The Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) regular season has started with a series between Bemidji State and Ferris State. Yet the meat of the schedule begins this week with four matchups between CCHA opponents and a series against Ohio State from Lake Superior State.
The following teams are described in order of predicted ability based on previous performances this season and in past seasons.
The Scary
Minnesota State
The Mavericks are almost inarguably the best team in the CCHA. Through their eight games to start the season, they have split with #7 Michigan and #5 North Dakota (whom they outscored 5-3) while sweeping #16 Omaha 4-3 and 1-0. It’s hard to argue against a 4-2 record against ranked opponents, outscoring 16-12.
One of the main reasons? Alex Tracy is one of the best goaltenders in the CCHA and has played every game this year. Tracy has a.938 save percentage and 1.51 goals allowed per game, the lowest goals allowed per game in the conference in the most minutes played.
For an already great team, returning nearly every core player is huge. Eight of the Mavericks’ 10 top scorers this season are returners, with the others being Minnesota’s 2023-24 co-leading scorer Rhett Pitlick, who transferred in alongside former Ferris State Bulldog Luigi Benincasa, a CCHA All-Rookie team and Rookie of the Month forward.
Minnesota State is ranked #16 through the games before Oct. 28, 2024.
The Good
St. Thomas
It has been a deceivingly rough start to the season, and the Tommies could make a splash in their second to last year with the CCHA.
In their 1-3-1 record, a tie (5-5) and win (3-1) come against Vermont, two understandable losses to #5 Minnesota, and only a 0-1 loss to #16 St. Cloud State. The losses, while not the goal, can be expected.
Their team is incredibly deep. Midway through last season, they were riddled by injury, which robbed them of great seeding and a playoff push. Six of their top seven scorers are back, many of their defensemen who were stifling last season, and both of the best goaltending duo in the CCHA, Aaron Trotter and Jake Sibell.
Those who followed CCHA hockey last season will recognize almost every name on the line chart without having to do any research on this year’s team, which is an invaluable fortune for head coach Rico Blasi and the team.
Augustana
In their first season in the CCHA, Augustana has begun to shatter expectations. The Vikings have a 3-3 record, two wins against #12 Omaha, one score loss to #14 St. Cloud State, and a split series against Long Island. In addition to that, an exhibition victory over #5 North Dakota was a very impressive start.
Their two-man goalie situation is one of the best, with Christian Manz and Josh Kotai at or below 2 goals allowed per game and save percentages above.930. Manz won a Rookie of the Week award and Kotai a goaltender of the week award in back-to-back weeks.
Their forward duo of Owen Bohn and Luke Mobley have tallied 9 goals between them on the season, both shooting above 280 with positive ratings, three first goals, and two game-winners. A huge leap forward for Bohn, who totaled only six goals last season, and over pace for Mobley, who recorded 12 goals in 34 games.
Bemidji State
The Beaver record looks unimpressive, 2-3 with an overtime win. However, their overtime win came against #18 Minnesota Duluth, and two losses came from #15 St. Cloud State in remarkably tight one-score games. They have played in the only two conference games of the season so far against Ferris State, splitting, but in the loss playing what should be an abnormally bad game.
The most key aspect, as is and will be a theme in this preview, is their goalie. Mattias Sholl was the CCHA Goaltender of the Year, All-CCHA first team, two-time Goaltender of the Week in 2023-24, and preseason Goaltender of the Year in 2024-25. Now a senior, he will be a leader and mainstay in the net for the Beavers.
The core of Beaver defensemen has also stuck around, meaning Bemidji State will be one of the hardest teams to score on in the CCHA.
The knock on BSU is they lost four of their top five scorers. However, senior forward Jere Vaisanen and fifth-year forward Jackson Jutting are poised for strong years with more of the offense distributed their way; Vaisanen already has almost half of his total goals for last season.
The Bad
Bowling Green
Sitting at 3-3, the Falcons have had a very solid start to the season. They bested Mercyhurst twice to open the year, andeven though a one-score game both games were smoked by #13. Western Michigan beat Rochester Institute of Technology in overtime and played tight games with Ohio State, giving up only two even-strength goals against one of the best teams in the Big 10.
By far the strength of the team is Cole Moore, their sophomore star goaltender. The 6’6 Falcon has an All-CCHA rookie team award, two Rookie of the Month awards, and three Goaltender of the Week awards. He was also the third-ranked goaltender in the CCHA in his rookie campaign.
Their weakness is scoring. They have been outscored 12-17 even with Moore in the net every game. In their most recent game against Ohio State, BG failed to score on any of their five-man- advantage, finally losing 0-2 to the Buckeyes.
Michigan Tech
Losing your great senior goaltender tends to hinder your winning ability. So too will the loss of Blake Pietila stunt the winning of Michigan Tech.
They have closed in on Max Vayrynen as the next starter, who has started three of four games this season. While his stats are impressive, his competition was weak, with Alaska Fairbanks having two wins and Clarkson having his lone loss.
Leading goal scorers Ryland Mosley (Wisconsin) and Logan Pietila (Graduation) have not returned to Michigan Tech, leaving stars Isaac Gordon and Jack Works to carry the weight of the offense. The next highest scorer to return from 2023-24 is senior forward Marcus Pedersen (he has yet to play a game this season and scored only 5 goals last season).
Lake Superior State
The Lakers will be similar to last season but will need at least one player to step into a large hole in the lineup.
Top scorer of LSS and the CCHA, Jared Westcott, signed his contract in the ECHL, declining any fifth-year option he had and removing the magic he gave the Lakers last season. There is some strong talent and possibility for a few players to leap forward, namely William Ahlrik, a freshman forward with three goals in four games, but it is an 18-goal, 18-assist gap to fill.
LSS has lost two games to Michigan State, one they impressively took to overtime, and split with Stonehill, setting up a series against Ohio State before the start of their CCHA season.
The Ugly
Ferris State
The last-place team in 2023-24, Ferris State, instigated a large rebuild of their hockey program, bringing back only 13 of 29 players from last season to this season. Even the 13 players weren’t necessarily the best of the last season, with four of the five top scorers leaving the program, with now-junior Travis Shoudy left alone among the top.
The goaltender situation followed the skaters’ pattern with their loss of second-string Noah Giesbrecht to Rensselaer and starter Logan Stein to Michigan. The Bulldogs essentially traded Stein, a top tender in the CCHA, for current starter Noah West, a grad student who played only 11 games in three seasons in Michigan and has allowed almost three goals per game in seven games this season.
Northern Michigan
The Wildcats were even worse riddled by the transfer portal than the Bulldogs. Tanner Latsch, Brendan Poshak, and Zach Michaelis are the only players to stay in Marquette during the 2024 offseason, combining only 27 games in 2023-24.
Much of this was due to the leadership change from previous head coach Grant Potulny to Dave Shyiak, but even still, the team has flaws. There are 20 underclassmen on the team, 16 of whom are freshmen, only 7 goals and four assists carried over in players from last season, and there are no established goalies; only 11 games of college experience for both netminders combined.
