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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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It’s just a month into the season, and already we’ve seen a lot of interesting and unusual things.

Take Providence, for instance. Despite faltering down the stretch last season, the Friars certainly seemed much improved under first-year coach and fan-favorite alum Tim Army.

PC was slated to open with five straight at home this year, against Clarkson, St. Lawrence, Bowling Green, Notre Dame and Merrimack. Five quite winnable games.

You wouldn’t have blamed any Friar fan for thinking a 5-0 start was in the cards, but instead, the faithful were left confused and confounded when PC managed only one win in those five games, 4-2 over SLU. Even Merrimack, which won only three of 27 league games a year ago — including a season-ending win in Providence — tacked another loss onto the home club’s record.

Fast forward to last night, with No. 3 Boston College in town — fresh off an impressive sweep of defending NCAA champion Wisconsin. But a 2-0 Eagle lead after one didn’t hold up. PC outshot BC, 33-19, over the last two periods (42-29 on the night), buried four of the next five goals, and iced it with the empty-netter for a 5-3 win over Cory Schneider and the Eagles.

So suddenly, all is right in Providence, and it’s the Eagles who are back to shaking their heads — not for the first time this season either, with that terrific performance in Madison contrasted by confounding defeats to Notre Dame and PC.

It may be no consolation to fans of these teams, but early on this season, there seems to be more parity — if you want to call it that — than I can ever remember. We’re just a few games in and already only one non-Ivy remains undefeated (Maine, 6-0-0), with only two still seeking their first win (AIC, 0-5-0; Bemidji State, 0-3-1). There have been more upsets in a few weeks than we had in almost all of last season.

It’s going to be very interesting to see if this continues.

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It’s Halloween, and our colleagues over at Inside College Hockey give us this amusing look at some reasons that might explain why RPI is de-emphasizing its beloved “Puckman” mascot character.

Hopefully, Puckman isn’t headed the way of the Swarm, an oversized bee which was the RPI mascot in the 1980s and very entertaining.

With Lake Superior in town for the annual RPI Tournament one season, the Lakers brought their pelican mascot to do battle with the Swarm. I have no idea if the pelican had a name too. But during the tournament championship game, the two mascots went at it, each trying to rile up their team’s fans. The Swarm did its customary routine where it raises its arms to one section, which yells as loud as it can, then to another section, and back and forth to see which one is the loudest.

Meanwhile, the pelican sneaked up behind the Swarm, waited for the bee to turn around in surprise, and raised its arms right in the face of the RPI mascot, in perfect imitation. The crowd howled in laughter.

This led to the two chasing each other around the rink — if you’re trying to picture this, play is still going on throughout the whole thing, it’s not an intermission show. The dueling mascots disappeared underneath the stands, then the chase picked up again with the Swarm wearing the pelican head and the pelican topped off with the bee head.

Not only was the crowd laughing hysterically, the players on the ice were looking back into the stands to watch what was happening.

I realize it wasn’t a Puckman story, but the point is that things like this in college athletics, especially college hockey, are a big part of what makes it fun and entertaining. It’s too bad that so much of that has fallen by the wayside as the game has grown and expanded. Traditions like Puckman and the Swarm are part of what make the game great, and RPI is one of those schools where tradition is very revered by the students and alumni. Maybe it’s time for a “Save Puckman” movement, which would be a pretty appropriate name given how many of the mascot’s vulcanized relatives have been “saved” by RPI goalies over the years.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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