Season previews for leagues
No surprise here. UW-Stevens Point is the favorite in the WIAC and a contender on a national level as well. While the Pointers are the favorite, UW-Eau Claire and UW-Stout will take aim at being the team to beat in the conference. And you can never count out UW-River Falls. Northland is picked last but … Read more
The Assumption Greyhounds took their second NE-10 championship in the past three years last spring with a thrilling double overtime win over Southern New Hampshire. While the Greyhounds dominated the regular season behind their high-powered offense, the playoffs proved to be much more challenging in the only D-II conference playing NCAA hockey. The pre-season poll … Read more
There’s a saying in Texas high school football: The best teams don’t rebuild, they reload. The saying is altogether appropriate for Hockey East as it enters its 41st season of play. The biggest stars in the league from 2023-24 have taken their game to the NHL — Boston University’s Macklin Celebrini (San Jose) and Lane … Read more
Fans of Big Ten hockey had good reason to think that 2023-24 would be something of a fairy tale season for at least one B1G team. For the second consecutive year, the Big Ten led all Division I conferences in nonleague play, tallying a .731 interconference win percentage, up a few points from the season … Read more
The offseason is becoming a thing of the past for most sports, with lots of activity despite no games being played. This was the case with Atlantic Hockey America, which was busy this summer combining Atlantic Hockey (men) and College Hockey America (women) into a single hockey-only conference, Atlantic Hockey America. Michelle Morgan, in her … Read more
A true season of transition for the CCHA is set to begin this month. The league has been active in the transfer portal in more ways than one this offseason. The league’s individual programs added players and coaches, yes, but the league itself is also set to have some big roster changes starting this year. … Read more
There’s going from strength to strength, and then there’s the NCHC’s situation heading into the new season. For the first time in the conference’s 12-year history, the NCHC has seen eight teams picked in the USCHO.com Top 20 Preseason Poll. Defending national champion Denver is at the top almost by default, getting 42 of 50 … Read more
Even the most casual observer knew ECAC Hockey faced impossible odds at replicating its success last season. The only league untouched by realignment found itself entering the 2023-24 year with a defending national champion that represented college hockey’s truest and latest success story, but watching Quinnipiac finally cap its rise to the elitist class included … Read more
Last season’s conference tournament showed that quite literally anything can happen in this conference. That makes it difficult to predict how things might play out over the course of the season, but does mean that it should be an absolute blast to watch. Fifth-place Franklin Pierce nearly took the conference tournament crown after an amazing … Read more
Many people in and around the college hockey world will tell you that the 2022-23 season was a down one for the NCHC. On the surface, at least, it’s not hard to see why someone would think that. The NCHC is 10 years old now, and aside from the 2020 NCAA tournament that never was … Read more
Last year was a perfect capstone for the ECAC Hockey’s previous era. The league, once taunted, for its inability to win a national championship since 1989, dominated the national headlines and tied the Big Ten for most teams sent to the NCAA tournament. Four teams in total qualified, of which two won their first-round matchups, … Read more
The Big Ten made big strides last season, with a 55-21-2 record in nonconference play, the best winning percentage (.718) in D-I interleague play. From top to nearly bottom, Big Ten Hockey was a force to be reckoned with, and four of the conference’s seven teams played their way into the NCAA tournament. As the … Read more
Boston has always been the geographic hub and spiritual home of Hockey East. The city hosts the conference championship every spring, three of its member schools are located right in the city and four more are less than an hour away. This year Boston could very well be where the best hockey in the league … Read more
As Atlantic Hockey kicks off its 21st season, more changes are in store. Robert Morris returns after a two-year absence, restoring the number of programs to 11. This means a new scheduling plan as well as a new playoff format. There are also changes in administration, with a new commissioner and a new supervisor of … Read more
It was an unusually active offseason, at least by CCHA standards. A coaching change at Minnesota State kicked off the summer, with Mike Hastings leaving for Wisconsin and taking four players and most of his coaching staff with him. Then the summer ended with the situation in Bowling Green that saw head coach Ty Eigner … Read more
Yale won the regular season championship while Colgate took the conference tournament title last season. Both Colgate and Yale return much of the same roster and the Raiders got the best of the Bulldogs last season. It feels like Colgate and Yale are just a step apart from Cornell, Clarkson and Quinnipiac, at least to … Read more
LIU won their first league title and the conference’s first automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament last season. They are the preseason favorite, but Saint Anselm and Stonehill both look poised to make it a tough fight until the end of the season. The Sharks saw a number of players enter the transfer portal and … Read more
Five of this conference’s eight teams were ranked in our first poll of the season, including a sweep of the top three spots by Wisconsin, Ohio State and Minnesota, in that order. The Badgers are coming off their seventh National Championship, which they won 1-0 over Ohio State, who won the regular season title, while … Read more
Despite graduating program-defining players Alina Müller, Maureen Murphy, and Chloé Aurard, Northeastern is still the favorite in Hockey East. They’ve established a dominant perch atop the standings here and no one team has seemed to be able to link together several seasons of top tier play that can put regular pressure on the Huskies. Both … Read more
There’s an argument to be made that no conference has seen more change in the last six months than the CHA. In the 2023-24 season, they welcome Robert Morris back into the fold after a two year absence. Several of the league’s teams have seen major roster turnover. Lindenwood has a fully new coaching staff … Read more