College Hockey Update:  Last weekend one single game was played in all of DI College Hockey, as #5 Providence College travelled to West Point, NY, to play Army, and as should have been the case, this was not too much of a contest; but the surprise was how the game started.  Army managed to keep things in check for the entire first period, but Providence scored just a minute into the second.  Again Army was able to keep things in check from that point on to the end of the second.  But along came the third period, and only a minute into the period, Providence was able to break away and score a short-handed goal, and then a minute later, repeat it, to take a 3-0 lead.  Army got on the board with about seven minutes remaining, and late in the game, with the score 3-1, pulled their goalie to add an extra attacker.  With only about a minute remaining, Providence found the empty net to make the final score 4-1.

How does a school go from having almost no impact on college hockey for fifteen years, to then having fourteen NCAA Tournament appearances in a sixteen year period, including eight championship game appearances and four championships?  It all started for Boston College when they hired BC alum Jerry York in 1994.  York grew up in the Boston area in Watertown, and attended Boston College High School and Boston College.  He coached Clarkson from 1972-79, then Bowling Green from 1979-94.  His teams have a habit of winning a lot, including an NCAA Championship at Bowling Green.  That, along with the four at BC, make five teams he coached to the championship.  He has the most wins of any coach in college hockey history, with a 945-575-100 record.  His team is currently ranked #7, and they have won the NCAA Championship in three of the last six years, winning in the even years — 2008, 2010, and 2012.  Nine weeks ago, he signed a contract extension to remain as the head coach for the next seven seasons.  Hmmm…… might be safe to say that as long as he’s at Boston College, college hockey teams are going to have to deal with BC in a big way.

This weekend most teams return to action in a variety of tournaments and other non-conference games.  There are no top-ten matchups scheduled.

This provides the top ten teams, rankings (last week’s poll, no poll this week), records, and last weekend’s singular result:

[table id= 75/]

That’s all for now.  Stay tuned, and go Terriers!

— Tom