This Week in … columns; weekly columns on a league, region or gender-division
Volatility To The Nth Degree A week ago, Hockey East would have placed only a single team, Boston College, in the NCAA tournament. For comparison’s sake, the ECACHL was enjoying a prospective four berths. However, one weekend’s worth of action changed all that. In a perfect display of how volatile the rankings are at this … Read more
Ted Cook had a choice this time last year — Quinnipiac or Niagara? Needless to say, the New York native picked his home-state Purple Eagles. Cook’s hometown of Hogansburg, N.Y., is 5 1/2 hours from the Niagara campus and even further from Nebraska, where he played in juniors a season ago with the Omaha Lancers. … Read more
February 2nd… A day we all wait religiously to find out whether or not we should keep the winter clothes out for another couple of months based on the ability of a large rodent in Pennsylvania to see his own shadow. With all due respect to Punxsutawney Phil, I am not one to buy-in to … Read more
Well, This Was a Given Dunkirk Dave emerged from his hibernation and saw his shadow, forecasting six more weeks of hockey that will determine the four CCHA teams headed to Detroit. What, you want Punxsutawney Phil from a girl who went to Fredonia State? This week, the nation heard the State of the Union from … Read more
Still Climbing Neumann continues its climb up the league standings and national rankings. The Knights are currently tied for second in the league with Manhattanville, although the Valiants have two games in hand. Neumann also edged closer to making the cut in this week’s USCHO.com national poll, coming in second in the “Others Receiving Votes” … Read more
Bizarro World Last week I mentioned there was perfect symmetry for the start of the second half of conference play as the travel partners squared off coincidentally giving us the match ups of 1st vs. 8th, 2nd vs. 7th, and so on. With that symmetry, one would have expected some of the outcomes to be … Read more
Being a senior, Bemidji State defenseman Andrew Martens wants to finish his abbreviated college career on a high note. And with the cast he’s joined with on the Beavers, few will argue that success is out of their range. Martens leads all BSU defensemen in scoring with five goals among 18 points this season and … Read more
The biggest series last weekend fizzled out somewhat as both Cornell and Colgate held serve and protected their home ice from Clarkson and St. Lawrence. The four games had ramifications both on the run up to the ECACHL regular season title and on the PairWise Rankings. This weekend will feature another string of games with … Read more
First things first: • It seems just about the right time for Colorado College to take a week off and clear its collective heads. There’s no telling how far its slump — presently at a four-game losing streak — could have gone otherwise. • That big lead Wisconsin had last week? Yeah, not so much … Read more
Dave Hendrickson is not available to write the Hockey East column this week, as he is busy starring in the forthcoming film Brokeback Columnist. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Rhodes Scholars If you’re reading this column, there’s a good chance that you’ve already read plenty this year about the Providence Friars. Or at … Read more
Dei Ex Machinis Here are two improbable tales. Scenario One You have shamed a woman and killed her father. She, her lover, and another woman whom you’ve shamed have vowed revenge. You’re walking through a city square and a statue of the man you’ve killed, a local official, warns you that his family will have … Read more
Home Sweet Home (Ice) Generally, as the season winds down, talk on most media space, this included, swings towards the battle for the regular-season championship. Indeed, I could fill a thousand words talking about how evenly-matched Mercyhurst, Sacred Heart and Holy Cross are. To me, though, that’s become a broken record. Save Quinnipiac, those four … Read more
First things first: • Will 4:08 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2006, be the time when Wisconsin’s hold on the top spot in the country started sliding away? That’s when goalie Brian Elliott was injured in practice. The junior had to be helped off the ice with a left leg injury and will be out … Read more
Like that Book by Dostoevsky Two days off since Dec. 28 and 60 student drafts later, and suddenly I find myself on the other side of a mid-January Thursday, installing XP updates to a borrowed computer, brewing tea, and missing Aaron Voros. Voros, as you may remember, was the fiery forward from Alaska-Fairbanks who compiled … Read more
Mercyhurst Goaltending: No Small Problem I’ve written a good bit about Mercyhurst’s goaltending situation this season, mostly because it’s unique to see a school put itself in the situation the Lakers currently are in. Mercyhurst began the season with four — yes, four — goaltenders, all of whom the coaching staff believed could play at … Read more
Timely goaltending and strong special-teams play enabled Princeton and St. Lawrence — two teams at opposite ends of the ECACHL standings — to sweep their opponents last weekend. The wins elevated the Saints ahead of Colgate and Harvard and into first place in the ECACHL standings, while the Tigers moved from the bottom of the … Read more
Fess Up If we’re gonna thump our chests when we’re the toughest guy on the block, then we have to fess up when we’re having a pocket protector season. This week’s release of the PairWise says it’s fess-up time for Hockey East apologists. Only one team from the league is in the top 10, that … Read more
Better late than never for Bruce Mulherin. The senior forward with Alabama-Huntsville scored 24 goals a year ago, playing on the dominant line with Jared Ross and Craig Bushey. But Ross and Bushey graduated to the pro ranks this year, leaving Mulherin in a foggy haze for the first semester. And it showed. Through UAH’s … Read more
Eric Ehn bounced around the Michigan minor hockey ranks and then through two junior leagues before landing in Colorado Springs with the Air Force Academy. It’s a journey Ehn laughs about. “I pretty much played for every AAA team in Michigan growing up,” said Ehn, a native of Dexter, Mich., just five miles north of … Read more
Good Vibrations This is my favorite quote of the season. “I’ll tell you what. It feels really darn good.” That was head coach Scott Paluch’s reaction, with a little prodding, after Bowling Green edged Ohio State, 3-2, last Friday night. Paluch, one of the nicest guys in college hockey, began his postgame summary with, “I … Read more