This Week in … columns; weekly columns on a league, region or gender-division
Robert Morris endured a 12-hour travel day last Wednesday from Pittsburgh to Anchorage to win two straight games and the Nye Frontier Classic last weekend. And the Colonials upset a nationally-ranked team along the way, too. Yes, again. RMU used three third-period power-play goals to topple then-No. 9 Boston University in its opening game last … Read more
Two-Thirds Perspiration This week, as I was penning two new tunes for Paula Weston: The Musical — “You’ve Got to Get Me Where I Need to Go,” a peppy number about a single woman’s 1992 Oldsmobile Achieva, and “If I Only Had the Time (I’d Finish It All),” a moving, show-stopping ballad about (among other … Read more
Alabama-Huntsville: CHA champion. It had to happen sooner or later. But the Chargers didn’t think they would have to wait until the eighth time would be the charm. Last Sunday in Des Moines, the Chargers completed a remarkable comeback from being down 4-0 to Robert Morris and won in overtime, 5-4. It was their third … Read more
Off The Top Of My Head • It doesn’t seem right, but could it be that one of the most exciting seasons in recent history may end up costing the WCHA in the long run? More on that in a bit … Revisiting Weekend One of the WCHA Playoffs There weren’t a whole lot of … Read more
“Everybody here is excited,” Oswego coach Ed Gosek said. “They remember when we made it four years ago and got to the finals. It’s been great here. Oswego is a hockey community.” The city of Oswego loves speed. In the summertime, all the talk in the town concerns themselves with the famous Oswego Speedway and … Read more
The Last Hurrah This is the final column of the season. Next week we switch to previews, first of the NCAA Regionals and then the Frozen Four. So thanks for your attention this year. Also, my apologies for being so inconsistent in responding to your emails. I tried, but it seemed that most came in … Read more
No Surprises The top four seeds in Atlantic Hockey all advanced last Saturday, with Sacred Heart, Army. Connecticut and Air Force moving on to Rochester. Sacred Heart did what is expected in a highest vs. lowest seed scenario, while the other three winners took advantage of their first-ever home AHA playoff games and came away … Read more
How about that; who in his right mind ever would’ve predicted that for all the parity and competition in the league this year, only one series of eight would go to a third game? Not only that, but there was only one upset in the first two rounds as well, when Quinnipiac upended Cornell at … Read more
With a 5-3 victory over the Babson Beavers (18-10-1) last Saturday in the NCAA Quarterfinals, the Manhattanville Valiants (21-1-5) finally got a monkey off their backs. The Valiants had failed to get through the quarterfinal round each of the last two seasons even though they were the higher seeded team in both cases. “It relieves … Read more
It has become a rite of spring in the D-III hockey world when the Middlebury Panthers advance to the Frozen Four and a shot at winning another ice hockey national championship. This year the spring indicators took awhile to come to the forefront and while this team seems to be a late bloomer, they are … Read more
Another year, and another trip to the Frozen Four for St. Norbert. Making their fourth Frozen Four appearance in the last five seasons, the Green Knights clearly want nothing more that to finally skate away with a national title, but there is another element to the weekend that head coach Tim Coghlin wishes all Division … Read more
Three-time defending national champion Middlebury makes its 13th straight appearance in the NCAA quarterfinals as it hosts Mass.-Dartmouth Saturday. The Panthers downed Fredonia, 9-0, on Wednesday to advance. The Corsairs, top seed in the east, were denied a chance to host the game because the school did not put in a bid to host with … Read more
Call it the second chance game. Both Oswego and Norwich finished first in their respective conferences. Both lost in their conference semifinal playoff game on home ice. Both were given second chances with an at-large bid to the NCAA playoffs. Perhaps it’s fitting they meet in the NCAA Quarterfinal Round at Oswego on Saturday at … Read more
The Babson Beavers (18-9-1) and Manhattanville Valiants (20-1-5) men’s ice hockey teams have only met once. Back on Nov. 27, 1999, a newly minted Valiants team traveled to the Babson Tournament on Thanksgiving weekend to play the host team in only their sixth game ever. Babson scored two goals in the final minute of the … Read more
Many were expecting UW-River Falls to be traveling to St. Norbert this weekend for a NCAA Quarterfinal matchup. Instead, it will be Bethel making the trip to the Cornerstone after a strong performance carried the Royals to a 2-1 opening round victory over the Falcons on Wednesday night. The Royals are making their first every … Read more
Dave Hendrickson is not available to write the Hockey East column this week, as he has been very busy writing an important memo. Actually, it’s not really a memo; I guess you could say it’s just a long sentence. And come to think of it, it probably needs a verb to be a sentence. The … Read more
Off the Top of My Head • It’s time for the March Madness to really begin, starting with the Final Five. Here’s a complete rundown of this weekend’s matchups. A Complete Rundown No. 10 Alaska-Anchorage at No. 1 Minnesota How they got here: The top-ranked team for much of the season, the Gophers jumped out … Read more
Winner Take All Atlantic Hockey will change its playoff format next year when RIT becomes eligible for the postseason. The 10 teams will square off in five best-of-three first round series at the top five seeds. But this season, it’s a single-game winner-take-all format in the quarterfinals, increasing the chances of an upset. Let’s look … Read more
Wildcats, and Nanooks, and Mavericks — Oh My! I couldn’t figure out how to fit “Lakers” into that … and besides, Lakers are ships, not ferocious beasts. What a weekend of hockey in the CCHA. I expected the first round of the playoffs to be good, but not as good as these eight teams mustered. … Read more
Second round. Quarterfinals, to be more precise, and a third of the league is done for the season. Farewell and happy trails to Rensselaer, Yale, Brown and Union. See you again in October. Everyone knows they deserved better, but this is the ECACHL, and that means you have to earn it every single game. Which … Read more