A few random thoughts as we close another weekend of college hockey:
** There aren’t many (weeks, that is) left before we get into postseason play. Two in Atlantic Hockey, the CCHA and ECAC Hockey; three in the CHA, Hockey East and the WCHA.
Yale has a chance to put away its first ECAC title since 1998 next weekend with victories at Quinnipiac and second-place Princeton. That would be quite a turnaround for a small group of Bulldogs seniors (there are only five of them) who were 10-20-3 as freshmen and then went through a coaching change that brought in Keith Allain.
First-place Northeastern and second-place Boston University are separated by one point in the Hockey East standings, putting that much more emphasis on the teams’ home-and-home series next weekend.
It looks like it’ll come down to RIT and Air Force for the Atlantic Hockey title, and the teams play in Rochester to decide things on Feb. 27-28, the last weekend of their regular season.
Bemidji State and Niagara will battle for the CHA lead on Thursday and Friday.
The WCHA is going to go down to the last weekend, so we’ll just get ready for that then.
And Notre Dame, four points clear of second-place Miami with four games to play, can grab at least a share of the CCHA title next weekend at Nebraska-Omaha.
** Speaking of Notre Dame, the Irish will have a new home in the fall of 2011, the school announced this week. If you’ve spent even a few hours at the Joyce Center, you know how much that is needed for a program that hopes to stay at the level the Irish have reached in the last few years.
** An interesting stat here: There are two teams in Division I that have not tied a game this season, and both are in the top five nationally in winning percentage. Princeton is 18-7; Michigan is 23-9.
Not only has Michigan not tied a game this season, it hasn’t even gone to overtime in its 32 games. Let’s see how long that lasts, and whether it would be a disadvantage if the Wolverines have to go OT in the postseason.
