Frozen Confines Success in Chicago

The first-ever Frozen Confines at Chicago's historic Wrigley Field this month featured two ties and two wins among some of the top Division I hockey teams in the nation from the Big Ten and the WCHA.

On Jan. 3, Penn State and Notre Dame skated to a 3-3 tie, with UND winning the subsequent shootout, while Ohio State edged Michigan, 4-3. On Jan. 4, Michigan State outlasted Wisconsin, 4-3, in overtime, while in WCHA women's hockey, Wisconsin and Ohio State tied, 3-3, with OSU claiming the shootout victory.

Each game at the longtime home of MLB's Chicago Cubs drew in excess of 24,00 spectators, in a venue that seats 41,649 for baseball.

NCAA Players Moved at 2021 NHL Trade Deadline

 

Following is a list of NCAA-trained players who were moved between April 1 and Monday's 2021 NHL trading deadline:

Player (School) Old NHL Club-New NHL Club

Ben Hutton (Maine) Anaheim-Toronto

Nick Desimone (Union) San Jose-Vegas

Josh Dickinson (Clarkson) Colorado-Chicago

Adam Gaudette (Northeastern) Vancouver-Chicago

Anders Bjork (Notre Dame) Boston-Buffalo

Mike Reilly (Minnesota) Ottawa-Boston

Jon Merrill (Michigan) Detroit-Montreal 

Brandon Montour (UMass) Buffalo-Florida

Henrik Borgstrom (Denver) Florida-Chicago

Kyle Palmieri (Notre Dame) New Jersey-NY Islanders

Travis Zajac (North Dakota) New Jersey-NY Islanders

A.J. Greer (Boston Univ.) NY Islanders-New Jersey

Mason Jobst (Ohio State) NY Islanders-New Jersey

Vinnie Hinostroza (Notre Dame) Florida-Chicago

Denver Wins 2017 NCAA Men's Hockey Title

For the first time since 2005 and the eighth time overall, the University of Denver Pioneers are the NCAA Division I men's ice hockey national champions. DU held on for a 3-2 win over the University of Minnesota-Duluth on Saturday night in the national title game at the United Center in Chicago.

Following a scoreless first period, Denver junior forward Jarid Lukosevicius tallied a pair of goals 16 seconds apart to put DU ahead, 2-0. After senior forward Alex Iafallo got the Bulldogs within one score with a power-play goal, Lukosevicius connected again from short range to complete the first hat trick in a Division I men's hockey national title game since Denver head coach Jim Montgomery did the same as a player for NCAA champion Maine in 1993.

Freshman forward Riley Tufte put home a rebound late in the third period to again bring the Bulldogs back within a goal, but UMD couldn't gain the equalizer despite pulling freshman goaltender Hunter Miska (25 saves) for an extra attacker with less than two minutes remaining in regulation. Junior netminder Tanner Jaillet, the 2017 winner of the Mike Richter Award as the nation's top goaltender, finished with 38 stops for the Pioneers, who were outshot, 17-3, in the third period after junior defenseman Tariq Hammond was injured, although he returned for the postgame celebration. UMD outshot DU on the night, 40-28.

Denver captain and 2017 Hobey Baker Memorial Award winner Will Butcher completed his career with a national championship after DU was eliminated in the NCAA semifinals last year by North Dakota. Denver's senior class finished with 102 total victories in its four campaigns and made the NCAA tournament all four years, with DU now having made the NCAAs nine straight seasons overall.

Denver's most recent NCAA titles came back-to-back in 2004 and 2005. The Pioneers' eighth national title all-time ties them for second place overall with National Collegiate Hockey Conference rival North Dakota, which won the national championship last year. Michigan leads all-time with nine NCAA crowns. UMD, the NCHC's playoff champion, was seeking its second NCAA championship in school history. Denver was the NCHC's regular-season king, and held the No. 1 overall ranking in the country entering the 2017 NCAA Tournament.

The 2018 Frozen Four will be held at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., the first time it will be held in Minnesota since UMD won the 2011 title.

Denver to Meet UMD for NCAA Hockey Title

It'll be Minnesota-Duluth against Denver for all the college hockey marbles on Saturday night, in what will be an all-National Collegiate Hockey Conference affair.

Alex Iafallo deflected home a pass with 26.6 seconds remaining in regulation to lift NCHC champion UMD to a 2-1 victory over ECAC champion Harvard in the first 2017 NCAA Frozen Four semifinal on Thursday at the United Center in Chicago. Harvard's Tyler Moy (power-play goal) and UMD's Joey Anderson exchanged first-period tallies just over three minutes apart, and the score then remained unchanged until Iafallo's heroics.

Harvard's Luke Esposito hit the crossbar in the dying seconds of the third period after the Crimson (28-6-2 overall) had pulled goaltender Merrick Madsen (31 saves) for an extra attacker. Hunter Miska finished with 39 stops for UMD (28-6-7), which was outshot, 40-38. The Bulldogs advanced to their first NCAA title game since 2011, when they beat Michigan in overtime to claim the program's first-ever national championship.

In the nightcap, top-seeded Denver obliterated host Notre Dame by a 6-1 count to return to the national title contest for the first time since 2005. Emil Romig and Henrik Borgstrom staked the Pioneers to a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes, before Tariq Hammond, Dylan Gambrell and Evan Ritt made it 5-0 after 40 minutes. 

Cam Morrison broke the shutout for the Fighting Irish in the third period, before Gambrell closed out the scoring. Tanner Jaillet made 16 saves for Denver (32-7-4), while Cal Petersen recorded 36 stops for Notre Dame (23-12-5), which was outshot, 42-17, in its Hockey East Association swan song. The Irish will join the Big Ten Hockey Conference next season.

Saturday's NCAA championship game, which will conclude the 2016-17 college hockey campaign at all levels, will be televised live on ESPN beginning at 8 p.m. ET. Denver and UMD split a pair of NCHC league games during the regular season.

Remembering the Illinois-Chicago Flames

The NCAA Men's Division I Hockey Frozen Four is being contested at the United Center in Chicago this week, with Denver, Harvard, Minnesota-Duluth and Notre Dame all vying for a national championship. Chicago itself, however, hasn't had a Division I team of its own on ice in over 20 years.

The University of Illinois-Chicago eliminated its men’s hockey program in 1996 after 30 years of competition, first as a club and then a varsity team. The Flames had been a member of the equally-defunct Central Collegiate Hockey Association for 14 years when the axe fell due to financial woes, and other constraints that kept attendance down at the UIC Pavilion. The Flames also hadn’t recorded a winning record since 1988-89 when they went 23-14-5 overall and finished third in the CCHA, and never qualified for the NCAA Tournament.

I was finishing up my own personal two-year-stint as the hockey publicity contact at CCHA rival Michigan State when the decision to discontinue hockey at UIC was announced on March 28, 1996, two years after CCHA member Kent had done the same. Players were free to transfer to other schools, as they usually are in such situations when a program is eliminated, unlike the cursory one-year sit-out period for transfers.

Many former Flames skaters did move on, most within the conference to schools such as Lake Superior State, Miami (Ohio), MSU and Western Michigan—but hockey itself never returned to UIC, except in the form of a club program in 2004. Northern Michigan replaced UIC in the CCHA, which itself breathed its last in 2013, with its teams going on to join either the new Big Ten Conference or the more-established Western Collegiate Hockey Association.

UIC wasn't the last Division I men's hockey program to be discontinued. Over the years Fairfield, Findlay, Iona, Wayne State and nearly Alabama-Huntsville were extinguished, much like the Flames had been.

The two Alaska schools, Alaska (Fairbanks) and Alaska Anchorage, appeared to be both on very thin ice last year with new financial burdens on the state, and budgets needing to be slashed. They still may be, in the future, if academic finances in the 49th State continue to fall—and just last week, North Dakota announced it was eliminating its Division I women'shockey program due to budget shortfalls.

Current Frozen Four participant and former CCHA member Notre Dame will join the Big Ten next season from Hockey East, and speculation abounds that the Big Ten could one day add Northwestern and/or Illinois from the hockey-prolific Land of Lincoln, which continues to produce a steady stream of players for the Division I and professional ranks. Unless either university receives a major cash infusion from a well-heeled donor, as Penn State and Arizona State did, those hopes appear unlikely.

Now the sport’s biggest annual gathering on the college level is being held in Chicago—but it’s being hosted by Notre Dame, which is based almost 100 miles east in Indiana. It’s not unprecedented that an “outside” school hosts the Frozen Four. Alaska Anchorage hosted in Anaheim in 1999, and Alabama-Huntsville did the same in Tampa in 2012. Wisconsin hosted last year in Tampa, as North Dakota won its first men’s hockey NCAA title since 2000.

Chicago once had its own Division I school that could have easily played innkeeper for college hockey’s marquee event—but those UIC Flames were doused a long time ago, and will likely never be rekindled.

Kings Headed Back to Final After Game 7 OT Win

A former Red Hawk and a former Minuteman have helped the Los Angeles Kings back to the Stanley Cup Final.

Alec Martinez (Miami) wristed home the game-winning goal 5:47 into overtime and Jonathan Quick (UMass) made 37 saves as the visiting Kings eliminated the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks in Game 7 of the Western Conference on Sunday night at the United Center. Los Angeles, which won its first Stanley Cup in 2012 but was ousted by Chicago in five games in last year’s conference final, again showed its resiliency by rebounding from a two-goal deficit and three one-goal deficits on Sunday to win its third Game 7 on the road this postseason.

The Kings led the series by a 3-1 margin with three straight victories before Chicago won the last two games. Los Angeles is also 7-0 in elimination contests in these playoffs, while Quick personally improved to 4-0 in NHL Game 7s in his career.

Patrick Sharp (Vermont) scored twice for the Blackhawks in the deciding game, including a power-play goal, while Jonathan Toews (North Dakota) also connected with the man advantage for Chicago. Toews finished second in team scoring this postseason with nine goals and eight assists for 17 points.

The Kings will now face the Eastern Conference champion New York Rangers, who last made the Stanley Cup Final in 1994, starting Wednesday night at the Staples Center in California. It will mark the first time the two clubs have met in the final, although the Rangers won preliminary-round series against the Kings in both 1979 and 1981, in two and four games, respectively.

Hockey East "Hat Trick" on One NHL Play Sunday

Three former Hockey East players all figured in a penalty-shot situation on Sunday night, in an NHL contest between the Chicago Blackhawks and the visiting Los Angeles Kings at the United Center.

Chicago's Viktor Stalberg (Vermont) was upended by Rob Scuderi (Boston College) as the former broke in on Jonathan Quick (Massachusetts) in the third period. Quick made the ensuing save on the penalty-shot attempt by Stalberg, who could have become the goat of the game towards the end when he drew a penalty in the final minutes of play. The Blackhawks killed off that infraction and the game went to a shootout that was finally won by the Kings, 3-2.

Stalberg helped the Catamounts to the 2009 NCAA Frozen Four, while Scuderi was a linchpin on the Eagles' 2001 national title team, and Quick backstopped the Minutemen to the 2007 NCAA Tournament as a sophomore. Former UVM skater Patrick Sharp scored one of Chicago's two goals in regulation on Sunday night, but misfired on his shootout attempt, while Stalberg was again stopped by Quick. The former UMass netminder ultimately pokechecked Marcus Kruger on the final shootout try to preserve the win for Los Angeles.

More Early Signings - and More to Come

We're not even at the Frozen Four yet, but Division I players with college eligibility remaining have been setting sail for the pros for weeks now.

Boston College lost would-be seniors Cam Atkinson and Jimmy Hayes to Columbus and Chicago, respectively, although I can't say either player's signing was a complete surprise. Atkinson scored 61 goals the last two seasons and is now a Hobey Baker Award finalist, while Hayes just recorded a 21-goal campaign - and is also 6-foot-5 to boot. He's already played a game with the AHL's Rockford Ice Hogs, while both he and Atkinson already had a national championship ring from last season.

The Eagles' sophomore class may not be intact for long, either. It's wait and see if the New York Rangers will come calling for Chris Kreider's services, or if Carolina will try to pry Brian Dumoulin from the BC blueline. Dumoulin has reportedly said he's going back to school next fall, but that probably won't stop the Hurricanes from trying to get his signature on a contract before training camp starts.

Hockey East had earlier lost two rising juniors in Boston University's David Warsofsky and Maine's Gustav Nyquist, who went to Boston and Detroit, respectively, and are now both in the American Hockey League. Warsofsky has already skated in four contests with the Providence Bruins, while Nyquist posted a goal and an assist in his first two games with the Grand Rapids Griffins.

RIT lost junior forward Tyler Brenner to Toronto after he just missed out on a second trip to the NCAA Tournament with the Tigers. The Maple Leafs had earlier signed Wisconsin junior defenseman Jake Gardiner.

The ECAC wasn't immune, either, as junior netminder Allen York chose to go to Columbus after helping Rensselaer to its first national tournament berth in 16 years. Clarkson defenseman Mark Borowiecki said goodbye to a potential senior season in Potsdam and is now in Ottawa's system, as is former Michigan State rearguard Derek Grant, who passed up his last two years in East Lansing and in the CCHA.

It also wasn't an earth-shattering revelation that Stephane Da Costa left Merrimack this week after a pair of 40-plus point campaigns at the NCAA level. The France native inked a deal with Ottawa, and is set to make his NHL debut this weekend. That puts him head of other early signees, most of whom were expected to earn their indoctrination in the AHL. That includes Denmark native and former St. Cloud State defenseman Oliver Lauridsen, who is now with Philadelphia's affiliate in Adirondack.

Denver sophomore defenseman Matt Donovan recently walked away from his last two years with the Pioneers to sign with the New York Islanders, and has since reported to the AHL's Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Also in Bridgeport is former Mercyhurst forward Phil Ginand, the first NCAA skater to sign early this spring.

The current college hockey season will end next Saturday night. The current silly season, as I call it (with a big nod to NASCAR) has a whole summer - and even autumn - to go.

So Long to Hockey Season (Almost)

The Chicago Blackhawks 4-3 OT win over the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 6 of the 2010Stanley Cup Finals tonight just about signals the end of yet another on-ice campaign - minus the Calder Cup Finals in the American Hockey League, which is currently tied at two games apiece between Texas and Hershey.

It was a season (so far) in which Chicago won it all in the NHL for the first time since 1961; Canada claimed both men's and women's Olympic hockey gold on home soil in Vancouver; the Czech Republic took home the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship; a Boston school earned a third consecutive NCAA Division I men's hockey national title, with Boston College accomplishing the feat for the second time in three years; and the OHL's Windsor Spitfires dominated their major junior competition in winning their second straight Memorial Cup.

There's two neat things that stand out about the Blackhawks winning the Cup for the first time in 49 years, among other notes such as Marian Hossa earning his first Cup in his third straight Finals with three different teams. This year's Cup-winning goal was netted by an American in Buffalo-born Patrick Kane, even if most people had no idea where the puck went after he shot it until the play was reviewed. After the goal was ruled good, the Cup was first lifted by a former collegiate player in Chicago captain Jonathan Toews. The former North Dakota Fighting Sioux also took home the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP, tying a Blackhawks playoff record with 29 points.

Toews wasn't along among ex-NCAA players who helped Chicago claim its fourth-ever Cup. Former UVM Catamount forward Patrick Sharp scored 11 goals for the Hawks this spring, including one in the Game 6 clincher, while former Michigan State defenseman Duncan Keith contributed 17 points and seven teeth to the Chicago cause this spring. John Madden (Michigan) earned his third Cup ring in his first season with his new team to go along with his 1996 NCAA title with the Wolverines, while Adam Burish (Wisconsin) can now add a Cup to his 2006 national championship with the Badgers. And in the same year that the University of Alaska Fairbanks made the NCAA Hockey Tournament for the first time ever, Nanook alumnus Jordan Hendry won his first NHL title.

The Flyers had a smaller share of contributing collegians in their amazing postseason run, as youngsters Matt Carle (Denver), Darroll Powe (Princeton), Jared Ross (Alabama-Huntsville) and James Van Riemsdyk (UNH) all saw playoff action for Philadelphia. The Flyers went from barely qualifying as the Eastern Conference seventh seed after winning a shootout on the last day of the regular season, to coming within two victories of winning hockey's biggest prize.

So that's it for the NHL this season. After the AHL gets done in the next week or so, hockey goes dark until it all starts again in September. There's 88 days until Labor Day, one night after the Blackhawks No. 88 (Kane) finally made it Chicago's year.