NCAA hockey notebook: News and notes from around the country
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If you want to watch a lot of college hockey games in a given week, you're going to have a little difficulty doing so.
It's not just because the vast majority of college games are played on Friday and Saturday nights — more on that in a minute — and it's difficult to flip between even a handful of them, though of course that is a big issue. It's because there is no overarching streaming deal that gives you everything in a one-stop shop.
Every conference is different, in different parts of the country, and makes its own arrangements with streaming providers to show games. But if you're a true college hockey fanatic, you're going to be paying a lot to be able to pick and choose the games you watch. Atlantic Hockey is on FloTV, and it costs about $30 per month or $150 for the full season. The Big Ten has its own streaming service, B1G+, which costs about $13 per month or $90 per year. The NCHC's NCHC.tv service is about $31 per month, $120 per year, or almost $17 if you want to watch for a single day. Hockey East and the ECAC both have deals with ESPN+, which is close to $12 per month or $120 per year. The CCHA uses Midco Sports for its CCHA TV streamer, which costs nearly $25 per month or $130 per year.
All in, if you're paying monthly, that's about $111 per month during the college season, which runs from October to March. That wouldn’t be particularly worth it unless you're absolutely obsessed, but even then, if you're watching, say, the Boston College/Boston University game on Friday — let alone attending a game yourself — there are probably 15 to 20 other games starting at the exact same time across the country.
There’s not really anything anyone can do about the price, because these services cost what they cost, and that’s that. But some coaches are wondering why the traditional Friday-and-Saturday-night weekend series has remained the same in an ever-evolving media landscape.
"I think we could do a better job of staggering our games," Providence College coach Nate Leaman said after a recent game against BC. "We're playing all of our games at 7 o'clock on a Friday night, and for a fan that wants to watch our league, why aren't we playing on Thursday night? Why aren't we playing on a Friday night? Why we put it on a Saturday afternoon and then a Saturday night? And even a Sunday I mean, it's too good right now and and we're the only league in the country that can do it as we're close geographically."
Leaman added that the prospect of changing things has come up in Hockey East, where weeknight games seem to be rarer than they used to be. Certainly, you can see where schools would want to keep tradition alive because games on weekends probably draw better, historically, than those on a Tuesday or Thursday night. However, if you're trying to reach a wider audience than just the people who live in the immediate area around a college rink, Leaman says that thinking might have to change.
"We need to get out of the ma-and-pa, y'know, the old school of what college hockey is," Leaman said. "Everything's changed in athletics, and we have to change and we have to evolve. I think it's right there for us, for our league. If you're a fan, wouldn't you like to watch a game to sort of kick off the weekend [on a Thursday]? … If there's one game going on on a weeknight, they're all gonna tune in to watch it."
For all decision-makers involved, it has to be at least worth discussing.
NCHC gets weird
Alright, let's pull up the ol' college hockey standings page. Ah, Western Michigan is atop the NCHC. Nothing strange there. They only have four losses all season, and they haven't dropped a game in regulation in league play all season. Just a really good team, and they're on a six-game winning streak to boot.
Now I'll just move my eyes down one slot to……… Omaha? Yup, there they are, the Mavericks. Sitting at 10-4 in the conference and also on a six-game winning streak. In fact, over those six games they've outscored opponents 24-9. Doesn't get much better than that. Awards voters need to start taking notice of starting goalie Simon Latkoczy, who's up to .935 in 20 appearances, because Omaha is winning a lot lately despite having a downright middling offense (that is, of course, trending up).
What's interesting is that Omaha is 14-10-1 this season, but if they're 10-4 in NCHC play, that means they went 4-6-1 OOC. And indeed, they started out the season 2-6-0, and only two of those were conference games.
And then third in the NCHC is… Arizona State. The Sun Devils had a poor start but when I wrote about them earlier this season, coach Greg Powers chalked it up to a tough road schedule and some critical injuries — they played 8 of their first 10 games away from Mullett Arena and went 3-6-1, but three of their top-six forwards were out for much of that opening stretch, and since they've started to return, ASU has won 11 of 14.
Denver and North Dakota are tied for fourth, and it just goes to show how tough this conference is. The Pioneers have really only had one rough stretch — they went 2-4-0 in a three-week stretch around Thanksgiving — but that was enough to put them a good distance behind the Sun Devils, who swept the reigning champs in Denver to kick off their hot run. North Dakota, meanwhile, is just a pretty good NCHC team that seems to be able to beat weaker opponents with relative ease but can't really run with the big dogs; they're 1-5 against the three teams above them in the standings.
My take? This rocks. It's always nice to see new blood at or near the top of any conference, but if I'm an NCHC fan, or coach, I'm getting a little nervous that Arizona State in particular is just gonna start being able to do this every single year.
Michigan State loses captain for season
Michigan State coach Adam Nightingale announced this week that senior captain Red Savage is done for the season due to an unspecified upper-body injury.
Savage had a 5-6—11 line in 20 appearances for the Spartans this season, but was attempting to play through the injury until it got to the point where he couldn't anymore, Nightingale said.
“At the end of the day, I respect what he was trying to do to continue to play,” Nightingale said in announcing the news. ”He's got to get healthier. He'a going to be playing this game for a long time, so he's flying out to get some work done. We're going to miss him, for sure. He's our captain and he'll still be our leader."
Savage, a 2021 Detroit fourth-round pick, was tied for sixth on the team in goals and playing almost 16 minutes a night. He had missed a handful of games in the weeks leading up to the announcement but tried to return to the lineup on Jan. 17, only to play about eight minutes.
Now, a number of younger players will get an opportunity to slot into the team's bottom six, but this is a loss that stings badly as MSU approaches back-to-back weekend series with No. 11 Ohio State and No. 12 Michigan.
Terriers debut new goalie
It was another wild Battle of Comm Ave between BC and BU over the weekend, and the No. 1 Eagles swept both ends of it with scores of 6-2 on the road and 2-0 at home.
But the results may have been secondary, in some ways, to the potential game-changing development that took place on Saturday.
It was the college debut of 2024 Devils second-round pick Mikhail Yegorov, who left USHL Omaha (whose whole deal this season has been absolutely bizarre) just in time to enroll at BU for the second semester.
He didn't play his first weekend on campus, as the Terriers swept UNH, but after they got shelled at home against their archrivals, Terriers coach Jay Pandolfo put him into the second game, at BC.
"I like the way he's looked in practice, just giving him an opportunity, and he was great," Pandolfo said.
Yegorov looked awesome, stopping 23 of the 24 shots he faced, and against a BC team loaded with firepower, he turned aside a number of Grade-A chances with aplomb. However, the circumstances surrounding one goal he gave up were a bit rough.
Before the game even started, Yegorov was so excited to get out on the ice for warmups that he ran out of the tunnel as soon as the rink attendants opened the door — before the officials did. That's a breach of protocol, resulting in a two-minute minor to start the game (bizarrely, it goes into the scoresheet as a delay of game). BC scored on its second shot of the game, a bang-bang rebound goal for Teddy Stiga off an initial shot from Ryan Leonard. But other than that, the big netminder played extremely well, earning praise from both coaches after the game.
The decision to bring in Yegorov halfway through the year creates a swirl of intrigue, though. For much of the season, BU fans have grumbled about the play of senior netminder Mathieu Caron, who was much better than people gave him credit for last season but has struggled this year, playing to an .898 save percentage in 20 appearances. Not terrible, but for a team with Frozen Four aspirations, maybe not good enough, either. Since the Terriers returned from break, Caron has conceded 17 goals on 168 shots, including 4 on 19 in Friday's loss.
A reporter asked Pandolfo after the game about what Yegorov's play, and indeed the decision to start him, might mean for the goaltending battery going forward, but Pandolfo wasn't entertaining the controversy.
"I was just thinking about today getting [Yegorov] in there, in this environment. He's never seen it, so I figure he'd actually would be less nervous not knowing about it and just get him in there," he said. "He's a confident kid. He was excited about it. I'm just really happy with the way he played tonight, and that's all I'm gonna comment on that."
It might reach a point, though, where Yegorov makes the case for himself. Certainly, I'd think he starts this Friday against UNH as the Beanpot approaches.
Wisconsin preparing for late-season push?
The people who were high on Wisconsin coming into the year were not rewarded for their faith.
The Badgers started the year losing eight of their first 10 games, and while it was a particularly difficult schedule — Ohio State, Denver, and Minnesota among their opponents — the way they were playing just didn't inspire much confidence.
It wasn't just that they were losing, which of course they were. It was that they were losing in frustrating ways: outshooting an opponent by 15-plus and losing by a single goal. It happened more than once. Some wondered whether their large influx of transfers, who were being counted on as key players—many from lower leagues like the CCHA and Atlantic Hockey—were really going to be able to hang in the Big Ten.
I don't think anyone's doubting anymore. They just won and tied Michigan, they were able to hang with Michigan State a few weeks ago, and they have just one regulation loss since Nov. 8—a narrow defeat at Michigan State on Jan. 2. They're still only fourth in the Big Ten, sitting at a .500 points percentage because they've somehow lost seven of their 16 league games in overtime or the shootout. But they've worked their way up to 16th in the Pairwise and, while they're at Minnesota for two this weekend, they have as easy a schedule heading into the playoffs less than a month from now as anyone could reasonably ask for in the Big Ten.
They're led by legit Hobey candidate Quinn Finley (19-15—34) but are one of those teams that gets contributions from everyone; only Finley and grad transfer Rylan Mosley have cleared the double-digit goal plateau, but 17 different players have at least one goal for them, and another transfer, goalie Tommy Scarfone (.908 for the season), may be turning a corner after a rocky start. He's allowed 29 goals in his last 14 appearances (.910) after 20 allowed in his first seven (.890).
They probably ceded too much ground to the teams in front of them—third-place Ohio State is a point ahead with two games in hand—or else can't realistically expect MSU or Minnesota to drop enough points to close the gap and get into a top-two conversation that would guarantee them home ice in the Big Ten semis. But they're certainly on track to host a quarterfinal series, which you probably wouldn’t have predicted in November. And if they can somehow work their way up to second in the next four weeks, they’ll be well-positioned for the postseason. That would almost certainly give them the inside track for an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament as well.
The work starts now. Again, they're at Minnesota this weekend, and two weeks after that, they're at Ohio State. Winning those road games won’t be easy, but every point they take is a point the teams directly in front of them won’t.
It’s all laid out pretty well for them.