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

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.

Our new PUCK Rankings are a weird beast. They give a lot of respect to teams that don’t lose often despite the strength of their opponents, and no respect for losing teams despite their “brand name” reputations. Sometimes it has a heart. It knows when a team had a tough loss and takes it into consideration. That being said when you lose a couple of times, especially to a weak team, you get yourself knocked down or off the rankings fairly quickly, especially this early in the season.

New Hampshire and TAFKAF make their debuts on CHN Blog’s PUCK Rankings this week, and we bid adieu to Michigan Tech who we had hoped was the real deal but was punished badly after back-to-back losses to Colorado College over the weekend. The same goes for defending ECAC Co-Champ Dartmouth who was swept by Clarkson and SLU. Cornell benefits from it’s undefeated record, but a loss from Harvard or Dartmouth could see it slide dramatically.

It’s a work in progress.. Things will only become more clear grasshoppers.
CHN Blog “PUCK” Rankings
November 6, 2006

One of the things I’ve found with this season so far is that I’m always looking forward to checking out the scores because anything and everything seems to happen. Having the scores CHN Wireless Scoreboard has made it even better, with the exception of the data fees that I accrue by refreshing constantly.

Some of the games and thoughts that had me watching the cell phone this weekend:

• Michigan State beating Michigan 7-4 on Friday night, which comes as no surprise to Spartan Fans, but then Michigan taking their first in nine games the following night 6-2.
• Ok, so maybe not true on the phone for Friday, because I was there, but definitely on Saturday, Clarkson sweeping on the road for the first time in four years, knocking off Harvard and Dartmouth, while maintaining one of the most potent offenses in the country.
• St. Lawrence also opening the ECAC slate with a sweep. Big deal for suCh a young team.
• UMass makess our PUcK Rankings, then sweeps Providence. That really makes us feel good. UMass has had a very solid opening few weeks, and I still feel they’re underrated.
• Michigan Tech getting swept by Colorado College. Is their ranking in jeopardy? Did everyone overhype and is this the letdown, or was this just a little stumbling block?
• Boston University coming back to tie Maine on Saturday Night after being down 2-0 early on.
• How about those Fighting Irish? A win and a tie against Ohio State. They’re still on fire.
• Alaska. Still undefeated in CCHA play.

People love polls. People love to argue about polls. We at the CHN Blog *heart* controversy, and quite frankly there certainly hasn’t been enough in college hockey this year. So we felt the best way to accomplish this was to create our own weekly rankings.

We know some people believe that KRACH is the be all, end all system for finding the best team. The NCAA says “unofficially” rolls with the Pairwise. Many fans flock to polls that require some sort of human intervention, where sometimes you get ridiculous votes for teams that haven’t even played yet, or are performing horrifically. We’ve seen some Ivy League schools that can remain ranked for weeks despite getting schooled multiple weekends in a row.

So we tasked ourselves to come up with something that we hope will make the college hockey picture a bit clearer, and even if it doesn’t, you can go right ahead and shoot us down in the comments as much as you’d like. We won’t feel bad.

So without further ado I present to you our first ever edition of the CHN Blog “PUCK” Rankings.

CHN Blog “PUCK” Rankings
October 30, 2006

These rankings have not been deemed “official” CHN Rankings by the editorial staff. Maybe someday when we prove our ultimate wisdom, but not today. Still enjoy.

The upsets just kept rolling in over the weekend.

• Northeastern after almost swiping one on Friday night from Michigan came through on Saturday with a big win.
• Yale, with new coach Keith Allain took a big W off of UNH who got swept over the weekend.
• Not so much an upset, as much as a statement, Boston College came in and cleaned house, sweeping Wisconsin, a small consolation for the Eagles who aren’t able to put on Championship rings after the game.
• Colgate is NOT living up to it’s #1 pre-season ranking in the ECAC where RPI beat them 2-1 to take the Governor’s Cup a short trip up 787.
• Notre Dame wins the Lightning College Hockey Classic defeating Air Force 2-0. They’re still on fire.
• The Nanooks are 4-1-1 now, but haven’t played a game outside of Alaska yet.
• Dartmouth opened up their defense of the ECACHL regular season title with a big win over Harvard.The US-18 team is now on Brett’s “Dead to me..” list after taking out Clarkson on Saturday. I wouldn’t be so accomodating though as D-III Plattsburgh almost took them out the next day.

While we wait for Adam’s analysis of last night’s games (check out that pic by the way, it just screams “I scored 41 points on the quiz.”) A few things are popping into my mind.

The cream of the Hockey East continues to take victories from the top of the WCHA after Boston College’s hard earned victory over Wisconsin Friday night. It took a short-handed goal on a 5 on 3 with an assist from the goalie just to get someone on the board, and the final was in question with as little as two minutes left remaining. Expect more of the same this evening.

While the tops in the Hockey East seem to do fine against the WCHA, a couple of the teams in Hockey East seem to get upset each week in their own conference. Last night it was Lowell taking down BU, and Merrimack took a win over Providence. Early in the week UNH fell to a UMass squad that is starting to raise eyebrows. Yes, I know it’s early, but those are points that fans of those teams expected to be in the bag.

It’ll be Air Force and Notre Dame in the final of the Lightning College Hockey Classic. RIT continues its fast start in Atlantic Hockey with a victory last night to improve their record to 3-0-0, but keep in mind they’ve been pounding on AIC and Canisus. Still I think they’re going to be very competitive against the Mercyhursts, Sacred Hearts and Holy Crosses. I’ll definitely be making it out to some Atlantic games soon, and I’m looking forward to seeing the increased level of competition.

In conference play over in the CCHA and WCHA everything seemed to go as I would’ve expected with the exception of the Seawolves getting blown out so badly by Michigan Tech. After such a great performance against the Nanooks last weekend is this just a bit of let down?

Also, welcome back Niagara. After last week’s drubbing at the hands of Nebraska-Omaha, they rattled off three goals in the first five minutes against Bemidji State to leave no doubt on route to a 6-2 victory over the Beavers.

Tonight, we’ll see if Brett’s taunting of the USNDTP-18 team comes back to haunt him.

Sure, many teams have four, five, six games under their belts so far this season, but this is truly the first full fledged week of the season as the Ivies come out of their safe little coccoons and join the rest of the world for a little old-fashioned ice hockey.

Cornell gave me a little scare last night as I diligently refreshed my cell phone using the new super-sweet CHN Wireless Scoreboard. Seeing it 2-1 in the 3rd was a bit scary. It either shows Cornell has a lot of rust, or Robert Morris has already come a long way in Division I. Cornell’s next test is an RIT team that has been known to keep up with the rest of D-I as well.

The big news this weekend is really the Wisconsin / BC Championship Rematch. They’re going to go at it on back-to-back nights, and it’s going to be some of the best hockey of the year, in one of the best college hockey towns, and even if you can’t be there, Badger fans have the fortune of seeing the game televised throughout Wisconsin, and also nationally on Fox Sports and CSTV (at least on Friday) Also, if you’re in Madison, have a beer for me, I wish I could be there.

The Lightning College Hockey Classic is happening this weekend, with Army, Air Force, Alabama-Huntsville and Notre Dame participating. I bet when that one was scheduled, no one expected to see THIS Irish squad coming into the tournament.

The first ever, ECAC Governor’s Cup is taking place in Albany at the Pepsi Arena featuring Colgate, Quinnipiac, Union and RPI in non-conference matchups. No one has figured out what happens if Quinnipiac wins. Will the NY fans riot? Will the Bobcats from CT refuse the trophy in disdain? While I’m a big fan of tournament hockey, it’s too bad it’s all ECAC teams. Some of these teams have a hard enough time schedule OOC opponents as is. Not sure if this is a case of the chicken (we made this tournament, we’re going to play), or the egg (no one will play us, so we’ll play each other), but it would’ve been nice to see other NY schools involved (and if we’re including Q, New England as well)

We’ll see a the CCHA and WCHA really begin to go at it this week, as both conference have a bunch of league games scheduled and ready to go.

Enjoy the weekend slate.

I’m a regular joe, just like everyone else. So when I get a chance to go out for the evening, I take it. That being said, getting a chance to go out, doesn’t necessarily mean watching college hockey the entire evening.

So imagine my surprise when I return home to see the insanity that hit college hockey this evening.

So sure, my own Golden Knights look like they got a beatdown 5-1 at the hands of LSSU, but lets be honest, last week’s series at OSU left us all apprehensive of the Lakers, who came out firing Friday with a big win. Who thinks they’ll finish in 10th place now?

“But what else Ron?!” you say?!

Well for starters Nebraska-Omaha issuing a 10-1 final over Niagara shocks me. At least until I saw RPI squeaking out a 2-1 victory over Denver in a game most saw going to the Pioneers. But that’s all fine and dandy until I see Michgian Tech take out Vermont, and Maine take a four goal victory over North Dakota. At this point is it bizzaro world I say? Not so sure until on my way to the cotton candy stand I see that Notre Dame took out Boston College 7-1. What a world college hockey has become. Finally, every game, every night, anyone can be a winner, by a slim margin, or by a blowout.