Showing posts with label college hockey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label college hockey. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Eight UND games on FOX College Sports TV schedule

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – The National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) announced today that 11 NCHC games have been added to the league’s national television schedule on FOX College Sports (FCS) in 2014-15, including seven involving the University of North Dakota.

The five home games, produced in high-definition by Midco Sports Network (MidcoSN), include games against Miami (Nov. 15), Omaha (Nov. 29), Colorado College (Jan. 24), Denver (Feb. 14) and St. Cloud State (Feb. 28).

Dan Hammer is his third season as the play-by-play voice for UND Athletics while former UND forward Scott Koberinski returns as color analyst. Veteran broadcaster Katie Hale also returns as the ice-level intermission reporter.

UND will also have two road games air nationally on FCS: the Jan. 31 game at Omaha, produced by PBS affiliate Nebraska Educational Telecommunications (NET1), and the March 7 game at Miami, produced by Time Warner Cable Sports Channel in Ohio.

Today’s announcement increased the number of regular-season UND men’s hockey national broadcasts in 2014-15 to 13, up from seven in 2013-14. This year’s national broadcast schedule also includes six previously-announced games on CBS Sports Network (CBSSN): vs. Minnesota Duluth (Jan. 10), vs. Colorado College (Jan. 23), at Omaha (Jan. 30), at Western Michigan (Feb. 20), vs. St. Cloud State (Feb. 27) and at Miami (March 6).

UND Men’s Hockey National TV Schedule

Date Opponent Network
Nov. 15 Miami FOX College Sports
Nov. 21 SCSU FOX College Sports
Nov. 29 Omaha FOX College Sports
Jan. 10 at Minnesota Duluth CBS Sports Network
Jan. 23 Colorado College CBS Sports Network
Jan. 24 Colorado College FOX College Sports
Jan. 30 at Omaha CBS Sports Network
Jan. 31 at Omaha FOX College Sports
Feb. 14 Denver FOX College Sports
Feb. 20 at Western Michigan CBS Sports Network
Feb. 27 St. Cloud State CBS Sports Network
Feb. 28 St. Cloud State FOX College Sports
March 6 at Miami CBS Sports Network
March 7 at Miami FOX College Sports

Sunday, November 02, 2014

Men's Division I Hockey Inter-Conference Records: 2014-2015


So far so good. To date, the NCHC has the best non-conference record in division I college hockey. Last season, the NCHC had a mediocre out of conference record and it ended up costing the league in the end.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Men's Division I Hockey Inter-Conference Records: 2014-2015



vs.
Atlantic Hockey
Big Ten
ECAC
Hockey East
NCHC
WCHA
OOC Record
Atlantic Hockey
0-1-0
(.000)
3-7-0
(.300)
1-6-0
(.143)
1-1-0
(.500)
2-2-0
(.500)
7-17-0
(.292)
Big Ten
1-0-0
(1.000)
1-0-0
(1.000)
5-6-1
(.458)
1-2-0
(.333)
2-6-1
(.278)
10-14-2
(.423)
ECAC
7-3-0
(.700)
0-1-0
(.000)
6-4-1
(.591)
3-5-0
(.375)
1-2-1
(.375)
17-15-2
(.529)
Hockey East
6-1-0
(.857)
6-5-1
(.542)
4-6-1
(.409)
2-2-1
(.500)
3-2-1
(.583)
21-16-4
(.561)
NCHC
1-1-0
(.500)
2-1-0
(.667)
5-3-0
(.625)
2-2-1
(.500)
7-5-0
(.583)
17-12-1
(.583)
WCHA
2-2-0
(.500)
6-2-1
(.722)
2-1-1
(.625)
2-3-1
(.417)
5-7-0
(.417)
17-15-3
(.529)

 

One of the concerns last season was the NCHC’s non-conference record. As you can see, so far, the NCHC has the best non-conference record. Obviously, that could change.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Providence Journal: Highly ranked PC hockey should be Frozen Four participant

Here's an interesting article by Providence College hockey beat writer Mark Divver. UND plays Providence College in a high profile series at the Ralph this weekend.
Mark Divver, Providence Journal -- On Friday night at Ohio State, Providence College drops the puck on what has the potential to be a season for the ages.

Coming off their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 13 years, the Friars were ranked third behind perennial powerhouses Minnesota and North Dakota in both preseason national polls. Hockey East coaches picked PC — which returns 19 players from last season — to win the league title.

With the NCAA East Regional scheduled for the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence next March, followed by the Frozen Four at the TD Garden in Boston in April, the Friars have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a magical season.

Coach Nate Leaman is pleased but not satisfied with the progress that’s been made since he came to PC in 2011 from Union College — where he helped build the program that won the national championship last April.

“That’s what (PC) hired me to do. They hired me to get the program moving in the right direction,” he said.

Thursday, October 09, 2014

College Hockey News: Northeastern Placed on 3 Years Probation

According to College Hockey News, Northeastern was placed on three years of probation. Per the blog post by CHN, "The NCAA action does not include a post-season ban for any teams; it does not require the university to vacate any records; and it does not place a restriction on competition or student-athlete participation."

Basically, this is a slap on the wrist for Northeastern. If Northeastern had lost a scholarship or two, this probation might have mattered.
College Hockey News -- The NCAA's Committee on Infractions has imposed a penalty of three years probation to the Northeastern athletic department, in part due to actions that took place during the tenure of previous head coach Greg Cronin.

Cronin and then-assistant coach Albie O'Connell were suspended in February 2011 when the school discovered improper telephone and text message contacts with recruits.

They were reinstated one month later.

Northeastern, which was on probation at the time for infractions by its men's basketball team, self-reported the incident to the NCAA. In June of that year, Cronin stepped down and took a position as assistant coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He's now an assistant with the New York Islanders.


Friday, October 03, 2014

UND Third in CHN Preseason Poll

Apparently, Providence is the team to beat in Hockey East. (Link to the Poll)
1. MINNESOTA
2. PROVIDENCE
3. NORTH DAKOTA

North Dakota returns all but five players that suffered a heart-breaking Frozen Four loss last season — count that as plenty of motivation for a team that went 15-2-1 down the stretch run. With Clarke Saunders gone, junior Zane McIntyre (formerly Gothberg) takes over the net full time and is set up for even more success with a deep veteran defense in front of him. Senior Nick Mattson and junior Jordan Schmaltz headline a crew of blueliners that do everything well and should see sophomore Paul LaDue have an increased role. Up front, Austin Poganski and Nick Schmaltz will fit right in with North Dakota's forwards who can win with goals, physicality, or speed. Expect Drake Caggiula to take a big leap in his third year of collegiate play.

4. BOSTON COLLEGE
5. COLGATE
6. MINNESOTA STATE
7. MIAMI
8. MICHIGAN
9. ST. CLOUD STATE
10. FERRIS STATE

Monday, September 29, 2014

Zach Parise not a fan of the Dump and Chase



s/t to Chris Peters. Former UND All-American Zach Parise isn’t a fan of the dump and chase. I know a few UND hockey fans that will agree with Zach’s opinion. This has been a topic of much debate on Sioux Sports.


Me personally, I know why you see the dump and chase in college hockey. I have seen UND run it from time-to-time. College hockey teams tend to lineup at the blue line and it’s tougher to just skate across the blue line. If they refs aren't calling the obstruction closely, and they're letting the players "play the game", sometimes teams will have no choice but to dump and chase the puck in to the offensive zone.   It is what it is. The NHL is a much different game than college hockey, and I don't see the dump and chase going away anytime soon.
Michael Russo, Star Tribune -- “I read a study this summer that showed shots generated off carrying the puck in as opposed to dumping it in, and it's like 4-to-1. It's not even close,” said Parise, who is set to make his preseason debut with linemates Mikael Granlund and Jason Pominville against the Penguins on Thursday night. “I just found it so interesting because everyone's like, ‘Forecheck, forecheck, forecheck.'
Personally, I am not a big fan of the advanced stats either. In a nut shell, the stat that matters the most is wins and losses. Also, goals and assists are what drive a hockey player's salary. Ugly wins count just as much in the standings as pretty blow out wins.

Friday, September 19, 2014

UND Hockey: 25 Former UND hockey Players on NHL Training Camp Rosters

The list has been updated, there were a few omissions.

Arizona Coyotes: Matt Smaby, Buffalo Sabres: Drew Stafford (A); Calgary Flames: Corban Knight; Carolina Hurricanes: Brad Malone; Chicago Blackhawks: Jonathan Toews (C); Edmonton Oilers: Dillon Simpson; Florida Panthers: Rocco Grimaldi; Los Angeles Kings: Derek Forbort, Matt Greene (A); Minnesota Wild: Zach Parise (A); Montreal Canadiens: Joe Finley; Nashville Bredators: Brian Lee; New Jersey Devils Darcy Zajac, Travis Zajac (A); New York Rangers: Danny Kristo; Philadelphia Flyers: Brett Hextall, Chris Vande Velde; Pittsburgh Penguins: Taylor Chorney; San Jose Sharks: Aaron Dell, Evan Trupp; St. Louis Blues: T.J. Oshie (A); Chris Porter; Toronto Maple Leafs: Matt Frattin, Andrew MacWilliam.

Currently, UND has six players wearing letters.

Some have mentioned that Adam Tambellini is in camp with the New York Rangers. Personally, I could care less. Tambo left the team and his teammates halfway through his first season to go to the WHL, so in my opinion, he’s a Calgary Hitman. It is what it is.

John Buccigross : UND Second in Pre-Season Twitter Poll



John Buccigross (@Buccigross) tweeted his college hockey top 10.

1-Minnesota
2-N.Dakota
3-Colgate
4-BC
5-Providence
6-Miami
7-St Cloud
8-Michigan
9-Ferris St
10-N'Eastern

I never put must stock in pre-season polls or prediction, but they're fun to look at and talk about. Life is a crap shoot, nothing ever shakes out the way the pundits predict anyways.


Last season, Miami University was the odds on favorite to win the Penrose Cup and they finished last in the NCHC. The RedHawks ended up knocking off SCSU in the first round of the NCHC playoffs, and fell one game short of making the NCAA tourney. Four NCHC teams in the Buccigross top ten.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Calgary Herald: Scouts’ subterfuge played big role in Flames snaring Johnny Gaudreau at 2011 NHL draft



Interesting story about former Boston College Eagles Johnny Gaudreau. Reading the article, I am sure that you will see a few familiar names thrown out in this article. Gaudrea is one of the most prolific players to play college hockey in some time. It will be interesting to see how he does with the Calgary Flames this season.
Scott Cruickshank, Calgary Herald — They liked him. They liked him a lot.

So they wanted to avoid tipping their hand. No easy thing in a world as small as hockey’s.

To keep their degree of admiration hidden, they didn’t approach the player — not even once — leading up to the 2011 National Hockey League draft. And they took secrecy one step further by not talking to the boy’s junior coach, either.

Why? Because they knew that Peter Chiarelli, general manager of the Boston Bruins, had an ownership stake in the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints and, should they pick the brain of skipper Jim Montgomery, word of their interest could trickle back to Beantown.

But the Calgary Flames, with stealth, did their homework on Johnny Gaudreau.

Repeated viewings, of course. Also casual discussions with opposing coaches. These chats, by design, were kept lighthearted.

Monday, September 15, 2014

MY NCHC Predictions

I posted my predictions for the NCHC season at the Hockey Writers.

League Champion (Playoffs)

Before I get accused of being a homer, hear me out. I predict the University of North Dakota will be the NCHC playoff champion. Here’s why. During his 10 seasons at UND, head coach Dave Hakstol’s teams have a (.583) winning percentage before Christmas and (.697) winning percentage after the Christmas break.  Hakstol’s teams typically peak during the second half of the season, so a playoff championship isn’t out of the question.  UND returns one of the top defensive corps in the NCHC, and also one of the top goaltenders.


I think my top three will probably go like this, as of right now. Thoughts.
1. Miami
2 UND
3. SCSU

Friday, September 12, 2014

Badgers Blog: Mike Eaves believes Big Ten hockey will grow within next 10 years

Hey, the more the merrier. Right? I think it's a great idea. I think there's a lot of room for expansion in college hockey.
Jeff Potrykus, Journal Sentinel Madison – Mike Eaves believes the first season of the Big Ten men’s hockey conference was a success.

“What we saw from our students, they identified with the Penn States, the Ohio States and the Michigan States,” UW's veteran coach Eaves told the UW athletic board on Friday. “So even if they didn’t know much about hockey, they knew those schools and they would tend to come to our games.”

Eaves went on to say that he believes the Big Ten will expand from its current base of six teams sometime within the next five to 10 years.

The six teams are UW, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Minnesota and Penn State.

“I know that Indiana and Illinois have great club (programs),” Eaves said. “Northwestern has had a group get together looking at the (possibility), which makes a lot of sense because Chicago has great hockey.”

According to Eaves, former UW defenseman Chris Chelios is involved in the group studying the feasibility of adding men’s hockey at Northwestern.

Tuesday, September 09, 2014

Vegas - National Title Odds

Vegas releases national title odds..   Posted on September 9, 2014 by Brad Elliott Schlossman

Caesars has released its odds for the 2014 college hockey national championship. Twitter user @irik101 posted a photo of them, showing that Minnesota is the heaviest favorite to win it all, followed by Boston College, North Dakota and Providence. Of note, Providence comes to Ralph Engelstad Arena on Oct. 24-25. Here you go….

3/1 — Minnesota (opened at 9/2)
4/1 — Boston College
6/1 — North Dakota (opened at 10/1)
10/1 — Providence
12/1 — Union
15/1 — Wisconsin
18/1 — St. Cloud State
20/1 — Colgate
20/1 — Michigan
20/1 — MSU-Mankato
25/1 — Denver
25/1 — UMass-Lowell
25/1 — Miami
25/1 — Quinnipiac
30/1 — Ferris State (opened at 40/1)
40/1 — Maine
40/1 — Ohio State
40/1 — Cornell
40/1 — Notre Dame
40/1 — New Hampshire
40/1 — Bowling Green (opened 60/1)
40/1 — Boston University (opened 60/1)
50/1 — Minnesota Duluth
50/1 — Yale
50/1 — Vermont (opened 60/1)
50/1 — Northeastern (opened 60/1)
60/1 — Clarkson
75/1 — Western Michigan -


Wednesday, August 13, 2014

WCHA, Must-See Non-Conference Series

Part four of a six part series that were originally posted at the Hockey Writers.

Series one: North Dakota vs. Bemidji State University Date: October 10-11, 2014.
 Game one location: Ralph Engelstad Arena, Grand Forks, North Dakota.
Game two location: Sanford Center, Bemidji, Minnesota.

The Highway Two series, both teams are a short 2-hour bus trip away. Former WCHA foes BSU and UND will square off in a two-game home-and-home non-conference series. Last season, BSU lost and tied to UND (2-4 L, 1-1 T). One should expect a lot of UND fans to make the trip to the Sanford Center on Saturday night, due to the proximity of the schools.

All-time, Bemidji State is (2-26-2 .116) against North Dakota.

You can see all of the three by clicking on the links.

Big Ten Hockey: Five Must-See Non-Conference Series.

ECAC Hockey: Five Must-See Non-Conference Series.

NCHC Hockey: Five Must-See Non-Conference Series.

UND Hockey: Five Must-See Non-Conference.

Thursday, August 07, 2014

NCAA Hockey: Must-See games

ECAC Hockey

This summer,  I have been working on a series of must-see games. So far, I have the NCHC, UND and the ECAC done. As the different schedules come out, I will post some more of these.

Looking at the East Coast Athletic Conference schedule, I previewed five must-see non-conference games. In my opinion, these are some of the more “attractive” non-conference series on the ECAC schedule. Feel free to chime in with your favorite must-see ECAC non-conference series.

The ECAC once regarded as the EZAC by other conference fans, is now the home to the last two NCAA Champions. The ECAC is quickly becoming the country’s power conference for division I college hockey. (ECAC Hockey: Five Must-See Non-Conference Series).

UND Hockey

As we make our way through a very slow off-season, you can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The college hockey season is just around the corner. There’s roughly 60 days until North Dakota kicks off the 2014-15 season with an exhibition game against Manitoba Bison.

Looking at the University of North Dakota’s 2014-15 schedule, here’s my five must-see hockey series. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts. (UND Hockey: Five Must-See Games).

NCHC Hockey

In my humble opinion, there are five must-see non-conference series on the NCHC composite schedule. Last season, the NCHC had a mediocre non-conference record. Moving forward, these non-conference games will be very important to the final Pairwise Rankings. Having a strong non-conference record means the NCHC will get more teams in the NCAA tourney. (NCHC Hockey: Five Must-See Non-Conference Series)

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Drake Caggiula attending Sabres Development Camp



University of North Dakota forward Drake Caggiula is currently attending the Buffalo Sabres Development camp, he's a free agent. Here’s some of the other college hockey players that are attending the Sabres development camp.

BUFFALO SABRES 2014-15 DEVELOPMENT CAMP ROSTER (College Players)

FORWARD

Caggiula, Drake C/LW 5’9” 180 L Pickering, Ontario June 20, 1994 North Dakota
Compher, J.T. LW 5’10” 182 L Northbrook, Illinois Oct. 12, 1993 U. of Michigan (Big 10)
Fasching, Hudson RW 6’2” 213 R Burnsville, Minnesota July 28, 1995 U. of Minnesota (Big 10) 40
Malone, Sean C 5’11” 186 L Buffalo, New York April 30, 1995 Harvard (ECAC)
Samuels-Thomas, Jordan LW 6’3” 195 L Hartford, Connecticut May 28, 1990 Quinnipiac (ECAC)

DEFENSE

Florentino, Anthony D 6’1” 226 R Boston, Massachusetts Jan. 30, 1995 Providence (H-East)
McCabe, Jake D 6’1” 210 L Eau Claire, Wisconsin Oct. 12, 1993 U. of Wisconsin (Big 10) Buffalo (NHL)
Prochno, Andrew D 5’11” 185 L Edina, Minnesota Nov. 3, 1991 St. Cloud State (NCHC)

College Hockey in Arizona?



Here's an interesting story, it could be noting more than conjecture at this point. I suppose the NCHC would be a logical location for the Arizona State Sun Devils.
Justin Emerson, House of Sparky -- "He said ‘Mr. Anderson, if you provided varsity-level hockey at ASU ... you would be able to attract so many students from the East and from the North and even from Canada to want to come to Tempe, Arizona to play the sport at a high level,'" Anderson said. "He said ‘I guarantee you, there would be so many prospects for you.' And you know what, I believe that."

Arizona State hockey and coach Greg Powers have done a superb job bringing in high-level talent. Six players next year will be alumni of the United States Hockey League, one of the top junior hockey leagues in North America. That number is by far the highest in the ACHA.

Current USHL veterans include current NHL players like St. Louis forward Paul Stasny, Montreal forward Max Pacioretty, San Jose forward Joe Pavelski, and Olympic hero T.J. Oshie of St. Louis.

There are 11 members of next year's Sun Devil hockey team chose Arizona State over NCAA Division I schools, and one- defenseman Connor Schmidt- played NCAA last season.
I will believe it when I see it. Also, it’s not as easy to start a Division I Hockey team as the author suggests. That being said, it w would be a nice road trip for fans during the cold winter months. Allegiant Air flies from Grand Forks, ND to Phoenix.