This week’s PUCK Rankings are likely tainted with a little bit of E. Coli and arrive a couple of days late, but updated with Tuesday’s action included. Minnesota solidifies its hold on the top spot, while the other top five teams shuffle about. The Vermont Catamounts roar back into the rankings on the heels of a six game winning streak and Michigan Tech sneaks back on in the #16 spot this week. Cornell plummets after a loss to Wayne State at home, and UMass-Amherst also drops off the rankings. Who picked Yale to be the only ECAC team in the rankings at this stage of the season? Nice work lone fan from New Haven!
CHN Blog “PUCK” Rankings
November 29th, 2006

Bumped: Cornell, University of Massachusetts – Amherst

We’ve been a little slow over the holidays, but rest assured we’ll be picking up the pace in the weeks before finals hit. Our Puck Rankings will be available tomorrow as our resident statisician, calculation, ranking guru recovers from a bad case of food poisoning. What a way to spend Thanksgiving vacation.. or extend it depending how you look at it.

One thing really popped into my head today, and that was how I’m continually disappointed that I haven’t been able to see Minnesota play at all this year, not in person, not on television. Next game on the dish, it’s time to make sure I go out and see thse guys play, because rumor has it. They’re good.

Hockey East has another intriguing weekday matchup, this week pitting BU who scraped by Yale who appears to be for real, against a UMass team that has done a solid job so far this season. Definitely worth a trip to Agganis if you have the chance.

From the “Where did they come from?!” Department: Look out now, but Vermont has rattled off five consecutive wins (six if you include an exhibition), all against Hockey East teams. Those 10 points were written off by most after that horrible four-game losing streak after winning the Icebreaker.

George Roll made the Golden Knights over at Clarkson practice with wooden sticks, took away their lounge and their music, and they responded with a sweep over Bowling Green and Miami. They also received some help from the first ever Instant Replay using Cheel Arena’s new system that is being tried out by the ECAC. When some message boards mentioned this and INCH noted it as well, I e-mailed Coach Roll and asked him if both were true and simply got a “Yes and Yes.” All business in Potsdam!

The RPI holiday tournament had Niagara come away as the winner this weekend, but the highlight for the fans in Troy had to be the ten round shootout to determine the 3rd place winner between RPI and Ohio State. RPI won it 5-4.

The Alaska Formerly Known As Fairbanks (TAFKAF) has only lost twice this season, both times by a single goal. They also have four ties. Very impressive for the Nanooks, but they have a long road ahead starting with their return match-up at the end of December against UAA, then 8 of 10 games against ranked opponents starting in mid-January.

Last but not least, college Hockey Showcase looks like it had some fantastic hockey. Gregg Paul has an interesting article on its future. While I don’t care so much about the Big Five / Big Ten, whatever talk. I just need to know it’s going to be around next year, so I have an excuse for a road trip.

So Avash beat me to the punch on the cliche “What to be Thankful For” topic this year. How he remains so positive is beyond me. I’m just thankful that everyone isn’t running away with it all so all of our teams have a shot for the rest of the season.

Dilks talks about not taunting the hockey gods and the curse unleashed upon potential WWE upstart Don Lucia in 2005.

For those of you unfamiliar with Chris Heisenberg he’s the man who somehow knows who’s playing for your team in 2012. He’s been on top of the National Letter of Intent period for college hockey, and has been doing his best to break it down in his blog. For a full unofficial list of recruits, he maintains that here.

For those of you curious in this week’s CHN Team of the Week. Take a second and visit the UAA Fan Blog. Sure he’s got a lot of posts this week about the team’s success over UND last weekend and the weekly awards that come with it, but they’ve ALWAYS got a lot of good information over there. Definitely a worthy read, especially if your team is facing the Seawolves in the near future.

On a personal note, for me Friday is one of the greatest hockey days of the year. Living in Boston, I’m fortunate enough to have the traditional 12:00 B’s game to help me avoid the insanity of the Black Friday festivities, but on top of that, there’s several excellent holiday tournaments and matchups, in particular the College Hockey Showcase featuring Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Fox Sports North will have both Friday games televised. If Thanksgiving is for Football, then Fat Friday is certainly for hockey.. and leftovers.

If there’s one thing this season has proved week in and week out, it’s that parity is the name of the game. Minnesota ascends to the top spot this weekend after a sweep of Wisconsin, while Maine slides down to the #2 spot after a tough OT loss to Boston College. Nearly everyone in last week’s PUCK Rankings took home a W last week with the exception of North Dakota which is free-falling from #3 to #13 after being swept by UAA. Michigan Tech gets some tough love after losing to Denver 1-0, and tying the following evening. Dartmouth is also knocked off, still trying to find its stride along with the rest of the teams that were considered top contenders in the ECACHL at the beginning of the season. Welcome to the PUCK Rankings SCSU and Colorado College. SCSU had a convincing weekend series against Clarkson, sweeping the Golden Knights by a combined scored of 11-2, while CC swept Minnesota State by a wide margin.

CHN Blog “PUCK” Rankings
November 13th, 2006

Bumped: Michigan Tech, Dartmouth

Only one series this weekend showed up on our original “Games to Watch” at the beginning of the season, and that was Clarkson at St. Cloud this weekend. Brett and I both agree that there is a lot of “weird buzz” going around regarding this series which pits two ranked teams from the WCHA and ECAC against each other. The phrase “barn burner” comes to mind as we arrive at this series, with a wide-open pair of games expected on the “big ice” (or insert your favorite phrase) at the National Hockey Center this weekend.

After going through the motions in the first month of the season, a couple of other games have risen up to become marquee matchups this weekend. Most notably two “Are they the Real Deal?” series.

The 8-1-1 Fighting Irish take on Michigan State in a home and home series. On paper it looks like Notre Dame should do well, but the pundits will continue to question Notre Dame until they get somewhere around 15-1-1, and even then when they lose the mumbling will begin.

In Denver, the CHN TOTW will host a Michigan Tech team who suddenly everyone wrote off after a tough series against Colorado College. Has Denver turned the corner? Were they ever on the other side of the corner to begin with? Was everyone a hurry to dismiss Michigan Tech?

If you’re in the Troy / Albany area, there’s no reason not to check out the Sacred Heart / RPI game on Friday. RPI has only one loss on the season and is sneaking up the rankings, while Sacred Heart continues to be a force in the Atlantic.

It looks pretty slow in Hockey East this weekend until you get to a big time Sunday matchup featuring Boston College and Maine in what should be a statement game for both teams. BC looking to prove that they haven’t fallen from the top-tier, and Maine looking to rebound from a horrific 8-2 loss at UNH. Sure, they’ve still got some games to play before, but this is looking like a great matinee. BC Follows it up on Wednesday against UNH as well.

Last but not least Minnesota and Wisconsin on Sunday as well. Everyone is down on the Badgers right now who are 4-6-2 after being swept by Denver last weekend. A win over the Gophers would reinvigorate the team and the fan base. A loss will probably force the pollsters to give up on the Badgers until they can put on a big run and show they can win night in and night out.

Clarkson, Boston College, Vermont… not Notre Dame.. but still, three out of four ain’t bad. We’re getting pretty certain over here that the TOTW is generally the kiss of death for the next weekend. My bet is on Denver for being next. I actually have no clue who the next TOTW is but sweeping Wisconsin who is a darling in the polls, seems to be the obvious choice. They’ll face Michigan Tech. Based on the past few weeks, I’m calling it: Michigan Tech 14, Denver 1 and Michigan Tech 2, Denver 1 (ot.) Sorry Damien and Pioneer fans, this isn’t about the team, this is about the curse (and me trying to jinx the curse that jinxes teams, lest you want Mr. Wodon to continue to shoot lasers out of his eyes at your squads.)

(edit: Denver IS CHN’s Team of the Week)

Cornell and Maine both lost their first games of the season but it didn’t do much damage a as both solidly remain in the top half of this week’s PUCK Rankings. Clarkson couldn’t avoid the TOTW curse and was soundly ejected from the rankings after being swept off the rankings along with Wisconsin, giving way to new PUCK Ranking entry Denver. Michigan Tech and Dartmouth arrive back on the scene as well. The one team to avoid the TOTW curse, Notre Dame continues their big run and moves up to #4 this week. Hockey East leader UMass-Amherst also continues to climb the rankings after another solid week, and New Hampshire is rewarded for knocking off the #1 Black Bears in style by jumping six spots up to #5.

CHN Blog “PUCK” Rankings
November 13th, 2006

Bumped: Clarkson, TAFKAF, Wisconsin

A district judge issued a preliminary injunction against the NCAA last night, which prevents the NCAA from moving the location of a post-season playoff game. The UND Football team is currently 9-1 and would likely have home field advantage in the Division II Football Tournament. The new rules regarding American Indian nicknames that the NCAA deems offensive preventa those teams from hosting post-season tournaments or using their nicknames on the road during the playoffs.

Obviously this carries over to hockey as well, but it’s interesting to see that Division II football led to this quick injunction, especially since the case is scheduled to go to trial on April 24th.

We’ve added a few more worthy college hockey blogs to our “BlogRoll” over on the right hand side recently.

Writer for Eagle Tribune out of Lawrence, MA and newly added staff writer Mike McMahon’s Warrior Rink Rat Blog is one of the most in-depth team blogs out there, and is worth a look especially if your team is facing Merrimack on any given night.

The UNH Hockey Blog is up and rolling. TheTempGuy is doing a fine job there, but he’s looking for some extra help, so if any of you Wildcat die-hards are interested, be sure to drop him a line.

We’ve linked up the Northern Wildcats blog of Mining Journal writer Matt Wellens.

We’d also like to welcome aboard Damien “dggoddard” Goddard of LetsGoDU! (one of the inspirations for Brett and I starting to blog our respective team) to the College Hockey News staff. He’s been weighing in on a wasted Ivy League scandal and long distance romances in the WCHA in his new column the Penalty Box, which we’re sure will be awesome.

If I was Boston College coach Jerry York, and I was creating a schedule for next year, aside from the Beanpot, I would avoid scheduling games on weekdays. For the second consecutive week, the Eagles have fallen, and fallen big, this time to Harvard at a sold out Bright Hockey Center 4-0 on Tuesday. I suspect a couple of the players tried to hop on the #86 and transfer over the Green Line instead of taking the team bus back to campus.

Freshman goalie Kyle Richter stood on his head in the victory stopping all 36 of BC’s shots in front of a sell-out crowd. Richter was initiated in his first collegiate game by Clarkson on Friday, but Coach Donato called his number on Tuesday and he obviously came through for the Crimson, helped along by a balanced scoring effort from the Harvard offense.

This opens up the Pandora’s Box once again. BC, where’s the consistency? Sweep Wisconsin, lose to Providence, shutout Vermont, lose to Harvard? And Harvard! Were you guys asleep at the wheel the first three games of the season? Can you make up the ground and still be a force in the ECAC? Three in the loss column is a lot to make up.

What are the Cornell fans thinking about this upcoming weekend now that Harvard has a notch in their belt? I suspect most were licking their chops, but suddenly it’s not so simple anymore.