As families across the country celebrate the holiday of Thanksgiving (by the way, my favorite holiday thanks to the enormous amount of food you can eat without feeling guilty), I thought it might be nice to take a light-hearted look at what the folks around the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference have to be thankful for. … Read more
Before the year started, Hockey East coaches, not to mention this writer, picked Merrimack to finish last. It seemed eminently reasonable. The Warriors had come within one point of finishing in the cellar last season and that was before losing All-Hockey East center Rejean Stringer (56 points) and Kris Porter (45). “Being picked last in … Read more
The Triple Threat and The Stingy Seven If you take a look in Canton, N.Y. and the St. Lawrence Saints you’ll see something which one doesn’t exactly see all the time — a Triple Threat in Jeremy Symington, Sean Coakley and Derek Gustafson. The last time that the USCHO staff can remember such an instance … Read more
Stock Options With a third of the season behind us, now is as good a time as any to take stock and make some less-than-bold statements. Who’s the best the league has to offer? Who’s the worst? And where in this league can you get what passes for a decent meal, anyway? Best Player: Hands … Read more
Soderquist Dominates Yellow Jackets Leave it to Bentley College senior forward Ryan Soderquist to take control of a situation. Not even a quarter of the way through his senior season, Soderquist has already become the Falcons’ all-time leading scorer, and last Saturday night he added his name to the record books once again. Just one … Read more
Assessing the freshmen It may still be early in the season, but it’s a good time to look at the impact the Western Collegiate Hockey Association’s crop of freshmen has made on the teams. There may be little question as to whom the dominant rookie has been so far this season, but as a team, … Read more
Wild Weekend Until Sunday’s Maine-BC tilt, every single Hockey East game last week was either decided by one goal or ended in a tie. Yet despite the nip-and-tuck battles, UNH swept all four weekend points while Maine, Northeastern, Boston University and Merrimack took three of four. At the other end of the spectrum, Boston College … Read more
In the second piece of bad news to strike Vermont hockey this week, the Burlington (Vt.) Free Press reported yesterday that Vermont sophomore Don Richardson has left the team and withdrawn from the university. Richardson said that he did not feel the school and the team were the “right fit” for him. Richardson had not … Read more
The University of Vermont is investigating a possible hazing incident involving one of its athletic teams. WCAX-TV in Burlington, Vt., is reporting that it has confirmed that the incident, which involves the men’s ice hockey team, relates to the consumption of alcohol, and that students were forced to perform “degrading” acts. No students were reported … Read more
What’s Wrong With UNH? or Step Back From That Ledge, My Friend What a difference a couple weeks can make. Just 14 days ago, the Wildcats held a 3-0-0 record, a number-five ranking nationally and were scoring at a rate of over five goals per game. Now, following a 6-0 whitewashing administered by RPI, 2-1 … Read more
Keep Those Cards and Letters Coming Did you know that I’m a slut? Did you know that I’m a slut for Michigan State? Well, you did if you were one of the two people who recently felt compelled to email me, anonymously, to tell me that he or she sees me for what I really … Read more
The Dutchmen Cometh It was a bad bus ride home from Massachusetts almost two weeks ago. The Union Skating Dutchmen had just dropped 6-2 and 3-1 decisions to Mass-Lowell and Merrimack and sat at 0-5-0 on the season. Less than a week later, the Dutchmen shocked many with an 8-6 win over Colgate in their … Read more
Comebacks and Upsets The third week of MAAC action was chock-full of excitement — highlighted by high-character comebacks and nail-biting overtime victories. There were some firsts as both Bentley and Sacred Heart broke through with their first wins of the season. For Bentley, its come-from-behind, 3-2 win over defending tournament champion Holy Cross was also … Read more
Local police were summoned to the site of Saturday night’s game between Elmira and Wisconsin-Superior after a brawl broke out between Elmira players and non-playing members of the Superior squad. Superior, Wis., police named Jeff Wells, a Wisconsin-Superior freshman from Toronto as the instigator of the fight, which took place after the second period. Wells … Read more
Welcome to our first “Between the Lines” column. The goal is to give a different take on the issues than you may see elsewhere, or cover topics that don’t get covered anywhere else. College hockey has a lot of interesting stories, but ESPN isn’t knocking down the door to cover them all. If you disagree … Read more
… is going on with Hockey East goaltending? Hasek, a consensus choice as the world’s top netminder, opened the National Hockey League season with a 1-4-1 record and enough poor performances to earn a seat on the end of the bench. He then returned to action and promptly tore a groin muscle, an injury that … Read more
Climbing the ladder When Wisconsin beat Michigan Tech at home, it could have been called expected. When it split with Minnesota-Duluth at home, it could have been called a setback. When the Badgers swept non-conference foe Northeastern, it was — interesting. But with a 5-1 record through six games, the question of the Badgers’ opponent … Read more
A Record-Setting Week Of course, in a conference that is only a year and two weeks old, you’re going to have records set and broken almost every week. And last week was no exception to the rule as two more league marks fell. However, one might easily think that Quinnipiac and Iona are taking this … Read more
The Bottom Look Like Up So, Michigan State tops the conference, followed by Western Michigan, Northern Michigan, and Bowling Green. Western Michigan? Bowling Green? While Notre Dame and Ohio State linger near the bottom of the standings, other programs more familiar with the cellar in recent years are seeing some daylight, and the team with … Read more
A Big Tap On The Door The sixth-ranked Rensselaer Engineers are on a roll. They have been ascending in the polls and after a dominating performance against NCAA runner-up New Hampshire last Friday evening, their record sits at 5-0-0. “There are some guys up front that have been on a mission,” said head coach Dan … Read more