This Week in … columns; weekly columns on a league, region or gender-division
Quinnipiac Stays on Top It was the biggest weekend series of the year to date, and when all was said and done, the Quinnipiac Braves had gone to Erie, Penn., and come out with probably a little more than they had bargained for. The Braves, who owned a one-point lead in the standings over Mercyhurst … Read more
It’s the end of the world as we know it … or is it? Dean Blais isn’t mincing his words this week. Flat-out, undeniably, he knows exactly what this weekend means. "This," Blais said, "is the MacNaughton Cup." When presented with Blais’ remarks, Wisconsin coach Jeff Sauer was a bit more diplomatic about the situation. … Read more
Keefe’s Departure It was not a good week for the Providence College hockey team. First, UMass-Amherst swept the Friars, who had been making a strong bid for Top 10 consideration, 2-1 and 3-1. Then, on Tuesday, they announced that senior Jerry Keefe was leaving the team for personal reasons. Last year, Keefe led the high-flying … Read more
Relativity, Or Why Size Doesn’t Matter Popular sentiment about size is fairly split. Bigger is better. Good things come in small packages. When the Buffalo Bills benched Doug Flutie in favor of Rob Johnson for their playoff game against the Tennessee Titans (titan: one that is gigantic in size or power), the pro-Flutie contingency claimed … Read more
Parity Without Mediocrity "Our league is a war." —PC coach Paul Pooley Check out this week’s poll. Not only did three Hockey East teams make the Top 10 — #1 New Hampshire, #3 Maine and #10 Boston College — but three more received votes: Boston University, Providence College and Northeastern. When two-thirds of the league … Read more
Checking the Calendar So, midnight 2000 arrived and you found yourself Y2K-compliant, and your computer didn’t explode, and the world didn’t end in some fiery mess, and the aliens were benign after all, and your debit card still provided the means with which to purchase gas and cold beer, and the center held, and the … Read more
Let’s Get Back, Please? The heart of the ECAC schedule is almost upon us … and it couldn’t have come any sooner. After experiencing one slap in the face after another in nonconference play, the chants of E-Z-A-C have resurfaced in full force. And who could blame them? Heading into this weekend, only three teams … Read more
Clash of the Titans MAAC Games of the Week Quinnipiac Braves at Mercyhurst Lakers Friday and Saturday, January 7-8, 2000 Mercyhurst Ice Center Is it too early in the season to call a two-game weekend series "crucial" to the regular-season championship? I don’t think so. Okay, so maybe it’s not like last year’s UNH-Maine weekend … Read more
When is a tie and a loss … better than a win and a loss? When historians look back at the 1999-2000 Denver Cup, they will see the hosts came away with a tie and a loss and finished ahead of a team with a win and a loss. As improbable as it seems, Denver … Read more
Happy holidays, CCHA fans! In college hockey, the only way to celebrate the end of the calendar year is with tournament action. And to many Central Collegiate Hockey Association fans, there’s only one tournament worth mentioning. The Lake Effect, 35 Times Michigan Tech originally brought us the Great Lakes Invitational 35 years ago, a moot … Read more
On this hallowed ground Milwaukee’s Bradley Center is just a building. Seats nearly 18,000 for hockey, pretty nice-looking from the outside, has received a facelift on the inside. But, oh, the memories. Like that one weekend back in 1997 when North Dakota breezed past Colorado College and held off Boston University to win the national … Read more
The MAAC Midseason Report Here we are at the halfway point of the college hockey season, and already in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference we’ve seen some eye-opening events. The team that I innocently referred to as the X-factor before the beginning of the season, Mercyhurst, has silently crept its way to the top of … Read more
First off, we hope that everyone out there had a great holiday, and we look forward to wishing everyone a Happy 2000! Now on to our show. The Controversy In Cat Country We’re sure that everyone is well aware by now of what is happening up in Burlington with the University of Vermont. Matters are … Read more
A Game Every Day Hockey East fans who went into withdrawal during the recent holiday break will be delighted with the upcoming slate of games. Delighted, that is, if they have their own private Lear jet to crisscross the country since, unfortunately, many of the games are a long hike from New England. Fans whose … Read more
Santa Claus is Coming to Town Well okay, maybe it’s not Santa Claus, because we not talking about someone who’s very giving. Actually we’re talking about something very stingy, and that’s the Sacred Heart defense. For UConn, a team struggling to score goals, the last thing the Huskies want to see right now is the … Read more
Breaking news Before we get to this week’s column, here’s an update on some news — some surprising, some not-so-surprising. St. Cloud State senior forward Matt Noga has decided to leave the team for personal reasons, according to the St. Cloud Times. Minnesota freshman forward Shawn Roed, who was on suspension because he was behind … Read more
Gifts of the Season You have to wonder about a weekend where so many CCHA fans got to see their teams win at home. Every single home team won this weekend, with the exception of the Wildcats and Lakers, who swapped a pair of road wins in a home-and-home series. The week before Thanksgiving, nearly … Read more
How ’bout Them Huskies? After Northeastern administered the first loss of the season to top-ranked Maine last Friday, coach Bruce Crowder stood outside the Husky locker room and talked to the media. "You have a number-one team coming into the building that hasn’t had a loss," he said. "You’d be a village idiot not to … Read more
The Curse Of USCHO Much has been made of this within the last few days, mainly about the fact that the school that leads off in this space each week winds up biting the dust at least once the following weekend. Now before you point fingers at us, let’s take a look at the cold, … Read more
Tournament Time, Baby! Okay, so it’s not time for March Madness — actually not even close. But this past week concluded two more in-season tournaments for MAAC teams, with Mercyhurst College and UConn each participating in Thanksgiving tournaments. Fortunate and unfortunate, the team finished at opposite ends of the spectrum, with Mercyhurst winning the American … Read more