The last time the WCHA added a team was in 1999 when Minnesota State joined the league.
That was a much different situation 10 years ago, as the local, purple Mavericks were making the transition from the dying Division II ranks to Division I.
Minnesota State’s short stint as a D-I independent involved a sort of initiation process, playing in the nine-team WCHA’s conference tournament as the 10th seed for two years before becoming a full-fledged member of the fraternity. Even then, Minnesota State had to pay an expansion fee and not share in the conference tournament and Final Five money.
Like MSU, Bemidji State jumped from Division II to Division I. In 1999 it left the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association behind and helped found the now nearly defunct College Hockey America conference. Omaha started its program from scratch and began playing in 1997. After its overtures to the WCHA were turned down, it joined the Central Collegiate Hockey Association in 1999.
Both schools’ stock jumped up recently, as the Beavers shocked the college-hockey world by advancing to the NCAA Frozen Four in April and, a month ago, the red Mavericks hired ex-North Dakota coach Dean Blais, who won two national championships with the Sioux, to run the program.
The WCHA certainly isn’t adding a pair of powder-puffs, and all 10 of its current members might be just a tad nervous right now.
While the addition of those two schools will give the WCHA a much different look in a couple of years, it might not be too strange for Minnesota State and its fans.
The purple Mavericks practically have considered the schools their D-I cousins and have maintained rivalries with both. A longtime D-II rival with Bemidji, Minnesota State has played the Beavers every year since 1998, going 14-5-2 against them in that span. MSU has played Omaha, an old North Central Conference rival in other sports, every year but two since 1997 and has a 14-6-4 all-time record against the red Mavs.
Minnesota State and Nebraska-Omaha have played for the “Spirit of the Maverick” trophy every year since 2001-02. Come 2010, the WCHA will undergo a spirit of change. [Mankato Free Press]
F Scott Campbell Umass-Lowell 14-16-30 in 38 games
F Joe Colborne 16th in 2008 University of Denver 10-21-31 in 40 games
D Tommy Cross 35th in 2007 Boston College 0-8-8 in 24 games
G Matt Dalton signed in 2009 Bemidji State University 2.19 GAA .921 Sv%
D Alain Goulet 159th in 2007 University of Nebraska-Omaha 2-3-5 in 17 games
D Brady Lamb University of Minnesota-Duluth 1-1-2 in 21 games
F Jason Lawrence Boston University 25-14-39 in 44 games
D Tyler Ludwig Western Michigan University 8-21-29 in 41 games
D Zach McKelvie Army (NCAA) 5-12-17 in 33 games
[WickedBruinsFan's Blog]
Forney still has not made his final decision. I think everyone involved thought that the answer would be known by now, but it is not. When I know, I'll pass it along. [UND Hockey Blog]
POSITION: Sports Broadcaster (20 hr/wk, TBA), #10-002
APPLICATION DEADLINE: 7/15/2009
COMPENSATION: $ 25,000
UND determines employment eligibility through the E-Verify system. Upon successful completion of the initial probation period, an employee may be eligible for a salary adjustment. Comprehensive fringe benefit package that includes full health insurance coverage for single or family plans, retirement plan and much more is provided. A complete summary of benefits for staff employees may be seen at:
DESCRIPTION OF POSITION:
Current UND employees may receive first consideration. To serve as play by play announcer for men’s ice hockey and other sports as assigned by Associate Athletic Director; To serve as host and emcee for various radio and television productions including but not limited to men’s hockey coach’s TV and radio show; emcee at various athletics functions; fill in as public address announcer; assist with press conferences and public relations; other duties as assigned by Associate Director of Athletics.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:
Bachelor’s degree or minimum of 5 years hockey play by play experience
Hockey play by play radio/TV broadcast experience
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
Familiar with NCAA rules and regulations
Ryan Hill Commits to University of North Dakota The Sioux Falls Stampede announced today that defenseman Ryan Hill has committed to the University of North Dakota for the upcoming 2009-2010 season. He becomes the 15th player on the 2008-09 squad to commit to a Division I school.
Hill was acquired by the Stampede in trade with Waterloo in early January and went on to post three assists in 29 games while helping anchor the Stampede blueline. The Hermantown, Minnesota native recorded a total of six assists in 51 USHL games last season. Prior to playing for the Stampede and Waterloo, Hill spent the majority of the 2006-07 season with the Ohio Jr. Blue Jackets.
"We're ecstatic," said head coach Kevin Hartzell. "Ryan paid his dues more then most and we're excited he found a great home."
The Fighting Sioux went 24-15-4 en route to their WCHA-leading 14th league championship in 2008-09. The Sioux also advanced to the NCAA tournament for the fifth straight season under head coach Dave Hakstol, who also took home WCHA Coach of the Year honors. The Fighting Sioux have advanced to the NCAA Frozen Four in four of Hakstol's five seasons behind the bench. He began his career as the head coach of the Sioux City Musketeers (1997-2000).
A total of eight players who spent the 2008-09 season in the USHL have committed to the University of North Dakota; Brett Bruneteau (Des Moines), Mike Fink (Des Moines), Joe Gleason (Des Moines), Matt White (Des Moines), Michael Forney (Green Bay), Mike Cichy (Indiana), Danny Kristo (Omaha), and Ryan Hill (Sioux Falls).
The Fighting Sioux had 11 former USHL players on their roster during the 2008-09 season; Joe Finley (Sioux Falls), Derrick LaPoint (Green Bay), Mario Lamoureux (Tri-City), Brad Miller (Green Bay), Jason Gregoire (Lincoln), Brad Malone (Sioux Falls), Ben Blood (Indiana/Des Moines), Jake Marto (Omaha), Evan Trupp (Des Moines), Chris Vande Velde (Lincoln), and Aaron Walski (Lincoln).
The USHL celebrated its 30th season of junior hockey in 2008-09. With nearly 180 players already committed to NCAA Division I schools and 17 NHL Draft picks that played in the league this season, the USHL is the nation's foremost producer of junior hockey talent. For more information, visit us on the web at www.ushl.com.
Brad Schlossman, Grand Forks Herald: The NCAA wants referees to clean up the after-the-whistle shenanigans in college hockey.
The Rules Committee announced its points of emphasis for the 2009-10 season on Thursday, and at the top of the list was eliminating both contact after the whistle and facewashing, the act of sticking a glove in an opponent’s face.
Facewashing is a common form of retaliation that doesn’t draw penalties.
Hockey gloves, covered in perspiration, tend to smell awful. So players will skate up to an opponent, stick their palm in his face and let him take a whiff of the stench.
The Rules Committee, however, views this as a violation of the “grasping the facemask” rule. Planting an open hand in an opponents face should result in a minor penalty, it says.
Pushing the facemask or moving the hand back-and-forth on it should result in a major penalty, and twisting or pulling on the mask should be a game disqualification under the excessive roughness category.
“The committee believes altercations after the whistle are a growing and disturbing trend,” the NCAA said in a release. “Any contact to the head tends to escalate altercations. After reviewing numerous situations, the committee expressed its concern about student-athlete safety as well as the negative effect on the game’s image.”
Protecting the puck carrier
Last year, the NCAA’s big mandate was to do a better job protecting the puck carrier.
This was an effort to increase scoring chances and the excitement of the game by letting skilled players proceed without being hooked or held.
Midway through the year, however, multiple Western Collegiate Hockey Association coaches said they felt that the referees had backed off on making those calls.
The NCAA again addressed that rule this summer.
“As all levels of NCAA ice hockey enter the second season with the two-referee system,” it writes, “the expectation of overall enforcement is higher.”
Todd Milewski, a writer for United States College Hockey Online tweeted: “But seriously, the WCHA got this one right. Wouldn’t have been right to turn the other way while Bemidji faded away.”
But not everyone was happy. WCHA officials characterized BSU’s and UNO’s move to the WCHA as good for college hockey.
A sportswriter on the conference call challenged that generalization and asked: “The CCHA lost a team … the WCHA’s gain is the CCHA’s loss and how is that supposed to be good for college hockey?”
The writer also cited a statement issued by CCHA Commissioner Tom Anastos.
“We are disappointed to hear of UNO’s decision to leave the CCHA as they have been a very good member of our league. We have an excellent league, with a very strong membership, and we will continue to focus all of our attention on being a great conference and a leader in helping to shape the future of college hockey,” Anastos said in a statement.
McLeod did not waver.
“Sometimes I have to look out for what’s best in college hockey in general,” he said. “We did not want to look at losing another program.”
June 26, 2009 ---- Farmington Hills, Mich. CCHA Commissioner Tom Anastos today issued the following statement, on behalf of the CCHA Executive Committee and CCHA Council, in response to Nebraska-Omaha's announcement that it will be leaving the CCHA to join the WCHA in the 2010-11 season.
"We are disappointed to hear of UNO's decision to leave the CCHA as they have been a very good member of our league, and we wish them well. We have an excellent league, with a very strong membership, and we will continue to focus all of our attention on being a great conference and a leader in helping to shape the future of college hockey.
"At this time, it serves no purpose to speculate on how this latest decision will impact the future makeup of CCHA membership. There is a process being followed with respect to admittance of any new member and we are committed to following that process through to completion."
MONTREAL - Philip Samuelsson is headed to Boston College this fall to play hockey, and his father figures that alone is proof of the kid’s mental toughness.
“If he can handle that,’’ said his father, ex-NHL villain Ulf Samuelsson, still reviled in Boston for his nasty hit on Cam Neely that accelerated the power forward’s departure from the game, “then he can handle Pittsburgh.’’
The younger Samuelsson was chosen by the Penguins yesterday as the 61st pick (last in the second round) of the 2009 draft at the Bell Centre. Like his dad, Samuelsson is a defenseman, nearly 6 feet 3 inches and 200 pounds. With Chris Kreider also headed to The Heights in September, the Eagles should be a force in Hockey East.
“I saw my dad win two Cups there,’’ said Samuelsson, reflecting on the family’s time in Steel City, “so I know how passionate they are about their sports.’’
The senior Samuelsson said he hopes his son can develop quickly and “get to play with those superstars’’ in Pittsburgh, where youngsters Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby recently led the Penguins to the Stanley Cup.
“I look through different glasses at the University of Minnesota than I did at the University of Denver, but when it comes to hockey there is a lot of similarity.”
That kind of commitment shines through on the ice. WCHA teams won six national championships from 2000 through 2006, and the league has 27 national runner-up finishes to go with its three dozen titles. The CCHA, formed in 1971, has nine national championships and seven runner-up finishes — Michigan and Michigan State combined to win eight titles when those schools belonged to the WCHA.
“Week in and week out, you can't take a night off,” said Jeff Sauer, the former Wisconsin coach who now works for the WCHA as an assistant to Commissioner Bruce McLeod. “That's why we think we've had so much success in the national tournament. When you win a MacNaughton Cup (regular-season championship), our coaches will tell you to a man that winning that championship is tougher than winning an NCAA championship — when you consider everything that goes into it.”
UNO Associate Athletic Director Mike Kemp, who was the only coach in the program's history before Dean Blais was hired to replace him earlier this month, grew up on WCHA hockey. He served as Sauer's long-time assistant at Wisconsin before coming to UNO. When, in the 1990s, the WCHA started taking steps to recognize the legends that had passed through, it crystallized for Kemp all the special things he had thought about the league.
“The conference isn't just what it is today,” Kemp said. “It's what it has been since 1951. It's one for the ages.”
Last year a WCHA team didn't reach the Frozen Four for just the fourth time ever, but one year earlier the final top 10 poll included seven WCHA teams.
The league boasts the top three teams (Wisconsin, North Dakota and Minnesota) in attendance nationally, and the addition of UNO now gives the WCHA six of last year's top seven. All but Alaska-Anchorage, Michigan Tech and newcomer Bemidji State ranked in the top 25 in attendance. [Omaha.com]
The only surprise about UNO leaving the CCHA for the WCHA is that the entire deal was completed today. Before today, it seemed that it was going to be a process that would take a few weeks, but once the parameters of an agreement between UNO and the WCHA were complete, there probably was little reason to drag the process out. In fact, perhaps Trev Alberts pushed to get the whole deal completed immediately so that there were no opportunities for "surprises" down the line.
The winners in this deal are obvious: college hockey gains by keeping Bemidji State's program alive. The WCHA gets bigger, and probably will earn more revenue with more rounds of playoff hockey. UNO reduces their travel costs and gets to share in the larger pool of revenue that the WCHA affords.
The loser? The CCHA loses UNO and the playoff revenue that is generated in Omaha. The CCHA will likely get the consolation prize of Alabama-Huntsville, but the unhappiness of the CCHA is clear from their terse news release.
UNO Athletic Director Trev Alberts said late Thursday that interest from the Western Collegiate Hockey Association has rekindled following a conference call of league athletic directors.
“There has been a reassertment from the WCHA, and the WCHA is participating in conversations — the results of which I am not aware,” Alberts said.
Just last week, Alberts said that the WCHA's interest in UNO seemed to have waned. The WCHA has been exploring expanding from 10 teams to 12 since Bemidji State applied for admission in April. UNO, a member of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, has been the league's top priority.
Meanwhile Thursday, one report indicated that discussion between UNO and the WCHA will continue as a result of the league athletic directors' discussion, while another indicates an announcement of some kind could come as early as today.
The Duluth News-Tribune is reporting on a blog that WCHA Commissioner Bruce McLeod said Thursday that “developments had changed” since the Wednesday night conference call and that an announcement could be made today. The blog didn't quote McLeod directly, nor did it specify what the announcement might be.
[Omaha.com]
Following a conference call between Western Collegiate Hockey Association
athletic directors and league commissioner Bruce McLeod Wednesday, negotiations regarding the admittance of the University of Nebraska-Omaha to the WCHA will continue. Bemidji State University athletic director Rick Goeb said McLeod would be going back to UNO to present options that the member schools found acceptable. “He’s going to present options the WCHA agreed on during the conference call,” Goeb said. “The league has now given (McLeod) more direction on what’s acceptable as far as terms of a possible agreement.
“The ball is in UNO’s court now. It’s they’re call if they want to accept
the recommendations.” Contrary to previous media reports, there was no actual “straw poll” Wednesday in which a vote was taken on terms of a possible agreement between Omaha and the WCHA. Instead discussions were held concerning what
terms the league athletic directors felt comfortable in offering. The terms could include such items as league entrance fees, the sharing of postseason revenues and when the team would join the league.
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What appears to be happening now is the typical give and take of any type of business negotiation. McLeod entered into negotiations with UNO and then reported back to league athletic directors. Discussions were held this week on various options and now McLeod will go back to UNO with a more clear directive from league officials. [Bemidji Pioneer]
The ball is rolling on the Western Collegiate Hockey Association expansion front and could lead to an announcement as soon as Friday, commissioner Bruce McLeod said from his Denver office Thursday afternoon.
McLeod, who met with league athletic directors by phone Wednesday night, said it was premature to discuss any details, but did note that developments had changed since the conference call.
Today on 740AM The Fan, Dan Hammer reported that nothing was solved during the straw poll last night and he believes that commish Bruce McLeod may have to go back and re-negotiate some things with Omaha.
Hammer said that there were a number of straw polls taken during a very long conference call. Certainly some were regarding the entrance fee and postseason revenue concessions that the WCHA considered giving Omaha.
UNO Athletic Director Trev Alberts reiterated Wednesday night that the Mavs haven’t applied for admission into the WCHA and that the school is happy with its CCHA membership. He said he wasn’t aware exactly of what the WCHA was meeting to discuss or what the result of those talks might have been.
“There would only be a certain scenario under which we would even entertain the thought of leaving and going to a different league,” Alberts said. “Unless those very basic requirements would be contemplated, we have a home (in the CCHA).”
Alberts declined to get into specifics about the conversations Omaha has had with the WCHA about the terms that would have to be met for the Mavs to consider applying.
However, Omaha would benefit significantly if the league reduces or eliminates the membership fee. When Minnesota State-Mankato entered the WCHA in 1999-2000, it had to pay $120,000 over three years, and it did not receive a cut of postseason revenue during that time. [Omaha.com]
University of MN assistant coach Mike Hastings is leaving to become Assoc coach at University of Nebraska Omaha w/Dean Blais
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University of Minnesota alumnus and current Hamline University head coach Scott Bell should be the primary candidate for U of MN vacancy [Quick facts] and [Minnesota Hockey Journal]
I just got off the phone with Bruce McLeod, and the conference call is set for tomorrow night. There have been concessions made for UNO, re: entrance fees and reveue, and that is what will be discussed with the WCHA AD's tomorrow. If the "straw poll" is favorable, UNO will submit a letter, and the FAR's will schedule a vote. If the straw poll is not favorable, new terms will be set forth to renegotiate with UNO, or attention will turn to UAF. No timetable was given for the second part of this (FAR vote). This was just a casual conversation I had, so I didn't record it for the web or radio broadcast.
Moose
