Columns, excluding “This Week” columns
It’s been over two years since the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the USCHO.com poll met during the regular season, but that’ll change this weekend when No. 1 Dartmouth takes on No. 2 Minnesota at Ridder Arena in a rare late-season East-West showdown. Because the top two teams have typically resided in different … Read more
The Tie’s the Limit Watching the scores come in over the past few weeks in Division III, I’ve been noticing what I thought was an inordinate number of ties. Asking around, other fans and coaches agreed. Time to get out the ol’ slide rule. 1998-99: 53 ties 1999-00: 60 2000-01: 56 2001-02: 64 2002-03: 71 … Read more
Winds Of Change If Harvard’s schedule looks a little different from previous years, there’s a reason. Two items had changed from Beanpots in the Crimson’s past. First, Harvard was playing in the late game in the Beanpot. In the last several years, Harvard has played in the early semifinal on the first Monday in February, … Read more
The last time Sean Fields played against Northeastern, he allowed three goals on ten shots and didn’t last through the second period. But with his 35-save performance in Boston University’s 5-2 win over the Huskies Monday night, he earned himself a place between the pipes for the Beanpot championship game for the third straight year. … Read more
Seems appropriate that the only two schools antiquated enough to have their finals in January would meet to lead off their post-exam schedules. This year the ECAC was finally accommodating to No. 2 Harvard and No. 9 Princeton, who will face off Friday night in the only game between top 10 teams this weekend. It … Read more
Learning How to Win Nearing the home stretch of the season, some Cinderellas have heard the stroke of midnight and have fallen by the wayside. A few are still partying. At Geneseo, the Knights are unbeaten in their last nine games, good enough for a No. 14 ranking in the latest USCHO.com Division III poll. … Read more
The off-ice news in women’s hockey showed no signs of slowing down this week, in what has already been one of the most inconstant months ever in the sport. The lack of upcoming games between Top 10 teams might make this a relatively light weekend in terms of direct Frozen Four implications, but it’s still … Read more
Change Is Good In my last two columns, I outlined proposed changes that would negatively affect Division III hockey. But not all change is bad, of course. Case in point — the NCAA has modified its tournament selection process for this and future seasons, and the changes should eliminate some of the issues that have … Read more
Scoreboard It was mostly good news from the NCAA convention — the Division III membership saw through many of the Division III reform proposals and shot them down. In summary: The grandfathered Division III schools playing at the Division I level that offer scholarships will continue to do so. This is a major victory for … Read more
What A Week The schedule-makers gave Division III women’s hockey fans a late Christmas present. In the span of five days the top four, six of the top seven, and seven of the top ten teams squared off against one another in seven thrilling contests, including a rematch of the past two national championships, the … Read more
The landscape of Division I women’s college hockey is suddenly a lot different from just a few weeks ago, both on and off the ice. Until last week, College Hockey America was all set to be a six-team autobid-eligible conference with Ohio State jumping aboard, but now Findlay has dropped its program and Ohio State … Read more
Everyone can breathe a sigh of relief. … but what’s up with Union?
Joe Bertagna looks back at the holidays, and a letter you don’t want to get.
Twenty-eight years in the making, Team USA finally won the gold medal at the World Juniors, on a path paved by others.
The schedule-makers sure knew how to get 2004 going with a bang. For the first time in the same weekend, women’s hockey features the series openers for No. 1 Minnesota vs. No. 4 Minnesota-Duluth and No. 2 Harvard vs. No. 3 Dartmouth — bitter rivalries and rematches of the conference championships from a year ago. … Read more
Here It Comes On January 12, delegates from Division III institutions will vote, and are expected to pass, a sweeping reform package know as “The Future of Division III.” From a D-III hockey standpoint, the future looks bleak if this plan is adopted. Unfortunately, it looks like it will pass. This issue is so important … Read more
More on scoring, and movies, and broadcasting, and the usual assortment of musings.
Wednesday night we bade farewell to 2003, which proved to be yet another tremendous year of growth for Division I women’s college hockey. It was a year full of landmark events — the first-ever sellout crowd for the NCAA championship game, the inaugural championships for women’s Hockey East and College Hockey America, and the first … Read more
Tournament Time So did you miss it? The holidays were a nice distraction, but did you miss college hockey? Sure, if you’ve got satellite, there were some great D-I tournaments to check out, but D-III was on break from December 14 to December 27. Now it’s tournament time for D-III, and some good ones were … Read more
Crazy? I’ll Show Ya Crazy! In last week’s column, I opened by saying that in the opinion of many coaches and fans, this Division III season has been “crazy.” Well, we’re now bordering on “insane.” Cases in point: 1. Four of the top five teams in the USCHO poll lost last weekend. Combined record of … Read more