Team USA Wins First Two at Rescheduled World Juniors

The United States National Junior Team is off to a solid start at the revamped 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship in Edmonton. Team USA defeated Germany, 5-1, in its opening game, and then pasted Switzerland, 7-1, in its next outing.

Luke Hughes (Michigan) leads all defensemen in the tournament, and is fifth overall among all skaters so far, with five points through two games, on a goal and four assists. Mbereko Kaidan (Colorado College) is 2-0-0 in net for the Americans, with a 1.00 goals-against average and .943 save percentage to date. 

This month's tournament (Aug. 9-20) replaces the original event that was canceled shortly after it began in December, due to COVID-19/Omicron variant concerns. The U.S. won the last World Junior championship that was played to completion in 2020, which was also held in Canada.

The U.S. will now face Switzerland in in its next contest today (2 p.m. ET, NHL Network), before meeting Sweden on Sunday night to close out the preliminary round.

ADDENDUM: After routing the Swiss by a 7-1 count, Team USA held on to defeat Sweden, 3-2, to finish with a 4-0-0 record in group play. Matthew Coronato (Harvard) scored two goals, including the game-winner, for the Americans, who will now face Czechia in a quarterfinal contest on Aug. 17.

2022 World Junior Championship Canceled

The remainder of the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship in Alberta, Canada has been cancelled due to COVID-19 and the Omicron variant, following the third game forfeiture in the past two days. 

The 10-team WJC was scheduled to run through Jan. 5 in Edmonton and Red Deer. Participating this year were Austria, host Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States.

It is the first time in 44 years, according to sportsnet.ca, that the world's premiere men's hockey under-20 tournament will not crown a champion. The U.S. won last year's event in Edmonton, besting Canada by a 2-0 score in the gold medal game.

Ivy League Cancels 2020-21 Ice Hockey Seasons

There will be no Ivy League winter sports contested for the 2020-21 season, including men's and women's ice hockey, as announced today by the NCAA Division I conference.

Spring sports for the eight Ivy League institutions—Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Pennsylvania and Yale—are also postponed through Feb. 2021 due to the ongoing and now increasing COVID-19 pandemic, which had originally canceled the end of the 2019-20 NCAA hockey season(s) and also the various NCAA hockey tournaments in March and April.

Six Ivy League schools—Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton and Yale—are members of the ECAC Hockey conference, for both men's and women's hockey. Cornell won both last season's Ivy League men's and women's hockey regular-season titles, and was also in first place in ECAC Hockey in both divisions before their respective campaigns were terminated by COVID-19.

Three Ivy Leaguers Turn Pro

Several more Ivy League hockey players with NCAA eligibility remaining have instead signed professional contracts.

Morgan Barron (Cornell), who led the Big Red to the ECAC hockey title and a No. 1 national ranking in the COVID-abbreviated 2019-20 season, has signed with the NHL's New York Rangers after three winters in Ithaca, N.Y. A native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Barron, 21, was drafted 174th overall by the Rangers in 2017. In three seasons at Cornell, the 6-foot-3 center posted 34 goals and 50 assists for 84 points. He was a first team Division I All-America selection and a Hobey Baker Memorial Award finalist last season, and was also a two-time Ivy League First Team choice and two-time ECAC Hockey First Team pick.

Jack Drury (Harvard) has passed up his final two campaigns with the Crimson to join Vaxjo (Sweden). The son of former Harvard standout Ted Drury, and the nephew of 2001 Stanley Cup champion Chris Drury (Boston University), the youngest Drury collected 29-34—63 points in two seasons in Cambridge, including a 20-goal campaign last year. A six-foot center from Winnetka, Ill., he was drafted 42nd overall by the Carolina Hurricanes in 2018, and was a second team selection in both the Ivy League and ECAC Hockey last year. He also skated for the United state sin teh last two World Junior Championships.

Henry Bowlby (Harvard) decided three years with the Crimson was enough, as he inked an entry-level contract with the Florida Panthers as a free agent. A 6-foot-1 center from Edina, Minn., the undrafted Bowlby, 23, registered a total of 21-24—45 points in his tenure at Harvard,  which included a 2019 NCAA tournament berth.

The Ivy League has canceled all fall sports due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has pushed back the start of the 2020-21 hockey season to at least Jan. 1.

Harvard's Kerfoot Scores Twice for Toronto in NHL's Return

Alexander Kerfoot (Harvard) scored twice for the victorious Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday evening as the NHL returned to action for the first time in four months. The Leafs defeated their traditional rival, the Montreal Canadiens, 4-2, in an exhibition game at Scotiabank Arena as the NHL re-emerged from a hiatus that began in March due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), which also canceled the remainder of the 2019-20 NHL regular season.

Kerfoot scored Toronto's second and third goals, both in the second period, against Montreal as the Leafs built leads of 2-0 and 3-1. Toronto is one of two NHL hubs, along with Rogers Place in Edmonton, that will be used during an abbreviated postseason with extra contending teams to award this year’s Stanley Cup. Eastern Conference teams will play in Ontario, while Western Conference squads will skate in Alberta, with the final round to be contested in Toronto. The St. Louis Blues are the defending champion.

The Maple Leafs will face off with the Columbus Blue Jackets in a best-of-five qualifying series that will begin on Saturday at Scotiabank Place, while the Canadiens will meet the Pittsburgh Penguins in another Eastern Conference series match-up, also in Toronto. Also on Tuesday in exhibition play, the Philadelphia Flyers edged Pittsburgh, 3-2, in overtime in Toronto, while in Edmonton the host Oilers upended the rival Calgary Flames, 4-1.

A 5-foot-10 native of Vancouver, Kerfoot, 25, played his first two NHL campaigns with the Colorado Avalanche, with whom he posted 34 goals and 51 assists for 85 points over 157 regular-season outings after signing with them as a free agent. He was traded to Toronto last July, and proceeded to tally 9-19—28 points in 65 games with the Leafs this season before it was suspended by COVID-19. 

Originally drafted 150th overall by the New Jersey Devils in 2012 in the midst of his Junior A career with Coquitlam (BCHL), Kerfoot played at Harvard from 2013 to 2017. In four NCAA seasons, he notched 36-87—123 points in 121 career outings, and also captained the Crimson to the 2017 ECAC Hockey regular-season and postseason championships, plus the 2017 NCAA Frozen Four in Chicago.

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.

LIU to Begin Division I Men's Hockey

Long Island University will become the 61st current school to participate in NCAA Division I men's ice hockey.

Based out of Brooklyn, the Sharks are expected to begin competition during the 2020-21 season, according to the school's athletics website at liuathletics.com. They are the first school to join the NCAA Division I men's hockey ranks since Arizona State University elevated its program to varsity status from the club level in 2015-16.

Three years later, the Sun Devils became the first school to make the NCAA Tournament as an independent since Alaska Anchorage did so in 1992. ASU likely would have also qualified for this years's national tournament, until the 2019-20 season was canceled by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in March.

Last year, LIU combined its C.W. Post (Pioneers) and Brooklyn (Blackbirds) campuses into one entity, to compete at the NCAA Division I level in all sports as the Sharks. LIU women's ice hockey started skating in 2019-20, playing out of Islanders IceWorks and other arenas on Long Island. They finished 14-18-0 overall, and also won the 2020 New England Women’s Hockey Alliance tournament championship.

Four NCAA Skaters Leave Early for NHL

The list of NCAA players leaving school early to sign NHL contracts keeps growing.

Scott Perunovich (Minnesota-Duluth) passed up his senior season to sign with the St. Louis Blues, who tabbed him 45th overall in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft. The junior defenseman, who helped UMD to two straight NCAA Division I championships before this year's national tournament was canceled by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), recorded a career-high 34 assists and 40 points this season in 34 games, and was also named the 2019-20 NCHC Player of the Year. Perunovich, 21, from Hibbing, Minn., finished his career with 20 goals and 95 assists for 105 points in 115 career outings with the Bulldogs.

Max Gildon (New Hampshire) has joined the Florida Panthers, who took him 66th overall in 2017, after three seasons at UNH. A defenseman from Plano, Texas, Gildon, 20, notched seven goals and 29 points in 34 games this season, and was selected as a Hockey East Third-Team All-Star. He completed his Wildcat career with 21-52—73 points in 101 contests.

Jack Badini (Harvard) also left college after three years when he inked a deal with the Anaheim Ducks, who selected him 91st overall in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. Badini, 22, a forward from Old Greenwich, Conn., notched 6-8—14 points in 31 outings this season for the Crimson, and in three campaigns altogether registered 24-27—51 points in 97 contests.

Trevor Zegras (Boston University) became the latest NCAA one-and-done when the freshman forward signed with the Anaheim Ducks, who chose him ninth overall last summer. In his only season with the Terriers, Zegras, 19, from Bedford, N.Y. posted 11-25—36 points in 33 appearances, and was also named a Hockey East Third-Team All-Star.

Coronavirus Chases Out NCAA Tournament Crowds

First it was Rensselaer, followed by Cornell in banning spectators, and then the Ivy League as a whole canceling its entire spring season.

Now, no spectators will be allowed at any of the games of the 2020 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament, or any NCAA tournament in any sport this spring, as stipulated by the college governing body today in response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

That includes the Division I men's ice hockey regionals in: Albany, N.Y.; Allentown, Pa.; Loveland, Col., and; Worcester, Mass., on March 27-29 There will also be no spectators allowed at the 2020 Frozen Four at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit in April, the first time the championship is being held in that building, and the first time in the Motor City since Ford Field hosted the 2010 NCAA Frozen Four.

According to USCHO.com, "only credentialed institutional personnel, student-athlete family members, credentialed media crews and official team party members will be allowed to attend games."

The 2020 ECAC Hockey men's championship quartefinals have also been re-worked, as Harvard and Yale will no longer participate. Princeton will now play at Quinnipiac, and Colgate will vist Rensselaer this weekend, while top-seeded Cornell and No. 2 Clarkson will receive byes to the league semifinals in Lake Placid the following weekend.

ADDENDUM: The remainder of the 2020 ECAC Hockey championship through Lake Placid has been canceled., along with the rest of the men's WCHA championship. The NCAA Tournament has also been canceled.