This Week in … columns; weekly columns on a league, region or gender-division
College hockey fans can debate for hours about which conference is the best — in terms of depth, talent, history or whatever. What they can’t debate is which conference is the best for fans to make a trip to every rink in one year. That’s Hockey East, easily the most geographically compact among major college … Read more
Looking back through our 2023-24 NCHC season preview, I wrote the following about Minnesota Duluth, before picking the Bulldogs to finish fifth in the league: “There are only four freshmen, and I like the level of continuity this squad has now, only a year after there was a lot to replace. The issue is that, … Read more
Much has been made about how close the CCHA was this year. If someone asked you to take a look around and assess the state of the league, you’d be well aware that the second-place team in the standings was separated by just five points from the seventh-place finisher. So when the CCHA’s Mason Cup … Read more
Last season introduced a bit of anarchy to the ECAC Hockey postseason race when the league abandoned a best-of-three first round series in favor of a single-elimination, one-game playoff. It almost instantaneously became one of the league’s most unpopular decisions, but the overall reaction ranging anywhere from tepid to downright unhappy quickly gave way to … Read more
After a hotly contested regular season, the first round of the Big Ten playoffs begins this week and it’s nearly impossible to predict who will advance to the semifinals. Guess what? That’s exactly how I started this column heading into the Big Ten quarterfinals a year ago. While it’s easy to reclaim that intro, the … Read more
For the past several weeks, it’s been a “next man up” mentality for American International, which has seen a crippling rash of injuries over the final month of the regular season. Key players including Alfred Lindberg (22 points), Brian Kramer (20 points), Alexander Malinowski (20 points), and John Lundy (19 points) all suffered what are … Read more
To compare the sports world to the regular world is always fraught, but one thing is similar — everybody wants job security, whether you work in a factory or coach a Division I men’s college hockey team. Vermont’s Steve Wiedler entered the season with an uncertain future, being named interim coach of the Catamounts just … Read more
Third-ranked North Dakota’s 3-0 home win Saturday over No. 12 Western Michigan saw the Fighting Hawks capture their fourth Penrose Cup title in five years, as the NCHC’s regular-season champion. That kind of regular success always looks a little bit different from one year to the next, and this season has been no exception. Seven … Read more
As those who have followed the conference currently known as the CCHA for the past decade know, things in this conference are rarely easy. Even though Minnesota State had previously won six consecutive MacNaughton Cups, the path to the MacNaughton is rarely easy. Championships are usually won by a few points here and a few … Read more
The wild ECAC Hockey season that featured more parity than any recent memory ended this past weekend, which means the road to Lake Placid, the Whitelaw Cup and the NCAA tournament kicks off for real this week with single-elimination first round games. After a week in which virtually every spot aside from first-place Quinnipiac remained … Read more
This weekend, history will be made when Michigan State travels to Wisconsin to decide the regular-season Big Ten championship. If the Spartans win, the title will be their first since the Big Ten formed. If the Badgers prevail it will be their second B1G regular-season title, marking the first time that any team other than … Read more
When the dust settled on the 2023-24 Atlantic Hockey regular season, just one tiebreaker was necessary in determining the final standings/seedings. The result: 1. Rochester Institute of Technology 2. Holy Cross 3. Sacred Heart 4. Air Force 5. American International 6. Bentley 7. Niagara 8. Canisius 9. Mercyhurst 10. Army West Point 11. Robert Morris … Read more
Given his success and longevity, few were surprised to hear that UMass Lowell’s Norm Bazin was the latest member of the college hockey coaching ranks to reach the 300-win milestone. Except, maybe, Bazin himself. “I wasn’t aware of it until someone mentioned it,” said Bazin in a recent interview with USCHO. “It’s going to be … Read more
It’s been half his life since Omaha coach Mike Gabinet played for the Mavericks under current UNO executive associate athletic director Mike Kemp. The dynamics of their relationship have changed over the resulting couple of decades, but Gabinet’s respect for Kemp has only grown. This Tuesday, after it was announced last week that Kemp will … Read more
When everything is said and done, Jackson Jutting’s game-winning goal on Friday might turn out to be the most consequential one of Bemidji State’s season. The Beavers came into last weekend knowing every single point matters in the race for the MacNaughton Cup. So despite allowing the game-tying goal with 30 seconds to go against … Read more
The run-up to ECAC Hockey’s final weekend largely felt formulaic compared to the parity of other leagues. The thrilling drama associated with an unsure championship hunt didn’t exist, and the top tier of teams seeking byes long differentiated itself before the final points decided which players received a weekend away from competitive hockey. A race … Read more
There are two weeks left before the Big Ten playoffs and there are only two teams contending for the regular-season title: Michigan State and Wisconsin. Last weekend, the Spartans were idle. Last weekend, the Badgers did themselves no favors. Second-place Wisconsin entered the weekend four points behind Michigan State with two games in hand. They … Read more
Another season, another playoff format for Atlantic Hockey. Gone is last year’s model which saw only the top eight teams qualify. Now that we’re back to 11 teams, everyone makes it, but the road for seeds six through 11 gets a little trickier. The format is as follows: First Round, March 2 Single elimination No. … Read more
A pair of teams — and everybody knows which two we’re talking about, Boston College, Boston University, cough, cough — are locked in a dead heat for the top seed in the upcoming Hockey East tournament. But that doesn’t mean the league’s remaining clubs won’t provide plenty of excitement of their own with three weeks … Read more
Colorado College this week jumped up five spots to No. 10 in the latest USCHO.com Division I Men’s Hockey Poll, the highest spot the Tigers have held in 12 years. Two blowout home wins last weekend against then-No. 2 North Dakota helped explain the Tigers’ big rise. More to the point, CC swept its four-game … Read more