Canada USA U22 Series: Where They're From and Where They Play

Canada and the USA are two thirds through their women's hockey U22 summer series, taking place in Calgary this year. At the U22 level, USA leads the series two games to none, with 4-1 and 3-1 wins (USA has empty net goals in each game). At the U18 level, the series is tied at one. The final games will be played on Sunday, and can be streamed on Hockeytv.com (login required, but no subscription required).

For NCAA fans, this is a chance to watch some of the best NCAA players play each other. The U22 team is essentially the development team, one level below the senior team that represents these countries in World Championships, the Four Nations and the Olympics.

It's the middle of summer, and the teams get assembled after a one week camp, so the players are not at peak season form, but it's still impressive, highly skilled hockey to watch. Most interesting is observing how players who are dominant at the NCAA level can get neutralized a bit, when you take the best Canadian and American players of the approximately 70 NCAA and USports teams, and pare it down to two teams. Because of the parity in talent, there are fewer high quality scoring chances created at this level, so the ability to score on the few chances created is invaluable.

Looking at the rosters is fun, just to give myself an idea of who to watch for in the upcoming NCAA season, as 40 of the 44 players will be playing NCAA next year. I posted the Canada and USA rosters below separately, sorted by home province/state. Then I posted the rosters combined, sorted by conference and school.

Roster takeaways:

The US U22 roster includes two Olympians in Maddie Rooney and Cayla Barnes. Barnes is the rare athlete who played her first Olympics before using any NCAA eligibility; she will be a freshman at BC this year. Canada's youngest Olympic hockey player in 2018 was Emily Clark, already 22 thus not on the U22 roster, but returning to Wisconsin this fall. The province and state with the most U22 players are Ontario with 9 players, and Minnesota with 8. The school with the most U22 players is Wisconsin, with seven. By conference the biggest takeaway is that the WCHA, a 7 team conference, has an incredible 20 players in the U22 programs of Canada and USA. You can also see that a majority of the Canadian U22 roster plays in the ECAC and CHA; while a majority of US roster plays in the WCHA and Hockey East.

The US roster is coached by Joel Johnson, long time Associate Head Coach at Minnesota. Canada's team is coached by Nadine Muzerall, going into her third year of being Head Coach at Ohio State.

Canada U22 Roster (may need to click on the image to make it bigger):

 

USA U22 Roster:

 

Combined USA and Canada U22 rosters, sorted by conference, then school: 

 

CHA News

Here's an assortment of CHA news from this summer with a ton of links. We've got coaching changes, National Camp attendees, CW and NW news, schedules are out, and a feature on a recent Syracuse grad.

1- Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Head Coach Scott McDonald steps down after 12 years and a 205-154-29 record. McDonald coached the team to a Division III National Championship in 2012, oversaw the team's transition to Division I and won two CHA Conference Tournaments in 2014 and 2015.

The CHA Tournament Championships were in large part due to the out of this world play of goaltender Ali Binnington, who made 62 and 44 stops in those double OT 2-1 tournament wins respectively. RIT was the recipient of the first ever CHA auto bid to the NCAA Tournament, in 2015.

More recently RIT has struggled, winning between 4 and 8 games in each of the last three seasons. One challenge facing the as yet unnamed new head coach is that RIT is not able to offer athletic scholarships because it is a Division III school that plays up to Division I in hockey, but switched to Division I too late to be grandfathered under the old rule which would allow scholarships. RIT, Union and the six Ivy schools with hockey are the only Division I programs not offering athletic scholarships to their players.

2- Mercyhurst hires Beth Hanrahan as assistant coach. Hanrahan replaces outgoing associate head coach Lou Goulet. Hanrahan is a 2015 graduate of Providence and played one year in the NWHL. She has assistant coaching experience at Shattuck Saint Mary's and comes to Mercyhurst from an assistant coaching position at Lindenwood. So, while Mercyhurst fills a coaching vacancy, CHA member Lindenwood now has a new vacancy.

3- Both the Canadian and American USA  hockey camps are happening right now for the U18 and U22 teams. CHA representatives in Canada include: Allie Munroe (Syracuse); Kirsten Welch, Jaycee Gebhard and Brittany Howard (Robert Morris); Alexa Vasko (Mercyhurst). On the USA side, Taylor Heising (Penn State) is a part of the U22 camp.

There are several CHA alums on the coaching staff, one of whom made news today. Candice Moxley, an alum of  the defunct Niagara University Purple Eagles, was named head coach of the Western Mustangs, a USports team in London, Ontario.

4- CHA alums are declaring for the CWHL draft, which take place August 26th. Alysha Burris (Syracuse), Brittany Howard (RMU), Natalie Fraser (RMU) and Elijah Milne-Price (RMU) have declared. Howard was featured as CWHL top prospect, and Pension Plan Puppets have a feature on Milne-Price.

5- Jess Jones (Mercyhurst '12) has returned to the CWHL after one year in the NWHL. She will play for the Markham Thunder. As a Mercyhurst Laker Jones amassed an incredible 154 points, the 7th most of any Laker all-time.

6- Emily Janiga (Mercyhurst '16) has returned to the NWHL after one year in the CWHL. She will play for her hometown Buffalo Beauts after playing for the Vanke Rays in China last year. As a Mercyhurst Laker Jania amassed an incredible 150 points, the 8th most of any Laker all-time. Janiga was interviewed on the Founding Four pod; her interview starts at about the 45 minute mark.

Other CHA alums that have signed with Buffalo Beauts (link to the very long NWHL free agent tracker) include Julia DiTonda and Taylor Accursi, who both played for Merchurst, as well as Nicole Hensley who played for Lindenwood.

7- Most of the CHA schedules are out:

Mercyhurst has a challenging non conference schedule once again. They will play Minnesota, Wisconsin, Bemidji, Ohio State, Colgate, Cornell, and Union. The schedule is similar to last year except instead of 4 games against SLU and RPI, Mercyhurst plays 3 games against Cornell and Union. The slate includes four NCAA Tournament teams.

Robert Morris' non conference schedule includes St. Lawrence, Clarkson, RPI, Colgate, Minnesota State University, Cornell, and Minnesota. This non conference schedule is more difficult than RMU's 2017-2018 schedule. It includes the 2018 National Champion and runner up, plus Minnesota who will be returning Olympians and was also an NCAA Tournament team. St.Lawrence and Cornell are typically strong teams hovering around the 10th spot in the nation or better.

Penn State's schedule is not yet released, but it includes no WCHA teams which means no Big Ten teams. That has to be a first for the program but is perhaps not surprising given Coach Kampersal's long ties to the ECAC. Known non-conference games include Colgate, Merrimack, RPI and Princeton. There are possibly 3 more non conference teams to add to that. Penn State had a tough schedule last year; thus far this year's looks a bit weaker. They are already a team on the rise with Kampersal, fans can expect their win total of to increase this year.

Syracuse's non conference schedule includes one game vs each of BC, Vermont, and RPI; and two game series vs Clarkson, Cornell, Wisconsin, Colgate, and Princeton. As part of the Vermont WindJammer Classic, Syracuse will also play one game versus either St. Lawrence or Minnesota. So, another tough non conference schedule that includes potentially 5 of the NCAA Tournament teams.

RIT's non conference schedule includes Holy Cross, St. Cloud, Union, RPI, Dartmouth, BU, and Brown. In that group, only Holy Cross had a wining record last year, although they played a mostly Division II schedule. Holy Cross joined Hockey East and will play a Division I schedule this year.

Lindenwood has not yet released their schedule although we know from the WCHA schedule it includes four games against St. Cloud,  and two games against Wisconsin.

8- Last but not least, here's a link to a Pucks and Recreation feature about Stephanie Grossi, a Syracuse graduate who plans to start med school in 2019. Grossi is the all time points leader for the 11 year old Syracuse program, with 117 points.

What I want for women's pro hockey

Last week the news broke that US Olympians Kacey Bellamy and Brianna Decker had signed with the Calgary Inferno of the CWHL. My initial reaction was excitement, but that only lasted a second. Then I was bummed, thinking I don't want all the talent going to the CW since I'm more likely to watch the NW, being in the States. (And all the talent is not in the CW, that's just the thought I had). As fun as watching free agency is, I wish we had one league. And it took me a little while to get there, but I'd like to hear more about this potential NHL backed women's pro league. Maybe that's the solution.

Anyway, it got me thinking about what I'd really like to see from women's hockey at the pro level. We talk about one league, but we don't always articulate why, or what specifically we think one league might deliver. We talk about moving the women's game forward but don't define what that means, necessarily.

Here's just a few things of what my dream league would look like:

Living wages for players. Right now as far as I know the players making a living wage via hockey in the NWHL and the CWHL are the ambassadors in China, and the USWNT players (who are paid by USA Hockey). So that's about 35 players. Between the two leagues you've got 11 teams, let's assume 25 players a team, so 275 players. So 13% of the pro players earn a living wage, and 87% play for a stipend and the love of the game. And in order for the CWHL players to earn their stipend, they have to take a road trip to China which means taking time off work. To me, figuring out how to pay the players a living wage should be the number one focus of either commissioner. Living wages matters for a lot of reasons, but one is simply that anytime you expand the ways in which a person can earn a living, that's a good thing.

I'd like to see living wages for the rest of jobs that go with a hockey league, and I'd like to see women employed in at least 50% of those roles. But the highest priority should be getting the players paid.

Raise the level of play by having best on best. You get best on best by having one premier professional league, where the vast majority of the best play. When you watch college hockey you are watching players of all nationalities play together but it's not true best on best, because players graduate, and we start over with new freshmen every year, not to mention not all players choose NCAA. At the pro level, without one premier pro league we aren't seeing best on best because the players are scattered all over, including European leagues. In international play we see darn near best on best with Canada, US, Finland. But even watching Canada or USA play other countries, it often turns into a blow out so it's best on one side, and something else on the other. With one true premier pro league, where you play irrespective of age or nationality we could finally watch best on best, all the time.

Raise the level of play by keeping the best in the game longer. You keep the best in the game longer paying them a living wage, and giving them a place to play that appeals to them. A few years back my adult women's rec team had a retired US Olympian on it, and a former NCAA Champion, among other former college players of varying levels, plus some women who picked up the game late in life. So at least two of these players could be legit NW or CW players but they chose not to be. Right now we look at the NW and CW, and say wow, that's great hockey. And it is, but it could be even better if the players were paid a living wage and all great hockey players were incentivized to go pro. Right now, because the financial incentive isn't there, the game is losing some of its best players before they've even hit their prime. Paying living wages could fix this.

Expand the geographical blueprint of where the best play. Right now in North America, there is pro women's hockey in 5 American cities and 4 Canadian cities. I would even consider Markham/Toronto the same, so it's eight. If you don't live near Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, Boston, Buffalo, Connecticut, Newark and now St. Paul, you don't get to see pro women's hockey live. In the United States at least, the determining factor for who gets a team appears to be driven by where they could fill out a roster. This means college hockey hotbeds get teams. In other words, places that already have access to watching women's hockey played at a high level. But that's not enough, you also have to be geographically close to each other to get a team. Minnesota always had the players and passion to support a pro team, but geography and travel costs meant they didn't get one until this year. Pittsburgh probably has the passion, isn't terrible on geography, but it has been argued it doesn't yet have enough good players living in the area to field a team. How do we change this? Pay living wages! Make it worthwhile to move somewhere to be part of the NWHL. Give people in new geographical areas the chance to watch women's hockey played at the highest level. It's worth noting that Pittsburgh actually does have D1 college hockey in Robert Morris, but Detroit, and Chicago for example, do not. Imagine what a women's pro team could mean to women's hockey fans there.

Get the games on TV. I understand that a league can't expand everywhere. If you can't watch it live, watching a professional broadcast on TV at least allows you to cheer for your team and be part of a fandom. I understand CWHL has a Sportsnet deal (expires this summer or end of next season I think, that will be a big deal to see what happens there), but here in the States women's ice hockey is not nationally broadcast. For me personally, not having a local pro team and not having it on TV, means the actual games played in the NW have not generated passion or excitement for me the way following the college game does. Consuming the product - watching it on my computer - doesn't really feel any different from a college game to me. That said, the NWHL being the first North American league to pay players, the Twitter deal, the grassroots efforts by the players, the NHL partnerships, providing a place to play for USWNT players when the CW wasn't really serving them; the significance of those things is not lost on me and I am immensely impressed by and grateful for what Dani Rylan and her team have done.

Looking to basketball, the WNBA has an ESPN deal which broadcasts 13 regular season games plus every playoff game. Last week my family had the WNBA's Lynx vs the Liberty on the TV one night. The game came down to being tied in the last minute of play, and the Lynx got the win at home. I am a novice with basketball knowledge, been following the league only a few months, but it was just FUN to watch a women's game on a television instead of a computer. It's a different experience having it on the TV that everyone is hearing vs one person watching it on a computer. It was a Players Only broadcast, and so we watched the women play, and the broadcast was by former stars Lisa Leslie, Rebecca Lobo, and Kara Lawson. It was really cool; now let's do it for women's hockey.

Maintain an "Everyone is welcome" culture. There is a now retired podcast out there called "She Shoots, She Scores," by people that I know only as Brad and Lise-Marie, fans of the Canadiennes. Listening to these two made me want to live in Montreal and be a Canadiennes fan. They made the atmosphere at a Canadiennes game sound incredibly welcoming, plus they were passionate about debating the hockey and all that went with it. Funny story, it's an English speaking podcast, but Lise-Marie kept saying "Caro," pronounced in French of course, on the first episode I listened to. Over and over, I heard her talk about Caro and how great she was. I'm like who the heck is Caro? I've never heard of her! Then, my English brain finally caught on. Care-oh-line Oh-let as I pronounce it English. Yea, Caro is pretty good. 

Anyway, Brad and Lise-Marie encouraged people to participate in CWHL fandom in anyway that worked for them, including volunteering. And they put not one single criteria on who was welcome. No matter who you are, no matter your hockey knowledge or background, you were welcome. Lise-Marie literally said in one episode, "if you are a person on this earth, the CWHL is for you." Pretty cool. It reminded me of all my playing experiences with women's hockey. I never played on a team where someone wasn't welcome, probably because women's hockey always needed numbers so you ended up on a team with people of all different ages and abilities. But you were a part of the team, and you were not just welcome, you were needed, and there was always just this anything goes, no matter who you are, you are welcome vibe. It's one of the coolest things I experienced as an athlete and if we can replicate that in pro hockey fandom, let's do it.

More coverage of women's hockey, more people participating in the conversation about women's hockey. Last but not least the topic of media coverage. I'm not going to beat this to death as I think it's been covered. We need more mainstream coverage for sure. Certain small outlets covering it now, but doing a great job include The Ice Garden, The Victory Press, Women's Hockey Wednesday on Pension Plan Puppets, and Women's Hockey Life. Discovering that that group exists was the thing that brought be to following women's ice hockey as a fan. I played for over 20 years but until I found these guys, it never clicked as a fan.

Mainstream outlets produce content as well, my favorite is definitely the Athletic. We need more of everything though, more media, more voices, more bloggers, more transparency and communication from leagues and teams, more people talking about it on twitter, more podcasts, more making it easy to find the stuff that does exist, more everything. Not a shocker right?

So that's my incomplete list of my dream for pro women's hockey: living wages for the players, women working in every aspect of the league, best on best in one league, hockey teams in new markets, a chance to watch games on TV, a welcoming culture, and more coverage. There are things I didn't even touch on, but this is more than long enough. What's on your list?

2017-18 Memorable Moment #1: Winning the CHA Tournament

I'm counting down the memorable moments of the Mercyhurst hockey season. Here are links to moment 10, moment 9, moment 8, moment 7, moment 6, moment 5, moment 4, moment 3 and moment 2.


2017-2018 Memorable Moment #1: Mercyhurst wins the CHA Tournament, vs Robert Morris University in the final played on March 3rd

The most memorable moment of the year for me as a fan had to be watching Mercyhurst win the CHA Tournament versus Robert Morris. I streamed the game online, connected my computer to the TV and watched "on TV." It was of course, a great while ago, played on March 3rd, but fun to look back on nonetheless.

This marked the second year that CHA hosted their tournament at the Harbor Center in Buffalo. Previously, the tournament was hosted by the winner of the regular season, and in the early years of the league, the hosting role rotated on a set schedule amongst the teams.  In my day, the league was so small, we got to host the tourney in my freshman and senior years.

For logistical reasons alone, I'm fine with the Harbor Center as host. I can't imagine the last minute planning required to host at the regular season champ, and some of the rinks in the league are kind of underwhelming. Why not play in the newer, nicer Harbor Center to end the season? Add in the fact that it's nearby three of the six schools in the league (RIT, Syracuse, Mercyhurst), in a league with rosters full of Ontario and Western New York players, and I think it's even better. Harbor Center is home to the Buffalo Beauts of the NWHL, so playing there is a taste of what is to come, for the handful of CHA players that will end up in the NWHL.

So as a live site, I think the Harbor Center is great. I would like to see the CHA up the production value of their stream for the tournament as well as make it free to get more eyes on the league, but even having a stream is a huge step forward from where we once were. The best part of production this year was the guy calling the action. I believe it was Ryan Burgess, he gave a passionate call and did a pretty good job, in my opinion. Melissa Burgess of Victory Press attended as well, live tweeting the game (and writing about it), which was a nice touch.

The 2017-2018 CHA Conference Tournament final was between Mercyhurst and Robert Morris. The teams had split both series with each other during the year, but RMU won the regular season by two points. In the CHA Tournament Mercyhurst beat Syracuse 2-1 in OT, to advance to the final, while RMU destroyed Penn State 7-2. I've heard other women's hockey fans refer to Mercyhurst as an underdog in the final. I think saying RMU was slightly favored might be defensible, but really, going into the final game you had to think it could easily go either way.

At the time, thinking of things that gave Mercyhurst an edge, I was focused on how Mercyhurst did a good job keeping Brittany Howard in check this season. Going into the CHA final, Howard averaged 1.5 points per game on the season, but a point a game against Mercyhurst. I should have also considered Emma Nuutinen coming back from the Olympics would be playing at a higher gear. The CHA Tournament marked Nuutinen's return to NCAA play. She scored the OT winner vs Syracuse in the semi, and had a two goal, one assist game vs RMU in the final. In hindsight, Nuutinen should have been a very obvious x-factor to consider when looking at two otherwise closely matched teams.
 

Here's video footage of the goals in the game, truly a bunch of beautiful goals in a game that was won 5-3 by Mercyhurst:




RMU takes the lead at 6:43 of the first, on a power play goal. The play starts in the corner in the Mercyhurst end. Jaycee Gebhard quickly makes a long pass to Maggie Lague on the point. Lague drags the puck to the center of the ice, then dishes to Emily Curlett, who fires it into the back of the net from the top of the circle.

The Lakers tie it with a power play goal by Nuutinen at 13:04 of the first period. Marmen carries the puck into the zone on a 3 on 2, selling a pass to Vasko who is driving the net. Instead of that pass though, Marmen drops the puck to Nuutinen, who also scores from the top of the circle.

The tie lasts only a minute though, when who else but Brittany Howard gives RMU a 2-1 lead. Howard finds herself alone with the puck between the bottom of the circle and the goal line, and puts in a wrister from a very difficult angle. It would prove to be the prolific goal scorer's final collegiate goal, and in true Howard fashion, it was a beauty. Also, in true Howard, fashion, the violent celebration after, as she crashes into her teammate in celebration! Kids these days. I will miss Howard, but I won't miss Mercyhurst having to defend her. I hope she signs in the NWHL.


The period ends 2-1, with RMU carrying momentum into the break.

I don't know what happened between periods, if anything, but the Lakers came out flying and the Colonials came out not necessarily flat, but making turnovers that cost them. Eventually Mercyhurst ran away with the momentum of the game:

Early in the second period, Alexa Vasko ended up with the puck after an RMU turnover in the neutral zone. She led a two on one (maybe even a three on one) into the RMU zone. The defender took away the pass, forcing Vasko to shoot. From just above the left face off dot Vasko, snapped a puck that appeared to go in on the right side of goaltender Elijah Milne Price. Tie game, on an incredibly timely first collegiate goal for Vasko. Watch the video. The intern has the music cued up perfectly, and you will smile watching the goal and celebration.

The Colonials needed to respond, and instead had a costly turnover four and a half minutes later. In the RUM zone, already in a cluster of people, a Colonial defender attempted a short pass from the top of the circle to another Colonial mid ice on the blue line. Tanskanen intercepted the pass, settled the puck on the half wall, and fed the puck to Rachel Marmen, now set up on the point. Marmen settled the puck, then snapped it on net without a single puck handle. The quick release plus traffic in front of goaltender Milne-Price, resulted in a goal and the Lakers first lead of the game.

So it was now 3-2, thanks to goals from Nuutinen, Vasko (her first), and Marmen (her second of the year). I wasn't expecting Mercyhurst to put up another one as that's just not how RMU vs Mercyhurst games go. However, as Nuutinen went one on one with a Colonial defender late in the second period, I thought to myself, I've seen this before and know how this ends. Nuutinen puck the puck through the defenders legs, a couple more stick handles to deke the goalie, and backhand puck is in the back of the net. Party on the half wall. 4-2 Lakers, and that'll do it for the second period.

The third period was without drama, rare for an RMU Mercyhurst game and a testament to how much this Mercyhurst team improved from the beginning of the year until now. That first game back in December played between these squads was a nail biter that required a third period breakaway stop by Kennedy Blair on Brittany Howard, among other things, to preserve the win. This third period was at times boring, for the way Mercyhurst pulled away however I am not complaining.

At 11:18 of the third, senior Jennifer MacAskill scored and Mercyhurst was up 5-2 (not featured in the  highlights). Things got a bit chippy as RMU saw their season coming to an end. They regained their composure a bit and got the score to within two, on a goal by Gazzola, but it wouldn't be enough.

The Lakers became CHA Tournament Champions and advanced to the NCAA Tournament, concluding the 16th season of College Hockey America. RMU, defeated in the conference tournament, takes solace in their second consecutive regular season conference championship. 

***

Since so much of what I write is merely me looking for context, I decided to look up the regular season and conference champions, for each of the four leagues for the past four years.  The results show that each of the leagues are typically dominated by two teams, with the occasional presence of a third:

7 Quick (Hockey) Takes

Years ago, I read a mommy blog that regularly posted "7 Quick Takes" every Friday. This was before hot takes; the takes had no temperature. So today I offer you, 7 quick hockey takes.

1- Mercyhurst's Mike Sisti was inducted into the Erie Sports Hall of Fame last night, along side 11 other inductees. Sisti is currently 2nd in all time wins for NCAA Division 1 Women's Hockey, with 462, and is the only head coach the Mercyhurst's women's program has ever had. The induction is no surprise.

2- Providence concluded their coaching search recently, announcing Matt Kelly as the new head coach. Kelly spent his entire career in women's hockey, with his most notable accomplishments being an assistant coach at the NCAA winning Clarkson team of 2014, and then being a scout for the US Women's National Program since 2014. Although he doesn't have head coaching experience, being part of the staff that broke the WCHA strangle hold on the National Championship speaks volumes. It's not unreasonable to think Kelly will continue to get opportunities with USA Hockey as well on the coaching side now, which I imagine only helps recruiting. Basically, I think this is a hire that has promise.

3- One of Kelly's challenges will be out recruiting BC, who has dominated Hockey East for several years. BC has won the regular season in Hockey East 4 of the last 4 years, and their conference tourney 2 of the last four years. But in addition to BC, Kelly's Providence will need to beat Northeastern, who won the Hockey East tourney this year. Northeastern announced their incoming 2018-2019 class this week. Of note was Alina Mueller, a two time Olympian for Switzerland. The Ice Garden pegged her as someone to watch in their Olympic previews, and they were right. Mueller led the tournament in points, with 10. That's a little misleading as Switzerland was in Group B, but I'm still excited to watch Mueller next year. If anything her performance could be an indicator of how the international Group B level compares to NCAA. Northeastern streams all their home games for free, and it's a quality feed worth watching, btw.

4- The NCAA rules committee approved some changes for the 2018-2019 season, impacting both men's and women's hockey. One of the changes is overtime, whereby the committee mandated that all leagues will do a five minute OT, and end in a tie if need be. In addition to that, each team gets a time out to use during the OT, regardless of if they already used their timeout earlier in the game.

Many leagues are pushing back on the OT rule change, because they don't like ties, want to play 3 on 3, or just want decision making autonomy at the league level of play. The oversight committee has a final vote on July 25, so whether the new rules actually come into effect is still in question. I haven't heard anyone talk about the additional time out given for OT, and that's the part of the rule I'm interested in. I think the additional time out might help underdog teams even the playing field a bit as it will give them a chance to give their best line a breather and squeeze one more shift into an OT, to counter the depth of their opposition. It might be enough for an underdog team to stave off an OT loss, or even help earn an OT win. I'm all for it, as a fan of a bubble top ten team that occasionally sees itself in OT versus some of the nation's best.

5- The Athletic posted a Q&A with Sami Jo Small, GM of the Toronto Furies, CWHL. One of the questions was "What does Hockey Canada have to do to catch up to the Americans, who have won the last four world championships and, now, an Olympic gold?" Isn't that something? Small didn't bat an eye at the question, so my perception is that she accepts Canada is now chasing the USA. I think many hockey fans would agree. It's not noted in the article, but the US has also won the last four U18 World Championships. Among other points, Small talks about the need for Hockey Canada to be more supportive of the CWHL in order to develop players, and I could not agree with her more. The same point applies to USA Hockey and the NWHL, but because USA Hockey probably has a closer relationship with the NCAA and appears to have the edge in player development right now, I'd say Hockey Canada (or anyone) supporting the CWHL in a way that develops its elite post college players, is more critical need right now.

6- Small also indicates that she thinks USA will have a competitive edge merely because of the population in USA relative to Canada. It's an interesting argument, one I hadn't heard before. It certainly sounds reasonable, but just seeing what I see in Ohio with the lack of rinks I don't know.

I know in Columbus, rinks are essentially built and operated by a company that has ties to the Blue Jackets. They are doing great work, but the population of Columbus is about 860,000 people, and there are 10 sheets of ice available for public use in Ohio. So 86,000 people per rink. By contrast my little town I grew up in, in Canada, had three rinks, about 4,000 people per rink.

I would love to see an explosion in ice hockey players in the US, particularly Ohio, but as an adult I am finally seeing the barriers to entry that I always heard about growing up, like rink shortages.  In Ohio, we have so much work to do. We've had an NHL team for almost two decades, we have an NCAA Division 1 hockey program at Ohio State. In a state of over $11 million people we have...900 female players, aged 19 and younger. 

 7- By contrast Minnesota has a population of about 5.6 million people and 12,000 female hockey players, 19 and younger. Hey Minnesota, what's your secret? Please send us some rinks and hockey pr people.

That's all. Happy Friday. Draft well, Blue Jackets. 

2017-2018 Memorable Moment #2: Representing Mercyhurst in the NCAA Tournament

I'm counting down the memorable moments of the Mercyhurst hockey season. Here are links to moment 10, moment 9, moment 8, moment 7, moment 6, moment 5, moment 4, moment 3.


2017-2018 Memorable Moment #2: Mercyhurst takes on #1 Clarkson in the NCAA Quartfinals, Losing 2-1 (OT)

By virture of winning the College Hockey America (CHA) tournament, Mercyhurst earned an auto bid to the NCAA Tournament. The tournament has four autobids, one for the winner of each conference tournament, and the remaining four spots go to the highest ranked teams per the pair wise ranking. This year neither Mercyhurst nor Northeastern (Hockey East) were ranked in the top eight per the pair wise, but each team won their conference tournament, displacing the 7th and 8th ranked team from the NCAA tournament. The other conference championship winners, Minnesota (WCHA) and Clarkson (ECAC) were both ranked in the top 8, so teams weren't further displaced.

No 8 seed has ever beaten a 1 seed, and sadly for Mercyhurst fans, it didn't happen this year either. The game was held in Potsdam, New York, home of the Clarkson Golden Knights. Potsdam is 372 miles northeast of Erie, about a six hour bus ride. I'll cut to the chase: Mercyhurst was a heavy underdog going into the game, and despite playing a great game, lost 2-1 in overtime.  You play to win the game, and there is no satisfaction in losing, but Mercyhurst represented itself well that day.

Mercyhurst took the lead in the game at 19:39 of the second. Nuutinen had set up on the half wall and passed to Molly Blasen at the point, who blasted a puck on net, tipped in by Brooke Hartwick. One goal against the 2nd highest rated offense in the nation wouldn't be enough. Pejzlova of Clarkson scored on the power play at 5:30 of the third, and Giguere finished the Lakers off at 16:52 in OT, with her 26th goal of the season.

Shots were 32-28 in favor in Clarkson, Clarkson went 1 for 5 on the power play, and Mercyhurst went 0 for 3.

Some thoughts on the game:
1- It was of course, the seniors last game. Brooke Hartwick (F), Callie Paddock (D) and Jennifer MacAskill (F), finish their four year careers with two NCAA Tournament appearances, two CHA tournament championships, and two regular season CHA championships. The team finished with a top ten ranking in the national polls for the first time all year. They sit ranked at 10th, of the 34 Division I teams.

2- The graduating trio  accounted for 23 goals this year out of 94 Mercyhurst goals. Assuming no transfers, Mercyhurst will return 75.5 percent of its scoring in 2018-2019; compared to returning 40.22% of goals in 2017-2018.

3- The improvement of Mercyhurst from the start of the season to the end was noticeable, thinking back to the first series against Wisconsin. Watching that first series, the Finns were very comfortable holding the puck, maybe even too much, and the other Lakers much less so. Meanwhile, Wisconsin seemed to receive passes, protect the puck as they figured out what they wanted to do with it, and then go about doing it. By the end of the year, Mercyhurst had a lot more balance I felt, the Finns distributing the puck, the rest of the team exhibiting patience and execution not seen earlier in the year. Every season is new and different; there are players that regress or break out year to year, but barring any major transfers I'm optimistic about next year.

4- They say if you can't skate, you can't play. Flipping that around, if you CAN skate, you can dominate. I'm thinking about Giguere and Gabel of Clarkson and their ability to score off the rush. Clarkson is not a team that dominated Mercyhurst in time of possession, but the speed that Giguere and Gabel operate at proved costly to the Lakers; their OT goal certainly wasn't their first scary chance of the game either.

After dispatching Mercyhurst, Clarkson beat Ohio State in OT on a Gabel goal off a rush, and they won the tournament vs Colgate after Giguere fought for a puck in the neutral zone, and went one on one, got knocked to her knees, recovered and deked the goalie to win it all, also in OT. While I didn't watch them all season, it was their skating that impressed me more than anything in the NCAA tourney. They are both back at Clarkson next year.There are no USA or Canada Olympians returning to their conference, so I expect those two to tear up the scoresheet once again.

5- Watching Mercyhurst versus Clarkson once again affirmed how close Mercyhurst is after all these years, despite what the numbers told us about this match up before the game.  If there is one area to improve it's their power play. With a power play percentage of 12.82%, the Lakers had the  26th ranked power play in the nation this year. The other teams in the NCAA Tournament had power play rankings from 24% to 16% percent. Even getting their percentage to 16%, Mercyhurst would add 5 goals at the rate they draw penalties, not insignificant when you consider they had 4 ties and 9 one goal losses this year.

6- It's worth noting something on the schedules: Of the seven other teams in the NCAA tournament Mercyhurst had played four during the regular season, plus Clarkson in tournament. Northeastern was the only other NCAA Tournament team had played that many. On USCHO, Northeastern is listed as having the toughest strength of schedule for the 17-18 season, and Mercyhurst is all the way down at 29th, but I guess it's because Mercyhurst's weak opponents are deemed weaker than Northeastern's. Regardless, the point is that Mercyhurst played a pretty monster non conference schedule this past year, which is daunting but a pretty fun opportunity for the players, too.

Having played so many teams participating in the NCAA Tourney, it's not surprising then that Mercyhurst had played against every team in the Frozen Four - overtime losses to Colgate and Clarkson, a win and close loss against OSU, and a tough opening series versus Wisconsin. Playing a tough out of conference schedule undoubtedly helped Mercyhurst get better. Their schedule looks similar next year, so it will be a good challenge for Mercyhurst to improve upon their 3-10-1 non conference record, and another great opportunity to prepare them for the NCAA Tourney, should they be so fortunate as to return either with an at large or auto bid.

7- With the loss the Lakers NCAA quarterfinal record goes to 4-8-0. All but two of those appearances were at large bids; the 2016 and 2018 appearances were auto bids. I don't know what to make of it, but 5 of the 8 losses occurred in overtime (as did 1 of the 4 wins). Here's to getting back to the tourney next year.

2017-2018 Memorable Moment #3: Tanskanen's Hat Trick vs Syracuse

I'm counting down the memorable moments of the Mercyhurst hockey season. Here are links to moment 10, moment 9, moment 8, moment 7, moment 6, moment 5, moment 4.

2017-2018 Memorable Moment #3: Tanskanen Scores a Hat Trick at Syracuse on January 27

This memory is about seeing a display of excellence in the wake of individual disappointment.

When it was announced that Finnish hockey players and former UND Fighting Hawks Emma Nuutinen and Vilma Tanskanen were coming to Mercyhurst, one of the questions was whether they would both be 2018 Olympians. Both players were 2014 Olympians for Finland. In the end sophomore Nuutinen was selected for the 2018 Olympics and junior Tanksanen was named first alternate, but did not make the team.

Publicly, Tanskanen showed complete grace with her comments, making the already likeable hockey player even more so. Per Mercyhurst's website:

"Words can't really tell how disappointed I am," said Tanskanen of not making the Olympic roster. "I worked really hard for it but sometimes it's not enough. But it's still a great honor to be named an alternate and I am ready if Team Finland needs me. I am really happy for Emma because she has been working really hard. It's a huge honor for her and she is like my sister, so I am so happy for her."

The roster was named on January 22nd, and four days later the Lakers took on Syracuse in a CHA series. After hoping all week that Nuutinen would be around for game one, I learned she was going to be available. I was happy, but despite Nuutinen playing, Syracuse won game one. Nuutinen departed for the Olympics, and the Lakers had another game to play.

Next day, new day, new game. Who was going to lead the Lakers to a win? Vilma Tanskanen, that's who. Knocked down, but not out, Vilma scored the eventual game winner late in the first. She scored again early in the third, and finished the hat trick with a power play goal late in the third. The Lakers won 4-0. It was Tanksanen's first collegiate hat trick, and the first Mercyhurst Laker hat trick since 2014.

I was happy for her. I doubt it eases the pain of not making the Olympics, but it was a display of excellence, perseverance and self confidence in her own game that any fan and athlete could enjoy and be inspired by. There's a lesson in there somewhere, I'm sure.

Tanskanen was quiet on the scoreboard the next couple weeks, but finished the CHA season with a 4 game point streak, including two assists in the CHA playoffs. She finished 2nd on the team in points with 27 in 33 games, first in goals with 14, and had the second best shooting percentage with 14%.

As a rising senior, Tanskanen will be a key piece of Mercyhurst's offense in 2018-2019, just like she was all year, and especially on that day of her hat trick, in January.