'Alaska plan' causes stir

The WCHA's "Alaska plan," which will pit Anchorage and Fairbanks against each other in the first round of the 2013-14 playoffs no matter where they finish (unless they win the league) is already causing quite a stir.

Choosing fiscal responsibility over competitive equity (to paraphrase Minnesota State athletic director Kevin Buisman) may make sense on the ledger sheet of a conference that's almost acting as a start-up with the departure of most of its popular and most-powerful programs, but it also raises a ton of questions. It only took a few moments after details of the plan started to be reported upon (details weren't included the league's original press release) that scenarios were thought up that might blow up the integrity of the tournament.

Buisman told me on Thursday that "nothing is forever," hinting that the "Alaska plan" could be scrapped in a year or two. But it might be revisited even sooner, according to commissioner Bruce McLeod, who was reached by The Mining Journal's Matt Wellens (Marquette, Mich.) on Friday.

Stay tuned ...

More quality reporting on the subject done by Jack Hittinger of the Bemidji Pioneer, Stephen Anderson of the Daily Mining Gazette (Houghton, Mich.), Doyle Woody of the Anchorage Daily News and Danny Martin of the Faribanks Daily News-Miner.

WCHA wraps up 'productive' meetings

The revamped WCHA issued a press release on Thursday touting its meetings in Detroit.

The league approved a 28-game league schedule for 2013-14 as well as a nine-team playoff format. The latter, however, had no specifics about what that playoff format would be. Will the regular-season champion get a bye into the Final Five? Would there be a play-in game involving the Nos. 8 and 9 seeds? Stay tuned ...

UPDATE: Minnesota State athletic director Kevin Buisman said the regular-season champion will get a bye into the Final Five. The other eight teams will play a best-of-3 series to get there, and the Final Five will be the traditional format, with a play-in game into the semifinals.

UPDATE 2: As for those first-round series, the WCHA decided to go with a cost-cutting measure due to its crazy geography and pit the two Alaska schools against each other in the first round regardless of finish (unless, of course, one of them wins the McNaughton Cup). Buisman called it "less than ideal," but said the league did consider playoff formats that dropped the first round entirely or went with just four or six teams.

Read my Free Press story here.

As for the Final Five, the league still called the event that name in the release but did not decide on a set venue. It said the "membership discussed and continues to explore several potential venues for the annual WCHA Final Five playoff championship."

"This is certainly an exciting time for the newly-integrated WCHA," said Minnesota State President Richard Davenport, who is the chair of the league's President's Council. "Our meetings this week were spirited and full of camaraderie, and we are all looking forward to the 2013-14 season. Across the board we are 100% committed to putting a highly competitive product on the ice in the WCHA, to compete for championships, to give our student-athletes the best possible experience and to provide our fans with a great game-day experience. The WCHA brand is strong, historic and full of rich tradition and we will carry on that tremendous tradition and also build upon it."

According to the release, the WCHA also updated league bylaws, discussed expansion and potential future members (Alabama Huntsville?) and talked about marketing and public relations initiatives.

You can read the WCHA's entire press release here.

Hastings lands first recruits

Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier

Mike Hastings' first recruits have committed to Minnesota State, according to various online reports.

Forward Mike Huntebrinker of the USHL's Waterloo Black Hawks verbally committed for the fall of 2013, according to the Black Hawks' website. He'll play one more season for Waterloo.

Huntebrinker (pictured), 19, is a Chesterfield, Mo., native who just completed his rookie season in the USHL. Listed at 5-foot-11, 180 pounds, he finished the year with 17 goals and 17 assists in 54 games. During the Clark Cup playoffs, he had four goals and six assists in 13 games as Waterloo advanced to the finals where it lost to Green Bay.

"We asked Mike to do a lot of different things last season," Waterloo coach P.K. O'Handley said in a press release. "He rose to the occasion and was an important contributor when we needed more scoring near the end of the year."

Meanwhile, defenseman Hunter Warner, a soon-to-be junior at Eden Prairie, also committed to the Mavericks, his high school coach told MN Hockey Hub. The 6-3, 190-pounder had a goal and nine assists for the Eagles as a sophomore.

WCHA still seeking postseason home

With Monday's announcement that the NCHC will hold its championship weekend at Target Center in Minneapolis for the next five years and the Big Ten's decision to split their first four tournaments between the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul and Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, the WCHA is left as the only conference still looking for a postseason home following the big shakeup coming a year from now.

The WCHA will hold three days of meetings in Detroit starting today and is expected to discuss the issue. Minnesota State athletic director Kevin Buisman doesn't expect an announcement to come directly out of the meeting but the plan is to get closer to a decision.

"We have to consider what's best for the league," Buisman said.

A lot of things need to be considered, Buisman said, including proper size of venue, finances, fan and athlete experience and competition, among others.

"The biggest challenge might be trying to rectify all of those factors," he said. "Some of them are competing priorities. How do we weigh those priorities? We haven't stumbled on a solution that balances all of those qualities."

Read more about it here.

Considering the size and popularity of the teams leaving the league as well as the geography of the revamped WCHA, there indeed seems to be no ideal location for the Final Five — or whatever the tournament will be called.

Should the league try to stay big at the start and consider going to the X and the Joe in opposite years of the Big Ten? Should it look at smaller venues in centralized, neutral sites like Duluth, Green Bay, Minneapolis, Milwaukee or the Chicago area? What about home sites, whether they're top seeds or pre-determined arenas?

What do you think?

Buisman, MSU President Richard Davenport, coach Mike Hastings and former coach/special assistant to the president Troy Jutting are attending the meetings.

Other items on the agenda include finalizing the league's first regular-season schedule, travel subsidies with the Alaska schools, postseason tournament format (including first round), the future of the league office and branding and marketing.

Hockey musings

The Star-Ledger

Ryan Carter and the New Jersey Devils stayed alive in the Stanley Cup playoffs by defeating the Los Angeles Kings 3-1 in Game 4 on Wednesday night. LA leads the series 3-1 with it moving back to Newark on Saturday. I was among many who said this series was over after the Kings won Game 3, but remember, LA won the first two games in overtime. ...

Apparently Ryan Carter's mustache (really, an inability to grow a proper playoff beard, has inspired at least one teammate). ...

Back to the world of college hockey, Nebraska Omaha has hired Mike Hastings' replacement, nabbing Steve Johnson from the St. Cloud State staff. Johnson. Johnson is an old rival of Hastings, having coached the Lincoln Stars in the USHL for many of the same years Hastings was in Omaha. Johnson played at North Dakota when Blais was an assistant coach there. He's been an assistant coach in St. Cloud the past two seasons. Interesting that there's already speculation that Johnson might be Blais' successor at UNO, a label that Hastings had for the last three years.

As for Hastings' staff at Minnesota State, there has been no official word yet about assistant coaches. Associate head coach Darren Blue (who has a full year left on his contract) and assistant Todd Knott (whose contract expires at the end of the month) remain at work in the Mavericks' offices. Right now, they are listed as the assistants for next year on the MSU website, and no job opening has been posted. Stay tuned. ...

Currently, there are two WCHA assistant jobs open, St. Cloud State and North Dakota. ...

Representatives of the future WCHA are scheduled to meet next week in Detroit. Among the items to be hashed out: playoff format, championship venue and what to do about Alabama Huntsville. ...

There's been some administrative movement among future WCHA teams, as Northern Michigan hired Alaska's Forrest Karr as its new athletic director. ...

The NCAA hockey rules committee is meeting this week. Among the issues they're dealing with: three-quarter face shields instead of full shields/cages, as well as overtime formats (shootouts, 4x4, longer OTs), replay and goals off skates. ...

Finally, the first looks at next season have begun over Inside College Hockey. They have Minnesota as their preseason No. 1.

Kato's Cup connections

The Associated Press

Former Maverick Ryan Carter scored another playoff goal for the Devils on Saturday, giving him five for the postseason. His goal in the third period of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals tied the game at 1-all, but the Kings won in overtime again to go up 2-0 with the series returning to Los Angeles on Monday night.

I talked to Carter for a Free Press story on Friday, and he said he was planning to be in Mankato over the weekend to participate in the "Can-Am Cup," an annual golf outing of MSU hockey alumni that pits Americans against Canadians, Ryder Cup-style. Carter was to be the U.S. captain this year. Let's just say his teammates gave him a pass, considering the more-prestigious Cup he's playing for.

Meanwhile, L.A. also has a Mankato connection as former play-by-play radio man Mike Kalinowski is a communications manager for the Kings. He has worked his way up to the NHL the hard way, covering college hockey and moving through the minor leagues. He's been in Utica, N.Y.; Rockford, Ill.; and Manchester, N.H.; before getting hired by the Kings six years ago.

Kalinowski said that the run the Kings are on is the most exciting thing he's been a p part of in hockey since the Mavericks upset North Dakota 3-2 in overtime in Game 1 of their 1999 WCHA playoffs series. MSU was not yet a full member of the WCHA and was made the tournament's 10th seed. Kalinowski correctly recalled that Andy Fermoyle scored the game-winner. North Dakota ended up winning the next two games to take the series.

He did it again

The Associated Press

Ryan Carter is suddenly a goal scorer for the New Jersey Devils. The former Minnesota State player scored the game's first goal on Friday night, and the Devils went on to defeat the New York Rangers 3-2 in overtime to advance to the Stanley Cup finals against the Los Angeles Kings. The Devils and the Kings will begin their series on Wednesday.

For Carter he is hoping to get his name on the world's most famous trophy for the second time, having won it with the Anaheim Ducks in 2008. As I've pointed out several times, Carter was a bit player that season, getting just 2:45 of ice time in the finals — enough to get his name on the trophy and his day with the Cup, which he brought to Mankato for a few hours (he also took it to St. Paul and his hometown of White Bear Lake that day).

Despite being a fourth-liner, Carter has been much more of a factor in the playoffs this season. He has four goals, including three against the Rangers, the Devils' arch rival. He also has two assists and is +6 in 17 playoff games.