Men’s D-I in general
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
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
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
“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
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 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
When you’re at the top of the heap, everyone comes gunning for you. And after a 21-win campaign, a post-season conference championship and a trip to the NCAA tournament, Niagara University figures to have a big, purple target painted on its back. The Purple Eagles finished with the second-best record in the team’s nine-year history … Read more
The 2003-04 season was everything coach Tom Serratore and the Bemidji State Beavers asked for – almost. Bemidji posted 20 wins last year, the most for the school since it joined the Division I ranks. The Beavers also captured 16 wins in CHA play, establishing a new conference record for victories in season. And the … Read more
What more does Jared Ross have to do to get noticed? Last season the Alabama-Huntsville center was one of just seven players in Division I to record at least 50 points, paced the CHA with 35 points (15-20) in 20 conference contests, was named co-CHA player of the year and led the nation with a … 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
Plans for Quinnipiac’s new athletic complex, which will house a new on-campus hockey facility, are well under way after Thursday’s announcement that Hudson United Bank has agreed to a $5 million sponsorship of the project. The building will be known as the Hudson United Bank Center. “Over the last 30 years, Hudson United Bank has … 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
It seems hard to believe that a coach in Atlantic Hockey whose team went 20-14-2, upset Ohio State and Western Michigan and tied Cornell on the road, could call that season anything but a success. But for Mercyhurst coach Rick Gotkin, that’s exactly what happened last year. “We had some good success last year, but … Read more
It was a storied trip for Holy Cross last season, one that few associated with the program, coaches, players and fans alike, will ever forget. A wire-to-wire regular-season championship was followed by a dominant walk through the Atlantic Hockey tournament and the school’s first visit to the NCAAs. Now, for the Crusaders the question is … Read more