Michigan/Miami Game Postponed

Tonight was supposed to be the start of a pretty big important series in the CCHA between Michigan and Miami, but the first game of that series has been postponed until Sunday due to structural problems at Yost Arena. Apparently the old barn suffered some weather-related damage over the holidays and needs some repairs.

Yost Fieldhouse was opened in 1923 and was the first indoor multi-purpose athletic facility in the country. It was converted to an ice arena in 1973.

New Commits

Indian Ice forward Shane Berschbach committed to Miami. Berschbach is small, but always seems to find a way to put points up on the board.

BCHL forward Garrett Milan committed to St. Cloud, and upon doing so, gave this rousing endorsement of the school: "I think St. Cloud fits me better academically. It's a good school, and I want to go into business, but I didn't feel like it was Harvard and it would be hard to keep up."

Bemidji picked up two commitments from the Topeka Roadrunners of the NAHL in forward Jordan Geroge and Matt Hartmann. Geroge is the second leading scorer in the league. He's a smaller playmaker that runs Topeka's offense. Hartmann is tied for 11th in league scoring. He's one of the strongest players in the league, and in addition to being a big hitter, he added a deadly shot to his arsenal this season and has become a dangerous offensive threat. Two very nice pick-ups for the Beavers.

Other Commits

Indiana Ice defenseman Joe Hartmann committed to Miami.

Miami also got a commitment from Ontario forward Reilly Smith. He'll be playing for Team East at the Junior A Challenge.

Totino-Grace forward Dan DeLisle committed to Minnesota-Duluth. DeLisle has 18 points in the Elite League this year, putting him among the top scorers. He's made some nice strides over the past year and has a shot at being drafted in this summer's NHL draft.

Wichita Falls forward Kyle Delaurell committed to Air Force. Delaurell is an older player that is having a great year in Wichita Falls, and is one of the better forwards in the league.

New Commits

I'm way behind on these...

Duluth East defenseman Derek Forbort committed to North Dakota.

Matt Paape committed to Wisconsin.

Cody Murphy committed to Miami.

Jacob Fallon committed to Michigan

Wideman Commits to Miami

St. Louis AAA Blues forward Alex Wideman committed to Miami for the 2010 season.

The small forward was outstanding at the Select 17 Festival two weeks ago, and was named to the US U-18 tournament team for this summer for his efforts. His playmaking ability should help the Redhawk offense in years to come.

Blashill Leaves Miami

Miami assistant coach Jeff Blashill will take over as head coach of the Indiana Ice of the USHL. He will also be the team's general manager.

Blashill has a lot of experience as an assistant coach, working four years with Ferris State and five with Miami, and now he will get his shot at running his own team.

Martinez Signs with Kings

Miami junior defenseman Alec Martinez has joined teammate Jeff Zatkoff in signing with the Los Angeles Kings.

Martinez was one of the best defenseman in the CCHA this season, scoring 9 goals and 23 assists in 42 games.

Eichenlaub Injured

This is a couple weeks old now, but Miami junior defenseman Ray Eichenlaub was injured after he was hit by a car, during an early morning run.

Luckily, it sounds like Eichenlaub's injuries were relatively minor considering he got hit by a car, and hopefully they won't slow down his hockey career.

Zatkoff Signs

The Los Angeles Kings announced today that they have signed Miami goalie Jeff Zatkoff to a 3-year deal, ending a couple days of speculation that Zatkoff would forego his senior season.

It's probably not an unexpected move given how good Zatkoff has been in his three years at Miami. Yesterday, Miami announced that Fairbanks(NAHL) goalie Cody Reichard officially signed his letter of intent to play at Miami next season.

The Northeast Regional

Game 1 #2 Boston College vs. #3 Minnesota

Minnesota has had a good deal of success in the playoffs by following a fairly simple formula of playing tight defensive hockey, letting Alex Kangas keep the puck out of the net, and waiting until they catch a break late in the game. For as close as all of Minnesota's playoff games have been, the only time they've trailed in a playoff game was a brief stretch in the first period of their third game with Minnesota State, and in the Final Five final, a game which they lost.

That said, I think the big key for Boston College is for BC to score a couple goals early and build a lead. If they do, I don't think Minnesota has the firepower to catch back up. But if Alex Kangas is playing well, and the game stays tied or in the Gophers favor, I really like Minnesota's chances.

The other key for Boston College will be the play of goalie John Muse. Muse was shaky at points this season, but was great in the Hockey East playoffs. If he can handle the pressures of the NCAA tournament, BC should be in good shape.

I think the Gophers have a great shot at winning this game, but I'll take Boston College to win in overtime. The Gophers have had quite a few bounces go their way in the playoffs, but I think their luck will run out here.

Game 2: #1 Miami vs. #4 Air Force

Air Force almost pulled off a huge upset last year over Minnesota, and that tournament experience could help them this year against a very good Miami team. It sounds like Air Force might be getting Eric Ehn back for this game, but even if he plays, I don't think he'll be at 100%.

I think Miami has too much talent to lose this game. I don't see goalie Jeff Zatkoff giving up that many goals, and Miami's forward corps is deep enough that it will create mismatches with Air Force, and they'll be able to score some goals.

Game 3 #1 Miami vs. #2 Boston College

This is a rematch of last year's Northeast Regional final, where Boston College won 4-0. Some things have changed since then. Miami is a year older and a little more confident. BC isn't as red-hot as they were last year. And John Muse is in goal instead of Cory Schneider. But I don't think enough has changed to switch the end result, and BC will advance to the Frozen Four.

Shegos' Bias Killing Miami Dynasty

After cleverly hiding as one of the most competent officials in all of college hockey for over a decade, CCHA referee Matt Shegos has finally been exposed for what he is, thanks to some hard work by the good people of Miami University.

In this letter to the editor of the Miami student paper, an associate professor, someone who has ostensibly had years of higher education, feels that Matt Shegos' unconscious bias is the reason why Miami lost to Michigan two weeks ago.

I think they may be on to something here. Clearly the selection of Mark Wilkins to officiate last weekend's series between Miami and Ferris State was a result of unconscious bias by CCHA head of officials and Ferris State alum Steve Piotrowski to give Ferris State an advantage. And just wait to see what happens to Miami should they run into Michigan State, the alma mater of CCHA commissioner Tom Anastos, in the CCHA playoffs.

Jones to Donate Hair

Miami senior captain Ryan Jones will donate his hair to Locks for Love at the end of the season.

It's a very nice gesture on the part of Jones to not only help out a great charity, but also to raise awareness for their cause.

The Big Hockey Weekend

It may only be Tuesday, but it's never too early to start looking forward to the weekend, and this weekend promises to be one of the most special hockey weekends in a long time.

First, the match-up everyone has been waiting all season for will finally take place in Oxford, Ohio between #1 Miami and #2 Michigan. Michigan has gone 0-1-3 over the last two weekends perhaps taking a bit of shine off the match-up now that Miami is the unanimous number one team in the meaningless polls. They're still the top two teams in the country though, and it should still be great hockey. Also, as many as 5 or 6 players will have a chance to make a serious case for the Hobey Baker this weekend with the entire country watching.

Meanwhile, out west, Saturday is Hockey Day Minnesota where Fox Sports North will have wall-to-wall hockey coverage for well over 12 hours.

The event isn't without some critics. Jon Marthaler opposes Hockey Day Minnesota on a grammatical level, Shane Frederick has this crazy notion that a day promoting hockey in Minnesota should be showing, you know hockey IN Minnesota, and I'm sure that I found some way to complain about it last year. But still, it's hockey! All freakin' day! You can't go too wrong with that.

The schedule for the day looks like this:
10 a.m., Eveleth High School vs. Lake of the Woods High School on Baudette Bay
1 p.m., St. Thomas Academy vs. Hill-Murray at Xcel Energy Center
5 p.m., Minnesota Wild vs. New York Islanders at Xcel Energy Center
8 p.m., University of Minnesota vs. Denver at Magness Arena
11 p.m., Roseau High School vs. Blaine High School on Baudette Bay (tape delay)

The only one that sticks out as a little weird to me is adding that STA/Hill game at the X, since, to put it gently, nobody likes them. I've never really cared about the whole public school/private school debate, but there are a surprising number of people in Minnesota who do. Needless to say, outside of alumni, there isn't much of a fanbase for either school. But who knows, maybe that cadre of public school kids who show up to the XCel Center every year for the state tournament to boo the private school teams will make an appearance and heat things up a little bit.

The Wild/Islanders game lost a little bit of excitement too, since this game was supposed to be Kyle Okposo's first trip back to Minnesota since he left the Gophers at midseason. But as it turns out, the guy the Islanders absolutely had to sign at mid-season wasn't really needed on Long Island, and he's playing down in the AHL with Bridgeport.

New Commits

Alberta forward Nik Yaremchuk committed to Alaska.

The rest of these were, I believe, broken by USHR.

Notre Dame got a commitment from NTDP forward Kyle Palmieri for 2009. The Irish are already loaded on the blueline for 2009, and now add Palmieri to their forwards, along with Ontario center Riley Sheahan. Palmieri is a New Jersey-native and is a slick playmaker.

Another NTDP forward, Ryan Bourque, committed to New Hampshire. It looks like Bourque will accelerate his schooling to join the 2009 class. Hopefully the younger Bourque is a little more committed to the academic side of things than his older brother Chris was at Boston University.

Miami got a commitment from eastern goalie Connor Knapp. Knapp is a very big goalie that played well at the Select 17s this summer.

Will Weber Article

George Sipple of the Detroit Free Press wrote a nice article on Miami recruit Will Weber, and the upcoming NHL draft.

I really have no idea where Weber will be drafted. He's got a lot of potential, but teams might be reluctant to pick somebody they haven't seen that much of that high in the draft. Still, with so many "boom or bust" prospects in the draft, I'll go out on a limb and say somebody grabs Weber in the third round of the draft.

Recruiting Linkorama

Miami recruit Will Weber looks like an interesting player, he comes from the non-traditional route of Michigan High School hockey. Weber was highly-recruited before choosing Miami, over Michigan State, and his father's alma mater, Cornell. Miami brought out the big guns, having Weber meet with the university president on his recruiting trip. What's even more interesting is that Weber could be an NHL draft pick this summer. I sometimes feel like players, and parents, put too much emphasis on where they play, and making sure they're on the "right team". This is further proof that if you're good enough, hockey people will find you. Weber will likely play in the USHL next season, and he should be a very high pick in the USHL draft this summer.

USHL Central Scouting featured Patrick Wey and Zach Tatrn, though Tatrn's name is spelled incorrectly.

The OHL Cup, which is a showcase tournament for players in their OHL Draft year, took place a couple weeks ago. Here are the Top Ten players from the tournament, according to some random Canadian blog. Here are the Scoring Leaders for the tournament.

There's some unconfirmed internet rumors out there that 1992-birthdate Luke Moffatt is considering moving from Phoenix to Toronto next year to play for the incredibly-good Toronto Jr. Canadiens. The idea seems to be that he could play in Toronto next season, and then play for the NTDP the following year. Moffatt is rated as one of the best available players for this summer's WHL Bantam Draft, so it would be nice if he decided to stick with the NCAA route.

New Recruits

The Riley Nash sweepstakes is over. After long consideration, Nash chose to join his brother at Cornell, over Denver and North Dakota. I'm not entirely surprised. Nash played really well at the end of the season, and should be a fairly high draft pick this summer. It's a nice pick up for the Big Red.

Gaylord(Mich.) HS defenseman Will Weber committed to Miami. It is the second straight week that a player from Michigan HS hockey has committed to a college. I know very little about Weber, but apparently he received a number of scholarship offers. The article lists him at 6-4 and speedy. He'll likely play a year of junior hockey before joining the RedHawks.

Duluth native Scott Kozlak will be joining the Air Force Academy next year.

Miami Upsets New Hampshire

The Miami Redhawks became the third #4 seed to knock off a #1 seed in the 16-team format when they defeated New Hampshire 2-1. The Redhawks were able to shutdown New Hampshire offensively, thanks to a great effort by goalie Jeff Zatkoff. Zatkoff made 43 saves, and the only goal he allowed was off a great individual effort by New Hampshire's Mike Radja.

Miami faces Boston College today, in a rematch of last year's first round, for the right to go to the Frozen Four.

NCAA Tourney Preview: Miami

Miami just barely snuck into the tournament as the last team to receive an at-large bid. The Redhawks had a pretty good season, that ended on a bit of a sour note. They lost their last three games of the season, including being swept at home by Lake Superior in the second round of the CCHA playoffs.

They were pretty much even against tournament teams. They split with Michigan, split with Michigan State, lost and tied Notre Dame, and beat St. Lawrence and lost to Clarkson the next night.

Miami has continued to split time between goalies Jeff Zatkoff and Charlie Effinger, though Zatkoff has received the last five starts. I think Zatkoff will likely start against New Hampshire.

Star forward Nathan Davis saw his production slow a little in the second half of the season. He still put up points, but he had few multipoint games in the second half of the season like he did in the first half. Davis and teammate Ryan Jones are both incredibly effective on the powerplay.

Not many people are giving the Redhawks a chance against New Hampshire, but I think the Redhawks match up pretty well with the Wildcats. If Davis and Jones can outplay Trevor Smith and Matt Fornataro, I think Miami has a decent chance of winning.

If the Redhawks do get past New Hampshire, they would either play a St. Lawrence team that they beat earlier this season, or a Boston College team that beat them in the NCAA tournament last season.

New Commitments

Notre Dame's recent run in recruiting has gotten to be a bit ridiculous. The most recent pick-up is defenseman Eric Ringel, a defenseman from Mahoning Valley in the NAHL. He is a '90 birthdate that has been playing Jr. A hockey this season, but filled in on the NTDP during the Four Nations Cup in January and played very well. I've been very impressed with Ringel when I've seen him play and this is another great pick-up for Notre Dame.

Edina HS forward Matt Reber committed to Dartmouth. He is the third Minnesota high school player to commit to Dartmouth since October.

St. Cloud continued to round out their 2007 recruiting class by adding Nic Roux, a Quebec-native who is playing in the BCHL.

Finally, Miami added forward Alden Hirschfield of Mahoning Valley in the NAHL.