According to the NCAA Transfer Portal, defenseman Connor Mayer will return for a fifth season as a Tiger after a strong senior season when he led CC at plus-6. The Tigers (13-22-3) were a combined minus-147.
He recorded seven points (six assists) in 34 games and tied for second on the team with 45 shot blocks with Nicklas Andrews (junior Jack Millar 46, graduate student Bryan Yoon 43).
As reported earlier, senior goalie Matt Vernon entered the pro ranks with ECHL Reading earlier this week.
Western Michigan is considering becoming a tenant in a new $300 million downtown Kalamazoo arena, all privately funded. There was no mention about Lawson Ice Arena’s future.
From the article: The arena is expected to be home to the Kalamazoo Wings and Western Michigan’s basketball and hockey teams. Bronco basketball currently plays at Read Fieldhouse, where WMU Athletics Director Dan Bartholomae says a total of nine varsity sports practice and compete (excluding recreational and intramural programs).
“I might have track running around the exterior indoor track while I got basketball working out,” Bartholomae explained. “I may have the volleyball nets up in the morning, and then of course we’ve got to turn it around for basketball. These students have classes as well, so we have to be considerate of their schedules.”
After spending about a week in the NCAA Transfer Portal, Colorado College senior goalie Matt Vernon signed with the ECHL’s Reading Royals, according to the league’s transaction listing for Monday, March 27. Terms were not disclosed.
This past season, Vernon played in 15 games (nine starts) with a 2.57 goals against average and a .905 saves percentage. He went 4-6-1 with two shutouts.
Coach Kris Mayotte, who guided Colorado College to its first appearance in the NCHC Championship Game last weekend, has signed a contract extension through 2028, Vice President and Director of Athletics Lesley Irvine announced today.
“Kris is a special and complete coach,” Irvine said. “He is an elite recruiter and talent developer, and has quickly become a valued member of this entire community. He has built an incredible staff and we feel strongly that he is the right person to lead our program to chase championships. We couldn’t be more excited about the future.”
Seven CC players have entered the NCAA Transfer Portal since Monday morning: freshman forward Cade Ahrenholz, sophomore forward Brett Chorske, junior forward Matthew Gleason, senior defenseman Connor Mayer, senior center Noah Prokop, sophomore defenseman Nathan Schweitzer, and senior goalie Matt Vernon. Prokop is headed to St. Thomas (Minn).
Here are the NCAA tourney previews:
Manchester Regional: Boston University vs. Western Michigan; No. 4 Denver vs, Cornell, all Thursday
Fargo Regional: Minnesota State vs St. Cloud State; No. 1 Minnesota vs Canisius, all Thursday
Bridgeport Regional: No. 2 Quinnipiac vs. Merrimack; Harvard vs. Ohio State, all Friday
Allentown Regional: Michigan Tech vs. Penn State; NO. 3 Michigan vs. Colgate, all Friday
This article explores why Hunter McKown chose Columbus over other NHL suitors.
In a surprise to just about no one, CC junior and leading scorer (past two seasons) Hunter McKown has signed with the Columbus NHL organization and will join that team later this week.
Colorado College’s showing this postseason turned a few more heads, with the 13-22-3 Tigers receiving five points in the weekly USCHO.com poll after reaching the NCHC title game, compared to one point (20th-place vote) after eliminating Western Michigan.
CC senior defenseman Connor Mayer and senior forward Noah Prokop both entered the NCAA transfer portal.
Monday was the first day underclassmen could jump in while seniors have been able to do so for some time. The Grand Forks Herald is keeping track with this running list.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Belief was mentioned often over the final two months of the Colorado College hockey season.
The roots of that first took hold last offseason when co-captain and graduate student defenseman Bryan Yoon chose to stay at CC for his fifth season instead of choosing greener pastures at a contending program.
After the program’s first appearance in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference Frozen Faceoff championship game, he felt he made the right choice for him and fortunately for the Tigers, a program mounting a turnaround under coach Kris Mayotte and his staff.
“I thought Coach Mayotte had the program headed in the right direction and I had so much belief in that group that we had in there,” Yoon said Saturday night. “I couldn’t see myself playing anywhere else.”
“I am so proud of this team, all the teams I have been on.,” he added. “The coaching staff has taken this program in a great direction.”
Yoon’s steadfast belief apparently rubbed off on a team loaded with character.
“He came back because he believed that we were going to be good after a nine-win season,’ Mayotte said. “We won four games (under former coach Mike Haviland), then we won nine games and he came back (saying) this program is going to do something and I want to be a part of it when it does.”
“We really do have special people. We are very fortunate that way because it allows us to do the job you have to do to get a program back going.”
Yoon’s leadership, the guidance and efforts of the other players, especially the SENIORS were critical. As were the performance of leading scorer and junior Hunter McKown (NCAA-best 14 power-play goals), a stout penalty kill (81.8 percent) and the emergence of freshman Kaidan Mbereko as an elite college goalie gave the Tigers (13-22-3) an unshakable belief they could beat any team in the nation.
That resolve snapped a 13-game winless streak and sparked a three-game postseason winning spurt against top-10 foes that had the team one win away from the program’s first NCAA Tournament berth in 12 years. It was quite a turnaround after a good start that peaked with a tie for second place on Jan. 13 and suddenly dipped further and further during that 13-game skid.
Fortunately, the belief of those inside the program never wavered.
“We set off in June to play in championship games and this program hasn’t done that in a really long time,” Yoon said. “Those hard times are when the (team) bond strengthens. We believed in each other.”
It made coming up short in Saturday;s 3-0 loss to St. Cloud State all the tougher.
“When you think of the tears and all of that and all of the emotion, it is because of what they gave and how much you wanted it for them,” Mayotte said. “You coach a lot of players you have a place in your heart because of how much you go through. But considering what our program is trying to do, I do not know if I have been connected to a player who has given as much as Bryan and help facilitate change as much as him. You cherish when you are around special people and special leaders and special players.”
The past two weeks gave the Tigers faithful hope that the proud program, like the calendar, is entering a spring of sorts. The yard may not be a lush green and there’s always a chance of snow in Colorado so much work lies ahead. But like so many lawns in Colorado Springs, there are green shoots showing among the brown grass of season’ past.
“This is our standard,” Mayotte said. “It’s where we expect to be. Now the guys coming back know what it’s about. We are not necessarily young in terms of juniors, seniors, sophomores, freshmen but we were young in terms of winning and how that feels like, how you do it and do it consistently. We just played for a championship. That is a huge step. Yeah, we’ll be back.”
If CC wins tonight, the Tigers will garner the program’s first outright league postseason title after sharing the 1978 Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) title with Wisconsin. The league had two ‘regional’ champions each year from 1966-81 with no leaguewide champ.
The Tigers are playing just their eighth all-time conference title game/series when they play fourth-seeded and seventh-ranked St. Cloud State (23-12-3) at 6:37 p.m. Mountain in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference Frozen Faceoff championship game.
This is the 13-21-3 Tigers’ first NCHC title game appearance.
The previous seven were all while a member of the WCHA:
2013 – Lost to Wisconsin, 3-2
2005 – Lost to Denver, 1-0
2003 – Lost to Minnesota, 4-2
1995 – Lost to Wisconsin, 4-3 (OT)
1980 – Lost to Minnesota (13-4, two-game total goal series)
1978 – Defeated Denver (9-7, two-game total goal series) * WCHA regional championship series
1969 – Lost to Denver, 3-1
Ice chips
St. Cloud State holds a 63-51-9 advantage in the all-time series, including a 3-1 mark this season. In the playoffs, CC holds a 6-4 record in the last 10 contests against the Huskies, who last defeated CC in the single-elimination NCHC playoffs in March 2021. … SCSU defeated CC in its first NCHC semifinals appearance in 2019. … In WCHA postseason play, CC is 6-2 against SCSU. … Fridays 1-0 victory over Denver was CC’s first postseason shutout since a 2-0 win at Denver on March 9, 2018 I to open an eventual quarterfinals series loss. … The Tigers have won three straight postseason games for the first time since 2013 (4) … Hunter McKown leads the nation with 14 power-play goals and is tied for sixth overall with 21 goals … McKown’s 14 power-play goals are the most in one season by a Tiger since Brett Sterling had 17 in 2005-06 and his 21 goals are the most since Chris Wilkie had 23 in 2019-20 … Goalie Kaidan Mbereko leads the nation among freshmen and tied for sixth overall with a .927 save percentage, and is second among first-year players and 17th overall with a 2.27 goals-against average … Co-captain and graduate student defenseman Bryan Yoon played in his 166th career game on Friday vs. Denver, tied for sixth place with Honey Baker winner Marty Sertich (2002-06) on CC’s all-time list.
Colorado College visited the Xcel Energy Center on Wednesday to take in the sights and relish knowing they would play in an NHL venue dear to the hearts of the several Minnesota kids on the roster.
On Thursday, it was down to business with a solid morning practice knocking off any rust.
“One thing we kind of preached about all year is to stay in the moment and enjoy the process and enjoy where you are at,” said co-captain Bryan Yoon, a graduate student defenseman. (Wednesday), everyone was taking their time and just enjoying it. Today was a good day for us to get used to the rink and just playing in it.”
The Tigers (12-21-1) are the first No. 7 seed to advance to the National Collegiate Hockey Conference Frozen Faceoff. They take on third-ranked Denver (30-8), the top seed and regular-season champion, which has advanced to all 10 league semifinals.
“We’re excited for the task at hand and know we have a big challenge ahead of us with DU but looking forward to it,” Tigers coach Kris Mayotte said.
Their semifinal is at 3:07 p.m. Mountain Friday followed by No. 17 North Dakota versus No. 7 St. Cloud State at 6:37.
Denver won all four meetings against CC this season, as did Western Michigan, the team CC eliminated for the first road playoff seep in program history last weekend.
“That just helped us build the belief that we can do it,” Yoon said.
That generated an excitement around the program that had dissipated since a Jan. 13 road win over SCSU had the Tigers tied for second place. They rebounded from a 13-game winless streak to end the regular season with that historic weekend in Kalamazoo.
“When you start to click (offensively) like that, you have the confidence,” junior forward and leading scorer Hunter McKown said. “We are going to keep building on that.”
As a team few outside the program expected to reach St. Paul, the pressure to win Friday will not be on Colorado College.
“If you look at it like that, we have nothing to lose, right?” junior forward and leading scorer Hunter McKown said. “We are excited to get Denver. it is a great opportunity. When they have gotten us this many times this year, we’re excited. We know it is our turn here.”
Denver coach David Carle expects Colorado College to be a more confident foe when his top-seeded Pioneers play the Tigers for the fifth time this season and first in the NCHC semifinals.
“They are playing good hockey right now and they will come in with a lot of confidence after sweeping Western (Michigan) in Lawson (Ice Arena),” he said. “They always had the goaltending and defense you need to win games. They managed to find the back of the net. We will have to work very hard against them.”
The Tigers are the first No. 7 seed to reach the National Collegiate Hockey Conference Frozen Faceoff and play DU at 3:07 p.m. Mountain at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. It is the first semifinal meeting between the program’s who have played 336 times including the 2019 third-place game. No. 3 Denver (30-8) won all four previous meetings this season and recorded its second 30-win season in a row for the first time in program history.
That road playoffs sweep – the first in program history – has energized a Tigers team who knew they were playing good, defensive hockey and now, have the results to show for it.
“I thought I was taking crazy pills,” CC coach Kris Mayotte said. “We had the penalty kill, the goaltending and the defense – the characteristics you need to win games – so how we were a 10-win team? We had to embrace what we are good at and be a tough team to play against.”
“We accomplished that because you don’t go into Lawson and fake your way to a sweep.”
The seeds of that sweep were sown during the 13-game winless streak to end the regular season that lowered expectations of those outside the CC program.
The Tigers still maintained their belief they would break through for some victories.
“I think it says everything about the guys we have in our locker room,” Mayotte said. “To go 13 games without a win in regulation or overtime and still have the belief that you can go and do what we did. That’s toughness and we have a locker room filled with that. We have proved to ourselves that we can play with anybody and at times outplay the best teams in the country.”
“We are not a fluff program saying we are improving if we are not. We truly believed we were improving and that we could get that type of job done.”
The semifinal will pit the NCHC’s most prolific offense Denver (3.95 goals) and top power play (27.8 percent) against a CC team with an 81 percent penalty kill, second in the league. Tigers freshman goalie Kaidan Mbereko will face an accurate Pioneers team averaging 32.45 shots on goal per game. His play and the defensive structure in front of him give the 12-21-3 Tigers a chance to win every night.
“They were never getting blow out,” Carle said. “They were losing close games because they couldn’t get enough scoring. We know what they are. They are very good defensively, well coached and very difficult to penetrate entering their zone.”
With the quarterfinals mission accomplished, the Tigers are not just satisfied to reach St. Paul.
“We’re going there to win,” said junior Matthew Gleason, who scored the OT game-winner to clinch the WMU series. “We are happy to make the X(cel) but don’t want it to end there.
“Our focus is on our locker room and what we can accomplish.,” he added. “(Denver) they are fast, skilled and a good hockey team. It’s about playing to our identity and playing hard hockey.”
The title game is at 6:37 p.m. Saturday with the league’s automatic NCAA berth on the line. CC and North Dakota must win that to advance to the NCAAs. There is no third-place game.
Ice chips
Last Friday, the Tigers scored three goals in less than a minute for the first time since March 27, 1999 vs, St. Lawrence (42 seconds) in a 5-2 NCAA Tournament win. … Junior Hunter McKown leads the NCAA with 13 power-play goals. Those are the most by a CC forward since Brett Sterling (17) during the 2005-06 season. McKown’s 20 goals are the most since Chris Wilkie (23) in 2019-20. … Saturday’s overtime win was the first for CC this season (1-3-3). … Noah Laba’s 21 points are the most by a freshman since Bryan Yoon (26) and Ben Copeland (21) in 2018-19, the last time CC reached the NCHC Frozen Faceoff. … Yoon played his 165thcareer game Saturday, moving him into seventh all-time.
Colorado College hockey fans can watch the Tigers take on No. 3 Denver for free on the arena scoreboard when the teams play at 3:07 p.m. Mountain on Friday in. the first semifinals of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference Frozen Faceoff in St. Paul, Minn.
Fans can enter the arena at 2:30 p.m. at the main entrance (Northwest corner of the arena). Limited concessions will be available.
Like Colorado College, No. 17 North Dakota had one facet of its team round into form just in time– much-improved team defense anchored by goalie Drew DeRidder.
And like the Tigers, the Hawks find themselves two wins from the league playoffs title and automatic NCAA berth.
“You have to have structure and you have to have will and our team has that now,” coach Brad Berry said. “The guys believe that in any situation that they will get through it.”
They take on No. 7 St. Cloud State in the evening semifinal at the NCHC Frozen Faceoff in St. Paul, Minn. and enter this weekend at No. 18 in the Pairwise rankings so an at-large berth is unlikely.
Unlike CC this past decade, the Hawks are not used to needing to win the NCHC playoffs title to make the NCAAs.
“There is a high standard with this program,” Berry said. “I think our group grew through all these challenges and it has shown in our last 10 games. There will be a lot of excitement but we need to focus on how we are playing.”
The Hawks (18-14-6) are paced by freshman Jackson Blake (41 points, 25 assists) and junior Riese Gaber (37, 20 goals). Graduate student defenseman Chris Jandric adds a team-high 29 assists for a Hawks team that produced on offense all season but recorded a 11-6-3 record since Jan. 1 due to an improved team defense predicated on maintaining puck possession.
“We’re still alive and in position to reach our goal,” Gaber said. “It’s been a grind, mentally especially.”
The Huskies (22-12-3) were a solid team throughout the season led by the goaltending tandem of Dom Basse (11-5-2) and Jaxon Castor (11-7-1). Castor won Game 3 after Basse went 1-1 to start the quarterfinal series win over Minnesota Duluth.
SCSU slipped from second to fourth place due to a number of injuries in the defenseman corps. In February.
“It was just a next-man up mentality,” coach Brett Larson said. “We have experienced adversity and became stronger as a result. The game (against UND) will be high intensity and high compete.”
A good offense is balanced by four with 30-plus points, led by senior Jami Kranilla (37 points, 19 goals) and 32 points each from graduate student Grant Cruikshank (21 goals) and senior Zach Okabe (16 goals). Junior Veeti Miettinen has 31 points (21 assists).
The Huskies went 2-1-1 against UND this season with the Hawks managing a 1-0-1 showing at St. Cloud thanks to that improved defense.
PAISLEY HOCKEY 