NCAA Weekender: Michigan's Will Horcoff has emerged as Hobey Baker challenger

Recapping the biggest stories of the NCAA weekend.

For much of the season, there hasn't been much in the way of players separating themselves in the various awards races. Certainly you could name five, eight guys who were legitimately in the running for the Hobey Baker, the Mike Richter, or the Tim Taylor awards, but there wasn't really even a clear top three.

Then, last week, Max Plante kinda went off for Minnesota-Duluth, and with the Bulldogs idle this weekend, it was time for Will Horcoff to formally throw his hat into the ring.

The Michigan sophomore scored two goals in each of his games and added an assist on Friday, running his season total to 18-8—26 in 18 games. That's five goals clear of Plante, who's No. 2 in the country — a gap of almost 40 percent. He's also now in a four-way tie for the national lead in points with two of his teammates (TJ Hughes and Michael Hage), as well as Plante. He does trail Plante and his brother, Zam, in points per game, but the old saying goes that "Hobey Loves Goals" and the fact that Horcoff is averaging one per game means he's arguably the No. 1 guy in the race now.

Obviously, you'd like to see him rack up more assists, but he's coming on there, as well. He has three in his last three games after posting five in his first 15. Solid rate of improvement there, and if it continues, Horcoff might not give voters much of a choice.

When I saw them live earlier in the year, the Wolverines annihilated Providence and Horcoff wasn't even at the center of it (0-1—1 in two games while his team scored eight times). Now, clearly, he's the guy around which everything is revolving offensively. He's using his big frame — 6-foot-5, 201 pounds — to make a difference, and this weekend he generated numerous scoring chances for himself and, crucially, his teammates. We're talking 12 shot attempts, including eight on goal, four of which went in. One of them was a wacky deflection off a shin pad from a shot that was going well wide, but his shooting location was right in the middle of the ice and sometimes you're lucky specifically because you're good.

Interestingly, Michigan coach Brandon Naurato is keeping Horcoff's minutes limited to just 15:21 per game, which you might think (or want) to be a bit higher given what he's doing. That number is on the rise, too, though. He only played more than 14 minutes once in his first six games, but he's now done it in all but one of his last 12. Plus, that only means the per-60 production is even crazier in comparison with most of the other highest-scoring players nationwide.

Back in October, after seeing how quickly they did just about everything — and that was before Henry Mews got hurt and was deemed out for the year — and wondered how high their ceiling was. At this point, you gotta say they've shown time and again they're pretty clearly the best team in college hockey.

Now we can ask the same question of Horcoff: How much higher can he push this? He's not gonna shoot 30 percent all season, right? But if things settle down even a little bit, given everything he's banked, it looks like he's gonna at least threaten the 30-goal mark. And, unlike some other guys who got there in recent years, he's not relying on empty netters to pad the total. In fact, he doesn't even have one yet this year.

How high is the ceiling on Horcoff's scoring this year? If his linemates can put the puck in the net a little more often, it's "higher than anyone else's in the country." Which isn't bad for a guy who only had 4-6—10 last season.

Atlantic Hockey

There aren't many teams left in the country that are undefeated in non-conference games.

Dartmouth, obviously. They're just plain ol' undefeated so the math on that is easy. Wisconsin, which isn't a surprise because they're 10-2-2.

And then… Army?

That's right: Army. The team that is 1-8-2 in Atlantic Hockey games, second-last in their own conference. With a 5-4 home win against UMass, the Black Knights ran their OOC record to 3-0-1, with wins over Northeastern (currently eighth in the NPI), Stonehill, and now the Minutemen. They also tied Union (9-4-2) back in October.

They've been outshot by a pretty wide margin in all those games, but goaltenders JJ Cataldo and Jacob Biron and an overawing offense have been the difference. Cataldo started the first three OOC games and allowed three goals on 112 shots (.973), while Biron got the nod on Saturday and stopped 34 of 38 to pick up his first career win. The team in front of them, meanwhile, scored 14 goals on 94 shots in those four games.

Vincent Salice leads the team in non-conference scoring with three goals, but Adam Marshall (2-1—3), Brent Keefer, and Nils Forselius (both 1-2—3) are tied in total points. Jack Ivey (2-0—2) is the only other Knight with more than one goal, but crucially, 10 different players have been able to light the lamp in these OOC games.

A lot has been made of Atlantic Hockey's poor non-conference record, and rightly so. They're 21-35-3 (a worst-in-the-nation .381 points percentage) and running out of runway to improve it. Worth noting, though, that if the current number holds, it would be the best OOC record in conference history, dating back to 2005-06. Not bad, and obviously you can't say Army isn't holding up its end of the bargain.

What's next for the Black Knights outside Atlantic Hockey? A weirdly momentous clash on Dec. 12 with Dartmouth, in which both teams will be defending their undefeated OOC runs. Fun quirk of the schedule.

Big Ten

Lots of people across college hockey went into the year acknowledging that there would be a steep hil to climb for Notre Dame.

New coach Brock Sheahan took over after being named heir apparent to the legendary Jeff Jackson, who coached the team from 2005 to 2024. The 41-year-old has a long track record in developmental hockey, with jobs in college, the USHL, and the AHL (one year as head coach of the Chicago Wolves) under his belt, but taking over at his alma mater provided a different sort of challenge.

Specifically, Sheahan preaches a puck-possession, high-tempo game that Notre Dame didn't really employ under Jackson. So everyone from the top forwards to the seventh defenseman has to play a completely different style, with a systems change implemented over just one summer.

The results have been shaky at times (4-9-1 with a minus-10 goal difference), but the Fighting Irish often keep up with some of the best and most skilled teams in the country, and.

"I guess the one thing to remember — that I have to remind myself — is, everything is new for our guys," Sheahan said after his team lost at Boston College on Friday afternoon. "I was here as, whatever, head-coach-in-waiting or assistant coach. The style of play was completely different, so, like, literally everything we're doing. So for the returning guys, especially, I think it's been a massive transition."

The start was honestly pretty good, with a 3-2-1 record through the first three weeks of the season. Probably as good as you could ask for. But then they ran into a problem many teams in the Big Ten have: series against Michigan and Michigan State. Most teams are gonna win those, even on home ice and, sandwiched around two road games at Minnesota, it was a recipe for disaster. The Irish lost all six, but were clearly figuring something out. They lost on Friday, 5-3, but they were in the game for a long stretch, right up until they weren't.

"We had moments where we possessed in the O zone, but I thought BC did a good job stalling us out," Sheahan said. "So that's the difference, I would say. I think it's pretty plain to see that. Our players are learning that, right? So we've got to be a little bit better in our 1-on-1 player, a little bit better in angling, and our conditioning level has definitely had to increase. And I think our guys are getting there."

A win on Wednesday afternoon at Merrimack — a wild 5-4 final that swung back and forth all game — gave way to that two-goal loss, but if the end result is that the Irish are always in it, that's probably an acceptable outcome. It would be one thing to lose by three, four goals a night, but they've really only been blown out once all season. The improvement is there, and it's obvious, and so while things are challenging right now, everyone is buying in and pulling in the right direction.

What's interesting, of course, is that older guys who have been here since before Sheahan took the reins are seemingly most excited to make the adjustment. This is a team with seven freshmen, but that leaves 20 sophomores, juniors, and seniors, and guys like Paul Fischer (a team-leading 4-9—13 from the blue line), Sutter Muzzatti, Danny Nelson, Cole Knuble, and Evan Werner who have been here for some time are embracing the challenge.

"I think they're excited by it," Sheahan said. "Like, they're all in on it, but it is different, right? You do something for three, two, three years, it is a change, right? I think we've seen recently, [in] our games against Michigan, MSU, also the Merrimmack game, and a lot of today, we're getting there. So, you know, it's never fun losing, but we are working on our process and I think our process is getting better. We'll start generating more, we'll give up less and then we'll start winning games."

Like he said, though, it's a short season, and in the Big Ten, the schedule just doesn't relent. Their next eight games are against Wisconsin, Western Michigan, Michigan, and Penn State. But if everything is moving in the right direction, that's really all you want.

CCHA

With the top team in the conference, Bemidji State, playing out of conference this weekend (they got two points out of a home-and-home with North Dakota), Minnesota State seized the opportunity with their games in hand.

The Mavericks swept Northern Michigan on the road to climb into first place in the CCHA with 24 points from 10 games. That puts them one ahead of Bemidji, largely because the Beavers have three overtime wins and two shootout wins in their conference slate.

At this point, Minnesota State hasn't lost to anyone in regulation since the first game of the season, and hasn't done so at all in 10 league games. They're now on an eight-game unbeaten streak, and have won six in a row. Nothing to sneeze at.

If you're Bemidji — or anyone, I guess — it's better to win than lose. Obviously. But doing it that often in the extra five minutes means you're leaving a lot of points on the table overall.

Put another way, both teams are 7-1-2 in conference play, but Minnesota State is 6-0-4 in regulation, with a .500 record in OT, while Bemidji is 4-0-6 in regulation with an .833 points percentage in OT/SO situations. You tell me which is more sustainable over 16 more league games.

That said, this is shaping up to be a hell of a conference race, and from a "drama" perspective, the best part is that these two teams won't meet until the penultimate weekend of the season. They both should be the favorites in basically every CCHA series they play between now and then, but of course you're always gonna drop points somewhere. The question of who wins the regular-season title could be answered by these early-season differences between regulation and OT wins.

ECAC

Harvard didn't have the best weekend on home ice, record-wise. They got a single point out of Michigan in two games, and conceded nine goals. But the Crimson take some solace in the fact that they stayed in Friday's game a lot longer than the 5-1 score suggests, then pushed the best team in the country to overtime with a massive three-goal comeback in the space of 8:01 of game time.

Not that there are moral victories, but most teams don't even get a single point off the Wolverines.

The losses dropped Harvard's record to 5-3-1, but even still, they're on the NCAA tournament bubble because losing to a team like Michigan doesn't really hurt you that badly. And moreover, these were two of their better performances of the season despite being outscored 9-4.

"I think maybe at times early on [in Friday's game] we kind of waited to see what they were gonna do," Harvard coach Ted Donato said after the 5-1 loss. "As opposed to kind of forcing the issue and making them play in their own end, kind of tilting the ice a little bit. I thought they did a good job at getting out of their zone quickly and getting the puck up in our zone and getting a couple turnovers there. 

I mean, we also had some chances in the second half of the game and could have made it a game earlier. But we can't give up the type of chances we give up and expect to win a hockey game."

Certainly not against Michigan, a team that will make you pay for like 90 percent of the mistakes you make in your own end, and that was on full display Friday. But for much of the weekend, goaltender Ben Charette was either the best or second-best player on the ice, depending on where Will Horcoff was sitting at any given moment. Even after giving up nine goals on 59 shots, his save percentage is still .917 with 2.69 goals saved above expected for the season.

"We needed him to be Superman [on Friday], if we were to have a chance," Donato said. "We need to let him see the shots and not allow second and third opportunities and outnumbered rushes and the type of things that all put the goalie at a big disadvantage. I thought he was good. We're just going to have to be a lot better in front of him and we're going to have to give him some goals to work with."

They certainly did that the next night, scoring those three third-period goals through Salvatore Guzzo at 5-on-5, and power-play goals from seniors Philip Tresca and Ryan Healey.

And speaking of special teams, it's worth noting that Harvard continued its strong PK play. Going into the weekend, the Crimson were a perfect 19-for-19 on the kill, but Michigan struck twice on six attempts this weekend to break that streak. It helps that Harvard is one of the least-penalized teams in the country (just 6.7 PIM per game, second-best in the country behind Cornell's 6.4), but it goes beyond that.

"I think we've done a good job at the details of the kill approach," Donato said. "[Assistant coach Matt Gilroy] has done a nice job, and we've been able to execute when we've had chances to get clears. And then, the adage, I think, in hockey is your goaltender to be your best penalty killer. That's certainly true. I think that's been outstanding. So when we have given up chances, he's made some incredible saves."

Harvard was never gonna be the favorite this weekend and getting even 1 out of 6 available points from Michigan is some kind of consolation.

Hockey East

Boston College learned how to score. Uh oh.

The Eagles got off to a bit of a slow start this season — 2-4-1 — in large part because they couldn't put the puck in the net. Over those seven games, they scored just 17 goals, 2.43 per. Not good enough, and that was reflected in the record.

Fortunately, it could be explained away; they were shooting just 7.5 percent as a team, but they have so much talent that it wasn't going to last too long. And it didn't.

Once the calendar flipped past the opening month, they started racking up goals at a phenomenal rate: 30 in seven games, almost double their previous output with little difference in their shot rate.

What's the difference? It really boils down to the fact that the big guns started putting the puck in the net. Consequently, the Eagles went 6-1-0 in November.

James Hagens, the No. 7 pick in June's draft, went from 3-4—7 in his first seven games to 6-3—9. Dean Letourneau, the 25th pick in 2024, is 4-5—9 after a 2-3—5 start. Undrafteds Jake Sondreal and Ryan Conmy went 3-5—8 and 4-4—8, respectively, after 2-3—5 and 2-0—0 Octobers.

"I think it's just keying in on execution," Hagens said after the win over Notre Dame. "We got a lot of chances in the beginning of the year and we just weren't burying them. Now, everyone's really keying in on that, especially in practice."

That, however, doesn't just mean executing offensively. It's executing up and down the ice and paying more attention to not just being good with the puck, but getting it back when the other team has it.

"One, I think we're playing better so we're creating more quality chances," coach Greg Brown said. "I think, actually, defensively, we were a little too loose early on, so you're not getting as many great looks. Your best looks are off turnovers and we're creating more turnovers now. And then there was definitely some that we were getting good chances and they just weren't going in. And then you start to squeeze a little bit, you start to be too fine with your shot and you're maybe throwing it, you know, three inches over the net instead of just reacting with your instincts and all your training."

The Eagles only have two more games before the winter break, a home-and-home with UMass Lowell. If they keep the winning ways going, they'll be on the NCAA bubble at Christmas, which is a lot better than when they were 43rd they were on Halloween.

What a difference a month makes.

NCHC

You gotta give it up for Miami.

After they did the opposite of Boston College and saw a hot 6-0-0 start give way to a mediocre 2-4-0 stretch, things were looking a little dicey heading into the Friendship Four over in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

But they easily handled RIT in the opener — which they should have, to be clear — and then snuck past a high-performing Union team to win the Belpot in their first-ever appearance in the tournament. If you outscore your opponents 7-2 in a weekend, I don't really care who's on the schedule, that's just about all you can ask.

The usual suspects led the way for the Redhawks: Matteos Giampa (three goals, including the late game-winner in the championship) and Drobac (52 saves on 54 shots) were the team's best players, while draft-eligible Ilia Morozov had a point in each game.

Hopefully this is the start of a turnaround for Miami, but they play Denver and Colorado College in a pair of two-game series before the break, so the schedule just doesn't let up for them.

Indies

Another team you simply gotta give it up for? Alaska.

The Nanooks won a pair of close games in the Adirondack Winter Invitational over a pair of ECAC opponents — St. Lawrence and Clarkson — to win the first of the trophies available to them this season.

"The guys worked hard all weekend, and good to see themselves and the program get recognized for it," coach Erik Largen told Elite Prospects. "Really wonderful tournament put on by the people in Lake Placid. We had a great experience and were fortunate enough to come out with two hard-fought wins."

The win over the Saints on Friday was thanks to second-period goals from William Fleet and Michael Citara, and of course a 19-save shutout for Lassi Lehti. Citara added two more goals the next night against the Golden Knights, but Rylen Roersma scored the game-winner with 2:32 remaining in regulation. Lehti stopped 21 of 23 in that one.

"[Citara] was able to score in different ways this weekend," Largen said. "Both from inside the house and using his strong shot to finish from outside the traditional scoring area as well."

Most impressive? These were Alaska's first NCAA games in nearly a month, having been off the road since a 2-2 tie at Quinnipiac on Nov. 4. In between, they only had an exhibition with Simon Fraser to stay sharp.