College Hockey Update:  Last weekend featured five matchups between top ten teams and other ranked teams; let’s start with the North Star College Cup, as it contains three of these teams. Mankato State started out by beating Minnesota on Friday night, while Minnesota-Duluth was upended by Bemidji State; that set up a Saturday night championship victory by . . . . Bemidji State over Mankato State, and a consolation win by Minnesota-Duluth over Minnesota.  With all that said and done, Mankato State moved down two to #3, Minnesota-Duluth held at #7, and Minnesota fell from #17 out of the top twenty.  Boston University edged up to #2 on the combination of its sweep over Vermont, and Mankato’s loss; Vermont dropped three slots to #15.

Harvard easily toppled Colgate, and Harvard held at #4 as they had lost to Cornell the night before; Colgate slipped a couple of spots down to #17.  Miami of Ohio split the weekend with Denver; Miami held at #9, and Denver held at #11.  And UMass-Lowell ran into a buzz saw called Providence, as Providence swept the River Hawks, dropping Lowell five spots to #10, while Providence jumped up six spots to #12.  North Dakota’s sweep of Colorado College, coupled with Mankato’s loss, edged the team to be named later up to #1, while Bowling Green held at #6 after splitting with Lake Superior State.  Meanwhile, Michigan Tech’s moved up two spots to #8 on its sweep of Alasak-Fairbanks.  And an idle Nebraska-Omaha jumped up three spots to #5.

Last weekend North Dakota had huge help from senior, yes, you got that right, senior forward Mark McMillan, of Penticton, BC, as he scored a goal in his team’s 2-1 win Friday night, and scored another goal in his team’s 5-3 win Saturday night, both over Colorado College.  The 6 foot tall, 184 pound forward leads the team in goals with thirteen, and is tied for sixth in assists with eight.  His junior year he was fourth on the team in goals, and third on the team in points, with 26.  As a sophomore he scored thirteen goals and made twelve assists, and his freshman year he scored seven goals and made sixteen assists.  He played at North Dakota for two seasons with his older brother, Mitch, after Mitch transferred to North Dakota from St. Cloud State.  He was selected by Montreal in the fourth round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, with the 113th pick.  He also played the 2010-11 season with the Penticton Vees of the BCHL, and he scored 21 goals and made 36 assists in 36 games with the Vees.

His hometown of Penticton sits right in the middle of BC, just over the border from the state of Washington.  Its sixteen square miles is home to 33,000, and the total population of Penticton and its surrounding area is 42,000.  It is located between Lakes Okanagan and Skaha, where there is a year-round flow from Lake Okanagan into Lake Skaha.  The first white settlement came in 1866, which led to a cattle industry and the planting of fruit trees.  It was incorporated as a municipal district in 1908, which was the year the fruit trees were first known to bear fruit.  Growth came with the building of a rail line into town in 1918, and more so with the completion of a highway into town in 1948.  Penticton’s many festivals and abundance of recreation — skiing, hunting, biking, boating, fishing, rock climbing, and golf — as well as its 110 nearby wineries, make it a vacation destination.  It sits at 1,263 feet, and its average low temperature in January and February is 27, and its record low is -17.  On average it gets only ten inches or rainfall and twenty-three inches of snow per year.

The next four nights — and starting quite soon, as in only about three hours away — provide a couple of top ten matchups, and a couple of top ten teams facing other ranked teams.  #1 North Dakota will travel to play two at #5 Nebraska-Omaha, and #7 Minnesota-Duluth will travel to play two at #11 Denver.  #10 UMass-Lowell will have a home/home series with #19 Merrimack.

Monday night there’s the start of this year’s Beanpot Tournament in Boston.  This will be the 64th edition of this in-season tournament, with #2 Boston University playing #4 Harvard in the first game at 2pm PT, and then #14 Boston College playing Northeastern at 5pm PT.  This tournament should be very good tests of all teams.  BU has not fared well against this field, having lost to Harvard prior to the Christmas break, and then to BC recently.  BC has rebounded/held at #14 of late, and Northeastern has only one loss in its last ten outings.  Should be a great one.

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

[table id=103 /] 

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

— Tom