Disgrace

Dr. Malcolm "Mack" Portera doesn't know jack about college hockey.

Unfortunately, that's the ultimate reason why February will see the University of Alabama at Huntsville fade from the college hockey map - and why Portera, the University of Alabama chancellor who has assumed the temporary role of UAH president, has joined former Union president Roger Hull at the top of the list of the sport's biggest administrative fools.

Monday was a very sad day in the history of college hockey. It marked an avoidable sunset for a program that simultaneously embodied the spirit of a sport in which Division II and III schools regularly tangle - and often win - against schools whose mascots are household names, and the spirit of the sport's unique and passionate niche support.

While it is true that the college hockey family as a whole is partially to blame for leaving a cherished family member out in the cold - ironically, in the sport's warmest locale - it is beyond belief that the ultimate blame would fall with an individual within the school itself, even as the Chargers' most passionate fans did everything in their power to make the team's survival a feasible option.

There are things that could have happened to keep this day from happening. The CCHA could have chosen to bring the Chargers on board two years ago when they applied. Poetic justice, perhaps, that the league will be the next entity on its way out come 2013. If they'd been accepted, UAH would have likely begun league play this season at the latest, and could well have had a better position to collectively bargain with the other CCHA teams who, like the Chargers, were suddenly scrambling for a new home.

The WCHA, it is told, could have been a likely home following all of the moving pieces this summer even despite the league's inclusion of both Alaska schools. But then, Mack Portera came into the picture and started waving his axe, which understandably made the WCHA wary - creating Portera's self-fulfilling prophecy that the team wasn't going to find a home.

Portera's excuses are easily shot down - and he has so obviously ignored any attempts to help keep the program afloat until better arrangements can be found.

First, he takes the easy road in this difficult economy: he claims poverty, something the average citizen is supposed to be able to understand right now. Unfortunately for him, it doesn't hold much water considering that a grassroots alumni and local effort raised enough pledges to offset the school's losses for three years.

A lot can happen in three years. Heck, just two years ago, UAH was in the NCAA tournament, playing a tight game with Miami that helped goaltender Cameron Talbot earn an NHL contract. Given three years, we could see an economic turnaround that would help the school continue to support its program, and the Chargers could eventually find accommodations in a conference with an opening, of which there are now three and potentially four. If things are still bad then, perhaps the program would still have to close. But now, we'll never know.

Second, he makes the claim that Charger hockey will continue to be a defining element of the school, since it will continue to operate at the club level. Right. That's why Penn State is still playing club hockey come next season, or why Lindenwood is still playing women's club hockey. Oh, wait.

Ask any hockey fan in Glens Falls what it was like going from watching AHL hockey for 20 years with the Adirondack Red Wings to watching low-level UHL hockey with the Adirondack Icehawks/Frostbite. Needless to say, attendance, and interest, wasn't quite the same. People aren't stupid. They know the difference in quality.

Third, Portera says the hockey program's budget is much bigger than that of the rest of the athletic department. That's true at RPI, too. Some program has to be the biggest. Why wouldn't it be the most important sport at the school? Hockey allows UAH to stand out from its big brother in Tuscaloosa AND its arguable little brother at UAB, both of which play big time FBS football. As UA system chancellor, Portera probably could have saved the system more money by making minor cuts there, but of course, he couldn't.

Fourth, he points out closures at Wayne State and Findlay, which is like comparing apples to oranges when it comes to the history and tradition of hockey at those schools. They combined for a total of 17 varsity seasons and no championships. This is UAH's 27th season, and the team has won two national championships at the now defunct Division II level. Wayne State and Findlay, with very little history, went away with minimal fuss. Portera had his email inbox deluged with hundreds upon hundreds of emails from students, alumni, and fans from around the college hockey world.

UAH will be the first program with a national championship to relinquish varsity status.

Fifth, and most outrageous of all, Mack Portera tries to use the excuse that the team's lack of Alabamans on the roster is a reason to scuttle the team's varsity status - a clear grasp at straws. Someone had better alert RIT - not a single New Yorker on that team. No one from Rhode Island plays for Brown. No Nebraskans at Nebraska-Omaha. Army, Colorado College, North Dakota, Notre Dame, Princeton, Quinnipiac, Vermont and Yale have a paltry one player each from their respective home states.

It's this last claim that pushes Portera into Hull status. Don't most schools proudly point out how many different states are represented in their student body? Aren't most schools proud of their international contingent? UAH is a darn fine engineering school - fine enough that the aristocratic qualifier "for a state school" can be easily skipped - shouldn't it also be a source of pride that people from outside the state are attracted by athletics as well as academics?

Club hockey certainly isn't going to grow the sport in North Alabama either, as he tries to claim.

As Adam Wodon said so eloquently on the twitters on Monday, Hull and Portera stand alone.

Roger Hull, you will remember, earned himself undying infamy when he directed that Union become the only institution sharing a Division III conference with a D-III school offering scholarships in their D-I sport (in this case, three of them) to vote against allowing those schools to continue offering those scholarships. He then continued to carry on, unconsciously explaining his school's decades of dismal records by saying "...when they got to 40 percent [winning percentage], I was proud, and when they reached nearly 50 percent a few years ago, I was tremendously proud of them."

Can there be any wonder why the Dutchmen have been so successful since his departure? Incidentally, Hull is now running for Schenectady mayor - and perhaps the city's residents should make themselves aware of his benchmarks for success.

Fortunately for Union, they were able to at least survive Hull's idiocy. Huntsville doesn't have that kind of luxury with the fool they ended up with - on an interim basis, no less - and college hockey is a poorer place today because of it.

Late in their program's history, after the axe had fallen, Boston University football started wearing tape over their BU logos and plain white jerseys, calling themselves "University X." Findlay started calling themselves merely "the Oilers." For all the support the Chargers have received from their school, perhaps something similar is in order.

More worthwhile UAH commentaries:

• Geof F. Morris, Save UAH Hockey: Goodbye
• Joe Yerdon, NBC Sports: So long UAH hockey, now let's point some fingers
• Greg Wyshynski, Yahoo! Sports: What killed NCAA Div. I hockey at Alabama-Huntsville?
• Chris Peters, The United States of Hockey: Death of a program: Alabama-Huntsville gets plug pulled
• Jackson Morgus, Obstructed View Sports: Congratulations, UAH
• Kyle Rossi, Thank You Terry: Lonesome Day
• Chris Dilks, Western College Hockey Blog: Who is to blame for Huntsville's demise?
• Ken Schott, Schenectady Daily Gazette: Farewell to Alabama-Huntsville hockey
• Mark McCarter, Huntsville Times: Portera's decision on UAH hockey program ends unique aspect to university, community
• Mark McCarter, Huntsville Times: Sad day to see UAH hockey program eliminated
• Sandy Gholston, Ferris State: Alabama-Huntsville program fades to black
• Steve Fetch, The College Hockey Blog: Goodbye, Huntsville
• Matt Dresens, BU Hockey Blog: A bad day for college hockey

In Defense of Friends

We mentioned a few weeks back that Alabama-Huntsville was enduring what we called a "nightmare scenario" with the WCHA and CCHA agreeing, in principle, to a full merger.

Our friends at SaveUAHHockey.com didn't need to be told that. They see what is going on. And thankfully, they aren't taking it lightly - certainly not taking it sitting down.

http://saveuahhockey.com/2011/09/05/how-to-help-urgent-action-needed/

"[T]here is a possibility of dropping the Division 1 Charger Hockey program to the Club level, and a decision could be made in early October."

WaP is a family blog. So let me just say that the first word in our two word response is four letters, starting with the letter F, and the second word is "that."

Long term, UAH needs a conference that it can call home. Short term, it doesn't seem to look overly promising. But if Chancellor Mack Portera decides to fold his tent early, we'll never know.

It's time to make our voices heard. Sign the petition.

http://www.change.org/petitions/uah-charger-hockey-should-soldier-on-and-thrive

You may remember that Tech Hockey Guide and WaP made a bit of a mistake in using change.org, which sends emails to petition targets on every signature, as a tool for our petition. After all, we were just hoping to show a bit of support for playing a few games. This is different. We WANT to bombard this decision maker with our numbers. We NEED him to see, full force, that our community wants UAH not just to survive, but to thrive.

Hockey at UAH isn't a novelty, not anymore. It's tradition. We, as a community, cannot turn our backs on tradition, not with so much about our sport about to change in the coming years. If UAH loses their program, it is a clear message to other schools that might be a little bit off the beaten path and outside of the "traditional" hockey areas: don't bother, you won't make it.

Please, sign the petition. Let the powers that be in Huntsville hear not just Charger fans but college hockey fans as a whole: college hockey NEEDS its southern outpost!

Tsunami Watch: Settling Point?

While we dry out a bit here in Irene-ravaged Troy (which was almost wholly to blame for this not running yesterday), here's the latest on the conference carousel that may soon be grinding to a halt.

Last week, the rumored WCHA-CCHA merger that had been discussed came to fruition as the WCHA offered membership to the remaining members of the CCHA with the exception of Notre Dame, which is still on the fence between the NCHC and Hockey East (and, apparently, becoming an independent).

Alaska, Lake Superior State, and Ferris State quickly accepted. Thus, the WCHA currently looks like this in 2013:

Alaska

Alaska-Anchorage

Bemidji State

Ferris State

Lake Superior State

Michigan Tech

Minnesota State

Northern Michigan

St. Cloud State

There's one thing that all of these schools have in common: Division II. That may be one of the things that is causing hesitation for the other two WCHA invitees, Bowling Green and Western Michigan, both of whom play at the highest level of Division I.

That leaves the following remaining question marks.

Notre Dame: Once again, it was something other than Notre Dame which moved first. We all thought the Irish would be the first to make a move... they're now almost certain to be last. Well... maybe next to last.

The options are still pretty much laid bare on the table. They're one of three remaining CCHA teams, so they can't reasonably stay there - not that that's ever been something that was realistic to begin with. They've got a standing offer from the NCHC, and Hockey East wouldn't say no if they wanted to join there.

If Notre Dame preferred to align themselves with the Big Ten, there's another option that the Irish could be considering - independence. Now, this wouldn't leave the Irish as independents in the style of Alabama-Huntsville, which will be in its second season of fully cobbling together a schedule this year, but rather, would be a situation where the Irish had long-term scheduling arrangements with other leagues, almost certainly with the Big Ten and probably with the NCHC as well. Such an arrangement would allow Notre Dame to keep playing the schools they're already used to playing without having to tether themselves to the Big Ten (which they've famously refused to do for decades) or a conference largely consisted of less prestigious institutions in the NCHC. They wouldn't be able to vie for an automatic bid and they'd have to find a way to keep playing into March (when the conferences are in tournament mode), but with the scheduling arrangements, a good Irish team with a solid record would probably be in contention for an NCAA bid without much problem.

Bowling Green: The Falcons are in an interesting position. They have the WCHA invite in their back pocket, but as a Division I school, they could arguably have the clout to join the NCHC, which would probably like to grow larger than just six schools - not to mention that BGSU's MAC cohorts, Miami, are already there. They're almost certainly going to wait to see what Notre Dame does before making a decision.

Western Michigan: The Broncos are, even more than BGSU, waiting to see what Notre Dame is going to do, in part because their proximity to South Bend could potentially allow them to latch on with the Irish as a travel partner in either the NCHC or Hockey East. It remains to be seen if the latter would be interested at all in WMU, though the former has apparently already extended an offer. Now they also have an offer from the WCHA. Options abound. It's amazing what one outstanding rebound season combined with a new commitment from administration will do for a program.

Atlantic Hockey: The WCHA-CCHA merger kills any chance that the four potential departures - Canisius, Mercyhurst, Niagara, and Robert Morris - had of being able to leave, since they had interest in playing in a revamped CCHA that will no longer exist. Those schools - and RIT as well - still have interest in improving their station in college hockey, however. What options do they have? Honestly, they don't have many places to turn. They could seek to join the ECAC, but even with the WCHA filling back up again, there's not much of a reason for the ECAC to expand (further diluting the pool for the automatic bid). For the time being, they're probably stuck where they are.

Alabama-Huntsville: The WCHA-CCHA merger is kind of a nightmare scenario for the Chargers... unless they can somehow petition the WCHA to become its 10th, 11th, or 12th member. The problem is, we're already talking about a league that is going to have to figure a way to include a pair of schools as isolated as Alaska and Alaska-Anchorage, bringing on another isolated team - and another D-II school - might be a dicey proposition.

Tsunami Watch: Western Redux

Now that everything we ever knew about college hockey is basically wrong, it's time to re-examine the moving parts out west again, since everything we discussed in previous editions of Tsunami Watch with regards to those teams has changed somewhat.

By the way, we've been talking like this is all going down right away... 2013 is when the actual shifting will all take place. So we've at least got two more seasons of relative calm as it pertains to the actual product on the ice.

Big Ten: The Big Ten is still pretty much hunky dory. There's not much out there that is going to change, given the league's status not just as an all-sports conference, but as one of the BCS conferences. It's worth mentioning, I suppose, that because of the Big Ten's status as a new hockey conference, the teams within will have to forego an automatic bid to the national tournament in 2014 and 2015 due to the NCAA's requirement that new conferences wait for two years before receiving an autobid.

NCHC: The six teams that currently make up the NCHC are all set - North Dakota, Denver, Colorado College, Minnesota-Duluth, Nebraska-Omaha, and Miami. Chances are pretty solid that they'd like to bring in at least one or two more teams, and Notre Dame is number one on that list, no question. More on them (and the other candidates) later. Like the Big Ten, the NCHC will have to forego an autobid until 2016, though it would be beyond shocking if the league's members didn't earn an at-large or two at minimum.

WCHA: The five remaining schools - Alaska-Anchorage, Bemidji State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State, and St. Cloud State, appear to be rallying around the WCHA flag. There's no doubt that this league will be signifcantly weaker than the one we have known, and the MnSCU institutions (Bemidji, Mankato, and St. Cloud) are poised to take a leading role in the future of the conference.

Northern Michigan: They're on their way back to the WCHA, which they played in from 1984 through 1997. This reunites the Wildcats with their rivals from Michigan Tech, and it puts the WCHA back on somewhat more secure footing as NMU becomes the sixth team. If nothing else, the WCHA will continue to have their automatic bid come 2013 - the question now is whether the league can stay strong enough to be able to produce an at-large bid as well.

Notre Dame: We started out with Notre Dame as the pivot, but the NCHC clearly wasn't willing to wait to see what the Irish would do and took the second step themselves. Now we've got a third step with NMU moving to the WCHA and we could see other teams reacting to the Big Ten/NCHC combination, but no future step will be as big as where Notre Dame ends up. There are really only two options here - either the NCHC or Hockey East. The WCHA is no longer a viable option following the NCHC split since it doesn't offer the Irish anything they wouldn't get out of staying in the CCHA, which is now even less of an option as teams continue to bail. Word has it that the hockey staff prefers the NCHC, while the administration - i.e. the ones who will more than likely be making the final decision - are said to prefer Hockey East. What remains to be seen is whether the hockey people can influence the administration enough to get what they'd like.

We've already discussed the ins and outs of Notre Dame to Hockey East, what about the NCHC? From the administration's perspective, the NCHC is, like the CCHA following the Big Ten split, full of programs that may be hockey powers, but aren't among giants in other sports. The hockey people are certainly drawn to the regional hockey power aspect of the NCHC.

Western Michigan: Of the programs that make up "the rest," WMU actually seems to have the most options on the table. It's reported that they have a standing offer to join the NCHC. They could instead choose to follow NMU to the WCHA. They could hang with some of their CCHA conference mates and try to form the nucleus of a new CCHA. There are even rumors out there that WMU might be welcome in Hockey East if Notre Dame chooses that route, given the proximity of Kalamazoo to South Bend.

The last one is kind of a longshot - there's not much need for a team right near Notre Dame unless Hockey East decides to move to an ECAC-esque travel partner system, which doesn't make a great deal of sense. Right now, the most likely move appears to be a move into the NCHC to follow their Mid-American Conference brethren from Miami. The NCHC isn't doling out invitations on the cheap, and once WMU settles in with a new coach, they could well become the seventh team in the NCHC, though life would certainly not be easy for them there - they'd be a minnow among giants, at least at first.

Alaska: The Nanooks are in a tight spot. We've touched on why it's a bad idea for both Alaska schools to be in the same conference, and yet, when it comes to their survival, it might just end up happening anyway. Rumor has it that Alaska will apply for WCHA membership, which would put them with their rivals from Anchorage in what would then be an eight-team conference. That would almost certainly necessitate yearly trips to Alaska for the entire WCHA and require both UAF and UAA to get creative with non-conference games, but with the CCHA's existence in question, the Nanooks (and the Seawolves, who do depend on UAF for some games) probably feel that it's in their best interest to get themselves into an existing league.

Bowling Green: The Falcons, like their MAC colleagues from Western Michigan, also have options, but theirs are a little hazier. They could try for the WCHA, but they're a little far away from the rest of the conference and they'd be the only Division I program unless WMU decides on that path. They could stick around in the CCHA, especially if WMU chooses that path. NCHC or Hockey East bids would both be longshots.

Lake Superior State and Ferris State: These schools are absolutely stuck in limbo until something else happens. Neither are appealing to the WCHA or the NCHC due to the size of the schools and their geographic locations - which means they could well be dependent on the eventual survival of the CCHA in order to have a conference in 2013. They'll need to be proactive in recruiting new members, because it's going to require more than a few, and they're almost certainly going to come from Atlantic Hockey and the independent ranks (of which, there is only one, who we're getting to). That is a very difficult position to be in. They could forseeably try for WCHA membership, but remember, that conference is now completely comprised of smaller schools with smaller budgets and still involves a school from Alaska, if not two. The footprint can't grow by much more.

Niagara, Robert Morris, Mercyhurst, and Canisius: Recent reports have these four programs, known to be interested in moving up in the world, in discussions with the CCHA about joining that conference. The biggest problem right now? It's hard to know exactly what teams are concerned with the makeup of the CCHA in 2013. It seems that there's at most four - LSSU, Ferris, and maybe BGSU and/or WMU. That's a tough place to start from. One thing that is generally agreed upon here is that these four schools are almost certainly going to want to come into an Alaska-free CCHA. The inclusion of these four institutions would move the CCHA's footprint east, but it would guarantee the conference a minimum of six programs, even if four of them were new to the conference.

Air Force: If the above four teams leave Atlantic Hockey, it puts some additional pressure on Air Force to consider the new-look WCHA since it would leave AHA basically with Air Force, RIT, Holy Cross, and an assortment of low-budget or low-attention programs. The difficulty now, though, is that a WCHA comprised entirely of Minnesota, Alaska, and Upper Peninsula schools may not be terribly keen on bringing in a Colorado school, especially when both Alaska schools are involved.

Alabama-Huntsville: If the Big Ten was the best thing that could happen for UAH given the log-jam created by four full conferences and an 11-team CCHA unwilling to bring the Chargers on, the formation of the NCHC is probably one of the worst. It puts the power teams of the west, the ones with the most money and therefore most willing to bring in a team that requires more travel than the average program, into elite segments that UAH cannot hope to break into. That leaves the Chargers with two options - a CCHA largely comprised of teams that did not support their inclusion in the past, or an Atlantic Hockey that has lost some of its current programs. As with the Atlantic Hockey teams looking at the CCHA, UAH would almost certainly require Alaska to move out of the conference before they would be considered, but for the opposite reason: the existing schools of the CCHA would not be willing to deal with both UAH and UAF in the same conference, but might be more willing to stomach the Chargers without also having the Nanooks around.

MSU-Moorhead: WHO? Oh, you don't know the Dragons? That's probably because they don't have a varsity program. And yes, I said I wasn't going to engage in rampant speculation over schools without programs, but Moorhead has gone beyond speculation, announcing a fundraising drive last week for what they hope will be a new program in the near future. As a MnSCU school - the "MSU" stands for Minnesota State University - the Dragons would fit perfectly into the WCHA, given its new outlook. Let's not count them in quite yet, but they're hoping to be able to make an announcement of a new program in the coming months, so they're worth keeping an eye on.

So that's about where we stand right now. Waiting to see who the WCHA's new suitors are, what Notre Dame is going to do, and who WMU (and Northeastern, by the by) chooses as their new coach. Join us next time for another exciting edition of "As the Tsunami Turns."

Tsunami Watch: CCHA

In the words of Bob Dylan, "the times, they are a-changin'" and nowhere are the times changing more than in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.

A minor conference when it was created in the 1970s, the CCHA got a huge shot in the arm when Michigan and Michigan State joined the conference from the WCHA in 1981 and ever since, the league has been one of the major players on the national scene. But those schools, along with Ohio State, will be departing for the new Big Ten conference, and a league currently sitting at 11 programs will be down to eight, with two powerful programs that will almost certainly be looking for something more firm (and more prestigious) and six less powerful programs who face a difficult future.

It wasn't long ago that some were talking about the CCHA possibly being the first conference to stretch from coast to coast (from Alaska to New York), and that may yet be in the conference's future, but minus the Big Ten schools, there's an unsure future not only for many of the CCHA's D-II programs, but also for the conference itself.

Notre Dame: At the end of the day, the Fighting Irish are really the program most likely to be the one making the next move, and they are easily the program with the most options. Why? Because they're Notre Dame - the school with enough moxie when it comes to college athletics (specifically, college football) to command their own national television contract. As Adam Wodon has said, they're probably already looking around and realizing that without the Big 10 schools, they're in a conference with nothing but Mid-American Conference and D-II schools. That's not how the Fighting Irish roll.

If Notre Dame comes calling, what established conference in their right minds would turn them down? The two most likely destinations are the WCHA (where the Irish resided in the 1970s) and Hockey East (where an institutional rival in Boston College resides, not to mention that the league isn't totally geographically similar to the Big East's core). The WCHA is home of some large buildings, but Notre Dame's new digs will be big enough to fit in.

Expect the Fighting Irish to be the next team to make a decision on their future, probably within the next year. Will they look east? Will they look west? Or will they take a leading role in trying to attract new teams (and potentially, new programs) to the CCHA? The decision they make will likely set the rest of the carousel in motion.

Miami: Perhaps the single CCHA program with the most questions. They're quickly becoming one of the best programs in college hockey - like Notre Dame, missing only the national championship - but the uncertainty surrounding the CCHA could have lasting consequences on the Redhawks' immediate future. Consider Miami's position. They are, as soon as the Big Ten schools leave, one of two powers in a significantly weakened conference and, as we just mentioned, Notre Dame almost certainly isn't long for that weakened conference. What, then, is the solution?

The WCHA is unlikely to be interested in Miami for a couple of reasons. Their arena, while new (and, might I say, awesome), would be very small by their standards. It's also significantly outside of the league's footprint and, especially by comparison to Notre Dame, Miami doesn't bring with it much gravitas other than through their recently lofty position as a college hockey power.

Hockey East also probably wouldn't be terribly interested in Miami, even as a package with Notre Dame, given its status as a regional (yet powerful) conference. They might be willing to branch out for the Irish, but probably not so much for the Redhawks.

Miami's best route, therefore, is probably in bolstering the CCHA through adding additional programs - and yet, no matter what schools possibly get added, the Redhawks are still in the precarious position of being head and shoulders above the rest of the league. That might bode well for making the national tournament every year, but if the CCHA is significantly weakened, it might make for a tougher route to their goal of a national championship.

Bowling Green and Western Michigan: The other MAC schools, each with very different hockey histories but similar recent results. The Falcons won a national championship in 1984, but have had a rocky recent past, including a threat a few years back to have their program folded due to difficult economic times. The Broncos, meanwhile, have floundered for many years but are coming off a remarkable comeback season last year under their new coach despite the school's long-term commitment to the program slightly in question.

These are schools that, like Miami, are among in the top level Division I (as defined by the D-I split in college football), but unlike Miami are unattractive to other high end conferences - neither has a prayer of being invited to a currently existing league. They will certainly miss the effect that regular visits from Michigan and Michigan State have had on home turnout, and if the CCHA doesn't grow, they may find the quality (and stability) of their programs diminishing rapidly as time goes by, further imperiling the league and their own existence.

Ferris State, Lake Superior State and Northern Michigan: The CCHA's Division II schools in the Midwest. The latter two are also former national champions, with the Lakers enjoying a dynasty during the late 1980s and early 1990s. These programs have not been in trouble as BGSU and WMU have been, but they will be taking a big hit with the Big Ten schools leaving the conference. They are not currently in danger, but the longer the CCHA exists in a weakened state, the more their future in Division I could be in jeopardy. At the very least, their ability to field competitive teams could be in jeopardy.

NMU is a former WCHA program and they were rumored to be in the mix to jump back to the WCHA during its last expansion, a slot that eventually went to Nebraska-Omaha. They could try to spring back (maybe even with Notre Dame), but it's entirely possible that the WCHA ship has sailed. Ferris and LSSU have fewer reasonable options.

Alaska: The CCHA's lonely outpost in the Last Frontier. The Nanooks have had the appearance of being a serious outlier in the Great Lakes-centric CCHA since they joined the conference in 1995, but it has been a necessary matter for their program to be able to have a secure place in the college hockey world. It is difficult at best to schedule an independent schedule, and even more difficult to entice teams to come to Alaska, even with the schedule exemption that teams who do so receive (teams who travel to the 49th state don't have to count those games toward their schedule limit). So Alaska will also be looking to keep the CCHA soluble.

One thing that almost surely will not happen is a combination of the two Alaska schools into the same conference, whether that's the Nanooks moving the WCHA as has been suggested or Alaska-Anchorage moving to the CCHA (where it has been argued they could be more competitive). Both schools cherish the ability to play each other on a yearly basis to account for some of their non-conference games (taking up the remainder with pre-season tournaments). If they were forced to play each other within a conference schedule, it would make filling their schedule all the more difficult, perhaps requiring them to travel to the Lower 48 for some of their non-conference games, which neither team currently does.

Expansion?

The CCHA's path to survival as a conference almost certainly rests in adding new programs, since we've seen how tenuous survival can be with eight or fewer teams. Fortunately, there are a number of viable options out there, including the possibility of adding new programs (which again, we won't speculate on specific schools here).

Atlantic Hockey: We'll touch more on this when we get to discussing the growing divisions in college hockey's lone minor (but improving) conference, but there are a number of teams in Atlantic Hockey that would likely love to join the CCHA, even in a weakened condition, than stay in the cost-contained AHA. First and foremost, there's Niagara and Robert Morris, both dealing with scholarship restrictions they'd prefer not to have. There's also RIT, which has been dominant in AHA and is clearly yearning for a bigger challenge, though they'd prefer the ECAC. Mercyhurst wouldn't be too far away and has been trying to improve their position. The bottom line is, there are a number of opportunities for AHA teams, especially western AHA teams, who might be interested in improving their station through the CCHA if they're up for the challenge of competing with a full slate of scholarships.

Alabama-Huntsville: Let's not forget the lone current independent in hockey's southern outpost. The shuffling that the Big Ten's arrival represents is welcome news in Huntsville not because it opens an obvious spot for the Chargers, but because it breaks the status quo, which is what has left them on the outside looking in. Could there be a spot for them in the CCHA? Certainly. Is it a sure thing? Far from it. By all reports, the schools that were warm to the idea of the Chargers joining the conference the last time they looked to join were, by and large, the bigger schools, and most of them are leaving. UAH would help stabilize the league on numbers alone, but it would also increase travel costs for a league that is not going to have as much money to play with once the heavy hitters hit the road.

Michigan Tech: Here's an interesting possibility that's probably more rampant speculation than anything, but... what about Tech? They bolted the WCHA for three years in the early 1980s for the CCHA and their local rivals from NMU currently play there (with non-conference games between the schools continuing on a yearly basis). Tech is starting anew with a new coach next year and haven't finished in the top half of the WCHA since 1993 - since then, they've finished last nine times, including each of the last three years. Might the program be better suited to grow in what will be a weaker league, one in which they would lend a bit more gravitas to in the process? It's absolutely nothing but speculation since Tech seems to be happy in the WCHA (and the reverse is probably true, since they're the trustees of the MacNaughton Cup, the league's regular season championship trophy), but... maybe something to think about as a possibility.

Men's Hockey - at Alabama-Huntsville (30/31 Dec)

It was back to the ice for RPI for the final two calendar days of 2010 at college hockey's lone outpost in the South against, statistically, one of the weakest teams in the country, if not the weakest. On the ice, they hardly looked like a weak team though, as the Alabama-Huntsville Chargers put up a good fight both nights (although the ice conditions certainly qualified as a little down South home cooking). RPI was faced with a couple of tough games, and befitting their displayed abilities thus far, they were able to walk away with a pair of 2-1 victories.

Thursday
Lee/Polacek/O'Grady
Brutlag/Higgs/Helfrich
Cullen/Malchuk/Angers-Goulet
Halpern/Burgdoerfer

Bergin/Foss
Bailen/Dolan
Koudys/Kennedy
Leboeuf

York

The big news coming into Thursday's game was the return of John Kennedy to the lineup after missing six games with a hand injury. That led to some minor debate over which of the three freshmen defensemen would sit, but given how well all of them were playing in Kennedy's absence, Seth Appert made the decision to dress all seven and go with 11 forwards instead.

That decision was called into question fairly quickly as Scott Halpern suffered a lower body injury on his very first shift and did not return, leaving RPI, for the time being, with just 10 forwards. As Halpern was being attended to on the bench, Mike Bergin came by and checked his man through an open door, onto Halpern and trainer Chris Thompson. The check itself didn't seem too contentious, though the referee likely took note of the open door and called Bergin for roughing.

UAH wasted no time in going to work on the power play, one of the things they've proven this year to be fairly good at. Charger defenseman Tom Durnie took the puck low in the zone and zipped a shot from near the goal line that fooled Allen York, as he had been playing the pass, and seconds after Bergin hit the box, UAH was up 1-0.

The Engineers tied it up about 8 minutes later as Marty O'Grady left a drop pass for Bergin, who blasted a shot that O'Grady subsequently tipped into the back of the net for his third goal of the season.

RPI got four power plays during the second period, including a lengthy 5-on-3 chance, but did not capitalize on any of them. They were 0-for-6 on the evening with the man advantage, but it was the sequence that led to the 5-on-3 that was the event of the 2nd period - and difficult to witness.

UAH's Keenan Desmet tripped up Chase Polacek at the Charger blue-line, sending him head over feet towards the ice. As Polacek fell, his skate blade came up and caught Brock Higgs in the neck, slicing the area near his throat pretty good. Higgs, for his part, tried to deflect the blade, and never hit the ice, immediately skating to the RPI bench, where pressure was immediately applied to the gushing wound. Alex Angers-Goulet attended Higgs back to the dressing room (his father is a doctor and he's planning to follow his brother into med school), where a local doctor in attendance at the game helped stem the bleeding until the ambulance arrived and brought Higgs to the hospital. He had surgery after the game - the cut just barely missed his carotid artery and jugular vein.

Back on the ice, the Engineers - now with only 9 forwards and 7 defensemen - took the lead on a bizarre goal. With time winding down in the period, Nick Bailen hefted a weak shot from the neutral zone as he was fading backwards (and eventually onto the ice surface). That shot was redirected in front of the net by Tyler Helfrich, who tipped it past UAH's John Griggs with just two seconds left in the period to put RPI up 2-1.

RPI blasted Griggs with 11 shots in the third period but couldn't get the insurance goal. That forced them to have to hold onto their lead late, but some good puck management in the game's waning moments only allowed UAH 27 seconds with the extra attacker, and the Engineers hung in there for the 2-1 victory. Allen York made 19 saves on 20 shots to pick up the win.

Friday
Lee/Polacek/O'Grady
Brutlag/Malchuk/Helfrich
Cullen/Rogic/Angers-Goulet
Rabbani/Burgdoerfer

Bergin/Foss
Bailen/Dolan
Koudys/Kennedy
Leboeuf

York

Higgs was back with the team after being released from the hospital on Friday morning, while Halpern was seen on crutches (although walking fairly easily without leaning on them after Friday's game). Since Matt Tinordi, Justin Smith, and Kevin Beauregard didn't make the trip, the only two scratches on Thursday, Josh Rabbani and Johnny Rogic, were pressed into action, and this time RPI was forced out of necessity instead of preference to dress 7 defensemen.

RPI got its second long 5-on-3 opportunity of the series early in the first period after a pair of penalties to UAH called just 13 seconds apart, but as in the first game, the Engineers were unable to convert on the opportunity. The first period ended with no score, and in fact the Chargers outshot RPI 9-6 in the first 20 minutes.

Just like the first night, it was UAH that got on the board first, this time scoring an even strength tally from Joey Koudys, Pat Koudys' cousin, to put the Chargers up 1-0 on another goal Allen York probably wants back.

It would be another 15 minutes before RPI was able to knot the score again, and it was last second heroics getting the job done once again. With the Engineers on their 10th power play of the series, Bryan Brutlag was able to punch one in from a crowded slot with only one second left on the clock in the second period, making it 1-1 at the second intermission.

The third period was almost entirely RPI, as they outshot UAH 12-2 in the final period, but Allen York came up with the stop of the week as he reached with the glove to snatch away a puck that was destined for the net early in the 3rd period, keeping the score tied, especially important in a series that had already proven that goals would be at a premium. The shot tally is actually a bit misleading, as RPI blasted far more shot attempts toward John Griggs, but the UAH defense did a superb job of blocking shots or forcing them wide.

A combination of a poor defensive zone breakout by UAH and solid forechecking by Patrick Cullen in the final minute of regulation finally broke the deadlock and sent Charger fans home heartbroken after a pair of solid efforts from their team. Cullen intercepted a lazy pass and fed C.J. Lee, who burst into the zone with Cullen and Polacek on a 3-on-1. Lee left the puck for Polacek, who beat Griggs top shelf for his 9th goal of the season with only 25 ticks left on the clock to put RPI in front 2-1. UAH pulled Griggs immediately, but they couldn't get anything started, and the Engineers completed the weekend sweep.

The games weren't pretty, but RPI got what they needed out of them - two victories. The ice conditions throughout the weekend likely contributed to the poor power play and the inability to get the offense moving, as the ice was very soft in a number of places around the rink.

The ECAC schedule beckons for the Engineers as they close out the 2010-11 campaign with 16 consecutive league contests, starting at home this coming weekend against Clarkson and St. Lawrence. The Knights have a pair of games at home against #5 Minnesota-Duluth tonight and tomorrow night, then have two days of rest before traveling to face off with RPI. St. Lawrence, meanwhile, upset then-#2 New Hampshire in Durham last night. RPI will have to keep the throttle open full bore, there's no question. These teams are not the dominating forces they can sometimes combine to be, but they are not about to be dismissed easily, either.

Gotta keep winning. The win streak is at 4 in a row and RPI has won 7 of their last 8, with the one loss at the hands of #1 Yale. The next five are very winnable contests against lower end ECAC teams. They keep tearing it up, and the sky is the limit.

Other junk - It's been a while since the last USCHO poll was released, so all of the results since mid-December have gone into this week's poll, which sees the Engineers jump four places to 10th in the nation, their highest position in over a decade - RPI has not been in the national Top 10 since February 14, 2000. Other ECAC teams ranked this week are #1 Yale (45 first place votes, demolished Holy Cross at home 10-3), #15 Union (down three, swept by Western Michigan, beat Minnesota, lost to Bemidji State), and #19 Princeton (previously unranked, won the UConn Holiday Tournament). #14 Boston University (down four) and #18 Colorado College (up two) are also ranked this week. Other opponents with votes are Clarkson (40 - six points away from #20 Ferris State), Dartmouth (26), Quinnipiac (2), St. Lawrence (2), and Niagara (1).

Chase Polacek continues his climb through the record books. His game winning goal on Friday gave him 137 points for his career, moving him past Trevor Kaye '62 and into a tie for 30th all time with Mo Mosco '55 and Richard Scammell '69. Looming next in a tie for 28th with 138 points each are Dick Chiarelli '57 and Don Armstrong '78, and Dale Watson '69 is in 27th with 139 points. If he continues scoring at his current pace, Polacek will reach 150 points for his career - only 20 players have reached that lofty level, and none since Matt Murley in 2002.

Meanwhile, Tyler Helfrich's chase for the Century Club continues. With a bare minimum of 18 games left to be played, Helfrich needs 14 points to become the 61st member of the Century Club.

ECAC Standings
1. Yale - 6-0-0 (12 pts)
2. Princeton - 6-3-0 (12 pts)
3. Dartmouth - 5-2-1 (11 pts)
4. Clarkson - 4-2-1 (9 pts)
5. Quinnipiac - 4-5-1 (9 pts)
6. Union - 3-2-1 (7 pts)
7. RPI - 3-3-0 (6 pts)
8. St. Lawrence - 3-4-0 (6 pts)
9. Brown - 2-3-1 (5 pts)
10. Cornell - 2-4-0 (4 pts)
11. Harvard - 2-7-0 (4 pts)
12. Colgate - 0-5-1 (1 pt)

Adjusted Standings
1. Yale (1.000)
2. Dartmouth (.688)
3. Princeton (.667)
4. Clarkson (.643)
5. Union (.583)
6. RPI (.500)
7. Quinnipiac (.450)
8. St. Lawrence (.429)
9. Brown (.417)
10. Cornell (.333)
11. Harvard (.222)
12. Colgate (.083)

#14 RPI at Alabama-Huntsville
Nonconference Game - Von Braun Center (Huntsville, AL)
12/30/10 - 8:00pm

RESULT: RPI 2, Alabama-Huntsville 1

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

RECORD: 10-4-3 (3-3-0 ECAC, 6 pts)

Reale Deals
1. F Marty O'Grady, 1 G
2. D Nick Bailen, 1 A
3. F Tyler Helfrich, 1 G

#14 RPI at Alabama-Huntsville
Nonconference Game - Von Braun Center (Huntsville, AL)
12/31/10 - 4:00pm

RESULT: RPI 2, Alabama-Huntsville 1

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

RECORD: 11-4-3 (3-3-0 ECAC, 6 pts)

Reale Deals
1. F Chase Polacek, 1 G, 1 A
2. F Bryan Brutlag, 1 G
3. F C.J. Lee, 1 A

Upcoming games
07 Jan - Clarkson
08 Jan - St. Lawrence
14 Jan - at Cornell
15 Jan - at Colgate
21 Jan - Harvard

Southern-Fried Hockey

Tonight and tomorrow represent trap games for the Engineers, make no doubt about it. One thing we really haven't seen from RPI in the last decade are good, solid, decisive outings against lesser competition. Say what you will about some of the teams Union has played at home, they went out and took it to them.

Alabama-Huntsville fits into the category of lesser competition, unfortunately. By some metrics, including KRACH, the Chargers are the worst team in the nation.

Does RPI need to pound the Chargers this week? No, they just need a couple of wins. But if they let UAH hang around, especially considering that it's their home ice, the Engineers may find themselves settling for a tie or on the short end of the score. Either one of those results, even just once this week, will make the goal of a national tournament appearance much more difficult. Look at Union - they dropped a pair of games at Western Michigan, and they dropped several places in the Pairwise. And WMU isn't even that bad.

So as the Engineers head into the Deep South, a country themed pumpup for you to enjoy.

Tomorrow's Podcast: Geof Morris

The last lull in the season ends on Thursday as the Engineers travel south of the Mason-Dixon Line to face-off with college hockey's lone independent team, the Alabama-Huntsville Chargers. With that in mind, we're going to chat with Geof F. Morris, founder of Save UAH Hockey, a cause much of the college hockey world - at least on the fan's side - has gotten behind.

2010 has not been kind to the Chargers. Although they appeared in the NCAA Tournament last year, they have had to deal with hit after hit ever since. The CHA folded at the end of last season, leaving them without a conference. They've only been able to put together a record of 2-16-2. Their coach, Danton Cole, left the program to take over the USNTDP U-17 team. And just this month, the school's athletic director, Jim Harris, passed away unexpectedly.

We'll talk to Geof to find out how morale is in the Deep South these days, and find out what the immediate future has in store for the Chargers.

Without any college hockey action to speak of since last week, we'll also talk about the World Junior Championships currently underway in Buffalo, and take you through the lineup of New Year's tournaments ready to get going throughout the college hockey world.

We go live at our regular time and date, Wednesday, December 29, at 8 pm Eastern. Click on "Listen to Without a Peer" in the upper right-hand corner to listen. We're proud to now offer our podcasts for download on iTunes! Search "without a peer" in iTunes or click on the new link in the upper right-hand corner to subscribe. It'll automatically download after every show for subscribers, so you can put it on your iPod or your phone and listen at your leisure.

Last week, we talked to Julie Robenhymer of hockeybuzz.com about the exhibition with the US Junior Team, the WJC, and the state of affairs in Hockey East. Check it out on demand below.

Listen to internet radio with Without a Peer on Blog Talk Radio

RPI Holiday Tournament, By The Numbers

Want to know how much RPI should be favored in this tournament? Just look at how the numbers break down by national ranking.

Team Offense (goals per game)
35. UConn - 2.60
39. RPI - 2.55
55. Bowling Green - 2.07
56. Alabama-Huntsville - 2.00

Team Defense (GAA)
1. RPI - 1.82
40. Bowling Green - 3.36
51. UConn - 3.60
56. Alabama-Huntsville - 4.25

Power Play
11. Alabama-Huntsville - 23.1% (15/65)
31. RPI - 16.9% (11/65)
33. UConn - 16.3% (8/49)
56. Bowling Green - 7.2% (5/69)

Penalty Kill
17. UConn - 86.3% (44/51)
31. RPI - 82.5% (52/63)
44. Alabama-Huntsville 76.8% (53/69)
48. Bowling Green - 75.9% (63/83)

Those are some pretty weak offenses - not that RPI's offense is terribly decent, but the defensive advantage that they hold should be enough to stifle the other offenses in the tournament, at least enough to score a few goals. The team the Engineers face on Saturday is going to have an especially anemic offense.

What RPI should be keeping an eye on during this tournament is the showdown in New Haven next Friday. As we mentioned yesterday, the hype with Yale is the nation's best offense, but RPI counters with the nation's best defense (at least, for now). The game may well revolve around how well the Engineers' fair offense manages Yale's mediocre defense. RPI has to learn how to score on mediocre defenses, and this weekend's games will certainly provide the opportunity to practice.

This may be the weekend when we finally see Bryce Merriam get some action between the pipes as well, to help ensure that Allen York is healthy for a key ECAC road weekend.

There's no reason to be sitting back, though. We've seen the Engineers facing some weak tournament fields in the past only to come up empty. UConn tied #10 Maine and #13 Union earlier this year. Bowling Green has a victory over #11 Notre Dame. Alabama-Huntsville has only one victory this season, but it was against #20 Ferris State. RPI needs to be on high alert for the letdown upset this weekend.

Know Your Enemy: Alabama-Huntsville

This week, we look at the last of the three programs invited to the RPI Holiday Tournament - and it's another team down on its luck. While UConn's luck was rough on the ice, and Bowling Green's concerns were a combination of on-ice and off-ice misery, this week's "Know Your Enemy" completes the circle with a program who's going through mainly off-ice turmoil.

Alabama-Huntsville
Nickname: Chargers
Location: Huntsville, AL
Founded: 1969
Conference: Independent
National Championships: 2 (Division II in 1996 and 1998)
Last NCAA Appearance: 2010
Last Frozen Four: 1998 (Division II)
Coach: Chris Luongo (1st season)
2009-10 Record: 12-18-3 (6-10-2 CHA, 3rd place)
Series: RPI leads, 3-0-1
First Game: November 30, 1991 (Huntsville, AL)
Last RPI win: January 15, 1993 (Troy, NY)
Last UAH win: Never

2010-11 games: November 27, 2010 (Troy, NY - potential), December 30-31, 2010 (Huntsville, AL)
Key players: F Neil Ruffini, sr.; F Cody Campbell, jr.; F Alex Allan, fr.; F Lasse Uusivirta, fr.; D Curtis deBruyn, so.

The Chargers, long a quirk of the college hockey world as the only program in the Deep South, embark on their first season in over a decade as an independent program this year. What does that mean? Well, teams that are part of a conference have a much easier time with scheduling. When Seth Appert sits down to work out schedules for the future, he's already got a significant chunk of it done with before he even starts - the ECAC schedule is 22 games long, and every league weekend other than the travel partner games are predetermined by the league. For independents, they don't have that luxury. They need to find enough teams willing to play them as part of their non-conference schedule to fill out an entire season.

To their credit, they've got 32 games on their schedule, which is just about a full schedule, but most teams willing to play UAH required them to hit the road - the Chargers have only 8 contests on their schedule on their home ice at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville. Four other home games will take place in Birmingham or Nashville, TN.

RPI, however, may have done more than any other team to help UAH fill out their schedule. Not only did they extend an invitation to the RPI Tournament in November, the Engineers will travel to Huntsville for games on the last two days of 2010, helping them fill 4 full games on their schedule.

Hockey isn't just some fleeting fad in Huntsville - their hockey pedigree dates back to 1979, when the Chargers began what would quickly become a wildly successful club team. The first iteration of UAH hockey finished with a 21-1-0 record in 1980, and the Chargers quickly became the dominant force in club hockey, especially once Doug Ross took the reins in 1982, earning three straight national championships between 1982 and 1984, and just missing out on four straight national crowns after losing to North Dakota State in the championship in 1985.

The next season, UAH's athletic department joined the NCAA, and with that came varsity hockey for the first time. The Chargers' first season in the NCAA was in 1986-87, when they finished with an impressive 20-10-0 record in Division II, as famed Alabama governor George Wallace named Huntsville "The Hockey Capital of the South."

UAH's first stint as a Division I independent came in just their second season in the NCAA, as the Division II championship had been abolished in 1985. The Chargers spent five seasons in Division I, struggling to a 63-81-9 record in that span.

In 1992, the NCAA reinstated the Division II championship, and the Chargers returned to that level, where they would build one of the strangest rivalries in college sports while experiencing the true heyday of their program. Between 1993 and 1998, the Bemidji State Beavers from tiny Bemidji, MN played in the Division II national championship game every single season - but more often than not, so were the Chargers, who missed only two of those contests during the same time period. The pure domination of the two schools from very different parts of the country gave birth to a rivalry between them that lasts to this day.

Ross' teams put up a record of 125-33-10 during those years in Division II, including an unbeaten record of 26-0-3 in 1996 on their way to their first ever national championship. They would claim a second one in 1998 after falling to Bemidji State a year prior. That would be the last hurrah in Division II for both UAH and BSU, as the NCAA announced its intent to abolish the Division II championship again after the 1998-99 season, and both teams returned to Division I as the core of a new conference: College Hockey America.

After transitional season as an independent - which saw the Chargers play a largely D-II schedule - the CHA got underway in time for the 1999-2000 season, and UAH was immediately among the best teams in the conference. They won 21 games in 2001, eclipsing the 20-win mark for the first time as a full Division I program on their way to the CHA regular season title. They would win a second regular season crown in 2003, but the tournament title - and thus, an NCAA bid - eluded them. The Chargers put up their last winning season to date in 2006.

In 2007, Doug Ross, the only coach the school had known for its 22 varsity seasons, announced he would be leaving the program in the middle of what was already a rough season. But the team turned it on when it counted, in the CHA playoffs. Despite coming in last place in the 5-team league during the regular season, the Chargers made an astounding run through the playoffs, claiming the CHA title for a fairytale ending to Ross' career, becoming the first team in the history of Division I hockey to finish last in their conference but earn an NCAA bid. Matched with juggernaut Notre Dame, few gave the Chargers a chance, but UAH would ultimately take the Irish to a second overtime before bowing out.

Michigan State alum Danton Cole took over for Ross as the Chargers' future started to get a little murky. Air Force's defection to Atlantic Hockey in 2006 had left the CHA with five teams, one short of what it needed to maintain its automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. In the midst of Ross' last season, Wayne State announced it would fold its program at the end of the season, leaving the CHA with just four teams, and it became obvious that each team would need to look elsewhere and find another conference for the sake of their programs. Cole's first two teams failed to crack 10 wins, but the team rebounded last season to finish third in the CHA, earning wins over Robert Morris and Niagara to claim the final CHA championship and a 2nd trip to the NCAA Tournament despite losing records ahead of both trips.

Prior to last season, the chips began to fall into place for the other teams in the CHA, as Bemidji State gained acceptance into the WCHA, while Niagara and Robert Morris announced that they would join Atlantic Hockey. Alabama-Huntsville, owing to its geographic location, applied to join the CCHA, and their hopes were increased somewhat by the news that the CCHA's Nebraska-Omaha would join Bemidji State in the WCHA - UAH would thus become the CCHA's 12th team. Unfortunately, word came down that the Chargers' application to join the league had been rejected: the CCHA would soldier on with 11 teams rather than take on the Chargers, leaving UAH no choice but to rejoin the Division I independent ranks for a third time. They are now the only independent program in Division I, and continue to seek a permanent home. Without one, the long-term viability of the program will be in serious jeopardy.

Additionally, Cole announced last month that he would leave UAH for a position with USA Hockey. His position was quickly filled with assistant coach Chris Luongo, which will likely soften the blow of losing one of the key pieces holding a fragile program together.

UAH is probably the best team in the RPI Tournament field outside of the Engineers - but as we've already seen, that's not terribly difficult to accomplish. The Chargers had scoring issues of their own last year, netting only 2.21 goals per game, which was good for only 52nd out of 58 teams in the nation, but better by a good sight than UConn or Bowling Green. Their defense was much better, finishing with a team GAA of 2.70, but that might be a bit dicey coming into the new season.

The Chargers have one goaltender returning from the 2009-10 campaign, losing starting goaltender Cameron Talbot to the New York Rangers with a year of eligibility to go - thanks largely to an impressive showing against Miami in the NCAA tournament - and losing little-used backup Blake MacNicol to graduation. They have two freshmen coming in to replace them, C.J. Groh and Clarke Saunders. The one returning goalie, Johnny Griggs, didn't see any ice time last season. At this point, it's too early to tell which one will get the nod as the go-to guy, but considering the number of times the Engineers may see the Chargers, we'll probably see more than one, or even all three. Additionally, they graduated three starting defensemen last season - so defensively, it's hard to know what to expect. It probably won't be as good as it was last year.

The good news for Huntsville is that they return four of their top six scorers from last season. None breached 10 goals last season, but all will be another year older and another year wiser, so expect UAH to be at least somewhat competent with the puck.

As mentioned last week, it's probably preferable simply from a variety standpoint to avoid UAH in the RPI tournament if at all possible, but given the quality of the teams each one faces in the first round, they are likely favorites to meet in the championship. The two games in Huntsville beckon a month later - and if you're a fan of college hockey in general as well as an RPI fan, you owe it to yourself to consider taking a trip to spend New Year's in Alabama, because you'll be hard-pressed to find a more unique college hockey locale.