I would like to take this opportunity to point out that as of today, the NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament Committee is officially considering the following teams for their postseason tournament:

Northeastern: 11-14-3, tied for 8th in Hockey East, 30th out of 59 in RPI.

Alaska: 11-15-4, 10th place in CCHA, 31st out of 59 in RPI

Providence: 12-14-2, tied for 8th in Hockey East, 32nd out of 59 in RPI

Those are not NCAA tournament teams. I could figure that out without the help of the calculator.

Defenders of the Pairwise system will say that we're not at the end of the season, and that it's only a terrible math system one day per year, instead of a terrible math system every day of the year. It's true that the bottom end of the TUC Cliff will look different on Selection Sunday, but it won't look that different. Out of the grouping of Northeastern, Alaska, Providence, Massachusetts, RIT, Wisconsin and Michigan Tech, about half will end on the right side of the "Under Consideration" and the other half won't, and it will be those literally-below-average teams that end up determining the final makeup of the NCAA tournament..

When the PWR system was first devised by the NCAA tournament committee, the only teams they looked at were the four or five teams around the bubble for the last couple at-large bids. Everybody else was clearly in the tournament, or clearly out of the tournament. As the general public tried to reverse-engineer the process used by the committee, they came up with the formula that is currently used today. The number of teams "under consideration" was raised to any team with an RPI over .500, then to the top 25 teams in the RPI for a while, and now back to any team with an RPI over .500. This year is especially bad because with no really great teams at the top, and a few very bad teams at the bottom, the number of teams with a +.500 RPI is an unwieldy 30-ish teams.

Having more teams than necessary under consideration creates two problems. The first problem is that comparing a top team like Ferris State or even a bubble team like Ohio State or North Dakota to a team so significantly behind them in the RPI like Alaska or Providence is that it can only produce two types of information: information that is useless, or information that is flat-out incorrect. There's no point to comparing teams with such a wide disparity in RPI because we already know which team is better. The Pairwise system was created to help adjust small flaws in the RPI, not completely override it. All including those clearly-not-in-the-tournament teams does is create the possibility of a legitimate contender losing a comparison based on some flukey coincidences to a team they are clearly better than. So far, this year's table looks pretty good in terms of outlying comparisons, but there is still that possibility.

The second problem is that the current system completely devalues the purpose of comparing the records of "teams under consideration". As it stands now, a game against Ferris State or Boston College counts the exact same as a game against Alaska or Providence, even though it is quite there is a wide gap in quality between those two teams.

So what are the solutions to this? The simple solution is to go back to a hard cap of teams under consideration. I'd set the cap at 20 teams. It's still not a perfect system. No matter where you draw the line, there is still going to the major issue of the TUC Cliff with this system. At least with only 20 teams, all the teams included have at least a reasonable claim to being considered for the tournament, and the last team to be a TUC likely wouldn't be that far in terms of RPI from the 14th or 15th team in the RPI, eliminating the possibility of a crazy outlying comparison changing the tournament field.

The other, better, but also more complicated solution involves using the individual comparison categories as a way of adjusting RPIs to determine comparisons. For example, let's take one of the current tables more outlying comparisons between RPI #8 Michigan State and RPI #18 Notre Dame. Michigan State holds a fairly decisive .5436 to .5324 RPI advantage, but Notre Dame leads in TUC (12-12-3 to 11-12-4) and Common Opponents (.5972 to .5333) to win the comparison 2 to 1. A modified RPI system would say MSU has a 2.5 game advantage in terms of RPI(this is a rough estimate, and would be calculated as a percentage). Notre Dame has a half game advantage in TUC and one game advantage in common opponents. Add that up and MSU would still win the comparison with a one-game advantage in RPI.

This system eliminates the possibility of a solid advantage in RPI being outweighed by two miniscule advantages in the other comparison categories. Again, there's still the issue of which teams count in the TUC category of the comparison, but that will almost always be the case. It also has the disadvantage of making the math involved virtually impossible for the average fan to calculate or even understand. But ultimately, if the math is better, that's probably the way they should go.

A Googling public has spoken. Lots of people seem interested in the soon-to-be-viral video of Detroit Lakes senior forward Alex Mason scoring a ridiculous shorthanded breakaway goal. That's a fantastic play, and something I've never really seen before. That goal was one of two goals scored by Mason in Detroit Lakes 5-1 win over Bagley/Fosston on February 10th. He followed that up with 2 goals and 3 assists the following night in a 5-1 win over Northern Lakes.

Mason is an interesting story. He's a Native American from the White Earth Indian Reservation, but chose to go to school at Detroit Lakes to help his hockey career. Mason currently leads Detroit Lakes' team with 14 goals and 23 assists for 37 points in 24 games. He appears to have junior hockey aspirations after this year, and plays like that should help get his name out there.

Michigan State came back from a 2-0 deficit to beat Michigan 3-2 thanks to 2 goals and an assist from defenseman Torey Krug. Krug was outstanding in this game. He's without a doubt an all-CCHA defenseman, and a case could be made for him being an all-American. Also of note, MSU held a skills competition this past week, and Krug put up some crazy numbers in the hardest shot competition. He's got tremendous power for such a small player.

Both of the nationally televised WCHA games drew some attention, and not for good reasons. North Dakota won the game 3-1, while Duluth picked up two major penalties in the game. The first one looked pretty legit as Joe Basaraba flung a North Dakota player pretty dangerously into the boards. I didn't see the second, a hit from behind by JT Brown, but all reports were that that one was even worse.

Meanwhile, a 5-3 Denver win was marred by a pretty ugly hit by Kyle Rau that knocked Jason Zucker out of the game. It's up for debate if Rau caught him too high or too late. He probably did, but I don't know if that hit requires any supplemental discipline.

I hate to say it, but my first two thoughts after watching that live were: I;m very glad Zucker is moving his limbs, and I'm glad Zucker is no longer moving his mouth. This is basically the 2011 World Juniors all over again for Zucker, where Zucker took a cheap shot from a Slovakian player because he couldn't keep his mouth shut and was worthless to his team the rest of the tournament because of it. If Zucker wants to act like that out on the ice, he's going to continue to pay the price for it. If 5'7" guys like Rau are doing that to Zucker now, he's in for a lot of trouble when he gets to the next level.

Bemidji had a very nice 3-2 win over Colorado College on their home ice. Bemidji was able to take a one goal midway through the third period and then gave CC absolutely nothing in the final ten minutes. The Tigers didn't even come close to threatening.

Western Michigan beat Ohio State in overtime. The Buckeyes were once the leaders in the CCHA, but have gone winless in 11 tries since the start of the new year, and now sit in a threeway for 6th in the CCHA, but with the most games played of the three, so essentially in 8th.

Lake Superior beat Alaska in Fairbanks by a score of 4-2. The win jumped LSSU from 8th place in the CCHA all the way up to a tie for third with Michigan and Michigan State. It's been that kind of year in the CCHA.

It was reported earlier this week by Brad Schlossman that Paul Kelly and College Hockey Inc. are working with the NHL to create legislation that would prevent players from signing with the CHL for one full season once he signs his National Letter of Intent.

That set off another round of debate on both sides of the border, summed up nicely by Chris Peters at United States of Hockey. Always late to the party, I figured I would give my take as well.

First off, I should start by saying that I'm a huge fan of College Hockey Inc and the work that they're trying to do. I even like the idea of trying to hold players to commitments that they make. I'm just not sure that throwing all their weight behind something as flimsy as a National Letter of Intent is the way to do it.

The problem with the letter of intent is that players don't have to sign them. If this legislation passes, players will be have two options: Sign a letter of intent limiting them to playing college hockey the following season, or don't sign it and leave their options open.

There is the possibility that once a signing period comes and goes a player chooses to not sign, the school would withdraw his scholarship, but in all honesty, what are the odds of that happening with the type of players this legislation was intended for? As a hypothetical, do you really think Michigan would pull their scholarship offer from Jacob Trouba if he had chosen not sign a letter of intent this past fall? Is there a team in the country that would pass on a verbal commitment from Seth Jones just because he wanted to wait on signing a letter of intent? Probably not. So where does that get us? Pretty much the same place we are now.

It might work toward fleshing out the true intentions of certain players. I can think of players that have signed Letters of Intent, even though it's questionable that they play college hockey next season. But I also doubt the teams those players have committed to are completely in the dark about that possibility. And what about players like Stefan Matteau, whose decommitment was very heavily based on being traded to a specific team in the QMJHL? There's just not a lot of advantage to be gained by a player limiting their options like that a year in advance.

And all of this ignores the fact that many of the players breaking their letters of intent already are doing so because they signed an NHL contract. Would the NHL allow the NCAA to say that the NHL can't sign their players for a year after drafting them? That seems unlikely, and if that happened, probably wouldn't have a desired effect. The NHL already favors the CHL a bit because they have more control and flexibility with their prospects. This would just push that pendulum farther.

The other stuff about allowing CHL players to play in the NCAA is still a non-starter. Having prospective student-athletes play in a league where it is in that league's best interest not to have players eligible for NCAA hockey is a dangerous situation. Given Dave Hakstol's highly principled "the rules should be whatever benefits me most" stance(He doesn't want to lose players in the summer because recruiting a new player is hard, but he wants to steal other teams' recruits so they have to recruit late in the summer. Seriously, shut both sides of the mouth you're talking out of) he'd likely be the first to cry when a player of dubious eligibility scored against his team.

And how much benefit would that actually be? Would 18 and 19 year old draft picks leave the CHL to play in the NCAA, or would they just get 20-year-old leftovers that have run out of junior eligibility? That would do absolutely nothing for college hockey in terms of prestige and help cut the legs out from the momentous progress USA Hockey has made in recent years with the development of their junior leagues. It's just an all-around bad idea for college hockey, and hopefully one that never happens.

The Top Ten

1. Duluth East (1)

2. Maple Grove (2)

3. Minnetonka (3)

4. Eagan (4)

5. Edina (6)

6. Hermantown (7)

7. Eden Prairie (8)

8. Moorhead (5)

9. Benilde-St. Margaret's (NR)

10. Andover (9)

The finalists for the Mr. Hockey Award were announced yesterday. We'll discuss those, as well as go over some results and upcoming games after the jump.

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I was gone for a couple days, and missed another exciting round of the fight between the NCAA and CHL, this time in the form of College Hockey Inc.'s proposal to make signed commitments binding for at least a year. It's an interesting discussion and one that deserves its own post, so expect that, hopefully tomorrow.

Western Michigan is hosting an online auction as part of their Ice Duchenne Weekend, a cause started by assistant coach Rob Facca, whose son was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. David Drew has a great article on the Facca's and what life is like as they deal with the disease.

The NHL officially announced that next year's Winter Classic will be held at Michigan Stadium between the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs. Michigan basically sold over complete control of their stadium to the NHL for about $3 million. Alcohol will be allowed to be served on site.

Meanwhile, other events held at Comerica Park also became a reality, including next year's GLI. Western Michigan was announced as the fourth team in the tournament, making it an all-Michigan affair. The games will be Michigan's fourth and fifth outdoor hockey games in four years, so the novelty has somewhat worn off, but the GLI will have the distinction of being the first title decided in an outdoor game in many, many years.

The finalists for Minnesota's Mr. Hockey Award were announced this afternoon. They are: Justin Kloos, Lakeville South, Will Merchant, Eagan, Grant Opperman, Breck, Judd Peterson, Duluth Marshall, Jake Randolph, Duluth East, Charlie Sampair, Hill-Murray, Eric Schurhamer, St. Thomas Academy, Jared Thomas, Hermantown, Dom Toninato, Duluth East, Michael Zajac, Eagan

I tweeted out (@ChrisDilks if you're not following) my top ten last night, and got 7 out of the 10. They appeared to put a little more emphasis on Central Scouting's mid-term rankings, going with Sampair and Merchant, over my choices of St. Paul Johnson's Jay Dickman and Brainerd's Matt Pohlkamp, which seems silly given both players were/are in not-getting-drafted territory on those lists. The other one I missed was Eagan's Eli May instead of Schurhamer. Both good players, I like May a little better, but they weren't going to have 30% of the list be from Eagan.

The two finalist for the Brimsek Award for Minnesota's top senior goalie are Moorhead's Michael Bitzer and Maple Grove's Kyle Koop. Koop getting the nod over Elk River's Anders Franke is pretty shocking, but both goalies were only nominal contenders behind Bitzer anyway.

The London Free Press' Morris Della Costa is usually as pro-CHL/pro-London as you're going find, which is why is was strange to see him being one of the last ones to jump on board the CHL players are property bandwagon.

Andy Baggott is reporting that a majority of athletic directors from the future Big Ten hockey schools are in favor of moving their postseason tournament to a neutral location, rather than having home sites host tournament games. The tournament would take place over three days, with all six teams from the league involved, meaning the top two seeds would receive byes into the semifinal round. Baggott also reports that the league is close to finalizing a deal with the XCel Center in St. Paul, Minnesota to host the tournament.

The format is far from ideal. With every team making the tournament, all a team needs is one good weekend where they have to win three games in order to make the NCAA tournament. It cheapens the value of the regular season, and cheapens the value of a playoff championship. The big issue that seemed to make this option so desirable was the availability of buildings for the playoffs. Wisconsin and Ohio State host state high school championships in their buildings and didn't want to lose them for the possibility of hosting a playoff hockey series. Minnesota was likely strongly in favor as well, since this essentially gives them home ice advantage every year without having to win anything. That leaves just one more team in favor of the neutral site to gain the majority needed.

The XCel Center is also bound to be a controversial. There's no doubt that it's the finest hockey arena within the Big Ten's footprint, but it is also on the extreme western edge of the Big Ten's footprint. After Minnesota, the next closest team is Wisconsin, at a four-hour drive away. The Michigan schools stretch the limits of one days drive at 10+ hours, or require a flight that takes 7 hours, because after five hours of delays, Delta realizes they forgot to load the bags onto the plane. Not that I'm speaking from personal experience. Ohio State fans probably weren't going to travel to anywhere regardless, and Penn State's fanbase is an unknown at this point.

It should be interesting to see how this works out. The key here seems to be to get demand high enough to get people to purchase full ticket packages to ensure they can get tickets to the games that they want. Otherwise, there could be some embarrassingly empty Ohio State/Michigan State games in the tournaments future.

Michigan State traveled down to Columbus and picked up all six points against a flailing Ohio State team. There's no doubt the turning point in Friday's game came when MSU senior defenseman AJ Sturges scored midway through the second period to cut Ohio State's lead to 3-2. The Spartans scored four more unanswered goals to complete a 6-3 win.

Sturges' goal was his second career goal, and his first goal since November 10, 2007, when he scored against Mercyhurst. It's been a very long road back for Sturges, who, in October of 2008, was brutally beaten by MSU football player Glenn Winston in an off-campus fight, leaving Sturges with a fractured skull and concussion.

Winston received 180 days in jail for the incident, but was released early due to jail overcrowding, and was immediately reinstated to the Michigan State football team for the start of fall practice. Sturges was understandably upset by the decision to immediately reinstate Winston to the football team, and sent a strongly worded letter to Michigan State's football beat writers criticizing Michigan State's leadership for allowing Winston to play football for MSU, and saying that he had not received any sort of apology, and believe Winston had learned nothing from the incident.

Those comments seemed prescient when, less than a year later, Winston was one of 11 Michigan State football players involved in breaking into an on-campus fraternity and beating a number of students on the night of Michigan State's football banquet. Winston received another 180 days in jail for his part in the incident.

It was much harder for Sturges to get a second chance after the injuries he suffered. He missed the rest of his freshman and entire sophomore seasons as a result of the injury. He returned to the team as a junior, but redshirted the season as he worked to get back into playing shape. Last year, as a redshirt junior, he appeared in one game, against Alabama-Huntsville, and earned Academic All-Big Ten honors. He's also actively involved in community service projects. So far this season, he has appeared in ten games, and Friday night's goal was his first point of the season.

With Michigan State's hockey program back on the upswing after a few very down years, it's nice to not only see Sturges back on the ice, but also making key contributions to his team.

This started out as a weekend recap-type thing, but a lot of stuff went on, and this became long enough for its own post.

Michigan and Miami squared off this weekend in a pretty important CCHA series, in which Michigan came out with six points, and, as is becoming a regular case in series officiated by Keith Sergott and Brian Hill, nobody came away happy.

On Friday, Michigan head coach Red Berenson wasn't thrilled with his goal, Shawn Hunwick, getting run over by Miami multiple times. Whether it was because he was provoked into an outburst earlier this year at Northern Michigan, or because he seemed to suffer a concussion a month ago against Lake Superior, Hunwick has seemed clearly targeted in series against Notre Dame and Miami. Berenson said he has sent tape to the league on the incidents, but hasn't received a satisfactory response.

Meanwhile, Miami head coach Enrico Blasi completely lost it on Friday night, screaming from the bench, grabbing one of his players by the facemask, reportedly throwing multiple chairs in the locker room after the game, and forcing me to self-edit some tasteless tweets about him being so upset because Shannon Hogan wouldn't sleep with him, possibly due to his substandard height.

Controversy came the following night midway through the third period, with Michigan up 2-0. Miami's Matt Tommassoni picked up a breakaway, and squeezed a puck through Shawn Hunwick, but the puck was cleared off the line by Michigan defender Lee Moffie. The officials reviewed the play to see if Moffie cleared the puck off the line before it crossed, and determined that he did. Then, after a long argument with Blasi, the officials went back to the review booth, and determined again that it was inconclusive. A few minutes later, Michigan's Chris Brown scored a beauty of a goal(I recommend you watch the video, and also recommend you do so with the sound off) that pretty much sealed the win.

With the result all but assured, an already physical game turned ugly. The series had been physical all weekend, and Saturday's game had already had three boarding penalties and two roughing after the whistle penalties each way. With about 3 minutes left, each team took a five-minute major contact to the head penalty about 20 seconds apart. Miami followed that up with a charging penalty a minute later, and finally, all hell broke loose when Miami took exception to Michigan's Alex Guptill taking a late poke at their goalie, and a fight broke out, resulting in suspensions for Miami's Will Weber and Michigan's Chris Brown.

After the game, Berenson placed the blame on how the officials handled the games, and on Miami being a little more willing to risk a suspension, considering their next games will be meaningless non-conference tilts against Alabama-Huntsville, while Brown will have to miss Michigan's next game against Michigan State.

The whole thing was just a mess that almost everyone involved seemed to blame it on officiating that couldn't handle the emotion and physicality of the series. Keith Sergott was the same official involved in the Riley Sheahan/Western Michigan incident, and was pulled out of that series after one game. Why he was assigned to another important series so soon after is a mystery, and hopefully it is a mistake that won't be made again.

As to the overall impact of the series, Michigan passed Miami in the CCHA standings, taking a two-point lead with two games in hand. The Wolverines sit in 3rd place and are in striking distance at three points back of first place Ferris State. Miami drops back down to the middle of the CCHA's huge mid-standings cluster. They're in a tie for fourth place, but Michigan State and Lake Superior are only one point behind them, with two games in hand. In the always tenuous Pairwise Rankings, Michigan temporarily moved into 2nd overall with the two wins, while Miami dropped outside the bubble, down to 18th.

Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi announced yesterday that he will be leaving his post this summer. Most people are either focused on his colossal failures at hiring football coaches, or his relative success at all the other nobody cares about. What's his legacy for hockey? A pretty good one from Minnesota's perspective. Though to me, he'll always be the guy that oversaw a system that allowed a team to make the NCAA tournament because they lost their last game, rather than tied, and allowed his own school to host more NCAA events than the entire CCHA conference over a five-year period.

Michigan Tech has rightfully been drawing some attention after taking three points in Duluth last weekend. While Mel Pearson is getting a lot of credit for the turnaround, Brad Schlossman points out that Jamie Russell deserves some credit as well. I'd like to take the opportunity to point out that some genius wrote this on the day Russell resigned:

It's true that Michigan Tech probably would have at least been competitive in the WCHA if they hadn't been hit by a freakish string of injuries. And with this year's large freshman class, next year's recruiting class with Tanner Kero, and the class after that with Jujhar Khaira, Tech is a position to have one of the most exciting, and deepest groups of forwards the team has seen in decades. But they were a program that needed to completely start fresh after such a terrible season. Whoever replaces Russell will have a lot more to work with than Russell ever had at Tech, and they'll have Jamie Russell to thank for that when they start receiving praise for turning the program around.

My weekly look at Minnesota high school hockey is here.

Former Wisconsin Badger Andrew Joudrey made his NHL debut this past week, marking the tenth member of Wisconsin's 2006 national championship team to play in the NHL.

INCH has a great profile on Michigan goalie Shawn Hunwick.

Shane Frederick rounds up all the WCHA stories I may have missed.

The Top Ten (Last ranking in parenthesis)

1. Duluth East (1)

2. Maple Grove (3)

3. Minnetonka (2)

4. Eagan (4)

5. Moorhead (5)

6. Edina (6)

7. Hermantown (8)

8. Eden Prairie (7)

9. Andover (NR)

10. Wayzata (9)

Scores, Results, College Commitments, and an exclusive first listen to the rest of Jack White's new solo album after the jump.

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As the details of the NCHC's television deal with CBS Sports Network came out, the picture didn't look any rosier for the league than when initially announced. UMD beat writer Kevin Pates tweeted that he has heard the NCHC will pay production costs to have their games televised, which is pretty embarrassing for the league.

Meanwhile, the announcement was met with less than excitement from North Dakota fans. Because of exclusivity rights with NBCSN, North Dakota games will no longer be on Fox College Sports, and means most North Dakota fans outside of a select area of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Northwest Minnesota won't be able to watch games on television that they used to be able to watch. Reading through North Dakota SID Jayson Hajdu's Twitter timeline as he tries to deal with fans angry over having to watch UND games via webcast is the closest I've come to feeling sorry for someone in this whole deal.

I should clarify that as much as I mock CBSSN, I do appreciate the effort they've put into covering college hockey the past nine years. As has been pointed out to me, it's not like college hockey was going to get a television deal with ESPN to show their games regularly because the market just isn't there. And that has been precisely my point all along. It isn't worth cutting the legs out from under nearly half the teams in the west to chase some pie-eyed television dream when college hockey just doesn't have the market to do any better than a third-rate cable station.

A big part of the reason Cam Reid left St. Cloud early last month was that he said the Portland Winterhawks promised him an opportunity to play on the team's first line between ultra-skilled wingers Ty Rattie and Sven Baertschi. That promise had a pretty quick expiration date though. It's been just three weeks since he left and Reid has already been relegated to a lower line. It is nice to know that when the Portland Winterhawks give you their word, they'll keep it for nearly an entire month.

Minnesota State will be trying to drum up support this weekend to help convince legislators to include a $31-million renovation project to their arena in the state's next bonding bill. Renovations to the Verizon Wireless Center have been included in state bonding bills a few times, only to be vetoed, despite much more state money going to every other Division I college hockey arena in the state. With a new governor in charge in Minnesota, however, it's starting to look pretty promising that this one will pass.

On the topic of Minnesota State, David Backes is still a better person than you could ever be.

Dave Hakstol wants the NCAA to start allowing him to recruit CHL player. Good luck. Hakstol probably knows better than anyone the dollar figures some of the kids he has recruited received from the CHL.

The NCHC announced today that a minimum of 18 conference games and the league playoff semifinals and finals will appear on the CBS Sports Network.

My first question: Is that even a real station, or is CBS Sports Network one of those myths like Union being a good hockey team or women's hockey that everybody just believes because they have no evidence to the contrary? If it is in fact real, this seems like a mutually beneficial deal for the two sides. For example, when CBSSSNBYOB decides to rebrand itself again because nobody watches them, the NCHC knows where they can get a new banner to announce it quick and for cheap.

But I guess this is what it was all for. From the beginning, I've said this transition in college hockey is all about weighing what is being gained against what is being lost, and the shiny new TV deal was the keystone of what this new conference was supposed to gain. The venerable institutions of the WCHA and CCHA were destroyed for 18 games--much less if you cancel out the games those teams already have on CBSSNSNSSNABBQ this year--on a television network whose station number you probably couldn't guess if I spotted you 50 stations in either direction. As with every other announcement from the league, the gains are underwhelming at best.

The Twitters went ablaze last night with a rumor that four OHL teams would be playing a double-header at Michigan Stadium the day before the NHL's Winter Classic, which pretty much would have been the worst thing since fascism and restaurants that serve kettle chips with sandwiches and make you pay extra for fries. Thankfully, I saved a pretty spleen-filled post until the morning, and by then, the rumors had been killed. The games will be played at an alternate location, almost guaranteed to be Comerica Park, which would be a fun event, and a nice addition to the festivities, though it would be a bit watered-down since it would take place during the World Juniors, meaning most of the CHL's bought foreign talent would be unavailable.

Notre Dame's Riley Sheahan was suspended by the CCHA for one game last weekend for a hit on Western Michigan's Dane Walters.The Irish appealed the suspension allowing him to play on Friday, but it was upheld, keeping him out of the Saturday game. Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson wasn't happy with how the CCHA handled the suspension. He has a bit of a point. The original penalty was initially charged to the wrong player--Notre Dame's Jeff Costello rather than Sheahan--and incorrectly called a contact to the head penalty. The officiating crew that evening was replaced by a new crew the following night.

That said, I didn't see the hit, but have no problem with the suspension. Sheahan may not have made contact with Walters' head, but he almost certainly made an illegal hit--which is all the CCHA press release for the suspension specified--and even Jackson conceded it was an illegal hit, saying it probably should have been called interference. As a result of the hit, Walters didn't finish that game(Walters apparently gave it a go for a shift or two after the hit, but reports indicate it was the Sheahan hit that caused his injury), missed the following night's game, and didn't play at all last weekend. In what world, other than a bizarro alternate reality that lets Bruce McLeod and Greg Shepherd run a hockey league(that's right, we're the crappy one), is an illegal hit that causes a player to miss three games due to injury not worthy of a single game suspension?

Roman Augustoviz of the Star-Tribune broke the story that has been rumored for months about the five Minnesota schools starting their own annual college hockey tournament. On one hand, this should be a pretty fun event that people have wanted for years. On the other hand, this gives Minnesota a plausible excuse for never having to travel to the outstate schools for road games again.

Minnesota State Moorhead set another artificial deadline that they won't come anywhere close to hitting. Circle the end of February on your calendar for the next "We're so close, but we can't say how much money we've got" article that pushes the deadline back another couple of months.

The USHL held their first ever prospects all-star game last night in Muskegon, and the event seemed to be a success. It may not have been heavily attended by fans, but definitely by scouts, with a reported 200+ scouts being in the building. There were some a little disappointed by the NTDP not participating. They didn't participate this year because the event was scheduled the same week as their high school exams. I'm not sure about their participation in the future. If the goal of the event is about exposure, it's not like any of those kids are hurting for exposure to pro scouts. I'd rather see a few more off-the-radar kids get the opportunity to show something in front of that audience.

Minnesota-Duluth senior forward Jack Connolly picked up 4 points in a weekend sweep of Alabama-Huntsville this past weekend, bringing his total on the season to 40 points through 24 games, and bringing his career point total to 177 points.

That means Connolly is on/close to the pace needed to reach the pretty significant 200 career point plateau. The last player to do so was Michigan's TJ Hensick in 2006-2007, who finished with 222 points in his four year Michigan career. Nebraska-Omaha's Scott Parse finished with 197 points that same year. Since then, not many players have come close. St. Cloud's Garrett Roe had a chance last year, needing 58 points in his final campaign, but only tallied a career-low 36 points for the Huskies. Carter Camper finished his four-year Miami career with 183 points last year. A few other players would have had an outside shot at it if they had stayed in school for four years, including Connolly's UMD teammate Mike Connolly(he would have needed 64 points in his final year), and Boston College's Nathan Gerbe(he needed 67 points as a senior, after scoring 68 as a junior).

Needless to say, reaching 200 points is a pretty big deal in the modern college game. So what does Connolly need to do to get there?

Minnesota-Duluth has 12 regular season games, at least two, very likely three, and possibly four WCHA playoff games, and at least one NCAA tournament game, barring something apocalyptic happening. We'll stick with the minimum to be safe and he has roughly 15 games left in his college career. If he stays on his current pace of 1.67 points per game, over 15 games, that works out to 25 points, leaving him at 198 career points.

Strength of schedule may factor in as well though. Minnesota-Duluth was blessed with a comically weak cluster of Michigan Tech, Minnesota State, and Alaska-Anchorage this year. That means six of Connolly's remaining 12 games will come against those teams, and Connolly managed 4-point weekends against all three of them in the first half of the season. Add in that their playoff series is almost guaranteed to be against Minnesota State or Alaska-Anchorage, and there should be plenty of opportunities for Connolly to rack up a few extra points to push him over that mark.

If Connolly can't reach that mark this year, it may be a while before someone comes close again. Even if he comes back for his senior year, as rumored, Denver's Drew Shore would need 100 points between now and the end of next year to reach the mark. Notre Dame's TJ Tynan fits the mold of a player that might reach it, and is currently on pace to, but being a 3rd round draft pick this past summer, the chances he plays out all four years seems unlikely, despite his barely 5'8" frame.

The Top Ten

1. Duluth East (1)

2. Maple Grove (3)

3. Minnetonka (2)

4. Eagan (4)

5. Moorhead (5)

6. Edina (7)

7. Eden Prairie (6)

8. Hermantown (8)

9. Wayzata (9)

10. Blaine (NR)

Coming up after the jump, we look at some results from the past week, and preview Saturday's Hockey Day festivities.

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From Friday night, here is Danny Kristo breaking into tears because he got kicked out of the game for a super illegal check from behind against Minnesota's Ben Marshall. Kristo was doing fine until he came back out of the tunnel for that final 'F--- you" screamed at the officials.

Meanwhile, the following night, Tom Serratore had a hit from behind on North Dakota's Andrew MacWilliam, that was only ruled a 2-minute charging penalty. I don't know that that hit was excessively dangerous given how close MacWilliam was to the boards, but given the current political climate in hockey, and the clamoring for "zero tolerance" on checking from behind, that has to be a five-minute major. It's probably better off for UND that it wasn't, since Minnesota ended up scoring shorthanded on the resulting penalty anyway.

Minnesota's Mark Alt did have a check-from-behind called a five-minute major but I couldn't find a video of it.

But on to the main event. In the closing seconds of Saturday's 6-2 Minnesota win, some pushing and shoving led to North Dakota's Ben Blood being tripped from behind and Blood retaliating by going after a Gopher player in the post-game handshake line.

Here's Blood being tripped by Minnesota's Jake Hansen. And here's Blood punching Kyle Rau in the handshake line.

First off, there are three things that are just absolutely fantastic about this.

1. Blood gets tripped from behind, doesn't see who did it, and just assumes it had to have been Kyle Rau. In his defense, I made the exact same mistake.

2. The North Dakota announcing crew. Not for their spot-on description of "Blood takes Ambroz down" as Blood is laying there motionless in a headlock. That's pretty much what I expect out of them. No, the best part is that they can't possibly fathom how teams could still show respect for each other by participating in a post-game handshake after something like that. Here's a protip: Just do what every other hockey team at every other level does.

3. Wally Shaver's call of the incident. I've always liked Wally Shaver. "I'm done with these guys. Go form your own league." is an instant classic.

As fallout, Ben Blood has been stripped of his role as North Dakota's assistant captain, but will face no further discipline because the WCHA league offiice is basically a high school teacher a year and a half from retirement that just doesn't care anymore, and really, who would want to deal with all those whiny emails?

If it were up to me, I would have handed out at least a single game suspension to both Jake Hansen and Ben Blood. Hansen's trip hasn't gotten as much attention, but I would classify that as nearly as dirty. That garbage seems to happen with every Minnesota/North Dakota, and ultimately, it ends up looking embarrassing to the sport.

In a shocking announcement, the WCHA actually announced that they had handed out supplemental discipline by suspending a player for one game next weekend. In even more shocking news, that player was neither Trevor Bruess nor that guy that made it onto famed ESPN talk show The Gentleman's Yellery and made us all look like jerks.

The WCHA announced a one-game suspension for Nebraska-Omaha's Dominic Zombo for a knee-to-knee hit on Minnesota-Duluth's JT Brown. Zombo was only assessed a two-minute penalty on the play. Many Duluth fans were perplexed why the hit didn't draw a five-minute major penalty. If only there were some short, lupine-themed fable to help explain it.

Zombo will miss UNO's next game, on Friday against Minnesota State, and given his 0 points through 23 games this year, he'll probably miss it more than the game will miss him.

The WCHA's suspension comes a week after the CCHA got serious about discipline, suspending Lake Superior's Andrew Perrault for one game, and Miami's Tyler Biggs for two games for contact to the head penalties.

Add plans for one more outdoor hockey game next year into the mix.

Black & Blue, the excellent unofficial Lincoln Stars blog is reporting that an outdoor double-header featuring the Lincoln Stars and Omaha Lancers, followed by the University of Nebraska-Omaha and North Dakota will take place next February at Omaha's new TD Ameritrade Park, which will be the new home of the College World Series of baseball.

Of all the proposed outdoor games, I think I might like this one the best. The new park has a manageable size, making a sellout almost guaranteed given the teams playing. There's a pretty good natural rivalry being built between UNO and UND, and an already great rivalry between the Stars and Lancers. It may not have the broad appeal of a big name stadium, but would be a fantastic, entertaining event for fans of those teams.

Amidst all the talk of future outdoor games for the University of Michigan, the Wolverines actually played in an outdoor game yesterday, on a Sunday afternoon in Cleveland for some reason. Michigan beat Ohio State 4-1 to win the Frozen Diamond Face-off.

I couldn't find an exact number, but estimated capacity for the rink at Cleveland's Progressive Field was about 40,000, and the official attendance number for yesterday's game was 25,864. It's far from a smashing success, but considering how poorly the event was planned--again I stress, Sunday afternoon in Cleveland--and promoted, it's not all that bad. According to Cleveland Indians president Mark Shapiro, the event made money.

In other outdoor hockey news, Wisconsin is in talks with Minnesota to host an outdoor game at Soldier Field next February. The game could also feature a double-header game between Notre Dame and Miami.

This would be Wisconsin's third crack at hosting an outdoor hockey game. The first two, held at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, and at Wisconsin's Camp Randall Stadium weren't exactly flops, but also not smashing successes. Part of the problem with the Camp Randall game was the WCHA would not allow Wisconsin to schedule a conference game with Minnesota, forcing the Badgers to settle for scheduling a low-stakes non-conference game against Michigan(a lesson about the mundane quality of non-conference games not taken by anyone in college hockey this past summer). Being able to schedule Minnesota would go a long way towards making the Soldier Field game a success.

As for Notre Dame-Miami, both teams want to have a huge recruiting presence in the Chicago area and this would really help that. Notre Dame has also always struggled with getting their large alumni base interested in their hockey program, and this might be the opportunity to do that.

The end of the calendar year was supposed to be Minnesota State Moorhead's third ABSOLUTE LAST DEADLINE for raising the money needed to fund their hockey program. WDAY in Fargo-Moorhead reported last week that so far the Dragons only have $17 million out of the $37 million needed to start their program. That means they've only raised $2 million since first announcing their intentions in July. I guess they could extend the deadline again. The hope was to join the new WCHA once everyone else in the conference leaves in two years, but it's not like there's a bunch of other schools out there dying to get in to the WCHA, so a spot should remain open for them. They seem to have maxed out on what they can get in donations though, so it seems like any hopes of MSUM starting a program are pretty much dead now.

The World Olympic Games started this past Saturday with the US U16 team defeating Austria 7-2, and then losing to Canada 5-1. As expected, this has been a pretty entertaining tournament so far with most of the big hockey powers sending pretty good rosters. The US roster has a lot of the favorites to make next year's NTDP team. Canada's roster isn't quite their best team, but pretty close to it. Every association in Canada nominated a forward, defenseman, and goalie, and then a roster was picked randomly from that. It's as close to a best-on-best between the US and Canada in international play until the World Juniors.

That makes Canada's win pretty disappointing. It was a 3-1 game until Canada added a couple power play goals late. These games just have 15-minute periods as well. The US has games left against Finland and Russia, which should be difficult. Scoring totals by the end of this tournament should give a pretty good indication of who the top players in the '96 birth year are.

Earlier this week, I rambled to the conclusion that next year probably isn't the right time for the University of Michigan to host another outdoor hockey game.

Brian Cook of MGoBlog provides a pretty devastating counterpoint though:

Would Dave Brandon threaten to break Michigan's own attendance record and hopelessly conflict a ton of people when Michigan inevitably plays a bowl game on the same day? Yes. The curly fries are very convincing, and there is at least one dollar in it.

How could I not be cynical enough about a man who made millions selling cardboard-crusted, not-real-cheesed pizzas and drastically under-cheesed Cheezy Bread at Domino's, as you have heard in recent attack ads paid for by Domino's? I'll calibrate accordingly.

Reports have surfaced that the NHL's offer to play their Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium moved Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon...presumably to a bigger house, and the deal is close to being finalized.

The next issue to deal with is appeasing the Detroit Red Wings, the city of Detroit, and Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch, who also owns Comerica Park, the other proposed site for the Winter Classic. While making history is cool and all, they'd also like their own slice of the giant money pie.

ESPN's Scott Burnside suggests the solution to that might be hosting the Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium, but also building a second outdoor rink at Comerica park to host all ancillary events, including, potentially the Great Lakes Invitational. Give credit to the excellent Tech Hockey Guide for being the first to make the case for hosting the GLI at Comerica Park.

I still have a list of pretty list of reservations about this, as currently rumored, but I also think it just could work out.

The Top 10 (Last week's ranking in parenthesis)

1. Duluth East (1)

2. Minnetonka (2)

3. Maple Grove (3)

4. Eagan (4)

5. Moorhead (6)

6. Eden Prairie (8)

7. Edina (5)

8. Hermantown (NR)

9. Wayzata (NR)

10. Burnsville (9)

After the jump, results, college commitments, NHL Central Scouting notes, upcoming games, and Friday's winning lottery numbers.

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The NHL Central Scouting list is generally the best pre-draft list you can find, but is still highly subjective, and thus always sure to stir up some debate. Here is a look at five different pairings of players that I would swap spots on the list with.

#13 Stefan Matteau for #27 Nic Kerdiles

Matteau currently holds a slight edge for the NTDP team scoring lead over Kerdiles, but long-term, I see Kerdiles having more potential to be a scorer, which is what I think you should look for if you're going to take a forward in the first round of the draft.

#77 Dakota Mermis for #157 Connor Carrick

Maybe not an outright swap, but I don't think the gap is this big between the two talented, undersized, puck-moving defensemen. I was a little surprised Carrick was ranked this low.

#100 Austyn Young for #111 Hunter Fejes

Young is a little more gifted offensively, but not exactly putting up big numbers in the USHL. Fejes plays a more physical style of game that makes him more effective even if he isn't able to put up big numbers at the next level.

#153 Cliff Watson for #166 Justin Wade

This is a pretty minor change, but Watson has struggled in his transition to the USHL, while Wade, now in his first full year is starting to capitalize on the tremendous upside that he has. They seem to be heading in opposite directions, and it wouldn't surprise me if they've passed each other by draft day.

#198 Dom Toninato for NR Justin Kloos

It's maybe not worth arguing much about two guys in the range of guys unlikely to be picked. Toninato has more size than Kloos, but he's not huge by any means, and Kloos is a much more dynamic player. If Kloos plays in the USHL once the high school season and can average a point per game, he'll likely move way up the rankings.

NHL Central Scouting released their mid-term rankings today. The list for North American skaters can be found here, and you can navigate to the other lists from there. The mid-term rankings are significant in that it is the first official list that synthesizes players from multiple leagues.

Jacob Trouba, Zemgus Girgensons, Brady Skjei, Nic Kerdiles, and Phil DiGiuseppe were the NCAA players to make the top 30 of the North American list.

The trading deadline for the three CHL leagues was this week, and it was surprisingly eventful from an NCAA standpoint, even beyond yesterday's news of Cam Reid leaving St. Cloud.

NTDP forward and North Dakota recruit Stefan Matteau had his rights traded to Blainville-Boisbriand of the QMJHL, where his father is an assistant coach, and announced that he will be playing for the Armada next season. Matteau has come in for a lot of criticism for backing out on his commitment to North Dakota, and normally I'm first in line for that, but it's tough to do in this instance. The idea that Matteau should have passed on a scholarship offer from North Dakota because one day down the road, his dad might become coach of a QMJHL team, and that team might be able to acquire his rights months later is pretty silly. That's the risk of offering scholarships to players so early. Circumstances change.

Meanwhile, Miles Koules, also a North Dakota recruit, had his rights traded to the Medicine Hat Tigers. Koules' dad played in Medicine Hat so there is some connection there.

Two former Northern Michigan players involved in the infamous bike-stealing scandal were in the news. Defenseman Eric Walker, the player charged with actually stealing the bikes, was traded from Vancouver Giants to the Swift Current Broncos. I'm not sure if that was court-ordered, but Swift Current appears to be some sort of a Canadian prison camp, at least according to Google Earth.

Forward Dylan Walchuk had left Northern Michigan to return to the BCHL mid-December, and has now been added to the roster of the Spokane Chiefs, ending any possibility of someday returning to college hockey.

In addition to Cam Reid, the Portland Winterhawks also signed '95-born forward Alex Schoenborn this week. Schoenborn made the NTDP Final 40 camp, and was a member of the US U17 Select team this summer. He had also played a handful of games with the Lincoln Stars this year without registering any points.

This one comes down to another instance of the NCAA not really having a level playing field with the CHL. Schoenborn is a nice player, and potentially has a lot of upside, but not the type of player colleges would feel comfortable committing to for four years. But for a team like Portland, that has the option of cutting or trading Schoenborn if things don't work out--and the numbers suggest it is unlikely he plays his entire junior career with Portland--he is absolutely worth taking a gamble on. It's a loss for the NCAA, but I've seen a lot of similar players being traded for 5th round conditional draft picks and such over the past week, so it probably isn't as big a loss as it looks.

Maybe this one will be better? Next year's tournament will be the showcase for the 1993-birthdate age group, a group that has always looked very underwhelming on paper, but has done pretty well on the international stage. And really, you just never know. Out of the last five years, the US team expected to be the weakest was the only one to take home the gold.

Here's a look at some of the players that will likely be under consideration for next year's tournament. I'm sure I left out a few viable names. Feel free to mention them in the comments.

Goalie

Returning : John Gibson

Under Consideration: Matt McNeely, Collin Olson, Matt Morris, Jon Gillies, Stephen Michalek, Jared Rutledge, Hunter Miska, Brandon Hope

Gibson is pretty firmly entrenched as the starter unless something weird happens. McNeely would likely be the favorite to be the back-up, all things being equal, but with a clear-cut starter, I like the idea of bringing a younger player in as a back-up so that he has experience heading into next year's tournament. The two best options from the '94 age group would seem to be NTDP goalie Collin Olson and USHL goalie Jon Gillies. Gillies has been exceptional in the USHL this year, but for better or worse, USA Hockey tends to lean towards NTDP alums over impressive USHL players, so I think Olson will get the nod. '95 Hunter Miska is the wildcard here. At this point, he's about a million miles away from being ready, but given another year to refine his game, he could surprise some people.

Defense

Returning: Jacob Trouba, Seth Jones

Under Consideration: Connor Murphy, Robbie Russo, Jordan Schmaltz, Brian Cooper, Brady Skjei, Jake McCabe Pat Sieloff, Connor Carrick Alex Lepkowski, Michael Paliotta, Joe Fiala, Andy Welinski, Garrett Haar, Mike Reilly, Ian McCoshen, Nick Seeler, Steve Santini

This might be the area of the team that is strongest for the US after it was a complete disaster this year. Jacob Trouba returns, as well as Seth Jones, who was pretty much on the team until injury knocked him out. Connor Murphy should be there assuming he's healthy, so probably not. Russo, Schmaltz, Cooper, and Skjei should make up the rest of a pretty solid core of defenders, with room for one more wild card in there.

Forwards

Returning: JT Miller

Under Consideration: Tyler Biggs, Rocco Grimaldi, Nic Kerdiles, John Gaudreau, Mario Lucia, Vincent Trochek, Seth Ambroz, Blake Pietila,Cam Darcy, Steven Fogarty, Joseph LaBate, Shane McColgan, Tony Cameranesi, Travis Boyd, Alex Broadhurst, Taylor Cammarata, Luke Johnson, Hudson Fasching, Ryan Haggerty, Colin Blackwell, Tyler Motte, Cole Bardreau,

This group is wide open. Only JT Miller returns, meaning there will be 12 spots up for grabs. Scoring looks to be a huge, huge concern for this team. USA Hockey likes to fill out their bottom lines with older, more grinding role players, but I think they'd be better taking some younger, potentially elite scorers, hoping one or more of them come up with an impressive tournament.

Mick Hatten of the St. Cloud Times is reporting that sophomore forward Cam Reid has left St. Cloud to play for the Portland Winterhawks of the WHL.

The initial reaction for most was that academics must have been a cause, given that academics played a role in Reid initially switching commitments from New Hampshire to St. Cloud, but Reid insisted that he would have been eligible for the second half of the season. Reid's rights were traded to Portland prior to the WHL's trade deadline and Reid said he was promised the chance to play center on Portland's top line between big scorers Sven Baertschi and Ty Rattie(likely among other things).

Reid is a huge loss for a St. Cloud State team that is currently tied for seventh in the WCHA and, given North Dakota's injury troubles, might have a chance at creeping into the last home ice in the WCHA. Reid had 15 points through 22 games and was one of the most dangerous scoring threats on St. Cloud's team, especially after the Huskies lost Drew LeBlanc for most of the year with a broken leg.

As soon as this year's NHL Winter Classic ended, speculation began about who will host the next winter classic. The Red Wings seem to be a pretty natural fit to get a shot at hosting. Comerica Park would be the most logical and likely destination for such an event, but Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon confirmed that the NHL approached him about having the Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium.

Michigan Stadium worked surprisingly well as a hockey venue for the Big Chill last year. The real question is if the University of Michigan would be interested. Michigan has been hesitant about letting non-UofM events into Michigan Stadium in the past--the rare excpetions being non-threatening events like Michigan Tech football. I doubt they'd risk hosting a record-breaking event without the University of Michigan in some way.

So the question becomes: Is Michigan ready to play another outdoor game at Michigan Stadium? The first one was done almost perfectly, but how much does an event like that lose when it's not a once-in-a-lifetime event? I'd accept one outdoor game at Michigan Stadium every five years so every player staying the full four years gets to play in one, but going back to that well just two years later seems extreme. But if Dave Brandon is willing to dress his football team up like ugly bees to make a few extra dollars, then I'd imagine it would be hard to pass up what is almost a guaranteed sellout of the stadium.

The most logical solution to me, would be to hold off on giving it the Winter Classic to Detroit for a few years. It spaces outdoor games out for Michigan, and in terms of scheduling, Notre Dame would become a perfect opponent. It would be easier to schedule a one-off non-conference game than work around league schedules. Notre Dame's increased exposure over the next few years should start to make them a big enough "name" opponent, and I'm sure NBC would love the opportunity to plug Notre Dame alongside their Winter Classic coverage.

As a final wildcard, I'm no engineer, so I don't know the limits of temporary seating, but if the NHL wants to do a Winter Classic in Detroit, they could probably charge whatever they needed/wanted if they found a way to put a rink on the empty Tiger Stadium lot.

College Hockey Inc. was all over North Dakota's game in Winnipeg last weekend, helping promote the sport. SB Nation's Winnipeg Jets blog sat down with Paul Kelly for an interesting interview. Kelly wouldn't commit to college hockey hosting a game in Canada every year, but it sounds like they'd like to make it as regular a thing as possible. Kelly mentioned Toronto as being interested in hosting a four-team tournament at some point, as well as being interested in bidding on a Frozen Four. If the Air Canada Centre put in any sort of a bid next time they hand out Frozen Four bids, I'd pick them in a second.