Last weekend featured a few heavy-weight top-twelve matchups, and Minnesota took it in the teeth Friday night at St. Cloud State as the Huskies prevailed in a one-sided affair; the two met on the Gophers’ turf Saturday night, and Minnesota had all they could handle from St. Cloud, with the Gophers getting the win, but only in OT.  Minnesota held at #1 in the poll and St. Cloud State held at #7.  Down in Denver, Boston College fought its was to a narrow win Friday night over the Pioneers, and fought through another close one Saturday night, but Denver prevailed with an OT win; BC rose up a couple to #3 in the rankings, and Denver edged up to #10.  Boston College played last night, after the poll came out, and surprisingly was upended by Connecticut; not only upended, but shut out, for the first time in 106 games, ending the longest streak in the nation of games with at least one goal scored.  Connecticut goalie Rob Nichols denied 35 BC shots on goal, 16 in the second period, and survived six power plays, and the final 1:06 of BC skating with an extra attacker.  Boston University took a one-sided win at Providence Friday night, but found themselves under assault Saturday night in Boston, and on the short end of a narrow Providence win; BU nudged up to #5, and Providence slipped a few spots down to #12.  And a top twelve team played a top twenty team as Miami of Ohio split two close contests at Minnesota-Duluth; Miami edged down to #11, and Minnesota-Duluth moved up a couple to #17.

The biggest move up in the poll was Michigan Tech, moving up eight spots to the #9 ranking after sweeping Michigan in two one-sided games, knocking Michigan down ten rungs to #25.  Michigan Tech . . . . hmmmm . . . .   The Michigan Tech Huskies are one of only three unbeaten teams (aside from a few teams that have only played a game or two so far), and other two, Robert Morris and Northern Michigan, each have a tie.  Michigan tech is 6-0-0.  They have swept Lake Superior, Ferris State, and now Michigan.  Besides Michigan getting knocked out of the top twenty by Michigan Tech, another big move down was Union College after surprisingly being swept by Rensselaer over the weekend in a one-sided game and an OT loss; Union dropped six spots down to #8.  Elsewhere, North Dakota took a win in OT over Air Force, and rose up a spot to #2 — both BC and North Dakota rose up in the vacuum of Union’s fall.  Colgate split a weekend with Mercyhurst and the Raiders held at #4; while UMass-Lowell swept New Hampshire and rose up a couple of spots to #6.

This weekend presents one top-twelve matchup, and it could be quite a contest, and a possible moment of truth.  #3 Boston College will host #5 Boston University for one game on Friday night.  BU finds itself ranked very high, early in the season following a completely disastrous 2013-14 “effort.”  Many years back this matchup was good for some real carnage on the ice, but it’s been a while since BU could really hang with these guys.  And this will be on BC’s home ice — two nights after being embarrassed by Connecticut.  Could be a very difficult night for the Terriers.  In addition, two top-twelve teams will face top twenty teams, as #1 Minnesota hosts #15 Notre Dame for two games, and #7 St. Cloud State hosts #17 Minnesota-Duluth for two games.  There seems to be no let-up in St. Cloud’s schedule!

Last weekend Boston College split with Denver, and on Friday night they found themselves down 1-0 after Denver scored right at the start of the second.  BC had a big hero Friday night in sophomore forward Ryan Fitzgerald, of North Reading, Mass.  The 5′ 10″ 177 lb. Fitzgerald answered on a power play seven minutes later to tie it at 1-1, and in the third with five minutes remaining, he found the net again to give BC the 2-1 win in regulation.  Fitzgerald attended Malden Catholic High School, where he was a two-time Massachusetts Super-Eight Champion.  He also played for the Valley Warriors of the EJHL in 2012, scoring 14 goals and tallying 16 assists in 26 regular season games, and adding three goals and three assists in the team’s six playoff games.  He was selected by the Boston Bruins as the 120th pick in the fourth round of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.  Last year as a freshman he played in all 40 of BC’s games, and was fifth on the BC team in goals with 13, and was tied for fifth in assists with 16.  Fitzgerald’s hometown of North Reading was first settled in 1651, has a population of 15,000, and is eighteen miles north of Boston.  Fitzgerald is from a hockey family, as his father, Tom, played college hockey at Providence for two years before going to the Islanders and six other NHL teams over an eighteen year career; his father Tom is currently the assistant general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and is cousin to former NHL’er Keith Tkachuck, and current NHL’ers Jimmy Hayes of the Florida Panthers, and Kevin Hayes of the New York Rangers, both of whom are recent Boston College players as well.

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

[table id=92 /]

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

— Tom