Last weekend was another eventful one.  Right off the bat, last week’s #4 Merrimack ran into a buzz-saw called Maine, and was swept violently at the hands of the Black Bears; Maine scored eleven goals in two games, and surrendered only one.  Merrimack dropped to #9, and Maine rose from #16 to #14.  Elsewhere, St. Cloud State sprung quite a trap on the Badgers, sweeping them on the weekend,  and dropping Wisconsin from #13 down to #18.  And Michigan jumped up five places from #10 to #5 after sweeping Northern Michigan.

North Dakota swept Bemidji, hanging on to the #1 ranking, and BC swept UMass-Amherst to secure the #2 spot.  On a tie and a win, Yale hung on to the #3 ranking, and Union’s tie and win weekend moved them up from #5 to #4; at season-end, Union wins the ECAC regular season over Yale.  Denver split the weekend with Nebraska-Omaha, and rose from #6 to #5; UNO remained at #12.

New Hampshire rose from #9 to #7 on a tie and win against Northeastern, and  Miami of Ohio is back in the top ten at #8, up from #11, after sweeping Lake Superior State.  Notre Dame’s split last weekend with Western Michigan dropped the Fighting Irish from #8 down to #10, and Western Michigan rose from #17 to #15 on the split.

Minnesota-Duluth tumbled out of the top ten after splitting with Colorado College, falling from #7 to #11 (CC rose from #19 to #17 on the split), while Boston University rose from #15 to #13 on a tie and win against Vermont.

Rennselaer split its weekend, and dropped from#14 to #16, and Minnesota rose from #20 to #19 after sweeping Michigan Tech.  Dartmouth split its weekend and dropped from #18 to #20.

For Hockey East and the WCHA, it’s the last weekend of the regular season, and there is a major smashup of a matchup — #2 Boston College will play a home and home weekend against #7 New Hampshire, with the Hockey East regular season championship on the line.  Another hot pair of tickets to hold this weekend would be the screamer of a two game battle at #11 Minnestoa-Duluth, as they host #12 Nebraska-Omaha.  Another great matchup sends #17 Colorado College to play a pair at #18 Wisconsin.

Elsewhere, the CCHA and ECAC start their tournaments with first round, best-two-of-three matchups.  In both conferences all the top twenty teams have byes, except for #16 Rennselaer, as they host Colgate in ECAC Tournament action.  As we know, anything can happen on these crazy weekends.  Other ECAC pairings are:  Harvard at Clarkson; St. Lawrence  at Princeton; and Brown at Quinnipiac.  In the CCHA it’s Ohio State at Lake Superior State; Bowling Green at Northern Michigan; and Michigan State at Alaska-Fairbanks — have a nice flight!

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

[table id=20 /]

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

 — Tom