Women’s Hockey East had no shortage of positive developments leading up to its third season. The NCAA tournament expanded from four to eight teams and the league was assured its first bid ever for 2005. The three Hockey East Beanpot schools all turned a corner as Boston College had its best recruiting class in years, … Read more
Gentlemen, Start Your Special Teams I went to a hockey game and some five-on-five broke out. When the Ohio State — St. Cloud Ice Breaker game reached the three-minute mark, one press box wag observed that perhaps a record for this season had just been set. There had yet to be a penalty call. Some … Read more
The ECAC West will switch to a three-game format for its regular season beginning as soon as 2005-06, and is considering expanding its conference playoffs. The schedule change was agreed to during a conference call on Monday. Under the new format, each team would play each other team in the conference three times, with two … Read more
Even though current U.S. women’s college players made up less than one third of the 40 players selected for two Canadian teams at Hockey Canada’s Thanksgiving Festival, they accounted for four of Canada’s eight player of the game awards between Wisconsin senior Carla MacLeod, Dartmouth junior Katie Weatherston, Minnesota-Duluth senior Caroline Ouellette and Ohio State … Read more
Boston University has removed senior forward David Klema from the team. Sports Information Director Ed Carpenter characterized the move as a “coach’s decision” but added that Terrier Coach Jack Parker would not elaborate on the reasons behind it. Klema, a senior, tantalized the Terrier program with flashes of brilliance during his three years with the … Read more
From U.S. Camp to U.S. Team in One Month Princeton sophomore Liz Keady was named to her first U.S. national team on Thursday – a feat all the more remarkable given that she was not even on the U.S. Under-22 roster six weeks ago. But Keady broke through with an outstanding effort at August’s U.S. … Read more
Last season’s national runner-up, St. Norbert, and a team that narrowly missed the NCAA playoffs, St. John’s, each placed three players on the men’s preseason D-III All-USCHO team as announced Monday by USCHO.com. St. Norbert first-team All-Americans Jason Deitsch and Ryan Tew were selected for the All-USCHO first team, with second-team All-American Spencer Carburry joining … Read more
Quick! Name six members of the 2003-04 Northern Michigan team. Tuomas Tarkki, Darin Olver, and Nathan Oystrick don’t count. Gotcha. If the Wildcats weren’t voted so high in the CCHA coaches and media preseason polls, they might seem like a league darkhorse. NMU returns just one double-digit conference goal scorer from a year ago, and … Read more
For the No. 8 Mercyhurst Lakers to avenge yesterday’s 2-1 loss to Bemidji State, they had to find a way to beat Beaver goalie Jill Luebke. She was outstanding in goal yesterday and played equally as well today, stopping several point blank shots and her fair share of breakaways. The Lakers couldn’t dent the scoreboard … Read more
Editor’s note: this is the second half of USCHO.com’s CCHA season preview, including team previews for Michigan, Michigan State, Northern Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Miami. Included in Part I are a league overview and previews for the remaining six teams. The air is crisper but the debate is still hot, and isn’t it … Read more
Saturday night: protocol violation. Sunday night: too many men on the ice. Both nights: New Hampshire takes advantage on the power play and scores the game-winning goal. UNH rallied from a late second-period 2-1 deficit to score three goals in two and a half minutes to defeat St. Lawrence in the Ice Breaker Tournament championship … Read more
“When I look at our team this year, we could have a good team.” So says the master of understatement, Michigan head coach Red Berenson. Good? Try great. Try if-we-don’t-win-a-national-title-we-haven’t-reached-our-potential great. As scary-good as they are on paper, the Wolverines backed into the CCHA regular-season title last year, relying on — children, cover your ears … Read more
Something interesting happened in Detroit in March of this year. Someone, somehow, lit a fire in the collective bellies of the Ohio State Buckeyes, and they played up to their potential — finally. Given that OSU graduated the guys responsible for six of the 14 goals the Bucks scored in the Super Six en route … Read more
St. Cloud State rode Jason Montgomery’s 34 saves and a perfect 10-for-10 penalty-killing unit to defeat Ohio State in the Ice Breaker consolation game, 3-1. The Huskies weathered a first-period storm in which they were shorthanded six times before taking a second-period lead they would never surrender. SCSU finished the tournament 1-0-1, having been consigned … Read more
Mike Kemp thought it might be déjà vu all over again in the third period when Merrimack erased a two-goal deficit and had his Nebraska-Omaha club on the run. In its two previous Maverick Stampede championship appearances, Nebraska-Omaha fell short in the final period, watching visitors Boston College and Denver, two of the last four … Read more
One of the most endearing things about sixth-year Miami head coach Enrico Blasi is his belief in the CCHA. “This is a tough league,” says Blasi. “We got five teams in the NCAA tournament last year because of the strength of our league, night in and night out.” Blasi and the RedHawks found out just … Read more
The parade to the penalty box continued in the Maverick Stampede consolation as Connecticut overcame a 3-1 deficit by scoring twice in the third period, once on the power play and once four-on-four, to tie the Rensselaer Engineers, 3-3. The Huskies won the shootout in the seventh round when Mike Neilon went to the backhand … Read more
The Fighting Irish ended the 2003-04 season with a 5-2 loss to Minnesota in the NCAA Midwest Regional semifinal, marking Notre Dame’s first NCAA tournament appearance and the last game for six sensational Irish players. “Five of them you know very well,” says Poulin. “One of them you don’t know very well.” T.J. Mathieson was … Read more
Finally, this team belongs to Rick Comley. With the departure of Brock Radunske (7-6-13) and Lee Falardeau (2-4-6) and the return of the league’s genuine superstar, Jim Slater (10-21-31), Comley can feel pretty confident that the Spartans are all on the same page. “Our hockey team will be a pretty good team,” says Comley, a … Read more
If the first game of the season is any harbinger, Minnesota will be in fine form this year. In a marquee matchup of the last two teams to win an NCAA championship, Minnesota and Denver struggled a bit early, thanks to the rust of a season opener, and to a pile of penalties called under … Read more