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This Week in NCHC Hockey: Miami earns first conference road sweep in five years as RedHawks ‘trying to learn how to win’

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Ever since Miami’s last NCAA tournament appearance in the NCHC’s second season, the RedHawks have struggled to have success.

Since the 2014-15 season, when Miami finished second in the regular season and then won the NCHC Frozen Faceoff, Miami has yet to post a winning record, and in the last four seasons Miami has finished seventh twice and eighth twice in the eight-team league.

This Week in WCHA Hockey: Calder’s ‘big impact’ continuing to help Lake Superior State stay effective

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By this point last season, Lake Superior State was coming off a split with Alaska Anchorage that included its seventh win of the season in their 26th game of the season.

However, that win was part of a second-half turnaround of their fortunes that saw them win seven more times, including a win to force a third and deciding game in the WCHA quarterfinals.

A big reason for that turnaround, then-sophomore Ashton Calder scored a goal and added an assist in the 5-3 win over the Seawolves. The 6-foot-1 forward added seven more goals over the Lakers’ run, helping propel them into the playoffs and force that third and deciding game.

This Week in Hockey East: Heavy conference representation at World Juniors, with U.S. coming away with gold

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Tuesday night was a night for the ages in the United States as the U.S. Under-20 team upset its rival to the north, Canada, for World Junior gold.

Certainly there was impact from Hockey East in the game as Northeastern’s Devon Levi entered riding an historic streak in goal for Team Canada and former Boston University forward Trevor Zegras skated through the tournament at a wild clip, eventually finishing with a point total that matched the largest ever for a U.S. player.

But there was one team that was loaded with great storylines on both sides of the puck: Boston College.

This Week in Atlantic Hockey: Canisius navigating new season, new-look schedule with focus on new strategy

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The frenetic pace in college hockey is, in some ways, building one of the strangest and most enthralling years for fans, analysts and observers.

The chaotic nature and arbitrary scheduling drop pucks virtually every night, and those willing to embrace the unknown are losing themselves in moments that likely won’t happen ever again. The lack of structure is creating new narratives, and the discussion is as interesting as anything in any sport.

Canisius was one of those teams taking part in the chaos.

TMQ: Discussing NCHC commish Fenton’s comments on NCAA hockey tournament seeds based on past showings

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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.

Usually, the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is a down time for TMQ, but in this most unusual hockey season, we perhaps should have anticipated that something would surface to merit comment this week, which is exactly what happened in the form of NCHC commissioner Josh Fenton’s unconventional ideas about how to choose the 2021 tournament field.

New Hobey Baker college hockey book is must-have, thorough, detailed recap of first 40 award winners

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Brian Shaughnessy said he had always been intrigued by the Hobey Baker Award.

So much, in fact, that the Massachusetts native recently penned a book, Hobey Baker Memorial Award: The First 40, featuring the award’s first 40 winners, starting with Minnesota’s Neal Broten in 1981 and ending with Minnesota Duluth’s Scott Perunovich in 2020.

ECAC Hockey 2020-21 Season Preview: Conference quartet drops puck on new season New Year’s Eve

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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

This Week in NCHC Hockey: Nebraska product, Western Michigan senior Frank takes in pod on native turf

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The city of Ethen Frank’s birth and the metro area in which he spent much of his youth both have NCHC teams, but the Western Michigan senior forward plays for neither of them. More and more, Denver and Omaha’s loss has been the Broncos’ gain. Frank just finished a nearly month-long stay between Omaha, Neb., … Read more

This Week in Hockey East: With slow start in past, Providence improving as ‘players know the standard’

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The start of a COVID-delayed, delay-riddled season for Providence was far from ideal. The Friars lost their first two contests by a combined 12-0 against Spencer Knight’s Boston College, and it would have been easy to assume the Friars were in trouble, especially as head coach Nate Leaman headed to Edmonton to coach the U.S. … Read more

This Week in Atlantic Hockey: Long Island making impact against AHA squads, gaining confidence by the day

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Obtaining the first benchmarks are of incredible importance for new teams. New coaches and players are able to obtain special occupancy by reaching the first of anything, and memorable moments can occur when there are no preceding files. The initial occurrences start tradition and inspire hope for something greater, and the souvenirs line trophy cases … Read more

This Week in Big Ten Hockey: Reflecting on first part of ’20-21 season, expectations on second half

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USCHO.com Big Ten columnists Paula C. Weston and Drew Claussen discuss what transpired over the first “half” of the 2020-21 season, and also prognosticate what to expect once play resumes after the holidays. Drew: Well, Paula, it is finally time to say goodbye to the year that was 2020. My wife and I welcomed our … Read more

This Week in WCHA Hockey: Bowling Green ‘pretty lucky’ playing nine games as ‘our guys feel good’

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It would be hard to call any team’s experiences this college hockey season “normal.” But if one were to look at Bowling Green’s schedule in a typical year, it would perhaps be the one more than any other in the country that wouldn’t look too out of place. The Falcons, unlike virtually every other team … Read more

TMQ: ‘First-half’ surprises include AIC flying out of the gate, potential panic in Denver, Omaha soaring in pod play

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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. Jim: Paula, as we write this on Monday, the NCHC pod has successfully concluded. And it did so with marked success. There wasn’t a positive COVID case reported for anyone involved … Read more