Season previews for teams
With the return of college hockey just one week away, here are nine hockey-related subjects on my mind heading into the 2008-09 campaign: 9) Welcome Orange! Syracuse joins the Division I ranks this fall with long-time St. Lawrence head coach Paul Flanagan bringing his 230 career victories and five Frozen Four appearances 130 miles southwest … Read more
The other half of the interlocking leagues, NESCAC also starts this week with their ECAC East partners with the level of competition in this league no different top to bottom which is going to make for some very interesting results. Last season saw the top five teams separated by just three points and virtually all … Read more
FINALLY!!! Let’s play some hockey. Last season saw dramatic improvement from a number of programs that had every fan wondering what the scores would be from virtually every match up. The league was so tight that going into the last weekend of the regular season only three points separated the top five teams in the … Read more
The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference seems to be separated into three tiers of teams. In the first tier is Bethel and St. Thomas, the second consists of Augsburg, St. Olaf, Gustavus Adolphus, and St. John’s, and the third includes St. Mary’s, Concordia-Moorhead, and Hamline. Now, this breakdown of the MIAC might seem obvious since it … Read more
I spent a huge amount of space in last season’s preview blathering on about how tight and competitive the league was going to be. Though it was pretty much stating the obvious, it turned out I was right. The top seven spots were up for grabs heading into the final weekend of the season; when … Read more
Click here for part one. This week we’ll continue with the previews of the ECAC NE, when coaches feel good about their squad’s chances and can’t wait for that first puck to be dropped. Curry College Curry College coach Rob Davies has seen the league improve greatly over the last three to four years, and … Read more
The ECAC Northeast will have a ‘new look’ to it this year, as there are new coaches, a new team, and a couple of different rinks. One constant you will find at this time of the year is that every coach knows you can’t take a night off, as that will undoubtedly equate to an … Read more
Patterns are meant to be broken. For the third year in a row, after years of relative stability, a number of coaching changes occurred in the SUNYAC. In Potsdam, Aaron Saul replaced Glenn Thomaris, who left the school. Earl Utter left Morrisville and took a job coaching the women’s team at Cortland, another SUNYAC school. … Read more
The offseason was certainly a busy time for the ECAC West. Manhattanville basked in the glow of its first ever Final Four appearance. Lebanon Valley was saved from extinction following an administrative review and got a new head coach. And Neumann also hired a new coach. Even the individual player awards rolled in for the … Read more
When Tim Army first returned to his alma mater two seasons ago, the Friars turned out to be the biggest surprise in the league for the first half of the season before faltering in the stretch. Last season was a different story, as the Friars never really got all cylinders firing together on a regular … Read more
Offense: Can Kirk MacDonald come back for another season, perhaps? Between Captain Kirk, Oren Eizenman and Jake Luthi, the ‘Tute bid a fearful farewell to last season’s top three scorers. With 77 points and 25 goals between them, the Engineers lost 28 percent of their offense on graduation day last spring. RPI was ninth in … Read more
After an excruciating 3-24-7 record in his first season at Northeastern, coach Greg Cronin saw his squad improve to 13-18-5, performing especially well during the second half. “You try and point toward the positives from a year ago,” Cronin said. “We were able to march through the second half of the year with a 9-6-1 … Read more
Massachusetts enjoyed a breakthrough season last year, earning its first NCAA tournament bid and then making the most of it with a first-round win over Clarkson, 1-0. Along the way, the Minutemen secured playoff home ice, swept Maine in the Hockey East quarterfinals and fell to New Hampshire only after taking the game to double-overtime. … Read more
Offense: Simply put, the Big Green parted ways with five of its seven leading scorers from 2006-07. There’s no way to sugar-coat it, no way to minimize the effect that will have on Dartmouth’s capacity to put pucks in the net in 2007-08. David Jones, the leading scorer with 44 points in 33 games, is … Read more
Offense: When you can score nearly three and a half goals a game in league and overall, you’ve got yourself a pretty good chance of winning any given night. The media agrees. “It’s an honor to be ranked in the top 20 in both polls and we are very excited for the 2007-08 season,” said … Read more
Last year, Massachusetts-Lowell endured a 20-game winless streak that lasted almost three months — from Nov. 10 through Feb. 2 — before putting on a fierce, albeit unsuccessful, 5-2-1 drive for a playoff berth. In the offseason, the UMass Board of Trustees considered terminating the hockey program until a new lease agreement with the city … Read more
It was a pretty typical year for Boston University in many ways last season. The Terriers picked up their usual Beanpot, earned home ice in Hockey East, and made the NCAA tournament. The failure to do any more than that was a disappointment given that it was the swan song for goaltender John Curry, and … Read more
Offense: Clarkson tied Quinnipiac for the most goals scored in the league last year with 74. Seven of that team’s top eight scorers are back for another year in the green and gold. So, things are looking good for the Knights. With the acid of the first-round NCAA loss to Massachusetts still on their tongues, … Read more
Last year was certainly “A Tale of Two Seasons” for the Maine Black Bears. They failed to secure playoff home ice for the first time since 1997-98 and then got swept in the first round by Massachusetts. Initially, many wondered if an NCAA berth would be forthcoming. The PairWise numbers, however, didn’t lie and the … Read more
Had Boston College goaltender Cory Schneider returned for his senior year, the Eagles would have been the near-prohibitive favorite to win Hockey East and potentially the team to beat nationally. Even with Schneider’s departure for the pros, they are the league co-favorites with New Hampshire based on a stellar group of forwards and solid, veteran … Read more