Season previews for teams
For the past nine seasons, the NCHA has been a modicum of stability. It has been a highly competitive eight team league with a balanced 14 game league schedule and a nice symmetrical playoff bracket. Though there is no question the league will remain as competitive as ever this season, it’s time to throw everything … Read more
Strictly speaking in conference, Minnesota had a down year. The Gophers had most of their struggles after the New Year, managing to finish one game above .500 and squeaked into the final home ice spot in the playoffs, where they proceeded to sweep St. Cloud before falling to Minnesota-Duluth in the Final Five play-in game. … Read more
Last year was quite the wild ride for Minnesota-Duluth. The Bulldogs struggled early, picked it up around the holidays before going on a skid to end the season 0-3-2. That late skid dropped them to seventh in the league, but as soon as they hit the playoffs, they found the fire. First they swept Colorado … Read more
If you love Spartan hockey, here are three words for you to embrace for the upcoming season: bigger, stronger, older. Last year’s tender young Michigan State team, picked third by the media and fifth by the coaches in the 2008-09 preseason CCHA polls, finished tied for 10th place with Lake Superior State at the end … Read more
Can the Bowling Green Falcons finally take a breath? And will the revolving door of assistants finally stop spinning? After rumors about the potential demise of the BGSU program were leaked to the press earlier this year — former head coach Scott Paluch heard about them as he was walking into Nationwide Arena in Columbus … Read more
For years, college hockey fans have been hoping that Dean Blais would return to the game we love, to the game we know he loves, and we CCHA fans are the lucky ones to welcome him back. “My best time of the day is spending that half-hour on the ice in practice,” Blais said at … Read more
In coach Mark Dennehy’s four years at Merrimack, the one thing that has been certain and consistent for his team has been its improvement. After a six-win season in 2005-06 and a three-win campaign a year later, the Warriors posted 12 wins two seasons ago and another nine last year. The nine may not have … Read more
The good news for Lake Superior State is that the Lakers return seven of eight defensemen and three of five double-digit goal scorers from a season ago. The bad news for Lake Superior State is that the Lakers return seven of eight — oh, do I really have to say it? “We have not been … Read more
The 2009-2010 CCHA: The Direction of Change “The moment of change,” said poet Adrienne Rich, “is the only poem.” If there’s even the smallest grain of truth in Rich’s statement, then CCHA fans are in for plenty of poetry in the coming months. Bowling Green has a new head coach. Nebraska-Omaha has a new head … Read more
In one season as head coach, Dallas Ferguson managed to take the Alaska Nanooks from ninth place to fourth, from 20 league points to 34, and from first-round playoff loser to Joe Louis Arena. It’s no wonder that he was awarded a five-year contract extension last week. And he doesn’t let a little success go … Read more
“For once, I’m returning a bit of a veteran team,” said Ohio State coach John Markell. If you’re not a Buckeye hockey fan, there is no way for you to appreciate the optimism of this statement. Markell tends toward the glass-half-empty side of life. In his defense, he has had to contend with some of … Read more
The 2008-09 season was a wild one for Wisconsin. Everyone thought if the Badgers could get past their tough opening schedule, they’d be OK. Everyone was right, for the most part. Wisconsin started off the season 0-6-1, but picked it up enough to end up tied for third in the league, gain home ice and … Read more
An aberration. That’s what Maine hockey fans hope that the past two seasons have been. After nine straight 20-plus win campaigns, nine straight trips to the NCAA tournament, six visits to the Frozen Four and, of course, a national championship, the Black Bears have posted two straight 13-win seasons. To say that the natives are … Read more
Last year’s New Hampshire Wildcats dipped a bit after back-to-back regular season titles, having graduated too much talent to pull off a three-peat. They finished tied for third — not too shabby — and then came close to erasing any shred of disappointment with a near trip to the Frozen Four. Following an electrifying win … Read more
Fighting Irish coach Jeff Jackson can give his counterpart in Ann Arbor some competition in the understated department. “We’re returning a pretty good group of players,” he said in preseason, with a completely straight face. While Notre Dame graduated a senior class that was pivotal in the history of the program, the players who remain … Read more
In the past decade, the Western Michigan Broncos have finished higher than sixth place exactly once, in 2000-01, when they tied with Northern Michigan for fifth — and NMU won the tiebreaker that year for the higher playoff slot. So, it’s a bit strange to think of last year’s seventh-place finish as an accomplishment, but … Read more
In 2007-08, the Northern Michigan Wildcats began regular-season CCHA play with seven straight losses, six of them against three of the league’s top teams. By the end of that campaign, the ‘Cats had climbed to sixth place on the strength of a good second half, won a first-round home CCHA playoff series, and played their … Read more
Except for the last few games of the season, last year seemingly panned out the way the last few have for North Dakota: struggle early, surge in the second half, end up in the top half in the league (maybe or maybe not winning the MacNaughton Cup). The difference is that each first-half struggle is … Read more
Although Alaska-Anchorage remained at the bottom of the league last year, it fought tooth and nail until the end to stay in the mix. Think of it this way: with the way the league ended up, points-wise, UAA was just six points out of fifth place and a home-ice berth, something the team has never … Read more
You know what they say about a two-goal lead: it’s the hardest lead to keep. The 2008-09 Miami RedHawks proved true that old cliché on the most public of college hockey stages. Having netted two goals less than three minutes apart late in the third period of the 2009 NCAA championship game, the RedHawks played … Read more