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.