Sunday, May 31, 2015

Desertion

It's a kick in the gut no matter when it happens and where it happens - a promising young player decides to take off for major junior.

These things tend to happen far more frequently with top level programs, the ones that grace the NCAA tournament more often than not. Those programs are usually more easily able to absorb the hit.

So it's an extra whammy when it happens to RPI. It's even worse when it's a goaltender.

That's what's happened to the Engineers. Alec Dillon, who's been expected on campus this coming August since back in September 2013, is off to the Edmonton Oil Kings of the WHL. RPI's plans for the most crucial single position in the game, set for nearly two full years, have just been thrown in the garbage.

We've warned that Dillon was a flight risk in the past. Edmonton specifically went out of their way to acquire his rights despite his "commitment" to RPI. But we thought his year spent in the USHL was a pretty solid sign that he was bound for Troy after all, especially since he could have been in the WHL this past season if he'd wanted to be. Oops.

What changed, and when? We may never know. Perhaps the Los Angeles Kings decided their property would develop better in major junior than in college (they of incumbent starting goaltender Jonathan Quick, a UMass alum). Perhaps Edmonton waved enough money and fed enough lines. Doesn't matter. The result from our perspective is still the same. It's another kick in the stomach for a program that has had plenty of them in the recent past.

Appert's comments to Ken Schott pretty much tell the entire story:
“I was surprised because he had given us his word for two years,” Appert said Saturday. “That’s the way we recruit. We recruit personally. We have a good relationship. My deal is that we don’t mass recruit. I’ll give you my word that we won’t recruit another goalie. If you give us your word, it’s a done deal and not continue to explore options. 
“He, obviously, decided to change his mind on that.”
We mentioned when the incoming freshmen press release came out that Seth Appert believed a Kasdorf-Dillon platoon was possibly the best one-two punch in net in the entire nation. Now, we'll never know. It leaves the team in a precarious position heading into next season, as the goaltending corps now comprises a very talented but often injured starter and a senior who played club hockey for two years.

The reaction from these parts is more annoyance than disappointment. We've written at length about the CHL/NCAA divide. It's something every single NCAA program with talented players has to deal with pretty much all the time - if you think the Engineers are safe from Mike Prapavessis potentially ending up in London some day just because he's played a complete season in the Cherry and White already, think again.

So let's not waste words on what could have been. Dillon made his choice, and no matter what you think of it, moving on from it is in everyone's best interest.

Moving on means finding another goaltender for 2015-16. As you can imagine, the options aren't vast with puck drop only about four months away. #1 goaltenders these days are usually found a couple of years in advance (like with what's his name that isn't coming).

What's out there? We'll spitball for you. Here are a few potential names that could (and should) drop in the next month or so. Ages are as of August. Bear in mind that RPI's academic standards may potentially make some players ineligible, but that's nothing we'd know anything about. These names are ranked more or less in the order of preference in terms of who we'd like to see fill the void.

Adam Huska - 18 - Zvolen, Slovakia
It isn't known 100% if Huska is even looking at playing college hockey, but if you want a netminder on the NHL's current radar, Huska is really the top one available for next season that could potentially accept an NCAA scholarship. He was ranked as the 5th best North American goaltender eligible for the 2015 NHL Entry Draft in the midterm rankings (as he was on Green Bay's roster in the USHL at the time), but has since slid to 16th, still better than prospects bound for places like Boston College and Minnesota. His countryman and teammate on last year's Slovakia U-18 team, Matej Tomek, is bound for North Dakota. If he's willing to spend a full year in the USHL next season, he could find himself a similar gig with a power program. If RPI could tempt him to become the second Slovak on the roster next season, they could find themselves with a large (6'3") goalie who could make that one guy who just left easily forgotten.

Matt Jurusik - 18 - La Grange, IL
Ranked 21st among North American netminders on the CSB's midterm rankings, Jurusik was unranked in the final accounting but still had a pretty outstanding season as the top choice goaltender for the Janesville Jets of the NAHL. The Jets were the NAHL's top team during the regular season, and Jurusik's play (1.57, .939 in 40 games) was a big reason for that. He led the Jets deep into the playoffs with a further 1.89, .931 in 9 games. He earned a bronze medal with Team USA's Ivan Hlinka tournament team last summer. At 6'1", he'd be exactly the same size as the netminder he'd be replacing on the roster. Like Huska, he'd represent a potential future #1 goaltender for the team, and he would certainly benefit from a season as Kasdorf's understudy, as he may still be a little bit raw for the NCAA right out of the gate - but the talent is certainly there, as he demonstrated this season, his first since graduating from the Midwest's Tier 1 Elite League. He's going to be playing college hockey eventually, the only question is when. As with Huska, he might be a 2016 arrival for a program with more visibility, but who knows if he could be tempted into the NCAA for next season with the chance to platoon right away?

Cam Hackett - 19 - Sault Ste. Marie, ON
Formerly committed to Cornell, Hackett has been in limbo this season after he decommitted from the Big Red in February 2014, about 14 months after giving his verbal. He had originally been slated to arrive in Ithaca this past fall - supposedly, his decision to look elsewhere was driven by Cornell's request that he delay his arrival by a year. This season, with the Lincoln Stars of the USHL, he had a stat line of 3.85, .895 in 43 games as Lincoln struggled through a difficult campaign that could have been far worse without him. A fairly high (4th-round) OHL draft pick by the Owen Sound Attack, Hackett probably could have played this past season in major junior had he been so inclined to do so, but as with that guy that just departed for the WHL, that option does still remain open to him. As with Weyrick, the fact that he was previously associated with an ECAC team is a solid indicator that he'd be a fit academically, and he is similar in stature at 6'2". The Big Red beat out interest from BU, Michigan State, North Dakota, and Wisconsin to initially land Hackett. Those are the kind of teams usually on the lookout for the best of the best and little else.

Blake Weyrick - 19 - Malibu, CA
A former Brown commit, Weyrick is an alum of the US Under-17 and Under-18 teams (though he played second-string most of the time to current Michigan State goaltender Edwin Minney). He's an interesting option that would fall into the category of "high-risk, high-reward." You don't make a U-17 or U-18 roster without having a lot of great potential, but over the course of the last three seasons, he hasn't seen a great deal of playing time. His NHL stock fell precipitously last season, going from 3rd among North American goaltenders, a sure draft selection in the midterm rankings, to 15th in the final rankings, ultimately going undrafted. This year, he was beaten out by some guy who just bolted for the WHL for the starting job with Tri-City of the USHL, eventually landing in the NAHL with Janesville, but he spent much of the season as the second choice to Jurusik. There's a lot of potential here. He got into Brown but decommitted over a lack of financial aid. He's likely got the academic background that would work at RPI, he'd likely at least be able to earn an athletic scholarship, and the school could certainly represent a new beginning for him. Appert could take a flier on the 6'3" Weyrick and see if he develops into the potential that once had him as a surefire top-end NHL draft pick.

Jared Rutledge - 21 - Chicago, IL
Rutledge would be an intriguing option for the Engineers because of his eligibility situation. He played 10 games at Michigan in 2012-13, putting up a pretty rough stat line of 4.24, .854 before leaving to return to the USHL, where he's been the past two seasons. That means he's got only two seasons of NCAA eligibility remaining - potentially allowing RPI a bit of a bridge to go out and find a new top-end netminding prospect.  He was the starter in the season opener for the Wolverines his freshman year despite an eye injury that required surgery during the preseason. This season in the USHL, he served as the backup in Tri-City for some guy who just went to the WHL, putting up an impressive 2.20, .920 line in 20 games. Rutledge also saw six games between the pipes for Janesville of the NAHL (there they are again!). He would be eligible to play immediately, but at 5'11" is definitely short by Seth Appert goaltender standards.

Jonah Imoo - 21 - Surrey, BC
Another interesting older possibility for RPI, Imoo has aged out of the BCHL after three full seasons as a starting netminder in the league. In 2012, he was named the top goaltender in the World Junior A Challenge while leading Canada West to the silver medal. As the Merritt Centennials' starter this year, Imoo has the top numbers from the BCHL among uncommitted goaltenders. His father, Dusty, is a goaltending development coach for the Winnipeg Jets, but some scouting reports from a few years back suggested that he needed to become a bit more consistent. If he's worked out those issues since then, his 6'1" frame is probably enough to fit into the RPI system, but bringing him in would probably require the Engineers to go out and find an even stronger goaltending recruit for 2016.

Kevin Aldridge - 21 - Beverly Hills, MI
The Engineers have been picking up players from the Fairbanks Ice Dogs of the NAHL left and right, so why not one of their goaltenders? Aldridge was the top choice netminder for Fairbanks in 2014 when they won the NAHL title (along with Viktor Liljegren and future Engineer Todd Burgess). He then headed to Lake Superior State, where he made only two starts and four total appearances (4.80, .833) before leaving school in December and returning to Fairbanks. He left in part because he had been recruited by the previous coaching staff, and the current one wasn't giving him much ice time. The first major hangup with Aldridge is that he would require a waiver from the NCAA to be able to play next season since he suited up for LSSU last year, and those waivers have gotten pretty stingy in recent years. The second is that he stands just 5'8", which is absolutely lilliputian for the way Appert wants his goalies.

Colin DeAugustine - 20 - Burgettstown, PA
The Youngstown Phantoms were the best team in the USHL during the regular season, led by its strong offense but also by its solid platoon in between the pipes. BC commit Chris Birdsall had the better numbers, but not by much over DeAugustine (31 games, 2.68, .910). An older goaltender who hasn't yet caught on with a college program, he could fit in well as an experienced guy who'll make for a more than capable backup to Kasdorf in the coming year. He made several highlight reels in March with this idiotic save that shows off his flexibility, but like Aldridge, count his size against him in RPI having a great deal of interest in his services. He's slightly taller at 5'9", but he still doesn't quite fill the goalmouth the way pretty much all Appert recruits have in the past.

Friday, May 29, 2015

Know Your Enemy: Alaska

There are only a handful of current NCAA Division I teams that the Engineers have never beaten. There's the group of four that they've never even played (Canisius, Penn State, Nebraska-Omaha, and Northern Michigan). They haven't beaten Colorado College in seven tries. All three games against Ohio State have been ties. And then there's the host team of the Brice Alaska Goal Rush, who have only stared down RPI twice in their 30+ year modern history. This year, the Engineers head to Fairbanks to take on the Nanooks, carrying with them a pair of Swedish players who first acclimated to North American hockey in that very city just under 200 miles from the Arctic Circle.

Alaska
Nickname: Nanooks
Location: Fairbanks, AK
Founded: 1917
Conference: WCHA
National Championships: 0
Last NCAA Appearance: 2010
Last Frozen Four: None
Coach: Dallas Ferguson (8th season)
2014-15 Record: 19-13-2 (14-12-2 WCHA, 4th place)
Series: UAF leads, 1-0-1
First Game: November 28, 1986 (Troy, NY)
Last RPI win: Never
Last UAF win: November 28, 1986 (Troy, NY)

2015-16 game: October 17, 2015 (Fairbanks, AK)

Key players: D Josh Atkinson, sr.; F Alec Hajdukovich, sr.; F Nolan Huysmans, sr.; F Tyler Morley, sr.; F Marcus Basara, jr.; F Shawn Hochhausen, jr.; G Davis Jones, jr.; F Brandon Morley, jr.; D Zach Frye, so.; F Peter Krieger, so; F Tayler Munson, so.; F Austin Vieth, so.; F Jasen Fernsler, fr.; D Nik Koberstein, fr.; F Chad Staley, fr.

"Alaska" is actually the University of Alaska Fairbanks if we're getting hypertechnical. It's a source of some friction between the younger but larger UAA that the school chose to drop the name of their city when it came to identifying their sports teams in 2006 (leading to the somewhat demeaning sobriquet "UA_"). The move emphasized UAF's position as the University of Alaska system's flagship campus, as it was established well before statehood as the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines, opening for classes in 1922. Understandably, it was a fairly small school, as more people lived in Troy at the time than lived in all of the vast territory of Alaska.

Considering the small size of the population base and the very small size of the school - there was a grand total of one graduate in 1923 - it's pretty impressive that the hockey program at UAF got its start in 1926. There are plenty of teams in the Lower 48 who can't claim a lineage that goes back that far. UAF was certainly not your average college hockey team. Given that there were no other colleges for well over a thousand miles (and before the advent of improved road or air travel), the school's hockey team, when they assembled one, typically played other amateur teams from the Fairbanks area.

After a four-game season in 1926, the school's team returned in 1933, playing through the Great Depression and into 1941, shuttering for World War II and returning in 1950. The squad had an on-and-off existence throughout the 50s, not getting any firm establishment until Bill Daltri took over the program in 1960. Daltri coached the Nanooks for three years, leading them to 14 wins in 16 games in 1961, the first season in which the team played more than six games in a single campaign since they had a 16-game sechedule in 1933. Overall, Daltri led the Nanooks to a 32-3-1 record in his three years as coach, including a perfect 8-0 record in 1963. Following Daltri's reign, UAF returned to playing shorter schedules with less success for the remainder of the 1960s and into the 1970s.

The modern era of Nanooks hockey undoubtedly begins in the same season as their arch-rivals from Anchorage: 1980-81. While the Seawolves found success playing in the Anchorage Senior League, the Nanooks had a dreadful first two seasons. Not only did Fairbanks lose all eight games they played against Anchorage, they lost all 22 games on their schedule, and went 2-21-0 the following season. By 1983, however, coach Ric Schafer had the squad pointed in the right direction. In the three years leading up to the founding of the Great West Hockey Conference, UAF had three winning seasons and a pair of 20-win campaigns. He guided the team to two more 20-win seasons in the GWHC before he left to take over the program at Notre Dame.

Schafer's replacement was a young coach starting his very first head coaching gig: Don Lucia. The current leader of the Minnesota Golden Gophers got his start in Fairbanks in 1987, leading the Nanooks to their first and only GWHC title in 1988 and guiding the team to .500 or better records in five of his six seasons, including a number of years where the team were independents again after the GWHC's demise.

Lucia left for Colorado College in 1993, shortly after the independent bid to the NCAA tournament was scotched without the Nanooks having ever achieved it, always having been blocked by their nemesis to the south, UAA. The team did, however, become associate members of the CCHA that season, finally slotting into an established college hockey conference for the first time. They became full members in time for the 1995-96 season.

The CCHA wasn't nearly as dog-eat-dog as the WCHA, so the Nanooks' experience wasn't quite as difficult as UAA's was in that league, but they still struggled to make an impact. In the mid-to-late 1990s, UAF lost at least 20 games in each of Dave Laurion's five years behind the bench within the CCHA.

UAF's first major nibble of success came after the accession of another young, dashing coach working his first head coaching gig in college hockey. Guy Gadowsky took a couple of seasons to get the Nanooks back on track - he won only 15 games in his first two seasons - but in 2002 UAF had their first 20-win campaign since joining the CCHA. They finished in the top half of the league standings for the first time with a 4th place showing and they advanced to the CCHA's Super Six tournament in Detroit, where they fell 6-5 in overtime against Ohio State.

Gadowsky's star was rising, but he took that star to Princeton (and eventually, Penn State) in 2004. Tavis MacMillan, an alum who had been associated with the team for over a decade, took over and brought the Nanooks to the CCHA Semifinals in 2005, but resigned due to family concerns in 2007. That led into a single tumultuous season under the tutelage of Doc DelCastillo, who eventually resigned before being fired thanks in part to an alleged team revolt and allegations of sexual harassment.

Current head coach Dallas Ferguson took over from DelCastillo in 2008, and in just his second season behind the bench, guided the Nanooks to their first ever NCAA tournament bid, making Alaska the next-to-last team from the "Big Four" conferences at the time to play in the national tournament for the first time (Union, who would become the last in 2011). The Nanooks fell 3-1 to Boston College in Worcester, in a game that was tied at one heading into the third period.

That experience definitely marked a high point for Fairbanks, but they've had their struggles ever since. The CCHA dissolved in 2013, requiring the team to move into the WCHA with UAA, a rival which frequently supplied them with the lion's share of their non-conference games through the Governor's Cup. The team hasn't been awful in his first two WCHA seasons - they managed a 4th-place finish this past season in a year where the league had two of the best teams in the nation - but last year was in many ways a low point for the team as well.

In November 2014, the NCAA handed down fairly severe sanctions to the school's athletic programs, including the hockey team, for fielding ineligible players between 2007 and 2012. The hockey team itself had allowed six different players to compete despite having been academically ineligible for various reasons. The NCAA wiped away all wins during the impacted period, leaving Ferguson, who had been close to becoming the school's all-time winning coach, with only a handful of wins from 2013 and 2014, and technically erasing the school's lone NCAA tournament appearance.

The Nanooks were also banned from post-season eligibility for 2015, leaving them unable to compete in the WCHA Tournament despite that fourth-place finish. They've also been docked a scholarship for the next two seasons to come.

By some metrics, one could say that coming into this season, the Nanooks are the hottest team in the country. That's kind of weak, since they'll be coming into their next game off a seven-month layover, but Alaska was unbeaten in their last eight games in a row to end the year. The only other team that didn't lose their last game was the national champions, Providence, and they only ended their year on a four-game winning streak.

The Nanooks had some pretty good balance to their attack last season. They return six different players who had at least five goals, including both of their top two scorers in Morley and Basara, who had 15 and 12 respectively. The team platooned goaltenders last year as Davis roughly split time in net with Sean Cahill, who graduated. That should leave things solely to Davis this season, though Alaska will surely be looking for an improvement on his .898 save percentage. If he doesn't, the team could be vulnerable defensively as they seek to replace three regular defensemen from last season, two who graduated and an All-American, Colton Parayko, who signed an NHL contract. Parayko would have been a senior this year, but instead the Nanooks will lose their lone NHL draftee.

That one loss certainly will hurt the team, but by and large, the other elements that made them function last season and finished the season strong will be back. They're certainly rebounding from the hit they took last year off the ice, and much like UAA, the Nanooks have a bit more room to operate in the new WCHA than they had before the big shakeup. We've seen before how winning, even against weaker teams, tends to beget winning, even being competitive against stronger teams. That could well be true just coming into the RPI game, as Alaska will be coming off a game in Anchorage against Arizona State and a game the previous night against American International. One would have to expect Fairbanks to be favored in both of those games, and they'll be the home team on Saturday night against the Engineers as well.

Once again, RPI will be presented with a team whose defense isn't going to be among the very stingiest in the nation, and a growing young corps of forwards - especially, perhaps, Viktor Liljegren and Jesper Ohrvall, who will get a bit of a homecoming as former Fairbanks Ice Dogs - will need to find ways to take advantage in order to be successful. With the larger ice and the home crowd, give the edge to Alaska, but if the Engineers play their game (and, as usual, get strong play between the pipes), there's no reason they couldn't knock the full list of Division I teams they've never beaten down to seven.

Look at that. Got all the way through and didn't even mention this.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Know Your Enemy: Alaska Anchorage

For the second time in Seth Appert's tenure at RPI - and the third time in 11 seasons - the Engineers take a long October road trip to the Last Frontier for an early season trip to one of the two Alaska fixed-schedule tournaments that open the season on top of the world. On back-to-back nights, RPI will do battle against the two Alaskan teams entering their third season as WCHA league-mates. The first night, the Engineers do battle against the more southern of the two teams by taking on Anchorage, a squad they've only seen sparingly since the Seawolves took on RPI in their first ever game on the east coast.

Alaska Anchorage

Nickname: Seawolves
Location: Anchorage, AK
Founded: 1954
Conference: WCHA
National Championships: 0
Last NCAA Appearance: 1992
Last Frozen Four: None
Coach: Matt Thomas (3rd season)
2014-15 Record: 8-22-4 (5-21-2 WCHA, 10th place)
Series: UAA leads, 2-1-0
First Game: November 23, 1981 (Troy, NY)
Last RPI win: November 23, 1981 (Troy, NY)
Last UAA win: October 16, 2009 (Fairbanks, AK)

2015-16 game: October 16, 2015 (Fairbanks, AK)

Key players: D Blake Leask, sr.; D Austin Sevalrud, sr.; F Blake Tatchell, sr.; D Chris Williams, sr.; F Brad Duwe, jr.; F Hudson Friesen, jr.; F Dylan Hubbs, jr.; D Chase Van Allen, jr.; F Matt Anholt, so.; F Austin Azurdia, so.; D Jarrett Brown, so.; F Anthony Conti, so.; F Tad Kozun, so.; G Olivier Mantha, so.; F Jeremiah Luedtke, fr.; F Jonah Renouf, fr.; F Nathan Renouf, fr.

Hockey at Anchorage got its start in 1979 under the guidance of Kelvin "Brush" Christiansen, who not only spurred the creation of a varsity program but would also serve as the team's head coach for its first 17 seasons, seeing the program through its birth through rocks and shoals and to its highest peaks thus far.

During their first season, the Seawolves participated in the Anchorage Senior League, playing only eight games against NCAA competition - all against the school's rivals from Fairbanks. UAA went 8-0 against the Nanooks in their opening year, for an officially undefeated NCAA record in 1980. The following year, playing a more full Division II schedule, UAA fell to Army in Anchorage to open the season, with the Cadets being the first non-Alaskan opponent to take on the Seawolves. Midway through the 1980-81 season, UAA ventured outside of Alaska for the first time for a six-game road trip to take on Division III programs in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

UAA's first ever trek to the east coast of the continental US took place in November 1981, starting with a game at Houston Field House against the Engineers ending in a 6-4 win for the home team. That trip was mostly against established Division I programs, and while the Division II Seawolves played well, they ultimately left empty-handed. But early in the program's development, Anchorage gained a well-earned reputation as a quality Division II side.

Division II, however, suffered from a lack of numbers. The defections of UMass-Lowell and Merrimack to Division I when Hockey East was formed helped precipitate an end to the D-II national championship, a serious blow to a UAA program that had managed a winning record in each of its first five seasons. But rather than move to a Division III schedule as many other D-II teams chose, Christiansen instead took the bold step of moving the Seawolves to Division I - a dicey prospect given the travel necessities from Alaska to the lower 48, and especially without a natural conference for UAA to join.

Christiansen led the way in creating an experiment of sorts - the Great West Hockey Conference. Banding together with three other formerly D-II teams from the far west (Alaska-Fairbanks, Northern Arizona, and U.S. International from San Diego), UAA sought to keep travel costs low by helping to grow the sport's western outposts.

Unfortunately, the Great West didn't last terribly long. Northern Arizona dropped its varsity program after the league's first year, and U.S. International dropped its team two years later. Meanwhile, the expansion of college hockey along the west coast never materialized. A two-team league being unfeasible, the two Alaska schools returned to the ranks of the independents.

But while the program was looking for a new home, it began to reach new heights even as the travel costs began to mount. With the NCAA tournament recently expanded to 12 teams in 1988, an at-large bid was earmarked for independent teams, and the Seawolves managed to cobble together a full enough and successful enough schedule to qualify with an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament in the 1990, 1991, and 1992 seasons. In 1990, UAA was blown away in two games by Lake Superior State, but the 1991 tournament brought the Seawolves to arguably their highest point as a varsity program.

Just over a decade after beginning play, Anchorage traveled to Boston College as huge underdogs against the Eagles. In a two-game, total goals series, the Seawolves managed not just one win, but two, taking down BC 3-2 and 3-1 to advance to the quarterfinal round, one step from the Frozen Four. They fell 8-5 and 5-3 to the eventual national champions from Northern Michigan, but UAA had put its stamp on the Division I map.

The following year, UAA again fell to the eventual national champions, this time dropping a single-elimination game against Lake Superior State, 7-3. Their "in" to the tournament was abolished the following season, giving greater urgency for the Seawolves to find a conference to play in. After one more year as an independent, UAA was invited to join the WCHA, giving the program some much needed schedule stability but requiring an increase in the number of trips between Alaska and the lower 48.

Having established the program he started in one of the nation's top conferences, Christiansen retired in 1996, three years into UAA's tenure in the WCHA. Under his guidance, the team had only five losing seasons - three of which were his WCHA years. But under his successors, the Seawolves would struggle to find any footing at all within the conference - a catch-22 of having the league as a safety latch for the program, but the super-competitive nature of the league making it difficult for UAA to find success.

Christiansen's successor, Dean Talafous, managed to crack 10 wins only twice in five years. John Hill then did this twice in three years, but those seasons bookmarked a horrible 2002-03 campaign in which UAA managed just a single, solitary win through an entire season, that one win coming in the very first game of the season against Fairbanks. The record winless streak to end the season was a mind numbing 35 consecutive games.

The following year, UAA made a playoff breakthrough by upsetting Wisconsin in the first round of the WCHA playoffs, then taking down Colorado College in the play-in game of the WCHA Final Five. Hill then left to return to an assistant's role at Minnesota, and Dave Shyiak took the helm. The same usual script continued: a bottom-of-the-barrel finish, a first-round matchup on the road, an early exit. Other than a historic two-game upset sweep at Minnesota in 2011 which sent UAA to the Final Five for a second time, that script followed exactly the same throughout Shyiak's tenure through 2013.

The reasoning was fairly simple. UAA was a minnow in a league of sharks, at a serious disadvantage in recruiting given the distance of the school from the core of the league in Minnesota and Colorado. In each of its 19 seasons in the WCHA, the Seawolves had finished with a losing record, only once coming as close as two wins under .500. But as Shyiak departed in 2013, that metric began to shake a bit. As the college hockey landscape shifted with the advent of the Big Ten and the NCHC, the sharks of the WCHA mostly swam off for those conferences, leaving a playing field that UAA could better handle.

2013-14 was a landmark season for UAA's post-independent existence. With Matt Thomas now coaching, the Seawolves finished with a winning record for the first time since 1993, and although they still had to travel on the road for the first round of the playoffs, they at least played their first ever playoff series in Alaska by taking on arch-rivals Fairbanks, one of the new arrivals in the WCHA following the shakeup. They won that series in three games, then took Ferris State to overtime in the WCHA semifinals - literally a goal away from playing for an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Last year, however, the Seawolves backslid a bit. For the third time in four seasons, and the 10th time since joining the WCHA, UAA finished a season with fewer than 10 wins. The new WCHA may prove to give Anchorage more than a fighting chance eventually, but it's clear the program still has obstacles to overcome.

Two current members of the Washington Capitals, Curtis Glencross and Jay Beagle, played their collegiate hockey at UAA, but neither stuck around very long, both leaving after their sophomore seaasons. Among UAA alums who had more than just a cup of coffee in the NHL, none stayed for four years.

As bad as they were last season, UAA was still arguably better than RPI when one looks at the raw numbers. The Seawolves outpaced the Engineers in goals per game and had better defense and special teams. Tatchell paced Anchorage in scoring with seven goals and 15 assists, while Azurdia tied for the lead in goals with eight.

Among the more interesting additions to the UAA roster this year are the Renouf twins, Jonah and Nathan. The Ontario natives enrolled at Quinnipiac last season (where they love twins - see also the Jones twins), but for some reason never saw action in a game and transferred to Alaska-Anchorage. We'll have to see if there was a good reason Rand Pecknold never had them in a game, but they appeared ready to be solid contributors at the Q heading into last season, so if that potential blossoms in Anchorage instead, they could be big additions for the Seawolves.

The ice in Fairbanks is Olympic-sized, as it is in Anchorage. That's not a killer - RPI won a game they played on Olympic ice last year in New Hampshire - but it's an advantage for UAA. They are the nominal home team, although Fairbanks partisans who come out for the game may find a sudden affinity for the Engineers they never knew they had thanks to the bitter rivalry they share with Anchorage. RPI is likely to be improved from last year. If UAA can claim the same thing it should make for a great game, all things considered. As we'll surely mention throughout this series, having a netminder who has a proven ability to steal a game is a benefit the Engineers enjoy, but don't be surprised to see this as a spot where Alec Dillon may make his RPI debut as well.

Friday, May 22, 2015

Know Your Enemy: Boston College

October is going to be an exciting time in Troy. Not only is a new season getting underway, but the Engineers will be welcoming a pair of the biggest heavy hitters that college hockey has in its ranks to the Field House for the first time in decades. The first of those teams will be kicking off RPI's NCAA home schedule, a team that only perhaps a bitter BU partisan would deny was the team of the decade in the first 10 years of the 2000s, and has easily been the most successful program of the 21st Century thus far with four national championships since the dawn of the millennium. Break out the fine china - hopefully they won't smash it to pieces.

Boston College
Nickname: Eagles
Location: Chestnut Hill, MA
Founded: 1863
Conference: Hockey East
National Championships: 5 (1949, 2001, 2008, 2010, 2012)
Last NCAA Appearance: 2015
Last Frozen Four: 2014
Coach: Jerry York (22nd year)
2014-15 Record: 21-14-3 (12-7-3 Hockey East, 2nd place)
Series: BC leads, 20-14-1
First Game: December 18, 1954 (Boston, MA)
Last RPI win: January 2, 1995 (Troy, NY)
Last BC win: October 13, 2013 (Chestnut Hill, MA)

2015-16 game: October 11, 2015 (Troy, NY)

Key players: D Teddy Doherty, sr.; F Austin Cangelosi, jr.; F Chris Calnan, jr.; G Thatcher Demko, jr.; F Ryan Fitzgerald, jr.; F Adam Gilmour, jr.; D Ian McCoshen, jr.; D Steve Santini, jr.; D Scott Savage, jr.; D Noah Hanifin, so.; F Zach Sanford, so.; F Alex Tuch, so.; F Jeremy Bracco, fr.; F Joey Dudek, fr.; F Colin White, fr.; F Miles Wood, fr.

Previous KYE installment:
Boston College was probably peeking from behind covered eyes when the NCAA tournament field was laid out in March, checking to see if Union was on the other side. The Dutchmen ended the Eagles' seasons in 2013 and 2014, but even though Union wasn't in the national tournament, the Eagles still couldn't manage to get past Denver in the Providence regional. That ended a year in which BC failed to win either the Hockey East regular season or the league tournament for only the third time in nine seasons.

BC was a strikingly young team last year. None of its top 10 scorers were seniors, and the starting goaltender was a sophomore. Such is the level of talent that BC attracts that the Eagles were still able to muster a second place finish in Hockey East and an NCAA tournament berth. It was a much more balanced attack than BC got from it's 2013-14 team, which featured Hobey Baker winner (and this year Calder Trophy finalist) Johnny Gaudreau scoring 80 points and his linemates, Kevin Hayes and Bill Arnold, amassing 65 and 53 points respectively. Last season, freshman Tuch and sophomore Gilmour paced the program with just 28 and 27 points each.

As usual, Boston College will boast a variety of outstanding pro-bound talents throughout its ranks. Nine NHL draftees return from last year's team. Wood (a former Brown commit) and Dudek arrive having already been drafted in the 2014 Entry Draft. White and Bracco should both be taken in the first two rounds of this year's draft. Then there's Hanifin, who most observers call the best player in the draft outside of the highly touted top duo of Connor McDavid and BU's Jack Eichel. It'll be somewhat shocking if he isn't taken by Arizona with the 3rd pick in the draft, and he's a question mark to return for his sophomore year. If he does return, he simply makes an already dangerous BC team even more deadly.

Demko, who earned his first collegiate win in a 7-2 home rout over RPI two seasons ago, anchors the defense. His numbers didn't exactly make him a candidate to be one of the best goaltenders in the nation, but they certainly placed him among the very best in Hockey East, and sometimes that's really all that matters - being better than the contemporaries in your conference.

BC last season wasn't a team that did anything excessively well, but they didn't do anything badly, either. In the big four categories (offense, defense, power play, and penalty kill), the Eagles ranged from 14th (penalty kill) to 35th (power play) in the nation. Typically, the nation's very best teams will be in the Top 10 in one or more of those categories. But when the worst part about your team is somewhat close to the national median, you're still doing pretty well - especially when you're as young as BC was last season.

York is entering his 44th consecutive season as a Division I head coach, 26 wins away from becoming the first coach in college hockey history to earn 1,000 wins. Putting that in perspective, RPI, since the modern era of the program began in 1950, has 999 wins, or just 25 more than York has behind the benches at Clarkson, Bowling Green, and Boston College.

Only twice in the last 18 seasons has Boston College failed to win 20 games, those were also the only seasons the Eagles have missed the NCAA tournament in that stretch (2002, 2009). BC and York together has simply been a winning combination and that will not end until York retires - and who knows when that could be. This will be BC's first trip to Houston Field House in 20 years, since just after York took over the program. That game coincidentally ended 7-2 as well, but in favor of the soon-to-be ECAC champions against a BC team still regularly finishing in the doldrums of Hockey East. The dynamics will be far different this time.

With or without Hanifin, the Engineers will be facing a difficult order. Home ice may well be the only advantage they'll have in this game, the second in a row against a tough Hockey East opponent.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Your 2015-16 RPI Engineers

Hot on the heels of a later than usual schedule release comes an earlier than usual incoming freshman release from RPI. We were closer this year than in most recent years to figuring out exactly who was coming in and who was not - ultimately, only Carlos Fornaris and Charlie Manley were among the potential recruits for this season whose arrival will be delayed until 2016.

With that in mind, here's the early look at how the transition from last season into next is looking now that we know who's comprising the roster.

Forwards
Gone: Jacob Laliberte, Mark McGowan, Matt Neal.
Returning: Riley Bourbonnais, Milos Bubela, Jimmy DeVito, Travis Fulton, Kenny Gillespie, Viktor Liljegren, Drew Melanson, Mark Miller, Lou Nanne, Zach Schroeder, Jake Wood.
Arriving: Lonnie Clary, Jesper Öhrvall, Alex Rodriguez, Evan Tironese, Brady Wiffen.

The Engineers get some much needed depth up front by replacing three graduating seniors with five incoming freshmen. The extent that defensemen were being forced to play forward last year was pretty rough with only two reserve forwards when the team was healthy, which was basically never last year.

All but two of the returning Engineers played regular roles on the offense last season - Gillespie got plenty of playing time late in the season due to injuries, while Fulton, who has played a spark-plug role since his arrival, suffered a season-ending injury midway through the year. Even among those who were dressed when healthy, Bubela, Melanson, Nanne, and Schroeder all missed significant amounts of time.

Clary should fit a physical role that DeVito and Wood specialize in and also the energy role we've seen from Fulton. He provides good coverage in those often less appreciated areas of the game. Öhrvall, Tironese, and Wiffen project as goal-scorers, while Rodriguez should be an outstanding playmaker. Those four will likely find it hard to all be dressed together, but expect at least Tironese (assuming he's ready to go injury-wise, since he's coming off a season-ending shoulder injury) and Öhrvall to find regular niches in the lineup, while Wiffen and Rodriguez are also likely to be dressed more often than not, depending on the situation.

Ultimately, this is a group that simply has to be improving on its 1.88 goals per game average from last year, and there's going to be a healthy amount of competition for ice time with the added depth. Even for players who were among the top forwards on last year's team, anyone not pulling their weight could well find themselves in a suit and tie on game night.

Defensemen
Gone: Luke Curadi, Curtis Leonard.
Returning: Bradley Bell, Craig Bokenfohr, Chris Bradley, Phil Hampton, Mike Prapavessis, Parker Reno, Jared Wilson.
Arriving: Tommy Grant, Meirs Moore.

The blue line was about to get considerably smaller, before Grant's commitment late last month, as Moore and Charlie Manley both stand quite a bit shorter than the men they would have replaced together in the rear echelon. Instead, it only gets a little bit shorter (Grant stands 6'3") and it gets a little more offensive-minded with the addition of Moore, and that's certainly the direction the Engineers seem to be moving in.

Assessing the defense is a touch easier than assessing the offense if only because there are fewer defensemen than there are forwards. Three of the six spots are basically filled already on a healthy team: Bradley, Prapavessis, and Wilson are guys who are going to dress when they're healthy and available no matter what. We saw that last year with them already, and those three guys are definitely the core of the defense this coming season. A fourth spot is all but a lock for Bell, who fought injuries last season but came on strong in regular play late in the year and into the playoffs.

That leaves five players competing for the remaining two spots, and we can probably count on one of them becoming a regular. Bokenfohr and Hampton will be seniors, but have basically spent their first three years making spot appearances. Bokenfohr tends to run hot and cold (rarely in-between) and can be semi-regular when he's playing well. Hampton does well when he's called upon to fill in but he hasn't really approached a potential regular starting role the way Bokenfohr sometimes has.

Grant, Moore, and Reno remain as options, and as an upperclassman, you'd have to think Reno's got the inside edge. The junior-to-be out of Edina, MN has played 38 games in two years, which is a little under 50% of the total games the Engineers have played in that stretch (that's 11 more than Hampton and five less than Bokenfohr, who have accrued their totals in three years).

Best guess is that the order of likelihood for that fifth regular spot is going to be Reno, Bokenfohr, Moore, and Grant, with Hampton very likely to remain a capable reserve. Expect the two freshmen, however, to get a decent amount of playing time in that sixth spot if they aren't regularly starting.

Goaltenders
Gone: Scott Diebold, Jake Soffer.
Returning: Sam Goodman, Jason Kasdorf.
Arriving: Alec Dillon.

As always, goaltending is the most straightforward of the positions, but it gets a little murky this season with an unusual couple of occurrences and a medical redshirt involved.

Goodman became a de facto part of the varsity squad during the 2013-14 season when the former club netminder stood in as the practice goalie following Kasdorf's season-crushing shoulder injury in October 2013, and he became a full member at the beginning of last season. That led into the departure of sophomore Soffer, who decided to forgo two and a half seasons of eligibility to go pro - in the business world.

Add in the graduation of Diebold, and you've got two departing and two returning goaltenders, with one position open. Goodman, as far as we know, is firmly a practice and emergency goaltender, and Kasdorf, of course, is the rock upon which RPI will build its hardware dreams in 2015-16. That leaves open the #2 position, and in this case, it's more of an understudy than a backup.

That's the term we have long been using to describe Dillon's upcoming freshman season at RPI, and it rings true because he's preparing to become the top guy once Kasdorf moves on for Buffalo (which is almost certainly going to happen after next season, despite the academic senior's remaining redshirt year). He's practically ready for a full-time gig in the NCAA right away. After all, he did lead the USHL in goals against average last season. But he'll be able to be gradually introduced this way rather than being tossed onto the fire - and he makes for excellent insurance against another potentially devastating injury to Kasdorf, who has yet to stay healthy for an entire season in Troy in three tries.

Appert said in the press release announcing the incoming class that the Kasdorf-Dillon tandem "should" be the best duo in the nation between the pipes. That's entirely possible.

Overall outlook

Hard not to see a team that should be at least somewhat improved over last season on both ends of the ice. Most of RPI's best offensive talent is young - freshmen and sophomores - but the added depth and hopefully a good offseason of development for the rising sophomores should add a bit more kick to the attack in the coming year. The defense has shown potential to be stingier than they were last season, and all fingers are crossed that Kasdorf is able to get through the season without injury. That by itself will go a long way toward making the Engineers competitive again within the ECAC.

2016-17
Out: Bubela, Fulton, Miller, Schroeder, Bokenfohr, Bradley, Hampton, Goodman, Kasdorf(?)
In: Todd Burgess, Carlos Fornaris, Jacob Hayhurst, Emil Öhrvall(?), Austin Cho, Charlie Manley.

The Engineers are about where we'd like them to be about a year out from the expected announcement of the Class of 2020. Cho is a solid bet to get drafted in the NHL Entry Draft next month, he projects as a replacement on the blue line for Bradley. Charlie Manley's arrival has been pushed back twice now, we will be watching to see if he can find himself a job in the USHL, hopefully the third time is the charm. If the younger Öhrvall brother is coming in 2016, we can probably close the book on forwards for this class, but don't be surprised to see him come in 2017 instead, in which case, we're looking for one more forward. Diebold's functional replacement will likely need to be coming to RPI in this class, and that's a name we're hoping to see in the next few months.

By the way, an interesting little side note on Manley - with his arrival now pushed to 2016, he's now slated to replace either Bokenfohr or Hampton, both graduating, on the roster. Manley committed to RPI in December of 2011, Bokenfohr in February 2012, and Hampton in May 2012.

2017-18
Out: Bourbonnais, DeVito, Wood, Reno, Kasdorf(?)
In: Emil Öhrvall(?), Cory Babichuk.

Not a bad start for what should be a smaller than average Class of 2021, especially if this is the class Emil Öhrvall is targeted for. As mentioned above, a goaltender isn't likely a strong necessity here, so after a couple more forwards this class should be in the books. Don't be shocked if we find the first member of the Class of 2022 before the end of this calendar year.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Know Your Enemy: UMass-Lowell

It's a belated start this year for WaP's annual Know Your Enemy feature, a function of the relatively late release of the RPI schedule (May 14 this year, which is after KYE usually gets underway), so we're going to play a little catch up to ensure that the series concludes right on time as the season gets going. Typically, we will have a new entry every Wednesday, but we're starting off the first couple of weeks doing two a week (like two-a-days, only less stressful). This is the first of 23 entries for this offseason.

Since last we left UML - preparing to head into Norm Bazin's first year as coach - much has changed. The Engineers' first NCAA opponent next season will be a program that has undergone a renaissance of sorts, quickly rising from the bowels of Hockey East to being in regular contention at the top of the conference. It's kinda like Union with fewer years of awfulness before the rise to the top.

UMass-Lowell
Nickname: River Hawks
Location: Lowell, MA
Founded: 1894
Conference: Hockey East
National Championships: 3 (1979, 1981, 1982 - all Division II)
Last NCAA Appearance: 2014
Last Frozen Four: 2013
Coach: Norm Bazin (5th season)
2014-15 Record: 21-12-6 (11-7-4 HEA, 4th place)
Series: UML leads, 11-10-1
First Game: December 30, 1982 (Troy, NY)
Last RPI win: December 16, 2006 (Troy, NY)
Last UML win: December 29, 2011 (Storrs, CT)

2015-16 game: October 9, 2015 (Lowell, MA)

Key players: G Kevin Boyle, sr.; F Adam Chapie, sr.; F Michael Colantone, sr.; F Michael Fallon, sr.; F A.J. White, sr.; F Evan Campbell, jr.; F Joe Gambardella, jr.; D Michael Kapla, jr.; D Dylan Zink, jr.; D Chris Forney, so.; D Tyler Mueller, so.; F C.J. Smith, so.; F Ryan Dmowski, fr.; D Niklas Folin, fr.; D Mattias Goransson, fr.; F Guillaume Leclerc, fr.

Previous KYE installment:
Sometimes, a program gets a new coach and that coach instantly turns things around with the talent he inherits. Such was the case in Lowell, as Bazin took the reins from Blaise MacDonald before the 2011-12 season, and instantly made the River Hawks more than just contenders. He guided the program back to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 16 years, just a year out from a season that ended with a whopping five wins.

UML has been nothing but successful under Bazin, who was the Spencer Penrose Award winner for national coach of the year in 2013 as he guided the River Hawks to their first Division I Frozen Four in just his second year at the helm - they were defeated by eventual national champions Yale in Pittsburgh. Lowell advanced to the NCAA tournament in each of Bazin's first three years, winning Hockey East hardware for the first time in 2013 by sweeping the regular season and tournament crowns, then following up in 2014 with a second consecutive Hockey East tournament championship.

Even this past season has to be considered something of a success, as the River Hawks completed their fourth consecutive 20-win season, something they haven't done since their days as a Division II powerhouse in the early 1980s. It was successful enough that UML just barely missed out on a fourth straight national tournament bid, which led to a confused columnist in the Lowell Sun penning a hilariously awful screed blasting the Pairwise Rankings up and down which embarrassed most real Lowell fans in its shortsightedness. But that crazy column did at least make the valid point that the River Hawks remain one of the best teams in the country.

When Connor Hellebuyck, arguably the top goaltender in the country during his freshman and sophomore years, signed a pro contract at the beginning of last season, some expected UML to come back down to earth, but with junior transfer Boyle between the pipes (coming in, oddly enough, from UML's rivals at UMass-Amherst), the River Hawks remained more than competitive. His numbers were not as astronomically high as Hellebuyck's had been, but they were more than good enough. Meanwhile, a relatively young team was paced by its freshmen and sophomores, as five of the team's top six scorers were from those sets of underclassmen, with the sixth being a junior (Chapie). Smith, in his freshman campaign, led the team in scoring with 16 goals and 19 assists.

All told, Lowell brings back 11 of their top 12 scorers from last season's team, which was 7th in the nation offensively. The defense, as mentioned, wasn't quite as strong as it had been in the previous two seasons with Hellebuyck as the anchor, but the offense was, with some frequency, good enough to bail out and defensive issues.

Bazin produced winners even when he was still largely coaching MacDonald's team. Now in year five, this is entirely his team and he has UML poised to be competitive in a very difficult conference for the foreseeable future. It's not a team brimming with gobs of individual talent like some other Hockey East programs do, but they function as the best teams always function - as more than the sum of its parts.

That makes for a difficult first outing for the Engineers, who will need to find the equalizer in Jason Kasdorf, a goaltender who was frequently compared to Hellebuyck earlier in his career because they both carried their team high and far in 2013 as freshmen who were both (at the time) Winnipeg Jets property with among the top numbers nationally among goaltenders. Lowell's defense isn't impenetrable, which means that an Engineer team that struggled to hit the net at times last year has to take advantage of opportunities as they arise in order to be successful - because even if Kasdorf plays well, it'll be for naught if they can't take advantage on the opposite end.

Monday, May 18, 2015

The Official 2015-16 Women's Hockey Schedule

Hot on the heels of the men's schedule coming out, we now have the women's schedule to look at as well. Here it is.

Friday games are at 7pm, Saturday games at 4pm unless otherwise noted.

Saturday, 26 September - UNIVERSITY OF QUEBEC-MONTREAL (UQAM) (Exhibition)

Friday, 02 October - NORTH DAKOTA
Saturday, 03 October - NORTH DAKOTA, 3pm
Friday, 09 October - at RIT
Saturday, 10 October - at RIT
Friday, 16 October - ROBERT MORRIS
Saturday, 17 October - ROBERT MORRIS
Friday, 30 October - at Cornell
Saturday, 31 October - at Colgate

Friday, 06 November - ST. LAWRENCE
Saturday, 07 November - CLARKSON
Friday, 13 November - at Dartmouth
Saturday, 14 November - at Harvard
Sunday, 22 November - at McGill, 2pm (Exhibition)
Friday, 27 November - NEW HAMPSHIRE
Saturday, 28 November - NEW HAMPSHIRE

Friday, 04 December - YALE, 3pm
Saturday, 05 December - BROWN, 3pm

Saturday, 02 January - at Mercyhurst, 3pm
Sunday, 03 January - at Mercyhurst, 3pm
Friday, 08 January - QUINNIPIAC
Saturday, 09 January - PRINCETON
Friday, 15 January - UNION, 3pm
Saturday, 16 January - at Union, 3pm
Friday, 22 January - at Brown
Saturday, 23 January - at Yale
Friday, 29 January - COLGATE
Saturday, 30 January - CORNELL

Friday, 05 February - at St. Lawrence
Saturday, 06 February - at Clarkson
Friday, 12 February - HARVARD
Saturday, 13 February - DARTMOUTH (Senior Day)
Friday, 19 February - at Princeton
Saturday, 20 February - at Quinnipiac
Fri-Sun, 26-28 February - ECAC Quarterfinals (at higher seeds)

Saturday, 05 March - ECAC Semifinals (at highest remaining seed)
Sunday, 06 March - ECAC Championship (at highest semifinal seed)
Saturday, 12 March - NCAA Quarterfinals (at seeded teams)
Friday, 18 March - NCAA Frozen Four (Durham, NH)
Sunday, 20 March - NCAA Championship (Durham, NH)

Thursday, May 14, 2015

The Official 2015-16 Men's Hockey Schedule

A bit delayed from recent seasons, but the official RPI schedule for the upcoming year is now out.

Notably: no BU, but BC and Michigan both coming to Troy for the first time in a long time. Engineers to compete in a pair of in-season tournaments, including one at Notre Dame for the second straight season.

Mark your calendars.

Saturday, 03 October - ST. THOMAS (N.B.) (Exhibition)
Friday, 09 October - at UMass-Lowell
Sunday, 11 October - BOSTON COLLEGE
Friday, 16 October - vs. Alaska-Anchorage (Brice Alaska Goal Rush, Fairbanks, AK)
Saturday, 17 October - at Alaska (Brice Alaska Goal Rush)
Saturday, 24 October - MICHIGAN
Friday, 30 October - at Union
Saturday, 31 October - UNION (Black Saturday)

Friday, 06 November - at St. Lawrence
Saturday, 07 November - at Clarkson
Friday, 13 November - YALE
Saturday, 14 November - BROWN
Friday, 20 November - at Bentley
Tuesday, 24 November - NEW HAMPSHIRE
Friday, 27 November - vs. Western Michigan (Shillelagh Tournament, South Bend, IN)
Saturday, 28 November - vs. Harvard/at Notre Dame (Shillelagh Tournament - South Bend, IN)

Friday, 04 December - DARTMOUTH
Saturday, 05 December - HARVARD
Friday, 11 December - ARIZONA STATE
Saturday, 12 December - ARIZONA STATE

Saturday, 02 January - at Miami
Sunday, 03 January - at Miami
Friday, 08 January - at Princeton
Saturday, 09 January - at Quinnipiac
Friday, 15 January - CORNELL
Saturday, 16 January - COLGATE
Saturday, 23 January - vs. Union (Albany, NY)
Friday, 29 January - at Brown
Saturday, 30 January - at Yale

Friday, 05 February - ST. LAWRENCE
Saturday, 06 February - CLARKSON (Big Red Freakout!)
Friday, 12 February - at Harvard
Saturday, 13 February - at Dartmouth
Friday, 19 February - QUINNIPIAC
Saturday, 20 February - PRINCETON (Senior Night)
Friday, 26 February - at Colgate
Saturday, 27 February - at Cornell

Fri-Sun, 4-6 March - ECAC First Round (at higher seeds)
Fri-Sun, 11-13 March - ECAC Quarterfinals (at higher seeds)
Friday, 18 March - ECAC Semifinals (Lake Placid, NY)
Saturday, 19 March - ECAC Championship (Lake Placid, NY)
Fri-Sun, 25-27 March - NCAA Regionals (Albany, NY; Worcester, MA; Cincinnati, OH; St. Paul, MN)

Thursday, 07 April - NCAA Frozen Four (Tampa, FL)
Saturday, 09 April - NCAA Championship (Tampa, FL)