Each week during the season, we look at the big events and big games around Division I men’s college hockey in Tuesday Morning Quarterback.
Jim: Well, Ed, this weekend felt like a statement weekend for a few teams around college hockey and probably none more than Denver. After the Pioneers fell to Alaska two Friday’s ago, dropping them from the No. 1 spot in the polls, they had an impressive bounce back weekend with a pair of 7-0 victories over Miami.
That included a hat trick from Carter King on Friday and a four-goal game from Tristan Broz on Saturday. And for good measure, let’s throw in a pair of shutouts for Magnus Chrona, his second and third of the season.
After last weekend, you had to expect this result for a Pioneers team that is further cementing its spot atop the highly-competitive NCHC.
I know there were a handful of sweeps across college hockey this weekend, but to me this was the most impressive.
What do you think?
Ed: Jim, I think right up there with the Denver sweep has to be Western Michigan’s pair of road wins at North Dakota, getting revenge for giving up five NCHC points in Kalamazoo at the end of last semester.
While it has been a bit of a down year for the Fighting Hawks – though the host team put up a good fight on Saturday – what’s really impressive is the goal-scoring machine that is WMU. The Broncos lead the nation in goals per game and have scored 27 in their last four. Hobey hopeful Jason Polin has 21 tallies so far this campaign, including five hat tricks. His linemates, freshman Ryan McAllister (10-29–39) and Max Sasson (8-22–30) have combined for 102 points and are arguably the most potent line in D-I men’s hockey this season.
Minnesota State also picked up a couple of strong road wins over the weekend and it seems as it has righted the ship with four straight wins on what has been an up-and-down season. But the Mavericks’ victories last weekend came at the expense of Arizona State and that has all but ended the Sun Devils’ hopes for an at-large NCAA bid.
While it wasn’t a sweep, Michigan State got four points at home with a 3-2 Friday overtime win and a shootout point after a 4-4 tie the next night. Where do you see the Spartans right now in a very competitive Big Ten?
Jim: I’ve liked Michigan State all season, so it was nice to see Sparty get back to normal with its four-points versus Penn State, both games feeling like a win.
I think it is difficult when a team comes out of break, and coaching players that return after a 15-plus day hiatus from normal training and practice can be difficult. You never know what the first game or two will look like. The more difficult coaching scenario is when that expands into game three, four and five.
We’ve seen that this season with a team like Merrimack, which probably wishes the break never happened. Everything seemed perfect before the break for the Warriors. Then they needed overtime to survive against Dartmouth in the Ledyard Bank, and then got smoked by Providence twice and Brown.
Saturday night, though, the Warriors found a road back to normalcy and a 3-0 victory over Providence. Part of be believes that could right the ship for Merrimack.
But as I lay out this scenario, I also wonder what your thoughts are on how a break – whether it be 15-20 days or even longer for some school – can impact a team?
Ed: If you’re rolling along and have some momentum, then I think you want to keep playing. If you lose, then you want to get back on the ice and erase the memory.
On the other hand, if you have injuries, then a break can often help. But I know teams also can suffer on the ice if there’s not a weekend off at exam time in December. I mean, it’s only fair to allow student-athletes to be completely free to concentrate on academics.
We saw a few teams have more than a month off during this past semester break because of scheduling or weather issues. That’s too long. When I think back to the COVID-19 season of 2020-21, I remember coaches talking about the difficulty of keeping things fresh when there were long stretches with no games.
Three weeks or so seems about right. This is where holiday tournaments and exhibitions at semester break can come in handy.
Speaking of “fresh,” two programs opened new arenas last weekend: UConn and its new Toscano Family Ice Forum (kudos for keeping the “Ice Forum” nomenclature that the Huskies used at Freitas) and Sacred Heart’s new Martire Family Arena. Add in Mullett Arena at Arizona State and Colorado College’s Ed Robson Arena last season, and you’ve got four beautiful new venues for college hockey.
This is great for the sport and for the fans. But how do you think these new homes will affect – or have affected – these clubs?
Jim: Modern buildings are critical for this sport. Certainly, the two that opened this weekend along with Colorado College and Arizona State bring four brand new venues, something that could ease recruiting challenges for all four of these schools.
The reality is that student-athletes want THE best facilities, not just in which to play, but most importantly to train. The best weight facilities mean a lot of these players, which, to me, also doesn’t always mean a new building.
Let’s think of the aforementioned Michigan State. Munn Arena was old and dingy. But a well thought out renovation that included new locker rooms and training areas for the players makes this building one of the best. Retrofits often don’t work – sometimes they look like lipstick on a pig – bit a well-done retrofit can make a classic arena compete on a national level.
You must have a few buildings in your head that could be retrofit?
Ed: You’re putting me a little on the spot in naming names here, so I think I’ll point to some success stories first.
Three facilities that have had upgrades in the past several years include Rensselaer’s Houston Field House, St. Lawrence’s Appleton Arena, and a still-in-progress retrofit of Air Force’s Cadet Ice Arena. I only had to climb up into the rafters and catwalks a couple of times at RPI, though our colleague Jayson Moy broadcast for a number of years on a vertigo-inducing open grating above the benches.
It’s tough with historic buildings, such as Princeton’s century-old Hobey Baker Rink (where they’ve done a lot over the years) or Yale’s Eero Saarinen-designed Ingalls Ice Arena. I could see doing something at each of those, but I’m not sure how, though Yost Ice Arena at Michigan has done a great job keeping current every so often, starting with its conversion from a 50-year-old field house to an ice arena in 1973.
Improving facilities for the student athletes needs to be reviewed at every arena just to stay competitive, whether we’re talking about weight training, lounges, or dressing rooms. And amenities for fans also need upgrades periodically, whether it’s a massive video scoreboard like the one at Northeastern’s Matthews Arena (which was part of a multi-million dollar renovation), or LED lighting, better concessions, or just refreshed rest rooms.
Sometimes it’s just not possible to upgrade sufficiently. Union, for example, is working on a new facility to replace an aging rink.
There’s really a bit of an arena and facilities arms race going on that programs will need to participate in to stay competitive. Let’s hope it doesn’t get so heated that schools find it impossible to keep pace.
