To say a hockey player has “great wheels” is to compliment his speed on the ice. But if you were to tell Rhett Rakhshani that he had great wheels while he was learning the game on the outdoor rinks of Southern California in the mid 1990s, all you’d have been telling him is that he was properly outfitted for hockey.

Rakhshani and Denver's other offensive-minded players will need to help carry the load while starting goalie Marc Cheverie recovers from injury.

The Denver senior started playing at age five, but was nearly twice that age before he tried the game on a sheet of ice. It’s no stretch to see the kid from Huntington Beach, Calif., list surfing as one of his favorite hobbies. But with no longboards and breakers to entertain him while playing developmental hockey in Michigan, and college hockey in Colorado, he’s had to be content with a different hobby he learned not far from the Pacfic beaches: creating offense and watching the goal light behind the opponents’ net glow.

With top goaltender Marc Cheverie out of the Pioneers’ lineup for a few weeks due to a nasty cut on his leg, the focus rightly switches to the new Denver goalie, freshman Adam Murray. But the burden of leading the team, as Denver heads to Alaska Anchorage this weekend for a pair, switches to the offense. And anyone who witnessed the Pioneers’ forceful statement at Mariucci Arena two weekends ago doesn’t have to look at the team statistics to know that Rakhshani leads the way as Denver seeks to bring the MacNaughton Cup back to Magness Arena for its third visit of the decade.

“Rhett has tremendous stick skills and he’s capable of doing some wonderful things that other people just can’t do,” said George Gwozdecky, one night before Rakhshani and Cheverie would help give the Pioneers coach his 500th win. “He has such great roller hockey hands and is so fast, so what he’s able to do - pick the corner or shoot a puck off a pass, maintain possession when he’s knocked off balance - those are the things that he’s really, really good at.”

He was held to just an assist in last weekend’s home win and tie with Minnesota State, but Rakhshani had three of the team’s six goals at Minnesota and leads the team with nine points in eight games. After the Gopher series was over and his team was packing to leave Minneapolis in possession of a serious statement about who is the WCHA’s team to beat, Rakhshani reflected on those early days of learning to skate and score on wheels and concrete, rather than on blades and ice.

“Roller hockey is more of an offensive game so there are more offensive opportunities you’re given,” he said. “Through that you get to practice and learn the play. A lot of it is just hockey sense, but over time I’ve been able to develop a little bit of a scoring touch and a quick release.”

Rakhshani comes from an athletic family - his uncle Vic played tight end for the USC football team - so it’s not surprising that when he switched to ice hockey at age nine, the only real transition was learning to stop. Perhaps that was a sign of things to come, as stopping him hasn’t been easy for opponents throughout his college career.

If his coach doesn’t seem as consistently awed by the skills as others, keep in mind that Gwozdecky has had a front-row seat for the show for three seasons, and has realized that Rakhshani’s unique talents, learned outside in the Southern California sun, aren’t easy to teach, duplicate, or rein in.

“What he does sometimes may be a special effort by others, but for him that’s pretty normal,” Gwozdecky said.

DAN RINGWALD
Rochester Institute of Technology
Sr. | D | Oakville, Ontario

His Statistics: 2 GP, 3-3—6, 5 power-play points

His Impact: The RIT Tigers made the jump to Division I hockey just five years ago and have experienced a lot of success in that time. Entering last weekend’s games with an 0-5-0 record was unfamiliar territory for the Tigers, but they broke through with a big offensive weekend in a two-game sweep of Connecticut in an Atlantic Hockey series.

RIT scored 13 goals over the two games with a 6-2 win on Friday and 7-0 win on Saturday. The Tigers were 4-for-7 on the power play in the Friday win and 2-for-9 in Saturday’s win and power-play quarterback Dan Ringwald keyed the offensive surge.

Ringwald had three assists in Friday’s win, all of which came on the power play, and scored a natural hat trick in Saturday’s win. His three straight goals in the first period stretched RIT’s lead to 4-0.

He’s been a consistent point producer over his entire RIT career and entered the season as RIT’s all-time leader in assists and points by a defenseman at the Division I level and is a two-time All-Atlantic Hockey first-team selection. His big weekend helped start turning RIT’s season in a positive direction.

His Runners-Up: Alex Beaudry, Providence; Scott Greenham, Alaska; Alexander Killorn, Harvard; Nathan Longpre, Robert Morris; Tony Lucia, Minnesota

The INCH Player of the Week is presented by The INCH Shop

Could you tell last weekend was Halloween for college hockey, too? A bunch of defensemen across the nation got into the spirit by masquerading as Paul Coffey.

Ringwald had back-to-back, three-point nights, but five other blueliners put forth three-point games. Ringwald’s RIT compadre, Al Mazur, had three goals and an assist against Connecticut Friday, the same night St. Lawrence’s Peter Child recorded a hat trick against Sacred Heart.

On Saturday, a trio of defensemen racked up three assists—Cullen Lundholm of Robert Morris, who had three assists in a win over Quinnipiac; Wisconsin’s Brendan Smith, who did it against New Hampshire; and Minnesota State’s Ben Youds, who accomplished the feat against Denver.

We briefly mentioned that there was some market correction in this week’s INCH Power Rankings in regard to some Hockey East teams. Specifically, these are teams that are at or below .500 through the first month of the season. Defending national champion Boston University is 2-3-0, as is Northeastern—an NCAA Tournament team from a year ago. Vermont, despite some impressive early wins, is also 2-3-0. BC is at .500 with a 2-2-0 mark and New Hampshire is 2-4-1 after being blown out in two games at Wisconsin last weekend. Full credit goes to Massachusetts (4-1-0), UMass Lowell (4-2-0) and upstarts Merrimack (5-3-0) and Providence (5-2-0), but the trend of slow starts for many of the teams is troubling. 

“I think that’s a terrible precedent for a league, and I think the integrity of the league’s at stake when you make that sort of decision … You’re actually encouraging member institutions to cheat, as long as they don’t get caught before the game is declared over.”—Nebraska-Omaha athletic director Trev Alberts to Chad Purcell of the Omaha World-Herald following the Mavericks’ controversial shootout loss to Bowling Green Friday in which the Falcons used an ineligible player.

Alberts, the former All-American linebacker at Nebraska and football commentator, went on to say that he was disappointed by the CCHA’s “lack of leadership.” He never minced words on the air, and it appears that hasn’t changed. That’s great, because in our opinion the happy-happy-joy-joy CCHA could use a little piss and vinegar. 

We’re nitpicking here—isn’t that the point of this feature?—but New Hampshire somehow appeared on the ballots of enough voters to garner seven points in the latest USCHO.com/CBS College Sports just days after getting throttled twice at Wisconsin last weekend. With a 2-4-1 record, can anyone honestly say UNH is one of the 20 best teams in the country or has even played to that level? It begs the question, are voters actually casting ballots based on the previous weekend’s results? In this instance, it seems more like a vote for the program or a vote of familiarity (i.e. UNH has been good in the past, so they’re probably good this year, too) more than anything.

SchlossmanGF Which Halloween costume of Jonny Toews is better? Dumb and Dumber or Wolverine?

Brad Elliot Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald forwarded the above links Monday. In addition to former Fighting Sioux and current Chicago Blackhawks standout Toews, we get a look at the costumes of ex-collegians Adam Burish (Wisconsin), Duncan Keith (Michigan State), and Patrick Sharp (Vermont). Makes one wonder what these guys did with all the free time they had during the lockout.

MARC CHEVERIE
Denver
Jr. | G | Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia

His Statistics: 2 GP, 2 shutouts, 60 saves.

His Impact: It was a weekend of historic proportions for the Pioneers and for Cheverie, who whitewashed Minnesota on back-to-back nights—the first time that has happened to the Gophers since 1930—with identical 30-save efforts. In doing so, Cheverie extended his personal shutout streak to 203:19, second in the DU hockey annals behind Peter Mannino’s run of 208:42 without allowing a goal.

Cheverie has three shutouts this season—he also blanked Ohio State on Oct. 15—and seven for his career. Minnesota has been the victim of Cheverie’s perfection on three separate occasions. In addition to the shutouts this past weekend, he was also the goalie of record in a 4-0 win over the Gophers at Magness Arena on Nov. 22, 2008.

Heading into the Pioneers’ weekend series with Minnesota State, Cheverie leads the nation in shutouts, is tied for first in wins with four, ranks second with a .966 save percentage, and is fourth with a 1.00 goals against average.

His Runners-Up: Blake Kessel (New Hampshire); John Kruse (Air Force); Jerry Kuhn (Western Michigan); Chris McKelvie (Bemidji State); Brandon Pirri (Rensselaer); Bill Sweatt (Colorado College)

The INCH Player of the Week is presented by The INCH Shop

This past weekend was fairly enjoyable for hockey fans in Colorado. In addition to Denver’s series sweep at Minnesota, Colorado College took two games from visiting Michigan Tech. The Tigers were paced by senior forward Bill Sweatt, who in the two games piled up 1-6—7. Up the road a spell, Air Force got off the schneid with a pair of wins over RIT at Cadet Ice Arena. Rookie forward John Kruse led the Falcons with 1-5—6 and a plus-minus rating of +4. (As an aside, INCH hopes Kruse has designs on being a fighter pilot, and gets tagged with the nickname “Maverick.” We feel the need for speed.)

Although it hasn’t yet been formally announced, all indications are that next summer’s NHL Entry Draft will be held at Staples Center in Los Angeles, home of the Kings. We know that the North American geographic footprint for the NHL is significantly larger than that of college hockey, but it was nice for college hockey fans and media to consider nearby locales such as Montreal, Ottawa, and Columbus in recent years.

“They outworked us at times but I think we deserved at least one this weekend.”—Minnesota captain Tony Lucia, to Roman Augustovitz of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune following Denver’s second shutout of the weekend at Mariucci Arena Saturday.

When Lucia the younger says “one”, is he referring to a win or a goal?

INCH has stood by without comment for two weeks, but in this, the third week of absurdity, we are compelled to shed our cloak of silence. What, we ask, is up with one renegade pollster consistently going off the board with his/her first-place vote in the national polls?

It started two weeks ago when Boston College garnered a lone no. 1 mention in both the USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today and USCHO.com/CBS College Sports rankings. Last week, another Hockey East school, Vermont, earned a sole no. 1 vote in both polls. This week, Yale got the outlier in the polls.

Don’t get us wrong; we’re certainly open to radical thinking when it comes to voting in the national polls. Perhaps the voter in question can only give his/her top spot to institutions located in one of the 13 original colonies. We’ll know that’s the case should Old Dominion gets a first-place vote. But this pattern is odd, to say the least.

Obviously, we don’t know the identity of this person (or people). We don’t even know if it’s the same person responsible for the lone vote each week. We’d love to hear this particular voter’s rationale, however. One thing we can tell you is that it’s not us. INCH casts a vote in the USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today poll every week. The ballot we submit aligns with the top 15 teams in that week’s INCH Power Rankings.

@ThatKevinSmith: Via @nerdbastards “If Gozer the Gozerian asked you to choose the form of your destructor, what would it be?” Gretzky, circa ‘84 Oilers.

The successful writer/director (”Clerks”, “Chasing Amy”, etc.) is a big hockey fan, a bigger New Jersey Devils fan, and an even bigger Gretzky fan. A prolific Tweeter, Smith will soon start production on “Hit Somebody”, a hockey-themed flick based on the Warren Zevon song of the same name.

The headline of this piece doesn’t refer to the prowess any member of the INCH family has as a deejay, though, if asked, we’re more than happy to dust off our Eric B. and Rakim vinyl and take a turn on the wheels of steel. Instead, it refers to the picks for this week’s most intriguing matchups—a pair of single games pitting CCHA and Hockey East powers against one another and two conference series.

Junior goaltender John Muse allowed four goals on 16 shots in Boston College's season-opening loss at Vermont Sunday.

Boston College at Notre Dame (Friday): Notre Dame has won four of the last five games in this series with the lone loss coming to Boston College in the 2008 Frozen Four championship game in Denver. The Fighting Irish were shaky in series splits with Alabama-Huntsville and Providence, but shut out a listless Boston University team at Agganis Arena Tuesday. Listlessness must be spreading like H1N1 in the Hub of Hockey, because the Eagles looked as much in a season-opening loss at Vermont Sunday.

The most intriguing matchup in this contest pits the Irish forwards, who’ve yet to fire on all cylinders, against a young BC defensive corps that struggled against UVM. Notre Dame defenseman Teddy Ruth, who hasn’t played this season because of a lower body injury, will not dress against the Eagles.

Denver at Minnesota (Friday-Saturday): In this very space last week prior to its series at North Dakota, it was mentioned that Minnesota was a great unknown that could win by six goals or lose by the same margin. Two games into the season, I don’t know that we have any greater handle on the Gophers other than the fact that goaltenders Alex Kangas and Kent Patterson were pretty sharp.

The Pioneers won’t have standout center Joe Colborne in the lineup—he broke a finger in a loss to Ohio State last week. Also, DU coach George Gwozdecky tells Mike Chambers of the Denver Post that he plans to rotate goalies Marc Cheverie and Adam Murray for the third straight series.

Michigan at Boston University (Saturday): Offense shouldn’t be a problem for these teams, but it has thus far. The Terriers, a few days removed from being shut out by Notre Dame, have two goals in two games. The Wolverines, meanwhile, have nine goals in three games. Keep an eye on a pair of talented forwards who’ve yet to get untracked-or is it on track? Because untracked would seem to indicate derailment, and that ain’t good. Semantics aside, Michigan’s Louie Caporusso, who scored 24 goals and 49 points last season, has bagels thus far. BU’s Nick Bonino scored 50 points as a rookie; he, too, is scoreless.

RIT at Air Force (Friday-Saturday): Atlantic Hockey’s preseason favorites enter the weekend with a combined 0-7 record (to be fair, the league’s 10 teams are 1-23-0 thus far.) Air Force, which started last season with 13 straight wins, is 0-4, its longest losing streak in more than two years. Senior goalie Andrew Volkening has been abysmal as evidenced by his 5.91 GAA and .805 save percentage. RIT, meanwhile, has three narrow losses to ECAC Hockey opponents. In those three games the Tigers have fired a combined 119 shots on target, but have scored just six goals. That a shooting percentage of a little better than five percent.

Also: An offensive explosion could be in the works in Oxford—Miami and Michigan State have each played four games and scored a combined 34 goals … Is there a trio of forwards in the country better than Minnesota Duluth’s Justin Fontaine, Jack Connolly, and Mike Connolly? They’ll meet a St. Cloud State team that has yet to click offensively … UMass Lowell readies for a rugged stretch to open its Hockey East slate (Northeastern, Boston University, at Boston University, at Vermont, New Hampshire) with a non-conference match against Colgate at Tsongas Arena … Exhibitions for Ivies Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, and Princeton this weekend.

"An above-average game" is how Wisconsin goaltender Brett Bennett described his Badger debut, a 3-2 loss to Colorado College last Friday.

Prior to Wisconsin’s season opener, Madison’s famed State Street was jumping with an interesting mix of humanity clad in combinations of red, white, black, and gold. Alumni by the thousands came back to the Isthmus to celebrate the school’s homecoming, where they were greeted by foes in bumblebee colors—Iowa in football and Colorado College on the ice.

And at the Kohl Center, a show that was supposed to be new Badger goalie Brett Bennett’s triumphant return to the college game was stolen by a little-known rookie from the Front Range.

Bennett, a junior from the Buffalo suburbs, won 16 games for Boston University two seasons ago before he was released from the team. After a season in the USHL, Bennett made the sequel version of his college hockey debut at the Kohl Center and was relatively solid throughout with 23 saves.

“It was an above-average game, but I think there’s more to come,” said Bennett. “I think I’m better than that.”

On that Friday, he was not the best goalie on the ice. CC freshman Joe Howe turned aside 39 shots, keeping the Tigers close during the first half of the game when the Badgers appeared poised for a blowout and allowing CC to rally for a 3-2 win.

“Obviously, Joe Howe was our best player,” Tigers coach Scott Owens said, recalling an opening 40 minutes in which the Badgers had a 26-14 edge in shots. “That thing could have been 2-0 or 3-0 after one, and it wasn’t—it was 1-0.”

Howe, from suburban Minneapolis, hadn’t before played at the Kohl Center, but had been clued in by high school friends now going to Wisconsin that he’d face immediate hostility from the arena’s raucous student section.

“We came in and said we can’t let that affect us,” said Howe, who earned WCHA Rookie of the Week honors in helping the Tigers to a road win and a tie. “Teammates did a good job of blocking a lot of shots and letting me see a lot of shots too.”

Oddly, Wisconsin’s new goalie coach might have felt a sense of pride in watching Howe’s performance. Madison native Jeff Sanger, a four-year letterwinner in goal for the Tigers earlier this decade, admitted he was a little shocked after getting the Badger job to learn that his first opponent would be the one he knew best.

“When I first got offered the position and I saw [the schedule], it was one of those ‘oh my God’ feelings,” Sanger said. “It was tough after playing at CC for four years. I told them if I was in Colorado Springs and had an opportunity to coach CC, I would. But I’m in Madison with a chance to coach UW, so it is what it is.”

For decades, the Badgers have generally been known for riding one very good goalie for much of a season, but this will likely be a season of departure in Madison, with another junior, Scott Gudmandson, in the mix for the starting job. Gudmandson started the Saturday match with the Tigers, stopping 31 shots (to 26 for Howe) in a 1-1 overtime tie. The new goalie coach advised Bennett to forget the past and focus on the battle to earn favor with head coach Mike Eaves.

“I don’t know what the history was at BU; I just know that here he’s got to work his butt off,” Sanger said. “He’s competing against Scott Gudmandson, who’s a great goaltender as well, so it’s going to be a battle throughout the year and nobody can feel comfortable. They’re not set on one guy. Somebody’s going to have to take the torch and run with it.”

In Colorado Springs, meanwhile, it appears that Howe’s run with the Tigers’ goaltending torch is well underway.

The NHL’s Central Scouting Service has released its early-season listing of the top North American players eligible for the 2010 NHL Entry Draft from Canadian Junior A leagues and U.S. high school and prep school ranks.

Players are divided into four cagetories: A-rated players are predicted to be selected in the first or second round of the 2008 draft; B-rated players are considered potential mid-round selections; C-rated players are plotted as late-round picks; players CSS scouts haven’t seen enough to form an evaluation fall under the limited viewing category.

Next month, Central Scouting will release its list of draft-eligible collegians to watch as well as ratings of the top 25 prospects from the United States Hockey League and the U.S. National Team Development Program. The Central Scouting Service mid-term rankings appear in January.

The list below contains only those players who have verbally committed to college programs. The full prospect list can be found at NHL.com.

Intrigue abounds in this, the season’s first full weekend of the regular season, assisted by the 2009-10 debuts of some familiar teams.

Jay Barriball and Minnesota open the 2009-10 season at North Dakota this weekend.

1. Minnesota at North Dakota (Friday-Saturday): Beyond the rivalry, this series intrigues me because I have no idea what to expect from the Golden Gophers. I wouldn’t be surprised if North Dakota beat ‘em by six goals, nor would it shock me if Minnesota won by six (on second thought, that would shock me just a little). There are so many questions-Who replaces Stoa? How will the heralded newcomers fare? Which Alex Kangas shows up this season?-that anyone who says he or she has a handle on the Gophers is lying.

As was mentioned in this week’s INCH Podcast, North Dakota may not have the one dominant, dynamic forward like a Zach Parise or Jonathan Toews, but the balance across all four lines is impressive. Brad Eidsness is a capable goalie, but he seems like the college hockey version of Kyle Orton-you don’t have to win the game for us, but don’t lose it.

2. Miami at New Hampshire (Friday-Saturday): The RedHawks’ month-long death march continues this weekend with a pair at the Whitt. On paper, it seems as if UNH, which dropped a 3-1 decision at Rensselaer last Saturday, doesn’t match up well with Miami-the RedHawks should be able to wear the Wildcats down with their superior depth-but I’m more interested Miami’s focus. My feeling is the RedHawks are really locked in on a) putting April’s NCAA championship game loss behind them and b) proving to everyone that it’s behind them. That said, since Dick Umile has been behind the Wildcat bench, UNH has never started a season with two losses.

3. Michigan State at Maine (Friday-Saturday): Yeah, we know Maine isn’t what it once was. But did you see Michigan State last season? There were times the Spartans barely resembled a hockey team. These are important games for MSU if it wants to continue rebuilding its confidence-winnable road matches against a quality opponent in a hostile environment. The Black Bears, meanwhile, need to bounce back after two losses to a better-than-you-think Union team last weekend. The return of no. 1 goalie Scott Darling from a two-game suspension for violating the school’s student-athlete code of conduct will provide a boost.

4. Boston College at Vermont (Sunday): Even though Denver rallied in the third period to win, Vermont was impressive in its season opener at Magness Arena Friday, then beat our preseason no. 1 team the next night. The Catamounts’ top two lines, in particular, looked very sharp. How they match up against a relatively untested BC defensive corps will likely decide the game. Also, John Muse, the Eagles’ goaltender, took a step back last season after an outstanding freshman campaign. His return to form is critical to his team’s success.

Also: Former BU goalie Brett Bennett makes his debut for Wisconsin against Colorado College tonight … high-scoring forward Mike Connolly returns from a two-game suspension for Minnesota Duluth in its series with Minnesota State … can Union get a win at St. Cloud State? … fresh off wins against Army and UMass Lowell at home, Nebraska-Omaha visits Colgate … Alabama-Huntsville can pull off another road upset when it visits Air Force.

Feels good to be back, doesn’t it?

We’re trying something different this season in order to get more of a national feel to our early-week coverage before delving into the conference stuff as the weekend nears. Every week, the First Shift will feature INCH’s national Player of the Week, Stick Salute, and Bench Minor. We’ll also take a lighter-hearted look at the weekend that was in our Say What?, Rankings Outrage, and Tweet of the Week segments.

This is a work in progress, to be sure. But unlike Phil Cuzzi, we promise not to miss anything.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
RICH PURSLOW Nebraska-Omaha Jr. | F | Greenlawn, N.Y.His Statistics: 2 GP, 2-2-4, +3 vs. Army and UMass LowellHis Impact: If the results from this past weekend’s Icebreaker Tournament in Omaha are any indication, Dean Blais’s tenure as the Mavericks’ head coach should be, at the very least, exciting. UNO, which ranked 42nd in the country in scoring offense last season with an average of 2.45 goals per game, exploded for 10 goals in wins against Army and UMass Lowell.Purslow, the Icebreaker MVP, led a balanced scoring attack with a goal and an assist in each of the Mavs’ two wins. He helped set up Terry Broadhurst’s game-winning goal in Friday’s 6-4 decision against Army and sparked UNO’s come-from-behind triumph against the RiverHawks Saturday with a first-period goal less than three minutes after UML jumped out to an early 2-0 advantage. His Runners-Up: Dan Bakela (Bemidji State); Mike Cichy (North Dakota); Scott Greenham (Alaska); Brayden Irwin (Vermont); Dan Morrison (Canisius); Eric Lampe (Quinnipiac); Cameron Talbot (Alabama-Huntsville). The INCH Player of the Week is presented by The INCH Shop
STICK SALUTE	Good on the hockey fans in the Rochester area (7,421 of them, to be exact) for showing up at Blue Cross Arena for Saturday’s Colgate-RIT tilt. The game turned out to be a real treat—the Raiders’ Austin Smith scored a shorthanded goal in the third period to give his team a 3-2 victory. The building’s primary tenant, the American Hockey League’s Rochester Americans, averaged a little more than 4,000 fans in 40 home dates last season.
BENCH MINOR	The opening weekend wasn’t a high-water mark for the CCHA’s upper echelon. Most notable (and by notable, we mean cringe-worthy) were Notre Dame’s 3-2 loss to Alabama-Huntsville at the Joyce Center Friday, Michigan’s shutout loss to Alaska in Anchorage that same night, and Ohio State’s pair of losses to visiting Quinnipiac, a team picked to finish in the bottom third of ECAC Hockey.
SAY WHAT?	“I’m not one who’s going to make a lot of changes when things are working.” — UNO coach Dean Blais to the Omaha World-Herald’s Chad Purcell following the Mavs’ Icebreaker Tournament championship game win Saturday. But when things aren’t working—especially for a goaltender—Blais gets out the hook quicker than Tony LaRussa. UNO senior Jeremie Dupont learned as much against Army and UMass Lowell, allowing six goals on 20 shots in just under 54 minutes of work. Sophomore John Faulkner earned both wins in relief.
RANKINGS OUTRAGE	It’s early and it’s gonna take a while for the national polls to sort themselves out. That said, we’re not sure how Boston College, the 12th-ranked team in this week’s USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today poll, earned one first-place vote. By the way, 27 teams received at least one vote in the same poll. The Alaska Nanooks, who beat Michigan and Mercyhurst at the Kendall Hockey Classic in Anchorage, were not one of them.
TWEET OF THE WEEK	@HackswithHaggs: God bless the dude at Angels stadium wearing a Whale T-shirt while waiting in line for a hot dog. What are the odds?

THE SKINNY

The 10 (soon to be a dozen) coaches of the WCHA might haven take a moment to look around the Verizon Center in downtown Washington D.C. last April, noticed the dearth of league members there, and realized that we’re a long way from Columbus.

You’ll recall that the 2005 affair in central Ohio was the notorious all-WCHA Frozen Four, which was cheered nearly everywhere west of Jefferson County, Wisconsin, and jeered pretty much everywhere else. In sharp contrast, for just the fourth time in Frozen Four history (1993, 1998 and 1999 being the others) there was no WCHA team at the 2009 Frozen. Although the strongest league backers will claim future member Bemidji State’s run to D.C. ought to count. Not likely.

But the 2008-09 doldrums went beyond a rough patch in rounds one and two of the NCAA playoffs. As evidenced by the fact that just one WCHAer (league MVP Jamie McBain from Wisconsin) made the list of Hobey finalists, and the fact that for the second year in a row the MacNaughton Cup champion (this time, North Dakota) ended the season on a 0-3 streak. It was clearly a down year for the WCHA.

The Fighting Sioux, who had made four straight trips to the Frozen, were literally within the blink of an eye (one-tenth of a second) from an NCAA tourney win when they were denied by New Hampshire. A talented but beat-up Denver team finished quietly with losses in both of the Twin Cities, as the Pioneers fell in St. Paul in the WCHA Final Five title game, and a week later saw their season end in the NCAA West Regional in Minneapolis.

Minnesota Duluth finished seventh in the regular season, but went 5-0 in the WCHA playoffs, becoming the first team to win three games at the WCHA Final Five to claim the Broadmoor Trophy. And the Bulldogs’ run almost got them to the Frozen when they pulled off the “Miracle at Mariucci” a week later in the NCAAs, rallying from two goals down in the final 40 seconds of regulation to beat Princeton in overtime, before falling to Miami the next night.

So if it’s possible for an entire league to have a chip on its collective shoulder, look for the WCHAers to take the passion up a notch in 2009-10. Loaded Denver is the one “sure thing” which, if history is a guide, means a kind of kiss of death for the Pioneers. But with significant questions elsewhere, and few questions needing to be answered at Magness Arena, the Pioneers are the consensus choice by coaches and the media.

After the WCHA-free 1999 Frozen Four, in Anaheim, the league went on a run of six NCAA titles in seven seasons and won the Hobey in six consecutive seasons (2002-07).

That’s not to predict a similar resurgence in the next decade, but if the WCHA has proven anything in the past, it’s that 10-team dry spells usually don’t last long.

BREAKTHROUGH TEAM

St. Cloud State's Garrett Roe improved upon a 45-point rookie campaign with 48 points last season.

Two of the league’s top four scorers from last year (Ryan Lasch and Garrett Roe) are back on campus at St. Cloud State, along with one of the league’s top veteran defensemen (Garrett Raboin) and a hot young goalie (Michael Lee, see below). Still, is the hype a little much considering the Huskies sixth-place finish and quiet 0-2 exit from the league playoffs? Well, consider St. Cloud State’s 0-6-0 record versus rival Minnesota last year, and the fact that winning just one of those games would have meant that the Huskies would’ve hosted the Gophers in the playoffs.

Veteran offensive talent is not a question, with the likes of Aaron Marvin, Jared Festler, and Drew LeBlanc playing key roles a year ago, and impact freshmen like Ben Hanowski joining the mix. Lee’s adjustment to college hockey will be a mystery, but we’ve seen the last two MacNaughton Cup champs ride rookie goalies to the title. And with veteran Dan Dunn (owner of a respectable .904 saves percentage in nine games last season) also in goal, the Huskies have a formidable tandem.

PRIMED FOR A FALL

There was disappointment at Colorado College when would-be Tiger defenseman John Moore (drafted 21st overall by the Blue Jackets in June) opted to skate for a paycheck and put off school until later. Moore’s non-arrival, coupled with the early departures of goaltender Richard Bachman (who backstopped the Tigers’ WCHA title two seasons ago en route to league MVP honors) and would-have-been senior defenseman Brian Connelly (and the graduation of top scorers Chad Rau and Eric Walsky) means there are big holes to be filled at World Arena.

After winning the MacNaughton Cup but finishing the 2007-08 season on a 0-3 run in the playoffs, the Tigers were picked by many, including INCH, to repeat atop the WCHA. Instead, they never really got the hang of series openers last season—the Tigers were 3-7-7 on Fridays, and 13-5-3 on other days of the week—en route to a third place finish and an early exit from the WCHA playoffs when they were upset by Minnesota Duluth in the first round.

The potential good news for CC fans comes in the form of a sizable freshman class, at least when one measures from the ice to the top of the helmet. Of the nine rookies on the Tigers roster, six of them are six feet tall or better, meaning that Pikes Peak won’t be the only thing towering over visitors to Colorado Springs in 2009-10.

PRESSURE TO PERFORM

Among some WCHA fan-bases, a top-half finish, a first round playoff sweep of your nearest geographical rival and a trip to the WCHA Final Five would be satisfying. For Minnesota fans, players and coaches, it clearly wasn’t enough.

Jay Barriball says the 2008-09 season was a pitter pill for the Gophers to swallow.

So after seeing their streak of eight consecutive trips to the NCAA tournament snapped last March, most Golden Gopher players stayed near the Minneapolis campus much of the summer, lifting weights at 7:30 every morning and skating a few times a week in an extra effort to get back to national prominence in 2009-10. With only one early departure (Ryan Stoa) in the off-season and just four freshmen added to a veteran team, they’re positive that the extra work will pay off.

“We wanted everybody to be together as a team and work together on the ice and in the weight room,” said Gophers senior forward Jay Barriball. “Last year was pretty bitter for us and none of us want it to happen again, so we were pretty serious. If you wear the M, you’ve got to be the best, and for the last few years we haven’t done that.”

TOUGHEST ACT TO FOLLOW

The last time Minnesota Duluth won a WCHA regular season title, in 1992-93, future NHLer Derek Plante led the way with more than 90 points, and linemate Chris Marinucci chipped in with 77. The question the following year, with Plante wearing Buffalo Sabres blue, was could Marinucci do it alone? And despite a drop in the standings, Marinucci notched more than 60 points, won league MVP honors, and became, to date, the only Hobey winner on a sub-.500 team.

That may remind some of the challenge faced by Bulldog junior forward Justin Fontaine this season. After scoring just a dozen points as a freshman, Fontaine’s numbers saw a four-fold increase in 2008-09 as he finished tied for second in the WCHA scoring race (behind since-departed teammate MacGregor Sharp). Fontaine plays right wing, and was on the team’s second line much of last season. Now, Sharp is not there to carry an offensive load and deflect opponents’ defensive attention.

A move to the top line, and a likely pairing with talented sophomore center Jack Connelly means that Fontaine could have everything he needs in place to become the Bulldogs next great offensive star. Whether or not he’s ready for that role is the great mystery on the shore of St. Louis Bay.

BEST PLAYER

Radio color man and unabashed Gopher lover Glen Sonmor has seen plenty of hockey in his time, from coaching stints at Ohio State and Minnesota, directing the Minnesota North Stars to the 1981 Stanley Cup Finals and serving as a pro scout for the last decade or more. Ask him what he likes most about Gopher sophomore forward Jordan Schroeder and he makes a quick comparison to the teammates Schroeder has had here, there and everywhere.

“On every team that Jordan has been a part of, he’s been the best player on the ice,” Sonmor said, claming that notion holds true not only at Minnesota and at suburban St. Paul prep power St. Thomas Academy (where Schroeder was the team’s leading scorer in ninth grade) but also at the U.S. NTDP program in Michigan, and on the American entry at the last World Junior Tournament.

After finishing just one point off the Gophers scoring lead as a WCHA rookie, Schroeder was a first-round pick (22nd overall) by the Vancouver Canucks in the 2009 NHL draft, leading some to believe that barring a severe case of the sophomore jinx, his second season in the WCHA could be a farewell tour.

IMPACT NEWCOMER

New St. Cloud State goaltender Michael Lee already knows a fair amount about high-pressure situations. Having led his Roseau (Minn.) High School team to a state title as a sophomore and to an undefeated regular season as a junior, he faced the small-town peer pressure head on and opted for a USHL season with the expansion Fargo Force. All he did last season was win the league’s award for top goaltender, and the USA Hockey award for top goalie in the nation.

Never known for his patience with goalies, new Nebraska-Omaha coach Dean Blais was Lee’s coach in Fargo last season, and said the newest Husky’s biggest strength is his size and position.

“Mike stays on his feet for the most part and doesn’t make things look spectacular,” Blais said. “He’s very good on the first shot and he doesn’t give up rebounds. If you’re going to beat him on the first shot, it’s going to have to be something.”

UNSUNG PLAYER

Minnesota State's Kael Mouillierat scored 17 goals last season despite missing eight games with a shoulder injury.

If you were asked to name the WCHA’s top four returning goal scorers, we think your average fan could probably name Ryan Lasch and Chris VandeVelde (18 goals each last year). You probably wouldn’t be surprised to know that Garrett Roe was next with 17. But would it surprise you to learn that Minnesota State senior Kael Mouillierat also lit the lamp 17 times? Opponents who have seen the senior from Edmonton on the other side of the ice for the past three years say that you underestimate Mouillierat at your peril.

“He’s a slippery player,” said Minnesota forward Ryan Flynn. “He doesn’t really stand out among guys in the WCHA, but every time we play against him, he always seems to do something. He’s got good scoring instincts and it tough to play against.”

Those 17 goals last seaason came despite Mouillierat missing eight games with a nagging shoulder injury. A full year of health and Kael might not by unsung much longer.

THREE BURNING QUESTIONS

1. Will they have to shovel between periods in Madison on Feb. 6?
Maybe outdoor stadium games are getting to be a bit of old news in college hockey, but we congratulate Wisconsin on becoming the first program to host two of them. After beating Ohio State at Lambeau Field in Green Bay en route to the 2006 national title, the Badgers will host Michigan at 80,300-seat Camp Randall Stadium in Madison in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame game. We’re still waiting for Minnesota to play at TCF Bank Stadium and Denver to hit the ice at Mile High.

2. Will they still be talking about the nickname when Ryan Duncan’s grandkids are skating for North Dakota?
This scribe has covered the WCHA for some media outlet or another since 1988, and “to Sioux or not to Sioux” has seemingly been the question in Grand Forks for much of that time. It looked like things would come to some conclusion on Oct. 1, when the most recent “final” decision on the nickname was supposed to be handed down by the state of North Dakota’s education higher-ups. Instead we got yet another delay, and another month of hand-wringing and “hostile and abusive” talk. No matter where one stands on the issue, many are past the point of caring how this Fighting Sioux saga will end, they just want a final punctuation at the end of the sentence.

3. What could we learn about life in the WCHA from the well-traveled Lee Greseth?
For one more year, while the WCHA remains a 10-team league, new Minnesota equipment man Lee Greseth can provide the inside info on half of the league’s hockey programs. Greseth, who came back to his home state after the retirement of long-time Gopher equipment man Harry Broadfoot at the end of last season, is in his second stint with his alma mater, having worked for Doug Woog as a student. Since then, he’s also held equipment jobs at Colorado College, North Dakota, Alaska Anchorage and most recently Denver for nine seasons. He even had a two-year hitch with the hockey program at now-defunct U.S. International University in San Diego. We’re currently in negotiations to ghostwrite his book.

MARK IT DOWN
Five things you can take to the bank in the WCHA this season

1. There’s suddenly much less job security for goalie coaches at Wisconsin. Bill Howard had been the master of all things goaltending for the Badgers for three decades when he left the job prior to last season, helping create a kind of “goalie factory” in Madison that produced numerous NHLers and college All-Americnas. Former Badger goalie Mike Valley was Howard’s replacement, albeit briefly, last season. Now former CC star and Madison native Jeff Sanger is taking over the position. With little-used Scott Gudmandson (nine appearances in two seasons) the heir apparent in goal, Sanger may have some work to do right away.

2. Dylan Olsen’s father will be paying close attention to his son’s second collegiate game. On Sunday, Northern Michigan comes to visit Minnesota Duluth, in what will be the second on-ice appearance for highly touted Bulldog freshman defenseman Dylan Olsen. A first-round draft pick by the Blackhawks in June, Olsen is the son of former NMU star Darryl Olsen, who manned the blue line for the Wildcats in the late ’80s and helped spark Northern’s WCHA playoff title in 1989. The younger Olsen is the latest in a long line of Camrose (Alberta) Kodiaks to head to Duluth for college hockey, following the likes of Mike Connolly, Mason Raymond, MacGregor Sharp, Matt McKnight and Evan Oberg.

3. Michigan Tech will feature the only sixth-year senior in the WCHA, and likely in all of college hockey. Big (6-2, 215) winger Malcolm Gwilliam got a medical redshirt for his second year of college hockey after an injury kept him out of action in 2005-06. He was expected to be done with college hockey at the end of last season, but didn’t get that far, after suffering a season-ending stroke before a game at Minnesota last November. It’s takes an extraordinary situation for the NCAA to great a player a second medical redshirt, but the good people in Indianapolis apparently determined that a stroke was plenty extraordinary. So look for Gwilliam wearing the number nine sweater, and the captain’s C, for the Huskies this season.

4. Fans in Alaska will look up to the Seawolves, literally. With the addition of two freshman who stand 6-4 (before the skates go on) Alaska Anchorage remains the tallest team in the WCHA. And coming off their best season (14-17-5) under head coach Dave Shyiak, the Seawolves and their fan base are excited about the possibilities. There are 17 returning letter winners on the roster, which is the most since the 2002-03 season. That sounds like a good thing, until one recalls that the Seawolves were 0-22-6 in WCHA play that season. But with three of their top four scorers and two experienced goalies in the fold in Anchorage, there’s justified reason for optimism.

5. In Denver, college is all about preparing for a career—especially if that career involves pucks and hockey tape. Going back as far as the late Keith Magnuson’s star turn with the Blackhawks, there has been a nice line from Denver to the NHL. That line may get a bit longer in the coming few years if things work out like a few NHL scouts envision. The 2009-10 version of the Pioneers roster features a school-record 13 NHL draft picks, including a trio of second-rounders (sophomore Patrick Wiercioch and rookies William Wrenn and Drew Shore) and Joe Colborne, the sophomore forward who was plucked 16th overall be the Bruins in the 2008 draft. When you’re looking to capture a WCHA title and you’re favored to do so, that much talent is a nice place to start.