LIU -D1 Hockey/ Saint Thomas to CCHA

[MICKEY]

Per USCHO board: Nov 27 & Nov 28

[Eagle]

Great!

Hope NU has a breakout season!

[le]

Money game...

[barry81]

Coach is building the program by playing a quality OOC schedule. That is good for the team and recruiting. NU is in great position for years to come!

[phillyeagle]

A program like Niagara needs money games. They almost never result in any reciprocal games at Niagara. The negative to these games is that they typically happen near the beginning of the season and result in inordinate number of losses at the start of the season. This dampens enthusiasm with the home base and attendance at the following home games suffer.
I do not have an answer for this problem since NU needs the money of the program.. It would be nice to surprise some with a win, but the reason the top schools schedule a team like NU is for a home victory. That is life for a school like NU.

[NewEnglander]

An advantage to this series is that it is not at the start of the season but almost to the Christmas break with maybe only about 4 more games before the break. This series will be about 8 weeks into the season on Thanksgiving weekend.

[Eagle]

Last year we played Minnesota on Oct 18 and lost 3-2 (OT) and on Oct 19 losing 4-2 in NU's #2 and #3 games of the season.

Yes, they are "money games", but why not?

It seems that hockey as sport is more closely matched than other sports giving small schools the best chance to win games overall, and the best sport to emerge as a power...recall NU under Blaise. I'd like to think that a similar programmatic trajectory is now being cast at NU...we're in a great location to become a perennial power in college hockey.

I would like to see annual games with Colgate and Cornell in hoops and hockey, as well at annual games with RPI, Union, St. Lawrence & Penn St.

It was rumored a few years ago that Syracuse and UB would go DI, which would be great. Doubt that any schools is looking expand their athletic portfolio.

Maybe it is time for the NCAA to let schools "play up" in DI in a few sports and play a geographically regional schedule in sports such as soccer, volleyball, track and fiend, cross country, tennis, et al.

[jhart]

Also, our hockey student athletes are damn smart with the #1 major Biology and team GPA 3.66.
I had that maybe two or three times...no comments please. It's Easter season!

[le]

I mentioned money games in a positive sense. I agree, we need to play these games for economic reasons and also for power rankings .

[barry81]

With only 60 Division 1 schools playing hockey, there is great parody of talent and a goalie can steal a game in college hockey. The difference between number 20 and number 50 is slim.

We need to get over the out of conference won, loss records. Out of conference on the road is brutal. In addition to the travel, the visiting team will get the 3 to 1 treatment. 3 penalties for the road team to 1 for the home team. And the home team penalties will come when the game is over. That's the way it is.

The regular season is for playoff seedings and then go. I firmly belief the teams that test themselves and are well coached, will rise and have a chance to win the conference playoffs and advance to the NCAA's!