Rochester Institute of Technology women’s coach Scott McDonald served a one-game suspension last Saturday (Dec. 3) that was imposed by the school for initiating an alleged altercation during a men’s recreational game on Dec. 1.
McDonald, in his sixth season at RIT, was not behind the Tigers’ bench on Saturday. RIT, ranked No. 1 in Division III, defeated Chatham, 14-1.
McDonald was arrested, but not charged after he allegedly punched an opponent during a men’s league game at Thomas Creek Arena in Fairport, N.Y.
McDonald self-reported the incident to school officials last Friday and was suspended for Saturday’s contest. McDonald has since been reinstated.
“After a review of the alleged incident, we have reinstated Scott McDonald to his coaching position with the RIT women’s ice hockey team,” said RIT director of athletics Lou Spiotti. “Mr. McDonald and the rest of our coaching staff are well aware of the high standards to which we are all held accountable and will be more mindful of such as we go forward.”
RIT (10-0) travels to Trinity and Amherst this weekend for its final games before the holiday break.
Two top-10 teams had slip ups in the road this past weekend with Wis.-River Falls falling for the first time this year with a loss to Wis.-Superior and Norwich tying Salve Regina 1-1 for the second straight year.
Wis.-River Falls got the monkey off its back a lot earlier this season after the Falcons finished last year undefeated during the regular season before losing two straight playoff games in the NCHA finals and the NCAA Tournament First Round. Coach Cranston’s Falcons will get a chance to get back on track real quickly though as they take on undefeated Gustavus Adolphus tonight in a matchup between the West Region’s two colossal titans that have separated themselves a bit over the past few years from the rest of the region.
There are links to game notes, as well as live stats and live video at that link.
Wis.-River Falls will be motivated coming into tonight’s matchups for not only dropping a game to Superior this past weekend, but the Falcons will also be looking to avenge NCAA Tournament First Round losses to Gustavus Adolphus the last two seasons. The Gusties dropped the Falcons 4-1 last year at Hunt Arena and took the 2010 meeting 2-0 at the Don Roberts Ice Arena.
Gustavus Adolphus has been rolling along so far this season with Allie Schwab, Mollie Carroll, Carolyn Draayer and Lindsey Hjelm all with 10 or more points. Danielle Justice has been her usual self between the pipes with a perfect 6-0-0 record to go along with a .922 save percentage and a 1.40 goals against average.
Historically Gustavus Adolphus has been known to have a couple of hiccups in the first semester before going on a second half tear. I think UWRF takes their frustration out on Gustavus Adolphus tonight from the weekend and having their season ended the last two seasons by the Gusties with a close 3-2 win.
The other interesting result from this past weekend came from the Norwich/Salve Regina game where for the second straight season the Seahawks stymied the Cadets and forced a 1-1 tie despite being outshot 57-8. The Cadets are unbeaten in 29 straight ECAC East regular season games with a 27-0-2 record. The only team that has been able to halt their path has been Salve Regina with both of the ties coming to the Seahawks at St. George’s Rink in Middletown, R.I.
Norwich followed up the next afternoon however with a 5-0 dominating win over previously unbeaten Holy Cross to cement its hold atop the ECAC East standings. In Sunda’s game, NU senior forward Julie Fortier broke the school record for career goals by tallying the 73rd of her career in the first period to surpass Sophie Leclerc. Fortier also has a good shot at breaking the all-time points record as she now sits just 24 points shy of tying Leclerc’s all-time mark of 163.
Tomorrow night we’ll have another top-10 showdown between No. 2 Norwich and No. 7 Plattsburgh. The game will be video streamed live at www.nsnsports.net/norwich and is free to anyone who wants to watch.
USA Hockey on Monday named the 29 players who make up the preliminary roster for the 2012 U.S. National Junior Team that will play at the 2012 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship.
Of the 29 players, 18 are currently on NCAA rosters.
The final roster will be announced Dec. 22. The tournament runs Dec. 26-Jan. 5 in Edmonton and Calgary.
“We’re very excited to see what this group of players brings to camp,” said U.S. National Junior Team GM Jim Johannson in a news release. “The talent and skill that all of these players bring will make trimming the roster tough, but we look forward to the process.”
Nebraska-Omaha head coach Dean Blais, who guided Team USA to the gold medal in 2010, is back to lead the United States this year. Assistant coaches are Minnesota-Duluth coach Scott Sandelin, Ohio State assistant Joe Exter and Shattuck-St. Mary’s prep coach Tom Ward.
Among those invited to the camp are eight returning players from the bronze medal-winning 2011 team, including defensemen Justin Faulk (Minnesota-Duluth, participation will be determined by Carolina Hurricanes), Derek Forbort (North Dakota) and Jon Merrill (Michigan) and forwards Nick Bjugstad (Minnesota), Charlie Coyle (Boston University) and Jason Zucker (Denver).
Cornell goalie Andy Iles was also named the team’s emergency goaltender, but will not attend Team USA’s pre-tournament camp Dec. 17 in Canmore, Alta. The other two goalies, Jack Campbell and John Gibson originally committed to Michigan, but are now both playing in the Ontario Hockey League.
Defending NCAA champion Minnesota-Duluth rises three spots this week and is the new No. 1-ranked team in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll.
The Bulldogs garnered 25 of 50 first-place votes.
Minnesota is the new second-ranked team, receiving nine first-place votes to jump three notches in the poll.
No. 3 Boston College earned eight first-place votes, but fell one place this week.
At No. 4, Ohio State jumps three spots and was listed No. 1 on seven ballots.
Merrimack, the top team the past two weeks, falls to No. 5.
Colorado College is up two to No. 6, Notre Dame drops from No. 2 to No. 7, but did receive one first-place vote. Western Michigan jumps from 12th to eighth, Ferris State falls three to No. 9 and Union is down one to finish out the top ten.
Boston University is up a pair to No. 11, Colgate jumps three to No. 12, Denver falls three to No. 13, Michigan State rises two to No. 14 and Lake Superior State falls from No. 11 to No. 15.
Cornell is up one to No. 16 and Yale drops three to No. 17.
Nos. 18-20 were all unranked teams last week, as Massachusetts-Lowell, North Dakota and Providence enter the poll this week.
Michigan, at one point this season the No. 1-ranked team, falls out of the top 20.
Wisconsin received all 15 first-place votes this week to retain the top spot in the USCHO.com Division I Women’s Poll.
Minnesota, Cornell, Boston College, North Dakota and Mercyhurst occupy spots two through six, respectively, and are in the same positions as last week.
No. 7 Bemidji State is up one from a week ago, Northeastern rises two to No. 8, Boston University falls two places to No. 9 and Minnesota-Duluth drops one to round out the poll this week.
The top four teams, including No. 1 RIT with all 15 first-place votes, look the same as a week ago in the USCHO.com Division III Women’s Poll.
Norwich sits second, Middlebury third and Elmira is again No. 4.
Amherst jumps one to No. 5, as does Gustavus Adolphus to No. 6. Wisconsin-River Falls drops two to No. 7, while Plattsburgh stays the eighth-ranked team in the nation.
Concordia (Minn.) is ninth again this week, joined by previously-unranked Wisconsin-Superior.
Norwich received all 20 first-place votes in this week’s USCHO.com Division III Men’s Poll and is again the top-ranked team in the country.
Oswego stays at No. 2 and this week, Wisconsin-River Falls and Castleton flip-flop with UWRF the new No. 3.
St. Norbert retains the fifth position, Elmira jumps from seventh to No. 6, switching places with Plattsburgh, while Middlebury goes from No. 11 to No. 8 this week.
Adrian finds itself holding steady at No. 9 and Utica falls two to No. 10.
The Milwaukee School of Engineering rises one to No. 11, Williams enters the poll this week ranked 12th, Wisconsin-Superior falls three to No. 13, previously unranked Amherst is 14th this week and Neumann falls to No. 15 to round out the poll.
Todd: Another week, another new team atop the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll. But before we get to Minnesota-Duluth’s ascent to the top for the first time since the end of last season, what exactly happened to get us to this point? Previously unbeaten and previously No. 1 Merrimack lost twice to Providence. Boston College looked pretty average in a loss to Boston University on Friday before rebounding for the split. And Notre Dame got shelled on Friday by Northeastern, which completed the sweep a day later. Wasn’t the Thanksgiving letdown supposed to happen last weekend, Jim?
Jim: Positive proof that it isn’t turkey that makes teams sleep. Merrimack got spotty goaltending on Friday and lost in OT then completely lost composure on Saturday in an ugly 6-1 loss. BC looked better on Friday than Saturday but goaltending was a problem. Don’t be surprised to see rookie Brian Billett see more action going forward. And Notre Dame, I can’t explain that, nor can I explain the sole No. 1 vote the Irish received in Monday’s poll.
Todd: People have asked who that voter was. USCHO’s policy is to not identify voters nor their ballots, but voters are able to publicize their votes if they wish. I’ll do so right here: I picked Ohio State for No. 1 because things seemed to add up. First in the Ratings Percentage Index. Second in winning percentage. And, perhaps most importantly to determine whether the Buckeyes’ 12-3-1 start is legit, second in strength of schedule. But UMD is the No. 1 team, getting half of the 50 first-place votes, and it’s hard to find too much fault in that, either. Thoughts?
Jim: I will disclose as well as a voter: I voted for Ohio State No. 1 as well. To me, its strength of schedule was the selling point. Being 10-3-1 against teams “under consideration” (which we all know is a very relative term) is a very impressive record, not to mention the nine-game winning streak. I think sometimes voters vote on where the team was in the poll the weekend prior when deciding a team’s ranking and that was definitely the case this week.
Todd: I don’t want to take anything away from Minnesota-Duluth. Going 12 games without a loss (10-0-2) is certainly worthy of the top spot at this point in the season. The Bulldogs have just started in on an eight-game road stretch that gets cut in half by the holiday break, so they won’t play again at home until Jan. 20. With the way the top of the poll has gone so far this season, UMD could have lost the top spot and gained it back by then without batting an eye.
Jim: You know, that road trip stood out to my eye when scanning though today. That is a very tough row to hoe moving forward.
Scanning away from the poll, a couple of teams in Hockey East made big statements last weekend with Massachusetts-Lowell and Northeastern sweeping New Hampshire and Notre Dame, respectively. Both pretty impressive for first-year head coaches, no?
Todd: Lowell continues to impress under Norm Bazin, and I’d say this is the most impressed I’ve been with Northeastern under Jim Madigan. When you force the nation’s No. 2 team to go through all three goalies in one game, you’ve made a statement. Now, the Huskies just have to do that in a Hockey East game, and, coincidentally, they get the chance against Lowell on Saturday. A win there would be another big boost going into the break.
How much of that game do you expect to be impacted by the fact that Lowell has to play Boston College on Friday?
Jim: I think that Lowell is solely focused on the Eagles, a team it should have beat at home back a few weeks ago. It’s quite possible that there will be a loss of focus and the River Hawks will be vulnerable against Northeastern, but at this point I feel like it is all such a wild dart throw after last weekend you never know what will happen. Truth is that most Hockey East fans would have looked at series between BC, Boston University, Maine and New Hampshire to determine the top earlier in the season. Now we’re looking at December Lowell-Northeastern games as key. My, how things changed.
Todd: Indeed. Before we look at what’s coming up, and now that we’re just about two months into the season, it’s probably time to start looking at some individual statistics. I think you have to impressed by what Austin Smith is doing at Colgate. He leads the nation with 27 points, 18 goals and five short-handed goals. Through 16 games, he’s halfway to matching the 36 goals scored by last year’s goal-scoring leader, North Dakota’s Matt Frattin. Do we have a chance of seeing a 40-goal scorer in college hockey?
Jim: I do think we’ll see a 40-goal scorer this season and it’s not just Smith that has a chance. Look at guys like Brock Nelson at North Dakota and Teddy Broadhurst at Nebraska-Omaha. Even Chris Kreider at Boston College. Any of the guys could be poised to eclipse the 40-goal barrier. Don’t forget, some teams haven’t played a third of their games at this point and, even if they have, there’s plenty of hockey to play!
Todd: Let’s turn our attention to the coming week. Minnesota-Duluth puts its No. 1 ranking on the line in a series at Wisconsin. The Badgers have already knocked off one top-ranked team at home this season, that being Minnesota. And Michigan and Michigan State square off in a home-and-home series. Elsewhere in the CCHA, I’ll be interested to see how the Ferris State-Notre Dame series turns out. That’s two teams that were just swept, so there’s plenty at stake. What’s up out East?
Jim: This is easily the strangest weekend for the east. New Hampshire plays BU on Thursday in what could be a very strange mid-week game. BC also plays Lowell on Friday, which I personally see as interesting but many may not. Until next week …
It’s becoming less and less unusual for college hockey players to come from non-traditional recruiting areas, with players coming from places like Arizona, Florida, Texas and even California.
Western Michigan is a prime example of how players don’t need to come from the Midwest or East Coast to make an impact. The Broncos have seven players from California on this season’s roster.
Yes, seven — as in almost 25 percent of the roster. New coach Andy Murray also has experience out West from his time behind the Los Angeles Kings’ bench.
With a Toronto-born father, hockey has been in Balisy’s blood since birth.
Literally.
“My dad was the one who really got me started playing hockey,” Balisy said. “He grew up in Toronto and played growing up, so he got me started. Hockey really wasn’t that big back when I was playing in California. There wasn’t even a AAA team and now I know there are a few AAA teams down there. My dad was probably my biggest hockey influence in California and my dad used to get season tickets to see the Ducks, so just going to those games and watching pro hockey really influenced me when I was younger.”
Balisy, the second U.S. National Team Development Program alumnus to play for the Broncos (teammate Greg Squires is the other and North Dakota transfer Mike Cichy will be the third next season) and played for the Long Beach Junior Ice Dogs and Anaheim Junior Ducks as a youth, winning two state titles along the way.
Once he wound up in Ann Arbor donning the red, white and blue, getting a Division I scholarship wasn’t as easy as it seemed to be for some of his teammates. He committed to WMU just a few months before last season and was drafted by the Nashville Predators last summer.
“After my two years at the NTDP, I really didn’t have too many offers and wasn’t sure where I was going for the next year,” Balisy said. “[Former Western Michigan] coach [Jeff] Blashill got the job at Western and he offered me and I knew I would have a chance to play right away and that was something that I was looking for.
“I would definitely say that the California kids on the team all have that California pride. We all love being from California and stick up for Cali when the haters on the team start to take some shots at it.”
Brett Beebe, Redondo Beach, Calif.
When Beebe first started playing at the Squirt level, he estimates there were probably two AAA teams at the Pee Wee, Bantam and Midget levels and one was usually a national contender and the other a doormat.
“As I grew older, the number of AAA teams grew to four or five in the state and each team was very competitive,” said Beebe. “The amount of talented players seemed to get larger every year.”
Like many Californians, Beebe started playing roller hockey and gradually evolved into an ice hockey player when he was 10 years old.
“I started playing roller hockey on a school parking lot next door to my house in a small league,” Beebe said. “My next-door neighbors were older than me and played ice hockey and I wanted to fit in with them, so I took up the game. I started playing ice hockey when the Kings opened their new practice facility in El Segundo, just a few minutes from my house.”
Beebe’s biggest thrill as a youngster was winning a 16AAA national title with the California Wave. He also said that adversity shaped him into who he is today.
“You grow very close with your teammates in California because everyone usually comes from pretty far away and we face a lot of the same adversity,” Beebe said. “We traveled so much and practiced at terrible times because there were only so many rinks in the area, so we missed out on a lot of the things normal kids get to do like high school proms, football games, parties and having strong friendships with kids at school. Your teammates become your best friends and those friendships are things that I consider highlights of my minor hockey experience.
“Everyone involved with the LA Selects and Wave hockey programs were extremely influential in my youth hockey journey. My family was the biggest with how much they sacrificed so that I could pursue my dream, especially my sister who didn’t get to go on normal vacations, but instead tagged along to my hockey tournaments that were usually in cold locations.”
Now in his junior season with the Broncos, Beebe said three years ago when he took his official visit to Kalamazoo while playing for the USHL’s Chicago Steel, he “immediately knew it was the right fit.”
“I visited a lot of other schools and none of them had the feel that WMU did,” Beebe said. “Having other California kids on the team makes every day at the rink a lot easier, mostly because we get teased as being “beach bums” or whatever, so having six other guys have my back is always nice. I think everyone is just jealous. I spend a lot of time with a couple of the California guys when we’re at home. We skate and work out together in the summers and definitely have grown closer at school.”
To be able to play for Murray is just the typical icing on the cake.
“Coach Murray is the best coach I have ever played for,” Beebe said. “He’s so detail-orientated and such a great motivator. He just wants everyone to give it their best every day and that’s something that I’ve always strived to attain. I loved watching the Kings when he coached them in LA and it’s cool to see some of the systems he used in the NHL be implemented into our team.
“Coach Murray teaches us a lot about hockey, but even more about life and how to be a good person. He puts values as a person and player above wins and losses, which is something not seen very often in collegiate or professional sports these days.”
Dennis Brown, Cypress, Calif.
Brown said he chose WMU after playing at the U.S. Select 17 Festival, where he was coached by former Broncos assistant coach Marc Fakler.
Playing for coach Andy Murray has been a dream come true for Broncos defenseman Dennis Brown (photo: Tim Brule).
After playing two years in the USHL for the Omaha Lancers, Brown and Fakler got in touch with one another and the rest is history.
“As one of the older players on the team from California, I knew most of the older players growing up and met the younger players as they came in,” said Brown, a sophomore. “We all have a special bond as we know how fortunate we are to be able to be exposed and chosen to have the opportunity to be a Bronco and to play for a national championship.”
Playing under Murray this season has been a dream come true for Brown.
“Growing up watching my local home team, the LA Kings, play and seeing him behind the bench, I never would have thought that he would be standing behind me while I played NCAA Division I hockey,” Brown said. “If I would put it another way, I would say I’m blessed. He is a great role model and the decisions I make every day on and off the ice are reflected on his approach to teaching us about hockey and life. He is a coach who puts his players before himself.”
As a kid, Brown grew up in close proximity to four different rinks.
“The hockey landscape in California was quite small when I started the game,” Brown said. “On a competitive level, there wasn’t much. As I got older and reached the Pee Wee and Bantam levels, youth California teams made their mark at the national tournament. I started playing hockey because my parents took my sister and I to the local ice rink two minutes away from my house when I was 4. We laced up the skates and I just never stopped since then. My sister, Nicole, figure skated while I took up hockey.”
When he was 10 years old, Brown made Team California for the BRICK tournament in Edmonton. He also finished third in two national championship tournaments (Pee Wee AAA California Wave and Midget AAA 18U LA Junior Kings).
Now a Broncos player, Brown wants the team accomplishments to continue.
J.J. Crew, Placentia, Calif.
Crew played roller hockey until he was 9 and then transitioned over to ice.
J.J. Crew grew up playing roller hockey before transitioning to the ice (photo: Rena Laverty).
He said growing up in California and playing hockey was not something that was very popular and that it was tough finding ice time to practice because there were not many rinks around.
“I remember having to travel over an hour just to practice, which also limited the amount of practices your team had,” Crew said. “You were lucky to practice twice a week. The quality of competition was also limited and most of the time, there were only one or two teams at each level that were good so in order to play the best teams you had to travel all the time. Not too many teams wanted to come to California to play hockey, so you had to go elsewhere.”
The landscape has changed over time, Crew explained.
“More rinks are being built and kids are starting out at an earlier age,” he said. “I think having three NHL teams in California and the Ducks winning a Stanley Cup helps attract young kids to want to play hockey. Most of the kids I grew up playing with also played roller hockey. Roller hockey was the first thing I started doing when I was 9.”
And while he more times than not came out on the losing end of ice hockey tournaments and championships, Crew said some of his most memorable moments growing up in California mostly came during his roller hockey days.
“I was fortunate enough to play on some really good teams and win some big tournaments,” Crew said. “It wasn’t until I moved to Colorado to play Midget hockey where I won two state championships and a regional championship for my first ever trip to nationals.”
It was in California, though, that Crew really saw his potential to one day be able to play college hockey.
“My biggest hockey influence growing up in California was my coach Chris Annunziato [California Stars],” Crew said. “Aside from one year, he was the only ice hockey coach I ever played for. He was like a second father to me. He always knew what to say at the right moments and he knew how to get the most out of all his players.”
After playing for the USHL’s Lincoln Stars, Crew wasn’t even sure he was good enough to play D-I hockey. He said WMU was the only school to approach him during the 2007-08 season.
“They asked me to come on a visit to see their campus and what they had to offer and when I did, I fell in love and I felt right at home,” Crew said. “The coaches and players were easy to talk to and the campus was second to none. When I watched my first game, the atmosphere was unbelievable. The student section was loud and it seemed like an exciting place to play. I just knew this was where I wanted to play hockey and get my education.
“Having six other California kids on my team just goes to show you how far hockey in California has come. Having those guys on my team makes me feel more at home. We like to talk about the same things and do a lot of the same things, which helps us bond a lot more and stick together, especially when other guys give us a hard time. We do miss the warm weather, though.”
When asked to describe playing for Murray, Crew said it’s been “exciting” and then some.
“I have already learned so much from him and we’re not even halfway through our season,” Crew said. “He is demanding, but never demeaning. He knows what it takes to get to the next level and he pushes us every day to get better. The lessons that he teaches us not only help benefit us as a hockey team, but also as human beings. We’re very fortunate to have him as our coach.”
Robert Francis, San Diego
All it took for Francis to get enamored with hockey was a simple gift.
“I remember there being a lot of kids that played street hockey with plastic sticks and rubber balls,” the freshman said. “My parents bought me a pair of plastic roller blades and I loved them and then my grandma gave me a wooden hockey stick and I didn’t put it down.”
A USHL champion with the Green Bay Gamblers in 2010, Francis also said that Wayne Gretzky getting traded from Edmonton to Los Angeles in 1988 helped get him involved in hockey.
“Probably like a lot of kids in California, the Gretzky trade was huge for the development of hockey in Cali,” Francis said.
Committing to the Broncos last spring was an easy process, according to Francis.
“I chose Western because I loved the campus, the atmosphere on campus, and the way the hockey program was developing and becoming a top school for hockey,” he said. “I love playing for Andy Murray. It’s awesome learning from a coach that has basically been through everything.”
Garrett Haar, Huntington Beach, Calif.
Drafted by the Washington Capitals last summer, Haar originally committed to Northeastern, but decommitted after Greg Cronin left the Huskies’ coaching post to take a position with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Haar, who turned 18 in August, could have gone back to the USHL to play another season with the Fargo Force, but in the end chose to come to Kalamazoo and part of that was that he knew WMU assistant coach Pat Ferschweiler from his days playing under him with the Kansas City-based Russell Stover Midget program.
“Being comfortable with [Ferschweiler] definitely helped a lot,” Haar told the Kalamazoo Gazette. “Right after I decommitted, I called him and told him what happened. [Ferschweiler] said, ‘We’d love to get you up to Western.'”
And he’s been loving it ever since.
Matt Tennyson, Pleasanton, Calif.
Tennyson grew up in Minnesota and Michigan, but moved out West when he was 14 and played two years for the San Jose Junior Sharks.
Matt Tennyson spent only two years in California after growing up in Minnesota and Michigan (photo: Tim Brule).
“When I moved to California, I was very surprised with the talent,” said Tennyson, a junior with the Broncos. “We mostly played the Wave and the LA Selects. It has grown so fast in the last five years and there are many teams all over California that are national competitors.”
In his two short years in California, Tennyson played on two good teams and individually, was named top defenseman at a showcase tournament in Chicago. He said his coaches in California, AJ Toews (now a scout for the Washington Capitals) and Derek Eisler, “were the two people who helped and influenced me the most.”
Tennyson, a graduate of the USHL’s Cedar Rapids RoughRiders, said he initially chose Western Michigan because he was born in the Midwest and lived in Michigan, but now has a close friend out of the deal.
“I played against Brett Beebe, who played for the Wave,” Tennyson said. “We got to hang out in LA the summer before we came to school as freshmen and now we hang out every time we get a chance to go home.”
The Tuesday, Dec. 6, episode of USCHO Live! features Ohio State coach Mark Osiecki and CBS Sports Network hockey analyst and USCHO.com columnist Dave Starman.
Osiecki is in his second year behind the bench at Ohio State after six years as an assistant to Mike Eaves at Wisconsin, his alma mater. He followed his college career with six years as a pro, including in the NHL, and seven years as head coach and GM of the USHL Green Bay Gamblers. Osiecki has coached U.S. national teams and assisted Dean Blais for one season at North Dakota.
Dave Starman is in his ninth season providing color commentary and analysis for the CBS Sports Network. The former coach is also a scout for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Join us for the conversation and information, Tuesday, Dec. 6, from 8 to 9 p.m. ET at blogtalkradio.com/uscholive. If you can’t listen live, check out the podcast of USCHO Live! available on the player at the right (click through if you’re reading this via RSS.)
Each episode of USCHO Live! features a look at news around NCAA hockey, a look ahead at upcoming games and events, and conversation with people who coach and play college hockey and journalists who cover the sport.
About the hosts
Jim Connelly is a senior writer at USCHO.com and has been with the site since 1999. He is based in Boston and regularly covers Hockey East. He began with USCHO.com as the correspondent covering the MAAC, which nowadays is known as Atlantic Hockey. Each week during the season, he co-writes “Tuesday Morning Quarterback.”
Ed Trefzger has been part of USCHO since 1999 and now serves as a senior writer and director of technology. He has been a part of the radio broadcasts of Rochester Institute of Technology hockey since their inception — serving as a producer, studio host, color commentator and now as RIT’s play-by-play voice for the last several seasons. Ed is based in Rochester, N.Y.
The first part of the ECAC West league play finished up this past Friday, and Elmira has taken firm control at the top of the standings. The Soaring Eagles withstood a comeback by Neumann to beat the Knights, 3-2, in overtime to post a perfect 5-0 record. They are now six points clear of the next closest teams in the standings. Elmira’s John Clewlow tallied the game-winner 4:20 into the extra stanza to complete the road victory. “Elmira had the momentum once we got to overtime,” said Neumann coach Dominick Dawes. “We got caught on a couple of long shifts. I called a timeout to settle us down. We had a ‘D’ who got caught pinching, and that was the end of it.” In the other league game, Manhattanville continued its climb into the league hunt with a convincing 6-3 victory over visiting Utica. The Valiants scored two quick goals in the opening nine minutes of the first period, and then built a 5-1 lead by early in the third. Marcus Van Slydow scored a pair of goals, the first multi-goal game of the senior’s collegiate career. Scott Hudson chipped in a short-handed goal and two assists for Manhattanville. “Marcus is one of our more skilled defensemen,” said Manhattanville coach Eric Lang. “We had some good traffic in front of the net, and he hit it from the point.” Saturday, three ECAC West teams hosted SUNYAC foes. Elmira took out Fredonia 4-1, with all of the goals being scored in the second period. Brock Sawyer tallied the first and last goal of the period, the final one a short-hander, to bookmark Elmira’s lead. Emotions boiled over during the final minute of the game, as a pair of game misconducts and a pair of game disqualifications were handed out, along with a slew of other minor and major penalties. Hobart built a 3-0 lead on Geneseo midway through the second period, and then had to hold on as the Knights climbed back into the game. The Statesmen won, 4-2, as Marty Ausserhofer made 21 saves in net. Utica played a very tight game against Buffalo State. As the third period began, the game was tied 3-3 and the Pioneers were killing off a five-minute major to Tim Coffman. Then the Utica offense kicked into high gear. and six different Pioneers ripped off goals to win the game convincingly. 9-3.
Jon Gaffney was the only multi-goal scorer for Utica in the game.
The first weekend in December saw clutch goaltending, as Concordia (Minn.) moved to within a point of St. Thomas in the MIAC. In other Midwest action, Wisconsin-River Falls sits atop the NCHA standings alone after sweeping Wisconsin-Superior, and Adrian comes back in the MCHA after a disappointing Thanksgiving tournament. MIAC
Concordia (Minn.) remained unbeaten in its last five games against St. Thomas with a win and a tie over the weekend. Actually, Concordia was only 12 seconds away from a sweep, but St. Thomas tied Saturday’s game with the goalie pulled in favor of the extra player.
St. Thomas started the series strong by jumping out to a 2-0 lead Friday. Brandon Bahnemann and Travis Baker each scored first period goals for St. Thomas. Concordia (Minn.) took control, tying the score 2-2 in the second period on goals by Dan Hrabowych and Braden Rahman. Ben Payne scored the game-winning goal at 4:53 of the third for Concordia.
Saturday’s game saw Concordia take 10 penalties, but kill all 10, including a pair of five-on-threes. Concordia goaltender Chris Neamonitis stopped 43 shots on the evening. Also in the MIAC
Bethel jumped out to a 4-0 lead en route to a 5-2 victory on Friday over Hamline. Chaz Gerads scored the game-winning goal at 3:31 in overtime to seal the sweep for Bethel on Saturday.
St. Olaf and St. Mary’s split their weekend series. Kevin Harris scored twice for St. Olaf in its 5-2 Friday victory. Andrew Ketterer scored with less than a second left in the game, giving St. Mary’s a dramatic 2-1 win on Saturday.
Gustavus swept Augsburg over the weekend. Gustavus registered a 6-0 shutout Friday and scored three power-play goals on Saturday on its way to a 4-1 victory. NCHA
Wis.-River Falls established itself as the conference juggernaut in the NCHA by sweeping Wis.-Superior on the road over the weekend. After starting the season with eight straight home games, No. 4 Wis.-River Falls played on the road for the first time this season.
Friday night saw Wis.-Superior start off the scoring with a second period goal from Pat Dalbec, but it was all Wis.-River Falls after that. Jason Yuel tied the game for Wis.-River Falls and Jake Calleja scored the game-winner in the second period. Justin Brossman and Alec Hagaman added insurance goals in the third period.
Wis.-River Falls defeated Wis.-Superior 2-1 Saturday. Adam Cardwell and Jon Schreiner scored for Wis.-River Falls, while Jeff Forsythe scored a short-handed goal at 8:10 in the third period for Wis.-Superior. Also in the NCHA
St. Scholastica remained unbeaten in its last five games. St. Scholastica topped Wis.-Stout in a wild 8-6 victory on Friday. Tyler Miller scored his first collegiate hat trick to lead St. Scholastica. Branden Gay recorded his own hat trick for Wis.-Stout in the loss. Saturday’s game saw both teams matching each other goal-for-goal in a 3-3 overtime tie.
Wis.-Eau Claire and Wis.-Stevens Point split the weekend series. Wis.-Eau Claire won 4-1 Friday and Wis.-Stevens Point scored a 2-1 victory Saturday. MCHA
Adrian returned to the win column with a pair of wins over Concordia (Wis.) this weekend. Zach Wilson registered the hat trick in Adrian’s 9-4 Friday victory. Lukas Ciotti scored the eventual game-winning goal in the third, as Adrian collected the sweep with a 5-3 win Saturday. Also in the MCHA
Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) swept its series against Lake Forest. MSOE erupted for six goals in the third period in a 9-3 win on Friday. On Saturday, MSOE withstood two third period goals by Lake Forest to hold on to a 4-3 victory.
Marian remained undefeated in the MCHA with a win and a tie over Northland this weekend. Marian defeated Northland 8-4 on Friday, and the two teams skated to a 5-5 overtime draw on Saturday.
Lawrence and Finlandia split their weekend series. Finlandia won the series opener on Friday by a 6-2 score. Lawrence came back Saturday with a 5-1 victory.
With roughly a week remaining in the unofficial first half of the season, conference races are starting to shape up and heat up, making the New Year look all the more exciting for all fans. Any all points are going to be important coming down the stretch in February, but it may be points gained in early December that may in fact be the difference in the final standings, playoff position, and home ice in March. Lots of hockey between now and then, so enjoy the battles over the next week as an early holiday gift, and let’s take a look at who is hot and who is not. ECAC East Norwich — The Cadets took round one with cross-state rival Castleton on home ice on Friday night, 3-2, but the teams were clearly closely matched. A quick 3-0 start in the first period, including two power-play goals, turned out to be all the Cadets needed in stifling the Spartans’ high-powered offense for the final 34 plus minutes of play. Both the Cadets and Castleton are creating some early separation in the standings from the rest of the teams, so the February 11, 2012 match-up could have implications for first place in the conference. Southern Maine — After starting out 1-4-0, the Huskies swept both games this past weekend against Massachusetts-Boston and Babson. Goaltender Braely Torris picked up two wins and a shutout while stopping 58 of 61 shots in the two games. The Huskies will try to keep the momentum going when they host Bowdoin on Tuesday night in a nonconference game. Mass.-Boston — The Beacons’ offense had a breakout game in avenging last week’s PAL Cup tie/loss to the University of New England in a shootout. After falling behind 3-1 in the first minute of play in the second period, the Beacons scored seven unanswered goals, including four in a span of seven minutes late in the second period, to post the 8-3 win. The win was just the first in the conference for Mass.-Boston, which is looking up at a lot of teams in the standings. A nonconference match-up with Wentworth on Thursday night will be a good test for Mass.-Boston, as it tries to win back-to-back games for the first time this season. St. Michael’s — Since beating Southern Maine on November 11, the Purple Knights are 0-5-1, having scored just 12 goals in the six games played. Freshman A.J. Pieprzak leads the team in scoring with six points in eight games, including five goals, but the Knights will need more to compete when they return to game action at the end of the month in their own tournament against Salve Regina and Becker College. NESCAC Middlebury — At 4-0-0 and atop the conference standings, the Panthers are getting strong goaltending from John Yanchek (.926 saves percentage, 1.61 GAA), and phenomenal defense, especially on the penalty kill, where they have surrendered just one goal in 26 chances this season. A difficult road trip against Hamilton and Amherst awaits them the final games of the first semester. Amherst — Just behind Middlebury with a game in hand, the Lord Jeffs have been equally stingy in giving up goals to the opposition. Jonathan LaRose has a 4-0-0 record and an incredible 1.00 goals against average in supporting a balanced attack that has 12 different players scoring for Amherst so far this season. Saturday’s home date with Middlebury should be a great game to close out the first half. Williams — Sandwiched between Middlebury and Amherst are the Ephs at 4-0-2 overall and 3-0-1 in the league. If you sense a recurrent theme, Williams also boasts a well-balanced attack, with 12 different goal scorers and a great goaltender supported by a stellar defensive corps. Williams too faces Amherst and Hamilton on the road this weekend, so all of the top teams will be looking to create some distance between their rivals. Trinity — Matt Greason’s squad has been off to a rough start at 2-4-0 overall and 1-3-0 in the conference. The Menard twins, juniors Chris and Jeffrey, have twin goal totals of four apiece, which combined represents more than one-half of the team’s total offensive output. A split this weekend with Amherst showed tight defensive play, but the Bantams are going to need more than three goals a weekend to move up in the conference standings.
We are off to a great and exciting start to the season. Just a few games remain before the semester and break for the holidays so enjoy the action remaining in December, and maybe send a list to Santa for what your team needs to make a run in the second half.
The elves are hockey fans too — drop the puck!
Danny Kaufmann spent the summer in Washington, D.C., where he waited tables and shared living quarters with a childhood friend.
Through the course of the summer however, Kaufmann admitted that while they shared the same kitchen, he and John Carlson, a second-year defenseman with the Washington Capitals and Kaufmann’s best friend from growing up in New Jersey, didn’t spend as much quality time as one would expect.
While Kaufmann, a junior forward at Johnson and Wales, worked for tips and found time to train, it was exclusive of Carlson’s training.
“That is his work, so I had to work,” Kaufmann said. “Whenever we could, we worked out, but our paths didn’t cross much.”
But, Kaufmann explained, he trained much like he did in previous summers, in preparation for the season, and didn’t step onto the ice until the end of August. Then, he joined his team for captain’s practices that led up to the preseason, and the Wildcats opened the season November 2 with a 3-2 win at Stonehill.
In eight games this season, Kaufmann has emerged as the ECAC Northeast’s leading goal scorer, with 10 in his first eight games, helping Johnson and Wales go 6-1-1 and 3-0-1, second in the ECAC Northeast.
Kaufmann is tied for second in league scoring with Wentworth’s Mike Domsodi, each with 15 points, behind Johnson and Wales forward Jeremiah Ketts (eight goals, 12 assists). In Saturday’s 7-0 win over Salve Regina, Kaufmann scored two goals and had two assists.
“I’m just trying to get pucks and bury them,” Kaufmann said. “And a little luck helps, too.”
This week, the Wildcats travel to Western New York for a two-game nonconference series Friday and Saturday at Fredonia State — the first two games of a seven-game nonconference stretch for Johnson and Wales — and host Southern New Hampshire on December 14 before a 23-day holiday break.
“I’m not sure of the exact plans yet,” Kaufmann said of Johnson and Wales’ longest road trip of the season. “But it’s the same mindset as going into a regular game, and it’s not too much different than what we’ve all been through. 95 percent of our team played junior hockey, so we’re used to the road trips. There’s no real bad part about the trips, hockey-wise. It’s just sitting on the bus for a long stretch that can be rough.”
Deadlocked rivalries
The two rivalry games lived up to their reputation and hype. Perhaps too much so, as both ended up in a tie.
“It’s turning into a real special rivalry,” Fredonia coach Jeff Meredith said after a 3-3 tie with Buffalo State.
After a scoreless first period, Buffalo State scored twice within 46 seconds. Clay Lewis fired a one-timer slap shot from the right point off a rebound. Then, James Durham redirected a centering pass from Drew Klin.
“We didn’t play very well in the first period,” Buffalo State coach Nick Carriere said. “It took us some time to get going. The second period, we started getting back to our game plan.”
Three minutes later, Brad Nunn got one back off a bouncing puck in front of the net.
The Bengals regained a two-goal lead with a short-handed tally by Justin Knee. However, Buffalo State missed two other short-handed breakaways later in the game.
“That was the difference,” Carriere said. “We’re all about opportunities.”
Justin Wynia scored a power-play goal off a perfect deflection near the end of the second period to once again pull within one.
“Converting on that power play was huge for us,” Meredith said. “It got us back to within one, and now we can settle back down and play some hockey.”
Bryan Ross tied the game at 5:29 of the final period from a difficult angle over the goalie’s shoulder.
“It was a fun game to coach in,” Meredith said. “I wish we had 25 like this.”
Meanwhile, up in Plattsburgh, the two top teams in the league fought to a 2-2 tie. Oswego led 1-0 and 2-1. with no goals coming in the final 37:39 of the game, despite 18 third-period shots by Plattsburgh. Only three penalties were called in the entire game.
Jon Whitelaw scored first at 9:16 of the first, the lone goal of the opening period. Paul Publisi tied it 1:16 in the second, but Chris Ayotte put the Lakers back on top at 6:06. Alex Jensen tied it again at 7:21.
Andrew Hare made 35 saves for Oswego, and Mathiew Cadieux stopped 34 shots for Plattsburgh.
So, when it was all over, neither of these four teams were able to gain on each other after these crucial match-ups. Other highlights
– “Crazy” is how Brockport coach Brian Dickinson described their wild 7-6 win over Morrisville. Seven goals were scored in the third period, including two Brockport goals within 27 seconds. Brockport opened the scoring with two goals within 28 seconds. Ian Finnerty got two goals and two assists for the winners. Jonathan Cristini and Todd Hosmer each scored twice for the losing side.
– The night before, Morrisville lost another close one, this time to Geneseo, 4-3. The Ice Knights led 2-0 after one, and Morrisville tied it 2-2 after two. The teams exchanged third period power-play goals, with Geneseo getting the first. Rich Manley won the game with 55 seconds left.
– After letting up the first goal, Potsdam scored five straight to beat Cortland, 5-1. Mike Arnold scored twice, including a short-hander. Dylan Ellis stopped 35 shots.
– Plattsburgh also scored five straight goals to beat Cortland, 6-1. Adam Bevilacqua tied the game for the Red Dragons on a short-handed tally before Plattsburgh went on its spree. Kyle Taylor scored twice, and Vick Schlueter capped the scoring with a short-hander.
– Potsdam put a bit of a scare in Oswego, despite being outshot, 53-27. Oswego led 2-0 and 3-1, but Potsdam tied the game. After Oswego once again took a two-goal lead with Tyler Leimbrock netting both of them, Potsdam got one back. It took an empty-netter to finally put the game away. Trevor Cope got two for Potsdam.
Yale’s biggest season success comes off ice in White Out for Mandi
On the ice, the Yale Bulldogs are having a season that they’d just as soon forget. After dropping a pair of home contests to Princeton and Quinnipiac, Yale’s mark for the year dipped to 1-14. Over the weekend however, the Bulldogs also paid homage to one of their own that they’ll likely never forget.
On Friday, Yale held its second annual White Out for Mandi. The event raised at least $18,000 to benefit the Mandi Schwartz Foundation through an auction and other sales and contributions. The charitable organization, named in honor of the former Yale player whose valiant fight against acute myeloid leukemia ended eight months ago, provides support to youth hockey players with cancer.
Yale is also planning a drive to enlist more marrow donors, tentatively in April.
So near, but yet so far
Lindenwood nearly secured its first point against a D-I opponent on Saturday. The Lions were only 78 seconds away from an overtime tie at Syracuse when Nicole Ferrara scored to give the Orange a 2-1 victory. The Lions struck first; when Caitlyn Post connected on the power play at 1:47 of the third period, it was the first time all season they held the lead in a D-I game.
With only three meetings remaining against full-time D-I competition, all ranked opponents, with Mercyhurst twice plus North Dakota, it is unlikely that losing streak will end this year. At least Lindenwood served notice of its intent to battle in the CHA next season by extending its future conference rival beyond 60 minutes.
The Lakers sail right along
After No. 6 Mercyhurst graduated six seniors that had collectively accrued 915 points while at Erie, questions abounded as to the caliber of skaters that coach Mike Sisti would be able to put on the ice. The Lakers dropped two of their first three games, hinting at negative answers to those questions, before Sisti’s charges tabled any talk of impending doom by rattling off a nine-game winning streak. However, the game that ended the streak on Friday, a 5-4 defeat at the hands of No. 3 Cornell, was the first indication that this year’s edition of Mercyhurst hockey may actually exceed last year’s star-studded cast. The Lakers enjoyed 2-0 and 3-1 leads before the Big Red rallied and won on Laura Fortino’s goal with two and a half minutes to play.
Saturday saw MC start a new winning streak, spotting Cornell the first goal, exploding for the next four, and claiming a 5-2 victory. The Lakers look to be rolling as they head to Boston College for a series with huge NCAA tournament implications.
Weekend results
In another series matching top-10 opponents, No. 2 Minnesota put away No. 5 North Dakota early on Friday and won, 7-2; UND took the rematch, breaking a scoreless duel early in the final period and adding a pair of last-minute goals for a 3-0 shutout. Seventh-ranked, but wounded, Boston University fell twice on the road at Northeastern and Providence before salvaging the back half of a home-and-home with the Friars. Meanwhile, two of the more enigmatic teams in Hockey East met in Orono, where No. 4 Boston College needed overtime to vanquish Maine on Saturday and had to wait for 58:32 on Sunday before Blake Bolden netted the game’s only goal.
Offense discovered
In the most recent game predictions on this blog, I hypothesized that Clarkson’s offense was buried in the deep freeze. That was intended as a little fun at the expense of the Golden Knights, who had scored as many as three goals but once in their last 10 games. They demonstrated over the weekend that the joke is actually on me, striking for 16 goals in two victories, matching their output from those previous 10 matches. It could have been worse; I could have predicted that Clarkson would lose.
Every team in the league played this past weekend, and with one exception, someone won two games and someone got swept. Putting aside the only nonconference series for a moment, such decisiveness provided a little distance and clarity at the top of the league’s standings while muddying the waters further down. First is first. With their home sweep of Lake Superior State, the Buckeyes put five points between themselves and second-place Notre Dame, seven between first and third-place Western Michigan. The further down you go in the standings, the more difficult the task appears for teams to catch Ohio State; now there are 10 points between first and fifth, and the only team with games in hand on OSU is Michigan State, a full 11 points behind. True, in this season of strangeness and parity, that may not be insurmountable, but if the OSU defense — backstopped by Cal Heeter (1.89 GAA, .932 SV%) — continues to allow two or fewer goals as it has during its current 11-game unbeaten streak, it’ll be difficult to catch the Buckeyes. They won 5-2 and 2-1, and they have the sixth-best defense (1.94) in the nation. Their scoring margin (1.38) is fourth nationally. Somewhere in the middle … is everyone else. Well, not really, but it sure feels that well. Second-place Notre Dame has 24 points; second-to-last place Alaska has 14. The nine teams between OSU and last-place Bowling Green are so tight that no more than two points separate teams from place to place in league standings. Kudos to Western Michigan, Michigan State and Northern Michigan for solid sweeps. For the Broncos, Friday’s 4-2 win over Ferris State broke a five-game winless streak. For the Spartans, 5-1 and 4-1 wins over Bowling Green extends an unbeaten streak to four games. For the Wildcats, 2-1 and 5-1 wins over Miami extend their win streak to three games. Other than winning, what do these teams have in common? Each allowed just two goals on the weekend. This season in the CCHA, it appears, defense does win games. Finally, let’s skip the good and the bad and get right to the ugly. After Notre Dame dropped a 9-2 game to visiting Northeastern Friday night, coach Jeff Jackson told the South Bend Tribune that the game was “maybe the worst loss” in his tenure with the Irish. Northeastern scored in the first and last minutes of the game — and, seemingly, ever minute in between — and netted those nine goals on just 20 shots, with all three of the Irish goaltenders allowing at least two. Notre Dame went on to lose again Saturday, 2-1.
Here’s a part of the story that won’t be discussed on the record. During the past two weeks, several little birdies have passed along news of a virus, and each little birdie has done so independent of all other little birdies. The Lakers had it bad the first night they hosted Notre Dame Nov. 25, and I do not know if they brought it back from their road trip to Buffalo Nov. 19-20. The Irish were quite sick last week.
Northeastern and Massachusetts-Lowell play a single game next weekend, Dec. 10. As someone who previewed this nastiness herself in late September, I hope that it ends there — the last game before the holiday break — for all involved.
Despite the nation’s two highest-ranked teams, Merrimack (by Providence) and Notre Dame (by Northeastern) each succumbing to sweeps over the weekend, perhaps the biggest shocker in college hockey occurred in, of all places, Nashville, Tenn. The Music City hosted winless Alabama-Huntsville and a Nebraska-Omaha team tied for second in the WCHA on Friday night in the second matchup in the just over 10 months between the schools.
And for the second time in roughly 10 months, the Chargers came out on top with a 3-1 victory over the Mavericks at Bridgestone Arena, home of the NHL’s Nashville Predators.
UAH’s last win? A 2-1 overtime win on Jan. 29 over none other than UNO in Omaha. The Chargers had gone winless in all 17 games since that meeting including an 0-14-1 record this season while being outscored 60-11.
Following January’s loss, Nebraska-Omaha coach Dean Blais was fairly philosophical in his post-game comments after his team fired 59 shots at Alabama-Huntsville goaltender Clarke Saunders.
“We got to the net but just didn’t get any puck luck,” Blais told USCHO’s Matt Semisch at the time. “Every once in a while, the puck will bounce off a skate or something (and go in), but when you get that many attempts, it’s either down to bad luck or good goaltending, and I think (tonight) it might’ve been a little of both.
“You give their goaltender credit, but we’ve got to be a little bit sharper in our execution.”
“It was poor execution all over the ice,” Blais said. “We normally have our short pass game going, but it wasn’t there tonight. It was a total team breakdown, and it started with our mental preparation.
“It’s one of the few times in the three years I’ve been here that our effort hasn’t been there. I’m embarrassed.”
Although Saunders was, once again, a factor for UAH with 44saves, Blais would not allow his team anything resembling a crutch after a loss which will likely prove to be far more damaging to UNO from a Pairwise perspective than its predecessor.
“It wasn’t that their goaltender was standing on his head,” Blais said. “He made some saves, but … it was sloppy play all over the ice. We’ve got to move the puck and execute.”
To the Mavericks’ credit, they bounced back on Saturday with a 6-2 win to earn a split in a series played before announced ‘crowds’ of 957 and 1,364.
CC needs Rylan Schwartz back as soon as possible
Just around the time Rylan Schwartz scored his sixth goal of the weekend to complete his second hat trick in two nights last week at North Dakota, he suffered an injury that kept him out of Friday’s game against Denver. That, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette’s Brian Gomez.
CC beat the Pioneers without Schwartz, Friday, but that was only a one-game series. Schwartz leads the Tigers with 13 goals and is tied with his brother, Jaden for the team lead in points (17).
The Tigers need to score goals to win because of a goaltending situation that hasn’t necessarily been the best and a defensive corps that has looked lost on some of the goals its given up the past couple weeks. Without a dangerous offensive weapon like Rylan Schwartz, other guys like Nick Dineen and Gabe Guentzel must fill in.
CC coach Scott Owens told Gomez he hopes Schwartz will be ready for this weekend’s series against Alaska-Anchorage, but even if he heals in time, the Tigers will lose Jaden when he leaves for Saskatchewan, Saturday to play for Team Canada in the World Junior Championships. He’ll be gone for five games.
CC’s fourth-highest scorer, Scott Winkler, is expected to play in the World Junior Championships Division I Group A, according to Gomez’s story.
Though the Tigers don’t have a whole lot of tough teams on its upcoming schedule (UAA and Minnesota State), there’s enough parity in the WCHA for an upset or two.
Michigan Tech got swept at home and it won’t get easier
The Huskies went into the weekend with a winning record in the WCHA and had a shot to gain more points and the earn respect it’s been thirsting for all season with Minnesota-Duluth in town.
The Bulldogs swept Tech with a pair of 5-3 outcomes. The Huskies have lost five of their last seven games.
And now comes the hard part; the Huskies go to first-place and fifth-ranked Minnesota this weekend (the ranking as of Monday morning. It’s likely to shoot up this afternoon).
Then Tech plays a single game at unranked, although ninth in the current PairWise, Northern Michigan, Dec. 17. The Huskies are in the field of four in one of the nation’s toughest Christmas tournaments, the Great Lakes Invitational. They’ll face No. 16 Michigan State in the semis with either No. 19 Michigan or No. 2 Boston College waiting the next day.
The Huskies face NMU again in mid-January followed by a trip to UMD, just to make everything full-circle.
Don’t forget there’s a home series with UAA in there, but this upcoming stretch will tell a lot about Tech, and whether or not its 6-2-1 start was just a mirage.
To cut to the chase, Rensselaer is still at the bottom of the league, and isn’t looking like anything close to a contender at this time.
That said, the Engineers have scored a modest yet significant seven goals in their last three games: a 2-0 win at RIT, and last Friday’s 5-3 loss at Princeton and Saturday’s 3-2 loss at Quinnipiac. While the results are depressing, those seven goals equal the total offensive output of the team’s previous 10 (ten! [¡diez!]) games.
It certainly helps that attackers Brock Higgs, Marty O’Grady, Matt Tinordi and Jacob Laliberte are back in the lineup, but the continued absences of rookie Matt Neal and junior Greg Burgdoerfer are still being felt out in Troy.
The cherry-clad paranoiacs out there might have a new patch of anxiety to roll around in out in the Meadow of Worry, as the eight goals surrendered last weekend match the most allowed in an RPI weekend all season, given up in twin 4-1 defeats at home against Colorado College in late October.
The new tough tandem in town
The league’s coaches are tentatively circling their calendars for this year’s version of the “toughest weekends”: surprise surprise, it’s Cornell and Colgate.
They’ve been a tenacious one-two punch before – and not so long ago, either – when the likes of Tyler Burton, Jesse Winchester and Kyle Wilson supported goalie Mark Dekanich in Hamilton, and Cornell… well, everyone knows that the players are robots in Ithaca, so assigning them names – like, say, Matt Moulson, Byron Bitz, Ray Sawada, Topher Scott, or David McKee – would be totally arbitrary and ridiculous. But in any case, in 2005-06 the Raiders and Red finished 1-2 (technically 1-3, since Colgate tied for the Cleary Cup with Dartmouth), barely eking out the Green and fourth-place Harvard Crimson for most points among travel partners.
Since then, the North Country cousins (in ’06-07), the felines (Princeton and Quinnipiac, in ’07-08 and ’08-09), and last year’s Capital District duo have claimed the crowns for most challenging deuces. Cornell and Colgate combined for the most points of any such set in 2009-10 as well with a 2-4 finish, and after a relatively down year for the pair last year, they are right back on top with a combined 12-3-1 league record over a third of the way into the ECAC schedule.
The western New Yorkers will have to hope they hold the pace over the next month and a half, while their next conference foes – Quinnipiac and Princeton, on January 13 and 14 – are hoping for quite the opposite.
Bears repeating
No, this actually isn’t a note about Brown (though I’ll shoehorn in an impressed gawk at Bruno’s 6-4 home upset of Yale on Saturday). I know many of you probably figured it would be, and if you were one of them, thanks for reading my stuff: you’re the ones who would know what a sucker I am for terrible puns in my sub-heads.
This is actually about Harvard and Colgate, two teams who finished last season scoring averages of 2.26 and 2.55 goals per game (overall), respectively. This year? 3.44, each.
The Crimson have already tallied eight goals from four (of their six skating) freshmen, accounting for just barely more than a quarter of their 31 goals. Colgate on the other hand has only noted four rookie goals: three from Joe Wilson, and one by Joe Lidgett. The big difference? Well, Austin Smith seems to be doing pretty well these days… what’s he up to? Eighteen goals in 16 games? Note to the Raiders: ever heard the phrase, “live by the sword, die by the sword”?
(Hint: Smith’s production is the sword.)
Keep an eye out for rookie writer (well, he’s a rookie to this beat, at least) Nate Owen’s first ECAC Hockey column on Wednesday morning!
Three things I learned from Atlantic Hockey this weekend:
I would have liked to be at the John A Ryan Skating Arena on Saturday – Where one of those rare, Mighty Ducks-like moments occurred. Bentley and Niagara were tied at two goals each, when, with 1.3 seconds to play, Niagara’s Dan Baco covered the puck in his own crease. That gave the Falcons a penalty shot, but Brett Gensler’s attempt sailed wide, and the teams settled for a point each after a scoreless overtime.
West is still best – The western half of the league went 7-3-2 in eastern rinks this season to bring the total so far this season to 21-5-4 in favor of the west. Eight of the top ten teams in the standings are from the west “pod”, including the top four teams. But we have a long way to go.
Offenses are waking up – It’s been a down year offensively for most AHA teams (or, to look at it another way, a good year for defenses and goaltending). But Robert Morris scored a total of 15 goals this weekend, and Air Force had 11. An average of seven goals a game were scored in the games this past weekend.
Getting my vote:
Here’s how I’ll vote in tomorrow’s USCHO.com Division I men’s poll:
1. Boston College
2. Minnesota Duluth
3. Ohio State
4. Minnesota
5. Notre Dame
6. Merrimack
7. Colorado College
8. Western Michigan
9. Union
10. Denver
11. Boston University
12. Ferris State
13. Lake Superor State
14. Colgate
15. Michigan State
16. Cornell
17. Massachussetts-Lowell
18. North Dakota
19. Air Force
20. Yale
