It’s getting to that time in the season when any streaks a team might be going on could have quite an impact on whether or not they make it to the NCAA tournament, and if they do, how strong of an opponent they might get in the first round.  So let’s start with a marquee matchup — very solid, all season long, #4 Notre Dame and surging #8 Michigan.   Friday night Notre Dame got off to a good start, scoring in the first and second, an keeping control of the ice to lead 2-0 after two.  Michigan scored early in the third on a power play to make it 2-1, but with a Michigan empty net and about thirty seconds remaining, Notre Dame scored to make the final 3-1.  Saturday night Michigan sniffed out the importance of the power play early on and used them to score twice in the first to go up 2-0, and then controlled the game thereafter.  Notre Dame scored in the second, but the two teams held each other in check from that point on, with Michigan taking the second game 2-1.   Meanwhile, #6 Ohio State played to a loss and a tie with Ferris State.  Friday night’s game was a nail-biter as Ferris State went ahead early and big, scoring two in the first and two early in the second.  Ohio State scored late in the second to make it 4-1 to start the third.  Ohio State scored twice in the third to make it 4-3 with about seven minutes to go, but Ferris State hung on to take it 4-3. Saturday night’s game was also a nail biter, but played just about the opposite way with the teams trading goals in the first, to end 1-1, no scoring in the second, and a four goal barrage in the third, with teams trading goals throughout.  Ohio State scored last with about three minutes to go, to get the tie.  The results have Ferris State now ranked #10. 

#1 Minnesota-Duluth — seemingly on an invincible roll for a couple of months now, took two games from an easy opponent, Alabama-Huntsville, last weekend, keeping a tight lock on the #1 ranking.  UMD’s cousins, Minnesota, split with Colorado College, and Minnesota is now ranked #3.  Friday night was  a thriller with CC scoring first in the second in what looked to be a 1-0 game.  Minnesota sent in an extra attacker and tied it up with about a minute and half to go, then worked to preserve the tie.  But with half a minute to go, CC scored again to take it, 2-1.  Saturday night CC scored first again, late in the first, but Minnesota came right back a couple of minutes later and tied it at 1-1, and then Minnesota scored early in the second.  Another defensive battle stalemated over the remainder of the game, which ended another 2-1 score, this time with Minnesota on top.

#5 Merrimack split with New Hampshire, and Western Michigan shot itself in the foot, getting swept by Miami of Ohio, and suddenly Western Michigan finds itself looking up at the top ten from the #13 ranking.   Cornell earned a win over Dartmouth and a tie with Harvard, to hang on to the #9 ranking.  It seems that all the teams mentioned so far are pretty solid, and have had pretty solid seasons; Western Michigan seems to have had its ups and downs of late.

But how about Boston College getting swept by Maine?  BC now finds itself ranked at #7 and has had its ups and downs as well, as of late.  But there is something about Jerry York’s BC teams that make them very hard to count out, as it seems they always hit a skid in the middle of the season, and come roaring back.  And is Boston University really #2?  They lost two of their top players in December, got hammered by Notre Dame on New Year’s Eve, and since then have won a string of games.  Sometimes when a team loses a star player they “get their footing under them” and perform well — sometimes for a string of games, sometimes for the balance of the season.  BU has not played top teams in this string of wins, last week sweeping a reeling Providence team to the tune of 6-1 and 8-0.  BU’s jump in the rankings is a bit of a surpise considering all of this, and they have some tests ahead of them — tests such as sweeping lesser teams, a test this weekend against #20 Maine, which just swept BC, the Beanpot Tournament, and a February weekend against #11 UMass-Lowell.  Time will tell.

And what happened to Nebraska-Omaha?  They were highly ranked early in the season, and are now at #24 after splitting with Mankato over the weekend.  What a matchup, Mavericks vs. Mavericks.  Luckily our contributing field reporter, John McLean was there, and provides this report.  John McLean writes:

Bryce Aneloski scored on an overtime power play ‘wrister’ (a shot perfected by College Hockey Update contributing writer Greg Schreader in Bigfork, Minnesota in 1961)   from the point leading the #22 Nebraska Omaha Mavericks over the host Minnesota State Mavericks 2-1 on Friday night at the Verizon Wireless Center in -12 degrees Mankato.   In an usual game from the start, both Mavericks were playing without their starting goalies due to injuries. Adding to the intrigue, midway through the first period Mankato backup Phil Cook was hit hard in the crease resulting in a stoppage of play and consideration of his removal. After consultation he remained in the game. The only scoring came in the first period off a well designed Omaha ‘one timer’ by Matt White off the feed of former Gopher recruit Ryan Walters.

The game remained scoreless until midway through the third period when former Islander and Olympic great Pat Lafontaine’s nephew Jean-Paul Lafontaine tied the game on a power play rebound for Mankato. While there wasn’t much scoring, Verizon is one of the few college arena’s serving ‘cold ones’ which created several interesting cheers and kind, affection comments directed at the officials.  As the game entered overtime, things got both interesting and very scary. 43 seconds into overtime former Bismarck Bobcat and current Omaha goalie Ryan Massa, got knocked out cold and taken to the hospital with little, if any, movement. This followed a great save on a Mankato two on one scoring opportunity. It was a very scary 25 minute delay and this reporter thought the game should have been suspended until prior to Saturday’s rematch. Omaha brought in their 3 rd goalie, former North Dakota and Dallas Stars star Ed Belfour’s son Dylan who promptly stopped a shot and, when his D extra ‘protected’ him, Adam Mueller of Mankato punched one of them, got a penalty and UNO scored 54 seconds later giving Belfour one save, less than one minute of play and a victory. After the game the arena was very silent.

Note: Ryan Massa was released from the hospital on Saturday and remains under consultation. Starting goalie John Faulkner drove to Mankato from Omaha Saturday to start in goal for Omaha on Saturday night.

Thanks, John!

This weekend two top ten teams play ranked teams — #2 Boston University hosts #20 Maine for two games, and #10 Ferris State hosts #16 Michigan State for two games.

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

[table id=36 /]

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

 — Tom