This Week in … columns; weekly columns on a league, region or gender-division
In many ways, No. 2 Michigan facing off against No. 1 Minnesota has felt like an inevitability for the past two months. Once the Golden Gophers reached the top of the standings, no one in the Big Ten was going to catch them. With just four total losses in B1G play and a 9-2-1 B1G … Read more
One doesn’t have to look too far back in time to know how significant it is for Boston University and Providence to face off at TD Garden. There was the 2018 Hockey East championship game, won by the Terriers 2-0. And with all due respect to the Hockey East tournament, there was a meeting with … Read more
Late in his second season at Colorado College, Tigers coach Kris Mayotte just saw his team make a good kind of program history out of what had been a potentially bad situation. Seventh-seeded CC’s wins Friday and Saturday in the first round of the NCHC playoffs at No. 2 Western Michigan marked the first time … Read more
For the last 17 years that I have been covering Atlantic Hockey for USCHO, this final column of the season has looked forward to a championship weekend that involved four teams converging on a single, neutral location. Things have changed. The new format adopted by the league this season creates a one-game, winner-takes-all championship, hosted … Read more
Since Grant Potulny’s first season in Marquette in 2017-18, Northern Michigan has twice played in a conference championship game. In 2018, the second-place Wildcats hosted Upper Peninsula archrivals Michigan Tech in the WCHA championship game. A sold-out crowd at the Berry Events Center saw the Huskies shut out the Wildcats 2-0. NMU returned to the … Read more
We’ve made it. We’re entering the final weekend of the 2022-2023 Women’s D-III hockey season where it will all take place in Amherst, MA. This past weekend we saw the field shrink from eight teams down to four in an exciting quarterfinal round of hockey. UW-River Falls at Gustavus This was the big matchup out … Read more
The first round, or as I like to call it, the “play-in” round is complete. We move onto the quarterfinal round of the NCAA tournament. Here’s a quick recap of how Wednesday night’s trio of games went and also a look ahead at what’s to come Saturday. Nazareth at Hamilton Hamilton (20-5-2) defeated Nazareth (22-5-1) … Read more
It was only three weeks ago that the Boston University men’s hockey team was mired in the throes of a four-game losing streak, its longest of the season. The streak, in which the Terriers were outscored 15-7, put BU’s national standing and chances of securing the Hockey East regular-season title in peril. At the time, … Read more
The opening weekend of the Big Ten playoffs did not disappoint. Two series went to three games, one road team won, and the series that took two games to complete almost needed three. Michigan, the second seed in the tournament, came from behind Friday and Saturday to sweep Wisconsin, 6-5 and 7-4. The Friday game … Read more
Most of the national chatter surrounding ECAC Hockey this season has centered around Quinnipiac and Harvard, and for good reason. Both have spent plenty of time at or near the top of both the ECAC standings and the USCHO.com men’s D-I poll and are two of the favorites heading into the quarterfinals of the conference … Read more
As tight as the CCHA standings were this season, it is perhaps surprising that there was only one upset in the first round of the Mason Cup quarterfinals. And, even more shocking to this reporter, is that none of the four series needed to go to a decisive third game. You have Ferris State to … Read more
Minnesota Duluth coach Scott Sandelin, who has led the Bulldogs for longer than many of his current players have been alive, has been at it long enough to know the opportunity in front of his team this weekend is a rare one. The first round of this season’s NCHC playoffs will see UMD travel to … Read more
And then there were four in the quest for the Riley Cup. Last weekend’s Atlantic Hockey quarterfinals saw three of the four series go the distance, with two lower seeds advancing: – Rochester Institute of Technology swept Mercyhurst in a pair of tight games. The Tigers got the game-winner from Adam Jeffery on Friday with … Read more
It’s officially tournament time! How did we get here you ask? Well, we’ll review that now with a recap of the conference championships a few days ago and also take a look at this week’s upcoming games that begin on Wednesday, March 8. The 2023 Women’s D-III NCAA Bracket Overview Auto-Bids: Amherst (24-3-0) – … Read more
Union head coach Josh Hauge faced a decision in his locker room on Saturday night. His Dutchmen were already in the throes of an emotional night, and he needed to determine if he wanted to throw the added mix into the fire. The team had entered the weekend tied with RPI, its Capital District rival, … Read more
After a hotly contested regular season, the first round of the Big Ten playoffs begins this week and it’s nearly impossible to predict who will advance to the semifinals. First-place Minnesota gets a first-round bye. The quarterfinal best-of-three series has No. 7 Wisconsin at No. 2 Michigan, No. 6 Penn State at No. 3 Ohio … Read more
Hockey East commissioner Steve Metcalf acknowledges there are pros and cons to running a league known for parity. Pros: Hockey East is widely acknowledged as an “any given night” league where there’s little surprise when a team low in the standings beats a contender. See: The second-half resurgences of Maine and New Hampshire, which are … Read more
After a CCHA campaign unlike any other came down to, quite literally, the final minute and a half of the regular season, it’s almost hard to believe the playoffs are starting this weekend. Minnesota State ended up winning the MacNaughton Cup – their sixth in a row – with just a tiny bit of drama … Read more
Denver’s two national championships in the NCHC era came in 2017 and 2022, when the Pioneers also won their conference’s regular-season championship trophy, the Penrose Cup. They clinched that again last weekend at eighth-ranked Western Michigan. Third-ranked Denver will feel its job this season is only a third of the way done — there’s still … Read more
When the dust settled on the 2022-23 Atlantic Hockey regular season, no tiebreakers were necessary for determining the final standings/seedings, as each team ended with a unique point total. The end result: 1. Rochester Institute of Technology 2. American International 3. Sacred Heart 4. Canisius 5. Army West Point 6. Niagara 7. Holy Cross 8. … Read more