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.