This Week in … columns; weekly columns on a league, region or gender-division
The battle for the MacNaughton Cup is no longer in play, and both teams have solidified their positions for the CCHA playoffs, but both Minnesota State and Michigan Tech still have plenty to play for this weekend. This weekend’s series in Houghton had the potential to be the ultimate title-decider, but that didn’t happen. The … Read more
There’s a famous scene in the 1986 movie “Hoosiers” where a small-town basketball team enters Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis and is immediately awestruck. The coach, played by Gene Hackman, uses a tape measure to assure his players that despite the high ceilings and the large number of seats, the court dimensions are the same as … Read more
Any good coach will tell you that it’s dangerous to dwell on past games, good or bad. Good teams do what they need to do, learn from their mistakes, and move on. But seniors on three Ivy League teams can be forgiven if they hang on to the memory of last weekend’s games as ECAC … Read more
When we last checked in on first-year Holy Cross coach Bill Riga, he was chalking up his first win as a head coach. The first part of the season was full of growing pains for the Crusaders, whose record at Christmas was 4-13-1. Since then, Holy Cross is 6-6-1, including 4-1 in its last five … Read more
Seventh-ranked Minnesota Duluth’s 3-2 win Saturday at Denver marked the first time that the No. 3 Pioneers had lost at home this season, but that wasn’t what the Bulldogs were thinking about when the final horn sounded. Sophomore goaltender Zach Stejskal had made 20 saves in relief during his first game since Oct. 15. When … Read more
Since opening in 2013, Pegula Ice Arena has been regarded as one of the better home-ice environments in college hockey. Lately, though, Minnesota probably hasn’t been a massive fan of the building. The second-place Gophers, two points behind Michigan, look to keep their momentum rolling this weekend at Penn State and nab a road victory … Read more
In the midst of its 100th season, Clarkson is saving its best hockey for the end of the year. The Golden Knights enter this weekend against Cornell and Colgate in the midst of a 10-game unbeaten streak, including a 3-1 win over No. 2 Quinnipiac on Saturday. That win over the Bobcats put Clarkson one … Read more
It’s safe to say Connecticut men’s hockey coach Mike Cavanaugh likes to use sports metaphors. He dropped a few of them during a recent press availability. On his team’s 2-0 loss to Quinnipiac on Jan. 30, its only setback in an otherwise unblemished eight-game stretch, Cavanaugh evoked golf. “We hit every green in regulation,” he … Read more
It’s safe to say this season hasn’t gone the way Damon Whitten might have hoped. After finishing a surprise second place in the WCHA last season, winning the conference tournament and making their first NCAA tournament appearance since 1996, the Lake Superior State head coach was hoping this would be the season the Lakers could … Read more
Today marks one year since the nationwide College Hockey for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion initiative was publicly announced, and the NCHC has proudly maintained its involvement. Omaha assistant coach Paul Jerrard has been a committee member since the initiative’s creation. Outgoing NCHC commissioner Josh Fenton has stayed on as a working group leadership member while … Read more
Sitting atop the Big Ten standings, Ohio State is officially no longer under the radar. A split with Michigan at home on Dec. 10-11 gave the Buckeyes a 10-6-0 start to the season, not bad for a team predicted to finish at the bottom of the conference, but as Ohio State prepares to welcome Minnesota … Read more
When Jason Lammers took the head coaching job at Niagara in 2017, it didn’t take him long to appreciate the school’s long-standing rivalry with Canisius. “It took about one minute,” said Lammers. “In the interview process, it was made clear that we had not had a lot of success lately against the team south of … Read more
Last weekend marked pair of impressive milestones for Quinnipiac. Bobcats coach Rand Pecknold coached in his 1,000th career game Saturday, a 1-0 win against Rensselaer. That game was also Quinnipiac’s 13th shutout of the season, an NCAA men’s hockey Division I record. Now the Bobcats head on the road this weekend looking for another milestone: … Read more
This weekend, Michigan Tech can accomplish something most CCHA teams haven’t able to do much of this season — gain on Minnesota State. In fairness, it’s only because the top-ranked Mavericks are idle this weekend. But the Huskies (17-8-2) have a huge home series with Bowling Green this weekend, and thanks to their big 8-1 … Read more
It’s a natural instinct for a college hockey player to attempt not to get too amped up for any one game, especially when there’s still more than a month to go in the regular season. Easier said than done, especially when that “one game” is a big part of the reason why said player returned … Read more
There’s no getting around the fact that, to date, this hasn’t been a vintage Miami hockey season. Miami (4-20-2, 1-14-1) sits eight points adrift at the bottom of the NCHC standings. The RedHawks are also winless in regulation in nine games (0-8-1) since Dec. 12, though they did take an overtime shootout Jan. 15 at … Read more
With first-place Michigan sitting idle this weekend, the Big Ten schedule is setup for some movement heading into the final month of the regular season. Though games in hand for Minnesota and Notre Dame don’t make it a perfect storm, the docket for this weekend could see some shuffling in the standings with three teams … Read more
Looking at Canisius’ season to date, the word that comes to mind is “consistency.” The Golden Griffins (12-10-3) have taken points in every Atlantic Hockey series they’ve played so far, which puts them in a tie for third place, trailing Bentley by a point and first-place American International by 11 with eight games to go. … Read more
With a month left in the regular season, the top four teams in ECAC Hockey have started to pull away from the rest of the pack. Quinnipiac, Clarkson, Harvard and Cornell are clearly the top dogs in what has been a mostly underwhelming year for the conference. It would be an upset if any of … Read more
Some quick hits as the college hockey regular season enters its final full month… One can forgive fans of the Boston University men’s hockey team for being a little flummoxed when they juxtapose the DCU/USCHO.com poll with the Hockey East standings. Right behind the UMass Lowell and UMass in the league standings sit the Terriers … Read more