While the NCHC certainly hasn’t been immune to the inconsistency that most teams experienced last year on an almost weekly basis, the start to the 2014-15 season has been highlighted most of all by exceptionally strong starts from Minnesota-Duluth (in first place), Miami (7-3), North Dakota (7-1-1), Denver (5-3-0), and Nebraska-Omaha (6-1-1), while St. Cloud (wins over Union and Minnesota) and Western Michigan (coming off a win over Denver) have showed plenty of potential in the early going.

Rapid recap: This past weekend resulted in four sweeps involving NCHC teams, with Omaha (vs. Ohio State) and North Dakota (vs. Wisconsin) extending the NCHC’s NCAA-best non-conference record with road sweeps. In conference action, the Bulldogs (at St. Cloud, where they hadn’t picked up a sweep since ’99) and RedHawks (vs. a struggling Colorado College squad) put together back-to-back wins as well. Denver and Western Michigan split their weekend series that saw a total of 18 goals, nine allowed by each.

Now, a look at three developing storylines:

In the crease

Fifteen NCHC players have averaged a point or more per game so far this season (of the 87 such players nationally). That includes just three players in the nation’s top 20 point scorers (Miami’s Blake Coleman and North Dakota’s Drake Caggiula and Michael Parks). A lot of that can be attributed to strong goaltending throughout the league. This past weekend saw strong performances from several. Among the highlights, Minnesota-Duluth freshman goaltender Kasimir Kaskisuo (second only to St. Lawrence’s Kyle Hayton in minutes played among rookie netminders so far) allowed just three goals all weekend (1.47 GAA, .952 save percentage) in the UMD’s series sweep at St. Cloud State. The Espoo, Finland, native has now won three straight for the first-place Bulldogs.

Then, of course, there’s NCHC Goaltender of the Week Jay Williams, who allowed only one goal (an Aaron Harstad power play tally) against Colorado College in the RedHawks’ sweep. Sure, the back-to-back wins (incredibly, Miami’s first NCHC sweep after not being able to accomplish the feat last season) were against a struggling Tigers team, but Williams (1.64 GAA, .921 save percentage) has outplayed fellow junior Ryan McKay so far and has been exceptional in seven of the eight games he’s played. It’s been a great turnaround for Williams, who struggled last year (3.30 goals-against average, .882 save percentage). It’s probably safe to say at this point that the sophomore season was the anomaly, rather than his stellar freshman campaign. In fact, at this point, it’s probably safe to disregard Miami’s 2013-14 season almost entirely. Williams — assuming he gets the starting nod again — gets a pair of games at North Dakota this weekend. With Miami’s track record, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to imagine McKay (very talented himself) still getting one of those starts.

Finally, Omaha’s Ryan Massa and North Dakota’s Zane McIntyre have been keys to each team’s strong starts. Perhaps the more interesting storylines involving goaltenders heading into this weekend are a pair of matchups between teams that struggled with goaltending last weekend. Three of those four teams have had revolving doors in the crease — Denver (with its combination of Evan Cowley and Tanner Jaillet) hosting Colorado College (Chase Perry/Tyler Marble) on Friday and St. Cloud’s Charlie Lindgren attempting to rebound against Western Michigan (with its duo of Frank Slubowski and Lukas Hafner).

Toninato amends

On Halloween night, UMD forward Dominic Toninato was assessed a five-minute major penalty for checking from behind, and the penalty (called late in the third period) proved costly against Miami. Sean Kuraly scored the game-winner with less than two minutes play to give the RedHawks a 3-2 win. Toninato, a sophomore, had played well to that point, with goals in five of UMD’s first six games, but he came up empty in the pair of games last week against Miami.

This weekend, Toninato made amends with a three-point weekend in UMD’s sweep of St. Cloud State. His goal early in the first period on Saturday helped put the Bulldogs ahead for good en route to their 3-1 win and third consecutive victory overall. The Duluth native already has 11 points this year, including seven goals, after scoring just 15 points as a freshman. Toninato is developing into a key piece for a very improved UMD team that’s boasting a well-balanced offense, strong defense, and (as above) strong goaltending, too.

The spread offense

Just like North Dakota (3.67 goals per game) and Omaha (3.25 goals per game), Miami (3.2) has had no problem scoring goals so far this season. The top scorers for the RedHawks so far:

Name, Yr	GP	G	A	Pts.▼	Pt/GP	PIM	GW	PPG	SHG	+/-
Blake Coleman, F, Sr	8	6	5	11	1.38	21	0	2	1	6
Riley Barber, RW, Jr	10	5	6	11	1.10	2	0	2	0	6
Sean Kuraly, LW, Jr	10	7	4	11	1.10	10	5	3	0	2
Austin Czarnik, F, Sr	10	0	10	10	1.00	14	0	0	0	4
Anthony Louis, C, So	10	1	6	7	0.70	4	0	0	0	1
Matthew Caito, D, Jr	9	0	6	6	0.67	8	0	0	0	5
Alex Wideman, F, Sr	10	5	1	6	0.60	2	2	1	0	3

Sure, Barber and Czarnik find themselves again in the top 5 in team scoring, averaging a point or so per game as they have done for their entire careers. But the real success of the offense has come from its well-balanced nature, with several line adjustments made by Enrico Blasi from last season, all of which have paid off — moving Alex Wideman to the top line to play with the Barber/Czarnik duo, moving Cody Murphy off that line to play on the wing with center Blake Coleman, and placing Sean Kyraly with Anthony Louis on a line that’s both quick and physical. The result? Three lines that are clicking, and scoring proficiently — creating, at the same time, tough decisions for opposing coaches and defensive pairings.

All the lines have been transitioning the puck well, also, moving through the neutral zone efficiently and converting on turnovers when the opportunities present themselves. Clearly, a renewed commitment to two-way play and defensive effort has translated into more offensive opportunities, and that’s why Miami is 7-3-0 and fulfilling those preseason expectations that fell short last season.

Coming soon: Check out the main site before this weekend’s games for a feature on Nebraska-Omaha leading scorer Jake Guentzel. This Friday, check out the blog for a weekend preview. This Friday, we have CHN NCHC reporter Kara Hille at the Minnesota/Minnesota-Duluth game at Mariucci Arena, while I’ll be at the Denver/CC game at Magness Arena.

Tuesday, November 11th, 2014 - 3:55 pm | Blogs, NCHC, Notes, Thoughts, Ramblings