Season previews for leagues
When the NCAA tournament was canceled in 2020 due to COVID, 25% of the 12 team field came from the NEHC. When the UCHC was the only conference contested during the 2020-21 season, it was Elmira that won the championship and now starts a new title chase as part of the NEHC this season. The … Read more
The SUNYAC has seen Geneseo win the last three championships contested prior to COVID and four of the last five so the pressure is certainly on the Knights who have high expectations and the most to lose. “I am really surprised that we were picked first in the coaches’ poll,” said head coach Chris Schultz. … Read more
This conference is truly wide open and the battle for just the four playoff spots will be intense. Coach Sean Walsh at SNHU thinks the spots could come down to the final weekend. “It is going to be interesting to see all of the rosters and how the teams on the ice shake out,” said … Read more
The CCC has again flexed in their conference make-up this season as Becker will no longer play in the league and Suffolk returns to the CCC as the eighth team. This year sees the teams playing 21 conference games which doesn’t leave a lot of room for non-conference opponents or tournaments. It therefore puts a … Read more
A new season means another competitive year ahead in the NCHA. St. Norbert was the only team that didn’t play last season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Green Knights are back and ready to compete for a championship. Adrian is poised to be a contender as well and won the title two years … Read more
Things are going to look a little different in the MIAC this season. For starters, St. Thomas is no longer in the league, moving up to Division I, and that in itself is a huge deal as the Tommies were a regular contender in the MIAC. In fact, St. Thomas was the last team to … Read more
It should be another competitive year in the WIAC. Wisconsin-Eau Claire is the favorite going into the season and is seeking its fourth conference title in program history. The Blugolds have also won three league tournament titles. Wisconsin-Stevens Point and Wisconsin-River Falls will also be in the hunt. The Pointers enter the year as the … Read more
October is basically hockey’s spring. Hope abounds for each new season, and this time around, that extends to what’s going on amid a pandemic that has affected all of us for a year and a half. NCHC commissioner Josh Fenton knows all about that. Lucky guy. When the conference began play eight years ago, he … Read more
For the casual fan watching on a Friday or Saturday, chances are high that the inaugural season of the new CCHA won’t look much different than the final season of the WCHA. Seven of the eight teams were together in the WCHA, so the matchups, coaches and arenas are largely the same. And the league’s … Read more
While change is inevitable in college hockey, there’s never been an offseason quite as tumultuous or long for many of the teams in ECAC Hockey. Eight of the 12 conference teams didn’t play last season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving Quinnipiac, Clarkson, Colgate, and St. Lawrence to string together a makeshift season that ended … Read more
The only thing that will keep Hockey East fans on the edge of their seats this season will be the action on the ice. At least that’s the hope of commissioner Steve Metcalf and the league’s 11 coaches. That fans will even be in the building after a year playing in empty arenas has generated … Read more
As the sudden cancelation of the 2019-20 season and the general, let’s say, quirkiness of last year gets put in the rearview, everyone is hoping for a more normal Big Ten season this year. Saying more normal instead of 100 percent normal is already necessary as during the process of writing this piece a nonconference … Read more
At the Atlantic Hockey media day last week, the word “normal” kept coming up in conversations with the league’s coaches. We’re not there yet, but hopefully moving in the right direction as the 2021-22 season gets underway. Teams are back to most of their pre-pandemic routines, but this offseason, while not as bizarre as the … Read more
It sure feels like this is Northeastern’s conference to lose and everyone else is just going to try and keep up. The Huskies had control from start to finish last season and they return all but one player from that squad. They have more experience, more confidence and more drive to win that final game … Read more
With four of the top five teams in the country, the members of this conference are set to beat each other up for the next few months. Every one of these teams can and will beat each other on any given day and their records will reflect that.
Only four ECAC teams competed in the abbreviated season last year, so there is a lot of unknown in the conference to start this season. Many of the squads have two years – half the roster – of new players to acclimate. There are some very intriguing rookies that seem to be a bit under … Read more
It’s very difficult to try and parse the small bits of info gathered through fits and starts last season to prognosticate what might shake down in this conference this season. Most of the rosters have had significant turnover since the abrupt end of the 2019-20 season and no one knows how the time off will … Read more
Robert Morris cut their men’s and women’s hockey programs with little notice and many of the women’s team players have signed elsewhere. The Colonials won the CHA conference tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament where they lost to Northeastern in the opening round. There is an ongoing fight to reinstate the teams, but I’m … Read more
The NCHA is going to look a little different this season. For starters, St. Norbert won’t be in the league as it opted out of the 2020-21 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But for every other team, hockey is on and Adrian and Marian are the frontrunners to be league champions. Lake Forest is … Read more
After the last game of the 2019-2020 ECAC Hockey season took two overtimes to decide, the start of this season took a little extra time to finalize as well. Yale beat Union 2-1 in double overtime on March in the deciding game of the opening round of the league playoffs. That ended up being the … Read more