It’s big news when the #1 team gets beat; it’s bigger news when they lose twice.  Yale was taken down last weekend by Union and RPI, with RPI pounding Yale.  As a result, Yale dropped from #1 to #3, and the wins lifted RPI to #9 from #10, and Union to #11 from #13.  Meanwhile, a win over UMass-Lowell lifted Boston College from #3 to #1, an idle Denver comes in at #2, up from #3, and an idle Minnesota-Duluth comes in at #4, up from #5.  North Dakota split with Colorado College, and dropped from #4 to #5; Colorado College held at #20 on the split.

New Hampshire swept Providence, rising to #6 from #7, and Wisconsin swept Michigan Tech, rising to #7 from #8.  In a great rivalry, Michigan State got a little revenge, beating Michigan, dropping Michigan to #8 from #6.  Notre Dame settled on two ties with Miami of Ohio, dropping them from #9 to #10, and also dropping Miami of Ohio from #11 to #13. 

Merrimack swept Vermont, and is now #12, up from #14.  Boston University beat and tied Maine, lifting the Terriers to #14 from #16, and dropping Maine to #15 from #12.

Western Michigan swept Northern Michigan, lifting them to #16 from #17, and Dartmouth tied Cornell and beat Colgate, rising to #17 from #18.  Nebraska-Omaha took a dive on a split with Alabama Huntsville, down to #18 from #15, and Princeton grabbed two wins from St. Lawrence and Clarkson, rising to #19 from #20.

Next up, some great matchups this weekend.  Monday night, #1 Boston College will face #14 Boston University in the Beanpot Tournament in Boston in the 8pm game; Harvard faces Northeastern in the 5pm game, with winners/losers of the two games facing each other on Monday the 14th.  The  Beanpot is a prized trophy in Boston, dating back to Decembr, 1952.  Of the 58 Beanpots played to date, BU has won 29, and BC has won 15.  The BU/BC rivalry dates back to 1918, with 253 games played to date; BU leads the series 125-111-17, but the series is at 30-27-6 in favor of BC since Jerry York showed up at BC in 1997.  Oddly, during that time BC has won three national championships as well, but BU has a 9-4 advantage in Beanpot trophies.  It’s not a pretty rivalry, and of late, BC has won the last two of three beanpots, and has won the last four straight against BU, dating back to last year’s Beanpot.  BU will be in overdrive for a win, but will have its hands full with the defending Beanpot and National Champions, to say the least.

In addition to the Beanpot, #2 Denver will play a home and home series against #20 Colorado Collge, and #3 Yale will host a game against #17 Dartmouth.  #6 New Hampshire will host two games against #15 Maine, and #8 Michigan will travel to play two at #13 Miami of Ohio.  And #19 Princeton will have its hands full with a weekend at home facing #9 RPI and #11 Union, both teams fresh off wins against Yale.

It’s getting to be crunch time in college hockey.  There are about eight to ten games left in the season before the conference tournaments, and then off to the NCAAs for the lucky 16.  Who do you think is going to make it to the frozen four in St. Paul this year?

This provides the top twenty teams, rankings, records, and last weekend’s results:

[table id=16 /]

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

 — Tom