College Hockey Update:  Last weekend featured four top twenty matchups, and Ohio State dropped three spots to #4 after they hosted, and suffered an upset loss to the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, as they split their weekend at home, elevating UMass into the top twenty at #16.  Mankato State held at #7 after splitting the weekend at North Dakota, edging the Hawks down to #17; Union College shot up nine notches to #11 after sweeping its weekend at Northeastern, knocking the Huskies down six slots to #18; and Michigan edged down to #12 after splitting its home-and-home weekend with Western Michigan (each team won at home), as Western held onto the #19 ranking.

Elsewhere, Notre Dame edged up to #1 after sweeping its weekend at Nebraska-Omaha; St. Cloud State moved up two spots to #2 after hosting and sweeping Northern Michigan; and Minnesota-Duluth held at #3 after hosting and sweeping Maine.  Providence edged down to #6 after hosting and beating Connecticut, then settling on a tie at Sacred Heart; Denver held at #9 after they hosted, beat, and tied Alaska-Fairbanks; and Pennsylvania State held at #10 after hosting and sweeping Niagara University.  Wisconsin edged up to #14 after a loss at Clarkson and a win at St. Lawrence; and Quinnipiac entered the top twenty at #20 after hosting and beating Boston College, which knocked BC out of the top twenty rankings.  An idle Minnesota edged up to #5; idle Cornell held at #8; idle Princeton held at #13; and an idle Bowling Green moved up two pegs to #15.

Last weekend Notre Dame had huge help from its senior defenseman Bobby Nardella, of Rosemont, IL., who tallied an assist in his team’s 4-1 win Friday night, and scored two goals and added three assists in his team’s 8-2 win Saturday night, as they swept their weekend at Nebraska-Omaha. The 5’9″ 180lb senior is tied for third on his team in goals scored, with three, and is first on the team in assists, with seven.  As a junior Nardella tied for tenth in goals with five, and was fourth in assists with nineteen; as a sophomore he tied for seventh in goals with seven, and was tied for sixth in assists with fourteen; and as a freshman he was eleventh in goals with four, and was fourth in assists with twenty.

Prior to Notre Dame he scored ten goals and added 32 assists playing for the Tri City Storm of the USHL in 2014-15, and he scored a goal and added twelve assists playing for the Sioux City Musketeers of the USHL in 2013-14.  His father, Bob, played college hockey at Ferris State.  Rosemont, IL., is home to 4,000 residents in the two square mile town, which sits right at the northeast edge of Chicago.  The residential section of Rosemont is one square mile, and the residents voted in 1995 to make the entire residential area of their town a gated community, with access limited to its residents.  Imagine that, living right on the edge of a peaceful place like Chicago, and making your town a gated community anyway.

Saturday night in Omaha Notre Dame and UNO met up for game two, with Notre Dame having dominated to the tune of 4-1 in Friday night’s tilt.  Saturday would be no different, and in fact proved to be a even higher octane version of the night before.  Joe Wegwerth got things started only three minutes into the first to give Notre Dame the 1-0 lead; Bobby Nardella asissted on the goal, his second assist of the weekend.  Only three minutes later Dylan Malmquist put Notre Dame up 2-0 on a power play, again assisted by Bobby Nardella, and with only three minutes left in the first period, Joe Wegwerth scored again, and Bobby Nardella notched his third assist of the night, and his fourth of the weekend.

So how about the second?  It was sort of a dam break, as Cal Burke netted one only a  minute into the period to make it 4-0, and then he struck again midway through the period on an unassisted short-handed goal to give Notre Dame the 5-0 lead, which is where it mercifully stood at the end of the period.  The third?  Dylan Malmquist came back for more one minute into the period to make it 6-0, and only twenty-one seconds later Bobby Nardella scored to give Notre Dame the 7-0 lead.  Six minutes later UNO scored to make it a 7-1 game, but Nardella would have none of it, as he struck again two minutes later to make it 8-1 Notre Dame, and to give himself a two goal, three assist game, and a two goal, four assist weekend.  A minute later UNO scored to make it 8-2 at the ten minute mark, and mercifully this is how it ended.  Notre Dame is 3-0-1, is ranked #1, and will host #3 Minnesota-Duluth for two games this weekend in a rematch of last April’s NCAA Championship Game. Should be a couple of grinding thrillers.

This weekend half of the top twenty teams are featured in five top-twenty matchups.  As mentioned above, #1 Notre Dame hosts #3 UMD for two; the Friday night game will be broadcast at 5:30pm Pacific Time on the NBC Sports Channel, which is channel 81 on Comcast in the San Francisco Bay Area.  #2 St. Cloud State will visit #18 Northeastern Saturday night, and this game will be televised on NESN+ at 4pm Pacific Time; I know that NESN is channel 628 on DirecTV, and channel 434 on Dish, but something tells me with that + on the end that this might only be available to subscribers in New England.

While not a top-twenty matchup, tonight #2 St. Cloud State will play one at Boston College, and it will be on ESPN3 at 4pm Pacific Time, only about three hours from the time of this posting.  I provide this link for your viewing, which I received from our Contributing Field Reporter, John McLean; while I normally wouldn’t report this game, John does tend to get his panties in a bunch if I don’t report on which haberdashery in St. Cloud sold the St. Cloud coach his suspenders, so here you have the link (he is very proud of how well his alma mater is doing, and rightly so, especially for someone who played on the St. Cloud State hockey team in the mid-late seventies):

http://www.espn.com/watch/_/id/3450369/st-cloud-state-vs-boston-college-m-hockey

#4 Ohio State will start a home-and-home series at home against #15 Bowling Green Friday night; #5 Minnesota will play one game against #17 North Dakota in Las Vegas Saturday night (broadcast on Midco Sports Network for those in North Dakota); and #10 Pennsylvania State will host #13 Princeton Friday night for one game.  Other televised games this weekend are Merrimack at #16 UMass at 4pm Pacific Time on NESN (channel 628 on DirecTV, and channel 434 on Dish); and #14 Wisconsin hosting Michigan Tech Friday night at 5pm Pacific Time on Fox Sports Wisconsin+.

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

[table id=176 /]

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

— Tom