Feature stories
Minnesota’s offense exploded for four goals in the second period to take a 5-1 lead only to have Wisconsin respond in the third, closing the gap to 5-4 before the Gophers sealed their first Big Ten tournament title since 2015 with an empty-net goal (Photo: Courtesy Big Ten)
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.
Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.
A Denver team shorthanded due to COVID pulled off the upset of No. 11 Omaha, 5-4, advancing the Pioneers to the NCHC semis and placing the Mavericks squarely on the NCAA tournament bubble (Photo: Russ Hons/NCHC)
North Dakota’s offense scored early and often in a 6-2 NCHC quarterfinal victory over Miami on Friday. Collin Adams finished the night with two goals and three assists (Photo: NCHC/Russ Hons)
Are we there yet?
It’s a valid question, given how long this COVID-compressed season has felt, given how easily the season could have been derailed, given the intensity of competition that’s taken place in mostly empty arenas.
As each team in the Big Ten prepares for the three-day, single-elimination playoff championship tournament that begins March 14, a picture of a unified, almost defiant conference emerges along with snapshots of the unique, specific experiences that define each team in the league.
“Our guys embraced, initially, that underdog role, and I think that has morphed and transformed itself into the fact that we wanted AIC to be a hockey destination. There’s not a lot of people that knew where Gonzaga was, but there’s a lot of people that know that they’ve got a really good basketball team. That’s the goal here for AIC. They might know that there’s this little school in Springfield, Massachusetts, but that school has a pretty good hockey team. We’re pretty proud of that.” – AIC coach Eric Lang
Prep work to get arguably the best facility in college hockey ready for a rearranged conference tournament is nearly complete.
The Ralph Engelstad Arena (REA) in Grand Forks, N.D., is just about good to go for this year’s NCHC Frozen Faceoff.
Connor Murphy has played roughly 1,100 more minutes than he did a year ago.
He went into the season expecting to fight for the top Northeastern goaltending job with Devon Levi, who spent the first part of the season with Team Canada for World Juniors.
But Levi broke a rib, and hasn’t seen game action with Northeastern yet.
Four second-period goals broke open the game as seventh-seeded UMass Lowell survived a tough test from 11th-seed Vermont to advance to the Hockey East quarterfinals, 5-3 (Photo: Rich Gagnon)
We promised it last week, that in this week’s Bracketology, Jayson and I would try to find some sort of agreement on a field, just like being on the NCAA committee.
If we’re able to do that (spoiler: we’re not), we’ll attempt to put together what we think the regionals should look like.
Bowling Green’s change in fortunes came at the most opportune time.
Bentley scored the game’s final four goals to pull away from Air Force, 7-3, and advance to the Atlantic Hockey quarterfinals where they will face top-seed AIC (File photo: Omar Phillips)
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.
Walker Sommer’s goal with 4:07 remaining in regulation completed a comeback from 2-0 down as Niagara advanced to the Atlantic Hockey quarterfinals with a 3-2 victory over Mercyhurst. NIAGARA WINS!!! Walker Sommer scores the game-winner to send the Purple Eagles to the @Atlantic_Hockey quarterfinals!#uncommon pic.twitter.com/HvDNkfhknT — Niagara University Men's Hockey (@NiagaraMHKY) March 9, 2021 In … Read more
Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.
Wisconsin took home the Big Ten regular-season title with a 2-1 win over Michigan State on Saturday. The Badgers went from last place a year ago to the top of the league. (File photo: Jim Rosvold)
Last week, in the inaugural edition of Bracketology for the 2020-21 season, Jim and Jayson attempted to layout their potential field for this year’s NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey tournament.
Let’s see how these two approach this week:
Entering last Saturday’s game against then-No. 6 St. Cloud State, Minnesota Duluth was in a slump.
Admittedly, the slump was only three games, but for the team that has won the last two national championships and played in three straight national championship games, it was cause for concern that the Bulldogs had lost three straight.
While a win wasn’t necessarily going to be a surprise, it’s likely that few expected the Bulldogs to roll to a 5-1 triumph over St. Cloud.
As we approach the end of this strange pandemic season, Hockey East columnist Jim Connelly needs to put aside something he’s said publicly a number of times and speak up on a topic that bothers him.