This Week in … columns; weekly columns on a league, region or gender-division
The Name of the Game Quick, what’s the bigger surprise? Michigan sweeping Michigan State in Munn last weekend, or ABBA being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before Patsy Cline? Before KISS? Before Heart, for the love of all that’s holy? Let me make this clear: I am not anti-ABBA. In fact, … Read more
The night of March 13, 2010, is one of those situations where you’ll always remember where you were and what you were doing. The date ranks up there with Nov. 22, 1963, and Sept. 11, 2001. March 13, 2010 — the day the CHA died. OK, in all fairness, the death of a college hockey … Read more
All or Nothing The Atlantic Hockey Championship will be settled this weekend in Rochester, N.Y., and this year’s final quartet features a pair of regulars, as well as two teams that haven’t gotten this far in a while. Air Force is making its fourth trip to the Blue Cross Arena, and the Falcons have enjoyed … Read more
On to Boston After one of the most dramatic quarterfinal rounds in league history, four teams will make the march to Boston this weekend to crown a league champion. For two teams, it will be a short bus ride as stalwarts Boston College and Boston University make their respective rides down Commonwealth Avenue, over Beacon … Read more
Second Season Last week’s amazing photo finish of the regular season is now behind us. Kudos most of all to New Hampshire for its eighth regular season title. And also to Boston College for its strong performances both inside and outside of Hockey East, putting the Eagles on pace for a No. 1 seed in … Read more
Oh hey, look at that — playoffs start this week. For a season that seemed to drag at times, the last month sure has flown by … Red Baron WCHA Players of the Week Red Baron WCHA Offensive Player of the Week: Kevin Clark, UAA. Why: Scored four goals (two in each game) to help … Read more
Two upsets in the first round; will we see another before Albany? Furthermore, would any outcome of St. Lawrence-Colgate actually qualify as an upset? All that and more, here and now. No. 11 Brown @ No. 1 Yale There’s no two ways about it: Brown has a massive challenge ahead of it in Yale. “We’re … Read more
Round One In my idea of heaven, college hockey generates so much interest that local network affiliates not only run second-round conference playoff games in prime time, but slick teasers to promote the games. I see the four winning coaches from last week’s first round of the CCHA playoffs walking toward the camera side-by-side, the … Read more
Great Eight It’s quarterfinal time, as eight teams look to move on to Rochester with a quartet of best-of-three series this weekend. Without further ado, here are the match-ups: No. 9 Connecticut at No. 1 RIT How they got here: RIT won its third regular season title in four seasons to go with a second-place … Read more
Time to get out the crystal ball — it’s CHA tournament time! Sadly, it’s also the last of its kind as next year, well, we all know about next year. I’m not going to belabor the point about saying farewell to the CHA or getting all mushy and teary-eyed. I won’t point fingers and pass … Read more
Not-So-Instant Classic You didn’t miss that epic overtime game played last Sunday, did you? No, not the one that Sidney Crosby ended barely eight minutes into extra time. We refer, of course, to the mammoth endurance test between RPI and Quinnipiac in the ECAC quarterfinals, the one settled by the Engineers’ Laura Gersten early in … Read more
Championship Weekend After months of practice and games, we’ve finally reached championship weekend. All five conferences will decide their tournament champions this weekend. Each conference has four teams remaining, except for the MIAC. The MIAC has had a busy week as they were the last conference to wrap up its regular season last weekend and … Read more
The Photo Finish Going into the last weekend of regular-season CCHA play, we knew several things. Miami had taken the regular-season title. Neither Bowling Green nor Western Michigan could move much. There was a lot of real estate, however, that was yet to be claimed. With the regular-season wrapped up and the first round of … Read more
The regular season wraps up this weekend and soon enough, we’ll know the seeds for the last-ever CHA tournament, to be held next weekend at Niagara. It’s definitely a bittersweet time for the CHA. Really, it feels like a funeral where everybody is bawling their eyes out, but the priest wants everyone to celebrate the … Read more
Look at that date. March. We’re finally nearing spring, which means warmer weather and more sun. The cold, dreary days of winter are finally coming to a close. More importantly, we’re now in the last week of the regular season and just one month away from the end of college hockey. So, let’s do this … Read more
Tourney Time Thanks to a less-than-impressive showing outside of Atlantic Hockey, no AHA teams are in contention for an at-large NCAA berth. That means for the 10 Atlantic Hockey teams, the NCAA tournament starts this weekend. Win and move on; lose and go home. The opening round of the AHA playoffs has Connecticut at Bentley … Read more
Last season’s final column started with a quote from wily St. Lawrence coach Joe Marsh. (And really, is there a better way to describe Marsh in a coaching context? If so, I’d love to hear it.) “In the playoffs there’s almost the mentality that you have to go twice as hard to go half as … Read more
Standings, Standings and More Standings I’m not enough of a Hockey East historian to know whether this officially is the tightest logjam entering the final weekend of play in league history. If it’s not, I can’t imagine the math that pundits were going through in the past. At this point in the season, the league … Read more
Four of the five Division III women’s hockey conferences have wrapped up regular season play and will be starting their respective conference tournaments this weekend. The MIAC is the lone conference left to finish up its regular season Gustavus Adolphus has the inside track to the conference regular season crown, leading St. Catherine by one … Read more
Bemidji State closed out the Glas Fieldhouse in style last weekend by sweeping aside Niagara and in the process, won the Peters Cup as CHA regular season champions. The Beavers have been on top of the league all season and by last weekend, it seemed winning the regular season was a mere formality. “It was … Read more