Feature stories
Such is the life of college hockey fans in October — wait all summer for the season to start, only to have to wait even longer for conference play to get going in earnest. Ten of Hockey East’s 11 teams (all but Maine) will be in action this weekend, playing 16 total games, but only … Read more
Transfer players have always played a role in college hockey. But while transfers once served to plug a hole or two on a team’s roster, some schools took advantage of a new rule to help makeover their lineup for this season. Last spring, the NCAA Division I council voted to allow undergraduate players in football, … Read more
We can’t all be the Tom Brady of our sport, but North Dakota goaltender Zach Driscoll feels he has a couple of irons in the fire. A graduate student who played the last three hockey seasons at Bemidji State, Driscoll in the summer of 2020 was introduced to the sport of pickleball by fellow Twin … Read more
Their roster makeup is quite different, Mel Pearson hails from Canada and Scott Sandelin is from Minnesota’s Iron Range, and nobody is going to confuse Ann Arbor and the Twin Ports. Even if not much else is the same, Michigan would probably like to emulate Minnesota Duluth’s season-ending results from the last half-decade or so. … Read more
Depending on who you talk to, the new NCAA rules around player movement, the ability to transfer and play immediately plus the extra year of eligibility players have been given due to the pandemic, are making things better…or in some cases, worse for college hockey. Players now have more choice and control over their college … Read more
The 2020-21 season was another typical year for the Robert Morris hockey program. The Colonials won Atlantic Hockey’s Western Pod regular-season championship and were within a game of advancing to their seventh straight playoff semifinal appearance. It took an unorthodox playoff format and a double-overtime second game to stop the team, but RMU clearly ranked … Read more
Each week during the season, we look at the big events and big games around Division I men’s college hockey in Tuesday Morning Quarterback. Paula: It’s October and we’re talking college hockey, which means that something is going right in the world. It is good to be back. We’re mixing it up a bit for … Read more
Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature. 1. No. 6 Boston College survives opening game shootout, wins IceBreaker Tournament If you look at Saturday’s score, you might think Boston College’s road to the IceBreaker Tournament title was a cakewalk. On the second night of … Read more
Boston College captain Marc McLaughlin scored twice as the Eagles captured the IceBreaker Tournament championship with a 5-1 victory over Holy Cross (photo: Holy Cross Athletics)
Nathan Smith celebrates the game’s only goal as No. 1 Minnesota State defeated No. 2 St. Cloud State, 1-0, on Friday (photo: David Faulkner/Minnesota St. Athletics)
Will there be reason for Minnesota Duluth fans to celebrate this weekend? USCHO writers believe that the Bulldogs should be able to handle Bemidji State on Friday. Read more in USCHO Bettor’s Edge (File photo: Jim Rosvold)
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
AIC coach Eric Lang spoke on Wednesday during the College Hockey Inc. Virtual Coach Clinic about how to develop a championship culture (File photo: Omar Phillips)
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
Another day of the College Hockey Inc. Virtual Coaches Clinic, presented by InStat, is in the books and it was definitely a day to remember. A key takeaway from Tuesday was to enjoy every moment of coaching because it’s about the journey, not the destination. That philosophy worked with all three presentations – developing as a … 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
“Creating excellence” was the opening day theme of the College Hockey Inc. Virtual Coaches Clinic which got underway on Monday, Oct. 4, 2021.