News and notes

Catching up a bit ...

Taking some vacation time (I know, the blog looks like I've been off for awhile) but thought PucKato ought to catch up on a few things ...

The WCHA held meetings in Bemidji last week, and, while a ton of news wasn't made, the presidents and athletic directors were presented a potential league-wide broadcast package that would offer every game online on multi-platforms (computer, tablet, smartphone). Sounds like it would be a free app, and games would be streamed in HD. If this works out, it would be a big step in the right direction for the league. It's ideas like that that make WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod encouraged about the conference in what will be his 20th season and possibly final season in charge.

Alaska Anchorage ended 81 days of tumult this week when it finally hired a hockey coach. The Seawolves, who fired Dave Shyiak, went through two searches, and fired their athletic director over the last 2 1/2 months, went with veteran ECHL coach Matt Thomas to lead the way. There's definitely a lot of work to do with that program right now.

Thomas' hiring leaves the WCHA and college hockey with one coaching vacancy, and that's at Alabama Huntsville. A stunning, perplexing, irony-of-all-ironies report came out on Wednesday that former Denver coach George Gwozdecky was in Huntsville and is possibly a candidate for the job. Stay tuned!

Back in Mankato, women's hockey coach Eric Means hired a new assistant coach, former Concordia (Moorhead) women's coach Brett Bruininks. Bruininks led the Cobbers to three winning seasons, including 2012 when he was MIAC coach of the year and took the program to the NCAA tournament for the first time. The former Notre Dame and minor-league player replaces Jon Austin, whose contract was not renewed. Means recently received a two-year contract extension after his original four-year deal expired. He retained Shari (Vogt) Dickerman as the team's the other assistant.