Last weekend (and play that continued into this week) featured one top ten team facing a ranked team, and things didn’t go too well for #10 Vermont as they were shut out by #16 Providence Monday night at Vermont in the second round of the Catamount Classic.  Vermont had beaten the Air Force Academy the night before.  All rankings mentioned in today’s post are from the Dec. 15 poll; with the small number of games played since then, there was no new poll on Dec. 22 or Dec. 29.  In other ranked matchups, #19 Robert Morris beat #20 Penn State, and the next night #17 Colgate beat Robert Morris to win the Three Rivers Classic in Pittsburgh.

Meanwhile, another four top ten teams have played in the past few days.  #4 Harvard beat RPI, and #5 Michigan Tech suffered a loss to Michigan, and then beat Ferris State.  #6 Miami similarly suffered a loss to Notre Dame, then beat Cornell, while #9 UMass-Lowell scored two wins, first over Sacred Heart, and then over the University of Connecticut.

Vermont had big help Sunday night in their win over Air Force from sophomore forward Mario Puskarich, of Fort Walton Beach, FL., as he scored a goal and added an assist.  The 5′ 9″ forward leads his team in goals scored with 9, and is tied for third in assists with 9, so far this season.  Last year as a freshman he led the team in goals with 19, and was third in assists with 17, and he was named the Hockey East rookie of the year.  Before he came to Vermont, he played a year for the Langley Rivermen of the BCHL, where he led the league in scoring with 41 goals, and he added 45 assists.  His hometown of Fort Walton Beach is on the Florida panhandle, 41 miles east of Pensacola.  It is primarily a military and tourist town of 20,000 people, and there is also a fishing industry there.  Two Air Force bases sit right next to Fort Walton Beach:  Elgin Air Force Base, with 16,000 people, and Hurlburt Field with 12,000.  Speaking from experience, it has just about the most brilliant white sand beaches you’ll ever see, and magically beautiful turquoise water at the beach.  And lots of gulf oysters!

College Hockey is about to enter the second half of the season.  Here’s a quick look at what’s in store for the ten teams currently ranked in the top ten, with an eye towards which teams seem to have the greatest probability of remaining in the top ten, as determined by how many games they have coming up against top-ten opponents, and other ranked opponets:

1. Boston University — 5 against top ten;  plus 1 against other ranked teams;
2. North Dakota — 4 against top ten;  plus 4 against other ranked teams;
3. Mankato State — 3 against top ten;  0 against other ranked teams;
4. Harvard — 1 against top ten;  plus 3 against other ranked teams;
5. Michigan Tech — 2 against top ten;  plus 2 against other ranked teams;
6. Miami of Ohio — 4 against top ten;  plus 4 against other ranked teams;
7. Minnesota-Duluth — 4 against top ten;  plus 4 against other ranked teams;
8. Minnesota — 1 against top ten;  plus 5 against other ranked teams;
9. UMass-Lowell — 4 against top ten;  plus 5 against other ranked teams;
10. Vermont — 4 against top ten;  plus 5 against other ranked teams.

So we’ll see how this all plays out.  This weekend one top ten team will face a ranked team as #7 Minnesota hosts #18 Merrimack College at the Mariucci Classic, and one of the two teams in the matchup will then play #9 UMass-Lowell.  In addition, two ranked teams will play as #13 Bowling Green and #19 Robert Morris will have a home/home series.

This provides the top ten teams as of Dec. 15, rankings, records, and most recent results:

[table id=99 /]

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

Happy New Year to you all!

— Tom