College Hockey Slap Schotts 2011-12: Week 11 ? The top 10 college hockey stories of 2011
Years from now, when we look back at what happened in college hockey in 2011, it will be very memorable for a lot of reasons.
We saw Union win a championship. We witnessed Union and RPI making the NCAA hockey tournament. There were several coaching changes, and some players left programs early for the pros. And there was a near Armageddon in the sport during the summer.
All in all, it was a very memorable 2011. Here is my top 10 stories of the year, with a heavy concentration on ECAC Hockey.
1) Union wins first ECAC Hockey regular-season title.
The 20th season of Division I hockey proved to be a memorable one for the Dutchmen. On Feb. 26, the Dutchmen trounced Princeton, 5-0, to capture its first ECACH regular-season title. The Dutchmen went on a 15-1-1 run to earn the championship.
It also ended a long journey for the program that wasn't given much of a chance when it was elevated from Division III to Division I in 1991. The team wasn't going to have the benefit of athletic scholarships. There were many lean years, but the turnaround started in the early 2000s under coach Kevin Sneddon. When Sneddon left for Vermont in 2003, Nate Leaman came in and took the program to new heights.
Winning the championship validated the move the Dutchmen made in 1991.
2) Union, RPI reach NCAA tournament
While neither team got to the ECACH tournament final four, the Dutchmen and Engineers built up enough key wins during the season to reach the NCAA tournament.
For the Dutchmen, it was their first trip to the NCAAs at the Division I level. For the Engineers, it was their first trip to the NCAAs under coach Seth Appert, and the first since 1995.
Unfortunately, both teams' stay in the tournament didn't last very long. Union was ousted by eventual national champion Minnesota Duluth, 2-0, in the East Region semifinal. North Dakota blitz RPI, 6-0, in the Midwest Regional semifinal.
3) Leaman leaves, Bennett takes over
For weeks, rumors were swirling that Nate Leaman was being courted by Providence, which was looking for a coach to replace the departed Tim Army. At first, Leaman denied he was interested, or had been on campus to interview for the job.
The rumors turned out to be true. On April 23, which was Good Friday, Leaman announced he was leaving to become the Friars' new coach. He ended his eight-year tenure at Union with a 138-127-35 record.
Union didn't wait very long to find Leaman's replacement. The school immediately promoted associate head coach Rick Bennett to head coach. Bennett had been an assistant/associate head coach for 11 years, the last six at Union.
The transition has been very smooth. The Dutchmen are 9-3-5 and ranked 10th in the country.
4) Kinkaid, York leave early
Leaman wasn't the only college hockey person to leave a Capital Region program. Two goalies gave up their college
Shortly after the Engineers were eliminated from the NCAA tournament, RPI' Allen York signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets. York had one year of college eligibility left.
On April 18, Union sophomore Keith Kinkaid surrendered his final two years of college play to sign with the New Jersey Devils.
Both goalies got called up to be with their respective NHL teams. York got into a couple of games for the Blue Jackets, including starting one against the Chicago Blackhawks. Kinkaid backed up Johan Hedberg while Martin Brodeur was injured.
5) Conference chaos
When the Big Ten announced it would start a college hockey conference in 2013-14, no one was surprised. With the addition of Penn State, the Big Ten would field a six-team league (Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State and Wisconsin are the other hockey-playing Big Ten schools).
But no one expected several other teams to shift conferences.
In mid-July, the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference was formed. Colorado College, Denver, Miami (Ohio), Minnesota Duluth and North Dakota were the six original teams to start the conference. A couple of months later, St. Cloud State and Western Michigan joined.
The leagues most affected by the conference shifts were the CCHA and WCHA. The WCHA will survive come 2013-14, while the CCHA will fade away. Also, Notre Dame will go from the CCHA to Hockey East in 2013-14. RPI has been mentioned as possibly heading to Hockey East, too, but school athletic director Jim Knowlton denied that in an interview before the season.
6) Coaching changes
Teams switching conferences weren't the only changes during the offseason.
Ten schools hired new coaches, including three in the ECACH. Besides Rick Bennett taking over for Nate Leaman at Union, Bob Prier took over at Princeton for Guy Gadowsky, who was hired as Penn State's first Division I coach on April 25; and Cornell associate head coach Casey Jones became the new Clarkson coach after George Roll was fired.
7) Colgate conquers Capital Region
It was a rough 2010-11 season for Colgate. The Raiders surprisingly finished last in the ECACH standings with a 4-15-3 league record. At one point, they were 0-11 overall in one-goal games. And they were given little chance to advance in the ECACH tournament.
But Colgate came to the Capital Region and took out fifth-seeded RPI and top-seeded Union on consecutive weekends to reach the conference's final four. In each series, Colgate lost the first game in the best-of-three series, won Game 2 and then captured Game 3 in overtime.
8) Awards galore
It was a repeat performance for Nate Leaman and RPI forward Chase Polacek in the ECACH awards.
Leaman won his second straight Tim Taylor Award as ECACH coach of the year. In addition to that, Leaman won the Spencer Penrose Award as national coach of the year.
Polacek captured his second consecutive Player of the Year award after finishing in a tie with Yale's Andrew Miller for the ECACH scoring title with 11 goals and 16 assists.
Several Union players were ECACH award winners. Keith Kinkaid won the Ken Dryden Award as the league's top goalie, Brock Matheson won Best Defensive Defenseman, Adam Presizniuk earned Best Defensive Forward and forward Stephane Boileau won the Student-Athlete Award.
9) Minnesota Duluth wins NCAA title
Minnesota Duluth was ousted in the quarterfinals of the WCHA tournament by Bemidji State. The Bulldogs got an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament, and didn't lose.
In the East Region, they eliminated Union and Yale to make it to the Frozen Four in St. Paul, Minn. Playing in their home state, the Bulldogs beat Notre Dame, 4-3, in the semifinals, and then defeated Michigan, 3-2, in overtime to win the title. Kyle Schmidt, who scored the first goal of the tournament, got the last one, too, at 3:22 of OT.
10) NBC Sports Group adds college hockey
With Versus becoming NBC Sports Network Jan. 2, the channel needed some additional programming. College hockey fit the bill.
In October, NBC Sports Group announced a 16-game package of regular-season games, plus the Hockey East tournament championship round. While other networks such as CBS Sports Network and ESPNU have televised regular-season games, those channels are on a special tier on Time Warner Cable, and you have to pay extra if you want those channels. Versus is available to everyone, so the game will get some great exposure, starting Dec. 31 when Boston University faces Notre Dame.
RPI will have two games on NBC Sports Network: Jan. 6 against Dartmouth and Feb. 3 against Cornell.
Also, NBC Sports Network will televise all of Notre Dame?s home games starting in 2013-14, when the team moves from the CCHA to Hockey East.
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