CCHA – Syndication Server

Notre Dame alumnus Brock Sheahan named Chicago Wolves coach

Great news for the former defenseman.

Former Notre Dame defenseman and assistant coach Brock Sheahan has just made a big next step in his hockey life. He has been named the coach of the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, who are fresh off winning the Calder Cup. This comes after three years as coach of the USHL’s Chicago Steel, which included one Clark Cup. Before making the professional coaching jump, he spent four years as an assistant at Holy Cross, which came after one season as an Irish assistant.

Sheahan played four seasons with the Irish from 2004 to 2008. In 161 games, he scored 33 points and registered 220 penalty minutes. He was a member of the Irish’s 2007 CCHA regular-season and tournament championship team and the 2008 squad that came within one game of winning a national title. After leaving the Irish, he played five years of professional hockey, mostly in the ECHL.

Best of luck to Sheahan as he takes over a defending champion.

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Former Notre Dame Defenseman Lucia Named CCHA Commissioner

In 1971, the Central Collegiate Hockey Association began play.

In 1971, the Central Collegiate Hockey Association began play. It thrived until massive realignment throughout college hockey led to its demise in 2013. Now, a new CCHA is set to begin play for the 2021-22 season. Someone needs to run it, and that someone is Don Lucia.

Lucia, a Notre Dame defenseman from 1977 to 1981, has been named commissioner of the new CCHA. As a player, he tabulated 23 of his 30 points for assists while playing under Lefty Smith. Immediately after graduating, he went into a coaching career, starting as an assistant at Alaska-Fairbanks and then Alaska-Anchorage before returning to Fairbanks to serve as head coach from 1987 to 1993. After taking the reins at Colorado College from 1993 to 1999, he went to coach at Minnesota and had his greatest achievements, becoming the winningest coach in program history and leading the Gophers to back-to-back national championships and five Frozen Fours before his retirement from coaching in 2018.

In 31 seasons as a head coach, Lucia went 736-403-102. He was the 1994 national coach of the year, the WCHA Coach of the Year three times and the 2014 Big Ten Coach of the Year. Now, he begins the next chapter of his hockey life. Best wishes to him for continued success.

Notre Dame Hockey: Wolverine Weekend

No. 14 Notre Dame (10-7-3, 5-3-2-1) will get back to Big Ten action when it plays Michigan (7-11-2, 2-7-1-0) on Friday and Saturday. The first contest will be the Irish’s first time playing an unranked opponent in eight games, and it will come at a time when Alex Steeves and Michael Graham are on five-game point streaks, each totaling seven in that span. It also comes as Cale Morris has stopped 119 of his past 121 shots faced and is the reigning Big Ten First Star of the Week.

Notre Dame players who have had the most success against Michigan in their careers are Matt Hellickson (eight points) and Cal Burke (five points). They have been a key part of some of the Irish’s more recent success against the Wolverines as they have won 10 of the 15 meetings since their final season in the CCHA (2012-13). The teams split four meetings last year, and will meet four times again this season.

Notre Dame Hockey: Irish Begin 2020 With Home-and-Home vs. Western Michigan

After nearly three weeks away from game action, No. 15 Notre Dame (9-7-2) will return to the ice Friday and Sunday for a home-and-home series against No. 19 Western Michigan (7-7-2). Though the Irish won their last game Dec. 14 over Penn State, it came on the heels of a seven-game winless streak, including six consecutive losses. These next two games will be the final tuneups before finishing the regular season with the remainder of their Big Ten schedule.

Despite the long layoff, Michael Graham, Matt Hellickson and Alex Steeves will look to continue their point streaks of three, two and three games, respectively. They’ll have to do it in Notre Dame’s seventh consecutive game against a ranked opponent Friday, one it has a long history with. The Irish and Broncos used to be rivals in the CCHA, and Western Michigan leads the all-time series, 43-37-11.

The Irish will be without center Jake Pivonka and defenseman Spencer Stastney. Both sophomores are members of Team USA at the 2020 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship in Ostrava and Trinec, Czech Republic.