College Hockey Update:  Last week presented seven top twenty matchups starting with a real humdinger as Denver moved up a couple of spots to #1 after hosting and sweeping St. Cloud State, which edged St. Cloud down to #2.  Notre Dame moved up two rungs to #4 after they swept Penn State, knocking Penn State out of the top twenty.  Cornell jumped up 8 pegs to #6 after beating Harvard, and Harvard dropped 8 notches to #13; Cornell also hosted and beat Dartmouth the night before, and Harvard traveled to, and lost at, Colgate the night before (Colgate additionally hosted, and beat Dartmouth, and Colgate entered the top twenty at #19).

Minnesota dropped three rungs to #7 after they traveled to, lost to, and tied Michigan; Michigan entered the top twenty at #17.  New Hampshire dropped two spots to #11 after losing to Boston University, and BU dropped three pegs to #18; New Hampshire hosted and lost to UMass-Lowell the night before, and BU hosted and lost to Northeastern the night before (Northeastern additionally traveled to, and lost to UMass-Lowell, and Northeastern edged up to #12).  Minnesota-Duluth dropped two notches to #14 after hosting and splitting with Western Michigan, which moved Western Michigan up three spots to #15.  Whew!  Once again the top twenty matchups accounted for nearly the entire top twenty teams.

Elsewhere, North Dakota edged down to #3 after they hosted, beat, and tied, Miami of Ohio; Mankato State leaped up five pegs to #5 after traveling to and sweeping Bemidji State; and Clarkson moved up three notches to #8 after they beat Brown and Yale, both on the road.  Wisconsin dropped two rungs to #9 after they traveled to, and split with, Michigan State; Providence dropped two spots to #10 after they split a home-and-home weekend with UMass-Amherst; Ohio State edged up to #16 after they traveled to, beat, and tied Connecticut, and Northern Michigan held at #20 after splitting a home-and-home weekend with Michigan Tech.

Last weekend Notre Dame had huge help from their senior forward Bo Brauer, of Edina, MN., who scored a goal in their 5-3 win Friday night, and scored the only goal in their 1-0 win Saturday night, both at home against Penn State.  The 6′ 3″ 210lb senior is tied for tenth on the team in goals scored with two, and is tied for twelfth on the team in assists, with two.  Last year he was tied for twelfth on the team in goals with three, and was tied for eighteenth in assists with two.  His full name is William Wilken Brauer III, and with a name like that he fits right into Edina and the adjacent towns in the area.  His hometown, like all the other suburbs just south of Minneapolis and St. Paul that are tucked in just to the west of the Mississippi River, is a hoity toity spot filled with bakeries that are just bustling with cakes.  In fact, the area boasts having more bakeries per capita than any other similar-sized stretch of towns in the country.  In addition it has the highest per capita consumption of fresh baked bakery cakes.  In fact, a very common practice of people there is to buy two cakes at a time; one to eat, and one just to have and to look at.  The Queen of Cakes, Patisserie Margot, Patrick’s Bakery, The Wuollet Bakery, and Patisserie 46 are the top Bakeries there for cakes, and are but a small sample of the endless supply of cakes for the population.  Other establishments, such as Perkins, are so successful that they have become both restaurants and bakeries, and are in multiple towns in the area, to take advantage of the endless demand from the relentless cake-eating public residing in the area.

Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson is in his 13th season in South Bend, and he previously coached six seasons at Lake Superior State, where his teams captured two NCAA titles.  His teams have made 14 NCAA appearances in his 18 years of coaching.  The success of his Notre Dame teams includes a trip to the title game in 2008, and two trips to the frozen four in 2011, and in April of this year.  Notre Dame is 8-3-1, ranked #4, and will play two games at Rensselaer this weekend.  This #4 ranking is deserved, not granted.  It appears that Jeff Jackson has things very well figured out, and that for the foreseeable future, this will be the highest ranked team of all sports at Notre Dame.

Friday night at Notre Dame, Penn State got on the board first with a Blake Gober goal five minutes into the period.  But WWB III tallied seven minutes later to tie it at two apiece.  Penn State sneaked one in right before the end of the period to take the 2-1 lead at the break.  Notre Dame goals at the nine and fourteen minute points of the second by Bobby Nardella and Andrew Ogelvie gave the Irish a 3-2 lead, until Penn Sate struck again with four minutes left in the second to tie it at three apiece.  In the third a Dawson Cook goal twelve minutes into the period gave Notre Dame the lead again at 4-3.  And Jack Jenkins found an empty net with a half minute left in the game to make the final 5-3, Notre Dame.  This was a really entertaining game.

This weekend presents five top twenty matchups as #1 Denver will host #3 North Dakota for two games, and #6 Cornell hosts #8 Clarkson for one game Saturday night.  #7 Minnesota will host #13 Harvard for two games, #8 Clarkson will play at #19 Colgate for one game tonight, and #9 Wisconsin hosts #17 Michigan for two games.

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

[table id=156 /]

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

— Tom