Paula C. Weston

Goin’ To The Joe This year’s CCHA championship tourney includes two perennials, one old friend, and one newbie. Congratulations to Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, and Nebraska-Omaha. Between them, Michigan and Michigan State have 20 more wins in overall play than do Notre Dame and UNO. Both Michigan and Michigan State are ranked; the Irish … Read more

Win, Maybe Place, But Probably No Show Congratulations to the Wolverines, regular-season champions of the CCHA. That’s one team going to the NCAA tournament. Where does that leave the rest of the conference? At number 12 in the Pairwise, Michigan State is on the proverbial bubble to make the NCAA tourney. Next after the Spartans … Read more

Obligatory Playoff Talk Ten teams are in. Two are out. What more do you need to know? Most of the drama of the playoff race has ended. Unless Bowling Green sweeps Michigan and Northern sweeps Lake, the Wolverines have the regular-season title. Northern, Michigan State, and Lake jockey for position near the top; Miami, Western … Read more

Who Loves Ya, Baby? In South Bend, they’re nuts about the Nanooks. Up in Kalamazoo, they’re crazy about the Falcons. Everyone in Columbus loves the Lakers. The RedHawks are lucky. The outpouring of love from both Ann Arbor and East Lansing is overwhelming. It’s the home stretch, and as much as each coach likes to … Read more

The Player Makers So, you want to be Player of the Week? Make sure your team plays Ferris State. Or Western Michigan. Or–better by far–Ohio State. After last week’s examination of the Player of the Week selection process, I thought it might be interesting to see which teams are regularly picking up awards. Turns out … Read more

The Pick of the Litter "It’s not an exact science," says Sherry Skalko. "Actually, I wish it was." Skalko, in her second season as Director of Communications for the CCHA, laughs as she explains the selection process for league Players of the Week. "There are a lot of factors, when you’re dealing with positions across … Read more

The View From Below So, you’ve slept through your alarm and you’re running late for work. You’re the last one to the shower, and there is no hot water left. The coffee’s all gone, and you’re having difficulty locating a clean pair of anything. Last night’s snowfall adds another ten minutes to your morning routine, … Read more

It’s Lonely at the Top…and the Bottom Perhaps it’s the same every year, in every league. A couple or several teams stand out, look to make a run for the regular-season title, and leave everyone else in the dust. Then there are programs that can’t get their feet out of the mud, perennially anchoring their … Read more

Act I With a two-game sweep over Miami, Michigan moved into sole possession of first place last weekend, leaving Michigan State and Northern Michigan deadlocked for second, and once again the CCHA looks like a three-tier league, with three teams on top, a bunch of teams in the middle, and several teams struggling to grab … Read more

Relativity, Or Why Size Doesn’t Matter Popular sentiment about size is fairly split. Bigger is better. Good things come in small packages. When the Buffalo Bills benched Doug Flutie in favor of Rob Johnson for their playoff game against the Tennessee Titans (titan: one that is gigantic in size or power), the pro-Flutie contingency claimed … Read more

Checking the Calendar So, midnight 2000 arrived and you found yourself Y2K-compliant, and your computer didn’t explode, and the world didn’t end in some fiery mess, and the aliens were benign after all, and your debit card still provided the means with which to purchase gas and cold beer, and the center held, and the … Read more

Happy holidays, CCHA fans! In college hockey, the only way to celebrate the end of the calendar year is with tournament action. And to many Central Collegiate Hockey Association fans, there’s only one tournament worth mentioning. The Lake Effect, 35 Times Michigan Tech originally brought us the Great Lakes Invitational 35 years ago, a moot … Read more

Gifts of the Season You have to wonder about a weekend where so many CCHA fans got to see their teams win at home. Every single home team won this weekend, with the exception of the Wildcats and Lakers, who swapped a pair of road wins in a home-and-home series. The week before Thanksgiving, nearly … Read more

College Hockey? Never Heard Of It. Q: What’s the best-kept secret in Kalamazoo? A: The Western Michigan Broncos, of course. "We’ve got the league’s second-leading scorer, the leading freshman, and the leading goal-scorer on the power play, and no one here knows about us," laments Bronco head coach Jim Culhane. In a city where Culhane … Read more

Stock Options With a third of the season behind us, now is as good a time as any to take stock and make some less-than-bold statements. Who’s the best the league has to offer? Who’s the worst? And where in this league can you get what passes for a decent meal, anyway? Best Player: Hands … Read more

Keep Those Cards and Letters Coming Did you know that I’m a slut? Did you know that I’m a slut for Michigan State? Well, you did if you were one of the two people who recently felt compelled to email me, anonymously, to tell me that he or she sees me for what I really … Read more

The Bottom Look Like Up So, Michigan State tops the conference, followed by Western Michigan, Northern Michigan, and Bowling Green. Western Michigan? Bowling Green? While Notre Dame and Ohio State linger near the bottom of the standings, other programs more familiar with the cellar in recent years are seeing some daylight, and the team with … Read more

Reversal of Fortune Western Michigan’s in second place, and Alaska-Fairbanks is tied for fifth with #10 Northern Michigan. Ohio State has one win to its credit, and shares ninth place with Lake Superior. Notre Dame–with no league wins in four games–anchors the basement along with Nebraska-Omaha. A hole in the space-time continuum? A witch’s curse? … Read more

The NCAA and major juniors Hey kid–you wanna play hockey? You already play major junior? Not a problem. Just come south of the border and sign this letter of intent… The NCAA is considering passing legislation that will allow professional athletes to pursue careers at U.S. colleges. The sport this would affect most in Canada … Read more

Calling Dr. Kildare… Stop the presses! Hold all tickets! With one week of official play on the books, the CCHA looks a bit different than it did just ten days ago. When Josh Blackburn slipped on a Buckeye–at least according to the Michigan daily student paper–and tore ligaments in his left foot, Michigan’s defense took … Read more