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. 

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.

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. 

Atlantic Hockey is down to four teams remaining as the fight for the postseason tournament narrows.

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

This Week on WCHA RinkRap: a rookie goalie throws a “perfecto,” a major milestone in Big Rapids, Cullen plays Catalyst for Falcons, and WCHA goaltenders vie for supremacy.

This week on WCHA RinkRap, an ancient proverb comes to life in Bemidji, a hockey revenge story that was two years in the making, and the snarl is back in Wildcat country.

As most WCHA fans know, Minnesota State’s supreme goalie Dryden McKay was named after Hall of Fame goalie Ken Dryden, a fact that resonates when you consider that McKay followed his namesake between the pipes to become an elite goalie. 

Unlike its NCAA brethren hoops, baseball, and football, settling tie games in “sudden death” is a fixture in college hockey. The more appropriate moniker would be “sudden joy,” the raw emotion of 15 teammates hopping the boards for a dog-pile celebration on one end of the rink. Three such skate-off explosions occurred on WCHA ice this past weekend, as Huntsville, Bemidji, and Lake Superior State gained victories by working overtime. Each contest had its own poignant story-line; each ended in an instant.

This week on RinkRap, a “Scorpion” sighting in Houghton, a Bemidji transfer comes back to the WCHA to put a scare into Bowling Green, and Tim Theocharidis returns to the site of his maiden voyage, duplicating past glory.

An entertaining November weekend of WCHA hockey, complete with scoring stars, goaltending duels and a four-star highlight-reel goal, was brought to a screeching halt on Monday when Minnesota State canceled its game Monday at Bemidji following reports of positive COVID-19 tests amongst its players.

This week in RinkRap: an Upper Peninsula prizefight goes extra rounds, the Beavers balance on a slippery bubble, and Bowling Green gets creative in their travel plans.

In a WCHA regular-season final weekend not soon to be equaled for its exquisite drama, the Minnesotans’ MacNaughton Cup showdown and Bowling Green’s desperation comeback in Dixie both took a back seat to the Upper Penisula rivalry game Saturday night between Northern Michigan and Michigan Tech up in Houghton. Their gripping contest was ultimately determined by a breathtaking gamble from Northern’s beleaguered goalie, a play that helped salvage home ice in the WCHA playoffs for his Wildcats.

It’s a Miracle theme in this week’s RinkRap, as Bowling Green and Miracle On Ice alum Mark Wells tells all to Ryan Vallon; we flash back to 1980 again for Mankato’s run at hockey gold; and Bemidji’s current miraculous run continues, despite facing dire straits in Anchorage. 

The American International Yellow Jackets are riding a nine-game win streak, which has propelled them to six-point lead atop Atlantic Hockey as the conference tournament nears.