Archive of USCHO’s blog content
The American Hockey Coaches Association 2011 All-American Teams will be announced next Thursday at the NCAA Division III Women’s Ice Hockey Championship banquet the night before the semifinals. The 2011 Laura Hurd Award winner, given to the Division III National Player of the Year, will also be announced that night. With the addition of St. Scholastica and … Read more
Looking over the WCHA standings late Saturday night, I paused at the middle of the top line, right under GF-GA. In 28 league games this season, MacNaughton Cup champion North Dakota scored 112 goals and allowed 62. That’s a plus-50 scoring margin, the largest in the league since the Sioux were plus-60 in a 2003-04 … Read more
It was home-not-so-sweet home in the first round of the Atlantic Hockey playoffs with all four home (and higher seeded) teams losing. Newcomers Robert Morris and Niagara, who were near the top of the standings most of the season, are out, while American International and Scared Heart, teams that spent most of the season battling … Read more
In honor of USCHO’s 15th year of NCAA hockey coverage , Tuesday’s blog each week during the 2010-11 regular season was a notebook of 15 things about the CCHA – anything that struck my fancy. As games decrease and interesting quasi-related notes become fewer in postseason, though, I’m re-purposing Tuesday’s blog to do what Monday’s … Read more
Most sports fans realize that the playoffs aren’t indisputably fair, because they don’t always deliver what they implicitly promise – the best team in the league. The NFL plays a one-game-elimination format, Major League Baseball holds a best-of-five first round then two best-of-sevens to declare a winner. The NBA and NHL offer perhaps the most … Read more
Okay…so there has been a lot of discussion and wondering about how Norwich received the bye into the semifinals of the 2011 NCAA Division III Women’s Ice Hockey Championships. Personally, I wasn’t even quite sure the Cadets were going to make the tournament after Sunday’s 4-2 loss to Manhattanville in the ECAC East championship game. I thought … Read more
Welcome to the final edition of Division III Bracketology for 2011. You can see the bracket here. Surprises: UWS over Castleton – A major surprise as I had Castleton in for sure. UWS had 12 losses, but it looks like the Western Committee did a stellar job of selling the Yellowjackets’ tough schedule. Plattsburgh and … Read more
Hail to the Norwich Cadets and Bowdoin Polar Bears winners of the ECAC East and NESCAC conference tournaments over this past weekend. Both teams enter NCAA play this upcoming Wednesday when the Cadets host ECAC Northeast champion Curry and the Polar Bears entertain Neumann in first round action. But that is this week and stuff … Read more
As the final weekend always is, that was a fun weekend of hockey. It’s also enjoyable when it comes down to the last games in play to figure out seeding for the playoffs … which of course we now know. Let’s recap, shall we? Minnesota took three from Bemidji State – On Friday, Brad Hunt … Read more
Four games, four upsets as the higher seeds all lost on a crazy Saturday night. The visiting team won all four single-elimination first round games, setting up quarterfinal best-of-three series that look like this: No. 12 American International at No. 1 Rochester Institute of Technology No. 11 Sacred Heart at No. 2 Air Force No. … Read more
So much for the “coveted” home-ice advantage, as seeds Nos. 10, 11 and 12 each upset their seventh, sixth and fifth-seeded hosts. Just another week in our wacky little league. First-round round-up No. 8 Quinnipiac 2, No. 9 Brown 0 The Bobcats cut Bruno down with twin 4-0 decisions, as junior Dan Clarke stopped 22 … Read more
Sometimes, all I can say is, “Wow.” Congratulations to the Nanooks, Lakers and Falcons for advancing to the second round of the CCHA playoffs. Congratulations, too, to the teams on the losing end. The Spartans did not go gently into that good night, the Buckeyes showed some life before it was over and it took … Read more
The Hockey East regular season went out with a bang. Commissioner Joe Bertagna was prescient enough to once again schedule the Boston College – New Hampshire home-and-home series on the final weekend, a move that paid handsome dividends. Boston College, which opened the weekend one point down, leapfrogged UNH on Friday with a dominating performance. … Read more
Congrats to all the conference champions – and to those yet unnamed teams that get a second chance. Here’s the pre-NCAA announcement edition of Division III Bracketology. To recap: eleven teams will get their tickets punched: seven Pool A teams, one Pool B Team, and three Pool C teams. Pool A consists of the seven … Read more
In collecting its fourth-straight Harris Cup, Adrian made a statement about the next step in its journey as an NCAA tournament-bound team. The fifth-ranked Bulldogs skated to a 5-0 victory over Marian on Sunday in the Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association title game at Arrington Ice Arena. Seniors Shawn Skelly and Zach Graham led the Bulldogs … Read more
Two championships. Two overtimes. This is the last year before the MASCAC receives an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, but that hasn’t led to any letdowns in its first two championship games. For the second year in a row, Fitchburg State and Salem State went to overtime. And for a second year in a … Read more
The Plattsburgh Cardinals are the 2010-11 SUNYAC champions, beating Fredonia, 4-1. Plattsburgh never allowed the Blue Devils a glimmer of hope for another playoff upset. Plattsburgh outshot Fredonia in the first, 13-4, and the second, 12-6. Only in the third period, when Plattsburgh was preserving the lead and Fredonia was getting desperate, did the Blue … Read more
DURHAM, N.H. – When you take a look at this year’s senior class for Boston College, you can sum up their success in one word: championships. The three seniors – John Muse, Joe Whitney and Brian Gibbons – have combined for three Beanpot titles, two Hockey East tournament titles and, most impressively two NCAA national … Read more
Earlier this week I talked about team defense being the statistic of champions. Well, if tonight’s game between Boston College and New Hampshire was any indication, you can crown the Eagles now. They held UNH, the seventh best offense in the country, to only 12 shots (while piling up 42 of their own). As for … Read more
Tonight was senior night for Boston College and once again it was a small class. Small but big. All major performers: goaltender John Muse and forwards Brian Gibbons and Joe Whitney. Two national championships, two Hockey East titles, and three Beanpots for that class. And counting. Those will be three huge holes to fill, but if everyone … Read more