The season is (finally) underway, and the CCHA’s own Northern Michigan was recognized this week by the CHN staff as the Team of the Week. Perhaps a fitting start to the 42nd and final CCHA season. Here on the CCHA section of the blog, we’ll be posting weekend predictions every Thursday night, as well as mid-week Power Rankings beginning next week.

Our staff of CCHA writers — Caleb Saunders, Sam Obermyer, Taylor Lewis, Susan Crosby, and myself, Avash Kalra — will pick the games each weekend, and we’ll keep track on our ability (or lack thereof) to pick the games each week. Here’s our first shot at it, with consensus picks italicized. We’ll review how we did after the weekend.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 19

Bowling Green at Colgate: Colgate (Avash, Taylor, Sam, Caleb)
Ohio State at Quinnipiac: Ohio State (Avash, Sam, Caleb), Quinnipiac (Taylor) (more…)

As with every week in Hockey East, this week brings us some key matchups that will have some intriguing story-lines  Looking for revenge, Boston College will host Northeastern, a week after a loss at Matthews Arena. Another key, early conference matchup will pit Boston University and New Hampshire. The rest of the conference will take part in important non-conference matchups. Here’s to previewing the weekend’s games around the conference:

Boston College at Massachusetts (Friday)

The Eagles will travel to UMass on Friday night to take on the Minutemen. This matchup is a rematch of a hard fought Hockey East Quarterfinal series last season that saw Boston College sweep UMass in two games.  BC comes off a loss to Northeastern, while UMass comes off a win against UConn. During the regular season last year, UMass went 2-1 against BC. Both of their wins were at the Mullins Center and one should expect a raucous crowd on Friday night. (more…)

This week’s installment of the ECAC power rankings will probably be the most difficult to do all season. It is tough to rank teams that have not played against teams that have already played games. The Ivy schools begin their season in the Ivy Shootout, the weekend of October 26^th and 27^th.The Non-Ivy schools have already begun their seasons.

So far on the season, the ECAC has posted a 7-7-1 record in non-conference action. The big surprises have been a Union loss to Merrimack College and a Quinnipiac win at Maine, both of which occurred on opening night last Saturday.

1. Cornell (0-0-0, 0-0-0 ECAC) – Preseason: 2

The Big Red have yet to play a game. Cornell was ranked second in the preseason rankings, paired with a Union loss to Merrimack College in week one Cornell moves up one to the top spot. (more…)

I tried not to overreact to one weekend. Yet some of the rankings this week absolutely look like overreactions. Truth is, I had teams 3-9 so close before the season that it opened the door for teams that earned sweeps to jump a few spots and teams that got swept to fall a few. In theory, these rankings will become a little less volatile over the next few weeks.

1. Minnesota (2-0-0, 0-0-0 WCHA) — Preseason: 1
The Gophers really couldn’t have started any better. They totally demolished Michigan State in a weekend sweep, winning 5-1 on Friday and 7-1 on Saturday. The most ridiculous stat of the weekend is that Minnesota had 17 players record at least one point. Zach Budish led the way with four, while Nick Bjugstad, Erik Haula, Kyle Rau and Christian Isackson all had three.

2. North Dakota (0-0-0, 0-0-0 WCHA) — Preseason: 2
North Dakota hasn’t played a regular-season game yet, so naturally it’s staying second. UND has won a pair of exhibition games, though. In Friday’s 6-4 win over the U.S. Under-18 Team, a line of Rocco Grimaldi, Corban Knight and Danny Kristo combined for four goals and four assists. (more…)

Every Hockey East team has played at least one game, which means it’s time for the first power rankings of the season. The biggest theme here is this — don’t overreact. It’s only been a week, and for some teams only a game. I will say this, though — the pack is closer together now than it was before the season. Vermont tying Lowell and Northeastern beating BC pretty much guaranteed it.

1. Massachusetts-Lowell (0-0-1, 0-0-1 HE) — Preseason: 1
The River Hawks would’ve dropped to second had BC won Saturday, but that didn’t happen. Dropping them behind anyone else after just one game would be an overreaction, even if that one game was an unimpressive 1-1 tie against Vermont. Lowell managed to draw just two penalties while giving the Catamounts 13 minutes of power-play time. Josh Holmstrom scored the River Hawks’ lone goal.

2. Boston College (0-1-0, 0-1-0 HE) — Preseason: 2
The defending national champs opened the season with a disappointing 3-1 loss at Northeastern. But as is the case with Lowell, I’m not ready to drop the Eagles after one game. There was a gap between the top two and the rest of the pack entering the season, and that gap hasn’t disappeared yet. Steven Whitney scored BC’s only goal and led all players with five shots on net. (more…)

I’ll admit it’s a little strange to say any player in any league is especially hot or cold after fewer than two weeks of college hockey. This first installment of Three Up, Three Down for 2012-13 won’t quite as stat-heavy most. In these first few games, though, some players showed the potential they’ll need to help their teams this season. Others struggled or experienced injuries in their limited action. Needless to say, the first full weekend of college hockey was an eventful one.

Three Up

Chris Rawlings, Senior, Goaltender, Northeastern

Not a bad start for Rawlings in season that will define his legacy as the player to follow Brad Thiessen. In first three years in Northeastern, Rawlings’ reputation as an inconsistent goaltender has proven difficult to shake. Forgettable performances follow plainly dominant performances against teams Northeastern should struggle to beat. In his first two games of the 2012-13 season, Rawlings stopped 63 of 66 shots in Northeastern wins over Merrimack and defending champion of everything Boston College. Saturday, NU defeated BC, 3-1, and Rawlings stopped 31 of 32 shots, including 15 in the third period. Needless to say, the first week of games provided a good start for the player most important to his team’s fate this season. (more…)

Ahh, college hockey season. Finally. Almost all WCHA schools were playing games that counted this weekend, meaning we have a very, very small sample to use when judging individual performances. Even so, here are some payers that stood out, and some that disappointed.

Three Up

1. Christian Isackson, Minnesota

When Minnesota’s lines were announced for its exhibition against Lethbridge last week, many pointed straight to Isackson, who’s name sat next to Nick Bjugstad and Kyle Rau on the Gophers’ top line. Following the Lethbridge game and a weekend series against Michigan State, it looks like he’s a perfect fit. Last winter as a freshman, Isackson only skated in 11 games and didn’t record a point. Counting the exhibition, he now has four goals and two assists in three games as a sophomore.

2. Milos Gordic, Michigan Tech

Last season was a disappointing one for Gordic, who saw his scoring production drop from the previous winter. Apparently, he used that as motivation this summer. Gordic posted a four-point weekend (two goals, two assists) in a home-and-home series against Lake Superior State, showing that he might be the guy to step up and fill the void left by the departure of Brett Olson.

3. Mike Seidel, Minnesota Duluth

Seidel had a breakout season in 2011-12, notching 17 goals – six of which came on the power play – while taking on an increased role in the UMD lineup. It looks like he’s picked up right where he left off. Seidel netted not one, not two, but three power-play goals for UMD this weekend and added an assist to go along with it, giving him his most productive weekend as a Bulldog to date.

Three Down

1. Mark Zengerle, Wisconsin

Although Zengerle had a goal and an assist this weekend, the less noticeable aspects of his game weren’t up to par. As the top center on the Wisconsin roster, Zengerle was a minus-two and won just 37 percent of his faceoffs (13-of-35 on the weekend). Everyone expects him to put up numbers, but he must be better all-around.

2. Ben Hanowski, St. Cloud State

You can’t be too hard on a guy who had a shorthanded goal and 11 shots in a weekend, but Hanowski was a minus-three against New Hampshire. Finding a way to get some of those shots past opposing goalies will obviously help that stat, and Hanowski’s offensive abilities will soon pay dividends for St. Cloud State.

3. Josh Thorimbert, Colorado College

Thorimbert was pretty dang good last season, and he posted a .924 saves percentage to show for it. But in his only action last weekend, he wasn’t impressive. Thorimbert gave up four goals on only 25 shots (an .840 saves percentage) in a winning effort against Clarkson. With some stiff competition on the horizon, he better find his game.

So the first set of Hockey East games are over. Not every team has played a league game to this point, and it’s impossible to tell if anything is really greater or worse than what most expected. There were, however, some surprises in this first week of action. Merrimack’s win at Union to kick the season off sent some shockwaves. More than anything, it reminded us how unpredictable games are in the earliest parts of the season. Regardless, the win may prove large for Merrimack should it end the season on the Pairwise bubble — can’t believe it took me almost two weeks to use the P word. (more…)

The six month wait from April’s Frozen Four in Tampa to this weekend is always long. Sure, it pales in comparison to the short seasons of other college sports and yes, being a fan of a baseball team pushing 100 losses for the second straight year can’t help but college hockey’s first weekend of 2012-2013 is a date I’ve been waiting for ages.

And I know I’m not alone.

Thousands of fans filled arenas from Anchorage to Houghton to Kansas City (okay maybe not Kansas City) to witness dozens of freshmen make their debuts and the beginning of a dream. While Denver was off and North Dakota and Bemidji State played exhibition games against the United States U-18 development team, nine of the twelve WCHA teams made their regular season debut against non-conference foes.

For some like Minnesota and Colorado College, the weekend proved to be a success with sweeps over Michigan State and Clarkson, respectively. Others such as Wisconsin and St. Cloud State found roadblocks in the way of Northern Michigan and New Hampshire, respectively.  It’s easy to look at these early results now and start crumpling the dark horse preseason picks but it is one weekend. Dozens of teams have overcome poor starts to make a deep NCAA tournament run (see: North Dakota under Dave Hakstol) and today’s fast start is tomorrow’s disappointment.

It will take time for those in Colorado Springs and Minneapolis to figure out the quality of last weekend’s opposition. There isn’t much to take away from opening weekend but with hockey back on campus does it really matter? (more…)

Atlantic Hockey kicked off it’s 10th season this past weekend. Only Bentley and Holy Cross have yet to play but every other team was in action this weekend.  And it was a much better start than last year for Atlantic Hockey. Michigan (then- No. 3) and Quinnipiac (then- No. 18) both fell to AHA teams while Alaska and Alaska-Anchorage combined to go 0-1-2 against AHA teams. At the end of the weekend, AHA teams were 4-8-2 in non-conference games.

It’s a step up from last year’s 1-14 performance on the first weekend of the year.  And with more non-conference games to come next weekend, AHA teams have a chance to make a bigger splash on the national scene. Next weekend AHA teams will face Michigan, Michigan State, Ferris State, and Denver.

As of right now, everyone is chasing Niagara after the Purple Eagles 2-1 win over Mercyhurst. The Purple Eagles and Lakers were the only teams to play an Atlantic Hockey game this weekend. But next week there will be three while everyone else stays in non-conference play.