Each week during the season, we look at the big events and big games around Division I men’s college hockey in Tuesday Morning Quarterback.
DAN: Two weeks into the college hockey regular season, and we’re already getting excited for the endless possibilities of a wild winter.
No, I’m not actually talking about hockey. I’m talking about the nor’easter that’s currently clobbering New England with wind and rain. Apparently, if you do the math, this would equate to four feet of snow, which isn’t a lot for Western New York or the Midwest, but our roads in Boston were built in 1789 or some insane year.
I’m personally excited to get back into college hockey rinks and feel the atmosphere, and the start of this year is giving us no shortage of chaotic endings. More specifically, let’s start with this past weekend and the insanity of watching Michigan State, Quinnipiac, Western Michigan and others lose their respective games.
But for me, as I turn to my most esteemed colleague, I think I was most happy for Arizona State, which won the 2025 Ice Breaker by beating Notre Dame and Alaska. Quinnipiac’s loss aside, it was really the first taste of a Sun Devils championship, and I’m very happy for Greg Powers and his band of players in the desert.
Paula, first off, welcome back, and second off, how great was it to witness a championship for an Arizona State team that’s been building to this moment?
PAULA: Dan, I’m so happy to be back talking college hockey with you, and I’m even happier to be doing so at the start of what is already shaping up to be an exciting season.
It’s always good to see programs rewarded for hard work, and it certainly feels like the Ice Breaker title is a reward for what Powers and his staff have been working toward for a bit of time now. That they persevered as an independent for so long before joining the NCHC last season spoke volumes in itself and, yes, winning the Ice Breaker in their first tournament appearance is something that can help propel the program forward.
Backing away from that bigger picture, though, the wins over Notre Dame and Alaska and the 10-goal weekend says as much if not more about a team that was beaten at home twice the week before to open the season. The Sun Devils gave up 10 goals against Penn State in that opening series, so the recovery from that disappointment is something that can propel the team this season. That the one-week turnaround culminated in hardware sweetens everything.
I want to go back to the losses you mention from the weekend in your opening segment. Three of the top four teams from a week ago – Penn State in addition to the Broncos and Spartans – lost a game. Quinnipiac lost a game and moved from No. 8 to No. 10. Providence fell from No. 7 to No. 14 after losing two to visiting Michigan. Denver tied Air Force (no change at No. 5). Boston College defeated and tied Michigan State (up to No. 9 from No. 11).
Maine swept its opening weekend and dropped from a spot to No. 7, yet North Dakota moved up two spots to No. 8 after doing the same. Michigan moved up from No. 9 to No. 4 after sweeping Providence, but perhaps that big jump is because of how decisive the Wolverines have looked through four games.
And Boston University garners 37 first-place votes after a tie with and win over Colgate. The Terriers got my vote.
It is early. We all get that … and yet, it feels to me like we’ll be talking about these teams jockeying for these same spots at the end of the season.
You talked about this moment for Arizona State. Are we seeing teams that have built for this season?
DAN: I sure hope so.
I’m pretty sure that several of the teams from the past couple of years are entering transition phases, and I’m not sure that we’ll see them atop the rankings for the entire season. Boston College, for example, is looking to switch out of its top-flight years under players like Jacob Fowler, Cutter Gauthier, Will Smith and Ryan Leonard, so we’ll likely see some growing pains while players create or settle into new roles that both need them and are being developed for them. That’s a similar situation at Minnesota, which lost to the Eagles in one of the games this past week while seeking to replace several of its major and key parts.
That implies that we’re going to reach a cross-section where the falling teams and rising teams meet each other for a truly competitive season with inherent drama. I don’t think we’re going to see a No. 1 seed in the NPI get locked up like the last couple of years, but I also believe that several teams are going to grab some kind of brass ring as the year progresses.
I understand the inherent contradiction in my own statement here, so allow me a chance to explain. We don’t quite know which teams are going to step to the front, but we have an idea which teams might enter the mix. BU, for example, is my No. 1 team and a hot choice for a rising power in the east. Out west, the defending champions at Western Michigan barely lost any components from a roster that hung a banner. Denver is always a factor. All three already have an early-season demerit towards the “oh my lord, look how good this team is playing” conversation.
So I think there are teams that are built for having a memorable season, but I think it’s also going to be a bit wide open until they settle themselves.
Flipping to the other side, is there a team that you’re personally excited to watch, even if they’re not on the page right now? For me, it’s definitely Arizona State and not just because the Sun Devils added a big game goaltender in former Bentley hero Connor Hasley (thereby fulfilling my Bentley comment quota for the week).
PAULA: There are a couple, and for the same reason.
I’m eager to see what Brock Sheahan will do at Notre Dame. After 12 NCAA tournament appearances from 2007 to 2022 under Jeff Jackson, the Fighting Irish have struggled in their last three seasons, with both 2023-24 and 2024-25 producing below-.500 finishes.
Andy Slaggert, the coach who has built Notre Dame’s reputation for excellent in recruiting talent, will be leaving at the end of this month after 32 years, so it will be very interesting to see what Sheahan, Mike Garman and Andrew Oglevie do this year.
Up the road – like, literally about 170 miles up a pretty scenic drive along U.S. Route 131 – the changes at Ferris State are likewise exciting. I can’t think of a more suitable coach to step in after Bob Daniels’ 33 years at the helm of the Bulldogs than Brett Riley after what he did at Long Island University.
Ferris State’s last national tournament appearance was in 2016, when the Bulldogs went to the Frozen Four. Riley, along with associate head coach Zack Cisek and assistants Justin DeMartino and Gehrig Sarosy, have some rebuilding in Big Rapids, but beating Western Michigan in Lawson Arena the night the Broncos raised their national championship banner is a heck of a first win for a new era in Ferris State hockey.
Other than Arizona State – for solid reasons – who are you looking at? Are there games on the immediate horizon that you’re looking forward to?
DAN: I’m admittedly excited for the Ivy League teams to get underway. More than most years, the majority of the six Ivy teams seem to be catching a bit of ground in an ECAC that badly needs to regain its mojo on the national stage.
The perception of the league is basically centered around Quinnipiac – or Clarkson, which made great use of the CHL’s new recruiting pipeline – and Dartmouth and Harvard are either recently very good or potentially very good. Had Brown not lost its goaltender to the transfer portal, I think the Bears would have been loaded, and I’m still intrepid enough to think they can surprise some people and maybe take a game or two from some shocking teams. Cornell is bidding for a Whitelaw Cup threepeat this year, and the transition into Casey Jones was seamless last year at times.
Of course, we’ll have to wait for the Ivies to start in a couple of weeks, so that’s the best I can offer.
To this point, I’ll admit that I’ve purposely overlooked the Atlantic Hockey America conference because it almost never makes waves on the national stage, but that league’s parity offers a real window into exactly what we’re talking about. Bentley lost its leading scorers and its starting goalie from a championship team, and Holy Cross and Sacred Heart are both names that people love to pick. Yet Army just went 2-0-1 to start its season, and even the tie ended with the shootout loss at the opening of the new Union building in Mohawk Harbor. The win over Northeastern was impressive, and Zach McKelvie is already appearing to find his footing as the first non-Riley head coach since World War II.
That said, you mention Ferris State, and that’s exactly where my head goes when I mention ECAC and the AHA. Maybe this is the year that the door opens for an ECAC resurgence, an AHA surprise or even a CCHA champion? Even the teams that we’re not mentioning seem to have the right chops. One of them is going to differentiate themselves before this year ends, but I guess that’s my question – how important is a fast start versus a fast finish? I know coaches talk about playing their best hockey in March, but I’d hate to be the team that has to win its way into the tournament.
PAULA: I think a fast start is very important and in a variety of situations.
For teams in the AHA, CCHA and ECAC, making the most of early nonconference play is something that can work in conjunction with finishing up strong. I think we all want to see more representation in the NCAA tournament from the less-than-usual suspects, but the reality is that neither the CCHA nor AHA have been able to take advantage of early season, nonconference play to bolster individual teams’ chances nor the chances of each league overall.
That’s not a knock and I don’t have suggestions for ways that those conferences can improve their collective college hockey lot. If there were a way path to better results in early nonconference play, I know AHA and CCHA teams, especially, would already be taking it.
In a different context, the Big Ten has been able to take advantage of a fast, collective nonconference start these past few seasons, resulting in good representation in the NCAA tournament – at least in terms of number of teams playing.
I know that every coach wants his team to be playing its best hockey in March, but I go back to something Bob Motzko told me just about a year ago: “You don’t win championships early, but you could lose them.”
It remains to be seen whether last week’s losses will be problems for some top teams next March.