The Russ Report: Ole Miss Hockey Schedule Part Two

By Russ Eddins

Journalism Student

Ole Miss hockey kicks off the month of December with a series against Vanderbilt at home and I’ll review the team’s schedule in advance. But before I get into that, there are a few notes I’d like to make.

Here goes: ties are few and far between, but are possible.

A win is two points, a loss is zero points, and overtime losses, shootout losses, and ties are all worth one point.

Points determine where a team is in the rankings – the more points, the better (points are also a player stat that combines goals and assists).

There is not a set amount of games each team has to play. From what I gather, this is the first time that Ole Miss hockey will play teams in the ACHA (that is another conference). The ACHA was reconfigured in the offseason, so any information on what division their teams are in is from the 2022-23 season.

And finally, there are 28 teams in the CHS, 96 in Division 3 of the ACHA, and 185 in Division 2 of the ACHA.

For reference, in the 2022-23 season, Ole Miss was 25th in the CHS, played 18 games, had a 2-16-0 record for 4 points, scored 40 goals, and allowed 104 for a goal differential of -64. It was an awful season (there are a few reasons why they were 2-16 and I’ll visit that in a later article). That being said, fans can expect a much better record and season from Ole Miss hockey. The coaches are working extremely hard to find the best available players and are looking to fill the team’s positional needs through an extended tryout process.

Vanderbilt University 

On the first two days of December, Ole Miss plays Vandy in Olive Branch. After a disappointing first game of the season, the Rebs had a really nice third period comeback victory against Vandy on the road in game two last year. This series is a divisional matchup. Last season, Vandy was No. 18 in the CHS, played 20 games, had an 8-12-0 record for 16 points, scored 90 goals, and allowed 95 for a -5 goal differential. Vanderbilt is an excellent penalty-kill team. They gave up the third lowest number of power-play goals last season (11). 

Auburn University 

Ole Miss plays at Auburn on Jan. 19-20. Auburn qualified for the play-in of the CHS tournament last season. They made it to the quarterfinal but lost to the eventual tournament runners-up, South Carolina, 3-1. Ole Miss went 0-2 against them last season. Auburn is a good hockey team and they placed 8th in the CHS in 2022-23, played 26 games, had a 13-9-4 record for 31 points (four ties and an overtime loss), scored 109 goals, and allowed 78 goals for a 31 goal differential. The Tigers have suitable power-play units; they scored 28 power-play goals in 2022-23 (9th in the CHS). They also took the seventh most penalty minutes (376).

University of Alabama

Alabama went D1 in the offseason and Ole Miss will go to Alabama for a series Jan. 26-27. They will also play Bama’s new D2 team on Jan. 28. The Rebs went 0-2 against Alabama last season. They placed fifth in the CHS, played 26 games, had an 18-7-1 record for 37 points, a .712 win percentage, scored 120 goals, and allowed 61 for a goal differential of 59. Their penalty kill units were the second-best in the CHS; they only allowed 10 power-play goals. Bama made it to the CHS semi-finals before getting knocked out by South Carolina 4-1. This will be a very tough series. Bama is consistently one of the best teams in the CHS.

University of Alabama Huntsville

Ole Miss will welcome the University of Alabama Huntsville for their second-to-last regular season series. The series will take place Feb. 2-3. UAH is a division opponent. Last year, Ole Miss went 0-2 against them. UAH played 16 games, was No. 15 in the CHS, had a 9-6-1 record for 19 points, scored 99 goals, and allowed 102 goals for a -3 goal differential. Historically, Ole Miss has dominated this series; hopefully, they can return to that in 2023-24.

University of Houston

The 2023-24 season will be the Houston hockey team’s first season. They are an ACHA program. They play Houston at home Feb. 9-10 to wrap up the season. 

Playoffs

The CHS playoffs start on Feb. 16 and end on Feb. 18 and will be in Huntsville, Ala. The SECHC Tournament is from March 1-3. They are in Pelham, Ala.