If there were two words to describe the first half of this college hockey season, we would choose “dramatic” and “unexpected.” The list of surprises has been plentiful, on both sides of the spectrum.

Many of the top teams from the pointless preseason rankings have proven more mortal than thought. Those who thought defending champion Minnesota-Duluth was a one-hit wonder are suddenly silenced by the team that hasn’t lost since mid-October. Powers like North Dakota and Denver have battled with inconsistency and injuries, respectively. Last year’s runner-up, Michigan, is suddenly looking pedestrian, barely keeping its head above the .500 mark. Boston College and Notre Dame have looked like world-beaters one night, and beaten around the world the next. The CCHA is up, the WCHA is down and the ECAC is suddenly rivaling Hockey East as the power of the Northeast.

Amid all the chaos, we look back at the good, the bad and the ugly of the 2011 portion of the college hockey schedule.

THE GOOD

Success of new coaches. Mel Pearson left his assistant job at Michigan to take over at his alma mater, Michigan Tech. All Pearson has done is generate as many wins for the Huskies as they had in their previous two seasons combined. Less than two weeks ago, his team actually had a better record than his former employer’s perennial powerhouse in Ann Arbor. Former NHL coach Andy Murray took over in Western Michigan, and has kept the Broncos in the top shelf of the more-competitive-than-ever CCHA. Nate Leaman left what many thought was a fluky good Union team for the job in Providence. His Friars have gone from basement-dwellers to a winning team; Providence is the only team to beat new power Merrimack this season. Leaman’s successor at Union, Rick Bennett, has only led the Dutchmen to an 8-3-5 record and guided one of the top defenses in the country. Michigan State has gone 10-6-2 under new coach Tom Anastos, Clarkson has a winning record for new guy Casey Jones and Norm Bazin has Massachusetts-Lowell in line for its first NCAA Tournament bid in over a decade. Jim Madigan’s team at Northeastern has remained competitive. In fact, the only new hire to have a losing record in the season’s first half is Princeton’s Bob Prier.

Brown hockey players’ rush to save a life. Lost amid all the tragedy in the hockey world last summer, when three former players died too early and the KHL lost its entire Lokomotiv team, was a positive story of life involving hockey players. While at South Shore Beach in Little Compton, R.I., on Aug. 30, Brown hockey players Mike Wolff and Jeff Ryan came upon two young girls being dragged out to sea by a riptide caused in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene. The two swam out to retrieve the girls and brought them back to shore, when the girls pointed out a friend who was bobbing motionless in the surf. At that point, four other players –Dennis Robertson, Mike Borge, Bobby Farnham and recent grad David Brownschidle –swam out to retrieve the boy, who was taken to a hospital and later released just fine. So while the hockey world lost so many lives last summer, it also helped save at least three.

National television coverage. Those around the sport had to know it was coming, but the consensus would have been that college hockey would only get a national television contract to supplant a possibly locked-out NBA in primetime. But Versus instead stepped up to feature Friday night games-of-the-week to help fill out its new 24-hour coverage when it becomes the NBC Sports Channel after the first of the year. Boston University (see THE UGLY) and Notre Dame (boasting a brand new gleaming barn to showcase) kick off the schedule on New Year’s Eve. With good coverage already coming from regional Fox Sports networks and CBS College Sports, the sport’s exposure has never been higher.

THE BAD

Conference realignment. With Penn State moving to Division I hockey in a year and a half, its Big Ten cohorts saw fit to form their own hockey conference, with all the exposure and revenue streams it entitles. That’s understandable, but when the rest of the WCHA and CCHA powers defected to form their own spinoff, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, it left the CCHA to die and the WCHA to struggle along with a potpourri of also-rans and never-weres. The rich will get richer, and the poor will get poorer. Didn’t somebody on the national political stage have a problem with that paradigm this year?

THE UGLY

Corey Trivino’s legal problems and BU’s losses. At roughly the same time that we were proclaiming the Boston University senior a legitimate Hobey Baker Award candidate in our most recent power rankings, Trivino was being arraigned in a Boston courthouse on charges that he sexually assaulted a female student. While Trivino still awaits trial, Terriers coach Jack Parker pronounced his own judgment and kicked Trivino off the team. At the time of his dismissal, Trivino, a New York Islanders draft pick, was leading Boston and Hockey East in goals scored. How his criminal entanglements affect Trivino’s future with the Islanders has yet to be determined.

On the heels of Trivino’s dismissal came the news Friday that sophomore Charlie Coyle, a Minnesota Wild prospect, was leaving the team to join the Saint John Sea Dogs of the QMJHL. Reports out of Boston are that Coyle would have been academically ineligible for the second half of the year. Coyle had 14 points in 16 games for the Terriers following a season in which he was named the Hockey East Rookie of the Year.

In the end, because of things that were completely in the control of the players, Boston will now play the rest of the year without two of its top offensive weapons.

Alabama-Huntsville fiasco. First, the University of Alabama-Huntsville declared that it was pulling men’s hockey as a Division I sport. Then boosters and alumni tried to save it, as did Alabama politicians. After almost two months of drama, the Chargers’ hockey program was declared resurrected, alive and well. Seems like a good story, right? The fact that Division I will maintain its 58 teams while it awaits Penn State’s arrival is a good story. The horribly incompetent and disorganized manner in which the university handled the matter is not.

Photo by Getty Images

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