Columns, excluding “This Week” columns
Since October, I’ve been crisscrossing the Northeast catching almost every men’s and women’s D-I hockey team that I could, so when the end of the season rolled around, I figured I had to go out in style. I decided — with some amount of egging on from my colleague Eric Mirlis, I might add — … Read more
Are you as tired as I am hearing about how great this past weekend’s college basketball regional finals were? Yeah, three games went to overtime; yeah, maybe it was the best weekend ever of college basketball. But you know what? This was also the best weekend of college hockey ever. Yes, you heard that right. … Read more
Just Like Last Year This year’s NCAA field and match-ups — Minnesota vs. Dartmouth and Harvard vs. St. Lawrence in the semifinals — were the exact same as the 2004 tournament. Moreover, the outcomes of all four games followed the same script as the year before — Minnesota defeated Dartmouth and Harvard downed St. Lawrence … Read more
I still can’t get that play out of my head. The sight of it. The sound of it. The result of it. The violent and illegal hit that Denver’s Geoff Paukovich leveled against North Dakota’s Robbie Bina in the WCHA Tournament in St. Paul, Minn., last week has resonated all across our game. I worry … Read more
Record Book With this being just the fifth season of the Women’s Ice Hockey NCAA Tournament, new records are commonplace. Minnesota’s Natalie Darwitz scored just 13 seconds into the game, marking the fastest opening goal in the tournament. However, Darwitz did not break the record for fastest goal to start a period, as that record … Read more
The NCAA tournament is upon us, and this week, I thought it would be good to take a look and see who some of the key players to watch are going to be in this weekend’s regionals. It was a bit harder than I thought, because there are so many great teams in this year’s … Read more
To close out last December, Dartmouth and Minnesota played a rivetting two-game series at Thompson Arena that was packed with offense and one comeback after another. There was a feeling that day the teams would meet again in the Frozen Four, and here they are, although they are not meeting in the final as many … Read more
OK. I am officially sick of myself and all the talk about Pairwise and KRACH. So let’s move on and talk hockey, with some random thoughts as we approach Regionals. East Obviously, Mercyhurst will have a tough time dealing with Boston College, just as Holy Cross did last season. BC is not explosive these days, … Read more
Why one simple move may have opened Pandora’s box.
Two Dynasties As far as bringing home the hardware, there are no other teams in Division III women’s hockey that can compare to either Middlebury or Elmira. Middlebury won the titles in 2000 and 2001 that were held by the AWHCA. Elmira took the first two championships sponsored by the NCAA in 2002 and 2003. … Read more
Last May, after the ECAC athletic directors announced the league was officially severing ties with the main ECAC office and forming, in essence, an independent hockey league, Steve Hagwell was named the acting commissioner. In an article called “Seize the Momentum,” we applauded the move, but implored the ECAC not to sit still, and take … Read more
The selections are out and they differed from the brackets that we had projected on Saturday evening. We had all 16 teams picked correctly, but had some of them in the wrong spots. So what happened? Here was our bracket projected on Saturday evening with a .003-.002-.001 bonus: West Regional: 13 Maine vs. 4 Minnesota … Read more
Freshman Ross Cherry and Sophomore Scott Gray started the season as backups for Middlebury and New England College, but have been huge in net for both teams down the stretch.
Wisconsin provides us with a perfect case study for why a more pure ranking system is needed right now.
Boyhood friends Joe Ori and Doug Kisielius grew up outside of Chicago, but came east to Trinity College. In their senior year, they find themselves battling for a national championship.
The Division I men’s ice hockey committee can avoid some common sense pitfalls in creating the NCAA tournament bracket if it decides to give itself room to maneuver.
Dave Starman investigates the art of overtime coaching after seeing three straight overtime games in an ECAC playoff series at Union.
Middlebury has more experience than anyone in hosting the D-III tournament, and that pays off as the college extends its hospitality for the fourth time since 1995.
Early on in the season, my CSTV studio partner Adam Wodon and I were asked for our teams to watch in the ECACHL, Hockey East, CCHA, and WCHA. My four were Minnesota-Duluth in the WCHA, Michigan State in the CCHA, Cornell in ECAC, and Maine in Hockey East. Colorado College was my dark horse to … Read more
Phil Kessel’s announcement isn’t the only news in the college hockey recruiting world. It’s just the biggest. Here’s what else is new in recruiting to go along with a few last thoughts on 1980. Recruits…Please…Immediately! On Jan. 14, Albany Times Union writer and frequent USCHO contributor Jon Paul Morosi reported on RPI’s 2005-06 recruiting class … Read more