College Hockey Update:  Last week presented seven top twenty matchups starting with a barn-burner of #1 Denver hosting, and splitting with #3 North Dakota, and both teams holding onto their places in the polls.  Clarkson jumped up three spots to #5 after they traveled to, and  blanked, Cornell, which edged Cornell down to #7; Clarkson also visited and beat Colgate Friday night, as Colgate edged up to #18 (Cornell beat St. Lawrence Friday night; and Colgate went on to beat St. Lawrence Saturday night).  Minnesota edged up to #6 after hosting and sweeping Harvard, and knocking them out of the top twenty; and Wisconsin held at #9 after they hosted, beat, and tied Michigan; Michigan held at #17 on the weekend.  Northeastern held at #12 after hosting, and losing to, Boston College Saturday night, which shot BC into the top twenty at #14 (Northeastern hosted and beat Vermont Friday night); Boston College additionally traveled to, and beat, New Hampshire, Friday night, which dropped UNH two pegs to #13.

Elsewhere, St. Cloud State held at #2 after hosting and sweeping Colorado College; Notre Dame held at #4 after traveling to, and sweeping, RPI; and Mankato State dropped three notches to #8 after hosting, and splitting with, Bowling Green.  Providence held at #10 after they hosted, beat and tied, Merrimack; Western Michigan jumped up four spots to #11 after hosting and sweeping Nebraska-Omaha; and Minnesota-Duluth dropped two rungs to #16 after traveling to, and splitting with, Miami of Ohio.  Boston University edged down to #19 after traveling to, and splitting with, Maine (yes, that’s how bad this BU free-fall is, they lost to Maine); UMass-Lowell entered the top twenty at #20 after sweeping Connecticut in a home-and-home series; and Ohio State edged up to #15 on its idle weekend.

Last weekend Clarkson had huge help from its sophomore forward Sheldon Rempal, of Calgary, ALB., who scored two goals in his team’s 5-2 win at Colgate Friday night, and scored a goal and added an assist in his team’s 4-0 win at then-ranked #5 Cornell Saturday night.  The 5’10” 165lb sophomore is first on his team in goals scored with 11, and is tied for fifth in assists with seven.  As a freshman, he scored 11 goals, and added 12 assists.  Prior to Clarkson he played for the Nanaimo Clippers of the BCHL, which by coincidence is also the team that last week’s featured player, Bo Brauer, played for before going to Notre Dame; the two were teammates in the 2013-14 season.  In Rempal’s three seasons with the Clippers, he scored 110 goals and added 103 assists in 167 games; in his last season alone, he scored 59 goals and added 51 assists in 56 games.

Saturday night at Cornell, it really was all Clarkson, as the score indicates.  Clarkson jumped on Cornell early, on a power play goal by freshman defenseman Jere Astren, to make it 1-0.  Each team had seven penalties during the course of the game.  Only two minutes later freshman forward Jack Jacome scored for Clarkson to make it 2-0, and Cornell was in a hole only five minutes into the game.  The remainder of the period played fairly evenly, and the period ended 2-0, Clarkson, and Clarkson had only a slight advantage in shots, 9-7.  The second went differently.  While the game went scoreless for thirty minutes, Clarkson dominated the second, containing Cornell to only three shots, compared to 11 by Clarkson.  But with about four minutes left in the period, it was Sheldon Rempal who broke the scoreless stretch, netting one to make it 3-0.  And only half a minute later, senior defenseman Terrance Amorosa scored on another power play to make it 4-0.  In the third the defenses really took over, and the period was scoreless, with Cornell only getting five shots off, and Clarkson only three.  Clarkson ended the night with 23 shots on goal, while Cornell only managed to take fifteen.  Cornell was unable to capitalize on its six power play opportunities, while Clarkson managed two goals on the six opportunities they had.

Clarkson University was founded in 1896, is located in Potsdam, NY., and sits on a 640 acre campus.  Its 4,300 undergraduate and graduate students can choose from fifty majors offered from its College of Arts and Sciences, School of Business, and School of Engineering.  Clarkson coach Casey Jones is in his seventh season.  Prior to becoming the Clarkson coach, he served as a Clarkson assistant coach (it was his second stint as a Clarkson assistant), had three stints as an assistant coach at Cornell, and served as an assistant coach at Ohio State for thirteen years.  He was a four-year letter winner at Cornell, playing from 1986-90, where he scored 30 goals and added 82 assists over 112 games; he was team captain his senior year and was drafted by the Boston Bruins in the tenth round of the 1987 entry draft.  He coached Clarkson to a twenty-win season in 2015-16, and to a twenty-one-win season in 2013-14, and in both of those years the team ended fifth in the ECAC.  Clarkson is 10-3-1, ranked #5, and travels to Belfast, Northern Ireland, to play play R.P.I. Friday, and then either #10 Providence or Maine on Saturday night.

This weekend presents five top-twenty matchups, as #4 Notre Dame hosts #6 Minnesota for two games; #7 Cornell faces #19 Boston University at Madison Square Garden Saturday night; #8 Mankato State travels to play one game at #16 Minnesota-Duluth Saturday night; #11 Western Michigan hosts #18 Colgate for two games; and #15 Ohio State travels to play two games at #17 Michigan.  In addition, as mentioned above, #5 Clarkson could possibly play #10 Providence Saturday night in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

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

[table id=157 /]

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

— Tom