Regular season championships carry no weight in selection for the NCAA tournament, so it’s easy to look past them as inconsequential. I don’t buy into that. Yes, there are two championships that are more important — a league postseason title, which carries an automatic bid to the national tournament, and the NCAA crown — but … Read more
Just when you thought you’ve seen everything … Wisconsin’s John Mitchell was ejected from Saturday night’s game against Denver in the third period for excessive roughness on a hit up high on the Pioneers’ Tyler Ruegsegger. If only that was the end of the story. Outside the Kohl Center media room after the game, we … Read more
The WCHA and Minnesota State both sent word today that Mavericks center Trevor Bruess has been suspended for one game. The crime? Conduct “detrimental to the game,” the league said. How about a release to explain the release? You have to have some background knowledge to understand what the league is getting at when it … Read more
A few random thoughts as we close another weekend of college hockey: ** There aren’t many (weeks, that is) left before we get into postseason play. Two in Atlantic Hockey, the CCHA and ECAC Hockey; three in the CHA, Hockey East and the WCHA. Yale has a chance to put away its first ECAC title … Read more
Here’s an interesting case: Wisconsin moved into a tie for first place in the WCHA by completing a two-game road sweep of Minnesota on Saturday night, and it didn’t even move up into an at-large spot for the NCAA tournament. The Badgers are 15th in the PairWise Rankings — the usual cutoff is 14 because … Read more
With news Thursday that the WCHA women’s league won’t use the result of shootouts to determine tiebreakers in the league standings, everyone is in agreement. The CCHA and the Hockey East women’s league already made that same determination, and it only seems to make sense. Those leagues are awarding shootout winners an extra point on … Read more
After Friday’s games, the top eight teams in the WCHA standings were separated by eight points. After Saturday, it was seven points between first place and eighth place. At that rate, this is going to get ridiculous. But the WCHA, as close as it is, isn’t without company in the tight-standings department. In ECAC Hockey, … Read more
Alabama-Huntsville is applying for a spot in the CCHA, the Huntsville Times reported today. At the same time, UAH is expressing some interest in the WCHA, with athletic director Jim Harris telling the newspaper that it will send a “letter of intent” to the WCHA in regard to making an application. The WCHA briefly opened … Read more
Two teams. Two news releases. Two leagues. Two notes of support. Two different messages. That about sums up what we got today in the wake of incidents last Saturday night in the CCHA and the WCHA. First, the more severe one. Michigan State has suspended Corey Tropp and Andrew Conboy for the rest of the … Read more
Watching my e-mail over the last few days, I’ve noticed a few teams pointing out that they’re choosing to practice outside. Yale did so on Tuesday, taking to a pond on the school’s golf course for a skate that associate head coach C.J. Marottolo said “makes you realize why you love the game and how … Read more
I wasn’t surprised to see that the WCHA voted Thursday to suspend its moratorium on expansion. I was surprised — and commissioner Bruce McLeod said he was, too — that the vote was unanimous. You may ask: What’s the harm in lifting the moratorium? It doesn’t put the league on the hook to approve anyone. … Read more
Just a heads-up that the NCAA convention is next week in Washington, D.C., and during it, the WCHA will hold meetings that could change the college hockey landscape. The league meetings on Thursday include a discussion of the moratorium on expansion that has been in place since Minnesota State joined in 1999. Six of the … Read more
What you find when you talk to people around hockey is that, no matter how many leagues bring the shootout into being, it doesn’t look like the concept will even gain full acceptance. After his team lost a shootout 1-0 for the championship of the Badger Hockey Showdown last Sunday, I asked Lake Superior State … Read more
Every year, maybe just for my own amusement, I compile the rankings of college hockey’s holiday tournaments in order of combined winning percentage. It started as a quest a few years back to track how many tournaments there were on a yearly basis — it seemed like the number was getting out of hand — … Read more
I tried to deflect the question I knew was coming by saying right at the top of a radio interview the other day that I thought trying to pick who’ll end up with the MacNaughton Cup as WCHA regular season champions three months from now is a futile effort. Didn’t work. Still got the question. … Read more
For all the Sean Avery stories there are in hockey, you know there are 10 more stories like this that don’t get the attention they deserve. Or maybe they don’t get attention because those responsible for them just know it’s what they should be doing. The Chicago Blackhawks are being celebrated around the Internet, and … Read more
There was a pretty good ad campaign from the NHL last season (not sure if it’s still running), throwing out the rhetorical question, “Is this the year?” It was to get you thinking about the possibilities, and the fact that you never know when there’s going to be a record set. Spinning that line toward … Read more
As I stared at the legal pad on which I detail how the teams in last week’s USCHO.com/CBS College Sports poll fared last week, the debate in my head went something like this: Point: Air Force has the best record in the country. Counterpoint: Who have the Falcons played? Point: They’re leading all the number-driven … Read more
Is the College Hockey Showcase positioned on a bad weekend? Michigan State coach Rick Comley thinks so. Comley would like to see the games between Big Ten teams Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota and Wisconsin moved away from the Thanksgiving weekend, when attendance is off. “I think they’re prime games and they should be played at … Read more
You have to give Air Force credit. They’ve played 11 games and won them all. That being said, it’s hard to put the Falcons near the top of the college hockey rankings yet because of a factor that, admittedly, is mostly out of their control. They haven’t yet played a team with a winning record, … Read more