Paula C. WestonWalt Kyle once joked that he had taken Northern Michigan to the CCHA third-place game so many times that the contest would probably be named for him. In late March, however, Kyle and the Wildcats were proverbial bridesmaids no more. NMU finally got the chance to play for the CCHA championship. It was just the … Read more
Alaska capped its 2009-10 season with the program’s first trip to the NCAA tournament, so it’s only fitting that UAF is picked third this season, the highest preseason prognostication in Nanooks history. How does Dallas Ferguson, the third-year coach responsible for turning around the UAF program, follow all of this up? With what got him … Read more
Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson is a fierce competitor, to be sure, but it’s probably a good thing that his experience has taught him a little perspective. The Fighting Irish finished the 2010-11 season in ninth place, far below expectations. Notre Dame just couldn’t seem to catch a break where injuries were concerned — no … Read more
If there’s one team in the CCHA that can be described as a typical, workaday, no-frills team, that would be Lake Superior State. There’s no shame in that. The team’s blue-collar ethic comes straight from coach Jim Roque, who gets every bit out of every player that he can — and the team gives, willingly. … Read more
By this point, most college hockey fans know what the 2009-10 Miami RedHawks endured, but it bears repeating, in brief. • Lost the 2009 NCAA championship game in overtime, after leading by two goals going into the last minute. • Lost a dear friend, 21-year-old team manager Brendan Burke, to a car crash in February. … Read more
Last year, the Michigan Wolverines found themselves someplace unfamiliar for the second round of the CCHA playoffs: on the road. After finishing in seventh place, Michigan swept Lake Superior State at home in the first round of CCHA playoff hockey before having to play through East Lansing to advance to the league’s championship tournament in … Read more
“It’s one louder, isn’t it?” asks Nigel Tufnel in “This Is Spinal Tap.” “It’s not 10.” Perhaps it’s just a personal perversion, but every time I think of the CCHA as an 11-team entity, I think of Nigel Tufnel’s magic amp, the one that is one louder. Michigan’s Louie Caporusso scored 10 of his 21 … Read more
Western Michigan’s Jeff Blashill is one of three new head coaches in the CCHA, but he’s familiar to everyone in the league. He may have spent the last two seasons coaching the USHL’s Indiana Ice — where he won the Clark Cup as a rookie head coach in 2009 — but he was an assistant … Read more
Bob Daniels is beginning the 2010-11 season with the same question he had a year ago: Who’s going to score for Ferris State? He and the Bulldogs hope that the answer this year is as satisfying as it was last season. When 2009-10 began for the Bulldogs, they had just completed a year in which … Read more
In this millennium, Bowling Green has finished above ninth place twice — a fifth-place finish in 2004-05 and seventh in 2007-08. Given that four of the last five seasons have seen the Falcons at or next to the bottom of the CCHA standings, new coach Chris Bergeron understands the need to change things, wholesale, at … Read more
Of the three CCHA teams led by new coaches this season, Ohio State has arguably been the biggest disappointment for far too long a time. After all, this is a school with huge resources, a high profile and matching expectations. New coach Mark Osiecki, an assistant at Wisconsin for six seasons — and therefore wise … Read more
“We’re coming off a second-place finish and a team that obviously did not perform well in the playoffs,” Michigan State coach Rick Comley said. “That was a disappointment.” That was an understatement. After a hugely disappointing, next-to-last-place finish in 2008-09, Michigan State rebounded last year, earning a bye for the first round of the CCHA … Read more
Wisconsin high-powered offense couldn’t generate much against Boston College in the national championship game. Paula C. Weston reports.
Wisconsin pressured early, made the most of second-period power plays and spread the goals around in an 8-1 win over RIT in Thursday’s first Frozen Four semifinal game at Ford Field, giving the Badgers the chance to play for their seventh NCAA championship on Saturday night. “It was one of our emphasis to get off … Read more
Miami has lived by its physical play all season. Against Boston College Saturday, it proved its undoing.
After their first practices on the Ford Field ice, the four teams playing at the Frozen Four react to their environment. Paula C. Weston reports.
By now, everyone knows the personal tragedy that Miami hockey endured this year. In early February, team manager Brendan Burke, the 21-year-old son of Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke, was killed in an auto accident on an icy road near the Indiana-Ohio border. It’s the reason the RedHawks wear the shamrock patch on … Read more
For Miami, the second time against Michigan this post-season was the charm, and the one that means that the RedHawks continue to play. One week after losing a CCHA semifinal game to the eventual Mason Cup-winning Wolverines, the RedHawks earned their first-ever playoff victory over Michigan when Alden Hirschfeld scored 1:54 into the second overtime … Read more
Two goals by Carl Hagelin — one a quick back-breaker to answer Bemidji State’s lone tally — helped Michigan advance past the Beavers, 5-1, to face CCHA rival Miami in Sunday’s Midwest Regional final. “I don’t think that was a 5-1 game,” Michigan coach Red Berenson said. “They were always in the game, when you … Read more
Alabama-Huntsville had a strong penalty kill and Miami was struggling on the power play, but things flipped in the Midwest Regional semifinals. Paula C. Weston reports.