Two top matchups yielded two sweeps as #10 Michigan crushed #5 Ohio State, and #8 Western Michigan swept #7 Notre Dame last weekend.  Michigan?  #10?  Where did that come from?  Well, Michigan has been winning a whole lot of games lately, after taking a dive for a stretch that took them entirely out of the top 20 rankings.  Last weekend Michigan was in total control as they won 4-0 and 4-1 over Ohio State, while Western Michigan seemingly had matters under control with their 3-2 and 3-1 wins over Notre Dame.  In Friday night’s game, Notre Dame came back from a 1-0 deficit to take the lead 2-1 in the second, but Western Michigan scored twice in the third as they squealched Notre Dame’s production for the 3-2 win.  Elsewhere, #1 Minnesota-Duluth split a weekend with Nebraska-Omaha, crushing them Friday night, but UNO came back with a solid 3-1 win on Saturday.  Minnesota-Duluth has a very stong grip on the #1 ranking, with all 50 first-place votes. 

#2 Boston University swept its weekend with two very close games against Northeastern and Harvard, and #3 Boston College split its weekend with a surprisingly big loss to UMass-Amherst, and then a close win over Northeastern.  Last weekend also saw the last-ever regular season conference-matchup of #4 Minnesota and #17 North Dakota as North Dakota prevailed in a close 2-1 game Friday night, only to see Minnesota come back big and crush North Dakota 6-2 Saturday night.  The game that night was very physical and a borderline fight as some of the North Dakota players didn’t seem to take the thrashing very well, and it exploded after the game in the handshake line!  Crazy.   As a result of this, North Dakota Coach Dave Hakstol has stripped player Ben Blood of his position of Assistant Captain of the team.  Elsewhere, #6 Merrimack had a similar weekend (on the ice, that is) as Minnesota, as they crushed Maine on Friday night, and then settled for a tie with them on Saturday.  And #9 Cornell copied Merrimack as they earned a win agaist Quinnipiac, and then tied Princeton.

This weekend there are three big matchups of top ten teams against ranked opponents.  #4 Minnesota should have its hands very full as they host #11 Colorado College for a pair of games.  CC could put up quite a fight in response to getting dropped out of the top ten aftet splitting with St. Cloud State last weekend.  Ohio State will host #13 Ferris State for two games, and Ohio State should feel they have plenty to make up for after the thumping they took from Michigan last weekend.  And #8 Western Michigan will play two at Miami of Ohio, with Western Michigan seemingly on a roll after their sweep of Notre Dame.

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

[table id=35 /]

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

 — Tom