Matteo Giampa is enjoying his freshman season for Canisius playing close to his hometown of Virgil, Ont. (photo: Tom Wolf Imaging/Canisius Athletics).
There’s typically an adjustment period for rookies in college hockey.
Despite being a top contributor on their junior team, newbies often struggle with the speed of the college game and going up against older, more experienced players.
But Canisius freshman Matteo Giampa picked up where he left off in juniors.
The Virgil, Ont., native scored in his first collegiate game and hasn’t looked back. He has 15 goals so far this season, tied for ninth in Division I and second among rookies, behind Boston University’s Macklin Celebrini.
Giampa also has 10 assists. In all, he’s scored almost three times more goals than his next closest teammate and had a hand in 25 of Canisius’ 70 goals so far.
Drafted by the London Knights of the OHL, Giampa instead decided on college hockey and spent a COVID-shorted year in prep school before signing with the AJHL’s Bonnyville Pontiacs, where he put up impressive numbers: 114 points in 70 games.
Twenty-five points in 24 games at the Division I level for a rookie is out of the ordinary, but Canisius coach Trevor Large says he’s not completely surprised.
“Two reasons for that,” he said. “One is that he has an elite shot; he’s a goal scorer.”
“The other, when Matteo started skating with us in the preseason, one of our fifth-year players, who has played with and against a lot of elite players, came to me and said, ‘Coach, I think Matteo’s the best player on our team. He’s one of the best players I’ve ever seen. There’s something special about him.'”
After three seasons in prep school and far-flung Alberta, Giampa is playing much closer to home at Canisius. His family is about a 45-minute drive away, close enough to see his games, and in the case of his father, an occasional practice.
“(Being able to play in front of my family) wasn’t the main factor, but a big plus,” said Giampa. “It’s a huge positive after being away since I was 16 or 17. That’s special.”
“The main factor was Max Mobley, our assistant coach, reaching out three or four years ago and tracking my progress. I felt really comfortable during that process and with all the coaches here. It was an easy decision to commit.”
“We’ve been aware of him for a while,” said Large. “He’s in the category of ‘local players’ and we want that connection with our community.”
The freshman had a confidence boost over the summer when he was invited to the Florida Panthers development camp.
“Honestly, that was my first camp, and I didn’t know what to expect,” Giampa said. “I didn’t know anyone going in, so it was about new relationships, new connections. The biggest thing was just playing with those guys, obviously very good players, and realizing that I’m not far away from what my goals are. I just need to focus on getting better day after day.”
At Canisius, Giampa says he relishes the role of being a go-to player.
“My goal was to come in and right away make a difference,” he said. “Not to come in and feel my way and hide in the weeds. I wanted to be a really key player and a reason why my team wins.”
Mission accomplished on that. But Giampa’s quick start has meant that he’s become the focal point of opposing defenses.
“In the last month, I’ve noticed it a bit more, feeling more roughed up after games,” he said. “But it’s nothing I haven’t dealt with before. And guys like (senior forward) Griffin Loughran have been great, teaching me how to fight through setbacks.”
A setback for the Golden Griffins happened last weekend when they were swept by arch-rival Niagara.
“That was rough,” he said. “We had a day off after and that was a really good mental refresh. But we’ll learn from that and move on.
“We know if we play our game, we’ll be hard to beat.”
Northeastern won its 19th Beanpot with a 2-1 overtime win over Boston University on Tuesday in front of 10,633 at TD Garden. Nicole Haase (@NicoleHaase) and Todd Milewski (@ToddMilewski) talk about the championship game and welcome the nation’s leading scorer, Colgate’s Kalty Kaltounková, to the show to talk about her time with the Raiders, her journey to college hockey and more.
Make sure you like and subscribe to The PodKaz on your favorite streaming network to get access to new episodes as soon as they post.
Boston College players celebrate one of their nine goals in a 9-6 win over Boston University on Dec. 10, 2022 (photo: John Quackenbos).
The hype is undeniable and fully warranted.
Boston University and Boston College — Four miles apart! Five NCAA titles apiece! — will play this weekend as the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the USCHO.com D-I men’s poll for the first time in their storied, decades-long rivalry. Packed houses are expected each night, and lots more watching on television.
If nothing else, fans in the northeast and nationwide should be in for an extremely entertaining weekend of college hockey. No. 1 BU and No. 2 BC go into the weekend series (Friday at BC, Saturday at BU, both at 7 p.m. on NESN) with identical 16-4-1 overall records. The Terriers are unbeaten since Nov. 25 and the Eagles have won 10 of their last 12. The schools also hold the same two spots in the PairWise.
The weekend will feature several of the game’s biggest standouts, such as rookies Mack Celebrini of BU and Will Smith of BC, who were recently named (coincidentally or not) Hockey East co-rookies of the week. Celebrini thrice scored in a weekend sweep of Vermont, and now leads BU in goals (16) and points (32). He also leads all NCAA rookies in goals, and has 10 points (7g, 3a) during a current six-game point streak. Smith scored twice and assisted on a pair of game-winning goals in his team’s weekend sweep of Merrimack with a goal and an assist in each game. He is second on the team in scoring with 13 goals and 18 assists.
At the risk of being labeled a wet blanket, however, this columnist advises college hockey fans to have fun, enjoy the games, but also to take a deep breath. Here are two reasons why the 122nd and 123rd “Battle of Comm. Ave” is worth putting in its proper perspective:
—There’s not that much at stake, when you really think about it. Ironic, yes, but barring a major — and extremely unlikely — collapse down the stretch by either club, both are locks for the NCAA tournament. This isn’t big-time college football, where one loss can doom a team’s national-title hopes.
If the teams split, there’s a good chance they remain 1-2 in the next poll. Even if one team sweeps, the swept team probably won’t be judged too harshly in the next round of voting or in the PairWise. Unless there’s a sweep by extremely lopsided scores, or one team exposes another’s flaws in such a fashion that makes anyone question the losing team’s bona fides as a national contender, both should be in excellent shape entering the final six weeks of the season.
—It’s only the first of what could be several subsequent meetings. Heck, they’ll meet again nine days later, on arguably a bigger stage. The Eagles and Terriers will open the 71st edition of the Beanpot against each other on Feb. 5 at TD Garden (the Beanpot pits first-round opponents on a rotating basis), and could very well still be 1-2. While the game will not count in the Hockey East standings, it does not need to be stated how important the Beanpot is to the culture of college hockey in Boston and nationwide. Just Google it.
The Beanpot will be the last scheduled meeting between BC and BU, but a late-round meeting in the Hockey East tournament is likely. Should they meet in the championship game (March 23, TD Garden) as the top seeds, and are still ranked high in the national polls and PairWise (even if not necessarily the top two), expect the hype to far exceed anything this weekend will provide.
If an NCAA tournament matchup features the two schools at any point, let alone the Frozen Four in St. Paul, Minn., expect the anticipation for that contest to be about one billion times more elevated than this weekend’s games (no hyperbole intended).
BC and BU have twice met in the NCAA tournament, last in 2006, a 5-0 BC win in the Northeast Regional in Worcester, Mass. The most famous meeting was in the 1978 national championship game, a 5-3 BU win in Providence, R.I.
Lest the foregoing needlessly dampen anyone’s enthusiasm for this weekend’s action, please remember: What unfolds Friday and Saturday is just the opening chapter of what should be a thrilling conclusion to the college hockey season, one in which both schools will likely play starring roles.
Quinnipiac celebrates its 2023 national championship at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla. (photo: Jim Rosvold).
Welcome back to a new season of Bracketology.
Here we try to explain the process of seeding the NCAA Tournament and selecting which regional each of the 16 men’s Division I teams will play.
Let’s begin with the simple. Figuring out which 16 teams would make the field based on the current PairWise Rankings. Note that this is if the season ended today. Also remember, any team that wins its conference tournament is automatically in the field, and we’ll use the conference leaders based on winning percentage to occupy that spot (it gets tricky in the CCHA).
Here are the current 16 teams:
1. Boston University
2. Boston College
3. North Dakota
4. Wisconsin
5. Maine
6. Denver
7. Michigan State
8. Quinnipiac
9. Minnesota
10. Western Michigan
11. Providence
12. Massachusetts
13. St. Cloud State
14. Michigan
15. RIT (top winning percentage in AHA)
16. Minnesota State (top winning percentage in CCHA, after St. Thomas, which isn’t NCAA eligible)
Based on a pure seeding – 1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15, etc. – here is how the regions would look:
1. Boston University
8. Quinnipiac
9. Minnesota
16. Minnesota State
2. Boston College
7. Michigan State
10. Western Michigan
15. RIT
3. North Dakota
6. Denver
11. Providence
14. Michigan
4. Wisconsin
5. Maine
12. Massachusetts
13. St. Cloud State
Now, based on what we know about having to place North Dakota is Sioux Falls and UMass in Springfield, let’s assign destinations.
Providence Regional
1. Boston University
8. Quinnipiac
9. Minnesota
16. Minnesota State
Maryland Heights, Mo., Regional
2. Boston College
7. Michigan State
10. Western Michigan
15. RIT
Sioux Falls, S.D., Regional
3. North Dakota
6. Denver
11. Providence
14. Michigan
Springfield, Mass., Regional
4. Wisconsin
5. Maine
12. Massachusetts
13. St. Cloud State
We do have one major issue and that’s the fact that Maine and UMass are lined up to play in Springfield. UMass has to be there. But none of the other teams do. How about if we switch the OTHER three seeds in that region with Maryland Heights?
Thus you get:
Maryland Heights
4. Wisconsin
5. Maine
10. Western Michigan
13. St. Cloud State
Springfield
2. Boston College
7. Michigan State
12. Massachusetts
15. RIT
Providence and Sioux Falls remains completely intact. And the other two regions, while bracket integrity is altered a bit, both have better attendance.
Do I have any concerns from here? Honestly, no. Week 1 feels a little too easy and could get more complicated as the season progresses.
So here are the final brackets:
Providence Regional
1. Boston University
8. Quinnipiac
9. Minnesota
16. Minnesota State
Maryland Heights, Mo., Regional
4. Wisconsin
5. Maine
10. Western Michigan
13. St. Cloud State
Sioux Falls, S.D., Regional
3. North Dakota
6. Denver
11. Providence
14. Michigan
Springfield, Mass., Regional
2. Boston College
7. Michigan State
12. Massachusetts
15. RIT
Teams by conference:
Hockey East – 5
Big Ten – 4
NCHC – 4
ECAC – 1
AHA – 1
CCHA – 1
Augsburg defeats #2 Gustavus 5-4 in overtime. (Photo by Kevin Healy)
Another week out west, another week closer to a potential final four out west. Like the east, we’ve seen upset-after-upset out west, which just shows us the parity being at an all-time high as mentioned in this week’s east article. Let’s get into your week 13 west review, recapping the notable events!
Augsburg gets the MIAC upset win over #2 Gustavus
These two teams have had their battles as of late, Gustavus getting the better of the matchup as of late, but Augsburg has been the one team in the MIAC to seem to cause the Gusties issues despite the Gusties winning ways.
Gustavus won the first game these two played on opening night (non-conference) 5-1 back in October, then on Friday 3-1. On Saturday, the Auggies got the massive 5-4 win where overtime was needed to decide the winner. How it happened:
Gustavus got on the board early and often, Emily Olson scored a rapid 26 seconds after puck drop to take the quick 1-0 lead. They’d add another about ten minutes later in the period to double the lead, it was Hailey Holland at 10:39. The Gustie’s led 2-0 entering the 2nd period.
We dropped the puck for the middle frame and Augsburg owned the period. The Auggies cut the lead in half at the near-halfway mark of the period (Emily Cronkhite, 9:43) and then tied it up just over a minute later at 11:12 when Ella Olson fired one in. Gustavus would then retake the lead at 15:59 (Molly McHugh), but the Auggies’ Sydney Rydel netted one on the powerplay in the last minute of the period (19:03.8). We entered the 3rd tied 3-3.
In the final regulation period, each team added a goal, Brooke Power at 7:17, giving her Gusties the lead once again. Then, Augsburg not going away, Kennedy Stein scored just over the midway mark at 11:39, which held up until the end of 60 minutes.
We hit overtime, 3v3, not even two minutes ticked off the clock, Augsburg’s Sydney Rydel scored a brisk 1:44 into the OT period, giving her Auggies the huge MIAC victory as Augsburg continued to roll after the first portion of the season. Winning their last 8 of 9 games, Augsburg is one to watch out for to shock the west and take the MIAC auto-bid come March.
Watch out for the Pipers
Hamline is quietly putting together one of the best records in not just the west, but in D-III. The Pipers are 14-3-0 and on paper, are likely looking at a 16-3-0 record as they get #2 Gustavus for a home/away series on February 2/3.
Women’s Ice Hockey: Hamline vs. St. Norbert (Photo by d3photography.com)
As mentioned with Augsburg, Hamline’s another team that could potentially take Gustavus off their perch at the top of the MIAC. The Auggies have been the team as of late to blemish the Gusties, but we’ll get to see the Pipers shortly get two shots (no pun intended) at Gustavus who has had recent-success vs Hamline, winning the last five matchups, 17-4-2 all-time.
Most recently, Hamline got the sweep over Saint Benedict, winning 3-1 & 4-1 at home and on the road.
I asked 3rd year Head Coach of the Pipers, Trinity College alum (‘14), Whitney Colbert what’s different about this group than in her previous two years:
“The biggest difference with this group compared to years past is one, our team chemistry, and two, our depth within the lineup. Our team is a strong cohesive unit that truly wants the best for one another and pushes each other to be their very best every single day. With regards to our depth, I credit a lot of our success to having a deep forward and defensive line up as well as having three strong goaltenders on the backend. We really pride ourselves in playing a strong team game and we’ve done a nice job with that so far.”
Since her team went down to Charleston, South Carolina recently for a pair of games vs Bowdoin & Williams (Adrian was the other west team involved), so I wanted to ask how the experience was for her and her group on the ice and off:
“Playing in Charleston was a tremendous experience for our team. Not only was it beneficial for our team to come out with two wins against strong NESCAC opponents, but also being a former player in the NESCAC myself, that really added a special element to it for me personally. We were also able to mix in a couple fun team activities like going to the Stingrays (ECHL) game, checking out the downtown and going to TopGolf which just continued to help build our team camaraderie. Overall, it was a fantastic trip and certainly an important two wins for our program.”
Undefeated Watch
The last point we’ll touch on is the lone undefeated team in Division-III hockey, whether it be men’s or women’s, that’s UW-River Falls who sits atop of pairwise and the WIAC with a perfect 19-0-0 record. Unless the Jills of Northland pull off the upset of the century, the Falcons will be 21-0-0 heading into St. Peter, Minn. to face Gustavus for the third time this season (second time on the road), in which UWRF has won both by scores of 2-0 (home) & 3-2 (away).
Women’s Ice Hockey: University of Wisconsin-River Falls Falcons vs. Concordia College, Moorhead Cobbers (Photo by Wade D Gardner/d3photography.com)
River Falls currently features the top-two-point leaders in the country, Maddie McCollins with 47 (24G, 23A) and Megan Goodreau with 36 (12G, 24A). McCollins, the ‘23 USCHO Player of the Year, looks to be on pace to win the Laura Hurd award this season, an award some could claim she should’ve had last season, but nevertheless, she sits eleven points clear of her teammate in second place, and thirteen clear of the River-Falls rival, UW-Eau Claire’s Sophie Rausch, who has 34 (20G, 14A).
Speaking of the Blugolds, they’ll look to hand the Falcons their potentially lone loss of the year when they meet again for some midweek action on February 7 (Wednesday) in River Falls and then ten days later (February 17, 2pm CST) in Eau Claire to end the regular season before the O’Brien Cup opens play three days later on Saturday.
Women’s Ice Hockey: The College of St. Scholastica Saints vs. University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Blugolds (Photo by Ryan Coleman/d3photography.com)
Air Force head coach Frank Serratore joins hosts Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger to talk about reaching his 500th win milestone, the history of the Falcons, recruiting without the transfer portal, Atlantic Hockey, this year’s team, and upcoming games.
This episode is sponsored by the NCAA Division I Men’s Frozen Four, April 11 and 13 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Visit ncaa.com/mfrozenfour
Fitchburg State has a lot to play for as the MASCAC schedule heats up but there is a little milestone for their coach as a motivator to win too (Photo by Fitchburg State Athletics)
The slate of games this week is crazy good when you consider not only the ranking implications but maybe more importantly the league and seeding outcomes relative to tiebreakers, and the all-important head-to-head competition. As February approaches the stakes are certainly higher and like the games, I need to build momentum with my picks as the results last week were a solid 9-3-1 (.731) record that now brings the season record to 92-44-9 (.666) which is good but not great. Teams are aspiring for great and there is no better time to “puck-out!” Here are my super-sized picks in the East this week:
Wednesday, January 24, 2024
Assumption v. Post
The dreaded Tuesday make-up game has all the trappings of, dare I say, a TRAP GAME ALERT. Post will have to control Paragallo, Surrette and Decker if they want to pull off the surprise win against the NE-10’s top team. Hard to do for anyone and even after a slow start , the Greyhounds find their game – Assumption, 4-2
Cortland v. Morrisville
The Red Dragons had a good weekend in western New York and look to continue that momentum in another road contest on Wednesday. Top three of SUNYAC are in sight so a win against the Mustangs is crucial in staying close for later matchups. Visitors start fast and finish strong for the “W”– Cortland, 4-2
Thursday, January 25, 2024
Westfield State v. Massachusetts-Dartmouth
The Corsairs have been on a nice roll in elevating to second place in the conference and want to continue the winning trend against a pesky Vikings squad. Special teams are the difference as the winning trend for the visitors continues – UMD, 5-3
Framingham State v. Fitchburg State
Ok, this is not the announcers’ jinx for a missed field goal, a no-hitter broken up or shutout being ruined. The Falcons are home and will be focused on giving their legendary coach Dean Fuller his 600th win in style. Power play goals aplenty to make sure this prognostication happens – Fitchburg State, 6-3
Friday, January 26, 2024
Curry v. (8) University of New England
The Colonels sit in fourth place right behind the Nor’easters who would like nothing better than to create a little more space and move towards the top. Home ice and crowd make a difference in a low scoring affair in Maine – UNE, 3-1
(1) Hobart v. (3) Elmira
The home-and-home series between two of the nation’s elite teams should be epic. Between the two teams the records never matter in this rivalry, but the goaltending surely will as the duel between Beaver/Goyer vs. Curtin is going to be fun to watch knowing the scoring is going to be very difficult.– Hobart, 2-1
(10) Trinity v. Hamilton
The Bantams want to rebound from their loss to Conn College and the Continentals want to continue the magic from their win over Geneseo. Both teams do so with an exciting regulation tie, but the Bantams get the win in overtime to pad their lead in NESCAC – Trinity, 4-3
Massachusetts-Boston v. Babson
The Beacons and goaltender Sam Best are coming off a huge upset win over Norwich but now face their former travel partner in a game that sees a lot more scoring. Beavers need to rebound after a tough NY trip and take advantage of home ice against a very familiar opponent – Babson, 4-3
Anna Maria v. Oswego
The other TRAP GAME ALERT on the schedule as this game means a lot to the AmCats and not so much to the Lakers who are looking to get on a run in SUNYAC action. The home team takes advantage of several power play opportunities and that is the difference on the scoreboard – Oswego, 5-3
(7) Plattsburgh v. (4) Geneseo
The Knights have several big SUNYAC games on home ice down the stretch and this is one circled on the calendar looking avenge an earlier loss to the Cardinals on the road. Playoff style hockey dominates here and while it may not be pretty a win is a win – Geneseo, 3-2
Saturday, January 27, 2024
(5) Utica v. Nazareth
The Pioneers have dominated the UCHC schedule and will not get caught looking past the road trip to face Nazareth. Too much depth in the orange and blue that can score in bunches. Don’t need a bunch here as four is more than enough – Utica, 4-1
Arcadia v. Stevenson
The Knights have found some scoring in their game recently, but few teams have been able to do that against Ty Outen and the Mustangs. Home ice is a big deal here as much as an early lead from a host of top-notch scorers – Stevenson, 4-2
Colby v. Bowdoin
The first installment of this great rivalry left everyone wanting more in an overtime tie. Despite dominating the stat sheet, the Polar Bears could not find the game-winner against the Mules. Not so this time as home-ice and chance to stay near the top of the league standings are more than enough motivation for a win – Bowdoin, 4-2
Southern New Hampshire v. St. Michael’s
The Penmen picked up a nice sweep of games in conference play last weekend and look to extend that streak against an inconsistent Purple Knights squad. Lots of goals to be had in this game and the two-game series. Taking the over and a regulation win – SNHU, 6-5
Albertus Magnus v. Rivier
The battle of independent teams should be a very entertaining contest with the Falcons and the Raiders possessing the ability to score quickly and in abundance. This game just might need some bonus hockey to decide a winner and the road team has been pretty good playing in overtime this season – AMC, 4-3
Who knows what surprises will happen this week, but rest assured there will be more than a few for sure! – “Drop the Puck!”
Kyler Kupka celebrates a recent goal for St. Cloud State (photo: St. Cloud State Athletics).
We’re not saying polls and standings lie, but it’s hard not to notice that while St. Cloud State is tied for first place in the NCHC, the Huskies are listed 15th in the latest USCHO Men’s Division I Poll, behind three teams from their own conference.
Huskies coach Brett Larson doesn’t believe his team came back from the holiday break with any rust, pointing to the fact that the Huskies won their first games back, 6-1 both nights, in a home-and-home set with Bemidji State. The level of competition has ramped up since then, but although St. Cloud couldn’t pick up a win in regulation the last two weeks against Denver and North Dakota, the Huskies showed their mettle.
After a 5-1 defeat Jan. 12 at No. 4 Denver, Larson felt St. Cloud was unlucky to see the rematch extend past 65 minutes of open play. The Huskies won a shootout, though, following a 4-4 tie.
Last week’s home set against No. 5 North Dakota ran on similar lines. The Huskies couldn’t quite dig out of an early 2-0 hole Friday and ended up losing 5-3, and then after skating to an official 3-3 tie Saturday, they won another shootout. St. Cloud is doing pretty well in those this season, going 3-1. The only shootout loss came Dec. 9 against an Omaha team the Huskies will host this Friday and Saturday.
A few more common denominators from St. Cloud’s last four games stand out. The Huskies went a combined 1-for-11 on power plays. Worse, Denver scored five power-play goals against the Huskies, and UND was 2-for-3 Friday before not getting any power plays Saturday, when for the first time in eight years, St. Cloud went through an entire game without being whistled for a penalty.
“We felt like we played pretty good hockey, and we’re generally happy with how we played but to beat teams like that, you have to have all areas of your game firing on all cylinders, and we need to get back on track with our special teams,” Larson said. “I really liked our 5-on-5 play, but we need to find a way to get our special teams back so that we can beat top teams like those two.
“We were gauging ourselves against two of the best teams in the country, and it showed us that although we played well, we have to get better if we want to make a serious push toward the top of this league and make a NCAA (tournament) run.”
And the same goes for St. Cloud’s hardware hopes in the NCHC, a conference that is collectively performing well again after a down 2022-23 season. The league wasn’t represented in the Frozen Four, and only St. Cloud reached a regional final.
“This year, it feels like it’s right back to, ‘Holy cow,’” Larson said. “North Dakota’s really good, Denver’s really good, Western Michigan’s really good, Duluth’s record isn’t where they want it but they’re really tough to play against, Miami just beat Western Michigan at home the weekend before, and Colorado College goes up to North Dakota and wins two.
“I just think of last year as a little bit of an anomaly, maybe just a little bit of an off year for the league, but I think the league this year is as strong as it has ever been. The top teams are elite, and everybody else is really good.”
And Larson doesn’t expect anything to come easily this weekend, either.
“Last weekend was the first time UNO has been swept all season, and they’re going to come in hungry and ticked off,” he said. “We need to make sure we’re ready for what they’ll bring. They’ve always been a really tough team to play against, extremely well structured, well coached and they compete really hard.
“For us, it’s similar to playing against a North Dakota: a hard, heavy team that isn’t easy to play against. Hopefully the battles from last weekend will help prepare us for what lies ahead here.”
Arnaud Vachon is serving as Augustana’s captain this season (photo: Kerry Ring).
Up until Monday, Arnaud Vachon and his teammates were getting dressed in a trailer.
The Augustana hockey team, without an arena of their very own, were practicing in the Scheels IcePlex in Sioux Falls, S.D., and playing their games a few miles away at the Denny Sanford Premier Center.
So when Vachon and the rest of the Vikings walked into their new arena for the first time Sunday night, it was like being handed the keys to your new house for the first time.
“The vibes were high, guys were excited,” said Vachon, the fifth-year captain. “We’ve been getting dressed in two separate trailers outside the Iceplex for the past couple months, which was rough. Forwards and ‘D’ were separated, so it was a little weird. So being in the same dressing room, walking up on the ice that we call home and not having to pack your bags after every practice or game, it’s a great feeling to have a place where you can all hang out and have a place to call home.”
That home is Midco Arena, where the Vikings host future conference foes Ferris State in the rink’s first-ever home games this weekend.
Augustana coach Garrett Raboin, who was hired in the spring of 2022 and has seen the arena project grow from the ground up, said earlier this season that this weekend was something everyone on the team had circled as a milestone.
“Having been very fortunate at St. Cloud State and University of Minnesota to be in two great venues, it was something that was part of the deal, and now you really gain that perspective of just how much work and time and energy goes into creating something like Midco Arena,” he said.
The 3,100-seat rink is in the heart of Augustana’s campus. Raboin said the building itself is designed with “a lot of Norwegian concepts” and has plenty of Scandinavian flair to reflect the school’s Norwegian Lutheran heritage.
“That’s something that’s important to our campus, and this building’s not just something that’s a hockey rink, it’s something that’s going to be enjoyed by the whole campus, and our alumni and all the fans around our program,” Raboin said.
The Vikings have already done more than enough to make the South Dakota hockey community proud. With a 7-12-3 overall record and signature wins over the likes of Colorado College, Arizona State and Bowling Green, Augustana is already playing much better than outside observers might have predicted.
“Every time there’s a new team, people think they can just step all over them, but Augustana did the right thing during recruiting. We got good players and good people at the same time,” said Vachon, who played four years at Colgate before coming to play his fifth-year season in Sioux Falls. “We’re young in experience but old in age, so we’re a mature team who knows how to behave off the ice and on the ice and in big moments. We’ve shown that this year against ASU and other big teams like CC, Denver, Notre Dame. So we’re looking to keep the ball rolling with that and getting better every day, which is pretty much our motto.”
The Vikings are coming off a weekend at Arizona State, where they earned a split at Mullett Arena. Vachon had a goal and two assists in Friday’s 5-4 win–a literal last-minute victory in which Owen Bohn scored with 30 seconds left.
Vachon ended up Sioux Falls after playing four years at Colgate, where he captained the Raiders and helped them win their first ECAC tournament title in more than 30 years last season. He was attracted to Augustana because of former Colgate assistant Andy Boschetto. Boschetto spent a year in Sioux Falls helping Raboin get the program off the ground before moving on to UMass Lowell, but it was enough to connect Vachon with Raboin.
“I liked (Raboin’s) philosophy on the game for me personally, how to build my game, but it’s also a unique opportunity to come to a new program and build it from the ground up and instill that culture as a fifth year,” Vachon said.
Raboin called Vachon “an absolute gift” to the Augustana program.
“How he carries himself, not only on the ice but also on campus and in the community, is at such a high level,” he said. “He’s so comfortable leading, it’s so natural for him. He doesn’t have to try. As a coach, to have someone like him in your first year as a new head coach, it really has been so critical as we lay the foundation. There’s not a big enough word to describe him.
“Who he is is exemplified through the group as a whole. He’s relentless, he’s hardworking, he’s honest, he’s for the team and for the program. He’s given his all of himself for this program.”
Vachon sees this weekend as an opportunity for Augustana.
“It’s a huge weekend for the program. It’s a big weekend having a new rink for the first time,” he said. “The whole team but also the community and the school has been pumped up for this moment for two years now, so it’s nice to finally have that come about. But we’re also excited because we’re coming off a big weekend against ASU, where we won that first game and then the second game we played so well. We had glimpses of our hockey where we dominated at times, so we want to bring that against Ferris and look for the sweep at home.”
The Quinnipiac bench during the 2016 ECAC tournament semifinal game between the Bobcats and Dartmouth at Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, N.Y. (USCHO.com file photo).
The conversation about on-campus regionals and conference championships is nothing new to college hockey.
It’s a near-annual exercise, much like the Pairwise Rankings, that enables fans and analysts to debate and coalesce around how to improve a postseason known for its ability to generate organic thrills at a moment’s notice. Much like realignment, NIL, and the new transfer portal, the exhaustive exercise of arguing over neutral site placements or on-campus venues is a near-guarantee to show up in the public forum.
Ed Trefzger and I debated the national merits in this week’s TMQ column, but the conversation surrounding ECAC Hockey and the possibility of an on-campus tournament took its own turn in the public sphere in the aftermath of the NCHC’s decision to move its playoffs on campus in 2026. The unanimous decision, approved by the board of directors in mid-December, stipulated that the playoffs would move to a three-week process with the single elimination semifinal and final splitting from its current Frozen Faceoff format.
The move left Hockey East and ECAC as the only two conferences with neutral site championship weekends, and with the overall conversation raging, colleague Ken Schott from The Daily Gazette in New York’s Capital District spoke with commissioner Doug Christiansen about the possibility of moving the conference championship away from the Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid.
“I think every conference has their own pluses and minuses to it,” Christiansen told Schott. “You look at the NCHC, they obviously have some really large buildings, but they have some of the geography issues that come along with that. We [are] a little bit different, in terms of some of the capacities in our arenas are a bit smaller, but we don’t have the geography concerns. I think it’s something that we’ll continue to look at.”
I asked several pointed questions during the debate with Ed over the possibility of abandoning neutral site regionals in the NCAA tournament, and I’ll make clear – again – that I don’t stand in favor or against a particular move. I don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach to scheduling tournaments, and I believe conferences are much more unique than adopting a universal method for scheduling any postseason arrangement.
Hockey East, for example, probably shouldn’t ever shift its championship away from TD Garden because its geography lends perfectly to the utilization of a neutral-site championship. The Beanpot kicks off at the start of February and serves a perfect appetizer before the Hockey East main course, and nearly every school is within driving distance of a semifinal and championship game. I would never see a scenario where the league wouldn’t come close to a sell-out at the arena, and even a year like the 2014 championship between UMass Lowell and New Hampshire was capable of drawing well over 10,000 fans to the spoked-B home of the Boston Bruins.
ECAC has long differed since leaving Boston Garden in 1993. The league formerly featured the Garden during its three-division setup between the East schools that eventually broke away and formed Hockey East, the West schools from New York (and Vermont), and the Ivy League schools, but a move to Lake Placid allowed the reconfigured conference to play its championship at one of the most iconic venues in hockey history. It remained there until a move to Albany’s Pepsi Arena – now the MVP Arena – before a three-year stint at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J. In 2014, ECAC returned to Lake Placid.
“I think Lake Placid has been a fantastic host,” Christiansen told Schott. “It’s a city that symbolizes hockey in our country, and it has a ton of history in our league. So for us, we’ll obviously continue to look at all of our options, but I think Lake Placid is a really good home. We’re looking forward to continuing to grow it, and I’m looking forward to adding some of my own and our own thoughts and processes as to how we can make it better.”
Pushing aside the national conversation for a minute, the move to on-campus sites for a conference championship has become more than just a trend.
The WCHA’s move in the aftermath of losing the Xcel Energy Center to realignment proved wildly successful and eventually split the semifinals and championship across two separate weekends, and the Big Ten eventually moved on-campus in 2018 after alternating its first four championships between the Twin Cities and Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena.
Atlantic Hockey subsequently followed suit after moving its conference championship from campus sites to Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, New York before shifting to the HarborCenter in Buffalo. A one-year experimental trip to Utica, N.Y., in 2022 preceded last year, which ironically led to Canisius hosting the championship at HarborCenter.
Those switches proved wildly successful in their own right, and granting teams an opportunity to hoist championship trophies in front of their own crowd opened the doors on new revenue streams and policies. The image of watching a team potentially win a title either in their own barn or in someone else’s barn goes along with the overall drama associated with postseason hockey, and I’d be wrong if I denied having dreams of celebrating a hockey championship with one of my teams and the fans who I see on a regular basis.
ECAC, though, is a unique case, and Lake Placid a unique venue. Last year’s attendance wasn’t necessarily off-the-charts between Harvard and Colgate, but the arena itself carried a certain amount of atmosphere at half-capacity.
Anyone who hasn’t been to Lake Placid – and even the seasoned veterans – receive the requisite goosebumps when they walk into the arena and see where Mike Eruzione shot the game-winning goal past Vladimir Myshkin. I know that my brother made the trek about 25 years ago, and I still remember feeling Lake Placid in the column. As a younger hockey fan, the idea of visiting an Olympic town in the Adirondack Mountains was almost mythical.
Unlike the national radar, though, the move to campus sites has been more undeniable than the conversation about moving the national tournament. Conferences are, to an extent, more localized, and the big-game feel doesn’t require the big, neutral site. I long believed that every team should play in a conference tournament because that’s how conference tournaments are played, but leagues should also incentivize earning a higher seed.
Right now, I don’t necessarily believe there’s an incentive to finish higher than any other team in the top four spots of ECAC. I don’t like the single-elimination format of the first round, but I’ve noticed that other leagues are starting to increasingly move towards the play-in style. Even by tamping down that argument, gaining a top-four spot to avoid the first round is an accomplishment, but winning on campus before moving to Lake Placid removes, in my mind, a piece of what makes it more important to finish second over third.
Seeding needs to matter, and while there’s a hypothetical advantage to playing as the better seed, the depth and parity of a league also strips a bit of that away. I believe that any team can beat any team in this league, but I also think there’s an element of drama associated with potentially watching Harvard march into Cornell for a semifinal or championship match. I’d love to see Clarkson host a championship game at Cheel Arena, and I’d be interested to see how a title game could boost the overall atmosphere at places where attendance lags.
The thought of piling fans into ECAC buildings for a championship is, naturally, utopian, but it does beg the question of attendance among members. I’m not picking on any one team, but nearly half of the conference’s institutions are currently drawing at 50 percent or lower capacity. Proportionally, it’s hard to judge a team by that metric, especially if they play in a more-outdated or bigger barn that accommodates major events. Attendance figures are sometimes harder to judge because a certain number of fans can make a building seem louder than its capacity might show.
I guess what I’m saying is that the conversation is incredibly nuanced, but it feels like conference tournaments are heading in that inevitable direction (except for Hockey East). As facilities are becoming more and more updated and modern, it’s becoming harder to keep championship atmospheres away from school-based rinks. The amenities that used to make neutral sites more unique are disappearing, and that’s a credit to the leagues, the schools, the players, the coaches, and everything else that makes things possible.
Color me intrigued, and if there’s a way to make the ECAC tournament more exciting, I’m certainly for it. And Ken, from one overtime guy to another, that heart attack you mentioned from 2002, I hope the doctors blamed that on double overtime.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey hold the Women’s Beanpot trophy at TD Garden before the Championship Game. 10,633 fans witnessed the first-ever NCAA women’s hockey games played at TD Garden (Photo: Brian Babineau/Hockey East)
BOSTON – Skating up and down the TD Garden ice on Tuesday night might have felt like the ultimate moment for the women of the four Beanpot schools – Boston College, Boston University, Harvard and Northeastern – but by the time that the two games ended and Northeastern won the Beanpot title on a dramatic overtime goal by Skylar Irving, all of the players and coaches realized that what they had just done meant so much more than just the hockey games played on the ice.
“I think it’s truly amazing being here at the Garden, it’s historic,” said Irving. “[Scoring the game-winning goal] is something that I’ll treasure for the rest of my life.”
The crowd – an impressive 10,633 that came to TD Garden to watch the first women’s Beanpot tournament final ever played in the NHL building – was a little bit different than your typical hockey atmosphere.
Cheers and boos were replaced by shrieks, those that any parent of a young girl would recognize.
The TD Garden seats, while boasting plenty of students from the four schools in attendance, were in essence overrun by girls’ youth hockey teams, most clad in their club’s sweaters.
A break up the ice – loud shriek. A great save – loud shriek. For a goal – add 20 decibels to that shriek. The OT game-winner – an absolute explosion.
The players may have woken up thinking they were making history playing the Women’s Beanpot at the TD Garden for the first time in the event’s 45-year history, it didn’t take long to figure out that the game was as much about the future of women’s hockey as the present.
“What an incredible atmosphere,” said Boston College coach Katie King-Crowley, whose team finished fourth in the event, losing twice in a shootout after battling to two ties, still seemed in awe postgame.
King-Crowley knows great atmospheres. She’s won Olympic gold. She’s coached in the Frozen Four. And she, herself, is a member of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.
She’s also a mother to a 10-year-old female hockey player. She understood that as important as the game was for her players as they drive towards the end of the regular season, Tuesday night at TD Garden was equally as important to the aspiring talent in the seats.
“The amount of teams of little girls who get to experience a game like this in this building, it’s so special,” King-Crowley said. “It certainly makes it all so exciting for the future of women’s hockey.”
In 1978, five years after the advent of Title IX, the women’s coaches of the four schools all got together in a small bar in Cambridge better known for birthing rock bands than hockey tournaments and decided to take the chance and form the Women’s Beanpot as a companion event to the men’s event that was formed in 1952 as a way to fill open dates in the doldrums of winter at the old Boston Arena.
The idea of the Women’s Beanpot was ambitious. At the time, only one of the four programs – Northeastern – was varsity with one more (Harvard) in the process of transitioning to varsity. BC and BU were 20 years away from making that move.
Former Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertanga, who had played in the Beanpot with Harvard’s men’s team and was coach for the Harvard women, understood the importance of having a trophy to award to the annual champion. Thus, he scoured antique stores for a Beanpot, ultimately finding a porcelain version that was painted shades of brown.
That first “trophy” cost $6 and was the tournament award for a number of years starting with the first in 1979. A wood base was added before there was a decision to replace it with the metal Beanpot trophy used today. The original Women’s Beanpot trophy is located in the New England Sports Museum.
According to Bertagna, there has been a strong push to bring the women’s event to the same stage as the men, inside of an NHL building. Tuesday’s massive crowd – one of the largest to ever watch a women’s hockey game – is one that the organizers hope can be repeated.
And when they do – next year and for generations forward – you can believe that every women who dons their university’s sweater on the TD Garden ice will be playing for the name on the front as well as for every little girl watching.
“All these little girls, they’re all going to want to play here,” said King. “To play in this atmosphere.”
Univ. Southern Maine’s Haley McKim vs Norwich. (Photo via Jesse Kamalandua, Ath Comm Studrnt Employee)
I’ve not been around the sport as long as some, but I believe I’ve been involved with it enough to say once again that we’re at the best point the sport [D-III Hockey] has ever been in terms of parity from what we’ve seen. Week-after-week, we continue to see upset-after-upset, something that wasn’t as common before when dealing with the top 5-10 ranked teams-specifically. Sure, we’d see plenty when it was outside of the top 10 but seeing the number of “upsets” in both men’s and women’s D-III hockey regardless of ranking, it sometimes becomes repetitive and difficult to say a game with a ranked vs unranked opponent was an “upset”, when it’s becoming the ever-common reality.
Moving past that, here’s your featured highlights from the East this past week!
Univ. Southern Maine pull off a program-changing victory
On Friday, Univ. Southern Maine had a first in program history, they defeated #12 Elmira 1-0, which included a few firsts…
USM all time vs Elmira was 0-5 entering the game, nor had they ever scored a goal against them, being previously shutout the past five matchups since 2021. Well, that all changed Friday.
There was a single goal in this game, USM’s Olivia Stewart delivered the winning goal very early in the opening period at 4:33 into the 1st. It’s quite remarkable the goal held up for the remainder of the game considering the opponent they faced in Elmira.
Southern Maine goaltender Haley McKim had her signature win to go along with her stellar season she’s had thus far, currently sitting with a 7-5-2 record, but holds a stat line of 1.41 GAA and .960 save-percentage. She made 38 saves in the shutout win over the Soaring Eagles. Some career achievements for her also included tying USM career shutouts (15) & single-season shutouts (6).
Penalties were even at four per team for eight minutes and shots were in favor of Elmira 38-14.
For Elmira, they continue to soul-search in terms of stringing some wins together, especially against high-caliber opponents. They’ve been switching up goaltenders as of late which is an odd move considering the normal starter Leonie Kuehberger is rolling with a GAA of 1.16 & save-% of .927 against the best of the Soaring Eagles schedule, but maybe Coach Greg Haney feels this will give the team a needed “jolt” to help them win games.
Here’s the Southern Maine Huskies Hall of Fame Broadcaster Jim Ward’s game-winning-call as a time expired, volume warning, CLICK HERE.
Wesleyan shock #3 Amherst
Another major shock like the one we just discussed in Gorham, ME, we move south to Amherst, MA where Wesleyan pulled off their 2nd win vs Amherst since 2003, a year in which they defeated Amherst twice. Overall, the Mammoths have owned the all-time series vs the cardinals, holding a record of 43-9-3.
In this game, Wesleyan got to business first, scoring at 9:12 of the 1st period, it was Shannon Burke who got the Cardinals up 1-0 which held up all the way until the 3rd period.
Wesleyan Women’s Hockey. (Photo via Steve McLaughlin Photography)
In the 3rd, things got a little busier, Anna Baxter got Amherst on the board a quick 5:05 into the period to tie it up at one apiece. This all changed when Wesleyan’s Isabelle Allieri won the game with under five minutes to go, scoring at 16:23.
Wesleyan goaltender Rei Halloran made 30 saves in the historic Cardinal win, while Amherst’s star goalie Natalie Stott made 14.
UMass-Boston shutout #9 Norwich
To add to the common theme of the weekend, the Beacons of UMass-Boston defeated #9 Norwich for the first time since 2016, the second victory for UMass since 2010 over Norwich who owns the overall series at 25-5-1.
In this game, the Beacons on the stat sheet got owned, but on the scoreboard, they rolled by. It was the “Cadets Fight Cancer” game, 1,193 in attendance, great to see for a women’s D-III hockey game.
Norwich won the shot battle 36-16, penalties were five for ten minutes on UMB, two for four minutes on Norwich.
The scoring began with a goal just before the midway mark in the opening period (8:26), it was Gianna Skrelja who got the Beacons up 1-0. The second UMB goal came in the final seconds of the 2nd period, scoring at 19:49 was Jenna Majewski, giving UMB the 2-0 lead.
Norwich would add a late powerplay goal (Neris Archambault) at 19:03.3 in the last minute of the game to cut the deficit in half, but it wasn’t enough and UMass-Boston gets a potential program-altering victory.
A notable achievement in this game that should be mentioned was Norwich’s star goaltender Leocadia Clark picking up her 1,000th career save during the 2nd period.
Legendary Middlebury Head Coach Bill Mandigo Wins #650
On another note, we saw the legendary Middlebury Head Coach Bill Mandigo win his 650th career game over the weekend when the Panthers got the weekend-sweep over Bowdoin. Mandigo is the winningest coach amongst all of NCAA Women’s hockey regardless of division.
Bill Mandigo wins his 650th career game this past weekend vs Bowdoin. (Photo by Will C Images,LLC)
Mandigo’s career record (via USCHO) is 650-168-54 (.776), he’s made 18 NCAA tournaments, won 16 league titles, & 18 regular-season league titles. He’s led a storied career that’s currently in its 36th year, nearing its eventual end, but will be remembered in the women’s hockey world forever, not just Division III.
The last time Boston College and Boston University met, the Eagles took a 4-2 win Feb. 13, 2023 in the Beanpot consolation game (photo: Matt Woolverton).
Each week during the season, we look at the big events and big games around Division I men’s college hockey in Tuesday Morning Quarterback.
Ed: Dan, I think you’ll agree that while college hockey itself is great – and perhaps in a golden age – what makes it even better is when longtime rivals meet. We had a wild series last weekend between Michigan and Michigan State and the first-ever No. 1 vs. No. 2 set up between Boston University and Boston College next weekend.
Let’s start with Michigan at Michigan State on Friday. The visiting Wolverines got out to a 6-0 lead before Nicolas Muller broke the shutout at 12:40 of the third period. Tempers boiled over and opponents paired up in a scuffle that resulted in eight roughing minors and six misconducts in a game with a combined 37 penalties and 168 penalty minutes. I mean, I’m not really a hockey fight fan, but I love a heated rivalry. And especially one that’s seemed a bit one-sided in recent seasons.
The second half of the series was Saturday at Yost, and saw Michigan take a 4-1 lead at the midway point before six straight tallies by the Spartans – in a game with only 10 combined penalty minutes.
That turnaround by Michigan State may have defined much of the rest of this season. A weekend sweep at the hands of their bitterest rival – especially after Friday’s thumping – may have altered the path of the rest of the campaign.
With that in the rear-view mirror, we look ahead to an historic home-and-home renewal of the Battle of Commonwealth Avenue. This must be the talk of college hockey fans back east in Beantown where you call home.
Dan: Ed, you’re about to ask a Boston guy about a Boston rivalry that’s atop the college hockey universe. Can we just state for the record that I don’t have enough words for this?
Let’s just start with the fact that BC and BU have never been No. 1 and No. 2 when they’ve played each other. The closest thing that exists is 1978’s NCAA tournament championship game when Jack Parker won his first title by beating BC 5-3 and while this game is in the regular season, we’re kicking off a two-week span where the two sides of the Green Line’s B Branch collide for three different games. Both of these teams are playing top-level hockey, and the staggering number of pro-level talent only adds to the fact that they’re on another planet compared to the rest of college hockey right now.
The subplots to this game are incredible. They’re the top two teams in Hockey East but the six-point difference between them feels negligible compared to their identical overall records and nearly-identical offensive and defensive numbers. Hobey Baker candidates exist on both rosters, as do future NHL’ers. Cutter Gauthier is one of the nation’s best scorers, but Macklin Celebrini (and his top-rated NHL Draft prospects) are every bit as good as the drama surrounding the Philadelphia Flyers, Anaheim Ducks, and whatever the heck happened with Gauthier. Gabe Perreault, Will Smith, Lane Hutson, Jeremy Wilmer, Ryan Greene – there are good-to-great-to-elite college hockey players all over each team’s stat sheet.
But the biggest element to this game is naturally the national standing. I don’t want to spend too much time hammering the Pairwise Rankings this week, buuuuuuut BU and BC are equally the top two teams in the statistical rankings. The winner of this series – along with the fact that they meet again in a little over a week when the Beanpot heads to TD Garden – is the start of a run that’ll determine who can claim the top spot in the NCAA tournament.
For people who aren’t aware, that’s a bigger story than anyone wants to think about because UMass is tied with Providence and St. Cloud for 11th in the current Pairwise. I’m not a mathematician here to break down how every little win or loss impacts things, but it doesn’t take NASA-level scientists to know that the Minutemen are site hosts for one of the regional sites. I know it’s been mentioned several times over, but locking them into a local regional when a Hockey East team might not be able to play them in the first round – not without a weird or crazy breakdown of the selection criteria, at least – means this game might determine who stays home and who gets sent to Missouri. I can’t see a situation where the No. 1 seed plays anywhere outside of the Northeast if it’s BC or BU, and while there are a number of impactful conversations to have, the simplest – the absolute, most-simple, unabridged conversation – says the No. 1 seed would stay in Providence while the No. 2 seed gets sent west.
We still have a conference tournament season, and we still have a number of games that could cost everyone along the way, but that’s sure going to make the hype machine go crazy for this week’s game.
Needless to say, I think the Corrib Pub and T’s are both going to be ROCKING this week.
I’m trying to remember a time when so much felt like it was riding on regular season games. Nothing rang an immediate bell, but I readily admit that life ends at the 495 exit on the Mass Pike. Worcester is Western Mass to me (and everyone else who grew up inside 128…all you good Minnesota folks have no idea what I just said, but I love you all the same). This is awesome for Boston, and it gets me closer to my “Boston teams take over the Frozen Four in Minnesota” storyline that I drummed up at the beginning of the year.
You know we eventually need to double back to games that cost teams (sorry, Quinnipiac), but do you remember when there was a regular-season game that might’ve felt this big?
Ed: Off the top of my head, I didn’t remember any games with teams that were No. 1 and No. 2 in the USCHO poll and staunch rivals and with NCAA tournament seeding all on the line. Even to non-Hockey East people like me and those who don’t know what or where the Green Line is, it’s clear that this is a big deal.
Looking back through our records, I guess for a rivalry you might point to No. 2 Denver beating No. 1 Colorado College, 1-0, in the WCHA Final Five on March 19, 2005. But the biggest overall game would have to be No. 1 Union beating No. 2 Minnesota, 7-4, in the 2014 NCAA D-I men’s ice hockey national championship game. That shows you how rare these 1-2 battles are, even in the tournament.
But you’re right about the implications. They’re huge. Every game matters, whether it’s in October or March, but we notice them a lot more at this time of year.
While we’re on the topic of the NCAA tournament, I was hoping we could weigh in on the ongoing discussion of the NCAA regionals. Our colleague Brad Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald – named Monday as the 2023 North Dakota sportswriter of the year – wrote a detailed opinion piece last week advocating for having separate rounds of 16 and 8 on campus one week apart at the higher seeds. He started the piece by noting that Minnesota played before the smallest crowd of its season against Harvard in the 2022 Albany regional, and included a photo he took from the press section. I also covered that regional for USCHO.com and witnessed the emptiness of that arena, which only had seats available in the lower bowl. Brad’s piece has me about 95% convinced.
The first item on my list of reasons why I agree has to do with the venues. Half empty (at best) aging AHL arenas with no atmosphere are not a great advertisement for the sport. They look dismal on television, and there’s little energy in the building. Even great fan bases like North Dakota’s, who travel better than almost anyone, are likely to fill a regional in Fargo, but to ask them to travel on short notice to the east coast when many stalwarts already have Frozen Four tickets and travel plans is a big ask.
Secondly, the system of allowing regional host institutions to play at their host venue means that a four seed might host near home, while a No. 1 seed ends up losing the perks that should come with that great season. While Brown and not Providence was the host of the 2019 Providence regional, it still was like a home game for the Friars, who staged a huge comeback to down No. 3 overall Minnesota State, who under an on-campus site system would have hosted the first round and the second, had they advanced.
Certainly there are some logistical issues for television. ESPN would have to have two weekends of crews with eight sets of broadcasters the first week, although in response to Schlossman’s article, John Buccigross said on X that his network would be able to handle it.
I’ve got a lot more I could opine with on this, but I want to make sure you get a word in edgewise, Dan.
Dan: I’m actually going to head off the beaten path in the debate for a little bit because I honestly don’t know where the right decision points.
There are certainly positives and negatives to moving on campus, but I’m going to just ask a few key questions about factors that we’d have to take under consideration. What I will offer is that Brad gave us the first real concrete suggestion of how it could work rather than just screaming about one way or the other. For that, I fall back on something my dad always told me: “Don’t say no unless you have an alternative.”
For what it’s worth, he also told me never to date a coworker, but dating her prompted me to switch jobs to somewhere where I became significantly happier. We’ve also been married for eight-plus years and have two kids, so maybe he got that one wrong. Anyways…
My first point is a little bit of pointed criticism for everyone blindly advocating a move back to campus sites. It’s easy to forget that not everyone in college hockey has the robust or vast facilities available to places like Boston University, Minnesota, Penn State, Michigan or North Dakota. Those places can host thousands of people and pile teams into their barns, as far as I know. On the off-hand chance that a facility is smaller, a place like Lawson Arena at Western Michigan seats less than 4,000 people. In fact, the majority of arenas that come to mind in the ECAC are less than 4,000 seats, including Quinnipiac. Providence’s two college teams are just over 3,000, and Harvard is even lower than that.
From my perspective, the switch to campus sites therefore comes with significant risk about whether those facilities can handle the capacity of hosting a national tournament game. It’s easy to look at the argument from the larger schools’ perspective, but think about the 2015 NCAA tournament when Miami went to the East Regional in Providence. If Miami is hosting at the Goggin Center, that’s about 3,500 who can go to a game.
For comparison’s sake, Bridgeport had an announced attendance of more than 4,500 people in last year’s tournament, while the East Regional final between Boston University and Cornell drew 7,100 people. Yes, the Bridgeport regional was about half-full, but the numbers were still bigger. None of this – I want to reiterate that NONE OF THIS – is a knock against the schools, but it’s something to take into consideration.
The other consideration is, in my mind, how the bids are then figured out past the first round. I think about baseball and how the NCAA bids out the Super Regionals – the top eight national seeds are guaranteed to host the Super Regional round if they advance, and the teams seeded No. 1 in those other brackets default to hosting capabilities if the national seed doesn’t advance. If neither team advances, the two teams that do advance receive an opportunity to bid, at which point preference is given to the better seed.
Not every facility is designed to host one of those large-scale events beyond even the capacity, and I can think of a half-dozen scenarios where a team in the bracket wouldn’t have been able to host if they’d advanced. Beyond that, scheduling can cause an issue where facilities are in use after the season ends. I think specifically of the time in the Atlantic Hockey postseason when AIC had to move its playoff series to the Olympia Ice Center because the MassMutual Center was being used for Disney on Ice.
These are all things that the committee would need to account for, and none of this, I want to repeat for the umpteenth time, illustrates my stance on this being a positive or a negative. It’s simply a matter of asking pointed questions about how to advance forward, and I’ll readily admit that I don’t know what the right answer is. I don’t envy anyone on the committee.
Ed: You bring up good points. And that’s why a decision like this wouldn’t be a slam dunk … er, uh, empty-net goal.
I also get your point about attendance in smaller arenas. So I decided to take a look at what the capacity would have been for the field of 16 last season, and the ensuing field of eight. The attendance figures for the regional semifinals are for single tickets for both games so the attendance for any single game will be less than shown. We only have the official box score numbers and not the turnstile count for each.
Overall Seed
Team
Capacity
Attendance in 2023
1
Minnesota
10,000
5,061
2
Quinnipiac
3,386
4,462
3
Michigan
6,637
7,067
4
Denver
6,026
3,631
5
Boston University
6,150
3,631
6
St. Cloud State
6,000
5,061
7
Harvard
3,095
4,462
8
Penn State
6,014
7,067
So there are some games which would have had a smaller paid attendance: Harvard, Quinnipiac, and Penn State. Meanwhile, Minnesota and Denver could have had double the attendance with home games.
Looking at the field of eight/regional finals round, which assumes the same winning teams:
Overall Seed
Team
Capacity
Attendance in 2023
1
Minnesota
10,000
5,326
2
Quinnipiac
3,386
4,557
3
Michigan
6,637
8,375
5
Boston University
6,150
7,143
The total capacity of the round of 16 was 48,482 vs. announced attendance of 40,442. It was closer for the round of eight, only 763 more, but again those are paid numbers and not butts in the seats.
Travel could be less expensive. Instead of having to provide travel for 16 teams, eight teams would travel in the first round and four in the second.
In addition, the home ice advantage may not be as profound as it would seem. It’s there, of course, but over the 2022-23 season, non-neutral site home teams were 581-420-79 for a winning percentage of .575. Significant, yes. But not insurmountable.
If this were a simple, black-and-white case, there wouldn’t be salient points on each side.
Given that, would you at least consider giving it a go for a couple of seasons if you were the czar of D-I men’s college hockey? I think it’s worth a try. We might like it, or find that the current way is better.
Dan: So here’s my final answer to all of this.
An executive with a professional sports franchise once told me that no organization can ever be satisfied with the status quo. Even if no moves are made, the job of any good executive is to continue searching for ways to improve. With respect to being the resident speaker of the house of hockey commons, I’ll be open to any change that’s researched, thought-out and immediately dissected internally as a step forward. Experimenting with anything can’t be wrong. If it doesn’t work out, then we just go back to the way things were. What was the thing with Thomas Edison – I didn’t fail, it was just a 2,000-step process?
My last word on it is just to make sure that we’ve dotted all i’s and crossed all t’s, and I believe the hockey committee folks are doing that. I trust them to do the right thing, and I’m supportive of the decisions that are made or will be made. I’m sure that everything is being taken into consideration one way or the other – even down to things like number of luxury boxes and hotel availability on long and short notice. The bids are comprehensive. It’s a fascinating debate, and I love, if nothing else, embracing the debate.
That said, I’d love to end this with a lighter note. Because we’re both Atlantic Hockey guys, how badly would you have wanted an NCAA regional somehow hosted at the old John A. Ryan Arena?
Ed: So, Dan, as we were wrapping this up, it came to my attention via some social media posts that I needed to check on the seating capacity for the Centene Community Ice Center, the arena for the Maryland Heights Regional outside of St. Louis. It’s the home ice for the Lindenwood Lions and a practice facility for the St. Louis Blues. According to the facility’s website and Lindenwood athletics, it has a seating capacity of 2,500. That’s not a typo. Two thousand five hundred seats.
Why are we worried about small ECAC facilities when an arena that small was awarded a bid? Imagine if Minnesota or Denver are placed there! I rest my case.
And to answer your question about the JAR hosting a regional? That’s the stuff nightmares are made of.
The Spartans pulled off a series split with nationally ranked Trine. (Steve Woltmann/Aurora Athletics)
Aurora has been one of the better teams in the NCHA this season. And the Spartans made a statement Friday with a 4-3 win in overtime over then No. 12 Trine.
The Spartans led 3-1 going into the third before the Thunder rallied to force overtime.
It was there that Chayce Schmidt delivered the game winner, scoring his second goal of the night and fourth of the season.
Aurora was unable to carry that momentum into Saturday’s game, falling 8-4, but they remain in fourth place in the conference standings and in good shape to make the conference tournament.
The Spartans are 9-9-1 overall and 8-4 in league play. Chase Broda scored twice in Saturday’s game for Aurora.
But it wasn’t enough to overcome the Thunder, who scored five times in the third period. Michael DiPietra finished with two goals in the game for Trine, which is 15-4 overall and 10-2 in the conference. It’s the first time this season that Trine has scored eight goals in a game.
High Five for Adrian
The nationally ranked Bulldogs have won their last five games, including a sweep of Lake Forest this past weekend.
Ranked No. 4 going into the weekend, Adrian is 14-4-1 overall and 11-1 in league play after outscoring the Foresters 11-3 in the two games.
After a 6-2 win Friday, Adrian wrapped things up Saturday with a 5-1 win. Bradley Somers and Zachary Heintz led the charge, scoring two goals apiece, while Dershahn Stewart made 32 saves.
Friday’s game was special for Jaden Shields, who registered his 100th career point after scoring a goal in the third period. Jacob Suede also made key contributions, tallying a pair of goals.
Seeing Green
St. Norbert swept Concordia with a pair of hard-fought overtime victories. The Green Knights won 4-3 on Friday and then prevailed 3-2 on Saturday.
In Saturday’s game, Adam Stacho, one of St. Norbert’s top offensive threats, scored the game winner just under four minutes into the extra session. Brock Baker assisted on the play, one of two assists for him on the night. Stacho is St. Norbert’s scoring leader this season, racking up 10 goals and 14 assists.
The Green Knights are 12-5 overall and 10-2 in the league, good enough for third place. Logan Dombrowsky was the hero in Friday’s game, scoring less than two minutes into OT. Dombrowsky also tallied an assist in the win. Curtis Hammond finished with a goal and assist as well.
Oles secure big win
St. Olaf punctuated its weekend with a 4-2 win over nationally ranked St. Scholastica on Saturday.
The Oles dominated out of the gate, racing out to a 2-0 lead, and notched their eighth win of the season.
St. Olaf has been pretty good against teams ranked nationally as of late, going 2-0-1 against them. The Oles and Saints played to a 3-3 tie before St. Scholastica won in a shootout.
St. Olaf improved to 8-8-3 overall and 4-4-2 in the conference while St. Scholastica has yet to get out of a weekend with a sweep during the 2024 portion of the season. The Saints had won their first 10 games but now sit at 12-4-1 overall and 5-2-1 in the MIAC.
Cody Sherman helped pave the way for St. Olaf, tallying a goal and an assist. Kelijah McElroy dished out two assists on a night when St. Olaf dominated offensively, outshooting the Saints 42-18, including 23 shots in the opening period.
It was a different story on Friday when St. Scholastica opened up a 3-1 lead before Connor Kalthoff scored twice to tie the game and record the first two-goal effort of his college career.
Tristan Shewchuk scored twice for the Saints.
A sweep for the Auggies
Augsburg pushed itself above the .500 mark with a sweep of Gustavus over the weekend.
The Auggies won 3-2 on Friday, snapping a two-game losing streak, and prevailed by the same score on Saturday.
Dylan Schneider, Nick Catalano and Gunnar Williams all scored for Augsburg, which improved to 9-7-1 overall and 6-2 in MIAC play. Gustavus fell to 7-10-2 overall and 2-7-1 in the conference.
Catalano’s goal was his fifth of the season, and while the Auggies were outshot 38-26, Samuel Vyletelka notched his 10th victory, racking up 36 saves. It’s the third consecutive game where he’s stopped 30 or more shots.
Vyletelka made 34 saves in Friday’s win, including 25 in the final two periods. Erik Palmqvist tallied his sixth goal of the year in the win.
What a night for Westlund
Bethel’s Joe Westlund came through with the first hat trick of his college career on Friday in a game against Concordia that ended in a 4-4 tie before the Royals won the shootout.
The Royals then dominated Saturday’s game against the Cobbers, winning 6-0 to take control of first place in the MIAC standings.
Six different players scored for the Royals, who improve to 12-4-3 overall and 6-2-2 in the MIAC.
Westlund has come through with seven goals and five assists on the year for the Royals, who already have two more wins than they did all of last season. Perhaps the most impressive thing about Westlund is that he’s only a freshman.
Three in a row for UW-Eau Claire
The Blugolds entered the weekend ranked 14th in the nation and picked up a pair of important WIAC wins over UW-Superior and stretched their win streak to three.
UW-Eau Claire finished off the series with a 3-1 win over winning 2-0 in the opener on Friday.
Quinn Green helped highlight Saturday’s victory, dishing out three assists, while Leo Bacallao scored his seventh goal of the year. Green now has 11 assists on the season. Max Gutjahr stopped 21 shots Saturday and made 23 saves in Friday’s victory.
UW-Eau Claire is now 12-6-1 overall and 5-2-1 in the conference.
Pointers keep unbeaten streak intact
UW-Stevens Point is unbeaten in its last eight games as it stays on track for a WIAC championship.
The Pointers picked up two more wins this past weekend, sweeping UW-River Falls 4-3 and 4-1.
Connor Witherspoon was the hero in Friday’s game, scoring in the last minute to lift the Pointers to a victory. Alex Proctor racked up 34 saves.
The Pointers trailed 3-2 after two periods before rallying for the win in the third. Back-to-back goals by Dylan Smith had given the Falcons a one-goal lead after two.
Four different players scored for the Pointers on Saturday as they improved to 14-3-1 overall and 8-1 in the conference. The Falcons are 11-8 overall and 3-6 in league play.
Stout soars to sweep
UW-Stout dominated its series against Northland, winning 4-1 on Friday before cruising to a 7-0 win on Saturday. The Blue Devils have now won 16 consecutive games against Northland.
Five players had multi-point games for the Blue Devils, including a pair of goals from Boyd Stahlbaum and three assists from Nicolas Pigeon. Dawson Green did his part as well, stopping 18 shots for his second career shutout and first of the season.
The Blue Devils improved to 7-10-2 overall and 5-4 in league play. They came into the weekend on a five-game winless streak but ended it with Friday’s win. They scored three goals in the second period to set the tone. Kullan Daikawa and Brandon Connett each came through with a goal and assist.
Boston University swept Vermont on the road last weekend (photo: Camryn DiCostanzo).
Boston University is again the top-ranked team in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll, getting 40 first-place votes in this week’s rankings.
Boston College remains No. 2, picking up six first-place votes, while Wisconsin is up one to No. 3, Denver is up one to No. 4, North Dakota is up one to No. 5, and Maine is up two to sit sixth this week.
Wisconsin, Denver, North Dakota and Maine all garnered one first-place vote.
Quinnipiac falls four spots to No. 7, Michigan State is down one to No. 8, Minnesota is up one to No. 9, and Providence is down one notch to No. 10.
Notre Dame re-enters the poll this week at No. 20.
In addition to the top 20 teams, 12 other teams received votes this week.
The USCHO.com Division I Men’s Hockey Poll is compiled weekly and consists of 50 voters, including coaches and media professionals from across the country. Media outlets may republish this poll as long as USCHO.com is credited.
Jerry York coaches Boston College in the 2010 NCAA Frozen Four at Ford Field in Detroit, Mich. (USCHO file photo).
The American Hockey Coaches Association has announced its slate of recipients of its most prestigious awards for 2024.
Six of the eight individuals being recognized will be honored at the 2024 AHCA Convention in Naples, Fla., scheduled for May 1-4. The recipients of the John Mariucci Award, presented to secondary school coaches, and the Jim Fullerton Award, presented to a non-coach, will be presented at the Frozen Four in St. Paul, Minn.
JOHN MACINNES AWARD
Established by AHCA in 1982 to honor former MTU coach, John MacInnes. This award recognizes those people who have shown a great concern for amateur hockey. The recipients have had high winning percentages, as well as outstanding graduating percentages among their former players. The winners of this award have helped young men grow not only as hockey players, but also more importantly, as men. 2024 Recipient: Jerry York, Boston College, Bowling Green, Clarkson
Jerry York is the winningest coach in college hockey history and is the most decorated coach ever to work a college bench. His 1,123 career wins dwarf the pack, no one else having reach 1,000 victories. He is the only NCAA coach to be enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto and is also a member of U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, as well as numerous other halls.
York, a member of the Boston College Class of 1967, was hired at his alma mater in 1994 after coaching for 15 years at Bowling Green (1979-1994) where he won the national championship in 1984. He began his head coaching career at Clarkson at the age of 27, leading the Golden Knights from 1972-79.
York is one of only three coaches to have won NCAA titles with two different schools—Bowling Green in 1984, and BC in 2001, 2008, 2010, and 2012. He also led the Eagles to 12 Frozen Four appearances, nine Hockey East Tournament titles, 12 Hockey East regular season championships, and nine Beanpot titles. His 41 NCAA tournament victories are the most ever, and he was named Hockey East coach of the year five times, most recently in 2021.
York coached four Hobey Baker Award winners in his career. Eighteen of his former players were selected in the first round of the NHL draft, and 58 have appeared in at least fifty games in the NHL. In 2019, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. And in 2020 he was named to the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.
A star player at Boston College High School before coming to the Heights to play for coach John “Snooks” Kelley, York was named First-Team All-America in 1967 and won the Walter Brown Award for the top American-born player in New England that same year. He scored 134 points as a player (84 goals, 70 assists) and led the Eagles to a 60-29 record, the 1965 Beanpot title, and a second-place finish in the 1965 NCAA tournament. He still ranks among BC’s all-time leaders in points, goals, and assists.
JIM FULLERTON AWARD
Named in honor of the former Brown University hockey coach and ACHA spiritual leader, this award recognizes an individual who loves the purity of our sport. Whether a coach, administrator, trainer, official, journalist or simply a fan, the recipient exemplifies Jim Fullerton, who gave as much as he received and never stopped caring about the direction in which our game was heading. 2024 Recipient: Roger Godin, Minnesota Wild
Roger Godin, a native of Tarrytown, N.Y., was named the first director of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame (USHHF) in Eveleth, Minnesota, in June 1971. Godin had applied for the position based on a proposal on how he thought the museum might be operated. The facility opened on June 21, 1973, and Godin served two tours as director, July 1971-Dec. 1983 and March 1985-Aug. 1987. He then worked in non-sports museums in the late 1980s and 1990s. In 2000, he was hired by the NHL’s Minnesota Wild to conceive and execute exhibits dealing with hockey in Minnesota and continues in that position to the present time. The exhibits occupy locations on the four levels of the Xcel Energy Center, the Wild’s home arena, in St. Paul, Minn.
During these years, Godin has done extensive research and writing on the pre-World War II American participation in hockey. Most notably he has written two books: “Before The Stars: Early Major League Hockey: and the “St. Paul Athletic Club Team and Red, White, and Blue on Ice: Minnesota’s Elite Teams and Players of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s.” As a member of the Society for International Hockey Research (SIHR) he has also authored numerous monographs a sample of which are those dealing with 1933 United States National Team, early American stars Hugh “Muzz” Murray and Gerry Geran, the 1928 Boston University Club Team, the 1934-35 Baltimore Orioles, and the 1940-45 San Diego Skyhawks. All of the forgoing, except the Skyhawks’ work have appeared in SIHR’s Hockey Research Journal.
In 2021 the Hobey Baker Foundation honored Godin with a replica of the prestigious Baker award in appreciation of his support, passion, and commitment to the foundation. Other awards have come from Minnesota Hockey for outstanding service in 1983, SIHR’s Brian McFarlane Award for outstanding research and writing in 1998, and the USHHF’s John T. Karakas Award for commitment to the mission and goals of the Hall in 2004. Godin also had a 30-year active/reserve component military career during which he received the Air Medal in 1969 for meritorious achievement.
JOHN “SNOOKS” KELLEY FOUNDERS AWARD
Named after the famed Boston College coach, this award honors those people in the coaching profession who have contributed to the overall growth and development of the sport of ice hockey in the United States. 2024 Recipient: Bob DeGregorio, Atlantic Hockey, CHA, NEWHA
Bob DeGregorio has forged a unique career as an athletic administrator, both inside and outside of ice hockey. He is currently the longest serving college hockey commissioner in the NCAA, having served four different conferences since 1993. He is commissioner of the New England Women’s Hockey Alliance, having been introduced as the newest conference’s commissioner in September 2018. As the NEWHA commissioner, DeGregorio helped to secure active NCAA Division I membership for the league, effective for the 2019-20 academic year. Starting with the 2021-22 season, active Division I membership allows the NEWHA champion to be eligible for a bid to the NCAA Division I championship.
Prior to the formation of the NEWHA, DeGregorio served 20 years as commissioner of Atlantic Hockey, an 11-team men’s ice hockey conference, and 11 years as commissioner of College Hockey America, a six-team women’s ice hockey league. Under DeGregorio’s tutelage, Atlantic Hockey grew from nine member institutions at its inception in 2003 to the current 11-member roster. He orchestrated the moving of the Atlantic Hockey Tournament Championships to a neutral site, negotiating with the City of Rochester and the Blue Cross Arena, to make the BCA the home of the semifinals and final, where it remained from 2007 until 2018. DeGregorio then worked with the HarborCenter administration to keep the Atlantic Hockey tournament in western New York beginning in 2019.
DeGregorio is no stranger to guiding a major ice hockey league, having served as commissioner of Hockey East from 1993-96, a position he held while simultaneously working as Merrimack College director of athletics. DeGregorio, served Merrimack College athletics for two decades, joining the staff as business manager for the athletic department and for the college’s S. Peter Volpe Physical Education Center in 1978. He was promoted to director of athletics in May of 1983.
Throughout his tenure, many of the Warrior teams became national powers. Although winning is always a goal, DeGregorio has constantly recognized and encouraged success in the classroom as well as community involvement. This was evidenced in July 2001, when the first USA Today/NCAA Foundation academic achievement awards were announced. Out of the 264 Division II schools in the country, Merrimack ranked second with an impressive student-athlete graduation rate of 86 percent.
A resident of Winthrop, Mass., where he resides with his wife Michele, DeGregorio graduated from Boston State College in 1973 with a bachelor’s degree in education. He was inducted into his alma mater’s athletic hall of fame in the fall of 2023. Bob has two children, Leah and Robert Michael III.
THE WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY FOUNDERS AWARD
This award honors a member of the hockey community or college coaching profession who has contributed to the overall growth and development of the sport of women’s ice hockey in the United States through their enthusiasm, passion and selflessness. 2024 Recipient: Winny Brodt Brown, UNH, Minnesota, Minnesota Whitecaps
Winny Brodt Brown first made headlines when she was chosen as the inaugural winner of Minnesota’s Ms. Hockey Award back in 1996. The Roseville, Minn., native went on to win two national titles (AWCHA), the first as a UNH freshman in 1997 and the second in 2000 after transferring to the University of Minnesota. She was named the AWCHA tournament Most Valuable Player in 1997. While at Minnesota, the talented defenseman not only forged a Hall of Fame career but also interrupted her college career to play for Team USA, earning silver medals at both the 2000 and 2001 World Championships.
Upon leaving the University of Minnesota, she joined the Western Women’s Hockey League (WWHL) Minnesota Whitecaps in their inaugural 2004–05 season. In 2006, she was joined by her sister Chelsey Brodt-Rosenthal. They played every season with the Whitecaps, including their 2010 Clarkson Cup win, and through the team’s independent years after the dissolution of the WWHL in 2011. Both signed contracts with the Whitecaps for its inaugural 2018–19 season in the professional Premier Hockey Federation (PHF, originally the National Women’s Hockey League). She announced her retirement from the Whitecaps on August 16, 2022.[1]
Brodt-Brown was inducted into the University of Minnesota M Club Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2021. One of Brodt-Brown’s former teammates, Allie Morse, who was one of the Whitecaps’ goalies for the last three seasons, has said, “An absolute legend. She made women’s hockey what it is today in Minnesota and will continue to do so even if she isn’t playing.”
Alongside her playing career, Brodt has been involved with coaching for the past two decades, not only coaching the Junior Whitecaps but also as the director of OS Hockey Training since 2008.
TERRY FLANAGAN AWARD
Named in honor of the former UNH player and Bowling Green assistant, this award honors an assistant coach’s career body of work. 2024 Recipient: Joe Dumais, UConn, Union, Quinnipiac
Joe Dumais, a Former Quinnipiac hockey captain, is in his eighth year as the Bobcats’ associate head coach. In his first seven seasons with the Bobcats, Quinnipiac has recorded 169 wins with Dumais on the staff, including the 2023 National Championship and each of the last three Cleary Cups as ECAC regular-season champion. He was a key component of the Bobcats’ title run, engineering the faceoff play that helped clinch the program’s first national championship.
Dumais returned to Quinnipiac in 2016 after spending the previous five seasons at Union College preceded by three seasons at the University of Connecticut. Dumais joined the staff at Union in 2011 and was elevated to associate head coach in 2015. During Dumais’ time at Union, he helped guide the Dutchmen to the 2014 NCAA national championship. In addition to the Dutchmen’s success in the national tournament, Dumais also helped develop three All-Americans, six All-ECAC Hockey selections and a pair of ECAC Hockey all-rookie team picks.
Dumais was a four-year letterwinner for the Bobcats from 2002 through 2006, appearing in 128 games for his career and serving as a captain for the 2006 team. Dumais accumulated 17 goals and 25 assists for 42 points.
Dumais graduated from Quinnipiac in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology before completing a master’s degree in recreation and sports sciences from Ohio University.
ASSISTANT WOMEN’S COACH AWARD
This award honors an assistant coach’s career body of work. 2024 Recipient: Edith Racine, Cornell, Brown
Edith Racine is in her 15th year at Cornell and 17th overall as an NCAA assistant coach. She was named assistant coach for the Big Red in 2009-10 season and prior to the 2019-20 season, Racine was promoted to associate head coach.
While serving under Head Coach Doug Derraugh in a number of roles, she has excelled in the development of goaltenders. Racine has guided the likes of Lindsay Browning, Lauren Slebodnick, Amanda Mazzotta, Paula Voorheis and Marlene Boissonnault. All either received the highest post-season accolades or led the conference or nation in a variety of goaltending categories. During her tenure, Cornell advanced to the national title game in her first season, starting a run of three consecutive NCAA Frozen Four appearances (2010,2011, and 2012), in addition to another appearance in the national semifinals in 2019 and being ranked No. 1 in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic began. The Big Red has won seven Ivy League titles, six ECAC Hockey regular-season crowns, and four ECAC Hockey tournament championships.
Before joining the Big Red, Racine coached for two seasons at Brown University, first as a volunteer assistant during the 2007-08 season and then as a full-time assistant coach in 2008-09.
A two-time All-American goaltender at Elmira College, second team in 2003 and first team in 2005, Racine played four seasons in goal with the Soaring Eagles women’s hockey team, guiding her squad to a pair of national titles and a national runner-up finish.
JOE BURKE AWARD
The Joe Burke Award was established in 1994 to honor those individuals who have shown great support and dedication to girls/women’s hockey. Joe Burke has been an avid fan of girls/women’s hockey since the late 70’s. Joe Burke, a Dedham, Mass., resident is a lifelong hockey fan, who never actually played the game himself. He became hooked on the women’s game when he attended the game vs. the University of New Hampshire and Boston College in 1978 at McHugh Forum. Since this game, Joe was seen at every major girls/women’s hockey event in the New England area. He is a true friend of the women’s game and the people associated with it. 2024 Recipient: Bill Leidt
Bill Leidt has spent more than 20 years in the world of girls’ and women’s ice hockey, his activities ranging from coaching, clinics, player development and tournament management. All of this took place on state, district and national levels.
From 2002-2014, he was a force in Connecticut hockey. For a decade, he was a coach and coaching director for the Connecticut Polar Bears. He also served as Connecticut girls director (2006-14) and Connecticut state championships director (2008-14.)
He has served the New England Region and USA Hockey nationally in a number of capacities from 2008 to the present. Among his titles: USA Hockey Girls eastern select camp director (founder), USA national championship director (girls/women), USA Hockey girls ADM launch committee and New England District regional championship director.
JOHN MARIUCCI AWARD
John Mariucci, the former coach of the University of Minnesota, was not only an outstanding college coach, but also a driving force behind the growth of hockey in the United States. In 1987, the AHCA created this award to honor a secondary school association coach who best exemplifies the spirit, dedication and enthusiasm of the “Godfather of U.S. Hockey,” John Mariucci. 2024 Recipient: Keith Hendrickson, Virginia (Minn.) High School
Keith Hendrickson spent 26 years (1985-2011) as the Virginia High School head coach, which included multiple conference and section championships, state tournament appearances. His Blue Devils were perennial favorites for the Section 7A championship. Beyond his coaching success, his contributions to the overall hockey program in Virginia were inspirational. He spearheaded huge fundraising efforts that resulted in a second sheet of indoor ice being built, the installation of artificial ice a few years later and an arena weight room. The result was increased hockey participation at the youth ranks despite declining enrollment in the schools.
Keith was also very active in Minnesota hockey. He coached several High Performance teams and was twice coach of Team Minnesota at the Chicago Showcase. In 2006, along with Herb Brooks, Jack Blatherwick and Ted Brill, he wrote the blueprint for the first Satellite Training Program, which became the model summer hockey training program in the state of Minnesota. He has received a number of prestigious awards for his bord of work, including the 2003 Dave Peterson Award, given by Minnesota Hockey, and the 2023 Cliff Thomson Award, given by the Minnesota Wild.
A decorated athlete at Virginia HS in both football and hockey, Hendrickson went on to play for his uncle, Gus Hendrickson, at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Keith is now a scout for the Vegas Golden Knights.
Goaltender Damon Beaver established a new career shutout record at Hobart with his 12th in a 5-0 win over Babson on Friday night. The shutout was also No.10 for the Statesmen this season establishing a new single season record (Photo by Hobart Athletics)
Another great weekend of hockey that continued to produce some big upsets where four ranked teams (Geneseo, Norwich, Trinity, and Salve Regina) in the east lost, playoff caliber hockey in several conferences where the races continue to tighten and a host of overtime games that produced a few sudden victory moments. Here is this week’s wrap-up of the rink action in the East:
CCC
The big series over the weekend was the Salve Regina v. University of New England home-and-home series that produced playoff caliber hockey on both nights. On Friday night, the Nor’easter fans had to wait quite awhile for the annual Teddy Bear toss as Seahawks goaltender Cayden Bailey kept the home team at bay until Dominic Murphy broke the ice in the second period for a 1-0 UNE lead. UNE kept up the pressure but a power play goal from Garrett Szeremley midway through the third period leveled the score at 1-1 and that was all the scoring that would happen through the remainder of regulation and overtime. Salve Regina took the shootout win with Bailey standing tall in goal recording 45 saves on 46 shots. On Saturday, the host Seahawks took one-goal leads three times only to see the Nor’easters battle back each time to tie the score at 3-3 to end regulation. In overtime, Kevin O’Keefe scored his second goal of the game and the game-winner to give UNE a big road win, 4-3. Th Nor’easters again held a marked advantage in shots, 55-25 with Bailey keeping Salve Regina in the game with 51 saves.
Endicott moved into a tie for first place in points with a weekend sweep of Nichols. After cruising to a 5-1 win on Friday against the Bison led by one goal and two assists from Michael Casey, the Gulls had a battle on Saturday. Endicott got on the board with just three seconds remaining in the first period off the stick of Kevin Craig for a 1-0 lead. Nichols answered in the second period and took the lead early in the third on a power play goal by Kaiden Scott. In the final two minutes of regulation time, Primo Self tied the game at 2-2 and Jackson Sterrett won the game in overtime for the visiting Gulls, 3-2.
Curry closed to within four points of first place with a weekend sweep over Western New England. Goals from Tao Ishizuka, JP Moreira, and Manny Cabral in the opening eight minutes of the first period were all the offense goaltender Shane Soderwall would need in the Colonel net as Curry skated away with a 3-2 win on Friday. On Saturday, Curry kicked the offense into high gear with Eelis Laaksonen scoring a pair of goals and George Vonakis adding three assists in a 6-0 shutout win over the Golden Bears. Soderwall made 22 saves to earn the shutout and help extend the Colonels win streak to five games.
Independents
Canton produced a three-win week with a pair of victories in a home-and-home series with Wilkes and a big win over Potsdam to close out the weekend. On Wednesday, the visiting Kangaroos used Evan Pringle’s third period goal to take a 3-2 lead and held off the Colonels over the final eight minutes to take a big road win. Back at home on Friday, the Roos found themselves deadlocked at 2-2 in the final minute of regulation when Scott Cremen scored for a 3-2 lead and Nic Herringer iced the game with his tally with seven seconds remaining on the clock in a 4-2 win and sweep of Wilkes. Trey Miller made 48 saves, including 23 in the third period to earn the win in goal. On Saturday, Canton kept the momentum going with a comfortable 5-0 win over Potsdam. Pringle picked up a goal and two assists while Nic Herringer added two goals and Cremen chipped in with two assists for the Kangaroos.
Anna Maria hosted Rivier on Friday night and the game was tied at 1-1 entering the third period. Three AmCat goals, including two from Guillaume Coulombe, provided the margin of victory in a 4-1 win over the Raiders. On Saturday, non-conference foe Amherst stole the playbook from Anna Maria by taking advantage of three third period goals to break open a 3-2 game and skate off with a 6-2 win over the AmCats. Ben Ritter scored two goals for the Mammoths while Zachary Murray scored a goal and added two assists.
MASCAC
Massachusetts-Dartmouth continued their winning hockey with a 7-4 win over Salem State on Thursday extending their win streak to six games. A four goal third period that included a pair of goals from Alex Walker erased a 4-3 deficit on the way to the win over the Vikings. Plymouth State also continued their winning ways on Thursday with a 7-2 win over Framingham State. Three goals in the second period and four in the third period helped the first place Panthers ease past the Rams and setup Saturday’s matchup with second place UMD on Saturday. On Saturday, both teams were generating chances with PSU outshooting the Corsairs by a 43-38 margin. Six different Panthers scored goals and Kalle Andersson stopped all 38 shots he faced in a 6-0 shutout win to keep PSU unbeaten in MASCAC play.
Fitchburg State ended a three-game losing streak with a pair of conference wins over Worcester State and Westfield State. On Thursday, Alexandre Bauvais and Hunter Dunn scored two goals each to pace a 6-1 win over the Lancers. On Saturday, the Falcons kept the offense going with Bauvais picking up a three-point game with a goal and two assists while Michael Imala added two goals and an assist in a 6-2 road win over the Owls.
NE-10
Assumption hosted St. Anselm for two games and came away with a split with the Hawks. On Friday night, Hunter Brackett’s hat trick that featured an even-strength goal, a shorthanded goal and a power play goal helped the hawks take a 5-2 win over the first place Greyhounds. On Saturday, Leo Piandes and Ronny Paragallo each scored one goal and added an assist to help Assumption earn a split of the weekend series with a 4-1 win. Clement Labillois stopped 33 of 34 shots in goal to earn the win.
Franklin Pierce swept a weekend series with St. Michael’s with 2-0 and 4-2 wins. On Friday, Cody Rumsey provided all the scoring and goaltender Jeremy Connor stopped all 45 shots he faced in the Raven goal for the 2-0 shutout win. On Saturday, the Ravens came back from a 2-1 deficit with three third period goals to earn a 4-2 win. Matt Horan opened and closed the scoring for the Ravens while Rumsey assisted on a pair of goals in the final period. Connor was again solid in net stopping 37 of 39 Purple Knight attempts.
Southern New Hampshire also picked up a weekend sweep of games in their series with Post. On Friday, a late second period goal by Brendan Lynch on the power play was the only goal of the contest as Zach Richards and Collin Berke were both outstanding in net for their respective teams. Berke finished with 39 saves to earn the 1-0 shutout win for the Penmen while Richards stopped 30 of 31 in a losing effort for the Eagles. On Saturday, Matt Amante scored two goals and assisted on three others as the Penmen skated away with a comfortable 6-1 win to earn the sweep over Post.
NEHC
Hobart took care of two games on home ice with wins over Babson and Southern Maine to stay atop the conference standings. On Friday night, Damon Beaver earned the shutout win making 25 saves which established a new career shutout record at Hobart for the sophomore netminder. Hobart’s tenth shutout of the season also established a new single season mark as the Statesmen downed the Beavers 5-0 with help from a pair of goals by Tristan Fasig. On Saturday, Hobart faced a determined Southern Maine squad fresh off a 4-4 overtime tie with Elmira and routed the Huskies 9-1. Ignat Belov scored a pair of goals while Jonah Alexander had a four-point game with a goal and three assists.
Skidmore extended their win streak to five games with a sweep of their home-and-home series with travel partner VSU-Castleton. On Friday night, the Thoroughbreds used goals from Danny Magnuson, Ryan Waltman, Jaden York, and Cooper Rice to skate off with a 4-1 road win. On Saturday, special teams’ goals were in abundance with five included in the 5-3 Skidmore win. Jack Strauss scored a pair of goals, including one shorthanded while Magnuson and Rice added power play goals in the third period. Andrew Stefura scored twice on the man advantage for the Spartans in the loss.
Norwich had a week of shutouts in three games that netted them only one win. On Tuesday against in-state rival Middlebury, goaltender Jake Horoho stopped 21 Cadet shots to earn a 3-0 shutout win over the Cadets. On Friday, Norwich netminder Bryce Walcarius stopped all 17 shots by Johnson & Wales as the Cadets returned to conference play with a 4-0 shutout win over the Wildcats. On Saturday, Beacon Sam Best stopped all 33 shots by Norwich and Jakob Teply scored late in the third period to help Massachusetts-Boston upset the Cadets, 1-0 in NEHC action.
After tying Southern Maine on Friday, Elmira rebounded with a solid 4-1 win over Babson on Saturday. The Beavers took a 1-0 first period lead on a goal by Matt Cormier but the Soaring Eagles would score four unanswered goals from Jared Smith, Ryan Reifler, Jordan Gonzalez and Amedeo Mastrangeli to cruise to a 4-1 win. Kyle Curtin stopped 30 of 31 shots in the win.
NESCAC
Trinity was ready for a very hot Tufts team on Friday night as the Bantams saw Devon Tongue score late in the third period to break a 1-1 tie and Casey Rhodes added an insurance goal into the empty-net for a 3-1 win over the Jumbos. On Saturday, the game was again tight against Connecticut College as Tongue’s first period goal was over-matched by Camel tallies from Seth Stadheim and Jack Luca in the second period. Sean Dynan made the 2-1 score stand for a Camel upset win making 16 of his 25 saves for the game in the final period to knock the Bantams from the ranks of the unbeaten in NESCAC play.
Hamilton enjoyed a very successful weekend with a conference win over travel partner Amherst before upsetting No. 2 Geneseo on Saturday night. Against the Mammoth, Alex Danis scored a hat trick in the first two periods for the Continentals who raced to a 7-3 lead after 40 minutes of play. The Mammoth would not go quietly as three third period goals, including Ben Kuzma’s second of the game closed the score to 7-6 but that was as close as Amherst would get in an exciting, goal-filled game. On Saturday, the Continentals kept their momentum against Geneseo with Danis contributing a goal to Hamilton’s 3-2 lead after the first period over the Knights. A power play goal early in the second period from Luke Panchisin tied the game at 3-3 but Max Wutzke scored what proved to be the game-winner midway through the game for a 4-3 lead and win. Jack Grant stopped 41 of 44 shots to earn the victory including 30 saves in the final two periods.
Middlebury continued their solid play in front of their hot netminder Jake Horoho earning a win over Colby and an overtime tie with Bowdoin. On Friday night, the opportunistic Panthers scored four goals on eleven shots in the first two periods and Horoho made 28 saves in a 4-1 win over the Camels. On Saturday, the Panthers took a 2-1 lead into the third period against the Polar Bears but Andy Stoneman scored in the final minute of regulation time to tie the score at 2-2. The game ended in an overtime tie with Alex Kozic making 26 saves for Bowdoin while Horoho stopped 17 of 19 shots for Middlebury.
SUNYAC
While Geneseo took care of business with an 8-2 win over Brockport on Friday night to re-open SUNYAC play, Oswego picked up a pair of wins to move into a tie with the Knights atop the conference standings. On Friday, Cal Schell made 26 saves to earn the shutout and five different Lakers scored goals in a 5-0 win over Fredonia. On Saturday, AJ Ryan scored a pair of goals in a 5-1 win over Buffalo State. Shane Bull chipped in with a goal and an assist while Schell stopped 30 of 31 shots in the win.
Plattsburgh returned to SUNYAC action with a home game against Morrisville and after ceding Robert Haak’s opening goal for the Mustangs, the Cardinal offense took off with five first period goals. Adam Tretowicz’s first of the night tied the score at 1-1 before Joshua Belgrave and Tretowicz gave the Cardinals a two-goal lead with tallies just 30 seconds apart. Later in the period Tio D’Addario and Luk Jirousek scored goals just eleven seconds apart for a 5-1 lead and the Cardinals cruised to an 8-2 win.
In a game that saw all the scoring in the opening 20 minutes of play, Cortland and Fredonia skated to a 2-2 overtime tie on Saturday night. Logan Dyck stopped 40 of 42 shots to preserve the tie for the Blue Devils who rallied from an early 2-0 deficit. The Red Dragons made up their postponed date with Buffalo State on Sunday afternoon in a seesaw affair where both teams battled back from deficits throughout the contest. Tyler Penree scored to give the Bengals a 1-0 lead just 20 seconds into the game and the teams exchanged goals into the final minute where Cameron Knowlton gave Cortland a 3-2 lead after one period of play. Cortland’s Sutton Donegan extended the lead to 4-2 in the second period but Buffalo state responded with a pair of goals in first three minutes of the third period to knot the game at 4-4. Devlin O’Kane once again gave the Red Dragons a one-goal lead at 5-4 and Cortland held on for the win with goaltender Jack Riedell making 23 saves in the win.
UCHC
Stevenson extended their win streak to four games with a weekend sweep of Chatham. Friday night saw Stevenson take a 1-0 lead into the third period and stretch that advantage early in the final period on a goal by Eric Olson. The Cougars scored twice to tie the game at 2-2 before Malcom Palmer netted the game-winning goal on the power play midway through the period for a 3-2 win. On Saturday, the Mustangs held a decisive advantage in shots, 49-31 for the game but the game was scoreless through more than two and a half periods of action due to exceptional goaltending from Chatham’s Louis Finnegan and Stevenson’s Ty Outen. Rhett Evjen’s late goal and Frank Vitucci’s empty-netter provided all the scoring in a 2-0 Stevenson win.
With Friday’s game against Alvernia re-scheduled to Tuesday, January 23, Arcadia played a thrilling one-goal game at home against the Golden Wolves on Saturday. Alvernia took three one-goal leads only to see the Knights rally back before taking a 4-3 lead that the visitors answered back in the third period. With the score tied at 4-4, Donnie Feldman scored his third goal of the game for the first ever hat trick in program history to give the Knights a 5-4 lead and win over Alvernia. Mike Kocsis also contributed heavily with two goals and two assists in the Arcadia win.
Weather was a factor across the region as Utica saw its Friday night contest with Lebanon Valley moved to Sunday. On Saturday, the Pioneers took a 3-1 lead early in the third period only to see Cade Helmer cut the deficit to one goal for the Flying Dutchmen. Power play goals from Khristian Acosta and Matt Wood, his second goal of the game helped to seal the 5-2 win for the Pioneers. With the early start on Sunday, Andrew Della Rovere wasted not time in getting the Pioneers off and running just 17 seconds after the opening face-off for a 1-0 lead. The lead quickly turned to 3-0 after one period and 4-0 with Brian Scoville’s goal just over a minute and a half into the second period. Nicolas Haviar put the icing on the cake scoring a natural hat trick to close out a 7-1 win and weekend sweep of LVC.
Three Biscuits
James Tepper – Colby – scored a hat trick and added an assist in a 9-1 win over Southern New Hampshire on Tuesday night.
Damon Beaver – Hobart – stopped all 25 shots he faced in the Statesmen goal picking up a 5-0 shutout win over Babson on Friday. The shutout set a new season team record for Hobart (10) and was beaver’s 12th in is career also setting a new mark at Hobart.
Alex Dameski – Geneseo – scored a hat trick to lead the Geneseo Knights in an 8-2 win over Brockport on Friday night.
Bonus Biscuits
Alex Danis – Hamilton – scored a hat trick in the opening forty minutes of play in the Continentals 7-6 win over Amherst.
Sam Best – Massachusetts-Boston – stopped all 33 shots he faced in a 1-0 upset win over Norwich on Saturday. The shutout was Best’s seventh as a Beacon breaking the school record.
Donnie Feldman – Arcadia – scored a hat trick to lead Arcadia to a 5-4 win over Alvernia. Feldman’s hat trick was the first in program’s history.
There is literally zero margin for error in any matchup in conference or out as teams are gearing up for the stretch run. Upsets and overtime thrillers are abundant and are seemingly the norm as we move the schedule into late January. Lots of big conference games amongst key contenders on tap in the next few weeks so stay tuned – it is going to be a great ride to the finish!
Nadine Muzerall became the winningest head coach in Ohio State program history with the Buckeyes’ 3-0 win on Friday. OSU outshot UMD 38-14 as they scored once per period to earn the win with goals from Kelsey King, Joy Dunne and Kenzie Hauswirth. The Bulldogs pushed back at the top ranked team on Saturday and held them scoreless for more than 55 minutes. It was Hannah Bilka’s power play goal that not only served as the game-winner, but ended Minnesota Duluth’s streak of 33 straight penalties killed. Ohio State took the 1-0 win and weekend – and season – sweep.
(2) Wisconsin at Minnesota State
The Badgers survived a scare on Friday, coming back from a 2-0 deficit to take a 3-2 win. Jamie Nelson’s short-hander had the Mavericks up 1-0 after the first and then Taylor Otremba extended the lead in the opening minutes of the second. But the Badger offense proved why the team is ranked No. 2 as Cassie Hall, Kelly Gorbatenko and Kirsten Simms each scored to push the Badgers past MSU. On Saturday, Mankato once again kept it close in the early periods before Wisconsin used a late push to put the game out of reach. Seven different Badgers found the back of the net in the win – Vivian Jungels, Casey O’Brien, Cassie Hall, Britta Curl, Laila Edwards, Kirsten Simms and Maddi Wheeler. UW had a quick 2-0 lead just 2:13 into the game, but Sydney Langseth replied immediately to cut the lead to 2-1. In the second, the scoring came quick again to push the lead to 3-1, but Kamryn Van Batavia scored late in the second to make it 3-2. The game blew open in the third as the Badgers cruised to a 7-2 win and weekend sweep.
(3) Clarkson at (14) Yale Dominique Petrie put Clarkson up 1-0 in the first. Gracie Gilkyson’s goal in the second tied the game for Yale. But the Golden Knights pushed late in the third to keep Yale from going ahead. Anne Cherkowski made it 2-1 and then Petrie’s empty-netter pushed it to 3-1. Jenna Goodwin’s insurance goal gave Clarkson a 4-1 win.
(3) Clarkson at Brown
Sena Catterall’s goal in the first was the lone tally and gave Clarkson a 1-0 lead. But Brown found their rhythm and pushed back in the second. Indi McDadi tied things for the Bears and Ava DeCoste gave them the lead with fewer than four minutes to play. But Anne Cherkowski scored an unassisted goal before the end of the frame to tie the teams 2-2 heading into the third. Nicole Gosling scored the eventual game-winner on the power play and Catterall added an empty-netter to secure the 4-2 win for Clarkson.
(4) Colgate at (6) Quinnipiac
The Raiders handed Quinnipiac their first home loss as they cruised to a 5-0 win in which 13 different players recorded a point. Emma Palumbo had it 1-0 at the first break. In the second, Kalty Kaltounková pulled off a gorgeous move that finished with a shot five-hole to make it 2-0 and then Dara Greig wove her way through some defenders before firing top shelf to give Colgate a 3-0 lead at the second break. Elyssa Biederman’s power play goal to start the third extended the lead and Danielle Serdachny scored just after a penalty expired to end any thoughts of a Bobcat comeback and secure the win.
(4) Colgate at (12) Princeton
Sydney Bard’s four points (1g, 3a) pushed her over 100 in her career as she led Colgate to a 6-0 win. Dara Greig’s power play goal opened the scoring early and Sydney Morrow doubled it in the second. The Raiders broke the game open in the third as Emma Pais scored 76 seconds into the third and added a second goal shorthanded less than two minutes later. Bard scored on the power play and then Kas Betinol scored to secure the 6-0 win.
(5) Minnesota at Bemidji State
Josefin Bouveng and Allie Franco scored about a minute apart late in the first and that’s all the Gophers would need to take the win Friday night as they walked away with a 2-0 victory. On Saturday, Khloe Lund redirected a shot into the net to give Bemidji State a 1-0 lead that lasted until late in the second, when Emma Kreisz’s power play goal finally evened things up for Minnesota. Ava Lindsey scored on the player advantage early in the 3rd to put the Gophers ahead 2-1 and Bouveng added an insurance goal to give Minnesota a 3-1 win and weekend sweep.
(8) Cornell at (6) Quinnipiac
Izzy Daniel put away a rebound after multiple looks on net for Cornell to give them a 1-0 lead early, but Maya Labad’s power play goal later in the frame sent them to the locker rooms tied 1-1. The teams came out flying in the second and while Cornell could not score on the power play, Rory Guilday capitalized right after one expired to put the Big Red up 2-1. McKenna Van Gelder took advantage of a delayed penalty situation to extend the Cornell lead to 3-1. Having pulled their goalie for an extra skater, Quinnipiac scored twice in less than a minute to tie the game, with Nina Steingauf and Alexa Haskin each lighting the lamp. The game looked destined for extra time, but Gabbie Rud called game with 50 seconds on the clock when she stole the puck and found the back of the net to give Cornell the 4-3 win.
(8) Cornell at (12) Princeton
Cornell was six-for-six on the penalty kill while scoring short-handed to take a win on Friday. Karel Prefontaine opened the scoring before Gabbie Rud scored the short-hander to give the Big Red a 2-0 lead heading into the intermission. In the second, Rory Guilday extended the lead, but then Princeton started to push back. Sarah Paul and Sarah Fillier each lit the lamp to make it 3-2 at the midpoint of the game. Piper Grober made it 4-2 a few minutes later, but Jane Kuehl’s short-hander for the Tigers brought it right back to a one-goal lead at 4-3 at the end of the second. Princeton could not find the equalizer in the final frame and Izzy Daniel’s empty-netter secured the 5-3 victory for Cornell.
St. Thomas at (9) St. Cloud State
In the first game, Klára Hymlárová scored short-handed to put SCSU up 1-0. Katie Kaufman’s power play doubled the St. Cloud lead in the second. Keara Parker had her own extra attacker goal to cut the lead to 2-1, but Alice Sauriol scored later in the third to ensure the Huskies’ 3-1 win. On Saturday, the Tommies earned their first regulation win over a top-10 opponent in the DI era when four third-period goals carried them to a 5-1 win. Taylor Lind’s first-period goal had St. Cloud State on top 1-0. Then the Tommies took over. Abby Promersberger tied the game in the second. Rylee Bartz gave St. Thomas a 2-1 lead. St. Cloud pulled the goalie early to try and tie the game, but Lauren Stenslie scored twice on the empty net and Mary Zavoral scored once to put the game out of reach and give the Tommies a massive win.
(10) St. Lawrence at Brown
Abby Hustler’s three assists in the game put her over the century mark for her Saints career. Brown outshot SLU in the first, but St. Lawrence took a 1-0 lead into intermission thanks to a goal by Anna Segedi. The Saints began to pull away in the second and Kennedy Wilson doubled their lead. In the third, Rachel Bjorgen scored a short-hander and Aly McLeod scored to secure the 4-0 win for SLU.
(10) St. Lawrence at (14) Yale
This was a back and forth affair in the first as Anna Segedi put St. Lawrence up 1-0 on the team’s first shot of the game. But Yale pushed back as first Stephanie Stainton and then Vita Poniatovskaia each found the back of the net to give the Elis a 2-1 lead. The Saints took advantage of a turnover as Aly McLeod fed Abby Hustler at the back door to make it 2-2 before the end of the first. The two would hook up again to give SLU a 3-2 lead in the second on a beautiful give and go that Hustler buried. Julia Gosling’s empty-netter ensured the St. Lawrence win – their fifth in a row – and weekend sweep of games.
Maine at (11) Connecticut
Jada Habisch and Riley Grimley each notched a goal and an assist to lead UConn in their 3-1 win over Maine on Friday. Brianna Ware opened up the scoring 2:39 in to put the Huskies up 1-0. Habisch doubled the lead later in the first. The Black Bears pulled one back on a goal from Raegan Wurm to send the teams to the locker rooms with Connecticut up 2-1. Grimley’s goal came with about five left in regulation to close out the win.
New Hampshire at (11) Connecticut
The Huskies won their fifth straight game with a 4-0 victory over New Hampshire on Sunday. Kathryn Stockdale, Coryn Tormala, Ainsley Svetek and Megan Woodward each scored for UConn in the win.
Merrimack at (13) Boston College
Hockey East was big on fast starts this weekend. Maria Lindberg put Merrimack on the board first, less than three minutes in, but BC quickly responded with a goal from Jordan Molly to make it 1-1. Allison Reeb’s power play goal a few minutes later gave the Warriors a 2-1 lead that they took into the first break. Kate Ham’s goal 17 seconds into the second tied the game 2-2. The Eagles broke open the game with three quick goals in the first six minutes of the final frame as Molly, Pellerin and Arnone each lit the lamp to make it 5-2 Boston College. Ashlyn Kroes pulled one back for Merrimack to make it 5-3 midway through the third, but Pellerin’s breakaway 30 seconds later pushed it to 6-3 for BC. Ally Qualley scored once more for the Warriors, but they could not complete the comeback and Boston College took a 6-4 win.
New Hampshire at (15) Northeastern
Peyton Anderson scored :15 into the game and Allie Lalonde added a goal of her own just 36 seconds later to put Northeastern up 2-0 before a minute had even elapsed in this game. New Hampshire clawed one back six minutes later, but that would be all the scoring – the teams went on to play another 43 minutes without a goal and the Huskies took the 2-1 win.
Minnesota State and Bowling Green played to a split over the weekend (photo: Bowling Green Athletics).
Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.
1. No. 1 BU keeps rolling
Boston University did nothing to convince voters it shouldn’t retain the No. 1 spot in the USCHO.com men’s D-I poll with a resounding sweep at Vermont over the weekend. Five different Terriers scored in a 5-2 win on Saturday night at Gutterson Fieldhouse, which followed a 5-1 win one night earlier.
“We’ve talked about Hockey East being tough to sweep in,” BU coach Jay Pandolfo said. “I thought Vermont played hard. We went out there trying to get six points, and we did.”
The Terriers have now won seven straight games and haven’t trailed over the last five-plus hours (319 minutes and five seconds to be exact) of game play dating back to the beginning of December.
BU has not lost at Vermont since 2016.
2. BC rebounds with sweep vs. Merrimack
Falling behind by two goals in the first period at Merrimack on Friday night, it would have been natural to suspect the No. 2 team in the USCHO.com poll, Boston College, was looking ahead to next week’s huge showdown with No. 1 BU. But the Eagles put that notion to rest starting with the second period, as BC rallied from a 2-0 hole for a 6-4 win on the Warriors’ home ice. Two days later at the Silvio O. Conte Forum, BC earned an emphatic 6-2 win to improve to 16-4-1 overall.
“If they were, Merrimack sure took that out of us in the first period Friday night,” said BC coach Greg Brown, responding to a reporter’s inquiry on whether or not the Eagles were looking past the Warriors. “I don’t think they were doing that. We know in Hockey East, every weekend is a battle. I think it was more to Merrimack’s credit than us thinking about anyone else.”
BC scored six goals or more in back-to-back games for the first time since February 2020.
3. Cornell upends NCAA champs
No. 3 Quinnipiac may be the defending national champion, but they still have a hard time cracking the code of beating ECAC rival Cornell. The 14-th ranked Big Red were a 3-2 overtime winner in the 51st all-time meeting between the two schools.
Big Red sophomore Dalton Bancroft scored two goals, including the game-winner 3:11 into overtime to lift Cornell on Saturday night. Cornell’s lineup featured nine freshmen.
“It was just a good college hockey game,” Cornell coach Mike Shafer said. “Nine freshmen in the lineup tonight? Crazy, for a coach, when you look around and see that many young guys out there against such a good hockey team. It just makes you wonder sometimes, like, man, we could be in trouble here, and then, oh my god, they’re pretty good.”
The Big Red have dominated on home ice against Quinnipiac, winning each of the last four games and seven of the last eight (7-0-1). Cornell is also unbeaten in 11 of its previous 15 against the Bobcats.
It was the second defeat of the weekend for the Bobcats, having lost 2-1 at Colgate the night prior.
4. No. 5 Denver sweeps No. 19 Omaha
Fifth-ranked Denver stretched its unbeaten streak to seven games with a pair of wins at No. 19 Omaha in a key NCHC series. Denver put up wins of 6-3 and 6-2.
“Guys did a great job, special teams was better, 5-on-5 was good,” said Denver coach David Carle on Saturday night. “Loved our start to the game. I thought we were really skating, and we executed on our chances again in the second period.”
Freshman defenseman Zeev Buium had four points on one goal and three assists on Saturday, while junior forward Massimo Rizzo added three assists. The Pioneers scored four goals in the second period of each game.
5. Alaska Anchorage stuns Providence
A 4,444-mile journey (give or take a few) didn’t faze Alaska Anchorage, as the Seawolves earned a split vs. No. 9 Providence over the weekend, which included a 4-0 shutout win on Saturday night.
Jared Whale made 26 saves to earn the shutout, the second of his career and the first time that the Friars have been shut out this season.
“I really liked our approach tonight,” said Seawolves coach Matt Shasby. “Everyone came with the energy it takes to win against an opponent of this quality. Happy with the overall performance.”
Nine different players recorded points for Alaska, an NCAA independent.
6. Michigan, Michigan State split B1G series
There was a streaking epidemic in B1G over the weekend and it didn’t involve anyone making a spectacle of themselves. On Friday night, No. 15 Michigan scored the game’s first six goals and defeated No. 7 Michigan State 7-1 Friday night at Munn Ice Arena in East Lansing.
Rutger McGroarty had a goal and three assists and Dylan Duke added a pair of goals for the Wolverines.
On Saturday, Sparty did the streaking, with six straight goals to rebound from a 3-goal deficit to beat Michigan 7-5 at Yost Ice Arena in Ann Arbor.
Nicolas Müller scored twice with two assists for Michigan State, while Joey Larson, Gavin O’Connell and Artyom Levshunov each had a goal and an assist.
7. CCHA contenders split
Bowling Green, currently battling for third place in the CCHA, earned a split with league-leading Minnesota State over the weekend, winning 4-3 on Friday night before stumbling to a 4-1 loss the next night. Both games were at the Falcons’ home rink.
“We felt like we had a really good opportunity to get six points (and) I say really good opportunity meaning that if we played hard (Saturday), it was something that could happen,” Bowling Green coach Ty Eigner said. “Unfortunately, we did not play as hard as we did (Friday) night and Minnesota State did. We knew they would come back and play well, and we know the kind of team they have and program they have.”
8. Air Force sweeps Army as Serratore gets 500th ‘W’
Air Force earned a series sweep of Army with a wild 7-6 victory Saturday night at West Point, N.Y.
The win marked the first time Air Force has taken four regular-season games from Army in the 46-year history of the series. The win was also the 500th career win for coach Frank Serratore, who became the 16th coach in the history of NCAA D-I hockey and just the fourth active coach to reach the milestone.
Clayton Cosentino had two goals and an assist for the Falcons, while Chris Hedden added four assists, Holt Oliphant two goals, and Luke Rowe three assists.
9. Maine dominates UMass Lowell
Maine, No. 8 in the USCHO poll and No. 5 in the PairWise, rewarded fans who sold out Alfond Arena two nights in a row with a pair wins vs. UMass Lowell. The Black Bears were winners by scores of 5-3 and 7-2.
Harrison Scott recorded a hat trick in the second game, each of which saw Maine battle back from an early 1-0 deficit. Scott blew open a 2-2 game in the second period Saturday night with a pair of goals 23 seconds apart. Brandon Holt pushed Maine’s lead out to 5-2 by the end of the middle frame. Scott completed his hat trick with a power-play goal midway through the third.
10. UNH, UConn win on each other’s home ice
No. 17 New Hampshire handed Connecticut a 5-0 thumping on Friday night at the Toscano Family Ice Forum in Storrs, Conn., only for the Huskies to return the favor — albeit in a tighter contest — with a 2-1 win at the Whittemore Center Sunday in Durham, N.H.
The teams made up for Friday’s lack of suspense on Sunday. UNH’s Kristaps Skrastins cut UConn’s lead to 2-1 with just over six minutes to play in the third period. With the Wildcats’ goalie pulled in favor of an extra skater, UConn fended off a furious UNH attack for more than two minutes, twice hitting the post in search of an empty-net insurance goal. Huskies goalie Arsenii Sergeev had 43 saves in the nail-biter.
Northeastern won its 19th Beanpot with a 2-1 overtime win over Boston University on Tuesday in front of 10,633 at TD Garden. Nicole Haase (@NicoleHaase) and Todd Milewski (@ToddMilewski) talk about the championship game and welcome the nation’s leading scorer, Colgate’s Kalty Kaltounková, to the show to talk about her time with the Raiders, her journey to college hockey and more.
