Last weekend featured three top-twenty matchups, and UMass-Lowell continued on its solid start to the season with a win and a tie against Quinnipiac, lifting the River Hawks a couple of spots to #7, and dropping the Bobcats down a couple to #15.  Quinnipiac went on to lose to Connecticut on Tuesday night, after the poll was released.  Elsewhere, Miami of Ohio swept a pair from Ohio State, nudging the Red Hawks up to #10, and knocking the Buckeyes out of the top twenty..  Lastly, Mankato State split with Minnesota-Duluth, edging the Mavericks down to #13, and the Bulldogs up to #19.

The biggest move up in the rankings was by Denver, after sweeping a pair from RPI.  Denver jumped up five slots to #11, showing a whole lot of confidence in this Denver team.  Denver was also assisted in this jump up by Cornell’s idle weekend, Boston University’s functionally idle weekend, and losses absorbed by Quinnipiac, Mankato, and Michigan, which were all ranked right ahead of Denver last week.  And the biggest drop in the rankings was four spots, by both Ferris State and Michigan.  Ferris State split the weekend with St. Lawrence, but their win Friday night was only in overtime, sending these Bulldogs down to #8.  Michigan split with New Hampshire, and the Wolverines settled in at #14.

Union swept Maine and held at #2, North Dakota swept Colorado College and held at #3, and Colgate swept Northeastern, and moved up two spots to #4.  Providence tied an exhibition game against the US Under-18 team and held their #5 ranking, Boston College took a single game from Rochester Institute of Technology, and inched up to #6, and Boston University won an exhibition game against the US Under-18 team, and moved up a couple of slots to #12.  Alaska-Fairbanks beat both Air Force and Penn State, and jumped up to #16, Vermont swept two from Clarkson and jumped into the top twenty at #17, and Alaska-Anchorage tied Penn State and beat Air Force, and entered the top twenty at #20.  Minnesota retained the #1 spot, St. Cloud State nudged down to #9, and Cornell slid a few spots to #18; all three teams were idle on the weekend.

This weekend presents nine top-twenty teams facing off in eight games.  #2 Union College will host #9 St. Cloud State for two games, and #3 North Dakota will host #5 Providence for two games.  These should just be killer games.  #7 UMass-Lowell will host #14 Michigan for a single game on Friday night, and then Michigan will go to #12 Boston University Saturday night.  And #11 Denver will play two games at #19 Minnesota-Duluth.

Last weekend Union College got a lot of help in their sweep of Maine from their senior forward Daniel Ciampini.  The 5′ 11″ 185 lb. senior contributed an assist in Friday night’s 3-0 win, and added two goals and an assist in Saturday night’s 5-2 win.  Last year he was first on his team in goals with 23, and he also tallied 18 assists.  He also scored five game-winning goals.  He was named to the Frozen Four All-Tournament Team after scoring a hat-trick in Union’s 5-4 win over Boston College in the semifinal game, and adding a goal in Union’s 7-4 Championship win over Minnesota.  He graduated from St. Elizabeth’s Catholic High School in Concord, Ontario, and played for the St. Michael’s Buzzers in the Ontario Junior Hockey League.  In his career with the Buzzers, he compiled 208 points in 154 games.  His hometown of Concord is not an incorporated city, but is a neighborhood in the City of Vaughn, Ontario.  Concord has a population of 8,500, and the city of Vaughn, which is 15 miles north of Toronto, has a population of 288,000.  The population of Vaughn grew a staggering 80% between 1996 and 2006, making it the 17th largest city in Canada.

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