Archive of USCHO’s blog content
Since the beginning of the New Year, I’ve been talking about a seemingly unlikely scenario that six Hockey East teams could reach the NCAA tournament. Well, in the sense of being greedy, it’s not out of the questions that seven – yes, seven - Hockey East teams could punch their NCAA tickets. For a couple of teams – namely Northeastern and, … Read more
Surprisingly, I had a half-decent record in the crazy quarterfinal round of games, thanks in large part to picking the entire New Hampshire-Northeastern series correctly. And with a .670 winning percentage entering the final weekend of games, I can now officially claim domination over Dave. I had him beat when he went on injured reserve … Read more
The WCHA Final Five is upon us with an entirely different look compared to year’s past. In essence, it’s become almost a cross between the CCHA’s old Super 6/championship weekend at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit and the Final Five we all came to love and cherish at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, … Read more
Well, last weekend I could only go 2-2 (.500), putting me at 26-17 in the playoffs so far. Let’s see if I can do any better this time around. Friday, March 21 Wisconsin vs. Minnesota Another classic battle between these rivals. Minnesota won all four games this season, though three were close. I think the … Read more
Championship weekend opens this afternoon at Plattsburgh’s Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena. As always, choosing winners at this point of the season is akin to rolling dice in a windstorm. Here’s our take. Friday, March 21 No. 6 St. Thomas at No. 1 Plattsburgh 3:30 pm Back in the first half of the season, Plattsburgh … Read more
Well, neither Matthew nor I had much luck picking the games last weekend, what with all the upsets and all. We went 4-5 (.444) on the weekend, and I only correctly picked one series (North Dakota), while Matthew picked Western Michigan to win its series, so he was correct on two, but neither of us … Read more
Welcome to the final awful predictions of the 2013-14 ECAC Hockey season. I’ll be your guide on our final nauseating spin through Prognostication Pass, but be sure to bone up with Nate Owen’s quotes and insight in this week’s ECAC Hockey column. I’m just here to ice the proverbial cake. By the way, if you … Read more
Last Week: Dan: 4-5 Chris: 4-5 On the season: Dan: 154-88-23 (.625) Chris: 160-82-23 (.647) This Week’s Picks Friday, March 21 No. 7 Canisius vs No. 1 Mercyhurst Dan: Having seen Canisius last week, I can unequivocally state they’re not a team of destiny. The term “team of destiny” implies they’re not good enough to … Read more
And we do come down to it. Drew Claussen, that upstart, edged ahead of me admirably in the final weekend of regular-season play. Last week Drew: 4-2-0 (.667) Paula: 2-4-0 (.333) That wrong-way split in East Lansing hurts my heart. Season Drew: 85-43-14 (.679) Paula: 86-41-16 (.657) This week This inaugural Big Ten Tournament will … Read more
We’re gearing up for our biggest coverage weekend of the season, with not only conference championships being decided in Division I men’s hockey but NCAA titles on the line in Division III and at the women’s Frozen Four.
The semifinals are set for this weekend with four teams punching their ticket to get one step closer to the Division III national championship in Lewiston, Maine. Let’s take a look back at the path teams took to get there: First Round Alex Larson’s 45-save performance was not enough for Nichols as the Bison fell … Read more
The regular season is over, and before we all move on to predicting conference tournaments and at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament, let’s take a look back at the last regular season weekend in the Big Ten. 1. Gophers clinch at Yost Junior Kyle Rau netted a goal at the 2:44 mark of overtime in … Read more
Three things from the past weekend in Atlantic Hockey (with apologies to the band Asia): Sole survivor Atlantic Hockey received its first-ever at-large bid to the NCAA tournament last season, but it was clear by December that it wasn’t going to happen this time around. Despite some high-profile upsets, the league’s non-conference record wasn’t strong … Read more
ECAC’s final four is set Congratulations to Union, Colgate, Quinnipiac and Cornell for their quarterfinal wins. Without further ado, Friday’s pairings: (1) Union vs. (4) Cornell: 4:07 Union swept the season series (2) Colgate vs. (3) Quinnipiac: 7:37 The teams split the season series As wild as this league can be, it’s not so rare … Read more
Here are three things I think I learned from the first round of the WCHA playoffs, with the Final Five weekend on deck. The scrapped Alaska Plan was actually really entertaining There were a lot of unhappy people in the summer of 2012 when the WCHA announced Alaska and Alaska-Anchorage would play in the first … Read more
Wisconsin River Falls 4, Lake Forest 1 Throughout the season, the Falcons have relied on scoring depth throughout the lineup. Saturday, the trend continued, as four different players hit the score sheet for Wis.-River Falls. Ashley Kuechle, who made 15 stops for the Falcons, ran her unbeaten streak to 20 games with the tournament victory. … Read more
Entering the NCAA tournament, most thought that Boston College was the road team with the best chance of earning a win. Instead, the Eagles were the only team not to come within a goal at any point of the third period as Clarkson reached its first Frozen Four. Leading into the game, the big questions … Read more
Perhaps it’s only fitting that a league that produced so many series splits had only one of the favored teams, second seed North Dakota, advance to the Frozen Faceoff semifinals in Minneapolis. North Dakota barely escaped a tough Colorado College team, winning game three, 4-3, on Sunday night. Heart-stopping RedHawks While the Miami RedHawks had … Read more
After Notre Dame beat Boston College on the final day of the regular season, there was a reason to believe that the Irish could beat the Eagles in a best-of-three series. Still, it was difficult to pick Notre Dame. That leads the three things I learned this week: 1) Notre Dame proves postseason proficiency I … Read more
Last Week: Dan: 6-5 (Talk about your late season slides. -Dan) Chris: 9-2 On the season: Dan: 150-83-23 (.631) Chris: 156-77-23 (.654) This Week’s Picks Friday, March 14 – Sunday, March 16 (Best of three series): No. 8 Holy Cross at No. 1 Mercyhurst Dan: There are three things that are certain in life – … Read more