This Week in Big Ten Hockey: With conference tournament looming, teams thankful for season as ‘this pandemic has affected everybody’

Are we there yet?

It’s a valid question, given how long this COVID-compressed season has felt, given how easily the season could have been derailed, given the intensity of competition that’s taken place in mostly empty arenas.

As each team in the Big Ten prepares for the three-day, single-elimination playoff championship tournament that begins March 14, a picture of a unified, almost defiant conference emerges along with snapshots of the unique, specific experiences that define each team in the league.

This Week in Atlantic Hockey: No longer an underdog, AIC wrapping arms around fact school is now a ‘hockey destination’

“Our guys embraced, initially, that underdog role, and I think that has morphed and transformed itself into the fact that we wanted AIC to be a hockey destination. There’s not a lot of people that knew where Gonzaga was, but there’s a lot of people that know that they’ve got a really good basketball team. That’s the goal here for AIC. They might know that there’s this little school in Springfield, Massachusetts, but that school has a pretty good hockey team. We’re pretty proud of that.” – AIC coach Eric Lang

This Week in Hockey East: Northeastern seeing Murphy ‘carry the load the whole year’ from between the pipes

Connor Murphy has played roughly 1,100 more minutes than he did a year ago.

He went into the season expecting to fight for the top Northeastern goaltending job with Devon Levi, who spent the first part of the season with Team Canada for World Juniors.

But Levi broke a rib, and hasn’t seen game action with Northeastern yet.

Bracketology: What teams are in the NCAA tournament, what teams are not with men’s college hockey playoffs starting

We promised it last week, that in this week’s Bracketology, Jayson and I would try to find some sort of agreement on a field, just like being on the NCAA committee.

If we’re able to do that (spoiler: we’re not), we’ll attempt to put together what we think the regionals should look like.

ECAC Hockey commissioner Steve Hagwell on this season, NCAA tournament, 2020-21 overtime: USCHO Spotlight college hockey podcast Season 3 Episode 15

A conversation with incoming Hockey East commissioner Steve Metcalf: USCHO Spotlight college hockey podcast season 2 episode 20

No men’s D-I hockey conference was more impacted by COVID-19 than ECAC Hockey, which saw eight of its 12 teams elect not to play this season.

Commissioner Steve Hagwell joins hosts Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger for a wide-ranging discussion, including how the remaining four teams have adapted, what short- and long-term outcomes there may be from pandemic protocols and student-athlete transfers, about the 2020-21 overtime changes, room for future growth of college hockey, and his conference’s NCAA bid prospects.

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Niagara opens men’s college hockey postseason with a come-from-behind, 3-2 win over Mercyhurst to advance to AHA quarterfinals

Walker Sommer’s goal with 4:07 remaining in regulation completed a comeback from 2-0 down as Niagara advanced to the Atlantic Hockey quarterfinals with a 3-2 victory over Mercyhurst. NIAGARA WINS!!! Walker Sommer scores the game-winner to send the Purple Eagles to the @Atlantic_Hockey quarterfinals!#uncommon pic.twitter.com/HvDNkfhknT — Niagara University Men's Hockey (@NiagaraMHKY) March 9, 2021 In … Read more