MCHA Adjusts Playoff Format

Though the MCHA's reshuffling of divisions has already been covered, what hasn't is the fact the league has also restructured the format of the Harris Cup Playoffs.

Beginning this season, only the top six teams from the regular season will make the league playoffs, and the champions of both the North and South Divisions will receive byes to the Harris Cup Finals. The overall league champion will receive the top overall seed while the champion of the other division will receive the number two overall seed.

The "quarterfinals" will pit the second and third place teams from the same division against each other, with the second place teams playing host.

While seeming a bit counter-intuitive at first as it means teams might play each other six times in a single season, the MCHA felt the elimination of some very long potential road trips late in the season outweighed the familiarity concerns.

The Harris Cup Finals pairings will not be decided until after the two quarterfinal series, as the top overall seed will meet the lowest overall seed to advance from the quarterfinals regardless of which division it comes from.

Though this is simple enough to follow, I'm bored, so let's illustrate how this works by updating last season's standings to fit the MCHA's new divisional setup:

North Division
1. Marian
2. Lawrence
3. Finlandia
4. Northland

South Division
1. Adrian
2. MSOE
3. Lake Forest
4. Concordia


As divisional winners, Marian and Adrian receive byes to the Harris Cup Finals. Meanwhile, as the fourth place teams in each division, Northland and Concordia are on the outside looking in. That leaves the quarterfinal matchups as:

Finlandia @ Lawrence and Lake Forest @ MSOE

In the semifinals, Adrian (top overall seed) draws the lowest seeded quarterfinal winner and Marian gets the other.

Simple enough, and that is all she wrote.

As a reminder, this season's MCHA Harris Cup Finals will once again be hosted by Adrian at Arrington Ice Arena. The Bulldogs earned 2010 hosting rights by virtue of winning last season's MCHA regular season title.

Paskaris Joins Adrian Staff as Assistant

Despite it being August, the Western DIII world remains quite active and serves up it's third coaching staff change in the past month.

This time it is Adrian who has brought a new assistant on board for the upcoming season, as Stavros Paskaris has joined the staff of the Bulldogs. He replaces former assistant Matt Nicholson, who recently accepted a position as an assistant with Division I Robert Morris.

Paskaris, a Dearborn, Mich. native, comes to Adrian from Ohio University where he was an assistant for the school's ACHA Division I program last season.

He also enjoyed a successful collegiate career as a four lear letter-winning forward at Division I Wayne State University. In 136 games for the Warriors, Paskaris tallied 35 goals and 63 assists for 98 points. He led Wayne State with 33 points in the 2004-05 season and was named CHA rookie of the year. He also led the Warriors in scoring with 39 points during his senior campaign.

Prior to his time at Wayne State, Paskaris played two years for the Soo Indians of the NAHL in which he racked up 45 goals and 75 assists.

Paskaris holds a marketing degree from Wayne State and recently earned a Masters in Coaching Education from Ohio University.

Former Northland Player Hired By Badgers

From the land of the obscure comes more alumni news, as the University of Wisconsin announced today that former Northland College defenseman Nate LaPoint will be joining the UW Men's Hockey staff as head equipment manager.

A native of Eau Claire, Wis., LaPoint played in 49 games for the Lumberjacks from 2003-05 and tallied three assists.

LaPoint served as assistant equipment manager at the University of North Dakota for the past four years and recently graduated from UND with a general studies degree and a minor in meteorology.

Since 2000, he has also worked summers on the staff at Top Dog Hockey camps, contributing as a counselor, official and coach.

Nate's younger brother, Derrick, was selected by the Florida Panthers in the 4th round of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft and will take the ice as a junior defenseman for the Fighting Sioux this fall.

Petersen Named Assistant Coach at Lawrence

Former St. Norbert forward and recent graduate Ryan Petersen has been hired as an assistant at Lawrence University. He will join the staff of head coach Mike Szkodzinski, also a former Green Knight, in a full-time capacity. He will become the first full-time assistant coach in Lawrence history.

"Ryan is a very smart person and is of the utmost integrity," said Szkodzinski. "He had a very successful career and is the type of person we know can come in and help this program move in the direction we want it to."

Petersen was a four year letter winner for the Green Knights and scored 34 goals and 39 assists for 73 points in his 119 game career. He served as captain each of the past two seasons and twice garnered NCHA All-Academic accolades. In his four years, the Green Knights posted a gaudy 96-18-9 record, won three NCHA regular season titles, two Peters Cups and the 2008 National Championship.

A staple on the penalty kill, Petersen was also no stranger to scoring big goals, with his most memorable perhaps being the game-winner in St. Norbert's 2008 national quarterfinal 2-1 (ot) victory over St. Thomas -- a goal that might be just as memorable for its celebration as it is for its significance.

Petersen also assisted on Scott Pulak's goal in St. Norbert's 2-0 win over Plattsburgh in the 2008 national championship game.

As far as the future at Lawrence is concerned, Szkodzinski is convinced that having a full-time assistant is something that can only be a positive.

"This is an extremely important step for our program," he said. "This type of commitment from the University now puts the pressure on us to meet the expectations we ourselves have set for this program."

As to why Petersen's name rose to the top of Szkodzinski's list when he began his search for an assistant:

"If you talk to the people who have been around him the past four years, it's clear he has the right attitude and character to help us succeed here. There was just no doubt about it."

This season will mark Szkodzinski's fourth behind the Lawrence bench. The Vikings are 39-39-6 under Szkodzinski's tutelage, and their 16-11-1 record a season ago was the best in school history.

Petersen 2008 NCAA Quarterfinal Overtime Goal

NCHA Alters Schedule; Weekend Series Return

When the NCHA adopted the travel partner system ten years ago, many long-time NCHA fans lamented the fact it meant the elimination of the two-game weekend sets against the same opponent.

Though the travel partner setup made sense in terms of both geography and finances, gone was the potential for storyline development that could only exist when the same teams met on back-to-back nights.

Surprisingly, it really has been ten years since the change was implemented, but this autumn will bring more change as the NCHA will once again offer some two-game series as part of its conference schedule.

Leaving the league with only seven members, Lake Forest's departure for the MCHA facilitated some sort of a change in scheduling, so the league elected to adopt an 18 game conference schedule in which teams will play every other three times. Inclusive to that change is the return of two game series.

So how does this work? It's pretty straightforward. Each NCHA team will play three league opponents in home series and the other three league opponents in road series this season, for a total of 12 games. The remaining six will be played in single game meetings hosted by the opposite shool that hosts the series.

For example: Superior hosts River Falls on October 30 and 31 to open the season, which means the Yellowjackets will travel to River Falls for a single game later in the season - in this case on January 30.

The one exception to this is Stout and Eau Claire who will play a home-and-home series in lieu of a two-game set hosted at a single institution.

Looking to mark your calendar for when your favorite team will be hosting a series? Here they all are:

Eau Claire hosts: River Falls (11/13, 11/14); St. Norbert (1/15, 1/16); St. Scholastica (1/22, 1/23)
River Falls hosts: St. Norbert (11/20, 11/21); Stout (12/11, 12/12); Stevens Point (1/22, 1/23)
St. Norbert hosts: Stevens Point (11/13, 11/14); St. Scholastica (12/4, 12/5); Superior (1/22, 1/23)
St. Scholastica hosts: Stout (11/13, 11/14); Superior (12/11, 12/12); River Falls (1/15, 1/16)
Stevens Point hosts: St. Scholastica (10/30, 10/31); Superior (12/4, 12/5); Eau Claire (12/11, 12/12)
Stout hosts: St. Norbert (10/30, 10/31); Stevens Point (11/20, 11/21)
Superior hosts: River Falls (10/30, 10/31); Eau Claire (11/20, 11/21); Stout (1/15, 1/16)

While those are the logistics of the affair, one question I've heard asked a few times is "why an 18 game league schedule?". Though I don't know for certain, I suspect a few things may have come into play. One, to attain a balanced schedule in a seven team league there must be 12 or 18 conference games. Clearly 18 was preferential to 12 in this case.

Second, and perhaps more important, I suspect the NCHA may be looking at the ECACW as a model for this. The ECACW, a six team league, currently plays 15 conference games. The ECACW has also been able to land three teams in the NCAA tourrnament (a clear goal of the NCHA) the past two seasons. The ECACW's ability to to this has largely been fueled by very high strength-of-schedule ratings league-wide, thanks in part to a relatively insular league schedule and some fairly significant non-conference success.

The nuts and bolts: If the NCHA can continue to dominate the MCHA and MIAC the way it has the past four seasons, it's conceivable that more games against itself will only bolster the selection criteria (particularly SOS) for the top NCHA teams come selection time.

Just a theory, and we'll certainly have to follow the numbers as this season progresses, but there does seem to be some validity to this line of thinking.

Regardless of what the future may hold to that end, what we do know for now is that the two-game series are back for the 2009-10 NCHA season. As one who was around before the travel partner system was adopted, I remember the intensity and rivalries that were generated by those two-game series -- the Saturday contests in particular.

As someone who is up for as much drama and intensity as the NCHA can muster, I can only say: Welcome back, for you have been missed.