College hockey’s winter break came and went pretty quickly. As teams traveled to various holiday tournaments and other series around the country, Hockey East clubs produced some results that, as they often do, offered as many questions as they answered.

Even now, after another weekend of games, it’s difficult to say with any certainty where most teams stand.

The jump into the second half also leads to year-end award discussions. These arguments reveal as much about the league as any of the results on the ice. Within Hockey East, the coach of the year conversations are as wide open as any in recent memory. In the last two seasons, it came down to either Massachusetts-Lowell’s Norm Bazin or Providence’s Nate Leaman. With more than 50 wins in that time, Bazin was the clear favorite.

However, the presence of Jerry York always means there’s another candidate to discuss. Once again, York has his Eagles in great position. BC is atop the Hockey East standings to this point and in equally great shape on the national scene. That was expected, though. The Eagles are among the nation’s most talented clubs, and nothing they do really surprises anyone anymore. York’s the best at what he does. If he won the coach of the year award every season, it really wouldn’t come as much of a shock.

Beyond York, and even Bazin, there are four candidates warranting serious consideration. Leaman’s Providence team is in position to earn a bye in the Hockey East Tournament and an NCAA bid. Again, though, most anticipated a strong year from the Friars led by goaltender Jon Gillies and junior center Ross Mauermann. Outside of Leaman, Northeastern’s Jim Madigan, Maine’s Red Gendron and Vermont’s Kevin Sneddon are all guiding teams currently outpacing their preseason expectations.

Each, of course, comes with some caveats that we’ll get a better understanding of in the next two months. At this point, I’d give Madigan the nod. Northeastern missed the last two Hockey East Tournaments thanks to horrendous regular-season campaigns. While that can’t happen again as a result of a new playoff format, the Huskies are currently tied for second in Hockey East with Providence. NU holds the tiebreaker over PC after defeating the Friars, 2-1, last Tuesday in overtime and playing to a 3-3 tie at Matthews Arena in December.

There are some concerns with Northeastern moving forward (more on that later), but the Huskies continue to prove they’re a legitimate contender within Hockey East play. NU hosts Vermont this weekend for two games (only one is a conference game) before traveling to South Bend, Ind., in two weeks for a pair with Notre Dame. Outside of league play, the Huskies are ninth in the Pairwise.

Like it will for every club, the next few weeks will reveal Northeastern’s true standing. At this point, though, it’s not fair to say they haven’t earned some respect.

(After the jump: Northeastern’s possession problems; BC’s depth; Maine’s coming road test.) Read the rest of this entry »

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There were a mix of non-conference games and some in-conference games. In the biggest ECAC game of the weekend, Quinnipiac defeated Union 2-1. The win by the Bobcats propelled them back into first place in the conference. Harvard and Yale played the big stage on Saturday night in front 15,524 paying patrons, a game that Yale won 5-1. Princeton ended its long losing streak over the weekend, defeating another struggling team, Rensselaer, on Friday. But there were other games.

Be sure to check out the CHN standings page for the updates of where your team falls. The Pairwise is also a very good place to see just where your team is nationally, in terms of the NCAA tournament. If the tournament started today the ECAC would place five teams in comfortably, which would be a huge accomplishment for the league. Quinnipiac and Union sit in fifth and sixth place respectively in the Pairwise rankings, while Cornell, Yale and Clarkson are in positions 12-14. I think four of those five teams stay in there and another might find there way in, maybe Colgate? Without further ado here are is what I think this week.

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This past week is the first time all six Big Ten teams were engaged in conference series. Yes, it’s January. At the same time, this past week also kicked off BTN’s Frozen Friday doubleheaders that are to be a staple in the second half (the conference play half?) of the season.

And I enjoyed it.

The pre-game and doubleheaders, which admittedly I watched after the fact on DVR, weren’t without issues. There was some awkwardness in the analysis. Schottenstein Center couldn’t look worse on television. On the same weekend that Penn State and Minnesota played a Sunday game that wasn’t televised or even on BTN2Go, aka a doomsday “Big Ten is ruining college hockey” argument, BTN had two games which, as dirty as I feel to say, the conference couldn’t have scripted better with a pair of hat tricks.

More importantly, what won me over was the presentation. College hockey often gets shifted to the back pages of the sports section or has national games where, once it ends, gets ignored as the station goes right into the next program. BTN made it feel like an actual event rather than a second-class production.

For once, the discussion that normally happens on Twitter happened during intermission and a post-game show.

That is something you expect to see with sports although it doesn’t happen that often with hockey in the U.S. (CBS Sports Net probably comes closest with the college game). There aren’t many talking heads. The mixture of regional games with national broadcasts is still slanted towards the former or nothing at all.

Of course, one weekend doesn’t make everything hunky-dory. Not even everything this weekend was when it comes to college hockey on TV, yet coming out of the first BTN Frozen Friday broadcast, my thought was why couldn’t the conference give this type of attention towards the first half (aka the non-conference half)?

That’s a good place to be given some of the other problems in the first year of realignment.

This week’s attention shines a light towards the following things: Ryan Dzingel and Michael Mersch both notching hat tricks, Michigan and Wisconsin passing each other like ships in the night, and how Penn State can take a page from Minnesota. Read the rest of this entry »

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There has been much change in the ECAC Power Rankings, mainly because the semester is anew and some teams are either making statements or have fallen off. Union hasn’t played since early December and they take the number 1 spot for the first time this season, as Quinnipiac and Clarkson have stumbled a bit. Union sits at the top of the ECAC standings but many teams are within striking distance of the top. Without further ado, here are this week’s power rankings.

1. Union (12-3-3, 8-1-0 ECAC) – Before Break 2

Union has not played since December 14th. It will get a trial by fire on Friday, as it will face Quinnipiac for the top spot in the ECAC standings. If there is one coach that would have his team more ready in this situation than Rick Bennett I would love to see said bench boss’ resume. Bennett will have his Dutch more than ready for this big tilt. Read the rest of this entry »

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Boston, Mass – Though winless since Dec. 6 and in the midst of a five-game Hockey East stretch, the Dartmouth Big Green downed Boston University 4-2 Wednesday night at Agganis Arena in the first meeting between the two teams since 2008. Charlie Mosey, Brad Schierhorn, Nick Lovejoy and Eric Neily tallied goals for Dartmouth, while Cason Hohmann and Matt Grzelcyk scored for the Terriers. Big Green goaltender Charles Grant made 26 saves on 28 shots.

What I saw:

– Dartmouth was very aggressive in the offensive zone, attempting 55 shots over the first two periods, also totaling 20 grade-a chances throughout the night.

– Boston’s defense seemed sluggish at times, specifically its backcheck, which led to several Big Green odd-man rushes, and approximately four or five 2-on-1’s.

What I thought:

– Dartmouth came to play, and it was evident from the get-go. The Big Green was winning battles and races at both ends of the ice, and also looked to be skating with a greater sense of urgency. For a team that’s gone just 3-11-2 this season, it was certainly a pleasant surprise.

– Boston struggled in its second game back from winter break; not good for a Terriers team that has gone 0-4-1 in its past five. It definitely feels like Boston hasn’t found its identity yet, which will need to come together soon given the start of the second half.

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Cambridge, MASS – Harvard and Quinnipiac squared off for the 21st time in their short history as opponents. Harvard held a slight edge at 9-8-3 in the all-time series coming into the night. The first period was very Quinnipiacesque, as the Bobcats dominated the possession. It outshot the Crimson 11-6 in the period and left with a 1-0 lead. Kellen Jones scored the only goal in the first period from the slot on a wrister at the seven minute, 33 second mark of the period.

The second period was much of the same but Harvard had the best goaltender in the period. Raphael Girard was phenomenal in the period stoning quality shot, after quality Bobcat shot. Girard’s efforts were rewarded at 12:22 of the period, when Max Everson sent a beauty of a pass to Kyle Criscuolo in the low slot that gave Harvard a 1-1 tie with Quinnipiac in the second period. Matthew Peca scored a go-ahead goal at 2:14 of the third period, which looked to be the game winner until the waning moments of the contest. Harvard’s Alexander Kerfoot scored a game-tying,extra-attacker goal with 49 seconds remaining, which sent the game into overtime.

Harvard and Quinnipiac played an entertaining, scoreless overtime and the 2-2 tie would hold as the final score. Quinnipiac moves its record to 15-3-5, 6-2-3 in the ECAC,  while Harvard goes to 5-7-3, 2-6-3. The point puts Quinnipiac a point behind ECAC leader, Union in the race for the regular season title who waits in the wings for a huge matchup on Friday night in Hamden. The Bobcats, though, have played three more games the Dutchmen and its time may be running out to make a run, as most teams around it have played three less games. Read the rest of this entry »

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There have been some interesting storylines since I last posted. Some teams seem to be on the rise, while others are going in the opposite direction. As a whole, the conference is sitting in a good spot in regards to the NCAA tournament with four teams comfortably on the inside. That is of course all arbitrary because the second half always has a team or two or three that drops out of the top 14 or 15 teams in the Pairwise. The second half always has teams that come out of nowhere as well, so what you see now is not set in stone.

Colgate went out to the Mariucci Classic in Minnesota and shocked everyone by winning both of its games, taking home the tournament title. It not only defeated number one ranked Minnesota in a shootout but it backed up its performance by winning 3-0 against number two ranked, Ferris State . I will discuss what I think about it below but it is a trend that can only be positive for such a young team such as Colgate. Lets not get ahead of ourselves, though, in thinking that it is all of a sudden great team and in the hunt for a National Championship because of one two game stretch. I guess you kind of have a hint of what I am going to say.

Quinnipiac and Harvard will reopen conference play for the second half on Tuesday. QU heads into the game second in the conference with 14 points, but after the game most teams in the conference will have three games in hand on it. Union continues to lead the conference, but teams such as Clarkson, Cornell and Colgate sit within six points of the top. The season is still relatively young though at halfway. Full conference slates will commence at the end of February with most teams playing two conference games a week at that point. Without further ado, here are my thoughts of the week: Read the rest of this entry »

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Finally, the “less Big Ten teams played than number of things” week is upon us and honestly, it isn’t as bad as I would have thought.

Okay last weekend wasn’t pretty. In fact, it was probably for the best that Big Ten play did not start again right after the holiday break. Everyone besides Ohio State (and many of the top ten teams nationally) has had at least one game where rust was prevalent in the last couple weeks. Friday may have been the worst night in conference history.

(After the jump, this week’s 3 Things about just 2 clubs playing turns in 5 things. Things discussed include the lack of Big Ten expansion, Minnesota’s shootout woes, Wisconsin’s Jake McCabe scoring twice to save the weekend for the Badgers, and next weekend’s showdown with Michigan.) Read the rest of this entry »

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Durham, NH- It is amazing how fast a game can change at times, but for UNH it took all of one minute, and 42 seconds in the third period to turn a deficit into a win. Nebraska-Omaha scored the only goal in the first period, when Josh Archibald got a lucky bounce off the fist of Brett Pesce that went into the net to give UNO a 1-0 first intermission lead. Much like the first period, the second period was a defensive chess match but UNH scored a tying goal one minute, 52 seconds into the period when Casey Thrush backhanded a rebound into the net.

The Third period, however, was much different. Nebraska-Omaha scored a go-ahead goal off the stick of Ryan Walters to give them a 2-1 lead. That lead held until the 13:46 mark of the third, when it became the Matt Willows show. Matt Willows tied the game at two and then scored a go ahead goal 1:42 late. Nick Sorkin put the game away moments later on the power-play. Willows completed the hat trick with an empty netter, which he accomplished in 4:30. The win completed the sweep for UNH and improves its record 12-10-1 on the season, while Nebraska-Omaha falls to 8-9-1. Read the rest of this entry »

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Lowell, MASS – The River Hawks and Golden Knights have seen each other a lot in recent weeks, as the two non-conference opponents squared off for the third consecutive game, for both teams. The teams played to a 1-1 draw of Friday night at the Tsongas Center, but on this night the first period saw more goals than the previous night. Clarkson came out flying early in the first and racked up as it found the net twice in the first five minutes of the contest. A.J. Fossen opened up the scoring at three minutes, 11 seconds of the first as Aj. Fossen scored into a wide open net after a rebound. Clarkson followed that up two minutes later, when Matt Zarbo found a puck right in front of UML goaltender, Doug Carr, giving his team a 2-0 lead. Scott Wilson scored on a net drive at 9:45 of the period to bring the River Hawks within a goal but the scoring was done, and the teams went into the first intermission with Clarkson leading, 2-1.

Clarkson continued to control the possession in the second period, but Lowell had the upper-hand on goal scoring. Lowell scored the first two of the second period off the stick’s of Ryan McGrath and Chris Maniccia, while Clarkson got a goal from Sam Labreqcue to send the teams into the second intermission tied at three. Lowell got a go-ahead goal at 9:55 of the third period when Joe Pendenza tipped a puck from out of nowhere giving the River Hawks the 4-3 lead. The lead held for a final as the River Hawks defeated the Golden Knights 4-3. The win improved UML’s record to 14-5-1, while Clarkson’s record fell to 12-6-2. Read the rest of this entry »

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