Neb-Omaha goalie Dayn Belfour wants own identity
December 9, 2011
OMAHA, Neb. (AP)—Dayn Belfour walks and talks like his father.
He does not, however, play goalie like newly inducted Hockey Hall of FamerEd Belfour.
That’s not a knock against Dayn. Few men have worked between the pipes theway “Eddie the Eagle” did in a 16-year NHL career highlighted by a Stanley Cupand two Vezina Trophies.
Dayn, however, won’t stop trying.
The 22-year-old, first-year walk-on at the University of Nebraska-Omaha isamong three goalies competing to win the No. 1 job that’s still open even as theMavericks (8-7-3) near the second half of the season.
Dayn has modest statistics in limited playing time and probably would goabout his business drawing little notice if it weren’t for that last name, whichhas alternately opened doors for him and been a curse.
“I’ve got one of the greatest names in hockey history, and I wear itproudly,” Dayn said. “Hopefully, I can one day accomplish everything my fatherdid and then some.”
UNO coach Dean Blais said there’s nothing wrong with Dayn wanting to chasethe dream. But he recommended a dose of reality two years ago when Daynconsidered going overseas to play professionally after spending five seasons inthe junior ranks.
“I advised Eddie to have him to go to school,” Blais said. “Obviously, hewasn’t Eddie Belfour. He wasn’t as good as his dad. There are only a few ofthose guys who come along every so often, right?”
Dayn said his father didn’t push him into hockey. He couldn’t help but wantto play after being around the NHL since he was a child. Chris Chelios is hisgodfather and Jeremy Roenick is one of his dad’s best friends.
He started out as a defenseman, because he wanted to be like Chelios. Thenhe played forward, because he wanted to be a goal-scorer like Roenick. And then,at about age 12, he wanted to be like his father.
“I asked my dad for goaltending equipment for Christmas,” Dayn said. “Heknew what I was getting myself into.”
Blais and his junior coaches said being a goalie with the name Belfour mighthave allowed Dayn to get a tryout that he wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Beyondthat, they said, he’s earned everything he’s gotten through hard work.
Dayn’s name certainly drew the attention of Ernie Sutherland, the assistantgeneral manager of the Winkler Flyers, who recruited Dayn out of Ontario to playfor the Manitoba Junior Hockey League team. Sutherland was Ed Belfour’s coachwhen he played for Winkler in the `80s.
“Our evaluation of him was he was a goalie who deserved to be where hewas,” Sutherland said of Dayn. “I took one look at him and said to myself thatI want that kid in Winkler.”
Mark Thiessen, Ed Belfour’s teammate at Winkler and Dayn’s coach there, saidDayn made him do a double-take the first day he was on the team.
The team was on a bus, and Thiessen heard a familiar voice coming from theback.
“Dayn started talking, and I turned to Ernie and said, `Is that Eddie backthere?”’ he said. “He sounded just like Ed did years and years ago. And thento see Dayn on the ice. Just the way he goes about things is the same asEddie.”
Dayn played three years in Winkler, and for part of that time the fanscomplained that he was given an unfair advantage over a local kid on the teambecause he was Ed Belfour’s son (and the elder Belfour also was part owner ofthe team).
North Dakota, Minnesota State-Mankato and Bemidji State showed some interestin Dayn, but were wary of his academic situation. Dayn is a solid student, buthe was ineligible his first year of college because of an NCAA rule thatrequired him to finish high school in four years. He needed five years becausehe moved a number of times.
The Belfour name helped Dayn in this instance, because Blais was anassistant coach at North Dakota when Ed helped lead UND to the nationalchampionship in 1986-87. Blais also remembered Dayn from scouting Winkler.
“I thought he had a little bit of hot and cold in him,” Blais said. “Whenhe was hot, he was very, very good, capable of getting the shutout or one goal.Sometimes he’d have 45 saves, too. I’d seen him other games where he’d give upthree or four weak ones. If you can play good one time, you can play that wayall the time. Knowing Eddie, if Dayn was anything like him, the kid is going tohave pretty good fundamentals.”
Dayn said his father has always talked about goaltending technique andtraining and mentored him on other aspects of the games. Dayn also has watchedevery bit of video of his father that he can find.
Ed Belfour, who lives near Dallas and didn’t respond to a message seeking aninterview, attended a couple UNO games early in the season, but Dayn didn’t playin either.
Dayn has appeared in four games, started three and has a 2.30 goals-againstaverage and .899 save percentage.
Blais said Dayn is under consideration to start one or both games in thisweekend’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association series at North Dakota.
Dayn is ready for the inevitable comparisons when he shows up in Grand Forkswith “Belfour” stitched to the back of his sweater with the No. 29, the samenumber his father wore at UND.
“One of these days I’ll make a name for myself,” Dayn said. “I want to beknown as Dayn Belfour one day, not just Eddie’s boy.”
Lucia gets extension through ’15 to coach Gophers
October 19, 2011
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)—Minnesota hockey coach Don Lucia has agreed to terms on acontract extension through the 2014-15 season.
The university announced the deal Wednesday.
After winning consecutive national championships in 2002 and 2003, theGophers have fallen off in recent years and missed the NCAA tournament threestraight seasons. Lucia dealt with a rare disease during the 2008-09 season thatcaused numbness, headaches and forced him away from the team for days at a time.
Athletics director Joel Maturi says Lucia is “the right man” to lead theGophers as “the premier program in the country.”
Lucia has started his 13th season at the school. The Gophers are off to a4-0 start.
Boston U. holds off No. 3 Denver, 4-3 (CBS Interactive U-WIRE)
October 17, 2011
With less than 15 minutes left against No. 3 U. Denver Saturday night, Kieran Millan was closing in on history.
Thanks to a healthy 4-0 Boston U. men’s hockey team lead and Millan’s perfect 24 saves through two periods, the senior goaltender looked like he was on his way to winning his 63rd game as a Terrier, a new school record.
But 11 minutes and three Denver goals – of the wraparound (6:01), bouncer (13:09) and rebound (17:39) variety – later, the record-breaking win was suddenly in jeopardy.
“At that point [the Pioneers] were bringing it pretty hard,” Millan said. “I know I let in kind of a soft second goal, so the onus was on me to help us pull through.”
Lucky for the Terriers (2-1, 1-1 Hockey East), the defense buckled down for the last 2:21 to top the Pioneers (1-1), 4-3, and get Millan the win to pass former BU goalie Sean Fields, who collected 62 wins from 2000-2004.
“It’s definitely an honor,” Millan said of breaking the record. “I know a lot of great goalies have come through here.”
BU’s ability to hold on might have been inadvertently assisted by a Denver timeout at 19:37.8, giving BU a chance to regroup. Immediately after the following faceoff in BU’s defensive zone, Denver forward Beau Bennett was charged with a holding penalty, bringing the next faceoff to the other side of the ice and effectively ending the game.
Both coaches reacted exactly how one would expect given how it affected their respective teams. While BU coach Jack Parker said it was “absolutely the right call,” Denver coach George Gwozdecky had to check himself before speaking in generalities.
“Can I get fined for making comments on referees outside-of-conference?” Gwozdecky asked. “When you look over the 60 minutes, there were many things, many mistakes that everybody involved in the game made. You focus on [the holding call] for about a minute, you whine and complain a little bit, but the bottom line was we could have made some plays earlier.
“It was an interesting finish, that’s for sure.”
But the third-period dramatics would have been all for naught had BU not controlled the game for most of the first two periods.
The Terriers got off to a quick 1-0 lead thanks to a goal by junior assistant captain Alex Chiasson. Freshman forward Cason Hohmann fed the puck to his fellow forward, who promptly scooted around Denver captain Dustin Jackson and rocketed the puck over Pioneer goaltender Adam Murray’s left shoulder at 10:54 in the first.
“Our defenseman completely misread it, thought the backside was covered, it wasn’t, they made a great play to spring [Chiasson] loose on the back side and he made a great shot to beat Adam,” Gwozdecky said.
The score stayed that way until shortly into the second, despite Denver gaining some momentum in the second half of the first stanza. Denver won the period-opening faceoff, but Millan cleared the puck all the way across the ice, leading to Murray misplaying it behind his own net. Senior forward Corey Trivino capitalized, grabbing the puck for the wrap-around, short-handed goal at 0:19 before Murray got back in the net.
It was the third goal in as many games for the player that Parker called the best “up and down the lineup.”
Just 42 seconds later, a pair of sophomore forwards got in on the action. Charlie Coyle sent the puck to Matt Nieto for a backhanded goal, again with BU playing four-on-five, to make it 3-0.
But the super sophomores weren’t done there. Forward Sahir Gill and defenseman Adam Clendening chipped in on senior forward Wade Megan’s backhander at 2:58 to make it 4-0, ending the three-minute flurry of BU offense.
BU seemed to slow down in the second half of both periods, giving Denver multiple opportunities to get on the board. Millan was in top form though, and stopped all 24 Denver shots, including seven grade-A chances, in the first two periods.
Then, the Terriers took their lead for granted.
“We got stupid,” Parker said. “We got real stupid and selfish to try to get an empty net goal instead of making sure they didn’t score.”
That set up the late-game excitement and eventual history-making win for Millan.
“I know 63 is a great number,” Millan said, “but I think this year we can make it a lot higher. I’m not going to predict anything but hopefully quite a few more.”
Notre Dame moves to Hockey East (CBS Interactive U-WIRE)
October 7, 2011
The ice of the Compton Family Ice Arena was busy Wednesday afternoon — but not with skates, sticks and pucks. Microphones, cameras and reporters instead filled the ice to hear Notre Dame’s big announcement: The Irish are heading east.
Beginning in the 2013-14 season, Notre Dame will play in the Hockey East conference, leaving the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA).
“The addition of Notre Dame signals a significant change in the reach of our conference,” Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna said. “When Notre Dame ended the seasons of [Hockey East members] New Hampshire and Merrimack, it was been decided that when we couldn’t beat them, we should join them.”
Preseason No. 1 Notre Dame will join perennial powers Boston College and Boston University in a league that has produced three of the last four national champions and seven overall. UMass-Lowell, Massachusetts, Vermont, Northeastern, Maine and Providence comprise the rest of Hockey East.
“We have been looking to expand Hockey East for quite some time, but with the right partner,” Boston University Director of Athletics Mike Lynch said. “We believe firmly that we have found that partner. We are thrilled to welcome Notre Dame to Hockey East and look forward to many great years together in our conference.”
Notre Dame Director of Athletics Jack Swarbrick said Notre Dame considered two other options — hockey independence and the newly formed National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) — before ultimately landing in Hockey East.
“We had to make sure to consider all of the options available to us and make the right choice for our student-athletes and our coaches and the University,” Swarbrick said.
Swarbrick cited many reasons for joining the conference, including the student-athlete experience in which missed class time and travel factored into the decision.
“[We want] to use sports to promote the University and we believe our affiliation with Hockey East sets the platform for us to do that with hockey the way we have been able to do it with football in the past,” Swarbrick said.
Notre Dame will once again partner with NBC, but this time, to broadcast hockey games.
“Our relationship with Notre Dame is one of our most important partnerships,” President of Programming for NBC Sports and Versus Jon Miller said. “The opportunity to broadcast Notre Dame hockey games as well as Hockey East games was very exciting for us as we rebrand the NBC Sports Network. We’re excited about what the future holds.”
Details of the deal have not been finalized although televising all of Notre Dame’s home games is a possibility.
Irish coach Jeff Jackson believes that the move to Hockey East — along with the scheduling flexibility and the new television deal — will help Notre Dame recruit on a more national basis.
“We’ll probably be going east five times and probably west five times,” Jackson said. “I think it will create a more national schedule for us and potentially open up new recruiting opportunities.”
The Hockey East conference schedule is smaller and allows the Irish to play more non-conference games against traditional rivals Michigan, Michigan State and, potentially, Minnesota.
The Irish leave behind a lasting legacy in the CCHA, winning two regular-season and postseason tournament titles (2007 and 2009) during their 13 years in the conference. Jackson has spent his entire collegiate coaching career in the CCHA and said it is sad to see it disband.
“It will be very disappointing for me, as a lifetime member of the CCHA, to see it no longer existing,” Jackson said. “It’s a disappointment but we still have work to do in the CCHA.”
Hockey East, with the addition of Jackson and Notre Dame, now houses five of the top-10 winningest coaches in collegiate hockey. Boston College’s Jerry York, Boston University’s Jack Parker, New Hampshire’s Dick Umile and UMass’ Don Cahoon all rank ahead of Jackson in the wins list.
“We look forward to a very bright future with a conference we have great admiration for that has its core in a part of the country where we have great strength and passion,” Swarbrick said. “We hope we bring to Hockey East as much as we know it will bring to us.”
The Irish open their season on the road against Minnesota-Duluth, the defending national champions, on Friday at 8:07 p.m. The two will also play Saturday at 8:07 p.m.
Penn St hockey on schedule
October 5, 2011
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP)—New transfers are settling in at Penn State, whileschool administrators are putting the finishing touches on plans for the newon-campus ice arena.
There’s even a new brand of coffee being served at the fledgling Penn Statehockey team’s current home, a brew appropriately enough from Canadian doughnutchain, Tim Hortons.
The Nittany Lions are right on schedule a year out from moving up toDivision I status, and two years away from the start of the anticipated Big Tenhockey conference.
“It’s going to be a real fun time, especially with the big powerhousesMichigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin,” said one of Penn State’s four transferswith Division I experience, Bryce Johnson. “It’s going to be nice to know thatevery weekend we go out to play, it’s going to be a bloodbath.”
Good thing Penn State has one more year left to work out the kinks as a clublevel team with a roster in flux.
The final season in the ACHA begins Friday. The Nittany Lions will play as aDivision I independent in 2012-13 before Big Ten hockey begins the followingseason.
Finally, coach Guy Gadowsky gets a chance to see what his team can do on theice, nearly six months after taking over at Penn State.
“The goal is to have a very successful season this year in the ACHA whileat the same time setting a foundation, building the right values that will makeus successful moving forward,” Gadowsky said. “The two (goals) mesh togethervery well.”
Penn State’s move to Division I, first announced in September 2010, helpedset off a chain reaction of events that have changed the landscape of collegehockey.
Former energy company executive and Penn State alum Terry Pegula donated $88million—the largest private donation in school history—to upgrade theprogram and fund a new multipurpose arena. A self-proclaimed hockey fanatic,Pegula bought the NHL’s Sabres in February.
Penn State’s move increased the number of Big Ten teams with hockey to six—enough for the conference to start its own league in 2013. Minnesota andWisconsin are moving from the 50-year-old WCHA, with Michigan, Michigan Stateand Ohio State leaving the CCHA.
“It’s the buzz, I understand a lot of schools are scrambling, movingconferences. The Big Ten conference is certainly poised to be the premier(hockey) conference,” said associate athletic director for hockey Joe Battista.
The league also could increase the popularity of college hockey through itstelevision network, which Battista noted could also be viewed in parts ofCanada.
“Now, how competitive we are remains to be seen,” Battista said, smiling.
Battista, Gadowsky and other Penn State administrators returned Wednesdayfrom a trip to Notre Dame, where they got a tour of the Fighting Irish’s new $50million Compton Family Ice Arena. Notre Dame later Wednesday announced it wasleaving the CCHA for Hockey East beginning with the 2013-14 season, plus a TVdeal with NBC.
At least 18 of the 58 teams currently playing NCAA Division I hockey—31percent—will change conferences by 2013.
Things will look different, too, when Penn State starts Big Ten play in twoyears. Ground is expected to be broken in February on the Nittany Lions’ newarena.
“College hockey is going to have the biggest platform that it’s ever had,”Gadowsky said about the Big Ten. “It’s going to be more visible.”
Gadowsky promises to deliver a crowd-pleasing offensive style of hockey with“a lot of team speed.” Johnson, a 5-foot-10 forward, is considered PennState’s fastest skater. He played three games at St. Cloud State before gettingeight goals and 16 assists in 37 games last season with Omaha in the USHL.
Genaro C. Armas can be reached at http://twitter.com/GArmasAP .
Notre Dame hockey program joining Hockey East
October 5, 2011
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP)—Notre Dame is leaving the Central Collegiate HockeyAssociation for Hockey East, effective with the 2013-14 season.
The Fighting Irish announced the move Wednesday. Notre Dame, which has beena member of the CCHA since 1992, will become the 11th member of Hockey East.Current members include Boston College, Boston University, Maine, UMass,UMass-Lowell, Merrimack, New Hampshire, Northeastern, Providence and Vermont.
Conference realignment is shaking up college hockey.
The Western Collegiate Hockey Association has invited five teams from theCCHA to join in two years, when the Big Ten starts its hockey league. The newNational Collegiate Hockey Conference will also begin play that year with eightschools.
At least 18 of the 58 teams currently playing NCAA Division I hockey—31percent—will change conferences by 2013.
Bowling Green says yes to WCHA for 2013-14 season
October 4, 2011
MADISON, Wis. (AP)—Bowling Green will join the Western Collegiate HockeyAssociation for the 2013-14 season.
The WCHA announced the addition Tuesday, giving the league at least nineteams when it’s revamped in two years. Eight of the current 12 members willleave then for other conferences, two to the Big Ten and six to the new NationalCollegiate Hockey Conference.
Holdovers Alaska-Anchorage, Bemidji State, Michigan Tech and MinnesotaState, Mankato, will be joined by Alaska-Fairbanks, Bowling Green, Ferris State,Lake Superior State and Northern Michigan.
Bowling Green, located in Ohio, won the NCAA championship in 1984. TheFalcons were founding members in 1971 of the Central Collegiate HockeyAssociation, which will dissolve in 2013 when its 11 members join other leagues.
Big 12, Big East, WCHA? NCAA football and basketball realignment got nothing on hockey
September 29, 2011
Texas A&M to the SEC? Major news. Pittsburgh to the ACC? Pretty big deal.
Now, take it a step further. Imagine more than half the schools in the Big12 or Big East suddenly deciding to bolt their longtime conference and some ofthem doing so with hardly a hint of heads-up to the other teams in their league.
The focus on the NCAA’s recent realignment craze centers on football andbasketball – and deservedly so, considering the respective popularity andrevenue of those programs. But college hockey, a sport out of the mainstream butwith no less of a tradition for the select schools that participate, has its bigbrothers in the athletic department lapped when it comes to seismic-shiftinglandscapes.
Not long ago, the Western Collegiate Hockey Association was the envy of thecollege hockey community. This offseason, however, there weren’t many peopleeager to stand in commissioner Bruce McLeod’s shoes.
“I haven’t taken one day of vacation,” said McLeod, who may have given uphis weekends, too, if he could have found a way to keep his league together.
And what a league it is.
The WCHA is the most decorated conference in NCAA Division I hockey history,and, as evidenced by Minnesota-Duluth’s national title in April, it wasn’tshowing any signs of slowing down.
The quality of its resume is unquestioned. Back in 2006, Wisconsin claimedthe league’s fifth consecutive national championship. A year earlier, no teamfrom any other conference had even managed to crack the Frozen Four, putting avirtual reprise of the WCHA tournament on NCAA hockey’s biggest stage.
That modern dominance is backed up by more than a half-century of similarresults. The conference has claimed 37 NCAA championships since its formation asthe Midwest Collegiate Hockey League in 1951 – more than every other leaguecombined. The WCHA has also produced a long list of NHL stars, including currentBlackhawks captain Jonathan Toews (North Dakota), Chris Chelios (Wisconsin) andBrett Hull (Minnesota-Duluth).
McLeod played for Duluth in the 1960s and spent more than a decade as theschool’s athletic director, but his celebration of the Bulldogs title proved tobe short-lived.
“Obviously I was just euphoric about Duluth winning their firstchampionship,” McLeod said, “but at the same time, I knew what was coming downthe pike.”
That would be a tumultuous summer in college hockey, resulting in a dramaticexodus from the WCHA and a rapid and radical realignment slated for 2013 thatproved to mirror upcoming shifts in the NCAA conference structure for othersports.
It all started last September, when Penn State alum Terry Pegula, now theowner of the Buffalo Sabres, donated $88 million to build an arena and start aDivision I hockey program at his alma mater beginning in 2012.
The Nittany Lions will become the sixth Big Ten school to sponsor top-tierhockey, giving the league the minimum number to get an automatic bid to the NCAAtournament for its champion. So it was no surprise in March when the Big Ten -backed by its TV network – officially announced its plans to add hockey. As aresult, Minnesota and Wisconsin will leave the WCHA in 2013.
At the time, the WCHA seemed like it could remain an elite conferenceanchored by perennial powers North Dakota, Denver, Colorado College and Duluth.In fact, McLeod said he thought that was the plan after the league’s annualmeetings in early May.
“But apparently some people had some different ideas and didn’t share themwith us at that time,” McLeod said. “There wasn’t a whole lot of transparency toit.”
Instead, the four schools which were supposed to provide the backbone of theleague’s latest iteration – along with Nebraska-Omaha and later St. Cloud State- opted to become founding members of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference,forming a high-quality superconference to rival the Big Ten and leaving theirfellow members in the dust.
Just like that, the 12-team WCHA was down to just four of its bottom fivefinishers from 2010-11 still on board for 2013.
Yet its fate could have been even worse. The Central Collegiate HockeyAssociation, no slouch itself the last few decades with former WCHA membersMichigan and Michigan State leading the way, could be bound for extinction. TheWolverines and Spartans will head to the Big Ten along with Ohio State, whileMiami (Ohio) and Western Michigan will be part of the NCHC.
Several of the CCHA’s remaining members, including former NCAA championsLake Superior State and Northern Michigan, agreed to join the remnants of theWCHA after the conferences met in August and found common ground in theirdedication to Division I hockey.
McLeod said he’s still uncertain what motivated the non-Big Ten schools toleave the WCHA, but he doesn’t think revenues were a factor as the league hasbeen financially robust for the last decade.
“I think that there are a multitude of reasons,” Denver coach GeorgeGwozdecky said. “We recognized that the landscape of college hockey is changing.… Every school in the (NCHC) feels that the opportunity that this conference hasto blaze a new trail for college hockey nationally was the right thing to do.”
Gwozdecky, who guided the Pioneers to back-to-back national titles in2004-05 and played in the WCHA for Wisconsin, said he “certainly” believes thenew arrangement will be good for the relatively small and varied group of 58schools – 59 including Penn State – within Division I college hockey. Headmitted, however, that “there have been some people who feel the exactopposite.”
McLeod’s not sure.
“Obviously some people think it’s better for them as individualinstitutions,” he said, “but from collegiate hockey as a whole, especially inthe West here, I think that remains to be seen.”
Gwozdecky pointed out that the new arrangement might provide more paritywithin each conference, rather than having the same teams finishing near the topand bottom of the standings each season.
Some of the WCHA’s less successful programs in recent years, such asAlaska-Anchorage and Michigan Tech, might benefit from avoiding the powerhousesduring the conference schedule, while the juggernauts will face elitecompetition on a regular basis within the NCHC or the Big Ten.
“I look at schools in our conference right now who have rarely been to ourleague tournament, who have never been to a national tournament,” Gwozdeckysaid. “Two years from now, those types of schools will have a little bit betteropportunity to compete, maybe win league tournaments and get to the nationaltournament. I think that’s what it’s all about.”
The vast majority – if not all, pending a decision by Bowling Green – of thefuture WCHA also has something else in common: The schools compete in DivisionII in most other sports.
That group includes Bemidji State in Minnesota. Coach Tom Serratore hasturned the Beavers into one of the nation’s most improved programs in recentyears, leading them to a surprise Frozen Four berth in 2009 and an at-large bidto the NCAA tournament the next year out of the now-defunct College HockeyAmerica league.
Bemidji State joined the WCHA last season in a move Serratore called “thepinnacle” for his program.
“You take a look at the history of the WCHA, the success it’s had on thenational scale,” the coach said. “There’s no question we were getting rewardedfor a lot of our hard work.”
But the Beavers’ future looks a bit different after the events of thissummer. Serratore said he doesn’t think his recruiting will be drasticallyaffected, although he won’t be able to use annual conference games againstregional powers Minnesota and North Dakota as a draw.
It’s also unclear if he’ll still be able to offer the opportunity to play inthe Xcel Energy Center – home of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild. The Final Five, theculmination of the WCHA’s postseason tournament, has been held there for thelast decade, but the future is murky without the fan bases drawn by the league’straditional powers.
“I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed, but you can’tworry about things that you can’t control,” Serratore said. “This is thechanging landscape of college sports in the new millennium. … We’re excited tobe part of this league, and to help build this league.”
McLeod admits to “a sadness about the whole thing,” and he’s hardly indenial about his league’s situation.
“Certainly you can’t lose a core group that are leaving the WCHA and expectto be the same,” McLeod said.
Still, he’s optimistic that the WCHA can successfully reinvent itself andget back to competing for national championships. His tone in a league statementafter the latest movement – St. Cloud State’s departure last week – was almostdefiant.
“We … want to reiterate in the strongest possible terms that the WesternCollegiate Hockey Association will persevere, soldier on and continue to dothings as we always have – in a first-class manner.”
Mike Lipka is an Editor at STATS LLC. Write to him at mlipka@stats.com.
W. Mich., St. Cloud State join new hockey league
September 22, 2011
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP)—Western Michigan University and St. CloudUniversity have accepted invitations to join the National Collegiate HockeyConference.
They are the seventh and eighth schools to join the NCAA Division I leaguethat starts play in 2013-14.
For the next two years, St. Cloud State will play in the Western CollegiateHockey Association and Western Michigan in the Central Collegiate HockeyAssociation.
Then, they’ll join founding members Colorado College, University of Denver,Miami University, Minnesota-Duluth, Nebraska-Omaha and North Dakota in the NCHC.The league was created in response to the Big Ten’s fledgling hockey leaguetaking Minnesota and Wisconsin from the WCHA.
New league invites St. Cloud St, Western Michigan
September 21, 2011
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP)—The National Collegiate Hockey Conference hasinvited St. Cloud State and Western Michigan to join the new Division I men’shockey conference when it starts play in 2013-14.
St. Cloud State is a member of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association andWestern Michigan is in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.
They would join founding members Colorado College, University of Denver,Miami University, Minnesota-Duluth, Nebraska-Omaha and North Dakota in the NCHC.
The league, which was born in response to the Big Ten’s fledgling hockeyleague taking Minnesota and Wisconsin from the WCHA, is conducting a nationalsearch for its first commissioner.
