The hi-lite of this week is the first weekend of full ECAC play.
Hurray! In a typical weekend, the 12 teams are broken up into 6 pairs.
One pair will travel to another pair in what I call an away-away
series. For those who don't know, the pairs are: Brown & Harvard; RPI
& Union; St Lawrence & Clarkson; Dartmouth & Vermont; Yale & Princeton;
Cornell & Colgate. This weekend, Dartmouth and Vermont are the "lucky"
hosts of the north country duo, SLU & CU. The RPI-Harvard contest will be
interesting, considering what the Engineers did the last time they were
in Cambridge.
Over in the CCHA, all dozen teams & affiliates are in action amongst
themselves. Ferris State travels to Fairbanks, which will put UAF over
the half-way mark in "league" play--they are playing their 5th and 6th
games vs. CCHA members with 5 to go. Miami travels to another Big 10
ice rink and plays Michigan. U of M swept the Redskins last year (5-0)
and will be looking to hand Miami its first CCHA loss. Someone from
Ohio State will have to tell us how the Lakers do in their return visit
to "The Barn." The Lakers were humiliated at OSU last year by scores of
7-4 and 8-2, but rebounded with 10 straight wins and a national
championship. Oddly, those two games were the last time the Buckeyes
hosted a CCHA team. In one of the strangest combinations of the season,
Kent, Michigan State, Bowling Green and Western Michigan get together
for a home-away/away-away/home-home fiasco. Kent travels to BGSU and
MSU. After hosting Kent on Friday, the Falcons will follow the Flashes
into Michigan and play at WMU Saturday. The Broncos have a sort of
home-and-home, as they travel to MSU before hosting Bowling Green.
Illinois-Chicago and Notre Dame play a good, old-fashioned
home-and-home, thank goodness.
The other eastern league, Hockey East, is also playing its first full
weekend of league play. Hurray! With their new, 24-game schedule, the
teams will be playing more 2-game serieses and home-and-homes and fewer
mid-week games. The league opens in full with 3 home-and-homes:
UMass-Lowell and Boston College; Northeastern and Boston University;
New Hampshire and Providence. Merrimack plays two at Maine, where they
lost by 6 and 7 goals last year (second game a shutout).
In the WCHA, the premier match-up is Wisconsin visiting Minnesota. UW
lost twice at the Gophers last year, including a 4-1 loss in
Bloomington in front of 15,712 fans. The two teams meet at the Met
Center again on Saturday. The battle for the Upper Penninsula rages as
Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan duke it out once on each campus.
North Dakota travels to Denver. UND beat DU 4 times last year, but I
suspect they will not do so well against the Pioneers this season.
Colorado College is idle, resting up after that thrashing of Air Force
in the first mid-week game of the season.
11/13/92 Salem State __ at Air Force __ NC
Ferris State __ at Alaska-Fairbanks __ NC
Brock __ at Army __ NC
UMass-Lowell __ at Boston College __
Kent __ at Bowling Green __
RPI __ at Brown __
Northeastern __ at Boston University __
Yale __ at Colgate __
Princeton __ at Cornell __
St Lawrence __ at Dartmouth __
North Dakota __ at Denver __
Union __ at Harvard __
Miami __ at Michigan __
Wisconsin __ at Minnesota __
Merrimack __ at Maine __
Western Michigan __ at Michigan State __
Northern Michigan __ at Michigan Tech __
Illinois-Chicago __ at Notre Dame __
Lake Superior __ at Ohio State __
New Hampshire __ at Providence __
Minnesota-Duluth __ at St Cloud __
Clarkson __ at Vermont __
11/14/92 Salem State __ at Air Force __ NC
Ferris State __ at Alaska-Fairbanks __ NC
Brock __ at Army __ NC
Union __ at Brown __
Princeton __ at Colgate __
Yale __ at Cornell __
Clarkson __ at Dartmouth __
North Dakota __ at Denver __
RPI __ at Harvard __
Notre Dame __ at Illinois-Chicago __
Miami __ at Michigan __
Wisconsin __ at Minnesota __
Boston College __ at UMass-Lowell __
Merrimack __ at Maine __
Kent __ at Michigan State __
Boston University __ at Northeastern __
Providence __ at New Hampshire __
Michigan Tech __ at Northern Michigan __
Lake Superior __ at Ohio State __
Minnesota-Duluth __ at St Cloud __
St Lawrence __ at Vermont __
Bowling Green __ at Western Michigan __
|