Men’s D-I in general
Mercyhurst College is the top team once again in Atlantic Hockey, according to the preseason coaches poll unveiled Tuesday morning at Atlantic Hockey’s media day. The Lakers received six first-place votes and 85 points total to take the top spot. Mercyhurst was the preseason No. 1 last year in the inaugural edition of Atlantic Hockey … Read more
Michigan, the number-one team in the nation in the preseason USCHO.com men’s Division I poll, has been picked to top its league as well. The Wolverines, an NCAA tournament entry last season bolstered by the return of NHL draftee Al Montoya in net, topped both the coaches and media polls announced by the CCHA Tuesday … Read more
The Falcons tied opponents nine times last season, including six CCHA one-pointers. The near-misses — against opponents as diverse as Lake Superior State, Cornell, Union and Northern Michigan — would be enough to frustrate any team, but BGSU head coach Scott Paluch takes them as signs of improvement. He also takes encouragement for the Falcons’ … Read more
In a league that graduated a large class at the end of the 2003-04 season, the Mavericks are an anomaly with 20 veterans on the roster for the upcoming campaign. While that can be a positive — experience, maturity — these are the same Mavericks responsible for last year’s last-place finish. The kindest way to … Read more
“Youth is the strength of our hockey program.” So says first-year head coach Tavis MacMillan, and he’d better be right. The Nanooks welcome 11 rookies this season — almost half the team — after saying goodbye to a senior class that twice engineered home ice in the first round of the CCHA playoffs and brought … Read more
Editor’s note: This is the first part of USCHO.com’s CCHA season preview, featuring a look at the league as a whole and six individual team previews — Western Michigan, Bowling Green, Alaska-Fairbanks, Lake Superior State, Ferris State and Nebraska-Omaha. Part two, featuring the remaining six teams, will appear Sunday. As September slips into October and … Read more
The 2003-04 season is one that Bulldog head coach Bob Daniels would like to put behind him. “It was a disappointing year … coming off the championship season. I don’t think we handled success all that well and I don’t think we got off to a very good start.” Last year’s record of 15-20-3 was … Read more
What can you say about a campaign that ended just one puckwidth away from a trip to Joe Louis Arena? “It was a very emotional season for us,” says Western Michigan head coach Jim Culhane. The Broncos had a wild ride in 2003-04, putting together an 8-2-1 midseason streak before running into Michigan, then — … Read more
Ask any coach in the league about Lake Superior State, and he’ll tell you that they play hard. They compete for 60 minutes, skate and execute well, take the body and finish their checks — and absolutely cannot find the back of an opponent’s net. Like any head coach, Frank Anzalone demands that his players … Read more
The Michigan Wolverines have been picked as the preseason number-one team in the USCHO.com men’s Division I Poll. Michigan earned 17 of 40 first-place votes in securing the preseason nod. Michigan finished 2003-04 with a 27-14-2 record, claiming the CCHA regular-season championship and reaching the NCAA tournament for the 14th consecutive year. The Wolverines lost … Read more
Chris Conner, Colin Murphy and Taggart Desmet broke onto the WCHA scene last season with a burst of offense not usually expected from Michigan Tech. It was the kind of statement new coach Jamie Russell wanted to see his team make. Russell, a former Tech defenseman, wanted to shake the Huskies out of their doldrums … Read more
Time does not speed up once you’ve won the national championship. It only seems that way. George Gwozdecky can attest. The Denver coach saw his summer reduced to a blur after the Pioneers won their first national championship in 35 years in Boston last April. “It was busier than I have ever experienced here,” said … Read more
Everything didn’t go perfectly for Wisconsin last season, but it’s hard to ignore how close it got to an unexpected breakthrough under coach Mike Eaves. The Badgers had trouble finding consistent offensive production and had subpar special teams. But the reason they were just an overtime goal away from the Frozen Four is the same … Read more
Anyone can win. A statement most readily associated with the suddenly pop-culture World Series of Poker, why can’t it apply to the WCHA, too? Why couldn’t anyone win the MacNaughton Cup this season? Minnesota-Duluth looks strong, but since when does the team that looks the best at the start of the regular season lift the … Read more
CSTV will open its national hockey package this season on Friday, Oct. 8 when North Dakota plays at Maine at 8 p.m. CSTV is the only network to ever broadcast a college hockey game of the week, and this season, under the current NHL lockout situation, will be the only American television network to nationally … Read more
Let’s get this straight: North Dakota’s question mark early in the season is offense? Maybe that tells exactly how thin the questions surrounding the Sioux are. The early departures of Brandon Bochenski took a bite out of the offense, but UND returns seven players who scored 10 or more goals last season. Only Minnesota-Duluth matches … Read more
John Hill is no stranger to adversity with his Alaska-Anchorage team. Two years ago, an NCAA violation in the usage of textbook scholarship money leading to the suspension of a number of players was only one rough patch in a 1-28-7 season. But the Anchorage native and former Seawolves captain is also familiar with what … Read more
The ECAC and CSTV (College Sports Television) have come to terms on a multi-year television deal, it was announced today at the league’s annual media day. The agreement allows for a number of ECAC Hockey League games to be broadcast throughout the season as well as the tournament championship game in March. “The ECAC Hockey … Read more
The ECAC announced the selections for this year’s preseason all-league teams as chosen by the 12 head coaches and members of the media. Four of the six were on both lists. The ECAC coaches selected forwards Tom Cavanagh (Harvard), Jon Smyth (Colgate) and Lee Stempniak (Dartmouth), defensemen Grant Lewis (Dartmouth) and Noah Welch (Harvard), and … Read more
Dartmouth, with three players on the all-ECAC media preseason team, was tabbed to come in first place by the media in the league’s preseason poll, announced at its Media Day on Tuesday. Cornell, a second-place finisher last season and Frozen Four team in 2003, was tabbed for first place in the coaches poll. Dartmouth and … Read more