USA To Play for Men's World U-18 Gold

Team USA will play for the gold medal in the 2022 IIHF Under-18 Men's World Championship in Germany.

The United States defeated the Czech Republic, 6-1, on Saturday in a semifinal round game of the tournament, which features up-and-coming NCAA and NHL draft-eligible players. Jimmy Snuggerud, who is committed to the University of Minnesota, scored two goals for the Americans, while Kenneth Augustine, a Michigan commit, made 26 saves in net.

The U.S. will now face Sweden on Sunday (12:30 p.m. ET, NHL Network) in the U-18 championship game at Fanatec Arena in Landshut.

Dekeyser, Detroit Blank Devils

Andrew Hammond (Bowling Green) allowed just one goal on Sunday. Unfortunately, his New Jersey Devils teammates couldn't score any for him.

The visiting Detroit Red Wings made a first-period goal stand up, and then added two empty-net tallies in the final three minutes of regulation, for a 3-0 victory in an NHL contest on Sunday afternoon at the Prudential Center in Newark. Both teams also had a goal disallowed during the game, the Devils for an offside play in the second period, and the Red Wings for goalie interference in the final frame.

Hammond, who backstopped BGSU from 2009 to 2013, finished with 21 saves for the Devils, who have now lost three consecutive games and five of their last six outings, including shootouts. New Jersey also tied a club record with just 17 shots on goal in the loss.

Danny Dekeyser (Western Michigan) recorded an assist for the Red Wings, who snapped a two-game losing skid with the win. He would have also drawn an assist on the disallowed Detroit goal.

The two teams will meet again in New Jersey on Friday night to close out the 2021-22 NHL regular season. Both clubs have been eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention.

Michigan's Power Scores First NHL Goal

It took five games, but much-heralded rookie defenseman Owen Power (Michigan) finally has his first NHL goal.

Power, 19, the top selection in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft by the Buffalo Sabres, scored their fourth goal in last night's 5-2 victory at New Jersey. He took a pass from a prone Jeff Skinner on the left side in-close, and then swept the puck underneath Devils goaltender Andrew Hammond (Bowling Green) less than nine minutes into the third period to break open a 3-2 game. Tage Thompson (UConn) also assisted on the goal.

Power, from Mississauga, Ontario, now has one goal and one assist in five NHL games, four of which have been Buffalo victories. He recorded six goals and 42 assists for 48 points over the past two seasons at Michigan, and led the Wolverines to both this year's Big Ten championship and the NCAA Frozen Four.

Also concerning former Michigan players on Thursday night, Andrew Copp tallied a natural hat trick for the visiting New York Rangers in a 6-3 win over the rival New York Islanders. The Ann Arbor native, who was acquired by the Rangers from Winnipeg earlier this year, skated with his hometown Michigan from 2012 to 2015, collecting 40 goals and 81 points over three seasons. He has now appeared in over 500 NHL contests, regular and post-season combined, and has registered just over 200 career points to date.

Three "Bs" Leave Michigan for Pro Hockey

The exodus of players from Michigan's 2021-22 NCAA Frozen Four team continued recently. 

Undergraduate forwards Johnny Beecher (Boston), Brendan Brisson (Vegas) and Thomas Bordeleau (San Jose) have all signed professional contracts, ending their time with the Wolverines.

Beecher, a junior from Elmira, N.Y., finished his college career with 19 goals and 20 assists for 39 points in 81 career games. He has since reported to Providence (AHL), where he has played in two games to date.

Brisson, a sophomore who led the Wolverines with 21 goals this season, has reported to Henderson (AHL) where he has tallied three goals and six points in his first three games. The Manhattan Beach, Calif. native ended his college career with 31-32—63 points in 62 NCAA outings.

Bordealeau, a sophomore from Terrebonne, Quebec, concluded his Michigan career with 20-47—67 points in 61 contests, and initially joined San Jose (AHL) after turning pro. He recorded an assist in his first AHL appearance, and notched three assists over two games before recording his first NHL assist in his first NHL outing with the parent Sharks. 

Earlier this month, Michigan lost sophomores Matty Beniers (Seattle), Owen Power (Buffalo), and Kent Johnson (Columbus) to the NHL clubs that drafted them. All were chosen in the first round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, with Power going first overall, Beniers second, and Johnson fifth. All three have since made their NHL playing debuts, and also recorded their first NHL points.

Michigan went 31-10-1 overall in 2021-22, won the Big Ten tournament championship, and then claimed the NCAA Allentown (Pa.) Regional to advance to the Frozen Four in Boston. The Wolverines then fell, 3-2, in overtime to eventual national champion Denver in the national semifinals.

Hauge Named New Men's Coach at Union

Josh Hauge is the new men's ice hockey head coach at Union College. He replaces interim coach John Ronan, after spending the last six seasons at ECAC Hockey rival Clarkson University as as assistant coach/associate head coach. 

Hauge, 43, an Apple Valley, Minn. native who played collegiately as a defenseman at NCAA Division III Bethel College, entered the coaching ranks in 2002-03 in the Minnesota Junior Hockey League. He then moved on to the Fairbanks Ice Dogs of the North American Hockey League in 2005-06, where he began as an assistant before being elevated to head coach in 2008-09. 

Three years later, Hauge went to the Tri-City Storm of the United States Hockey League, where he ultimately served as General Manager/Head Coach. After one season as an assistant coach with Fargo (USHL), he joined Clarkson's staff as an assistant in 2015. He was then promoted to associate head coach in 2019, and in his overall tenure helped the Golden Knights to three consecutive NCAA tournament berths.

Union, which won its only NCAA men's hockey championship in 2014, is coming off a year where it finished 14-19-4 overall and had to endure the mid-season resignation of head coach Rick Bennett.

MSU, BC Seeking New Head Coaches

Michigan State University and Boston College are both in the market for new head coaches for their respective men's ice hockey head coaches.

MSU head coach and alumnus Danton Cole was relieved of his duties earlier this week after five seasons at the Spartan helm. Cole, 55, a 1989 MSU graduate who won a national championship with the Spartans as a freshman player, went 58-101-12 from 2017 to 2022 as coach at MSU after succeeding fellow alumnus Tom Anastos. Cole also coached with the U.S. National Team Development Program, the University of Alabama-Huntsville, and several professional teams following along a longtime pro playing career that saw him win the Stanley Cup with the NHL's New Jersey Devils in 1995.

At BC, longtime head coach and alumnus Jerry York has called it a career after 50 seasons of coaching college hockey. York, 76, who mentored players at Clarkson University, Bowling Green State University, and BC from 1970 to 2022, won an NCAA record total of 1,123 career games. A former All-America forward and Walter Brown Award winner as a senior with BC in 1967, York later led five teams to NCAA titles as a coach, including four at his alma mater (2001, 2008, 2010, 2012), while also leading the Eagles to 651 wins in all from 1994 until now. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2019.

Both schools are now searching for successors, as is Boston University, which let alumnus Albie O'Connell go last month after four seasons in charge of the Terriers.

BC's Kreider Hits 50 Goals for First Time

Chris Kreider (Boston College) registered his first 50-goal NHL campaign with a goal in Tuesday's 4-2 loss to Carolina. He now has 50 goals and 21 assists for a career-high 71 points through 75 contests this season, which far eclipses his previous best of 28-25—53 points in 75 games in 2016-17.

He has also tallied 227 goals and 190 assists for 417 points in 649 career regular-season NHL games, all with the New York Rangers, who drafted him 19th overall in 2009. He was held scoreless in tonight's 4-0 win at Philadelphia, as New York improved to 48-21-6. 

Kreider, 30, a left wing from Boxboro, Mass., played at BC from 2009 to 2021, collecting 49 goals and 92 points over three seasons, while helping the Eagles to NCAA titles in both 2008 and 2010.

More NCAA Players Sign with NHL

The annual exodus of college talent to the NHL has begun in the wake of the recently-completed NCAA Frozen Four.

The first-round University of Michigan trio of Owen Power, Kent Johnson and Matty Beniers have all signed NHL contracts, with Buffalo, Columbus and Seattle, respectively. Power and Beniers are expected to make their pro debuts this week. All three had two years of college eligibility remaining. 

Bobby Brink, the nation's top scorer and a Hobey Hat Trick finalist who just helped Denver to its ninth NCAA title overall, inked a deal with Philadelphia. Nathan Smith, a Florida native who led Minnesota State to its first-ever NCAA Division I national championship game this season, has signed with Arizona, which had recently acquired his rights from Winnipeg. Brink and Smith both had one year of NCAA eligibility left. 

All those players signed with the NHL clubs that had drafted them, or, in Smith's case, had traded for them. Ohio State freshman Georgii Merkulov bypassed his last three seasons with the Buckeyes to sign with Boston as a free agent, and will report to Providence (AHL).

More to come ...

ADDENDUM: Power was a plus-2 in Buffalo's 5-2 win at Toronto, Beniers notched an assist in Seattle's 5-3 loss at Calgary, Brink recorded an assist in Philadelphia's 9-2 defeat at Washington, and Smith had one shot on goal and two hits in Arizona's 6-2 loss to New Jersey, all on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, Hobey Hat Trick finalist Ben Meyers (Minnesota) signed with Colorado as a free agent.

Denver Wins Ninth NCAA Hockey Title

Through the first 40 minutes of this year's NCAA Division I men's ice hockey title game, the University of Denver couldn't buy a goal. In the final 20 minutes, it couldn't stop scoring them.

The Pioneers overcame a one-goal deficit through two periods of play with five unanswered third-period scores in a 5-1 victory over Minnesota State before 17,850 on-lookers at TD Garden in Boston on Saturday night. DU (31-9-1 overall) has now won two national hockey titles in the last six years, and also moved into a first-place tie all-time with its ninth NCAA title overall.

For MnSU (38-6-0), the loss snapped an 18-game winning string that dated back to Jan. 14 against Northern Michigan. It was also the first time since Oct. 16, 2021 at Michigan that the Mavericks, who were playing in their first-ever NCAA Division I championship contest, had lost a game after leading after two periods.

Sam Morton's power-play goal 14 minutes into the game stood up through the first two stanzas, as MnSU limited DU to just eight shots on net in that span. The floodgates then opened for DU just under five minutes into the final frame, when Ryan Barrow poked home a rebound to put the Pioneers on the board.

Mike Benning's slapshot from the right circle just under three minutes later stood up as the game-winning goal, just seconds after a DU power play expired, before Massimo Rizzo finished off a 2-on-1 rush six minutes later to make it a 3-1 contest. Brett Stapley and Cameron Wright then added empty-net goals in the final three minutes to ice matters for DU.

Magnus Chrona finished with 27 saves for the National Collegiate Hockey Conference's Pioneers, who last won an NCAA hockey title in 2017 in Chicago. At the other end of the ice, 2022 Hobey Baker Memorial Award winner Dryden McKay made 15 stops for the Central Collegiate Hockey Association champion Mavericks. Benning was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. 

DU, which had previously won NCAA Frozen Fours in Boston in 1960 and 2004, is now tied with Michigan for the most NCAA hockey championships overall with nine each. The Pioneers defeated the Wolverines in a semifinal game on Thursday to advance to this year's national championship game. Saturday also marked the fifth national title for the NCHC since the conference was formed in 2013.

Minnesota State's McKay Wins 2022 Hobey Baker Award

After two decades, a goaltender has again won the Hobey Baker Memorial Award as the nation's top college hockey player.

Dryden McKay (Minnesota State) became the first netminder since Michigan State's Ryan Miller to claim the Hobey Baker Award, named for the early 20th century Princeton University star, as announced on Friday in Boston.

A native of Downers Grove, Ill., McKay has compiled a 38-4-0 record in 42 games so far this 2021-22 season, to go along with a 1.27 goals-against average, a .934 save percentage, and 10 shutouts. He leads all NCAA Division I netminders this season in wins (38) and minutes played (2,502), and has set a new NCAA record for victories by one goaltender in a single season. McKay, 24, was also named CCHA Goaltender of the Year and CCHA Player of the Year, and also earned First Team West All-America accolades for the second time in three years.

In other awards news, Devon Levi (Northeastern) was named this season's Mike Richter Award winner as the nation's top goaltender, while Josh Kosack (Union) earned the Hockey Humanitarian Award and Jordan Seyfert of Merrimack was honored with the 2022 Derek Hines Unsung Hero Award. 

McKay has also backstopped MSU (39-4-0) to its second straight NCAA Frozen Four, with the Mavericks defeating Minnesota and 2022 Hobey Baker Award finalist Ben Meyers last night, 5-1, in a national semifinal contest at TD Garden in Boston. MSU will now face Denver and 2022 Hobey Baker Award finalist Bobby Brink tomorrow night for the national title.

Denver, MSU Advance to 2022 NCAA Title Game

The Big Ten Conference got two teams to this year's men's Frozen Four, but neither will appear in the 2022 NCAA Division I title game at TD Garden in Boston. 

Denver outlasted top-seeded Michigan, 3-2, tonight as Carter Savoie followed up his own rebound with just over five minutes remaining in the first overtime period to send the Pioneers (30-9-1 overall) to their first national title game since 2017. Michigan, which featured 13 NHL draft choices on its roster, including seven first-round selections, closed its campaign at 31-10-1.

In the nightcap, Minnesota State surrendered an early goal to in-state rival Minnesota, but then roared back with five scores of its own over the last 40 minutes as the Mavericks advanced to their first-ever NCAA championship game with a 5-1 win. Hobey Baker Memorial Award finalist Dryden McKay made 16 stops for the victorious Mavericks (38-5-0), who have now won 18 straight contests this season. Minnesota ends its year at 26-13-0.

DU, from the NCHC, and MSU, from the new CCHA, will now meet on Saturday night in Boston (8 p.m. ET, ESPN2) in the final NCAA game of the season to see who will lift the national champion trophy.

Stonehill Joining NCAA Division I Hockey

Stonehill College is entering the NCAA Division I men's and women's ice hockey ranks.

The Skyhawk men's hockey team, who currently compete in the Northeast-10 Conference as an NCAA Division II member, will skate as an NCAA Division I independent beginning with the 2022-23 season. The move is part of Stonehill's overall athletic department transition to NCAA Division I as the newest member of the Northeast Conference, with the Skyhawks to become full conference members in 2026-27 after completing the NCAA's four-year reclassification period.

Stonehill, a private Catholic college in Easton, Mass. with approximately 2,500 undergraduate students, will also inaugurate its NCAA Division I women's ice hockey team this fall, with the Skyhawks to compete in the New England Women’s Collegiate Hockey Alliance. Their conference opponents will include Franklin Pierce, Long Island, Post, Sacred Heart, St. Anselm and St. Michael's. 

The Stonehill men's program got its start in 1978-79, when the school's nickname was the Chieftains, which was officially changed to Skyhawks in 2005. Stonehill did not compete in 2020-21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but returned for 2021-22 when it finished 7-19-2 overall and advanced to the Northeast-10 semifinals. Next season it will join fellow NCAA Division I men's independents Alaska Anchorage, Alaska (Fairbanks), Arizona State and Long Island.

2022 Hobey Hat Trick Announced

The Hobey Hat Trick for the top individual honor in NCAA Division I men's ice hockey has been announced—and all three finalists not only hail from the state of Minnesota, but will also be vying for a national championship in Boston next week.

Bobby Brink, a junior forward from the University of Denver, is currently the leading scorer for both the Pioneers and the nation. In 39 games so far this season with DU, the Minnetonka, Minn. native has recorded 14 goals and a nation-best 42 assists for 56 points. Denver will next face Michigan on April 7 in the first NCAA Frozen Four semifinal.

Dryden McKay, a graduate student in his fifth season overall at Minnesota State University, is the nation's top goaltender with a record of 37-4-0 in 41 games and over 2442 minutes played this winter. The Downers Grove, Ill. native has also posted a 1.28 goals-against average and a .934 save percentage while collecting 10 shutouts.

Rounding out the trio is University of Minnesota junior forward Ben Meyers, who also played briefly with the U.S. Olympic men's team in China earlier this year. The Delano, Minn. native has registered 17 goals and 24 assists for 41 points through 33 outings to date, and along with the rest of the Golden Gophers will face McKay and the Mavericks in the second NCAA semifinal game next week.

Brink, McKay and Meyers are the last three players left from a preliminary list of top 10 Hobey finalists that also included: forward Matty Beniers (Michigan); forward Brian Halonen (Michigan Tech); defenseman Luke Hughes (Michigan); goaltender Devon Levi (Northeastern); goaltender Yaniv Perets (Quinnipiac); forward Nathan Smith (Minnesota State) and; forward Bobby Trivigno (Massachusetts). All 10 players also participated in this year's NCAA tournament.

The 2022 Hobey Baker Memorial Award for the nation's top player will be bestowed upon the winner on April 8, the day between the national semifinals and the national title game. University of Minnesota senior forward Taylor Heise won the 2022 Patty Kazmaier Award earlier this month as the top player in NCAA Division I women's ice hockey.