College Hockey Monthly Awards

Players of the month

Atlantic Hockey- Tony Quesada G Holy Cross. Played in 2 games and has a 2-0 record with a stingy 1.00 goals against average. He shutout Army on Friday in the 1-0 win for Holy Cross. Quesada also made 22 saves in the 3-2 upset of UMASS-Amherst. A good month all around for the Crusaders and excellent goaltending.

CCHA- T.J. Hensick F Michigan. Leads the CCHA in scoring with 13 points (3 g 10 a) which is also good for 3rd in the country for scoring. His best game was on Saturday against Alaska-Fairbanks getting a goal and two assists for the Wolverines. And has scored at least one point in all but 2 games in which the Wolverines went 0-1-1 in those 2 games. His stock is rising and could climb up the Hobey Baker list by the end of the year.

CHA- Jake Bluhm F Bemidji State. Leads the league in goals with 5 and has lead Bemidji State to a fast 5-1 start.

ECACHL- Reid Cashman D Quinnipiac. Leads the team in points with 11 and assists with 10. He had a great season last yearwith 13 goals and 32 assits for 45 points and looks like so far he can improve on those stats. The Bobcats are 6-2 with the only two losses against Michigan. Their schedule gets tougher however with Harvard (which will be played in Hartford) and Dartmouth coming to town this week in their first 2 games in their inagural season in the ECACHL.

Hockey East- Co-winners this month the combination of 2 goaltenders in Maine with Ben Bishop and Matt Lundin. Lundin has played in 3 games with two shutouts against Quinnipiac and UMASS-Amherst and has only allowed 1 goal all year. His goals against average is a stingy .33. Bishop a freshman has started in most games and he has done very well defeating Denver twice and BC. He is 4-1 with a 1.59 gaa. Combined the goaltneders are 7-1 with an amazing .96 goals against average.

WCHA- Brett Sterling (pictured above) F Colorado College The Hobey Baker finalist last year has is leading the country in goals with 8 and points with 16. Quite amazing in the first month of play. His play has lead the Tigers to a 7-1 record.

NCAA- Brett Sterling Colorado College

College Hockey Weekly Report

This week had alot of splits or teams going 1-1 in their 2 games they played this weekend such as North Dakota and Denver each getting a w in their split. Michigan State and Cornell also split this weekend with some great goaltending from Jeff Lerg of Michigan State and David McKee of Cornell. In the second game Cornell only allowed one shot on goal on David McKee in the third period. Michigan State almost blew a 4-1 lead in the third period but Lerg did just enough to gain a w and a split with Cornell.

Back to Denver and North Dakota. The first night saw North Dakota dominate in the first period scoring 3 goals off of 9 shots. Kyle Radke, Travis Zajac (4 on 4), and Jonathan Towes(Power Play goal) scored the goals in the first. Denver would score in the second period as Chris Butler scored on a 4 on 4. Jordan Parise was solid in goal stopping 27 out of 28 Denver shots.

In the second game Denver's offense came to life. Matt Carle scored 2 of 3 power play goals for the Pioneers with Gabe Gauthier adding the third power play goal for Denver. Peter Mannino started in goal after Glenn Fisher started the first night. Mannino made 25 saves as Denver won the game 7-2.

In other College Hockey Action this weekend

Maine defeated both Boston College and UMASS-Amherst with the combination of Ben Bishop who started Friday and Matt Lundin who started agaisnt UMASS-Amherst. Bishop against BC allowed just one goal and made 30 saves as they defeated BC 2-1. The next night Matt Lundin got the start and stopped all 31 Minuteman shots as the Black Bears won 4-0. Right now Maine is clicking on all cylinders as they improved their record to 7-1 and could be #1 this week after Michigan lost their second game this year falling to Alaska-Fairbanks on Friday Night

Boston College rebounded from a tough loss on Friday to defeat Providence 3-2. Chris Collins scored a power play goal to tie the game at 1 in the second period, and a shorthanded goal 20 seconds into the third period giving BC the lead 2-1. After a quick response by Providence who tied the game at 2, BC jumped right back to take a 3-2 lead as Freshman Brock Bradford scored his first goal of his career, 29 seconds after Providence tied the game.

UMASS-Lowell defeated BU 7-4 on Friday night with Mark Pandolfo getting a hat trick in the win. The next night however was disasterous for UML as they lost to Union 4-3 on their home ice. The Riverhawks were picked in a tie for 3rd in the Hockey East pre-season poll and so far they are not looking like the team on paper as they fell to 2-5 on the season.

Vermont improved itself to 6-0 as they swept Niagara.

Michigan split with Alaska-Fairbanks as they could possibly lose their #1 spot in the country this weekend.

And Colorado College swept Minnesota State.

Who will be the #1 team in the country this week? We will find out on monday on the uscho.com poll and the USA today poll.

Next weeks games will feature

Boston College going on the road twice as they travel to Manchester to face New Hampshire on Tuesday and on Sunday they will travel to Vermont. How will the Eagles fare? Tune in Tuesday on CSTV for the UNH game and Sunday on ESPNU for the Vermont game.

Also Boston University will look to rebound after 2 straight losses as they will face Vermont at Agganis Arena on Friday night at BU.

And Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth will battle it out for state supremacy.

Bruins get first division win

Finally after 6 games against teams in the Northeast Division, the Bruins finall get a win after going 0-5-1 in their first 6 games in the division.

The Bruins won 2-1 behind backup goaltender Hannu Toivonen (pictured on the left) who made 37 saves including 20 in the second period. Toivonen is now 2-1 this year, his previous victory came in a 7-6 overtime win against Pittsburgh a few weeks ago.

The Bruins will play again tommorrow night against the New Jersey Devils possibly who will possibly be without Martin Brodeur for awhile who is down with an injury (terms of the injury are not yet specified).

College Hockey Preview National Powers battle it out

Well we didint have to wait too long for the re-match of the national championship game last year between Denver and North Dakota now did we. The two teams will battle it out this weekend at the Ralph Englestad Arena in Grand Forks, ND.

For North Dakota, revenge is on their mind right now after losing last years championship game losing 4-1 to Denver. Peter Mannino of Denver made 44 saves including 23 third period saves to close out the season.

For Denver look out for freshman Brock Trotter who is leading the team in scoring with 3 goals and tied for points 5 with early season Hobey Baker Canidate Gabe Gauthier. The goaltending has been a little bit of an issue for Denver as both goalies Glenn Fisher and Peter Mannino have a goals against average of over 3.00.

For North Dakota their top 3 scorers happen to be Freshman. T.J. Oshie leads the team with 3 goals and 5 assits for 8 points as he is tied for 9th in NCAA scoring. Fellow Freshman Jonathan Towes has 6 points with 3 goals and 3 assists, and Ryan Duncan has 5 points 3 goals 2 assists.
Goaltender Jordan Parise is 3-0-1 with an amazing goals against average of 1.22 so far in this early season. Look for him to play a key role in this series.

In other college hockey action this weekend

Maine will look to continue their fast start with their first 2 Hockey East games of the year (both on the road) as they will face Boston College and UMASS-Amherst. Ben Bishop the Freshman goalie is on a hot streak so is his counterpart Matt Lundin who had his first career shutout on Saturday against Alabama Huntsville.

Boston College will face Maine and Providence this weekend both at Conte Fourm as they look to improve in Hockey East play as they tied Northeastern 1-1 on Saturday. Cory Schneider will need to play well in order for BC to win this weekend. So far he has given up 10 goals in 3 games. Look for Senior Chris Collins who leads the team in scoring also to play an important role this weekend.

Providence goalie Tyler Sims will look to continue his shutout streak as the Friars will face Merrimack 0n Friday and BC on Saturday.

Boston University will look to rebound from its defeat against RPI as they will travel to Lowell to face the River Hawks on Friday. UML will need to look for some scoring as they have had only 1 goal in Hockey East play so far.

And finally, Goaltender David McKee of Cornell will open their season with Michigan State. One of the early favorites to win the Hobey, McKee will look to improve on his amazing season last year. Cornell has alot of Senior leadership and are one of the early favorites to go to the Frozen Four this year.

BU's Redlihs on Olympic Radar

Boston University senior Jekabs Redlihs (pictured on the left) is one of 20 defensmen from Latvia hoping to make their olympic roster. He has played in 105 games for the Terriers in his career scoring 7 goals and adding 16 assists for a 23 point total.

The actual olympic roster will be announced on a later date.

Redlihs and the Terriers will hope to rebound this week after a loss to RPI as they will face UMASS-Lowell for the second time this season at Tsongas Arena in Lowell. BU won the first meeting 3-1 in Agganis Arena at BU.

Ottawa loses first game of season

After 6 consecutive wins the Ottawa Senators lost their first game of the season last night to the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2. Martin Gerber (Pictured above) made 44 saves in the victory including all 24 shots he faced in the third period.

Ottawa enjoyed a 2-0 lead after one period. Goals were scored by former BC standout Patrick Eaves (his 1st of his career) and Jason Spezza.

Carolina got two of their own in the second period with goals by Eric Staal on the powerplay, and Matt Cullen.

In the third Frantisek Kaberle brother of Tomas Kaberle of Toronto scored his first goal of the year to wrap up the scoring.

The Nashville Predators are now the only undefeated team in the league and they put it on the line tonight against the Chicago Blackhawks.

College Hockey Weekly Report

Well the big East vs. West showdown in Durham was everything that it was shaped up to be.

On the first night North Dakota won 3-2 with goals from T.J. Oshie 1:03 into the first period. Michael Hutchins tied the game at 1 in the second period with an assist from Brett Hemingway. Drew Stafford made it 2-1 on a shorthanded goal from Travis Zajac. New Hampshire came right back on that same powerplay when Brett Hemingway tied it at 2 with his second point of the night 1:19 later. North Dakota finished off the scoring when Jonathan Towes scored on a 4 on 4 with 10:03 left in the third. Jordan Parise from North Dakota made 21 saves and Jeff Pietrasiak from UNH made 22 saves.

The next night had another great game between these 2 squads. T.J. Oshie just like the night before began the scoring with a power play goal with 3:49 left in the first. North Dakota would score the next 2 goals as Drew Stafford scored those 2 goals giving him 3 on the weekend. North Dakota would take a 3-0 lead midway through the second period. But UNH stormed right back with 2 goals from Brett Hemmingway to make it a 3-2 game after 2 periods. In the third period UNH would tie the game as Trevor Smith scored with 7:32 left in the third and that is how the game ended all tied. Jordan Parise made 40 saves including 16 saves in the first. Kevin Regan got the start for UNH stopping 25 shots.

In other college hockey action

Michigan and Michigan State ended up in a 3-3 tie. Michigan State tied the game with :43 left in the third period. Dominic Vicari of Michigan State stopped 20 out of 23 shots while Billy Sauer of Michigan saw more action stopping 35 out of 38 shots making 3 key saves in overtime.

BC and Northeastern ended up in a 1-1 tie. Dan Bertram of BC and Brian Deeth of Northeastern each scored a goal.

UMASS-Lowell continues to struggle in Hockey East play as they got shutout again by Providence 4-0. Tyler Sims again was great in goal stopping all 19 UMASS-Lowell shots. So far Lowell only has 1 goal in 3 conference games.

And Mike Lundin for Maine got the call against Alabama Huntsville on Saturday posting his first career shutout as Maine won 4-0.

And Minnesota got back on track after only gaining 1 point against Alaska-Fairbanks as they swept Minnesota State with a 4-3 win on Saturday.

Next week Maine will travel to Boston College and UMASS-Amherst as they try to continue their success this month.

Providence and Tyler Sims will try to keep their shutout streak going as they travel to Merrimack on Friday night then go to BC on saturday night.

And the big out of conference series will have Cornell playing for the first time this season as they host Michigan State for 2 at Cornell.

Winners and Losers

Here is week 2 of the NHL winners and losers

Winners:

Ottawa Senators- The Senators are still undefeated and they defeated the stanley cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 on Friday in Tampa. Jason Spezza leads the team in points with 11 (3 g, 8 a) and Daniel Alfredsson has 6 goals tying him for 5th in the league. Dominik Hasek is 5-0-0 with a stingy 1.75 goals against average. He might be 40 but he is still the dominator. Ottawa will face Carolina, Montreal, and Toronto this week all of them on the road.

Nashville Preadators- The second undefeated team in the league has 7 wins, but yet they are still in second place in the division. Thats just fine though when your in a division with mighty Detroit. Right now Steve Sullivan is playing great, so is newly acquired free agent Paul Karyia and goaltender Tomas Vokun. Nashville came off wins against St. Louis and San Jose this week and are looking forward to facing Chicago, Columbus, and Edmonton this week.

Detroit Red Wings- 8-1 right now and Hockeytown is Loving it. Wins this week against San Jose, Anaheim, and Columbus proved that the Red Wings are still one of the elite teams in the league. I dont have any stats for them right now because the league stats site is down for now but this week they will face Columbus again and then a home and home showdown with Chicago.

Losers

Pittsburgh Penguins- Still looking for their first win of the season and we are in Late October here. The only winless team in the league, lost to New Jersey and Boston this week giving up 12 goals in 2 games. The only hope right now is to score about 5 to 10 goals a night because their goaltending and their defense have let this team down.

Anaheim Mighty Ducks- Second worse team in the league has only 2 wins but yet they have only played 7 games. They lost all 3 games this week by a combined score of 10-5 including 2 games that ended in a 3-2 score (St. Louis and Detroit). Today they come home for the first time in more than a week facing the Phoenix Coyotes.

Columbus Blue Jackets- Only 15 goals scored this year, Ouch! When your leading scorer only has 5 points, that creates a problem. The defense looks okay only giving up 26 goals but yet again in the "New" NHL your going to need more offense.

Friday Roundup RPI upsets BU

A huge upset happened last night at Agganis Arena as Rensselaer (RPI) pulled off a dramatic upset on Boston University winning 3-2.

Down 2-0 early in the second period RPI stormed right back into the game when Alexander Valentin made it 2-1 with 12:14 to go in the second period bringing RPI within 1.

RPI tied it with a goal from Kevin Broad 2:05 into the third period. 3 minutes later RPI scored again to make it 3-2 with a goal from Kevin Croxton.

Mathias Lange played well in net making 27 saves including 12 in the first period and 10 in the third.

RPI only had 13 shots on goal the entire game to BU'S 29 shots.

John Laliberte and Brandon Yip scored for BU.


In other action

North Dakota defeated New Hampshire 3-2 in Durham with Jonathan Towes scoring the game winning goal on a 4 on 4 situation 8:57 into the third period.

Ben Bishop continues to shine for Maine as he stopped 19 shots in Maine's 3-1 victory over Alabama-Huntsville.

UMASS-Lowell dropped its second straight Hockey East game being shutout by Providence 3-0. Tyler Sims made 24 saves in the shutout.

And Minnesota got back on the right track defeating Minnesota State 5-2. Phil Kessel the top recruit in the country scored his first career goal on a penalty shot. What a way to get a first career goal it is very rare that this happens.

Tonight's action

Boston College faces Northeastern in the first of 4 meetings between each other.

UMASS-Lowell will look for its first Hockey East win as they face Providence again tonight at Tsongas Arena.

North Dakota will look for a clean sweep against UNH

Maine will face Alabama Huntsville once again before there first Hockey East game Friday night at Boston College.

And #1 Michigan will look to continue their winning ways as they face Michigan State for the first time this season.

College Hockey Preview East vs West showdown in Durham

This weeks big 2 game series happens to be another Hockey East/WCHA showdown where #8 North Dakota will travel to Durham to face #10 New Hampshire.

UNH is coming off a 1-1 weekend in Nebraska-Omaha losing to UNO in the "Maverick Stampede."

North Dakota on the other hand has already played 4 games with their only loss to Michigan State.

Look for UNH to start both goaltenders this weekend Jeff Pietrasiak and Kevin Regan who both saw action in the "Maverick Stampede" where Pietrasiak got the win against Ferris State.

Also look out for Daniel Winnik who was one of many 20 goal scorers last year. This season so far 7 different players who have scored goals.

For North Dakota Freshman T.J. Oshie has led the team in scoring tallying 1 goal and 5 assists for 6 points. Fellow Freshman Jonathan Toews and Ryan Duncan lead the team in goals scored with 2 so far and they have both also have 2 assists to their record.

Look for North Dakota to use their 2 goalies as well. Junior Jordan Parise, a hero from last years Frozen Four team, has 2 wins and has not yet let up a goal this season. Sophomore Phillipe Lamoureux has 1 win and a 2.02 goals against average.

In other major college hockey games this weekend, Alaska Fairbanks coming off a 3 point weekend at Minnesota will face their arch-rival Alaska Anchorage.

Notre Dame will travel to the Rocky Mountains to face Colorado College and Denver.

Maine will look to improve on its sweep against Denver as they Face Alabama Huntsville in Oreno for a 2 game series. Freshman goaltender Ben Bishop has been playing really well so far this year look for him to shine against UAH.

And top-ranked Michigan will face Michigan State for the first time this season.

Leetch gets 1000 points

Congratulations to Brian Leetch of the Bruins for being the 7th defensemen in NHL history to get 1000 points for a career a big milestone.

Bruins vs. Canadians preview

For many years the Boston Bruins and the Montreal Canadians have had great games. The second game of eight meetings this year will be tonight at the Bell Centre.

Bruins still have bitterness as they lost the first meeting this year 2-1 when Montreal scored with 11.1 seconds left in the third period.

That was one of many great games they have had over the years.

The Canadians have the edge in this series winning 312 games to the Bruins 253 and have had 105 ties in between.

Tonight the Bruins will be looking for their 4th win of the season, but will have to do it without their captain Joe Thornton and recently signed free agent Alexi Zhamnov.

After a 5-1 loss to Ottawa on Saturday the Bruins dropped to 3-3 and are last in the Northeast Division.

Montreal on the ohter hand is playing very well behind goaltender Jose Theodore.

Alexi Kovalev leads the Canadians with 6 points (1 goal, 5 assists) while linemate Saku Koivu has 5 points (2G, 3A)

The Bruins will look to end the road trip with at least one more point while the Canadians will try to continue its winning ways with the Bruins winning the last 4 games (Including Playoffs).

College Hockey Weekly Report

The University of Maine has waited two years for the oppurtunity to play Denver since they last played in the National Championship. Well it was well worth the wait.

On Friday night Maine defeated Denver 5-1 with Michel Leveille scored a goal and added an assist. Ben Bishop a freshman goalie from Des Peres, Missouri stopping 14 of 15 shots on goal.

The next night Maine again started Bishop this time stopping 21 of 23 shots as Maine defeated Denver 4-2 to complete the sweep of Denver. Josh Soares added a goal and an assist after scoring a goal on Friday.

In other College Hockey action this weekend:

BC defeated Bowling Green 9-6 after being defeated by Michigan 3-2 the night before.

BU opened up the Hockey East season by defeating UMASS-Lowell 3-1.

UNH Went 1-1 in the "Maverick Stampede" in Nebraska Omaha.

And the big shocker this weekend was out west where Alaska Fairbanks took 3 points going 1-0-1 this weekend against the #1 team in the country the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

Next weekends big 2 game series will be held in Durham, New Hampshire where the Wildcats and the North Dakota Fighting Sioux will battle in an East vs. West showdown.

Winners and Losers

Here are the winners and losers of this weeks NHL

Winners: Ottawa Seanators (Still the only undefeated team in the league)
Wins against Toronto 6-5 (OT) Montreal 4-2 and last night against
Boston 5-1.

Boston Bruins went 2-1 this week on their road trip with victories over the
defending Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers.

Detroit Red Wings went 2-0 on their road trip with victories over the Los Angeles
Kings and the Phoenix Coyotes.

Losers: Calgary Flames only 1 win this week against their arch rival Edmonton Oilers.
And their record stands at 2-3-1-0. For a team who was favorite to win the West
that is not a good start to the season.

Phoenix Coyotes went winless this week going 0-2-1-0 gaining only 1 point. This is
still a young team under coach Wayne Gretzky.

Pittsburgh Penguins still winless but at least Sidney Crosby is scoring. 0-1-2-0 this
week. On the year Pittsburgh has lost a total of 4 games in overtime. Not a good way
to start off the year.

Hockey East Picks

Since the first Hockey East conference game between BU and Umass-Lowell is tonight I got my conference picks here they are

1. Boston University
2. New Hampshire
3. Boston College
4. Maine
5. Umass-Lowell
6. Vermont
7. Providence
8. Northeastern
9. Umass-Amherst
10. Merrimack

Let the season begin

Boynton Returns

Nick Boynton will return to the Bruins lineup tommorrow night as the Bruins take on the Ottawa Senators.

Boynton who was a holdout all throughout the off season and missed all of traning camp signed a 1 year deal worth $1.75 million on Thursday.

Personally this is a good move to add some veteran leadership on the defense.

With Boynton now in the lineup expect Andrew Alberts, Milan Jurcina, or Kevin Dallman to go down to Providence to get some seasoning.

Jurcina, Alberts, and Dallman should be going back and forth between Providence and Boston during the season. But hey its the coaches decision not mine. After all I am only post hockey blogs daily.

Welcome Hockey Nuts

Yes the NHL is back and better then ever. For those of you who patiently waited welcome back to the new NHL after the longest year in sports.

I know I have been waiting for so long to see another Bruins game (My favorite team) and I bet you the fans can't wait to see your new favorite team.

For those of you who don't know me my name is Tim Rosenthal and I currently go to Suffolk University.

I will be updating this often with news, rumors, and my respective during the season.

I will also let you put in your own comments about this blog or anything about hockey (and I'll let you post about college hockey too if you like)

Thanks and lets have a good season

Bruins win 5-2

The Boston Bruins add another victory on this 6 game road trip as they defeat the Florida Panthers 5-2 to improve to 3-1 on this road trip.

Glen Murray (pictured on the left) had a goal (4th on the year) and an assist as well as Patrice Bergeron who scored his 3rd on the year.

Andrew Raycroft had 35 saves to earn his third victory of the season.

The Bruins will travel to Ottawa on Saturday with a true test against one of the best teams in the league right now.