Site AdministratorEarly last season, Union looked like the darkhorse of the decade with its 6-1-2 start. The Skating Dutchmen couldn’t come close to keeping up that pace, but head coach Kevin Sneddon has goaltender Brandon Snee … and rising expectations.
After two straight ECAC tournament titles, St. Lawrence lost a lot of talent to graduation. Joe Marsh’s Saints will rely on a team concept to replace the likes of Erik Anderson, and also face a battle in nets.
No one player is likely to replace Jeff Hamilton for Yale, so the Bulldogs will ask at least two — captain Luke Earl and powerful Nick Deschenes — to pick up the slack. A solid defense will also be critical for Tim Taylor’s squad.
Vermont started and finished strong last year, but the chunk of time in between hurt the Catamounts. A young defense may necessitate a lot of ice time for Mike Gilligan’s rookies.
For Dartmouth, this could finally be the year. The Big Green, long awaiting their turn in the limelight, start strong in net with Nick Boucher, and keep on going with a solid defense and a host of returnees up front.
Rensselaer endured a disappointing year in 2000-01, but Dan Fridgen’s squad returns much of its experience. Co-captain Matt Murley spearheads the Engineer offense, while Steve Munn anchors the RPI ‘D.’
Things may be looking up for Brown, but they almost have to be after a terrible year. Head coach Roger Grillo hopes to reverse the outcomes of several one-goal losses, and will ask captain Josh Barker to shore up the Bear offense.
An up-and-down year for Princeton ended in a near-upset in the playoffs, meaning that the Tigers have something to build on. Forward Brad Parsons and netminder Dave Stathos key this season’s chances.
Hit hard by graduation the last two years, Colgate missed the playoffs last season. Don Vaughan leads a young team with a strong recruiting class into 2001-02, hoping to show that last year was just a speed bump.
Perennial contender and regular-season champion Clarkson got a nasty shock in the first round of the ECAC playoffs last year, and missed the NCAA tournament as a result. This year, the Golden Knights will relay on defensive strength and the netminding of all-ECAC pick Mike Walsh.
The perhaps-surprising pick of the coaches to top the ECAC, Harvard has captain Peter Capouch to stiffen a young defense. Mark Mazzoleni’s skaters are on the rise, but has their time truly come already?
Coaches ordinarily say that polls don’t matter, but this season Mike Schafer is motivating Cornell with one. An apparent snub by the ECAC media gives the Big Red — who return their top ten scorers — something to shoot for.
The Providence Friars wound up in first place in the preseason coaches’ poll. The funny thing is that the Friars didn’t receive one single first place vote.
Former Alabama-Huntsville player, Jean-Marc Plante, who had been working in the school’s athletic department, collapsed and died Sunday of an apparent heart attack. He was 31. Plante was playing a street hockey game in Madison, Ala., when he collapsed. Plante, the athletic marketing director for Alabama-Huntsville, had worked in the front office of the NHL’s … Read more
At least 38 games involving Hockey East teams will be telecast throughout New England in 2001-2002, highlighted by at least 23 on Fox Sports Net New England. The league’s “Fox Sports Net New England Hockey East Game of the Week” package, beginning in January, has been supplemented by a separate deal that Boston University also … Read more
Dave Hendrickson, U.S. College Hockey Online’s beat writer and columnist for Hockey East, has been named the recipient of the league’s 2001 Joe Concannon Media Award.
The athletic directors of the men’s Hockey East conference have voted to establish a Division I women’s ice hockey league under the Hockey East banner to begin play no later than the fall of 2004.
Feel bad for Queens. The Canadian school thought it would be a fantastic idea to spend the weekend battling Michigan State and Michigan in preseason matchups. But, instead, they became feed for hungry Spartans and Wolverines. After a 14-1 thrashing by the Spartans, 14 hours later Queens left themselves open to the next swashbuckling by … Read more
Magic Johnson may have invented “Showtime” as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, but the Michigan State hockey team perfected it Saturday night. The Spartans got goals from 12 different skaters and all but two players on the dress list tallied a point as MSU defeated Queens 14-2 in front of 6,462 uncommonly rowdy … Read more
Union was scheduled to open the season with a flight to South Bend, Ind., for a two-game series against Notre Dame on Oct. 11 and 12. But in light of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, the Dutchmen have changed their mode of transportation. The team will now take the … Read more