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The NCAA released the names of the initial seniors chosen to take part in the 2010 Frozen Four Skills Challenge in Detroit.

For the East:

Army: Owen Meyer
Boston College: Ben Smith* (previous galleries 1 2), Allie Thunstrom

Boston University: Melissa Anderson (previous galleries 1 2), Melissa Haber (previous galleries 1 2)

Cornell: Ben Scrivens
Dartmouth: Sarah Parsons
Harvard: Anna McDonald

New Hampshire: Bobby Butler, Kelly Paton (earlier blog galleries 1 2 3)
Oswego State: Neil Musselwhite
Quinnipiac: Brandon Wong
RIT: Jared DeMichiel
St. Lawrence: Brittony Chartier, Britni Smith
Yale: Sean Backman (earlier blog gallery)

For the West:

Air Force: Andrew Volkening

Bemidji State: Chris McKelvie**

Ferris State: Cody Chupp
Michigan: Steven Kampfer (earlier blog galleries 1 2)
Minnesota: Tony Lucia (earlier blog gallery), Kelly Blankenship
Minnesota State-Mankato: Zach Harrison, Ashley Young
Northern Michigan: Brian Stewart
Notre Dame: Kyle Lawson*** (earlier blog gallery)
Ohio State: Rachel Davis
Robert Morris: Chelsea Walkland
St. Cloud: Caitlin Hogan
St. Thomas: Lauren Bradel
Wayne State: Lindsey Park
Wisconsin: Kyla Sanders

Alternatives for the East include 3 from Union.

* will not participate due to playing in (winning) the National Championship the following day.**** Student-athletes lose eligibility on participation in the challenge.
** a sibling! Actually a twin of Zach McKelvie who participated in the 2009 Frozen Four Skills Challenge and younger brother of Ryan who is coaching in the NAHL.

*** unlikely to participate as his signing with Carolina was announced earlier today.
**** you can say I’m just being a fan there, which I definitely am, but it is also a future fact :-).

Players of the Week:  Justin Braun, UMass and Melissa Haber, BU (earlier blog galleries – 1  2)

Rookies of the Week: Alex Chiasson, BU and Elisabeth Stathopulos, UConn (earlier blog gallery)

Defensive Players of the Week: Carter Hutton, Lowell and Tara Watchorn, BU (earlier blog galleries)

Boston University defeated UConn 2-1 today to take the Hockey East championship in overtime. Tara Watchorn scored the game-winner unassisted while Mel Haber (earlier blog gallery) was in net for the Terriers.

Reading this weekend’s Hockey East release, I realized I had completely missed Nick Bonino of Boston University hitting the 100 career points mark back on January 29.

Six players have reached the milestone so far this season:

November 24: James Marcou, UMass

January 1: Ben Smith, Boston College (earlier blog gallery)

January 22: Bobby Butler, UNH (earlier blog gallery)

February 20: Kory Falite, Lowell (earlier blog gallery)

February 21: Brian Gibbons, Boston College (earlier blog galleries – 1 2)

Hoping BC Eagle Joe Whitney (earlier blog gallery) will get the needed five points to hit the century mark over the next two games to have it out of the way before the playoffs (College point totals include regular season combined with post-season points, unlike professional totals which keep the two separate. They do not include points earned during exhibition games.) With at least 2 more Hockey East quarterfinal games guaranteed or nearly guaranteed in addition to this weekend’s pair, sophomore Maine Black Bear Gustav Nyquist (86 currently) and junior Northeastern Husky Wade MacLeod (90) (earlier blog gallery) have a chance to reach the mark this year regardless of the game results.

Weekly:
Player: Lauren Cherewyk, BU and Josh Burrows, Vermont

Rookie: Elisabeth Stathopulos, UConn and Shawn Sirman, Maine

Defensive: Alexandra Garcia, UConn and Parker Milner, BC (link to earlier blog gallery)

February:

Goaltender: Parker Milner, BC (see above) and Kiera Kingston, BC

Player: Brian Flynn, Maine and Kelly Paton, UNH (links to earlier blog galleries)

Rookie: Stephane Da Costa, Merrimack (link to earlier blog gallery) and Elisabeth Stathopulos, UConn (see weekly award above)