This Week in … columns; weekly columns on a league, region or gender-division
In this space two weeks ago, I was writing about a No. 1 Penn State team and the challenges it might face against a ranked Ohio State team. The Buckeyes took five points from the Nittany Lions in Pennsylvania and everything seemed to change for Big Ten hockey in a single weekend. Two weeks later, … Read more
On a night where the school honored its 1967 NCAA championship team, Cornell had arguably one of its more frustrating games of the year. The Big Red led Dartmouth 2-0 after the first period on Saturday, but the Big Green scored four unanswered goals on its way to a 4-2 win at Lynah Rink. It … Read more
Dominik Shine and Atte Tolvanen might well have saved Northern Michigan’s season. The Wildcats, who came into last weekend’s series with Alaska-Anchorage in the WCHA cellar, were close to seeing their league playoff hopes disappear. UAA held a six-point lead on NMU and could have made things very difficult on the Wildcats with a sweep. … Read more
How does a team that was undefeated until the national championship game and graduated some of the best players to ever play the game return the following season and find a way to not dwell on what happened before? By all accounts, it’s been a successful season for the Boston College Eagles. They’re ranked sixth … Read more
Michael Lant went into the season determined to be a player his Wisconsin-River Falls teammates could count on to step up when needed. He hasn’t had any trouble making good on that goal, considering he ranks third on the team in points (10) and has scored the second-most goals on the team (six) for a … Read more
Lake Forest College coach Carisa Wahlig found herself in an unusual and frankly somewhat uncomfortable position this past off season. Despite 12 years at the helm of the Lake Forest women’s program, she had absolutely no idea what to expect from her squad for the coming season. The Foresters graduated six seniors, including national Player … Read more
The grind of playing in the NCHC becomes even more taxing following the holiday period, leaving momentum gained after New Year’s equating to gold dust. Don’t bother telling Dean Blais, though. He already knows. Two seasons ago, the Omaha head coach’s Mavericks couldn’t have picked a better time to catch fire than when they did. … Read more
Quinnipiac returns to the ice this weekend with a pair of games against Arizona State after having this past weekend off. After a strong start to the season where they started out 10-3-1, fortunes changed with the Friendship Four tournament in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which started the current 4-7-1 stretch. Having a weekend off in … Read more
There are exactly five weekends left in the Hockey East regular season. Depending on the team, each member has either seven, eight, nine or 10 regular-season games remaining. Certainly, there will still be a lot of unexpected twists and turns (see Merrimack’s victory over newly-minted No. 1 Boston University on Tuesday night). But at this … Read more
Quickly, name the nation’s second-ranked goaltender in both goals-against average and save percentage. No cheating on USCHO or collegehockeystats.net! Some may quickly point to goalies at St. Norbert, Wisconsin-Stevens Point or, in the East, Hamilton’s Evan Buitenhuis among others, but the answer is Buffalo State’s Mike DeLaVergne and his consistent performance has not happened by … Read more
Canisius goaltender Charles Williams hasn’t taken a conventional path to where he is today, but his college hockey career started out the way they typically do for a Division I player. The Canton, Mich., native posted impressive numbers in the USHL, going 20-4-3 for the Lincoln Stars in his last year of juniors. He landed … Read more
A series between Ohio State and Wisconsin highlights the Big Ten’s schedule this weekend. Nevermind that it’s the only conference series that is going on, because the intrigue would still be there if there was some competition in that regard. The Badgers sit third in the Big Ten with 12 points and the Buckeyes are … Read more
There’s a sign above the locker room door at Middlebury that says “Bring your best.” In practice. In games. In the classroom. In the community. “It’s a journey. The goal is to get better every day. The games are learning experiences. The goal is to get better each and every day so that when you … Read more
Taking over a program is a lot like building a house, said Vermont coach Jim Plumer. Not only is it a long, detailed process, it takes a lot of people to accomplish. And it has to be done in stages. Five years into his tenure with the Catamounts, Plumer has learned a lot about his … Read more
For Neumann senior forward Jory Mullin, this season has really showcased the culmination of a lot of hard work, great teamwork, and the payoff in results. In his first three seasons at Neumann, Mullin never scored more than 20 points in a full season, having recorded 14 as a freshman, 17 as a sophomore and … Read more
It’s a Wednesday night in mid-January and Northland coach Seamus Gregory is in his office working on the lineup for a weekend series against Aurora. His Lumberjacks are 5-8-2 overall and 3-6-1 in the NCHA and he’s asked to talk about his thoughts on the way his team has played up to this point in … Read more
Fans and analysts have a way of always looking for marquee matchups. They look for those games at the top of the standings between the best records in the league, games they hope could be instant classics. They have a way of overlooking some of those teams who seem to play everyone tough. Though their … Read more
A three-point weekend on the road in ECAC Hockey is impressive regardless of the situation. It’s even more impressive when a team is dealing with a rash of injuries to important players. That was the case for the Saints last weekend, as St. Lawrence rallied twice on the weekend, scoring twice to erase a 1-0 … Read more
This is why the WCHA took a progressive look at the overtime format. When the season comes to a close and NCAA officials review the how the WCHA handled overtime this season, this past weekend could be a key piece of evidence that convinces other leagues to adopt a 3-on-3 format after traditional overtime. Let’s … Read more
The road can be a difficult place in sports — hockey, in particular. Raucous fans create atmospheres that can spur on the home club, maybe even make enough noise to draw attention to something that results in a penalty. For Massachusetts-Lowell, a six-game road swing away from the friendly confines of the Tsongas Arena, where … Read more