Day 2 of 2024 Regionals Completed

The second day of the 2024 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey regionals is over, and only half of the original 16-team field now remains.

In Providence yesterday, top-ranked Boston College scored five unanswered goals, four in the third period, to oust Michigan Tech, 6-1. Cutter Gauthier and Ryan Leonard tallied two goals each for the Eagles. In the second game at Amica Mutual Pavilion, Quinnipiac got two goals from Victor Czerneckianair, including the tying marker and the overtime game-winner, to top Wisconsin, 3-2. The defending NCAA champion Bobcats will now face BC on Easter Sunday ( 4 p.m. ET, ESPN2) in the regional final.

In Maryland Heights, Mo., Michigan State rebounded from a 4-2 deficit with three consecutive goals to best Western Michigan, 5-4, in overtime. Karsen Dorwart notched the tying goal in the final minute of regulation, before Jeremy Davidson scored in the extra session. In the nightcap at the Centene Community Ice Center, Michigan used three third-period goals to defeat North Dakota, 4-3. Dylan Duke notched two of those goals for the Wolverines, including the game-winner with just over eight minutes left. Michigan will now face MSU on Sunday (6:30 p.m., ESPN2) in the regional final, in a rematch of the Big Ten title game that was won by the Spartans last Saturday in OT. 

U.S. Wins 2023 WJC Opener in Canada

The United States is off to a good start at the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship in eastern Canada. 

Team USA posted a 5-2 victory over Latvia on Monday in Moncton, N.B. to open this year's tournament, as five different players scored for the Americans. Sean Behrens (Denver) and Red Savage (Miami) tallied a goal and an assist apiece for the U.S., while Dylan Duke (Michigan) set up two goals and Trey Augustine made 15 saves in net.

The 2023 U.S. WJC squad this year features no less than 20 players from 12 different NCAA Division I schools. The head coach for the Americans this year is Rand Pecknold (Quinnipiac University).

Team USA will face Slovakia in its next WJC match-up, on Thursday at the Avenir Centre in Moncton.

Another BU Terrier Arrested

Twice in a decade, or ever, for something like this to transpire would be a lot for any college hockey program to deal with. But twice in the same season, and less than a dozen weeks apart?

Something is definitely wrong down that end of Commonwealth Avenue.

Just over two months after Corey Trivino was arrested for sexual assault and subsequently dismissed from the Boston University men's hockey team, the BU program was dealt another serious blow when Max Nicastro was arrested on Sunday and charged with sexual assault, according to College Hockey News.

Nicastro, 21, a junior defenseman from Thousand Oaks, Calif., and a 2008 draft choice of the Detroit Red Wings, was held on $25,000 cash bail and was due to be arraigned on Tuesday. He has been suspended indefinitely from playing with the Terriers, for whom he had tallied three goals and nine points along with 32 penalty minutes in 27 games so far this season. In 102 career collegiate outings, the former blueliner from Chicago (USHL) has collected 11-22—33 points and 115 PIM.

What's going on at BU is past the point of shocking or ridiculous. It's no longer a hockey issue, either, for head coach Jack Parker to take care of on his own. No, it's time for the university administration to step in. They won't kill the program—and they shouldn't—but things have to change with the entire culture of men's hockey at BU.

Two alleged sexual assaults from the same team in matter of months is frightening, and not just for the victims, although they should rightly be thought of first. Such heinous acts also paint other BU players, most of whom are probably law-abiding citizens, with a broad and unfair brush of guilt, just because they happen to suit up on the same squad as the alleged perpetrators. A number of college/pro athletes in general may carry enormous egos, but a sense of entitlement is a far cry from felony.

Even if the charges against Nicastro are ultimately unfounded, as was discovered with the Duke men's lacrosse team a few years ago after those players were publicly vilified before being exonerated of rape charges, the damage to BU Hockey has already been done—again. It's going to take a while for it to recover from another black eye, and hopefully there isn't a third such ugly incident just waiting in the wings.

Not now. Not ever again.

ADDENDUM: Nicastro was arraigned on two counts of rape on Feb. 21, with an automatic plea of not guilty, according to USCHO.com.