SHAWN HUNWICK
Michigan
Sr. | G | Sterling Heights, Mich.

His Statistics: 2 GP, 2-0-0, shutout, 53 saves, 1 GA in series sweep of Miami

His Impact: Some will make a claim that Hunwick is the best goalie in the country, and he made a case for that distinction this weekend in a key CCHA series at Yost Ice Arena against Miami. Hunwick’s 24-save effort in the series opener boosted Michigan to a 4-1 win. He blanked the RedHawks one night later with 29 saves, including one of the controversial variety when a shot on a Miami breakaway was reviewed on video and ruled not to have crossed the goal line.

The bigger picture is that Michigan has risen near the top of the CCHA standings with some stellar play over the last two months. The Wolverines are 10-1-2 in their last 13 games. Hunwick has played in 12 of those and has a 1.34 goals-against average and .957 save percentage during that stretch.

His Runners-Up: Spencer Abbott, Maine; J.T. Brown, Minnesota Duluth; Shayne Gostisbehere, Union; Jason Torf, Air Force

Midway through the second period of Friday’s 6-3 win at Ohio State, Michigan State defenseman A.J. Sturges scored his first goal of the season, cutting a two-goal Buckeye lead in half. Not only was the goal significant in that it sparked a Spartan comeback from a 3-1 first-period deficit, but it was also a milestone for Sturges, who in the fall of 2008 was severely beaten in an off-campus fight.

Sturges, a Madison, Wis., native, sustained a fractured skull and concussion and missed the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons due to his injuries. He spent most of last season getting back into game shape, appearing in one contest.

This season, Sturges has played in 10 games. His goal this past weekend was the second of his Spartan career—his first was Nov. 10, 2007, in a win against Mercyhurst at Munn Ice Arena. For some timeframe perspective, a guy named Justin Abdelkader also scored in that game. Good on you, A.J. Making it back on the ice was remarkable, and getting a goal is pure frosting.

Michigan’s impressive sweep of Miami was blemished when the two teams racked up 72 minutes in penalties in the final 3:20 of the Wolverines’ 3-0 win Saturday. Included in that total are fighting majors assessed to Miami’s Will Weber and Michigan’s Chris Brown that carry with them an automatic one-game suspension. For Weber, that means sitting out against Alabama-Huntsville Friday. Brown has to miss the Wolverines’ match at Michigan State that same night. Disadvantage, Michigan.

It’s clear that the frustration was building on both sides. The Wolverines felt the RedHawks were repeatedly running goaltender Shawn Hunwick with no consequence. The longer Hunwick kept the RedHawks off the board, meanwhile, the more Miami stewed.

We understand the regular season is a grind, points are hard to come by, and the cramped quarters of the CCHA standings make the weekly battles that much more ferocious. We’re not pointing fingers here; rather, we’re advocating that everyone play with a little more poise. It avoids situations that give the college game a bad look and ultimately hurt teams down the road.

What Happened?: It was a night of comebacks on Friday as three ranked teams turned early deficits into victories. The most dramatic comeback was achieved by Maine, as the Black Bears trailed Alabama-Huntsville 3-0 after two periods. Maine scored three times in the third period, including the tying goal in the last minute of the period, and then won 4-3 in overtime. Both Michigan State and Harvard fell behind 3-1 after one period in road games. The Spartans ended up defeating Ohio State and Harvard toppled Quinnipiac by identical 6-3 finals.

What We’re Watching: Is Michigan Tech the streakiest-scoring—and goal-allowing—team in college hockey? Based on recent results, the Huskies are in the midst of a trend that may warrant a closer look. After a little poking around, here’s what caught our eye:

Jan. 13 vs. Alaska Anchorage: The Seawolves score the game’s first goal. The Huskies then reel off five straight en route to a 6-2 win.

Jan. 14 vs. Alaska Anchorage: Tech scores three times in the game’s first 10 minutes. UAA scores the next four to take a 4-3 lead with 15:19 left in regulation, but the Huskies score the last three to win, 6-4.

Jan. 21 at Northern Michigan: The Wildcats score two goals in a 42-second span of the first period, but the Huskies score two power-play goals less than two minutes apart in the second. Alas, NMU scores three unanswered goals for a 5-2 victory.

Jan. 27 at Minnesota Duluth: Top-ranked UMD scores four goals in a 10-minute span of the first period. Tech counters by scoring four times over a 20-minute stretch of the second and third periods, salvaging a 4-4 tie.

Jan. 28 at Minnesota Duluth: The Huskies score four goals in the first period on their way to a 5-0 whitewash of the Bullodgs. That’s nine straight unanswered goals for MTU.

Feb. 3 at Minnesota State: The Mavs score three goals over a six-minute arc of the first period; the Huskies respond by tying the game with three straight of their own. Minnesota State earns a 5-3 win with two third-period goals.

Feb. 4 at Minnesota State: The hosts take a 1-0 lead less than two minutes into the game, but Tech takes command by scoring six first-period goals and cruise to a 7-3 win.

What the …?: On a lot of nights, especially when television isn’t a part of the equation, college hockey fans can count on getting from the first-period puck drop to the final buzzer in about two hours and 15 minutes. That wasn’t the case at Princeton’s Baker Rink when the Tigers and visiting Dartmouth tussled for three hours and 19 minutes. Not that it was all related to the on-ice activity, although the game did end 3-3 after a scoreless overtime. An hour delay took place near the midpoint of the third period when a shot from Dartmouth’s Jesse Beamish hit the glass and shattered it. Earlier in the day, two other planes of glass were broken during the team’s pre-game skates – one by each team.

@fergy2004 Ryan

Do I want the patriots or giants to win to help the Sioux in the pairwise?

• Yup, it’s that time of the year. And they prefer to be called University of North Dakota.

Denver grabbed four points at Alaska Anchorage last weekend, then the Pioneers got changed and high-tailed it for the airport, catching the red-eye flight to Colorado, via Seattle. The sun was up and it was mid-morning in Denver by the time they touched down, but as Pioneers coach George Gwozdecky surveyed his team as they got off the plane, he didn’t see a tired and weary bunch. He saw smiles.

It’s a far cry from where this team was a month ago, when injuries and inconsistency had taken the popular pick to win the WCHA title and left the team scratching and clawing to stay above .500. Now, since that head-scratching loss to Alabama-Huntsville in their first outing of 2012, the Pioneers have won five in a row and find themselves just two points back of second-place Minnesota Duluth heading into a home-and-home series with archrival Colorado College.

In his first start of 2011-12 after returning from a knee injury, goaltender Sam Brittain made 24 saves in a 6-3 win at Alaska Anchorage last weekend.

“We’ve put ourselves in position with 10 games remaining in the season to see if we can track down Duluth and stay ahead of some of the competition that’s right on our heels,” said Gwozdecky in his weekly news conference.

The turnaround has been fueled by a combination of positives that were nowhere to be found in the first half. The team is getting healthier just as key rookies are stepping up their games, and an overall emphasis on team defense is allowing the goal scorers to do more.

“There was a general feeling that we’d be able to outscore anybody,” Gwozdecky said of the team’s mentality in October and November. “If the other team got five, we’d get seven. If they got four, we’d get six. But a real positive adjustment has been made in the way we’re playing team defense.”

And a key element in that defensive picture was the return of goalie Sam Brittain, who hadn’t played since last season after undergoing surgery. Brittain got the call on Saturday night in Anchorage and stopped 24 shots in a 6-3 win. Still, the coach expected rust, and got it, from the goalie.

“It was not going to be a shock to any of us if he started off rusty, and I think he did,” Gwozdecky said. “He was not the Sam Brittain that any of us knew from last year.”

But in the second period, when a 5-0 Pioneers lead was quickly cut to 5-3, the Pioneers saw flashes between the pipes of the kid who won 19 games as a rookie a year ago. “As has always been the case with Sam, when he’s challenged he buckles down and closes the door.”

The door may be tougher to close this weekend, with Colorado College right behind the Pioneers in the standings. And on Thursday the Pioneers lost a key cog in their offense when Gwozdecky suspended rookie forward Ty Loney indefinitely for a violation of team rules. Loney, the son of Stanley Cup-winner Troy Loney, has 16 points in his first 20 college games and had posted a dozen points in the Pioneers last seven games since being promoted to the team’s top line.

That may be a blow for a Denver team on the rise, but with a visit from the Front Range rivals looming on Friday and a trip to Colorado Springs set for Saturday, there’s little need for extra inspiration.

“It’s CC week,” Gwozdecky said. “You can certainly sense that in the building, and at practice and in our locker room. It’s always a special atmosphere. This series is as big as they get at this time of year.”

NEED BUCKS? GET A BIG PUCK

For years they’ve tried all of the conventional channels to get funds for improvements to the rink in Mankato. Opened in 1995, the Verizon Wireless Civic Center has been the home of Minnesota State hockey as the program transitioned from Divison II to Division I independent to the WCHA, but school and community officials say the time for upgrades is long overdue.

Officials in the state legislature twice approved the needed funds, only to have then-Governor Tim Pawlenty veto the money both times. Now, they’re taking an interesting new approach to raise awareness of the financial needs for the home of the Mavs.

This week the school unveiled an initiative called Greater Mankato Carries the Puck. Starting before Friday’s home game with Michigan Tech, MSU will have a replica puck nearly five feet in diameter that supporters can sign to show they support state dollars to improve the rink. They’re hoping to gather 1,000 signatures and bring the puck to the State Capitol in a few weeks to present to Governor Mark Dayton (a former Yale goalie).

“We are really excited about our opportunity to help rally support for this project,” said Minnesota State athletic director said Kevin Buisman, in a statement released by the school. “These planned improvements would have a dramatic impact on our program by creating a new modern home for our men’s and women’s teams that will be attractive to both current and prospective student-athletes.”

The school is seeking $31 million from the state for the project.

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.

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?

There are times when the brotherhood of hockey shows itself, as men who wear different-colored sweaters come together to show that the game uniting them is stronger than the adversarial on-ice differences that divide them.

The past week in the WCHA was not one of those times.

Perhaps it’s the weight of a tight conference race combined with the mid-season doldrums when injuries pile up, but the league sounded like anything but a dozen teams united under one banner over the past seven days or so.

Don Lucia says it might be a while before the Gophers are back in Grand Forks.

It started, as so many of college hockey’s newsworthy events seem to, in Grand Forks on Saturday, as the final seconds ticked away on Minnesota’s decisive 6-2 win over North Dakota. As the final horn sounded, North Dakota defenseman Ben Blood fired a puck which touched off a brief scrum with a few players from both teams. In the subsequent handshake line, Blood took a swipe at Minnesota’s Kyle Rau, which touched off another tussle, as Blood and Seth Ambroz paired up.

High above the ice, Gophers radio announcer Wally Shaver took exception at Blood’s action and launched into an on-air rant, which concluded with the radio booth veteran calling North Dakota, “cheap hoseheads.”

North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol, to his credit, did the right thing to send a message internally and externally, stripping Blood of the player’s assistant captain status early in the week.

That same night, several hours drive south down I-29, Nebraska Omaha managed to do what no other team had accomplished since the second week of the season. The Mavericks got 43 saves from Ryan Massa, and beat top-ranked Minnesota Duluth 3-1, snapping the Bulldogs’ 17-game unbeaten string. But before the final horn sounded in that one, there were words, possibly gestures, and at least one dangerous hit exchanged between Omaha’s Dominic Zombo and Duluth’s J.T. Brown.

On Tuesday the WCHA announced a one-game suspension for Zombo, for a knee-to-knee check on Brown. This prompted Mavs coach Dean Blais to question why Brown wasn’t punished for some unpleasantness of his own. Blais told Rob White of the Omaha World-Herald that Brown had flashed an obscene gesture during the game, which should be worthy of a suspension as well.

“You suspended Zombo for a hit, OK. Now, what are you going to do with J.T. Brown?” Blais asked rhetorically. “To me, that’s worse than the hit.”

As of this writing, the WCHA has taken no action against Brown, and it is unknown if there will be a further league review of the alleged incident. In past years, Hakstol was suspended for two games for flashing a middle finger on TV during a game.

The tension between Minnesota and North Dakota reappeared later in the week when Hakstol fired back at Shaver on a radio show.

“We all work for somebody, I get it. I understand that,” Hakstol said. “But a man that I’ve known for a long time, almost 20 years, I thought really crossed the line. I haven’t spoken with him but I’m really upset about it and I think it was wrong.”

A day later, when asked about the high-tension rivalry between the Gophers and North Dakota, Minnesota coach Don Lucia suggested that a cooling off period might be in order starting in two years when the teams are no longer in the same conference.

“We will go back there as a non-conference team,” Lucia said at his weekly gathering with the media. “We have a great rivalry. Sometimes it gets a little over the top and I’m not sure that is healthy for anybody. So we will continue to play, but I doubt we will continue to play each and every year.”

He added that the Gophers’ schedule for the 2013-14 season, their first in the Big Ten, is set save for two home games that they have to fill, and it does not include a trip to North Dakota. That means it will be at least three years before Minnesota’s next visit to the Ralph.

The official breakup of the current WCHA is still more than a year away. But with some actions on the ice and some words off the ice this week, it looks like some cracks are already appearing.

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.

Fact: Each WCHA team plays 28 conference games in a season.
Fact: Each of the WCHA’s 12 teams has played 14 conference games thus far.

With six WCHA series on tap this weekend, that means the second half of the season is upon us, and for some teams there’s plenty of work to do if they want to play at home in March.

Here’s a quick look around the league at a few of those likely feeling the most pressure as the puck drops on the 2012 portion of this particular campaign:

Wisconsin – The Badgers won a pair of non-conference home games with RIT last weekend in what was puzzlingly billed as a rematch of the 2010 Frozen Four meeting between those teams. Can you have a rematch more than 18 months later?

Mark Zengerle

In any case, the Badgers did what they’ve done plenty of this season. Namely, winning non-conference games at home, where they’re 5-1-0 versus non-WCHA foes. This weekend the Badgers visit Mankato and will face Minnesota State trying to do something they have not accomplished yet: winning a road game. Wisconsin’s 0-5-1 mark away from the Kohl Center is a big reason why the Badgers currently sit 10th in the 12-team league.

“We’re definitely in a hole, but it’s nothing deep enough that we can’t crawl out of,” Badgers wing Ryan Little told Andy Baggott of the Wisconsin State Journal.

With 12th-place Minnesota State and 11th-place Alaska Anchorage (in Madison) on the schedule the next two weekends, if the Badgers are going to make a run for home ice, it’s got to start soon.

Bemidji State – You might think that a road trip to face the team predicted by many to win the WCHA would be a tough way for the Beavers to start the new year. But Tom Serratore’s club has lost just once since Nov. 19, and heads to Denver seemingly primed for an upward move in the standings.

“We’ve had a lot of confidence over the course of the last month,” Serratore said in his weekly press conference. “We’ve played hockey, I think the guys feel good about themselves, and they’re champing at the bit to play a game right now. They’re bored with practice.”

The Beavers have a light schedule in January, with no games the first or third weekends of the month. And their last time in WCHA competition, they split a home series with Denver. But Serratore acknowledged that traveling to Colorado to face the Pioneers is a much different challenge. Still, the coach said for now the line juggling is over, and he seems to have found a lineup that he’s comfortable with and that is producing goals and wins.

“We’ve established some continuity to our top two lines, which, once you do that it helps your team,” Serratore said, crediting a junior forward from Ottawa for his role in the run. “A lot of it is Aaron McLeod. Once we inserted Aaron McLeod as that first line center, our game has picked up, we have more depth, we’re tougher to play against and our chemistry right now is good.”

And as if they needed one more piece of optimistic news in Bemidji this week, on Thursday the Beavers learned that a noted alum, Flyers forward Matt Read, was named to the NHL All-Star Game.

Denver – The Pioneers bounced back with a 5-2 home win over Alabama-Huntsville last Saturday, but by then the damage was done. On Friday, in once of the bigger upsets in all of college hockey this season, the Chargers shocked Denver with a 3-2 win. It was just the most recent example of a talented Pioneers team that often has seemed to play down to the level of its competition.

That Denver loss, and a mediocre 6-5-3 conference mark in the first half, has the Pioneers fully aware that a lengthy winning streak will be required in the next eight weeks if they have designs on a league title.

“We have put ourselves in a position where we have very little margin for error in the last 14 games of the conference schedule,” said Denver coach George Gwozdecky this week, acknowledging that better health and a fuller roster will be a key if his team is to stay in the title picture. “As time goes on here, we know that we’re going to be able to put some bodies back in the lineup that had been out of the lineup for a while.”

Most notably, forward Jason Zucker will be back this weekend after missing the past month while playing with Team USA at the World Juniors. Gwozdecky was hopeful for good news on defenseman David Makowski’s potential return, and said that goalie Sam Brittain is at least skating again, but has yet to go through a full practice yet, so his return from summer surgery is still on the more distant horizon.

The coach said the Beavers’ unique style presents a real challenge for his team, and compared their series in Bemidji last month to a ping-pong game at times, with the teams trading opportunities to fire the puck deep into the other’s zone.

The Pioneers have the advantage of playing five key second half games (two with Minnesota, two with North Dakota and one with Colorado College) at home, and have two very winnable road series, at Alaska Anchorage and at Wisconsin.