Last weekend saw a good number of upsets and a lot of musical chairs in the top ten ranked teams.  I also received a couple of requests to expand the coverage beyond the top twelve, so I’ll give it a go; normally I do this later in the season, and only for a while.

Let’s start with the two heralded matchups from the last update.  First, last week’s #1 Michigan took a loss at the hands of last week’s #17 Northen Michigan, and then beat Northern Michigan the next night.  Michigan dropped to #4 in the rankings, and Northern Michigan rose up to #14.  Next, last week’s #10 Miami of Ohio dropped a pair of games to last week’s #14 Ferris State; the results dropped Miami-Ohio to #17, and Ferris State rose up to #6.  Not to be outdone by Miami, both North Dakota and Boston University appeared eager to show how far a team could drop in the rankings; North Dakota dropped a pair of games to Wisconsin, and the Fighting Sioux sank from #5 to #12, and Boston University lost to Holy Cross, dropping the Terriers from #7 to #13.  Meanwhile, Western Michigan rose up to #7 from the #11 spot on the strength of a win and tie against Alaska-Fairbanks, and Merrimack is back in the top ten at #9, up from #13 after beating Northeastern and Connecticut.

Boston College beat UMass on Friday, and took down Northeastern in overtime Saturday, to get back to the #1 spot after spending last week at #2.  Denver’s two wins over Mankato lifted the Pioneers from the #3 spot to #2 this week, and Colorado College, idle over the weekend, rose up from the #4 spot to #3 this week.  Minnesota split with Vermont and held on to the #8 ranking, while Yale dropped an exhibition game to Waterloo, and dropped from #9 to #10 in the rankings.

Union moved up a notch from #11 to #12 on a win and tie, Minnesota-Duluth held at #15 on a win and tie, and Colgate held at #16 on a tie.  Lake Superior State moved up a notch from #19 to #18 on a split weekend, Cornell won two exhibition games and moved up a notch from #20 to #19, and Quinnipiac moved up into the top twenty at #20 on a split.

Last weekend college hockey was graced with a new facility, the Compton Family Ice Arena, at Notre Dame.  Our contributing field reporter, Greg Schreader, attended the inaugural game, RPI vs. Notre Dame, and contributes this report.  Greg Schreader writes:

The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers took on Tom the Terrier’s 2nd favorite team… the 6th ranked Fighting Irish of Notre Dame in the inaugural game at the new Lefty Smith Rink in the fabulous Compton Family Ice Arena on Notre Dame’s campus. (The Compton’s are part of the ownership group of the San Jose Sharks).  Former Irish coach Lefty Smith dropped the ceremonial first puck. Lefty started the Irish hockey program in 1968 after leaving his head coaching position at So. St. Paul High School in Minesota. He coached ND hockey for 19 seasons. In his 19 years he coached 6 All Americans, including Bill Nyrop. After ND, Bill played for the Montreal Canadians for 3 years and helped the Habs win 3 Stanley Cups: 1976, ’77 and ’78.

A sellout crowd of 5022 attended the first game in the new arena–the most people to ever attend a hockey game in South Bend. The 1st period ended 1-1 as RPI did a very good job of forechecking and didn’t allow many clean breakouts by the Irish. ND must have sorted out a few things at the first intermission as they figured out how to get out of their zone and put 2 goals in the net outshooting RPI 14-1 in the 2nd period. The period ended with ND up 3-1.  Sophmore Anders Lee of the Irish scored in each period to net the hat trick. His 3rd goal was an empty netter to seal the win. Final score: ND 5 RPI 2. ND’s next action is a CCHA series at Bowling Green October 28/29.

Notes: Both Nyrop and Lee played prep hockey at Edina H.S. in Minnesota. The Irish take on Tom’s Terriers New Year’s Eve at Notre Dame.

Thanks, Greg.

This weekend the top matchups are all in the CCHA, and they all start tonight — in about two hours.  #4 Michigan will host #7 Ferris State for two games, #7 Western Michigan will host #14 Northern Michigan for two games, and #18 Lake Superior State will host #17 Miami-Ohio for two.

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

[table id=25 /]

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