Sharks Select Brett Riley as First Head Coach

Long Isl‎and University has hired Brett Riley (Hobart) as its first-ever NCAA Division I men's hockey coach. He spent the 2019-20 season as an assistant at Colgate University.

Riley is the grandson of former Army hockey head coach Jack Riley, the son of former Army head coach Rob Riley, and the nephew of current Army coach Brian Riley. A native of Needham, Mass., he played at Hobart from 2010 to 2014 as a forward before entering the coaching ranks.

Riley, 29, served as head coach at Albany Academy from 2014 to 2017 while also working as a scout for Charlottestown (QMJHL) his first two seasons. He then started the NCAA Division I men's hockey program at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania, where he stayed for two years. He led the Colonels to a 16-8-2 overall mark in 2018-19, in their first season on ice, before moving on to Colgate.

LIU, which intends to begin play in the 2020-21 campaign, has yet to announce a roster, schedule or home arena for the Sharks.

Alabama-Huntsville Drops Men's NCAA Hockey Program

The death knell has sounded once again for the University of Alabama-Huntsville men’s hockey program—and this time it looks to be permanent.

Citing COVID-19/financial difficulties, UAH administration announced today that it was discontinuing the Chargers hockeyprogram, effective immediately, along with the men’s and women’s tennis teams. Scholarships will be honored if players choose to remain at UAH, while they will also be allowed to transfer to other schools without penalty.

Charger Hockey had faced the chopping block before, when the program was shut down temporarily in the fall of 2012 before being revived soon after.

The program, which was an independent at the time after the College Hockey America conference disbanded, later joined the Western Collegiate Hockey Association where it spent its final seven seasons, finishing 48-181-24 overall. The “Hockey Capital of the South” now joins the likes of Fairfield, Findlay, Illinois-Chicago, Iona, Kent State and Wayne State among the modern-era schools that dropped NCAA Division I hockey in the past few decades.

UAH went 2-26-6 for the 2019-20 season, and finished last in the WCHA. The Chargers’ last game ever was a 4-1 home loss to Bowling Green at VBC Propst Arena in Huntsville on Feb. 29. The program’s last victory came on Feb. 1, when the Chargers defeated visiting Michigan Tech, 3-1.

The Chargers began life as a club program in 1979, winning three national club championships, and then had a brief foray in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics before joining the NCAA in 1985 as a Division II independent. After two seasons at that level, UAH moved up to NCAA Division I for five seasons, also as an independent, before dropping back down to Division II, where they won NCAA national championships in 1996 and 1998 while also recording two runner-up finishes.

After NCAA Division II hockey was discontinued in 1998, the Chargers returned to Division I as an independent, where they went 21-5-1 in 1998-99 before joining the CHA for 11 years. In that span they won league regular-season championships in 2001 and 2003, and claimed two CHA postseason titles in 2007 and 2010 that also earned them automatic berths to the NCAA Division I tournament. The Chargers fell by a goal both times, to Notre Dame in double overtime in Grand Rapids, Mich., the first time, and then to Miami (Ohio) three years later in Fort Wayne, Ind. The CHA itself then dissolved in 2010, leaving the Chargers without a conference home.

UAH then spent the next three years as an NCAA Division I independent before joining the WCHA. The program’s final overall record at the NCAA varsity level was 456-570-82 (.449), with Doug Ross winning a school-record 376 NCAA games in all as head coach from 1985 to 2007. His son, Jared, played in 22 career NHL games with the Philadelphia Flyers, and scored 73 goals in four seasons (2001-2005) at UAH while playing for his father. The Chargers' most famous hockey alumnus is undoubtedly goaltender Cam Talbot, who spent three years in Huntsville (2007-2010) and has since gone on to backstop 314 NHL regular-season games with the New York Rangers, Edmonton, Philadelphia and Calgary, in which he has recorded 150 career wins along with 22 shutouts.  

Along with Alaska Anchorage and Alaska (Fairbanks), UAH was slated to be one of just three schools left in the WCHA after the 2020-21 campaign as Bemidji State, Bowling Green, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State and Northern Michigan were due to withdraw from the conference to form the new Central Collegiate Hockey Association.

ADDENDUM: The Chargers got a reprieve of at least one season after a week-long GoFundMe fundraising campaign that ended on May 29 netted over $500,000 in online donations.

Providence's Dugan Signs with Vegas

Jack Dugan (Providence) is done at the NCAA level after two seasons.

The leading scorer for both the Friars and Division I men's hockey this past season, the Rochester, N.Y. native signed a professional contract earlier this week with the NHL's Vegas Golden Knights. He thus foregoes his final two seasons of college eligibility.

The 6-foot-2, 210-pound forward recorded 10 goals and 42 assists for 52 points in 34 games this past season, to go with 64 penalty minutes. In two years at Providence, Dugan, 22, posted 20-71—91 points in 75 overall outings, along with 114 PIM. As a freshman, he recorded 10 goals and 39 points in helping the Friars to a 24-win season and the NCAA Frozen Four in Buffalo.

Drafted by Vegas in the fifth round (142nd overall) of the 2017 NHL Draft, Dugan prepped with Chicago (USHL) prior to joining Providence in the fall of 2018. The current NHL season is still on hold due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which canceled the 2019-20 NCAA hockey campaign in March, including the NCAA tournament and Frozen Four.