals, six assists) and Mike Williams (three goals, four assists) have also stepped up for the Falcons.
As for Burke, being one of those players who has been an all-league selection doesn’t put any added pressure on his shoulders.
His stats will tell you as much.
Burke is on his way to having his best season from a statistical standpoint. He scored three goals and dished four assists as a freshman and tallied four goals and two assists as a sophomore. Last season, Burke tallied two goals and 10 assists.
“I actually don’t feel any pressure,” Burke said. “I think it helps me to play better because I know I’m going to be challenged on the ice.”
River Falls will be challenged going forward, especially in a conference that features two other nationally-ranked teams in Wisconsin-Stevens Point (third) and defending national champion Wisconsin-Eau Claire (seventh).
“We have a really tough conference – there is no one you can overlook,” Burke said. “You have to be ready to play your best every night and we feel like we have the skill to be successful. It’s just a matter of being mentally ready to go every night.”
Brick Wall: Eau Claire has been rock solid in goal lately and the Blugolds posted their fifth consecutive shutout on Saturday as they blanked nationally-ranked St. Thomas 2-0.
Tyler Green got credit for the win and has been the winning goalie in three of the shutouts. The shutout of the Tommies makes Eau Claire only the second team at any level of college hockey to have five straight shutouts. Lake Superior State did it in 1994.
Green made 39 saves in the win and has yet to allow a goal in 2014. Jay Deo has earned the other two shutout wins.
Chris Heineman and Jack Callahan both scored goals for the Blugolds, who are 11-3-1 overall.
Streak Ends: Stevens Point had its five-game unbeaten streak end on Saturday in a 2-1 loss to River Falls.
Lawrence Cornellier scored the lone goal for the Pointers, who fell to 13-2-1 overall and to 2-2 in the conference.
The Pointers did win the opener of the series on Friday, though, as Cornellier, Nick D’Avolio and Kyle Sharkey all scored goals in the 3-0 win.
Stevens Point was tough defending the power play as it turned away all eight of the Falcons’ chances. Stevens Point held a 27-23 edge in shots and Brandon Jaeger made 23 saves for his third shutout of the season.
The Big Ten announced Wednesday that Penn State sophomore defenseman Mark Yanis has been suspended for one game as a result of an incident that occurred in the Nittany Lions’ game against Michigan State on Saturday, Jan. 18.
The action was taken by the conference after a review of an incident that occurred near the 14:37 mark of the third period and resulted in Yanis receiving a major penalty for hitting from behind and a game misconduct.
Yanis is ineligible to play in Penn State’s next game on Saturday, Jan. 25 against Boston College.
Adam Wilcox and Minnesota take their last step outside Big Ten play when they square off against former WCHA foes St. Cloud State and either Minnesota-Duluth or Minnesota State in the North Star College Cup (photo: Jim Rosvold).
The second half of the season is about Big Ten league play. Mostly.
This weekend, though, marks the beginning of a new tradition in Minnesota, the North Star College Cup, a tournament that features four teams from within the state. Games will be played at 4 and 7 p.m. CST Friday and Saturday at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.
“The thought process behind it was that there’s always been talk of doing something similar to a Beanpot in Minnesota, but it never made sense because we’ve always been in the same conference and we played each other four times per year,” Minnesota coach Don Lucia said. “When the Big Ten was being formed and the NCHC and the new WCHA, it made more sense to put this together.”
Lucia said that the Golden Gophers approached other Minnesota schools to see who’d be on board. As it turned out, everybody was on board.
“We thought we could replicate the success of the Final Five,” said Lucia, “but with everyone knowing in advance who’d be there. We were hoping we could grow this to be as exciting as the Final Five.”
The Gophers will take on St. Cloud State in the late game of the tournament Friday. Minnesota State and Minnesota-Duluth face off earlier in the day. Lucia said that Minnesota will participate every year, and the three others in the field will rotate among the other four Minnesota Division I teams.
As for the timing of the tournament, Lucia said: “We looked at this date that it might be a good date because [college] football’s over, it’s the weekend before the Super Bowl and usually it’s the NHL All-Star weekend. It’s two good games for each team in a good venue. It’s something to break up the second half.”
In the second half, the Gophers — the dominant team that’s not-so-dominant — will look to build on their first-half success to remain atop the Big Ten standings. It’s a different kind of hockey for Minnesota from years past. The Gophers are young, with five rookie forwards and two freshmen on defense in most games.
Additionally, Minnesota lacks those two or three go-to players that can be counted on for monster points. It’s a team that scores by committee, but it has one important thing going for it, said Lucia.
“I think we’ve been pretty consistent this year,” he said. “Part of that is Adam [Wilcox] in net. He covers up some of our mistakes in critical times. We’ve been lucky to get different scoring on different nights. That’s kind of our team; a couple of guys go dry and then someone else gets a timely goal.
“I think our defensemen have brought a lot of offense to our team, too. They skate well and they get the puck out of our zone efficiently, so that adds to our success.”
And the Gophers, said Lucia, play better when they don’t have the man advantage.
“If you look at history, we’ve had a very good power play and probably that’s helped us win a lot of games whereas this year we’ve been a better five-on-five team,” he said. “That’s part of youth.”
In 2012-13, the Gophers had the top power play in the country, converting at 24.6 percent. This season, Minnesota is sitting at No. 40, converting at 16.5 percent.
This weekend’s tournament is the second special event in as many weekends for the Gophers. Last Friday, Minnesota beat Ohio State 1-0 in the Hockey City Classic, played in TCF Bank Stadium, where the Gophers play football.
“It wasn’t as cold as it looked because the benches are heated,” said Lucia. “I was colder in Chicago last year. The ice was as good as it could be. Normally in those games, you switch sides halfway through the third period. We didn’t have to do that because the ice was good and the wind was not a factor.”
Lucia said that while it was a good experience — one in which the Gophers picked up their first win outdoors — he’s not clamoring for another outdoor game soon.
“It’s an event more than a game,” said Lucia. “I think you do have to be careful that you can wear those things out.”
Joel Rumpel and Wisconsin return to play this weekend when they host Ohio State (photo: Jim Rosvold).
A different sheet of ice
This weekend, Wisconsin returns to play against Ohio State. The Badgers had last weekend off, having last played Michigan at home on Jan. 10 and 11, winning 5-2 and 3-1.
“Both games were very competitive, very intense,” said Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves. “We had an ice storm here on the Friday night and we still had 10,000 people in the stands, so the atmosphere was great.
“The nice thing about the weekend was that I thought as a team we played well. I thought it was a complete weekend for us. As far as solidifying our team, there is still some work to do but we played well from the goal out.
“Unfortunately, we had a down week. When you play like that, you’d like to keep going.”
Like all teams in the Big Ten, the Badgers have had to contend with a schedule unfamiliar both in the lineup of opponents and the number of off weeks. Eaves said that it’s a challenge to keep things interesting for the players when there are so many breaks, so the Badgers tried something new.
“We gave them a day off in the middle of the week,” said Eaves, “and we went to a different sheet of ice. We went curling.”
The Badgers went to the Madison Curling Club in McFarland, Wis., about eight miles from the UW campus. “It gave some guys a chance to play who’ve never played before. It was a lot of fun.”
Eaves said that it’s difficult to quantify what a weekend away from play can do for a team.
“You’re hoping players come back refreshed because they’ve had a little bit more down time,” he said.
Eaves is also hoping that this weekend’s games get a boost of energy from the return of students for the new semester, and while the Badgers were accustomed to playing Michigan and Michigan State in the now-defunct College Hockey Showcase, having the Buckeyes in town heightens the excitement of the series.
“It’s an added dimension of Big Ten play,” said Eaves. “I think they’re playing pretty well. We watched their games against the Gophers and we watched their games against Michigan State and you can tell that they play really hard, disciplined hockey.
“Plus, I’m sure they’ll want to play hard for Rohls.”
“Rohls” is first-year Ohio State head coach Steve Rohlik, a Wisconsin alum (1986-90).
An effort worth noting
I was lucky enough to be able to catch last Friday night’s Penn State-Michigan State game, and there were a couple of things about the Nittany Lions that caught my attention.
First, after coming out sluggishly in the first period, Penn State redoubled its collective efforts and made the second and third periods worth watching. After the first period, the Spartans led 2-0 on goals by Dean Chelios and Greg Wolfe; they outshot the Nittany Lions 15-11 in the first as well.
Through the second and third, though, Penn State outshot Michigan State 37-14 for a game differential of 48-29. (Yes, Spartans goaltender Jake Hildebrand did earn this week’s first star. More on that below.)
The difference between the way the Nittany Lions played in the second and third periods compared to the first was remarkable. After the game, coach Guy Gadowsky said that he was pleased with the team’s efforts.
“I’m not disappointed with how we played in the second and third, but in my mind, we lost the game in the first period,” he said.
The second thing of note from that game is that Penn State took no penalties in the contest. Zero. Nada. None. The Nittany Lions played as clean a game as I’ve seen in a long time — and this from a team that led the nation in penalty minutes for much of the first half of the season and is still listed as averaging 14.6 minutes per game, 14th in the nation. Gadowsky seemed happy that I led the postgame interview with a question about the lack of minutes.
“We’ve been working really hard at it,” said Gadowsky, “like really, really hard. We weren’t a part of a conference last year, so we had club refs, we had Division III refs, we had every conference ref. We really didn’t have any consistent officiating, and we’ve really struggled this year figuring out how to play hard with staying out of the box.
“This is a first for us and I think it’s a big step for us. Give a lot of our guys credit, guys who aren’t dirty players but who play hard. We’ve really been working hard at it. For us, we’re really glad to see it. I’m just sad that that performance came without a win because I think it’s important for us going forward.”
Penn State lost that game 3-0, then lost Saturday’s rematch 3-2. The Nittany Lions took five penalties for 21 minutes in the Saturday contest, while the Spartans had four two-minute infractions.
Players of the week
Look at those Spartans — and Sam Warning’s back!
First star — Michigan State sophomore goaltender Jake Hildebrand: Hildebrand recorded the first shutout in Big Ten conference play Friday night, making 48 saves in the Spartans’ 3-0 win over Penn State. It was the fourth shutout of his career and the second for Hildebrand this season. Hildebrand stopped 77 of 79 shots in Michigan State’s two-game sweep of the Nittany Lions.
Second star — Minnesota junior forward Sam Warning: Warning began the season with five goals in four games … and then stopped scoring from Oct. 19 until Jan. 13, when he recorded two goals against Penn State. Now he’s added a hat trick, having notched the first three goals in Minnesota’s 4-2 come-from-behind win over Ohio State last Saturday. That was the first natural hat trick in Big Ten conference history, too. Warning leads all Gophers players in scoring (10-16–26) and he’s second in the nation for plus/minus (plus-21).
Third star — Michigan State senior forward Lee Reimer: Reimer had two goals and two assists to help the Spartans sweep the Nittany Lions. On Friday night, Reimer was part of a line that was the team’s wrecking ball; he and Dean Chelios and Greg Wolfe each had a goal and two assists in Michigan State’s 3-0 win. His goal in Saturday’s 3-2 win was the game-winner, a tally 3:41 into the third period that broke a 2-2 tie — a tie that the Nittany Lions achieved at 1:18 in the third on the power play.
My ballot
1. Minnesota
2. Boston College
3. Quinnipiac
4. Union
5. Ferris State
6. St. Cloud State
7. Wisconsin
8. Providence
9. Massachusetts-Lowell
10. Clarkson
11. Yale
12. Northeastern
13. Michigan
14. Vermont
15. North Dakota
16. Notre Dame
17. New Hampshire
18. Denver
19. Bowling Green
20. Minnesota State
Kelly Wallace and Northeastern upset Boston University last weekend, and are making a push at the right time (2013 Melissa Wade).
Candace: There were several surprising results this weekend, but none more than Boston University, which lost to Providence on Friday, 4-3, and then to Northeastern on Sunday, 4-2. Against the Friars, it seemed business as usual when the Terriers jumped out to a 2-0 lead on two goals by Maddie Elia in the first, but the Friars halved the deficit. Then the Terriers scored early in the second on a goal by Sarah Lefort to regain the two-goal lead, but the Friars scored two in the second to tie it, and Cassidy Carels got her second of the game in the third to win it for Providence. BU goaltender Kerrin Sperry made 29 saves. On Sunday against Northeastern, BU fell behind 2-0 in the second, got a goal back from Louise Warren at 4:50 of the third, then gave up the game-winner to Brittany Esposito at 9:18 of the third, a power-play goal. After Lefort scored at 14:36, Esposito added an empty-net goal to ice it. Sperry again faced a lot of shots, making 30 saves. These two losses follow a thumping by Boston College and a dispiriting outing against Maine that the Terriers won. The Terriers now trail the Eagles by five points in the race for the Hockey East crown, and only lead surging Northeastern by six points. With the Terriers only facing the Eagles twice more in league play, BU will need some help if it wants to win the Hockey East regular season title. More concerning for BU is that the Terriers are now ninth in the PairWise, after being fifth a couple of weeks ago.
The question I have is whether this is a temporary slip, or a sign of greater difficulties. You had signaled BU as an overachiever for its great first half with the personnel losses it had to graduation and the Olympics. Can the Terriers regroup and win Hockey East?
Arlan: My first reaction is an emphatic, “No,” but I can probably talk myself into believing BU still has a good shot at the Hockey East regular season. The Terriers still control their destiny in that regard. If they won out, they would overcome that five-point deficit by winning the two games versus BC and cashing in the points from the game in hand they hold over the Eagles. However, it is a less-believable scenario now that BU has proven to be vulnerable against teams like Providence and Northeastern. For a season and a half, the Terrriers marched steadily along doing what was expected of them while BC was a mercurial mystery. They are missing players due to injury and perhaps others are at less than full strength, but the Terriers were still able to put out a full line chart against a Northeastern team that is down to 13 skaters. BU won the two games over the Huskies in the first half, but both were essentially even until the Terriers won in the third period or overtime. With Kayla Tutino now out and Chloe Desjardins on top of her game in the Huskies’ net, it’s less likely that BU still enjoys an advantage in that matchup.
I’ve mentally conceded Hockey East to BC in each of the last two seasons and it hasn’t happened. The encouraging sign for the Eagles this year is that they were able to sweep Vermont without Haley Skarupa. I’m not sure how much of her they’ve had lately, because she’s only had one point in 2014 by playing in three games. Luckily, BC has other players who can pick up the scoring slack. Andie Anastos has three multi-point games in January. Emily Field and Taylor Wasylk have been steady contributors, and now others like Kristyn Capizzano and Kate Leary are chipping in. BC is still fifth in scoring offense, but to be a serious threat for the national title, it needs what Skarupa can bring.
Yale has been perhaps the biggest surprise in a positive direction over the previous couple of weeks. The Bulldogs are in the midst of a three-game unbeaten streak, with all three games being against traditional ECAC powers in Harvard, Clarkson, and St. Lawrence. Typically, teams will pull a shocker like the upset of Harvard and follow it up with a couple of clunkers. Admittedly, the defeat of the Crimson came the same weekend as the defeat at Dartmouth, a team that has been very beatable this season, but that was a last-minute loss in a game where Yale didn’t get the best goaltending. For a Bulldogs team that last tasted the postseason in 2008, getting a point in each game against presumed playoff teams in the Golden Knights and Saints has to be an encouraging sign.
Candace: Yes I agree with you there. I really didn’t expect the Elis to get the tie against what has been a red-hot Clarkson team. In that game, Yale scored first, but Clarkson took the next two leads. After Brittany Styner scored in the third to make it 3-2, you might have expected Yale to fold, but Phoebe Staenz got the tying goal, and Jaime Leonoff stopped 52 shots overall, including 14 in the third and two in overtime, to preserve the tie. Yale has an important stretch coming up, with two against Brown and one against Colgate, and the Bulldogs success in that span will be crucial if they want to make the postseason.
You mentioned Harvard. I didn’t expect the Crimson to go on the road and beat Cornell, especially after the shaky outing against Colgate on Friday. Cornell still controls its destiny, but the Crimson have to be looked at as a bigger threat if Cornell has one slip. Again the Crimson got great goaltending from Emerance Maschmeyer. Does Harvard still puzzle you as much as me?
Arlan: Having watched Harvard play online a couple of times, its results make a little more sense to me. I certainly didn’t expect that the Crimson would need to pull a rabbit out of the hat in order to defeat Colgate, trailing by two until a late three-goal rally. They need Maschmeyer to be on every game, because they continue to be outshot on a regular basis, even by teams like the Raiders. When she is not as sharp, then Harvard is in a battle. It is similar to Wisconsin, another team that lacks a dominant offensive player this season, and thus has a top-10 offense, but not quite a top-five offense. Those two teams rank one and two in goaltender save percentage, and they need that, because they aren’t going to win a lot of scoring battles, Harvard’s win over Colgate excepted. The difference is that the Crimson don’t smother opponents and eliminate scoring chances to the degree that the Badgers can, so they ask more of Maschmeyer. Against Cornell, she delivered and Harvard got the low-scoring style game it wanted, not a scoring contest that would favor Cornell. Harvard has opportunistic forwards like Miye D’Oench, but nobody we’ll be trying to insert into a Kazmaier discussion this year alongside snipers like Jillian Saulnier.
I’m not sure what this means for Cornell. It’s only the second loss for the Big Red, but the third time that it has been held to one goal. It did manage to win a 2-0 game over BC, but in general, it seems more comfortable when the game opens up. That may work during the season, but it doesn’t bode well for the upcoming tournaments, nor does Cornell’s scoring defense ranking at No. 11. Freshman Paula Voorheis turned in her second-consecutive shutout against Dartmouth, the first coming over Yale. She’s a big goalie, so even if she’s on her knees, she takes away a lot of the net. I don’t know if Doug Derraugh would consider moving in that direction this season, but senior Lauren Slebodnick’s numbers have been more in the middle of the pack. Would you consider giving Voorheis more playing time, or do you think that would be an overreaction by Derraugh?
Candace: I think it would be an overreaction. Voorheis has played five games, but aside from Boston College and perhaps Yale, she hasn’t faced top-notch competition yet. When she played against BC, a legitimate top offense, she gave up three goals. Slebodnick has played BC for a game and half a period (before leaving for an injury), Mercyhurst twice, Clarkson, and Harvard twice. She had rough games against Princeton and St. Lawrence, and while she gave up four in each Mercyhurst game, I think the two squads were playing run-and-gun hockey, in part because Mercyhurst was desperate. When Sledbodnick played BC, she had a shutout in the first game and then gave up one goal before getting hurt. Sledbodnick also has more playoff experience, including getting the win in that wild 8-7 game against BU in 2012, when she came in for relief of Amanda Mazzotta. Sometimes players have one or two shaky outings, but you have to go with your strengths. Mazzotta was a fantastic goalie, and she had that off game at the worst time, in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament against BU, but she regrouped and played a solid game against Minnesota in the semis in a losing effort. If I were Derraugh, I’d perhaps rest Sledbodnick against teams like Brown and Colgate, whom Cornell should beat handily, but even then, there’s something to be said for having a goalie getting into a groove by playing a lot.
Another perhaps unexpected result happened in the big nonconference series of the weekend, as Robert Morris got a tie and a win against Quinnipiac on the road. The win was a convincing 5-1 decision. Robert Morris is now a solid fifth in the PairWise, with a huge series with Mercyhurst looming this weekend in Erie. However, I don’t feel it’s necessarily as big for the Colonials. Even if the Lakers were to sweep Robert Morris, I don’t know that the Colonials would drop out of the top eight. Mercyhurst meanwhile, is sitting at 10th in the PairWise, and with the CHA not getting a conference autobid until next season, things are looking bleaker for the Lakers keep their NCAA tournament streak alive. How do you see things shaking out between the two?
Arlan: I think the Robert Morris at Mercyhurst series is huge for both teams. Yes, the Colonials are fifth at the moment, but in RPI, their advantage over North Dakota is minuscule, and they don’t have much of a lead over Clarkson. If RMU loses a couple to Mercyhurst and BC gets on a roll, the Colonials could easily find themselves down in the eighth spot. If BC is in the top seven but doesn’t win the Hockey East tournament, then that eighth spot in the PairWise is no good. BU was in good shape until it lost three of its last four, and now the Terriers’ PairWise health is very iffy. RMU knows that it controls its NCAA destiny at the moment, and that is all it can hope for given the CHA’s lack of an autobid.
Beyond NCAA possibilities, Robert Morris will be looking closely at the CHA standings. Right now, it is a game ahead of the Lakers, but should the Lakers get the sweep, then they assume the one-game lead and would own the first tiebreaker over RMU with a three-to-one advantage head-to-head. Robert Morris will want to grab its first regular season title just as much as Mercyhurst will want to keep the string of league titles and NCAA appearances intact. It is a special season at Robert Morris. The team just matched the program record of 19 victories set two years ago. Who knows if the same opportunity will exist next year? The great rookie class led by Jessica Dodds and Brittany Howard will be back, as will Rebecca Vint, who reached and surpassed 100 points for her career on Saturday, but a lot of key seniors will be gone. Remove Thea Imbrogno, Kristen Richards, Brandi Pollock, Anneline Lauziere, and Kylie St. Louis from the line chart and the Colonials look a lot thinner both up front and on the blue line. This isn’t a season to waste by getting complacent.
I’m not sure how bad Mercyhurst’s PairWise position is right now. The Lakers can still get in, but how much help that would require is difficult to predict at this point. For starters, a simple scenario would need one of BC or BU to take all of the remaining head-to-head meetings, including the Hockey East tournament title. Mercyhurst also needs to take any meetings with Robert Morris. If the teams play three more times, it likely needs Robert Morris to lose one additional game. If they don’t meet in the CHA tournament, then Mercyhurst needs RMU to lose two other games between the tournament and the regular season after this weekend. That’s my estimate, but I’m too lazy to resort to math to find out whether that has merit. This week’s column will be on Mercyhurst, so I’ll have more on the Lakers and their matchup with Robert Morris then.
Before ECAC teams can worry about qualifying for the NCAA tournament, they have to get into the top eight of their league. Rensselaer took a big step in that direction by sweeping Union. Do you think that by and large reduces the field of ECAC tournament hopefuls to nine teams?
Candace: Most likely yes. I don’t really see how Union, which is in 10th and has six points, can catch the top eight, especially since they play Harvard, Clarkson twice, and Cornell among their 10 games. That’s four tough asks, not to mention two games against St. Lawrence and then one at Dartmouth. I really expected Union to put up more of a fight this past weekend, but they were handily beat in both games against Rensselaer, losing by three in each. They were only down by one entering the third period on Friday, then gave up a goal 46 seconds in and another at the 3:31 mark. They were never really in Saturday’s game.
The top eight is looking interesting. Yale is currently in the eighth spot, but only has a two-point over Dartmouth. And, of course, Yale only trails sixth-place RPI by two points and fifth-place Princeton by three points. I think there will be a lot of jockeying to see how things shake out. All of the top ECAC teams look a little more vulnerable to me than they have in past years, but having the current top four teams advance to the semifinals wouldn’t surprise me. Yale has a win over Harvard and a tie with Clarkson, RPI has a win over Harvard, Princeton has a tie with Quinnipiac and played Cornell to a one-goal loss, and St. Lawrence played Cornell tough in a 6-4 loss. Actually, if I were the Saints, I’d want to avoid Clarkson at all costs, because the Golden Knights have had their number this season. There is still the possibility too that Dartmouth can continue to play well and sneak in if any of the current 5-8 teams falter. I do think the ECAC top four are set, though what order they finish in is anybody’s guess.
Meanwhile, the top three in the WCHA keep rolling, with nary a challenge except each other in sight. I thought perhaps Minnesota-Duluth might step up this half, but after two ties on home ice against an admittedly better Ohio State team, I’m not sure the Bulldogs are quite ready for WCHA prime time. The big three of the WCHA are also currently the top three in the USCHO poll. I thought that an Olympic year might be the year the NCAA tournament champion finally hailed from the east, but at this point, I’m not seeing it. Do you think anybody besides Minnesota, North Dakota, or Wisconsin takes home the grand prize this season?
Arlan: If the PairWise stays similar to what it is today with Minnesota on one side of any bracket and Wisconsin on the other, then probably not. Some of the non-WCHA teams can beat either of those teams in a tournament game. The problem is beating both. The years where a non-WCHA team came closest to winning after the tournament expanded were those teams that didn’t have to play a WCHA team until the final, like Cornell in 2010. Mercyhurst was able to knock off Minnesota in a semifinal in 2009, but then was unable to make much of a dent against Wisconsin in the final. You don’t see lower seeds ever winning the WCHA tournament like St. Lawrence did in the ECAC in 2012 or as happened with some regularity in Hockey East. That’s due in part to it requiring two big upsets to do so, and it is hard to pull those in consecutive games.
I expected the top of the WCHA to be down more than it is this year. There was a serious loss of talent to graduation, including a number of All-Americans that were the face of the league for years, like Brianna Decker, Jocelyne and Monique Lamoureux, Megan Bozek, and Noora Räty. What mitigated those losses was that the top four WCHA teams all had strong incoming classes, and there weren’t that many additional players lost to Olympic centralization compared to the players lost from top Eastern teams like Cornell, Harvard, BC, and BU. The WCHA centralization losses cut deeper in 2009-10. In my opinion, the top three WCHA teams this season are all better than the best team the league produced that year.
By the same token, I do think that the ECAC is much stronger than it was four years ago. The bottom teams are far better. Cornell has a bit more offensive pop, and Harvard is better defensively. The question is whether there is one ECAC team that can put it all together and take out the best from the West. Clarkson looked like that team when the season started, but if it can’t rise above third in its own league, I don’t expect it to finish on top nationally. As was the case four years ago, it looks like Hockey East is the league that is down.
The other impact of the Olympics is due to players that don’t centralize but miss the month of February. Of contending teams, North Dakota figures to be most impacted. Do you foresee UND surviving the absence of Michelle Karvinen, Susanna Tapani, and Tanja Eisenschmid and remaining solidly in the top eight during their Olympic absence?
Candace: I think so, yes. I’m not sure when those three will leave, but assuming that it’s after the Minnesota series in Grand Forks on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, it leaves North Dakota playing Minnesota-Duluth in Duluth, Minnesota State at home, and Ohio State in Columbus. Those are all winnable series, even without those three. There’s still a lot of talent in Grand Forks. Josefine Jakobsen leads the team in scoring, and Meghan Dufault is third; expect those two to step up and lead the offensive charge. Eisenschmid is an anchor on the blue line, but North Dakota still has a good players back there, such as Halli Krzyzaniak and, of course, Gracen Hirschy. Shelby Amsley-Benzie has proven herself to be a good goaltender, not in the league of Wisconsin’s Alex Rigsby or Minnesota’s Amanda Leveille, but she can be a wall when needed, and North Dakota also has another goaltender who is coming along nicely in freshman Lexie Shaw. I’m sure also that Karvinen, Tapani, and Eisenschmid will be sending encouraging texts, tweets, etc., from Sochi to their teammates back home, because they’ll be excited to take their Olympic experience back to North Dakota and apply it in the playoffs.
Looking at the how the conferences are shaking out, it does seem to me that the favorites are the most likely to win in each. Even should Boston University come out on top on Hockey East, it wouldn’t be that huge a shock, considering that Boston College has shown signs of vulnerability. The big three in the WCHA will almost assuredly win that conference’s tournament. I could see a little more vulnerability in the ECAC and the CHA, but it still looks unlikely that anybody except the top two in the CHA will win, as I think RMU and Mercyhurst are too strong. That leaves the ECAC. Do you think there could be room for perhaps Quinnipiac to come out firing and win the ECAC, or maybe one of RPI, Princeton, St. Lawrence, or Yale? Or will the NCAA tournament not be affected by conference losses?
Arlan: I expect one of Cornell, Harvard, or Clarkson to take the ECAC tourney. St. Lawrence proved two years ago that it is possible for a team to turn into road warriors and drive to the top, but that edition of the Saints caught fire over the second half. That certainly doesn’t apply to SLU this time, as it last won before Thanksgiving. The Saints found some goals earlier in the year, but haven’t scored more than twice in any game of the contests in their eight-game winless streak. The graduation of Kelly Sabatine and Brooke Fernandez and the injury to Amanda Boulier has proven to be a lot to overcome, even though Mel Desrochers is having a career year on the blue line. A total of five goals scored in six January games by the Saints doesn’t hint at any shift in that trend.
Yale has a number of factors working against it. Even with the potential demonstrated recently, the Bulldogs are just 2-2-2 in 2014. They were without leading scorer Phoebe Staenz when Cornell shut them out, but she is another player that will be taking an Olympic hiatus. They’ll have to get it done versus Brown this weekend, and then hope to pick up enough points during her absence to remain in playoff position. It could come down to the final weekend when they host Harvard and Dartmouth, the team most likely to knock them out of the playoffs. Even if they make the ECAC field, the Bulldogs don’t have any postseason experience.
Princeton could still conceivably land a home-ice spot, but the schedule doesn’t favor that. The Tigers have to go to both Clarkson and Cornell, and their best road win to date was probably at Yale, and the Bulldogs were again without Staenz at the time. The Tigers also host Harvard, a team that handled them, 4-0, in the first meeting. That may hold more promise, because we’ve seen in past years that there can be a huge difference from one game to the next when Princeton and Harvard meet, and the Tigers did outshoot the Crimson by a ratio of nearly three to two. In any case, the Tigers would need to sustain a higher level than they’ve demonstrated thus far to take the ECAC.
That leaves RPI, a team that at times looks destined for bigger things. The Engineers do have several good results against ranked teams: wins over Quinnipiac and Harvard, a tie with BU, a win and an overtime loss versus Robert Morris. They’ve also been hotter than most in 2014 with a 4-1-1 mark. The schedule will help prepare them for the rigors of playoff hockey, because the Engineers will see one of the ECAC’s top three teams in four of the five remaining weekends. RPI hasn’t advanced to the league semifinals since 2010 after reaching the final in 2009, but those experiences won’t benefit the current roster. Of these four teams, RPI is the one I could most see advancing through a quarterfinal series and maybe even pulling a big upset in a semifinal, but any more starts to feel more like fiction than fact.
As for the Bobcats, as the season moves along, the personnel losses from last year start to become more evident. Chelsea Laden has largely done well in her first year out of Victoria Vigilanti’s shadow, but she has been chased in the second period in consecutive weekends. The loss of Nicole Kosta to injury has been more telling as the weeks tick by, especially with the decision by Erica Uden Johansson to remain in Sweden this season and train for the Olympics. Quinnipiac still projects to be home for the quarterfinals, making the path a tad easier, but still a formidable challenge given the Bobcats couldn’t get out of the quarters a year ago.
Hockey East looks to me like the only league where somebody could crash the NCAA party. Do you see that coming down to BC and BU, or is there somebody else showing Cinderella traits?
Candace: Perhaps Northeastern, if the Huskies can continue to play the way they have the last two weeks. Their schedule is favorable; they will only face potential NCAA tournament teams in the Beanpot before the Hockey East tournament. The Huskies are already in third place, and have two game sets with Maine, Connecticut, and New Hampshire left, plus single games against Vermont and Providence. If the Huskies get on a roll and play with confidence entering the Hockey East tournament, it’s possible. They already beat BU, and they gave BC all it could handle a couple weekends ago, earning a tie and then losing by a goal after leading entering the third. Other than that, I don’t think so. BC just swept Vermont again, and I don’t think New Hampshire will be able to surprise the Eagles or Terriers come the tournament. It should be a wild final month though!
