Oct. 2, 2008

Complete Release in PDF Format

Alaska- Senior forward Braden Walls and sophomore forward Dustin Sather each had a goal and an assist as the Nanooks, the first CCHA team to see exhibition action this season, blanked the U.S. National Team Development Program Under-18 squad by a score of 4-0 last Saturday.

Bowling Green-  The Falcons enter the 2008-09 season after enjoying a campaign in 2007-08 that saw them win 18 games - the most by any BGSU team in the past decade and the most since the 1995-96 team that won 26 games.

Ferris State- Ferris State completed a 3.3 million dollar renovation of 33-year old Ewigleben Ice Arena this summer.  The project consisted of new slabs for the main and half-ice sheets along with new dasher boards, installation of seamless glass, new rubberized flooring throughout the ice arena, and locker room renovations.

Lake Superior- Rich Metro, who served as the Lakers video coordinator and volunteer coach last season, has been promoted to assistant coach. A Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., native, Metro played four seasons at Northern Michigan and his father, Con, was a member of LSSU’s first hockey team in 1966-67.

Miami- Senior forward Justin Mercier is the CCHA’s leading returning goal scorer both in conference play (17 goals) and overall action (25 goals).

Michigan- Red Berenson begins his 25th season behind the Wolverine bench with a career record of 644-298-68 (.671). Berenson, the 2007-08 Spencer Penrose Award winner, is 11 wins shy of tying Jeff Sauer (Colorado College, Wisconsin) for seventh on NCAA hockey’s all-time coaching wins list.

Michigan State- Freshman Daultan Leveille, who was selected 29th overall by Atlanta, continues a streak of eight consecutive years in which a CCHA players has been chosen in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft. 

Nebraska-Omaha- B2 Networks and UNO have announced a multi-year partnership to show Maverick games worldwide via broadband. All home games will be shown live on B2 Networks while away games at B2 partner institutions will also be available from Northern Michigan, Ferris State and Lake Superior State.

Northern Michigan- NMU return three of its top four scorers from a year ago (Mark Olver 21-17-38, Nick Sirota 18-18-36 and Erik Gustafsson 0-27-27).Two of the three are sophomores with Sirota being a senior.

Notre Dame- Senior Erik Condra has been named Notre Dame’s new captain.  Joining him as alternate captains for the year are senior Christian Hanson and juniors Kyle Lawson and Ryan Thang. Condra served as an alternate captain in 2007-08 while this is the first season for Hanson, Lawson and Thang in the role of alternate captains.

Ohio State- Hunter Bishop, who played four games for North Dakota in 2006-07 and last season led the BCHL with 57 goals for Vernon, joins the Buckeyes this season. His sister, Teal, is a sophomore with the OSU’s women’s hockey team and the siblings from Fairbanks, Alaska, have not lived and played in the same city in more than six years. 

Western Michigan- Junior goalie Riley Gill needs one more shutout to break the Broncos career record of five whitewashes that he now shares with Marc Magliarditi who recorded all of his in the 1995-96 season.

CCHA- The CCHA television schedule starts this Saturday as Comcast Television (CTV) airs an exhibition game from Yost Ice Arena between the Michigan Wolverines and U.S. NTDP Under-18 team. The CTV package in 2008-09 consists of 22 games including 21 on Saturday nights with a pair of campus-site playoff match-ups in the mix in March.