Todd D. Milewski

It seems like we hear about one travel-related nightmare around the holidays every year. This year, it was Yale having quite the adventure trying to get to Madison, Wis., for the Badger Hockey Showdown. The Bulldogs left New Haven on Thursday but then, according to coach Keith Allain, spent about 3 1/2 hours waiting on … Read more

Ferris State went through the first half of the season as one of the pleasant surprises in college hockey, picked for a low finish but instead building a strong record. From a stout penalty kill to solid goaltending to a dependable defense, none of it came through in the first game after the holiday break. … Read more

A quick follow-up to the tournament rankings I posted the other day: A reader named John Cavanaugh e-mailed to let me know he crunched the numbers using KRACH and RPI rankings, and the results were fairly similar. Here are the rankings he came up with using KRACH: 1. Badger Hockey Showdown (15.75) 2. Wells Fargo … Read more

Here’s wishing a belated happy holidays to all of our faithful USCHO readers. This week’s edition is more of what I’ve crunched rather than what I think. For the past couple of seasons, I’ve ranked the holiday tournaments by combined winning percentage of the teams involved. I can’t exactly remember why — probably because, when … Read more

Some random thoughts this week, while I read up on the Torpedo system: * Bob Daniels for coach of the year? Sounds OK to me if we’re voting right now, which, of course, we’re not. All credit to Tom Serratore at Bemidji State and Rand Pecknold at Quinnipiac, but Daniels, the Ferris State coach, has … Read more

Another collection of random (and not-so-random) thoughts after the ninth week of the season: * Just when I start to question Miami’s fitness as the No. 1 team in the country, the RedHawks shut out Notre Dame for the weekend. Thanks for clearing that up. * Something Michigan Tech coach Jamie Russell said in the … Read more

Brendan Smith is on a collegiate-best seven-game point streak, but the Wisconsin defenseman is occasionally coming back to the bench talking about what he’s doing wrong. Even after he puts the puck in the net. Smith scored twice, joining John Mitchell among multiple-goal scorers, as No. 16 Wisconsin completed a weekend thrashing of Michigan Tech … Read more

The symmetry is just too good to chalk it up as mere coincidence. On the same night that the Montreal Canadiens commemorated their 100th birthday, a player connected to that famed organization in two big ways recorded a career night for No. 16 Wisconsin. Blake Geoffrion, whose grandfather Bernie “Boom Boom” Geoffrion and great-grandfather Howie … Read more

Driving home through four states on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend? Not fun. But the trip that yielded that ride home also yielded some more insight on college hockey this season, so here goes with this week’s installment of some random (and not-so-random) thoughts: * Of the four teams in the College Hockey Showcase, the … Read more

Week 7 already? College hockey season is already a quarter done? And what do we know? Probably not as much as we think we know, but here goes anyway: * We have our first teams to 10 victories on the season, and if you had Quinnipiac and Bemidji State in that exacta box, pick up … Read more

Some random (and not-so-random) thoughts after the sixth week of the season: * Part of you has to feel bad for Niagara. As close as the Purple Eagles come to getting their first victory of the season, they just can’t get it done. Saturday at Robert Morris, they were up 3-1 midway through the game … Read more