This Week in … columns; weekly columns on a league, region or gender-division
It seems that every week I open with something about North Dakota edging ever closer to the MacNaughton. Dang it, I did it again. Well, let’s put the Sioux aside for a while and look at some teams that don’t really know where they’re going to finish. As it has been for a while now, … Read more
With all the buildup surrounding this week’s game between No. 5 Michigan and No. 3 Michigan State, an important story may be lost in the hype. Last Friday, when University of Alaska-Fairbanks head coach Dave Laurion announced his resignation effective at the end of the season, the ripples throughout the college hockey world were small, … Read more
How about some good old-fashioned ECAC hockey? That’s what we’re going to get for the next six weekends. There are only five non-conference games remaining for ECAC teams, and aside from that it’s a battle to see who gets in, who stays home and who will take home the Scotty M. Whitelaw Trophy this season … Read more
KOHO Player of the Week: Jason Krog (F, New Hampshire) scored three goals and assisted on three others in UNH’s sweep of Merrimack. In the process, he became the Wildcats’ fourth all-time scorer. He also leads the country in points-per-game. KOHO Rookie of the Week: Barrett Heisten (F, Maine) finished the week 1-4–5, including the … Read more
Couple this with upsets, suspensions, and ties, and you’ve got a whole lot of CCHA fans who are getting downright squirrelly. Now, if your roommate or spouse or child is chanting, "Bring me Shegos" while watching The Shining, you may be witnessing some small symptoms of S.A.D., or Seasonal Another-call-goes-against-my-team-and-I’m-going-to-snap Disorder. Relax; this behavior is … Read more
It’s been an upward climb this year for Metro Atlantic hockey. When the league was formed, its founders knew it would take time to establish respectability for the nation’s fifth Division I league, but coming into last week they had probably hoped for a little better than a 1-8-1 nonconference record against fellow Division I … Read more
The Western Collegiate Hockey Association may not have as many ranked teams as other leagues, but there’s probably a good reason for that. Other than No. 1 North Dakota, everyone is defeating everyone else. Examples? Here: Ninth-place Minnesota-Duluth earns a split with Denver, and comes darn close to getting four points on the weekend. The … Read more
Last weekend saw the start of teams catching up with their games in hand in league play — and the beginning of travel-partner sweepstakes. St. Lawrence and Clarkson swept their weekend series over Dartmouth and Vermont. The two teams are headed to the back end of their annual North Country rivalry game this coming Saturday, … Read more
On Wednesday, Jan. 6, the family of college hockey lost one of its most ardent supporters when former University of Michigan men’s ice hockey sports information director Brian Fishman died of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. Fishman–or Fish, as he was known to most of us–had just returned from Winnipeg where he was working for Team … Read more
Does the winner of this weekend’s battle between first-place North Dakota and second-place Colorado College have the MacNaughton Cup in hand? Well, no. But if either team should happen to sweep the series, they will hold the upper hand over the other. And that is especially true for the Sioux. Already with two games in … Read more
So I’m playing a pickup game and I decide to try that backhanded between-the-legs pass that Brian Gionta dished off to Blake Bellefeuille last Saturday for the Fox Sports New England cameras. Next thing you know, the guys in the other jerseys are breaking up ice in the other direction, my teammates are hollering at … Read more
With only eight ECAC games on the schedule this past weekend, one didn’t expect much action in the league, but several stories unfolded. The ECAC kicked off its Destination: Lake Placid television package on NESN and Empire last Friday evening with a 3-2 victory by Yale over Vermont. Syl Apps and the Tigers of Princeton … Read more
With four teams in the U.S. College Hockey Online top ten poll, the CCHA has begun 1999 and the second half of the season with panache. This weekend’s games give some teams an opportunity to pull ahead from the pack, some teams an opportunity to make a statement, and some teams an opportunity to keep … Read more
It certainly was a Happy New Year for a few teams this past weekend. The ECAC got back to league action with all 12 teams playing two-game sets. The big winners for the first weekend of 1999 were the Harvard Crimson and the Rensselaer Engineers. The Crimson got their first two ECAC wins, over Dartmouth … Read more
Well, folks, I’ve been kidded about writing a novel in this space every week, but there’ll be no novel this time. In all probability, I’ll be on the road without computer access as you read this. As a result, this preview has been compiled one week early, will have no results or comments from the … Read more
Am I the only one to whom it has seemed like a few months since the last Western Collegiate Hockey Association action? Well, on Friday, it will have been 27 days since the teams last took the ice in conference action. While there haven’t been any changes in the conference standings since then, teams have … Read more
So there I was at the Tsongas Arena back before the holidays, the clock was ticking down and then the buzzer sounded. I’d picked UMass-Lowell to beat Boston University, in part because of BU injuries, but the Terriers had proven me wrong with a 5-3 win. I was trying to type in one more paragraph … Read more
Have you made your New Year’s resolutions yet? As 1998 ends and the second half of the season begins, each CCHA team has at least one resolution it can make — and keep — to become more competitive from now through March. No. 3 Michigan: With a league-leading 21 points, the Wolverines are doing many … Read more
A story printed in the Denver Post this week tabbed Colorado College senior forward Brian Swanson as the leading candidate for the Hobey Baker Award. So what else is new? But Hobey doesn’t get awarded until April. It’s December. The temperature is -1 outside and it’s time for the unveiling of the first (and probably … Read more
Now that all the presents have been opened and all the yuletide cheer has been exchanged, it’s time to get back to that bone-crunching, fast-paced ride known as college hockey. It is holiday tournament time, and this year seven tourneys follow the entree that was the first half of the season with a rich dessert. … Read more