By this point, anyone who follows the CCHA even casually knows the story of Shawn Hunwick. Make no mistake, his rise from being Matt Hunwick’s younger brother to injury fill-in and from being a tenuous starter that lost his job to Big Chill and NCAA Tournament hero has been impressive, but as the tumultuous 2011-12 CCHA season grinds to a close, there’s a new chapter to be written.

Hunwick’s no longer just a good story; he’s legitimately among the best netminders Michigan’s ever had – boasting the best save percentage and goals-against average in program history at this point. And as the Wolverines find themselves in an interesting psychological position – seventh place in the standings but just five points out of first – Hunwick finds himself with the opportunity to do more than inspire walk-ons everywhere, he’s got the chance to put this team on his back as they attempt to end a national title drought that’s fast approaching a decade and a half.

After coming within an overtime goal of the Frozen Four in 2010 and an overtime goal of the national championship last April, Hunwick knows that every second counts as the clock ticks down towards the end of the season, and that ticking is as loud as ever with just four regular-season series remaining.

Having had summers and seasons to reflect on those two crushing disappointments, the lesson Hunwick took away, one that he’ll be sure to convey to his teammates in the coming weeks, is that even a seemingly innocuous mental mistake at any point in the game can make all the difference.

“The thing that you learn when you lose in overtime two years in a row is that every shot counts,” Hunwick said. “You have to play hard every shift, whether it’s the first shift of the game or the last, you need to go hard all the time. If you knew you were going to lose in overtime, you might change something earlier in the game that might have prevented it from getting to overtime.”

And if there’s anyone who notices those tiny moments, bounces, lapses or surges that can change the course of a game – and in a tightly-contested year like this season they matter every night – it’s Hunwick.

Thinking back on his team’s victory over Boston College at the Great Lakes Invitational from over a month ago, a win that seemed to give the team great confidence, Hunwick easily recalled the details of a contest that seems to mimic Michigan’s season.

After the Wolverines jumped out to a 2-0 lead – a lead that might have been four or five goals had some bad bounces, breakaways and near-misses gone their way – Boston College climbed back into the contest and seized control in the second period, tying the game and looking poised to run away with it.

But then there was that moment, a sliver of opportunity, the type of moment that Hunwick referenced when talking about the little things that can turn a game and a season around.

Forward A.J. Treais forced the issue when Boston College mishandled a puck at the point, and parlayed a give-and-go play with teammate Luke Glendening through the neutral zone into a go-ahead goal that put the Wolverines in control.

Michigan has only lost one game since that night after having won just two of its previous 10, and the Wolverines find themselves not on the outside of the national tournament looking in, but as a potential participant with a high seed if they can come up with a strong finish to the regular season.

It’s a different story than the team from two years ago that rallied to finish just two games over .500 and a different tale than last year’s team that was strong throughout the year. But those experiences helped Hunwick learn what it takes to lead a team down the stretch – something he’s done well this year, with a little help from his defense.

“I think that each year has been a different roller coaster,” Hunwick said. “I think that this team is in a pretty good place, starting with our top four on defense. That’s really been the key to our second half run.”

Hunwick credits his defense with making the most of extended playing time in the first half of the year while Jon Merrill was suspended, and thinks that their ability to settle into permanent roles upon his return has been the key to team success, and will be the key for any tournament triumph.

But before tournament season, the Wolverines will try to remain a key player in the CCHA title race and the race for home ice in the conference playoffs this weekend when they host a Miami team that has seemed to have Hunwick’s number. Hunwick is just 1-4-1 all-time against the RedHawks, including the double-overtime loss in a 2010 regional championship game, but he’s ready to seize each moment and change that this weekend.

“Miami has had a great record against us in (recent seasons),” Hunwick said. “We can’t take that away from them, but we can start to change that this weekend. Their team is well-coached by Coach Blasi and they have an unbelievable amount of depth. When we went down to Miami they came out all over us and played a physical game. We just need to dictate the tempo and play our type of game.”

With a surging Miami team followed by series against heated rival Michigan State and a Northern Michigan team that Hunwick will no doubt be ready to play against after a dust-up in Marquette last fall on the horizon, Hunwick has a lot to keep track of – rivalries, his final games at Yost Ice Arena and conference titles.

But ultimately, not that he’s looking past any single opponent, or even taking a tournament bid for granted, the senior has his eye on the big prize.

“Winning the CCHA regular season championship and playoff championship were great experiences,” Hunwick said. “But Michigan hasn’t won a national championship in 14 seasons, and that’s what I am striving for, that’s the one I want to put on the mantle.”

Now it’s up to Hunwick and his teammates to live up to that lesson the goaltender learned in Marches and Aprils past – the lesson that every moment counts, and they can’t afford to slip up for even a second if Hunwick’s vision of another trophy on Yost’s mantle is to come true.

The Hobey Baker Memorial Award is presented to a deserving recipient on the day before the last college hockey game of the season. But that doesn’t mean that college hockey fans, players, and media members don’t think about it all season. Inside College Hockey’s Hobey Tracker looks at our picks for the top three candidates and other players worthy of discussion.

Justin Schultz
Wisconsin | Jr. | D
To Date: 26 GP, 12-26–38, 5 PPG, GWG, +15 rating

The Skinny: Dare we say that Schultz, the country’s leading scorer among defensemen and the sixth-best scorer overall, is mired in a bit of a slump? In seven games since erupting for two goals and two assists in a Jan. 6 win against RIT, Schultz has just one goal and five assists, well below his scoring clip of nearly 1.5 points per game. One could argue Schultz’s recent drop in production is enough to move him out of the Big Board’s top spot, but then again, we’re carping about a blueliner who averages a point and a half per game. Throw in a plus-minus rating of +15 (sixth among NCAA defensemen) and his paltry 10 penalty minutes in 26 games, and you’ve got a pretty impressive resume.

Austin Smith
Colgate | Sr. | F
To Date: 26 GP, 26-15–41, 6 SHG, 4 PPG, 5 GWG, +21 rating

The Skinny: Smith moves up one spot this week on the Big Board following a momentum-building weekend for the Raiders in which their leading actor gave an award-worthy performance. Colgate was mired in a six-game winless slide (Smith still got seven points in that stretch) but broke through with two wins against then-first-place Cornell. Smith was a huge factor all night and assisted on the Raiders’ first goal in a 2-1 win on the road. He then scored twice at home as Colgate scored four in the last 20 minutes to complete a 5-3 comeback win. Smith’s first goal knotted the score at 1-1, and his second tied the score 3-3 in the third period. It was a short-handed goal, his sixth of the season, which leads the country.

Jack Connolly
Minnesota Duluth | Sr. | F
To Date: 26 GP, 15-25–40, 5 PPG, 2 GWG, +16 rating

The Skinny: Not since the second game of the season, way back on Oct. 8, had Jack Connolly been kept off the scoresheet. Then it happened on consecutive nights as Michigan Tech went to Duluth and got a tie and a win on the road, and became the only team other than Notre Dame to hold Connolly without a point in a game this season. Connolly also had a minus-3 rating in the series, and Michigan Tech scored nine straight goals on the weekend after Duluth built a 4-0 lead on Friday night. While our Big Board flip-flop between Smith and Connolly has a lot to do with recent performance, it’s a really close call between all three of the top candidates at this point.

A deeper look at a Hobey hopeful and an issue (or issues) surrounding his candidacy.

Doug Carr, UMass Lowell: Since first-year head coach Norm Bazin anointed Carr the full-time starter in early November, the River Hawks have been nearly unstoppable. The Hanover, Mass., native has a 15-4-0 record on the year, putting UMass Lowell, which won five games last season, on track for an NCAA Tournament berth. He’s fifth in the nation in goals-against average (1.82) and save percentage (.935), and only Minnesota Duluth’s Kenny Reiter and Minnesota’s Kent Patterson have more wins. Assuming the River Hawks continue on their current trajectory—especially with games against Boston University, Maine, and Merrimack on the horizon—Carr will be strong candidate for one of the 10 Hobey finalist spots.

Shane Madolora, RIT: Last season, Madolora kicked his game into high gear during the second half of the season, and it appears he’s doing the same this season. In his last six starts, including last weekend’s win and tie against Mercyhurst that moved the Tigers into first place in Atlantic Hockey, Madolora is 5-0-1 with a 0.66 goals against average and a .975 save percentage. He enters this weekend’s series at Air Force ranked third nationally in both goals-against average (1.78) and save percentage (.937); his numbers would likely be more impressive had he not missed five games early in the season after running into an issue with the NCAA Clearinghouse.

DAN SULLIVAN
Maine
So. | G | York, Pa.

His Statistics: Sullivan stopped 28 of the 30 shots he faced in the Black Bears’ 4-2 win at Boston University Friday, then made a career-high 38 saves to lead Maine to a 3-1 triumph Saturday and a series sweep of the host Terriers.

His Impact: The charging Black Bears are 11-2-1 since Thanksgiving and—fresh off sweeps of perennial Hockey East heavyweights Boston College and Boston University—enter February with as much momentum as any team in the country.

Sullivan’s consistency in goal is one reason for Maine’s surge. His 38 saves in Saturday’s 3-1 win against BU marked the fourth time in his last five starts he’s made 30-plus saves; in his last five appearances, Sullivan is 4-0-1 with a 2.33 goals against average and a .921 save percentage. Among Hockey East goalies, only UMass Lowell’s Doug Carr has more wins than Sullivan.

His Runners Up: Garrett Bartus, Connecticut; Cody Ferriero, Northeastern; Derek Graham, Ferris State; Luke Salazar, Denver; Joe Wilson, Colgate

Congratulations to ex-Wisconsin goaltender Brian Elliott, who preceded his first NHL All-Star Game appearance over the past weekend by signing a two-year contract extension with the St. Louis Blues, the team that picked him off the scrap heap for little more than the league minimum in the offseason, for a reported $3.6 million. Elliott won the battle for Ottawa’s starting gig prior to the start of the 2010-11 season but struggled, lost the job, and was dealt to Colorado. At the break, the Blues are two points behind Detroit in the Central Division standings thanks in large measure to the goaltending platoon of Elliott and Jaroslav Halak—St. Louis has allowed 102 goals in 49 games, second fewest in the league.

We understand that student media generally serves a very specific audience, primarily composed of its peers, which is why it’s not the best move for a college newspaper staffer to call out student peers on the sports pages. A columnist for the Cornell Daily Sun put a strongly-worded rip-job together following the Big Red’s men’s hockey losses against Colgate over the weekend, and wasn’t afraid to name names. The bigger problem was that he named the wrong one by assigning culpability for Colgate’s game-changing short-handed goal to Cornell senior forward Sean Collins, when two defensemen actually coughed the puck up on the play.

What Happened: The American Hockey League held its annual all-star classic Sunday and Monday in Atlantic City and many former collegians participated. Recent college alumni included the likes of Cory Conacher from Canisius and ex-Miami teammates Andy Miele and Carter Camper. Some of the league’s elder statesmen also came from the college ranks including Krys Kolanos, Clay Wilson and Darren Haydar. Former Maine goalie Ben Bishop earned MVP honors after stopping 10 of 11 shots in the third period and all four shootout attempts to lead the Western Conference to an 8-7 shootout victory. A total of 26 players who played at least one year of college hockey took part among the 48 players overall.

What We’re Watching: Ferris State extended its unbeaten streak to eight with two wins against Michigan State this past weekend, climbing to first place in the CCHA standings. The Bulldogs close the regular season with four tricky series (at Northern Michigan, vs. Bowling Green, home-and-home with Notre Dame and Western Michigan), significant because staying in the top four of the league standings and retaining a home-ice spot for the CCHA playoff quarterfinals is more important for Ferris than any other team in the league. The Bulldogs are a sterling 11-1-2 at home this season and a mediocre 6-7-1 away from Big Rapids. In those seven losses—six on the road and one at a neutral site—FSU has scored a total of five goals and has been shut out on four occasions.

What the …?: Through 20 games of Harvard’s season, they’ve posted a record of 6-6-8. Yup, that’s eight ties in 20 games for the Crimson with just six wins and six losses. With that kind of ledger, it’s bound to create some statistical oddities. How about this? At this point in the year, only four teams have fewer wins – Vermont (5), American International (5), Army (3) and Sacred Heart (2). But on the other side, only two teams have fewer losses – Minnesota Duluth (5) and Merrimack (5).

@Akillorn19 Alex Killorn

Guess I got caught picking my nose on national tv. Whatever, where I come from they call that a #powermove

• When you score two goals on national TV against an ancient rival, extra-curricular activities can be overlooked. The real power moves came in the Harvard senior’s two-goal performance against Yale – the first was a wraparound goal and the second came when he drove the net and scored the game-winning goal. By the way, if you haven’t seen Killorn play, check out the early game at the Beanpot on Monday. He’s worth the price of admission and worth setting your video recorder to see.

With a month to go in the CCHA regular season and nine teams within a weekend of first place in the conference, there is very little that’s clear about who will end up on top, who will end up in the NCAA Tournament and who might make some noise once they reach those points.

There’s lots of discussion around the conference – can Ohio State hang on, can Western Michigan bounce back from disappointing losses at Miami, are the RedHawks and Wolverines going to stay hot and finally live up to preseason expectations?

But for all of this talk, there’s a team very much in the mix for the regular season title and a ticket to the dance that hasn’t been talked about nearly as much as those who’ve been at the top of the table all year long, or the big name teams that are bouncing back – the Ferris State Bulldogs.

After closing out 2011 with three losses, the Bulldogs are 4-0-2 since Jan. 4, including a four-point weekend against Alaska and a five-point haul at Ohio State last weekend that has coach Bob Daniels’ squad just four points out of first place with two games in hand relative to most of the contending teams.

“We haven’t talked about winning the (regular season) title recently,” Daniels said. “But it’s our goal every year to win some kind of championship – a regular season championship, a playoff championship or a tournament championship.”

Heading into the year, Daniels thought his team might have more offensive firepower than past year, and, just as he predicted, the team isn’t a squad that scores four or five goals per game, but a few solid forward lines are able to keep the team competitive and prevent opponents from using checking lines to shut down a single group of forwards.

But despite that depth up front, defense and goaltending have been Ferris State’s bread and butter, just as they seem to be every time the Bulldogs creep into the top tier of the conference and the NCAA Tournament picture.

Blue liner Chad Billins has been one of the conference’s top defenders at both ends of the ice, pairing a plus-8 rating with a 3-14-17 line offensively. And the defensive corps got a boost mid-year with the addition of freshman Simon Denis, who missed the early part of the year due to injury, as the rookie has notched 7 assists and a plus-1 rating in 13 games.

Next up on the docket for the Bulldogs is a Michigan State team that also finds itself trying to survive in the dogfight that this year’s CCHA has been. The Spartans arrive at Ewigleben Ice Arena on a four-game unbeaten streak of their own, and Daniels sees a lot of parallels between his team and Tom Anastos’ squad from East Lansing.

“There isn’t a lot of difference between our two teams,” Daniels said. “I don’t know that I can say there is anything that we do better than them, and I don’t know if I can say there’s anything they do better than us. (Ferris State and Michigan State) both have two or three lines that can score, both teams have two goaltenders that can help them win every night, and both teams have a headline defenseman – they have Torey Krug and we have Chad Billins.”

With a trip to Northern Michigan, a home-and-home with Notre Dame, a home series with Bowling Green and a home-and-home to close the year against Western Michigan, Ferris State has a great opportunity to take points from the teams in front of them. But for those opportunities to be meaningful, the Bulldogs have to start with a solid performance this weekend.

It’s kind of a slow weekend in the sports world with the big events being the NHL All-Star Game (somewhat watchable), the NFL Pro Bowl (hardly watchable), and a full slate of NBA action (completely unwatchable). The same could be said for the coming weekend in college hockey with only one big-time clash (Maine at Boston University) on the docket. But there are a few other series that warrant a closer look. One worth watching is a battle between the top two teams in Atlantic Hockey as Mercyhurst visits RIT.

Matt Nieto leads Boston University in scoring with 23 points in 20 games.

Maine at Boston University (Fri.-Sat.): Outside of Minnesota Duluth, no one’s been better than the Black Bears and Terriers over the last two months. Hockey East-leading BU is 12-2-0 since its Nov. 13 shutout of Boston College and Maine, the league’s fourth-place team, is 9-2-1 since Thanksgiving. This series represents the last big hurdle for both teams in what remains of the regular season; the Terriers’ toughest remaining games are a single game at Merrimack and a home-and-home series with UMass Lowell, while the Black Bears’ biggest remaining test is a single game at Lowell. This could be a goal-filled weekend at Agganis Arena what with the Black Bears and Terriers both among the top six in the country in scoring offense and power-play success rate. Enhancing the teams’ power-play potency this weekend is the fact that Boston University and Maine just happen to be the two most penalized teams in the nation.

Colgate vs. Cornell (Friday at Cornell, Saturday at Colgate): These travel partners will play a seldom-seen ECAC Hockey home-and-home weekend beginning Friday night at Lynah Rink in a nationally-televised game. These teams spent most of the first half of the year at or near the top of the league standings. Lately, fortunes have changed a little bit. Colgate is 0-for-2012, with five losses and a tie since the turn of the New Year. A once seemingly impregnable Cornell  team on home ice that achieved five straight shutouts at Lynah Rink was beaten for five aggregate goals last weekend by Dartmouth and Harvard. The return-game Saturday night at Starr Rink in Hamilton always draws a full house. The Raiders need a big weekend to get turned back in the proper direction, and Cornell can maintain its hold on first place by taking care of business against its local rival.

Mercyhurst at RIT (Fri.-Sat.): The top two teams in what is a ridiculously tight Atlantic Hockey race (nine clubs within seven points of first place entering the weekend), the Lakers and Tigers have been on a roll over the last two months—since Dec. 1, Mercyhurst is 8-2-2 and RIT is 9-4-0. The similarities pretty much end there. The Lakers have leaned on the country’s 13th-ranked scoring offense (3.19 goals per game) and sixth-best power play (23.6 percent); the Tigers have the nation’s third-best scoring defense (2.04 goals allowed per game) and 16th-best penalty kill (84.6 percent). Bolstered by the strong play of goalie Shane Madolora, RIT has allowed one or fewer goals in eight of its last 13 games, but with eight of its last 12 matches decided by one goal or ending in a tie, Mercyhurst is accustomed to playing in tight games.

Wisconsin at North Dakota (Fri.-Sat.): A sweep by either the Badgers or NoDak probably puts the final nail in the coffin of the losing team’s NCAA Tournament hopes. That we’re even talking about either team making the NCAAs speaks volumes about the rampant above-average-ism in college hockey this season. That said, both North Dakota and Wisconsin are in good shape considering extenuating circumstances. The painfully young Badgers (a combined four juniors and seniors) are 7-2-1 since Thanksgiving. North Dakota isn’t painfully young, just painfu. With five players on the shelf nursing various injuries, North Dakota has been dressing 17 players and two goalies as of late. Still, the team is 9-3-1 since Turkey Day.

Also: It’s typically been one of the marquee matchups in Hockey East, but it’s fair to say there’s a little shine off this weekend’s Boston College-New Hampshire home-and-home series. Since starting the season by winning eight of their first nine, the Eagles are 7-9-1. The Wildcats have lost eight of their last 12 games. … Denver travels to Alaska Anchorage for a WCHA series. The Pioneers could regain the services of goaltender Sam Brittain and defenseman John Ryder, both of whom have been sidelined with injuries. Brittain has yet to play this season. … Miami is surging, but the NCAA criteria computations inexplicably love Northern Michigan, the CCHA’s ninth-place team. Those two teams meet in Oxford this weekend. … Michigan State hasn’t played a true road game since Dec. 9 and the Spartans’ last road series was a mid-November trip to Northern Michigan. They’re at Ferris State this weekend; the Bulldogs, 4-0-2 in their last six games, have a 9-1-2 mark in Big Rapids this season.

Reilly Smith

REILLY SMITH
Miami
Jr. | F | Mimico, Ontario

His Statistics: Four goals in the RedHawks’ sweep of visiting Western Michigan, including all three goals (one of them short-handed) in Friday’s 3-1 win and the game-winner in Saturday’s 4-0 shutout.

His Impact: Since a disastrous October in which it won two of its eight games, Miami has climbed to within two points of first-place Ohio State in the CCHA standings by going 12-4-2 since Nov. 1. Smith has played a huge role in the RedHawks’ revival, scoring 14 goals and 20 points in those 18 games. His four goals this weekend give him 18 for the season—in all of college hockey, only Colgate’s Austin Smith (24) and Minnesota’s Nick Bjugstad (20) have more.

Smith and the RedHawks have a tough, but favorable, schedule from here on out with seven of their 10 remaining games at home, including a potentially huge home-and-home series with Ohio State to close the regular season. The only road series left on Miami’s slate is an equally important trip to Ann Arbor Feb. 3-4 to face Michigan.

His Runners Up: Shane Madolora, RIT; Mike Mangene, Maine; Bryce Merriam, Rensselaer; Justin Schultz, Wisconsin

While we chose Reilly Smith as the INCH National Player of the Week, it wasn’t an easy decision. The efforts of all the runner-up candidates made this the most difficult choice of the year, so we’ll take this time to salute them in greater detail. The goalies were at the top of their games, as RIT and RPI went to New England states and came home after four-point weekends. RIT’s Shane Madolora (62 saves) and RPI’s Bryce Merriam (81 saves) each had a shutout and allowed one goal in the other game. Matt Mangene of Maine led the Black Bears to a sweep of Boston College by scoring the overtime-winner in Friday’s victory and adding a hat trick in Saturday’s win. Wisconsin defenseman Justin Schultz had another big weekend to boost his Hobey candidacy with five points and a plus-seven rating in two wins against Alaska Anchorage.

Over the last several weeks, people have had the opportunity to login and vote for their favorite players or other deserving candidates in the first phase of the Vote For Hobey. With that, has come some campaigning and balloting updates (and even misinformed articles) from different factions in support of players. We’re all for the enthusiasm, but the bottom line is that it really doesn’t matter at all in determining the top-10 Hobey finalists, let alone the winner. At this stage of voting, 58 coaches receive ballots. Additionally, the fan vote accounts for one percent of the total results – roughly a little more than half of one coach’s vote.

What Happened: Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson was understandably peeved after the CCHA denied the Fighting Irish’s appeal of its suspension of forward Riley Sheahan, causing the standout junior to miss Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Michigan. The league iced Sheahan for what it termed an “illegal hit” in the second period of Notre Dame’s Jan. 13 loss to Western Michigan.

Thing is, had the officials working that game made the correct call, it’s unlikely Sheahan gets suspended. Referees Keith Sergott and Matthew Miller saw the hit, but wrongly assessed the major penalty and game misconduct to Notre Dame’s Jeff Costello—hence the CCHA’s revisionist justice nearly a week later.

“It was more about the process. It wasn’t so much about the call,” Jackson told the Notre Dame Observer. “I hope they take a hard look at the official that involved and give him the same kind of suspension.”

What We’re Watching: We’re watching college hockey on TV—lots of it. With the proliferation of national and regional sports outlets and DirecTV, it’s the golden age of televised college pucks. But we’ve got a simple request for game analysts: less is more. Just because you’re on television for two to three hours at a time, you don’t have to try to cram everything you know about the game into that time frame. Tell us what we need to know, and move on.

What the …?: Saw some brief reports Monday from the Canadian Press about an AHL suspension to former New Hampshire defenseman Garrett Stafford. He’ll sit out one game for the Hamilton Bulldogs due to his actions in Saturday’s outdoor game against the Toronto Marlies. Stafford’s transgression? He apparently threw a water bottle at the Marlies’ bench.

@BruceCiskie Bruce Ciskie

Not surprised to see UMD lose a couple first-place votes. There are voters who use the Pairwise now that it has enough data to be valid.

• If this is indeed the case, and we have no reason to believe it’s not true, then what value do those voters bring to the polling process? Many fans like to clamor that the PairWise is the only thing that matters for NCAA Tournament selection and the polls are meaningless. That’s true … on one day of the year. The PairWise is designed to measure teams based on the entire season’s body of work and there’s a lot of hockey left to be played. To view it as a ranking system is flat-out wrong. The benefit of voter-driven polls and compiling the INCH Power Rankings is that actual hockey coaches and media who closely follow the games can make their case based on what they’ve seen by watching teams all season long. Besides, do you really want to rely on a comparison system that currently deems CCHA ninth-place team Northern Michigan more worthy of an NCAA Tournament spot than WCHA leader Minnesota or ECAC Hockey leader Cornell?

Even to the untrained eye, it’s clear that the culture of Western Michigan hockey is dramatically different than it was two seasons ago. The rise of Bronco hockey from the bottom tier of the CCHA has been well documented by almost any outlet covering the conference and that program in particular.

That talk should only get louder in the coming weeks after Western completed a home-and-home sweep of Notre Dame last weekend, cementing the team as a legitimate contender for its first conference title. With the six-point weekend, the Broncos sit just one point behind Ohio State with two games in hand.

Chase Balisy

The key to this unprecedented opportunity for the Broncos is that through the transition of practice and training habits and on-ice strategy under Andy Murray this season and Jeff Blashill last year, one thing hasn’t been lost – the passion Western Michigan teams always had for the game, even when they were limited to spoiling a weekend for the conference’s big guns rather than actually contending.

But, in past seasons, that passion often came  with costly penalties and mistakes, a downside the Broncos revisited two weekends ago when they were swept at home by No. 1 Minnesota-Duluth – a downfall that many took to be a sign that Western wasn’t ready to compete nationally.

Against the Bulldogs, the Broncos found themselves tied heading to the final frame of both games – 1-1 on Friday, 2-2 on Saturday.  But two third-period penalties Friday and one Saturday resulted in an early power play goal both nights that sparked three-goal rallies and gave the games a blow-out feel if one simply looked at the box score.

Sophomore forward Chase Balisy looked back on those games this past Tuesday and echoed sentiments we’ve heard from Western Michigan so many times in the past.

“Against (Minnesota-Duluth) I thought we played well, but the third periods didn’t go our way,” Balisy said. “They’re the No. 1 team in the country and we just took too many penalties. We’re an emotional group of guys and we play with a lot of heart, but we can’t take that many penalties.”

The difference is that this time, the lesson was learned and the Broncos turned things around, playing spotless third periods against Notre Dame (2 goals scored on Friday, 1 Saturday) and rebuilding any lost faith in the club from supporters and media after the prior weekend’s disappointments.

“I think that this past weekend we did a better job of controlling that, even though the Notre Dame series was very physical,” Balisy said. “A lot of guys are banged up this week.”

Balisy credits another year of experience for what was an extremely young team last year for helping them keep their composure and stay in the title race.

“I’d say we definitely have more experience,” Balisy said. “We only lost a few seniors from last year and most of our forwards lines are intact, so we pretty much have the same team that made it to the CCHA finals last year.”

And while those seniors lost might have been few in number, Balisy notes that they played a huge role in his personal development as a college hockey player, as well as in the growth of the team as a whole.

“Last year I had no idea what to expect,” Balisy said. “I was just 18 years old, and the seniors really took me under their wing.”

That maturity and experience that Balisy and his teammates bounced back with against Notre Dame will continue to be important in the coming weeks, as they might complete the transition from underdog to the team with a target on its back if they take over the league’s top spot.

That quest starts with the team that ended the Broncos’ Cinderella story at Joe Louis Arena last year – the Miami RedHawks.

Miami hasn’t been a player in the title race thus far, but they’ve been hot as of late. Balisy gives them credit for a being a tough, physical team to play against and has seen the team trending upwards over the past month after a slow start.

It won’t be easy to win on the road at Steve Cady Arena, but with the chip on its shoulder after the championship game loss last March, the Broncos will throw everything possible at the RedHawks, hoping to come out of the weekend on top of the conference standings.

Should that happen, everyone will be talking about the Broncos, but Balisy and his teammates are ready to handle the pressure of being the favorites.

“At the beginning of the year, our goal was to win the CCHA Title, the playoff title and the National Championship,” Balisy said. “Every year those goals are the same, but now, with 12 games left, people will start to talk about it more.”

Stevie Moses

STEVIE MOSES
New Hampshire
Sr. | F | Leominster, Mass.

His Statistics: Five goals in the Wildcats’ wins against Providence and Dartmouth, including the lone tally in UNH’s 1-0 win at Schneider Arena Wednesday and four goals in a a 4-1 victory over the Big Green in Manchester, N.H., Saturday.

His Impact: It hasn’t been a banner year for New Hampshire—the Wildcats enter the week in eighth place in the Hockey East standings, just one point ahead of ninth-place Northeastern—but it’s been a pretty good one for Stevie Moses. The senior forward took over first place in the Hockey East goal scoring race this past weekend, netting the lone goal in UNH’s 1-0 win at Providence Wednesday, then added four goals Saturday as the Wildcats cruised past Dartmouth, 4-1, in a non-conference match in Manchester, N.H.

Moses, who also scored four goals in his team’s Nov. 26 win against Alabama-Huntsville, leads the Wildcats with 16 goals, 26 points, and five power-play goals.

His Runners Up: Michael Colavecchia, RIT; Troy Grosenick, Union; Alex Guptill, Michigan; Drew Shore, Denver

North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol took swift and decisive action against Ben Blood Monday, pulling the ‘A’ from the senior defenseman’s sweater for his role in a confrontation in the postgame handshake line Saturday following NoDak’s 6-2 loss to visiting Minnesota.

“Regardless of any provocation, Ben’s actions in the postgame handshake were not acceptable,” Hakstol said in a prepared statement. “The handshake is a traditional, gentlemanly part of our game where, at the end of a hard-fought battle, opponents show good sportsmanship and shake hands like men.”

Blood tussled with Minnesota freshman forwards Seth Ambroz and Kyle Rau in the handshake line. Blood was possibly provoked by a slash from a Minnesota player late in the third period of the game, and as the final horn sounded Saturday, Blood whistled a slap shot that hit Ambroz, resulting in a brief skirmish.

It’s a tough way for Hakstol to teach Blood a lesson, but it’s the right move. Ultimately, this experience will make Blood a better player, a better teammate, and a better leader.

After perusing the social networks on a weekly basis, we’re inundated with complaining. From your favorite team’s results to downgrading a rival, travel woes or even the weather, people are always complaining. Why should we pile on and bring more negative into the world? Instead, we present this:

What Happened?: OK, OK, so we’re probably beating a dead horse at this point, but it’s our horse and it’s our beatin’ to dole out. One of the aspects of outdoor hockey games that we enjoy is that often teams will wear an alternate sweater for the special event, and that was the case over the last few weeks. While New Hampshire and Maine stuck to their tried-and-true uniform looks, as well as Michigan and Union in alternate black sweaters, other teams presented new looks to mixed results. Our favorite of the bunch were the designs sported by Harvard, and we were less impressed by Ohio State’s pseudo-pajama look. Northeastern wore red against Boston College, dressed in gold; and one week earlier Massachusetts sported a big M on the crest of their sweater against Vermont with a retro diagonal UVM on their road greens.

What We’re Watching: Usually, it’s the time of the year when we’ve got a pretty good idea of which teams have established themselves as the truly elite groups in college hockey. This year, that seems to be a bit murkier. Some of the top teams really haven’t run away from the pack and other contenders are showing obvious flaws. You don’t have to look much further than the overall records. At this time last year, eight teams in the country had 15 wins or more. This year, there are just two – Minnesota (16) and Minnesota Duluth (15). We’ll see what happens over the next six or seven weeks, but all indicators point to a wide-open playoff season where any number of teams could make legitimate championship runs.

What The …?: It’s not often that you see a coaching staff or bench assessed unsportsmanlike conduct penalties for working the referees, as the officials usually exercise a degree of restraint to accompany the requisite thick skin required to do the job. That wasn’t the case Sunday at Clarkson, where both benches were whistled for unsportsmanlike minors during the game. Yale’s unsportsmanlike penalty came in overtime, giving Clarkson a power play that the Golden Knights converted for a victory. Whoa.

@TheRoEbOaT9 Garrett Roe

Some people are pretenders and just run from adversity. Especially guys who flake and transfer schools midseason. #bestofluck #kidding

• That tweet from former St. Cloud State forward Garrett Roe was a not-so-veiled shot at sophomore Mitch MacMillan, an ex-teammate of Roe who decided to transfer to North Dakota where his brother, Mark, is a freshman forward. Roe now plays for the Adirondack Phantoms of the American Hockey League. Sure, it’s tough to lose a player to a rival via transfer, but Roe’s objection seems over the top.

Sure, we’ve mocked the proliferation of outdoor hockey games in the past. And, some would argue, rightly so. This weekend, however, isn’t the time to get up on our soapbox. Sure, there are outdoor games on the slate, but this time around it’s more than just a spectacle—these contests will play significant roles in the races for league titles in the CCHA, ECAC Hockey, and Hockey East.

Fenway Park is the site of Friday's important ECAC Hockey showdown pitting Union against Danny Biega and Harvard.

Outdoor Hockey (Fri.-Sat-Sun.): As outdoor games have proliferated throughout the years, one of the strangest facts about them in our eyes is that most of them have been league contests and factored in the standings. That’s the case again this weekend when three prominent games involving league rivals take place on baseball diamonds. It starts with Friday’s game at Fenway Park where Union and Harvard meet in an ECAC Hockey contest. They played last week and tied 3-3 at Union’s home rink. That’s followed Saturday at the same site where Boston College and Northeastern will meet. Northeastern is one of the nation’s hottest teams, but had a slow start in Hockey East games. They’ll have a chance to knock off the league’s first-place team.  Sunday, it’s the second-half of a two-game weekend when Michigan and Ohio State will play at Progressive Field in Cleveland, home of the Cleveland Indians. Ohio State currently leads the CCHA with a 10-3-3 league record and owns a seven-point advantage over Notre Dame and Western Michigan.

Minnesota at North Dakota (Fri.-Sat.): While there’s a tendency to believe these teams are trending in opposite directions, that isn’t really the case. Sure, the Gophers aren’t crushing their opponents’ skulls like they did during the first six weeks of the season and North Dakota has played light years better than it did during its 4-7-1 start, but the roles haven’t completely reversed.

Minnesota is deeper and more talented than the injury-riddled North Dakotans, but the Gophers can be maddeningly inconsistent—those who witnessed the boatload of giveaways and odd-man rushes against in last weekend’s loss to Notre Dame can certainly attest to that. NoDak, meanwhile, has been relying almost solely on the Corban Knight-Danny Kristo-Brock Nelson line for offense and the re-emergence of goalie Aaron Dell, who has a 1.97 GAA and a .923 save percentage in his last seven starts. But credit coach Dave Hakstol and his staff for patching together a lineup that has clicked thus far.

Notre Dame vs. Western Michigan (Fri. at Notre Dame; Sat. at Kalamazoo): The Fighting Irish and Broncos enter the weekend tied for second in the CCHA standings, seven points behind first-place Ohio State. Notre Dame comes into the home-and-home with a little momentum courtesy of impressive wins against nationally ranked Boston University and Minnesota; the Irish also appear to have found a no. 1 goaltender in Steve Summerhays. Western Michigan was swept by top-ranked Minnesota Duluth last weekend, but the games were closer than the final scores indicate—both nights, the Broncos led after one period and were tied heading into the third period.

Minnesota Duluth at Nebraska-Omaha (Fri.-Sat.): About a week ago, Dean Blais and Scott Sandelin were guiding the U.S. entry at the IIHF World Junior Championship in Alberta. This weekend, the two coaches will patrol opposite benches as Sandelin’s top-ranked Bulldogs head to Omaha to face Blais and the Mavericks. UMD hasn’t lost in forever, but this might be the time and place its 16-game unbeaten streak ends. UNO can keep pace with the Bulldogs offensively, but whether or not the Mavs get reliable goaltending will likely spell the difference here. More that 15,000 fans are expected to pack CenturyLink Center Friday; when it comes to big games, dating back to the old Bullpen, Mavs crowds have historically risen to the occasion and given their team a boost.

Also: That creeping sound you hear is preseason Frozen Four favorite Miami ever so slightly tiptoeing back into the race for the CCHA regular-season title. The RedHawks get the chance to run down one of the teams ahead of them in the league standings, Lake Superior State, this weekend. … Big showdown in Hockey East this weekend as Maine travels to Merrimack for a two-game set. The Black Bears have won seven of their last eight while the Warriors are 2-4-2 in their last eight … Neither Dartmouth nor New Hampshire are having the type of seasons they envisioned. Still, the battle for the RiverStone Cup has routinely been one of the better non-league games in recent years. The teams faceoff Saturday in Manchester, N.H.

Having gone winless in the first two weekends of CCHA play and sitting with a 2-6-0 overall record, it goes without saying that things hadn’t gone as planned for INCH’s preseason national No.1.

Reilly Smith has eight goals and 12 points in his last 12 games.

After several years of consistent success within the conference and on the national stage, it looked like maybe this season would mark an off year for the Miami RedHawks, as they brought in eight freshmen and tried to mitigate the loss of Hobey Baker winner Andy Miele, star forward Carter Camper and several other major contributors after last year.

But sitting in their home locker room after being swept by Lake Superior at the end of October, an impassioned discussion about where this team was headed began to turn the tide, as the team realized it was time to focus on the things they could control – how hard they practice, and how hard they compete on game night.

“After the Lake Superior weekend where our record was 2-6 after the sweep we sat together as a team and realized that it wasn’t acceptable,” Miami captain Reilly Smith said. “We focused on our problems and moved past them, and we realized that we are only going to beat teams by working harder than them.”

With leaders like senior defenseman Will Weber and junior forward Smith setting an example, the large freshman class began to catch on to what has made Miami hockey so special in recent years and the results turned around quickly.

“At the start of the year, we had a lot of new faces and it took time to get everyone on the same page,” Smith said. “In past years, we haven’t had as many freshmen as we have this year, so we needed them to step up early on, and that’s a lot to ask of an 18- or 19-year old kid coming from the USHL or whichever league they came from. Once they got over that hump, our team really started playing well.”

Beginning with a road sweep at Alaska to start November, Miami’s rediscovered work ethic helped bring out the talent that had been hidden by inexperience and nerves earlier in the year. The RedHawks ran up an eight-game unbeaten streak and lost just three of their final 12 games in the first half.

And with a sweep on the road at Michigan State last weekend, Miami seems to have picked up exactly where it left off, and it now sits in fifth place – certainly a contender for a first-round bye in the CCHA tournament and an NCAA Tournament bid – if things continue to progress the way they have since Halloween.

While Ohio State has been the class of the conference thus far, and Notre Dame and Western Michigan have proven themselves as deep, talented contenders, the CCHA seems to be particularly muddled this year. Lacking a star like Andy Miele or Kevin Porter that can make the difference on a consistent basis, there isn’t a lot to choose between the CCHA’s upper-middle class, giving a slow-starting team like this year’s RedHawks a chance to make up for early-season struggles.

“The parity in our league has really gone up this year,” Smith said. “There really aren’t any teams that you can blow out like there have been in past years. Also, teams have been able to rely on one or two superstars to take over games, and this year it’s more physical.”