College Hockey Update:  Last week featured three top fifteen matchups, with Notre Dame getting toppled down four spots to #5 after Michigan swept them in a home-and-home series, which boosted the Wolverines up five pegs into the top fifteen at #13.  Ohio State held at #6 after they visited, lost to, and tied, Minnesota, which lifted the Gophers up a couple of rungs to #8.  And North Dakota slipped three notches to #12 after they visited, and split with, Nebraska-Omaha, which edged the Mavericks down to #14.  St. Cloud State moved up two spots to #1 after they visited, tied and beat, Western Michigan; Cornell moved up two pegs to #2 after hosting and beating both Brown and Yale; and Denver edged down to #3 after splitting a home-and-home series with Colorado College.

Mankato State edged up to #4 after hosting and sweeping Ferris State; Providence edged up to #7 after sweeping UMass-Lowell in a home-and-home series; and Minnesota-Duluth moved up a couple of rungs to #9 after hosting and sweeping Miami of Ohio.  Clarkson slid down three notches to #10 after they visited and lost to both Dartmouth and Harvard; Northeastern edged up to #11 after beating Boston University last Monday night, February 12th, to win their first Beanpot Championship since 1988, and then visiting and sweeping Vermont on the weekend; and Bowling Green edged down to #15 after they visited and swept Alaska-Anchorage.

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Last weekend Michigan had huge help from senior forward, and captain, Tony Calderone, of Trenton, MI., who scored the game-winning goal in his team’s 4-2 win Friday night at Notre Dame, and scored the game winning goal in his team’s 1-0 win Sunday night at home, as his team swept Notre Dame on the weekend.  Sunday night at Michigan the Wolverines came out blasting, out-shooting Notre Dame 16-8 in the first period, and they survived a Notre Dame power play, as the teams skated to a 0-0 stalemate.  In the second it was again a lot of offensive action, but solid goal tending reigned, as Notre Dame survived an early Michigan power play, followed by a mid-period double penalty with the teams skating four-on-four, and then Michigan survived a late period Notre Dame power play.  Notre Dame had out-shot Michigan 15-10 in the frame with time winding down, when Tony Calderone found the net with only forty seconds remaining, and converted on Michigan’s eleventh shot of the frame to give Michigan the 1-0 lead.  In the third Notre Dame survived another early period Michigan power play, followed by another mid-period double penalty which again had the teams skating four-on-four.  As much as Notre Dame pressed, Michigan also put the pressure on; Notre Dame held an edge in shots on goal, 12-10, but couldn’t convert, as the game ended 1-0, Michigan.  Credit Michigan goalie Hayden Lavigne for stopping all 35 Notre Dame shots, and a great game by Notre Dame’s Cale Morris, who stopped 36 of Michigan’s 37 shots.

At 6’0″ and 200lbs, Tony Calderone is first on his team in goals scored, with seventeen, and is third in assists, with thirteen.  Last year he was first in goals, with fifteen, and fifteenth in assists, with three; as a sophomore he was tied for sixth in goals, with eleven, and tied for fifteenth in assists with nine; and as a freshman he was tied for thirteenth in goals, with three, and was eighteenth in assists, with six.  He also spent two seasons on the Sioux City Stampede of the USHL, scoring 24 goals and adding 17 assists in 2013-14, and scoring 29 goals and adding 15 assists in 2012-13.  His hometown of Trenton, MI., sits ten miles south of Detroit in the “Down River” region on the Detroit River at an elevation of 600 feet, and is home to 18,000.  It was first settled in 1816, and was incorporated in 1855.  It has a 150,000 square foot ice rink complex, and is also the home town of current New Jersey Devils defenseman Andy Greene.

The University of Michigan was founded in 1817 in Detroit, and moved to Ann Arbor in 1837.  Today its 29,000 undergraduates and 16,000 graduate students are enrolled on its 780 acre campus upon which 584 buildings are located.  Michigan has thirteen undergraduate schools and colleges, and eighteen graduate schools and colleges.  The late President Gerald Ford was a Michigan Alumnus.  Michigan is a member of the Big Ten, and its teams are called the Wolverines.  The Hockey program started in 1920, and has won nine NCAA Championships, the most of any school; its most recent titles were won in 1996 and 1998.  Michigan plays its games at Yost Ice Arena, which was built in 1923 as a field house, and was converted to an Ice Hockey Arena in 1973; it seats 5,800.  Mel Pearson is in his first season as Michigan’s Head Coach.  Pearson played college hockey at Michigan Tech, graduating in 1981, and then coached for 23 years at Michigan as an assistant to Red Berenson; he then left Michigan to become the Head Coach at Michigan Tech for six seasons.  In 2014-15 his Michigan Tech team went 29-10-2 and appeared in the NCAA Tournament; last season his Tech team went 23-15-7 and appeared in the NCAA Tournament.  He succeeded Berenson, who retired at the end of last season after 33 years as Head Coach at Michigan.  Michigan is 16-13-3, is ranked #13, and will close out regular season play this weekend when they host Arizona State for two games.

This is the final weekend of regular season play for five of the six conferences; only the NCHC has two weekends remaining.  All conference tournaments commence the weekend following their last weekend of regular season play.  This weekend features one top fifteen matchup and it is a scorcher.  #1 St. Cloud State will host #3 Denver for two games.  These teams are #1 and #2 in the NCHC standings; St. Cloud State is already assured home ice in the first round of the NCHC Tournament, and Denver is nearly assured home ice as well.  Denver hosted St. Cloud State on November 10th and 11th, and captured two solid wins — but that was four and a half months ago.  And there is still a long way to go the NCAA Tournament.  Should be a great weekend in St. Cloud!  Who wouldn’t want to be there for this one?

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

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

— Tom