It’s happened only two times before and never in Boston. And for once this week, we’re not talking about anything to do with the Boston Red Sox. Jerry York became just the third coach in college history, joining coaching legends Ron Mason and Bob Peters, to reach 700 career wins Friday when his No. 2 … Read more
So many of college hockey’s great rivalries are, as one might expect, conference battles: BC-BU, Michigan-Michigan State, Harvard-Cornell, etc. But, as we’ll see this week on CSTV’s Friday Night Hockey, it doesn’t have to always be that way. Just take a look at the two teams we’ll see this week, North Dakota and Boston College. … Read more
Hockey East suffers some tough losses in nonconference goings-on, as Boston College, Massachusetts and Merrimack all feel the sting; and coaches weigh in on the continuing officiating crackdown. Dave Hendrickson reports.
BU has a lot of alums in the NHL, and right now, they don’t have much to do. So they came back to BU for fun and a good cause.
Of Bandwagons: To Jump On Or Off With all of New England foursquare on the Red Sox bandwagon — and oh how sweet that is! — it’s appropriate to examine one particular bandwagon in Hockey East. Namely, one that I thought I was on. A bandwagon with few members, where I’d be one of the … Read more
The first weekend of the season was certainly wild, and it’s only going to get wilder as CSTV’s Friday Night Hockey heads to Ann Arbor.
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
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
The days of UMass being one of the perennial favorites to finish in the Hockey East cellar are now a tiny speck in the rear view mirror. The program, resurrected in 1993 after a 14 year absence, has progressed well past its infancy. It now approaches its teenage years a long way from maturity but … Read more
A prediction by this writer of fifth place and an even loftier prediction of third place by the league’s coaches? Didn’t Boston University almost miss last year’s playoffs entirely, spared the ignominy only by an overtime goal at the Whittemore Center in the regular season’s final game? Didn’t the Terriers then lose goaltender Sean Fields, … Read more
Stop the presses! Boston College is picked to finish first! Then again, don’t bother stopping the presses. BC being predicted to finished first is so … yesterday. After all, this is now the fifth time in the past seven years that the Eagles have been so honored. Last season and in the national championship year … Read more
For Merrimack coach Chris Serino there are three certainties: death, taxes and a ninth-place position in the coaches’ preseason poll. For the last three years, and for five of the last six, the Warriors have had that dubious distinction. (In 2001-2002, the Warriors were picked to finish eighth.) “Am I disappointed at being picked ninth?” … Read more
It’s been quite a while since Maine last won a Hockey East regular season title — 1994-95 to be exact — but the Black Bears have done some serious knocking on the championship door nonetheless. In two of the last three years, they’ve advance to the title game only to fall agonizingly short. The reason … Read more
There are those who believe that the best way to learn to swim is to be thrown into a lake. By the same token, two top-five teams will take the plunge on Friday night, as No. 5 North Dakota visits No. 2 Maine. There is truly no better way to kick off CSTV’s Friday Night … Read more
Like Deja Vu All Over Again Press the rewind button back to April 8. Two wins away from a national championship, Boston College and Maine battled tooth and nail as Hockey East’s finest in the FleetCenter. Matti Kaltiainen and his BC teammates are the pick again in Hockey East (photo: Kelly McGinnis). Look for more … Read more
In Lowell coach Blaise MacDonald’s three years at the helm, the River Hawks might well have been called the Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas. In year one, they’d have earned an NCAA tournament berth had not three top players missed the entire stretch run competing for the French Olympic team. In year two, they posted a 10-2-4 record in … Read more
The 2004-05 season for Providence may have blown up in May when goaltender Bobby Goepfert was dismissed from the school because of academic violations. The Friars were already losing All-American defenseman Stephen Wood, fellow blueliner Jason Platt, and three of their five forwards who had totaled at least 20 points. With no graduations from the … Read more
Is it great momentum or horrendous momentum? If you’re a glass-half-full Husky fan you can point to the seven-of-eight points your team earned over the final two weekends to come oh-so-close to a playoff berth. Only BU’s overtime goal at New Hampshire denied that quest. You can also point to the 11-7-5 record from December … Read more
After two straight seasons atop Hockey East, New Hampshire fell to fourth place last year. Although that hardly ranks as a catastrophe, the surprise was not in the result but in the details. The Wildcats, consistently among the league leaders in team defense, fell to fifth overall, eighth in league games. Eighth? Next to last … Read more
After season upon season of seeming youth, Connecticut returns a lineup where veterans outweigh the inexperienced. Still, for this year’s edition of UConn, that’s not enough to earn complete respect. UConn returns the top player in Atlantic Hockey, last year’s leading scorer and MVP Tim Olsen, and graduated only one significant player in Eric Nelson. … Read more