Last week featured one top ten matchup, and as dubbed here, it was a test of Michigan Tech, as Friday night Minnesota-Duluth travelled to Houghton, and scored in the first and the second to lead 2-0, and then responded to a third period Tech goal to take it, 3-1.  Saturday night Michigan Tech played like they belonged in the top ten, as they scored two goals on their home ice, early, to take a 2-0 lead; Tech responded in the second to a Duluth goal to make it 3-1 at the end of two, and the third was a bit of a riot, as Duluth scored two goals to tie it up with seven minutes left in the game.  Would Tech get swept again by a highly ranked team?  Fighting for their lives, Tech found a way, with only nineteen ticks left, to win a nail-biter, 4-3, and save a split on the weekend.  Tech nudged down a spot to #5 on the weekend, and Duluth moved up two spots to #7.

And one top ten team played a top twenty team as North Dakota travelled to play a very sturdy Denver team, with Denver taking a convincing win Friday night, and North Dakota taking a convincing win Saturday night.  North Dakota nudged down to #2 on the weekend, and Denver held at #11.  Elsewhere, Boston University took a convincing win over Rensselaer and edged up to #1 on North Dakota’s slide to #2, and Mankato State smothered Princeton Friday night, retaining the #3 spot (a second game Saturday night was cancelled because of a flu outbreak, a cancellation that must have seemed heaven-sent to Princeton after Friday’s game).  And Vermont swept St. Lawrence, with St. Lawrence being pretty stingy on how many goals they allowed; but the Saints did not manage to score much of their own.  Vermont held at #10 on the weekend.  On idle weekends, Harvard rose up to #4 on Michigan Tech’s slip down; Minnesota and Mass-Lowell both edged down a notch, Minnesota to #8, and Lowell to #9, on Duluth’s rise up; and Miami of Ohio held at #6.

Miami of Ohio is having a great season, and is led in goals scored by junior forward Sean Kuraly, of Dublin, Ohio.  In addition to scoring ten goals, Kuraly is sixth on the team in assists, with six.  Last year the 6′ 2″ 190lb forward tied for fourth on the team in goals with 12, and was third on the team in assists with 17.  Kuraly was drafted by the San Jose Sharks in the fifth round of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft with the 133rd pick.  Prior to Miami, he played two years for the Indiana Ice of the USHL.  His father, Rick, played at Miami from 1979-83, and is Miami’s all time leading goal-scorer, with 101; he also tallied 78 assists in his four year career.

Miami of Ohio has consistently been a highly ranked team for a number of years now, but that is not really a legacy of theirs.  So, when did things change, and what seems to have made it happen?  In a twenty-one year stretch ending with the 1998-99 season, Miami had five twenty-win seasons, and made two NCAA tournament appearances.  But in the fifteen seasons since 1999, Miami has eleven twenty-win seasons.  I suppose all roads lead to the hiring of head coach Enrico Blasi, who played at Miami from 1990-1994, and scored 13 goals and added 15 assists in his senior year.  The Weston, Ontario native has guided this team to nine NCAA appearances in the last eleven seasons, eight straight from 2006-13.  He is noted for bringing a “team first” mentality, and a “brotherhood” responsibility to the Miami, and it appears that, or something else he’s not noted for, have paid off.  While Miami has not won an NCAA Championship during his tenure, they have come close.  How close?  Miami made it to the Frozen Four in both 2009 and 2010, and in made it to the 2009 championship game in which they had a 3-1 lead with only 59 ticks left on the clock when the unthinkable happened, and Boston University scored at 0:59, and then again at 0:17 to tie it, sending it to a seemingly unlikely overtime, in which BU prevailed twelve minutes into the first OT.  That’s how close.  Extremely close.  The 2009 season ended a four year stretch during which Miami won 106 games; in the seven years ending in 2012, Miami won 178 games.  During Blasi’s tenure, nine Miami players have been Hobey Baker finalists, with one, Andy Miele, winning the award in 2011.  In addition, 25 Miami players have signed NHL contracts during his tenure.  Prior to coming to coach Miami, Blasi spent four years as an assistant coach at the University of Denver.  Right now the Miami Red Hawks are 11-5-0, and play their next game Sunday, December 28th, against Notre Dame, in the Florida College Hockey Classic, in Estero, FL.

Miami University of Ohio was founded in 1809, but no classes were taught there until 1824.  It’s the tenth oldest public institution of higher learning in the country (based on founding date), and the second oldest in Ohio, after Ohio University.  The Miami campus in Oxford, Ohio, has 15,000 undergraduates and 2,000 graduate students, and sits on 2,000 acres.  The University had to close in 1873 because of financial circumstances, but re-opened in 1885.  The town of Oxford, Ohio, is home to 21,000 residents, and is located in southwestern Ohio.  Oxford was chartered in 1809, laid out in 1810, and incorporated in 1830.  Miami University of Ohio is one of four Universities in the country that has produced both a US President, and a Super Bowl winning quarterback.  Without looking it up, can you name the other three (Miami is the hardest one to get of the four)?  President Benjamin Harrison, and Steelers’ quarterback Ben Rothlisberger are both from Miami of Ohio.  Miami’s athletic teams are known as the Red Hawks, having changed from the Redskins in 1997.  The hockey team plays its games in the Steve Cady Arena, which seats 3,200.  The Steve Cady Arena is located in the Goggin Ice Center, which was completed and opened in 2006, and also includes a practice rink.  The Goggin Ice Center replaced the Goggin Ice Arena.

I am now going to list every single men’s d1 college hockey game to be played this weekend.  #12 ranked Nebraska-Omaha will host Alabama-Huntsville on Saturday night and Sunday later afternoon.  And there is an exhibition game tonight as the US World Junior team plays at Boston University.  That’s it!

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

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

[table id=98 /]

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

— Tom