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

The era of NCAA free agency has swept through college hockey like a thunderclap. Also known as the “Transfer Portal,” it has delivered both pain and pleasure to Division I teams, depending on what side of the portal you are on.

Minnesota native Bill Robertson took over the helm of the revamped WCHA in 2014. In two months he will be charting new waters as college hockey’s league of distinction for seven decades will cease to exist. FloHockey’s Tim Rappleye got a chance to debrief the man known as Billy Rob following the Frozen Four, a gratifying finale to a most challenging season. 

NCAA hockey media protocol is an emotional meat grinder. Three of the four teams in Pittsburgh will face, and ultimately surrender, to their season’s mortality, a step or two from snatching that coveted brass ring. 

On Thursday, Dryden McKay — College Hockey’s Mr. Zero — was named a Hobey Hat Trick Finalist, the only goalie among the final three candidates for the NCAA player of the year. The announcement came less than two weeks after the All-American had hit an all-time low point as a Division I athlete. 

The opening round of the 2021 NCAA Hockey Tournament featured all five Division I hockey programs from the state of Minnesota, adding to its unofficial nickname as The State of Hockey.

Wendy Sandelin couldn’t take the pressure of watching her son Ryan battle through NCAA sudden death, so she grabbed a shovel and headed into the Duluth night. 

During last Sunday’s NCAA hockey selection show, WCHA Commissioner Bill Robertson was tucking into a well-deserved feast at his favorite steakhouse. He was celebrating his 60th birthday, surrounded by friends and family. At 6 PM Minneapolis time he beamed ESPN onto his mobile device. Somewhere between his appetizer and his ribeye, he got the best birthday present imaginable: three WCHA teams selected into the national tournament, a first for the WCHA since the 2013 realignment.

March is not a pretty month in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan: the potholes haven’t been repaired. only one tee box is open among the city golf courses, and the sun still cuts a low arc to the south. But on Saturday, the Soo’s venerable Christopher Columbus Hall felt like Mardi Gras. A robust collection of college hockey lovers gathered to root their beloved Lake Superior State Lakers into the NCAA tournament. It had been 25 years since the former champs attended college hockey’s marquee event.

On Tuesday, the WCHA announced the All-Decade team, and former Minnesota State center Marc Michaelis was named to the squad. A week prior, his former Mavs teammate and countryman Julian Napravnik had been named the WCHA’s Offensive Player of the Year, the same honor Michaelis won this time last year.

This week on RinkRap: a sleeping giant rumbles, a wake-up call for the league heavyweights, a goaltending clinic in Bemidji, and a dangerous floater steeled by adversity. 

The No. 4-ranked Minnesota State Mavericks are used to contending at the highest levels of college hockey, but as the years go by new chronicles develop in Mankato, and in 2021, it’s the celebration of a fourth-consecutive MacNaughton Cup for seven seniors.

This week on the WCHA RinkRap: a practice player makes good in Mankato, a Soo local carries the hopes of Laker Nation, and three-on-three overtime takes a hiatus

College hockey is intensely provincial, particularly when it comes to the age-old geographic rivalry East vs West. It’s a battle that has been waged on center stage in both the 1960 and 1980 USA gold medal Olympic teams. And now it has spread to the trophy case. 

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