Jack Hittinger
Even without a global pandemic, the 2020-21 WCHA season was already destined to be a weird one. Seven of the league’s ten members had already announced way back in June of 2019 that they would be leaving the conference to reform the CCHA after the conclusion of this year. It was already going to be … Read more
Unsurprisingly for someone who has coached for 30-plus years at three very different types of programs, Don Lucia has a lot of connections in the college hockey world. Those connections were on display Wednesday when the newly-(re)formed CCHA named Lucia as its first commissioner in advance of its debut season in 2021-22 (photo: Jim Rosvold).
For Bowling Green, the 2019-20 college hockey season ended, not with a goal or a buzzer but, of all places, a mall parking lot (photo: BGSU Athletics).
The WCHA playoffs are finally here, and we’ve actually got a bunch of very good matchups this weekend. The top two seeds, Minnesota State and Bemidji State, both appear to have easier draws than the other two teams with home ice, which is to be expected, but there’s always the chance for an upset in … Read more
Not much separated Alaska and Bowling Green in the regular season. In fact, on paper, these two teams seem almost identical. They finished the regular season with an identical points total (49). They even had the same amount of league wins (14) (photo: Paul McCarthy/Alaska Athletics).
It’s the final weeknend of the regular season and there’s a ton on the oline. Most notably, the MacNaughton Cup will be lifted by either Bemidji State or Minnesota State, who play one another at the Sanford Center. But (nearly) every other WCHA team is also playing for something this weekend. It should be a … Read more
The final series of the regular season is almost always important for every team, but credit the WCHA schedule-makers for unintentionally adding to that drama nearly every season (photo: BSU Photo Services).
Last week we had a few shocks in league action: Minnesota State had to rally to get a tie and an extra point in Anchorage while Alabama Huntsville earned a split with Michigan Tech. Bemidji State managed to sweep Bowling Green. The one result last week that wasn’t a shock was Northern Michigan sweeping Ferris … Read more
Some of that uncertainty for Alaska has actually led to some positives for coach Erik Largen and his Nanooks coaching staff, namely on the recruiting trail. But their new hotspot isn’t one of their “traditional” recruiting areas like western Canada (photo: Alaska Athletics).
It was a decent week for both of us last week, but neither Davber nor I were were perfect thanks to a bunch of ties. Both of us also picked wrong on a few sweeps that turned out to be splits and vice versa. This week we have four WCHA series on the docket, including … Read more
A goaltender named after one of the all-time greats was always going to have a lot of pressure piled upon him, but maybe that’s why Dryden McKay is, as his Minnesota State coach Mike Hastings described him, “not too excitable” (photo: Minnesota State Athletics).
After the long holiday break that saw a lot of tournaments and non-conference games, we’re back this week with five WCHA series — aside from one or two more series, it will be like this for the rest of the season. Things are, as usual, bunched up at the top of the standings — Minnesota … Read more
A high-octane offense hasn’t traditionally been Bemidji State’s calling card (photo: BSU Photo Services).
A couple big nonconference sweeps for the WCHA last weekend. Daver and I both picked one correctly (MSU over Minnesota Duluth) but we both picked splits for Bowling Green/Notre Dame. This week we’re back to having all the series in the conference — including one between the two league current leaders. Daver last week: 6-4-2 … Read more
To say this season has been trying for Alabama Huntsville would be an understatement. The Chargers have struggled on both ends of the ice and haven’t been able to find much consistency (photo: Doug Eagan/UAH Athletics).
It’s the end of November, and for the first time all 10 WCHA teams will be in action playing conference games against one another. That’s a sure sign it’s not early anymore — teams are starting to show who they really are now, and that’s exciting. (And on the picks front: Daver and I were … Read more
Every team wants one — a player who, by mere virtue of getting on the scoresheet, can make victory that much more certain (photo: Bowling Green Athletics).
Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature (photo: Bradley K. Olson).
So, as it turns out, Daver has this picks things down pat. He was 8-2-1 last week, only getting wrong Michigan Tech/North Dakota and one of the Alaska/Bemidji State games. And he was almost exactly spot on with the BGSU/Minnesota State game, getting the scores almost exactly right (he was off by one in MSU’s … Read more
After everything that happened in Alaska during the offseason, you can be sure that Erik Largen is relieved to be able to just focus on hockey again (photo: Paul H. McCarthy).