Big Ten Proposal Could Change College Hockey

Interesting read at collegehockeynews.com on a proposal introduced by the Big Ten, independent of the other NCAA Division I men's ice hockey leagues.

Essentially if not exactly, it wants to make the college hockey world a bit younger by retracting a year of eligibility for players who don't enroll in school until after they are 20 years old, down from 21 years old.

Older players from junior A/B hockey have almost always been a staple of the college ranks. My roommate my sole season at Alaska Fairbanks turned 21 as a freshman because he played in both the USHL and NAHL after graduating high school, and prior to enrolling at UAF. Unless you're a Thatcher Demko, the days of 18 years old jumping directly from high/prep school to NCAA Division I are pretty much long over with.

Despite spending two years at Michigan State (1994-1996), I've never been enamored of the six-team Big Ten hockey conference. I've always felt they should have played a schedule within a schedule like the Ivy League schools in the ECAC do, while maintaining membership in the old Central and Western Collegiate Hockey Associations—but that wasn't going to happen with the Big Ten Network.

I'm also still waiting for the CCHA to come back. One of these days.

Princeton Garners Split

Princeton earned an ECAC split this past weekend at home.

The Tigers suffered their worst loss of the season on Friday night, a 5-1 defeat to No. 14 St. Lawrence at Hobey Baker Rink. Brian Ward had a goal and an assist for the visiting Saints, while Mike Marnell and Ben Masella had two assists apiece and Kyle Hayton made 41 saves. The Tigers fell behind, 3-0, by the middle of the second period before sophomore forward Max Becker got the home side on the board with his first career collegiate goal. Colton Phinney stopped 29 shots before giving way in the third period to Ben Halford, who made five saves on six shots.

The next night, Princeton recorded its first victory since Halloween with a 3-0 blanking of No. 20 Clarkson. Phinney made 31 stops as Eric Robinson, Kyle Rankin and Max Veronneau (PPG) scored for Princeton. Steve Perry had 21 stops for the visiting Golden Knights.

The Tigers (2-6-0 overall, 1-5-0 ECAC) head north for two non-conference contests this weekend at Maine (2-8-3 overall), whom Princeton defeated by a 3-1 count on Oct. 31 in Trenton. The Black Bears earned their first wins of the 2015-16 campaign on Friday and Saturday with a two-step sweep of visiting Hockey East opponent Vermont (3-2, 4-1).

North Dakota Fighting Hawks

It was announced on Wednesday  that the University of North Dakota's athletic teams will hereafter be known as the Fighting Hawks. The name emerged from a third round of recent voting, edging the second-place choice of Roughriders.

UND was formerly known as the Fighting Sioux until 2012, the last holdout as the NCAA cracked down on Native American nicknames. The university is in the process of developing a new athletics logo, although the interlocking UND will likely also remain in use.

Harvard Wins for Fourth Time in Five Games

Harvard rebounded from a 4-1 loss to Quinnipiac on Friday night with a 3-0 victory at Princeton on Saturday. The seventh-ranked Crimson  improved to 4-1-0 both overall and in the Eastern College Athletic Conference, while the host Tigers fell to 1-5-0 (1-4-0 ECAC).

Hobey Baker Award candidate Jimmy Vesey scored the first goal of the game at Hobey Baker Rink on a deflection in the opening period, and the 1-0 lead lasted until the Crimson were able to pot empty-net goals in the final minute of regulation from Clayton Anderson and Alexander Kerfoot. Merrick Madsen made 38 saves in earning the shutout. Vesey leads all ECAC players in league scoring with five goals and six assists for 11 points in six games.

Colton Phinney finished with 39 saves for Princeton, which essentially lost its fourth straight one-goal game after single-score setbacks to Cornell, Colgate and Dartmouth. He is now 1-5-0 overall on the season with a 2.21 goals-against average and a .944 save percentage.

The two Ivy League opponents will meet again on Jan. 29 in Cambridge, Mass.

Friars Still Ranked First Nationally

Two conference ties are better one non-league win, at least in this week's USCHO.com Division I men's rankings.

No. 1 Providence skated to 1-1 and 3-3 overtime ties last week in a home-and-home Hockey East series with No. 11 Boston University, and received 17 first-place votes in the Nov. 16 poll. It marks the second straight week the Friars (6-0-3 overall)  are in first place nationally.

No. 2 Boston College held off unranked Michigan State, 6-4, on Friday night and received 14 first-place votes, but still came up short against the defending national champion Friars in the rankings. BC is 9-1-0 overall.

Quinnipiac, which remains perfect at 10-0-0 this season, was in third place, and also received 12 first-place votes, while North Dakota (9-1-2) was fourth, with the final seven first-place votes. Rounding out the top 10 are Massachusetts-Lowell, Nebraska-Omaha, St. Cloud State, Harvard, Denver and BU.

Eagles Outlast Spartans, 6-4, on Friday Night

Ryan Fitzgerald and Colin White scored two goals apiece, and Myles Wood redirected home the winning score on a late-game power play to lift second-ranked Boston College to a 6-4 NCAA victory over visiting Michigan State on Friday night at Conte Forum. The Eagles improve to 9-1-0 overall, while the Spartans fall to 4-4-1 on the year.

Following a scoreless first period in which BC outshot MSU, 17-6, White put the home side up by a goal when he stuffed a close-in shot past Spartan goaltender Jake Hildebrand (30 saves) just 4:30 into the second stanza. MSU responded 11 seconds later on a goal by Mackenzie MacEachern to tie the game, and also break BC's shutout streak that dated back to a 4-3 win over Denver on Oct. 30. Wood then scored on a backhand several minutes before the end of the period to restore BC's one-goal edge, his sixth goal of the season.

Fitzgerald, who also posted two assists on the night, made it a 3-1 game 91 seconds into the final frame with a sweeping forehand move, and Alex Tuch then put BC up by three goals just under 11 minutes later with an uncontested shot over Hildebrand's glove. Two minutes later, the game was tied, as MSU top goal scorers JT Stenglein, Brennan Sanford, and Mason Appleton scored in rapid-fire succession for the Spartans in a span of just 92 seconds to make it 4-4.

BC rebounded to go back on top for good with just under two minutes remaining in regulation when Austin Cangelosi's shot from the point deflected off of Woods' skate and into the MSU net. The goal, the only one power-play score in a combined 13 man-advantage attempts by both teams, was confirmed following a video review. Fitzgerald then closed out the scoring with just over a minute left, with his team-leading seventh goal of the season, as he wristed the puck into an empty net with Hildebrand having been pulled for an extra Spartan attacker. MSU outshot BC, 37-36, on the night, including 31-19 over the final 40 minutes, but went 0-for-7 on the power play. Michael Ferrantino set up two goals for the Spartans.

Thatcher Demko finished with 33 saves for the Eagles, who will play at Hockey East rival New Hampshire on Saturday evening in another single-game weekend. The Spartans saw their three-game winning string broken, including a two-step sweep of visiting UNH last weekend, and will head home to host Michigan Tech for two non-conference contests this weekend at Munn Arena. (uscho.com photo)

Spartans Meet Eagles Tonight in Beantown

No. 2 Boston College and Michigan State will meet tonight for the 27th time in NCAA hockey competition, and for just the fourth time ever at BC’s Kelley Rink. MSU leads the all-time series, 17-8-1, according to BC’s game notes, although the Eagles won, 3-2, last year in East Lansing in the first meeting between the two schools since 2011.

I won’t be making this trip, although I was tempted to point the car north today and keep going until I hit Chestnut Hill. I last saw BC and MSU meet live at the 1996 Great Western Freeze-Out in Inglewood, Calif. when I was the Spartans’ publicity contact. MSU won that game, 5-2, and also won, 5-3, in the first-ever meeting at Kelley Rink in 1989, the only other BC-MSU match-up I’ve attended in person, when I was just starting my junior year on the Heights.(Maybe it's better I stay home tonight, for BC's sake.)

Michigan State is 4-3-1 so far this season, has won three straight games, and is coming off a two-step sweep at home of New Hampshire (5-0, 7-4). Boston College has shut out its last two opponents (UMass, 7-0, and Maine, 3-0 and 2-0) as part of its current seven-game winning streak, and is 8-1-0 on the year.

The Spartans last played at BC in 1996, a 4-3 win by the Eagles. All-time, BC has faced MSU in NCAA Tournament competition in no less than 10 games, more times than any other opponent except Minnesota, with MSU defeating BC for the 2007 NCAA title in St. Louis. In addition, MSU coach Tom Anastos' daughter, Andie, is a forward on BC's women's hockey team.

We’ll see how it goes tonight in a venue where the series is all even at 1-1-1.

Eagles Runners-Up in Both USCHO Polls

Boston College keeps rolling along, but not necessarily in the national rankings. The Eagles took second place in this week's NCAA Division I men's and women's poll at USCHO.com.

The BC men's team won all three games it played last week, defeating UMass and sweeping Maine while outscoring their opponents, 12-0. The Eagles (8-1-0 overall) still took second place in this week's poll to defending national champion Providence (6-0-1), which was idle last week. The BC women's team sports a nation-best 11-0-0 overall mark, but still finished runner-up this week to Wisconsin (10-0-0).

Championships aren't won in November, though—and every year, in the final poll of the season, the new national champion automatically rises from whatever previous spot it occupied to the top of the ranks.

The BC men, who are 3-0-0 in Hockey East play so far this season, return to action on Friday when they host Michigan State at Conte Forum in the sole outing for both teams this weekend. The Eagles edged the Spartans, 3-2, last season in East Lansing.

The BC women (5-0-0 Hockey East) get back to business tonight at home against Boston University, three days after pasting the Terriers, 8-1, at Walter Brown Arena. The Eagles will then host New Hampshire on Friday.

BC Does It Again

For the fourth time in five games, third-ranked Boston College did not allow the opposition to light the red lamp.  The Eagles, powered by a six-goal second stanza, overwhelmed UMass, 7-0, on Tuesday night in BC's 2015-16 Hockey East opener at Conte Forum.

Teddy Doherty scored two power-play goals for the Eagles (6-1-0 overall, 1-0-0 Hockey East), who got the game-winning score from Adam Gilmour just 1:33 into a then-scoreless second period. Chris Brown, Matthew Gaudreau and Colin White each set up two goals, while Thatcher Demko turned aside all 26 shots he faced for his fourth shutout this season and seventh of his collegiate career.

Nic Renyard took the loss for the visiting Minutemen (4-2-1, 0-1-1), stopping 21 of 26 shots before giving way to Alex Wakaluk in the middle period.

BC will now host Maine for pair of Hockey East games this weekend, on Friday and Sunday, while UMass will play a Hockey East home-and-home with UConn.

UND Still Tops Men's Hockey Polls

North Dakota remains atop the polls in NCAA Division I men's ice hockey for another week.

The former Fighting Sioux ran their record to 6-0-2 overall and tallied 17 first-place votes in the Nov. 2 USCHO.com poll, putting UND on top for a fourth consecutive week. In second place was defending national champion Providence with 18 first-place tallies and a 6-0-1 mark, followed by Hockey East rival Boston College (5-1-0), which drew four first-place ballots. Rounding out the USCHO top 10 were Massachusetts-Lowell, Quinnipiac (with the last first-place vote), Minnesota-Duluth, Harvard, Nebraska Omaha, Denver and St. Cloud State.

The USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Men's College Hockey Poll featured North Dakota (21 first-place votes), Providence (11),  BC, Quinnipiac (2), UMass Lowell, Harvard, Minnesota-Duluth, Omaha, Yale and Boston University.