The sophomore from Whitby, Ontario, Canada, McGilldidn’t register a point in Sunday’s championship game, but she was a key contributor to Clarkson reaching the Frozen Four final, scoring the game-winning goal in the Golden Knights’ 4-3 semifinal victory over the University of Minnesota on Friday.
McGill was the Golden Knights sixth-leading scorer in the 2016-17 season with 9 goals and 22 assists in 41 games. In her 2015-16 freshman campaign, she was Clarkson’s seventh-leading scorer with 14 goals and 11 assists in 40 games and was tied for third among ECACrookies with 25 points.
Clarkson’s Rhyen McGill in action against the University of Wisconsin Badgers in NCAA Women’s Frozen Four championship game (Photo/Clarkson University).
Clarkson, a school in Potsdam, New York, finished the 2016-17 regular season with a 32-4-5 overall record and a 19-1-2 record within the ECAC.
University of Wisconsin forward Sarah Nurse.
Sunday’s championship game was the last collegiate contest for Wisconsin forward Sarah Nurse, cousin of Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurseand University of Connecticut basketball point guard Kia Nurse.
She was the second-leading Badgers scorer during the regular season with 25 goals and 28 assists in 39 games. She’ll leave Wisconsin as the school’s eighth all-time goal scorer among women with 74.
Professional hockey and a spot on Canada’s 2018 Winter Olympics women’s team could be in Nurse’s future. She was chosen by the Boston Pride with the eighth overall pick in the 2016 National Women’s Hockey LeagueDraft. And she has been a mainstay for Hockey Canada in international tournaments.
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Congrats to Sista Sled – members of the U.S. Women’s Bobsled National Team – who captured gold and silver medals Saturday at a World Cup event on the track built for the 2018 WinterOlympics in South Korea.
The U.S. Women’s Bobsled National Team. Left to Right, Kehri Jones, Brittany Reinbolt, Aja Evans, Lauren Gibbs, Elana Meyers Taylor, Jamie Greubel Poser, Lolo Jones, and Briauna Jones (Photo/Molly Choma/USA Bobsled & Skeleton).
By finishing first, Jamie Greubel Poserwon the overall World Cup points title. She piloted a two-person bobsled pushed by Aja Evans. The silver medal-winning sled at the PyeongChang, South Korea, event carried Elana Meyers Taylorand Lolo Jones. The second-place finish moved Meyers Taylor to third in overall World Cup standings.
All four women were members of the U.S. team that won the bronze medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. That team featured five women of color. This year’s team has six.
Saturday’s showing bodes well for the U.S. women’s chances at the 2018 Winter Games, which runs Feb. 9 thru Feb. 25, 2018. The Meyers Taylor/Lolo Jones sled set a track record with a push time of 5.25 seconds.
Canisius College goaltender Charles Williams is a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, the coveted prize for the top NCAA Division I men’s hockey player.
Canisius College goalie Charles Williams.
Williams, a transfer graduate student who’s enjoying an outstanding year between the pipes for the tiny Buffalo college, was one of 10 players chosen as Hobey Baker finalists by the NCAA’s 60 D-I hockey head coaches and by online voting by fans.
“It is a true honor to be mentioned with a lot of great names,” Williams told the Buffalo NewsWednesday. “Being the first in school history is a great honor, too.”
The field of finalists will be whittled down to three – called the Hobey Baker hat trick – on March 30. The winner of the award will be announced April 7 during the 2017 NCAA Frozen Four tournament in Chicago.
Canisius College goalie Charles Williams has been a nightmare for shooters this season, making him a 2017 Hobey Baker Award finalist (Photo/Canisius College).
Williams, a Canton, Michigan, native led all D-I goalies with a .946 save percentage during the 2016-17 regular season. He was tied for first with 5 shutouts and second in the nation with a 1.83 goals-against average.
He finished with a 15-6-4 record and helped backstop the Golden Griffins on a 17-game unbeaten string dating back to January. He’s also been unbeatable in the Atlantic Hockeyconference tournament, leading top-seeded Canisius to semifinal Friday against fourth-seed Robert Morris University.
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Two hockey players of color on both sides of the border are rolling like the water down the Falls – playing some of the best hockey in their league and their conference.
Akil Thomas, a rookie center for the Niagara Ice Dogs of the Ontario Hockey League, enjoyed a 5-point game – 1 goal and 4 assists – en route to a Niagara 7-1 win against the North Bay Battalion on Sunday.
Niagara IceDogs center Akil Thomas posted a 5-point night Sunday and is second among Ontario Hockey League rookies in scoring (Photo/Terry Wilson/OHL Images).
The performance upped the Florida-born Thomas to 21 goals and 26 assists in 58 games for the IceDogs. He’s second-leading scorer among OHL rookies, the IceDogs’s fourth-leading scorer, and the major junior hockey league’s 81st best scorer.
Thomas, 17, hails from a hockey family: His father, Khalil Thomas, was a career minor league player. His uncle, Leo Thomas,retired last year as a player for the ECHL’sFort Wayne Cometsand is an assistant coach for the Macon Mayhem of the Southern ProfessionalHockey League.
Akil Thomas’ dad and mother, Akilah Thomas, are owners of the Oshawa RiverKingsof Canada’s Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League.
While Akil Thomas is on a roll in Canada, Charles Williams is in the flow stopping pucks across the border for Cansius College in Buffalo, New York.
Williams’ strong play over the weekend powered the Golden Griffins past Upstate New York rival Niagara University and helped the team advance to the Atlantic Hockey conference semifinals.
Canisius College goalie Charles Williams beat Niagara University 3-0 and 2-1 over the weekend, advancing the Golden Griffins to the Atlantic Hockey Tournament semifinals.
Williams earned a 3-0 victory against NU’s Purple Eagles on Friday and a 2-1 win on Saturday. The wins extended Canisius’ unbeaten streak to 17 games, dating back to January.
A Canton, Michigan native, Williams is a nominee for the Hobey Baker Award, given annually to the top NCAA men’s hockey player. He’s also a semifinalist for the Mike Richter Award, presented to the best goaltender in NCAA Division I hockey.
Williams, a fifth-year transfer from Ferris State University, posted a 15-6-4 regular season record. He led all NCAA Division I goaltenders with a .944 save percentage and was tied for first with 5 shutouts. He was second among D-I goalies with a 1.83 goals-against average.
He had a decent career in goal at Ferris State University, graduating from the NCAA Division I school in Big Rapids, Michigan, with a 22-15 record, 3.00 goals-against average, and a .899 save percentage.
Charles Williams is one of U.S. college hockey’s best goalies this season.
But Williams felt he still had something to prove in college hockey – and, boy, is CanisiusCollege ever glad.
Williams is having an amazing rebound season at Canisius, a tiny Division I school in Buffalo, New York, and is one of the best goaltenders in U.S. college hockey in 2016-17.
The fifth-year transfer student backstopped a Canisius 15-game unbeaten streak en route to the Golden Griffins’winning their first-ever Atlantic Hockeyregular season title with an 18-4-6 conference record.
The suburban Detroit native leads D-I goaltenders in save percentage (.944) and is tied for the lead in shutouts with 5. He’s second in the nation with a 1.83 goals-against average, an impressive stat considering that he faced 1,004 shots in 31 regular season games and stopped all but 56 of them.
Only five D-I goalies have seen more vulcanized rubber than Williams this season.
Williams’ spectacular season – he posted a 15-6-4 record – earned him a Hobey Baker Award nomination. The award is given annually to the NCAA top men’s hockey player.
Past winners include Jimmy Vesey, a New York Rangers forward who played for HarvardUniversity, in 2016; Buffalo Sabres center and Boston University alum Jack Eichelin 2015; and Calgary Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau, who starred at Boston College, in 2014.
The last goalie to capture the award was Vancouver Canucks’Ryan Millerway back in 2001 when he played for Michigan State University..
Charles Williams leads NCAA Division I goaltenders in save percentage and is tied for the lead in shutouts with 5 (Photo/Canisius College)
“It’s great, it shows that the hard work has paid off, but at the end of the day, we’re focused on the big goal that we set on the beginning of the year which is a championship,” Williams said of being a Hobey Baker nominee. “It’s great, but definitely only the beginning.”
The road to that championship starts with winning the Atlantic Hockey Tournament, which would guarantee a berth in the 2017 NCAA Division I Men’s Hockey Tournament. The 2017 Frozen Four Championship is April 6-8 in Chicago at the United Center.
Canisius had an opening round bye in the Atlantic Hockey tourney. The Golden Griffins face Upstate New York rival Niagara University Friday in a three-game tournament series.
Williams, 24, was able to play for Canisius after earning his bachelor’s degree from Ferris State because he had a year of NCAA eligibility left stemming from being a medical red-shirt due to an injury that cost him his entire 2014-15 junior season.
After appearing in only 11 games as a senior at Ferris State and finishing with a 3-5-1 record, a 3.48 goals-against average, and a .888 save percentage, Williams felt he could do better and thought that transferring to another school would rekindle his career.
“I spoke with my coaches at Ferris and they helped tremendously in terms of reaching out to teams and stuff like that,” Williams told me. “At Canisius, our assistant coach (Trevor Large) played at Ferris before, and that’s what really made my decision a lot easier. I spoke to him a lot. I listened to what he had to say, what they’re building here. It sounded a lot like what I wanted, what I want to be a part of.”
And the change has been beneficial – for Williams and for Canisius.
“We knew that he had been a good goalie, but we knew that it didn’t go as he had planned at Ferris so he was looking for an opportunity,” Canisius Head Coach Dave Smith told the College Hockey News website. “He came in right away, and he didn’t talk, he just worked. He was sincere, he was mature, and he was competitive.”
Williams began playing hockey when he was 13 after his family moved from Detroit to Canton, Michigan. He began playing goal because he got tired of losing games.
“I started off as a (forward) and my brother I were on the same team and our goalie was letting in a lot of goals – we’d lose, like, by 13 or 15, stuff like that,” Williams recalled. “I told my brother ‘If you keep scoring, I’ll try to stop the puck.’ Everyone had to go through a rotation playing goalie and I wanted to volunteer, and it actually worked out great. We started winning and we didn’t want to change it.”
Williams is one of the few black goaltenders in U.S. college hockey history. The College Hockey News, in its research, only came up with five others: Jamie Phillips, a WinnipegJetsfarmhand who played for Michigan Tech from 2012-13 to 2015-16; Jordan Tibbett, who played for Mercyhurst College from 2010-11 to 2013-14; Eustace King, a major hockey agent who played for Miami University of Ohio in 1996; Peter Harris for the University of Lowell from 1988 to 1990; and Carey Grandy, a Huntsville, Alabama, native who backstopped DartmouthCollege from 1981-83.
Carey Gandy played goal for Dartmouth College from 1981-83 (Photo/Dartmouth Digital Library Collections).
With his stellar 2016-17 season, Williams realizes that he might be drawing the attention of pro hockey scouts.
“I’m really just enjoying my last year and whatever happens with pro, it will all work itself out,” he said.
If it doesn’t, Williams has a Plan B: To use the master’s degree in sports administration that he’s pursuing at Canisius to start his own goalie academy.
“I think that’s something that will fit right in with my mission in hockey,” he said. “That’s what I really want to do.”
Josh Ho-Sang wasn’t on time on the first day of the New York Islanders training camp his rookie year, a transgression that prompted the National Hockey League team to immediately ship the talented forward back to junior hockey.
New York Islanders forward Josh Ho-Sang gets his first goal in his fourth NHL game.
Ho-Sang was right on time Tuesday night – scoring his first NHL goal on a wicked one-time slap shot that helped the Islanders beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-1 in Edmonton.
Ho-Sang’s goal came in his fourth NHL game at 17:23 minutes of the first period on a power play shot that blew past Oilers goalie Cam Talbot.
Islanders forward Andrew Ladd retrieved the puck as a keepsake for Ho-Sang, the son of a black Jamaican father of Chinese descent and a Jewish Chilean mother with Russian and Swedish bloodlines.
The Islanders chose Ho-Sang in the first round of the 2014 NHL Draft with the 28th overall pick. The move was viewed as controversial at the time – the Islanders made a trade to get the pick – because Ho-Sang was considered to be too outspoken, too flashy, and too immature by several NHL general managers and scouts.
But Ho-Sang has worn the number throughout his career in honor of Lemieux. He even wore it when he was a linemate of Oilers’ superstar Connor McDavid when they played for the Toronto Malboros youth hockey program.
Chicago Blackhawks star forward Artemi Panarin apologized Tuesday for a racially insensitive remark he made in a 2012 Russian television interview when he was playing in the Kontinental Hockey League.
Chicago Blackhawks Artemi Panarin
The Chicago Tribune, The Athletic, and other outlets reported that Panarin, the NationalHockey League’s rookie of the year last season, participated in an interview segment in 2012 with former KHL teammate Yaroslav Tulyakov, who asked him what he would never do, three sources who saw the video told The Tribune.
“Have sex with a black woman,” Panarin replied, the three Russian-speaking sources told the newspaper.
The existence of the video, which has been removed from YouTube, was first reported by a Chicago hockey blog called Faxes From Uncle Dale.
The Tribune reported that Panarin’s remark occurred during a segment in which he and Tulyakov appeared to trying to be humorous, making off-color remarks as they read questions.
Panarin issued a statement to the Tribune through the Blackhawks Tuesday, saying “In 2012, I was a guest on a Russian TV show and made insensitive comments that I deeply regret…I understand my comments are offensive and I apologize for my hurtful words.”
The team also issued its own statement: “On Sunday, we were made aware of the video of Artemi’s appearance on a Russian TV show in 2012…We immediately addressed the matter with him. His comments in the video in no way represent the values of our organization. He has apologized and understands the offensive nature of his words.”
Panarin, 25, has 20 goals and 38 asssts in 65 games for the Blackhawks this season.
Andong “Misha” Song, the first Chinese-born player drafted by a National Hockey League team and one of the faces of China’s 2022 Winter Olympics ice hockey effort, will play for Cornell University for the 2018-19 season.
China’s Andong Song at 2015 NHL Draft (Photo/William Douglas/Color of Hockey).
“I’m so happy to commit to Cornell,” Song said in a Madison Capitols statement. “It’s a great academic school and they have a great hockey program that will help me in the future so I couldn’t be more excited to go there.”
Song made history in 2015 when the New York Islanders chose the Beijing-born player in the sixth round of the NHL Draft with the 172nd overall pick.
Capitols Head Coach and General Manager Garrett Suter said Song has “done a lot of hard work on and off the ice this season to get where he’s at.”
“He’ll do great at Cornell, and I’m glad he’ll have one more year here (in Madison),” Suter said. “(We) still have a few things to work on, but still couldn’t be happier for the kid.”
Song has appeared in exhibition games for the Islanders and he hopes to crack the NHL team’s regular season roster someday. But but right now his focus is on getting better in the USHL, his upcoming collegiate career, and leading China’s national team at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
China isn’t an international hockey power and is quickly building its men’s and women’s hockey program in preparation of hosting the Winter Games. The impact of the Islanders drafting Song has been compared to the effect that former National Basketball Association center Yao Minghad in making basketball popular in the world’s most populous country.
A number of young hockey players have ventured from China to the United States and Canada to play high school or junior hockey since Song was drafted.
Song captained China’s 2015 International Ice Hockey Federation Under-18 World Junior Championship Division II B team. He’s played 39 games for Madison this season and hasn’t registered a point. He played for Massachusetts’ Phillips Andover in 2015-16 and tallied 1 goal and 7 assists.
