College Hockey Update:  Last week presented three top-ten matchups, starting with #2 North Dakota playing two at #4 Nebraska-Omaha, and Friday night UNO jumped out to a 1-0 lead late in the first, and added one to make it 2-0 early in the second; on the ropes in the third, North Dakota rallied to net one early on, and with their backs against the wall added an extra attacker, tying it up at 2-2 with only 48 seconds left, only to see UNO come back and score in OT with only 33 seconds left, to take it, 3-2.  How could they follow that one up?  Saturday night did not disappoint, as North Dakota got on the board first, only a half-minute into the opening frame.  From that point on the two teams traded goals evenly, with the first ending 2-1, North Dakota.  After a scoreless second, the two traded goals in the first ten minutes to make it 3-2 North Dakota, and then with only three and half minutes to play, UNO tied it up, 3-3, where it stood at the end of regulation; another tie.  North Dakota scored only two minutes into the OT period to take the second game as the two teams split the weekend.  The results knocked North Dakota down a peg to #2, and lifted UNO up a notch to #4.

Tuesday night saw a one-day delay in the 63rd Beanpot, as another foot of snow Monday brought the snow on the ground total to about forty inches, making it  pretty difficult for fans to get downtown to the garden to see the games, but somehow 14,500 people showed up.  In the first contest, which I was lucky enough to watch, BU got on the board seventeen minutes into the first, but Harvard scored a minute later to tie it at one, which is how the first ended.  Harvard had just out-skated and outshot BU in the first, and it continued into the second, as they scored twenty seconds into the period, and again eight minutes later, to make it 3-1, Harvard; Harvard had many chances to make it an even bigger lead, but they were repelled by the Terriers.  The second half of the period saw quite a reversal as BU became the machine on the march,  and scored with five minutes remaining, and then again with only 23 seconds left, to tie it up at 3-3 after two.  BU outshot Harvard badly in the second, and again in the third, but to no avail, as the teams ended regulation still tied at 3-3.  In the third period, and in the first OT, BU was able to keep the puck in the Harvard zone quite a bit, but Harvard consistently presented a solid defensive set, making quality shots difficult for BU to get; so while they badly outshot Harvard in the third and in the first OT, a good number of the shots were straight onto the goalie.  On the other hand, while Harvard had much less success keeping the puck in the BU zone for very long, when they got their hands on the puck, they were able to do a better job of quickly transitioning their offense down the ice before the BU defense was set, and they were able to get better scoring opportunities, including a few shots ringing off the pipes, and in one instance in the third, flipping the puck up and on top of a pile of players inside the net — the referee and the video review afterwards declared the puck did not cross the line and play was whistled dead, so Harvard did not get that goal.

In the first OT, a Harvard breakaway did not yield a goal on the first shot, and a Harvard player was in position to pick up the trash, but before he shot, the first Harvard player had fallen to the ice, slid into the outstretch BU goalie, and the impact dislodged the net.  In the second OT, BU again greatly outshot Harvard, but they looked like the more energized team in this frame, and Harvard looked back on their heels; two minutes into the frame, BU’s Evan Rodgriques stripped the puck from a Harvard player in transition in the Harvard zone; Rodrigues went left, quickly to the goal, drawing the goalie with him, and quickly fired the puck across to BU’s Danny O’Regan, who flew down the zone on the right side of the net, and O’Regan put the biscuit in the basket for the 4-3 BU 2OT win.  BU had beaten UMass-Amherst on Friday night, and dropped a notch to #3 in the poll which came out on Monday, prior to the Beanpot; Harvard had lost to Union Friday night, and had dropped a couple of spots to #6 in Monday’s poll.  Of note, Evan Rodrigues had two assists for BU in Tuesday night’s win, adding to the six, yes six assists he had in Friday nights 9-5 win over UMass, tying the single game record at BU.  Harvard goalie Steve Michalek had 63 saves on BU’s 67 shots, which is the new saves single game record at Harvard in it’s history since 1899, and is the new Beanpot single game record as well.

In the second Beanpot game, #11 Boston College was upended by Northeastern 3-2, with 1:34 remaining in the game.  The two had played a scoreless first, and then traded goals evenly throughout the second, ending it at 2-2.  It looked like another OT game until Northeastern’s Dustin Darou scored the game winner.  Prior to this game, BC had been on a serious roll, losing only once in its last twelve outings, compiling a 9-1-2 record in that span.  Northeastern is a heck of a story themselves, having started the season at 0-8-1, and then turning the corner and going 11-3-3 since, improving their record to .500, including going 4-0-1 in their last five outings.

Out in Denver, Minnesota -Duluth played two last weekend, losing Friday night in a game in which Denver went up 3-1 early in the second; UMD scored late in the second to make it 3-2, but that was it for the scoring, and Denver took it, 3-2.  Saturday night UMD similarly built up a 3-1 lead in the second; Denver scored early in the third to make it 3-2, and late in the third added an extra attacker, but UMD found the empty net with a minute to go, making the final 4-2, as the two teams split the weekend.

Elsewhere, Mankato State jumped up two spots to #1 after sweeping Ferris State in a couple of one-sided matches; and Michigan Tech jumped up three spots to #5 after sweeping Alabama-Huntsville.  Bowling Green dropped two spots to #8 after losing, then tying Bemidji State (a team which seems to be causing a lot of headaches for a lot of teams lately), and Miami of Ohio played to a tie at Western Michigan Saturday night, and Miami rose up a peg to #8, same ranking as Bowling Green.  Last week’s #10, UMass-Lowell, dropped a couple of spots to #12, after splitting with Merrimack College; Merrimack rose up a notch to #18 on the weekend’s results.

In the last week, Boston University had huge, huge help from junior forward Ahti Oksanen, of Kirkkonummi, Finland, as he scored a hat trick in Friday night’s 9-5 win over UMass-Amherst, and then added a goal and an assist in Tuesday night’s 4-3 2OT Beanpot win over Harvard.  He was moved from defenseman to forward this year by second-year BU Coach David Quinn.  As a result, he is currently second on the team in goals scored, with 17, and he is tied for eighth in assists, with 7.  As a sophomore he led defensemen in goals, with 7, and was first on the team in assists, with 17.  His Freshman year he was third among defensemen in scoring, with four goals, and thirteen assists.  He played previously with the Espoo Blues and was the top scoring defenseman in 2011-12, with 14 goals and 27 assists in 51 games.  in 2010-11 he split time on the Espoo U20 and U18 teams, totaling 15 points over 22 games in an injury-shortened season.

His hometown of Kirkkonummi sits in very southern Finland, and is home to 38,000 people  It is twenty miles from Helsinki, just outside of that metropolitan area, and ten miles from Espoo.  It is the fastest growing town in Finland, having grown at 3% over the past several years.  It has been populated since the stone age, and was first chartered as a town in 1330.  Its port was leased to the USSR from 1945-46 as a submarine base, as part of the treaty that ended World War II.  This is a very, very cold place, and in the winter, well, let’s just say it’s dark a whole lot.  It is as far north as the southern tip of Greenland, about as far north as 2/3 the way north up Hudson Bay, and about as far north as Anchorage, AK.

This weekend/next week presents three matchups of top ten teams playing ranked opponents. Friday night #3 Boston University travels to play one game at #12 UMass-Lowell, and #6 Harvard travels to play one game at #15 Yale.  Then next Monday night, #6 Harvard will face #11 Boston College in the early consolation game of the Beanpot Tournament (which will be followed by BU playing Northeastern).

This provides the top ten teams, rankings, records, and last weekend’s results (as of Monday):

[table id=104 /] 

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

— Tom