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2009-10 Minnesota-Duluth Season Preview

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Last year was quite the wild ride for Minnesota-Duluth. The Bulldogs struggled early, picked it up around the holidays before going on a skid to end the season 0-3-2. That late skid dropped them to seventh in the league, but as soon as they hit the playoffs, they found the fire.

First they swept Colorado College on the road to advance to St. Paul.

Then they took out Minnesota, North Dakota and Denver to become the first team to win three straight games at the Final Five to take home the Broadmoor Trophy and catapult themselves into the NCAA tournament.

Once in the tournament, their luck continued. They took on the ECAC’s best goaltender on in Princeton’s Zane Kalemba and bested him, winning 5-4 in overtime. However, they couldn’t keep their magic going to get them to Washington, D.C., as the eventual national runner-up Miami edged them out of the playoffs 2-1.

With all of that, why aren’t the Bulldogs picked to finish in the top half of the league? Simple. When you lose nine players, seven of them seniors and one of them your goaltender, you end up having a few questions entering the next season.

“I think there’s a lot of uncertainties when you kind of lose half your team [and] obviously, three key guys, including probably our best player in [goalie] Alex Stalock,” said coach Scott Sandelin. “Obviously we’ve got some holes to fill and certainly it starts in goal.”

If Duluth can fill its holes, it might end up coming close to what itdid last season. If not, the Bulldogs might be in for a long season.

Up Front

Offensively, the Bulldogs had a lot of questions last season, given that their then-leading scorer, MacGregor Sharp, only had 17 points. Sharp and the Bulldogs answered that one with a vengeance, with Sharp scoring 50 points and two more players with point totals in the 40s.

UMD lost Sharp to graduation, as well as supporting players Andrew Carroll, Michael Gergen and Nick Kemp.

On the plus side, the Bulldogs still have those two 40-point guys in junior Justin Fontaine and sophomore Mike Connolly. Fellow, unrelated sophomore Jack Connolly was just under the 30-point mark. If all three guys can have big seasons again, that will help the Bulldogs tremendously. Getting more scoring from seniors Drew Akins and Jordan Fulton should also help.

If all else fails, Sandelin has four freshmen forwards he can try plugging in and seeing how they’ll perform.

“We’ve added some skill and speed and I think the style that we can play this year might be a little bit different than last year,” Sandelin said.

On the Blue Line

Duluth lost three big defensemen over the offseason. Josh Meyers, a defensive presence who could also put the puck in the net as well as steady defenseman Jay Cascalenda graduated and would-be junior Evan Oberg, just behind Meyers in point production, chose to leave early.

As a result, the Bulldogs are going to have a steep learning curve when it comes to their back line.

“We’re very young on the blue line,” Sandelin said. “I think it’s going to be a work in progress.”

One of those works in progress is freshman Dylan Olsen.

“He’s a 6-3 defenseman that can bring a physical presence, I think he’s got tremendous hockey sense and he’s got good hands,” said Sandelin. “I don’t think he looks like a freshman … but he’s going to be an ace addition.”

In the Crease

As mentioned previously, the Bulldogs lost their workhorse in Stalock, as he chose to leave Duluth early. That choice leaves Sandelin with one of three options: sophomore Brady Hjelle, who has the early nod, sophomore Kenny Reiter or freshman Aaron Crandall.

“That’s going to be a battle there,” said Sandelin.

2009-10 Michigan State Season Preview

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If you love Spartan hockey, here are three words for you to embrace for the upcoming season: bigger, stronger, older.

Last year’s tender young Michigan State team, picked third by the media and fifth by the coaches in the 2008-09 preseason CCHA polls, finished tied for 10th place with Lake Superior State at the end of the season, victimized by so many unforeseeable events — including more than half a dozen shoulder injuries — that by the end of the season, all anyone associated with Spartan hockey could do was shake it off and look to a new year.

While senior goaltender Jeff Lerg proved once and for all that he was for real, playing terrific hockey without a terrific team in front of him, the rest of the team struggled to remain healthy, struggled to find chemistry with an ever-changing lineup and struggled especially to score goals. MSU managed to average 1.63 goals per game, tied for 57th nationally in scoring offense. And lest you’ve forgotten, there are 58 Division I men’s ice hockey teams.

“Goal scoring was a major problem last year … and I still think it will be a challenge,” said Rick Comley, who practically had to take out classified ads to find enough healthy bodies to dress for games last year. “I think for sure we’re a better team. We’re bigger, stronger, we’re older. I think that will benefit our entire game.

“Who will score and who will lead that area, I think that’s difficult to say right now. I expect players like Leveille and all those young kids who were really thrown to the wolves last year with the early signings and the injuries and the suspensions and those variables … they’ll benefit from the ice time that they had.”

Sophomore Daultan Leveille is MSU’s top returning scorer without having totaled 20 points last season. After Leveille, only two other returning players — juniors Dustin Gazley and Andrew Rowe — netted more than five goals, and they scored 13 between them.

Given the bench-shortening circumstances of last year’s Spartan season, it’s no surprise that MSU will turn to rookies to produce goals. And play defense. And special teams.

“I like our freshman class,” said Comley. “There are nine of them, and I expect them all to play. They’re an older, bigger, stronger group.”

Older. Bigger. Stronger. And hopefully less fragile.

One big boost for the Spartans is the return of Nick Sucharski, a medical redshirt last season. He was out with one of those shoulder injuries.

“Sucharski returning as a fifth-year senior is a big, big plus for us as far as maturity, ability to win faceoffs,” said Comley. “He’s been through it, played on a national championship team, so there’s tremendous benefits.”

Another bright spot for the Spartans is sophomore goaltender Drew Palmisano, who looked promising the few times he played behind Lerg last year. “We brought him in a year early to work with Jeff Lerg and I think he really benefitted from that,” said Comley.

Like every coach, Comley is optimistic about the start of a new season. “Hockey is that one sport where you can improve a tremendous amount in one year.”

Not as catchy as “bigger, stronger, older,” but certainly a philosophy that Spartan fans can hope to embrace this year.

2009-10 Bowling Green Season Preview

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Can the Bowling Green Falcons finally take a breath? And will the revolving door of assistants finally stop spinning?

After rumors about the potential demise of the BGSU program were leaked to the press earlier this year — former head coach Scott Paluch heard about them as he was walking into Nationwide Arena in Columbus to see a Blue Jackets game with his son — a much clearer picture of Falcon hockey emerged for fans to see.

A neglected ice system so out of date that replacement parts for it have to be made to order. Grumbling from alumni about Paluch-era hockey. A university that itself appears to be in genuine financial trouble.

Add to that an inconsistency in staffing during the last decade, and it’s no wonder that the Falcons have struggled in recent seasons. More than half a dozen coaches have come and gone at Bowling Green in the last seven years. Interim head coach Dennis Williams, a BGSU alum (1997-2001), served for one year as an assistant under Paluch before landing this gig. He’s hired two new assistants — Mike Mankowski from Canisius and Scott Stirling from Brown. There’s even a new volunteer assistant coach and video coordinator, Doug Slipacoff.

With the constantly changing coaching staff, it wouldn’t be a stretch to liken the current Falcon upperclassmen to kids from broken homes. How can anything stabilize when so few coaches have been there long enough to build anything?

At least the university has committed publicly to the hockey program, having announced in July that $2.5 million in capital improvement funds will be allotted to the Ice Arena, and in September, the university announced a major fundraising drive for hockey itself. All of this helps the hockey players “to focus on hockey and going to school,” said Williams. Until the plan to raise funds was announced, said Williams, “… there were a lot of questions from student-athletes … and rightfully so, wondering what was going on with this program.”

So now can we get back to hockey in BG?

This year’s seniors have 36 wins total in their careers, half of those coming in the 2007-08 season. To put that in perspective, the league’s top team last season, Notre Dame, had 31 wins for the year and sixth-place Northern Michigan had one more victory in 2007-08 than half of that BGSU three-year win total.

In order for the Falcons to be successful, they must have better goaltending. Junior goaltender Nick Eno played just seven games last season because of a bad ankle injury, one year after being named to the CCHA All-Rookie team. Senior Jimmy Spratt tried — and he did shut out the Wolverines in Yost — but he never measured up, ending the season with an .891 save percentage, which was actually the best of his career.

Eno and newcomer Andrew Hammond will “battle it out,” said Williams and “hopefully … make it difficult for us to pick our goalie.”

With eight overall wins in 2008-09 and a 12th-place finish, there’s nowhere for Bowling Green to go but up.

Mazzoleni Joins St. Norbert as Assistant Coach

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St. Norbert College has announced that Mark Mazzoleni will be joining the staff of head coach Tim Coghlin for the upcoming season. A Green Bay, Wis. native, Mazzoleni was a four-year letter winning goaltender at Michigan State from 1977-80.

Mazzoleni is no stranger to the Division III and the NCHA, having coached UW-Stevens Point to three consecutive national titles in 1989, 1990 and 1991. He compiled a 135-52-10 record in six seasons with the Pointers.

Following his time in Stevens Point, he served as an assistant at the University of Minnesota for three seasons before accepting the head coaching position at Miami University. He led the RedHawks to the NCAA tournament in 1997. Following his stint in Oxford, he was head man for Harvard and led the program to three consecutive NCAA births from 2002-04.

All told, he holds a 302-207-43 record as a collegiate head coach and most recently served as head coach of the Green Bay Gamblers in the United States Hockey League.

Green Knights’ head coach Tim Coghlin expects Mazzoleni’s contributions to be invaluable to the program.

“There are very few men with the knowledge he has,” said Coghlin. “He’s been coaching for 30 years and has been very successful everywhere he has been. To bring in someone with the character and experience of him is something that will contribute heavily to our program and to the experiences of the young men on our team.”

Interestingly, though Mazzoleni is now an assistant under Coghlin, it was Coghlin who was a member of Mazzoleni’s inaugural recruiting class at Stevens Point.

“Over the years we have come to know each other very well, and I think there is a lot of respect there both on a professional and a personal level. We have been in close contact going all the way back to when I played for him,” said Coghlin.

Mazzoleni is initially expected to work primarily with the goaltenders, though that certainly will not be the extent of his contributions.

“To start off he’s going to work with our goaltending situation because that’s where he has the most experience and that’s where he played,” said Coghlin. “That said, he brings so much to the table that there is no question he will certainly help this program in every way imaginable.”

The Green Knights finished last season 19-8-1 and failed to make the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2001. They open this season on October 27 with a home tilt against Lake Forest.

2009-10 Nebraska-Omaha Season Preview

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For years, college hockey fans have been hoping that Dean Blais would return to the game we love, to the game we know he loves, and we CCHA fans are the lucky ones to welcome him back.

“My best time of the day is spending that half-hour on the ice in practice,” Blais said at the league’s media day.

It is a shame on more levels than can be explained that the CCHA will count Blais as one of its own for one single season. His sincerity is charming; his ability to coach is impressive.

Blais, who has spent three of the last four years with the Columbus Blue Jackets organization and last year as head coach of the Fargo Force (USHL), compiled a record of 233-115-33 in his decade as head coach at North Dakota (1994-2004), leading the Fighting Sioux to national championships in 1997 and 2000.

With no disrespect intended to the man who built Maverick hockey, Mike Kemp, Dean Blais may be exactly what that program needs to go to the proverbial next level.

In their admittedly short history, the Mavericks have never been serious contenders for the CCHA regular-season title, finishing as high as fourth three times, but more often than not flirting the bottom of the top tier or middle of the league pack. In the last two seasons, the Mavs finished tied for seventh; when the current UNO seniors were freshmen, they finished fifth.

In his return to college hockey, Blais hopes to return to the high-flying offense he coached at North Dakota. “I don’t even care if they can’t skate as fast as maybe the players I had up in North Dakota; we’re going to play a high-energy game,” said Blais. “We’re going to try to be energetic and working hard all the way through our 120 minutes over the weekend.

“At times it happened here and at times it didn’t happen here. I’ve already had a few discussions with some of the players that wanted to go half speed, and I had to more or less convince them [that] we don’t do anything half speed. Even if you make mistakes, you do it at full speed.”

Some things have changed in Blais’ four-year hiatus from college hockey, and he admits that he himself needs to get up to speed.

“One of the things you can’t control … is the officiating,” said Blais. “I think it’s really tough to play the game sometimes that we want to play, especially in the defensive zone where your defensemen go in and contain people, and that’s tougher to do right now. I actually don’t know how you do it, so I hopefully hired the right coach in Mike Hastings to teach the defensemen some proper angles and detainment techniques.

“Back in the old days, you guys know, you had to take a real severe penalty for that second penalty. You had to chop a guy’s arm off before they’d call it. Now it’s just part of the game.”

Indeed.

UNO returns a veteran team with seven seniors, including goaltender Jeremie Dupont and underrated defenseman Eddie Del Grosso.

“Eddie Del Grosso is one of our captains. He’s a real good kid,” said Blais. “He’s got a lot of tattoos, which I’m not really used to, but it doesn’t bother me.”

It should be a very good year to watch Maverick hockey — for so many reasons.

2009-10 Merrimack Season Preview

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In coach Mark Dennehy’s four years at Merrimack, the one thing that has been certain and consistent for his team has been its improvement.

After a six-win season in 2005-06 and a three-win campaign a year later, the Warriors posted 12 wins two seasons ago and another nine last year. The nine may not have been impressive but that the team was 4-4-1 over its final nine games certainly stands out.

The constant, though, among the consistent improvement has been a lack of visits to the postseason.

Merrimack hasn’t qualified for the playoffs since 2004. It hasn’t won a playoff game since 1998 (many remember the famous upset of Boston University in the opening round, the final year for coach Ron Anderson, right?)

It might be too much to expect that the Warriors are ready for another dramatic playoff upset and a trip to the Garden, but to believe this team might be ready to take the next step and become a playoff team isn’t out of the question.

“I really like our team’s mentality even though we haven’t played a game yet,” said Dennehy. “It started at the end of last season. Our team was pretty disappointed by the outcome of their season and they used that to springboard into a good spring, our guys did a real good job over the summer and the overall mentality this fall is very focused.”

Focus is one thing, but translating that to victories is another. To do that, the Warriors will need to score more than in seasons past and hope that the strong goaltending that the club got last year from freshman Joe Cannata translates into more victories.

Cannata, according to Dennehy, isn’t the lone soldier in net. Senior Andrew Braithwaite, who two seasons ago showed flashes of brilliance but struggled through much of last year’s campaign — albeit battling injuries — will certainly see his fair share of time in goal.

“I believe we have the best goaltending tandem in the league, if not the country,” said Dennehy. “Andrew Braithwaite was hurt for a large portion of last year but he ended his sophomore year as one of the best goaltenders in the league. Then add Cannata in the mix, he played the bulk of the games down the stretch [when the team went 4-4-1], so it really starts in the net.”

Though Dennehy can be confident in net, his biggest question is scoring more goals. Only three players reached the 20-point plateau and the two who return — junior Chris Barton and sophomore Jesse Todd — will be among those looked to for increased production.

Even a slight increase in offense could make a major different for Merrimack. A year ago, the Warriors were 3-14 in one-goal games. Changing half of those losses to wins — which really comes down to a minor tipping point — would turn a 9-21-4 record into a 16-14-4 campaign. Talk about a difference.

Dennehy doesn’t want to talk too much about that, though. Unless, of course, that experience makes his team better.

“You don’t want to look back. If I hear how many one-goal games we lost … and how do you turn those one goal games into wins,” said Dennehy. “It’s impossible because those one-goal games are in the history books. We need to remember what it took to be a part of those one-goal games and then the experience of having been in them is enough to propel you into having some success.”

2009-10 Lake Superior State Season Preview

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The good news for Lake Superior State is that the Lakers return seven of eight defensemen and three of five double-digit goal scorers from a season ago. The bad news for Lake Superior State is that the Lakers return seven of eight — oh, do I really have to say it?

“We have not been real happy obviously with the last couple of seasons here,” said Lakers coach Jim Roque. “I thought a couple years back when we did get to Joe Louis we were turning a corner. I think we’ve kind of underachieved the last couple of seasons. We’ve had to look hard at everything we’ve done here the last couple of years here over the summer, where we can change and get better.”

With 110 goals for and 115 against last season, the Lake Superior State Lakers were capable of finding the net … and of offering up opponent opportunities in nearly equal — sometimes spectacular — measure. The Lakers were utterly inconsistent, trading lopsided wins and losses with opponents in a single weekend yet recording eight ties for the year and a 1-12-0 record in games decided by a goal.

A 10th-place finish last season, tied for ninth in 2007-08 — and Roque said that he need look no further than himself for the reasons.

“I think if anything, we’re a little disappointed in how maybe we’ve gotten a little bit passive the last two years with our game, and I think right now we’re looking to going back to more of how we played a couple years back — a little more aggressive, a little more of in-your-face hockey,” Roque said. “I thought maybe we got a little too conservative the last two seasons.

“I wouldn’t blame that on the players. That’s obviously a coaching decision; you want to be more conservative or you’re trying to win games with a little different style and that’s something that I’ve reevaluated this season and trying to get our guys to go again.”

As the Lakers lost three of their top five goal scorers from a year ago, some of those guys are going to have to get going, in a hurry. Only senior Zac MacVoy and sophomore Fred Cassiani return from 10-plus goal seasons, although juniors Rick Schofield, Will Acton and Chad Nehring could perform this year.

“I think we’re okay at the top,” said Roque, “but we need a middle group core of guys — the Aubrys, the Scrymgeours, the Nehrings, the Hobbins, the Brad Coopers — guys that I think are good enough but need to take another step to really help our team move up in the standings and prove the coaches and media wrong.”

That would be the Pat Aubrys, John Scrymgeours, and Tyson Hobbins (Hobbinses?) that need to improve, plurally.

One area that seems pretty solid for Lake Superior is goaltending. Junior Brian Mahoney-Wilson and senior Pat Inglis split time in the Laker net last year, giving the team a combined .909 save percentage. Yes, the Mahoney-Wilsons and Inglises seem perfectly capable of contributing to the Laker objective of disproving the theory that LSSU will finish no higher than 10th, as predicted by the CCHA media and coaches in the preseason.

“I have no issues with the poll,” said Roque. “I think [10th is] where we belong right now. It’s based on what we’ve done the last couple of seasons and it’s certainly up to us to prove people wrong.

“Like every team, we have very high hopes to start the season.”

That’s hopes with an “s” — completely and perfectly plural when the season is entirely potential.

Westfield Taps Miele As New Head Coach

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Westfield State recently announced the hiring of Bob Miele as the new head coach of it’s men’s hockey program. Miele served as an assistant with the college for the past two seasons and replaces former head coach Jerry Keefe who earlier this off-season accepted a position as an assistant with Division I Brown University. He will also serve as Westfield’s manger of athletic facilities.

“This is a great opportunity for me and I am going to make the most of it,” said Miele in an official school release. “I’ve worked with these guys for nearly two years and I am honored to be their coach. My main goal is to keep the program moving.”

Miele, a 2002 graduate, played collegiate hockey at Amherst (NESCAC). He was named ECAC East/NESCAC Rookie of the Year in 1999 and led the Lord Jeffs in points as a sophomore. He played 105 games in his career, tallying 50 goals and 55 assists.

“Bob has an outstanding hockey pedigree and brings continuity, integrity, a strong worth ethic, and the desire to lead our program,” said Westfield’s athletic director Richard Lenfest.

Westfield begins play in the newly-formed MASCAC this season after finishing with a 11-9-4 record as a member of the ECAC Northeast a year ago. It was the Owls’ first season of varsity hockey in 20 years.

2009-10 CCHA Season Preview

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The 2009-2010 CCHA: The Direction of Change

“The moment of change,” said poet Adrienne Rich, “is the only poem.” If there’s even the smallest grain of truth in Rich’s statement, then CCHA fans are in for plenty of poetry in the coming months.

Bowling Green has a new head coach. Nebraska-Omaha has a new head coach. Nebraska-Omaha is leaving for the WCHA at the start of the 2010-11 season. The CCHA rejected Alabama-Huntsville’s membership application, guaranteeing that the league membership will fall to 11 teams next season if nothing there changes. The CCHA is awarding three points for every game.

Five changes, five poems. Funny, but all that poetry feels like uncertainty to me — or dizzying chaos. So let’s focus on the comforting consistency of the magic number three: for the third consecutive season, a CCHA team has ended its campaign playing for the NCAA championship.

Miami ran through a pair of WCHA teams in WCHA territory en route to an NCAA regional championship last season (photo: Jim Rosvold).

Miami ran through a pair of WCHA teams in WCHA territory en route to an NCAA regional championship last season (photo: Jim Rosvold).

Congratulations to the Miami RedHawks on their incredible ride to the 2009 title game. While every CCHA fan would like to forget the last minute of regulation play — and every bit of overtime — in that 4-3 loss to Boston University, every fan of CCHA hockey has to be thrilled with having watched three teams from three different programs play for a title in three years. That the programs represented three different CCHA states is a delightful bonus.

“We expect several of our teams to be national powers this season,” league commissioner Tom Anastos said at this year’s media day. “We’re very excited about the depth of our league.”

Said Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson, “There are probably five or six teams for sure that could potentially win the conference and go on to the NCAA tournament.”

Six teams that could make the NCAA tournament come easily to mind — a full half the league’s participants.

Small Change

The media and coaches were fairly evenly split about who would take the conference, but the preseason pick came down to two teams: Michigan and Notre Dame. Rounding out the top three vote-getters was Miami, followed by Ohio State and Northern Michigan — all familiar names in a pretty predictable pattern.

Changing Tunes

As happy as most college hockey fans are to have Dean Blais back, losing the program he’ll be coaching to the WCHA in 2010-11 is a big blow to the league. The cynic in me wonders if his hiring wasn’t the deciding factor in the Mavericks’ decision to jump to a league that once wanted nothing to do with them. Blais was head coach at North Dakota from 1994 to 2004, where he won two national championships.

And as happy as most of us are to have Blais coaching college hockey again — which is exactly where he belongs — it’s hard to say goodbye to Mike Kemp, the man who built UNO hockey and a real class act.

The league lost another class act in Scott Paluch, the beleaguered Bowling Green head coach who left coaching altogether to be a regional manager of USA Hockey’s American Development Model. Paluch — or “Pooch,” as he is known to many — just never seemed to have an easy time of it in BG, and given what we know now about the financial instability of the program, perhaps his critics will have a better understanding of what he was up against.

Dennis Williams will serve as interim head coach for the Falcons this season. Williams, who served as a BG assistant coach last season, was head coach at Neumann College from 2004 to 2007, and served as an assistant in Huntsville for a year before returning to his Bowling Green, his alma mater (1997-2001).

The Point of Change

Or rather, changes in the way points awarded.

No, CCHA fans, the league didn’t vote in the offseason to dump the shootout, alas. But the CCHA has — much to its credit — revisited the way points are awarded given that the shootout is here to stay.

Each game will now be worth three points. When a team wins outright in regulation or overtime, it will earn three points. If a game goes to a shootout after an overtime tie, the team winning the shootout will get two points; the team losing the shootout will earn one point.

“I think it is a more fair system,” Anastos said. “We talked about it two years ago before we implemented the shootout, but last year we had some really meaningful data that we could extrapolate to from the current system into the new three-point system.”

Short Changed?

Will Alabama-Huntsville be admitted to the CCHA after having been rejected by the league in the offseason? Well, we don’t have to think about that right now, do we?

Unless You’re the Lead Dog…

… the view never changes much. What an exciting season it would be if that view were to change for one or more of the teams that has spent a good part of this decade mired in the bottom half of league standings. Falcons, Lakers, Broncos — are you listening?

The More Things Change, the More They — Well, You Know the Rest

The changes to the CCHA are immediate as well as inevitable, and they may map what’s in store for the future of college hockey. “There is nothing wrong with change,” said Winston Churchill, “if it is in the right direction.”

What direction the CCHA’s changes will take remains to be seen for the 2009-10 season and beyond, but in the meantime, there’s a good deal of hockey to be played.

Here’s a look at each team in the order in which I’ve predicted them to finish, and let me give a disclaimer here right at the start: I expect the difference in points between teams in the middle of the pack — traditionally from Nos. 5 through 10 — to be very, very small. As we’ve seen in recent years, the CCHA’s midsection has often provided the most interesting, season-ending storylines. It’s just tough to pick this league, and no one has any idea of how the new points system is going to affect the mix.

Individual team previews can be accessed by clicking on each team’s name. Whatever you do, don’t take these picks to the bank.

1. Notre Dame

Head coach: Jeff Jackson, fifth season
2008-09 record: 31-6-3, 21-4-3-3 CCHA
2008-09 CCHA finish: first
2008-09 season ender: 5-1 loss to Bemidji State, Midwest Regional semifinal
2009-10 predicted ceiling/basement: first/third
Quotable: “Our speed and our skill has improved quite a bit, and I am excited about us playing an up-tempo game,” says Jackson. Given the other weapons in Notre Dame’s arsenal, an up-tempo game could be a real killer.

2. Michigan

Head coach: Red Berenson, 26th season
2008-09 record: 29-12-0, 20-8-0-0 CCHA
2008-09 CCHA finish: tie second
2008-09 season ender: 2-0 loss to Air Force, East Regional semifinal
2009-10 predicted ceiling/basement: first/third
Quotable: “We are a little more settled in goal and a little deeper on defense,” says Berenson. If the Wolverines shore up both the goal and defense, they could be unstoppable.

3. Miami

Head coach: Enrico Blasi, 11th season
2008-09 record: 23-13-5, 17-7-4-2 CCHA
2008-09 CCHA finish: tie second
2008-09 season ender: 4-3 OT loss to Boston University, National Championship
2009-10 predicted ceiling/basement: first/fourth
Quotable: “Our guys have really done a good job of putting the title behind them and understanding that it was a great experience,” says Blasi. How the RedHawks use that experience will be a real test for this program — and may propel it back to where it was a year ago.

4. Ohio State

Head coach: John Markell, 16th season
2008-09 record: 23-15-4, 13-11-4-3 CCHA
2008-09 CCHA finish: fifth
2008-09 season ender: 8-3 loss to Boston University, Northeast Regional semifinal
2009-10 predicted ceiling/basement: third/eighth
Quotable: “For the first time ever, they are going to allow the students in for free,” says Markell. This could be a big deal for OSU … if the students realize that there’s more to Buckeye sports than football, that is.

5. Northern Michigan

Head coach: Walt Kyle, eighth season
2008-09 record: 19-17-5, 11-12-5-3 CCHA
2008-09 CCHA finish: sixth
2008-09 season ender: 2-0 win over Alaska, CCHA Third-Place game
2009-10 predicted ceiling/basement: fourth/eighth
Quotable: “The last couple of years we’ve had slow starts, but we’ve had young teams,” says Kyle. Given how high the Wildcats are picked this season, it’s pretty clear that many people believe that NMU will start a little quicker with a veteran group.

6. Nebraska-Omaha

Head coach: Dean Blais, first season
2008-09 record: 15-17-8, 8-13-7-3 CCHA
2008-09 CCHA finish: tie seventh
2008-09 season ender: 1-0 loss to Notre Dame, CCHA Quarterfinal second game
2009-10 predicted ceiling/basement: fifth/10th
Quotable: “I’m very happy to be back in college hockey,” says Blais. We’re all pretty happy to have you in the CCHA, Coach. Too bad you’re only with us for a season.

7. Alaska

Head coach: Dallas Ferguson, second season
2008-09 record: 17-16-6, 13-10-5-3 CCHA
2008-09 CCHA finish: fourth
2008-09 season ender: 2-0 loss to Northern Michigan, CCHA Third-Place game
2009-10 predicted ceiling/basement: fourth/10th
Quotable: “If you do things well away from the puck, hopefully, you will get the puck back,” says Ferguson. Wise words from a man who in just one season changed the culture of Nanook hockey.

8. Michigan State

Head coach: Rick Comley, eighth season
2008-09 record: 10-23-5, 7-17-4-3 CCHA
2008-09 CCHA finish: tie 10th
2008-09 season ender: 8-2 loss to Northern Michigan, CCHA First Round second game
2009-10 predicted ceiling/basement: fifth/ninth
Quotable: “There will be life after Jeff Lerg,” says Comley. Given the many games last season when Lerg exhibited the only signs of the life for the Spartans, that’s encouraging.

9. Ferris State

Head coach: Bob Daniels, 18th season
2008-09 record: 12-19-7, 9-14-5-2 CCHA
2008-09 CCHA finish: ninth
2008-09 season ender: 5-2 loss to Nebraska-Omaha, CCHA First Round second game
2009-10 predicted ceiling/basement: sixth/10th
Quotable: “The answers to the offensive difficulties lie within our locker room right now,” says Daniels. If the Bulldogs want to climb out of the middle of the pack, they must score more goals — and more consistently.

10. Lake Superior

Head coach: Jim Roque, fifth season
2008-09 record: 11-20-8, 7-15-6-1 CCHA
2008-09 CCHA finish: tie 10th
2008-09 season ender: 3-1 loss to Western Michigan, CCHA First Round third game
2009-10 predicted ceiling/basement: eighth/12th
Quotable: “The last few years have been rather disappointing for us,” says Roque. Seven league wins in each of the last two seasons is a record this team can definitely improve upon.

11. Western Michigan

Head coach: Jim Culhane, 12th season
2008-09 record: 14-20-7, 9-13-6-2 CCHA
2008-09 CCHA finish: tie seventh
2008-09 season ender: 6-1 loss to Michigan, CCHA Quarterfinal second game
2009-10 predicted ceiling/basement: eighth/12th
Quotable: “I liked the second half of last season and we would like to build off of those successes,” says Culhane. That second half included nine regular-season wins, a good foundation.

12. Bowling Green

Head coach: Dennis Williams, first season
2008-09 record: 11-24-3, 8-19-1-0 CCHA
2008-09 CCHA finish: 12th
2008-09 season ender: 7-1 loss to Ohio State, CCHA First Round second game
2009-10 predicted ceiling/basement: eight/12th
Quotable: “It’s an exciting time for Bowling Green hockey with the announcement of a fundraising campaign,” says Williams. The exciting thing for most of us is that Bowling Green will continue to play hockey, period.

2009-10 Alaska Season Preview

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In one season as head coach, Dallas Ferguson managed to take the Alaska Nanooks from ninth place to fourth, from 20 league points to 34, and from first-round playoff loser to Joe Louis Arena. It’s no wonder that he was awarded a five-year contract extension last week.

And he doesn’t let a little success go to his head.

“We’re a program that takes it day by day, and we make sure we are successful each time that we come to the rink,” said Ferguson, reflecting on the Nanooks having been picked seventh in the preseason CCHA coaches poll, sixth by the media — lofty digs for an Alaskan team that made the CCHA tournament in Detroit last season for just the third time in the program’s 14-year history.

Even with Ferguson’s best steady hand at the helm, without goaltender Chad Johnson, there is absolutely no way that Alaska would have made the trip to Detroit at the end of the 2008-09 season. While it may not be fair to pin it all on Johnson, it would be difficult to underplay his role in the Nanooks’ success last year. The team had the 54th-best offense in the country, scoring just 1.90 goals per game — only Brown, American International, Michigan State and Michigan Tech scored fewer.

Johnson had the country’s best goals-against average (1.66) and save percentage (.940). How he was ignored for the Hobey Hat Trick is incomprehensible, as he wasn’t fronted by superstars.

“I get asked a lot about the loss of Chad Johnson,” said Ferguson. “Opportunities for other players are created when you have players leave the program.”

Ferguson thinks that Johnson’s departure is a good opportunity for sophomore netminder Scott Greenham, who in four games last season (3-0-1) had a 1.02 goals-against average and .958 save percentage. “I feel real good about where he is,” said Ferguson, “and being our starting goaltender from day one.”

The other obvious need for the Nanooks is in scoring. UAF has solid players that have never really clicked, like senior returning top scorer Dion Knelsen. Last year, Knelsen led all Nanooks in scoring (10-12–22) as just one of two double-digit goal scorers on the squad; in three seasons and 109 games, Knelsen has netted 26 goals.

“If you do things well away from the puck, hopefully you will get the puck back,” said Ferguson, who knows that it’s not just offense that’s lacking. The entire team needs to play a better transition game. A little confidence wouldn’t hurt, either.

“The big emphasis for us,” said Ferguson, “will be working hard and getting lots of pucks and bodies to the net. I don’t think there is any fancy way to create scoring chances other than working hard and being smart with the puck.”

2009-10 Ohio State Season Preview

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“For once, I’m returning a bit of a veteran team,” said Ohio State coach John Markell. If you’re not a Buckeye hockey fan, there is no way for you to appreciate the optimism of this statement.

Markell tends toward the glass-half-empty side of life. In his defense, he has had to contend with some of the drawbacks associated with programs that achieve certain measures of success, like the early departure of NHL drafted players. And his team is often displaced from its home arena in favor of higher-paying renters at the most inopportune times … like during the CCHA playoffs.

However, the 2008-09 season was a tonic for Buckeye hockey, returning Ohio State to the NCAA tournament one year after the dismal 2007-08 season in which the Bucks finished in 11th place with just seven CCHA wins. A good deal of credit for that turnaround — and a large reason for Markell’s uncharacteristic optimism — belongs to this year’s junior and sophomore classes.

“We’re still a relatively young team with just one senior in Mathiew Picard,” said Markell. “Our 13-member junior class has gained a tremendous amount of experience playing in all situations.

“It’s been my experience that when you move from your sophomore to junior season, you expect it to be a ‘pop’ year.”

There are plenty of juniors who can pop this year, four of whom — John Albert, Hunter Bishop, Peter Boyd, Sergio Somma — who netted 10 or more goals in 2008-09.

The Buckeyes also return two CCHA 2009 All-Rookie Team members, forward Zac Dalpe and defenseman Matt Bartkowski.

“I am expecting these two players to perform at the level that I think they can get up to,” said Markell, “maybe quicker than other players. We certainly leaned on them quite a bit last seaon and hope they continue to improve and show the promise that they did in their first year.”

While OSU’s offense was fast, fearless and fun to watch last season, nearly every other aspect of the Buckeyes’ game needs improvement. The Bucks needed to score as many goals as they did per game, as they gave up nearly three per contest, even though junior goaltender Dustin Carlson (2.50 GAA, .917 SV%) was respectable last year. The Buckeye defense was porous — young, but porous — and OSU’s special teams were lousy.

Still, there’s plenty of reason for optimism in Columbus. With the hiring of JB Bittner — whom many CCHA fans will remember from OSU’s 2004 run to the CCHA championship, as the guy who scored the game-winning goal 23 seconds into overtime of the semifinal against Miami before belly-flopping down the ice in celebration — Ohio State now has two, three-time Buckeye hockey captains coaching along with Markell, including Steve Brent.

And Markell hopes to create real passion for hockey at Ohio State with many more new fans; this season, OSU students get into Buckeye hockey games for free.

“We’re excited about that and can’t wait to see what happens to our crowd and attendance,” said Markell, “especially at the start of the year, especially when there’s lots of football going on.”

Oh, yeah. That’s right. Football.

Well, maybe the students will start showing up in January to find that they’ve missed a really great first half.

2009-10 Wisconsin Season Preview

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The 2008-09 season was a wild one for Wisconsin. Everyone thought if the Badgers could get past their tough opening schedule, they’d be OK.

Everyone was right, for the most part. Wisconsin started off the season 0-6-1, but picked it up enough to end up tied for third in the league, gain home ice and win a trip to the Xcel Energy Center. However, their early failings hurt them in the long run, keeping them out of the NCAA tournament.

This year, the Badgers get a few more weeks of rest than everybody else — their first action is Oct. 16-17 against Colorado College, some mid-season excitement to look forward to (an early February date with Michigan outdoors at Camp Randall Stadium) and the return of Ben Street, who went down just four games into last season with a knee injury.

Street’s return also means the Badgers are an “upperclassmen” team (in that the majority of players are either juniors or seniors) for the first time in a few years — a fact that coach Mike Eaves enjoys.

“Since ’05-06, I think this is the first time we’ve got an upperclassmen team, so that’s kind of new and different for the coaching staff, going on the ice with an older group of guys,” he said. “You can almost see their experience on the ice in practice, so that’s a nice thing to have.”

Up Front

Offensively, the Badgers are hoping for good things out of one man — Street, who has rehabbed his way back to health and is as strong as ever, according to Eaves.

“He is actually physically as strong as he’s ever been, in terms of [his conditioning],” he said. “He just brings back that experience to the locker room and already you see him going around to all the freshmen and walking them through what’s going on a little bit, and you can’t put a price on that.”

Besides hoping for production from Street, Wisconsin will also look to sophomore Derek Stepan as well as seniors Andy Bohmbach, Michael Davies, Blake Geoffrion and John Mitchell to put up similar numbers to last year.

On the Blue Line

Offensively, the Badgers lost a big weapon on the blue line in WCHA player of the tear and team-leading scorer Jamie McBain. His 37 points will be hard to replace.

However, defensively, the Badgers retain the same core defensemen from the year before. Plus, many of those guys are now a bit older and wiser — things that tend to help defensemen out the most in the league and hockey in general. Among the players returning for more are juniors Cody Golubef, Ryan McDonagh and Brendan Smith and sophomore Jake Gardiner — all four of whom all had double-digit point totals.

In the Crease

If the Badgers have a decently large question mark anywhere, it lies within the crease. Gone is Shane Connelly, and in to fight for his spot are junior Scott Gudmandson, junior Boston University transfer Brett Bennett and even perhaps freshman Mitch Thompson.

“It’s really competitive and we’re looking for someone to right now really step up here in these weeks that we’re together and say that they’re going to be the guy,” said Eaves.

2009-10 Maine Season Preview

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An aberration.

That’s what Maine hockey fans hope that the past two seasons have been.

After nine straight 20-plus win campaigns, nine straight trips to the NCAA tournament, six visits to the Frozen Four and, of course, a national championship, the Black Bears have posted two straight 13-win seasons. To say that the natives are getting restless might be an understatement.

Coach Tim Whitehead understands that. Six of those seasons in that nine-season run were on his watch. He was an assistant at Maine in the early 1990s when the club was on the brink of becoming a national power.

So he knows well that there’s little tolerance in Orono — and Bangor, Presque Isle, Portland, Augusta and every other town in Maine — for mediocrity.

“They’re not used to losing,” Whitehead said of the Black Bear faithful. “It’s difficult because as coaches we’re not used to losing, either. There’s a low tolerance for poor performance.

“Our big focus in the offseason was bringing our culture back to where it was two years ago when we hit our third Frozen Four in four years. That was no accident, but neither was our slip. Certain guys signed [early with the NHL], but that’s not our whole story.

“We had some guys in the program that just didn’t appreciate the opportunity they had enough to stick around.”

Whitehead was quick with the sword, dismissing three juniors-to-be in the offseason in Lem Randall, Keif Orsini and Glenn Belmore. Though not elaborating on the issues with each player, Whitehead seems confident that the resultant will be a stronger bond among those who remain.

“Last year, we had a tough second half and when that happens some guys respond great, some guys don’t,” said Whitehead. “We lost a little bit of expectation how to carry ourselves, on and off the ice. So we addressed that and are really excited about the feeling around the team.”

On the ice, there’s also reason to be optimistic. The club’s top performers from a year ago — in all positions — were freshman. Rookie Gustav Nyquist led the team in scoring with 13 goals and 32 points. Will O’Neill was one of the more impressive rookie blueliners in the league. And freshman Scott Darling had an immediate impact in net for the Black Bears.

“Last year was an exceptional year in that our biggest contributing group was our freshman,” said Whitehead. “Fortunately they were the top-scoring freshman class in the league so they not only logged ice time it was productive.”

The fact that all of that class returns, a year older and a year wiser, will keep a similar pressure off this year’s freshman class. That, though, doesn’t mean that Whitehead wouldn’t love another outburst from the rookies.

“They’re excited,” Whitehead said of the freshmen. “For them, it’s good timing. They’re not joining a nationally ranked team. So they come in knowing they’re going to be expected to play.”

Even with optimism abound, Whitehead has a “Rome Wasn’t Built In a Day” mentality. He knows that climbing the ladder in Hockey East can take time, even for programs with the history of Maine. But certainly expectations are much higher for the Black Bears and assuming those can translate into success, fans of black Bear nation will be able to breathe a sigh of relief.

2009-10 Hockey East Season Preview

By Jim Connelly and Dave Hendrickson
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Hockey East has officially returned to its glory days. Back-to-back national championships by Boston College in 2008 and Boston University in 2009 coupled with all three of last season’s Hobey Baker “Hat Trick” finalists hailing from Hockey East certainly give the conference a reason to pound its collective chest.

Not since the mid-to-late 1990s and early part of this decade, when Boston University, Maine and Boston College won national titles in 1995, 1999, and 2001, respectively, and the league produced three straight Hobey Baker winners from 1998 to 2000, has the conference had such a feeling of being college hockey’s royalty.

So the question heading to the 2009-10 campaign is whether or not the league can sustain this momentum.

Boston University won every championship it played for last season (photo: Jim Rosvold).

Boston University won every championship it played for last season (photo: Jim Rosvold).

The prospectus shows that the league no doubt will remain competitive against the remainder of the nation’s teams. Boston University lost some key players, including Hobey Baker winner Matt Gilroy and Hobey Hat Trick finalist Colin Wilson. But the club still returns a key nucleus of players including goaltenders Kieran Millan and Grant Rollheiser.

Boston College, after a down year following their national title, could return to greatness thanks to one of the best recruiting classes in recent memory.

And then there’s the X factor.

The Massachusetts-Lowell River Hawks may be the most interesting team entering 2009-10. A year ago the club reached the Hockey East championship game, falling 1-0 to BU, and aside from the national champs they were probably the hottest team in the country down the stretch. League coaches picked Lowell to finish second, the highest preseason ranking in the program’s history. But the question now remains how Lowell will respond to being the hunted, target square on backs, as opposed to the hunter.

There will also be plenty of noise made by perennial powers New Hampshire and Maine, with the Black Bears desperate to return to form of old after two mediocre seasons. Vermont, coming off the school’s second trip to the Frozen Four, also could be dangerous.

Then there’s the group of Northeastern — decimated by graduation and early departures after the best season in school history — Massachusetts, Providence and Merrimack, all of whom are looking to make their way closer to the top of the league but certainly facing a major hill to climb.

Here, then, are individual commentary on each of the league’s 10 clubs (click on links to read preview), as well as preseason rankings from league coaches, and your faithful columnists, Dave Hendrickson and Jim Connelly. The teams are listed according to their order in the coaches’ poll.

1. Boston University

Holes to fill but still one of the most talented teams in the country.

Coaches: 1st, Dave: 2nd, Jim: 2nd

2. Massachusetts-Lowell

Need to handle life with a target on their backs, but if they do this could be their best showing ever.

Coaches: 2nd, Dave: 1st, Jim: 1st

3. Boston College

A healthy goalie and freshman contributions are all Jerry York wants. Though it’s not just Christmas, yet.

Coaches: 3rd, Dave: 8th, Jim: 3rd

4. (tied) New Hampshire

In the Hockey East logjam, the Wildcats could make a run at first place or miss home ice by a mile.

Coaches: T-4th, Dave: 4th, Jim: 5th

4. (tied) Vermont

Forget any Frozen Four hangover.  If the Catamounts score, the sky’s the limit.

Coaches: T-4th, Dave: 3rd, Jim: 4th

6. Northeastern

If the Huskies get decent goaltending, they could contend yet again.  Of course, that’s one big honkin’ if.

Coaches: 6th, Dave: 5th, Jim: 7th

7. Massachusetts

Will be the best seventh-place team in the country.  Or sixth.  Or fifth.

Coaches: 7th, Dave: 7th, Jim: 8th

8. Maine

Not ready to return to greatness just yet but count the Black Bears among the home ice contenders.

Coaches: 8th, Dave: 6th, Jim 6th

9. Providence

Lots of question marks to start the season make the Friars a major underdog.

Coaches: 9th, Dave: 10th, Jim 10th

10. Merrimack

Improved? Definitely. Playoffs? Not sure about that.

Coaches: 10th, Dave: 9th, Jim 9th

2009-10 WCHA Season Preview

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What do we say about last year’s WCHA season to try to recap it?

Do we talk about the ridiculous parity, and how it came down to the final night of play to determine the standings, only narrowly avoiding using a plethora of tiebreaking procedures that would be enough to make anyone cry?

Do we talk about how North Dakota once again surged to capture its 11th MacNaughton Cup? Or do we talk about Minnesota-Duluth and how it became the first team to win three games at the Final Five to capture the Broadmoor Trophy?

Or maybe, do we mention how last year was the first time in a decade a WCHA team failed to make the Frozen Four, perhaps signaling the end of an era of dominance?

Rhett Rakhshani is an offensive force for Denver, the consensus favorite to win the WCHA (photo: Candace Horgan).

Rhett Rakhshani is an offensive force for Denver, the consensus favorite to win the WCHA (photo: Candace Horgan).

We talk about all of these things, as well as the fact this year will be the last year of the WCHA as we know it, as the league gains two more teams next year — the Bemidji State Beavers and the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks.

This season, however? Look back to point No. 1 above about the parity, as all signs point to more of the same this year. Spots six through nine could be interchangeable and probably will end up being so by the time March rolls around.

Strap in folks, it’s going to be one heck of a ride. Again.

Please click on each team’s name for more detailed analysis.

Denver

Coach: George Gwozdecky
2008-09 record: 23-12-5, 16-8-4 WCHA (36 points, second of 10 teams)
Key returners: Marc Cheverie, G; Rhett Rakhshani, F; Patrick Wiercioch, D
Key losses: Tyler Bozak, F; Patrick Mullen, D/F; J.P. Testwuide, D
2009-10 predicted finish: Me, 1st. Media, 1st. Coaches, 1st.
Bottom line: The Pioneers have senior depth and no visible question marks except for one — can they survive the pressure of being tabbed No. 1? Remember, CC didn’t seem to have any visible question marks last year, either …

Wisconsin

Coach: Mike Eaves
2008-09 record: 17-15-4, 14-11-3 WCHA (28 points, t-third of 10 teams)
Key returners: Ryan McDonagh, D; Derek Stepan, F; Ben Street, F
Key losses: Shane Connelly, G; Tom Gorowsky, F; Jamie McBain, D
2009-10 predicted finish: Me, 2nd. Media, 3rd. Coaches, 3rd.
Bottom line: The Badgers have a bit of a question as to who’s going to step up in net, but it’s Wisconsin — it’s known for cranking out good goalies. In any case, expect to see them fighting it out for the top spot in the league.

North Dakota

Coach: Dave Hakstol
2008-09 record: 22-12-4, 17-7-4 WCHA (38 points, first of 10 teams)
Key returners: Brad Eidsness, G; Chay Genoway, D; Chris VandeVelde, F
Key losses: Ryan Duncan, F; Joe Finley, D; Andrew Kozek, F; Brad Miller, D/F
2009-10 predicted finish: Me, 3rd. Media, 2nd. Coaches, 2nd.
Bottom line: It may not look like the Sioux have many question marks, but Hakstol thinks otherwise. Regardless, his team will be in the thick of things come late February like always.

Minnesota

Coach: Don Lucia
2008-09 record: 15-12-7, 12-11-5 WCHA (29 points, fifth of 10 teams)
Key returners: Jay Barriball, F; Cade Fairchild, D; Alex Kangas, G; Jordan Schroeder, F
Key losses: Ryan Stoa, F
2009-10 predicted finish: Me, 4th. Media, 4th. Coaches, 4th.
Bottom line: You’d think the Gophers would be higher up given they only really lost one key player and gained a lot by having Schroeder return … and they would be, if it only weren’t for the rest of the league.

St. Cloud State

Coach: Bob Motzko
2008-09 record: 18-15-3, 13-13-2 WCHA (28 points, sixth of 10 teams)
Key returners: Ryan Lasch, F; Garrett Raboin, D; Garrett Roe, F
Key losses: John Swanson, F; Jase Weslosky, G
2009-10 predicted finish: Me, 5th. Media, 5th. Coaches, 5th.
Bottom line: Losing Weslosky will hurt the Huskies unless junior Dan Dunn (or someone else) steps up. What will help the most, however, is finally finding consistency — particularly on the special teams — throughout the entire season.

Minnesota State

Coach: Troy Jutting
2008-09 record: 15-15-6, 11-13-4 WCHA (26 points, eighth of 10 teams)
Key returners: Kurt Davis, D; Geoff Irwin, F; Kael Mouillierat, F
Key losses: Mick Berge, F; Dan Tormey, G; Mike Zacharias, G
2009-10 predicted finish: Me, 6th. Media, 8th. Coaches, 7th.
Bottom line: The Mavericks are returning a lot of upperclassmen which will help them through their growing pains of finding a new goaltender. They might be in the hunt for home ice by the end, though they probably won’t be far out of the muddled middle.

Alaska Anchorage

Coach: Dave Shyiak
2008-09 record: 14-15-5, 9-14-5 WCHA (23 points, ninth of 10 teams)
Key returners: Bryce Christianson, G; Kevin Clark, F; Tommy Grant, F; Jon Olthius, G
Key losses: Paul Crowder, F; Mat Robinson, D
2009-10 predicted finish: Me, 7th. Media, 9th. Coaches, 9th.
Bottom line: Shyiak’s been doing good things with the Seawolves — they were in the thick of things right until the end — and I see no reason why this year shouldn’t be a continuation of the same. If they end up near the bottom again, see my reasoning on why Minnesota isn’t higher.

Colorado College

Coach: Scott Owens
2008-09 record: 16-10-10, 12-9-7 WCHA (31 points, t-third of 10 teams)
Key returners: Gabe Guentzel, D; Nate Prosser, D; Bill Sweatt, F; Mike Testwuide, F
Key losses: Richard Bachman, G; Brian Connelly, D; Jake Gannon, D; Chad Rau, F; Eric Walsky, F
2009-10 predicted finish: Me, 8th. Media, 7th. Coaches, 8th.
Bottom line: The Tigers were probably hit the hardest in the summer due to early departures and graduation, dropping everyone’s expectations of them way down low. If Owens can draw on his few bright spots and find a goaltender, he may manage to surprise a few people along the way.

Minnesota-Duluth

Coach: Scott Sandelin
2008-09 record: 16-12-8, 10-11-7 WCHA (27 points, seventh of 10 teams)
Key returners: Justin Fontaine, F; Mike Connolly, F; Jack Connolly, F
Key losses: Josh Meyers, D; MacGregor Sharp, F; Alex Stalock, G
2009-10 predicted finish: Me, 9th. Media, 6th. Coaches, 6th.
Bottom line: The Bulldogs do return three of their top five leading scorers, but they also lost a goaltender and a lot of leadership, losing nine total players from their Broadmoor Trophy-winning team. Still, if they can find a goalie to work out and fill their other holes, they could be in the fight for home ice at the end of the year as well.

Michigan Tech

Coach: Jamie Russell
2008-09 record: 6-23-7, 2-19-7 WCHA (11 points, 10th of 10 teams)
Key returners: Jordan Baker, F; Drew Dobson, D; Malcolm Gwilliam, F; Josh Robinson, G
Key losses: Alex Gagne, F; Geoff Kinrade, D; Rob Nolan, G
2009-10 predicted finish: Me, 10th. Media, 10th. Coaches, 10th.
Bottom line: It’s undoubtedly going to be another long year for the Huskies. Russell seemingly does the best he can, but often times in the WCHA, that’s just not good enough. Avoiding the injury bug might help too, but there’s only so much control one has over that.

2009-10 New Hampshire Season Preview

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Last year’s New Hampshire Wildcats dipped a bit after back-to-back regular season titles, having graduated too much talent to pull off a three-peat. They finished tied for third — not too shabby — and then came close to erasing any shred of disappointment with a near trip to the Frozen Four. Following an electrifying win over North Dakota in the NCAA Northeast Regional opener, New Hampshire outplayed eventual national champion Boston University for much of their contest before falling in an agonizing closing-seconds loss.

There will be more holes to fill this time around and a league that seems to get tougher and tougher each year. But there are also positions of considerable UNH strength.

It starts between the pipes where Brian Foster returns for his senior season. After spending two years playing second fiddle to player of the year Kevin Regan, Foster emerged as a top netminder in his own right, earning league goaltender of the month awards twice. An ankle injury hobbled him for a time and forced then-freshman Matt DiGirolamo into some tough starts perhaps before he was ready, but Foster returns healthy and with 35 games under his belt from last season.

“We’re going to need him early on,” UNH coach Dick Umile says. “If you look at our schedule, we’ve got Miami coming in and us going West to play Wisconsin. He’s going to have to play solid until our younger guys get their feet wet and find out what their role truly is.

“We think he can [take his game] to the next level. There’s no substitute for experience. He got off to a slow start with the high ankle sprain, but once he got healthy he was feeling a lot better and playing a lot better. He played very well at the end of the season and in the regional tournament he played extremely well.

“He’s in great shape, he’s working really hard, and he’s one of our best conditioned athletes. If he plays well, we’ll compete.”

In front of Foster, the blue line corps will need to replace the losses of Joe Charlebois, Jamie Fritsch, and Kevin Kapstad. Blake Kessel returns for his sophomore season as the offensive leader of the group. Senior Nick Krates provides the most experience while Matt Campanale and Damon Kipp will need to fill more significant roles. Two freshmen — Connor Hardowa (6-1, 210 pounds) and Brett Kostolansky (5-10, 175) — could make an immediate impact.

“We lost three senior defenseman so that’s going to be a challenge for us,” Umile says. “There’s no substitute for senior defense. But we’ve got some [talent] coming back and I think Connor will step right in and add a lot for us. Most importantly, we’ve got Foster behind them.”

Filling the net never seems to be a problem at UNH. The Wildcat lineup has included a 40-point scorer for the last 20 years and it’ll be an upset of epic proportions if this year’s group doesn’t make it 21. Mike Sislo, Peter LeBlanc, and Bobby Butler all broke the 30-point barrier last year. Phil DeSimone, Steve Moses and Paul Thompson will be moving into even bigger roles.

Freshmen Austin Block, Dalton Speelman, Greg Burke (a native son and Washington draft pick),
and John Henrion (from the national program) will get their chances to break into the lineup in a significant way.

“We’re going to be fine up front with Bobby Butler and Peter LeBlanc, two senior forwards,” Umile says. “We’ve got DeSimone, Sislo, and I really like the freshman class. I know they’re freshmen but I think they will add some offense to our forward group. So I’m comfortable with our forwards.”

It may take some time for the pieces to all fit together, but Umile likes what he sees.

“Hopefully we’ll continue to compete at the top,” he says. “That’s our goal. It hasn’t changed. Even though we’ll be young, I think we’ll be able to do it.

“We’ll rely on Brian early on, but I like our team. I like the leadership on the team. I’m looking forward to the season.”

2009-10 Notre Dame Season Preview

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Fighting Irish coach Jeff Jackson can give his counterpart in Ann Arbor some competition in the understated department.

“We’re returning a pretty good group of players,” he said in preseason, with a completely straight face.

While Notre Dame graduated a senior class that was pivotal in the history of the program, the players who remain — while perhaps not yet household names — are dynamite. The Irish had the best team defense in the country in 2008-09 and goaltender Jordan Pearce between the pipes, a powerful one-two punch that often distracted from the stealthy, potent ND offense.

The Irish have players from every class who can contribute in every aspect of the skating game. Gone are Erik Condra and Christian Hanson and their 29 combined goals, but returning are five players who accounted for 64 of ND’s 135 total markers of a year ago: sophomore Billy Maday (16), juniors Calle Ridderwall (17) and Ben Ryan (12), and seniors Christiaan Minella (9) and Ryan Thang. Only three Irish skaters who saw significant playing time didn’t contribute at least a goal last season, all three blueliners, and one of them — Luke Lucyk — was a senior.

“I think over the last two or three years, with the incoming freshmen from the last years, our speed and our skill has improved quite a bit,” said Jackson. “I’m excited about the potential of us playing a much more skill-and-speed game at a higher tempo.

“We’ve been good defensively over the last three years and I expect that we’ll continue to do that, but I think the potential for us to be exciting to watch is extremely good at this point, the skill level being improved over the last three years.”

An improved skill level during the last three years wasn’t limited to new recruits. Last year, senior Jordan Pearce posted a career-best .931 save percentage, spurring speculation about that position for the upcoming season. Jackson, however, isn’t worried.

“At this point,” said Jackson, “we’re excited about the prospect of Brad Phillips taking a step.”

Phillips, a seventh-round Philadelphia draft pick in 2007, posted a 4-1-0 record with a .923 save percentage in his freshman year (2007-08), and missed his entire sophomore year with a knee injury. “[W]e expect him to be the guy who will start for us on opening night,” said Jackson, who added that Phillips will get some competition from freshman Mike Johnson and redshirt junior Tom O’Brien.

On defense, the Irish have senior Brett Blatchford, the outstanding junior Ian Cole, and a veteran corps ready to distract opponents from that excellent Notre Dame offense. Add to all of this the disappointing end to ND’s 2008-09 season, that lackluster performance in a loss to Bemidji State in the Midwest Regional final, and there are plenty of reasons to pick the Irish to top the league — which is exactly what many did.

Oh! And there’s a new arena coming! That is something impossible to understate.

2009-10 Western Michigan Season Preview

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In the past decade, the Western Michigan Broncos have finished higher than sixth place exactly once, in 2000-01, when they tied with Northern Michigan for fifth — and NMU won the tiebreaker that year for the higher playoff slot.

So, it’s a bit strange to think of last year’s seventh-place finish as an accomplishment, but it is in many intangible ways. The Broncos, chosen last in the 2008-09 CCHA coaches and media polls, had improved from 12th place the season before, and head coach Jim Culhane — whose teams have finished anywhere from last to fifth place in his 11 years at the Bronco helm — could appreciate the step his team had taken.

“From looking back and reflecting over the summer months,” said Culhane, “I was pretty pleased with the way the team progressed and where we finished last year. From January on last season, our record was 11-9-3, and we knew earlier on that we’d have some growing pains with our young team.”

Perhaps “young” isn’t the right word, given that the Broncos return a team this season with an average age of 21 years and seven months. But “new” or “inexperienced” would fit; WMU had eight rookies who played last year and 10 sophomores on the roster.

One would-be sophomore, defenseman Kevin Connauton, departed early with his seven goals, 11 assists, and healthy presence in the Bronco power play, but WMU fields a youthful and fairly talented team again this year. Two of Western’s three top goal-scorers return from a year ago, junior Max Campbell and sophomore Kyle O’Kane.

The Broncos will have seven newcomers this season, two of whom — forwards Trevor Elias (BCHL) and Benn Miller (USHL) — put up some impressive offensive numbers in junior hockey.

As always, though, it’s the defense that worries WMU fans. We’re really young on the blue line with four freshmen,” said Culhane. “A key for us right away is to get those guys comfortable … with the level of play in the CCHA.”

It’s a good thing, then, that the Broncos have senior goaltender Riley Gill, who is the all-time shutout leader at Western. “I’m really excited about our goaltending,” said Culhane, adding that Gill “just had a real solid year” in 2008-09.

As young — well, youngish — as are the Broncos, Culhane said that they have solid leadership from Gill’s fellow seniors. “We’ll be led by a couple key guys, one being on the back end, Tyler Ludwig. Tyler I think is at times an underrated player in the CCHA, but one that logs a lot of minutes for us on the blue line, is a great ambassador for our hockey program, on and off the ice.

“Right now, we need to get our young guys … on board here. We’re looking forward to another competitive season in the CCHA.”

And goodbye, Frank the Tank.

2009-10 Northern Michigan Season Preview

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In 2007-08, the Northern Michigan Wildcats began regular-season CCHA play with seven straight losses, six of them against three of the league’s top teams. By the end of that campaign, the ‘Cats had climbed to sixth place on the strength of a good second half, won a first-round home CCHA playoff series, and played their way through East Lansing to Detroit, where they lost 6-4 to Michigan before beating Notre Dame in the CCHA third-place game.

Last year, NMU opened the CCHA season with a win over Michigan before going winless for another seven league games. The ‘Cats — who again faced tough opponents early in their schedule — finished the first half of 2008-09 with a record of 2-9-3 in CCHA play.

Of course, they finished up strong. NMU compiled a 9-3-2 league record in the second half, including a split with Miami and a three-point weekend against Alaska. In the postseason, they swept Michigan State at home in the first round and played their way through Oxford, Ohio, to Detroit — where they allowed just two goals in two games, but never got the chance to play for the Mason Cup.

It is a pattern that coach Walt Kyle would love to break, even though his team opens CCHA play against Miami, Ohio State and Notre Dame, with the last two series on the road.

“We always wonder who makes the schedules,” Kyle said before the start of the season.

“We’ve had slow starts and we’ve got it out of the gate slowly, but we’ve had young teams,” said Kyle. “We’ve had good second halves, we’ve played well in the playoffs, and we hope that the momentum we created at the end of last year will carry over into this year.”

Kyle has plenty of reason to be optimistic. The response his young teams have shown to poor first halves these past two seasons has been tremendous, and now those youngsters are thoroughly tested.

“For the first time in a couple of years we’re really led by a strong group of seniors and a strong group of juniors,” said Kyle, “and we feel real comfortable that the guys that we have here are much more prepared to come out of the gate and have success early.”

One of the strong seniors on whom NMU can rely is the often-overlooked goaltender, Brian Stewart, whose save percentage has improved with every season. “He’ll be the go-to guy all year,” said Kyle. “He’s certainly capable of top-end games and if he can put together the consistency that we hope he can we’re obviously going to be a much better team with that kind of goaltending.”

Kyle called junior defenseman Erik Gustafsson “one of the best players” that he has “had the privilege of coaching,” and Kyle had no problem calling out one of Gustafsson’s classmates.

“Up front, Mark Olver, who’s led our team in scoring the past couple of years, a real dynamic guy, really had 35 or 36 points a year ago but did not have a point in his first 10 or 11 games, did not come out of the gate well at all,” said Kyle. “If he comes out of the gate this year, we’re expecting big things from Mark. We certainly feel he has a little bit better supporting cast around him now than he did at the start of last season.”

The Wildcats have the potential to be the dark horse team of the CCHA, with seasoned veterans who know how to persevere.

“We’re older and the class that has led us is the guys that were sophomores a year ago,” said Kyle. “Some of them weren’t ready to be impact players, but I think they are now.”

2009-10 North Dakota Season Preview

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Except for the last few games of the season, last year seemingly panned out the way the last few have for North Dakota: struggle early, surge in the second half, end up in the top half in the league (maybe or maybe not winning the MacNaughton Cup).

The difference is that each first-half struggle is a little different and the postseason ending was a bigger disappointment than usual. After getting to the Final Five, the Sioux had a lackluster two games there and followed it up with a heartbreaking overtime loss to New Hampshire in the NCAA tournament. As a result, UND is entering this season just like any other — with a chip on its shoulder.

“I hope so,” coach Dave Hakstol quipped when asked if the Sioux were entering this season with said chip. “I think we have a little chip on our shoulder every year when you enter into a new season, regardless of how the final year ended. But, in saying that, in all honesty, last year is a different year.”

One way in which this year is different is that Hakstol believes his team has a lot of questions that the rest of us might not see.

“We know that we have a lot of questions that we need answering,” he said. “We have some players returning that we know will do a good job for us, we know the role that they will play for us and the level that they’re capable of playing at. Along with that, like I said, we have a lot of question marks that we need to answer … now it’s a matter of us sorting out exactly what role players are capable of playing at.”

Up Front

If the Sioux lost a lot over the summer, it was in the forward position. Two of the leading scorers — former Hobey Baker winner Ryan Duncan and utility man/talk show host Brad Miller — graduated. The team also lost Andrew Kozek and Ryan Martens to graduation and dismissed would-be junior Matt Frattin for repeated violations of team rules.

However, UND also has a lot coming back, particularly in senior Chris VandeVelde and sophomores Jason Gregoire and Brett Hextall, three of the top six scorers from last year (Nos. 2, 5 and 6, respectively).

In terms of incoming freshman, Danny Kristo has received the most hype and it will be interesting to see if he lives up to his potential or, at the very least, chips in as much as Hextall and Gregoire did last year.

On the Blue Line

Yes, losing Joe Finley, Zach Jones and, if you want to include him on this end, Brad Miller will hurt, if only for the fact that it means that the Sioux will have to replace them with freshmen.

However, the Sioux still have their rock and WCHA defensive player of the year still patrolling the back line in senior Chay Genoway, who may arguably be the best player in college hockey this year. Genoway can not only put up the points (32 last year; 3 goals, 29 assists, fourth on the team), but he’s rock solid in his own end as well.

Joining him in the back end include juniors Derrick LaPoint and Jake Marto and sophomores Ben Blood and Corey Fienhage.

In the Crease

One of the team’s question marks that Hakstol was elusive in pointing straight out may be in goal. The team returns their main netminder from last year in sophomore Brad Eidsness, who evolved into a solid player last year.

“I think maybe you look back on it from my standpoint, the area that Brad maybe did his best work was mentally,” said Hakstol. “I thought he handled all of the ups and downs of a freshman season. As a goaltender, he handled those very well.”

Still, stud freshman goalies don’t always work out as well in their sophomore campaigns, so if Eidsness struggles, Hakstol will have to turn to one of his two freshmen — either Aaron Dell or Tate Maris.

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