Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Looking ahead: Yale schedule for next season

Yale hasn't finalized its seven non-league games for next season, but there will be a few changes on tap.

First, the Rivalry on Ice game at Madison Square Garden has been put on hold. Yale is still interested in playing Harvard at the Garden in a third regular season game, just not annually. The Bulldogs would like to hold the event every other season or perhaps every third season.

Also gone is the post-Christmas exhibition game with the Russian Red Stars, who won't be making a U.S. tour this year for the first time in six years.

Yale will once again open with Princeton, a non-league game, as part of the tournament formerly known as the Liberty Hockey Invitational. But that event has a new sponsor and a new location. Trenton's Sun National Bank Center, with its hockey capacity of 7,605. The first two installments of the tournament had been at Newark's Prudential Center, home of the New Jersey Devils.

Here's the non-league schedule to date:

Exhibition with the University of New Brunswick at Ingalls Rink, date to be determined between Oct. 23-25.
Oct. 30: vs. Princeton at Trenton, N.J.
Oct. 31: vs. Maine or Vermont at Trenton, N.J.
Nov. 28: at Providence
Dec. 11: Boston University
Jan. 5: at UMass

Yale is also close to finalizing a two-year, four-game deal with Arizona State that would include a two-game set in Tempe, Ariz. on Jan. 8-9 and two games in New Haven in 2016-17. The contract is expected to be completed by next week.

Arizona State, one of the nation's best club teams, will begin its elevation to Division I status in the fall by playing a mix of club and Division I competition. By 2016-17, the Sun Devils will play as a D-I independent, expected to join a conference by the following season.

Yale had planned on participating in a tournament in Las Vegas that also included Arizona State. Organizers were forced to postpone the event, leaving the Bulldogs with two open dates, kick-starting talks with Arizona State.

The Bulldogs are also working on filling the void left by the Russians with a second exhibition (classified as a scrimmage, per NCAA rules.)

Monday, March 30, 2015

Quinnipiac: a look ahead to 2015-16

Quinnipiac schedule for next fall will once again include a heavy dose of Hockey East opponents. There was a time when Rand Pecknold would take his team anywhere to play anyone. Now that the Bobcats have established themselves as a perennial NCAA contender, he's content to keep his non-conference slate contained to the New England, with an occasional trip to the Midwest.

Here's are the 12 non-conference games on tap for next season. Dates won't be announced until a later date.

HOME GAMES
St. Cloud State (2)
Boston University
Bentley
Maine
Holy Cross
UMass

AWAY GAMES
Holy Cross
Northeastern
UMass
Maine

NEUTRAL SITE GAMES
UConn at Webster Bank Arena, Bridgeport

Notes: The series with St. Cloud State will be in October. ... Holy Cross and UMass are two game, home-and-away weekends. ... The UMass series will be on Thanksgiving weekend. ... The game against UConn at Webster Bank Arena, played on a Tuesday night last season, will be held on a Saturday. ... Boston University will spend a weekend in New Haven, playing one night at Quinnipiac and one night at Yale. ... Quinnipiac has never played Boston University before. It returns the game at BU's Agganis Arena in 2016-17 season. ... The Maine games are single games, one home, one away.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Sam Anas out for ECAC Championships

Sam Anas, Quinnipiac's leading scorer, is out indefinitely with a leg injury suffered on Sunday against Union. He'll miss Friday's semifinal game with Harvard and, should the Bobcats advance, the championship game on Saturday.

It's an injury that is expected to take several weeks for recovery, meaning Anas is unlikely to play in the first round of the NCAA tournament, though Quinnipiac is holding out hope for the slim chance he may be ready by next weekend.

Anas, the national rookie of the year as a freshman, has scored 23 of Quinnipiac's 103 goals this season.