College Hockey Update:  Last weekend presented seven top twenty matchups, and Clarkson moved up two spots to #3 on its win Saturday night over Providence, as Providence edged up to #9 (Clarkson beat RPI Friday night, and Providence beat Maine Friday night, both games in the opening round of the Friendship Four Tournament in Belfast, Northern Ireland).

Notre Dame held at #4 after hosting and sweeping Minnesota, which edged Minnesota down to #7.  Cornell moved up two pegs to #4 after beating Boston University at Madison Square Garden Saturday night, knocking BU out of the top twenty (the BU freefall seems to have no limits; this is the first time Cornell beat BU in this game in the six times it has been played over and 11 year period); Cornell also beat Niagara last Tuesday night.

North Dakota dropped three notches to #6 after they hosted, lost to, and tied, Union College, as Union entered the top twenty at #19; and Mankato State held at #8 after they visited and lost to Minnesota-Duluth, as UMD held at #16.  Western Michigan edged up to #10 after hosting and splitting with Colgate, which edged Colgate up to #17; and Ohio State jumped up four rungs to #11 after sweeping Michigan, knocking them out of the top twenty.

Elsewhere, New Hampshire held at #13 after visiting and beating Yale; and Wisconsin dropped five spots to #14 after hosting and splitting with Mercyhurst.  Boston College edged down to #15 after they hosted and tied Harvard; and Nebraska-Omaha entered the top twenty at #20 after hosting and sweeping Northern Michigan.  On idle weekends:  Denver held at #1; St. Cloud State held at #2; Northeastern held at #12; and UMass-Lowell edged up to #18.

Cornell had huge help last week from their senior forward Trevor Yates, of Beaconsfield, QUE., who scored the game-winning goal with only three minutes remaining, and added an assist in his team’s 5-4 home win over Niagara last Tuesday night, and scored a goal in his team’s 4-3 win over Boston University Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. Yates is first on his team in goals scored, with seven, and is tied for sixth in assists, with four.  Last year he tied for second in goals, with 12, and tied for seventh in assist with ten.  As a sophomore he tied for fifth in goals, with six, and was tenth in assists with seven; and his freshman year he tied for thirteenth in goals with one, and tied for tenth in assists with three.  He came to Cornell from Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, MA., where he scored 25 goals and added 23 assists as assistant captain his senior year, and scored 18 goals and added 13 assists his junior year; he compiled 104 points over his three years on the team there.  His hometown of Beaconsfield, QUE., is on the Island of Montreal, about twelve miles from the City of Montreal, and is home to 19,000.  It sits on the Lac St. Louis section of the St. Lawrence River, and was first settled in 1698.

Cornell University was founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell, the founder of Western Union.  Its enrollment numbers 14,000 undergraduates and 7,000 graduate students, in seven undergraduate colleges and seven graduate colleges.  While it was founded as a private school, and it still is, it is very unusual in that some of the schools are state supported by the State University of New York system, or are under contract with the SUNY system; three of the undergraduate colleges or schools have this status, and one of the graduate schools, the Veterinary School, has this status.  Cornell Hockey has won the NCAA title twice, in 1967 and 1970; the 1970 team is the only team in NCAA history to win the national title and go undefeated and untied, with a record of 29-0-0.  Cornell is coached by Mike Schafer, who started there in 1995 and has completed 22 seasons with a 412-242-89 record.  He was a defenseman at Cornell, having graduated in 1986.  He started coaching as an assitant at Cornell, then as an assistant at Western Michigan for four years immediately prior to becoming the head coach at Cornell.  His teams have made ten appearances in the NCAA Tournament, and made it to the Frozen Four in 2003.  Cornell is 9-1-0, is ranked #5, and travels to play two games at Miami of Ohio this weekend.

Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, Cornell was very active in the first, and got on the board with a Beau Starrett goal with five minutes left in the period, to take the 1-0 lead at the break; Cornell outshot Boston University 15-9 in the first.  In the second BU came to life, but surrendered two more unanswered goals.  The first was on a defensive breakdown seven minutes into the period when BU tried to clear the puck out of the Cornell zone at the left point, but Cornell turned it around and fed the puck to a player down the board, who was in a group of four other players, three from BU and two from Cornell.  All three BU defenders converged on the puck while Trevor Yates read the situation and slipped slowly from the pack into wide open ice near the net; the Cornell player fed him the puck, and Yates scored on a one-on-one against the BU goalie.  Two minutes later Alec McRea converted a power play opportunity for Cornell to make it 3-0.  BU fired off 15 shots in the period, but was held off by Cornell, as they scored their two goals on only six shots, taking their 3-0 lead into the break.  In the third, BU was again very active, and was able to convert on a power play opportunity when Dante Fabbro scored five minutes into the period to make it 3-1, Cornell.  Cornell continued to contain BU and seven minutes later scored on a Tristan Mullin goal, opening their lead to 4-1.  Two minutes later on a power play, BU added an extra attacker, and it paid off when Chad Krys scored and shrunk the Cornell lead to 4-2.  With five minutes left in the game a Patrick Harper goal shrunk the Cornell lead again to 4-3.  Boston University outshot Cornell 16-9 in the third, and 38-30 in the game, but Cornell held BU off for the last five minutes to take the win at 4-3.

This series at Madison Square Garden has been played six times in the last eleven years between Cornell and BU, and this is the first win for Cornell.  The winner takes home the Kelley-Harkness cup, named for the two great coaches in place when Cornell beat BU in the NCAA Title Game in 1967, BU Coach Jack Kelley, and Cornell Coach Ned Harkness.  Harkness would go on to coach Cornell’s perfect 29-0-0 team to another NCAA Title in 1970; Kelley would go on to coach BU to two consecutive NCAA Titles in 1971 and 1972.  Harkness was the head hockey coach and head lacrosse coach at RPI from 1949-63, winning the NCAA Hockey Title in 1954, and compiling a 176-96-7 hockey record; he was the head hockey coach and head lacrosse coach at Cornell from 1963-70, winning two NCAA Hockey Titles, and compiling 163-27-2 hockey record, and he ended his career coaching hockey at Union College as a DIII program from 1975-78, compiling a 45-8-2 record.  His lifetime record is 384-131-11, an astounding 74.0%.  He left Cornell to coach the Detroit Red Wings in 1970-71, and then became general manager from 1971-74.  Jack Kelley was the head hockey coach at Boston University from 1962-72, compiling a 208-80-8 record, a respectable 71.6%.  He left BU and became the coach and general manager of the New England Whalers from 1972-75, general manager from 1977-81, and president of the Pittsburgh Penguins from 1993-2001.  Two pretty deserving coaches to have a cup named after.  Jack Kelley is 90 years old, and Ned Harkness died in 2008 at the age of 89.

This weekend presents five top twenty matchups as #1 Demver plays two at #16 Minnesota-Duluth; #2 St. Cloud State plays two at #20 Nebraska-Omaha; #6 North Dakota hosts #10 Western Michigan for two games; #7 Minnesota hosts #14 Wisconsin for two games; and #9 Providence hosts #13 New Hampshire for two games.

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

[table id=158 /]

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

— Tom