College Hockey Update:  Last week featured one top ten matchup and Minnesota-Duluth swept North Dakota, lifting UMD to #1, and knocking North Dakota down a couple of spots to #3.  Elsewhere, Denver swept Western Michigan, edging Denver up to #2, Boston College moved up three pegs to #5 as they notched three wins over Merrimack, Providence and UMass-Amherst, and Quinnipiac held at #6 with a win over UMass-Amherst.  UMass-Lowell dropped a couple of slots to #7 after splitting with Nebraska-Omaha, St. Cloud State rose up a couple of notches to #8 on its sweep of Alabama-Huntsville, Notre Dame dropped a couple of spots to #9 after splitting with Connecticut, and Mankato State edged down to #10 after splitting with Ferris State.  An idle Boston University held at #4.

Last weekend Minnesota Duluth had huge help from senior forward Alex Iaffalo, of Eden, NY, who scored three goals in last Friday night’s 5-2 win over North Dakota, as UMD swept the Fighting Hawks on the weeekend.  Iafallo is tied for first on his team in goals scored with five, and is tied for fifth in assists with four.  In his first three years he was in the top five in goals scored, and was in the top seven in assists, as he recorded eight goals in both his sophomore and junior years, and he scored eleven in his freshman year.  His assist totals were fifteen as a junior, seventeen as a sophomore, and eleven as a freshman.

In Friday night’s game against North Dakota, Iafallo scored the sole first period goal on a power play six minutes into the period.  Teammate Adam Johnson scored six minutes into the second, and Iafallo followed a minute later to make it 3-0 UMD.  But North Dakota scored with three minutes left in the second, and again with a minute left, and the second ended 3-2 UMD.  In the third Neil Pionk scored for UMD nine minutes into the period, and with a half minute left, Iafallo found an empty net to make the final 5-2 UMD.

Saturday night all the action was in the second period with UMD’s Karson Kuhlman scoring a short-hander eleven minutes into the period; Carson Soucy followed six minutes later on a power play, and then with a minute left, Kyle Osterberg scored another short-hander to end the period 3-0 UMD, which stood as the final score.  North Dakota’s heralded junior goalie, Cam Johnson,  of Troy, MI, was busy in the net as he was able to stop 34 of 37 shots Friday night, and 22 of 25 Saturday night.  But UMD had huge help from the brilliant play of their freshman goalie Hunter Miska, of Stacy, MN., who out-shined Johnson as he stopped 24 of 26 Friday night, and then all 30 Saturday night for the shutout.

This weekend features another great NCHC top-ten matchup as #1 Minnesota-Duluth travels to play two at #8 St. Cloud State.  Actually, tonight’s game starts in about 90 minutes from now, so if you’re in Minneapolis and are going to that game, you should be running to your car right now!

This provides the top ten teams, rankings, records, and last week’s results:

[table id=133 /]

That’s all for now.  Stay tuned, and go Terriers!

— Tom