Coast To Coast is FloHockey’s monthly, cohesive news on North American hockey and live-streaming partnerships.

Coast To Coast is FloHockey’s monthly, cohesive news on North American hockey and live-streaming partnerships.

The Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) announced its 104-game conference schedule on Thursday. All eight CCHA teams will play a 26-game conference slate with the regular season champion being awarded the prestigious MacNaughton Cup, recognized as the premiere conference trophy in collegiate hockey.

After a season of unprecedented team and individual success, one that brought the Minnesota State Mavericks within 20 minutes of their first national title, the bubble burst Saturday night in Boston. The Denver Pioneers won their 9th NCAA title Saturday night by scoring five unanswered goals in a stunning 5-1 comeback victory.

Minnesota State senior goaltender Dryden McKay has been named the recipient of the 2022 Hobey Baker Award as the top player in NCAA Division I men's hockey.

Coast To Coast is FloHockey’s monthly, cohesive news on North American hockey and live-streaming partnerships.

For leading Minnesota State University into the 2022 Frozen Four, Mike Hastings has once again been chosen as the recipient of the Spencer Penrose Award as Division I Men’s Ice Hockey CCM/AHCA Coach of the Year by his peers. The honor is the third for Hastings, and his second consecutive selection. He joins only three other coaches who have won this award three times: Len Ceglarski, at both Clarkson and Boston College, Charlie Holt of New Hampshire and Jack Parker of Boston University

CCHA Commissioner Don Lucia, a guy whose coaching career ended after missing the NCAA tournament by one ten-thousandth of a point back in 2018, was finally in a position of power to execute postseason justice, inside or outside of the rules. He chose the latter, but he got it right.

After a season of more lows than highs, a season in which coach Tom Serratore saw his Bemidji State Beavers allow more goals than they scored, the veteran coach was finally in a position to relax Saturday night in Houghton. Serratore was enjoying the CCHA’s equivalent of a fireside chat after upsetting No. 2 seed Michigan Tech. The veteran coach was now front and center in a league press conference—his team sitting in the catbird seat, guaranteed a berth in the CCHA championship game while his opponents were still playing a timezone away in Mankato. Entering the night sub-500 was now a distant memory. His Beavers were on the precipice of making the NCAA tournament for the second year in a row.

With his Northern Michigan Wildcats loudly celebrating their grueling three-game quarterfinal of Lake Superior a few steps away, Cats coach Grant Potulny soberly assessed the next round in the CCHA playoffs: a single-game semifinal against the nation’s premier team, Minnesota State.

Although this is the first Division I playoff game in the history of St. Thomas hockey, head coach Rico Blasi is in a very familiar place. For the 15th time in his career, he is leading his squad into the CCHA playoffs. A decade ago with Miami, Blasi won the same Mason Cup that his current peers are all fighting for today. Although his Tommies are not expected to survive this first round against national power Minnesota State, he will not go quietly into the night.

Home sweet home. If you asked CCHA coaches in October about their playoff aspirations, they all would have told you that Job No. 1 is to secure home ice in the first round. Here we are, five months later, and the three-team battle between Bowling Green, Lake Superior and Northern Michigan for the CCHA’s final home playoff spot is stealing the thunder from the confrontation of the league’s two superpowers.

This week in CCHA RinkRap, a storybook homecoming for Mike Hastings, a brief visit to rock bottom in Big Rapids and the never-say-die Cats return to life in Ohio.

This week in the CCHA: A first round playoff preview, BGSU fights to maintain home ice and college hockey’s silver chalice on hand in Mankato.

This week on RinkRap: the ultimate homecoming for MNSU’s Brendan Furry, Grant Potulny can’t believe his Lyin’ Eyes in Bemidji and Rico Blasi’s Tommies play spoiler.