Hosts Jim Connelly, Derek Schooley, and Ed Trefzger review games of the weekend and news of the week.
Highlights include Arizona State’s surprising sweep of No. 1 Denver, making that the story of the season so far, and the anticipated rise of Michigan State to the top of the USCHO Men’s Division I Ice Hockey Poll. They also delve into Michigan’s offense but also defensive struggles against Penn State, St. Cloud State’s under-the-radar performance, and Western Michigan’s strong start. Additionally, the hosts analyze the prospects of teams like Providence, Bentley, and Minnesota State, and preview the Friendship Four tournament in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Times are approximate:
00:15 Introduction and hosts
00:34 Arizona State’s stunning sweep of Denver
04:13 Michigan State’s rise to No. 1
06:37 Minnesota’s case for the top spot
08:38 Boston College’s comeback challenges
12:15 Michigan’s defensive struggles?
14:29 St. Cloud state’s quiet success
18:38 Cornell’s early season
21:06 Western Michigan’s strong start
24:29 Providence’s overtime challenges
27:46 Bentley’s impressive shutout streak
31:16 Minnesota State’s overlooked success
37:34 College hockey in Northern Ireland
40:30 Connecticut Ice tournament
42:36 Conclusion and wrap-up
Every game seems to be a battle now with little margin for error to achieve a win as seen in this Suffolk vs. UNE matchup (Photo by UNE Athletics)
While many scoreboard watchers were focused on the Aurora versus St. Norbert series in the west (checkout Brian Lester’s weekend recap), there was a lot of highly contested and overtime action in the east that shaped a very exciting weekend in all the conference slate of games. While Arcadia swept Stevenson, Amherst tied Trinity (won the shootout), and Oswego dropped Plattsburgh, some others like Hobart, Elmira, Geneseo, and Utica kept rolling along. Lots to unpack in a week that featured fourteen overtime contests. Here is the wrap-up for all the exciting action and onus hockey in the east:
CNE
Curry swept their weekend series against Nichols where they outscored the Bison by an 11-1 margin. On Friday night, five different players scored for the Colonels who cashed in early for a 3-0 lead and cruised to a 5-1 win at home. Alex Duncan and Eelis Laaksonen led the way with a goal and an assist each in the win. On Saturday, Killian Rowlee set the tone offensively scoring a natural hat trick while goaltender Shane Soderwall earned the shutout win stopping all 35 Bison shots in a 6-0 victory.
The University of New England played Suffolk and rebounded from last weekend’s losses to Endicott with a sweep of the Rams. On Friday night, two third period goals helped the Nor’easters break open a 2-1 game on the way to a 4-1 win at home. Dominic Murphy scored a pair of goals while Kevin O’Keefe added a goal and an assist in the win. Two first period goals within 1:46 was all the offense goaltender Joey Stanizzi would need in a 3-0 shutout win over the Rams. Stanizzi earned his third shutout of the young season stopping 33 Suffolk shot attempts.
Endicott kept their win streak going with a pair of victories over Johnson & Wales. Primo Self scored twice, and the Gulls erupted for four second period goals to break a 1-1 tie on the way to a 7-2 rout of the Wildcats on Friday night. Michael Casey scored a goal and added two assists for a three-point game to lead the Gulls. Saturday saw a much closer contest as the Wildcats fought back from a 3-1 deficit on goals from Harout Torosian and Davis Bone in the third period to tie the game at 3-3. The Gulls wasted no time in the extra session as Jackson Sterrett scored with an assist from Andrew Kurapov just 42 seconds into overtime for the 4-3 win.
After a 4-4 overtime tie where Wentworth won the shootout on Friday, Western New England broke into the win column in conference play with a 4-3 win over the Leopards on Saturday. Wentworth jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period before the Golden Bears responded with four unanswered goals including Justin Sullivan’s shorthanded goal and Everest Scheider’s power play marker. Phillipe Longchamps opened and closed the scoring for the home team who held on for a 4-3 regulation win.
MAC
Arcadia broke an 0-2-2 run with a pair of one-goal wins over Stevenson to sweep the weekend series with the Mustangs. On Friday, Jake Frankenfield and Cody Mastay scored for the Knights to break open a 2-2 game and the home team held on for a 4-3 win. Goaltender Ryan Burgess stopped 39 of 42 shots to earn the win. On Saturday, Stevenson carried a 3-1 lead midway through the third period before the Black Knights rallied to tie the game on a goal with less than 30 seconds remaining in regulation time off the stick of Drew Iannucci. Iannucci provided the overtime winner in the first minute of bonus hockey to complete his hat trick in a thrilling 4-3 win.
Neumann remained unbeaten on the season with a pair of wins over King’s this weekend. The Monarchs tied a back-and-forth game in the final two seconds on a goal by Lee Kent to send the game to overtime. Lucas Culhane scored his second goal of the game in overtime for a 6-5 road win. On Saturday, Dustin Patterson’s second goal of the game just 22 seconds into the third period proved to be the game-winner in a 4-2 win to help Neumann earn the sweep and move their record to 4-0-2 on the season.
Lebanon Valley provided another overtime thriller to the MAC schedule with a 3-2 win over Alvernia on Saturday. After Justin Pare tied the score at 2-2 in the third period, Cameron Croteau needed just 46 seconds in the overtime period to give the Flying Dutchmen a 3-2 road win over the Golden Wolves. Goaltender Chris Branch stopped 41 of 43 shots to earn the win.
Wilkes remained unbeaten in MAC play as they posted a weekend sweep of Misericordia to move to 7-0-0 in MAC play this season. On Friday, Nick Swain, Luke Dobles and Carter Jordan scored for the Colonels who held off the Cougars rally following a pair of goals from Ryan Karbach in a 3-2 win. Things were a little more comfortable on Saturday as Wilkes cruised to a 3-0 lead and won the game 5-1 behind a pair of goals from Daniel Nau.
MASCAC
Massachusetts-Dartmouth opened conference play on Thursday and took an exciting 5-4 overtime win over Fitchburg State. The third period saw the Corsairs’ Collin Patterson score a pair of goals to complete his hat trick that helped the home team to a 4-3 lead. Alexandre Bauvais tied the contest at 4-4 in the final minute of regulation with a power play goal only to see Brennan Pecararo score with an assist from Patterson to give the Corsairs the win. On Saturday, Patterson scored two more goals to pace the Corsairs to a 4-2 win over Framingham State for a 2-0-0 MASCAC record.
Anna Maria opened their MASCAC slate with a pair of wins over Westfield State and Rivier. On Thursday, four different goal scorers and two special team goals were all goaltender Matthew Hennessey (24 saves) needed in a 4-0 home win over the Owls. On Saturday, the two newest members of the conference faced-off with the AmCats breaking open a close game with a three-goal third period on the way to a 5-1 road win. Matthew Gilbert scored two unassisted goals in a span of eight seconds in the opening minutes of the final period to provide some cushion in the AmCat road win.
After Plymouth State’s 7-1 win over Framingham State on Thursday where Ethan Stuckless scored four goals, including a natural hat trick, the Panthers battled a pesky Salem State squad on Saturday. The Vikings rallied from a 3-1 deficit on goals by Chase Conlon and Keagan O’Donoghue to tie the score midway through the final period. Colin Tracy provided the quick answer and game-winning goal just 26 seconds after O’Donoghue tied the game in a 4-3 road win that moves the Panthers to 3-0-0 in MASCAC play.
NE-10
After a 6-3 road win against St. Michael’s on Tuesday, St. Anselm hosted Assumption in a two-game series over the weekend and the visitors skated away with a pair of one-goal wins. On Friday, the hawks held leads of 3-1 and 4-2 only to see the Greyhounds rally to tie the score late in the third period on goals from Thomas McGaffigan and Jonathan Surrette. Moving into overtime it was the visitors who found the winning goal off the stick of Patrick McKiernan with just over a minute remaining in the extra session and a 5-4 win. On Saturday, Assumption scored twice in the third period to break a 1-1 tie and held on for a 3-2 win over the Hawks. Goaltender Thomas McClarnon made 41 saves to earn the victory.
Southern New Hampshire leveled its NE-10 record at 3-3-0 with a pair of shutout wins over Post. On Friday, the Penmen scored a goal in each period and took advantage of 20 saves from goaltender Collin Berke in a 3-0 win over the Eagles. A goal and an assist each from Ryan Pomposelli and Ryan Clear provided the offensive spark while Berke stopped 36 shots in a 4-0 shutout win and weekend sweep for SNHU.
St. Michael’s rebounded from their Tuesday loss to St. Anselm by capturing a pair of wins over Franklin Pierce over the weekend. David Ciancio scored two goals in a 3-2 win on Friday night while SJ LeComte paced the offense on Saturday with one goal and two assists in a 5-1 victory for the Purple Knights. St. Michael’s stands at 5-2-0 in conference play so far this season.
NEHC
Hobart hosted Salve Regina for two games over the weekend and skated away with a pair of wins to remain unbeaten on the season. Two power play goals and one shorthanded tally paced the offense on Friday night as Damon Beaver stopped 25 Seahawk shots in a 4-0 shutout win for the Statesmen. On Saturday, the teams answered each other on the scoreboard with Salve Regina’s Arvega Hovsepyan tying the game at 2-2 with a power play goal. Tanner Daniels, who opened the scoring for Hobart, scored the game-winning goal shorthanded in a 3-2 win where Hobart held a commanding advantage in shots at 54-19.
Skidmore bounced back from a pair of losses last week to Elmira with a sweep of games against VSU-Castleton. A four-goal first period and seven different scorers helped pace the Thoroughbreds to a convincing 7-1 win over the Spartans on Friday, in what was coach Rob Hutchison’s 100th victory behind the Skidmore bench. On Saturday, an offensive explosion of six goals between the teams led to a 5-4 win for Skidmore who overcame a hat trick from Castleton’s Luke Chakrabarti. Zach Lindewirth’s goal just 24 seconds after Jackson Edward’s tying goal for the Spartans proved to be the game-winner.
Massachusetts-Boston had started the season 0-5-0 but captured back-to-back wins over New England College to break into the win column this season. A pair of shorthanded goals and a goal and an assist from Jazz Krivtsov helped pace a 4-2 Beacon win on Friday night. On Saturday, Jude Kurtas assisted on all three Beacon goals in a 3-0 shutout win. Goaltender Tyler Bost stopped 31 shots to earn the shutout victory.
Babson extended their win streak to three games by taking two victories over Southern Maine. The Beavers took advantage of Charlie Andriole’s early third period goal and 29 saves from Mason Rosado to earn a hard-fought 2-1 win over the Huskies. In another one-goal game on Saturday, Tommy Rooney’s second goal of the game early in the third period broke a 3-3 tie and helped Babson to a 4-3 decision that leveled their NEHC record at 3-3-0.
Elmira played host to Albertus Magnus and came away with a win and an overtime tie (Albertus Magnus won the shootout) in their two-game series. On Friday, goals were hard to come by and Brennan Boyce’s third period marker was the difference in a 2-1 Soaring Eagle win. On Saturday, Chance Gorman with just over five minutes in regulation to tie the game at 2-2 which was where it ended at the end of overtime.
NESCAC
Williams rebounded from an 0-2 start with a pair of road wins over Connecticut College and Tufts. William Cannata led the Ephs offense on Friday with a goal and a pair of assists in a 5-1 win over the previously unbeaten Camels. On Saturday, Owen Stadheim’s unassisted shorthanded goal got Williams off and running as they built a 4-0 lead and held off the Jumbos with a 4-2 win. Goaltender Cal Sandquist stopped 28 shots to earn the victory.
In one of the best and longest played D-III rivalry games, the Mules from Colby College took advantage of two goals each by Reese Farrell and Jayden Grier in a 5-1 win over in-state rival Bowdoin. The win moved Colby to 2-1-0 in NESCAC play.
Hamilton was looking to build on their fast start and extended their win streak to start the season with a win over Wesleyan on Saturday. Tied at 3-3 entering the third period, the Continentals scored three unanswered goals to go on to win the game by a 6-3 score. Alex Danis and Luke Tchor each scored two goals for the Continentals. On Sunday, Hamilton was looking to take advantage of a Trinity team that has started slowly. The tams exchanged goals for a 2-2 tie almost midway through the final period, but Alexander Mozian scored a power play goal and goaltender Devon Bobak’s 34 saves protected a one-goal win for the Bantams while handing Hamilton its first loss of the season.
SUNYAC
Cortland picked up a pair of SUNYAC wins by downing Plattsburgh and Potsdam on the road. On Friday, Joshua Belgrave gave the Cardinals and early 1-0 lead, but the Red Dragons scored three unanswered, including two by Nathan Garnier to post a 3-1 win. On Saturday, two goals early and two goals late were enough to push Cortland past the Bears by a 4-2 score. Nate Berke scored two goals and added an assist for the Red Dragons in the win.
Buffalo State remained unbeaten in SUNYAC play with a thrilling overtime win over Oswego followed by a second overtime win over Canton. Against Oswego, David Tolan tied the score at 1-1 early in the third period and Ethan Perrault, with an assist from Joe Glamos netted the overtime winner just 22 seconds into the bonus period for a 2-1 Bengal win. On Saturday, Tommy Chunchukov’s second goal of the game tied the score at 2-2 in the third period before Perrault and Glamos assisted on David Tolan’s overtime winner for the Bengals. The weekend sweep brings Buffalo State’s record in SUNYAC action to 4-0-0.
Both Plattsburgh and Oswego rebounded from Friday losses with 4-1 wins on Saturday over Morrisville and Fredonia, respectively. Four different goal scorers paced the Cardinals win over the Mustangs while the same offensive formula was successful for the Lakers in their win over the Blue Devils.
UCHC
In a battle of former SUNYAC opponents, Geneseo hosted Brockport and remained unbeaten on the season posting wins by 3-2 and 3-1 scores. Two goals from Sean Melso in a three-goal second period was enough to earn the Knights a one-goal win over the Golden Eagles on Friday. On Saturday, Peter Morgan’s goal in the final minute of the second period provided a little cushion in a 3-1 win. Goaltender Jacob Torgner stopped 13 of 14 shots to earn the victory.
Utica hosted Chatham and remained unbeaten in UCHC action with a pair of wins over the Cougars. Two goals each from Jakob Breault and Drake Morse paced the offense in a 6-3 win on Friday night. On Saturday, Breault’s goal in the third period proved to be the game-winner as the Pioneers built a 4-1 lead and held off the Cougars in a 4-3 win.
Manhattanville captured a win and an overtime tie (Golden Flyers won the shootout) with Nazareth over the weekend to move to 3-2-1 in conference play. Two goals from Nicholas Rogers and four assists from Lane Paddison led the Valiants to a 4-1 win on Friday night. On Saturday, Rogers’ goal in the third period helped the Valiants rally from a one-goal deficit to earn the overtime tie.
Three Biscuits
Drew Iannucci – Arcadia – scored a hat trick including the game’s opening goal, game-tying goal in the final minute of regulation and overtime-winner in the Black Knights’ 4-3 win over Stevenson on Saturday.
Killian Rowlee – Curry – scored a natural hat trick to open the scoring in the Colonels’ 6-0 win over Johnson & Wales on Saturday.
Collin Patterson – Massachusetts-Dartmouth – recorded a four-point game, including a hat trick in Thursday’s 5-4 OT win over Fitchburg State. Patterson added two more goals in Saturday’s 4-2 win over Framingham State.
Bonus hockey and overtime wins are happening much more frequently which is great for the fan base and probably not so much for coaches across the different leagues who are experiencing the downside of an OTL. Thanksgiving on the horizon means some great tournament action upcoming along with some very tasty conference battles like Elmira and Hobart to name just one battle amongst ranked opponents.
St. Norbert remains unbeaten after a sweep of Aurora in a battle of nationally ranked teams. (Photo Credit: Patrick Ferron/St. Norbert Athletics)
It’s become a familiar theme. St. Norbert plays hockey on the weekend and comes away with a couple of wins.
The Green Knights continued that trend this past Friday and Saturday, sweeping Aurora in an NCHA showdown featuring two nationally ranked teams.
The No. 2 Green Knights won 3-2 in overtime on Friday before dominating on Saturday to the tune of 6-1 over the fifth-ranked Spartans.
St. Norbert is now 9-0 overall and 6-0 in the NCHA. It is off to its best start since the 2013-14 national championship season.
Aurora is 6-2 overall and 4-2 in the conference.
Logan Dombrowsky led the way with one goal and three assists, pushing his season point total to a nation’s best 21. Liam Fraser scored twice and also dished out an assist. He now has 10 goals, all in the last five games, and ranks fifth all-time in points (143).
Dayton Deics added a goal and assist while Hunter Garvey made 23 saves.
The Green Knights led 2-0 after one period and scored three goals in the second.
Friday’s game was a little bit closer, with Fraser scoring at the 2:31 mark of overtime to lift the Green Knights to the win.
St. Norbert trailed 2-0 in the second after Aurora got two goals from Landry Schmuck before scoring twice to even things up. Fraser and Dombrowsky both scored to tie the game.
Trine Time
The Thunder are still unbeaten after sweeping MSOE over the weekend.
Ninth-ranked Trine improved to 7-0-1 overall and 5-0-1 in the NCHA.
Braden Flinn was the star in the finale, scoring the game winner late in the third for a 2-1 win over the Raiders
Kyle Kozma made 20 saves for his second win of the weekend.
Friday’s game was just as close, and this time Brendan Hill came through with the game winner, finding the back of the net in the last five minutes of action for a 3-2 win.
MSOE had tied the score in the 15th minute and actually outshot the Thunder 28-14. Kozma made 26 saves.
MSOE is 2-4-1 overall and 2-3 in the conference.
Falcons sweep the weekend
No. 13 UW-River Falls opened up WIAC play on a high note, beating 10th ranked UW-Stevens Point in convincing fashion.
The Falcons topped the Pointers 5-1, scoring five unanswered goals en route to the win.
Dylan Smith led the way, tallying three goals for the second hat trick of his career.
The five goals by the Falcons were the most by the team since scoring six against the Pointers in 2021.
Brennan Boynton was impressive in goal, stopping 19 shots for his fifth win. Jonny Meiers and Alex Atwill each dished out two assists.
River Falls capped the weekend with a 4-1 win over Northland, winning its third consecutive game.
The Falcons are 6-1 overall and 2-0 in the WIAC. Atwill and Max Collette each tallied a goal and assist while Boynton made 24 saves.
Intense battle between Pointers and Yellowjackets
UW-Stevens Point and UW-Superior put on quite a show in their matchup Saturday night.
Tied at 4-4 at the 11:36 mark of the third period, overtime seemed to be a potential outcome for these two teams.
But two minutes later, the Pointers got the game-winning goal thanks to Joshua German scoring the clutch goal. He also dished out three assists in the win.
Alex Proctor made 20 saves for Stevens Point while Jack Boschert and Jan Skorpik combined for 30 saves for the Yellowjackets.
Tyler Ryder and Reed Stark finished with a goal and assist for Superior.
UW-Superior opened its weekend with a 3-1 win over UW-Eau Claire. The Yellowjackets are now 3-21 overall and 1-1 in the WIAC. The Pointers are 4-3 overall and 1-1 in the conference.
Big weekend for Gusties
Gustavus came through with two impressive wins over the weekend, sweeping Concordia. The Gusties won 4-0 on Friday and added a 4-3 win on Saturday.
Gustavus has now won three in a row and is 3-3 overall and 3-1 in the MIAC, flipping the script in a big way after an 0-3 start.
Marko Belak made 31 saves for the Gusties and Hunter Newhouse scored the game winner in the final minute of the third. He finished with two goals in the win. Jack Wineman tallied two assists.
Gustavus jumped on top 2-0 in Friday’s game and never looked back. Belak recorded his first career shutout, making 16 saves, and Nate Stone and Grant Ellings each came through with two assists.
A sweep for the Saints
It was a successful weekend for St. Scholastica as it swept Augsburg, finishing off the series with a 2-0 win.
St. Scholastica won 4-3 on Friday but had to hold off a late comeback attempt by the Auggies. The Saints led 4-1 going into the third period of that game.
St. Scholastica is now 3-3-1 overall and 2-2 in the MIAC.
Nick Lanigan and Hunter Hanson both scored in Saturday’s win. Laigan added an assist. Wyatt Wurst came through with two assists.
Eino Rissanen came through with 38 saves, including four in a 30-second stretch in the middle of the third to preserve the shutout.
Wurst dished out three assists in Friday’s win and four different players scored goals as St Scholastica won its first MIAC game of the year. Tistan Shewchuk was among the goal scorers. He also added an assist to his stat line.
Six different players scored on Friday to carry Wisconsin to a 6-1 win. Claire Enright, Kirsten Simms, Lacey Eden, Cassie Hall, Kelly Gorbatenko and Finley McCarthy each lit the lamp for the Badgers. Chloe Boreen was the goal scorer for the Tommies in the loss. Wisconsin jumped out early in the second game as Casey O’Brien scored just 52 seconds into the first period to put the home team up 1-0. But St. Thomas tightened up on defense as Dani Strom made 14 saves the rest of the period and the defense kept the Badgers off the board. In the second, Maddie Brown tied the game 1-1 with a great effort, putting back a second chance opportunity. Less than two minutes later, Cassie Hall gave Wisconsin the 2-1 lead and Laila Edwards extended the lead to 3-1 before the midpoint of the game. With her assist on that goal, O’Brien set a new program record for career assists with 139. Brown scored her second of the game on another second-chance opportunity to make it a 3-2 game heading into the second intermission. In the third, KK Harvey put a shot through traffic during the power play into the back of the net for her 100th career point. She became the fifth ever Wisconsin defender to reach the century mark and is the fastest defender to do it. O’Brien topped off a two-goal, two-assist game by scoring later in the third to give Wisconsin a 5-2 win and weekend sweep.
(2) Ohio State at Minnesota State
Sophomore goalie Hailey Hansen had 36 and Mankato held Ohio State off the board into the third period on Friday night. The Buckeyes outshot the Mavericks 38-16, but MSU’s defense stood strong. Jocelyn Amos broke the stalemate early in the third period, cleaning up a loose puck to make it 1-0 OSU. It looked like that might be enough, but Alexis Paddington came through clutch for the Mavericks, scoring with 46.4 seconds left in regulation to force overtime. It looked like Taylor Otremba was going to win the game for Minnesota State in the extra frame on a great pass from Madison Mashuga, but her shot hit the post. Ohio State did not leave anything else up to chance and Joy Dunne showed off some great skating and puck handling to end the game on the other end shortly after to give the Buckeyes the 2-1 OT win. The Mavericks did not let up on Saturday. Claire Vekich scored early in the first, finding open ice in the high slot to one-time a pass from Otremba to put Minnesota State up 1-0. That tally would hold up for more than 40 minutes as MSU fought for possession, kept OSU from getting many shots off and were able to dictate some of the game. The Mavericks extended their lead to 2-0 early in the third with a goal from Otremba, but Ohio State responded as Maddi Wheeler put back a rebound to make it a 2-1 game. But after the near miss on Friday it was as if Otremba was determined to earn the win on Saturday. With four minutes left on the clock, she trailed a play built by Whitney Tuttle and Mashuga and showed great awareness, keeping an eye on the puck and tucking a rebound around a defender to make it 3-1. Mashuga added an empty netter and Minnesota State completed the upset 4-1 win.
(3) Minnesota vs. (10) St. Cloud State
Minnesota scored just 23 seconds into the game on Friday to set the tone for a mostly back and forth game. Abby Promersberger scored for SCSU on the power play to tie the game 1-1 with under five to play in the first, but Ava Lindsay’s goal shortly after made it a 2-1 game for the Gophers heading into the first intermission even though St. Cloud had a 14-12 shot advantage. Abbey Murphy extended Minnesota’s lead to 3-1 early in the second, but the Huskies fought back again, as Ally Qualley scored on the power play to make it 3-2 going into the second intermission. Murphy put the game away in the final frame, scoring on the power play to make it 4-2 and securing a hat trick with an empty-netter to give the Gophers the 5-2 win. The second game of the series was at St. Cloud and despite outshooting the home team 23-8 and having two power plays, the Gophers were held off the board in the first. Midway through the second, Promersberger took off on a breakaway and did not miss, giving St. Cloud the 1-0 lead. Early in the third, Brieja Parent deflected in the puck to put the Huskies up 2-0. Less than two minutes later, Avery Farrell’s shot hit off a Minnesota skate and found the back of the net and made it 3-0 SCSU. Natálie Mlýnková pulled one back for the Gophers a few minutes later, but they could not close the gap any further and St. Cloud earned their first series split with the Gophers and their first win at home against them since Feb. 2010.
Bemidji State at (4) Minnesota Duluth
In game one, Olivia Wallin scored her first career hat trick and the third goal was her 100th career point as UMD dominated the Beavers 8-1. Tova Henderson lit the lamp twice while Mary Kate O’Brien and Olivia Mobley each had a goal and an assist in the Bulldogs’ win. Shelby Breiland was the goal scorer for Bemidji State in the loss. On Saturday, Bemidji did a great job of clogging the middle, blocking 18 shots. Minnesota Duluth scored twice – Henderson on the power play and Mobley in the second, but that was enough to take the win and weekend sweep.
(5) Colgate at Princeton
A fast-paced, back-and-forth match saw Princeton tally the last and most important goal on Friday to win 4-3 in OT. Teja Gatfield scored her first collegiate goal midway through the first on the power play to put the Tigers up 1-0. The Raiders replied with an extra attacker tally of their own two minutes later thanks to Kalty Kaltounková. In the second, Mackenzie Alexander used her speed and a gorgeous toe drag to beat the defense and put Princeton up 2-1. Michelle Palumbo tied the game a few minutes later, putting back a rebound from a Kaia Malachino shot. Sarah Paul’s late goal from the slot put Princeton up 3-2 heading into the second intermission. Alexis Petford ripped a shot from the right side boards midway through the third to tie the game and force overtime. Issy Wunder ended the game with 90 seconds left in the extra frame, carrying it from behind her own blue line and using a gorgeous move to beat the defender and go in alone on goal to give the Tigers the 4-3 win.
(5) Colgate at (7) Quinnipiac
Quinnipiac struck first when Kendall Cooper’s shot snuck into the back of the net midway through the first. Colgate tied the game up on Kalty Kaltounková’s power play goal and that’s how the teams headed into the first intermission. The Bobcats had a goal called back to start the second and there would be no scoring in the middle frame. Early in the third, Colgate took the lead on a break by Alexis Petford and Neena Brick that Brick buried to make it 2-1. Kaltounková scored another power play goal with five to play to make it 3-1 and Emma Pais added an empty-netter to secure the 4-1 win. Kaltounková became the first Raider in program history to score 100 career goals and is the only active NCAA Division I skater to reach that plateau.
(6) Clarkson at Brown
Led by Anne Cherkowski’s two goals and an assist, Clarkson took a 4-1 win on Friday. Rhea Hicks opened the scoring at the start of the second, taking advantage of a turnover behind the net to make it 1-0. Cherkowski’s first came on the power play as she used a screen to make it 2-0. In the final minute of the second, Ava DeCoste’s shot deflected off a skate into the net to cut into the lead and make it 2-1. But the Golden Knights did not let it get any closer than that. Haley Winn wristed a shot on the power play to make it 3-1. Cherkowski closed out the scoring after Sidney Fess carried the puck from the defensive zone and fed her as pass she backhanded into the net to give Clarkson the win.
(6) Clarkson at Yale
Like in their Friday game, Yale jumped out to an early lead. Carina DiAntonio cleaned up a loose puck on the backhand and Naomi Boucher had a rebound full right on her stick to put the Bulldogs up 2-0. Kirstyn McQuigge’s wrister through traffic cut the lead to 2-1 heading into the first intermission. In the second period, Raedyn Spademan’s pretty toe drag and backhand tied the game 2-2. The Golden Knights took the lead after killing a penalty on Haley Winn. Winn herself scored just after exiting the box to go up 3-2. Despite a long stretch with the player advantage, Yale struggled to get the puck on net in the early third. DiAntonio tied the game on a great personal effort to tie the game 3-3 with under seven to play in regulation. In overtime, Anne Cherkowski was joined on a break by Caroline Goffredo. The game-winner was scored when Cherkowski’s pass went off Goffredo’s skate and into the net to give Clarkson the 4-3 OT win.
(8) Cornell at (7) Quinnipiac
Alyssa Regalado opened the scoring for Cornell in the first, but Quinnipiac replied quickly as Makayla Watson created a turnover and then ripped a shot from the far boards to tie the game 1-1. Kahlen Marche added a power play goal with 8.4 seconds left in the first to make it 2-1 heading into the intermission. Bryn Prier doubled the lead, tipping in a shot from Kendall Cooper late in the second to make it 3-1 Quinnipiac heading into the third. The Big Red found their rhythm as Gabbie Rud fed first Rory Guilday and then Avi Adam two minutes apart to even the score 3-3. An overtime period did not decide a winner and this ended a 3-3 tie. In the shootout, Piper Grober and Karel Prefontaine scored while Annelies Bergmann stopped two of Quinnipiac’s shots to earn the shootout win for the Big Red.
(8) Cornell at Princeton
Princeton looked to be well in control of this game after scoring twice in the opening period on goals from Katherine Khramtsov and Issy Wunder and taking a 3-0 lead less than three minutes into the third on a goal from Mackenzie Alexander. But Cornell decided that’s not how things were going to go down. The Big Red reeled off four goals in just more than eight minutes in the second half of the second period to take a 4-3 lead. Lily Delianedis started the flurry and Karel Prefontaine lit the lamp just 95 seconds later. Claudia Yu scored the first of her season to tie the game and Avi Adam’s power play goal would prove to be the game winner. Neither team could score in the third, giving Cornell the come-from-behind win.
(9) St. Lawrence at Yale
Emma-Sofie Nordström matched her season-high 37 saves while Abby Hehl and Katina Duscio each had a goal and an assist to lead the Saints to a 2-1 win on Friday. Yale pulled back a goal late when Jordan Ray scored on the power play, but it was not enough to overcome SLU’s early goals and St. Lawrence took the win.
(9) St. Lawrence at Brown
SLU hit the post a few times early before Abby Hehl got her third point of the weekend off a pass from Tori Verbeek. But the lead lasted just 36 seconds before Jade Iginla evened the score from the slot. Neither team could find an advantage, even after overtime, though the Saints pinged the posts a few more times. In the shootout, Kassidy Lawrence made four saves and Kiley Mastel, Sarah Thompson and Hehl each scored to give St. Lawrence the win.
(11) Boston College vs. (14) Connecticut (home and home)
Claire Murdoch’s power play goal had UConn up 1-0 early in the first game of the weekend. Lauren Glaser’s top shelf shot from distance tied the game, sending the teams to the first intermission tied 1-1. The Huskies took the lead on a stretch pass from Meghane Duchesne-Chalifoux right to Livvy Dewar, who beat the defense and the goalie to make it 2-1. In the closing minutes of the second, Julia Pellerin beat the defense to score short-handed to make it a 2-2 game at the second intermission. The game winner came on a misplayed puck by UConn goalie Megan Warrener behind the net. Glaser was coming strong on the forecheck and had an easy tap in to make it 3-2. Boston College stepped up on defense to close out the game and that’s all they’d need to earn the win. On Saturday, Maya Serdachny’s seeing eye shot from the point put UConn up 1-0 six minutes into the first. Boston College tied the game in the final seconds of the period as Keri Clougherty completed a 3-on-2 breakout to make it 1-1. Ashley Allard crept into the slot and slapped home a pass from Mila Josifovic to put Connecticut ahead 2-1 with under four to play in the fourth and that’s all the Huskies would need to earn a win and split the weekend series.
Robert Morris at (12) Penn State
In game one, Maddy Christian scored twice while Stella Retrum, Brianna Books and Tessa Janecke each lit the lamp to lead the Nittany Lions to 5-0 win. Lucy Phillips made 38 saves for RMU in the loss. In the second game, Katie DeSea earned her third shootout of the season and the program’s first back to back shutouts in two years. Alyssa Machado, Kendall Butze, Grace Outwater and Janecke all scored to make it a 4-0 win.
Connor Hasley has been turning heads in net for Bentley (photo: Ryan DeSantis/Bentley Athletics).
Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.
1) No. 1 finally be-Devil’d
It finally happened.
For two months, defending national champion Denver sat atop the USCHO.com rankings without anything more than a token challenge from any would-be challenger. The undefeated and undisputed top team in the land would eventually lose a game – there hasn’t been an undefeated national champion since Ned Harkness’s 1970 Cornell team, at least – but smart selectors and analysts refused to think anyone would beat the Pioneers.
Arizona State certainly didn’t fit the playbill for would-be upset bids, but the 4-7-1 Sun Devils went into the altitude and defeated Denver in front of 6,000 fans at Magness Arena with a dramatic 3-2 victory that featured the game-winning goal in the last 45 seconds. One night later, Sparky rallied from a 1-0 deficit at the end of the first period to score three straight goals in the second frame and win, 5-2, after adding an empty netter in the last two minutes.
It doesn’t mean the No. 1 team is going to drop a spot anytime soon, but losing two games in conference play had its fallout after Omaha, Western Michigan, Colorado College and St. Cloud all gained points and space on the Pioneers. In one of the weirdest stats of the year, a 12-2 team likely to maintain its No. 1 standing is now tied for sixth place in a nine-team league while a three-win team is three points ahead of it in the standings.
2) Beanpot champs reclaim pride
Boston College appeared likely to replace Denver when it swept Maine and edged into the Pioneers’ first place votes in a poll that occurred two weeks ago, but the Eagles’ loss to Connecticut changed the complexion ahead of their weekend home-and-home series with Northeastern. Always a tough out among Beanpot teams, the defending city champions lost by a commanding 3-0 margin in Friday night’s game at Conte Forum before ricocheting a 4-2 victory off of Matthews Arena’s fabled walls.
BC had been prone to slow starts earlier in the year, but not even third period heroics from Ryan Leonard were enough to draw the Eagles back within the Huskies’ two-goal lead, and the 3-1 advantage from the first period stood up when Dylan Hryckowian added a late empty net goal. It was his second goal of the game, and a separate assist on Jackson Dorrington’s first goal in a Northeastern uniform allowed the team to win just its second game of the season while BC slipped to 9-3.
3) Bentley “Has” a bit of history
Bentley goaltender Connor Hasley made history this week when he broke his program’s career shutout record in the dueling clean sheets against Air Force. Already tied for second in shutouts after blanking American International in last Saturday’s game, he moved into a tie for first with a 2-0 win on Friday before breaking the 20-year record set by early Division I backstop Simon St. Pierre.
He didn’t play on Friday, but the 180 consecutive minutes puts Hasley in line to pass numbers posted by Maine’s Jimmy Howard and Notre Dame’s David Brown at the start of the century and within range of Shane Madolora’s most recent stretch of 200 straight minutes in Atlantic Hockey America’s history book. Among active goalies, the seven career shutouts now in Hasley’s back pocket ties him with Dominic Basse and Cameron Rowe, but it’s worth noting that aside from Cornell’s Ian Shane – the active career leader with 11 shutouts – none of the top five goalies other than Hasley started at their current locales. Wisconsin’s Tommy Scarfone, North Dakota’s TJ Semptimphelter, Basse and Rowe all transferred at least once, and both Mathieu Caron and Beni Halasz – the players right behind the Hasley encampment – started their careers at schools other than their current programs. Providence’s Philip Svedeback, meanwhile, started with the Friars and has five shutouts.
Dating back to Friday’s win over AIC, Bentley enters its Thanksgiving weekend road game at Northeastern with 195 shutout minutes, but it more specifically puts Hasley and a streak that began with Max Beckford on watch for a fourth straight shutout, a mark that hasn’t been reached since Blaine Lacher recorded 375 straight shutout minutes during a five-game stretch in 1994 – which itself shattered a 40-year record set by North Dakota’s Spike Schultz.
4) The Bees are back
The story encompassing American International was shocking, sad and any other number of antonyms for a happy ending, but how the Yellow Jackets responded, even in defeat after dropping three straight games after the university announced it would move the program away from Division I status, exuded class and chemistry in the wake of unimaginable on-ice hardships. Just 10 days after the announcement, AIC stepped on the ice at the MassMutual Center and defeated Niagara with a resounding 5-2 decision.
It’s hard to imagine a scenario where the team doesn’t wrestle with the issue on a nightly basis, but the Yellow Jackets built a lead against the Purple Eagles when former Niagara defenseman David Posma scored his first goal of the season in the first period. Josh Barnes and Noah Serdachny added two more in the second period before Brett Bamber and Timofei Khokhlachev negated Niagara’s two goals in a 5-2 win.
5) Michigan scored in the time it took to write this
It wasn’t that Penn State played poorly in its two-game series against the big, bad victors of the West, but it’s hard to find a team that played better over the weekend than a Michigan team with 16 goals to its docket.
Forget about the 6-5 win on Friday for a second. Michigan actually trailed Penn State on Saturday after the Nittany Lions scored twice in the first 65 seconds of the first period. The Wolverines then surrendered a third goal with eight minutes left before gaining one back, but they entered the last three minutes of the first period with a 4-1 deficit after Aiden Fink added an even strength goal.
The next four goals went to the Maize and Blue, and after JJ Wiebusch offered a tying goal with under four minutes remaining in the second, another two goals and three power play hits down the stretch finished the 10-6 explosion featuring a Texas-sized hat trick for TJ Hughes.
Hughes actually scored a hat trick just on the power play, but going 6-for-9 as a team in a game where there wasn’t a major penalty until the latter half of the third period highlighted the inherent power of the Michigan team. Over two nights, it went into Hockey Valley and decimated Penn State’s defense to improve to 9-2-1 with a perfect 4-0 record in Big Ten play.
6) Bemidji builds dam around CCHA
From offensive explosions to the damming of CCHA waters in northern Minnesota, where Bemidji State and St. Thomas combined for the same amount of goals as Michigan or Penn State likely could have scored on any single night. Five points went to the Beavers after a shootout win on Friday begat a 2-1 win over the Tommies on Saturday.
The teams combined for just eight penalties over the course of the weekend, but it was still enough for Eric Martin to hit a game-tying, 5-on-3 goal in the second game of the weekend before Reilly Funk scored the game-winner in the come-from-behind victory. It amounted to a second straight head-to-head type of game between the teams after St. Thomas relieved two separate one-goal deficits on Friday but lost the second point to the narrow margin of a Jere Vaisanen shootout goal.
7) Oh my, Omaha
The Omaha Mavericks entered this past weekend with a six-game losing streak still hanging freshly over last weekend’s split against Arizona State. They hadn’t won at home at all, and nearly every series featured a one-goal or two-goal loss to the degree that the record would never accurately reflect the team’s overall effort in those close games.
Then came the Miami series and an 11-1 aggregate breakout that included the Mavs’ first shutout since last season’s February series against Colorado College. They added a 6-0 lead in the second period of Saturday’s game before leaving the frame with a 7-1 lead on Jimmy Glynn’s last second goal, and an eighth goal halfway through the third period came moments before a dozen different players absorbed misconduct penalties for a wild period featuring a whopping 11 unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.
8) Border War to Black Bears
Maine and New Hampshire are known as the friendly northern New England outposts until they battle one another in the colloquial Border War that still ranks as one of college hockey’s angriest and most fervent rivalries. On Friday night, one week after the reeling Black Bears revived their season with four points against Boston University, New Hampshire hosted the first iteration of the rivalry with a 3-1 Maine victory that saw Lynden Breen and Owen Fowler rally Orono from a 1-0 deficit in the second period.
An empty net goal aside, this amounted to a one-goal game with superb play on both ends, and both goalies combined for 55 saves after Albin Boija outdueled Jared Whale. Perhaps most important, though, were the three points staking Maine into first place while New Hampshire sagged into 11th with games in hand still to count against everyone.
9) #BerardForSpencerPenrose
The best team nobody’s talking about remains a Stonehill squad that’s pleasantly surprising the field of Division I Independents. The Skyhawks aren’t turning heads in the Pairwise Rankings and won’t challenge for a national tournament spot unless societal order completely breaks down over the next few months, but their 3-1 win over Lindenwood elevated their record to 5-11.
This team’s been very good at times, and its victory in St. Louis illustrated how it’s capable of beating anyone on any given day. The 4-3 overtime win over Merrimack earlier this month, for example, was the second win over the Warriors and followed a 4-0 blanking of St. Lawrence. Winning three games in November is more than even the two overall wins from last season, and the team’s three road wins are the first Division I wins aways from its municipal home rink in Bridgewater, Mass.
All of these numbers are worth a strong look at head coach David Berard because his construction project at the university is inciting a significant change in a program essentially forced into Division I status. This weekend’s home game against Army is scheduled for Warrior Ice Arena in Boston – the practice home for the NHL’s Boston Bruins – and just six of its eight remaining home games at the Bridgewater Ice Arena are against Division I opponents. Circle a two-game set at Maine and a January 6 game at Quinnipiac with a January 18 date at UMass-Lowell for potential pratfalls for teams that aren’t careful of a squad that earlier dragged Dartmouth to just one even-strength goal.
10) Give thanks for Pairwise
Unpopular opinion says to avoid checking the Pairwise Rankings until the midseason point, but late November seems like a good check-in spot for teams currently jockeying for national seeding. Points now are worth the same as points later in the season, so it’s important to remember that these games matter even if it doesn’t make sense to people to overly care about a result around Thanksgiving time.
Boston College and Michigan State remain the leaders in the clubhouse for No. 1 seeds, and No. 4 Maine is an easy choice for the last remaining top seed in the nation. But it’s maybe Dartmouth that remains a complete shock at the No. 3 spot with its 5-0-1 record while Western Michigan and Michigan State sit just behind the teams with a combined 17-3-2 record. Even Minnesota and Denver, two teams with 12-2 record, currently can’t touch the undefeated Big Green.
Cornell is the team currently situated directly on the bubble with its 4-2-2 status, and Connecticut, Arizona State, Quinnipiac and North Dakota are staring at the Pairwise’s lower limits. The last team in, Bentley, is the top-seeded Atlantic Hockey America program, which would make a potential Bentley-BC game fun for a writer and broadcaster who has worked for both teams (cough cough not sure who that would be cough cough).
We obviously all expect the standings to change before the season ends, but pleasant surprises like UMass-Lowell and Minnesota State enter semester break with a chance to control their own destiny while other teams like Colgate – currently tied for first place on ECAC points with Dartmouth, though the Big Green have a better percentage point – are outside with quick opportunities remaining to make up ground.
TJ Hughes scored four goals and added an assist in MIchigan’s big win at Penn State on Saturday night (photo: Michigan Photography).
Here is a rundown of how the top 20 teams in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll of Nov. 18 fared in games over the weekend of Nov. 22-23.
No. 1 Denver (12-2-0)
11/22/2024 – RV Arizona State 3 at No. 1 Denver 2
11/23/2024 – RV Arizona State 5 at No. 1 Denver 2
No. 2 Michigan State (9-1-0)
11/21/2024 – No. 2 Michigan State 6 at U.S. NTDP* 2 (exhibition)
No. 3 Boston College (9-3-0)
11/19/2024 – No. 3 Boston College 3 at No. 10 Providence 2 (OT)
11/22/2024 – Northeastern 0 at No. 3 Boston College 3
11/23/2024 – No. 3 Boston College 2 at Northeastern 4
No. 5 Maine (8-2-2)
11/22/2024 – No. 5 Maine 3 at RV New Hampshire 1
No. 5 Michigan (9-2-1)
11/22/2024 – No. 5 Michigan 6 at RV Penn State 5
11/23/2024 – No. 5 Michigan 10 at RV Penn State 6
No. 7 Colorado College (9-2-1)
11/22/2024 – No. 11 St. Cloud State 3 at No. 7 Colorado College 2
11/23/2024 – No. 11 St. Cloud State 0 at No. 7 Colorado College 1 (OT)
No. 9 Western Michigan (8-1-1)
11/22/2024 – No. 9 Western Michigan 5 at Minnesota Duluth 2
11/23/2024 – No. 9 Western Michigan 4 at Minnesota Duluth 1
No. 10 Providence (8-3-2)
11/19/2024 – No. 3 Boston College 3 at No. 10 Providence 2 (OT)
11/23/2024 – LIU 3 at No. 10 Providence 4 (OT)
No. 11 St. Cloud State (9-4-0)
11/22/2024 – No. 11 St. Cloud State 3 at No. 7 Colorado College 2
11/23/2024 – No. 11 St. Cloud State 0 at No. 7 Colorado College 1 (OT)
No. 12 North Dakota (7-6-0)
11/22/2024 – Robert Morris 3 at No. 12 North Dakota 4 (OT)
11/23/2024 – Robert Morris 0 at No. 12 North Dakota 1
No. 13 Boston University (6-5-1)
11/22/2024 – Merrimack 3 at No. 13 Boston University 6
Artem Shlaine, who scored twice in Friday’s 3-2 upset of No. 1 Denver, added two more goals on Saturday including the game winner as the Sun Devils completed a massive sweep of the Pioneers, 5-2 (Photo: Arizona State athletics/X)
No. 1 Denver entered this weekend with a 21-game winning streak. They leave its home set against Arizona State now riding a two-game losing streak.
Artem Shlaine scored twice for the Sun Devils including the game-winner and insurance markers and Luke Pavicich stopped 26 shots, including 14 in the third period as ASU completed the weekend sweep of the Pioneers, 5-2.
Denver jumped to a 1-0 lead with eight second remaining in the first on a Sam Harris goal. But the second period proved an Achilles heel for the Pioneers.
Noah Beck tied the game at 3:55 before Cullen Porter gave the Sun Devils their first lead at 10:19.
Just 52 seconds later, Shlaine extended the lead. And though Aidan Thompson brought Denver within a goal late in the second, Shlaine’s second goal of the game and fourth of the weekend was a dagger in the hearts of Denver.
Bennett Schimek netted an empty netter with 1:56 remaining.
It has been some time since Denver has been swept at Magness Arena. The last team to do it was Minnesota Duluth more than four years ago, January 31 and February 1, 2020.
Northeastern earned its first Hockey East win of the season and it was a big one, upsetting No. 3 Boston College, 4-2, in front of a sold out Matthews Arena crowd.
Dylan Hryckowian scored twice and added an assist for a three-point game to pace the Huskies offense. They potted three first-period goals and then survived a late push from the Eagles as Ryan Leonard drew the visitors within a goal with 14:23 remaining.
It was Hryckowian who sealed the victory with an empty-net tally with three seconds remaining. Jackson Dorrington and Jack Williams also scored for the Huskies while Oskar Jellvik posted the remaining tally for the Eagles.
It was a game Colgate never trailed, taking leads of 1-0 and 2-1 only to have the visiting Bobcats fight back each time to tie the game. Ben Raymond and Brett Chorske scored for the Raiders while Travis Trealor and Andon Cerbone each tallied for Quinnipiac.
No. 10 Providence 4, Long Island 3 (F/OT)
Host Providence overcame deficits of 2-0 and 3-2, the latter late in regulation before forcing overtime where Nick Poisson won the game 58 seconds into the extra session giving the 10th-ranked Friars a narrow 4-3 victory.
It was the 100th point of Poisson’s career.
Connelly to Poisson for the one-timer to put an end to this one in overtime!! pic.twitter.com/QS8AHSuaBH
The visiting Huskies take four of the six points in the NCHC standing by reaching overtime after Friday’s 3-2 victory.
Kaiden Mbereko earned the OT shutout making 27 saves, while his counterpart Isak Posch finished with 34 saves taking the loss.
No. 5 Michigan 10, Penn State 6
T. J. Hughes scored four goals and added and assist while teammate Michael Hage matched the five-point effort with a goal and four assists and the Michigan offense exploded, reaching double digits for the first time since a 12-4 victory over Stonehill in January.
That's a 10 spot!
TJ Hughes is the first to have four in a game since Gavin Brindley on Jan. 12, 2024 vs. Stonehill pic.twitter.com/OXFB2uZLbJ
Bennett Schimek (above) and Artem Shlaine (two goals) scored, including Shlaine’s game winner in the closing minute as Arizona State upset No. 1 Denver, 3-2 (Photo: Arizona State athletics/X)
Artem Shlaine scored twice, including the game-winning goal with 45 seconds remaining that broke a 2-2 deadlock and gave Arizona State its second-straight NCHC win, 3-2, over the nation’s top team and previously undefeated Denver.
The loss for the Pioneers ends a 21-game winning streak dating back to last season when Denver won its final nine games to win both the NCHC and national championships.
Shlaine bookended the outstanding performance, opening the scoring 35 seconds into the game. After Carter King tied the game on the power play at 15:33 of the first, Bennett Schimek helped the Sun Devils regain the lead with a goal late in the second.
The host Pioneers evened the game on King’s second of the night with 4:01 left, but Shlaine, a transfer from Northern Michigan and Connecticut, notched his second goal of the night in the closing seconds to shock the Magness Arena crowd.
Luke Pavicich earned the victory making 30 saves for the Sun Devils.
The 11th-ranked St. Cloud State Huskies jumped to a 2-0 lead and never looked back, surviving a late push by host Colorado College, 3-2, in a game where the Huskies mustered just 17 shots on goal.
Despite being outshot, 27-17, St. Cloud took an early lead on Verner Miettinen’s goal at 9:45. They’d double that lead early in the second on a Tyson Gross unassisted goal.
Colorado College climbed back into the game when Ty Gallaher scored at 7:04 of the second. But St. Cloud State again had a response, regaining a two-goal lead on Austin Burnevik’s tally with 9:42 remaining.
The host Tigers pulled the goalie with more than three minutes left and got within one on Max Burkholder’s goal at 17:19. But that’s as close the Colorado College got as Isak Posch finished the game with 25 saves to earn the win.
No. 5 Maine 3, New Hampshire 1
It was another fantastic edition of the Border Battle, the annual rivalry series between Maine and New Hampshire, with the Black Bears earning a 3-1 road victory over the Wildcats, their first victory in Durham, N.H., since 2019.
UNH took the game’s first lead in the second period, scoring on a 5-on-3 power play. Ryan Conmy fired a perfect cross-seam pass to Liam Devlin at 7:17 of the second.
Maine, though, had a quick response. Captain Lynden Breen finished off a 2-on-1 at 10:36 of the second before Owen Fowler banked a pass off a UNH defender and into the net less than three minutes later.
Frank Djurasevic scored shorthanded into an empty net in the closing seconds of the game for the 3-1 final.
Albin Boija was fantastic, particularly in the final period, making 24 stops to earn the victory.
Connecticut 4, No. 15 UMass Lowell 1
For the second straight Friday night, Connecticut upset a nationally-ranked Hockey East opponent with a 4-1 road victory over No. 15 UMass Lowell.
The Huskies beat then-No. 2 Boston College, 5-4, last Friday night.
UConn jumped to a 3-0 lead in the game on goals by Ryan Tattle and Joey Muldowney in the second period and Hudson Schnador in the opening minute of the third.
O CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN🫡🫡
Hudson with the Power Play Goal and the Ice Bus leads by 3❄️🏒🚌
Though UMass Lowell’s Lee Parks scored his first collegiate goal with 7:21 left, that’s as close as the River Hawks could get.
Jake Percival put the game away scoring with 2:29 left for the 4-1 decision.
UConn freshman Callum Tung, making his first collegiate start in place of an injured Tyler Muszelik, posted the victory stopping 26 of the 27 shots he faced.
No. 18 Quinnipiac 3, No. 8 Cornell 1
Chris Pelosi and Mason Marcellus scored third period goals as visiting No. 18 Quinnipiac won its third straight game in ECAC play, upsetting No. 8 Cornell, 3-1.
Aaron Bohlinger got the Bobcats on the board with a first-period power play goal only to have Cornell’s Jonathan Castagna answer late in the opening frame.
The game remained that way until 8:11 remaining when Pelosi scored the winner. Marcellus scored into the empty net with one second remaining.
Bailey Krawczyk and his Elmira teammates have the Soaring Eagles on a four-game win streak heading into action with Albertus Magnus this weekend (Photo by Elmira Athletics)
Well, have we not seen some very interesting scores over the first three weeks of the season? Do not think that is going to change anytime soon and frankly it is fun to see the teams in and out of the rankings as a result of the combined week’s activity that reflect the good play and good fortune for some and less so for other teams. It is a new week, and one filled with opportunities for every team to garner some wins and points. Do not just lace them up thinking that success is guaranteed – it is not, it is earned on the ice!
My weekly picks were an abysmal 5-7-0 (.417) last week which is one of my worst prediction weeks in the past few seasons. Overall, my season numbers are 23-13-0 (.639) which is a precipitous drop-off as compared to the first two weeks so no time to dwell on the poor performance – now is the time to regain my prior form. With that in mind, it would be nice to get on a roll like a lot of teams who want to establish a winning trend for their upcoming schedule. Here are this week’s picks for the east:
Friday, November 22, 2024
(1) Hobart v. (14) Salve Regina
The Seahawks finally lost a game in a high-scoring affair to Babson last week and the Statesmen have the type of roster that will create pressure all night regardless of the situation on the ice. Think this one will be close as the home team looks to show it is a worthy contender in the NEHC. It is close but no win – Hobart, 4-2
Williams v. Connecticut College
The Ephs do not want to be 0-3 but the Camels would love a 3-0 start as one of their best in quite a long time. Too early to believe the press clippings but never too early to work hard in front of the home fans looking for another win in conference play. It takes overtime for the deciding goal – Conn College, 3-2
Cortland v. Plattsburgh
The Cardinals got coach Steve Moffatt his 100th career win last weekend and now look to avenge the SUNYAC title game loss from last season. Home ice matters in this one with a power play goal deciding it for PSU – Plattsburgh, 4-3
Assumption v. St. Anselm
While the big news around NE-10 hockey this week revolved around AIC dropping from D-I and moving to D-II next season, the Greyhounds and Hawks always play spirited contests as contenders this season, and this should be no exception. Think this game, despite good goaltending will see a lot of red lights going on with the visitors taking a one-goal decision on a special teams’ goal. Man-up or man-down does not matter in a win – Assumption, 6-5
Neumann v. King’s
The Monarchs earned a nice split with Alvernia last week but face an opportunistic Neumann squad looking to jump start their weekend. A fast start for the visitors proves to be just a little too much for the home team to rally back – Neumann, 4-2
Nazareth v. Manhattanville
The Valiants dropped a pair of games to Geneseo and Friday was a blowout. Do not expect the home team to show up late for the 7PM start time as they eke out a one-goal win in a very physical matchup with the Golden Flyers – Manhattanville, 3-2
Saturday, November 23, 2024
(15) Endicott v. Johnson & Wales
The TRAP GAME alert is out in full force for this contest where the Gulls have exceled on Friday nights and not so much, excluding last week , on Saturday night. The Wildcats will not be an easy out on home ice so look for Andrew Kurapov & Co to do some damage early and earn some key CNE points – Endicott, 5-2
Plymouth State v. Salem State
The Panthers seem to have found their game after a tough 0-2-0 start to the season. Not many teams have the offensive weapons on display like PSU does and balanced scoring makes the night difficult for the Vikings who keep it close for the first two periods of play – PSU, 6-3
Albertus Magnus v. (11) Elmira
The Soaring Eagles have a nice win streak going including a pair of wins over Skidmore last weekend. The only thing better than four wins in a row is five or six in a row. Experience and depth are the difference as the home team scores late for the win – Elmira, 3-2
(8) Trinity v. Amherst
The Bantams were surprised by Conn College last Friday but bounced back on Saturday against Tufts. Surely coach Matt Greason sees room for improvement on surrendering seven goals in two games. Look for things to tighten up a bit as the Bantams find some offensive form in a win over the Mammoth – Trinity, 5-2
Buffalo State v. Canton
The Bengals are looking to build some momentum off a pair of wins last weekend but should be wary of a Kangaroo team that plays well in their own barn. Seesaw affair that finds the visitors driving home to Buffalo very happy – Buffalo State, 5-4
Chatham v. (3) Utica
The Cougars catch a Pioneer squad that has been outright explosive with goals coming from many different players up and down the lineup. Johnny Mulera has fit right in with the high-powered offense and continues to contribute on the scoresheet with multiple points – Utica, 5-2
Even as Thanksgiving approaches, the action continues to heat up around all the conferences in the east. While some clear favorites have emerged, it is never too late for an early season statement win to buoy the confidence of any team looking to climb the standings. Do not be thinking too much about Turkey Day and feasting just yet boys, there is some hockey to be played – “Drop the Puck!”
UW-River Falls begins WIAC play this weekend with a battle against UW-Stevens Point. (Photo by Carly Lynch/UW-River Falls Athletics)
Before we get into Thanksgiving week, it’s time to feast on some hockey.
We have some big games on the slate, including a weekend showdown between Aurora and St. Norbert. That series might not decide the NCHA crown, but it could very well put one of those teams in the driver’s seat.
Here’s a look at a handful of games to watch this weekend. It’s show time.
MIAC
Friday and Saturday
St. Scholastica (2-3-1, 0-2) vs. Augsburg (3-3, 1-1)
The Saints are looking for their first MIAC win of the year. They just ended a three-game losing streak last week with a 3-1 win over Northland. The big thing now is keeping that momentum and being consistent offensively against an always tough Augsburg team.
The Auggies have won two of their last three and are looking to bounce back after a tough loss at home to UW-Eau Claire. This should be an interesting home and home, and for Augsburg, it’s a chance to grab some momentum going into Thanksgiving week. Augsburg, 4-2 and 3-1
St. Olaf (2-3-1, 1-1) vs. Saint John’s (4-1, 2-0)
The Oles are hoping to play spoiler here against a Johnnies team that is currently in first place in the MIAC.
While it’s been a tough start for the Oles, they have the talent to beat anyone on any given night. Getting back on track defensively is key after St. Olaf allowed six goals in a loss to Gustavus last week.
The Johnnies are on a roll, winning five in a row, and have one of the best netminders in the league in Jon Howe. Offensively, they have scored three or more goals in every game they’ve won during their current streak. If that continues, they’ll be tough to beat. Saint John’s 4-2; St. Olaf, 4-3
WIAC
Friday
No. 10 UW-Stevens Point (3-2) ) vs. No. 13 UW-River Falls (4-1)
The good news for the Pointers is they get this game at home, where they are 2-0. But they face a ranked Falcons team that has proven to be a tough team to deal with.
Stevens Point is averaging nearly four goals a game but allowing that many per game as well. Dawson Sciiarrino has tallied two goals and six assists.
The Falcons feature one of the game’s best goalies in Brennan Boynton, who leads the WIAC in save percentage (.934) and is allowing just 1.60 goals per game. Jonny Meiers has tallied three goals in the first five games. UW-River Falls, 4-2
Saturday
UW-Eau Claire (1-2-1) at UW-Stout (3-2)
The Blugolds just picked up their first win thanks to a hat trick from Leo Bacallao, and if he keeps that kind of effort up moving forward, Eau Claire is in great shape. Not to mention the Blugolds have a solid player in goal in Max Gutjahr.
For the Blue Devils, bouncing back is what they are looking to do this weekend. They’ve dropped two in a row and are hoping to capitalize on opportunities they missed out on in a loss to Saint John’s last week, coming up short on five power-play chances against the Johnnies. UW-Eau Claire, 3-1
UW-Superior (2-1-1) at No. 10 UW-Stevens Point (3-2)
The Yelllowjackets have an opportunity to make a statement and one of the keys to success will be the play of Ikki Kogawa, who scored twice and dished out two assists in a pair of games last weekend. He’s only a a freshman but not doubt a rising star.
The Pointers will take aim at protecting their home ice. It will be interesting to see how they handle the finale of a big weekend, considering they will have played River Falls the night before. UW-Stevens Point, 3-2
NCHA
Friday and Saturday
No. 5 Aurora (6-0, 4-0) at No. 2 St. Norbert (7-0, 4-0)
Is it already March? Because this sure looks like an NCAA tournament showdown.
The Spartans are feeling good after a sweep of Adrian on the road while the Green Knights are off to an impressive start and have the luxury of hosting this battle.
Both teams are nationally ranked in the top five of the USCHO.com poll and something will have to give in this battle of unbeatens.
Aurora has scored 30 goals while St. Norbert has racked up 36. Both teams have allowed less than 20 goals, with the Green Knights giving up just 13. The Spartans have allowed 19.
Four of the top five scorers in the conference are on these two teams. Liam Fraser and Logan Dombrowsky have combined for 11 goals and are first and second, respectively, while Landry Schmuck and Matt Weber have combined for 10 goals.
I’ll be surprised if this one ends in a sweep either way. I’ll be surprised if this isn’t an entertaining series either. St. Norbert, 5-4; Aurora, 4-3
MSOE (2-3-1, 2-2) at No. 9 Trine (5-0-1, 3-0-1)
The Raiders are eager to make a statement on the road against the nationally ranked Thunder.
Sam Antenucci has been key for Trine, scoring four goals on the year. The Thunder have outscored the opposition 22-10.
MSOE has come through with 13 goals while allowing 13 and are looking to find a way to get the job done on the road after dropping their first two away games of the year. Trine, 4-2
USCHO Edge hosts Jim Connelly, Dan Rubin, and Ed Trefzger look at money lines and over/under for five games (plus our “pizza money” game) on November 22, 2024:
St. Cloud State +100 @ Colorado College -130; over/under 5.5
Omaha goalie Simon Latkoczy has been a workhorse during his time in a Mavericks uniform (photo: Mark Kuhlmann).
A hockey scholarship funding pledge announced earlier this month by Omaha athletic officials stems from an idea hatched by some of the Mavericks’ original season ticket holders.
The Yano and Cindy Mangiameli Goalie Scholarship, awarded to UNO’s starting goaltender, is a gift that was pledged this fall through the University of Nebraska Foundation. The intent of the scholarship is to award the funds to the starting goalie at the beginning of each academic year. Once the scholarship is awarded, it will remain with that student-athlete.
This scholarship is the second role-specific one tied to the Maverick hockey program. Earlier this year, the Menke Family Captain’s Scholarship was announced for the team’s captain, which this season is graduate student defenseman Nolan Krenzen. That scholarship, the first position-specific one for any sport across Omaha’s athletic department, is named for Brandon M. Menke, M.D., a local ophthalmologist and lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve.
Yano Mangiameli is a retired orthopedic implant distributor, and he and his wife Cindy have been staunch supporters of Maverick hockey since its inaugural 1997-98 season. Yano has long been a supporter and contributor to college athletics in the city. He was a volunteer play-by-play commentator for the baseball programs at both UNO and his alma mater, Creighton. He has also helped both schools’ baseball programs in other aspects, including through scholarships for both, and he recently floated the idea to start a goaltender-specific scholarship with the Mavericks.
It was a natural fit. After all, Yano was one of two people who simultaneously submitted an idea for the UNO Blue Line Club’s publication to be titled, “In The Crease.”
“If the other team doesn’t score, you can’t lose,” he said. “(That position) is the center focus of it all. Even back then, we realized (when deciding on a publication title) that everything centers around what the goalie can do.
“They had just done a scholarship with another family, the captain’s scholarship, and I thought that was a neat deal. I told them, ‘The most important position is a goalie. Do you have a goalie scholarship? Is there any family or person interested in doing that?’
“I think it struck a note with people from the foundation at the time, and we started talking about it,” Yano continued. “It went really quick, the last three or four months, and it’s not something that had been on my mind forever, but it was something that, once we thought about it, sounded like a good idea.”
The goaltender scholarship was another way for the Mangiamelis to help strengthen college sports in a city that, like the rest of Nebraska, strongly supports such programs amid a lack of top-tier professional sports franchises. Hockey has helped transform the image of Omaha athletics, a former NCAA Division II school for all of its other sports, and much has changed even in the time since Maverick hockey moved into the university’s own building, Baxter Arena, in 2015.
“(Former Omaha athletic director) Trev Alberts had it built with the cooperation of many civic leaders, and that is an absolutely wonderful hockey venue,” Yano said. “It’s kind of reminiscent of the old days at the Omaha Civic Auditorium (the Mavericks’ original home), and Trev was a good builder of things at UNO, and now that Adrian Dowell is charge, I think UNO Athletics is a department that’s on the move, and I like supporting people who have vision.
“With university sports, for this community, because we’re obviously professionally challenged here, if you would, I think it’s important that UNO and Creighton keep prospering, and that’s where I like to help out where I can.”
Coach George Roll will retire at the end of the season but has his Golden Flyers focused on success in the new six-team UCHC (Photo by Nazareth Athletics)
While the 2024-2025 season will be coach George Roll’s final campaign behind the Nazareth bench, he leaves a legacy of coaching that spans almost 30 years across the D-I and D-III landscape with not only success on the ice, but in the character of the players that have played for him beyond their college years. Roll has been Nazareth’s only coach since establishing the men’s program back in the 2012-2013 season and will be handing off to James McDonald next season as the current Coach-in-Waiting will assume full responsibilities for the Golden Flyers. That is down the road so for now the focus is the current team, the current season, and an opportunity to send-off one of the true gentlemen coaches in the college game.
“I got my start as a graduate assistant for Jerry York when I was getting my master’s degree, stated Roll. “Mark Morris was going to be the new coach at Clarkson and had a commitment from Pierre Maguire as an assistant coach, but something fell through with Pierre taking a different job and the opportunity opened for me at Clarkson. Since then, I have had a couple of stints with the Golden Knights and, of course, some great years at Oswego (with lifelong friend coach Ed Gosek) before coming here to Nazareth. Through all the ups-and-downs, I really have loved living and being in upstate New York and while I wished maybe we won a little more, I have loved coaching and all the players along the way.”
McDonald is the latest addition to the Roll “Coaching Tree” and has had a relationship with his mentor long before his time as a player for the Golden Flyers.
“I actually thought about retiring last season,” noted Roll. “I worked closely with our Athletic Director, Peter Bothner and the school on a good plan for the transition since I thought it was important that the next coach be an alumnus and having a strong connection to the institution. I have known James since he was young as our families had ties through parents and siblings. Of course, James had a great career here as a player and has been an assistant since his graduation in 2020. He loves the school and the program, and I wanted to leave a good situation for the Nazareth hockey moving forward.”
Originally from Illinois, Roll has found his place in upstate New York where he loves the environment and outdoor activities including fishing and golf. Outdoor activities aside, there is one must-do activity that the coach has participated in since his earliest coaching days as a way to refresh and rejuvenate from the rigors of coaching and the demands of the season and intense competition.
“I love to do a daily sauna and some breathing exercises,” said Roll. “I find it is a place where I can be quiet with my thoughts and separate from the hectic aspects of daily life. I have been doing it for a very long time and I am sure it will be something I do after I retire from coaching. It is a very relaxing thing for me.”
While McDonald has assumed more responsibilities in Roll’s final season, the head coach is still focused on having his team build for results in a six-team UCHC that has the demands of facing five very good teams four times this season in advance of the playoffs where Nazareth has come close to a title in recent seasons only to fall to Utica.
“Two years ago, we won a lot of games and battled right to the end,” stated Roll. “Last year was a tough one in terms of wins but I like this group and the character and talent we have. We opened with a nice win against Elmira and then really had a tough time against Utica which I think will help us be better as a team. We had good battles with Chatham last weekend and face Manhattanville this week with a focus on being better each time we play.”
This year’s team has been led by a pair of juniors in Blake Frost and Logan Tobias. Among the team’s leaders in scoring last year and already this season, the pair of forwards, along with the rest of this roster, are a big reason why Roll returned for one more campaign.
“I love all these kids, and this roster is a really close-knit group,” noted Roll. “I am thrilled that players like Blake and Logan chose Nazareth and represent our program and institution so well on the ice and off it. While hockey can teach a lot of lessons, and it would be nice to have a few more wins, I think I am most proud of the men of character that I have had the opportunity to coach and see their success in life beyond college and college hockey. No doubt I will miss the game and probably the time on the ice in practices the most but at almost three decades it is time to transfer the reins to the next generation and I know James will do a fantastic job for Nazareth hockey this year and going forward.”
The 2-2-1 Golden Flyers travel to face Manhattanville in a two-game series this weekend before closing out the first half of the season with SUNYAC’s Buffalo State, two games against Brockport and a matchup with NESCAC’s Hamilton before the semester break.
Ferris State coach Bob Daniels has been behind the Bulldogs bench for 33 years (photo: Ferris State Athletics).
The fraternity of college hockey coaches is small.
And the sub-fraternity of men’s college hockey coaches with 500 career victories is even smaller (17, to be exact).
Even smaller yet? The number of active coaches with at least 500 career wins.
Coming into the season just four active coaches were in the 500 club — Notre Dame’s Jeff Jackson, Quinnipiac’s Rand Pecknold, Cornell’s Mike Schafer and Air Force’s Frank Serratore.
Last weekend, the 500 club expanded by one member. Ferris State’s 3-2 comeback victory over Lake Superior State in Traverse City, Michigan, on Saturday helped induct the Bulldogs’ Bob Daniels into that exclusive club.
Daniels, 65 and in his 33rd year behind the bench in Big Rapids, is the epitome of the gentleman hockey coach. He wasn’t too interested in talking about himself or his milestone.
“It’s not that big of a deal,” Daniels said. “I think in the offseason, I’ll have a little more time to look back to cherish it a little bit and reflect on that sort of thing.”
Dnaiels did, however, talk about all the people that helped him build his program over the years. He started by name-checking fellow 500 (and more) club member coaches: Ron Mason, Red Berenson, and Jerry York, all of whom were coaching in the CCHA during his first season at Ferris State in 1992.
“Those were all really good coaches to learn from, not just coaching, but really in how to conduct yourself and how to run a program,” said Daniels, who also played for Mason at Michigan State.
He also mentioned the fact that his coaching staff (assistants Drew Famulak, Mark Kaufmann and Dave Cencer) have all been together and associated with the FSU program for nearly two decades.
“Then you’ve got to take a minute to think about all the great players I’ve had the privilege to coach, and you just think about how blessed you are. And you know, it goes beyond that, too. You have to think about all the great athletic directors,” Daniels said. “I’ve been very fortunate to be at a place for 33 years, and we’ve always had great athletic directors here, and very supportive administration. So, it’s nice to kind of sit back and think about all the people that you know have touched the programs over the years.”
Lake Superior State head coach Damon Whitten — another former MSU player-turned CCHA head coach — had lots of praise for Daniels.
“I had the good fortune to play for Ron Mason, who’s a legend for college hockey. Rick Comley, I worked with a couple different occasions. And you know, Coach Daniels is up there, with coach Mason and coach Comley in terms of what he means to college hockey. He’s been an institution in the NCAA and certainly a Ferris State,” Whiten said. “I think one of the things I’m always amazed at is his coaching tree, you know, from Derek Lalonde with the Red Wings, to Seth Appert, to all kinds of NCAA guys. So I think that says a lot about who coach Daniels is that he’s developed a passion for the game from so many different guys, and they stayed in the game, whether they coaching youth hockey and their kids or, up to the National Hockey League and all across college hockey. To me, that’s pretty awesome to see.”
Under Daniels, the Bulldogs won three regular season titles — two in the CCHA and one in the WCHA — one conference tournament championship, four NCAA tournament appearances and were national runners-up in 2012.
But all of that in the past. Like any good college hockey coach, Daniels is more concerned about how his team is doing now. The Bulldogs are 3-9-2 and were on a six-game losing skid before the victory over the Lakers last weekend.
“You wouldn’t know it by our record, but we’ve been really limiting teams in terms of shots on goal,” Daniels said. “Our last three games, in the third period, we outshot the opposition like 46-8 combined. We’ve been close, and we’re actually playing pretty good hockey, I think.”
The Bulldogs came into the season somewhat unsure of who they were going to be offensively. They lost their top two scorers (senior Antonio Venuto and all-CCHA rookie team member Luigia Benincasa) to the transfer portal, and also lost Stepan Pokorny and Jason Brancheau to graduation.
In their stead, a trio of transfers (Max Itagaki from West Point, Cole Burtch from Western Michigan and Caiden Gault from Michigan State) have stepped up to try and generate some offense for Ferris. The three are currently FSU’s scoring leaders; Gault leads the team with five goals.
“They’re all playing on our top nine and they’ve done pretty well,” Daniels said.
Another player who Daniels hopes can make an impact is junior forward Tyler Schleppe, who scored three goals on the weekend against Lake State, including the game winner on Saturday. Schleppe had 15 points as a freshman but a shoulder injury his sophomore year caused him a setback and he only scored three goals and 10 points a season ago.
“He’s a finisher, and that’s going to be a welcome addition back to the team,” Daniels said. “He’s on the right track now. He’s trending in a really positive way so I wouldn’t be surprised if he has a really good second half for us.”
Another headache for Daniels coming into the season was losing all of his goaltenders. Logan Stein and Noah Giesbrecht transferred to Michigan and RPI, respectively. Coming in to compete for the job were Noah West–a transfer from Michigan–and freshmen Martin Lundberg and Connor McDonough. So far, West has gotten the majority of the starts.
“Noah has played well,” said Daniels. “He’s a veteran goaltender with five years experience, and I think he’s kind of been a beneficiary of our team playing better team defense, than what we’ve had the past couple years. We still will give up an odd man rush, but we’re really starting to keep our shots on goal down. We’re more defensively conscious than I think we had been the past couple of years. And so that’s why I’m pretty optimistic about this team.
“We find ourselves in every game, if we can just find a way to score more goals, well, I think we’ll be in good shape.”
Last season the Bulldogs gave up slightly more goals per game than this season (3.47 compared to 3.43) but this year’s number has been slightly inflated by a bad 8-0 loss to St. Lawrence that saw Ferris give up three goals on a five minute major penalty in the third period–obviously numbers that still count against you but perhaps a little atypical from normal team defense. In general, Ferris’ 19 goals allowed on the penalty kill is by far the most in the country (the next closest is Stonehill with 15). Their power play hasn’t been much better (just two goals scored in 40 attempts).
“We’re on the wrong side of special teams. We’re not scoring on the power play and we’re giving up too much on the penalty kill, but I think our five-on-five has been pretty good,” Daniels said.
Daniels isn’t looking too far ahead this season, but despite the Bulldogs’ record he said he likes how the team is trending. They host Augustana this weekend, then take a week off for Thanksgiving before closing the first half of the season out with a series at Northern Michigan.
“There’s not a game we were going to go into where we don’t feel like we have a good chance to win. I think we’ve shown that we’re highly competitive, and it’s a matter of learning, like anything,” Daniels said. “When you’re trying to break habits, like a losing habit. It’s not easy. But I’m very optimistic, not only in the remaining four before break, but throughout the rest of the year. I just like this team quite a bit, and they work exceedingly hard. It’s a close-knit group. We showed some resilience in coming back in a lot of games we have, and I think they’ve got the mental makeup to continue to work hard and improve.”
The 1980 Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, N.Y., will continue to host the ECAC Hockey semifinals and final through 2026 (photo: ECAC Hockey).
A couple of years ago, I scanned the Internet and found myself in a wormhole of older college hockey stories.
It killed a good couple of hours while I sat in a nursery room with a rambunctious infant refusing to sleep, but it opened the lid on a time capsule capturing how we looked at the sport for any given week in any given season.
More specifically, I revisited stories written by folks who no longer grace these pages with their prose, but landing on Dave Hendrickson’s list of 20 things that made him thankful for covering Hockey East triggered my mind towards my newfound landscape in ECAC Hockey.
Reading and marinating on his thoughts sent me into a sleep-deprived emotional reflection on my own on-ice stories, so I revived his column with a list of 10 things for which I’m thankful. It wound up cleansing my own crusty sportswriter’s soul, so for the third straight year, here’s my take. I look forward to some young journalist finding it one day and maybe thinking about the weird college hockey landscape in 2024.
10. Going to arenas
This one won’t change much from previous years because it’s always the first thing about covering college hockey games, but I absolutely love stepping outside of my primary work-life balance by transforming into a life well outside of my day-to-day grind. There’s nothing like the feeling of stress and trouble melting away as arenas come into view, and the energy surrounding a building is unlike anything that exists in my email inbox or to-do list.
It’s a decompression, and stepping into that world releases negative energy. The routine of a home game broadcast – the coffee, the conversation, the high fives, the music, the fans – it’s all putting distance between the real world and this hockey fantasyland. It breathes life into all of us who attend its community church-like feel.
9. Talking to coaches and players
I wasn’t a hockey player in my childhood. I didn’t grow up by attending 5 a.m. practices at Hockeytown in Saugus (though if you know what I just said, I see you), nor did I learn how to skate until I dated a former hockey player in my late teens. I don’t understand the nuance of planning for a 1-3-1 system or an umbrella power play, but my learning increased hand-over-fist because players and coaches took me under their collective wing.
I’ve gotten better at seeing and understanding the game because they took time to explain things to me, and even officials outline how or why they call certain penalties to help my digestion of a particular scenario. Asking a clarifying question always helps, but outright admitting that I have no idea what they said usually leads to a teachable moment. As a former baseball player, I appreciate the desire to understand why a pitch – sorry, play – was thrown in a particular situation, and coaches and players are incredibly forthcoming about what they were thinking in certain areas if you just, well, ask.
8. The student bodies
Six or eight years ago, I was handed – almost literally – a college sophomore who just wanted to get involved with a hockey team. He had no idea how to broadcast and didn’t grasp the technical side of what we did, but he transitioned into a certified color analyst over the next three years because he carried a passion for his school’s hockey team. By the time he graduated, he became a good friend and trusted confidant, and I consider him one of the greatest blessings from my 15 years behind the microphone.
That’s what separates college hockey from the professional game. College students ideally receive four years to live this charmed life on a campus with other students who might not share anything other than their school’s name in common. They might not know each other, might not care about one another, but they all put the same colors over their head and chant the same chants. I look at the divided world and occasionally really get upset at how people treat one another, but then I arrive at a rink and hear students telling a goalie that he’s a giant sieve. I remember being that student – I apologize to almost every goalie that ever skated against UMass-Dartmouth at Hetland Arena in New Bedford, Massachusetts…almost – and I love seeing students living for the moment like that.
7. Little kids!
The two-time #girldad in me is a sucker for the intermission break mini-games and the parents holding their cameras as their kids skate 5-7 minutes in front of those same student sections.
You ever seen the look on a seven-year old’s face when he scores a goal in front of a sold-out student section? The horn goes off, the strobe lights hit, and the crowd goes wild. That kid has to feel like he’s Alex Ovechkin holding the Stanley Cup.
6. USCHO.com
My favorite college hockey story involves one too many cans of Red Bull and a 2012 playoff game between Bentley and RIT. I was a little hyper for the game and not knowing anything about USCHO.com or the players or the other team or literally anything, I lost my mind on Twitter after Bentley lost the second game of a best-of-three series. I took it out on RIT’s broadcast team and went off to the degree that Chris Lerch responded to me.
I’m pretty sure I called him a no-talent bad name, but he forgave me enough to bring me into the USCHO.com fold a couple of years later when Atlantic Hockey’s coverage split between the eastern and western contingents. He became a mentor for me – as did Ed Trefzger – and I spent the next decade working with some incredible people. My trips to the Frozen Four are legendary in my mind, and getting into college hockey’s weeds with Jim Connelly and Paula Weston brings me joy on a weekly basis.
We have a pretty cool little college hockey family at this website, and I’m eternally grateful for Chris for looking after a stupid little 20-something who only knew the sport from schools that began with a B.
5. Empty arenas after games
My kids obliterated my body clock after arriving on this planet within 17 months of one another, but I never complained about a lack of sleep even before they were born. I’m still a night owl and early bird all at the same time, which is why I probably enjoy – a little too much – those last minutes in an empty arena before I head home.
I mentioned how driving to games decompresses my mental state for those few minutes before I get on the air or into a press box, but leaving the arena when the lights are mostly low and the janitorial staff is cleaning the quiet recesses of the building is a pretty cool feeling.
4. Training staff
I never really understood the importance of sport-specific training until I walked into a basketball facility and realized that the players don’t have the same weight training equipment as a football team because nobody wants a beefcaked basketball player with no agility whatsoever. Having now learned about the differences, I’ve grown increasingly enamored with team doctors and trainers who help bodies recover during the week-to-week grind associated with a college hockey season.
These guys on the ice are finely tuned machines, but even tough guys get bruises over the course of a season. A slap shot off the wrist or a bad check at the end of a long shift is all it takes to send these guys into the cold tub after a game, but over the course of a season, nobody’s ever going to feel perfectly right. Training staff and doctors keep them moving, and it’s extending beyond simple weight training in the modern era. Mental breaks and understanding the emotional toll while monitoring food intake and exertion output? It’s all pretty impressive to me.
3. Staff members
It takes a village to make these games and columns happen, and I’m eternally grateful for the folks who arrange interviews and provide number checks and corrections on a weekly basis. It’s difficult to sacrifice time when weeks are stuffed with personal obligations, but I’ve never had a negative experience in this league – a league that introduced me to college hockey in the mid-1990s, for what it’s worth.
I’m including the other staff members in that list because players don’t step on the ice without equipment managers, academic advisors, directors of hockey operations and the sports information directors, in particular. I’m sure they don’t love waking up to my Sunday morning emails, regardless of whether or not it’s part of the package, so I appreciate invading their football-watching hours with my emails asking for availability.
2. The fans
It’s the most obvious part about covering ECAC for this website, but without readers, I’m just kilobytes on a random webpage.
Fans keep us going. This website has been around long enough to watch the Internet evolve into a 24/7 accessible piece of everyday life, so I hope we’re doing right by your time being spent on this page. I said it last year, but I hope we’re generating the conversation that gets you through your weeks because the higher powers know that the conversation gets me through my week. I love seeing reaction to content on our message boards, on our comment sections, on our social media pages, and on whatever website is not going to get me investigated by whatever Elon Musk is doing these days (that was a joke! A joke, I say!).
I can’t wait to see what we’re going to do together for the rest of the year. Also, on a special note, to the person who meme’d me last year, you still haven’t told me who you are, but you sure continue to give my friends a good amount of entertainment, so…I hope we’re in on the joke now?
1. The family
College hockey is a family sport for the Rubin clan. I love being a dad at home, and waking up on those Saturday mornings to play soccer with a three-year old makes it all the more easy to operate on no sleep after a Friday night turnaround. I wouldn’t have it any other way, and I especially love it when they visit me in a rink or attend a game with me…which is becoming more and more frequent as they get older (at least while they still think I’m cool).
(Also, as per the usual, shoutout to my wife for getting them to games, but I’ll save her more expansive discussion for later in the year.)
I can’t express enough how college hockey is about family, and I don’t think I show them the necessary gratitude sometimes. But beyond all of that, it’s worth offering special space to my brother, Mike, who is largely responsible for getting me into college hockey. We don’t operate in the same circles as much anymore, but big brother is still the best broadcast partner I’ve ever had. I miss calling games with him at Brown, and I especially miss the days of painting faces in the bathroom at Bright Hockey Center ahead of a Brown-Harvard matchup in 1998 (during his undergraduate days).
As a 13-year old kid, I fell in love with college hockey because of those memories. I’m sharing those memories now as a 39-year old dad. One day, my future generation will unearth this column and remember what all of that was like. For the rest of the season, let’s see where it leads us.
Here’s a Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. May your table, however it forms, enjoy the light and love and warmth it so richly deserves. Everyone deserves happiness, and I hope this week defines it as perfectly as possible for lives well lived.
The Nov. 20, 2024, edition of USCHO.com’s PodKaz features Nicole Haase and Todd Milewski giving their thoughts on news that emerged this week at St. Thomas, where coach Joel Johnson resigned days after he wasn’t on the bench for the second game of a WCHA series at Bemidji State.
No. 1 Wisconsin and No. 2 Ohio State split their series in Columbus, and the hosts weigh in on that series as well as No. 3 Minnesota’s road sweep of No. 4 Minnesota Duluth.
Longtime Sacred Heart coach Thomas O’Malley joins the show to talk about his team’s 9-3 overall start and first-place standing in the NEWHA.
And Nicole and Todd react to some PWHL news and look ahead to this week’s NCAA women’s hockey games.
The PodKaz is a production of USCHO.com. Have a question for our mailbag? Reach out to Nicole (@NicoleHaase) or Todd (@ToddMilewski) on social media or email [email protected].
Yellow Jackets coach Eric Lang confirmed it to me in a text and later issued the following statement to social media:
AIC has been the place I've called my home for over 15 years of my life, as a player, a graduate assistant, and Head Men's Ice Hockey Coach. There have been some stops here and there along the way, but something always brings me back to the institution I love.
The next day, the school officially made the announcement, explaining that this action was due to cost-saving measures, euphemistically referred to as a “Pathway to Progress” for the university. The school also announced the elimination of the men’s wrestling and women’s tennis programs.
We’ll get to the human impact of this decision in a bit, but first, there’s the hockey component.
AIC is a Division II school playing “up” in hockey. The school carries a large roster compared to most, usually 32 or 33 players. The NCAA currently limits scholarships for D-I hockey at 18.
American International elevated its program in 1997 when it joined the newly-formed MAAC hockey conference. Before that, AIC and other Division II programs played in the ECAC East, a collection of Division II/III schools. There was a Division II NCAA Tournament from 1978 to 1984 and 1993 to 1999. The elimination of the D-II tournament in 1999 precipitated the formation of the MAAC Hockey, which was spearheaded by then-Quinnipiac Athletic Director Jack McDonald, who saw a way to find a home for these schools as well as increasing the field for the D-I tournament. Quinnipiac, Iona, Fairfield, Bentley, Canisius, Mercyhurst, Holy Cross, Sacred Heart, and Connecticut reclassified their hockey programs to D-I. At the time, the NCAA allowed schools to play “up” in one men’s and one women’s sport.
The MAAC made sense at the time to sponsor this new hockey conference, because it included as members three MAAC schools. But Iona and Fairfield dropped hockey in 2003, leaving Canisius as the only MAAC school.
That led to the transition from the MAAC to Atlantic Hockey, which eventually brought in Rochester Institute of Technology and Air Force in 2006 and Niagara and Robert Morris in 2010. Quinnipiac and UConn departed for ECAC Hockey and Hockey East, respectively.
Lang, a former AIC player and assistant coach, was named head coach in 2016, replacing Gary Wright, who retired after 29 seasons in Springfield, Mass. Wright, who wrote a book about his hockey experiences, did not have a lot of success on the ice due to limited resources, but held things together at AIC for decades.
Lang was given an expanded budget that included more scholarships as well as the school moving the program’s home ice from the Olympia Ice Center to the Mass Mutual Center, an AHL rink downtown.
Lang’s recruiting strategy included taking “International” to heart, looking for players from Europe. Besides the usual collection of players from the US and Canada, the Yellow Jackets roster typically includes players from four or five other countries.
To say Lang’s efforts at AIC were transformative would be an understatement. Before his arrival, the Yellow Jackets typically finished at or near the bottom of the standings, averaging just under 7 wins a season.
Lang’s teams have averaged 18 wins a season, and only his first two were below .500. His teams have recorded 20 or more wins in four of his previous eight seasons. AIC won its first regular-season and playoff titles in 2019 and then proceeded to win three more regular season and two more playoff titles from 2020-2022.
In 2019, AIC knocked off overall top seed St. Cloud State in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Lang has been named coach of the year in Atlantic Hockey three times.
What happens next
We know for sure that AIC will leave Atlantic Hockey at the end of this season. It will honor the scholarships of any player deciding to stay.
We can assume the following:
1. AIC will join the Northeast-10, the only Division II league in college hockey. That league doesn’t permit scholarships (schools can offer 12.5 scholarships in Division II) which will complicate matters since in theory, a scholarship player who decides to stay at AIC might not be able to play in the Northeast-10.
2. The majority of players will enter the transfer portal, and recruits will be looking for spots elsewhere.
3. Lang and his staff (assistant coaches Matthew Woodard and Brendan Riley) will move on as well. Lang has turned down multiple job offers in the past to stay at AIC.
Impact to American International
The hockey budget at AIC is currently around $1.7 million, and recent changes to the NCAA landscape, including limiting roster size/scholarships from 18 to 26 per the House vs. NCAA ruling, would likely raise the price tag. The team typically carries 32-33 players, which means a lot of them are paying tuition, so limiting the roster size to 26 will be an income hit. One can assume that was a factor in downgrading the program.
This move will likely save upwards of $1 million, but at what cost?
The “Pathways to Progress” report says that the move will “allow it to be competitively positioned among peers and offer a greater level of impact than if the program were to stay in Division I.”
That defies logic. I’m not sure how you can compare playing in a Division II conference that is frankly not even on a par with several D-III leagues as having more impact than its current Division I status when the team’s recent success at that level includes making the D-I NCAA Tournament three times and knocking off the No. 1 team in the nation, but maybe that’s just me.
I wonder how many people didn’t know AIC existed before watching it knock off St. Cloud in 2019. I’ll bet more than a few.
Corporate “wordsmithing” aside, this is bad for everyone. Bad for the coaches, players, and their families. Bad for American International.
Minnesota captain Jimmy Snuggerud has been a consistent point producer for the Gophers this season (photo: Brad Rempel).20
Two weeks ago, Minnesota coach Bob Motzko said, “You don’t win championships early, but you can lose them.”
After the Golden Gophers split a home-and-home series with Bemidji State, losing 3-1 in the Beavers’ barn last Saturday, Motzko made some remarks that echoed those he made about early season mistakes and successes.
“We made a blunder 10 seconds into the game and that happens,” said Motzko, “but for the next 58 minutes, we had many, many chances.”
That blunder Motzko referred to led to Kirklan Irey’s first goal of the game 21 seconds into the first period, a solo effort capitalizing on a neutral-zone mistake.
Nine minutes later, Irey made the most of the Gophers’ inability to clear the puck from their own zone and gave Bemidji State a 2-0 lead.
“This is a frustrating sport we play sometimes,” said Motzko.
That loss Saturday, only the second of the season for Minnesota, halted the Gophers’ nine-game win streak.
Asked by the Minnesota radio crew after Saturday’s loss what he might have done differently, Motzko joked, “Well, I wouldn’t schedule Bemidji.”
On the “Gopher Weekly Hockey” show Monday, Motzko credited Bemidji State coach Tom Serratore and the way Bemidji State has risen to the occasion against ranked teams for years.
“Our guys played their tails off,” said Motzko. “Bemidji played their tails off.”
Against the Beavers, Motzko said he’s noticed a pattern that’s emerged in games that are too close for his liking.
“We’ve done this a few times now,” said Motzko. “We missed the net on paper 24 times and we went back and watched it on film and it was 15 times that we missed the net. The one-nothing win versus Penn State [Nov. 2] where we scored with 27 seconds to go in the game, we missed the net 19 times. Our game with Omaha when we had the 50-some chances, we get a little cute and we have to stop that.”
That game against Omaha was a 2-1 loss in the title game of the IceBreaker tournament Oct. 12.
“Sometimes,” said Motzko, “we just think we’re going to score, well the other team’s trying so hard and defending so hard – and Bemidji blocked 24 shots on Saturday – we have to be much more patient. We’ve got to bunt to get on base, and we’re going for home runs.”
The Gophers outshot the Beavers 26-10 in the final two periods of that loss, beating Bemidji goaltender Mattias Sholl just once when Matthew Wood scored with less than three minutes remaining in regulation.
As the Gophers were suffering their second loss of the season, long-time rival Wisconsin was sweeping Penn State on the road, 5-4 (OT) and 6-3, improving to 4-8-0 overall.
The six points the Badgers earned in the weekend brought them to 11 total, tied with Minnesota. There is one enormous difference between the Gophers and Badgers that factors into that points total: Wisconsin has played eight Big Ten games to Minnesota’s four.
Another difference: after the first 12 games of the season, Minnesota is seventh in the PairWise rankings and Wisconsin is 37th.
Heading into the series against Penn State with just one B1G win to the Badgers’ credit, Mike Hastings said that because “results need to change,” Wisconsin had to continue its “process.”
Part of that process includes healing a banged-up blueline and getting scoring from a variety of sources.
In his weekly presser before the Penn State series, Hastings said, “We’re a little healthier on the blue line, so that allows us to move Jack [Horbach] back up front. He’s the guy who’s crossed a lot of Ts and dotted a lot of Is for us. Whatever we’ve needed him to do, he has done, and so he’s earned the opportunity to move back to his natural position and I’m hoping he can energize a line just like he did our ‘D’ core.”
Horbach earned his first point of the season in Wisconsin’s 6-3 win to secure the sweep Saturday, the second assist to Christian Fitzgerald’s goal at 7:38 in the first. That was the Badgers’ third goal of four scored within the first 10 minutes of the game.
Nine different Badgers accounted for the 11 goals scored against Penn State, with a Ryland Mosley and Cody Laskosky notched a goal in each game, and the two scored on the same five-minute power play late in the third period of the 6-3 win.
Before the series, Hastings said that he was looking for the return of injured defensemen like Zach Schulz, out for a month with an upper-body injury, to take lengthen the bench a little for the offense.
Said Hastings, “I’m hoping that interjection of just some consistency can help us a bit offensively.”
The breadth of scoring and the first goals of the season by Fitzgerald and Tyson Dyck contributed to a weekend in which Wisconsin’s goal production increased by 38% in just two games. The Badgers had scored a total of 18 goals in their first 12 games of the season.
“Our starts have gotten better,” said Hastings. “Our secondary scoring has gotten better, and when we needed our power play to come through, it did.”
Even before facing off against the Nittany Lions, Hastings was feeling the pinch of time.
“We’re at a point where we’ve got two games left in our last segment here [before a bye week], and we’ve got to squeeze as much out of it as we can, so whatever needs to be done needs to be done,” said Hastings.
That injured Badgers have a bye this week before returning to action Thanksgiving weekend, when they host Alaska Anchorage. Incidentally, the Gophers will host Alaska the same weekend.
These two former WCHA rivals will finish the first half of the season against by facing the same Big Ten opponents in December. Wisconsin hosts Michigan State Dec. 6-7 before traveling to Michigan Dec. 13-14. Minnesota hosts Michigan Dec. 6-7 and Michigan State Dec. 13-14.
Minnesota travels to Notre Dame this weekend (Nov. 22-23), where they’ll face a Fighting Irish team looking to snap a five-game losing streak.
Michael Hrabal is off to a solid sophomore season for UMass (photo: UMass Athletics).
If the well-worn phrase is true — that the best defense is a good offense — then the Massachusetts Minutemen might be onto something this season.
The No. 20 Minutemen (5-5-2 overall, 1-3-2 Hockey East) overcame a sluggish effort in a 2-1 loss at home to Providence last Thursday to rebound with a 5-1 win at the Friars’ home rink two nights later.
Two UMass goals in Saturday’s win came off the sticks of defensemen, continuing a positive trend for the Minutemen. Defensemen have scored at least one goal in 11 of UMass’s 12 games so far.
“I expect we’ll start getting more goals from our forwards, but it’s great when you can count on (defensemen),” said ninth-year UMass coach Greg Carvel. “If you’re getting a goal a game from your defensemen, that’s like getting a power-play goal a game. So it’s a huge plus.”
Carvel acknowledged goaltending has been an issue. He pulled Michael Hrabal — who had started all of UMass’s games to that point — 14 minutes into a 4-0 loss at Vermont on Nov. 9 after the sophomore gave up two goals. Fellow sophomore Jackson Irving took over and kept the Catamounts scoreless the rest of the way (UVM scored twice with an empty net).
On Nov. 14 vs. Providence, Irving turned away 26 shots in his first collegiate start to keep the Minutemen in the game. Carvel went back to Hrabal for the second game of the Providence series, saying the decision wasn’t a difficult one, citing Hrabal’s two wins vs. the Friars the previous season.
It seems Carvel doesn’t mind having two goalies he can count on.
“If (Hrabal) plays the way he played on Saturday night, he’ll own the net,” Carvel said. “(Irving) has earned a lot of trust just through his time here. (He’s) improved dramatically. (You) know what you’re going to get — you’re going to get good, steady goaltending. That’s all you ever want as a coach. Spectacular goaltending is great, and it wins games for you, but if I can get a goaltender to give me a .920 save percentage, that’s all I ever asked for as a coach. That’s asking a lot, maybe, but Michael should be capable of that.”
The Minutemen are 5-0-0 this season when scoring at least four goals and are winless when scoring three or fewer. All five UMass goals were scored from long range in the win over Providence, and while he’s not complaining, Carvel said he would like to see his team finish on more close-range opportunities.
“I’d like to see us score some more rebound goals, deflection goals,” he said. “We need to get better at going to the net, and more urgency to be around the net. But I’ll take five goals any way we can get them.”
Sophomore forward Aydar Suniev scored twice against Providence on Saturday and now has eight goals on the season, leading the Minutemen. Carvel said Suniev is hungry to score.
“He’s the kind of kid that, he’s not happy unless he’s scoring,” Carvel said. “That’s not always what you’re looking for, but it’s not the worst thing in the world either.”
UMass will take a break from Hockey East action on Friday when it hosts Harvard (7 p.m. on ESPN+), then will host Vermont Sunday at 3 p.m. (NESN).
Carvel said he hopes the pieces are in place for UMass to put its up-and-down start to the season behind it and find more consistency.
“We knew we had a young defense at the beginning of the year. We made a lot of mistakes. We gave up a lot of odd-man rushes. That’s changed,” he said. “We’ve hardly given up any in the last couple of weekends. Then it was the goaltending, and in the last couple of games we’ve had outstanding goaltending. And then it was the scoring — we couldn’t score. Then we got five goals. We put those three things together, and I say this all the time — limit the other team to two, we score three. (I) think we’re capable of that.”
North Dakota, in partnership with Ralph Engelstad Arena, H-E-B Center, and Visit Austin, announced Tuesday that H-E-B Center at Cedar Park will play host to the 2026 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game on Oct. 31, 2026.
This special event features North Dakota and Michigan State at 7:07 pm (CST).
“We’re looking forward to hosting a premier college hockey event that will provide an unmatched life experience for our student-athletes and offers our fans an exciting destination game weekend,” said UND coach Brad Berry in a statement. “The game, featuring two premier college hockey programs promises to be an outstanding game. We’re excited about playing a very good Michigan State team in the Live Music Capital of the World.”
“We’re looking forward to playing in the Hall of Fame Game and our trip to Austin,” added Michigan State coach Adam Nightingale. “It promises to be an outstanding matchup between two storied college hockey programs that combined, have won 11 NCAA national championships. We’re honored to be a part of this fantastic event.”
Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Nov. 12, 2025 at 10 a.m. CST.
Preliminary Schedule of Events:
Thursday Night Gathering – Thursday evening, October 29 NoDak Golf Tournament at the Avery Ranch Golf Club – Friday morning, October 30 NoDak Palooza at Austin City Limits Live (ACL Live) – Friday evening, October 30 Pregame Party – Saturday afternoon, October 31 2026 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game – Saturday, October 31 at 7:07 p.m. CST
The Nov. 20, 2024, edition of USCHO.com’s PodKaz features Nicole Haase and Todd Milewski giving their thoughts on news that emerged this week at St. Thomas, where coach Joel Johnson resigned days after he wasn’t on the bench for the second game of a WCHA series at Bemidji State.
