College Hockey Update:  Last week ended up presenting three top ten matchups, and Denver edged down to #4 after they traveled to, and settled on two ties with, North Dakota on Friday and Saturday, which edged the Fighting Hawks into the top ten at #10.  Mankato State held on to the #7 spot after they hosted and beat Minnesota-Duluth last Tuesday night; Minnesota Duluth edged down to #9 after that, and after they then hosted and split with St. Cloud State Friday and Saturday, which also edged the Huskies down to #6.  Elsewhere, Cornell edged up to #1 after a weekend on the road, beating both Harvard and Dartmouth, and Notre Dame edged down to #2 after a weekend on the road, splitting with Minnesota.  Clarkson held at #3 after a weekend at home, beating Yale and tying Brown; Ohio State edged up to #5 after hosting, and sweeping, Michigan, and Providence moved up two spots to #8 after they settled on a tie at Northeastern Friday night, then hosted and beat Northeastern Saturday night, knocking Northeastern down three pegs, and out of the top ten, to #11.

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Last weekend Cornell had huge help from junior forward Anthony Angello, who scored all three of his team’s goals in Friday night’s 3-0 win at Harvard, and scored a goal in his team’s 3-1 win Satruday night at Dartmouth.  The 6′ 5″ 205lb forward is first on his team in goals scored, with twelve, and is tied for fourth in assists, with eight.  He’s been a serious contributor at Cornell in all three of his seasons; as a sophomore he was tied for second in goals with twelve, and was twelfth in assists with eight, and as a freshman he was first in goals with eleven, and was second in assists with thirteen.  He was selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the fifth round of the 2014 NHL entry draft with the 146th pick overall.  His hometown of Manilus, NY, first settled in 1790, sits at an elevation of 670 feet, ten miles east of Syracuse, and is home to 32,000.

Cornell is 18-2-1, is on a ten-game unbeaten streak, is ranked #1, and will host Union College this Friday night, and will host Dartmouth Saturday.  How is Cornell doing what they do?  Probably no surprise to read that they have a goalie who has numbers similar to those we posted for the Notre Dame goalie a few weeks ago.  Freshman goalie Matthew Galajda, or Aurora, ONT., is the anchor for Cornell, with a 1.52 GAA in eighteen games, and a saves percentage of .938.  In their ten game unbeaten streak, the Cornell offense has scored three or less goals in seven of the games.  Even in the last game they lost, Galajda surrendered only two goals.  This team is led in scoring by two primary players, Anthony Angello, with twelve, and Trevor Yates, with eleven.  The 23 goals by these two players comprise 32% of the 71 goals scored in total by the team.  And both are critical in contributing assists, tied for fourth on the team, with eight each.  The top goal scorers are:

• Anthony Angello    12
• Trevor Yates          11
• Alex Rauter             6
• Kyle Betts                5
• Mitch Vanderlaan     4
• Jeff Malott                4
• Morgan Baron          4
• Brendan Smith         4
• Alec McRea              4
• Noah Bauld              4

And the assist leaders are:

• Mitch Vanderlaan    12
• Jeff Malott                11
• Morgan Baron           9
• Anthony Angello        8
• Trevor Yates              8
• Yanni Kaldis               8
• Matt Nuttle                 8
• Brenden Locke          8
• Alex Rauter                7
• Alex Green                 6

Angello and Yates are the keys to the offense on the Cornell team, and they all have Galajda to thank for keeping them in games.

Saturday night at Harvard it truly was the Anthony Angello show.  In the Cornell zone, seven minutes into the first, Yanni Kaldis knocked a Harvard player off the puck and Anthony Angello made a quick break out of the zone as Kaldis fed him the puck.  The Harvard defender played soft off of Angello, as if anticipating an ensuing player could help out.  But Angello pressed the defender and did a slow, delayed turn around the defenders lunge at him in the right circle, and pulled the trigger on a shot that cleared the goalie’s glove inside the right post.  1-0 Cornell.  Following this the teams fought to a forty minute stalemate until seven minutes into the third, when Brenden Locke was working the puck up the left wall in the Harvard zone.  A Harvard defender swatted the puck loose and several players scrambled after the puck as it drifted to the slot. Angello came out of it with the puck and quickly shot, hitting the post, and the ricochet hit the goalie’s back and bounced into the net.  Cornell 2-0.  With time running out, Harvard added an extra attacker.  A Harvard shot from the left point was blocked by Kyle Betts, and it bounced to the wall, where Angello picked it up and raced to the red line and fired in an empty netter with only one second left to make the final 3-0, Cornell.

Now This Contribution From Reader John Kriesel On A Notre Dame/Minnesota Game

I had hoped somehow our Gophers could win one this weekend from Notre Dame.  Good to get them on our Big Ice.  And always easier to win the first one on Friday night.  The teams skated to 0-0 at the end of the game — and Minnesota was a man short the last two minutes.  The Gophers outshot Notre Dame by ten in regulation and played them very well.  At 3:50 of overtime our fab freshman Casey Mittelstadt slapped in a rebound for the 1-0 win.  A great game!

Thanks for this John!!  Hope we can continue to get more of these from you!!

This weekend features a great top ten matchup as #4 Denver will host #9 Minnesota-Duluth for two games on Friday and Saturday nights.  In addition, Monday night the first round of the 66th Annual Beanpot Tournament will be played in Boston.  In the early game at 2:00pm Pacific Time, #11 Northeastern will face #14 Boston College, and in the late game at 5:00pm Pacific Time, Boston University will face Harvard.  The two winners will face off for the championship on the following Monday night, following the consolation game the same night.

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

[table id=166 /]

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

— Tom