Fish Joins Staff of NAHL's Avalanche

Former Wisconsin-Stevens Point forward Sean Fish has accepted a coaching position with the Alaska Avalanche. The Wasilla-based Avalanche are members of the North American Junior Hockey League, the only Tier II Junior A league in the United States.

Fish, a native of Anoka, Minn. who wrapped up his collegiate playing career in March, was a four year letter-winner for the Pointers and served as captain as a junior and senior.

Fish saw action in 107 games in his career, posting 35 goals and 55 assists for 90 points. He garnered first team all-NCHA honors as a freshman and honorable mention all-WIAC accolades as a sophomore. He was also named to the U.S. College Hockey Online West Region All-Rookie team as a freshman.

Fish is currently serving as Head Scout and Recruiter for the Avalanche while he remains in Stevens Point to complete his degree in Elementary Education. He is expected to graduate this December and will then head to Wasilla to join the club in a full-time capacity.

MCHA Adjusts Playoff Format

Though the MCHA's reshuffling of divisions has already been covered, what hasn't is the fact the league has also restructured the format of the Harris Cup Playoffs.

Beginning this season, only the top six teams from the regular season will make the league playoffs, and the champions of both the North and South Divisions will receive byes to the Harris Cup Finals. The overall league champion will receive the top overall seed while the champion of the other division will receive the number two overall seed.

The "quarterfinals" will pit the second and third place teams from the same division against each other, with the second place teams playing host.

While seeming a bit counter-intuitive at first as it means teams might play each other six times in a single season, the MCHA felt the elimination of some very long potential road trips late in the season outweighed the familiarity concerns.

The Harris Cup Finals pairings will not be decided until after the two quarterfinal series, as the top overall seed will meet the lowest overall seed to advance from the quarterfinals regardless of which division it comes from.

Though this is simple enough to follow, I'm bored, so let's illustrate how this works by updating last season's standings to fit the MCHA's new divisional setup:

North Division
1. Marian
2. Lawrence
3. Finlandia
4. Northland

South Division
1. Adrian
2. MSOE
3. Lake Forest
4. Concordia


As divisional winners, Marian and Adrian receive byes to the Harris Cup Finals. Meanwhile, as the fourth place teams in each division, Northland and Concordia are on the outside looking in. That leaves the quarterfinal matchups as:

Finlandia @ Lawrence and Lake Forest @ MSOE

In the semifinals, Adrian (top overall seed) draws the lowest seeded quarterfinal winner and Marian gets the other.

Simple enough, and that is all she wrote.

As a reminder, this season's MCHA Harris Cup Finals will once again be hosted by Adrian at Arrington Ice Arena. The Bulldogs earned 2010 hosting rights by virtue of winning last season's MCHA regular season title.

Paskaris Joins Adrian Staff as Assistant

Despite it being August, the Western DIII world remains quite active and serves up it's third coaching staff change in the past month.

This time it is Adrian who has brought a new assistant on board for the upcoming season, as Stavros Paskaris has joined the staff of the Bulldogs. He replaces former assistant Matt Nicholson, who recently accepted a position as an assistant with Division I Robert Morris.

Paskaris, a Dearborn, Mich. native, comes to Adrian from Ohio University where he was an assistant for the school's ACHA Division I program last season.

He also enjoyed a successful collegiate career as a four lear letter-winning forward at Division I Wayne State University. In 136 games for the Warriors, Paskaris tallied 35 goals and 63 assists for 98 points. He led Wayne State with 33 points in the 2004-05 season and was named CHA rookie of the year. He also led the Warriors in scoring with 39 points during his senior campaign.

Prior to his time at Wayne State, Paskaris played two years for the Soo Indians of the NAHL in which he racked up 45 goals and 75 assists.

Paskaris holds a marketing degree from Wayne State and recently earned a Masters in Coaching Education from Ohio University.

Former Northland Player Hired By Badgers

From the land of the obscure comes more alumni news, as the University of Wisconsin announced today that former Northland College defenseman Nate LaPoint will be joining the UW Men's Hockey staff as head equipment manager.

A native of Eau Claire, Wis., LaPoint played in 49 games for the Lumberjacks from 2003-05 and tallied three assists.

LaPoint served as assistant equipment manager at the University of North Dakota for the past four years and recently graduated from UND with a general studies degree and a minor in meteorology.

Since 2000, he has also worked summers on the staff at Top Dog Hockey camps, contributing as a counselor, official and coach.

Nate's younger brother, Derrick, was selected by the Florida Panthers in the 4th round of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft and will take the ice as a junior defenseman for the Fighting Sioux this fall.

Petersen Named Assistant Coach at Lawrence

Former St. Norbert forward and recent graduate Ryan Petersen has been hired as an assistant at Lawrence University. He will join the staff of head coach Mike Szkodzinski, also a former Green Knight, in a full-time capacity. He will become the first full-time assistant coach in Lawrence history.

"Ryan is a very smart person and is of the utmost integrity," said Szkodzinski. "He had a very successful career and is the type of person we know can come in and help this program move in the direction we want it to."

Petersen was a four year letter winner for the Green Knights and scored 34 goals and 39 assists for 73 points in his 119 game career. He served as captain each of the past two seasons and twice garnered NCHA All-Academic accolades. In his four years, the Green Knights posted a gaudy 96-18-9 record, won three NCHA regular season titles, two Peters Cups and the 2008 National Championship.

A staple on the penalty kill, Petersen was also no stranger to scoring big goals, with his most memorable perhaps being the game-winner in St. Norbert's 2008 national quarterfinal 2-1 (ot) victory over St. Thomas -- a goal that might be just as memorable for its celebration as it is for its significance.

Petersen also assisted on Scott Pulak's goal in St. Norbert's 2-0 win over Plattsburgh in the 2008 national championship game.

As far as the future at Lawrence is concerned, Szkodzinski is convinced that having a full-time assistant is something that can only be a positive.

"This is an extremely important step for our program," he said. "This type of commitment from the University now puts the pressure on us to meet the expectations we ourselves have set for this program."

As to why Petersen's name rose to the top of Szkodzinski's list when he began his search for an assistant:

"If you talk to the people who have been around him the past four years, it's clear he has the right attitude and character to help us succeed here. There was just no doubt about it."

This season will mark Szkodzinski's fourth behind the Lawrence bench. The Vikings are 39-39-6 under Szkodzinski's tutelage, and their 16-11-1 record a season ago was the best in school history.

Petersen 2008 NCAA Quarterfinal Overtime Goal

NCHA Alters Schedule; Weekend Series Return

When the NCHA adopted the travel partner system ten years ago, many long-time NCHA fans lamented the fact it meant the elimination of the two-game weekend sets against the same opponent.

Though the travel partner setup made sense in terms of both geography and finances, gone was the potential for storyline development that could only exist when the same teams met on back-to-back nights.

Surprisingly, it really has been ten years since the change was implemented, but this autumn will bring more change as the NCHA will once again offer some two-game series as part of its conference schedule.

Leaving the league with only seven members, Lake Forest's departure for the MCHA facilitated some sort of a change in scheduling, so the league elected to adopt an 18 game conference schedule in which teams will play every other three times. Inclusive to that change is the return of two game series.

So how does this work? It's pretty straightforward. Each NCHA team will play three league opponents in home series and the other three league opponents in road series this season, for a total of 12 games. The remaining six will be played in single game meetings hosted by the opposite shool that hosts the series.

For example: Superior hosts River Falls on October 30 and 31 to open the season, which means the Yellowjackets will travel to River Falls for a single game later in the season - in this case on January 30.

The one exception to this is Stout and Eau Claire who will play a home-and-home series in lieu of a two-game set hosted at a single institution.

Looking to mark your calendar for when your favorite team will be hosting a series? Here they all are:

Eau Claire hosts: River Falls (11/13, 11/14); St. Norbert (1/15, 1/16); St. Scholastica (1/22, 1/23)
River Falls hosts: St. Norbert (11/20, 11/21); Stout (12/11, 12/12); Stevens Point (1/22, 1/23)
St. Norbert hosts: Stevens Point (11/13, 11/14); St. Scholastica (12/4, 12/5); Superior (1/22, 1/23)
St. Scholastica hosts: Stout (11/13, 11/14); Superior (12/11, 12/12); River Falls (1/15, 1/16)
Stevens Point hosts: St. Scholastica (10/30, 10/31); Superior (12/4, 12/5); Eau Claire (12/11, 12/12)
Stout hosts: St. Norbert (10/30, 10/31); Stevens Point (11/20, 11/21)
Superior hosts: River Falls (10/30, 10/31); Eau Claire (11/20, 11/21); Stout (1/15, 1/16)

While those are the logistics of the affair, one question I've heard asked a few times is "why an 18 game league schedule?". Though I don't know for certain, I suspect a few things may have come into play. One, to attain a balanced schedule in a seven team league there must be 12 or 18 conference games. Clearly 18 was preferential to 12 in this case.

Second, and perhaps more important, I suspect the NCHA may be looking at the ECACW as a model for this. The ECACW, a six team league, currently plays 15 conference games. The ECACW has also been able to land three teams in the NCAA tourrnament (a clear goal of the NCHA) the past two seasons. The ECACW's ability to to this has largely been fueled by very high strength-of-schedule ratings league-wide, thanks in part to a relatively insular league schedule and some fairly significant non-conference success.

The nuts and bolts: If the NCHA can continue to dominate the MCHA and MIAC the way it has the past four seasons, it's conceivable that more games against itself will only bolster the selection criteria (particularly SOS) for the top NCHA teams come selection time.

Just a theory, and we'll certainly have to follow the numbers as this season progresses, but there does seem to be some validity to this line of thinking.

Regardless of what the future may hold to that end, what we do know for now is that the two-game series are back for the 2009-10 NCHA season. As one who was around before the travel partner system was adopted, I remember the intensity and rivalries that were generated by those two-game series -- the Saturday contests in particular.

As someone who is up for as much drama and intensity as the NCHA can muster, I can only say: Welcome back, for you have been missed.

St. Norbert's Sleep Acknowledged by MJHL

The Manitoba Junior Hockey League posted a nice release yesterday on former Selkirk Steeler, and St. Norbert, standout Steven Sleep. Sleep, a forward and four year letter-winner for the Green Knights, wrapped up his senior season at St. Norbert last spring but left his mark on the NCHA with a gritty and "somewhat" talkative style that did little to hamper his on-ice productivity.

In four seasons in DePere, Sleep tied a NCAA Division III record with 121 games played in which he posted 25 goals and 53 assists for 79 career points.

He was a key contributor for St. Norbert's 2008 National Championship team, and most notably set up Ryan Petersen's overtime gamewinner in a 2-1 quarterfinal victory over St. Thomas. He also notched the second goal of the game in the Green Knights' 3-0 semifinal whitewashing of Norwich.

Sleep, an accounting major, also garnered captain's duties during his senior season.

The full MJHL release is as follows:

Steven Sleep, former Selkirk Steeler, graduated Magna Cum Laude from St.Norbert College in DePere (Green Bay), WI at the May 2009 convocation ceremonies with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree majoring in
Accounting.

Steve won an Accounting award and, has accepted a job with
Wipfli LLP, CPAs & Consultants in Green Bay, WI commencing in the fall.

Steve ended his college hockey with the St. Norbert College Green Knights as Captain in his senior year accumulating 26 goals, 53 assists for a total of 79 points in 121 games played over his four years.

Steve tied the DIII record for consecutive games played. In addition, St. Norbert College won the NCAA
DIII Championship in Lake Placid, NY in March 2008.

It Was Only a Matter of Time...

...until the mobius strip that is the NCAA caught up with me and forced me to make a correction.

That time is now.

In an earlier release, which no longer exists, the NCAA specified that this year's DIII Championships would be hosted in Lake Placid, N.Y. on Saturday and Sunday March 20 and 21, which was somewhat noteworthy as it would have been a one day shift from the Friday/Saturday setup of last season. However, a July 16 NCAA release specifies this isn't necessarily the case and that the dates remain TBD. Included in the release is the following passage:

Plattsburgh State University of New York and the Olympic Regional Development Authority will host the 2010 championship at Herb Brooks Arena in The Olympic Center. The event will be conducted March 19-20 or March 20-21, depending on the television broadcast schedule.

Aside from contradicting the earlier release and causing headaches for those of us already making flight plans (so we thought), this sort of flexibility is a good thing. Most likely it would be CBS Sports handling the video coverage again, and as CBS has offered online video feeds as well as cable broadcasts in the past, why not wait to pick the date that works best as far as television in concerned?

Division III needs all the press it can get, be it for the coaches and players who more than deserve it, the institutions themselves, or the fans who have been there all along. Because of that, a slight delay in terms of nailing down a couple dates in order to accommodate an entity like CBS makes perfect sense, even if that information proved a bit tricky to track down.

The recent release also sheds a bit more light on this year's Championships, as well as the 2011 Championships which, yes, are still scheduled to be hosted in Minneapolis.

Full release is as follows, and available here.

INDIANAPOLIS – The NCAA Division III Men’s Ice Hockey Committee has selected championship sites for 2010 and 2011. Lake Placid, N.Y., will host the 2010 NCAA Division III Men’s Ice Hockey Championship, and Minneapolis, Minn., will serve as the championship host in 2011.

Plattsburgh State University of New York and the Olympic Regional Development Authority will host the 2010 championship at Herb Brooks Arena in The Olympic Center. The event will be conducted March 19-20 or March 20-21, depending on the television broadcast schedule. It will mark the third straight year the championship has been held in Lake Placid.

“The committee is pleased to be returning this championship to Lake Placid,” said Bruce Delventhal, chair of the NCAA Division III Men’s Ice Hockey Committee and director of athletics at Plattsburgh State University of New York. “This championship has experienced tremendous growth in the last two years and we look forward to a third straight year of continued success.”

The Northern Collegiate Hockey Association will serve as host at Ridder Arena in 2011. The championship will take place either March 18-19 or March 19-20.

“After the three years in Lake Placid, the committee believes Minneapolis and Ridder Arena will be a great place to take this championship,” said Delventhal. “The Twin Cities is a hockey hot bed and we feel the tournament will not only build upon its recent success, but also be very well-received in the community.”

MCHA Re-aligns...Again

For the second time in three seasons the MCHA has re-aligned itself. As the continuing lack of available non-conference games has forced the league to maintain its 20-game league schedule, the two-division arrangement first implemented in 2007 will remain, but the divisions will look a bit different this fall.

The discontinuation of the Minnesota-Crookston program along with the addition of Lake Forest were the two main catalysts for the reshuffling as it moved the geographic center of the league signficantly to the southeast. As a result, the 2009-10 divisions will be:


North Division: Northland, Finlandia, Lawrence, Marian
South Division: MSOE, Concordia, Lake Forest, Adrian


The end-sum here is that Marian replaces Crookston in the North and Lake Forest fills in Marian's spot in the South. As in the past two seasons, teams will play opponents from within their own division four times, and those from the other division twice. Not ideal, but it works.

The resultant competitve balance due to the changes have been met with praise league-wide as it was widely accepted the South Division, which included Adrian, Marian and MSOE, was somewhat stronger than the North over the past two years.

Either way, that's the arrangement for 2009-10, and it now appears that the inevitable evolution of the league is...finally...almost complete.

Egan Named Assistant Coach at St. Mary's

Inver Grove Heights, Minn. native Ryan Egan has joined the coaching staff at St. Mary's, where he will act as an assistant to second-year head coach Bill Moore.

Egan most recently served as head coach of the San Antonio Diablos of the Western States Hockey League (WSHL) for two seasons and compiled an impressive 65-34-5 ledger during his tenure.

"It takes a special coach to do what Ryan has accomplished here in San Antonio," said Diablos' General Manager John Hosty, while Team President Jim McKain added "Coach Egan has left big shoes to fill for his successor."

Prior to his time in San Antonio, Egan coached the Omaha Energy AAA program in Omaha, Neb. During his playing days, Egan was captain for both Simley (MN) High School and the Butte Irish of the now defunct American Frontier Hockey League (AFHL). He also played collegiately at Wisconsin-River Falls (NCHA) where he posted three goals and three assists in two seasons.

Egan holds a bachelor's degree in health and human education from River Falls, and will be relocating to Winona with wife, Melissa, and son, Jackson.

DIII Championships Back to Placid in 2010; Minneapolis in '11

It's official: The 2010 Men's DIII Championships are headed back to Lake Placid and Herb Brooks Arena. It will mark the third consecutive year that Lake Placid will host the event. Not that this was much of a secret anymore, but Lake Placid was confirmed as the 2010 host site in a June 30 NCAA release that included the following:

Approved moving the 2010 Division III Men’s Ice Hockey Championship from Minneapolis to Lake Placid, New York, where it will be hosted by the Olympic Regional Development Authority and Plattsburgh State. Because the 2010 Division I Women’s Frozen Four will be conducted in the campus facility that was to host the 2010 Division III championship, the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association now will host the 2011 championship in Minnesota’s Ridder Arena.

The rumored move back to Lake Placid had been a source of consternation in the DIII community, as section 15.d of the meeting minutes from a February 9-10 meeting of the DIII Championships Committee stated the following:

Men’s Ice Hockey. The committee approved the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association to host the 2010 NCAA Division III Men’s Ice Hockey Championship at Ridder Arena (on the campus of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities) in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

So why the confusion? Easy. The Women's DI Frozen Four was already slated to be played at Ridder the same weekend the NCAA awarded said venue hosting rights to the Men's DIII Championships.

Understandably, the Women's DI Committee and the arena itself took issue with the logistical conflicts that such a situation presented and options were reconsidered.

The result: Essentially a East/West trade. 2010 for 2011, and that's that. Back to Lake Placid this season and westward to Minneapolis next year.

SUNY-Plattsburgh and the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) will once again co-host the event, though one important note is that this year's Championships will be held Saturday and Sunday, March 20 and 21, which is a one day shift from the Friday/Saturday setup of last season.

Lake Placid puts on a hell of a show so be sure to make the trip if you can - regardless of who ends up playing. After all, Zig Zag's is warm, the bartenders are top notch, the beer flows like water down a drain, and we're all coming back -- not like any of that offers much to complain about.

Lawrence's Szkodzinski Tapped for Role as LU Athletic Director

Men's hockey head coach Mike Szkodzinski will be pulling double-duty this upcoming season as he was recently named acting Director of Athletics by Lawrence University.

Szkodzinski to act as AD

Szkodzinski named Lawrence Director of Athletics

APPLETON, Wis. -- Lawrence University head hockey coach Mike Szkodzinski has been named the Acting Director of Athletics, Provost Dave Burrows announced Friday.

Szkodzinski, who has been Lawrence's head hockey coach since June 2006, takes over for head softball coach Kim Tatro and head football coach Chris Howard, who shared the duties of Acting Director of Athletics during the 2008-09 academic year.

"Mike is a person of high energy and spirit, with strong organizational skills," Burrows said. "He will work closely with the other members of the Department of Athletics to strengthen our athletic programs."

Szkodzinski believes Lawrence possesses a strong group of coaches and wants to work with them in an effort to develop each team.

"I am looking forward to working with the fine staff of coaches we have at Lawrence," Szkodzinski said. "Our goal as a department is to utilize the individual talents of each coach in order to improve our programs across the board. The hope is to continue to build on the momentum started by not only Kim and Chris, but Bob Beeman as well."

The community, both on and off the campus, also plays a vital role in the success of Lawrence athletics, Szkodzinski said.

"Lawrence has historically received strong support from our campus community and from fans throughout the Fox Valley," Szkodzinski said. "They have filled the Banta Bowl, packed Alexander Gymnasium and the Appleton Family Ice Center, and come out to cheer on every team here at Lawrence. The backing of local fans and our alumni around the world make coaching and playing at Lawrence an extraordinary experience."

Szkodzinski has turned around the fortunes of the Lawrence hockey program in his three seasons at the helm. The Vikings posted a school-record 16-11-1 mark in 2008-09 and won the Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association Northern Division title. Lawrence finished second in the MCHA regular-season standings. In three seasons, Szkodzinski has a 39-39-6 record with the Vikings, including a 32-25-3 mark in MCHA play.

A 2000 graduate of St. Norbert College, Szkodzinski has a bachelor's degree in business administration. He earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Findlay, where he served as an assistant coach for two seasons. Szkodzinski was an assistant coach at St. Norbert for two seasons before coming to Lawrence.