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.