College Hockey Update:  Last week featured two top-ten matchups, and St. Cloud State held at #2 after hosting and sweeping Denver, which knocked the Pioneers down two spots to #7.  Massachusetts jumped up five pegs to #4 after sweeping a home-and-home series with Providence, which knocked the Friars down five notches to #9.  Elsewhere, Minnesota-Duluth held at #1 after hosting and sweeping Colorado College; Pennsylvania State moved up three slots to #5 after sweeping a home-and-home series from Robert Morris; and Ohio State edged up to #6 after visiting and sweeping Colgate.  Notre Dame dropped two spots to #8 after splitting a weekend at #16 Michigan; Bowling Green held at #10 after they visited, tied, and beat Alaska-Anchorage; and an idle Mankato State held at #3.

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This season Mankato State has had huge help from its junior forward Parker Tuomie, of Bremerhaven, Germany, who is tied for first on the team in goals scored, with five, and is first in assists, with eight.  As a sophomore he tied for seventh in goals scored, with nine, and was first in assists with twenty-eight; as a freshman he tied for fifth in goals with eight, and tied for ninth in assists with ten.  Prior to Mankato, he captained Sioux Falls of the USHL and scored 30 goals and added 24 assists in 59 games, making him 7th in the USHL in goals scored in 2015-16.  The year before that he played for Germany in the U20 World Junior Championships.  The year before that he played for Wenatchee in the NAHL, and scored 24 goals and added 25 assists in 49 games.  And the year before that he played for Jangadlen Mannheim, where he scored 26 goals and tallied 46 assists in 36 games.  His father, Tray Tuomie, played college hockey at the University of Wisconsin.  His hometown of Bremerhaven, founded in 1827, is a North Sea port town of 110,000 that sits about 40 miles down river from Bremen.  It was a critical port for the Nazi Navy, and as such was about 80% bombed to rubble in the Bremen area bombing raids, so it is a very modern city today.

Mankato State was founded in 1868, and today it has an enrollment of 13,000 undergraduates and 2,000 graduate students.  It was officially named Mankato State College in 1957, and then Mankato State University in 1999.  Their teams are called the Mavericks, and their Mascot is Stomper The Bull; their team colors are purple and gold.  Hockey started there in 1969 as a DII program until 1984; it switched to DIII from 1984 to 1992, and then back to DII from 1992 to 1996; in 1996 it switched to DI.  The team is coached by Eugene, Oregon native Mike Hastings, who was a defenseman at St. Cloud State from 1986-88; Hasting is in his seventh season at Mankato, and in his first six years his teams amassed a 151-72-19 record, and made appearances in the NCAA Tournament in each of his first three seasons, and then again last year.  He started coaching with stints as an assistant at St. Cloud State and the Omaha Lancers of the USHL, and then served as Head Coach and General Manager for the Lancers from 1994-2008.  He then had stints as an assistant at Minnesota and Nebraska-Omaha immediately prior to becoming head coach at Manakato State.  Mankato is 7-1-0 (including a sweep of Minnesota on the weekend of November 2-3), is ranked #3, and will host Ferris State for two games this weekend.

Notes on a few teams and/or games:  Wow, the University of Massachusetts is now ranked #4 after sweeping Providence College last weekend.  What an incredible turnaround for UMass by third year coach Greg Carvel, who played college hockey at St. Lawrence in his hometown of Canton, NY, from 1989-93, including a trip to the NCAA Tournament in 1992.  In Carvel’s first year at UMass the team finished 5-29-2, and last year improved to 17-20-2, and now he has them at 8-1-0.  St. Cloud State:  These Huskies are also off to a great start and held onto their #2 ranking after sweeping Denver last weekend, but it wasn’t easy, as our contributing field reporter, John McLean wrote: “Denver killed off a three on five (second period; long change) against St. Cloud State; of the three Denver players, two of them had broken sticks for over a minute!”  Thanks for the note, John; sounds like Denver has a heck of a team too.  And wow, Arizona State University is ranked #18 after sweeping Michigan State last weekend.  Steenn Pasichnuk and Filips Buncis each scored a goal in Friday night’s goalfest 5-4 win, and the pair scored their team’s only two goals in Saturday night’s 2-0 shutout of Michigan State.  Arizona State is coached by Greg Powers, who played his college hockey at . . . . Arizona State; in his first three seasons as a DI independent, starting with 2015-16, the team records have been 5-22-2; 10-19-3; and last year’s 8-21-5.  Right now ASU is 9-3-0 including sweeps of Alaska-Fairbanks, Alabama-Huntsville, and Nebraska-Omaha, and a win over currently #5 ranked Penn State; Michigan State flew into Phoenix 4-2-0, and then flew home 4-4-0.

This weekend features a great top ten matchup as #1 Minnesota-Duluth will play two games at #7 Denver; both Friday and Saturday night’s games will be televised on Altitude2 at 6pm Pacific Time.  Other televised games will be #11 North Dakota hosting Western Michigan, on the Midco Sports Network, Friday at 5:30pm Pacific Time, and Saturday at 5pm Pacific Time; #19 Minnesota hosting St. Lawrence University Saturday night at 5pm Pacific Time on Fox Sports North+; and #20 Miami of Ohio at Colorado College Friday night at 5:30pm Pacific Time on three ATT Sports Channels — Rocky Mountain, Southwest, and Pittsburgh, as well as on Root Sports Northwest.  Then Saturday night #2 St. Cloud State will host Bemidji State, game on Fox Sports North+ at 4pm Pacific Time; and Boston University hosts Maine Saturday night at 4pm Pacific Time on NESN+.  Sunday #4 UMass will host New Hampshire, game at 11am Pacific Time on NESN+ — whew, I think that covers it!

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

[table id=179 /]

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

— Tom