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This Week in the CCHA: Nov. 12, 2009

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Old Business

Last week, I registered my discontent with the issues surrounding the Oct. 30 shootout in Omaha, when Bowling Green was awarded the extra shootout point despite an ineligible player scoring the deciding shootout goal. To refresh the memories of those unfamiliar with the case, BGSU freshman Jordan Samuels-Thomas was the only one to score in the shootout, and Samuels-Thomas should have been ineligible because he was in the penalty box at the end of overtime.

In my attempt to illustrate what I see as a greater problem — the shootout being a distinctly different beast from the game itself — I unintentionally created the impression that the CCHA could have acted in a way different from how it did to resolve the situation.

I never said in last week’s column that the league should have allowed a shootout the following day, as UNO coach Dean Blais suggested in his statements post-game, statements that I quoted, nor was it my intention to imply that such action should be taken.

One of my contentions was then and remains theoretical. I was questioning when a game ends. I did not mean it in the literal sense — that a game ends when a buzzer sounds, or when all parties have made their collective ways into their respective locker rooms.

Instead, I was using the situation in Omaha to illustrate the difference between what occurs on the clock and what occurs off, to reiterate my position that the shootout is extracurricular, not part of the actual game.

What I wrote did, however, create confusion that I did not intend.

To wrap up this particular subject, I’ve received quite a bit of e-mail informing me that the officiating crew involved in that game was let go by the CCHA. That is simply not true. The league has disciplined those officials, but has not released the nature of the discipline.

And that’s the end of that.

Old Business, Part 2

Maybe I was born skeptical. Maybe I’m just not a nice person.

After reading my esteemed colleague Danny Martin’s interview with former Alaska head coach Doc DelCastillo in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner this week, I remain unconvinced that DelCastillo was the victim of a vast player-led conspiracy to get him fired from his position as Nanooks coach.

This is an article that I know Danny Martin and the News-Miner worked hard to produce. The News-Miner filed a public records request in April of last year to obtain documents related to this case, and for Martin’s article, University of Alaska-Fairbanks officials seem tight-lipped.

In the article, DelCastillo claims he was released by the University of Alaska-Fairbanks based on unsubstantiated accusations of sexual harassment and that the University “deliberately” put him “in a situation to make it look like something happened that didn’t happen.”

In the article, DelCastillo also admitted to having contacted by cell phone the two women who brought the accusations of sexual harassment, one of whom was a student.

I have several problems with DelCastillo’s whole story. I do not understand what these women would stand to gain personally by accusing DelCastillo of sexual harassment. Many victims of sexual harassment — men and women alike — do not report what they’ve experienced for fear of backlash, of not being taken seriously, or because of the shame associated with reporting. Given the potential negative effects on the lives of his accusers, I don’t see them fabricating their reports.

Another problem I have is the way DelCastillo describes his cell phone contact with the women who accused him. In fact, I have a problem with DelCastillo calling these women at all — not because it’s de facto proof that he sexually harassed either of them, but because it reveals an incredible level of either poor judgment or arrogance. In other words, DelCastillo didn’t realize the potential repercussions for a married man in a public position to carry on private cell phone conversations with these women, or he thought himself to be untouchable if there were repercussions. Yes, it’s a he-said, she-said. It just raises a flag for me.

The third issue I have is with DelCastillo’s notion that the entire team was conspiring to get him fired. This is a red flag for me for many reasons. I have a hard time believing that the University of Alaska-Fairbanks was duped by its own men’s ice hockey team into firing an upstanding local citizen. I also have a hard time believing that a team could or would plot such an operation. I have met several of the Nanooks players who were allegedly involved in this plot — players recruited by current coach Dallas Ferguson — and I simply do not believe them capable of such wholesale, capricious malice.

Well, I don’t believe them capable of such wholesale, capricious malice without evidence, and that’s the biggest problem I have with DelCastillo’s entire story.

That having been said, I am not accusing DelCastillo of sexual harassment; I’m just reacting to what he’s elected to tell the media.

Old Business, Part 3

OK. Back to the hockey at hand. Sort of.

This week, the Michigan State Spartans and the Michigan Wolverines meet for the first time since a Jan. 24 game that saw defenseman Steve Kampfer leave Yost Ice Arena strapped to a gurney, Kampfer’s father storm into the Spartan locker room and confront Tropp, and Spartans Andrew Conboy and Corey Tropp suspended from the MSU team for the rest of the season.

We all know that Tropp has returned to the Spartan squad; he’s leading the Spartans in scoring (3- 3–6), is tied with six other CCHA players for second place in conference scoring and is tied for second in the nation in power-play production with five goals.

For his part, Tropp told my esteemed colleague at the Lansing State Journal, Neil Koepke, that he’s a different player today. “I made it a mistake,” Tropp said. “That’s not the player I am.”

Michigan coach Red Berenson told the Michigan Daily that what happened in that game “was unfortunate” and “uncalled for,” but that “it was dealt with well on the other end,” meaning by Michigan State hockey.

The Jan. 24 game was the fifth win of the season for Michigan over Michigan State; it was the most competitive and interesting game in the 2008-09 series between the teams until Conboy’s clothesline of Kampfer and Tropp’s subsequent slash of the defenseman as he lay on the ice.

The lopsided results of what is usually an entertaining and fairly even series involving the Wolverines and Spartans was a direct result of the awfulness of MSU’s 2008-09 series. Last season, Michigan State finished tied for 10th place in the CCHA, while Michigan tied for second.

Heading into this weekend’s series, MSU is all alone in second place, two points behind league-leading Miami. UM is tied for sixth place and a full seven points behind the Spartans.

New Business?

“Everybody’s contributing right now and our defense is playing pretty good and our goaltending’s pretty good.” So said Miami head coach Enrico Blasi after his RedHawks swept Michigan last weekend. The understatement was completely appropriate; Miami beat the Wolverines twice in Yost … which is home to the indisputable Master of Understatement, Berenson.

For his part, after being swept by Miami at home, Berenson said that his team played like “spoiled brats.” Yes, that’s a direct quote.

It’s Miami that’s the story of the week — or maybe the dopes associated with the CCHA should be the story of the week. The RedHawks were picked third in both the CCHA media and coaches 2009-10 preseason polls, behind Michigan and Notre Dame. I think before the season began there was some speculation about how the end of their 2008-09 season would affect them and questions about the legitimacy of their appearance in last year’s title game, fair or no. Miami didn’t play in the CCHA tournament, and I think some of us may have wondered if their run to the national championship was a fluke.

I picked them third this season, but for reasons wholly unconnected to Miami hockey; I thought that Notre Dame and Michigan would have stronger starts (and perhaps stronger teams) this year. I picked them to lose twice last weekend in Yost because they’d only won three games there before.

After having seen the RedHawks beat the Wolverines 5-1 Saturday night, I have no doubts about their legitimacy this season. They are absolutely for real, top to bottom. They played a hard, even game Friday and an intense contest Saturday. The result was a two-goal weekend for the Wolverines and their first sweep at home at the hands of an opponent since Northern Michigan beat them Oct. 26-27, 2001.

“Part of our team, part of our trademark is to play good team defense,” said Blasi. “You have to do that against Michigan. Otherwise, their going to bury you. I thought our guys did a good job of keeping sticks in lanes and deflecting a lot of things to the outside and not giving them much room.”

As Saturday’s game progressed, the Wolverines took dumb penalty after dumb penalty — 65 minutes in all for UM to Miami’s 30, leaving the Wolverines completely unable to break Miami’s dominance as the game progressed.

Even though the penalties were lopsided, Blasi said that he didn’t know “if anyone kept it together real well” during Saturday’s contest. “It’s an emotional game, it’s a rivalry right now, and we’re in their building,” said Blasi. “You know they’re not going to die. They fought hard and I thought we matched their intensity right off the bat.”

The Miami sweep was a complete team effort, which is how Miami is establishing itself as one of the best programs in college hockey. Every class contributed to the weekend in tangible, measurable ways. In Friday’s game, two seniors — Jarod Palmer and Brandon Smith — scored all three Miami goals. (Smith’s was the third of his career.) In Saturday’s contest, the juniors and freshmen scored. Sophomore goaltender Cody Reichard registered both wins, stopping 47-of-49 in the two-game set.

In Saturday’s win, Reichard looked amazing. He stopped things that came through heavy traffic. He made point-blank saves. He gave up few playable rebounds.

“Do I look surprised?” asked Blasi. “He’s been playing like that for the better part of a year, so it doesn’t shock us at all.”

Reichard said that Saturday’s game was much more intense after Michigan lost Friday, and that through the first period Saturday that ended tied 1-1, the RedHawks “were just hanging on there for a while.”

“They got on the board early,” said Reichard. “You never know. The crowd was in it and they were going.”

This week, the RedHawks will be tested again, but by another team that may have been overlooked at the start of this season. Ferris State is 7-3-0 to start the season with a 6-0-0 record at home.

Junior Bulldog goaltender Pat Nagle has quietly begun what could be a career season. In five games this season, Nagle has a .938 save percentage and 1.58 goals-against average, making him eighth and sixth nationally among goaltenders in those categories.

Nagle, however, is not alone in the FSU net. The Bulldogs have been rotating Nagle with sophomore Taylor Nelson, whose 1.80 GAA is 11th in the nation.

Monkey Business

According to this week’s USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll, six of the top 13 teams in the country call the CCHA their home. That’s half the league.

Complete disclosure here: I vote in this poll. My CCHA picks? No. 1, Miami. No. 6, Notre Dame. No. 9, Alaska. No. 10, Michigan. No. 12, Michigan State. No. 14, Nebraska-Omaha.

After seeing the polls in print, so to speak, I got to wondering. Can the CCHA be that good this season? I mean, is this league good enough to merit having half its teams counted among the 15 best programs in college hockey this week?

As I’ve said, I’m a born skeptic. However, there’s evidence that the CCHA is re-emerging as one of the premier leagues in college hockey. I’d argue that the league was down for a while in the early part of this decade, but three different CCHA teams — from three different CCHA states — ascending to the last three national title games is something that’s hard to ignore. That the first two of those teams finished fourth in league standings and last year’s team didn’t play in its own league championship tournament may actually provide better evidence that the league is not only good, but deep.

But I’ll defer to Blasi when it comes to the polls. This is what he said after sweeping Michigan last weekend.

“Rankings … we don’t really talk about. We don’t really care. We’re trying to get better every day and we’re trying to focus on the games we’re playing right now. Rankings don’t mean anything to us until the end of the year, and hopefully we can be one of those teams playing, but we’ve got a long way to go and there’s a long process involved to do that.”

Bits of Business

Here are a few scattered impressions from the last week of CCHA hockey.

• Michigan State is a fun hockey team to watch, and their place in the CCHA standings is no fluke. They’re relaxed and playing good team hockey — and enjoying it, after last year’s endless misery.

• The Spartan power play is a blast. They scored 20 power-play goals in all of 2008-09, and they’re already at 15 this season.

• Nebraska-Omaha doesn’t strike me as a top-ten team — yet. Even in UNO’s shootout “win,” I thought that MSU was the better team last Friday night.

• UNO head coach Dean Blais is a unique character. He bolted for a recruiting trip the moment last Friday’s contest was over. It was nice to catch up with Nick Fohr, however.

• Mike Johnson and Scott Greenham — does a goaltending battle get any better than that this season? Johnson (.957 SV%, 1.25 GAA) made 35 saves in Notre Dame’s 3-2 win over Alaska last Friday. Greenham (.939 SV%, 1.35 GAA) stopped 26 in UAF’s 3-1 win over ND Saturday.

• Ohio State should consider changing its mind on rotating its goaltenders. Dustin Carlson (.927 SV%, 2.43 GAA) is 0-5-0, all Friday games. Cal Heeter (.923 SV%, 2.17 GAA) is 3-1-1 with a shootout “win,” all in games on Saturday nights.

• Lake Superior State junior Chad Nehring leads the CCHA in conference scoring with five goals and two assists. In 10 games this season, Nehring has netted seven total goals, surpassing his previous two season totals. In 37 games last year, Nehring had six goals; in 37 games in 2008-09, he scored four.

• Bowling Green remains one of four teams nationally yet to record a win this season. Two of those teams — Dartmouth and Brown — have played just three games. BGSU and Niagara each have overall records of 0-7-1.

This Week in the NCHA/MCHA: Nov. 12, 2009

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The first regular season installment of the USCHO.com Division III men’s poll was released on Monday, and at first glance it looks pretty much as expected. Five NCHA teams grace the top 15 and Adrian is hanging out roughly where it has for the better part of the past two years.

The big mover was St. Norbert, who at 4-0-1 vaults all the way to the top spot in the land, up ten positions from the inaugural poll. The Green Knights landed seven first place votes, one more than second place Oswego.

Adrian and its two first place votes slid up one spot to number five, while River Falls, St. Scholastica and Stout landed at eighth, ninth and tenth, respectively. Superior rounds out the NCHA teams by holding onto 14th, down 10 spots from its preseason ranking of fourth

Though seeming like a conventional poll — as far as the NCHA and MCHA are concerned — further examination reveals otherwise.

A look at the “others receiving votes” shows Milwaukee School of Engineering landing 10 votes and Lawrence five. That makes this poll the first in the history of USCHO in which three MCHA teams received votes.

Not something that is bound to send shockwaves through the world of Division III, but empires aren’t built overnight. And in terms of the poll (which reflects the collective perception of numerous D-III coaches) it looks like we can add a third brick to the foundation of the MCHA’s castle.

First Impressions

After discussing the magnitude of the gap between Adrian and the rest of the league a week ago, the Bulldogs went out and scored a road sweep at Marian. Considering the Sabres were expected to be one of the Bulldogs’ biggest challengers, the 13-2 combined weekend score certainly seems to indicate, for now at least, that the Bulldogs are once again the team to beat — and once again it’s by a considerable margin.

They aren’t alone at the top of the league, however, as MSOE, Lawrence and Lake Forest are all undefeated in league play.

Lake Forest? Yep, that’s right.

As first year MCHA members, the Foresters ultimate place in the conference still remains an unanswered question, but for head coach Tony Fritz, last weekend’s 7-6, 3-0 road sweep over Finlandia is about as good of a start as he could have hoped for — and for more than just the obvious reasons.

“The most prevailing thought is that it’s the first week since ’05 that we’ve swept anybody,” he said. “We swept [University of Wisconsin-]Eau Claire and [UW-Stevens] Point that fall and then swept Stevens Point that spring in the conference playoffs and that’s the last time we’ve swept anybody.

“This was the first sweep ever for our seniors. Doing it on the road was very important as that’s a tough road trip. It’s important to your players that they are successful and that’s the key.”

Beyond that, the significance of a four point road weekend is not lost on Fritz as Lake Forest is expected to be in the mix with Lawrence, MSOE, Marian and Finlandia for the 2-6 spots in the league.

“That’s huge and it’s puts us in the driver’s seat for the first time in a long time. Here we are with four points in the second week and we’re pretty excited about that.”

The Foresters scored a wild 7-6 win on Friday in a game that featured a combined 110 penalty minutes.

They held a slim 4-3 lead after the second period but blew the game open in the third as freshman defenseman Trent Brown tallied twice and rookie forward Phil Bushbacher added another in the opening five minutes of the final frame.

The Lions scored twice in the next four minutes and added another with only 14 seconds to play, but it wasn’t enough and Lake Forest’s first foray into the MCHA ended with the “W”.

“I just sort of felt we were going to be okay. We were killing penalties alright and everything, but there are still always those unknowns,” Fritz said.

Saturday featured an entirely different style of game, but Lake Forest prevailed again, nothing a 3-0 victory. Freshman netminder Brendan Sullivan turned back 19 Lions’ shots to pick up his first career shutout.

The Foresters roster has 15 freshman so while growing pains will no doubt be a fact of life for some amount of time, the shutout was especially pleasing to Fritz considering they allowed eight goals in their opener at St. Norbert and six in Friday’s win.

“(On Friday) we were too helter-skelter,” Fritz said. “We were playing too much of a run-and-gun game and in our own end we weren’t playing very solid. We were relying on our goalie to keep us in it in the wrong way.

“The second game is where the transformation really took place. We took care of business defensively and that’s key for us and that’s the way we have to play. Anybody who wants to be successful has to first shut things down in their own end.”

Lake Forest will remain an intriguing team to follow this season as it’s not every year a team switches leagues. Despite being one of the more established programs in the West, they might as well be a first year program as it relates to the MCHA. Between that and the challenges that a young team presents, ups-and-downs are a certainty, but for now the Foresters are off to about as good of a start as they could have hoped for.

“It’s the first step and that’s very important. It puts us in the right direction and just gives us some confidence,” Fritz said.

“We’re just trying to be conservative and realistic because we’ve still got some really good teams to play. We still have Adrian for four games, Lawrence is better, MSOE is a good team, Marian is a good team and so on. We also play St. Olaf non-conference so it will be tough. There are a lot of good teams out there no matter where you play.”

A Sick Obsession

Considering the NCHA is so tight it’s almost impossible to figure out where everyone stacks up as of now, let’s try something a bit different this week.
As touched on in this week’s introduction, NCHA teams are all over the place in the national rankings. With four teams cracking the top 10 and another just outside of it, allow me to put the cart four months ahead of the horse and start talking about (gasp!), the NCAA tournament.

Over the past four seasons I have stressed numerous times that come selection time, one game can make or break a season. Within the selection system currently implemented, the key component of my contention is that it often doesn’t matter if that one key game was played last week or is in late February.

The NCHA landed three teams in the NCAA tournament field last season, the first time in 10 years that was the case.

So what are the prospects for this season? Well, pretty good in the sense the NCHA has as many quality teams as it does, but there have been numerous changes this offseason that, one way or another, will possibly have a profound effect.

They all stem from the fact the NCHA has switched to an 18 game conference schedule in which each team will play every other three times. Talk has circulated that this might raise the opponent’s winning percentage (OWP) component of the selection criteria for NCHA teams. OWP has carried significant weight in recent years and it has been purported that, like what seems to be the case in a league like the ECAC West, more conference games might raise OWP league-wide.

Having nothing better to do, I tried to quantify this to see if this theory might be accurate. As always, trying to predict the future involves some assumptions, but this is how it works.

Using last season’s results, I attempted to adjust last season’s results to determine what last year would have looked like had it been played under this season’s schedule format.

The assumptions:

— The adjusted playoff formats of the MCHA and NCHA have been accounted for
— The new MCHA divisional setup was accounted for
— Lake Forest simply “replaced” Crookston in the MCHA, but the Foresters record was adjusted to a likely realistic 10-10-0 in the MCHA (Crookston was 5-15-0) and the records of other MCHA teams were adjusted accordingly
— NCHA teams lose two conference games with Lake Forest and pick up a third with every other NCHA team
— NCHA teams lose four games with MIAC teams and MIAC teams lose four games with NCHA teams. In both cases the first four NCHA-MIAC games of each team’s season last year were the ones used
— The MIAC teams needed to pick up four games, so the “extra” four opponents they each play this season were used to simulate these
— Games against Eastern opponents are not counted
— This counts games played up through the conference tournaments in all leagues

Again, and as simply speaking as possible, last season’s results established trends. Last season’s schedules were then altered to match this year’s scheduling patterns, and the established trends were reapplied to determine results.

The NCHA ended up looking like this:

GP W L T Win % OWP

Superior 27 20 4 3 0.796 0.5115
Stout 29 22 5 2 0.793 0.5155
St. Scholastica 27 18 8 1 0.685 0.4985
St. Norbert 27 17 9 1 0.648 0.5476
Stevens Point 27 11 14 2 0.444 0.5217
River Falls 27 9 17 1 0.352 0.6091
Eau Claire 27 7 19 1 0.278 0.5833

When looking at the resultant OWP’s, the first thing that jumps out are the gargantuan OWP’s of River Falls and Eau Claire. Only problem is that in this scenario, neither is in the NCAA picture. So how about the top four teams in the league?

Last season’s OWP’s for Superior, Stout, St. Scholastica and St. Norbert were .5339, .5361, .5367 and .5725, respectively.

Comparing the hypotheticals calculated above to last season’s reality, the net changes were:

Superior: -.0224
Stout: -.0206
St. Scholastica: -.0382
St. Norbert: -.0249

An across the board drop, and the question is why? A few ideas come to mind.
Namely, the reduction of games against the MIAC serves to hurt the overall records of NCHA teams. This is of course predicated on the NCHA dominating the MIAC, which is what it did last season by going 30 games over .500 in the Interlock. Only one NCHA team finished below .500 a year ago, and rest assured that will not be the case this season.

As games between NCHA will always result in a composite .500 record it means the overall win percentages of the league will drop. Combine the lower overall winning percentages with six additional games against each other and a drop relative to last season appears inevitable.

St. Norbert is an easy team to look at to demonstrate this. Last year, the Green Knights played eight games against UW-Stevens Point, UW-River Falls and UW-Eau Claire, and those three had a combined record of 38-38-5 (.500).
After adjusting the schedule, however, the same Green Knights play Stevens Point, River Falls and Eau Claire a total of 11 times, and the three offer a combined record of 27-50-4. That’s nearly half of the season coming against teams with a combined .333 winning percentage.

Simply put, that is not going to help OWP.

An interesting sidebar here is this change overpowers the removal of two games against a 5-20-2 Lake Forest, the Foresters actual record a year ago.

Numerous other things arise, but would only serve to muddle the point. The only one I will point out, because it’s simple and interesting, is that the difference between playing Gustavus Adolphus and St. Olaf versus playing Concordia (MN) and St. John’s is quite significant. The same goes for playing, for example, MSOE and Lawrence instead of Northland and Concordia (WI). The magnitude of the impact from just a couple of games can be surprisingly large.

I’ll admit, this endeavor took on a life of its own just because I was curious to see what sort of an impact the 18 game league schedule might have on OWP, but ultimately I’m left with two grand conclusions:

First, the 18 game NCHA schedule makes perfect sense from a balance standpoint and the return of the two game series are wonderful for fans. Nonetheless, I purport that the changes will invariably hurt the OWP’s of the top NCHA teams. We’ll know the validity of this soon enough.

Secondly, it is fascinating in the sense that it shows how fickle some of these things can be, which means just win and keep on winning. After all, if you’re good enough …the numbers won’t matter.

Tasty Travels

The beneficiary, perhaps, of last weekend’s travel was none other Luigi’s Pizza in River Falls, Wisconsin. Located at 103 E Locust St. in its quaint downtown, this was my second visit to Luigi’s. In the name of full disclosure, I stopped there last season and was quite disappointed with the manicotti … and I’m not easily disappointed. Following that experience, a coworker chided me for not getting the deep dish pan pizza and was insistent on the fact that when visiting Luigi’s that “you have to get it”.

So I did. Before ordering, three things jumped out at me on the menu. The first was the claim of authentic Chicago-style deep dish, which, when applied literally is a tough standard to uphold. The second was the 45 minute cook time and the third was the promotion of a homemade tomato sauce that lauded its sweetness and garlic undertones.

Those are some pretty lofty proclamations from a no-frills operation in a not-so-big town in western Wisconsin, but wait the 45 minutes I did.

Forty-one minutes later, our server slapped the cast-iron pan baking pan right on the table and it was immediately apparent Luigi’s lived up to the first promise. No question it was legitimate Chicago-style deep dish. As for the tomato sauce, it was downright excellent and was everything the menu promised: sweet with a definite garlic presence. The key to its excellence, and it was excellent, was that the garlic did not overpower the other flavors working in the sauces’ favor, but was evident enough to make it a truly different sauce.

As for the rest of the pizza, it was loaded with cheese and toppings and the homemade crust maintained its firmness despite spending over a half hour in the oven. I’ve eaten a lot of pizza — some good and some not so good — and bottom line is that this thing was great.

In addition to the pie that surpassed expectations, our server was fantastic and actually asked if we were in town for the hockey game. She even seemed impressed when we explained what USCHO was. Winner! Drinks were refilled promptly and she took the time to make plenty of friendly conversation. Top marks across the board in this department as well, and trust me, her tip indicated as much.

A deep-dish at Luigi’s will run anywhere from $8 to $25 depending on the size and amount of toppings you wish to get, but it’s cheaper than it seems. A small accounted for two legitimate meals for me and ran about $13 with four toppings.

In summation, I don’t know who Luigi is, where he is from, and why he moved to River Falls, but we should all be happy that he did … and that he brought his recipes with him. I recommend his deep dish to anyone looking for some pregame eats should they be in town for a NCHA clash at Hunt Arena.

Truly a pleasant surprise and I leave with only one small word of advice: when they say a medium can feed three to four people, they aren’t joking.

Luigi’s receives: 3.5 pucks.

This Week in the WCHA: Nov. 12, 2009

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Though a few of the usual suspects have been hanging around the top half of the league, we’ve still got more of the same like last year, as only seven points separate first and 10th place.

Red Baron WCHA Players of the Week

Red Baron WCHA Co-Offensive Players of the Week: Evan Trupp, UND; Sean Wiles, UAA.
Why: Trupp scored three goals to help his Fighting Sioux sweep Michigan Tech. Wiles also scored three goals in the Seawolves’ split with Denver.
Also Nominated: Bill Sweatt, CC; Rhett Rakhshani, DU; Patrick White, UM; Blake Geoffrion, UW.

Red Baron WCHA Defensive Player of the Week: Alex Kangas, UM.
Why: Stopped 73 of 79 shots on goal in the Gophers’ split with Wisconsin, including a career-high 45 shots on Saturday.
Also Nominated: Gabe Guentzel, CC; Brad Eidsness, UND; Ryan McDonagh, UW.

Red Baron WCHA Rookie of the Week: William Rapuzzi, CC.
Why: Had three points (2g, 1a) in the Tigers’ split with Minnesota-Duluth.
Also Nominated: Zach Budish, UM; Danny Kristo, UND; Craig Smith, UW.

More Gopher Woe

If the injury news wasn’t bad enough, Minnesota has now lost a player off the roster completely. Sophomore defenseman Sam Lofquist left the program earlier this week and has signed with the Guelph Storm of the Ontario Hockey League.

Lofquist’s departure makes this the fourth year in a row the Gophers have lost a player midseason. It also means the Gophers are down to six healthy defensemen (basically the bare minimum) as well as 22 total players on their roster. (Teams typically carry 26 players. It should also be noted that one of the original 26 players is Bowling Green transfer Jacob Cepis, who will join the team in the second half.) Coach Don Lucia, on his weekly radio show, remarked that now, “We got the guys who want to be here.”

All this news is resulting in a firestorm of comments all over the Internet from fans, saying things ranging from, “Whatever, get the people who don’t want to be at Minnesota out of there” to “FIRE DON LUCIA NOW!” Who knows what will happen (I’m personally not one for speculating much), but it will be interesting to see how things play out at the U, whether it be this season or over the next couple years.

Thoughts and Comments from the Weekend

UM: While at CC Friday for the CC/UMD series, I was fortunate enough to catch a good chunk of the Gopher/Badger game on Fox Sports North. One of the stats FSN showed was the Gophers’ abysmal power play — at that point in Friday’s game, 1-for-32. Overall this season, Goldy is 2-for-35 with the man advantage, good enough for 56th of 58 teams, above only Alabama-Huntsville and Niagara.

CC: For a while this season, it seemed as though Tiger fans had listened to all the Debbie Downer news circulating around their team, as attendance had been noticeably lower than normal to start the year. However, as CC’s early season success has gotten out, the fans have returned to World Arena in kind. Friday’s crowd was CC’s biggest yet this season; even Director of Athletic Communications Dave Moross noticed, commenting, “We’ve got ourselves a crowd.”

The Tigers also had a penalty shot on Friday night. It’s unsure how many penalty shots CC has seen over the years (the school doesn’t keep track), but the event was definitely the first in coach Scott Owens’ tenure (11 years), making Stephen Schultz’s eventual miss a rare spectacle.

DU: Denver is hoping its bye week will be kind in terms of injury recovery. The Pioneers are already without goaltender Marc Cheverie, who hopes to be back in two weeks for North Dakota, but defenseman Patrick Wiercioch went down late in Saturday’s loss to UAA as well.

Cheverie, in his recovery, sat down with DU’s media relations office for an interview (teams often have player profiles/interviews on their respective Web sites) and, somehow, the question of how to eat an Oreo came up. Besides the fact that I think everyone over the age of 3 probably knows the proper Oreo-consuming process, I thought the exchange was amusing.

SG (DU media relations person): I asked (freshman) Drew Shore this question and he was confused …
MC (Cheverie): That sounds about accurate.
SG: So let’s see if you do a little better than him … How do you eat an Oreo?
MC: Split it, lick it, dip it and eat it.
SG: Nice. He was so confused.
MC: He’s too young to understand.

College hockey players: They’re just like us (whether in good ways or bad ways).

UMD: On a personal note, it’s nice to see Bruce Ciskie back on the call of UMD games. Over the years, one gets to know their fellow media members in the other cities and, quite frankly, it sucks not being able to see your friendly acquaintances year after year due to budget cuts and whatnot. So, Ciskie, nice to see you back traveling again.

UND: Danny Kristo, my random preseason pick for Rookie of the Year for the WCHA media poll, finally scored his first collegiate goal.

On Home-Ice Advantage

Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald had an interesting piece this week on the Fighting Sioux and their ridiculous home ice advantage at the (new) Ralph Englestad Arena.

From the article (you may be asked to log in): The last time the Sioux have lost at home was a year ago (Nov. 29, 2008, vs. Cornell). None of the current players on the SCSU roster (this weekend’s opponent), the MSU, M roster or the DU roster has won a collegiate game at the Ralph.

The Sioux went 7-9-1 in the first season at the new Ralph and since then, have gone 103-36-21 at home for a .709 winning percentage (compared to .693 at the old Ralph).

After reading these facts, I was curious about how the other teams in the league have fared at home and whether they’ve enjoyed the same home-ice advantage. Information was found primarily for teams with newer arenas. Also good to note is that not all schools said if their totals included exhibition games. CC’s did, so I went ahead and added in exhibition games for all teams when adding this year’s games to the overall totals. This may skew the numbers slightly, but not enough to make a huge difference. Hopefully.

Colorado College is 187-69-12 since the World Arena opened in 1997 for a .717 winning percentage at home.

Denver is 134-66-9 for a .663 winning percentage in the 10 years of Magness Arena.

Minnesota State is 130-81-34 at the Verizon Wireless Center since it opened for an even .600 winning percentage.

Since 1989 when the National Hockey Center opened, St. Cloud State is 232-122-38 for a .640 winning percentage.

The Seawolves are 238-202-52 at the Sullivan Arena for a .537 winning percentage.

Wisconsin is 125-93-23 at the Kohl Center for a .566 winning percentage.

The main thing to take away is that pretty much everyone enjoys home ice; the advantage is just larger for some. From those that I could find without compiling home winning percentages for hundreds of years of history, CC has the largest home-ice advantage while Alaska-Anchorage, understandably, has the worst.

You may notice that the DECC (Duluth), Mariucci Arena (Minnesota) and MacInnes Student Ice Arena (Michigan Tech) are absent. None of the schools mentioned their team’s home-ice record (as far as I could find). I can understand Michigan Tech somewhat (given their arena is quite a bit older), but I was surprised that the Gophers mentioned squat among all the other information about Mariucci.

Match-Ups By the Numbers

We get to see one of our future teams in action this weekend for the first time (Beavers at Gophers) and Denver gets a week to rest up.

St. Cloud State @ North Dakota
Overall Records: SCSU — 3-3-2 (2-1-1 WCHA). UND — 6-1-1 (4-1-1 WCHA).
Head-to-Head: UND leads the overall series, 50-27-10.

Colorado College @ Minnesota State
Overall Records: CC — 5-2-1 (4-1-1 WCHA). MSU, M — 3-4-1 (1-4-1 WCHA).
Head-to-Head: CC leads the overall series, 25-12-1.

Michigan Tech @ Minnesota-Duluth
Overall Records: MTU — 2-6-0 (1-5-0 WCHA). UMD — 6-3-1 (3-2-1 WCHA).
Head-to-Head: MTU leads the overall series, 116-72-18.

Alaska Anchorage @ Wisconsin
Overall Records: UAA — 4-6-0 (2-4-0 WCHA). UW — 4-3-1 (2-3-1 WCHA).
Head-to-Head: UW leads the overall series, 42-13-9.

Bemidji State @ Minnesota
Overall Records: BSU — 7-0-1 (4-0-0 CHA). UM — 3-4-1 (3-4-1 WCHA).
Head-to-Head: UM leads the overall series, 6-0-0
Of Note: UM has outscored BSU 35-9 in the all-time series … the closest game was a 2-1 UM win on Feb. 6, 2004 … BSU has outscored opponents 30-10 this year.

Future WCHA Team Watch

The Beavers continued their roll, sweeping conference foe Robert Morris last weekend. This weekend, they get to face their soon-to-be conference mate Minnesota in a Saturday/Sunday series. Nebraska-Omaha, on the other hand, managed to gain only two points against Michigan State, losing and then tying (though technically beating in a shootout) the Spartans. The Mavericks host Lake Superior State this weekend.

BSU: 7-0-1 overall, 0-0-0 vs. WCHA
UNO: 4-1-3 overall, 0-0-0 vs. WCHA

On the Flip Side of the Coin

For the past few years, you’ve read a piece in this column either about the Sioux’s slow start around about this time of the season or about their (supposed) second-half surge sometime in late February/early March.

This year, however, the Sioux have gotten off to a faster start than the rest of us have been accustomed to. So, it’s understandable that coach Dave Hakstol was asked at this week’s team press conference how it felt to not have to answer questions about a slow start.

His response? “I don’t know [how it feels]; I still have to answer all the other ones about not having a slow start so it’s not much different.”

Good to know that at least he has a sense of humor about it all.

P.S.

Last Friday, I was sent a video by Jay Levin of the Nashville Predators about the team’s prospects involved in the Gopher/Badger rivalry. Obviously, it was too late to stick in the column, but given that the two teams will face off once again at the end of the year, I figured it’d be interesting to share with everyone.

This Week in Hockey East: Nov. 12, 2009

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Up Is Down And Down Is Up

It’s enough to make you cue up Diana Ross singing “Upside Down.”

(I’m not going to infringe on the copyright of songwriters Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards by adding anything more than, “inside out and round and round.” Got the tune in your head now? OK, let’s roll.)

While the season is still young, its topsy turvy nature has led to a number of anomalies.

• Defending national champion Boston University is in last place, 1-4 within the league.

• The two Massachusetts state schools are atop Hockey East (Lowell at 3-1-1 and UMass at 3-1-0) an awfully short time after some questioned whether the two programs should be combined so they could be more competitive. (Of course, the phrase “programs combined” was nothing more than a euphemism for blowing up Lowell and its proud history.)

• Nine of the 10 league teams earned votes in last week’s USCHO.com/CBS College Sports Division I Men’s Poll. The lone holdout? Maine. Go back a couple years, and imagine the odds you’d have gotten on that one.

• Merrimack, picked to finish last, got more votes in the poll than New Hampshire.

• BU is tied for last in the league (with Northeastern) for overall offense.

• UNH is last in the league for overall defense and penalty kill.

Inside out and round and round …

Which Wildcats?

On the one hand, UNH’s 2-1-1 league record puts the Wildcats in a tie for third place, just two points out of first with a game in hand. On the other hand, their 2-5-2 overall mark is the slowest start in coach Dick Umile’s 20 years.

It’s been a roller coaster season so far for UNH. The team has shown its customary firepower, exploding for five goals in eight minutes against Miami, the consensus No. 1 team in the country. Last Friday, the Wildcats stunned Boston College with three third-period goals to force overtime, an extra session in which they almost pulled out the win.

Those heights, however, are more than matched by the depths of a weekend double-shellacking at Wisconsin and last weekend’s failure to get more than one point (the comeback point against BC) in two admittedly tough league games, the latter against fifth-ranked Lowell.

Which version of the Wildcats will show up this weekend?

“That’s exactly how we’ve felt,” Umile says. “We’ve been inconsistent. We’ve been making improvements and just as we make the improvements in our five-on-five game, we get penalties and [lose on the penalty kill].

“I consider Lowell to be a pretty good team, especially down there, and I thought we played well this past weekend for two periods. Then in the third period we came out and got penalties and made it very difficult for ourselves. They put us away a couple of times on the power play. There were penalties and a couple of mental mistakes on our part that cost us the game.”

The statistic for the weekend that leaps out at you is the UNH penalty kill. BC went 4-for-5 on the power play and spent the fifth opportunity in the offensive zone for virtually the entire two minutes. In fairness, a defender had lost his stick, making the needed clearing play all the more difficult. Additionally, three of the four power-play goals came from the point, one a deflection off a UNH stick.

But it didn’t get much better against Lowell, where the Wildcat PK allowed three goals in six opportunities.

Getting a single point out of a weekend in which the PK allowed a 7-for-11 conversion rate borders on the miraculous.

“You have to evaluate how they went in,” Umile says. “Most of them were scored from outside with a couple of deflections. They got the puck out to the point, got shots off, and there were screens.

“So I don’t know if it was fundamentals as much as us not getting in shot lanes and the other team executing. It’s hard to say.

“We’re obviously not playing great in special situations. We allowed seven power-play goals [last weekend]. It happened, it was disappointing and it cost us games.”

In large part because of the penalty kill struggles, UNH ranks last in Hockey East in overall defense, allowing an average of 4.22 goals per game. That’s over a goal per game allowed more than every other Hockey East team but one (Maine at 3.88).

Brian Foster, an All-Hockey East team runner-up last year while posting a 2.68 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage, has seen his numbers plummet to 4.19 and .871. However, Umile is quick to defend his goaltender.

“If you were to look at Brian Foster’s numbers, [you’d say that] they’re not good,” Umile says. “But he played well against Miami when we lost. He played well against Wisconsin. So I don’t know if those numbers really equate to what kind of goaltender he is.

“PK has been a big part of it. The percentage against us is not good. We struggled early on with team defense at Wisconsin.

“I think we’ve made improvements. Hopefully we’re getting better and we’ll just have to continue to look ahead and play each week and start over again. That’s how were going to approach it.”

At least the firepower up front remains.

“Offensively, we’ll be able to score,” Umile says. “Hopefully we’ll be able to score more often by playing better defense. I thought we played better team defense, especially five-on-five against Lowell.

“We just need to improve in that area. There’s no question.”

Given the slow start overall, this weekend looms large with two games at UMass. A strong showing will push the 0-4-1 nonconference record into the background as the Wildcats take their accustomed place at or near the top of the standings. However, UMass coach Don “Toot” Cahoon will have his boys prepared to make a statement themselves.

“I know that Donnie has got his team playing well,” Umile says. “They’re very good in specialty situations so we’ll have to pay attention there.

“It’s going to be a battle all year long. This weekend its UMass; next weekend it’s BU. So you just have to pay attention to your next game and continue to improve. That’s where our focus is right now.”

Catamounts Climbing

Vermont got off to a good enough start with a split at Denver and a 4-1 win over BC, but lopsided losses at Merrimack and Maine raised a few eyebrows. The Catamounts had been projected to finish well ahead of both teams and the 5-2 and 4-1 scores made matters even worse.

Last weekend, however, the Vermont team most people expected to see this year showed up. It battled back to earn a hard-fought 3-3 tie with fifth-ranked Lowell, then shut out Providence, which had entered the contest 5-2-0.

“They played really well,” UML coach Blaise MacDonald said after the tie. “They kept us disjointed for most of the game. I would say it was a very disappointing game for us and I think you have to credit UVM for making us play that way.”

From the other locker room, Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon waxed effusive in praise for his team.

“I’m not going to go negative tonight at all,” he said. “I don’t think our penalties [early that led to two Lowell power-play goals] were anything other than playing aggressive.”

“I just love the way our team played tonight. You can look at the result and say it’s not a win but if we play like that the rest of the year, we’re going to be a tough team.

“We played 65 of the hardest minutes we’ve played all year. As a coach, that’s what we’re trying to get out of our guys. We played a very good team and I thought we played very well against them.

“We certainly made mistakes, but we didn’t have any letdown moments, even down, 3-1. We fought our way back to make it 3-3, and we had some great chances to win the game.”

Sneddon spoke similar words two days later after the Catamounts shut out Providence, 3-0.

“I thought we gave it our all for 60 minutes,” he said. “We were excellent for two periods but a real intense effort for 60 minutes again. [It was a] very complete weekend for us obviously against two good teams.

“[We played] defensively some of our best hockey. We made the most of our opportunities.”

One obvious difference in the weekend lineup was Justin Milo, who returned from injury to play his first games of the season. And what a return. The senior scored a goal and added an assist against Lowell, then scored two goals against Providence.

“The thing we love about Justin is he loves to shoot the puck,” Sneddon said. “Most players nowadays want to pass first, then their second thought is to shoot. He knows what his job is. He knows what his role is, and that’s to get pucks going to the net.

“He’s a very special athlete. To play in a high-tempo game like [the one against Lowell] without much practice or conditioning just speaks volumes for what kind of athlete he really is.”

The Catamounts now must take their success on the road for two games at Boston College.

“I think we’ve got our confidence back,” Sneddon said. “Our guys are understanding their roles better now than ever before having gone through some adversity.

“We’ve got to take our energy and the way we played this weekend at Gutterson and play that way on the road. That’ll be our challenge.”

Thanks to Diana Giunta.

Schroeder: I’m Staying at Minnesota

USCHO Staff Report
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Minnesota forward Jordan Schroeder says all the speculation about his departure from the Golden Gophers is false.

In a rare response to Internet rumors that he was planning to leave Minnesota, Schroeder committed his future to the team.

“I am fully committed to this team and university,” Schroeder said in a statement released by the school on Wednesday. “I have no intention of leaving college early to play pro hockey.”

Schroeder was a first-round draft pick by the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks last season, following a stellar freshman campaign for the Gophers. He posted 13 goals and 45 points in claiming the WCHA’s top rookie honors.

Speculation on his future lingered through the summer, and even after he returned for his sophomore year.

“It is unfortunate that these rumors continue to come out and I have no idea where they begin,” Schroeder said. “I think it’s important for me to publicly state that I am going nowhere. I am dedicated to this team and plan to help us reach our goals for the remainder of this season and future years.”

Through eight games this season, Schroeder has no goals and five points.

Tuesday Morning Quarterback: Nov. 10, 2009

By Jim Connelly and Todd D. Milewski
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Todd: Well, Jim, we’re a month into the college hockey season, and we’re starting to get some answers on those nagging preseason questions. We’re seeing last season’s national championship game teams go in opposite directions so far this season. We’re seeing some surprises in the East and in the West. But I want to start this week talking about one of the biggest upward movers in the USCHO.com/CBS College Sports Division I Men’s Poll: Bemidji State. At 7-0-1, the Beavers are up to seventh in this week’s poll. Should it matter that they haven’t played a ranked opponent, or does their record stand on its own?

Jim: A year ago, we were in a somewhat similar position as Air Force remained unbeaten through much of the opening months of the season and it ascended the polls, despite a weaker-than-the-rest schedule. Personally, I feel until a team loses, it deserves all the credit in the world. The fact that you’re not playing a schedule made up of national powers night in and night out shouldn’t impact that. Remaining unbeaten is difficult. Any team out there knows that the difference between the best team in the country and the 58th-best team in the country isn’t large enough to question perfection for teams that win their games. This isn’t college football, where the 300-plus teams create tiers of ability levels. Thus, a team that is 7-0-1 after eight games deserves to be a top-10 team. Don’t you think?

Todd: I agree to a point. Bemidji can’t control its CHA schedule, and it has taken care of Alabama-Huntsville and Robert Morris so far. But I went on record last year saying something along the lines that Air Force wasn’t a top-10 team until it beat an upper-level opponent, and it didn’t really have a chance until playing Colorado College and Denver around Thanksgiving. I’m still of the same mind-set. I do think which teams you beat matters, and I think the way the RPI and the PairWise follow that logic to a certain extent. One could argue that Ferris State, at 7-3, deserves to be in the top 20. But a lot of people will look at that two of the three losses came to Alaska — arguably the toughest opponent on the schedule — and say they don’t merit a top-20 spot because of the way they played against a ranked team. Without a doubt, there are different ways of ranking teams, and I guess it’s a fair argument either way. And it adds a little more intrigue to the Beavers’ series this weekend against unranked Minnesota at Mariucci Arena.

Jim: This weekend is certainly a big weekend for Bemidji, so we’ll so how that shakes out. Two other movers in this week’s poll come out of Hockey East, though both are moving in opposite directions. Massachusetts-Lowell jumped to fifth with a tie at Vermont and a solid win at home against New Hampshire. I’d say the jump is warranted but also believe this isn’t going to be a cakewalk for Lowell as Hockey East has far too many landmines to make it easy on a team with little experience handling a national ranking. On the other hand, Boston University fell 10 spot this week. Yes, that’s right — the Terriers dropped from from seventh to 17th after losses to Northeastern and Maine, two teams that, in their own right, are struggling. BU has lost three straight one-goal games following back-to-back single-goal wins against Michigan and Lowell. Personally, I couldn’t even give them a top-20 vote this week as it’s difficult for me to justify a 2-5-0 team to be nationally ranked.

Todd: That’s exactly the way I felt, too. For a few weeks, I think you can give what you think is going to be a good team a pass on its record. But now that we’re a month in, a 2-5 record doesn’t cut it for the national rankings. I still think BU can be a good team, but it clearly will not be through the same path as last season. Plus, with Hockey East not giving out many free points as far as I can tell, it’s going to be a tough climb back up the standings. On a related note, Maine’s victory over BU on Sunday was interesting to me in that it followed a victory over Vermont a week earlier. The Black Bears are still just 3-5 this season, but do you think there’s more reason now than before to be optimistic about Maine’s chances this season?

Jim: I’ve had a difficult time figuring out Maine this season and, for that matter, for the last two years. I was optimistic about their chances preseason, worried about the slow start and now hopeful that this will be the year the Black Bears turn things around. For the sake of coach Tim Whitehead and the program, I certainly hope they can get back to winning ways. Proud hockey programs don’t like to lose and, while a mediocre record gets you by in some towns, Orono isn’t one of them. One the other hand, you mentioned Miami earlier. Did the RedHawks’ manhandling of Michigan this weekend further cement the fact that Miami is the best team in college hockey right now?

Todd: It did to me. I was in Denver’s camp for a while, but seeing what Miami did at Yost and that Denver got run over on Saturday at Alaska-Anchorage, now there’s no doubt that Miami is, at least in this small window of time, the best team out there. I think a lot of people will chalk that up to the motivation coming out of the way last season ended, with being so close to the national championship and then seeing it fade away. I’m sure that’s in there somewhere, but I’d be willing to venture that the RedHawks are where they are now because, plain and simple, they’re a solid team, top to bottom. So many of those forwards that we got to know during their NCAA tournament run last season are chipping in early this season, and goaltender Cody Reichard has been on top of his game. I think this team would be in this position no matter how last season ended. What’s on the radar this weekend?

Jim: Well, personally, I’ll be seeing the Maine team we talked about earlier take on a Northeastern squad absolutely decimated by injuries. I’ll also see the two-game Vermont at Boston College series as well. Out of the corner of my eye, though, I’ll be watching one of college hockey’s top rivalries when Michigan takes on Michigan State. I’ll also be interested to see how Yale, a team that had very high hopes entering this season, fare with Cornell and Colgate after getting just a single point a week ago against Rensselaer and Union. How about you?

Todd: To me, that Michigan-Michigan State series has a lot of drawing power. It’s a rivalry series. Both teams are ranked in the top 13. Michigan has some swagger to regain after being humbled by Miami in its own barn. Michigan State has to continue to prove it’s going to be in the elite loop this season. And it’s the first game between the teams since that ugly scene last season that led to the suspensions of the Spartans’ Corey Tropp and Andrew Conboy. Time heals all wounds, but we’ll see if enough time has passed there.

Jim: It’s difficult to forget the ugly incident that marred the last game between these great rivals. But I think this weekend’s series is a good step in doing so, particularly if fans are treated to the hockey they expect. Really, this is the first time since Michigan State won the national title three years ago that these two powers have been playing at the same level. Should be fun. Well, until next week …

Rising Out of the Crowd

By Justin A. Rice
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Carl Hagelin didn’t exactly stand out from the crowd when he attended Red Berenson’s Michigan Hockey Camp as a youngster almost a decade ago, even though he traveled all the way from Sodertalje, Sweden, to skate in Ann Arbor and in Berenson’s graces.

“No I don’t [remember him]; I remember his older brother, Bobbie, was a really good prospect,” Berenson, Michigan’s 26-year hockey coach said. “Carl was really young then but his brother was noticeably good.”

Berenson might not recall the younger Hagelin attending his camp, but Berenson and his camp left an awfully large imprint on the impressionable mind of the younger Hagelin. About seven years after attending camp in Ann Arbor for the first time, Hagelin was drafted in the sixth round (No. 168 overall) by the New York Rangers in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft but chose instead to play for the Wolverines.

“I was always the tiniest kid on the team. I was a late bloomer on and off the ice,” said the junior left winger, who didn’t start playing hockey until he was about 8 years old. “When I was 16 or 17 I grew and put some weight on.”

But even though his brother went pro (currently playing in Denmark) straight away, Hagelin turned down opportunities to take the same track. Instead the 6-foot, 181-pounder decided to follow in the footsteps of his father by attending school in Michigan. While his father went to Western Michigan, Hagelin turned down Ferris State and Northern Michigan to become a Wolverine.

Michigan's Carl Hagelin had 31 points as a sophomore (photo: Melissa Wade).

Michigan’s Carl Hagelin had 31 points as a sophomore (photo: Melissa Wade).

The 21-year-old left-hander, however, didn’t finally make a name for himself in Ann Arbor until his sophomore season when he set single-season highs for points (31), assists (18), goals (13), game-winners (four) and multi-point games (8).

Through eight games this season, Hagelin was the Wolverines’ second-highest point scorer with seven (three goals, four assists).

“I think Carl can have a better year offensively,” Berenson said. “He’s emerging as a top college player. If he can put the puck in the net he’ll go a long way with his game and he won’t surprise anyone.

“From my understanding he was not a high-end playing coming up. He was a late bloomer. Now he’s an elite skater. Something must’ve switched on in his body because he put it all together. There’s no question some humility comes along with [being a late bloomer]. Carl is a terrific individual. He’s humble and he works so hard. He earned the respect of the players before he ever stepped on the ice in the offseason workouts with his work ethic.”

This season Hagelin was added to the power play and going into a late-October, two-game sweep at Lake Superior State, Berenson said he would try using the Swede on two different lines simultaneously to try to spark the then 2-2 Wolverines. On Oct. 30 Hagelin registered the game-winning goal and an assist against Lake Superior State for his 13th career multi-point game and second of the season.

Being on the power play also means Hagelin is expected to produce around the net, an area of his game with which he has struggled. In a 3-2 loss against defending national champion Boston University on Oct. 24, Michigan scored twice in the final period to tie the game before losing. Hagelin missed several opportunities around the net during the game but said the loss was a good gauge of where the team was at.

“It’s always good,” he said of playing top teams. “We like playing all the good teams. Last year we lost to BU 7-2. We had a bad attitude and it decreased our self confidence. This year we showed we have a lot of character in that third period. By coming back we showed what team we can be, a hard-working team in the third period.”

And if Michigan continues that hard work it could make it all the way to the Frozen Four, which this year is 45 miles down the road from Ann Arbor in Detroit. Hagelin would be in good company among the Swede-heavy Detroit Red Wings, some of whom Hagelin has skated with during the summers.

“Before I came here I wasn’t that big of a [Red Wings] fan,” said Hagelin, adding that he only makes the trip from Ann Arbor to Joe Louis Arena about four or five times a season because it is too time consuming.

That wouldn’t be an issue come April, when the Frozen Four makes its way to Detroit’s Ford Field.

“Obviously that’s one of our goals this year to win the NCAA championship,” he said, “but we can’t look that far ahead.”

Back on Top: St. Norbert Again D-III’s Best

By Nicholas Jon Wood
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What is past is prologue.

Or so it must seem to the St. Norbert Green Knights who, a year removed from a national championship, can again lay claim to being the top team in D-III college hockey. Gaining any sense of comfort upon that throne, however, would probably prove unwise. Closely mimicking the preseason poll, four other teams received first place votes.

Ascending an astounding 10 spots to the top of the heap, St. Norbert’s 4-0-1 mark earned them seven first place votes. The Oswego Lakers, who also have returned to national legitimacy after a season that failed to meet their lofty standards, moved up six spots to second after a 5-1 start, including a 5-2 upset of formerly top ranked Plattsburgh. They received six top tallies.

Previously No. 1 Plattsburgh fell to third, but did have four staunch allies thinking they are still the top team in the country.

In another remarkable surge up the rankings, the Manhattanville Valiants moved up eight spots to claim the fourth position and earn one first place tally. Their three wins without a defeat include victories over Hobart and a sweep of Lebanon Valley.

The Adrian Bulldogs received two first place votes and are ranked fifth.

Teams six through 10 include defending national champion (and previously No. 2) Neumann, Middlebury, University of Wisconsin River-Falls, UW-Stout, and St. Scholastica.

Neither team having yet played a game, Amherst and Norwich are ranked Nos. 11 and 12, respectively.

Though Hobart fell eight spots after struggling to a 2-2-1 opening mark, the most precipitous fall down the poll belonged to the University of Wisconsin-Superior, who fell 10 spots after being swept by previously unranked (but newly eighth ranked) in-state rival UW-River Falls.

The Elmira Soaring Eagles round out the top 15 while Gustavus Adolphus dropped out of this week’s poll.

A Great Atmosphere More Should Experience (Hint, Hint)

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There are certain rinks in college hockey that are great atmospheres. For years my feeling has been that nothing compared to Yost (Michigan), Lynah (Cornell), Alfond (Maine) and the Kohl Center (Wisconsin).

There is no better event to see than Harvard-Cornell at Lynah. Michigan-Michigan State at Yost is a close second, especially this weekend when those two get together in Ann Arbor for the first time since the “incident” last season. New Hampshire-Maine is still a must-see in Orono.

Add a fifth venue to the list: Frank Ritter Arena at RIT.

Yes, RIT.

Sold out Friday night for a visit from Army, the place is exactly what college hockey is about. Full to the rafters and standing two to three deep behind the railing above the seating area, the atmosphere is electric. The orange-clad student section is alive from the drop of the puck, and while some of the chants are clichéd already (how rustic or unique is the “it’s all your fault” chant at this point?) the kids are into it and they are loud and it makes the game that much better.

Between the pep band, the small size of the arena (2,100), and perhaps the best public address announcer in college hockey, the RIT Tigers have created a buzz on campus that more people should see on a national broadcast.

RIT is smart and their administration is behind hockey. There is no big-time football program to compete with, so hockey is a major player in the athletic and social scene on campus. The school owns a high-definition TV truck and all games are televised on the local Time Warner stations. That shows some effort on the part of the brass, that they were willing to invest in the product to make it better.

RIT, because it is D-III in all other sports but hockey, cannot offer scholarships, much like Union College. That has not stopped coach Wayne Wilson from building a great program and a great atmosphere for hockey.

“Obviously being on TV helps recruiting, and this facility sells itself as a place to play and a great atmosphere to see a game,” Wilson said following RIT’s 6-1 win over Army Friday night. “One of our kids showed me a Youtube video the other day of a father and son here at the rink watching a game and the dad says to the kid on camera that he has no idea what he is watching but it’s a lot of fun to be a part of.”

Wilson has coached at RIT since taking over for the 1999-2000 season. A disciple of Jerry York from his days as a player at Bowling Green, Wilson has had great success as a player with a national championship in 1984 and as a coach in getting the Tigers into the NCAA tournament from 2000 to 2002.

“What tells me we have achieved success as a product is the homecoming game at Blue Cross Arena,” said Wilson, referring to the record crowd of 7,421 that attended the game against Colgate. “We want this sport to grow and this program to grow, and that is a great indication of how strong it is here.”

Ron Mason, in his days as coach at Michigan State, always said he didn’t want Munn Ice Arena too big because he always wanted a demand for his ticket. They sure have that at RIT, as droves of fans are turned away nightly due to the limited seating capacity. That is the downside of this success story but it does prove what was obvious last Friday night: RIT has a rabid following up here and people want to go to the games. It is not just students, it’s local youth hockey players, families, and grandfathers, fathers, and sons/grandsons sitting together at the games.

Is it time for more games downtown or is the downtown event a hit because it is a once-a-year situation? Is it worth it to play a couple more games there a season and see the turnout? Can you get 5,000 people for a game against Canisus, which is based in nearby Buffalo? Do you play a local ECAC opponent? Can you get a “big four” school here? Ohio State played a couple of games at the Igloo against Robert Morris and it was smart for them as Western Pennsylvania has been a great recruiting base for the Buckeyes. Would Ohio State benefit recruiting-wise from playing RIT in Western New York? I say yes, and because it’s Ohio State the attendance should be great.

It also underscores another point and that is the Atlantic Hockey teams, when playing “the big teams,” usually have to play them at their place. Think Michigan is looking for a weekend date at Ritter? How about Minnesota or Denver? BU or BC coming out here any time soon? Atlantic Hockey loses a lot of games against bigger name programs but usually those losses are on the road and college hockey might be among the hardest sports to win on the road.

I’d like to see BU play at RIT, see UNH play at Sacred Heart. Getting some of those teams to smaller venues eclipses the stigma college football has in terms of awful teams that travel to play Michigan or Alabama and get crushed there by padding the better team’s record with phantom wins. BU beating RIT at Agganis is a good win; RIT is a good team. BU winning at Ritter would be something; it’s a tough place to play with the fans literally on top of you all game and you out of the comfort zone of New England and familiar rinks.

Wilson is another of the many bright and progressive coaches in Atlantic Hockey who see the growth potential of the game. Like Rick Gotkin at Mercyhurst, Frank Serratore at Air Force, Brian Riley at Army and C.J. Marottolo at Sacred Heart to name a few. The success Bruce Marshall has had at Connecticut cannot be overlooked. These coaches have ideas and because they are not as quoted as the big boys at the big schools they tend to get overlooked. More importantly, their ideas get overlooked, and that has made some of these programs some of the best-kept secrets in the NCAA.

The fact that Air Force took out Michigan last year in the NCAA regionals and almost beat Vermont to win the regional was huge for the conference. Remember the big win Holy Cross had against Minnesota in Grand Forks a few years back. We were very close to an NCAA Frozen Four last season that would have had the CCHA, Hockey East, CHA and Atlantic Hockey members in it. The reality is that the gap has closed between Atlantic Hockey and the rest of college hockey.

Why?

One reason is that kids are smart. While getting fed a line from coaches that they fit into the future of a big-time program, the kids who are not Grade-A, bona fide NHL prospects are realizing they can get a scholarship or financial assistance from a school that is not perennially in the top 15 in the USCHO.com/CBS College Sports poll. Instead of sitting behind draft choices and top-notch players for two years, they can play immediately at the NCAA level and still be well coached.

When watching a school like RIT you can see three or four players and say, “How come that kid went to RIT and not BC? He can probably play the third line at BC.” The answer is that the kid is probably in the top six forwards where he is as a freshman or sophomore, playing PP and/or PK, and getting 22 minutes a night.

These are the kids who are making Atlantic Hockey a better league. Wayne Wilson and his colleagues are making it a better league.

Now the question is how do they get more people to see it? That answer falls into the hands of the league and the administrations of its member schools. Better buildings, nicer facilities, and on-campus arenas are vital. Sacred Heart has a good team but plays about 20 miles away from campus in a rink that would be good for pee-wee hockey. Junior B teams shouldn’t play there, nor should an NCAA Division I team.

This could be a situation worth watching. What is definitely worth watching is home games at RIT. Now let’s see some of the big boys help the little guys and get out there and play them.

• Switching gears for a second, nice job by Paula Weston and everyone else who took the CCHA to task for the shootout fallout in Omaha.

I’d say that this type of mistake is one that should have never happened but probably did because there was no protocol to eliminate an illegal shooter. That does lead to another point and that is the CCHA has a great track record of learning from its mistakes and making itself better because of it.

I’m going to give Bowling Green a pass here in that it didn’t intentionally use an illegal player. There is a chance it didn’t even know there was a rule in place or just plain forgot.

That leads me to propose this rule, which is one I proposed to the Central Hockey League in 1998 while an associate head coach in Macon. If a player is in the penalty box when the game ends and there is a shootout coming, that player needs to stay in the box during the shootout or if he chooses to, leave the playing area. We had no OT in the CHL in regular season, so it was: game ends, water break, shootout. If that player is nowhere near the bench, you can’t pencil him in to shoot. End of story.

The CHL, which at times could not get out of its own way, never adopted the policy. Then again, we never had this situation occur where a player was used illegally and it was pro hockey. I do recall one instance in Huntsville where I was talking to one of our top scorers (Jocelyn Langlois) after regulation ended in a tie game and mentioned to him that Huntsville goalie Derek Puppa tends to go down early on breakaways and he told me (in a combination of English and French) “Coach, tell someone else, I can’t shoot because I’m in the penalty box.”

I guess the point is that maybe we give the incident a pass because it was the first time it happened. What is harder to stomach is the CCHA saying there is nothing it can do about it. Yes, rules are rules and they are clear here. What could have come out is something to the effect of (minus the flowery press release language) “OK, this was embarrassing. We looked up the rules and we’re hamstrung here but starting tomorrow we will send out a proposal to the coaches and administrators of the league to change this immediately.”

Change what?

Change the way this could be handled. There is no one (except maybe BG) who would argue that they should have replayed the shootout again starting with the shot taken by the illegal player. That could have happened after warm-ups the next night.

To have a policy that protests will not be entertained is almost fascist. You as the league screwed up. Hear the protest. You might not overturn the situation but at least give the teams that have worked their butts off for 60-plus minutes the impression that if they are the victims of what we’ll call a paperwork error that they have some recourse. This wasn’t whether a penalty should have been called or a penalty shot awarded. This wasn’t an on-ice judgment call; this was an illegal player for goodness sake.

As mentioned, the CCHA has a great track record here to fix this and it will. It is why it is a well-run league. It lives up to its errors and usually makes sure they don’t happen again.

Miami Nears Unanimous Status Atop Rankings

USCHO Staff Report
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Miami strengthened its hold on the top spot in the USCHO.com/CBS College Sports Division I Men’s Poll on Monday, collecting 49 of the 50 first-place votes.

Related link: Full rankings

The RedHawks swept a pair of games at then-No. 4 Michigan last weekend, outscoring the Wolverines by a combined 8-2.

North Dakota moved up one spot to No. 2, while Cornell, Denver and Massachusetts-Lowell round out the top five.

Defending national champion Boston University fell 10 spots — the biggest drop of the week — to 17th after losses at Northeastern and at Maine dropped the Terriers to 2-5.

Bemidji State made its debut in the top 10, jumping four spots to No. 7. The Beavers swept Robert Morris last weekend to improve to 7-0-1.

No. 14 Massachusetts moved up five spots, while No. 9 Alaska and No. 13 Michigan State each advanced four places.

Wisconsin dropped out of the rankings. Quinnipiac reappeared in the poll at No. 20.

This week’s schedule brings five games between ranked teams: No. 3 Cornell at No. 12 Yale on Friday; No. 6 Michigan playing a home-and-home series with No. 13 Michigan State on Friday and Saturday; and No. 15 Vermont playing at No. 16 Boston College on Saturday and Sunday.

Serratore Gets New Deal at Air Force

USCHO Staff Report
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Air Force and coach Frank Serratore have agreed to a new five-year contract that will keep Serratore behind the Falcons’ bench through the 2013-14 season, the school announced Monday.

Frank Serratore

Frank Serratore

Serratore, who is in his 13th season with Air Force, has led the Falcons to three straight NCAA tournament appearances after Atlantic Hockey postseason championships.

He has a 200-216-32 overall record at the Academy and led the team to a program-best 28 wins last season.

“Frank has committed to building a successful program on and off the ice,” Air Force associate athletic director Dermot Coll said. “The success the team has had the last few years is a direct reflection of the hard work and effort he and his staff have put into this program. The Academy is proud of the team and coaches and all that they have accomplished on the ice, in the classroom and in the community.”

Details of the contract are being finalized, the school announced.

What I Think: Week 5

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Some random (and some not-so-random) thoughts after the fifth week of the season:

* Defending national champion Boston University is 2-5 overall and 1-4 in Hockey East play. There’s not much more you can say to illustrate how much things can change from one season to the next.

The Terriers had six overall losses and five Hockey East losses all of last season.

The Boston Herald’s Jocko Connolly points out how injuries have contributed to this season’s issues for BU, but he also quotes Terriers coach Jack Parker with what I think is getting right to the point:

“We have to be patient with our overall outlook here,” Parker told the paper. “We don’t know everything we knew last year. …”

Early November is no time to hit the panic button, but it also has to be the time a line is drawn before things get out of control.

* Care to guess which team ranks 41st among Division I men’s schools in attendance so far this season?

It’s Ohio State, which this season has started letting students in for free. Maybe instead they should ask for a two-month road trip at the start of the season to let football season end first.

The Buckeyes are averaging 1,604 fans per game at Value City Arena, which holds 17,500. That’s 9.2 percent full, by far the lowest percentage in the country. (American International is next at 17.2 percent for one home game.)

Being 2-4 at home and 3-6-1 overall probably isn’t going to help a lot, either.

* That was a heck of a shot by Massachusetts-Lowell defenseman Ryan Blair in Sunday’s game against New Hampshire. No-look, short side, caught the goalie sleeping.

Yeah, so it was in his own net. (Blair appeared to be trying to send the puck behind his net off a faceoff but, um, missed.) I still give him credit for a pretty good looking shot.

All kidding aside, I give Lowell credit for absorbing that blow and still beating UNH by three goals. And Blair ended up even in plus/minus in a game where his team’s starting line was a combined minus-7.

By the way, I’m starting to see what people liked about Lowell going into the season. It looks like they have quite a few ways to beat teams.

And by the way, South Carolina couldn’t have just won that soccer game in the first overtime, when it was dominating LSU? That had to go to penalty kicks, and then nine rounds of penalty kicks, before we got to see some hockey?

* I got an interesting e-mail on Saturday, and I suspect some of my USCHO colleagues got the same, from an anonymous sender (don’t you just love those?) looking to promote that Ferris State had just made history.

It seems that the Bulldogs swept three straight home series for the first time.

So there. Publicity.

* Great line from Michigan coach Red Berenson after his team got swept by Miami in a key CCHA series:

“I’m embarrassed,” Berenson told annarbor.com. “We played like a bunch of spoiled brats, and we’ve gotta suck it up.”

Three Michigan players got misconduct penalties in the third period of the 5-1 loss, and the Wolverines took 51 minutes of penalties in the final 20 minutes of a weekend in which the RedHawks seemingly had everything in hand.

* Tough week to pick the top 20. Here’s my best guess:

1. Miami

2. North Dakota

3. Denver

4. Cornell

5. Massachusetts-Lowell

6. Michigan

7. Notre Dame

8. Yale

9. Alaska

10. Nebraska-Omaha

11. Bemidji State

12. Colorado College

13. Michigan State

14. Vermont

15. Princeton

16. Boston College

17. Massachusetts

18. Quinnipiac

19. Minnesota-Duluth

20. Wisconsin

This Week in D-I: November 6, 2009

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Used to play “I spy with my wandering eye” with my kids, when both they (all six of them) and I were a lot younger.

Found myself doing so again this week as I perused the D-I landscape.

What Caught my Eye: WCHA

Da Badgers. Just when you think you’ve got Wisconsin figured out, the Badgers hit you with a crate full of knuckle pucks.

Yes, they are the defending national champs, but they’ve also lost their accomplished head coach – Mark Johnson – to the Olympic team. And yes, all their firepower (sophomore sniper Brooke Ammerman excepted) has been siphoned off to the Olympics, to graduation, or to both.

But when they sputtered to a 2-3-0 start, and were beaten by teams (Ohio State, Bemidji State, and North Dakota) they’ve manhandled in the past, one could sense a seed change was underway.

That’s when they go and outscore Ohio State, then upend high-flying Minnesota.
That’s what caught my eye there.

What Caught my Eye: ECAC Hockey

Gotta be Clarkson. You knew the program was building. You knew that the Desrosiers – Shannon and Matt – were probably the best married couple coaching tandem in womens hockey (okay, the sample size for that one is a little small).

But the way they handled New Hampshire (6-2) and Boston University (7-2) was very impressive. Connecticut transfer Dominique Thibault has indeed been the impact player that every one hoped she’d be (7-8-15), but she’s had scoring help with three fellow Golden Knights having joined her in the double-digit point club.

Clarkson has the second-stingiest defense in the country, but also the seventh-most prolific attack. Nice balance, which has vaulted Clarkson to the second spot in the USCHO poll … their highest ever ranking, if memory serves.
So, yeah, that’s what caught my eye.

What Caught my Eye: Hockey East

The roster that the WHEA will be putting on the wide Whittemore Center ice for the Nov. 22 tilt against the U.S. National team as part of the Qwest Tour.

The squad, with reps from all eight WHEA schools, isn’t long on experience with just six seniors among the skaters. Now the Nationals, with more than a dozen players who were playing college pucks last year, have been thrashing its collegiate opponents so far.

Its 6-1 rout of the WCHA All-Stars, and 11-1 blasting of North Dakota, stand in testimony. Neither could have been very pretty or entertaining to watch, for that matter.

One remains hopeful that the group sent out by the WHEA – headed by Player of the Month (and one of the most exciting skaters in the game today) Kelly Paton of UNH – will manage to keep matters close. Or hey, even pull off a stunner.

What Caught my Eye: CHA

A coupla things, there. The first is that Mercyhurst suffered its first loss of the season, a Halloween night 4-3 setback to Minnesota-Duluth, but was still able to hang on to its No. 1 poll ranking. The Lakers played a stiff non-conference slate, and will now get to work against its CHA sisters with a pair of weekend tilts at Wayne State.

The other is that Robert Morris will head out to Wisconsin (see above) for what on paper would be a pair of romps for the Badgers. However, last year, the Colonials made a similar trek out to Minnesota and shocked the Gophers – then ranked No. 1 – 3-2.

Caveat Badger, I guess.

Can Gophers Win Being Gritty?

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Part of the draw was to see which Minnesota team would take the ice at the Kohl Center on Friday.

(Part of the draw, of course, was the Wisconsin-Minnesota rivalry — something a college hockey fan should experience in either building at least once.)

Would it be the Golden Gophers that were shut out in three of their first four games of the season en route to an 0-3-1 record?

Or the team that gained separation from Alaska-Anchorage last weekend and at least temporarily righted the ship?

I can’t say it was either, but for most of the game, it certainly drifted toward the former.

Minnesota’s offense wasn’t effective at all through two periods of what turned out to be a 4-2 loss to Wisconsin. In the brief moments when the Gophers did look dangerous in the Badgers’ zone, they misfired. See Nico Sacchetti’s great chance at the side of the net in the second period, after a shot rebounded to the winger off the back boards. He got stuffed by Badgers goaltender Brett Bennett on the first try, but he had a second effort that he flipped over the bar. He showed the frustration that was evident regardless.

Full credit to Wisconsin’s defense for putting the clamps on the Gophers’ ability to get things started offensively. The Badgers blocked 30 of Minnesota’s 59 shot attempts (51 percent), and that kind of thing gets in a team’s head.

Minnesota’s offense did show life in the third period, but by that point, the Gophers were playing from behind. They made a run at a tying goal after cutting the deficit to 3-2, but Wisconsin held on.

So what do we make of these Gophers, now 2-4-1 both overall and in the WCHA? Are they destined for another middle-of-the-pack finish and spectator status for the NCAA regional not far from home at the Xcel Energy Center? They’ve already lost one of their key offensive forces, Jay Barriball, to season-ending surgery, but they can still field four forward lines of NHL draft picks, like they did Friday. No matter how goaltender Alex Kangas plays — and he gave up a doozy for Blake Geoffrion’s second goal of the game Friday — the offense has to drive the bus for Minnesota.

“It’s a long season, so we’re still figuring things out and guys are still identifying their roles,” Gophers winger Mike Hoeffel said. “But if we just stick to our plan of being a gritty team and being relentless and getting pucks behind their D and just grinding them out and getting scoring opportunities off of that, I think we’ll be a good team.”

If you want to be a team others will call gritty, though, you need to consistently wear down opponents with toughness, and while there were some flashes in that area Friday, it wasn’t enough to earn the moniker.

Here We Go Again

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We’re underway with the 2009-2010 season (at least most of the teams are by now). It’s going to be tough to top last season. Neumann College, the last team into the NCAA tournament, a team that finished fourth in the ECAC West and had to play a play-in game to get into its conference playoffs, stunned the Division III world by defeating Gustavus Adolphus, another Cinderella team, to win the national title. It seems like just a couple of weeks ago that I was in the press box at Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, covering the Atlantic Hockey championships but watching in amazement the Division III games from Lake Placid over the internet.

This season looks to keep the craziness going. From Bishops in net to the USCHO.com Division III men’s poll, wackiness is in the air.

Preseason polls tend to be unsettled. Teams that finish at or near the top last season are shown respect irregardless of what their teams may look like this season. Up and coming teams get their due, and then you have the perinnial powers who tend to reload and not rebuild.

This year’s first poll is exceptionally diverse with eight teams getting at least one first place vote and a total of 27 squads getting a mention.

Stay tuned for regular weekly polls beginning November 9.

This Week in the NCHA/MCHA

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Welcome back for what should no doubt be another chaotic season. Though many things changed from a season ago, the preseason USCHO.com Division III men’s poll is not one of them: it remains littered with NCHA teams, six in all.

Defending Peters Cup champion Stout was the highest of the bunch and checked in at No. 3 while Superior landed on their heels in fourth. The Blue Devils and Yellowjackets each garnered one first place vote.

St. Norbert and St. Scholastica showed up at Nos. 11 and 13, respectively. Both Stevens Point and River Falls also received votes but failed to crack the top 15.

As usual, Adrian is the lone MCHA team to receive votes and popped up in sixth. It’s the highest preseason ranking ever for the Bulldogs.
The MCHA kicks off its regular season in earnest this weekend while the NCHA hosts a slew of MIAC opponents.
And now, without further ado…

Go Figure

While the relative strength of the NCHA on the national level remains to be determined this season, the parity within the league itself has elevated itself to levels not seen in a very long time — if ever.

Last weekend marked the return to two game conference series and in somewhat shocking fashion it was the three road teams that skated away with all six wins. St. Scholastica, a NCAA tournament team a year ago, garnered a 4-2, 2-1 sweep in Stevens Point but surprisingly the other two NCAA representatives from a year ago are both off to 0-2 league starts.

St. Norbert traveled to Menomonie and dismantled preseason NCHA favorite Stout 2-0 and 4-1, while upstart River Falls traveled to Superior and took down the Yellowjackets 2-1, 7-4. Throw in the fact that Eau Claire dropped games to Marian and Lawrence, and what a way it was to kick the season off.

“I was surprised by the sweeps across the board by the road teams and that’s a real statement on the strength of the conference,” said St. Norbert head coach Tim Coghlin, whose Green Knights moved to 3-0 on the year. “If you look around the league you probably expected Stout, Superior and Stevens Point to really come out and have good series at home. I understand the series were all very, very close, but for the road team to win twice really is a strong statement.”

Coghlins’ statements were very nearly echoed by River Falls head coach Steve Freeman.

“I think this just shows how balanced the league is. The other thing to notice is how they were all real tight games. Our series up in Superior was two great games and if you look at the other series it was the same across the league.”

Balance aside, the biggest waves of the weekend were almost certainly made by St. Norbert. Sweeping a weekend is nothing new for the Green Knights, but considering some of their struggles a year ago, going into Stout and serving up two dominant performances was an outcome few expected.

To put it in perspective, in the process of scoring the four conference points, the Green Knights outshot Stout 40-21 on Friday and 44-17 on Saturday, margins that are dumbfounding considering Stout’s offensive prowess.

“I think [Stout’s Joel] Gaulrapp line is as good as any there is out there, so to do what we did really speaks to the quality of our defensive play and our goaltending,” said Coghlin.

The prolific line of Gaulrapp, Scott Motz and Derek Hanson did connect for the
Blue Devils’ goal on Saturday, but that was it for the weekend.

“It’s hard to play a critical series this early in the year so special teams didn’t look great, but 5-on-5 I thought we were the better team and to me that says a lot,” he said.

The results are especially encouraging for the Green Knights as Stout manhandled St. Norbert in Menomonie a year ago. Considering the game was scoreless after two on Friday, Coghlin is especially pleased with the way they were able to win.

“It was a little bit of reverse to what happened to us last year,” Coghlin said. “We couldn’t find a way to get a ‘W’ and we were getting outworked and outscored in the third period. Our conditioning looked extremely good this weekend and I thought we were the better team both nights.

“That’s the kind of game that can help you become a better team quickly. I certainly hope that’s something that happens for us, but with an 18 game schedule there are certainly going to be ups and downs. Nonetheless, when you put yourself in positions to win games you are going to win more than you lose and that’s what we did.”

River Falls’ victories in Superior move the Falcons to 3-0 overall and the four points land it atop the NCHA after one week, which for Freeman is a refreshing change of pace from the sluggish 1-6-1 overall and 1-3 league starts the Falcons limped out to a year ago.

“Obviously we hope to win every game we play, but that was huge for us early on. Wessman is a tough to play and to go in there against a very good, big and physical team and get four points early on is real big for us,” Freeman said.

The Falcons wins couldn’t have been any more different from a stylistic standpoint. A third period goal by freshman defenseman Brady Horn capped off a 2-1 dogfight on Friday, while the Falcons’ offense, paced by a four point night by freshman Justin Brossman, exploded for a 7-4 win on Saturday.

Interestingly, River Falls was outshot 43-25 in Saturday’s contest.

“The first game was real tight and the second one opened up a bit, but there was a lot of physical play. This just goes to show that there are no sure things in this league even with home ice,” Freeman said.

The Falcons are off to a much better start than a year ago. Much of this can be attributed to the fact their very young roster of a year ago has a year of NCHA experience under their belts, but Freeman also keyed on the contributions of this year’s newcomers.

“I think some of the players we’ve added through our recruiting class have helped out a bit,” he said. “We’re a little more skilled and a little quicker, especially in the back. Our special teams also held up well, and those things can come and go, but we scored four power-play goals and didn’t allow one so that was the difference in the series.”

This weekend the NCHA teams all square off against MIAC foes, and River Falls draws a pair of tough opponents in Gustavus Adolphus and Augsburg. The Golden Gusties return nearly everyone from last year’s NCAA finalist squad, while Augsburg is coming off a 2-0 weekend at the MIAC Showcase. Included in the Auggies two wins is a victory over the Gusties.

“Both teams are playing well and it should be a great test playing Gustavus right away on Friday,” Freeman said. “Obviously they went to the Frozen Four last year and they are tremendously talented up front so it should be a real challenge for us. At the same time Augsburg is off to a good start so we certainly need to be ready to go this weekend.”

The superb opening weekends of St. Norbert and River Falls are evidence the NCHA plans on remaining as quirky as always. With St. Scholastica also 2-0 in conference play it means the NCHA coaches’ preseason second, fifth and sixth picks are atop the standings while the first, third and fourth place selections all reside at 0-2.

Sixteen games to go. Welcome to the jungle.

The “Adrian Gap”

During the Cold War, the “missile gap” was a phrase coined in reference to the disparity in nuclear weapons between the United States and the Soviet Union. Numerous estimates contended that the Soviets possessed far more firepower than we did and that the “gap” needed to be addressed by our government most urgently.

History has shown that the concept’s advocates knew all along that the purported gap was exaggerated, but perpetuated it anyway so as to achieve its own ends.

In that same vein, I now present . . . the “Adrian Gap”.

Most people know the numbers, but here they are again. Since joining the MCHA two years ago, Adrian has posted a 39-1 league record. The Bulldogs have won 37 straight MCHA regular season games and claimed the Harris Cup playoff championship each of the past two years.

As no MCHA team has yet had a chance to prove itself on the national stage, this phenomenon has led to endless discussions on the relative on-ice merits of the Adrian program.

The stakes have now been raised: as the MCHA finally has a NCAA automatic qualification bid, it means that beginning this season someone from the league will get that long-awaited shot on the national level.

Adrian is the overwhelming preseason favorite to be this team. 39-1 is impossible to argue with and the Bulldogs landed every possible first place vote in the preseason coaches’ poll. The lone vote they didn’t claim was that of Adrian head coach Ron Fogarty as coaches (should he have even wanted to) are not allowed to vote for their own team.

Division III hockey often reminds us that past performance is often no certain indicator of future results, so before anyone starts punching the Bulldogs’ ticket to the NCAAs, I can think of two far better things to worry about.

First, how big is the gap between Adrian and the host of teams trying to real them in? And second, like the missile gap, is this all merely perception due to “policy by press release” (meaning: if it gets said enough times it becomes truth)?

“There is no doubt right now that Adrian is the class of our league and we need to do what we can to catch up with them. I think the gap is probably closing but we have a long way to go to catch those guys,” said Lawrence head coach Mike Szkodzinski, whose Vikings finished second in the MCHA a year ago.

Similar sentiments were shared by Milwaukee School of Engineering head coach Mark Ostapina. The Raiders have fallen to the Bulldogs in the MCHA playoffs each of the past two seasons, including a 7-1 loss in last season’s title game.

“They are very good and there is no question about it,” he said. “They have a high level of execution and they’ve got some players with superior skill levels.

“Right now everyone is chasing them, and until they are caught that gap is as big as the Grand Canyon.”

Marian and head coach Jasen Wise, aside from being the lone MCHA team to ever defeat Adrian, is the third team many are looking at to be the one that can step up and give the Bulldogs a legitimate run.

“Look at the scores last year. I don’t think the gap closed at all because they are flat out good,” Wise said. “Has it closed this year? I think it’s still too early to tell. Until one of the other schools steps up and beats them on a regular basis there is still going to be a big gap.”

The fairly high praise is warranted based on Adrian’s success, but it’s also to be expected from a trio of coaches who have just as much desire as Adrian to win the league, the Harris Cup, and to be the first MCHA team in history to participate in the NCAA tournament.

Let’s see what some more numbers say:

As mentioned, Adrian is 39-1 all-time in the NCAA, but let’s not count games against Northland, Crookston and Concordia for the time being. That leaves MSOE, Marian, Lawrence and Finlandia.

Adrian has played those teams a total of 26 times in two plus years and holds a 25-1 record. The Bulldogs’ average margin of victory has been 5.42-1.85.
For comparison’s sake, those same four teams have played teams from the NCHA a total of 24 times over that same span. The NCHA’s 19-2-3 record is dominant, and its average margin of victory is 4.63-1.88.

In those 24 contests, St. Norbert was the opponent seven times, Superior six, River Falls three, Eau Claire three, Stevens Point twice, Stout twice and St. Scholastica once.

Considering we have little else to go on, those 50 games sure seem to put Adrian on par with numerous teams who are routinely ranked in the top 10 nationally.

Unfortunately, that’s not a case that can be made (yet) for any other team in the league. That raises the question as to whether Adrian’s mere presence has served to help improve the overall quality of the league by providing even more impetus to improve as rapidly as possible.

While other coaches acknowledge that it certainly is a factor in the sense Adrian has set a standard they know they have to exceed in order to win the league, two other factors appear to be much more driving factors in this respect.

The first is that it’s the natural progression of the league. Finlandia has already put some excellent teams on the ice, while coaches like Wise and Szkodzinski played for top programs and were well aware of what constitutes an elite program before Adrian ever existed. Additionally, let’s not forget that Ostapina has already coached a team to the NCAA tournament when he led New England College to the NCAAs in 2001.

“I think it’s a combination of a lot of things, but there is no doubt that coach Fogarty and that program have forced us to step up our efforts when it comes to recruitment and ultimately our on ice product,” Szkodzinski said.

“I think it’s just general circumstances as far as programs go across the board,” added Ostapina. “A lot of things are just based on the natural progression of how schools do business.”

The second is most likely the most significant. For the first time ever, MCHA coaches are able to sell their team, as well as any potential recruits, the fact that it is no longer a foregone conclusion that their season will end before the NCAA tournament even begins.

“Obviously the AQ [automatic qualifier] has heightened everyone’s awareness about our league,” Ostapina said. “Everyone now understands what the carrot is that all teams are chasing. It’s great for the MCHA to be on an equal footing with all these other leagues. It helped the ECAC Northeast when they got it, and it will definitely help the MCHA now that we have it.”

Indeed it will, but as far as this season goes will it be enough to help anyone push the threshold Adrian has established?

Maybe we’ll find out this weekend as Adrian hits the road to take on Marian. It was almost two years ago that the Sabres scored the win over the Bulldogs, but Adrian has won the last two meetings by a combined score of 18-4. One way or another, this weekend will no doubt set the tone for whether this season’s “Adrian Gap” is a matter of perception or reality.

Signed and Sealed

I’ve been meaning to do this for three years, but this year I finally did it.

Just to be on record, prior to the start of this season I recorded numerous predictions. In the name of honesty, they have been signed and sealed by new our MIAC writer Scott Bridges and he has safely stowed them away — well out of my reach. Some are a bit off the wall, some will no doubt seem obvious in retrospect, and some I just don’t have the guts to currently utter publicly. When all is said and done, I’m going to look like a prophet or an idiot, and my money is on the latter, but either should no doubt prove amusing.

However things unfold, stay tuned as full disclosure and analysis will be unveiled at the end of the season and we can all see how the future as I foresaw it compared to the reality all of us will have witnessed.

Tasty Travels

This final bit of early season housekeeping concerns a new feature to the column. As some may recall, I spent an entire section in one of last season’s columns lamenting the closing of an excellent sandwich shop near St. Norbert. At the same time I expressed my contempt for chain restaurants and extolled the virtues of finding great dining establishments when I travel for Division III games.

It’s time to take this to the next level. This season, this section will feature a legitimate weekly review of a restaurant located in a D-III city. As I’m always up for learning new things, I have some places already planned but I’m always open to suggestions on this matter. Do you know a great local place that I should hit up while traveling? If so, please feel free to send your suggestions to [email protected] and should my travels bring me to your town, I could very well take you up on your recommendation. One word of warning: no matter how I try to combat it, I do not like seafood.

Naturally, all establishments will be rated on a 1-5 puck scale. Take that, pretzel.

This Week in MIAC

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MIAC Showcase

The inaugural MIAC Showcase was held at the Bloomington Ice Gardens this last weekend. From Friday through Sunday, all nine teams from the MIAC got to go out and face off against each other.

It wasn’t a tournament format: there were no playoffs or seedings, no champion declared or trophy won, nor was there an all-showcase team. What there was though, were nine games of fast paced, end-to-end hockey.

Attendance for the showcase broke the 2,000 mark, even though the event was not at any team’s home rink. With day passes costing $5 and giving access to all three games, it’s easy to see why the event was still able to draw so many fans.

While on the surface it seems like it’d be difficult to fairly schedule nine teams each playing twice over three days, the system in place minimized the work for each team.

Teams were divided into pods of three, with each school playing the other two in their pod. When there was a game going on, the third team in the pod administered the game, being responsible for scorekeeping, ticket collecting, and any other necessary tasks. This spread the workload around evenly. On a game day, teams only had to worry about playing their game, and only had to deal with the other work on the day they weren’t playing.

The format of the event also reduced the costs for every team. Normally a weekend away from home means paying for travel expenses without getting anything in return. By splitting the income, each team would only have to put in a small amount of money for the event to break even, and if enough tickets were sold, each team would actually profit on the weekend.

From an administrative standpoint, the event was a huge win. Every team in the conference got to play two games at little to no cost, no teams had to put in more administrative work than any other team, and no one had to spend time trying to schedule games to start the season.

Oh yeah, there was some excellent hockey too.

The second day of games alone saw three shorthanded goals, a natural hat trick, and a shutout. It may have been the first games of the season for the MIAC, but every team came out playing hard and flying up and down the ice for the whole weekend.

Gustavus Adolphus's Brad Wiek (19) scores the game tying goal against Bethel.

Gustavus Adolphus’s Brad Wiek (19) scores the game tying goal against Bethel.

St. Olaf and Augsburg were the only two teams to come out of the weekend 2-0, although St. John’s and St. Thomas both came out undefeated (1-0-1) after tying in the final game on Sunday. Augsburg defeated Bethel and last year’s MIAC playoff champion Gustavus Adolphus. St. Olaf beat Concordia MN and Hamline. The Oles probably had a little extra motivation after last season’s playoff loss to Hamline.

Bethel, Concordia (MN), and St. Mary’s were the only schools to finish the weekend without a win, but all three showed they can compete with the rest of the league. Concordia was leading for much of the game until two quick third period goals put Hamline ahead for good.

Bethel stormed out to a 3-1 lead over Gustavus Adolphus on Saturday, but a shorthanded goal drew the Gusties within one, a power-play goal tied it, and Gustavus would go on to win after scoring the game winner with less than seven minutes to play in the third period. Despite giving up two goals within 1:13 of each other, St. Mary’s hung with St. Thomas right until the end of their game, with a third period goal putting the Tommies up 4-2.

While this was the first showcase the MIAC has put on, several coaches hoped that it would continue next year as well, with some possible changes including a different venue and all-tournament team, but still keeping the format used this year.

All in all it was a great weekend of hockey any way you look at it. It allowed the conference to highlight their talent and put on a show for potential recruits. It allowed the teams to schedule a hassle-free weekend of games. And of course, it was great for the fans to be able to easily and inexpensively see so many games, with some great fast paced hockey being played.

Augsburg Auggies

Augsburg finished last season with mixed results. On one hand they were the league’s highest scoring team, scoring over 4.50 goals per game. They finished out the regular season on a 6-1-1 tear, and even though they finished in the fifth and final playoff spot, they had their sights set on making some noise in the playoffs.

On the other hand, they had the league’s third worst scoring defense, giving up exactly four goals per game, giving up only one tally less than the last place MIAC team (in conference games). As confident as they were in their offense, they had to be just as concerned about their defense.

In the playoffs, Augsburg faced Hamline, and despite holding 2-1 and 3-2 leads, the Auggies weren’t able to hold on, and eventually lost 5-4 in what had to be a disappointing end to their campaign.

Flash forward to this season, and the Auggies are once again excited and looking forward to making some noise. They have every reason to be as confident (if not more) about their offense to start this year. They brought back virtually every scoring threat from last season, including their top two lines.

When asked about some of the benefits of bringing back so many players, coach Chris Brown said “Experience is the biggest thing, last year on the penalty kill we were somewhat passive, because we didn’t have enough experience. This year we’ll be able to try new things and be more aggressive.”

Despite being on the power play for over 10 full minutes, Gustavus Adolphus never really seemed to look comfortable against Augsburg, who constantly applied pressure and possibly forced the Gusties to make quicker decisions with the puck than they would’ve liked. This pressure helped Augsburg to kill off three early penalties before finally giving up a power play goal during a five minute power play following a checking from behind major.

Their only question mark to start the season was their biggest question mark last year as well: their defense. While only graduating one blueliner last year, the Auggies also graduated their starting goalie. If the Auggies were on the ice, the odds were pretty good that so was Andrew Kent — of the 1,568 minutes Augsburg played hockey last year, Kent was on the ice for all but 52 of them.

Losing their workhorse meant that coming into opening weekend, Augsburg had two sophomore goalies and two freshmen netminders on their team . . . and none of them had ever started a college game.

“You can never really be sure what you’re going to get from someone making their first start,” Brown said of his young goalies. “Sure, you see them in practice and warm-ups, but once the game starts, they could be lights out or they could give up 10 goals, you just never know until you’re out there.”

He ended up starting each freshman goalie in one game this weekend, and they did not disappoint. In Augsburg’s first game of the season, Justin Lochner got the nod. He faced 34 shots from Bethel and stopped them all, recording a shutout in his first collegiate game. Against defending conference champion Gustavus Adolphus, Brown started Nate Pellegrino, who allowed three goals on 32 shots while getting the first win of his career.

After the games, Brown specifically pointed to the defense, especially the freshmen.

“David Hines, Kristof Reinthaler (both freshmen), and Nikki Holt did a great job,” he said. “Two of them were playing their first college games and really played well. As for the goaltenders, I think the games speak for themselves out there. We still haven’t given up a goal 5-on-5.”

While it’s definitely early in the season, as a group, these two goalies have a .955 save percentage and 1.50 goals against average. If they can keep up anything close to these numbers for the rest of conference play, these Auggies are going to be a terror for their opponents.

Their offense has shown no signs of letting up, scoring nine goals (including three on the power play), over the weekend. And if their goaltending and team defense can build off of this weekend, this is a team that may be challenging for the conference title all season long.

MIAC-NCHA Crossover

After the opening weekend of games, the MIAC goes head to head with the NCHA before both leagues jump into conference play full tilt.

There are many interesting matchups this weekend. Gustavus Adolphus and Augsburg head to UW-River Falls, who’s fresh off a road sweep of UW-Superior, while St. Thomas heads to UW-Stout in a clash of the Tommies’ defensive style vs. the wide open attack of the Blue Devils.

In the last few years, the NCHA has dominated these crossover games, including going 46-16-2 against the MIAC last season. It will be interesting to see how this season goes, with both leagues starting at the same time. In the past, the NCHA tended to start before the MIAC, so by the time they faced each other, the MIAC was playing its first games of the season while the NCHA had already shaken off some rust and gotten some games under their belts.

Even with that lopsided record last season, when the two leagues faced off a second time in January last season, the results weren’t quite as skewed, with the MIAC going 6-9-1 in the final weekend of the crossover. With everyone playing two games before they clash again, maybe things will be more even this time around.

Even with both leagues starting at the same time, this weekend still favors the NCHA heavily. Not only are all the NCHA teams at home, four of them are nationally ranked in the USCHO.com Division III poll, while among the MIAC, only Gustavus Adolphus garnered national recognition.

Regardless of the outcomes, these games should give teams from both leagues a gauge on where they stand and what they need to improve on. It should be a good week of hockey no matter who comes out on top.

ECAC West Preview

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RIT Tigers

Coach: Scott McDonald (62-14-4, 4th season)
Last year’s record: 21-3-2
ECAC West Record: 15-2-1 (2nd)
Coaches’ Projection: First
My Prediction: First

Key Losses: Keltie Jones and Sandra Grant
Key Returnees: Jr. Sarah Dagg (16-24-40), Jr. Katie Stack (17-17-34), Jr. Traci Galbraith (6-14-20)
Newcomers to watch: Kim Schlattman, Kayla Ross, Danielle Read

Elmira College Soaring Eagles

Coach: Greg Fargo (24-5-1, 2nd season)
Last year’s record: 24-5-1
ECAC West Record: 16-1-1 (1st)
Coaches’ Projection: Second
My Prediction: Second

Key Losses: Kayla Coady and Allison Cubberley
Key Returnees: Sr. Jenna McCall (19-26-45), Sr. Jamie Kivi (5-22-27), Sr. Lauryn DePaul (16-6-22), Sr. Tiffany Hart (5-15-20)
Newcomers to watch: Madison Johnston — Toronto Aeros, Caitlin Metcalf — Calgary Edge, Jill DeBus — Detroit Little Ceasars

Plattsburgh Cardinals

Coach: Kevin Houle (143-24-9, 7th season)
Last year’s record: 22-5-2
ECAC West Record: 15-3-0
Coaches’ Projection: Third
My Prediction: Third

Key Losses: Danielle Blanchard, Claire O’Connor, Ainsley Brien, Danielle Beattie
Key Returnees: Sr. Stephanie Moberg (18-21-39), Sr. Laurie Bowler (14-13-27), So. Kara Buehler (1-5-6)
Newcomers to watch: Teal Gove, Jordan Caldwell, Erika Pomponio

Neumann Knights

Coach: Matthew Kennedy (57-55-7, 6th season)
Last year’s record: 16-11-0
ECAC West Record: 12-6-0
Coaches’ Projection: Fourth
My Prediction: Fourth

Key Losses: Janelle Marier and Robyn Armstrong
Key Returnees: Jr. Jessica Schroeder (13-22-35), So. Jasper Thomson (14-19-33), So. Nicole Alexopoulos (16-10-26), So. Kayla Dubowski (4-22-26)
Newcomers to watch: Tanya Lamon, Olivia Pryzbylkowski, Shannon Donnelly

Utica Pioneers

Coach: Dave Clausen (121-77-13, 9th season)
Last year’s record: 14-10-2
ECAC West Record: 10-7-1
Coaches’ Projection: Fifth
My Prediction: Fifth

Key Losses: Jess Leclerc and Sam Rowan
Key Returnees: Jr. Lynny Gonzales (8-17-25), Sr. Jill Doherty (9-4-1, 1.64 GGA), So. Mackenzie Roy (4-12-16)
Newcomers to watch: Meghan McMahon and Carmen Johnson

Oswego Lakers

Coach: Diane Dillon (24-44-5, 4th season)
Last year’s record: 8-16-1
ECAC West Record: 5-12-1
Coaches’ Projection: Sixth
My Prediction: Sixth

Key Losses: Stephanie Esposito, Jessica Lister, Ashley Meyers
Key Returnees: Jr. Emi Williams (6-11-0, 2.82 GGA), Sr. Angie Friesen (4-3-7), So. Kathryn Sbrocchi (2-3-0), Sr. Jenna Kirkwood (4-5-9), So. Jillian Bergeron (3-6-9)
Newcomers to watch: Bryanna Forrest, Becky Carra, Alex Szypryt, and Kristin Metzger

Chatham Cougars

Coach: Phoebe Manchester (5-41-1, 3rd season)
Last year’s record: 4-19-1
ECAC West Record: 4-14-0
Coaches’ Projection: Seventh
My Prediction: Seventh

Key Loss: Jacquelin Regan
Key Returnees: So. Lauren Campbell (8-4-12), So. Dawson Bancroft-Short (6-8-14), So. Leah McNaughton (9-6-15), So. Ashley Reid (2-5-7)
Newcomers to watch: Ashley Kuechle and Jessica Rattle

Potsdam Bears

Coach: Jay Green (4-17-2, 2nd season)
Last year’s record: 4-17-2
ECAC West Record: 3-13-2
Coaches’ Projection: Eighth
My Prediction: Eighth

Key Losses: None
Key Returnees: Sr. Hilary Hitchman (4-16-2, 3.71 GGA), So. Stephanie Simons (4-7-11), So. Breanna Roy (6-10-16)
Newcomers to watch: Katie Komsa, Brittany Westlake, and Jen Conophy

Buffalo State Bengals

Coach: Robert Burke (16-45-8, 4th season)
Last year’s record: 2-18-4
ECAC West Record: 2-12-4
Coaches’ Projection: Tenth
My Prediction: Ninth

Key Loss: Melissa Jeckovich
Key Returnees: Jr. Marissa McMullan (7-5-12), Sr. Casey Bull (3-3-6), So. Bri Murphy (5-3-8), So. Leah Knott (2-6-8)
Newcomers to watch: Lauren Mallo – Fraser Valley Phantom, Kailyn Murray – Warner Hockey School, Rio Flynn – Appleby College (ON)

Cortland Red Dragons

Coach: Earl Utter (9-37-6, 3rd season)
Last year’s record: 3-19-3
ECAC West Record: 2-14-2
Coaches’ Projection: Ninth
My Prediction: Tenth

Key Losses: Maggie Welker and Kalee Stoever
Key Returnees: Sr. Nicole Ruddy (3-2-5), So. Katie Double (2.92 GGA, .923 Save %), So. Danielle Scharf (1-3-4)
Newcomers to watch: (F) Maggie Giamo, (F) Taylor Puckhaber, (D) Jamie Kruczek

Conference Breakdown:

When it comes to the ECAC West, you usually always immediately think the power trio of Elmira, Plattsburgh, and R.I.T. Once again, these three programs are at the top of the league’s pre-season rankings and are the odds on favorites to
win the conference crown.

However, the gap between this trio and the rest of the conference is slowly starting to close. All three teams sustained significant losses from last year’s squads including names like Kayla Coady, Danielle Blanchard, Allison Cubberley, Danielle Beattie, Sandra Grant, and Erica Owczarczak. All three teams will need contributions from their freshmen classes as well as players that haven’t been counted on before as much, to become “go to” players.

Enter the Neumann Knights. Neumann is my dark horse pick this year in the conference. The Knights return nearly all of their core from last year’s squad and started the season off with an impressive two game sweep of Adrian. I fully expect Neumann to challenge the powerhouse trio and probably even steal a few points.

Utica rounds out the top half of the league and they should safely finish in the top five and could challenge Neumann if they find their scoring touch that went M.I.A. last season.

The battle for sixth place will likely be an all out war once again this season. Oswego State finished sixth last season and I’d put them as the early favorites to garner the last playoff spot but Potsdam, Chatham, Buffalo State, and Cortland are right there and could just as easily take the last spot as well.

Buckle your seat belts folks; a new hockey season is here!

This Week in the CHA: Nov. 5, 2009

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Every year when CHA coaches are asked about their nonconference schedules, they all usually say something along the lines of “in college hockey, anyone can win on any given night.”

Last Friday night, Robert Morris opened its home schedule against No. 18 Quinnipiac and was soundly defeated, 5-0.

Sure, on paper, that looked about right.

The next night, however, RMU busted an eight-spot on Quinnipiac (four from Nathan Longpre) and took an 8-5 win.

Robert Morris forward Chris Kushneriuk had a goal and three assists last Saturday (photo: Robert Morris Athletics).

Robert Morris forward Chris Kushneriuk had a goal and three assists last Saturday (photo: Robert Morris Athletics).

“Last night, we got beat pretty bad, and we didn’t want to come out tonight again like that — we wanted to send a message to them,” Longpre told USCHO after the game. “I just kept it simple and kept firing the puck on net.”

The four goals, along with Eric Levine’s 58 saves in net, are a new school record. Longpre tacked on an assist for a five-point night.

Still, RMU coach Derek Schooley wasn’t totally ready to give his team full marks on the win. In fact, being that the game was played Halloween night, it only made sense the one word he used to describe the game.

“Scary,” quipped Schooley in the same USCHO recap. “We gave up way too many shots and we took way too many penalties, but we played hard, and the things we talked about before the game were the things we did well tonight.”

J.C. Velasquez scored twice, Chris Kushneriuk added a goal and three assists and Ron Cramer notched the other Colonials’ goal. Cullen Lundholm recorded three assists to boot.

“What an up-and-down weekend,” noted Schooley. “We played soft, scared and lost all the 1-on-1 battles on Friday only to do the complete opposite on Saturday. We got great performances from Nathan Longpre and Eric Levine, but also got a great team effort. Dave Cowan and Brock Meadows were excellent in killing five Quinnipiac power plays in the second period Saturday.”

This weekend gets no easier as RMU travels to Bemidji State to open CHA play with the 11th-ranked Beavers, undefeated so far this season with a 5-0-1 record.

“Bemidji has been on a roll again this year,” Schooley said. “They have built on the excitement of going to the Frozen Four by starting out very strong. They play hard, fast and are very good defensively. Tom Serratore has them playing their systems very well and they have got huge starts from Matt Read, Brad Hunt and Dan Bakala. This will be an exciting challenge in a good hockey environment.”

BSU Squeaks Out Two Wins in Huntsville

One heartbreaking loss is difficult enough, but two in the same weekend? By the same score? Against a nationally-ranked team? Both in overtime?

Bemidji State's Dan Bakala comes up with a toe save on Alabama-Huntsville's Kevin Morrison last Sunday (photo: Doug Eagan).

Bemidji State’s Dan Bakala comes up with a toe save on Alabama-Huntsville’s Kevin Morrison last Sunday (photo: Doug Eagan).

Yeah, that pretty much sums up Alabama-Huntsville’s two-game set with Bemidji State last weekend as the Beavers won both by a 2-1 count in the extra session.

Saturday night, Read was the hero with both goals and Bakala stopped 29 shots, only allowing Neil Ruffini’s goal early in the third period.

Jordan George assisted on both goals for BSU.

“It was kind of ugly, but we won’t apologize for it,” Bemidji State coach Tom Serratore said after the game. “You’ve got to win games like this and I am glad we found a way to win, but we’ve got to be better than this.”

Cameron Talbot kicked out 20 shots for UAH.

Then Sunday afternoon, same old story.

Ben Kinne won it 61 seconds into the OT with a slapper over Talbot’s shoulder.

Read had tied the game for Bemidji State with a slick move in tight on Talbot midway through the third.

For the Chargers, Kevin Morrison scored and Talbot finished with 20 saves once again.

UAH is idle this weekend.

Niagara Falls To Cornell, Colgate

New York’s non-CHA teams have not been kind to Niagara so far this season.

After getting dumped by Clarkson and St. Lawrence three weeks ago, NU hit the road to No. 6 Cornell and Colgate last weekend and dropped two more.

Friday night at Cornell, Jason Beattie scored his first NCAA goal and Egor Mironov sent the game to overtime, but Joe Devin put NU away in the overtime effort to waste a season-high 38-save effort from Adam Avramenko.

“It was another gritty and gutsy effort by our team on the road in a tough place to play,” NU coach Dave Burkholder said. “We stuck to it and nearly pulled it out near the end, but we just couldn’t put it away.”

The next evening, the Purple Eagles let a second-period lead slip away and Colgate roared back to take a 4-2 victory.

Brothers Marc and Paul Zanette were the goal-scorers for NU and freshman goalie Andrew Hare made 28 saves in his collegiate debut.

“I think this road trip is catching up to us,” said Burkholder. “We play this tough schedule to get us ready for March. We have to stay positive, take things from today’s game and move on.”

This weekend, NU plays a staggered home-and-home with 19th-ranked Massachusetts starting Friday night on the road.

Sunday afternoon’s home game is being billed as “Program Pioneer Day,” where the 1999-2000 team, including the school’s first senior class, will celebrate its tenth anniversary.

Beavers’ Recruits Keep Rolling In

Bemidji State got two commitments this week — one from the North American Hockey League and one from the United States Hockey League.

Wenatchee Wild forward Jeff Jubinville and Tri-City Storm forward Radoslav Illo announced their intentions to suit up with the Baevers next season.

Jubinville, a 20-year-old from Edmonton, Alberta, leads the Wild in scoring with 10 goals and 23 points (fifth in the NAHL) through 23 games.

“I’m excited to get the opportunity to play for such a great college hockey program,” Jubinville. “I’m looking forward to spending four years there.”

Jubinville played the previous two seasons for the St. Albert Steel of the Alberta Junior League. Last year, he recorded 19 goals among 54 points in 61 games.

“Jeff has proven to be a dynamic offensive threat, as well as being very responsible defensively,” said Wild head coach Paul Baxter.  “He’s also provided us with great leadership.”

Jubinville becomes the sixth Wild player on this year’s roster to commit to a Division I school — the most of any team in the NAHL — and will join former Wild goaltender Mathieu Dugas at BSU.

Illo, a 19-year-old native of Bystrica, Slovakia, currently leads the Storm with six goals, which also ranks tied for third in the USHL. Last season, he led the Storm with 21 goals and ranked second on the club with 33 points.  

Illo is one of 13 NHL Draft selections playing in the USHL this season after he was picked by the Anaheim Ducks in the fifth round (136th overall) this past June.

“First of all, it’s a beautiful campus on a lake and a small college that makes me feel close to everyone,” Illo said on his decision. “Bemidji is a solid program and I’m looking forward to attending school there.

“After visiting the campus, I was thrilled that I will be playing hockey at Bemidji. I’m now able to focus on the team (the Storm) and the task at hand with this commitment behind me.”

Current USHL player Mitch Cain of the Des Moines Buccaneers is also committed to Bemidji State.

Seven members of the Beavers this season are former USHL players: Jake Areshenko (Fargo Force), Ryan Cramer (Waterloo Black Hawks), Kyle Hardwick (Lincoln Stars), Kinne (Sioux City Musketeers), Tyler Lehrke (Green Bay Gamblers), Chris Peluso (Sioux Falls Stampede) and Read (Des Moines).

This Week in ECAC Hockey: Nov. 5, 2009

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Boy, oh boy, it’s that time again … every team’s in the game, and every game’s a big one! Harvard kicked off the 2009-10 ECAC Hockey season with a statement win in Hanover, N.H., but there were plenty of other ECAC domestic disputes this weekend as well. Lots to look at, so let’s get down to business.

Yale Throttles Princeton in the Third

In the weekend’s most potent pairing, the visiting Bulldogs popped four third-period goals past Princeton goalie Zane Kalemba to rally for a 5-2 win at Hobey Baker Rink. That marked the second time in three games (dating back to last year’s NCAA tournament loss) that Kalemba surrendered five goals in a game; after that, you have to go all the way back to late December 2007 to find an outing of equal ignominy (a six-goal defeat at the hands of Minnesota State).

Junior Ryan Rondeau earned the 40-save victory for the Bulldogs, who are seeking a new No. 1 with the departure of Alec Richards.

Of the game’s seven goals, only one — to open the scoring — was earned during five-on-five play: three goals were scored on the power play, the eventual game-winner was scored short-handed, another came during a four-on-four play, and the evening’s final tally was buried into an empty net.

Harvard Upends Dartmouth With Wisdom, Youth

The Crimson kicked off its season-opening five-game road trip in style, toppling Dartmouth with a strong game from junior goalie Kyle Richter and balanced scoring from a young offensive corps.

“I think [the win] is important. We’re a young team, still trying to find our way,” said coach Ted Donato. “We had a little bit of an issue last year with winning on the road (0-7-5), so I think that it was important to get off to a good start and be a good team on the road. Let’s face it, our schedule is very difficult with five road games out of the gate, so it’s important to get off on the right foot.”

Richter, coming back after a year away from Cambridge, allowed a goal on only five shots in the first period, but bounced right back with 21 stops on 21 shots in the second frame.

“I thought Kyle played very well,” said Donato. “There were times when he handled some flurries very well; he looked composed and really gave our team a big boost at times. For a guy that’s been off for a year to kind of get thrown in the fire and have some real tense moments as well, I think there’s a lot of positives to come out of that.”

The Crimson posted five consecutive goals after trailing 1-0 at the first intermission, and a half-dozen different players had multi-point games — four of them underclassmen.

“As I went over the lineup the other night after the game, I think we dressed up front one senior forward, one junior forward, and [six] freshmen and [four] sophomores,” Donato said. “I think the kids played very well. Alex Killorn was exceptional, Louis Leblanc, Michael Biega — I thought we had a lot of guys that played very well, and we’re going to need that. I think we have a little more offensive depth than maybe we’ve had over the last couple years, and I think it’s important that we have different guys step up on different nights.”

Up next for the Bay State Ivy, the offensively awakening Colgate Raiders and archrival (and fifth-ranked) Cornell.

“We’ve got a real tough weekend: we’re playing a team that will be playing its eighth game, and a team that’s ranked in the top 10 in the country. It doesn’t get any easier for us, but I think it was a good start and we learned some things about our team.”

Bobcats Drop a Wild One

When was the last time a team logged 63 shots and lost?

Last weekend.

Quinnipiac pounded Robert Morris goaltender Eric Levine with 32 shots in the second period alone … and earned The Big Nada on the scoreboard for its troubles. In fact, the Colonials scored three second-period goals, despite being outshot 32-9.

RMU junior Nathan Longpre scored a school-record four goals (plus an assist, for good measure), and QU simply couldn’t break Levine and what was a thoroughly exhausted Robert Morris penalty-killing unit (3-for-10 on the advantage).

On the bright side, how often can a team possibly lose when asserting such dominance? Senior Eric Lampe and sophomore Scott Zurevinski have each scored four goals through five games, and offensive linchpin Brandon Wong has already accumulated nine points.

For the record, QU topped RMU 5-0 the previous evening, and more than doubled the Colonials in shots, 42-20.

Raiders Recall That Special Feeling

It’s been a while since Colgate scored four goals on consecutive nights, but it finally accomplished that feat once more last weekend.

For the first time since Oct. 17 and 24, 2008, the Raiders topped the trifecta in back-to-back games; this was the first time that they’d done so in a weekend since mid-February 2008.

The production was borne of a determined attack that resulted in a 74-45 shot advantage over Army and Niagara, including two 17-shot periods: the second against Army, and the third versus the Purple Eagles of NU.

As the Raiders heat up, look out for Austin Smith: The wily sophomore has four goals already, including both of his team’s game-winning goals thus far.

Don’t Call it a Letdown in Troy

While the Rensselaer Engineers notched a big come-from-behind win at neighboring Union College Friday night, many saw the ‘Tute’s home loss Saturday as a classic trap-game loss.

Coach Seth Appert disagrees.

“That game is a setup game, where you’re playing a big rival Friday. You win, it’s emotional, and then you’re playing against one of the toughest, most competitive teams in the country the next night,” he allowed, but continued, “I don’t think we were as good in the third period against Army as we wanted to be, but at the same time we may have overextended ourselves and had a little immaturity with [players] taking too long a shift in the first and second to try to create offense.”

“I think our [fatigue] in the third wasn’t so much due to lack of conditioning … we played so hard in the first two periods that we had the puck for a dramatic amount of time, and I think some of our forwards — especially some of our younger forwards — started overextending their shifts, and staying out for 50, 60 seconds, even 70 seconds sometimes to create offense because we had the puck in their zone. I know that tired us out a little bit in the third.

“I was impressed with our team, in how we prepared, how we came out, how good we were for the first 40 minutes. In the third, we made some mistakes. We certainly weren’t as good as I wanted us to be, but still at the end of the day we outshot them 14-7 in the third period. Sometimes you’ve got to tip your cap to your opponent, and certainly your opponent’s goaltender, but I thought our approach and our mind-set for that game was perfect.”

Whereas the Army contest featured a low-scoring total despite a number of shots (40 for RPI, 16 for the Cadets), Union was almost the exact opposite with seven combined goals on only 46 total shots.

“It’s weird, in the Union game, that as limited as the shot numbers were, the shot quality was high for both teams,” mused the coach. “It wasn’t one of those games where the score is 4-3 because the goalies were poor. I think the shot numbers were down because both teams played so hard. The game was physical, there were a lot of blocked shots for both teams, and so it wasn’t easy to penetrate and create that offense.”

Appert isn’t sweating young Bryce Merriam’s low save percentage against Army, either.

“He’s a freshman. He’s played two games, and given up four goals. I think that their winning goal is probably a goal that he’d like to have back, but at the same time, if Bryce can go through his career giving up two goals a game, we’re going to win a lot of hockey games. He still has a lot of things to work on, but we’re going to keep working on those things. At the end of the day, if your goaltender only gives up two goals — no matter how many shots they have — he’s giving you a good chance to win that game.”

Third-year striker Chase Polacek is right back where he belongs, atop the league scoring list with five goals and eight points in eight games played. Polacek accumulated three goals and an assist this weekend alone, and is getting a great jump on his career-best 11-21-32 line from last year.

“He is just strong as an ox on the puck. When he’s playing a really aggressive, attacking style, he certainly has a chance to be one of the premier players in our league,” Appert said.

North Country Notes

St. Lawrence is beginning to look an awful lot like … well, St. Lawrence, all of a sudden.

Sophomore defender Peter Child already has seven points in seven games, while senior blueliner Derek Keller has six. The Saints are designed to generate offense from their defense; if these fellas can keep up the pace, the drop-off from last year’s class will be of negligible concern.

Clarkson, on the other hand, is having some troubles. First and foremost, the Golden Knights are taking over 20 minutes of penalties a game. Combined with a soft 78 percent penalty-killing success rate, the Potsdam posse is giving up a miserable 3.57 goals a game so far, and are being out-scored 12-3 in the third period.

Quick Kudos

I haven’t done enough digging to develop a comprehensive perspective on this, but in looking at last year’s final attendance figures, I figured congratulations — and thanks — were in order for quite a few of ECAC Hockey’s members and their fans.

For starters, Dartmouth (4,203) and Cornell (4,191) ranked inside the top 20 for average attendance per game, beating Frozen Four finalist Vermont. Rensselaer (3,534) edged national runner-up Miami.

Who would’ve imagined, five years ago, that Yale would round out the top four in the league in attendance? It happened last year, as the Bulldogs, Quinnipiac and Clarkson all outdrew Notre Dame, which was a top-10 team all season long.

The remaining half of the league finished between 34th (Harvard) and 50th (Brown) nationally, but I’ll spare them the individual embarrassment of being called out in print.

Readers’ Poll

Not surprisingly, the Atlantic City poll generated a lot of feedback and a good number of votes. The most popular take on the matter by far would result in no change to Albany’s current situation: 21 of 49 respondents reported that they’ll go to A.C. if their program makes it that far, which is the same approach they’ve taken thus far vis-a-vis Albany.

More viewed the change in an unfavorable light than in an optimistic one, with 16 voters stating that they’re less likely to attend this year than in years past, but a half-dozen readers reported that the Jersey Shores will be an improvement.

Sadly, not a single person responded to the first option on the poll: that they will attend every year henceforth, because they always have.

On the second poll, most voters seemed to play the odds and picked the first option: an Ivy League team is likely to remain undefeated in ECAC Hockey play longer than any of the other options hold true.

The second most popular option was one that the team in question can control, in that Clarkson will maintain a 30 shot-per-game average. Unfortunately, the Knights only took 39 shots all weekend at Minnesota-Duluth. Also taking an immediate tumble was RPI’s home unbeaten streak, which Army promptly negated Saturday night.

Finally, it seems no one has much faith in Union or Quinnipiac. Consider it bulletin-board material, all ye Dutchmen and Bobcats.

This week, let’s address another dated yet still current issue: the shootout. I’m a moderate conservative when it comes to hockey — I like my nets four-by-six, my offsides whistled, and my hockey played to a decision. I think that in a team sport, the teams should determine the outcome … not single individuals representing the team.

But what do you think? The CCHA has implemented shootouts to decide league contests, as have multiple D-I women’s leagues. The NHL uses them, obviously, and as much as I hate to admit it, they do generate a thrill. Should the NCAA/ECAC Hockey adopt this recent gimmick too? Let’s hear it; vote here and be heard.

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