Men’s D-I in general
Those of you who put Yale above Princeton and Cornell in your preseason picks, please raise your hands. The rest of you: look around for anyone with his or her hand up; don’t bother asking them to watch your house while you’re on vacation. What We Know With only four points left on the table, … Read more
Two weekends left until we put another WCHA regular season in the books. When the season began in October, this all seemed so far away, but here it is, having crept up on us like a serious case of spring fever. Although the spring fever could just be me, given that it’s been in the … Read more
Showdown This one’s been circled on the calendar for quite some time — Air Force travels to RIT this weekend to settle the Atlantic Hockey regular-season title. Commissioner Bob DiGregorio will be on hand to present the trophy, but he may need two. The teams are tied for first with identical 19-5-2 records. If they … Read more
Congratulations, Notre Dame … And Now You’ve Done It Sure, the Fighting Irish have won their second regular-season title in three years, but does anyone else see the real evil lurking for Notre Dame because of this? In 2007, the fourth-place Michigan State Spartans beat Boston College for a national championship. In 2008, the Fighting … Read more
Breaking Down the Final Two Weeks The finish line, my friends, is almost in sight. Hockey East has two weekends of play remaining with each team playing a pair of two-game sets between now and March 8. But even with the end in sight, what is visible is still pretty murky. There’s a two-horse race … Read more
It’s time once again to do what we like to call Bracketology — College Hockey Style. It’s our weekly look at how the NCAA tournament might shape up if the season ended today. It’s a look into the possible thought processes behind selecting and seeding the NCAA tournament teams. This is the latest installment of … Read more
Scott Brown is a fan of the PairWise Rankings, but that doesn’t mean the system is perfect. In fact, some things about the PairWise don’t make much sense at all.
With the regular season coming to an end, Jim Connelly and Scott Brown take a shot at predicting champions, then review teams in trouble and PairWise predicaments.
Boston University maintained its position atop the USCHO.com/CBS College Sports Division I men’s poll for a fourth straight week in Monday’s release, though the Terriers’ margin narrowed compared to the last two weeks. BU, which tied Northeastern twice over the weekend in a battle for the top of the Hockey East standings, earned 31 first-place … Read more
When it came to playing college hockey, Matt Gilroy wouldn’t listen to the naysayers. And when the NHL came courting last season, Gilroy chose to return to Boston University. Terrier fans can be glad for both of those facts, Mike Scandura finds.
Three weeks to go until the CHA community converges on Bemidji, Minn. Three weeks until we find out the CHA representative in the NCAA tournament as the league’s autobid is used for probably the last time. Three weeks until more banter begins about the futures of Bemidji State and Alabama-Huntsville. Three weeks until “next season” … Read more
The Quiet Conquerors “Quiet” is a word that is pleasant to the ears of Vermont head coach Kevin Sneddon. He himself is relatively soft-spoken. A Harvard graduate, Sneddon speaks authoritatively but with little pomp and circumstance. Behind the bench you’ll see a stoic yet focused coach. His team, in a way, has assumed their coach’s … Read more
Here’s how I’d analyze my preseason predictions at this juncture: 1. Princeton: not a bad pick, though the Tigers haven’t been as consistently dominant as I’d expected. 2. Cornell: if anything, I may have sold the Big Red short in my mind. They just seemed like Princeton’s default runner-up, when they’ve been anything but. 3. … Read more
We are only a month away from the Final Five. Crazy, huh? Three more weekends of the regular season, then quarterfinals and bam, before you know it, we’ll all be convening in St. Paul. Of course, as mentioned, it’s a few weeks away and there’s still hockey to be played and conference standings to be … Read more
Another week of games, another set of NCAA projections. Jayson Moy steps up with the latest edition of Bracketology.
Back on Top Thanks to a weekend sweep of Holy Cross and a split between Air Force and Bentley, RIT is again on top of the see-saw AHA standings. For the Tigers, the pair of wins were their 13th and 14th in their last 15 contests and their 11th and 12th straight over the Crusaders, … Read more
The Honeymoon Is Over Last week’s column was my nine-page valentine to you, dear reader. This week is different. When my Mott Community College students complained about the single class in which they received chocolate this week, I told them, “I only love you enough to buy you half-priced, post-Valentine’s Day candy once, not twice.” … Read more
Upsets ruled the weekend out East last weekend, while the West saw a little less of the unexpected. Jim Connelly and Scott Brown look over the results and take a crack at the Hobey Baker race as well.
Coming off its Beanpot title win and a three-point weekend against Maine, Boston University retained its top spot in Monday’s USCHO.com/CBS College Sports Division I men’s poll. The Terriers received 44 of 50 first-place votes to outdistance No. 2 Notre Dame, which swept Northern Michigan over the weekend and claimed the remaining six first-place nods. … Read more
Not A Word About “That Tournament in Boston” College hockey fans outside of Route 128 often get exasperated this time of year. It seems to them that an inordinate amount of attention goes to That Tournament in Boston, the allure of which escapes them. “Why not write about my team?” they either say or imply. … Read more