College Hockey Update:  Last week presented a couple of top-ten teams facing top-fifteen opponents, and Bemidji State gave Minnesota-Duluth fits as the two battled to a tie Friday night, and Duluth came out with a narrow win Saturday night; Minnesota-Duluth held at #1 and Bemidji State held at #15 in the new poll.  Union College visited recently-hot Vermont on Saturday and Sunday, and now it’s Union College that’s on fire; Union swept Vermont and leaped up three spots into the top ten at #10, and Vermont dropped two pegs down to #13.  In the only other game involving a top-ten team, Boston University beat Yale on Tuesday, December 13th, and BU edged up to #5 in the new poll.

Oh, what the heck there are so few other games that were played:  Mankato State traveled to Princeton, a team that has caused grief for some highly ranked teams lately, and Princeton smothered Mankato Friday night, 6-1, but Mankato got out of there with a narrow 5-4 win on Saturday.  Bowling Green split with Alaska; Arizona State swept UMass-Amherst, bringing ASU’s total wins this season to seven; Mercyhurst beat and tied Robert Morris, both games in OT; and Northeastern beat Michigan State 6-2, bringing Northeastern’s total wins this season to six.  And back on that Tuesday, December 13th, Arizona State beat American International and Princeton beat UMass-Amherst.

Now that we’re back on the subject of last Tuesday, on that night Boston University had huge help from sophomore defenseman Shane Switzer, of Bloomfield Hills, MI, who scored two goals in BU’s 5-2 win over Yale.  It was really a break-out night for the 6’2″ 190lb defenseman, as he had only appeared in six games all season long as a freshman, and this was only the third game in which he played this season; these were the first two goals of his college hockey career.  Switzer is tied for tenth on the team in goals scored with his pair, and he’s tied for 21st on the team with no assists.  Boston University is 10-5-2, ranked #5, and is off for three weeks until they host #10 Union College on Thursday, January 5th, and then play UMass-Amherst on Saturday afternoon, January 7th, outdoors at Fenway Park (one of the four Hockey East games to be played at Fenway on the consecutive Saturdays of January 7th and 14th).

In last Tuesday’s game in Boston, Charlie McAvoy got the scoring started at the ten minute point of the first, and then with a minute left in the period Shane Switzer scored his first college goal to put BU up 2-0 at the break.  In the second, Bobo Carpenter scored only a minute into the period, and two minutes later Shane Switzer kept his foot on the gas and scored to give BU a 4-0 lead.  Four minutes later a Yale goal cut the lead to 4-1, but Clayton Keller scored with four minutes left in the second to give BU a 5-1 lead they took into the break.  A Yale goal four minutes into the third made it 5-2, which stood as the final score.  BU managed to get 22 shots off in the first period alone, scoring twice; Yale fired off 13 in the first and did not score.  In the goal-happy second, BU fired off only twelve shots, but netted three, and Yale shot eight and score once.  In the third, Yale shot nine time and scored once, and BU fired off only seven shots and did not score.

In Friday night’s game in Duluth, Phillip Marinaccio scored on a power play opportunity with four minutes left in the third period to give Bemidji State a 1-0 lead they took into the break — both breaks!  There is something about these two teams playing each other that brought out very stingy defense from both this last weekend, and seems to bring out the best in Bemidi State — in fact, Bemidji State went into this weekend having not lost to UMD in five years.  Peter Mackay scored six minutes into the third to tie it at one apiece, and that’s how it ended.  UMD outshot Bemidji State in each period for a shot advantage of 36-21 in the game.  Saturday night in Bemidji, Kyle Bauman got Bemidji on the board first again, only forty-four seconds into the game.  But Karson Kuhlman scored on a power play seven minutes into the second to tie it at one for UMD, and then Dominic Toninato scored the game winner for UMD with seven minutes left in the third period, to make it 2-1, the final score.  UMD again outshot Bemidji State in the first and second periods, and the teams shot evenly in the third.  UMD had a total shot advantage of 27-19 .

So no games this weekend.  The following week and weekend present the usual array of Christmas break tournaments and non-conference games, with a few conference games sprinkled in like nutmeg on the eggnog.  The only top-ten matchup scheduled is #8 North Dakota at #10 Union College on Saturday, December 31st.  And there is one game scheduled matching a top-ten team with a top-fifteen team on Thursday, December 29th, when #6 Boston College faces #14 Quinnipiac in the opening round of the Three Rivers Classic in Pittsburgh.

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

[table id=140 /]

Ok, with absolutely no games scheduled until Wednesday, December 28th, and no top-ten teams scheduled to play until Thursday, December 29th, there will not be a posting next week.  So, Merry Christmas to all of you, and I wish you a Great and Happy New Year.  And again, looking back on the first half of this season, a special thanks to John McLean for his game summary for the Minnesota-Duluth/St. Cloud State game he attended on Saturday, November 5th (hint-hint, if anyone sees a game and would be so kind as to send in a short game summary of what they saw, it would be greatly appreciated).

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

— Tom