This Week in … columns; weekly columns on a league, region or gender-division
Five’s A Crowd If you look at the ECAC Northeast standings, you’ll notice it’s crowded at the top. Right now, only three points separate the fifth place team from the first place teams (two are tied for first with ten points each.) The two teams tied for second place both have eight points, only underscoring … Read more
Tournament Madness Four teams from the ECAC West played in New Year’s tournaments, racking up a first, two seconds, and a third place finish against some of the top teams in the country. The team that came out of the tournaments on top was Neumann, as the Knights carried the ECAC West banner high. “We … Read more
Bearing Gifts Did Santa bring you what you asked for? The SUNYAC teams also had their holiday list (or in some cases, what they did not want), but we won’t know whether Santa actually delivered what was on the list or whether he left a lump of coal in their stocking until the season is … Read more
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Well here we are in the first week of 2007 and several teams are already out on the ice having played in tournaments over the holidays before the competition of league play begins yet again this weekend. The break really hasn’t been long enough for too much rust to settle in on … Read more
Dave Hendrickson is currently in Europe. He said that it has something to do with watching his son, Ryan, play hockey for Wesleyan … but that may just mean that he plans to eat several seven-course meals in Paris to honor No. 7 for the Wesleyan Cardinals. Unhappy New Year Last weekend resulted in almost … Read more
Happy New Year! Welcome to 2007, the Official Year of the CCHA! Yes, I just made that up. But it’s catchy, isn’t it? And every year has to have a slogan. It’s a rule. Sure, there were other candidates for this year’s slogan. There was “2007: Better Than 2006!” Has a nice ring to it, … Read more
Robert Morris junior winger David Boguslawski has scored four goals in his past four games, but less than two years ago, it looked like it could have been zero goals in zero games. During the summer of 2005, Boguslawski was initially diagnosed with cancer and with that came the obvious scares that included no more … Read more
Cliché New Year’s Resolution throwaway line: this year, I’ll pay better attention to the calendar. I made a rookie mistake, not realizing that my previous column was to be the last before the break. Hence, I lost the opportunity to make up valuable ground in my season’s predictions, which, to be fair, no one but … Read more
Off The Top Of My Head • Nothing like five league series in one weekend to open the second half of the WCHA season. • The question is, will it turn out to be a race for second? It would be surprising to see a team catch Minnesota, but don’t forget that people were asking … Read more
Midterms Several teams have already returned to action from the holiday break, but in the real world, it’s grades that are on student’s minds this time of year. With that in mind, let’s give out some high and low marks to the 10 Atlantic Hockey teams at the (nearly) midway point of the schedule. AIC: … Read more
Turning Things Around The last time I spoke with Augsburg interim coach Chris Brown, he wasn’t sure where his Auggies were at. At the time they were 0-4-0 and heading into a series with St. Mary’s. Goaltending was an issue and Brown had other concerns as well but maintained his team was getting better. Things … Read more
Midseason Report Just like that, the first semester is done. And with that, we can get an early look at how right and wrong the preseason predictions were. Not too much of a surprise at the top of the order where Oswego and Geneseo sit one-two, respectively, though I picked the Ice Knights to finish … Read more
Looking at the overall standings in the ECAC NE, far at the top of the points pile is UMass Dartmouth, with 10 wins in their first 12 games, plus a loss and a tie. Coach John Rolli reflected on his team’s great start. “I’d have to say the break’s coming at a good time. Coming … Read more
All Aboard!!! Looks like the Polar Express up just ahead and that just might be Tom Hanks playing the conductor, or maybe the engineer, or one of many other employees on the train to the North Pole to see you know who! Anyway it looks like a lot of D-III coaches from New England are … Read more
NCHA/MCHA Mid-term Report Card Last weekend marked the end of league play for both leagues until January and brings us to about the midpoint of the season for most teams. With that being the case, let’s take a look at how each league has played itself out so far, and at how well each team … Read more
Near the top of the Division III standings, nestled in between first place Curry and third place UMass Dartmouth, is Johnson and Wales. With a 5-2-0 conference record, and an overall mark of 6-2-0, third year coach Eric Noack was asked about the great start. “I think it’s basically that our first recruiting class is … Read more
Off The Top Of My Head • Look out for those feisty Minnesota State Mavericks. It seems like every year they sneak up on teams and snag some points, just like they did with a 5-5 tie against Minnesota last weekend. • What a way for Minnesota-Duluth to end its 11-game WCHA road winless streak. … Read more
Streak Snapped Since the 1987-1988 season, Bethel had lost 38 straight regular-season games to St. Thomas. During that time, the Royals were 1-45 against the Tommies. They’re only win came on Feb. 26, 2001 in the semi-finals of the MIAC playoffs. Bethel won 5-3 then went on to win the mini-game and advance to the … Read more
Hockey Emotions Hockey is an extremely emotional game. The result of that is sometimes players follow their emotions a bit too far. Lately, it seems goaltenders have been in the spotlight for allowing their emotions to get the best of them. A few weeks ago in the Wentworth at Geneseo game, the Wentworth goalie got … Read more
Before The Frivolity Although much of this column will be light-hearted, the recent violence against hockey players begs comment. I speak, of course, of the attack on BU players and the murder of former [nl]Norwich captain Michael Serba. When someone is suckerpunched and then killed with a blow to the head with something like a … Read more