News from the Big Ten and More
Recapping the first week of play and looking at general news stories
Big Ten
News from the opening weekend of non-conference play…
Cole Caufield (MTL) became the first Badger in the modern era (since 1963) with multiple goals in his first two games last weekend against Boston College (5-3 L) and Merrimack (11-5 W).
Penn State head into game two of their series at home against Alaska-Fairbanks tonight, after opening with a 7-0 win last night. The Nittany Lions are outscoring opponents 20-6 (25-6 if we count the exhibition). The schedule hasn’t held a real test for them, but they’re hot to start a year with big expectations. Junior defenseman Cole Hults (LA) had a hat trick to open the year and then added a fourth in game two against Sacred Heart last weekend. Including the Alaska-Fairbanks game last night, seniors Nate Sucese (2-8-10) and Brandon Biro (3-5-8) are leading the team offensively. Junior transfer Clayton Phillips has a relatively quiet 0-2-2 line, although he boasts a team-leading +5 (tied with Hults).
Ohio State won the Ice Breaker tournament, rallying late against an under-manned Western Michigan who outshot them 46 to 29 in night one. They went on to beat RIT 3-1 in the championship off the strength of captain Ronnie Hein’s two powerplay goals. Junior goaltender Tommy Nappier went 68/71 over the weekend, stopping 44/46 to bring Ohio State to over-time with Western. Senior defenseman Matt Miller (1-2-3) had a good weekend as well.
Notre Dame gutted out a 4-3 win against Air Force at home, scoring four unanswered after going down 0-2 — the Irish were outshot 36 to 29 and freshman goaltender Ryan Bischel won his first career start. They closed out the series with a 6-1 win on Sunday, with Colin Theisen (2-1-3) and Mike O’Leary (0-3-3) leading the way. Bischel improved to 2-0-0 on the year, going 21/22.
Michigan State won their first game of the year despite being outshot 3:2 by Northern Michigan, with depth scoring leading the way and senior John Lethemon’s 28/31 effort in net. Juniors Tommy Apap (two goals) and Brody Stevens had two points (1-1-2). Michigan State were shut out on night two to split the series, sending 15 shots at Northern Michigan goaltender John Hawthorne. Drew DeRidder stopped 24/26 in that one for the Spartans.
Michigan and Clarkson played to a 1-1 tie in night one in Ann Arbor, with the Michigan powerplay providing no results against Clarkson goaltender Frank Marotte (34/35). Michigan’s Strauss Mann stopped 30/31, while sophomore Garrett Van Wyhe had the goal for the Wolverines. Game two, Clarkson jumped out to a 1-0 lead and solidified it in the third to win 3-1. Nick Pastujov scored a powerplay goal to cut the Clarkson lead later in the game and Strauss Mann stopped 26/29. Top freshman Cam York (PHI) did not dress in night two and may not be in the line-up this weekend either, with what looks to be an undisclosed injury. Clarkson sophomore stand-out Josh Dunne went 1-2-3 on the weekend.
Minnesota split one-goal games with Colorado College at their place, losing game one thanks to a late Ben Copeland goal from Chris Wilkie for the Tigers. After going down by two goals twice on night two, they rallied with two quick goals (Sammy Walker PPG into a Walker primary assist at even strength for Matt Staudacher, 30 seconds later) before Blake McLaughlin scored the game-winner with ten minutes to play in the third. Jared Moe picked up his first win with 27/30 after Jack Lafontaine stopped 28/31 the previous night. Scott Reedy and Sampo Ranta also scored their first goals of the year during the series.
Here are the Big Ten’s leading scorers going into this weekend (collegehockeystats.net)
This weekend, Big Ten teams will play ten games. Penn State closes out the aforementioned UAF series, a likely sweep. Michigan State hosts the Under-18 NTDP on Friday. The rest are proper Friday-Saturday sets: Michigan hosting Lake State, Minnesota hosting Niagara, Wisconsin hosting Minnesota-Duluth and Ohio State hosting Omaha. Notre Dame have the weekend off — they host the 200x85 Bantam shootout featuring a number of top U14 teams from the US and Canada at Compton Family Ice Arena. All six games tonight look to be streamed on BTN+, while you can find the full Big Ten TV schedule here.
Big Ten News
This is general news I’ve come across, there are no recruiting stories in here — I’m saving them for a separate update.
For Penn State men's hockey, the time to win is now - Daily Collegian (Penn State)
Aarne Talvitie's ready to reap the rewards for Penn State men's hockey - Daily Collegian (Penn State)
Minnesota hockey website GopherPuckLive have posted their first and second podcasts of the season.
OSU head coach Steve Rohlik spoke with USCHO for a 20-minute spot on their podcast after winning the season-opening Ice Breaker tournament.
Former Michigan defenseman Quinn Hughes scored his first goal in the NHL.
Tony Granato's Eager to Prepare Alex Turcotte for the NHL - LAKings.com
Through depression, Wisconsin Badgers' Ty Pelton-Byce learns it's OK to not be OK - Wisconsin State Journal
Big Ten Hockey Preseason Honors:
FIRST TEAM
Tanner Laczynski, F, Ohio State
Evan Barratt, F, Penn State
Alex Limoges, F, Penn State
Wyatt Kalynuk, D, Wisconsin
K’Andre Miller, D, Wisconsin
Cale Morris, G, Notre Dame
SECOND TEAM
Will Lockwood, F, Michigan
Mitchell Lewandowski, F, Michigan State
Sammy Walker, F, Minnesota
Dennis Cesana, D, Michigan State
Cole Hults, D, Penn State
Tommy Nappier, G, Ohio State
HONORABLE MENTION
Patrick Khodorenko, F, Michigan State
Cal Burke, F, Notre Dame
Cole Caufield, F, Wisconsin
Cam York, D, Michigan
Jerad Rosburg, D, Michigan State
Kris Myllari, D, Penn State
Hayden Lavigne, G, Michigan
College hockey and amateur hockey (else)
USCHO poll top 5 as of October 15 — Denver 1, Minnesota State 2, Minnesota Duluth 3, UMass 4, Cornell 5.
Big Ten teams on the poll: Notre Dame (7), Penn State (9), Ohio State (12), Wisconsin (17). Minnesota and Michigan also received votes.
#6-ranked Boston College freshman goaltender Spencer Knight picked up his first shutout in his second game of college hockey, a 3-0 win at Colgate.
The USHL announced the newest iteration of the all-star game, which will be a game between the USHL All-Stars and the NTDP U18s on January 20, 2020. The “BioSteel All-American Game”, which presumably replaces the All-American Prospects game from recent history, will feature no Americans playing outside the USHL, for example in the Canadian Hockey League, another NCAA-relevant junior hockey circuit (BCHL/NAHL) or high school and AAA hockey.
USCHO released a free app to follow the College Hockey season on your mobile device.
Hockey East announced deals with both regional network NESN and streaming service CBS All-Access. Over 50 games were announced to be shown on NESN while many more can be watched live (read: not available on-demand) on CBS All-Access. To be clear, the Hockey East games are on CBS All-Access, not CBS Sports Live, which is also a streaming service specifically for college sports.
Showing practice habits like former UND stars, Shane Pinto is set to play a prime role for Fighting Hawks - Grand Forks Herald
New arena the latest development in CC hockey's notable history - Grand Forks Herald
There are more and more Japanese players playing at higher levels of the game and the University of New Hampshire have featured one of their own: Kohei Sato.
American International College hockey can thank feisty Bill “Sonny” Turner - MassLive
SNY announced the collegiate matchups for the inaugural Connecticut Ice Festival, a first-of-its-kind weekend hockey festival, celebrating youth, amateur and collegiate hockey in the state of Connecticut. Anchoring the weekend will be the first-ever tournament of Connecticut’s four NCAA Division I Men’s Collegiate hockey teams - Quinnipiac University, Sacred Heart University, University of Connecticut and Yale University. They will square off in a two-round, four game tournament on Saturday, January 25 and Sunday, January 26, 2020 at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, CT. There will also be a boys high school showcase and prep school showcase games, details of which were not announced.
Sports (else)
The BCHL announced that they are replacing the former WHL team (Kootenay Ice) which has moved to Winnipeg, with their 18th franchise: the Cranbrook Bucks.
University of St. Thomas, booted for D-III success, gets Division I invite - ESPN
From the UST website: “What would happen to the sports (ice hockey, football) that aren’t sponsored by the Summit League? The Summit League does not currently sponsor ice hockey or football. As a result, St. Thomas would actively pursue affiliate membership opportunities for these programs in other Division I conferences.”
Speaking of college football, ESPNs SEC Network has a many-part series chronicling the growth of football in the south. It is called “Saturdays in the South”, there are already seven parts, most of which seem to be about an hour and a half long. I’ve only watched the first part but it is very well done.
Georgia tops in nation for online sports streaming
FlipGive & Scotiabank report on the Real Cost of Hockey for families
Potential first overall pick in the 2020 NHL draft, Quinton Byfield (OHL-Sudbury), went on the Pipeline Show podcast. It’s a great interview with an interesting note: Byfield credits playing soccer until his teen years for helping him improve at the game of hockey.
Additionally, I don’t have a link but I recall hearing sometime in the last month that the NFL’s newest phenomenon Gardner Minshew, Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback, played multiple sports before eventually specializing in football.
If you have a suggestion for a news item that should be linked in a future update please reach out. Thanks for reading.