By Nate Ewell
Veteran visitors – The Ice Breaker Tournament, the traditional start of the college hockey season, faces off this weekend in Minneapolis. The host Golden Gophers, ranked No. 5 nationally, appear to be the favorites but will be challenged by three experienced teams in Clarkson, Mercyhurst and New Hampshire. Minnesota lost five players to NHL contracts, including four of its top five scorers. Mercyhurst brings 18 juniors and seniors to town, the most of any team in the nation, including high-scoring forwards Matthew Zay and Ryan Misiak. No. 12 UNH has its top three scorers back, including All-America defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk. Clarkson, meanwhile, has its top eight scorers back from a year ago and brought in a talented freshman class.
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Coaching legends – The Ice Breaker field features three of the five active wins leaders in college coaching in Minnesota’s Don Lucia (623 wins), New Hampshire’s Dick Umile (519) and Mercyhurst’s Rick Gotkin (453, including Division II and III wins).
Future stars – The schools in the Ice Breaker combined to produce 23 NHLers last season, and there are more future stars on these rosters. The 2013 NHL Draft alone included six players in the tournament. Among the current NHLers who started their college hockey career in the Ice Breaker: Brooks Orpik (Boston College), Erik Cole (Clarkson), Willie Mitchell (Clarkson), Drew Miller (Michigan State), Tom Gilbert (Wisconsin), Mike Komisarek (Michigan), Brian Boyle (Boston College) and Ben Bishop (Maine).
Homeward bound – In addition to the Golden Gophers’ roster, which is laden with Minnesota natives, the tournament will include three players returning to play in their home state. Clarkson’s A.J. Fossen is a native of Maple Grove, Minn., while Mercyhurst’s Randy Cure (Bloomington) and Zac Frischmon (Ham Lake) are also from Minnesota.
Can’t Miss Stories Elsewhere
Grand opening – Penn State’s new Pegula Ice Arena celebrates its grand opening Friday against Army, and the $90 million on-campus facility will be showcased in live coverage of the game on BTN. The arena is the fourth new building in college hockey in the last four years. Elsewhere, Providence and St. Cloud State open the doors on extensive, multi-million-dollar renovations at their arenas this weekend.
What’s old is new – While conference realignment is a hot topic in college hockey, this weekend’s action only features two conference games (UMass at BU and Canisius at Niagara). Four series, however, feature teams that were conference rivals a year ago but now meet in non-conference action: Miami vs. Ohio State, Notre Dame vs. Western Michigan, Michigan Tech at Minnesota Duluth and Bemidji State at St. Cloud State.
Fries at the Bottom of the Bag
Friday’s Army-Penn State game pits the two teams with the most freshmen and sophomores in the nation. Penn State has 22, Army has 21 … Two of the best sophomore goalies in the nation square off as Minnesota State visits Providence for two games. The Mavericks’ Stephon Williams and Friars’ Jon Gillies were both first-team all-conference as rookies … Brothers Stephane (North Dakota) and Yvan (Vermont) Pattyn face off in a weekend series in Grand Forks this weekend … BC’s Johnny Gaudreau enters Thursday’s game at Michigan and Sunday’s home tilt with RPI just 5 points shy of 100 for his career … Six of college hockey’s seven new coaches will make their debuts this weekend; Mike Cavanaugh and UConn open Oct. 18 at Minnesota State.