Feature: The Future Was On Display At Inaugural Connecticut Ice Tournament

Bridgeport served as host to the inaugural Connecticut Ice festival. Webster Bank Arena, next door to P.T. Barnum's museum, brought out the three-ring circus with a weekend fully dedicated to hockey in the Nutmeg State. A new in-season tournament 15 years into the making featuring the four Division 1 men's hockey teams in the state of Connecticut saw Sacred Heart taking home the crystal trophy Sunday night.

"This would be right up near the top, if not the top," Sacred Heart head coach C.J. Marottolo said about where the weekend personally ranked for him. "Playing in an environment where you have four Connecticut schools, it's the first so that probably puts it over the top."

Photo Credit: Gregory Vasil/SNY

Connecticut Ice was the latest attempt at in-state bragging rights. Just as it exists in Boston each February. Just as it exists in Michigan in December. Just as Minnesota attempted to do for four years on the same weekend Connecticut is currently.

As those states celebrate history alongside trophies, inside Bridgeport, the future was on display. Almost out of necessity. Quinnipiac's rivalry with Yale - one showcased nationally in the 2013 national championship game - is well known. However, Sunday only marked the third time the Bobcats faced Sacred Heart since leaving Atlantic Hockey in 2005. The two schools sit 25 miles apart from one another.

College Hockey Stock Report: November 11, 2019

Sometimes the best-laid plans do not work out.

Before the season began, the entire WCHA women's league scheduled itself to be idle this weekend. The idea was that since many teams would be missing players for the Four Nations Cup,

Turns out, no team was missing players for the Four Nations Cup. The annual tournament ended up canceled by host Sweden after its national team declared its intentions to boycott as part of an ongoing dispute over equal pay and conditions. Instead, only a few players are in Pittsburgh playing in a USA-Canada rivalry series with most of them being on teams playing.

Another team with changing plans was Denver, whose 44-0-0 dream came to an end in Duluth. Kobe Roth and Noah Cates erased a 3-1 third period deficit Friday in a battle of NCHC contenders before the Bulldogs became the other one in Denver's 8-1-1 record.

Each weekend sees ups and downs as players and teams adjust to new situations. That's the fun and joy of the sport and one that bodes well for a handful of new trends on a weekend where not everything went to plan.

As always, here's what is going on throughout the college hockey landscape. This week's stock report recaps who is doing well, who is on their way down, and what trends should be followed.

60 Days. 60 Teams. 600 Words (or Less): Yale

Yale

2018-19 Record: 15-15-3 (11-10-1, T-5th in ECAC)
Head Coach: Keith Allain, 14th Year
Top returning scorer: Robbie DeMontis (7G-11A) 
Top returning goaltender: Corbin Kaczperski (Sr.)

If there's a single team who could recently fit the bill as college hockey's team in the middle, it's one who calls the middle of Connecticut, straddling both sides of the Munson-Nixon Line, home.

Yale finished 2018-19 30th of 60 NCAA men's hockey Division 1 teams, according to the Pairwise rankings. It came in a year where the Bulldogs won 15 games and lost 15 games. A year earlier, Yale won 15 games and lost 15 games.

The Bulldogs, tied for fifth out of 12 ECAC teams, had the nation's 30th-ranked penalty kill. Basically, every major stat saw Yale finish between 20th and 40th. When Yale was leading after two periods, the Bulldogs never lost (15-0-1). When the team trailed or was tied after two periods, it never won (0-15-2).

What's New: Yale loses an individual who stood above the mediocrity in graduated forward Joe Snively. Snively, who signed with the Washington Capitals after the end of the season, led the team with 15 goals and had double the points of any Bulldog.

The team brings in seven players - four forwards, two defenders, and a goalie. Defender Brandon Tabakin won a Clark Cup championship with Sioux Falls (USHL). Teddy Wooding and Michael Young were teammates at Vernon (BCHL) while forward Cole Donhauser had 42 points (17G-25A) in 56 games for Chilliwack (BCHL). Goaltender Connor Hopkins replaces Sam Tucker, who served as part of a goaltending platoon the past three seasons.

The Bulldogs will play in the first in-state college hockey tournament featuring the four Connecticut schools (Connecticut, Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart, and Yale). The Connecticut Ice Festival (AKA the Nutmeg State's Beanpot) runs January 25-26 in Bridgeport as part of a larger weekend celebration of Connecticut hockey (AKA the Nutmeg State's Hockey Day Minnesota). Before that, however, Yale travels down the Metro-North to Manhattan for a January 11th game against Harvard at Madison Square Garden.

Closing Thoughts: To make a New Haven-specific comparison for Yale, basically, the Bulldogs currently are the meat smack-dab in the middle of a hamburger served in a square-shaped Louis' Lunch building.

That the team can play with the best (beating Clarkson in Potsdam) yet also struggle against the best (getting handily swept by Clarkson in Potsdam to end the season) during the same season can make for a frustrating situation. Yale, even without Snively, continues to have some positive pieces inside the belly of the whale that is Ingalls Rink. Phil Kemp is an elite ECAC defender. Jack St. Ivany is a player who could take the next step and help fill some of the lost production during his sophomore season.

The line between the middle of the pack and contender gets smaller the closer one gets to the NCAA Tournament. It's the difference between not having the secondary scoring, or needing to replace a goaltender, or having good nights and bad. The top teams can find a way to win a game when tied or trailing after two periods.

For those reasons, Yale marks the midway point of the "60 Days, 60 Teams, 600 Words (or Less)" series for 2019 and Keith Allain's team knows what needs to change for 2020.

Thirty teams previewed. Thirty to go.

Recent 60 Days. 60 Teams. 600 Words (or Less) Features
Michigan State
New Hampshire
Boston College
Bemidji State
Every Team So Far

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Feature: Playing one another brings Skarzynski family together

Author's note: This is a feature on Gopher senior Sophie Skarzynski and her family that I wrote back in early December and couldn't find a home. With Minnesota's Senior Day, honoring Skarzynski along with seven others, coming up this weekend I thought it would be a good time to post.

The feature is as written in December with the exception of updating stats and records. All photos are by Nathan Wells.

Sitting on the visiting bench, Gopher defender Sophie Skarzynski couldn’t help herself from being distracted each shift she saw number seven in the white and blue sweater.

Few things faze Skarzynski, who growing up captained her boys AAA team, when it comes to hockey. The Lake Forest, Illinois native won a national championship as a freshman. She spent the offseason between her sophomore and junior year preparing to play defense before quickly being moved to center and fitting in seamlessly all season. Regardless of the opponent, Skarzynski keeps the same pregame routine, making sure her socks are inside out, her right shoe is tied before her left shoe, her hair is straightened and that she has a peanut butter energy bar.

Away from the rink, Skarzynski socially is an icebreaker who teammates describe as, “honest and open and loud” being the life of the party. Yet there was something about facing Yale which was taking away focus.

Her younger sister Greta, a Bulldogs sophomore forward.