There’s a lot to like Colorado College’s chances in the Midwest Regional. The top-seeded Tigers feature the WCHA Player of the Year (Marty Sertich), the league’s Defensive Player of the Year (captain Mark Stuart), and a total of three first-team all-conference picks (Sertich, linemate Brett Sterling and goaltender Curtis McElhinney). And there’s plenty more where … Read more
Four teams, four conferences, with a pair of intriguing matchups to kick off the action. Defending national champion Denver sneaked up on everyone last season en route to the NCAA title, beating Maine in a 1-0 thriller in the title tilt. And the Pioneers are on a roll after their run to the WCHA tournament … Read more
Sweet Sixteen The teams in this year’s Midwest Regional are responsible for 16 of the 57 NCAA titles handed out since 1948. Michigan leads the way with nine of those titles. Wisconsin has five championships, while Colorado College has two. Colgate has played in one NCAA championship game, losing to the Badgers in 1990. Caught … Read more
I still can’t get that play out of my head. The sight of it. The sound of it. The result of it. The violent and illegal hit that Denver’s Geoff Paukovich leveled against North Dakota’s Robbie Bina in the WCHA Tournament in St. Paul, Minn., last week has resonated all across our game. I worry … Read more
Minnesota hosts the West Regional Saturday and Sunday on home ice as the No. 1 seed — a scenario that didn’t come without some controversy. The Golden Gophers, who lost 14 games this season including two on their way to a fourth-place finish at the WCHA Final Five, were seeded ahead of ECACHL regular-season and … Read more
Tom Serratore was on the bus from the airport in Hartford to his team’s hotel in Amherst, Mass. The flight was a charter from Bemidji, Minn., right into Connecticut’s capital city, and it carried the College Hockey America (CHA) champion Bemidji State Beavers towards a date with the NCAA’s defending champs, the Denver Pioneers. However, … Read more
He began the year on the bench for Mercyhurst. He ended as the league tournament’s Most Valuable Player having netted possibly the biggest goal in school history when his overtime game winner against Quinnipiac gave Mercyhurst the Atlantic Hockey Championship. Scott Champagne is simply a quiet, unassuming player. But taking anything for granted if you’re … Read more
You know things are going awry when even your pep band bites the dust. Not just the tuba player. Not just the trombonist. The whole stinking band. With players dropping like flies prior to Boston College’s Hockey East championship game against New Hampshire, the band was merely the latest subtraction from the Eagles lineup. The … Read more
There was a moment during the Hockey East semifinal between Boston College and Maine that ignored all but two of the nearly 18,000 people in the building. Halfway through the second period, wide-open BC sophomore Brian Boyle collected a pass in front of the Black Bear net. Maine netminder Jimmy Howard slid post-to-post and out … Read more
Going into Saturday’s Hockey East final, New Hampshire was in an unlikely situation. Even though the Wildcats were the third seed playing the top seed and the No. 5 team in the nation, many signs pointed to a UNH victory. With Boston College losing players to injury and illness, UNH didn’t have to contend with … Read more
A Change of Fortunes Fortunes can change quickly in college hockey, and the shift that occurred in the minutes following the holding call on the Big Red’s Daniel Pegoraro during the second period provided a stark illustration of that fact. With Harvard leading 1-0, Cornell asserted itself more aggressively at the start of the second … Read more
No. 4 Michigan’s seniors class of 10 has now won three CCHA Super Six championships to go with their three regular-season CCHA titles and two Frozen Four appearances. But there is one thing missing from their collective mantle: a national championship. “[The NCAA championship] has been elusive to us,” senior captain Eric Nystrom said. “We’ve … Read more
This is the final Bracketology of the season — the one that you’ve been waiting for, in which all the weeks of reading culminates in our projected brackets for the NCAA Division I men’s tournament. Before we get to the picks, we remind you of the NCAA’s guidelines on the matter, per a meeting of … Read more
The selections are out and they differed from the brackets that we had projected on Saturday evening. We had all 16 teams picked correctly, but had some of them in the wrong spots. So what happened? Here was our bracket projected on Saturday evening with a .003-.002-.001 bonus: West Regional: 13 Maine vs. 4 Minnesota … Read more
Boston University surrendered three goals in a span of less than three minutes during the second period Friday, losing to New Hampshire in Hockey East’s late semifinal, 5-2. Such is life when you’re playing the Wildcats these days — particularly when you’re offering a “sad” effort, as BU coach Jack Parker felt his Terriers had. … Read more
In a score that should have been familiar to those who watched Denver’s NCAA title-game win over Maine in April, the Pioneers rolled into the 2005 national tournament on a crest of good feeling in the form of a 1-0 win over Colorado College in the WCHA championship Saturday. “The first two periods were kind … Read more
It’s easy to get overlooked on a team that has eight 10-goal scorers, but there is one place Michigan’s Brandon Kaleniecki seems to score big goals to distinguish himself: Joe Louis Arena. “Growing up, I always wanted to play here,” Kaleniecki said of the Joe. “I’m from [nearby] Livonia, so I know I’ve watched so … Read more
Mike Knoepfli, Mike Iggulden, Paul Varteressian, Charlie Cook, and Jeremy Downs — not exactly college hockey household names. However, these five Cornell seniors have kept their teammates focused and determined all season long and have led the way to the Big Red’s 11th ECACHL championship. In the title game, the seniors were responsible for all … Read more
It was one of the most anticipated match-ups of the ECAHL year and what a disappointment. Not the contest for the Cleary Cup. The game between Harvard and Cornell looked like a real David versus Goliath — except this time the oddsmakers got it right. Another trophy may have hinged on last night’s game, the … Read more
The Goalie Call it the Martin Brodeur syndrome. When a goaltender plays for as good a defensive team as Cornell, it is easy to dismiss his statistics as merely a product of the team’s system, not his own play. Big Red goaltender David McKee set yet another record at Friday afternoon with his ninth conference … Read more