Last year was another breakthrough season for the Commonwealth Coast Conference.
The league, one of four in New England, which came into existence in the 2016-17 season when it rebranded the lightly-regarded ECAC Northeast, produced a great title race with four candidates, settled its championship in overtime and sent a second-ever team to the Frozen Four (the University of New England, after Salve Regina reached the national championship game in 2018).
That’s some pretty good momentum to take into 2022-23.
So what can we expect this winter? Let’s answer four burning questions.
How do we tee up the season?
To begin analyzing this season, understand how the league was cleanly cleaved into two tiers in 2021-22. These were the league records for the eight teams.
1. UNE 17-3-1
2. Endicott 15-5-1
3. Salve Regina 14-5-2
4. Curry 13-7-1
5. Suffolk 7-10-4
6. Nichols 6-15
7. Wentworth 4-15-2
8. Western New England 2-18-1
In three cycles through the league, there were only three times when a team from the bottom half beat a team from the top half: Wentworth clipped Suffolk the weekend before Thanksgiving, and Endicott dropped back-to-back one-goal decisions to Wentworth and Suffolk in late January.
Of course, Nichols blew up an anticipated conference tournament final four by upsetting Salve Regina, 3-1, in a game that saw the Bison get outshot 44-24 but get a superb performance by goalie Korbinian Lutz.
“I think the guys are still a little bit frustrated about how the year ended last year,” said Salve coach Zech Klann.
Who is the team to beat?
That depends on whom you ask.
Three different teams – Endicott (three), UNE (four) and Salve (one) received first-place votes in the preseason coaches’ poll, with Endicott collecting the most points to start out at No. 1.
But the Gulls, though they have a strong core and more than 95 percent of their offensive production returning, don’t have the bedrock backstop they’ve leaned on in past years with Conor O’Brien gone. The co-winner of the Concannon Award is now in the ECHL, beginning his pro career with the Iowa Heartlanders.
It will be two sophomores – Ryan Wilson (Shelton, Conn.) and Atticus Kelly – taking over. Only Kelly got on the ice last winter, playing 40 minutes of one game.
“They’re great athletes, amazing kids and very good goalies, and they’re going to do their thing,” said Endicott coach RJ Tolan (Waltham, Mass.).
UNE’s biggest losses came on defense, though they do return a good goalie – Billy Girard IV – and three of their top four scorers: Jake Fuss (11-28-39), Jared Christy (17-17-34) and Dan Winslow (14-14-28).
“I think it’s the biggest, heaviest team we’ve ever had here,” said UNE coach Kevin Swallow. “Watching them practice, they look bigger and stronger than they’ve ever been.”
Which of the dark horses can crack the top four?
Suffolk was championed by more than one of the league’s coaches in the preseason.
Shawn McEachern (Waltham, Mass.), a 13-year NHL player who won the Stanley Cup in 1992 with the Pittsburgh Penguins, was named the first full-time head coach in program history in August after a decade coaching prep at Rivers School.
He inherited a team that was sometimes competitive, sometimes not against the league’s “big four,” and graduated a small senior class.
The other new coach is at Nichols, where Alex Gacek (Dracut, Mass.) was tabbed in early September after a two-year stint as an assistant at Wentworth.
The former Miami University player takes over a Nichols team that has not had a winning season since 2017-18, the year it won the league and reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament.
What did we learn from the opening weekend of play?
Early returns were good. Five of the league’s eight teams opened, and all of them won at least one game.
Nichols skated off with the WooCup for the second year in a row. Sophomore Nathan Carl’s power-play goal in overtime beat Assumption, 4-3, on Sunday. The Bison also dispatched Anna Maria, 4-1, in a gathering of four Worcester-area schools.
One night after routing Salem State, Endicott fell 3-0 to Norwich in a battle between ranked teams. Curry and Wentworth were both impressive in 5-1 non-conference wins, against UMass Boston and Castleton, respectively.
And Western New England, which had won a total of seven games in its last two seasons combined, got into the win column early with a 4-3 victory over Johnson and Wales.
@MikeZhe603
mzhe@hockeyjournal.com
