Let’s start today with the three top twenty matchups from last weekend.  #1 Boston College took a close one and a runaway from #14 UMass-Lowell, #4 Miami of Ohio and #8 Michigan split the weekend with two hard fought and close games, and #9 New Hampshire and #15 Northeastern couldn’t have been much closer with UNH winning one by a single goal, followed by a scoreless tie.  In other big news for this week, the St. Lawrence Saints join the top 20 at #!6 in the poll with their 3-1-0 record, and John McLean’s report last week on St. Cloud State must have spread some good hockey vibes to that team as they join the top 20 at #18.

Elsewhere, #2 Minnesota beat Canisius, #3 Denver swept Michigan Tech (more on Denver below), and #5 North Dakota earned a win and a tie against Alaska-Anchorage.  #6 Cornell got their season started with a sweep of Colorado Collge, knocking CC out of the top 20 rankings, #7 Notre Dame swept #20 Northern Michigan, and #10 Union College won two games against American International and Connecticut.

#11 Western Michigan was idle, #12 Boston University swept UMass-Amherst, and #13 Harvard beat Bentlely College.  #16 St. Lawrence was idle, and #17 Minnesota-Duluth seems to have the early season blues, having suffered a tie and loss at the hands of Wisconsin.  #18 St. Cloud State swept Mankato State mercilessly, and #19 Ferris State split the weekend with Alaska Fairbanks.

While Denver did not get tested by playing a top team over the weekend, their performance is nonetheless notable.  The Pioneers scored five goals each night — and each night they were scored by five different players; of the ten goals scored on the weekend, seven different players accounted for them.  In addition, twelve different players tallied assists in these two games.  Looks like a team with a lot of depth and excellent team play.  Right now Denver, at 4-0-0 is one of three unbeaten and untied teams in the top twenty (the other two are Cornell at 2-0-0 and Harvard at 1-0-0).  The only other unbeaten team in the top twenty right now is New Hampshire, which has a tie at 4-0-1.

This weekend there are some fantastic matchups of top twenty teams, starting with #3 Denver hosting #18 St. Cloud State for a pair of games — what a test of St. Cloud’s new top twenty ranking!  #4 Miami of Ohio will travel to play two at #19 Ferris State, and #5 North Dakota will host #12 Boston University.  It’s surprising to see BU ranked at #12 with all the turmoil the team experienced last year, the loss of players during the season and off season, and a full fledged University investigation into the culture and handling of the team.  Should be quite a test for the Terriers to face the Sioux on their home ice.  Another great matchup is #7 Notre Dame hosting #11 Western Michigan for two games.  And lastly, #8 Michigan will travel to play two at #20 Northern Michigan.

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

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

— Tom