2020-21 Division I Hockey Thread

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Colorado College/U-Denver rivalry series cancelled (HSP)

 

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Maine plays U MASS once on Friday

 

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Women's Hockey East Conference Tournament semifinals games on the CBS Sports Live free stream this afternoon/evening ...

 

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no BC/UNH game Thursday

 

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End of the 1st period @ Matthews Arena in the first women's Hockey East semifinal match, UConn 0 - Northeastern 1. One of the best women's college games I've seen, with skill & plays comparable to top Olympic team action. Strong goaltending at each end & the UC Huskies keeping the #1 ranked NU Huskies honest through all but the last couple of minutes of the period. SOGs are 8-8, but UConn dominated in face-offs (12-7) & blocked shots (13-5) while their junior forward Viki Harkness hit a crossbar behind a surprised Aerin Frankel. Junior forward Alina Mueller finally found a seam in front of the visitor's net & scored to beat UConn freshman netminder Tia Chan on a pass from behind the net by her fellow junior linemate Chloé Aurard with 10.9 seconds left. More fun to come.

 

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Score after 2 periods, UConn 1 - Northeastern 1. The Home Huskies dominated for over 15 minutes of that middle period, but Chan and her UC defenders continued their solid team play (adding 9 more blocks & 14 saves for a total of 21 so far). NU's Aurard thought she had a goal on a scramble around the UC net, but the puck hit the crossbar and bounced down into the blue crease paint before being cleared. UConn sophomore forward Coryn Tormala then tied the game with a shot from behind the end red line that deflected in off of Frankel's skate with about 6 minutes left in the period. That shifted the momentum to the visitors for a few minutes, but Northeastern took the offensive flow back until the buzzer sounded. Another very entertaining & competitive 20 minutes of hockey.

 

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And that's it: Northeastern wins 2-1. to move on to the Hockey East Conference Tournament Finals on Saturday. Another period largely dominated by NU, but UConn's team D and goaltending and offensive transitions made this one a nailbiter for all 60 minutes while Hockey East super-goalie Aerin Frankel looked very nervous & tentative throughout. With about 4 minutes left in the 3rd & on the PK (the first & only penalty of the match), the NU Huskies got an odd-woman rush & senior defender Skylar Fontaine fed Aurard to grab the 2-1 lead. UConn pulled Chan for an extra skater with about 1:10 left, and had a few chances to get pucks on the empty net, but the Northeastern ladies kept them mostly at the perimeter & got a couple of shots at the empty net with UConn senior defender Taylor Wabick making two acrobatic puck stops to keep her team close. But the #1 Huskies were not ready to be defeated, and now await news of their Finals opponent.

 

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In WHEA Semifinals Game #2 between the visiting Maine Black Bears & the host Providence Friars, the score is tied at zeroes after one period. The offensive stats so far tip decidedly toward the Bears (10-4 in SOGs, 11-5 on face-offs), who seemed to have the better flow with puck movement up ice & more crisp passing while keeping the Providence shooters at the perimeter during Friars offensive sequences. The best chance for a goal came on a Maine penalty kill in the middle of the 1st period, when sophomore forward Ida Kuoppala snagged a turnover at the PC blueline & went in alone on the Lady Friars' senior goaltender Sandra Abstrieter only to have her shot ring off the goal post. A good period of back-and-forth hockey.

 

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End of two periods, still Maine 0 - Providence 0. The Black Bears continued to dominate on both ends, now with an 21-10 SOG advantage and 24-11 in F/Os. The one important stat being dominated by PC is Blocked Shots, where they have a 12-5 advantage through 2 periods. Seemed like more forechecking by both teams in that period, which slowed the flow down (and seemingly the clock). Not many tough saves were required of the Friars' Abstreiter nor of Bears' senior goalie Loryn Porter.

 

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End of regulation, and still no goals scored by Maine or Providence. More offensive penetration for both sides in the 3rd period - it looked like both D corps were wearing down - but both goalies played well positionally & controlled their rebounds for the most part. The Black Bears outshot the Friars 31-22 through reg play. Now on to bonus hockey.

 

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Going to OT, 5-on-5, "golden goal situation" through a 20-minute extra period.

 

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And at the 17:50 mark of overtime, PC senior defender Giana Savastano makes a diving assist to feed junior forward Hunter Barnett who beats Porter. Friars win 1-0, and move on to face Northeastern for the WHEA Finals on Saturday @ 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

 

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Something else worth mentioning about Wednesday night's Hockey East semifinals OT victory for the Providence women: The Friars played the entire game with just 15 skaters, after having only 13 skaters available during their Sunday quarterfinals victory over BU (a 4-3 final score). So while I don't believe the Lady Friars - ranked #9 in the latest USCHO national poll - have much chance of upsetting the #1 seeded/#1 ranked NU Huskies in Saturday's Finals, the accomplishments of the past few days for the team & 3rd-year PC head coach Matt Kelly & his staff are deserving of recognition.

 

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From USCHO.com ... "The cancellations will continue until this virus starts behaving itself" ...

• Merrimack-Vermont men’s college hockey series scheduled for March 5-6 off after Merrimack personnel enter COVID-19 protocol

• Clarkson-St. Lawrence men’s hockey games scheduled this weekend, next weekend canceled due to COVID-19 protocols

 

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From: USCHO.com > Featured

Bracketology: With more games played, what teams are in, out of the upcoming NCAA men’s hockey tournament?

By Jayson Moy and Jim Connelly
March 4, 2021

Last week, in the inaugural edition of Bracketology for the 2020-21 season, Jim and Jayson attempted to layout their potential field for this year’s NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey tournament.

Jim took an approach that attempted to rank the six conferences and pick teams based on that using a recent memo (see below) from the men’s ice hockey committee.

Jayson decided to take a different route, allowing each conference to place their top two teams in the tournament and then filling the final four spots based on winning percentages, without any conference bias whatsoever.

Let’s see how these two approach this week ...

Read more at: https://www.uscho.com/2021/03/04/br...-of-the-upcoming-ncaa-mens-hockey-tournament/

 

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From: SeamoreSports.com

Randy Hernandez: Growing and learning for the Colonials

ON MARCH 1, 2021 BY TERPANESE

Growing up, Robert Morris Colonial, and Miami native Randy Hernandez always knew he wanted to play the game of hockey. From the first time he went to a public skating session, through the first time he had a stick in his hands, he naturally gravitated to the game. This season for Robert Morris, Hernandez has shown his natural speed and skill with the puck for Robert Morris. For Derek Schooley’s team, he has contributed 10 goals and 12 assists playing with captain Nick Prkusic in key minutes for the Colonials. Hernandez wanted to go play at a place where he would have an opportunity contribute right away.

Randy had options when coming to college, but chose to go to Robert Morris because, as he said “It’s a smaller school and for me it’s a better fit… as soon as I got here I knew it was the place for me.” He comes from the Brooks Bandits out of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, a program that has produced NHL luminaries like Cale Makar and Curtis Glencross to name a few. ...

Read more at: Randy Hernandez: Growing and learning for the Colonials

 

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Even though it's a couple of weeks old, I couldn't resist posting this story just for a little "business of hockey" interest ...

From: BroBible.com

Alabama-Huntsville Hockey Had To Borrow Sweaters From A Michigan Club Team After Their Uniforms Got Stuck In Snow

Grayson Weir | 2 weeks ago

The University of Alabama-Huntsville might be the most unlikely program in the country, but it is consistently in the NCAA Tournament mix and even won a couple of DII national championships before moving up to the DI level in the late 1990s. As such an isolated program, UAH is forced to travel quite a bit for its away games and doing so amidst an unprecedented winter storm across the middle of the country caused for a last-minute uniform change on Tuesday.

For whatever reason, the team’s jerseys missed the flight up to its game against Northern Michigan separately from the helmet, pads and pants. This isn’t super uncommon in collegiate athletics, as the equipment managers often travel separately from the team and are the ones doing the laundry, but it created a snafu in this instance. When the Chargers arrived in the upper peninsula of Michigan, which is actually further north than parts of Canada, their blue road jerseys were stuck in dangerous conditions as an unprecedented snowstorm hammered the south and much of the middle of the United States. With no time to ship them up to the Wolverine State, UAH borrowed uniforms from a local team, Fox Motors Hockey Club. ...




Read more at: Alabama-Huntsville Hockey Had To Borrow Sweaters From A Michigan Club Team After Their Uniforms Got Stuck In Snow

 

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The weekly men's DI previews courtesy of USCHO.com ...

• This Week in ECAC Hockey: After sweeping Colgate, Clarkson back on track with youngsters ‘starting to pop’ for Golden Knights
• This Week in Hockey East: Not crowning regular-season champions misses the mark in difficult, COVID-dominated year
• This Week in NCHC Hockey: Minnesota Duluth reboots, looks to capture second place in NCHC with finale in St. Cloud
• (I guess that was all for the week)

 

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From USCHO.com ... "The cancellations will continue until this virus starts behaving itself" ...

• Merrimack-Vermont men’s college hockey series scheduled for March 5-6 off after Merrimack personnel enter COVID-19 protocol

• Clarkson-St. Lawrence men’s hockey games scheduled this weekend, next weekend canceled due to COVID-19 protocols

Merrimack has been informed their season's done... no Hockey East Tournament or NCAA Bid.... they were scheduled to face Maine in the conference Tournament.

 

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Merrimack has been informed their season's done... no Hockey East Tournament or NCAA Bid.... they were scheduled to face Maine in the conference Tournament.

Same for Holy Cross ... https://www.uscho.com/2021/03/05/po...-gets-bye-into-atlantic-hockey-quarterfinals/

 

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reports are coming out that potentially Maine could host UNH @ UNH

 

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3-3 between Maine and U Mass Amherst

 

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From: USCHO.com > News

Long Island captures second straight NEWHA championship, downs Sacred Heart Thursday for title

By USCHO Staff - March 4, 2021

Coming from behind for the second consecutive game, Long Island claimed the NEWHA Commissioner’s Cup Thursday with a 5-2 victory over Sacred Heart to conclude the best-of-three series.

LIU, in just its second year of competition, moves to 5-8-0 on the season while Sacred Heart drops to 1-10-0. In lieu of a formal league championship, the Commissioner’s Cup series featured the two NEWHA programs still competing as of this week.

The Sharks won the traditional postseason NEWHA title in 2019, downing Saint Anselm by a 1-0 score.

Matilda af Bjur finished the game with three goals and an assist for LIU, factoring in to four of her team’s five markers, while winning 15 of 22 faceoffs. Alva Johnsson was a plus-3 for the game, dishing out three assists. ...

Read more at: https://www.uscho.com/2021/03/04/lo...onship-downs-sacred-heart-thursday-for-title/

 

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Watching the Northeastern men @ BC (2-1 Eagles in the 2nd period). The BC broadcast team analyst cited an interesting bit of trivia that might be considered another "casualty" of COVID-19: The Northeastern Huskies & Boston University Terriers men's hockey teams did not face one another during this ir-regular season, breaking a string of annual face-to-face competition that started just after World War II.

 

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Maine, behind Ostman, stuns U Mass Amherst in a shootout