College Hockey Update:  Last weekend presented a couple of top fifteen matchups, and Union College edged up to #6 in the poll after settling on a tie with Cornell (Union had beaten Colgate the night before), while Cornell held at #9 (Cornell had beaten R.P.I. the night before).  In another top fifteen matchup, Boston University continued on its slide, edging down to #7 after splitting the weekend with Notre Dame, which edged Notre Dame up to #12.  Elsewhere, Denver held onto the #1 spot in the poll after sweeping St. Cloud State, and Harvard edged up to #2 after beating both Clarkson and St. Lawrence.

Minnesota-Duluth edged down to #3 after managing a win and a tie against Miami of Ohio; UMass-Lowell edged up to #4 after sweeping Boston College; and Minnesota edged down to #5 after splitting with Wisconsin.  Western Michigan held at #8 after splitting with Colorado College, Providence held at #10 after sweeping UMass-Amherst; and Penn State held at #11 after sweeping Michigan State.  Ohio State edged down to #13 after splitting with Michigan; Vermont edged up to #14 after splitting with Merrimack College; and North Dakota edged up and into the top fifteen at #15 after splitting with Nebraska-Omaha.

Last weekend Notre Dame had huge help from its junior forward Jake Evans, of Toronto, ONT., who scored two goals Friday night in his team’s 3-1 win over Boston University, en route to splitting the weekend with BU.  The 6’0″ 181lb forward is third on his team in goals scored, with twelve, and is second on the team in assists, with 23.  He has been a solid contributor to Notre Dame in all three of his years there.  His sophomore year he tied for eighth in goals, with eight, and he was first in assists, with 25.  As a freshman he was tied for eighth in goals, with seven, and tied for eighth in assists, with ten.  He was selected in the seventh round, with the 207th overall pick, in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft, by the Montreal Canadiens.  Notre Dame is 19-10-5 is ranked #12, and has earned a first round bye in the Hockey East Tournament; they will play next at home the weekend of March 10/11, when they will host the highest remaining seed among the eight teams playing in the first round of the tournament this weekend.  Notre Dame finished fourth in Hockey East this year, making the top four, and earning a first round bye, for the second time in their four years in Hockey East.  This is their last year in Hockey East as they will play in the Big 10/7 next year.

Friday night in Boston, Jake Evans got Notre Dame on the board at the midway point of the first period to give Notre Dame a 1-0 lead.  Boston University responded six minutes later with a goal to tie it at one apiece, where it stood going into the break.  While Notre Dame out-shot BU 10-5, BU was making a game of it.  Play evened up in the second with each team getting ten shots off, but it was only productive for Notre Dame, as Ben Ostlie scored a goal with just a minute left in the period, for the 2-1 Notre Dame lead.  In the third period the action tilted to BU as they out-shot Notre Dame 23-6, but it was Notre Dame, being quite efficient, scoring another Jake Evans goal on only six total team shots, with only three minutes left in the game, to give Notre Dame the 3-1 win.  The difference was not only the opportunistic and efficient scoring of Notre Dame, but also their goalie, Cal Petersen, who was big in the net, stopping 37 of 38 BU shots on the night, as opposed to the BU goalie, who surrendered three goals on only 26 Notre Dame shots.  The next night would be the last regular season game of the year for the two teams, and for all teams in Hockey East.  With the standings clotted among the top four teams, it was nearly an “anything is possible” scenario, and the result of Saturday night’s game would have quite an impact on the standing of these two teams, and possibly all four in the race at the top.

Saturday night the two teams played pretty evenly in the first period with Notre Dame out-shooting BU 13-11 and capitalizing on it with only five minutes left in the period when Mike O’Leary scored to give Notre Dame the lead at the break, 1-0.  It looked as though it could be another night of many shots and no/low goals for BU.  In the second the teams played evenly, each getting fourteen shots off, but suddenly it was BU that was efficient, scoring on a power play nine minutes into the period, and then again seven minutes later to take the 2-1 lead into the break.  In the third play was pretty even and Notre Dame held the shot advantage 14-11, but again it was BU that was efficient on the night, scoring a goal four minutes into the period, and then again with three minutes left in the game, to take the 4-1 win.  On this night it was the BU goalie (another Jake, this one Jake Oettinger), who was big in the net, stopping 40 of 41 Notre Dame shots.  Notre Dame’s Cal Peterson stopped 32 of 36 shots.  Quite a game, 77 total shots in 60 minutes, and Friday’s as well — 64 shots in 60 minutes, for a two game, two team total of 141 shots in 120 minutes among two games.  The result of the Saturday night game created a three-way tie for first place in Hockey East among UMass-Lowell (#1 seed), Boston University (#2 seed), and Boston College (#3 seed).  Notre Dame finished fourth in the standings.  All four teams have a first round bye and will play on their home ice the weekend of March 10/11.

So where are we?  Playoffs start this weekend for four of the conferences.  In Atlantic Hockey, #18 Air Force, #23 Canisius and three other teams have byes, while the six bottom teams in the standings are playing in three best-of-three matchups.  In the ECAC, #2 Harvard, #6 Union College, and #9 Cornell are joined by #20 St. Lawrence, which edged out #24 Quinnipiac for the fourth spot and a bye this weekend; all eight bottom teams in the standings are playing in four best-of-three matchups this weekend.  In Hockey East, the first four teams mentioned above in the Notre Dame Saturday night game summary have byes, and the bottom eight teams in the standings are playing in four best-of-three matchups.  In the WCHA, all of the top-eight teams in the standings are in four best-of-three matchups this weekend, with the bottom two teams in the WCHA standings not in the playoffs; the top three teams in the WCHA final standings are #22 Bemidji State, #26 Michigan Tech, and #25 Mankato State.  The NCHC will play its final regular season games this weekend before starting its conference tournament in which there are no byes, and the Big 10/6 has two remaining weekends of regular season games prior to its three-nights-in-a-row conference tournament.

This weekend presents a top fifteen matchup with #3 Minnesota-Duluth at #8 Western Michigan for two games.  Five more top fifteen teams are playing late regular season games, six are idle with first-round tournament byes, and two are in conference tournament play (#10 Providence and #14 Vermont — not facing each other).

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

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

— Tom