This Week in … columns; weekly columns on a league, region or gender-division
Sweeps Week Robert Morris. Robert Morris! Robert Morris!! Then there’s Ferris State and Ohio State. We’ll get to them later. Last weekend, the then-No. 1 Miami RedHawks played a home-and-home series with the unranked Robert Morris Colonials and lost both games. In their first action in nearly a month, the RedHawks dropped the opening game … Read more
Reliving Gold The events of Frozen Fenway last week, in which Boston University upset Boston College 3-2 in front of a massive capacity crowd at the old ball grounds, somewhat overshadowed on these pages one of the most remarkable international efforts in recent memory. The United States World Junior Championship victory may be nearly two … Read more
So have you heard about this Conan O’Brien/Jay Leno/NBC mess? Just kidding. Moving on … Genie in a Bottle While kicking back with your buddies at your favorite post-game establishment, a waitress you’ve never seen before sets a bottle of beer in front of you. Without saying a word, she turns around and disappears through … Read more
Maybe Pittsburgh should change its moniker from the Steel City to Upset City. Seriously. Just ask the Miami RedHawks, who waltzed into Mellon Arena last Friday night to play Robert Morris in the Pittsburgh College Hockey Showcase as the No. 1 team in the country. Final score: Robert Morris 3, Miami 1. Seriously. But wait, … Read more
Dave Hendrickson is probably writing a food column this week, based on his rhapsodizing on Facebook about key lime pie and angel hair carbonara in Key West. Jim Connelly is likely still unbundling after dressing for maximum warmth at Fenway Park last Friday. So feel free to start the “third-string sieve” chant as you read … Read more
Happy Golden New Year! What a week this has been for hockey in the United States, and what a way to kick off 2010. Congratulations to Team USA for a thrilling overtime gold-medal victory over Canada Jan. 5. What a game. What a tournament. What a bright glimpse into the future of American hockey. Congratulations … Read more
Bentley’s Best Teams at the top of the Atlantic Hockey standings struggled over the holiday break (see below), but the news wasn’t all bad. The brightest spot for the league was at the Toyota UConn Classic, where Bentley defeated the host Huskies and then No. 15 Massachusetts to take the title. It doesn’t get much … Read more
Welcome back after the break to the second half of the WCHA season. We’ve got a mere two and a half months until we convene in St. Paul, Minn., for the Final Five with a lot of hockey left to be played. However, the league standings are starting to become marginally clearer. We now have … Read more
Tourney Talk Nine ECAC Hockey teams played in holiday tournaments this year, but none of them took home any hardware. Yale and St. Lawrence came closest, but each team lost its finale by shootout. UConn Hockey Classic Massachusetts went to 3-1 against the ECAC on the season by coming back to beat Union 4-3 in … Read more
Happy New Year! A fresh start, snow on the ground, and a slew of games this weekend — what could be better? At the top of the list this weekend is the annual Pittsburgh College Hockey Showcase, where Robert Morris will play No. 1 Miami on Friday night at Mellon Arena. The RedHawks will be … Read more
As we hit what is basically the midpoint of the season (at least in terms of this column), the league picture is starting to get a little clearer. The point spread between first and last is separating oh-so-slightly (14 now; first-place Denver has 18 points while last-place Michigan Tech has four) each and every week. … Read more
I should probably keep this to myself, but I’ll just say it: Only six teams are playing this weekend (including Union’s exhibition against the kids), so my readership will likely be a bit lighter. I’ve been out of the country all week (for pleasure rather than business, I’ll admit), and between study period, finals, early … Read more
It’s hard to lead off this column with anything other than Bemidji State, but when the crumbling conference that is the CHA boasts the No. 4 team in the country, there’s a reason why the Beavers deserve top billing. It also doesn’t hurt that BSU leads the country with 13 wins. They got Nos. 12 … Read more
Streaking There’s very little mediocrity at this juncture of the Atlantic Hockey season. Seven of the league’s 10 teams are on some kind of streak, good or bad. Let’s keep things positive for now and talk about the four teams that have won at least four games in a row. RIT and Air Force have … Read more
Baby, It’s Cold Outside For the months of October and November and for the first few weeks of December this year, Flint resembled Columbus in climate. As much as I wanted to leave Ohio for Michigan — nothing personal, Buckeye State — I knew one week into November 2008 that I had been spoiled by … Read more
Letters To Santa For the final column before the holidays, we’ve once again intercepted mail from Hockey East arenas to the North Pole and are sharing them with you. On New Hampshire stationery: Hey, Santa, Dick Umile here. Things are looking pretty good here in Durham. First place in Hockey East with a 7-2-2 record. … Read more
Double-Barreled Pop quiz, hockey nuts: Who is the only ECAC Hockey freshman to currently leading his team in scoring outright? St. Lawrence’s Kyle Flanagan? Almost; he’s tied with senior Mike McKenzie atop the Saints’ scoring list. Brandon Pirri? Jerry D’Amigo? Nice try, but Chase Polacek has ’em beat by a half-dozen points. Andrew Miller? Well, … Read more
Hope your Thanksgiving went well and you didn’t overstuff yourself. Also hope that the leftovers are slowly being expunged from your fridges (almost gone over here …). The point spread between first and last in the league jumped up a bit to 11 (15 points for the two Colorado schools sharing first and four for … Read more
Bemidji State is no longer in the Cinderella category. No more glass slippers — the Beavers are for real. Just look at what happened last weekend in Grand Forks. BSU toppled the nation’s top team, Miami, in the first game of the Subway Holiday Classic and then went to overtime with an always-tough Ohio State … Read more
Marcou, Minutemen Putting Best Foot Forward As December has arrived, I think the feel-good story of the year in Hockey East is Massachusetts. Few gave the Minutemen a chance preseason, including yours truly, who picked them to finished eighth in Hockey East. But with the holiday break right around the corner, the Minutemen have shocked … Read more