College Hockey Update:  Last week/end presented one matchup of a top ten team facing another ranked team, and Boston University ran up an early score against UMass-Lowell, stifled a late UMass-Lowell rally, holding it to a couple of goals, and then scored late on UMass-Lowell to take a convincing win.  BU held at #3 on the weekend, and UMass-Lowell dropped down four notches to #16 — UMass-Lowell, after going on a six game winning streak, has surprisingly lost seven of its last nine.  Similarly, Harvard is suddenly on the ropes — they not only lost the Beanpot opener to BU on February 2nd, but the previously #6 ranked Crimson went on to lose to Yale and Brown last weekend, and after an eight game winning streak, has also lost seven of its last nine, and finds itself eight pegs down the rankings from the previous week, at #14.

Almost all of the top ten teams won all the games they played last week/end — the exceptions would be Harvard, which exited the top ten, and Boston Colege, which re-entered the top ten in this week’s poll.  So . . . . Mankato State continues to do what the top ranked team should do when it plays unranked opponents — slam ’em!  They slammed Alaska-Anchorage in a sweep last weekend and held onto the #1 spot; Michigan Tech swept Bemidji State and held at #5. Minnesota-Duluth swept Northern Michigan and rose up a spot to #6; Miami of Ohio beat Western Michigan and rose up a spot to #7; and Bowling Green swept Ferris State, and held at #8. Denver’s win over Colorado College edged the Pioneers up to #9; and BC dropped a game to a hot Northeastern, then beat Merrimack the next night, edging BC into the top ten at #10; as a result, Merrimack was knocked from #18 out of the rankings.

The continued heavy snow in Boston has led to a two week delay in the final/consolation games of the Beanpot Tournament, which will be held on Monday, February 23rd, barring another blizzard.  Boston now has five feet of snow on the ground.

#4 Nebraska-Omaha has had huge help this season from sophomore forward Austin Ortega, of Escondido, CA., who leads his team in goals scored, with 15, and is third on the team in assists, with 13.  Prior to UNO he split the 2012-13 season between Indiana and Fargo of the USHL; he scored 24 goals and had 18 assists in 44 games for Indiana, then he scored 10 goals and added 8 assists in 22 games with Fargo.  He also had 8 goals and 4 assists in 13 playoff games that season.  In the previous season, he scored 19 goals and made 14 assists in 59 games.

His hometown of Escondido, CA., sits in a shallow valley thirty miles north of downtown San Diego, and was incorporated in 1888.  Today it is home to 144,000 people,who suffer through an average December and January low of 42 degrees. It was the hometown of MLB pitcher Randy Johnson, and former NFL and USC quarterback Sean Salisbury, who now announces on ESPN. It was also the hometown of George Horne, the first ever to high jump over two meters, and the bronze medal recipient in the high jump in the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm.

This weekend there will be one top ten matchup as #2 North Dakota will host #9 Denver for two games.  In addition, one top ten team will face another ranked opponent as #10 Boston College will host #17 Vermont for two games.

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

 [table id=105 /] 

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

— Tom