Eight WCHA teams return to action this weekend after the holiday break and six will resume league play as the race for the MacNaughton Cup resumes.

Of the top three teams in the league standings, only No. 3 Minnesota State is in league play this weekend, travelling to the U.P. to take on Northern Michigan. Any points give the Mavericks sole possession of first place. The Alaska-Anchorage at Alabama-Huntsville and Ferris State at Alaska series can give the middle of the standings increased clarity.

Holiday Recap: Four WCHA teams were in action over the holiday break, including three in two different tournaments. Lake Superior State brought home the only hardware for the conference, capturing the Florida College Classic with a 2-1 win over Notre Dame. LSSU junior defender, a Florida native, netted the tournament-winning goal for the Lakers.

Michigan Tech and Ferris State both participated in the Great Lakes Invitational, but were bounced in the semifinals by Michigan, 2-1, and Michigan State, 2-0, respectively. The Huskies knocked off the Bulldogs, 4-2, in the third place game.

In non-tournament action, Alabama-Huntsville lost, 2-1, and tied, 3-3, Nebraska-Omaha on the road back on Dec. 20-21.

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Wisconsin, Minnesota and Ohio State make their return from break this season. The Gophers will host the 24th annual Mariucci Classic, while Ohio State finishes its non-conference slate. The Badgers will being a difficult stretch, as it hosts Michigan Tech this weekend before facing Boston University and Minnesota.

Penn State, Michigan and Michigan State are idle this week.

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This is the New Year’s Eve edition of Three Things I Think, which means it’s been a year since I started covering Big Ten hockey.

A full year, an inaugural tournament and a bunch of stories later, I can say I’ve really enjoyed covering this conference.

But back to hockey. A very depleted Michigan team missing Dylan Larkin, Tyler Motte, Zach Werenski and J.T. Compher stunned Michigan Tech and took down Michigan State to win the 50th Great Lakes Invitational. Wolverine coach Red Berenson told me before the tournament that all they needed was a No. 1 goalkeeper – and Steve Racine was exactly that.

Penn State saw Zach Saar and Taylor Holstrom return to the lineup, but might have some holiday sleepiness to shake off. The Nittany Lions fell to Robert Morris and Western Michigan at the Three Rivers Classic, as Colgate took the tournament.

The New Year will most likely bring us just one Big Ten team in the NCAA tournament, and a much less exciting Big Ten tournament.

Yes, just one Big Ten team. The conference has failed in out-of-conference play, and playing well in the second half might not be enough to earn Michigan an at-large bid. It might not even be enough for Penn State. Unless one of those two teams wins the Big Ten tournament (my money’s on Penn State).

Now that it’s been a year of coverage and stories like Hudson Fasching’s, I wanted to thank you all for following along. It’s hard to believe 2014 is already over.

(After the jump: Big Ten New Year’s Resolutions, Zach Hyman is good, and it’s the best time of the year.)  Read the rest of this entry »

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College hockey eased back into the season with holiday tournaments. Penn State struggled at the Three Rivers Classic, losing both games, while Michigan translated a depleted roster into a Great Lakes Invitational championship.

Here are this week’s Corsi stats: Read the rest of this entry »

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Worcester, Mass. – For Yale, it could have been a trap game and one of those weird results that often litter the beginning of the second half. But on this night, the Bulldogs held and dominated Atlantic Hockey foe, Holy Cross. The first period was all Yale and they were rewarded for it. Trent Ruffolo opened the scoring for the Elis at 11 minutes 23 seconds, backhanding a rebound home. Yale outshot Holy Cross 19-7 in the first period and took the 1-0 lead to the locker room.

Holy Cross played better in the second period, but penalties proved costly. The Crusaders’, Tommy Dwyer took a five minute major midway through the period. Yale capitalized halfway through the power-play to take a 2-0 lead. Later in the period another ill-advised cross-check to the boards gave Yale another power-play. The Elis again capitalized off the stick of Mike Doherty. Yale led 3-0 into the second intermission. The Bulldogs held serve in the third period for the win and Alex Lyon picked up his first shutout of the season. Holy Cross senior netminder, Matt Ginn, made 37 saves in the loss, while Rob O Gara picked up two points in the win. Yale improved its record to 7-3-2, while Holy Cross dropped to 7-6-4 on the year. Read the rest of this entry »

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We ease back from the holiday break with a few tournaments, as Michigan and Michigan State will play in the 50th Great Lakes Invitational. Penn State kicks off the second half of its season against Robert Morris in the Three Rivers Classic.

Minnesota, Ohio State and Wisconsin are idle this week. That’s good news for Minnesota, as the Gophers are missing Ryan Collins, Leon Bristedt and Hudson Fasching. The trio made the cut for their respect World Junior Championship rosters, while Ohio State’s Janik Moser will skate for Germany.

Also on the U.S. roster are Michigan’s Dylan Larkin, Tyler Motte, J.T. Compher and Zach Werenski, making this weekend even more difficult for Michigan.

Michigan Tech and Ferris State will join Michigan and Michigan State in the GLI. Michigan Tech will probably win the tournament.

At the Three Rivers Classic, Colgate and Western Michigan will join the two Pennsylvania teams.

The WJC kicked off on Friday, and the U.S. defeated Finland in the shootout.

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It seemed like just yesterday that I was sitting on a conference call talking with the league coaches in preseason. Of course Seth Appert, as he usually does, gave us the best quote of the day when he said, “The coaches and media are normally wrong with their preseason polls.”  He of course was correct and we all knew that he was correct to begin with, but we still do them to give everyone an idea of where the conference is and who the favorites are.

Heading into the second half, Harvard and Quinnipiac top the standings but any team from 1-10 is in contention for the league. Brown has been the biggest disappointment so far but one could think they are due to pick up a bunch of wins. The top ten in the league are separated by just six points, which should make for phenomenal stretch run. There are some teams at the top half that I think will fall (Clarkson, RPI, SLU), while some may be poised to rise (Dartmouth, Gate, Union, and Cornell). Of course I say that because I have seen most of the teams in the league and have seen them multiple times.

If the NCAA tournament were to start now, the ECAC would have two teams in the tournament. Harvard sits second in the Pairwise rankings, while Yale sits in 15th. Quinnipiac, Dartmouth and Colgate are all in the running. Those three make a group of five ECAC teams in the top 20 in the country, in terms of the Pairwise rankings. That should bode well going forward but there are still a bunch of huge non-conference games in the coming weeks. Read the rest of this entry »

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The teams skated into the midseason break with Penn State on top of the conference. Big Ten play has been minimal so far, but the Nittany Lions are 3-1-0 in their four games. The Gophers are 1-0-1, which puts them tied for third – despite having the conference’s best overall record.

A few teams have still been inconsistent, although things are looking better for Michigan.

And at the bottom of the conference is Wisconsin. It just keeps getting worse for the Badgers, who lost one of their few healthy defenseman a couple of weeks ago.

The teams are off for the midseason break, so here are some midseason awards: Read the rest of this entry »

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Since there were no games this weekend, I calculated midseason Corsi for all Big Ten teams, including home Corsi, away Corsi, and Corsi in Big Ten competition.

For 5-on-5 play, only Wisconsin and Ohio State had Corsi numbers less than 50 percent in the first half. Wisconsin’s was the worst, at 41.11 percent. Penn State had the highest home Corsi with one of 62.33 percent in 5-on-5 play. Michigan’s 5-on-5 away Corsi of 59.66 percent was the highest, while its Big Ten Corsi of 52.16 percent was also the highest.

Minnesota’s worst 5-on-5 Corsi came during Big Ten play, but the Gophers have hovered around 50 percent possession so far this season. Ohio State fared better at puck possession at home than on the road, where they held a 5-on-5 Corsi of 45.92 percent. The Wolverines, who had the best Corsi numbers of all Big Ten teams, had the highest Corsi on the road, with one of 59.66 percent.

Here are the Corsi numbers: Read the rest of this entry »

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In the only official NCAA Division I games scheduled for this weekend, reigning CHN Team of the Week Nebraska-Omaha (10-4-2, 6-3-1-1 NCHC), winners of three straight after sweeping St. Cloud State a week ago, hosts Alabama-Huntsville (3-13-2, 2-10-0 WCHA) in a two game series. Huntsville’s done well when scoring three goals this season (3-1-1 in those game), but unfortunately for them, the Chargers haven’t done that very often, scoring two goals or less in each of their last five games, all losses. Obviously, they’re faced with a tough road task against a Mavericks team whose resurgence this year has been buoyed by senior Ryan Massa in net and a youth movement up front, with freshmen Jake Randolph, Tyler Vesel, and Avery Peterson among the top scoring rookies in the NCHC and sophomores Jake Guentzel and Austin Ortega (34 points combined) both in the top 30 in scoring nationally.

Since Omaha has the busiest December schedule of any team in the country (eight games when many teams have only two), I’d expect UNO coach Dean Blais to use this weekend as an opportunity to give backup goaltender Kirk Thompson, assuming he’s healthy, some time between the pipes. The sophomore played well in a win at Ohio State in early November. Ranked No. 2 in the current Pairwise, UNO can’t afford a slip-up against a team that objectively it should be able to sweep. I wouldn’t expect a holiday letdown under Blais, but UNO will have to continue to focus on improving its penalty kill, which after allowing two goals on six St. Cloud power play chances last week has given up at least one PPG in five straight games.

In 141 games since the start of the 2010-11 season, UAH has won only 12 times. A sweep this weekend for UNO would give the Mavericks a dozen wins this season already. Prediction: UNO sweeps.

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