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Notre Dame Joins Big Ten For Hockey; Blackhawks Prospect Suspended

The University of Notre Dame announced Wednesday that it is joining the Big Ten Conference as an affiliate member for men's ice hockey starting in 2017-18. The Fighting Irish hockey team will continue playing in Hockey East, where they've been since 2013-14, through the 2016-17 season before making the move.

The Big Ten has six full-time members that sponsor hockey: Michigan, Minnesota, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Penn State. However, a six-team conference never seemed like it would be beneficial to any of the member teams in the long-term. With no other schools looking close to sponsoring hockey, the move to bring in sport affiliate members seemed like the next logical step for the conference's hockey arm.

 

Following the Big Ten's affiliation agreement with Johns Hopkins University for men's lacrosse, the door was open for that to happen in other sports. Hockey always seemed like the sport most likely for that to happen in next.

 

The somewhat surprising move could have significant implications in terms of further realignment throughout college hockey just three years after the significant overhaul the landscape went through when the Big Ten's hockey conference was formed.

 

Notre Dame was one of the teams caught in the middle of that previous realignment in college that took effect in the 2013-14 season. Their own conference, the Central Collegiate Hockey Association disolved amid the creation of the Big Ten's hockey league and the formulation of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. Notre Dame was one of the last dominoes to fall.

The Fighting Irish only had two options then: Hockey East or the fledgling National Collegiate Hockey Conference which included ex-CCHA teams Miami University and Western Michigan, among others. They chose Hockey East despite the notable travel disadvantage the Irish faced with the rest of the conference located primarily in New England, making for easy bus trips for everyone else.

 

It was never a great long-term option, even if it made all the sense in the world from a competitive standpoint for Notre Dame to be in a conference that included some of the elites of college hockey like Boston College and Boston University.

 

Now the Irish will be reunited with more natural rivals like Michigan and Michigan State. They'll also have a better travel situation, which helps on a number of fronts.

 

>>Blackhawks Prospect Suspended

 

The Chicago Blackhawks have suspended minor league prospect Garret Ross over accusations that he shared an image of a woman engaged in a sexual act without her consent.

 

The Blackhawks issued a statement Wednesday saying they learned of the felony revenge porn charge against the Rockford IceHogs winger on Saturday and excused him from team activities pending a review. The team later decided to suspend Ross indefinitely.

 

The 23-year-old Ross, of Dearborn Heights, Michigan, was charged Feb. 2.

 

According to court records, a Sycamore, Illinois, woman told authorities in September that she exchanged nude video and pictures with one of Ross' teammates before ending the relationship after learning he had a girlfriend. The woman said Ross' girlfriend also dumped him for the same reason, and both men blamed her.

 

>>Rangers Pound Bruins

 

Keith Yandle set up two first-period power-play goals and Lundqvist made 39 saves in a 5-2 win on Wednesday night that sent the Bruins to a season-high fourth straight loss.

 

Mats Zuccarello, Derek Stepan, Derick Brassard, J.T. Miller and Rick Nash scored for New York, which won its second straight and inched a little closer to securing a spot in the playoffs with eight games left in the regular season.

 

Lee Stempniak, who had a first-period tally disallowed after an offside review and another shot gloved off the line by Lundqvist in the third period, scored for the Bruins along with Frank Vatrano. The Bruins have five goals in their skid.

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