After one of the closest races in league history, the Central Collegiate Hockey Association is ready to drop the puck again with official team practices starting tomorrow.
Last year only nine points separated the top six teams in the final league standings. In the end, Michigan edged-out Miami for the regular season championship by a single point (38-37) as the season came down to the final game.
The Ohio State Buckeyes, who finished fourth in the final standings, would then surprise everyone in the CCHA tournament. After beating Bowling Green in the first round in the best of three series, the Buckeyes would go on to beat Notre Dame before upsetting Miami and Michigan in the title game.
It was a year that saw five teams from the CCHA advance to the 16-team NCAA hockey tournament and that saw great hockey each weekend.
On Tuesday, the CCHA held its annual CCHA Media Day and selected its’ All-conference teams, as well as announcing its’ pre-season polls for the upcoming season.
Both the coaches and media polls gave the pre-season nod to the Michigan Wolverines to repeat as regular season champs.
The Wolverines will return 21 players, which include 14 NHL draft choices after losing only two players from last season.
Leading the way up-front for Michigan this year will be forwards Jeff Tambellini, T. J. Hensick, Andrew Ebbett, Milan Gajic and Brandon Kaleniecki. While on defense, the team will be anchored by All-American goaltender Al Montoya, as well as defensemen Brandon Rogers, Eric Werner and Mutt Hunwick.
“The bottom line is, Michigan is a team that has to have the bar set high and, when I look at our team this year, we could have a good team,” Michigan head coach Red Berenson said. “It should be an exciting year for Michigan. I think all of these teams are capable of winning it all. We seem to have a surprise team every year and, again, we’ll wait and see what happens this year.”
Finishing second in both polls were the Michigan State Spartans, who also return 21 players.
After finishing third a year ago and having a disappointing CCHA tournament, the Spartans will look to challenge their rivals for the top spot.
Leading the challenge on defense this year will be sophomore goaltender Dominic Vicari, who won best goaltending honors in the CCHA last season as a freshman. Defensemen A.J. Thelen, Jared Nightingale and Corey Potter will be the line of defense in front of him.
Up front the Spartans will be lead by forwards Mike Lalonde, Ash Goldie, David Booth, Tommy Goebel, and Hobey Baker, as well as CCHA player of the year candidate Jim Slater.
“We definitely feel that we can be at the top of the league, but we’re going to have to show it every night and the guys on this team know that and the coaching staff gets us ready to do that,” Slater said. “It’s a tough game every night you play whether it’s against Michigan, Nebraska-Omaha and even Bowling Green, so we’ll have to be ready to play.”
Rounding out the rest of the coaches’ poll, Northern Michigan took third, Miami took fourth, Ohio State fifth, Notre Dame sixth, Western Michigan seventh, Ferris State eighth, BG ninth, Lake Superior tenth, Alaska-Fairbanks eleventh and Nebraska-Omaha twelfth.
In the media poll it was Miami third, Ohio State fourth, Notre Dame fifth, Northern Michigan sixth, Western Michigan seventh, BG eighth, Alaska-Fairbanks tied with Ferris State for tenth, Lake Superior eleventh and Nebraska-Omaha twelfth.
BG head coach Scott Paluch talked about the improvement in his two years as coach and how his team is looking forward to the new season. “We’ve heard a lot about improvement amongst the coaches who have spoken so far, and I think that our program we’re looking to continue to improve,” Paluch said. “Over the last two years, we’ve become a better hockey team in a lot of areas. We’re excited about the year, we gained some confidence a year ago and we’re ready to start.”
BG goaltender Jordan Sigalet earned a second team All-CCHA preseason selection.
The first team All-CCHA players included: Montoya, Hensick, Slater, Thelen, Western’s Vince Bellisimo and Miami’s Andy Greene. Then Sigalet, Tambellini, Lalonde, Rogers, Northern’s Nathan Oystrick and Miami’s Matt Christie made up the second team.
The Falcons will start their practice tomorrow and host the annual Falcon face-off on the ninth of October at 4 p.m. They will then take on the University of Windsor in exhibition play on October 15 at 7:05 p.m.
