Mining Gazette: Scheduling still a struggle for Wildcats in new college hockey landscape

Here’s an interesting article that I found in the Mining Journal. Personally, I really enjoyed the Non-conference matchup between the two teams. Historically, there were some good matchups between the two teams, when they played in the same conference.

Matt Wellens, Mining Gazette, Les Wong was NMU's president at the time and having previously been employed as a vice president at Valley City State University in North Dakota, Wong was interested in the Wildcats playing the team then known as the Fighting Sioux, so Kyle set up the deal.

"We've always wanted to play the bulk of our nonconference against the old WCHA schools because our fans would like that," Kyle said. "I think it's great when we get a chance to do that.

"(UND) is a great opponent. They are always perennially good year in and year out. It's a great environment every year."

Kyle hopes this weekend's one-way trip to North Dakota will spark a scheduling relationship that eventually leads to UND playing a series in Marquette. The two schools haven't played each other anywhere since NMU originally left the WCHA after the 1996-97 season.

But Kyle wants to avoid two-for-one deals that would involve, for example, two series played in Grand Forks and one in Marquette over three seasons.

Obviously, the coaching staff has to do what’s best for the team, and make their schedule based on what they think is best for the team in the long run. With the NCHC having eight-teams, there’s an opportunity for them to play a lot of non-conference matchups.... But I would love to see UND play the Northern Michigan Wildcats in the future going forward. NMU plays a brand of hockey that’s fun to watch.

Tuesday Night Tilt (by Sioux 7)

In a rare Tuesday night game, this year, two old rivals go out.  So, here is an early week prediction.

Michigan Tech (4-7-1 overall) @ Northern Michigan (5-8-3 overall) (Tuesday)

Last weekend the Huskies got a point (3-7, 4-4ot) from the Bulldogs in Houghton and the Wildcats were swept (4-2, 1-0) on the road, by their CCHA foe Western Michigan.

This will be the first meeting this season between these two Upper Peninsula hockey teams.  It is the battle of the Cats and Dogs in Marquette on Tuesday evening.  Next year this will be a conference games as NMU will re-join the WCHA after a twelve year absence.  I’m going with MTU in this Yopper tilt, since they were at home this past weekend.  HUSKIES WIN

Jacob Trouba destroys NMU's Reed Secke

[click to view video] Ouch!!! Check out this hit by Michigan Defenseman Jacob Trouba as he absolutely destroyed Northern Michigan’s sophomore Reed Secke with a monster hit. Trouba was given a five minute major and a game misconduct and the CCHA gave Trouba an extra game suspension. Secke was cleared by the NMU medical staff but you can tell by the picture that Secke was absolutely lit up.
Originally posted at the Hockey Writers - Combine.

Super League rumblings

There is a lot of stuff coming out about the new "Super League" and we will try to keep up with all of the news that comes out. I am sure that more stuff will come out as we get closer to the Wednesday press conference. Some of this stuff makes your head spin and your chest hurt.

Some interesting things to come out in the last 24-48 hours... While the president of SCSU Dr. Earl Potter has been saying, “We expected to be in conversations about being in a new league,” Potter said today “But as we looked at it ... we intended to say ‘no.’ ” That statement seemed kind of odd to me when I first read it. I am not sure why the president of SCSU to make this comment because it appears more like sour grapes from the SCSU end and it would also burn bridges in case the "Super League" did come back and ask SCSU to join.

Well now! Further investigation revealed that SCSU is talking out of both sides of it's mouth, it has become public that SCSU was in fact trying to get in to the proposed "Super League" and they were turned down. So after SCSU is rejected they decided to bad mouth the new Super League. Compare and contrast, WMU is also trying to get in the the new "Super League" while not yet a member, is going about it in a lot different manner and holding comments for now, which appears to be a good idea. I also imagine that maybe WMU and Notre Dame might be part of a proposed package deal and we're waiting for Notre Dame to make a decision.

Matt Wellens; The Daily News ---- Multiple sources who would only speak on the condition of anonymity at Northern Michigan University, a CCHA member, have confirmed the formation of the new six-school league and next week's pending announcement, though those sources say Western Michigan is on the outside looking in despite a recent trip by WMU officials to North Dakota.

St. Cloud State of the WCHA is also pressing to get into the league, but it is unlikely the Huskies will be included, one source said.

This revelation proves that the new Super League is not messing around and wants to be a serious counter weight to the BTHC. Hat tip to Matt Wellens of the Daily News.

Invitations were also extended to Boston College and Boston University to join what has been dubbed the "Super League," but both schools turned down the offer to leave Hockey East.

One thing that has been a head scratcher is the fact some people in the WCHA have said that they didn't see this Super League coming. How did they not see this coming down the pike? The reason that I am surprised is that there were all kinds of rumors about the formation of the Super League floating out there since the Frozen Four. My next question is do these schools not communicate with each other? If I was an AD at one of the schools not rumored to be in the Super League mix I would have picked up the phone and started asking questions. You have to be proactive and not reactive.

Beth Bragg; ADN.COM --- The teams are North Dakota, Colorado College, Denver, Minnesota-Duluth and Nebraska-Omaha. A sixth team, Miami of Ohio, would come from the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, Cobb said.

"I don't think anybody saw this coming," he said.

A call to WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod was not immediately returned Thursday. Cobb said that at the annual WCHA meeting in April, there wasn't a hint that any school was thinking about leaving the league.

"At our meeting in April we voted to extend an invitation to Miami and Notre Dame," Cobb said, referring to a pair of CCHA teams. "That passed with 100 percent of the vote. Nobody said they were unhappy. We left the April meeting and basically some of them contacted Notre Dame and Miami and said, 'Don't take the WCHA invitation, we're going to invite you to join our super league.'

"I blame everybody for being less than honest with their own league members. It's a really sneaky back-door deal."

I believe there are going to be some hard feelings when this is all said and done. I just hope that the schools leaving the WCHA will try and schedule the teams in the WCHA and CCHA. I also hope that there will some how be a way to smooth over some of these hard feelings or it could be a contentious times for the next two seasons remaining in the WCHA.

We don't have a choice

We keep hearing from the Big Ten Hockey Conference fans that we don't have a choice on conference affiliation, well to be honest with you, either do the fans of the five WCHA teams; UND, DU, UMD, UNO, C.C. fans... can we can not play that game as well? You, me and other fans of the five WCHA teams in question have no say in the matter. In the whole grand scheme of things it's really the decision of our programs athletic departments and the fans, bloggers and media members don't have a say one bit, we are a long for the ride.

Related articles

• College Hockey's New 'Super Conferences': Are They Good Or Bad For The Game? (sbnation.com)
• Big Ten may mean big issues for hockey... (ndgoon.blogspot.com)