Funny how the significance of the national championship trophy flips, just as the calendar flips into October. Starting one Saturday night in April and continuing through September, it’s a celebration and a sigh of relief — no use for lingering regrets from the last season. It’s the sign that you’re the tops in college hockey. … Read more
Attention, Minnesota-Duluth defensemen. Your coach will be watching you closely this season. Scott Sandelin missed working with blueliners, something he did regularly when he was an assistant coach at North Dakota. When Mark Strobel, who worked with the UMD defensemen, left Sandelin’s coaching staff for Nebraska-Omaha, it gave the third-year head coach his opportunity. So … Read more
The WCHA’s coaches have spoken, and Denver is their pick to win the league’s regular-season title.
Last season left the Colorado College Tigers with a wealth of things to ponder over the summer. How did they get off to such a bad start? Why could they score eight goals one night and struggle to put in a couple the next? And the biggest: Is it going to be the same way … Read more
Wisconsin fans with a sense of history may tell you the last time the Badgers had a coaching change, the new coach won the national title in his first season. Reality will tell you Ronald Reagan isn’t in the White House, new episodes of M*A*S*H aren’t being produced and this isn’t a spinoff of the … Read more
Zach Parise is good. Really good. Maybe that’s even underselling one of the most anticipated incoming freshmen in years. He’ll get his share of goals, do his share to help the North Dakota offense and maybe even be the WCHA’s rookie of the year. But, at last report, he can’t play goaltender. He’s not going … Read more
A year’s worth of great tactical preparation, following the course that was expected and, sure, a little bit of luck came crashing down in one period in April. Everything had gone as planned. Two titles and a bye. Everything they had hoped for. Gone in 20 minutes. NCAA hockey is cruel. But the Denver Pioneers … Read more
Maybe getting to the WCHA Final Five in its first season as a full member of the league wasn’t the best thing that could have happened to Minnesota State-Mankato. The expectation was, if the Mavericks could be that good in their first season in the league, they’d always be that good. What many people didn’t … Read more
Wisconsin defenseman Dan Boeser is fighting a form of cancer, but he hopes to be ready for the Badgers’ Oct. 11 season opener.
Minnesota State-Mankato goaltender Eric Pateman won’t return to school for a fifth season provided to him by a medical redshirt.
Mike Eaves doesn’t yet know what to expect from his players in his first year as Wisconsin’s coach.
Jerry Cunningham won’t play for Minnesota State-Mankato this season after failing to meet requirements as a partial qualifier.
The WCHA has pulled the plug on its all-star tour of Italy just over two weeks before it was to begin.
Minnesota State-Mankato right wing Tim Jackman will forgo his final two years in college after signing with the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets. The Hockey News last month named Jackman, 20, the fifth-best prospect in the Blue Jackets’ system. Terms of the multi-year contract were not released. Jackman, 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, was fourth in scoring … Read more
Colorado College has signed head hockey coach Scott Owens to a new five-year contract effective through the 2006-07 season. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, other than it supercedes Owens’ previous pact, which had one year remaining. Owens “I very much look forward to the next five years and continuing to build upon a … Read more
Michigan Tech hopes to host a NCAA regional in Green Bay, Wis., and is waiting for an answer from the men’s ice hockey committee.
Don Amiot, who helped Minnesota State-Mankato transition from Division III to Division I as athletics director, is retiring, the school announced Wednesday. Amiot, in his 14th year at Mankato, was instrumental in securing the Mavericks’ admission into the WCHA in 1999 and in the change in NCAA divisions that preceded that move. “After 38 years … Read more
Jeff Taffe, who finished fifth in the nation in scoring for the national champion Minnesota Gophers this past season, has signed a three-year contract with the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes.
A victory celebration on the University of Minnesota campus late Saturday night, escalated into violence and led to 25 arrests after the Gophers’ defeated Maine for the NCAA championship. Separate groups of celebrating students gathered near Northrop Memorial Auditorium, the area known as Dinkytown, and at the end of the school’s fraternity row. As police … Read more
A few hours before they played in their first Frozen Four, members of the 2002 Minnesota team watched a video that tied their purpose this weekend at the Xcel Energy Center to another, larger one. As much as the Golden Gophers are playing for those that skate on the ice now, they’re also playing Saturday … Read more