Hockey Is a Dangerous Sport - Yikes

Gnarly laceration on Penn State's Dave Thompson @DaveChompson in Friday's game against Alaska-Anchorage(via @ZSaar17) pic.twitter.com/89rJF6m0o8
— Ashley Chase (@AshleyChaseTV) October 20, 2014

Here's a picture of Penn State  defenseman David Thompson's abdomen after he was cut with a skate. Thompson laceration came in last Friday's game against UAA during the Brice Goal Rush tournament in Fairbanks, Alaska. Thankfully, Thompson should be back on the ice soon.

"Yeah, he's going to be great," said Penn State Head Coach, Guy Gadowsky of Thompson. "He's going to be fine. They took really good care of him. It was scary at the start, and we took every precaution, but he's going to be back at 100 percent very soon."

Official update on David Thompson: he was taken to the hospital for an abdominal laceration requiring stiches. He'll be alright. #WeAre
— Penn State Hockey (@PennStateMHKY) October 18, 2014

Ruh Roh! Small school complaining

I was reading this article in USCHO and it's interesting, but not all is equal. The Atlantic Hockey Association while they have made big-time improvements, they still aren't on the same level as the other major conferences. That's the brutal reality. That doesn't mean that they're not going to win games in the NCAA tourney, because they have in a few isolated cases.

Also, these schools in most cases, just  don't have the facilities a lot of the other big schools have, I checked on line and not one of the current schools in the AHA has an arena that seats over 3000 fans.  So, good luck getting the bigger schools to visit the R.I.T., Sacred Hearts and or the Bentley's of the AHA.

Chris Lerch, USCHO.COM -- Atlantic Hockey posted the highest number of non-conference wins (25) and tied for the best non-conference winning percentage (.365) in the league’s history. That was despite AHA teams playing the vast majority of their non-conference games on the road.

And that, according to Wilson, is where change has to happen.

Atlantic Hockey teams hosted 23 non-conference home games (16 with conference-affiliated teams; seven against either Alabama-Huntsville or Penn State) plus three more neutral-ice games where AHA squads were the designated home team (RIT’s game with Penn State at Rochester’s Blue Cross Arena and Robert Morris’ contests with Penn State and Ohio State at Pittsburgh’s Consol Energy Center).

In contrast, the league’s 12 teams played 52 pure road games and another five on neutral ice (not including NCAA tournament games). That’s more than a two-to-one disparity.

Mercyhurst played all seven of its non-conference games on the road. Niagara played six of its seven non-conference contests away from Dwyer Arena, where the Purple Eagles were 15-0-2 last season.

In comparison, teams that will form the National Collegiate Hockey Conference played 35 non-conference home games to just 15 road games and 10 neutral-site games. Denver did not play a road non-conference game; no NCHC school played more than two.

Big Ten teams (not including Penn State) played 20 non-conference home games, eight road games and nine neutral-site games out of league. Wisconsin and Michigan did not play any non-conference road games.

Sure, it's true that AHA allows the NCAA tourney to have 16 teams in the NCAA tourney, but now it appears that the smaller schools in college hockey want to start dictating the terms to the bigger schools of college hockey. Yeah, okay! We'll see how that works for them.

I have a feeling this isn't going to play well for these smaller schools and I really don't see them setting the terms. I mean, what's next? The smaller schools start asking that we move the start of the season back a couple of weeks? Or that we start limiting that number of scholarships that teams can give out to level the playing field. The AHA isn't fully funding their hockey teams to the maximum scholarship levels that the other schools are.

Of course that's going to change, a little bit. It was announced back in May, that the Atlantic Hockey beginning with the 2014-15 season will add one additional scholarship bringing the total allowed to 13 scholarships. The following season, Atlantic Hockey will again add one more scholarship for the 2015-16 season, bringing the total number of scholarships to 14.

UND travels on a couple of non-conference series every season. Last year, UND went to the Alaska Goal Rush Tourney in Fairbanks Alaska and played at Notre Dame. So, actually, Mr. Lerch’s article isn’t exactly correct, one NCHC team played three non-conference games away from home. Alaska Fairbanks was the host for the Goal Alaska Rush Tourney.

Break down of UND travel in recent years.

UND traveled to Kendall Classic in Anchorage, Alaska and to Maine for the 2010-11 season.
UND traveled to Cornell during the 2009-10 season.
UND traveled to Boston for the Ice Breaker during the 2008-09 season to play BU and UMass and also played a two game set at Harvard as well. So, that team made two trips to Boston.

Related articles

• Is this the list of NCHC refs? (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• Josh Fenton Named Commissioner Of NCHC (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• CCHA & Atlantic Hockey Meet To Discuss Alignment Possibilities (stupidhockey.typepad.com)
• NCAA Hockey: Current NCHC Television Deal is Unacceptable (getrealhockey.com)
• NCHC to launch new web page on August 1, 2013 (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• Nchc Announces Inaugural Television Schedule (ndgoon.blogspot.com)

Alaska Nanooks 2010 Hockey Intro Video

Brad Schlossman posted this video on the Wednesday Herald writers sports chat today. Since UND is going up to Fairbanks to play in the Brice Goal Rush Tourney, I thought I would post it on the blog because it's a very well done video, the University of Alaska Fairbanks used to play this video before their games during the 2010-11 season.

Easton Synergy EQ50 Jr. Hockey Equipment Combo (Google Affiliate Ad)

UND Athletics issues additional 1-game suspensions for men’s hockey party

UND Athletics issues additional 1-game suspensions bit.ly/VmGOJm
— North Dakota MHockey (@UNDMHockey) September 22, 2012

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – University of North Dakota Director of Athletics Brian Faison announced today additional suspensions for a violation of team rules stemming from a Sept. 15 men’s hockey team party. Today’s suspensions were determined based on additional information gathered during the athletic department’s investigative process.

Sophomores Connor Gaarder, Andrew Panzarella and Stephane Pattyn have been suspended for UND’s Oct. 20 regular season game at Alaska Fairbanks. On Monday, Faison had announced 1-game suspensions for senior captains Andrew MacWilliam, Corban Knight, Danny Kristo and Carter Rowney to be served during UND’s Oct. 19 regular season opener against Alaska Anchorage in Fairbanks.

Faison also announced today that Kristo and sophomore forward Brendan O’Donnell have each received a 1-game suspension for a violation of UND Athletics Department policy. O’Donnell will serve his suspension on Oct. 19 versus Alaska Anchorage, while Kristo will serve his additional suspension Oct. 20 at Alaska Fairbanks.

When Faison issued the four initial suspensions on Monday, he also announced several additional team disciplinary measures including, but not limited to:

o Athletics Department-issued team probation under which any further violations by a team member could result in immediate reduction of scholarship, suspension from competition, or expulsion from the program.

o The implementation of a mandatory team community service program

o Weekly team alcohol education programming

Faison reiterated that “measures taken by the athletics department do not preclude possible additional measures by the department, or actions by the University or local and state authorities.”

Neither Faison nor head coach Dave Hakstol will provide further comment.

Links to the Story...

UND announces additional suspensions - UND Hockey Blog

More players to sit out opening weekend; four to be charged with underage drinking - Grand Forks Herald

Update on “Mystery Alaska” playoff plan

My last blog post was to an older link that was updated last night. So basically this story even gets better - this story seems to evolve more by the minute. I almost think that the WCHA needs a P.R. person that is media savvy because the WCHA seems to be shooting themselves in the foot right now.

Here is another thought, maybe the WCHA should have not released their playoff format till they had all of the bugs ironed out of it. What's the rush? The nWCHA doesn't start play until the 2013-14 season so why do you have to release the plans to your conference tourney, especially if the format is still in the planning stage and there is a good possibility that it might change even more in the next couple of days or months. 

Matt Wellens, Mining Journal --- UPDATE: Information provided by WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod may not have been accurate concerning the league playoff structure. According to a source, Alaska Fairbanks and Alaska Anchorage would receive a first-round bye if either wins the WCHA regular season title. McLeod told The Mining Journal otherwise, that both will meet in the first round no matter what and that the next highest seed not from Alaska would receive a bye. Here is how McLeod explained it: McLeod: "Let's just say Anchorage and Fairbanks are 1 and 2. Well they're going to play. You know what I mean? So who gets the bye? We got to take a closer look at it. Right now, it would be No. 3. You know what I mean?" The source asked not to be named because the league told all coaches, athletic directors and presidents to let the league office handle inquiries.

This latest revelation is even worse - why play the regular season? Also, if two teams finish one and two, the top bid would deserved it's playoff bye and the second place team should be afforded the opportunity to play the eight place team on their home ice. It's doesn't matter if they have to play a few more dollars to fly that team to Alaska, the integrity of the tourney should not be sacrificed.