Wow, a whole bunch of games all at once over a three day period, and a whole lot of losing for top ranked teams along the way has prompted this special extra edition of The Update.

In our most heralded matchup, #3 North Dakota beat #4 Minnesota-Duluth in the christening game of UMD’s new $80 million Amsoil Arena, by a score of 5-0.  While this sort of outcome may seem only too easy to report on, our ace Contributing Field Reporter, John McLean’s report on this game will provide a good deal of analysis and reveal what is going on with these two teams.  With this surprise extra edition of The Update, his report and analysis is not ready at the time of this posting, but will be included in next week’s post.  See it here first.

In other action, and let’s stick to the bumpy road first, #6 Miami of Ohio was upended by St. Cloud State by a 4-3 margin in a game that saw St. Cloud go up early, and Miami fight back late with a two goal third that was not enough.  Meanwhile, #8 Nebraska-Omaha was swept, two games, by Quinnipiac.  #10 Boston University seems to still be dazed by the early December scrubbing it received from BC, as the Terriers were shelled 6-1 by Brown, surrendering five unaswered goals in the second and third.  And in the same tournament, #12 Notre Dame was upended by #28 Mankato. 

In the category of mixed results, #12 Union College prevailed in overtime to beat #19 Minnesota,  3-2, only to fall the next night to Bemidji State.  In the same tournament, #18 Ferris State lost to Bemidji in the opening round, and then tied #19 Minnesota the next night.

In the category of “things went pretty well . . . ” we have North Dakota the winner over UMD, and #5 Boston College with two wins over Colgate and Mercyhurst.  #7 Denver notched a win over Northern Michigan (and playing again tonight, game not finished as of this posting); #9 Maine beat Cornell; and #11 Michigan beat #20 Colorado College.  #14 RPI swept two from Alabama Huntsville, #15 Wisconsin swept two wins from UMass Amherst, and #17 Merrimack College tallied two wins against Army and RIT.

And there’s more action to come.  Tomorrow #1 Yale plays Holy Cross; #2 New Hampshire takes on St. Lawrence; and #10 Boston University will face #12 Notre Dame.  Then Monday and Tuesday, Minnesota-Duluth will play two games against Clarkson in New York.

This provides the top twenty teams, rankings and records as of the last poll of December 13, and the most recent results over the last three nights:

[table id=11 /]

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

 — Tom