It’s coming down to the wire, CCHA fan, just as it does every year in this tight, competitive league. Congratulations to the No. 2 Michigan State Spartans, who clinched the regular-season CCHA title and the NCAA bid that goes with it. Congratulations to the No. 10 Ohio State Buckeyes, who secured home ice for the … Read more
This is just about the time of year when people in college hockey start wondering "What if?" What if we win our last four games and team X loses its last four games? What if we split our games and team Y wins three? It’s commonly called scoreboard-watching. Coaches hate talking about it because they … Read more
The playoff picture has become a lot clearer now with two weeks left in the regular season. New Hampshire, Maine, Boston College and Providence have all wrapped up tournament home-ice berths. While it’ll go down to the final weekend between UNH and Maine for the top spot, BC and PC are all but mathematically locked … Read more
Whoever said the MAAC isn’t exciting Division I hockey, they’re crazy. As we end February, no other league in the country still has three teams battling for the top spot. To add to that, the MAAC has three other teams tied for the final home-ice bid in the playoffs. If that’s not exciting, I don’t … Read more
Michigan State players Jeff Kozakowski and Bryan Adams are currently under investigation by East Lansing (Mich.) police for their roles in a Sept. 18, 1998, incident, and criminal arrest warrants for both players have been issued. Adams, a senior forward and assistant captain, is charged with illegal entry and malicious destruction of property. The charges … Read more
Ready for the post-season? It’s here! The NCHA and SUNYAC playoffs begin this weekend, and the other conferences will follow shortly thereafter. To help fans follow the action, here’s a bit of background on the various Division II/Division III conferences, and the NCAA selection process. The Conferences Let’s begin out west, where things are a … Read more
Simply put, the MAAC season has come down to three weeks. Six games for each team to position themselves for the playoffs. And last weekend’s action is what set up the whole ball of wax. With first-place Quinnipiac taking the weekend off from conference play, the two teams sitting on the doorstep had the privilege … Read more
Attention, those who doubt the power of North Dakota: The Denver Pioneers have a message for you. It would probably involve their game with the Sioux on Saturday. Things looked good for George Gwozdecky’s team early. They managed to stay with Dean Blais’ UND squad through 20 minutes, and even pulled two goals ahead early … Read more
Hmmm. Seems like the North Country duo is pulling away in the race for the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Let’s see, four more points for Clarkson and St. Lawrence after sweeping Rensselaer and Union. Hmmm. Looks like Princeton is trying to catch up to the frontrunners. Of course, a loss to Harvard and … Read more
My apologies for a skeleton preview this week. I’m on the road with minimal Internet access and no hope of contacting coaches. The usual verbosity will return next week. Hockey East Standings Record in picks last week: 6-3 Season’s record in picks: 105-56, .652 Game of the Week No. 4 New Hampshire (22-5-2, 14-3-2 HEA, … Read more
For the second week in a row, four CCHA teams are ranked among the top ten teams in the country. Last weekend, one of those teams, Notre Dame, lost to a team that was sixth in the conference standings before the start of last weekend’s action. Another of those teams, Ohio State, lost to a … Read more
Among all the competition, the struggles in positioning for the upcoming Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs, we finally get to take a little bit of an aside. The University of North Dakota’s Student Senate has proposed legislation that would change the school’s nickname from the "Fighting Sioux." Although the students do not have the power … Read more
Ah, the rites of spring, or at least late winter. They warm the cockles of the heart. If by that you thought of the Beanpot just past, or of this week’s Maine-BC or UNH-BU matchups — as opposed to Valentine’s Day, you dummy — you’ve earned a few evenings of sleeping on the couch, but … Read more
The four schools which have participated in the first six years of the College Hockey Showcase have agreed to continue the event next year, and to keep the games at campus sites. Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota and Wisconsin have participated in the Showcase, begun in an effort to highlight Big Ten rivalries in college hockey, … Read more
Okay, so my first shot at picking games didn’t turn out too good. I did pick the split between UConn and Quinnipiac (though not the fact that the visiting team would win both games). And how about those Ice Griffs? They walked right into Iona and took two games from the Gaels. Okay, enough about … Read more
Last year at this time, we learned that hockey means never having to say you’re sorry. In fact, we learned that the word hockey can be substituted for the word love universally–when used as a noun and not a verb, of course, but let’s save that for another column. Hockey makes the world go ’round. … Read more
In a situation no different from any other year, ties for position in the ECAC standings abound. There’s a tie at the top, between Clarkson and St. Lawrence. The Knights swept a pair last weekend from Dartmouth and Vermont while the Saints picked up three points against the same two teams. There’s a tie for … Read more
When Ernie Hartlieb arrived at Miami University as a freshman in the fall of 1997, the campus he’d visited just once seemed eerily too familiar. When nearly every classroom, dining hall, or dorm the RedHawk forward entered gave him a peculiar sense of deja vu, he realized he had seen all of these places before. … Read more
USA Hockey Foundation president Walter L. Bush, Jr., announced Tuesday the names of the 10 candidates for the 1999 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, presented to the most outstanding player in NCAA women’s ice hockey. Harvard features three candidates, while Brown and New Hampshire boast two each. The candidates are Ali Coughlin, Princeton; Hillary Witt, Northeastern; … Read more
At its meetings in Chicago last week, the NCAA Championships Cabinet rejected a proposal to expand the NCAA men’s Division I championships from 12 teams to 16. The proposal, brought by the newly-formed MAAC, would have taken effect either next season or possibly for the 2000-01 tournament, and would probably have required a move to … Read more