The Big Ten Tsunami Watch

We've talked about the Big Ten rather obliquely off and on for the last year or so here at Without a Peer. First, we hinted that Penn State might be joining the Division I family. Then it happened. Then we told you to watch out that Seth Appert didn't slip out of town to become their coach. RPI locked him up for most of the rest of the decade (not that we're taking credit for that, of course).

The bottom line on the Big Ten, at least from the perspective of a well-established hockey program with a long history, right here and now in the summer of 2011, is that we, along with the entire college hockey world, needs to be ready for radical changes in the landscape not seen since the near-simultaneous formations of the ECAC and the WCHA in the early 1960s a half-century ago.

The most immediate changes, it must be underlined, probably won't be felt in Troy, not right away at least. The formation of the Big Ten hockey conference has the most immediate impact on the western leagues, where the existing five Big Ten hockey schools currently play: Minnesota and Wisconsin in the WCHA, Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State in the CCHA.

The WCHA will take a hit losing the Gophers and Badgers, to be sure, but they seem to be in a good position to weather the storm of the Big Ten, in part considering their overall strength, but also due to the rich history within: the remaining 10 teams have won a combined 20 NCAA championships (26 if you want to be a stickler and count Bemidji State's six crowns from D-II and D-III). They'll lose a bit of prestige with a pair of big time schools with 11 combined titles of their own, but they could manage. The WCHA survived for years with 10 teams, they could do it again.

The true question comes from the CCHA, which will see its already slightly diminished roster be cut even further, to eight teams, nearly all of which will be either Division II schools or Mid-American Conference schools. It is a difficult scenario for each of those remaining eight teams, all of whom will undoubtedly be searching for answers, especially Notre Dame and Miami, a pair of teams that have been on the cusp of the very top of the college hockey world in recent years.

It is that question that could ultimately have an impact on the three eastern conferences. Just what kind of impact is a topic of much debate, but it probably won't be any kind of wholesale change, especially for Hockey East and the ECAC... though it certainly could.

Over the next couple of weeks, be on the lookout for conference breakdowns by team or groups of teams that share a similar fate. Let's start off with the easiest conference to break down.

Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin: Collectively, the Big Ten. No questions here, they know what they're doing - in fact, it's because they know what they're doing that leads to all of this consternation in the first place. The only real question surrounding this group is whether they seek to bring in new blood, almost certainly via another Big Ten school if they do.

Expansion?

There aren't really too many options for expansion within existing programs. The Big Ten isn't just a D-I conference, they're a power conference - which means they aren't going to associate with schools from smaller conferences (to say nothing of associating with schools from outside of D-I). When you look around the rest of the college hockey world, there's only one program with even the outside possibility.

Notre Dame: The only geographically and historically close fit to the Big Ten is Notre Dame. The school typically competes against the Big Ten in a number of different sports, fits right into the geographic footprint between Pennsylvania and Nebraska in Indiana, and has frequently flirted with joining the Big Ten as a full member in all sports, even football. There simply is no other currently existing program with the possibility of joining the nascent conference. Ten years ago, it probably wouldn't have been possible given the state of the program, and today it's still probably highly unlikely, but the door is open at least a crack for the Irish, whereas it's shut tight for every other program out there.

Next: The mess in the CCHA.

The People's Choice

We couldn't decide on a winner for our caption contest, so we leave it to you... the loyal WaP readership, to decide which caption fits best for our goofy yet very real picture.

2011-12 Women's Hockey Schedule

The women's schedule was released yesterday. Here it is in all its glory.

Of note, the national champions from Wisconsin will be coming into Troy in mid-November. There's not much reason to suspect that the games will be anything terribly different than they were in Madison last season, but... you never know, maybe we'll use some home cooking to get a goal or two, or shock the world. Regardless it should be a pretty good weekend to catch a game at the Field House.

The "series" with Syracuse, it appears, will continue for a third consecutive season, which is pretty nifty. A weekend with Niagara also appears on the schedule for a fourth straight year, while the Engineers head to Burlington this season in return for the Catamounts' appearance in Troy last year.

Friday games are at 7 p.m., Saturday games at 4 p.m. unless otherwise noted. ECAC league games have the little star next to them.

September

Fri. 23 - Toronto Aeros (Exhibition, Skate With The Engineers to follow)

Fri. 30 - at UConn

October

Sat. 1 - at UConn

Fri. 7 - at Vermont

Sat. 8 - at Vermont

Fri. 14 - at Niagara

Sat. 15 - at Niagara, 2 p.m.

Fri. 21 - Robert Morris (Homecoming)

Sat. 22 - Robert Morris (Homecoming)

Fri. 28 - Quinnipiac*, 3 p.m.

Sat. 29 - Princeton*, 3 p.m.

November

Fri. 4 - St. Lawrence*

Sat. 5 - Clarkson*

Fri. 11 - at Brown*

Sat. 12 - at Yale*

Fri. 18 - Wisconsin

Sat. 19 - Wisconsin

Fri. 25 - Syracuse

Sat. 26 - Syracuse

December

Fri. 2 - at Clarkson*

Sat. 3 - at St. Lawrence*

January

Fri. 6 - Colgate*, 3 p.m.

Sat. 7 - Cornell*, 3 p.m.

Fri. 13 - at Dartmouth*

Sat. 14 - at Harvard*

Fri. 20 - Yale*

Sat. 21 - Brown*

Fri. 27 - at Union*, 3 p.m.

Sat. 28 - Union, 3 p.m.

February

Fri. 3 - at Cornell*

Sat. 4 - at Colgate*

Fri. 10 - Harvard*

Sat. 11 - Dartmouth* (Senior Night)

Fri. 17 - at Princeton*

Sat. 18 - at Quinnipiac*

Fri. 24 - Sun. 26 - ECAC Quarterfinals (at higher seed, best of three)

March

Thu. 1 - ECAC Semifinals (at two highest remaining seeds)

Sat. 3 - ECAC Championship (at highest remaining seed)

Sat. 10 - NCAA Quarterfinals (at seeded teams)

Fri. 16 - NCAA Frozen Four (Duluth, MN)

Sun. 18 - NCAA Championship (Duluth, MN)

Know Your Enemy: Notre Dame

Part three of Know Your Enemy focuses on a school that's a traditional power in a number of sports, most notably among the most traditional powers there are in the biggest college sport of them all, football. In hockey, they're certainly not a traditional power, but they're absolutely a growing power - and as they showed this past season in making not just the NCAA tournament but also the Frozen Four during a season in which they were supposed to be rebuilding, they could be making the ascent to the top of the college hockey world in short order.

Notre Dame
Nickname: Fighting Irish
Location: South Bend, IN
Founded: 1842
Conference: CCHA
National Championships: 0
Last NCAA Appearance: 2011
Last Frozen Four: 2011
Coach: Jeff Jackson (7th season)
2010-11 Record: 25-14-5 (18-7-3-2 CCHA, 2nd place)
Series: Tied, 3-3-0
First Game: December 29, 1988 (Troy, NY)
Last RPI win: January 1, 2005 (South Bend, IN)
Last ND win: December 30, 2007 (Tampa, FL)

2011-12 game: October 21, 2011 (South Bend, IN)

Key players: D Sean Lorenz, sr.; F Billy Maday, sr.; D Sam Calabrese, jr.; G Mike Johnson, jr.; F Nick Larson, jr.; F Riley Sheahan, jr.; F Jeff Costello, so.; D Stephen Johns, so.; F Anders Lee, so; D Kevin Lind, so.; F Bryan Rust, so.; F T.J. Tynan, so.; F Mike Voran, so.; D Robbie Russo, fr.; D Andrew Ryan, fr.; F Peter Schneider, fr.; F Austin Wuthrich, fr.

Hockey at Notre Dame actually precedes Knute Rockne by a few years, as the Fighting Irish first put a team on ice in 1913, playing three games. That first season, however, was not followed by a second until 1920, when the earliest hockey in South Bend had its heyday for eight years.

This early incarnation of the Irish had its best year in 1922, when they won 8 of 9 games, including an undefeated record against other universities, including Michigan, Michigan State, and what is today Michigan Tech. The freshman goaltender on that team was Jim Crowley, one of the famed "Four Horsemen," but Rockne put an end to his hockey career when he was told to focus on football. The hockey program faded out after a 3-7-1 season in 1927.

Sporadic attempts to restart hockey in South Bend took place between the 1930s and the 1960s, but nothing stuck until a club team found footing in the early 1960s. That laid the foundation for a return to varsity hockey in 1968, when the team played the first of three seasons as an independent before joining the WCHA as the conference's 10th team in 1971.

In the WCHA, the Irish were never top dog, but they did put together a few decent seasons, finishing second on the conference table in 1973 and 1977. After 10 seasons in the conference, the Irish joined a breakoff faction that included Michigan, Michigan State, and Michigan Tech in joining the CCHA in 1981, a conference that had been a fairly minor group of programs to that point.

The move did not exactly propel hockey at Notre Dame to bigger and better things. After a fourth place finish in the 11-team league in 1982, the Irish tumbled to eighth in 1983 and following the season, the university announced that they would no longer be sponsoring varsity hockey, a decision that would put a growing program that had produced a Hobey Baker finalist just a year prior behind the eight ball for a good 20 years.

The Irish continued play in 1984 as a club team, and returned to varsity the next season as a non-scholarship independent team, still under the tutelage of Lefty Smith, the man who had been behind the bench in South Bend since the return of varsity hockey in the late 1960s. During their time as an independent program in the 1980s, the Irish were playing mostly club teams and lower division sides.

Ric Schafer became the program's second coach in 1987, immediately guiding the team to its best season it would see in the independent ranks, putting up a 27-4-2 record, but again, the team was playing schools like Arizona and Michigan-Dearborn. Following that season, however, Schafer began scheduling an increasing number of CCHA teams as he prepared the team to return to scholarships and, ultimately, the league itself, which they did in 1992.

The return to the CCHA was the first step, but the climb to the top was slow and difficult. Through most of the 1990s, the Irish struggled to stay out of the league's basement. Schafer stepped aside in favor of Irish alum Dave Poulin in 1995, but the team endured six straight losing seasons in their return to the CCHA, and 10 losing seasons in their first 11 through 2002.

Arguably, the first true rise of Notre Dame as any kind of college hockey power began in 2004, as the team reached 20 wins against a full D-I schedule for the first time since 1982, and earned an NCAA berth for the very first time, falling in the first round to Minnesota.

From that high, the drop to the valley was immediate - the Irish won just 5 games in the 2004-05 season, their lowest total in the program's modern history, which ended Poulin's tenure in South Bend. The school's choice of replacement left little doubt that the school intended to put a new emphasis on hockey: Jeff Jackson, who guided Lake Superior State to three consecutive national championship games in the early 1990s (winning two) took over, and the effect was almost immediate.

Jackson had the Irish back in the NCAA tournament in just his second season, as Notre Dame won a school-record 32 games in 2007 on their way to their first CCHA regular season and tournament titles. 24 wins in 2008 were enough to send the Irish to the NCAA tournament for a second straight year. Despite a low seed, the Irish blazed a trail through the tournament, making their first Frozen Four appearance with a 5-4 overtime victory over Michigan before falling 4-1 to traditional rivals Boston College in the national championship.

A second CCHA title came down in 2009, but the Irish fell victim to the mass upsets that swept the NCAA tournament that season, losing to Bemidji State in the first round.

After a step back in 2010 with a losing season, 2011 was expected to be a rebuilding year as the Irish roster was loaded with young players, but those expectations went out the door pretty quickly as the young talent proved more than capable of not only excelling on the ice, but leading the team to heights no one expected. Led by the freshman duo of T.J. Tynan (who went on to win the national rookie of the year award) and Anders Lee, the Irish lit up their schedule last season, losing back-to-back games only twice during the regular season en route to a second place finish. In the NCAA tournament, they successfully navigated a pair of tough Hockey East foes in Manchester, taking down a high-flying Merrimack team before defeating the homestanding UNH Wildcats for their second-ever trip to the Frozen Four. There, they gave eventual national champions Minnesota-Duluth a solid game before falling 4-3.

Notre Dame is still young, but the difference this year is that those young players played like veterans during their freshman years. Tynan and Lee were the team's top two scorers last season, both pumping in more than 20 goals and adding 20 assists, but the potential hardly ends there. Riley Sheahan was one of the final cuts from the Canadian World Junior Championship team last season. Billy Maday, Nick Larson, and Jeff Costello each added at least 10 goals last year as the Irish put up a Top 10 national showing offensively with only 3 games all season in which the team didn't score at least twice. 13 returning players had at least 10 points on the campaign, and they're joined by three freshmen coming from the renowned US Under-18 program in Russo, Ryan, and Wuthrich.

The Irish defense wasn't much to crow about last year, as games involving Notre Dame tended to be higher scoring affairs, but it was enough to get the job done more often than not given the way the offense was clicking. Mike Johnson was the man in net for the Irish and unless something radical happens, he should be the starter again this season. His numbers weren't standout - 2.62 GAA, .904 save percentage, but when your team's pumping pucks on the other team's net with frequency, the opposition isn't down there shooting on you as frequently.

Notre Dame may be one of the best, if not the best team on the Engineers' schedule this season. As a program, they have made serious strides in the last 10 years and are now only missing a national championship as the final step. Given the amazing talent seen in the class that will be entering their sophomore season in 2011-12, it's hard to see them not competing for one again during their stay in South Bend.

Unusual for a long trip, the Engineers will play Notre Dame just once in a Friday matchup at Notre Dame's Compton Family Ice Arena (which opens in October, meaning the Engineers will be one of the first opponents there). Why? Well, in part, because attention at Notre Dame is focused on one place in October: football. The Irish take on USC the next day at Notre Dame Stadium in one of the most historic college football rivalry games out there, the Battle for the Jeweled Shillelagh. For that reason, if you can make it out to South Bend for the game, it is highly recommended. You may not have a better chance to see a brand new hockey arena and a renowned college rivalry in the same weekend, even though the Engineers are sure to be solid underdogs in Indiana.

Know Your Enemy: Ferris State

The first full weekend series between RPI and Ferris State has likely been in the workings ever since Ferris State alum Seth Appert was named as RPI's 12th head coach back in 2006. Appert told WaP during the 2009-10 season that he'd been working to get his alma mater on the schedule for a while, but he hadn't been able to make the schedules match up properly. Looks like the stars have finally aligned, with Appert set to make his homecoming in October.

Ferris State
Nickname: Bulldogs
Location: Big Rapids, MI
Founded: 1884
Conference: CCHA
National Championships: 0
Last NCAA Appearance: 2003
Last Frozen Four: None
Coach: Bob Daniels (20th season)
2010-11 Record: 18-16-5 (12-12-4-3 CCHA)
Series: Ferris State leads, 1-0-0
First Game: January 23, 1998 (Big Rapids, MI)
Last RPI win: None
Last FSU win: January 23, 1998 (Big Rapids, MI)

2011-12 games: October 14-15, 2011 (Big Rapids, MI)

Key players: D Chad Billins, sr.; F Jordie Johnston, sr.; G Taylor Nelson, sr.; D Aaron Schmit, sr.; D Brett Wysopal, sr.; F Eric Alexander, jr; F Kyle Bonis, jr.; F Matthew Kirzinger, jr.; F Travis Ouellette, jr.; D Scott Czarnowczan, so.; F Justin Buzzeo, fr.

Here's the story with Ferris State: it's a state school named after its founder in a city roughly the size of Plattsburgh and a student population about the size of UAlbany (larger than the town's permanent population) about 50 miles north of Grand Rapids. It does not appear as though the founder, former Michigan Governor Woodbridge Nathan Ferris, is related to prominent RPI alumnus George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., inventor of the Ferris wheel.

Varsity hockey at Ferris State began in 1975, when the school was a member of the NAIA. They played four years under the NAIA banner. In 1978, as the school prepared to move from the NAIA to the NCAA, the Bulldogs joined the nascent CCHA, at the time a small regional conference with only Ohio State and Bowling Green as full Division I schools, finishing in last place as an associate member in the 1978-79 season but rebounding the next year.

The Bulldogs had two very successful seasons in their second and third seasons in the CCHA, winning 20 games in each year, including 26 in 1980, which would be a school record for more than 20 years. Both years, they finished a respectable third in the six team league.

1981, however, brought significant changes to the CCHA, growing its stature as a league but putting the Bulldogs largely behind the eight-ball with some very tough, powerful programs joining up. Most notably, Michigan and Michigan State joined the league, although further down the road the additions of Notre Dame and Miami proved equally daunting. While the addition of these top programs added prestige to the league, it also made things difficult for some of the smaller schools.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Ferris State frequently struggled to keep up in the newer, more powerful league even as Lake Superior State started its dynasty in the late 1980s. Despite the hiring of Cornell coach Dick Bertrand in 1982, the Bulldogs endured 10 consecutive losing seasons during the 1980s.

Under Bob Mancini in 1991, the Bulldogs, led by future NHLers Dave Karpa and John Gruden, snapped out of their funk with a 21-win season, finishing 3rd in the conference for the first time since the 1981 expansion. But Mancini only stuck around in Big Rapids for two seasons, leaving in 1992 to take over at Michigan Tech.

Mancini's replacement, Bob Daniels, brought some much needed stability to the program, for the most part keeping the Bulldogs at least fairly competitive in the CCHA even if not always able to overcome the conference's beasts. The Bulldogs won 21 games in his first season of 1992-93, and while they would not be able to put together another winning season until 2000, the truly poor seasons in Big Rapids were fewer and more far between than they had been in the 1980s. It was during this stretch that two goaltenders who eventually became D-I head coaches, Seth Appert and Jeff Blashill, were roommates at Ferris State.

Ask any Ferris State fan what their best season was and the answer is going to be unanimous: 2003. Led by Hobey Baker finalist Chris Kunitz, who has since produced a solid NHL career, the Bulldogs climbed to the top of the CCHA, finishing on top of the regular season table for the first time in school history, besting Michigan by six points during a 22-5-1 CCHA season. Though they lost the CCHA Championship Game to the Wolverines, the Bulldogs still gained their first NCAA tournament appearance, coming just a game away from the Frozen Four as they defeated North Dakota 5-2 before falling 7-4 against a Minnesota team that was not only the defending national champions, but were on their way to becoming the first back-to-back national champs in 30 years, and were playing on their home ice to boot. They finished the year with an impressive record of 31-10-1.

The team has yet to return to that lofty pinnacle. The following season, Ferris State plummeted to 10th in the 12-team CCHA, and did not register another winning season until 2008. More recently, the Bulldogs have been generally solid while not quite approaching the top of the CCHA again. There is recent cause for optimism, however. In 2010 and 2011, the team registered consecutive winning seasons for the first time since the CCHA's expansion, making three winning seasons in the last four. Both years, they were a bubble team for a second NCAA bid.

A major reason for the Bulldogs' relative success in the last two years, unfortunately for them, has graduated: goaltender Pat Nagle, who anchored a Ferris State defense that was among the Top 10 defenses in the nation in each of the last two seasons. That defense could take a step back without him, but at the same time, the returning defensive corps is chock full of experienced blueliners (including three prominent seniors and five total), most of whom help out the Bulldogs offensively as well.

With Nagle gone, the goaltending duties will likely fall to senior Taylor Nelson, who split time with Nagle in 2009 and 2010 before being relegated to backup for much the same reason Bryce Merriam didn't see much action in 2011 - the other goaltender had the team on his back.

Offensively, the Bulldogs didn't have any individual players put up striking numbers - leading scorer Travis Ouellette returns for his junior year with just 21 points last season and the only Bulldog to reach double digits in goals with just 10, but while Ferris State didn't have individuals lighting the lamp with abandon, as a team they spread the scoring around very well: 14 different players had at least 10 points, including six defensemen. That tends to require opposing teams to focus less on stopping individuals and more on a game plan that can stop anyone.

This series in Michigan, besides being a homecoming for Seth Appert, should prove to be another good challenge for RPI's young forwards. It's not exactly the easiest road trip for fans (even diehards) to make, but this should be a couple of interesting games that could help decipher exactly what the Engineers are capable of this season.

Know Your Enemy: Minnesota State

Given the long history of RPI hockey, it's no surprise that the Engineers have played practically every team out there to be played in Division I hockey. In fact, coming into the 2011-12 season, there are only four current D-I teams that RPI has never competed against on the ice. Canisius is the only eastern team on that list, and there are three western schools: the CCHA's Northern Michigan, and two teams from the WCHA - Nebraska-Omaha and Minnesota State. That list shrinks by at least one next year, as the Engineers and Mavericks are set to do battle for the first time during opening weekend in Troy come October.

Minnesota State
Nickname: Mavericks
Location: Mankato, MN
Founded: 1867
Conference: WCHA
National Championships: 1 (1980, Division II)
Last NCAA Appearance: 2003
Last Frozen Four: 1991 (Division III)
Coach: Troy Jutting (12th season)
2010-11 Record: 14-18-6 (8-16-4 WCHA, 11th place)
Series: First meeting

2011-12 games: October 7-8, 2011 (Troy, NY)

Key players: F Michael Dorr, sr.; F Justin Jokinen, sr.; D Cameron Cooper, sr.; G Phil Cook, jr.; D Tyler Elbrecht, jr.; F Eriah Hayes, jr.; F Eli Zuck, jr.; F Chase Grant, so.; F Max Gaede, fr.; D Mat Knoll, fr.

Hockey is something of a religion in Minnesota; witness the five different Division I hockey programs in the state despite having only one fully Division I school (the University of Minnesota). Thus, it's not terribly surprising that a school with over 13,000 undergraduates - third most in the state behind Minnesota and St. Cloud State - would be one of those schools playing at college hockey's highest level.

Varsity hockey at Mankato State, as the school was known between 1957 and 1999, began at the Division II level in 1970 under head coach Don Brose, who guided the team for 30 seasons. Although the Mavericks had a slow first season, Brose had the team winning games by year two, as Mankato State picked up a 15-2-1 record in the 1970-71 season, still the highest winning percentage in program history. All told, the Mavericks put up six winning seasons in their first eight years as a team from 1970 to 1977.

In 1978, the NCAA started the Division II national championship, the first separate championship from the Division I title that dated back 30 years. The Mavericks earned a place in the first six tournaments, falling to the eventual champions from Merrimack in 1978 and then to Lowell in the 1979 national championship. They punched through for their first - and thus far, only - national crown in 1980, defeating Elmira College 5-2 in the championship game (in Elmira) behind a 42-save effort by goaltender Steve Carroll. The title win was the Mavericks' 30th win of the year, the only time they have ever reached that number in the win column.

When the Division II championship was first suspended after the 1984 edition, the Mavericks moved to Division III, where they immediately made a pair of NCAA tournament appearances in 1985 and 1986. Three straight national tournaments from 1990 to 1992 included an appearance in the 1991 national championship game, where Mankato fell to Wisconsin-Stevens Point, 6-2.

In 1992, the school announced their intention to move the program to Division I, where they hoped to join fellow Minnesota State College and University (MnSCU) school St. Cloud State, but their request was denied by MnSCU, setting off a three-year battle to elevate the program. In the meantime, the Mavericks returned to Division II following the return of the national championship in 1993. There, they suffered their first losing season in nearly 20 years, and in 1994 dealt with a second consecutive losing season for the first time in program history.

In late 1995, MnSCU finally relented and allowed Mankato State to move to the Division I level, which they did the following season as an independent for the 1996-97 year, playing a hybrid schedule with Division II and III teams. Shortly after that inaugural D-I season, the school submitted a bid to join the WCHA, and a unique arrangement was set up inviting the team to participate in the WCHA tournament (as the highest seed) in 1998 despite being an independent team.

That set up was repeated in 1999, when the Mavericks pulled off a 3-2 overtime upset over WCHA regular season champions North Dakota before dropping the next two of the best-of-three (losing Game 3 10-0).

The Mavericks became full-fledged members of the WCHA in the 1999-2000 season, Don Brose's last behind the bench in Mankato (which also coincided with the school's name change to Minnesota State, Mankato). MSU had an impressive first full season in the league, winning 21 games (still the most for the school in Division I) and making a trip to the WCHA Final Five.

Just 11 days after Brose's last game, his long time assistant and former player Troy Jutting was named the team's second official head coach. Jutting led the team to another winning season in 2001, and in 2003, MSU reached the national tournament in just its fourth season as a full WCHA member, falling 5-2 to Cornell.

Since that NCAA tournament appearance, things have not been outstanding in Mankato, however. The Mavericks lost a school record 24 games the following season, and have had only one winning campaign (2008) since. A few talented players, including current NHLers David Backes, Ryan Carter, and Tim Jackman have come through Mankato recently, but as a team they have been struggling in the always difficult WCHA.

Last year, the Mavericks put up a decent mid-season, going unbeaten in 9 of 11 straight games between late November and mid-January, but four of the eight wins in the stretch came against American International and UMass-Lowell, two of the worst teams in the country. The other four were fairly solid, however, including a home sweep of Minnesota and a title in Notre Dame's Shillelagh Tournament. Once February arrived, however, the team sputtered down the stretch, finishing their last 10 games with a 3-7-0 record.

Pretty much every aspect of Minnesota State's game last year could be described as "pedestrian." With the exception of a rotten power play, the team didn't really excel or significantly lag in any facet of the game. Their top scorer last year was a senior defenseman, but they do bring back the only two players on the team to score more than 10 goals, Dorr and Hayes (Jokinen and Grant added 9 and 8 markers respectively). Cook's numbers in net could also be described as pedestrian, they weren't eye-poppingly bad but they weren't lighting the world on fire, either.

Nonetheless, when the Mavericks arrive in Troy in October, they should provide a solid early-season test for the Engineers. RPI's young offense will be met with MSU's young defense, and Bryce Merriam will be tested by some veteran forwards who have spent their college careers firing pucks at some of the best goalies in the country in the WCHA. Besides the obvious intrigue factor of the Engineers playing a team they've never seen in the program's history and the draw of the first regular season home weekend, this series should provide a great weekend of hockey.

Pouring It On

OK, WaP offseason break over.

Tomorrow begins our 21-part Summer Cooler series called "Know Your Enemy." Every Wednesday, we will focus on one of the Engineers' opponents in the upcoming year - 10 non-conference opponents, and 11 ECAC foes. Tomorrow's entry is one of only four teams in all of Division I that the Engineers have never faced before.

In the meantime... enjoy this little giggler, spotted by eagle-eyed friend of the site James Lauser in downtown Albany yesterday. Amazingly, this is a real thing, not Photoshopped in the slightest. Honest.



Consider this the first ever Without a Peer caption contest! Feel free to try your hand at captioning this picture, just leave a comment on this posting. The winner(s) will be revealed next week.