Minnesota has agreed to terms on a contract extension with head coach Don Lucia through the 2014-2015 season.
“Don is a championship caliber coach and is deserving of this extension,” said Minnesota director of athletics Joel Maturi in a news release. “He has led the University of Minnesota to two national titles and recently battled through a significant illness. He is now totally healthy and fully committed to Minnesota.
“I believe Gopher hockey to be the premier program in the country and Don is the right man to continue to lead our student-athletes.”
Lucia, in his 13th season behind the bench, won back-to-back national championships with Minnesota in 2002 and 2003 and has a stellar 294-159-53 record with the Gophers. Minnesota is off to a 4-0-0 start this season, its best start since 2001-2002.
“Our goal every year is for Minnesota to be a championship team and we have been able to achieve the ultimate success twice since I have been here,” added Lucia. “Some years we come closer to reaching our goals than others, but I am confident that we are headed in the right direction.”
Former Union goaltender Kris Mayotte has been named a volunteer assistant coach at Cornell.
“I think that we’ve had a tremendous amount of success with our coaches here helping our goaltenders develop,” Cornell head coach Mike Schafer said in a statement. “I think with Kris, it gives them one extra person to pay specific attention to them, which we haven’t had in a while. I think it will help in development, but it will also give them a chance to air out some of their issues that they might have, or they can discuss different things that he can relate to since he’s played the position.”
Mayotte played for the Dutchmen from 2002-2006, recording a 46-52-13 record. He was a full-time goalie coach last year in Maryland.
The Oct. 18 premiere episode of USCHO Live! with hosts Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger featured a conversation with Boston College coach Jerry York about his career, past BC players in the NHL, this year’s team and the changes in college hockey’s landscape, followed by a look at all of the upcoming conference upheaval with Boston Globe writer John Powers.
You may listen through the embedded player on this page (click through if you are reading this via RSS) or you may subscribe to the podcast by clicking the iTunes or RSS links in the player.
While two name-brand schools were battling in South Bend, Ind., and Western Michigan was proving itself against a ranked opponent 750 miles to the east, the CCHA’s two teams in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula were busy last weekend making statements of their own, each handling things at home.
Northern Michigan's Reed Seckel had a goal and an assist in a sweep of St. Cloud State (photo: Northern Michigan Athletics).
Lake Superior State became the first CCHA team of the season to sweep a conference opponent with 5-4 and 3-2 wins over Michigan State. Northern Michigan posted its first sweep of the season against WCHA foe St. Cloud State, winning 5-2 and 3-2.
Coaches of both teams said they were a little on the lucky side. “I think we caught them at the right time,” said LSSU’s Jim Roque. “They’ll be a different team in January.”
“St. Cloud’s good,” said NMU’s Walt Kyle. “They’ve got some good talent and a good goaltender and they’re well coached, and over this weekend [there] wasn’t much different between the teams.”
Lake Superior
Every year, the Lakers seem to find themselves in the same predicament: looking for a few players who can score. Last year, senior Rick Schofield had 17 goals for LSSU, more than any player since Nathan Perkovich in 2007-08 — and Schofield was one of just two players who scored 10 or more goals last year.
While the season is a mere four games old, the Lakers may have some indication of who will be providing some of that scoring this year. Sophomore Kyle Jean has four goals after netting one in 38 games last year. His classmate, Colin Campbell, has two — half of his total in 37 games last season. Junior Nick McParland has three goals; he scored nine in 64 games in his first two seasons.
“It’s good to see the sophomores to get off to a good start,” said Roque, sounding a little relieved. “Nick McParland is off to a good start as a junior, finally.
“I thought we pursued the puck really good all weekend. We were on the puck hard all the time and had four lines rolling. We had some really good bounces. We were fortunate.”
Roque said that one reason the Lakers may be in for more success up front this campaign is because of the success they see in net. After being named to the 2010-11 CCHA all-rookie team last year, sophomore Kevin Kapalka (2.26 GAA, .912 save percentage) appears poised to follow through with another good season.
“With Kevin in net, our guys have a lot of confidence in him,” said Roque. “If they make a mistake, they know he’s back there to catch them.”
The home sweep over the Spartans represents one-quarter of LSSU’s home CCHA wins of a season ago, a statistic that Roque said must be improved if the Lakers are going to be more competitive this year.
“We talked about it last year,” said Roque. “We’ve just got to find a way to do a better job at home to get points. In this league, if you have a good home record, you’re going to finish up in the standings. It doesn’t really matter who you are.”
This weekend, the Lakers host two games against Bowling Green, a team that gave LSSU some trouble last season. The teams went 1-1-2-2 in four contests, with the Lakers taking shootout points in back-to-back ties at home in early December.
“They weren’t a good matchup for us last year,” said Roque. “Andrew Hammond is for real.” Hammond earned goaltender honors from the CCHA this week with BGSU’s sweep of Alabama-Huntsville.
Heading into the series, Roque said the Lakers need to improve in a number of ways. “We need to get better in our own zone,” he said. “We have a freshman on every line. Plus we have some guys playing more than they did last year. Our defensive zone play has got to get a little better. I’d like to see us shoot the puck more, especially against Hammond.”
Northern Michigan
In Marquette, Kyle sounded a little like his U.P. counterpart after a good — but early — home weekend.
“There were times you loved your team and times you hated your team,” said Kyle. “Times we played really well and times we made mistakes.”
Eight different Wildcats players accounted for the team’s eight-goal output in the series. Particularly encouraging were the contributions from semi-newcomers Ryan Kesti, Reed Seckel and Matt Thurber. Kesti and Seckel redshirted last season after being injured in the early going, and Thurber is a transfer from Wisconsin. “They were with us last year, so they got to practice and develop but they had to wait to play,” said Kyle.
Against SCSU, Seckel had a goal and assist in the two games — after netting the overtime winner against Wisconsin on the road the week before — and Thurber chipped in two more assists, bringing his total for the season to four. “Seckel’s off to a great start for us,” said Kyle, “and Kesti is just a big forward playing defenseman.”
And just as the Lakers are playing more confidently up front because of solid netminding, so are the Wildcats more comfortable because of the starts of senior Reid Ellingson (1.92, .931) and sophomore Jared Coreau (2.53, .909). Last year was challenging for each of them, Kyle said. “Reid had never been a starter at this level and Coreau was a young freshman,” he said.
Kyle is cautiously optimistic about this year’s Wildcats after a disappointing 2010-11 season — “We weren’t a very good team last year for a lot of reasons,” said Kyle — but most of all he said he sees this team as a “really, really coachable group.”
“I really like the makeup of the team,” said Kyle, who pointed out that his squad has five seniors. “If the team is young, this is the kind of team you want, a young, hungry team, and you want a team that is willing to listen, to grow. I like it. There’s some really good chemistry.”
The Wildcats will be tested in the upcoming weeks with consecutive series against ranked foes Michigan, Western Michigan and Notre Dame. Miami’s in that first-half mix, too — and this schedule looks all too familiar to Kyle, whose team tends to have a tougher first half than second.
“Who makes this schedule anyway?” joked Kyle. “I guess these are the teams with pull. They want to get up here before the snows come.”
A big week for the CCHA
The league that no one wanted did very well against the rest of the country last weekend, with a 10-1-2 record in nonconference play. The lone loss was in Miami’s split on the road against Colgate; the two ties were WMU’s road games against ranked Union.
I got a kick out of how my USCHO colleagues Brian Halverson and Tyler Buckentine — our WCHA writers — laid claim to the glory of the “WCHA-to-be” teams of Alaska, Lake Superior State and Northern Michigan, since all three of these teams were undefeated last weekend.
News flash, gents: The Nanooks, Lakers and Wildcats are CCHA teams for two more seasons, and — as I saw it — two of those teams were undefeated against current WCHA teams, including one that jumped the CCHA ship two years ago, making Alaska’s 4-1 win over Nebraska-Omaha all the sweeter.
In fact, the CCHA has had an excellent start in terms of nonconference play, especially against the WCHA, a league against which the CCHA struggles perennially. Through three weeks of play, the CCHA — the league that no one wanted — is 26-7-3 against non-league foes.
Sure, that includes six wins over league-less Alabama-Huntsville, but it also includes a winning record against every conference except for Hockey East — and the league’s record against HEA consists of one game, a 5-2 Boston College win over Michigan State.
I do think that eight CCHA teams counted among the top 20 may be a little high, but it sure is nice to see the Lakers and Ferris State recognized with their 4-0-0 records.
Don’t think there are no hard feelings
While I want to focus on the college hockey season at hand, the glorious run teams in the CCHA are capable of making in 2011-12, there’s no ignoring the fallout from the summer’s realignment. In fact, it’s positively dishy.
Congratulations! You beat the Big Ten!
That was some of what arrived in my inbox this week after the Lakers swept the Spartans. There was a sense of, “Take that, Big Ten!” from some fans who wrote. While it’s always nice for fans of a so-called “little” school to beat the big name that comes to town, the more important thing to come from this is that LSSU took six points in CCHA play.
Congratulations! You passed the quiz!
Fans were eager to share their answers to last week’s reading comprehension quiz involving Conference Fabulous and Team Quite the Catch. The consensus was that Conference Fabulous felt dumped and was reacting as such.
That was, in fact, the correct answer.
“To deflate Team Quite the Catch’s bubble,” said one reader who dubbed the new allegedly national conference “ConFab,” which has an air of accuracy on many levels.
“We don’t want you anyway, so there!” was another perfectly acceptable answer.
And this reader’s answer seemed to sum it all: “Conference Fabulous is afraid the bright light of fame shining on Team Quite the Catch will cast a shadow and steal the view.”
Congratulations! You’re in the middle!
“What’s great about it is that we’re an outpost in the CCHA, but geographically we’re dead center in the new WCHA.” So said Kyle when I asked him about the realignment.
OK, so that’s not hard feelings; in fact, that’s Kyle seeing how well the future WCHA will work for the Wildcats.
Kyle did say what a lot of us have discussed — that everything went down fast (maybe too fast), that the big, new, allegedly national conference was perhaps a big reactionary, that it’s sad to see the CCHA come to an eventual end. But Kyle’s also optimistic about NMU’s chances in the reconfigured WCHA, especially since the Wildcats will no longer have to be competing with some giant programs with giant resources for recruits and attention.
And with Northern Michigan, Lake Superior and Michigan Tech all to be competing in the same league in 2013-14, “It’s perfect for hockey in the U.P.,” said Kyle.
Congratulations, indeed.
Players of the week
Now for some real kudos. This week’s list includes a couple of not-so-usual suspects.
Rookie of the week
Ohio State’s Max McCormick, who had a goal and two assists in the Buckeyes’ 4-3 road win over Notre Dame Saturday.
Offensive player of the week
Miami’s Reilly Smith, who had four goals in the RedHawks’ road split with Colgate, including his second career hat trick in Friday’s 4-3 win.
Defenseman of the week
Lake Superior’s Andrew Perrault, who had three assists and five blocked shots in the Lakers’ home sweep of the Spartans.
Goaltender of the week
Bowling Green’s Hammond, who had an insane .980 save percentage in the Falcons’ road sweep of Alabama-Huntsville.
First timers
Ferris State freshman goaltender C.J. Motte earned his first collegiate shutout with a 2-0 win over Rensselaer last Saturday.
Lakers sophomore Kyle Jean had his first career hat trick in the 5-4 win over Michigan State on Friday.
Miami freshman Austin Czarnik scored his first collegiate goal in the 4-3 win over Colgate Friday.
Notre Dame freshman Austin Wuthrich scored his first collegiate goal in ND’s 5-2 win over OSU Friday.
Western Michigan senior Greg Squires had his first collegiate two-goal game when the Broncos tied Union on the road 2-2 Friday night. Squires’ second goal tied the game at 12:47 in the third, unassisted. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving kid.
My ballot
This changed quite a bit this week. It always does for me in the early part of the season when the puzzle rearranges itself nearly weekly.
1. Boston College
2. Colorado College
3. Michigan
4. Denver
5. North Dakota
6. Notre Dame
7. Miami
8. Boston University
9. Western Michigan
10. Minnesota-Duluth
11. Minnesota
12. Union
13. Alaska
14. Ferris State
15. Merrimack
16. Alaska-Anchorage
17. Michigan Tech
18. Colgate
19. Quinnipiac
20. Ohio State
And here’s your quiz for this week, CCHA fans: Who puts a team that hasn’t played a single game in the top spot of a national poll — for two weeks running? It’s a mystery that I hope you can solve, each in your own creative way.
It’s not easy to climb to the top. It’s even harder to stay there. Once the confetti has been swept away, the trophies shelved and the arena emptied, the hard part begins.
Repeating.
That hill must seem doubly steep for many at Union this year. Nate Leaman, the lead architect of the program’s steady rise and of its only league title winner, suddenly bolted for (ostensibly) greener pastures. Just days prior, a — if not the — anchor and keystone of the champion Dutchmen, All-American and Dryden Award winner Keith Kinkaid, elected to sacrifice his final two years of NCAA eligibility to take a shot at the Big Show with the New Jersey Devils.
Mix one of Union’s all-time great captains — Brock Matheson — in among the usual assortment of graduating contributors and you have a very, very difficult standard to uphold.
So far, though … so good.
Union opened its title defense by raking Army 8-1 in West Point. Last weekend, the U held tough against a talented Western Michigan squad in a pair of home draws.
“It was a great test this weekend. Any time you go against a team that is that detailed and works as hard as they do, I feel it can only make you better,” new coach Rick Bennett said. “I guess we won’t know until Friday, but I think it was a great test for our team this early.”
The Dutchmen are not without their flaws, as evidenced by the evaporation of three separate one-goal leads against the Broncos.
“I think we have to shore up some turnovers on our part,” Bennett said. “Whether they’re early turnovers in the season, we’re just trying to figure that out.”
One preseason concern that is taking care of itself is Union’s goaltending. Sophomore Troy Grosenick has stepped into the spotlight and shown that he’s worth his roster spot and then some. “A nice surprise,” according to Bennett, Grosenick has already played 100 more minutes than he did in his rookie year, holding a 1.90 goals against average and a .923 save percentage.
It’s still quite early, but Bennett believes that his team is beginning to show flashes of cohesion — sparks of identity.
“I’d like to think so,” Bennett said. “It was good to see the guys working hard, sticking together, getting strong play and protecting our goaltender, not allowing a lot of second-chance opportunities. I thought that was one of the keys to a team that likes to play for each other.”
That priority on protection is exactly what the rookie head coach likes to see, and he isn’t shy about stating that defense is Job One.
“It’s always going to be a staple here that we’ll take care of the D zone first, and then we’ll move on to the next zone,” he said. “We want our D to get it up to our forwards, and move it out of our zone as quickly as we can. It’s stuff that we need to work on, stuff that some of the new guys are going to have to grasp. … It’s another work in progress.”
Speaking of works in progress, Bennett called out a couple of guys who have been skating ahead of the curve in their opening weeks in Schenectady.
“I like the play of [freshmen forwards] Max Novak and Sam Coatta,” he said. “They’ve been — I’m not going to say surprises, because we knew what we were getting — but by the same token, they’ve seemed to jell right away. Shayne Gostisbehere has been doing a nice job on defense, and that is not the easiest position to come into in your first year. Those three guys, I like the way they’re headed.”
It’s not just three freshmen who seem to be headed in the right direction in Schenectady. There’s more room in the Messa trophy case, and it looks like this team might just know it.
Fun with small sample sizes
It’s early. In many ways, that means that there isn’t much to say … but in other ways, there is so much opportunity for ridiculous extrapolation of data!
Here are some standout statistics from the first two weeks of the (non-Ivy) season, and the ensuing projections should the subjects somehow maintain the pace.
Quinnipiac’s Jeremy Langlois has six goals and nine points in five games, including five goals and six points on the power play. At this rate, Langlois is due for 40 goals (34 on the power play) and 61 points. Not to be outdone, Louke Oakley could hit 45 goals in Clarkson’s extended 36-game regular season, and St. Lawrence’s Kyle Flanagan, 42 in the standard 34-game docket. (Each has tallied five goals in his first four games.)
Colgate forward John Lidgett is doing quite well for himself in his first two weekends of NCAA hockey, notching four assists in four games. That comes to — wow, tough math here — 34 assists. Hopefully he’ll find room for a goal in there, but I’m sure no one would be too disappointed if he indeed finished with a 0-34–34 line for his rookie campaign. Union classmate Max Novak has three points in three games, but by a 2-1–3 format, pacing him for a 22-11–33 regular-season line.
Among defensemen, Bobcats junior Loren Barron (2-3–5, five games played) and St. Lawrence junior George Hughes (0-4–4, four games) are each looking at 34-point seasons, as well.
Last, but most certainly not least, Union senior Kelly Zajac has no goals but five assists in the Dutchmen’s first three games. At the current pace, he should be good for an easy 56-assist season.
Good luck with that.
Despite his team’s rough start, Rensselaer goalie Bryce Merriam nonetheless boasts a .944 save percentage. Should he play three of every four games for RPI this year, he’ll stop 722 of 765 shots. It doesn’t help his cause much that the ‘Tute is taking 18.2 minutes in penalties per game — which would sum over 618 for the full season — or that at its current 7.7 percent power-play rate, it would score only 17 PPGs all year. (On the other hand, at least the Engineers’ penalty-killing unit is on point: With a 95.5 percent success rate, opponents might earn fewer than seven goals against short-handed RPI over the full season.)
Clarkson’s PK corps is also rolling along at 88.9 percent, but in giving up nearly eight power plays a game, the Golden Knights are still paced to allow four times as many PP scores as RPI. At least the Knights have a rockin’ power play, which will score nearly 65 goals in the regular season if it can somehow hold at 30 percent.
SLU and Union are each chugging along with 27.3 percent PPs, and Quinnipiac is right there behind them at 25.4 percent. That could result in 54 power-play goals for the penalty-drawing Bobcats this year and 51 for the Saints, but only 34 for the power-play starved Dutchmen.
On the other side of the coin, if the Saints don’t improve their penalty killing, they will give up at least 51 goals short-handed, too.
Should Union and Quinnipiac’s offenses continue to streamroll through opponents, they will score 147 and 142 overall goals this year, respectively. Not too shabby. (Of course, RPI is at the opposite end of the scale, set for all of 34 goals this year. Overall … yeah.)
And last, and probably least: the St. Lawrence Saints’ current 6.25 goals against average can only get better … unless they want to see an unimaginable 212 in the season-ending GA column. I won’t bother pointing out what their 0-4-0 start (the worst since 1996-97) would extrapolate to.
Time for a change
A few alterations of note:
• Union will once again don black alternate jerseys for select home games this year, with a slightly different collar than in previous editions of the sweater.
• Princeton tweaked its orange sweaters this year, switching from white lettering to black (for improved visibility) and following the Philadelphia Flyers’ sartorial lead with white nameplates behind black lettering.
• While we’re in Potsdam, it’s worth noting that the university is planning major renovations to Cheel Arena, but details aren’t available just yet.
• Also rink-related, Quinnipiac has renamed the hockey half of its dual-arena TD Bank Sports Center the “High Point Solutions Arena at the TD Bank Sports Center” … and I’m going to stop right there.
Jim: Well, Todd, instead of making a statement to start, I’ll head right to questions. Michigan Tech swept Wisconsin at home this weekend. So what does this say, first, about Michigan Tech and, secondly and possibly more importantly, about a much-talked-about Wisconsin team?
Todd: On Michigan Tech, I think we’re looking at a team that is energized — and gaining in that a little more each time it takes the ice — and a nice story, but let’s take things slow here. Yes, the Huskies swept American International and Wisconsin at home to go to 4-0 for the first time since the 1974-75 season, which ended in their last national title. Let’s look back at last season, though. Michigan Tech was 3-0-2 before things absolutely fell apart through injuries, and it won one more game the rest of the season. So it’s a promising start to the Mel Pearson era, but I think even the most die-hard of Huskies fans have to be a little cautious right now.
On the Wisconsin side, it might not be as bad as it looks. Starting 1-3 is not what anyone there hoped, but those three losses were all in overtime. It’s not like the Badgers have been dominated. They do need a few of their top-end players to take another step before they’ll be in top form, though, and until then the Badgers will be a question mark.
Jim: Well, one team from the West that may be as good as advertised is Denver. I got the chance to see the Pioneers defeat No. 1 Boston College on Friday and they are a very solid team. With goaltender Sam Brittain out injured, the question will be how good this team can be without him. I thought Adam Murray was solid on Friday but saw a couple of the goals he surrendered in Saturday’s loss to Boston University, and that could be a problem while the club waits for Brittain to return. At this point, it’s early to say but Denver seems to be the team to beat in the WCHA.
Todd: I’m interested to see how far Minnesota can take its strong start, but Denver is definitely one of the teams that is going to be in the mix in the WCHA. The Pioneers play nine of their next 11 games at home, which could be a good way for Murray to find his footing on a more longterm basis and a good way for the team to get some points on the board. Where do you see BC going after losing to Denver but rebounding with a win over a struggling New Hampshire team?
Jim: I don’t see BC’s loss on Friday having too much impact on the club. For one, the game was played in horrid ice conditions due to the extreme heat and humidity making the puck bounce around. Once Denver got the lead, it was able to sit back and play defense, frustrating the Eagles. In essence, Friday was a well-played game by both teams and the Pioneers came out on top. BC was able to rebound quickly, beating New Hampshire 5-1 the next night so all seems right in Chestnut Hill.
Speaking of New Hampshire, you certainly can’t say all things are right in Durham. The Wildcats are 0-3-0 in Hockey East after just two weekends and have been outscored 14-1. Now, I’m never one to press a panic button this early in the season, but I’d maybe be sweating a little if I’m Dick Umile.
Todd: One note on ice before getting to UNH: Maybe BC should play these high-profile games in October away from home, since it seems that it’s a problem just about every year (see the two-period game against North Dakota a few years back).
I don’t think anyone saw this kind of start coming for the Wildcats, especially the goal differential. If they can’t get things together in time for a trip West this week to play a St. Cloud State team that has lost three straight, the pressure is going to be high on that team.
Jim: Actually, in defense of BC, it has installed an entirely new unit for air conditioning in the building this year which did keep fog levels down last Friday. But I don’t think that any school could prevent the ice from getting a little soft, particularly if the stands are packed as they were at BC on Friday.
St. Cloud State might be the perfect opponent for New Hampshire this weekend, though I’m sure the Huskies will be hungry given their recent struggles. I honestly think that UNH will recover from this slow start but do think the turnaround needs to happen soon.
Before we close out this week, we should talk about our new No. 1 team in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll, Michigan. Many may say that the Wolverines haven’t faced tough competition to this point and I somewhat agree, but they’ll face stiff competition in an upstart Northern Michigan team that already split with Wisconsin and swept the aforementioned St. Cloud State. It will be interesting to see if we end up with yet another new No. 1 team when Monday arrives.
Todd: For me, it’s not that Michigan is 4-0 against teams that probably won’t be close to the race for at-large NCAA tournament bids, it’s how the Wolverines got there. The 10-3 thrashing they put up on St. Lawrence last Thursday stood out to me in that all 10 Michigan goals were at even strength. But you’re right on the test ahead at Northern Michigan, a team that has looked impressive so far.
On that note, how about the Upper Peninsula as a whole? We already mentioned Michigan Tech at 4-0, but Lake Superior State is also 4-0 and Northern Michigan is 3-1. That’s a great start for a geographic area that could be excused for feeling a little underappreciated after this summer’s conference shuffling.
Jim: BINGO! I think some of those programs feel they have something to prove and no better time to do it than early in the season in non-conference play. The same can be said out East where three new Hockey East coaches all picked up their first wins (Jim Madigan at Northeastern, Norm Bazin at Massachusetts-Lowell and Nate Leaman at Providence). Those three schools were picked to make up the Hockey East cellar but went a combined 5-0-0 last weekend.
Todd: Before we go, I wanted to let everyone know our first weekly episode of USCHO Live! airs at 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday. The talk show features guests from around college hockey and your phone calls. Check it out at USCHO Live! and give it a listen. Until next week …
When Jeff Jackson was announced as Notre Dame’s hockey coach in May 2005, the Fighting Irish were coming off the worst season in the program’s modern history. While Jackson improved the on-ice product almost immediately, he knew that upgrading the substandard facilities would be critical if the program was to enjoy lasting success.
On Friday, Jackson will finally see his vision become a reality when No. 2 Notre Dame hosts Rensselaer in the first game at the $50 million, 5,000-seat Compton Family Ice Arena, which has been under construction for the better part of two years on the south end of campus.
The Fighting Irish have certainly legitimized themselves on the ice over the past five seasons, reaching two Frozen Fours, and the new rink should only help to cement their status as a collegiate hockey powerhouse.
“I think it’s the last piece to the puzzle,” Jackson said.
Associate coach Andy Slaggert has been a part of the Notre Dame hockey for longer than anyone. He played for the program’s first coach, Lefty Smith, in the late 1980s, and he has worked for every head coach the Irish have had since — Ric Schafer, Dave Poulin and now Jackson.
Slaggert had been selling recruits on the promise of a new arena for years, and he’s excited about the possibilities now that the building is finally in place.
“It definitely removes what was the biggest question about our program — ‘What about the facilities?'” Slaggert said. “That was obviously a pretty standard question during the recruiting process, and that’s just not there anymore. It wasn’t something that was insurmountable … but it was a question. It’s going to go from not being a question to being a major positive.
“I think a facility is a physical sign of the importance of a program to the university, so I think this really shows … that hockey is important at Notre Dame.”
The main arena — surrounding a rink named for Smith — boasts two levels of seating, with a club section and plenty of standing room on the upper level. A second rink, an Olympic-sized sheet, will be available for student and community use as well as national team training. The Compton Family Ice Arena also includes upgraded locker rooms, offices and training facilities, including a weight room.
All of the coaches and players admit that they’re leaving the Joyce Center with some fond memories of the program’s meteoric rise, but they’re certainly looking forward to bringing Notre Dame hockey to the next level.
“I think it’s a huge step,” senior defenseman Sean Lorenz said. “I think when kids come and visit the new rink and see what we have to offer, especially with the facilities that we’re putting in, they’re going to be blown away. That’s just going to draw more high-end recruits, and the program’s just going to go up from there. With moving to Hockey East, the TV contracts and all of that, it’s going to be huge for the program.
“Our long-term goal is to have a great program here that’s got a great tradition and recruits for itself, and we’re getting to that point,” Jackson added. “The building will certainly now be a part of that.”
The players have had a handful of chances to practice on the new ice, and the sheet has earned rave reviews. Nearly everything else in the building, however, including the locker rooms, has been off limits due to construction. Therefore, the Fighting Irish are moving in virtually sight unseen, with hardly any time to get settled before the first game — but that hasn’t dampened the excitement at all.
“We know it’s going to be top-end,” Lorenz said. “Everything here is.”
There is lots of movement in this week’s USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll as
not one team is in its same place from a week ago.
Michigan is the new No. 1 team after starting the season 4-0-0. The
Wolverines garnered 24 of 50 first-place votes and edged No. 2 Boston
College by just six voting points.
Boston College earned 15 first-place votes, while No. 3 Denver and No. 4
Colorado College each recorded four first-place votes.
North Dakota sits No. 5, Notre Dame slides to No. 6, Boston University
climbs to No. 7 and had one first-place vote, as did No. 8 Minnesota and
ninth-ranked Yale.
Miami rounds out the top 10 this week, falling six places.
At No. 11, it’s Western Michigan, followed by Union, Nerrimack,
previously-unranked Ferris State and defending NCAA champion
Minnesota-Duluth.
Colgate and Northern Michigan, both unranked last week, come in at Nos. 16
and 17, respectively. Maine falls one to No. 18, Lake Superior State enters
the rankings at No. 19 and Cornell drops one place to No. 20.
– 10,556 people can make a lot of noise. Rochester Institute of Technology sold out the Blue Cross Arena, site of the Atlantic Hockey Championships, on Saturday and won a thrilling 6-5 overtime game against St. Lawrence. It’s the only non-conference win for the league so far, and game in dramatic fashion with the Tigers scoring the tying goal with nine seconds to play in regulation, and then the game winner just 14 seconds into overtime. The crowd’s volume seemed to peak when Adam Harley got the equalizer, but found a Nigel Tufnel-esque “11” on the meter when Adam Mitchell got the game-winner.
– Teams that I suspected would be in rebuilding mode have looked that way so far. Mercyhurst dropped both games in the Alaska Gold Rush tournament to fall to 0-4. The Lakers have been outscored 18-6 so far this season. Sacred Heart is also off to a rough start, opening 0-4 and managing just two goals so far this season.
Canisius, with 12 freshman on the roster, opened its season at Quinnipiac and was swept, outscored 11-1. “It’s the same feeling every year for first-time players adjusting to the speed of Division I hockey,” said coach Dave Smith. “When you have a lot of young players like we did today, it is tough to establish the needed momentum.”
– Air Force can survive the loss of goaltender Jason Torf, who, according to coach Frank Serratore , “Tore out his groin,” and will be out of action for several weeks. He suffered the injury late in a 3-2 loss to Michigan State on October 8. This past weekend, senior Stephen Caple was in net for a pair of wins against Niagara and Robert Morris. Caple allowed four goals on 38 shots, which, while unspectacular, was good enough to win 3-2 in overtime against the Purple Eagles and 4-2 over the Colonials. The Falcons outshot both opponents by healthily margins.
Wisconsin once again received all 15 first-place votes to stay No. 1 in the
USCHO.com Division I Women’s Poll.
The rest of the poll has some changes as Cornell drops from No. 2 to No. 3,
bumped by Minnesota. Boston University remains No. 4 and Boston College
stays in the fifth spot.
Places six through eight also mirror last week with Minnesota-Duluth, North
Dakota and Northeastern occupying those ranks, respectively.
Mercyhurst and Dartmouth flip-flop from a week ago with Mercyhurst rising a
spot to No. 9 and Dartmouth falling one to No. 10.
Extra attackers
A week ago, Maine completed a sweep of Quinnipiac, thanks to pulling the goaltender in favor of an extra skater to tie with 30 seconds remaining before winning in overtime. This time, the Black Bears had the deed done to them. Bemidji State trailed, 2-1, after Maine’s Danielle Ward converted a penalty shot, no less. The Beavers pulled their goalie while on a power play and capitalized 24 seconds later on the two-skater advantage to tie the game at two. BSU won with another power-play goal in overtime and turned that momentum into a 7-0 win and a series sweep on Saturday.
The third period of the second game is where events became a bit peculiar. Trailing 5-0 after allowing Bemidji five goals on 20 shots, Maine elected to yank starting goalie Kylie Smith and play without a tender. After a minute and 12 seconds, BSU scored into the empty net. The Bears inserted Brittany Ott in goal; she came off for an extra attacker 50 seconds later. For much of the remainder of the game, Ott yo-yoed in and out, skating to the bench for stretches of 1:13, 1:46, and 1:56, and reentering for segments of seven and 81 seconds. During that sequence, the Beavers successfully killed off a pair of penalties. Finally with 4:04 remaining, BSU found the open net once more, Ott returned, and Maine played out the rest of the contest in conventional fashion. Whether that would still have been the case had the Black Bears not been whistled for a couple of infractions of their own, or if coach Maria Lewis would have opted for additional extra-attacker practice is open to conjecture.
Streaks
No. 1 Wisconsin ran their unbeaten streak to 32 games on Friday with a 3-2 win over Minnesota, tying the NCAA mark set by a previous Badgers squad from Nov. 25, 2006 to Oct. 14, 2007. When Wisconsin fell to the Gophers by the same 3-2 score on Sunday, its first loss since a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Minnesota-Duluth on Nov. 28, 2010, it snapped that string, but a more obscure streak still lives. With Mark Johnson at the helm, Wisconsin hasn’t been defeated by anyone other than Minnesota-Duluth or Minnesota since falling 2-1 to New Hampshire on Nov. 18, 2007. That excludes the entire 2009-10 season, when the Badgers went 18-15-3 and lost to everyone from the WCHA as well as Robert Morris, but Johnson wasn’t part of that equation, as he took a year’s sabbatical to coach the United States Olympic team. Since being stopped by UNH, Wisconsin with Johnson behind the bench has lost seven times to Minnesota-Duluth and three times to Minnesota, but has not been bested in its last 82 contests against the rest of the NCAA. Boston University gets the next opportunity to end that run on October 28 in Madison.
Other trends
Until the Ivy League teams begin play, Northeastern stands as the only team to retain a perfect mark on the season. The Huskies survived Union 2-1 and came from behind to add to Quinnipiac’s struggles. The only other unbeaten teams are Ohio State, moving to 3-0-1 and sitting atop the WCHA with a sweep of St. Cloud State, and St. Lawrence (2-0-1), idle until a Tuesday tilt at Niagara. Look for the unbeaten ranks to increase as the Ivies enter the fray in the coming week.
In monitoring the weekend’s results in the WCHA and across the country, a trend developed which may not mean a lot in the grand scheme of things but which we found interesting nonetheless.
A total of 10 games were played encompassing four series and two single-game matchups involving post-realignment WCHA schools and their soon-to-be-former conference rivals. The WCHA-to-be came out on top winning eight of the 10 contests with Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and the state of Alaska proving impossible to conquer.
Let’s start up in Houghton, Mich. where No. 18 Wisconsin carried an 11-game winning streak over Michigan Tech on what may be its final trip, at least for a while, to the U.P. Not only did the Badgers’ streak come to an end, the Huskies embarked on one of their own in sweeping Wisconsin for the first time since February 2007.
Both games were decided in overtime by 2-1 and 3-2 scores but Friday’s game wasn’t without controversy. Accounts out of MacInnes Student Ice Arena indicate that, in overtime, Michigan Tech forward Blake Pietila checked Wisconsin’s John Ramage into Badgers goaltender Landon Peterson behind the net.
Subsequently, when the Huskies Brett Olson fed Jordan Baker in the slot, Baker buried the game winner (skip ahead to 1:30) into a wide open net. Not surprisingly, the Badgers cried foul asking for a penalty on the play but to no avail.
“If nothing else, interference,” UW coach Mike Eaves told Madison.com’s Andy Baggot. “Judging by the sheepishness of the two young referees, they had no command of the play.”
The U.P. was also unkind to St. Cloud State as the Huskies traveled to Marquette to face Northern Michigan. The Wildcats were ungracious hosts and treated the Huskies to 5-2 and 3-2 losses dropping SCSU to 1-3-0 on the season.
No. 15 Nebraska-Omaha ventured up to ‘The Last Frontier’ to face current WCHA rival Alaska-Anchorage and former CCHA foe Alaska-Fairbanks in the Brice Alaska Gold Rush tournament. The Mavericks returned to Omaha 0 for 2 having been outscored 7-1 in the two games.
The third U.P. series featured Michigan State making the trek to Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. to battle future WCHA member Lake Superior State. The Lakers sent the Spartans back to East Lansing licking their wounds from a pair of one-goal losses (5-4, 3-2).
The only exception occurred in Colorado Springs where No. 7 Colorado College swept Bemidji State 3-1 and 6-4.
Kyle Rau will produce on the offensive end of the rink for a Minnesota team that expects a lot from its underclassmen.
Everyone knew the Gophers were young coming into this season and year after year, Minnesota gets some of the best recruits the state has to offer but it’s translated into mediocre results in recent years. It doesn’t appear Kyle Rau and the youthful Gophers want to let that happen.
Minnesota’s 2011 Mr. Hockey – playing for Eden Prairie High School – had a goal and an assist in his college debut against Sacred Heart. He shined on the big stage this weekend in his first WCHA game in front of a packed house at rival Minnesota-Duluth, scoring three goals against the Bulldogs.
Rau’s a little guy at 5-foot-7 and 173 pounds and he’s using grit to score goals, like he did to clinch the 2011 state championship. He’ll dig pucks out of the corner and he can go to the goal mouth and get shoved around to get a goal.
Rau’s five points are the most among Gophers freshmen. Sam Warning has two goals and two assists in his first year. Erik Haula, a sophomore, is Minnesota’s leading scorer with five goals and four assists.
Joey LaLeggia will be one of the league’s best offensive defenseman for Denver.
He’s only 19 and an NHL franchise hasn’t drafted him yet, but as long as Joey LaLeggia is playing for Denver, the freshman defenseman will give the Pioneers offense a boost from the point.
He had two assists in No. 3 Denver’s loss at Boston University, Saturday, but his numbers with the Penticton Vees of the British Columbia Hockey League should give the Pioneers a lot to be excited about.
LaLeggia amassed 33 goals and 114 assists in 112 games at the juniors level, playing for Penticton. Like Rau, he’s not big either – only 5-10, 180 pounds. That’s a typical size for scoring-oriented defenseman. He is Denver assistant captain John Lee’s defensive partner and Saturday, they were the Pioneers’ top defensive pair on Denver’s line chart.
Weekend two of Hockey East is in the books and what an interesting weekend it was. Boston College entered as the number one team in the country and may not have left that way. The league’s three newest coaches all faced major tests and a few thought they would all be looking for their first wins when the weekend completed. After all games are played, here are three things we learned.
1) Don’t underestimate a new coach
Three Hockey East teams had coaches looking for their first victories: Northeastern (which already had two cracks), Massachusetts-Lowell and Providence. By weekend’s end, the three schools combined for an impressive 5-0-0 record. Northeastern posted one of the more impressive wins, shutting out New Hampshire, 4-0, on Friday, the first blanking of the Wildcats in more than five decades. Lowell may have shocked many heading onto the road and sweeping Minnesota State in a two-game series, 4-2 and 4-1. The River Hawks used two goaltenders to get the wins – rookie Brian Robbins and sophomore Doug Carr – something that could bode well for a team looking at goaltending as its possible Achilles’ heel. And Providence notched two home wins for first-year coach Nate Leamen, shocking Boston University on Friday before holding off a pesky Massachusetts club on Saturday. The long and short is that Hockey East’s standings show the Friars at the top, a perfect 2-0-0. Not the worst place to be after a weekend of play.
2) On the other end…
Providence may sit at the top, but at the bottom is my preseason pick, New Hampshire. Things have been UGLY for the Wildcats thus far. Opening the season with a rare three league games, UNH has been outscored, 14-1, and not surprisingly with those numbers stands at 0-3-0 at this point. The most important thing that comes to mind looking at that record is the fact that UNH simply can’t get those games back. Teams like Lowell and Vermont haven’t played a single league game, thus are 1.5 games in front of the Wildcats before their season starts. Even BC and Merrimack are already 1-0-0 in league play. I’m not saying that UNH is already done in for but putting yourself in a three-loss hole this early make life much more difficult than necessary.
3) Will we ever see another Friday?
It would be seemingly impossible (or take more time than most of us have) to check schedules to know if this ever happened, but this writer would be happy to bet against the fact that BC, BU, UNH and Maine all posted losses on the same night any time in the past. That rare moon alignment happened this Friday night when Maine and BC both lost non-league games (to North Dakota and Denver, respectively) and the Terriers and New Hampshire lost on the road (to league foes Providence and Northeastern, respectively). BC and BU rallied on Saturday for wins. Maine tied North Dakota on the road on Saturday. New Hampshire was the only team to get swept, losing at home to BC on Satruday. Hockey East’s four strongest teams, according to past tournament results at least, hardly had a Friday to brag about.
Last Monday, we were looking back at the first weekend of Division I play. This week, we had a taste of CCHA action and a second look at some opening weekend trends. First, there’s nothing like a fast start.
Five CCHA teams are still undefeated after four games, but it’s which teams that haven’t lost that makes it interesting. It’s not surprising to see Michigan 4-0 after nonconference games against unranked teams, but three of those five teams — Ferris State, Lake Superior and Bowling Green — were picked to finish in the bottom three in preseason CCHA polls.
Most interesting of these five are the Bulldogs and the Lakers. FSU shut out No. 20 Rensselaer twice this past weekend, and LSSU swept Michigan State to earn the right to sit atop the CCHA standings for the first week of regular season play. There are a couple of Kyles — FSU’s Kyle Bonis (5-1–6) and LSSU’s Kyle Jean (4-2–6) — among the leaders in goals per game in the early going. It’s especially worth nothing that Jean had one goal in 38 games last season.
Expect the Bulldogs to crack this week’s poll; expect the Lakers to have to prove themselves a little more first. Second, never underestimate the value of a good defense.
Through four games, FSU has outscored opponents 15-3; freshman C.J. Motte and senior Taylor Nelson have split time evenly in net, resulting in a team save percentage of .965 and a goals against average of less than one per game. The Bulldog penalty kill has stopped 19-of-20 attempts for a 95 percent success rate. The strength of the Bulldog defense will be challenged this weekend when Miami comes to town.
A team whose defense was exposed over the weekend is Notre Dame. The Irish split with Ohio State at home and allowed multiple unanswered goals to start both contests, creating a deficit which ND could not overcome in Saturday’s 4-3 loss. All three of those ND goals were scored in the third period with junior Mike Johnson in net. Sophomore Stephen Summerhays had little help through the 31 minutes that he played.
Another teams whose defense was exposed for the second weekend is Michigan State in two one-goal losses to LSSU. A look at the numbers of MSU’s very capable goaltenders, sophomore Will Yanakeff (3.50 GAA, .887 SV%) and senior Drew Palmisano (4.03, .869) provides an early narrative that the Spartans will undoubtedly work to change. In Friday’s 5-4 loss, the Spartans evened the score with less than 10 minutes remaining on Torey Krug’s power play goal, but Domenic Monardo scored with less than two minutes to go in regulation to give the Lakers the win. In Saturday’s 3-2 game, MSU was down three goals before the second period was two minutes old.
Ferris State, Michigan, Bowling Green, Western Michigan and Alaska are among the top defenses in the country after two weeks. Yes, I know it’s fun with statistics too early to mean anything, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see at least three of those teams remain among the top in that category for the remainder of the season — and I wouldn’t be surprised to see FSU prove everyone wrong in the long run. Third, it’s nice to garner two wins in a weekend. Hardware would have been nice, too.
The Nanooks beat Mercyhurst and Nebraska-Omaha in the Brice Goal Rush but did not take home the trophy with their two wins. The tourney is determined by goal differential and Alaska-Anchorage won that contest.
Still, the two nonconference wins bring UAF’s unbeaten streak to three, after the Nanooks opened with a loss to St. Cloud last weekend. Sweeter still was Saturday’s 4-1 win over ranked UNO and the sustained success that it represented for Alaska.
“The last couple of years we haven’t had that success carry over from Friday night to Saturday night, especially at home,” assistant coach Brian Meisner told my esteemed colleague, Danny Martin, at the Daily News-Miner after Saturday’s game. Meisner added that it was “a big step for us, especially our nine freshmen.”
Sophomore Colton Beck had two goals in the game and Nick Yaremchuk — who with four goals in four games is just five shy of his 38-game total of last season — had the game-winner. Paula’s Picks
Last Weekend (including Thursday): 9-6-2
Season to date: 24-13-3
I’ll take any weekend over .500.
You just can’t call a game one way or the other, even if the last nine seconds are ticking down and you’re grabbing your jacket and heading for the door.
Don’t try to leave early, you may miss something huge, and that’s a lesson learned by the 10,556 folks at Blue Cross Arena in Rochester on Saturday night.
With nine seconds remaining on a 5-4 St. Lawrence lead, RIT’s Adam Hartley pounced on a rebound that sent the game into overtime. Fourteen seconds into the extra period, Adam Mitchell walked in on St. Lawrence’s Matt Weninger to put home the game-winner for the triumphant Tigers.
This, of course, led the Saints to their fourth straight loss out of the gate. With victory in their sights, a faceoff loss and a loose rebound changed their fate in less than the time it took to write that sentence about it.
Rensselaer knows all about late goals changing their situation.
Until eight seconds remained in their Saturday night game, Ferris State and RPI knew the contest could go either way. At the moment, RPI was raining down shots on Ferris State goalie C.J. Motte when Bulldogs forward Garrett Thompson got hold of the puck and sent it into the empty RPI net to win the game, 2-0, and put RPI at 1-3.
The only time a late goal worked out for an ECAC team this weekend was that same Saturday night. Colgate turned around a Friday night one-goal loss and picked up an overtime win to split the Raiders’ series against Miami in a 3-2 OT loss.
Miami’s Blake Coleman took a badly timed roughing penalty, and with one second left in the box, he witnessed Colgate’s Austin Mayer tip home a Corbin McPherson shot. He surely “felt shame,” in the words of Denis Lemieux.
Late, decisive goals were certainly a theme of this weekend, and they teach you a valuable lesson: don’t look away.
Just killing time
Clarkson looks like they are starting to pull together a fearful penalty kill. The Golden Knights went 10-for-13 in their first weekend and then kept Sacred Heart off the board this past weekend at 14-for-14.
The Knights gave the Pioneers plenty of chances to put home a power play goal, six the first night, eight the second. Paul Karpowich made a 23-save shutout for a 3-0 win Friday and then stopped 26 of 28 the next night in a 5-2 win.
Clarkson’s power play should also be praised for going 4-for-11 on the weekend, including a 3-for-7 showing Saturday night.
Back-to-back two-goal nights by senior Louke Oakley (including two power play goals of his own) should give him at least a nomination for Player of the Week. Junior defenseman Nik Pokulok had a strong weekend, including plenty of time on that vaunted penalty kill.
Getting away from the Dutchmen
Earlier in this column, we talked about not looking away to avoid losing a win.
Union was on the wrong end of that advice not once, but twice, this past weekend. They came away with a 2-2 and a 3-3 tie with Western Michigan. In both, they held leads into the third period they let slip away.
Jeremy Welsh was the best on the ice Saturday, scoring a hat trick (one of two by Jeremy’s in the league, as Quinnipiac’s Jeremy Langlois scored a natural hat trick a few hours earlier).
On Friday, a defensive breakdown cost Union its 2-1 lead when Greg Squires broke through for his second goal of the game and the eventual game-tying marker. The next night, Daniel Carr’s hitting from behind penalty put Western Michigan on the power play and Chase Balisy cashed in to ruin another Union lead.
So much of what happened with ECAC teams this weekend speaks volumes about the simple need to play a 60-minute game, to never let your guard down. Not even with nine seconds left.
We hope you’ll join us this Tuesday, Oct. 18, at 8 p.m. ET as we debut our week talk show, USCHO Live!
Each week will feature a look at the top stories of the week and weekend, a look ahead at upcoming games and breaking news, and guests from college hockey’s coach, player and journalism ranks.
This week, we’ll be joined by Boston College coach Jerry York for a look at his team’s upcoming season and his thoughts on the college hockey landscape. He’ll be followed by Boston Globe columnist John Powers, who has been covering college hockey conference realignment, including this recent in-depth article.
As time permits, we’ll take your calls at (646) 200-4305, live between 8 and 9 p.m. ET, as well as taking your comments via Twitter (@uscho) and email at [email protected]. If you can’t listen live, please check out the podcast of the program.
An old friend of mine, a retired sports information director, beats everyone on his list to the punch by sending out his Christmas cards early. He beat his own record this year: I received his card yesterday. (Thanks, Roger!)
We’ve sent out our Christmas card to statistical fanatics a bit early, too.
It’s way too early for these numbers to mean anything — 11 teams haven’t even played yet as of this writing — but the 2011-12 USCHO.com PairWise Rankings are up and running. (If you’re so inclined, you can also check out the RPI and the unofficial-for-entertainment-purposes-only KRACH.)
The USCHO.com PairWise has been updated to reflect changes for the 2011-12 season. The main change is in common opponents; rather than totaling all wins, losses and ties between common opponents of two schools and calculating the overall winning percentage from that, the winning percentage against each team is calculated and then added together. This is so that a team which plays a weak opponent five times and goes 5-0, for example, in comparison to another which plays that team once and goes 1-0 would not gain an advantage. Each would have a 1.000 percentage against that third team.
The effect of this is to lessen the advantage numerically that one team might have against another, especially in cases of unbalanced league schedules or in comparisons between teams in two different conferences. For example, last season North Dakota downed Michigan Tech four times while Michigan beat MTU once. In last year’s calculation, the wins for the Fighting Sioux counted four times as much as they would under this year’s formula.
Anyhow, the PWR is up, running … and (for a few weeks yet) absolutely meaningless. Don’t let that stop you from having fun with it, though. We probably won’t check in with any bracketology prognostications or cogitations for a while. USCHO.com will, however, keep you posted should other changes or tweaks occur.
