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: A hearty and happy 2025 to all of you and specifically welcome back to my cohort in crime, Paula Weston, as we get started here on the second half of the season. For what it’s worth, I wasn’t sure how to start this week, but I figured it was easy enough to do it with three easy letters.
U! S! A!
USA! USA! USA! USA!
The United States indeed won gold at the World Junior Championship this weekend, and for the second straight year, we were treated to a bunch of college kids performing their now customary red, white and blue celebration with gold medals wrapped around their necks. I’ve spoken with coaches and players in the past, and few things top the emotion surrounding a championship for your country. Heaven knows we have some issues – lest we set off a giant stick of dynamite to this column – so maybe a little bit of pride can go a long way here.
More specifically, the gold medal established continued dominance for an NCAA-led team. Now that we’re through the tournament, was there anything that stuck out to you, and does this open or shut the door to the conversation that college hockey is superior in the new era?
Paula: Oh, Dan, I’m so glad you started with Team USA’s performance in the tournament because it was fun to watch from start to finish. Sunday’s gold medal game was surprising in a few ways, not the least of which was how dominant the USA was from midway through the second period until the end of OT. When the Finns went up 3-1 early in the second, it was as though a switch had flipped on the American bench.
Team USA outshot Finland 40-24 in the game, including a 6-2 differential in overtime. If it hadn’t been for the brilliant play of Finnish goaltender Petteri Rimpinen, that game may not have gone to OT.
You ask about the superiority of college hockey (as opposed to major junior, I’m assuming) and I’m not sure how to answer that question. I do know that in the decades that I’ve been with USCHO, NCAA hockey has worked collectively and diligently to improve player development, and we’ve seen that come to fruition in this tournament.
There were the same number of NCAA players (22) on the 2024 and 2025 gold-medal rosters, but the proportion of players from individual leagues changed significantly from last year to this. Nearly half of this year’s team was from Hockey East, with Boston College placing six players on the roster – and what impressive players they were, with team captain Ryan Leonard (5-5-10) tied for top points in the tourney, Gabe Perreault (3-7-10) being everywhere when necessary, and Teddy Stiga’s first goal of the tourney winning the gold medal game in OT. Then there’s Boston University defenseman Cole Hutson, with his three goals and eight assists to lead all skaters in scoring.
That Team USA, with a roster of collegians, becomes one of five programs in the history of the tournament to win back-to-back gold medals certainly makes an argument that we are seeing an elevation in collegiate play and perhaps an NCAA dominance among this specific age group on the world stage. Only Canada, Czechia (as the Czech Republic), the Soviet Union and Russia had captured consecutive gold medals in the tournament prior to this year.
And the NCAA participation isn’t limited to Team USA. Last year, 44 collegians or future collegians played for nine total tournament teams. This year, there were 37 NCAA players and commitments across eight rosters. UMass goaltender Michael Hrabal had an outstanding tournament (.918 SV%, 2.45 GAA) and won a bronze medal with Team Czechia Sunday.
So much credit goes to the way that NCAA coaches are developing talent now, and not the least of that credit goes to Team USA’s coaching staff of David Carle (Denver), Brett Larson (St. Cloud), Steve Miller (Minnesota) and Garrett Raboin (Augustana), the same foursome behind the 2024 bench. Carle and Larson head programs known for developing talent, Raboin has done very impressive things in his short tenure with Augustana and Steve Miller is Bob Motzko’s righthand man in Minnesota.
I am a huge fan of the way talent is being developed now in NCAA hockey and – as you and I have discussed before – I’m eager to see if and how that changes with new rules regarding major junior player eligibility. I’m also really excited for what these consecutive medals for the USA program may mean to strengthen the NCAA’s recruiting power.
Does all of this establish NCAA superiority on the world stage? Maybe. Does it establish that everything happening in USA amateur hockey – including the NCAA – is headed in the right direction to establish a dominant hockey culture? Absolutely.
Dan: To me, all of this leads back to the ongoing conversation surrounding name, image and likeness. As we’re all aware, NIL isn’t going anywhere, but the most pertinent influence in hockey is more on what happens with the Canadian major junior players and their potential decision to matriculate south to play college hockey. Team Canada faced a number of issues in this tournament surrounding its composition, but I often wonder what would happen if the national team opted to send its best Canadian players south of its border to compete with the older NCAA roster.
It’s a nonlineal argument, of course, and it’s impossible to determine if age-eligible Canadian players in college hockey are simply better or the “best” available players. Last year’s Canadian team had two NCAA players in Macklin Celebrini and Matthew Wood and an NHL prospect in Matthew Poitras (and since he was in Boston, that automatically qualifies him for best player on the team. I’m not here for the negativity about the Bruins’ record). But the fact that Michigan’s Michael Hage, a first-round pick by Montreal, was passed over for this year’s team despite having 20-plus points in 17 games in the Big Ten pointed towards a desire to feature CHL players on the home roster in the home country…along with a few other factors that contributed to the team’s early exit.
That type of thinking might’ve worked on the international stage during the earlier years of the tournament, but the last two years indicated the strength of the college game while Team Canada is regressing. If I’m a CHL player, the combination of NIL opportunities along with the removal of the barrier to playing college hockey represents an existential crisis for the junior leagues that once competed next to college hockey.
Last point, and this is really where I’m heading with this – if we’re able to think about how to truly impact some nationalistic and jingoistic hockey for a second, what would a possible NCAA showcase of international players look like? The Four Nations tournament in the NHL really piqued my interest in something like this, but I’d be interested in putting Team USA in a tournament featuring 530 Canadian college hockey players and the 165 internationals. Even removing the 58 Swedes into their own country, a United States, a Canada, a Sweden and a “rest of the world” would sure look fun, wouldn’t it?
Paula: Oh, please don’t get me started on Team Sweden. In the early going, I thought they were the team to beat – and I love their aggressive, elegant style of play. I wasn’t rooting against Czechia in the bronze medal game, but I may have been pulling for Sweden a little.
But I think what we just witnessed in the World Juniors is what you propose, Dan, except that “the rest of the world” – like Czechia and Latvia, especially – had something to say about participating for their individual countries.
I get your point about the talent pool and numbers, though. I also wonder if we’re just longing for the old pre-pro Olympic days in this discussion (even though I concede that you are too young to remember those days, really).
I take your points, too, about the NIL, Canadian major juniors and the direction in which Team Canada seems determined to go. After such an incredibly disappointing finish in this year’s tournament, I wonder if Hockey Canada may reconsider excluding NCAA players. This year’s exclusion of young Canadian talent among the NCAA ranks – especially Hage’s exclusion – seems to have been done to make a point about the quality of major junior vs. NCAA talent.
And I have to hand it to Hockey Canada: point made.
Given the sexual misconduct and other scandals impacting Hockey Canada in recent years and that body’s entrenchment about addressing any and all of it, I have to wonder Canadian amateur hockey doesn’t have quite a little bit of work to do to regain the dominance it once had on the world stage.
Okay, I’m going to shift here because in addition to the World Juniors, there was some really excellent college hockey played, especially the three games at Wrigley Field, where six Big Ten and two WCHA women’s teams were able to take advantage of the outdoor ice set up for the NHL’s Winter Classic.
The Frozen Confines, as it was called, was an enormous success by every measure. As a product, it was perfectly packaged. The Big Ten Network’s coverage was outstanding, from play-by-play and commentary, to booth work – kudos to Rick Pizzo and Paul Caponigri for a weekend of great hockey talk – to camera work for the event.
The weather was semi-cooperative – very cold, which presents its own issues, but the ice was good – and several teams embraced playing in a baseball stadium, with the Ohio State men and Penn State especially playing up that angle. The OSU’s women’s team walked into the stadium wearing Johnny Gaudreau jerseys, a touching tribute to someone who mattered so much to Columbus.
But the games, Dan, were fantastic. In the opening game, Ohio State scored with 38 seconds remaining in regulation to beat Michigan 4-3. In the second game, Penn State and Notre Dame played ping-pong, back-and-forth hockey that resulted in a 3-3 tie.
The second day, the Ohio State and Wisconsin women – Big Ten schools who play in the WCHA because there is no B1G women’s hockey – skated to a 3-3 tie, and Michigan State beat Wisconsin 4-3 in the final game of the weekend.
Each game was competitive. Each team came to play. Three of the B1G teams – No. 1 Michigan State, No. 9 Michigan and No. 11 Ohio State – showed that they are among the best teams in men’s hockey, and literally the two best teams in women’s hockey put on a fantastic show.
The Frozen Confines couldn’t have been a bigger success. Over 25,000 fans attended Friday and nearly 7,000 Saturday. I don’t know what the Big Ten Network’s viewership numbers were, but anyone who happened upon the televised games was treated to great hockey by schools with name recognition – good for the Big Ten, good for the WCHA, good for NCAA hockey.
The performance of one player, in particular, is something that should be noted. While Trey Augustine was winning a gold medal in Team USA’s net, Luca Di Pasquo was earning four consecutive wins in the Michigan State net. Di Pasquo was the MVP of the Great Lakes Invitational tournament (Dec. 29-30) as the Spartans downed Northern Michigan and No. 4 Western Michigan to earn that tourney title, and in Michigan State’s sweep of Wisconsin last weekend, Di Pasquo made 61 saves.
So we learned last weekend through two televised events that the No. 1 team in men’s hockey has a frighteningly good goaltending duo.
As excited as I am for the implications of Team USA’s gold medal, watching Big Ten hockey perform so well on such a big stage last weekend was really gratifying.
Dan: Oh, the Frozen Confines… how you stuck it in my ear. Jimmy, Ed and I all but said that outdoor games jumped the shark when it came to discussing the outdoor hockey games in Chicago, and then the numbers told me that nobody really cared about the on-ice product if Wrigley Field could do that. I’m still where I stand on being ambivalent towards outdoor games, but the fans proved that what I said about, “hey if I can go, sure, I’ll enjoy it.” They turned out in droves.
I’ll take it a step further and point out that Dec. 29 was a bad day for Hockey East. It wasn’t really tournament-based, but Yale’s 7-5 win over Boston University scored a major win for Keith Allain’s group after it had been swept by Long Island during its two final games around Thanksgiving. Up at Maine, meanwhile, the No. 4-ranked Black Bears took a loss from Bentley that ranked as my Falcons’ best-ever win over a ranked opponent and one of the biggest individual regular-season wins for Atlantic Hockey America. It certainly echoed Sacred Heart’s win over No. 1 UMass from the start of the 2013-2014 season, but it showed how a hot goalie can win a game – it certainly wasn’t the first time Connor Hasley did it, and it’s not the first time I’ve mentioned him in these parts (Bentley affiliation aside, his numbers didn’t lie in those wins).
The loss dropped Maine to No. 7 in the PairWise Rankings at the time, but the split with Denver this past weekend turned that one individual defeat into a footnote after a fantastic weekend of hockey. The dueling 2-1 wins for either side handed us phenomenal hockey on either end, and I personally blurred my eyes to imagine both teams advancing to play one another in St. Louis.
(Also quick aside — I noted this on last week’s USCHO Edge podcast, but can we pump the brakes on Denver “losing” to UNLV in an exhibition game? It was an exhibition game shootout. By nature, it didn’t count and Denver probably skated its entire lineup. Sure, it’s great to give UNLV flowers because we want to pump club hockey and maybe, just maybe, gain a foothold on one of these teams coming into Division I, but I’m throwing cold water on this game playing out as some massive upset. The 1992 Dream Team lost to the college select team, too.)
I suppose this is a good point to pivot into the next portion of the schedule and what’s upcoming because the second half gained traction. We’re approaching trophy season and the arrival of the Beanpot for both the men and women in New England. Teams around the pairwise bubble are floating into some key matchups. North Dakota, for example, is heading to Arizona State this weekend and Augustana gained some eyeballs by beating Colorado College. CC is now heading to Omaha in need of some bounce-back mojo after last sweeping a weekend in early November.
Paula: Before turning to things upcoming, I want to chime in with my ambivalence toward outdoor games. What really helped in Chicago, imo, was that the Winter Classic had just been played on the same sheet days before, and the college hockey games were played during the unofficial last weekend of the holiday season.
I didn’t watch the Winter Classic, so I don’t know if the NHL promoted the Frozen Confines, but I know that Wrigley Field did its best to promote the event.
So there’s that.
Down the stretch, I’m looking forward to the photo finish that’s coming in the Big Ten, and it’s something I’ve been looking forward to for a long, long time. We discuss the nature of parity in this space sometimes, and I’m quick to point out that the term doesn’t necessarily mean that everybody’s equally good.
This season, however, Big Ten hockey has two teams at the top of the standings that are legitimate national contenders, and several others that can push for season titles. With their sweep of Wisconsin, the Spartans placed themselves in a two-way tie with for first with Minnesota, and Ohio State’s split with Michigan has the Buckeyes four out of first place. Each of those teams has played an equal number of games and has four games in hand on Wisconsin, the team tied with OSU.
Outside of the Big Ten, Hockey East is playing stunning hockey, especially in conference. The four-way tie for second place has UMass Lowell, Boston College, Providence and Boston University each one point behind first-place Maine. I can’t imagine a better way to begin the second half in that conference.
And speaking of the PairWise and Hockey East, it’s impossible to Connecticut right behind that second-place pack, with wins over BC and Lowell and sitting currently at No. 15 in the PWR.
That bubble is home to several good teams. Along with Connecticut, Arizona State, Quinnipiac and Augustana are hovering there, and the teams at No. 12 through No. 14 – Michigan, Boston University, Minnesota State – are by no means safe.
This weekend, Minnesota State can’t afford to lose to Northern Michigan, one of two teams that still hasn’t earned a conference win this season. The only CCHA team currently in PWR consideration, the Mavericks can’t afford to lose, period – and their series in early February against Augustana now looks a lot more interesting.
Bubble teams in the Big Ten, Hockey East, and the NCHC have scheduling advantages that teams in Atlantic Hockey, the CCHA and the ECAC don’t have, that strength of schedule. It’s quite possible that the bottom three seeds in this year’s NCAA tournament will be in only because they won those conference playoff championships.
And that will make every conference playoff tournament that much more interesting this season.
