Jack Peart spent three seasons manning the SCSU back end (photo: St. Cloud State Athletics).
The NHL’s Minnesota announced Tuesday the club has signed St. Cloud State junior defenseman Jack Peart to a three-year, entry-level contract starting with the 2024-25 season.
Peart skated in 38 games this season for the Huskies recording 14 points (three goals, 11 assists), 18 penalty minutes and 49 blocked shots. The native of Grand Rapids, Minn., ranked third among team defensemen in points, goals and assists this season.
Peart played in 108 games for St. Cloud State over a span of three years, recording 55 points (eight goals, 47 assists), 64 PIMs, 113 blocked shots and a plus-15 rating. Peart set career-highs in points (24) and assists (21) during the 2022-23 season.
He skated for the U.S. National Junior team at the 2022 and 2023 IIHF World Junior Championships, collecting five assists and a plus-3 rating in 11 games and won a bronze medal in 2023.
The Wild selected Peart in the second round (54th overall) of the 2021 NHL Draft.
Eric Pohlkamp was the first player from Bemidji State to suit up for the United States World Junior team this past tournament and is the lone NHL draft pick on the Beavers roster (photo: Brent Cizek).
By Eric Vegoe/Special to USCHO.com
It’s never been a more challenging time to piece together a college hockey roster.
The landscape has changed drastically over the last 20 years in college hockey as programs have adjusted to the growth of junior hockey allowing players to develop while delaying their enrollment, coaches have dealt with early departures as professional hockey teams routinely pluck top talent and now coaches have to evaluate whether to take advantage of the extra eligibility granted by the NCAA post-COVID along with the courts freeing up players to essentially transfer at will with few restrictions. Oh, and Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) is probably coming next.
“Everybody’s got a different business model, and you’ve got to fit your business model to your program,” said Bemidji State head coach Tom Serratore. “What I try to do is recruit to our program like I would recruit to our school and to our community. To me first and foremost, anytime you’re recruiting, you have to recruit fit. And I think sometimes we can get sidetracked not recruiting fit, but you have to recruit fit first.”
Bemidji State is one of the programs navigating the fog of putting together their roster effectively this season by winning the CCHA by nine points and finding the right balance in traditional recruiting, keeping players out of the portal, bringing back players for extra years and grabbing portal options when they find a fit. The Beavers are one of the few programs whose average roster age of 22.79 was nearly unaltered by their actions under the new rules, but they were able to retain key graduate players Carter Jones and Kyle Looft in their system while making room in their lineup for freshman like Eric Pohlkamp and sophomore Lleyton Roed. Some of the other programs who tread lightly with changes to their roster makeup and have had success included Denver and Colorado College.
Tom Serratore shared that fits for his community, fits for his school, and fits for his program’s culture has been his guide. He wants players that will be comfortable in the northland and appreciate what Bemidji has to offer. The coach admits that every now and then they might go outside the box for a player — as sometimes just having an opportunity to play college hockey is enough — but by and large everybody’s going to be happy when the fit is right. One of the other key fits for the Beavers is making sure they focus their attention on older players during recruiting. Bemidji State recruits ranked 43rd at 19.31 years-old when they committed.
“We’re better off taking kids that we feel are good fits and when it’s an older kid, at least we have a good feel for how their game is gonna transfer to us when we get them,” said Tom Serratore. “When you take a young kid, there’s still a lot of development left and they’ve never been through any adversity… with an older kid, they’ve dealt with adversity. There’s a good chance that they played on the fourth line, there’s a good chance that they’ve had to sit out a game and they have just had to deal with some things through the grind of junior hockey that makes everyone’s job a little easier once they get to us.”
Tom Serratore also likes to keep the ‘engagement’ between a player and school short which shows up as the average age of a Beavers freshman was 20.58 years-old when they started their careers which ranked 35th meaning they only have to wait about a year between their commitment and the start of college hockey.
Rosters in Atlantic Hockey show their players often commit latest averaging 19.65 years-old when they verbal and enroll just shy of 21-years-old. Independent schools similarly pursue older players with an average of 19.78 year-old commits and the CCHA averaging 19.31 year-old commits.
How Did We Get Here?
Making sure schools find the right fit has been a challenge over the years. CCHA Commissioner Don Lucia has seen the process from a number of different angles over the years as a player at Notre Dame, coach at Alaska-Fairbanks, Colorado College and Minnesota and now in his current role with the CCHA.
“When I first got involved at Fairbanks, going back to my days at Colorado College and even early days at Minnesota, you were recruiting for the next year,” said Lucia. “If you needed eight guys, you were recruiting eight guys that calendar year to come in the following year… you weren’t recruiting 10th graders, 11th graders, nobody did that.”
Coaches pretty much knew back then what they were likely to lose to graduation and to professional contracts, which made it pretty simple to recruit players to replenish the depth chart. That process started to get a lot more difficult when USA Hockey started their National Team Development Program and started holding their tryout camps at the end of the minor hockey season.
“Early on in Ann Arbor you were recruiting the older team — [the U18s,]” said Lucia. “And then… teams started recruiting the younger team [the U17s] to get a leg up on those kids. And then once you have some 11th graders committing, others were following suit… it kind of snowballed from there in my opinion. And then it became going to watch the kids try out in Ann Arbor that were 9th and 10th graders and trying to lock those kids up before they even got to the program.”
The business model of college hockey started becoming increasingly more complicated trying to evaluate young players as essentially the entire roster of a USHL team would be committed somewhere at the start of the season. The reality was some coaches were off to watch bantam games, AAA games and USHL summer camps to start assessing players to potentially fill roles for players who hadn’t even made it to campus yet.
“There’s a lot of different ways for the traditional schools to recruit, we have to do it the old-fashioned way and bring guys in for basic training in late June,” said Air Force head coach Frank Serratore. “For the most part transfers don’t work, we don’t get fifth year COVIDs, we can’t bring in players at Christmas… but schools like Minnesota and Michigan can’t not take those guys.”
Still Chasing Talent
Across college hockey there are schools like Minnesota and Michigan with a strong habit of tying themselves to young commits. While coaches have pushed back the recruiting calendar a bit so that verbal offers aren’t permitted until August 1 before an athlete’s junior year, most of those schools do start to fill up the pipeline as soon as they can with the most highly touted players in their birth years. The most aggressive programs in lining up commits with their current roster are Notre Dame, Boston University, Boston College, Wisconsin, Harvard, Minnesota, Denver, Michigan, Penn State, Omaha, Minnesota-Duluth, North Dakota, Providence and Northeastern. The average of committed players who are still on the rosters of all these programs is under 18.
The Big Ten on average is the most aggressive league recruiting players with an average commitment of 17.55 years-old, Hockey East is next at 18.29 years-old and NCHC is third at 18.34 years-old. Those leagues have been busy investing in their hockey budgets and are eager on the recruiting trail to pick their players.
“Anytime you offer the young kids, I think you have to be selective because there’s a process that has to happen after that,” said Minnesota associate head coach Steve Miller. “It could be a two-year process, it could be a three-year process and it’s depending on what their next couple years look like, whether it’s high school, are they playing AAA, or did they decide to go to play in North America League, USHL or national team.”
“They’ve probably been the best player on their team for a long time whether it be all the way back to squirts or pee wee,” said Miller. “And the younger kids, they haven’t faced a lot of adversity in their career up to that point and now all of a sudden they’re playing USHL kids or NAHL kids who have been put through the wars of junior hockey.”
Miller said he tries to make sure he’s recruiting the right players from good families that work hard and then have at least two of three key attributes — hockey sense, compete and overall skills package from skating to hands to shooting.
“You’ve got to have two out of three. If you’re a world class competitor and you’ve got a great brain, great instincts with a fine skill package, then I can coach that and make him better. If you’ve got the unbelievable instincts, unbelievable brain to go with a very good skill package and your compete is fine, then I’ve still got two pretty good pieces and I will push you to be a more competitive player. If you’re just recruiting a guy who has got high compete and he doesn’t have a skill package and doesn’t have great instincts that’s gonna be a challenge.”
Making the Pieces Fit
While we’re still seeing colleges go after young players, the number of open lockers and scholarships in college hockey haven’t been opening up as quickly which has created a traffic jam of players with long commitments.
Chris Heisenberg runs a Google Sheet that tries to track commitments and decommits each recruiting cycle and the number of players parting ways from their pledge historically would be in the teens but has routinely been over 70 per birth year recently because of the logjam. Overall, there have been hundreds of players who have verbally committed to D-I hockey programs the past six years and have decided to play D-III, club hockey or not even pursue hockey at the next level as well.
There are seven programs in college hockey where the time between commitment and enrollment is less than a year, programs like Alaska Anchorage, Long Island, Stonehill, St. Thomas, Robert Morris, Lindenwood and Augustana have spots as they build or rebuild their programs, but more often the trend can be at up to a three year wait to get to programs like Notre Dame, Penn State, Boston University, Wisconsin or Minnesota.
“You have to be a pretty good hockey player to play division one hockey right now,” said Frank Serratore. “Division I hockey has always been good, but it’s never been better than it is right now. High school kids will say they love hockey, but in juniors they’re taking buses all over, playing 80 games versus men. Kids sometimes find out that they just liked hockey and at a certain level, hockey hurts. The kids who make it today, you can doubt a lot of things, but you can’t doubt their love of the game after living the way they have to live in juniors for two or three years with buses, cold pizza, ice packs.”
The entire process dealing with full recruiting pipelines where schools can have 20 to 30 committed players, constantly adjusting projected future rosters due to players getting extra seasons of eligibility or incoming experienced transfer players pushing out the availability of open roster spots can be confusing, but Miller says there is one point in college hockey history that weighs in the back of a coach’s mind when making the tough decision to delay a player’s enrollment.
“April Fool’s Day of 2013 the game changed because one of the most successful college coaches in the history of the game was fired in George [Gwozdecky],” said Miller. “I think everyone looked at that and said, ‘How could you fire that guy?’ And I think it just changed. I think then all of a sudden, it’s like, ‘We’re only bringing in the guys that are good enough to play for us.’ If Gwoz is getting fired, then any of us can get fired. And if any of us can get fired then we’ve got to make sure we get the right players to the university.”
“I’m excited to welcome Allison to our Blue Hen community,” Delware Director of Athletics, Community, and Campus Recreation Chrissi Rawak said. “With her wealth of knowledge, ice hockey expertise, and experiences at the collegiate and USA national team level, she is the perfect person to build and lead this program. She’s an incredible coach who believes in the importance of a well-rounded student-athlete experience and recognizes the opportunity that we have here at Delaware to create something exceptional!”
Coomey is taking on her first collegiate head coaching role after spending the past seven seasons at Penn State. She served as an assistant coach for three seasons before being promoted to associate head coach in 2020-21. In addition to her college coaching experience, Coomey has held various roles with USA Hockey. She was on stafff with the silver-medal winning USA National Team at the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games as a team scout and extension of the coaching staff and was the head coach for the U23 US Women’s National Team in 2021 and 2022. She was an assistant at the 2021 IIHF World Championship. She was also a member of USA Hockey’s scouting staff at the 2019 IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship.
“Two things stood out to me – the academics and the support to athletics,” Coomey said about why this position appealed to her.
The Hens will play in the CHA, a conference Coomey is familiar with as the Nittany Lions captured the past two league tournament titles, earning a bid to the NCAA Tournament. The team also claimed the CHA regular season title in three of the past four seasons.
Coomey loves that Delaware and the surrounding Philadelphia and Washington D.C. area markets are widely untapped in DI women’s hockey. The Hens have already announced a partnership with the NHL Philadelphia Flyers to help grow girls and women’s hockey in the area.
Having been a student at Niagara when that program began and starting at Penn State not long after that program moved to DI, Coomey is well-versed in the unique process of starting a program.
“I’m so happy that Chrissi [Rawak] and her staff thought that I would be a good fit for this program. Being a part of a new program as a player was so special to me and to have an opportunity to do that at a like Delaware is really exciting. I can’t really put that into into perfect words, but it’s really exciting,” Coomey said.
“When you are starting a brand new program. I knew we needed to hire somebody that was established and had that type of real success. Equally as important, if not more, is who she is as a person,” said Rawak.
“When she came in and interviewed and really talked about how she would build this program and how she cares about the student athlete experiences and how she creates accountability and how she sees building out seasons, all of those things are so aligned with who we are at Delaware. It starts with culture and ultimately it starts with the right leader and we couldn’t be more excited about Allison being that right leader.”
Coomey has about 18 months to set her staff, recruit players and be ready to hit the ice. It’s the first time she gets to direct all those different parts of a program, but she’s looking forward to surrounding herself with players and coaches who are excited about the idea of creating something from scratch and developing a legacy at Delware.
“I’m looking for people that want to want to put their mark on something, want to play for something bigger than themselves, want to bring excitement to the state of Delaware that doesn’t have Division I hockey,” said Coomey.
Rawak was excited to find a leader in Coomey who has excelled at so many levels of women’s hockey but just had not yet had the opportunity to be a head coach. Previous experience in the role was the only part of Rawak’s list of desirable qualities in the first coach that Coomey didn’t check, but she said that it was so clear from both Coomey’s interviews and speaking with her references that she is ready and prepared to take on a head coaching role, citing Coomey’s presence and quiet passion as things that stood out.
“Being incredibly invested in growing the sport and giving young women the opportunity to excel and grow and earn and lead are all things that Allison believes in and she recognizes that we have an opportunity here because of the types of partners that we’re surrounded by that are equally as excited about this as we are,” Rawak said.
A rarity herself (19% of Division 1 Athletic Directors are women) Rawak is always thinking about the importance of ensuring Delaware is providing strong, talented women as role models for student-athletes of all genders.
“I always want the best coach. But particularly for women’s programs, if I can find the best coach that is a female that can lead these young women and they can see themselves in her eyes – if that’s possible, then I’m always going to choose that because I just think that it’s really important, Rawak said.
“I’m proud that we have a woman – an incredibly talented, qualified woman – to be able to lead and build our first ice hockey program Division One ice hockey program here at the University of Delaware.”
Utica defenseman Brian Scoville is part of an outstanding group of players being recognized as All-USCHO for the 2023-24 season (Photo by Kaleigh Sturtevant – Utica Athletics)
A great season of college hockey came to an end on Saturday with Hobart taking their second national championship in a row with a 2-0 win over Trinity. Now is the opportunity for the USCHO writers to look back and recognize the outstanding performances on the ice and we (Brian and me) have come up with quite the extensive list that represents fourteen institutions and includes eleven players that were on the ice in last weekend’s Frozen Four in Hartford, Connecticut.
With the rules changes this year for qualification as an All-American (need to be a 1st team league all-star to be eligible) we believe a couple of worthy players did not receive commensurate recognition for their outstanding performance during the season. This year we have included three teams along with an extended honorable mentions list to showcase the tremendous efforts on the ice all season long.
This year’s first team All-USCHO finds Trinity sophomore Devon Bobak (30GP – 25-4-1 Record – 1.18GAA – .946 SP – 7SO) in the crease with Utica senior Brian Scoville (9G – 24A – 33 Pts) and Adrian senior Jaden Shields (11G – 28A – 39 Pts) on the blueline and forwards that include Hobart sophomore Tanner Hartman (20G – 25A – 45 Pts), Adrian senior Zachary Heintz (18G – 22A – 40 Pts) and St. Norbert senior Adam Stacho (20G – 24A – 44 Pts). Five of the six first team members played in the Frozen Four and are recipients of multiple league as well as All-American recognition this season.
The second team is led, statistically and with a second national title, by Hobart sophomore Damon Beaver (20GP – 18-1-1 Record – 0.94GAA – .962SP – 7SO) in goal. Defensemen include Skidmore junior Danny Magnuson (10G – 18A – 28 Pts) and junior Connor Kalthoff (6G – 16A – 22 Pts) from St. Olaf. Up front, Plymouth State sophomore Will Redick (27G – 31A – 58 Pts), St. Norbert junior Liam Fraser (17G – 27A – 44 Pts) and junior Shane Bull (22G – 20A – 42 Pts) from Oswego provide some great offensive punch.
Third team honorees include goaltender junior Samuel Vyletelka (26GP – 15-8-2 – 2.29GAA – .932SP – 4SO) – from Augsburg; a defense pairing of Trinity senior Ned Blanchard (2G – 16A – 18 Pts) and junior Mick Heneghan (5G – 12A – 17 Pts) from Wisconsin – Stevens Point and forwards, senior Artem Buzoverya (8G -23A – 31 Pts) from Hobart, senior Andrew Kurapov (11G – 20A – 31 Pts) from Endicott and junior Fletcher Anderson (13G – 17A – 30 Pts) from Wisconsin- Stevens Point.
Here is this year’s list of outstanding players recognized as All-USCHO:
1st Team All-USCHO
G – Devon Bobak – SO – Trinity
D – Brian Scoville – SR – Utica
D – Jaden Shields – SR – Adrian
F – Adam Stacho – SR – St. Norbert
F – Tanner Hartman – SO – Hobart
F – Zachary Heintz – SR – Adrian
2nd Team All-USCHO
G – Damon Beaver – SO – Hobart
D – Connor Kalthoff – JR – St. Olaf
D – Danny Magnuson – JR – Skidmore
F – Will Redick – SO – Plymouth State
F – Liam Fraser – JR – St. Norbert
F – Shane Bull – JR – Oswego
3rd Team All-USCHO
G – Samuel Vyletelka – JR – Augsburg
D – Ned Blanchard – SR – Trinity
D – Mick Heneghan – JR – Wisconsin – Stevens Point
F – Fletcher Anderson – JR – Wisconsin – Stevens Point
F – Artem Buzoverya – SR – Hobart
F – Andrew Kurapov – SR – Endicott
All-USCHO – Honorable Mention
G – Dershahn Stewart – SR – Adrian
G – Tate Brandon – SR – Skidmore
G – Ty Outen – JR – Stevenson
D – Cooper Swift – SR – Hobart
D – Dayton Deics – St. Norbert
D – Alex Wilkins – SR – Geneseo
F – Ignat Belov – SO – Hobart
F – Matthew Rehding – SR – Adrian
F – Tyler Kostelecky – SO – Bethel
F – Tyler Flack – JR – Oswego
F – Liam McCanney – JR – Stevenson
Stay tuned for more announcements this week as we close out the 2023-24 campaign by recognizing the Coach of the Year, Rookie of the Year along with the All First-Year USCHO team and Player of the Year to wrap-up this year’s coverage.
RIT players celebrate winning the 2024 Atlantic Hockey championship over AIC last weekend on home ice (photo: Omar Phillips).
Each week during the season, we look at the big events and big games around Division I men’s college hockey in Tuesday Morning Quarterback.
Dan: Well, Paula, after six months and countless hours spent covering college hockey’s turbulent regular season, we’ve finally reached our 16-team conclusion after the six Division I conferences crowned their postseason champions.
At the risk of hyperbole, the thousands of shifts and hundreds of hours spent around ice rinks sent this sport into its final act after Selection Sunday slotted its teams into the four different regionals, all of which was intent on delivering us to Minnesota and the State of Hockey’s Frozen Four.
The weekend wasn’t the demolition derby drama that we might’ve hoped, but we still saw enough upsets to generate wide-eyed conversation. From the eastern vantage point, though, nearly everything fell into place after No. 1 Boston College, which already clinched the top spot in the national tournament, won its first Hockey East championship in 12 years by beating second-ranked BU in the battle of the nation’s top two teams while top-seeded and nationally-ranked RIT won Atlantic Hockey with a decisive victory over AIC. Even ECAC, which saw Cornell win the title, went according to its usual storyboard when top-seeded Quinnipiac lost in the semifinal (I make that comment knowing the Bobcats are more than capable of winning the big one…see also: championship, national).
Before we dive into the tournament field as a whole, what stood out to you from the weekend, and were you at all satisfied with the outcome?
Paula: “Satisfied” is an interesting word, Dan.
I was already thrilled heading into the weekend because of the all-Michigan Big Ten final. I couldn’t have been happier than to see Michigan take on Michigan State for that title – so happy for Adam Nightingale and his staff, so happy to see Michigan sustain success under Brandon Naurato and his staff – and the game itself didn’t disappoint.
In my Big Ten column last week, I argued that this specific matchup was good for college hockey as a whole, just like the BU-BC final was. The interest in those games was off the hook, and in the case of the Big Ten championship game, a rivalry with an intensity and relevance that has been absent for some time was platformed nationwide on the Big Ten network. I don’t have the numbers for viewership of that game, but anecdotally I heard from a lot of hockey fans watching all over North America.
So, yes, I guess in that regard, “satisfied” is an apt word. I like it when the sport we love generates interest.
I’m also thrilled that with Michigan Tech’s CCHA championship, my adopted home state of Michigan has four representatives in the NCAA tournament.
I’m not so thrilled, however, that three of those teams – Michigan State, Michigan and Western Michigan – are all playing in the same regional.
The Huskies are sneaky good. With an 8-2-0 record in their last ten, Michigan Tech rides a five-game win streak into their game against Boston College. A win against the Eagles is a longshot – BC is so dialed in right now – but if Blake Pietila remains as hot in goal as he has been, the Huskies have an outside chance to pull off an upset. Yes, I know it’s a small, teeny tiny chance, but we all know what can happen in one-and-done situations.
And I’m pulling for Maine to emerge from the Springfield regional. When the Black Bears were playing the Terriers Friday, I kept thinking about my Maine relatives who otherwise live or die with all sports things Boston cursing that city as only Mainers can.
In all, I thought it was a good weekend of hockey. I know there are some very disappointed fans of Colorado College, Providence and St. Cloud right now, but I like this field.
Looking ahead to the weekend, Dan, I don’t really see many upsets unless North Dakota winning out in Maryland Heights would be considered an upset. What possibilities for chaos in the tournament do you see?
Dan: I actually think there’s a really good chance that each of this year’s regionals produce a chaotic argument or two before they’re done because none of the top seeds are playing in a local building aside from No. 1 Boston College.
Let’s actually take a step back for a second because the rules governing the regionals got us into this situation. None of it surprised anyone who followed the possibilities and permutations over the last month, but our finalized pods took teams out of their logical settings. Boston University was sent to Sioux Falls instead of playing in Springfield, Massachusetts, a location slightly further away from Boston than Providence, and North Dakota was kept out of Sioux Falls for the Maryland Heights regional while Denver, the lone team that really could have gone anywhere, landed in Massachusetts because of the host site and non-conference requirement criteria.
The parity associated with that – whether it’s right or wrong, I’m not here to debate right now – makes the playing field more level for a tournament that’s already teeming with good teams. Even BC, which is the No. 1 overall seed and is playing closest to home, has to go through a battle-tested Michigan Tech team before getting either Wisconsin, which could have been a No. 1 seed before the Ohio State loss, or Quinnipiac, the defending national champion. That’s a pretty tough regional, in my opinion.
So it’s not just one regional for me. The list of teams that occupied No. 1 seeds at various times during the second half of the year included Quinnipiac, Maine, Wisconsin and (I think) Minnesota. I once said Michigan didn’t deserve a tournament spot until the Wolverines beat someone notable, and I ended the season thinking they were a lock to win the Big Ten. Cornell has arguably the best goalie in the tournament. Western Michigan was a top-10 team at one point. RIT is the only Atlantic Hockey team to make the Frozen Four. I watched Omaha make the Frozen Four when everyone overlooked the Mavs in 2015. Even UMass, which needed a millionth of a percentage point to get past Colorado College, has a good chance because of its run to the Hockey East semifinals and its host site status after making that run to the Hockey East semifinals.
(Let me pause for a quick story here. I read on Twitter or X or whatever it’s called that UMass head coach Greg Carvel pointed out that BC skated on TD Garden’s ice “10-12 more” times than his Minutemen, and while that wasn’t an excuse, he pointed out how, in his opinion, that experience mattered. But then UMass made the tournament and immediately got to play close to home because of its host site status. Granted, UMass didn’t play at MassMutual Center as often as it sounds on the surface level, but I still wanted to have a quick laugh about that while reiterating that I have no problem with his quote or his comment about having experience on the ice surface or anything…it just made me laugh.)
But now I have to cycle back to the conversation about the host status. I’m not sure if the regional conversation moving to campus buildings is the bigger conversation here – Ed, Jimmy, you, and I have all talked about it at various times in this space – but I do think it’s worth looking at the criteria requires teams to play at sites where they host. I do, at some point, want to talk (again) about the Pairwise itself, but are there other criteria, including the host site conversation, that we should probably review at this point?
Paula: I do think you’re talking about two things here: how to determine regional placement and how to determine tournament eligibility in the first place.
I don’t know what criteria could be reviewed at this point to make the placement process any fairer, other than what you mention in terms of the host teams and moving the regionals to campus sites – and moving the regionals to campus sites is the opposite of the kind of geographic parity that you bring up here, even though it would create much better atmosphere and solve attendance issues for some regionals.
But that, as we say, is a discussion for another time.
The truth of the matter is that every team who makes it to the Frozen Four has to go through two other really good teams that are likely at the top of their game – no matter where they’re playing.
Do I think that home ice – or friendlier confines – may help some teams? Sure. I think that was a huge advantage for the Spartans against the Wolverines in a game where the two teams were very, very evenly matched.
As for tournament selection, I don’t know if there are better criteria than RPI and head-to-head comparisons, so I honestly don’t know how to make the system work more fairly than it does. There are likely people much smarter than I am out there who have better ideas for this, but I am at a loss as to how the committee could tinker with their formula to produce any better outcome.
And let’s face it. When there are bubble teams, someone’s always going to be upset that they didn’t get in, and there’s always going to be room to grouse about it. I’m not unsympathetic – working hard all season only to come this close and stay home is difficult, but the answer is to take care of that business during the regular season.
I am sure that both Colorado College and New Hampshire, especially, are disappointed that hitting the 20-win mark this season didn’t lead to an NCAA tournament berth. Bemidji State, Holy Cross, AIC and Arizona State each had 20 or more wins, too – and they’re all watching the NCAA tournament, too.
I’m not certain there are inequities in the selection process, even though I do see massive inequity in college hockey itself. I just don’t know how things can be decided differently.
You mention experience, Dan, and that’s something I will be watching closely this weekend. I thought that Michigan had a good chance to win the B1G title because of its experience having done so on the road the previous two seasons, and I still think that Michigan’s experience of last year may give the Wolverines an edge, an advantage that Minnesota may have as well.
How much can experience matter in a single-elimination tournament, do you think? And what other factors do you think will influence this year’s field?
Dan: Well, if we’re Hockey East teams, we’ll find out, right?
I think any type of big game experience matters, and it’s all in how coaches and players draw off their performances in those games. I see two distinct groups in this regard: people who lean into the pressure and people who defuse the pressure. I’ve heard stories of coaches outlining exactly what needs to happen in which games to reach the tournament from a Pairwise perspective, and I’ve heard stories of coaches refusing to even think or look or discuss the national tournament. In both instances, they all acknowledge that it’s out there and that it’s all readily accessible in the social media era, but they also diverge into one of two different areas.
I actually like the third road that Jerry York once told me about. He used to like getting his team on the road in the early part of the season as a way to forge the team together in high-pressure situations, and he liked challenging his team over the course of the season. So I’m very much for a team that finds its way into the tournament by playing a couple of high-pressure games along the way.
To that end, I think that the conference tournament is the perfect setting to get a team battle-ready for the national tournament. Even if they didn’t make the single-elimination portion of the program, they’ve either played through or against an elimination setting and understand what that’s like. They know how to shorten benches or find what works and what doesn’t, and while Hockey East went strictly single-elimination, I think getting to the elimination game after a first game loss or getting to end a team’s season adds something to a hockey player that they’ve never experienced before.
The more you do it, the better you are. And yes, that’s basically a non-committal answer.
As always, I’m drawn to the character element of this showcase, and I’m very interested in seeing which players elevate their game on the biggest stages. Are there individuals that you see as potential X-factors – either on the ice or behind the bench?
Paula: I agree that conference tournaments can be good preparation for the national tournament, but I definitely favor tournament experience over participation on conference playoffs as a precursor to a good NCAA tournament run.
Quinnipiac’s championship last season is an example of that – and it also dovetails into your discussion of character or X-factors. The ECAC has not been a particularly deep league in recent years, but the Bobcats’ three consecutive NCAA tournament appearances in the years immediately preceding their 2024 title certainly prepped them for that moment.
Many folks remarked last year that all through that tournament, Rand Pecknold was relaxed in ways they’d never seen him previously, and that demeanor rubbed off on his team. The Bobcats were focused, all about business, but really confident and self-assured and – even more importantly, imo – they were enjoying every moment of that tournament.
I remember North Dakota’s 1997 win. Very few people thought they’d get past BU in the title game, but I saw them walking around Milwaukee – like, taking a team walk around a neighborhood away from the arena – and they were relaxed, calm, and enjoying the day. I knew then they’d win.
Same in 2007, when the Spartans won their last national championship. During their warm-up walk around the inside perimeter of the arena floor the day of the game, they were relaxed and savoring the moment. No one expected them to get past BC – and they almost didn’t. But they did, and I think early in that day, they knew they could.
I’m not saying that the underdogs are favored in the tournament, but sometimes there’s a disadvantage to being the favorite. I think one way Boston College mitigates that is built into the team – their youth. The program itself has the experience necessary to carry the Eagles to a title game, and it helps that the freshmen are so freaking talented. But sometimes a young team is too naïve to feel that kind of pressure.
We shall see. There are household names on every team in the tournament this year, players that everyone in college hockey has heard of. Several teams are mighty deep, too, but that doesn’t guarantee success.
In closing, I don’t know what will factor into success this weekend, but I do know that this field may be the best 16 teams we’ve seen in the tournament in a long, long time.
That said, I’m keeping my eye on Cornell. There’s something about this Big Red team that feels, well, due. And talking about X-factors, is there a bigger personality than Mike Schafer in all of college hockey right now? This team is making its third consecutive NCAA appearance. That’s as good a combination of intangibles and experience as any team possesses right now.
And back-to-back ECAC championships would be mighty interesting.
Ben Steeves popped 24 goals this season for UMD (photo: Terry Cartie Norton).
Minnesota Duluth sophomore forward Ben Steeves has signed a two-year, entry-level contract with the NHL’s Florida Panthers, giving up his remaining NCAA eligibility.
Steeves spent the past two seasons as a Bulldog and was a two-time Hobey Baker Memorial Trophy nominee. In 72 career games at UMD, the Bedford, N.H., native tallied 45 goals and 17 assists for 62 total points. He led the team in goals both seasons, with 24 in his sophomore year.
His contributions were consistently among the top in the nation. He ended the 2023-24 regular season with 13 power-play goals, second in the NCAA. Steeves was also fourth in game-winning goals (6) and sixth in goals per game (.69).
As a freshman, he was named to the NCHC all-rookie team and an honorable mention for the all-conference team. He was named NCHC rookie of the week four times and was named the team’s Jerry Chumola Rookie of the Year.
His accolades only continued in his second year as a Bulldog. He joined the all-NCHC second team, after being named forward of the week three times and December player of the month.
Steeves not only excelled on the ice, but in the classroom. He was named to the academic all-conference team and was an NCHC distinguished scholar-athlete both seasons. As a freshman, he was also an AHCA academic All-American.
Maine moves up one to No. 6, Minnesota is up one to No. 7, Quinnipiac is down two to sit eighth, Wisconsin stays ninth, and Michigan holds steady at No. 10.
The lone previously unranked team is Michigan Tech, coming in at No. 20 in this week’s rankings.
In addition to the top 20 teams, five others received votes.
The USCHO.com Division I Men’s Hockey Poll is compiled weekly and consists of 50 voters, including coaches and media professionals from across the country. Media outlets may republish this poll as long as USCHO.com is credited.
Boston University has been named a No. 1 seed for the 2024 NCAA tournament (photo: Jon Ratner).
Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.
1. No surprises among NCAA tournament’s top seeds
The PairWise Rankings ensure that there are never any big omissions from the NCAA tournament field, and to that same end, the four No. 1 regional seeds generally belong there, too.
Boston College, Boston University, Denver and Michigan State were handed No. 1 seeds when the full tournament bracket was announced Sunday. They will be favored to win their regionals, taking place in Providence, R.I.; Maryland Heights, Mo.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; and Springfield, Mass., respectively.
Top-ranked Boston College on Saturday won its 12th Hockey East playoff title, using four goals from freshman Will Smith to down No. 2 Boston University 6-2.
BC’s best-in-the-nation penalty kill shut down BU’s No. 1 power play units through the game’s first two periods. The Eagles scored on their own three power plays over the first 40 minutes.
Jacob Fowler, more on him later, made 34 saves in the winning effort.
3. Denver heats up to win NCHC title
Third-ranked Denver used four unanswered goals Saturday to earn the Pioneers’ third National Collegiate Hockey Conference playoff title, defeating Omaha 4-1.
Denver senior captain McKade Webster scored twice against the Mavericks, and sophomore Rieger Lorenz and freshman Miko Matikka bagged a goal apiece. Matikka also added an assist to make for consecutive multi-point games.
Matt Davis made 15 saves in the Denver net, in a game where the Pioneers outshot Omaha by a nearly 2 to 1 margin. The Mavericks only had three shots on goal in the third period.
4. Sparty beats archrival Michigan to take Big Ten title
Michigan State freshman Patrick Geary’s goal 13:47 into overtime Saturday gave the Spartans a 5-4 win on their home ice against Michigan in the Big Ten tournament final.
Fifth-ranked MSU earned its first-ever Big Ten playoff and regular-season crowns this season. The Spartans won their first postseason title since 2006, and their first regular-season championship since 2001.
MSU’s victory on Saturday was the Spartans’ fourth in a row against Michigan.
5. Cornell grabs ECAC Hockey crown
Fourteenth-ranked Cornell used two goals from freshman forward Jonathan Castagna to down St. Lawrence 3-1 during Saturday’s ECAC Hockey tournament championship game.
The Big Red’s 13th Whitelaw Cup victory was Cornell’s first since 2010.
Hank Kempf and Dalton Bancroft each chipped in two assists Saturday, joining Castagna in having multi-point nights. Castagna was named the tournament’s MVP.
6. RIT takes Atlantic Hockey title
Two goals and two assists from RIT graduate student forward Elijah Gonsalves and another two goals from first-year forward Matthew Wilde helped RIT win 5-2 Saturday on home ice in the Atlantic Hockey playoff title game against American International.
The top-seeded Tigers won their fourth Atlantic Hockey title, and their first since going back-to-back in 2015 and 2016. RIT will make its fourth NCAA tournament appearance later this week.
7. Michigan Tech wins first CCHA crown
Michigan Tech will hold the No. 16 seed for the NCAA tournament, after the Huskies won 2-1 Saturday in the CCHA title game on the road to Bemidji State.
Ryland Mosley scored the eventual game-winning goal 9:20 into the second period. Blake Pietila finished with 34 saves for the Huskies.
Tech clinched its third-consecutive NCAA tournament berth for the first time since 1976. Huskies coach Joe Shawhan will take MTU to its fourth NCAA tournament in his seven years so far with the program.
8. Richter Award finalists named
Boston College freshman Jacob Fowler, Colorado College sophomore Kaidan Mbereko and Wisconsin senior Kyle McClellan were named last week as the three finalists for this year’s Mike Richter Award, given each season to the top goaltender in men’s NCAA Division I hockey.
An initial watch list of 32 goalies was later whittled down to 10 semifinalists. The winner will be named April 12 during the NCAA Frozen Four in St. Paul, Minn.
Richter, a Hockey Hall of Fame member and legendary New York Rangers goalie, played his college hockey for Wisconsin and earned a degree from Yale.
9. Stonehill coach Borges calls it a career
The newest NCAA Division I men’s hockey program will have a new coach going forward, after Stonehill announced last week that David Borges is retiring after 11 years with what was previously a Division III program.
Borges had joined the Skyhawks’ coaching staff, first as an assistant, after spending 26 years with the boys hockey team at Coyle and Cassidy High School in nearby Taunton, Mass.
At Stonehill, Borges had a program-best 102 wins and five Northeast-10 Conference championships over his 11 seasons at the helm.
Miami will have its first new head coach in the better part of a decade next season, after the school announced last week that it has parted ways with Chris Bergeron.
A former Miami player and RedHawks assistant coach, Bergeron’s Miami teams were 35-116-16 overall and 18-91-11 in NCHC play in his five years behind the bench there.
Bergeron helped Miami to its first CCHA title in 1993, and later made two Frozen Four appearances with the RedHawks as an assistant. However, it has now been nine years since Miami reached the NCAA tournament.
Ohio State is the 2024 NCAA Division I women’s hockey national champion (photo: Nicole Haase).
DURHAM, N.H. — The Ohio State women’s hockey team found redemption, defeating rival Wisconsin 1-0 to win the program’s second National Championship Sunday at the University of New Hampshire.
The same two teams faced off for the title last season, with the Badgers taking a win by the same score.
After more than 50 minutes of scoreless hockey, a massive defensive effort by Ohio State’s Cayla Barnes cut off a breakaway opportunity for Wisconsin captain Britta Curl. Barnes quickly turned up the ice and fed the puck to Hannah Bilka, who pulled the defense wide and then laid the puck off to Joy Dunne, who scored on a shot remarkably like the one she lit the lamp with in OSU’s semifinal win over Clarkson. The wrist shot deflected up and over UW goalie Ava McNaughton’s shoulder with just more than seven minutes left in regulation.
It wasn’t lost on Ohio State coach Nadine Muzerall that the two assists on the championship-winning goal went to two players who transferred to OSU with the express intent to win a National Championship. For Barnes in particular, Muzerall said the desire for a title was something that burned deeply and drove her all season.
One of the Buckeyes’ top pair defenders, Hadley Hartmetz, was injured in the second period when she and Wisconsin captain Britta Curl fell over along the boards behind Kirk. Hartmetz didn’t return to the game and Ohio State finished out with five defenders carrying the load. Even while taking on more minutes and the clock ticking down, Barnes didn’t let the moment overwhelm her and Muzerall said she knew in a closely contested game like this, her team would need to rely on experience and leadership. With so much time with the US National team in Olympic and IIHF World Championship competition, Barnes was the perfect person to be steady and strong at the blue line.
The OSU win is vindication for the Buckeyes, who have been working towards this moment since the final whistle blew in Duluth last season.
Ohio State goalie Raygan Kirk, who pitched a shutout on the #2 team in the country that averaged five goals per game of offense over the course of the season, called it the Buckeyes’ revenge tour and rookie Joy Dunne said that even though there were a number of players on this year’s roster that hadn’t experienced the disappointment of last season’s loss, they felt the resentment just as sharply and wanted to win the title for their graduating players.
It was a back-and-forth game as both teams looked for any opportunity for an advantage. Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson felt like his team was in a “perfect position” heading into the final period in a scoreless tie, knowing that winning 20 minutes meant winning the whole game. As the game wore on, he said he knew the game would come down to a single goal and whoever scored it first. He likened it to a chess match as the teams moved back and forth up and down the ice without finding much space or opportunity to set up.
“It was a battle for space on the ice. There weren’t a lot of quality scoring opportunities at both ends. It’s going to come down to one play. They made the play, they win the game and it hurts,” said Johnson.
Muzerall echoed the sentiment, saying that as the game wore on she felt that whoever scored in the third period was going to come out on top.
“It was such a good defensive side of the game from both teams. I didn’t think that there would be much goal scoring. I didn’t know but it was just a feeling of if we can get to that one and then bear down defensively, we could win this thing,” she said.
It was a particularly tough loss for Badger captain Britta Curl, who had the puck on her stick and felt like she was in a position to score the go-ahead goal and just seconds later watched Ohio State take the lead. The pandemic and time off centralizing for the Olympics meant that Curl was in her sixth year at Wisconsin and playing for a record fourth championship.
“I know I’m going to walk out of here proud of this group. That’s sports. Sometimes you lose. I told the girls I’d choose to be in that locker room every time,” she said.
The win was a special one for Kirk, who played for Robert Morris when the university canceled its hockey programs. She transferred to Ohio State knowing she’d be the third or fourth goalie on the depth chart and put in the work to earn the starting spot in the National Championship, said Muzerall.
Before the game, Muzerall talked about building a legacy for her program. One championship was great, but in isolation, wasn’t indicative of what she’s attempting to build.
“Legacies obviously take time. Two is fantastic. I want to push to three and more,” she said after her team won their second title in three years on Sunday night.
With several Ohio State campus leaders in attendance, Muzerall said she was feeling a lot of Buckey love and was looking forward to enjoying the moment.
Ohio State finished the season with a 35-4 record and set a new program record for wins in a season. Wisconsin finished with a record of 35-6. Attendance for Sunday’s game was 4,378, the third-highest ever for a championship game. The combined Frozen Four attendance was 7,931, which is second-highest in women’s Frozen Four history.
The NCAA Men’s Division I hockey field was announced on Sunday with Boston College, Boston University, Denver and Michigan State earning the top seeds in the tournament.
The following are four regionals for this year’s tournament:
Providence, R.I. (March 29 and 31)
1. Boston College
8. Wisconsin
9. Quinnipiac
16. Michigan Tech
Maryland Heights, Mo. (March 29 and 31)
4. Michigan State
6. North Dakota
10. Michigan
13. Western Michigan
Sioux Falls, S.D. (March 28 and 30)
2. Boston University
7. Minnesota
11. Omaha
15. RIT
Springfield, Mass. (March 28 and 30(
3. Denver
5. Maine
12. Cornell
14. Massachusetts
The tournament will kick off in the Springfield regional with two recent national champions facing off as 2022 champion Denver faces 2021 champion UMass.
The Springfield and Sioux Falls regionals will play on Thursday and Saturday. Providence and Maryland Heights, Mo. will play on Friday and Sunday.
Tournament chairman Jeff Schulman, athletic director at Vermont, said that there were three principles that guided how the committee seeded this year’s tournament.
“The three big ones are we’re trying to avoid interconference matchups in the first round, we’re committed to keeping host at their host regionals so that affected both UMass and Omaha this year,” said Schulamn. “And we also work really hard to create an exciting championship atmosphere; good crowds and we think that we’ve accomplished that with this year’s bracket.”
To view the complete bracket including television information and starting times, click here.
The 2024 Frozen Four will take place at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., on April 11 and 13.
Denver topped Omaha in the NCHC championship game Saturday night in St. Paul, Minn. (photo: Omaha Athletics).
Here is a rundown of how the top 20 teams in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Hockey Poll of March 18 fared in games over the weekend of March 22-23.
No. 1 Boston College (31-5-1)
03/22/2024 – No. 13 Massachusetts 1 vs No. 1 Boston College 8 (Hockey East semifinal, Boston)
03/23/2024 – No. 2 Boston University 2 vs No. 1 Boston College 6 (Hockey East championship, Boston)
No. 2 Boston University (26-9-2)
03/22/2024 – No. 7 Maine 1 vs No. 2 Boston University 4 (Hockey East semifinal, Boston)
03/23/2024 – No. 2 Boston University 2 vs No. 1 Boston College 6 (Hockey East championship, Boston)
No. 3 Denver (28-9-3)
03/22/2024 – No. 17 St. Cloud State 4 vs No. 3 Denver 5 (OT, NCHC semifinal, St. Paul, Minn.)
03/23/2024 – No. 11 Omaha 1 vs No. 3 Denver 4 (NCHC championship, St. Paul, MN)
No. 4 North Dakota (26-11-2)
03/22/2024 – No. 11 Omaha 6 vs No. 4 North Dakota 3 (NCHC semifinal, St. Paul, Minn.)
No. 5 Michigan State (24-9-3)
03/23/2024 – No. 10 Michigan 4 at No. 5 Michigan State 5 (OT, Big Ten championship)
No. 6 Quinnipiac (26-9-2)
03/22/2024 – St. Lawrence 3 vs No. 6 Quinnipiac 0 (ECAC semifinal, Lake Placid, N.Y.)
No. 7 Maine (23-11-2)
03/22/2024 – No. 7 Maine 1 vs No. 2 Boston University 4 (Hockey East semifinal, Boston)
No. 8 Minnesota (22-10-5)
Did not play.
No. 9 Wisconsin (26-11-2)
Did not play.
No. 10 Michigan (21-14-3)
03/23/2024 – No. 10 Michigan 4 at No. 5 Michigan State 5 (OT, Big Ten championship)
No. 11 Omaha (23-12-4)
03/22/2024 – No. 11 Omaha 6 vs No. 4 North Dakota 3 (NCHC semifinal, St. Paul, Minn.)
03/23/2024 – No. 11 Omaha 1 vs No. 3 Denver 4 (NCHC championship, St. Paul, Minn.)
No. 12 Colorado College (21-13-3)
Did not play.
No. 13 Massachusetts (20-13-3)
03/22/2024 – No. 13 Massachusetts 1 vs No. 1 Boston College 8 (Hockey East semifinal, Boston)
No. 14 Cornell (21-6-6)
03/22/2024 – RV Dartmouth 3 vs No. 14 Cornell 6 (ECAC semifinal, Lake Placid, N.Y.)
03/23/2024 – St. Lawrence 1 vs No. 14 Cornell 3 (ECAC championship, Lake Placid, N.Y.)
No. 15 Western Michigan (21-15-1)
Did not play.
No. 16 Providence (18-13-4)
Did not play.
No. 17 St. Cloud State (17-16-5)
03/22/2024 – No. 17 St. Cloud State 4 vs No. 3 Denver 5 (OT, NCHC semifinal, St. Paul, Minn.)
No. 18 RIT (27-10-2)
03/23/2024 – RV AIC 2 at No. 18 RIT 5 (AHA championship)
No. 19 New Hampshire (20-15-1)
Did not play.
No. 20 Bemidji State (20-16-2)
03/22/2024 – RV Michigan Tech 2 at No. 20 Bemidji State 1 (CCHA championship)
Riley Duran skated three seasons for Providence (photo: Lydia Vigneau).
Providence forward Riley Duran will forego his senior season and has signed a two-year, entry-level contract with the NHL’s Boston Bruins.
Duran will report to the AHL’s Providence Bruins on an amateur tryout for the remainder of the 2023-24 season.
Duran, a native of Woburn, Mass., appeared in all 35 games for the Friars in 2023-24, registering nine goals and seven assists for 16 points with 101 shots and a plus-2 rating.
A sixth-round pick (182nd overall) of the Bruins in the 2020 NHL Draft, Duran played in 102 games over three seasons at Providence, totaling 27 goals and 28 assists with a plus-14 rating.
He also played for the U.S. National Junior Team at the 2022 World Junior Championship, amassing two goals and three assists over five games.
Vermont athletic director Jeff Schulman, chair of the NCAA men’s Division I ice hockey committee joins hosts Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger to talk about the process that went into the selection of this year’s championship field of 16, attendance, and discussions about going to on-campus sites in the future.
This episode is sponsored by the NCAA Division I Men’s Frozen Four, April 11 and 13 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Visit ncaa.com/mfrozenfour
Hosts Jim Connelly, Derek Schooley, and Ed Trefzger review the championships of this weekend and the mechanics of assembling the bracket in this special March 24, 2024 edition.
In this episode:
Michigan Tech wins CCHA on Friday
Cornell downs Cinderella St. Lawrence to win ECAC
RIT takes AHA title
Boston College cruises to the Hockey East title over BU
Michigan State wins in overtime over Michigan for first Big Ten title
Denver is victorious in penultimate NCHC Frozen Faceoff
Selection Sunday: What is the committee’s process?
Cam Thiesing spent three seasons playing for the Buckeyes (photo: Ohio State Athletics).
The NHL’s New York Islanders have signed forward Cam Thiesing to a two-year, two-way, entry-level contract that begins in 2024-25.
Thiesing, a native of Franklin, Tenn., completed a three-year career at Ohio State, recording 16 points (nine goals, seven assists) in 31 games while serving as an alternate captain this season.
He had 61 points (32 goals, 29 assists) in 108 career games, including a career-high 15 goals in 2022-23, which led all Buckeyes. Thiesing collected a career-high 25 points (eight goals, 17 assists) as a freshman in 2021-22, ranking third on the team in points and assists.
Stephen Halliday led Ohio State in scoring in each of his two seasons with the Buckeyes (photo: Ohio State Athletics).
The NHL’s Ottawa Senators have signed Ohio State sophomore forward Stephen Halliday to a two-year, entry-level contract that will commence with the 2024-25 season.
For the duration of 2023-24, Halliday has signed an amateur tryout agreement and will report to the AHL’s Belleville Senators.
A native of Ajax, Ont., Halliday recently completed his second season with the Buckeyes, where he led the team in both assists (26) and points (36) while ranking second in goals (10). He also registered 30 penalty minutes while skating in each of Ohio State’s 38 games.
“Stephen showcases a good combination of size and skill which is going to be invaluable to him as he progresses in pro hockey,” said Ottawa GM Steve Staios in a statement. “As a playmaker who enjoyed success at the collegiate level, we’re pleased with his progress and that he’s made the decision to start his professional career with the Ottawa Senators organization.”
A 2024 Hobey Baker Award nominee, Halliday skated in all 78 games over the course of his two-season collegiate career with Ohio State and recorded 77 points (19 goals, 58 assists) and 49 penalty minutes over that span.
Drafted by the Senators in the fourth round (104th overall) of the 2022 NHL Draft, Halliday led the Buckeyes in scoring in each of his two collegiate campaigns.
Hugo Ollas emerged as a star goalie in his three seasons with Merrimack (photo: Merrimack Athletics).
Merrimack junior goaltender Hugo Ollas has come to terms on a two-year, entry-level contract with the NHL’s New York Rangers.
A native of Linkoping, Sweden, Ollas was selected in the seventh round (197th overall) of the 2020 NHL Draft.
In his three seasons at Merrimack, Ollas appeared in 62 games, making 55 starts, posting a career record of 27-26-0, a goals-against average of 2.47, a mark that ties him for fourth-lowest all time for the program, and a save percentage of .914. He also notched six career shutouts, with five coming last season.
The NCAA Men’s Division I hockey field was announced on Sunday with Boston College, Boston University, Denver and Michigan State earning the top seeds in the tournament.
