Dean Blais?

Go Beavers!

Neb-Omaha cracks the Top 10 for the first time this year after a controversial win. Talked with a couple of former UNO players who were less than impressed with their old coach Kemp and thought he needed to go.

Miami gets a pair of 1-goal wins over Northern Mich to stay #1.

Also kudos to Alaska-Fairbanks on their #13 ranking and outstanding start. Always tough to recruit for a team that probably has the most brutal travel schedule in all of collegiate sports.


1 Miami (41) 6-1-1 931 1
2 Denver ( 4) 5-2-1 856 2
3 North Dakota 4-1-1 833 3
4 Michigan 4-2-0 711 5
5 Cornell 1-0-0 657 6
6 Yale ( 1) 1-0-0 634 7
7 Boston University 2-3-0 613 4
8 Mass.-Lowell 4-2-0 572 9
9 Notre Dame 4-3-1 552 8
10 Nebraska-Omaha 4-0-2 430 12
11 Bemidji State 5-0-1 385 14
12 Colorado College 4-1-1 372 15
13 Alaska 5-0-1 363 16
14 Princeton 1-1-0 314 11
15 Vermont 2-3-0 271 10
16 Boston College 2-2-0 233 13
17 Michigan State 6-2-0 231 20
18 Wisconsin 3-2-1 225 19
19 Massachusetts 4-1-0 205 17
20 Minnesota-Duluth 5-2-1 92 NR
Others Receiving Votes: Quinnipiac 53, Minnesota 36, Harvard 22, St. Cloud State 21, Providence 18, Northeastern 10, New Hampshire 7, Merrimack 6, Minnesota State 6, Ohio State 1

In the meanwhile: The minor league team I'm with in Wheeling is struggling to a 2-6-1 start. Pretty surprising and disappointing because a lot of people thought this team was loaded. But they're just not performing as they should.

Our team has an assistant coach this year who is also my roommate on the road. Here's video of him coming back in a scrap against Tie Domi.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJXGvtUun8k

Elmira (NY) Jackals (OTT affiliate) are 7-0-0 to start the year and trying to tie the ECHL record with one more win.

Gopher hockey looks the same this year as the last couple. We just can't score goals. Playing North Dakota and Denver to start the year doesn't help but it's hard to be too optimistic. Hopefully we can show some life at Wisconsin this weekend.

Also losing Leddy really blows as a Wild/Gophers fan, hopefully he comes back soon.

Big showdown already at Yost Ice Arena this weekend. Friday and Saturday, Michigan takes on #1 Miami in Ann Arbor.

I haven't caught any college hockey games on the tube yet this year. Maybe it doesn't really kick into gear until later. The 3 FSN sports channels I get and CBS-College Sports (formerly CSTV) usually have some games. Would really love to watch some of that Miami/Michigan series on replay somewhere.

Can't watch it live since I'll be covering Wheeling vs. South Carolina and then Wheeling vs. Johnstown this weekend.

#1 Miami survives the 2nd period onslaught of #4 Michigan. Miami gets outshot 28-13 in the game or something yet still wins 3-1.

Elmira in the ECHL loses in overtime to Trenton to fall to 7-0-1 thus failing in their bid to become just the 3rd ECHL team ever to start 8-0-0.

Wheeling is 2-7-1 now...but at least they're playing better!! And they have 3 straight games with Johnstown who is even worse at 1-6-1. Things are looking up!

Miami 5 - Michigan 1 Saturday night.

First time Michigan has been swept at home since 2001.

Bet it was pretty quiet inside usually rockin Yost Arena.

Miami's on a freaking mission after losing that championship heartbreaker last year. Taking no prisoners.

ECHL players have the best porn names.

Stockton Thunder acquired Colton Yellow Horn.

Other names I've heard:
Steve Silverthorn
Blackwater
Goldie

Michigan with another slow start to the season. They have so much turnover year after year that it's tough to find continuity early in the year. That said, they put up 2 clunker games this weekend, and need to start improving quickly. Miami looks very good, they are a very good defensive team and really limited the number of scoring opportunities Michigan had.

Cornell looking extremely strong in the early going. 3-0, and a great comeback win against Hahvahd (sucks!) with 5 unanswered goals and outright physical domination in the finals 23 minutes of play. @ Yale next Friday will be a big test to see where the team stand, and then the MSG game against BU over Thanksgiving weekend (although BU is certainly having its early struggles). What seems to set this team apart from recent years is a really strong power play and a potentially potent offense.

This is probably the deepest and most talented team Cornell has had since the 2002-2003 run to the Frozen Four. Still very early, but it should be an exciting year! We have a lot of great OOC tests on the schedule (BU, Colorado College, North Dakota, New Hampshire).

imo

Colton Yellow Horn was one of my favorite names last year when he was with Elmira. They also had a guy named Bear Trapp (seriously).

Hell of a play in the Umass-New Hampshire game on ESPNU. Good puck win in neutral zone by Umass player, beats a couple defenders, puts a soft shot on net, and his teammate pots the rebound

didn't know they had a game on today. man i miss Melrose on the NHL games.

So there's 1 guy out there who thinks North Dakota is #1.

1 Miami (49) 8-1-1 999 1
2 North Dakota ( 1) 6-1-1 948 3
3 Cornell 3-0-0 855 5
4 Denver 6-3-1 830 2
5 Mass.-Lowell 5-2-1 778 8
6 Michigan 4-4-0 653 4
7 Bemidji State 7-0-1 599 11
8 Notre Dame 5-4-1 549 9
9 Alaska 6-1-1 521 13
10 Colorado College 5-2-1 478 12
11 Nebraska-Omaha 4-1-3 456 10
12 Yale 1-1-1 435 6
13 Michigan State 7-2-1 425 17
14 Massachusetts 6-1-0 357 19
15 Vermont 3-3-1 329 15
16 Boston College 3-2-1 316 16
17 Boston University 2-5-0 235 7
18 Minnesota-Duluth 6-3-1 178 20
19 Princeton 2-2-0 175 14
20 Quinnipiac 6-1-0 139 NR
Others Receiving Votes: Wisconsin 137, St. Cloud State 20, Rensselaer 18, Northeastern 16, Minnesota 13, Providence 9, Ferris State 8, Merrimack 8, Western Michigan 8, New Hampshire 5, St. Lawrence 3

Top 20 matchups this weekend:

No. 3 Cornell at No. 12 Yale on Friday; No. 6 Michigan playing a home-and-home series with No. 13 Michigan State on Friday and Saturday; and No. 15 Vermont playing at No. 16 Boston College on Saturday and Sunday.

Miami hosts Ferris State this weekend who are a reasonably solid 7-3 and are receiving votes.

Miami plays at North Dakota on Nov 28 in what shapes up to be a #1 vs. #2 battle if neither team slips up too badly before then.

Miami went 0-1-2 in their last 3 games but still held the #1 spot as all the other teams in the top 5 have been stumbling a little bit as well. The gap is much closer though.

1Miami(20)9-2-59341
2Denver(14)9-4-19232
3North Dakota( 7)8-4-29004
4Quinnipiac( 7)12-1-07999
5Bemidji State( 2)11-2-17846
6Colorado College
10-3-17665
7Cornell
6-2-17087
8Mass.-Lowell
8-4-16473
9Massachusetts
9-3-057310
10Yale
5-2-249711
11Michigan State
9-5-24418
12Alaska
8-3-342612
12Minnesota-Duluth
9-4-142614
14Notre Dame
7-5-432313
15Boston College
6-3-232116
16Wisconsin
8-5-130815
17Ferris State
9-3-226517
18Nebraska-Omaha
7-4-314619
19Vermont
5-5-18318
20St. Cloud State
6-6-280NR
Others Receiving Votes: Michigan 66, RIT 21, Colgate 20, Union 19, New Hampshire 9, Northern Michigan 7, Rensselaer 3, Providence 2, Boston University 1, Minnesota 1, Princeton 1

Microbob,

You still announcing?

ECHL American Conf is tighter than ever. Lot of parity among all 12 teams.

Hockey East player of the year last season Brad Thiessen just joined our team and won his debut. He left Northeastern last year after his junior season in which he led them to the NCAA tourney and was Final 3 for the Hobey Baker Award (college hockey's version of the Heisman Trophy).

Team I'm with came back to tie a game with 3 seconds left last night and won it in a shootout. Exciting stuff. 15 games in 30 days this month means I'm calling a helluva lot of hockey games.

Seeing the new arena in Toledo next week which I hear is really nice. 3 games in Florida the following week which isn't exactly a terrible road-trip to make either.

I guess I'll have to post our tournament results itt...y'know, seeing as how I'm officially a university hockey player now and all.

We're up in Brockville on Jan. 15th for St. Lawrence College's tournament. Looking forward to the overnight trip...drinking in Eastern Ontario ftw baby!

*NOTE: for those of you who don't know from the NHL thread, I'm playing for McMaster University's club team this year. Our school doesn't have OUA/CIS status so we operate as a tournament team, mostly playing OCAA teams who operate under the same premise. We're the highest level available at our school.

Finally a week off for the holiday break. Team I'm with played a 3 game series down in Ft. Myers, Florida last week which was a nice road trip to dodge the snow up north. Lost 2 of the 3 though.

Schedule takes me to Kalamazoo the day after XMas. Went there a couple weeks ago for the first time and I kind of liked their old-school hockey barn. Don't like the length of time it takes to get there though.

Couple weeks ago we left at 11:30pm after a Friday night home game. Got to Kalamazoo at 6:30am. Played that night (and got clobbered), got back home at 7am, and had another game that day at 3pm. Tough travel weekend that one was.

9th place out of 12 at the break with most teams have games in hand on us. Top 8 make the playoffs. But we're not even quite to the midway point yet so hopefully they come out firing after the break.

Also guessing there just isn't as much interest in college or minor league hockey as I might hope. Oh well. It's not exactly the most publicized stuff in the world. Some of you non-fans are missing out though!!