College Hockey Update:  Last week presented two top-twelve matchups, as Notre Dame held at #1 and Ohio State held at #6 after the two split two games at Notre Dame, while Cornell edged down to #4 and Clarkson held at #7 after the two tied Friday night at Clarkson (Cornell visited and beat St. Lawrence Saturday night, and Clarkson hosted and tied Colgate Saturday night).  Elsewhere, St. Cloud State edged up to #3 after visiting and sweeping Miami of Ohio; Mankato State held at #5 after visiting and sweeping Alabama-Huntsville; and Providence edged up to #8 after hosting and beating Maine Friday night.  North Dakota edged down to #9 after hosting and splitting with Colorado College; Minnesota moved up two spots to #10 after visiting and sweeping Wisconsin; and Northeastern edged down to #12 after beating Boston College last Monday night on neutral ice in the Beanpot Tournament, then hosting and losing to Connecticut Saturday night.  An idle Denver held at #2 and idle Minnesota-Duluth edged down to #11.

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Last weekend St. Cloud State had huge help from junior forward Patrick Newell, of Thousand Oaks, CA.  Saturday night St. Cloud State skated to a 0-0 first period tie at Miami of Ohio, and were out-shot 8-6 in the period.  Nick Poehling gave St. Cloud a 1-0 lead four minutes into the second.  Miami of Ohio was more active offensively in the period, getting nine shots off, but St. Cloud State was extremely efficient, scoring on only five shots.  Miami also had a shot advantage of 13-10 in the third, but could not capitalize on any of their offensive efforts, while Patrick Newell scored at the midway point, giving St. Cloud the 2-0 lead.  Then St. Cloud State scored a couple of great goals in the period.  Patrick Newell struck again on a short-handed, four-on-five, empty net goal, with four minutes left, and then Judd Peterson did the same, a short-handed, four-on-five, empty netter, with two minutes left (assisted by Patrick Newell), to give St. Cloud State the 4-0 shutout and sweep of Miami of Ohio on the weekend.

Newell also tallied an assist in his team’s win Friday night.  The 5’9″ 155lb lefty is tied for tenth on his team in goals scored, with five, and is fifth in assists, with fourteen.  Last year he was tied for 11th in goals scored, with four, and was first in assists, with 20; as a freshman he was 12th in goals scored, with seven, and was tenth in assists, with 15.  In the 2012-13 season he played 20 games for the Indiana Ice of the USHL, scoring three goals and adding 12 assists, and then played 42 games with the Fairbanks Ice Dogs of the NAHL, scoring ten goals and adding 12 assists.  The next season he played 71 games with the Indiana Ice, scoring 17 goals and adding 33 assists; in the following season he played 78 games with the Penciton Vees of the BCHL, scoring 19 goals and adding 42 assists.  His hometown of Thousand Oaks sits at an elevation of 890 feet, is 35 miles from downtown Los Angeles,  was incorporated in 1964, and has a population of 129,000.

St. Cloud State was founded in 1869 and today enrolls 13,000 undergraduates and 1,800 graduate students on its 100 acre campus along the banks of the Mississippi River.  The sports teams are the Huskies, and the hockey team went DI in 1987.  How is St. Cloud State doing what they are doing this year?  They have two goalies who are splitting playing time; David Hrenak has started twelve games and has a very impressive 1.95 GAA, and also a .928 saves percentage; Jeff Smith has started 16 games and has a 2.47 GAA and a .914 saves percentage.  Offensively the team is led by three top goal scorers.  In addition, three of the top four goal scorers are also in the top four in assists.  And their mid-level scorers and their mid-level assist leaders are not the same group of players.  It’s a team fueled by three top scorers who are also top assist leaders, but with a variety of players that are making it happen in scoring and assists beyond those three.  To opposing teams it must seem like it’s coming from everywhere:

Leaders in Goals Scored

• Robby Jackson        14
• Mikey Eyssimont      12
• Easton Brodzinski    10
• Ryan Poehling           7
• Blake Winiecki           7
• Jimmy Schuldt           6
• Jacob Benson            6
• Jack Poehling            6
• Nick Poehling             6

Assist Leaders

• Jimmy Schuldt        22
• Mikey Eyssimont    18
• Robby Jackson      17
• Ryan Poehling       15
• Patrick Newell        14
• Blake Lizotti           13
• Jack Ahcan            13
• Judd Peterson        11
• Kevin Fitzgerald      11

And it’s working great for them; St. Cloud State is 19-6-3, is ranked #3, and plays this weekend at a very tricky and challenging #15 Western Michigan; the Broncos gave the Huskies fits the last time the two teams met.  St. Cloud State does not have an easy path out of the season; they will be on the road in two of their final three regular season weekends, and three out of four, including last weekend at Miami of Ohio (who in St. Cloud agreed to this schedule??).  After Western Michigan, they’ll host #2 Denver, and then close out the regular season at #9 North Dakota.  Even though they don’t travel to Denver, hosting them doesn’t exactly look like a gift right now either . . . .

This weekend features a top ten matchup as #6 Ohio State will play two at #10 Minnesota.  And tonight presents the Beanpot Final in Boston.  Last week in the Beanpot, Northeastern was in total control as they beat Boston College 3-0 in the early game.  In the late game, Boston University took a one-goal lead twice, and Harvard came back to tie it twice, to end regulation in a 2-2 tie.  Two minutes into the second overtime, Ty Amonte regained a puck in the BU zone, skated into the Harvard zone at the outside of the right faceoff circle, made a quick move to the center of the circle, leaving his defender on his non-shooting side and using that defender to partially mask himself from the Harvard goalie, then fired a shot from there over the goalie’s shoulder to give BU the 3-2 win.  In today’s early game, Harvard and #19 BC went into the third tied at one apiece, and after six third period goals, the game ended knotted at four apiece, and Harvard was in OT for the second week in a row.  This time Harvard’s Seth Lloyd scored the game winner three minutes into OT to give Harvard the 5-4 win.  The championship game between #20 Boston University and #12 Northeastern started about ninety minutes ago, and I’ll have the results of that game in next week’s post.  There are two weekends of regular season play left in five of the six conferences (all except the NCHC), and then it’s off to the conference tournaments; the NCHC tournament starts one week later.

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

[table id=168 /]

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

— Tom