Cold Comfort Previously underserved college hockey fans can now follow their game on a snappy, scrappy site

College hockey followers have had to contend with a dilemma of
deprivation: Either spend the winter in a region bereft of
hockey news or in one lacking double-digit temperatures. Odds
were that if you could name more than one Hobey Baker Award
finalist, your glove compartment had an ice-scraper.

"College hockey is a niche sport. Television and print media
largely ignore it," says Jayson Moy, the general manager of
five-year-old uscho.com (formerly USCollegehockey.com), which
allows fans anywhere to follow the sport. While not voluminous,
Moy's site covers the men's and women's college games
thoroughly. Links to national polls, team pages and statistics
are also easily found. The features are invariably upbeat, such
as a glowing piece last week on a Hobey Baker Award favorite,
Ryan Miller, Michigan State's record-setting sophomore goalie.
Moreover, online viewers can participate in the Vote for Hobey
poll--and thus provide the site's pick with three points out of
the 323 in the official Baker award voting.

Moy--who also does radio play-by-play for his alma mater,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in frigid Troy, N.Y.--and his
staff of 16 part-timers never take a shift off. Last Saturday
night, when Boston College's Brian Gionta (above) scored an
astounding five first-period goals in the Eagles' 7-2 thrashing
of Maine, uscho.com had a story about the feat posted midway
through the second period. "We eventually hope to be able to
provide real-time scoring," says Moy, 32, "and a webcast too."
Why not? When it comes to college hockey, the puck stops here.

--J.W.

COLOR PHOTO: DAMIAN STROHMEYER