The Hit That Keeps On Hitting

I still can’t get that play out of my head. The sight of it. The sound of it. The result of it. The violent and illegal hit that Denver’s Geoff Paukovich leveled against North Dakota’s Robbie Bina in the WCHA Tournament in St. Paul, Minn., last week has resonated all across our game. I worry … Read more

2005 West Regional Preview

Minnesota hosts the West Regional Saturday and Sunday on home ice as the No. 1 seed — a scenario that didn’t come without some controversy. The Golden Gophers, who lost 14 games this season including two on their way to a fourth-place finish at the WCHA Final Five, were seeded ahead of ECACHL regular-season and … Read more

CC, DU Lead USCHO.com Year-End Honors

Colorado College’s Marty Sertich and Brett Sterling and Denver’s Paul Stastny and George Gwozdecky top the list of USCHO.com’s 2004-05 Division I Men’s Year-End Honorees, announced Friday. During the 2004-05 season, little has separated Sertich, a junior from Roseville, Minn., and Sterling, a junior from Pasadena, Calif. The pair of forwards led the Colorado College … Read more

Bemidji Brings Tradition To Tournament

Tom Serratore was on the bus from the airport in Hartford to his team’s hotel in Amherst, Mass. The flight was a charter from Bemidji, Minn., right into Connecticut’s capital city, and it carried the College Hockey America (CHA) champion Bemidji State Beavers towards a date with the NCAA’s defending champs, the Denver Pioneers. However, … Read more

The E-List: Players to Watch

The NCAA tournament is upon us, and this week, I thought it would be good to take a look and see who some of the key players to watch are going to be in this weekend’s regionals. It was a bit harder than I thought, because there are so many great teams in this year’s … Read more

NHL Draft Cancelled

The National Hockey League announced today that the 2005 NHL Entry Draft events have been cancelled. The events had been scheduled for the weekend of June 25-26 at Corel Centre in Ottawa. “In the absence of a Collective Bargaining Agreement, we are not able to conduct an Entry Draft in the traditional sense on the … Read more

Let’s Play Hockey

OK. I am officially sick of myself and all the talk about Pairwise and KRACH. So let’s move on and talk hockey, with some random thoughts as we approach Regionals. East Obviously, Mercyhurst will have a tough time dealing with Boston College, just as Holy Cross did last season. BC is not explosive these days, … Read more

Pioneers Extend Paukovich’s Suspension

Denver suspended freshman forward Geoff Paukovich for its NCAA Northeast Regional Tournament game against Bemidji State on Saturday, March 26. Paukovich served a one-game WCHA-imposed suspension for the March 19 WCHA final for his second-period hit on North Dakota sophomore defenseman Robbie Bina in the WCHA semifinals the previous night. Paukovich was originally given only … Read more

Hirsch Back With the Gophers

Minnesota’s leading scorer, junior Tyler Hirsch, is back skating with the Gophers, less than a week after a “bizarre” post-game incident following his team’s WCHA semifinal loss. Whether he will play this weekend or not remains unclear. Hirsch After everyone cleared the ice following last Friday’s WCHA semifinal loss, and as fans were filing out, … Read more

USCHO.com’s 2004-05 D-I Women’s Year-End Honors

Minnesota forward Krissy Wendell, Connecticut forward Jaclyn Hawkins and Harvard coach Katey Stone top the list of USCHO.com’s 2004-05 D-I Women’s Year-End Honorees. KRISSY WENDELL Wendell, the co-captain and leading goal-scorer of defending champion Minnesota, was named the USCHO.com Player of the Year. A native of Brooklyn Park, Minn., Wendell netted the game-winners in both … Read more

Denver Finishes At No. 1 In Final USCHO.com/CSTV Poll

In the wake of its WCHA tournament championship, Denver earned 17 of 40 first-place votes to finish atop the 2004-05 season’s final USCHO.com/CSTV Division I men’s poll, released Monday. Last weekend, the Pioneers beat North Dakota and then Colorado College in the WCHA title game, moving them up one spot to the summit of the … Read more

Sioux’s Bina Has Surgery On Broken Neck

North Dakota sophomore defenseman Robbie Bina underwent surgery Monday morning at Regions Medical Center in St. Paul to repair a shattered vertebra in his neck suffered last Friday during the WCHA Final Five. In a statement released through UND, the Bina family said Dr. Daryll Dykes performed the surgery, which lasted from 8:20 a.m. to … Read more

Funk To Fantastic: BC’s Boyle Turns Season Around

There was a moment during the Hockey East semifinal between Boston College and Maine that ignored all but two of the nearly 18,000 people in the building. Halfway through the second period, wide-open BC sophomore Brian Boyle collected a pass in front of the Black Bear net. Maine netminder Jimmy Howard slid post-to-post and out … Read more

Momentum Seized?

Last May, after the ECAC athletic directors announced the league was officially severing ties with the main ECAC office and forming, in essence, an independent hockey league, Steve Hagwell was named the acting commissioner. In an article called “Seize the Momentum,” we applauded the move, but implored the ECAC not to sit still, and take … Read more

ECAC Saturday Notebook

A Change of Fortunes Fortunes can change quickly in college hockey, and the shift that occurred in the minutes following the holding call on the Big Red’s Daniel Pegoraro during the second period provided a stark illustration of that fact. With Harvard leading 1-0, Cornell asserted itself more aggressively at the start of the second … Read more

Final Piece In The Puzzle

No. 4 Michigan’s seniors class of 10 has now won three CCHA Super Six championships to go with their three regular-season CCHA titles and two Frozen Four appearances. But there is one thing missing from their collective mantle: a national championship. “[The NCAA championship] has been elusive to us,” senior captain Eric Nystrom said. “We’ve … Read more

NCAA Tournament Field Announced; WCHA Gets Three No. 1 Seeds

The field for the NCAA Division I men’s tournament was announced Sunday morning, with the WCHA receiving an unprecedented three of the four No. 1 seeds among the 2005 selections. Hockey East regular-season and tournament champion Boston College was awarded the overall top seed in the tournament, with WCHA teams occupying the remaining No. 1 … Read more

‘Cats Pounce

Boston University surrendered three goals in a span of less than three minutes during the second period Friday, losing to New Hampshire in Hockey East’s late semifinal, 5-2. Such is life when you’re playing the Wildcats these days — particularly when you’re offering a “sad” effort, as BU coach Jack Parker felt his Terriers had. … Read more