Each week during the season, we look at the big events and big games around Division I men’s college hockey in Tuesday Morning Quarterback.
Dan: Greetings once more to everyone enjoying their week with us. I hope you’re not like me and on the run to figure out your Halloween costume with one week left to dress your kids for trick or treating.
One thing I know we’re all doing is trying to catch our breath from an incredible weekend. I feel like I say this to someone every year, but the schedule makers (i.e. coaches, administrators, sports gods, whomever) all find ways for us to ramp up and explode out of the gates before the season really ramps up. This weekend was no different, and like we talked about on last week’s USCHO Edge podcast, big time matchups bring big time storylines.
I don’t even know where to begin, but I suppose it’s worth going back to the most famous – or infamous – rivalry in college hockey (arguably). Minnesota and North Dakota did NOT disappoint, and as I look at you, Jim, I think you called it. These teams put together two games worth rewatching if you missed them.
It was a split, but I think we learned something more about North Dakota than we did about Minnesota. We knew the Gophers were good, but after Saturday’s game, is it time to call the shot of North Dakota officially being back?
Jim: You nailed that, 100 percent.
The Fighting Hawks had their collective backs against the wall after Friday’s 4-0 loss to the Gophers. You can’t show up to a rivalry series and lay an egg twice, so North Dakota’s ability to win 2-1 on night two said a lot about the team’s character, particularly considering how inexperienced this team is at certain positions, especially the back end.
I feel like a lot of teams were in a similar position this weekend, needing to find a way on the second night to save a weekend series. The one that comes to mind the most is Denver, which lost to Providence 4-3 on Friday but then rallied from a 2-1 deficit on Saturday at Boston College, let slip a 3-2 lead in the third, but got the game-winning goal from Carter King with 2:02 remaining in regulation.
Wins like these are character wins to me. Doing so on the road, when the team has traveled from Denver to the East Coast, seems even more impressive.
When I look at the NCHC, obviously there are impressive candidates in both leagues. But both North Dakota and Denver made me take extra notice this weekend. Do they deserve, let’s say, extra attention as well?
Dan: Denver, to me, feels like one of those Oklahoma-type football programs. It doesn’t matter how good the team is year-over-year because they’re guaranteed to win X amount of games and contend for the national championship. They might not always win the title, but they’re always in the picture – and further represent exactly what it’s like to live in that tier.
Keeping with that comparison, think about how much Oklahoma wins on a consistent basis. A 9-3 season is essentially a disappointment, and it’s almost always in contention for a national championship. When it comes to Denver, the coach, the players, the personnel – they can undergo almost every conceivable change and still churn out winning teams. I’d kill for that type of consistency out of my team if I’m not a Denver fan. I can’t think of a team that’s been better since the 2000-2001 season, though the COVID season is aside.
Coming back to that point, it’s an interesting cross-section whenever teams get hot or not in the early part of the season. 20-25 wins is a benchmark for some programs and a reach for others, and if a season starts to falter early, nothing kills things faster than bad juju.
Enter BU. The preseason No. 1 team feels like the opposite of Denver and North Dakota right now, but the talent is clearly there. How panicked should we be about the Terriers after the split with Notre Dame?
Jim: There should be concern for Boston University fans. Their team lost on the road at New Hampshire, 6-4, and then lost again at Notre Dame, 4-1.
Had BU not rebounded an absolutely dominated on Saturday at Notre Dame, I’d not be pressing a panic button. I would be sitting on it, if I was BU central.
There is something very difficult about integrating a lot of very talented, young players into a team and system. We hear the name Macklin Celebrini a lot. He is a generational player. But what about some other very young players who have never been anything except a first-line player? How do they fit in at age 18? Will they immediately adapt? That’s always a question mark faced by not just Jay Pandolfo, but a good number of college hockey coaches each year.
Honestly, I think BU will be just fine and by year’s end will contend for a top spot in Hockey East and will be an NCAA tournament team. The question is whether early losses hurt their PairWise, something we don’t always talk about in October.
The same can be said for a team like Notre Dame, which actually beat BU on Friday. That’s a decent win if BU boosts itself higher nationally (in the PairWise, of course, we’re not talking polls). But the Fighting Irish are 2-3-0 right now. They got smoked on Saturday when they should’ve been riding high and ready to try for a sweep. They also lost on the road at RIT last weekend without scoring a goal.
Notre Dame is a team that I feel should and could be good with an aggressive Big Ten schedule ahead. But right now I don’t know how to grade their performance to date. What do you think?
Dan: Notre Dame intrigues me, but I don’t know what else to make of the Irish beyond that statement.
I want to believe in Notre Dame, but the losses are glaring. I’m a big buyer on Clarkson being a threat to the national tournament this year, but the 3-0 win was tempered by a 3-0 loss to an Atlantic Hockey club, which as much as I love RIT and a league that’s long been “my league,” I also recognize the disparity between the Big Ten and the AHA on paper.
So those games cancel each other out, right? Well the BU games also cancel each other out. Had Notre Dame lost the second game even remotely better than an 8-2 final, I’d probably be a buyer on the Irish, but the final score is a bad night at the office. And even if we lean into the fact that every team has a bad game, we still don’t know if it’s just an off-night or a sign of something bigger because there’s proof of everything around every corner.
We’re going to learn a good amount this weekend when Mercyhurst comes to town. If the defense can gel in front of Ryan Bischel, I think there’s going to be an intriguing stone wall in the back. The power play needs to get going, and the offense needs to pepper a Laker defense that’s allowed over 40 shots per game with an average of three goals allowed per game. All of that’s easier said than done, but I need to see it across two nights.
That said, you know how much I love my Atlantic Hockey teams when their backs are against the wall, and I would never count any of those teams out. They always pack a good punch, and someone always – ALWAYS – has their national championship dreams blown to smoke by losses to AHA teams.
Tell me something, though, is there a team that we’re not talking about at all right now that’s hiding in the wings? Is there an independent, or an ECAC team that you like (or Atlantic Hockey or something)? Is there maybe a CCHA team that more people need to look at – maybe one that jumped directly from Division III to Division I out in the state of Minnesota?
Jim: Yes, I get it, you want to talk about St. Thomas. And maybe we’ll do that soon as Rico Blasi has his team playing really well right now and possibly surprising people.
But you asked the question and now have to take my answer. Yes, there is a team we’re not talking about, and it’s Arizona State.
The Sun Devils are now comfortably inhabiting Mullett Arena and right now stand at 4-0-0 after sweeping a very good Merrimack team and a Northern Michigan club that I thought had a lot of promise coming into the season.
Timing is interesting for ASU. They’ll play 20 homes games this year, something that likely won’t happen once the team enters in the NCHC. Home ice is certainly a major advantage for this club and there is a need to take advantage.
But one has to think – and this is no disrespect to the Sun Devlis team – but as an independent, this might be the best opportunity to make an NCAA field. Yes, plenty of NCHC teams have made it in the past and will continue to do so. But navigating that league is such a grind that things are not even close to being guaranteed and winning games as an independent seems a whole lot easier.
