Paula C. WestonThe 2007-2008 CCHA: The Kids Are All Right Our fourth-place team can beat your anyplace team. So there. Phthhhhht! Thanks to the sweet, improbable postseason juggernaut that was the 2006-07 Michigan State Spartans, CCHA fans can now in all good conscience make that claim, loudly and often … at least for another 185 or so … Read more
College? Major juniors? European leagues? There are more plausible choices than ever, even for a Swiss prospect. Paula C. Weston reports.
Players Playing the Press After the history-making simulcast of Friday night’s first round, Saturday’s pickings felt a little bit like the day after Christmas — anticlimactic, but with many good deals left. Incoming Minnesota freshman forward Mike Hoeffel was ranked 22nd by the NHL’s Central Scouting Bureau, but became the property of the New Jersey … Read more
A Very Popular Guy When John H. McConnell, majority owner of the host Columbus Blue Jackets, addressed the crowd remotely via the big screen in Nationwide Arena, the crowd responded in an unusual manner for Draft-goers: they gave McConnell a prolonged standing ovation. McConnell, a native of West Virginia who built his fortune in the … Read more
Though college hockey seems to present a more and more attractive route to the NHL, not everyone takes that path — even when legendary coach Scotty Bowman says so. Paula C. Weston reports.
Michigan State kept it loose all throughout the NCAA tournament, and it paid off for the Spartans. Paula C. Weston examines MSU’s X-factor.
So, you’re playing for a national championship for the first time in 20 years, and the eyes of the college hockey world are on you, and you’re the first team from your league to make it this far since 1998. What are you going to do? If you’re the Michigan State Spartans, you’re going to … Read more
With their top line of Josh Soares, Michel Levielle, and Keith Johnson clicking, the Black Bears led by two goals before this contest was five minutes old, making their first score just 23 seconds in. Right after the opening faceoff and just 23 seconds in, Johnson gave Maine the 1-0 lead with a one-timer from … Read more
It may be a much different squad than last year’s Sioux, but Paula C. Weston finds that it’s not a surprise for North Dakota to be back in the Frozen Four.
After ending the 2005-06 season with a 5-4 loss to Maine in the final game of the East Regional, Michigan State experienced 3:25 of history repeating when the Black Bears took an early two-goal lead Thursday, but four unanswered Spartan goals led MSU to a 4-2 victory and a chance to play for the NCAA … Read more
This is the first year in Frozen Four history that no No. 1 seeds have advanced to the championship tournament, and there’s a feeling in St. Louis that this is anyone’s title to capture. Said UND head coach Dave Hakstol, “This is a Frozen Four where we have four teams that are realistically playing their … Read more
With Michigan State back in the Frozen Four for the first time since 2001, we bring you Paula C. Weston’s chat with the man in net for that Spartan squad: now-Buffalo Sabres star Ryan Miller.
Notre Dame may have been the stingiest team in the country, but the Michigan State Spartans out-defensed the Fighting Irish to upset the No. 1 seed, 2-1, and advance to the Frozen Four for the first time since 2001. “A great win, obviously,” said head coach Rick Comley, who last advanced to the NCAA semifinals … Read more
After taking a two-goal lead on three shots in the first five minutes of play, it took the Fighting Irish another 90 minutes and 16 seconds — plus a man advantage — to score the goal that beat Alabama-Huntsville in double overtime, 3-2, giving Notre Dame its first-ever NCAA tournament victory. Ryan Thang scored twice … Read more
It would be too easy to say that the Irish got a little lucky in capturing their first-ever CCHA playoff championship on St. Patrick’s Day, but the mistake by Michigan goaltender Billy Sauer that led to Jason Paige’s game-winning goal was at the very least a little fortuitous. And the magic post that Wolverine Jack … Read more
With smothering defense and senior goaltender David Brown’s sixth shutout of the season, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish beat the Lake Superior State Lakers, 3-0, to advance to the CCHA championship game for just the second time in program history, the first since 1982. Irish head coach Jeff Jackson said that the contest was everything … Read more
Two-Thirds Perspiration This week, as I was penning two new tunes for Paula Weston: The Musical — “You’ve Got to Get Me Where I Need to Go,” a peppy number about a single woman’s 1992 Oldsmobile Achieva, and “If I Only Had the Time (I’d Finish It All),” a moving, show-stopping ballad about (among other … Read more
Wildcats, and Nanooks, and Mavericks — Oh My! I couldn’t figure out how to fit “Lakers” into that … and besides, Lakers are ships, not ferocious beasts. What a weekend of hockey in the CCHA. I expected the first round of the playoffs to be good, but not as good as these eight teams mustered. … Read more
With two shorthanded goals and another strong performance by goaltender Brian Stewart, 10th-seeded Northern Michigan Wildcats upset the No. 7 seed Ohio State Buckeyes,3-2, to win this best-of-three series and advance to the second round of the CCHA playoffs. “We have a saying we say in our locker room all the time,” said NMU head … Read more
Apparently, the 10th time is the charm. The Northern Michigan Wildcats played their 10th game in Columbus since rejoining the CCHA and earned their first win in Ohio’s capital city when it counted, beating Ohio State in overtime, 3-2, to force a third game in this best-of-three CCHA first-round playoff series. Dusty Collins had the … Read more