For some teams the second half of this hockey season is shaping up to be a dream-come-true; for others, the nightmare continues.

Let’s start with the marquee matchups from last week.  #2 Quinnipiac beat #10 Yale Saturday night, after settling on a tie with Brown Friday night; Yale had beaten Princeton Friday night.  So the Quinnipiac unbeaten streak continues — these guys have not lost a game in two months, since November 6, and in that time they have gone 16-0-3, and at one time had an eight game winning streak.  I’d say they’re streaking.  #3 Miami of Ohio swept Alaska-Fairbanks, knocking them out of their #20 ranking; Miami was 1-3-1 immediately after the Christmas break, but seems to have righted the ship with five straight wins, I guess I’d call that a streak.  And #7 North Dakota earned a tie and a win against #19 Wisconsin.  #17 Dartmouth tied #18 Union; Dartmouth also lost to RPI.  I also highlighted the Beanpot opening round — for #13 Boston University, the nightmare continues as they dropped a 3-2 decision to Northeastern on Monday night, and that’s after they lost to UMass-Amherst Friday night; BU is 3-6-1 since the Christmas break.  Meanwhile, #5 Boston College beat Harvard in Monday night’s opening round, and that was after beating Vermont Friday night — my bet is that BC is done playing possum.  Lastly, in the great rivalries department, Michigan swept Michigan State over the weekend.

So . . . New Hampshire continued losing games it looked like they should win, this time to Merrimack, and while they had beaten Northeastern Friday night, they now find themselves ranked #4 — Merrimack also beat UMass-Lowell over the weekend, and finds itself ranked at #20.  UMass-Lowell, highlighted last week as a streaking team, additionally dropped a game to Maine, and now finds itself ranked #16.  #6 Western Michigan continued with its steady play, sweeping Alaska-Fairbanks.  How about those Huskies from St. Cloud State?  They went 1-3 coming out of the Christmas Break, but since then have gone 5-0-1, including last weekend’s sweep of Bemidji State — for now it really looks like these guys are going places, as they leapt up four spots to the #8 ranking.  And Denver has gone 6-2-1 since the Christmas break, including last weekend’s sweep of Minnesota-Duluth, lifitng them to the #9 ranking.  Notre Dame’s slide continued, as they settled on a loss and at tie with Ohio State, and sunk to the #11 ranking.  Notre Dame is 3-7-1 since the Christmas break, and this has to be eerily like last year for the team and its fans — last year Notre Dame went into the Christmas break 11-6-3, and afterwards went 7-10 (9-12 if you include he two wins and two losses in the CCHA tournament), including a five game losing streak; Notre Dame’s slide this year already includes a five game losing streak as well.  These guys and BU are really reeling.  Another featured streaking team from last week was Nebraska-Omaha, and they split the weekend with Michigan Tech, and they remain ranked at #14.  #15 Niagra swept Bentley.  #1 Minnesota was idle, as was Mankato State; Mankato did very well in its idle time as they leapt up four spots to the #11 ranking, with a lot of help from the teams ahead of them taking losses!

This weekend we have some great top twenty matchups, starting with what should be a full-fledged blood bath as #1 Minnesota travels to play two games at #8 St. Cloud State.  #3 Miami of Ohio also hits the road, and it’s off to #6 Western Michigan.  And #7 North Dakota travels to play a pair at #14 Nebraska-Omaha (the Friday night game at 4:35pm Pacific Time will be on the NBC Sports Channel).  Add to this, #5 Boston College hosts #16 UMass-Lowell for one game, and #13 Boston University hosts #20 Merrimack for one game.  What a great weekend!  Follow that up with the Beanpot Championship game Monday night between #5 Boston College and Northeastern (could be pretty ugly for Northeastern), and the consolation game of #13 Boston University getting a quick rematch with the Harvard team that recently handed the Terriers a loss.

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

[table id=59 /]

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

— Tom