Blue hockey first in coaches' poll; writers disagree

DETROIT - Though conference play doesn't begin until October, the CCHA officially dropped the puck on the 1999 season yesterday at Joe Louis Arena for its annual media press conference.

The Wolverines, who claimed the CCHA tournament championship last season, stood atop this year's coaches poll, nine votes ahead of last year's CCHA regular-season champion, Michigan State.

But the Spartans captured the journalists' attention, barely beating out Michigan for first place in the media poll.

The order of the two polls was almost identical, with two exceptions: the Wolverines and Spartans switched spots at the top, while Notre Dame and Ohio State flip-flopped at the four and five spots.

While the media and the coaches appeared to be on the same page in their predictions of this season's outcome, the coaches were quick to stress that the competitive nature of the conference means that a variety of teams could succeed.

"You could spend four hours compiling the poll or you could spend four days working on it," Notre Dame head coach Dave Poulin said. "That's how tough this league is and that's how competitive things are."

And it's that competitive combination of talented teams that has helped the CCHA define itself as one of the nation's most highly regarded and respected conferences.

"This is a very strong and competitive league," Western Michigan coach Jim Culhane said. "From top to bottom, it is difficult to win a regular season or playoff championship. When we play outside our league, our performances indicate that we are the premier league in college hockey."

Changing times: With the expansion of the CCHA to include Nebraska-Omaha, the league will experience scheduling changes.

Each CCHA team was put in a cluster, and will play each team in its cluster four times. Michigan's group includes Ohio State, Bowling Green and Miami.

"This won't have a big bearing on us," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "But it could have a bearing on the overall schedule. We play Ohio State, Miami and Bowling Green four times, and another school could play weaker teams and have an advantage with a weaker schedule."

Since Michigan will only play some teams twice, the Wolverines will not receive home-ice advantage against certain schools.

Michigan opens its CCHA schedule facing Notre Dame in South Bend for a two-game series. But the Fighting Irish will not travel to Yost at all this season.

The expansion of the conference will also change the CCHA playoffs at the end of the season. Instead of the eight-team playoff format from previous seasons, two more teams will be added to the race.

The top five teams in the conference will receive home-ice advantage. The top three remaining seeds will get a second-round bye, while the lowest two seeds will compete in a play-in game.

Four-man system: This season the CCHA is adding a fourth referee for select games only.

Under this system there will be two referees and two linesmen. With four officials, presumably, they will be able to see more of the ice and more of the action - especially the physical, behind-the-play scrums that develop when the referee has turned his back and skated down the ice.

The system will be implemented in just 25 games, which includes nonconference matchups.

09-22-99