This Week in … columns; weekly columns on a league, region or gender-division
Races Tightening For the first time in over two months, Gustavus Adolphus lost a hockey game. The Gusties’ last loss came on Nov. 26 to Wisconsin-Stout in the Milwaukee School of Engineering Thanksgiving Tournament. Gustavus dropped a pair of games to Bethel last weekend and is now just four points ahead of the Royals for … Read more
Down but Not Out “It’s miserable not winning. There’s no other way to say that.” With just four league wins and seven overall this season, Ferris State head coach Bob Daniels isn’t mincing words. But even with the Bulldogs hovering near the bottom of the CCHA standings, Daniels doesn’t want anyone to think that Ewigleben … Read more
Expectations After shocking the world last March, what could Holy Cross possibly do for an encore? The Crusaders’ win over top-seeded Minnesota put the program and Atlantic Hockey on the map, and also put a bulls-eye on coach Paul Pearl’s team. Expectations can be hard to deal with, but Pearl isn’t sweating it. “Not to … Read more
In Praise Of 21-Year-Old Freshmen Last week’s column by Scott Weighart created some controversy with what some perceived as a negative view of 25-year-old seniors playing against 18-year-old freshmen. Some Maine fans didn’t care for what they considered to be a knock on Michel Léveillé, who as Scott noted will turn 26 three days before … Read more
A Runaway Winner? Gustavus Adolphus is cleaning house in the MIAC thus far, winning eight straight games, including a pair of one-goal victories last weekend against St. Olaf, and has an eight-point cushion on the two second-place teams. The Gusties have a brutal schedule remaining, with series against Bethel, St. Thomas, Augsburg and St. John’s, … Read more
Three weeks ago, this column focused on the crowd of five teams at the top of the ECAC NE, and the fact that only three points separated the first from the fifth. This week, only four points separate the eighth place team from the first place team. Earlier this month, Curry College was tied for … Read more
Off the Top of My Head • Time to break out the broom. For the first time — and quite surprisingly considering the erratic state of the WCHA — I went a perfect 8-0 in predictions last week. I’ll go ahead and predict that it’s the last time this season that happens. • At the … Read more
Are you kidding me? Only five weeks of regular-season games left already? And yeah, it’s a segue into the predictable fact that through 11 weeks of full or partial ECACHL competition and eight columns masterfully penned by yours truly, the home side has only come out ahead twice. This week, however … is no different. … Read more
No Wheels? Entering last weekend, things seemed to be rolling along for the Hobart. The Statesmen had ripped off twelve straight undefeated games, and while mired in the lower half of the league standings, they were still within easy striking distance of the top. Friday’s game at Manhattanville wasn’t particularly good hockey by either team, … Read more
Big Night for the CCHA Sure, the NHL All-Star game is a big night for hockey at every level, but this year’s game was good for the CCHA as well. Four league alumni played, including Spartan goaltender Ryan Miller (Buffalo), Michigan goaltender Marty Turco (Dallas), Bulldog forward Jason Blake (Islanders), and Laker forward Brian Rolston … Read more
Points Taken One of the most highly visible series of the season took place in Colorado Springs last weekend. Army and Air Force squared off for the 41st and 42nd times, with each team coming away with two points. The Falcons won on Friday, 4-1, while the Black Knights triumphed 2-0 on Saturday despite being … Read more
“Boy is this great!” A line made famous by Flounder during the climactic homecoming parade scene in Animal House pretty much sums up how most coaches, players and fans feel about the level of play and moves in the standings seen in the two conferences this season. Hard to believe there is only a month’s … Read more
Dave Hendrickson is unavailable this week because he is playing the part of a corporate rendition of Cinderella, meaning that he is failing to get home before midnight and increasing his resemblance to a pumpkin. Age-old Issues Looking at Chris Heisenberg’s excellent college hockey recruiting website recently, I was struck by the number of 1986 … Read more
Rev It Up From here on out, with the exception of this Tuesday’s game, every contest is a conference game. It’s that time of year when the excitement and intensity gets cranked up. And, with the amazingly close cluster in the standings, there is not a game that is not going to make a difference … Read more
I normally use my introduction to recap the movement of NCHA and MCHA teams in the USCHO.com Division III poll. From now on I’ll do the same, though I’ll be using the PairWise Rankings (PWR), the first edition of which just came out this week. The PWR seek to mimic the NCAA selection criteria so … Read more
Jared Katz was named the Unsung Hero at the awards banquet last season for the Baystate Breakers in the Eastern Junior Hockey League. This year, he’s aiming to kick the “unsung” part of it to a Detroit curb. And so far, he’s doing a swell job. The 21-year-old Wayne State freshman forward, a native of … Read more
Northeast-10 News Sitting alone at the top of the Northeast-10 is Southern New Hampshire University, but these are not happy times for the Penman, who have lost six in a row, and have UMass Dartmouth to contend with this weekend. “In the first half of the season, we were pretty good, but not great.” said … Read more
Stepping Up Last week, I mentioned some of the new players who were making a mark on this season. This week I am going to mention some of the veterans who stepped up to help replace some key players who left their team after last season. When Fredonia’s Matt Zeman decided not to return for … Read more
Oh MIAC, How We’ve Missed You… I’ll try not to beat a dead horse by going into details about the MIAC suffering through its contests against its NCHA foes. At least it was closer this time around. “The NCHA is having a great year,” St. Olaf coach Sean Goldsworthy said. “I think if you look … Read more
Shaken and Stirred I’ve toyed with the notion of a fancifully-written opening that would make the intro to any James Bond film pale in comparison but alas, my own words do fail in evoking any comparison that reflects appropriately on the level of competition seen this year in collegiate hockey in New England. The Bond-derived … Read more