College Hockey Update:  Last weekend featured a couple of top-ten matchups, and St. Cloud State edged up to #1 after sweeping its weekend at Western Michigan, knocking them out of the top ten and down four spots to #14; Massachusetts edged down to #2 on its “each team won at home” split with Northeastern, as the Huskies held at #8.  Elsewhere, Ohio State edged up to #3 after sweeping its weekend at Pennsylvania State; and Denver edged down to #4 after hosting and tying Colorado College (their Friday night game at CC was postponed after the Denver team failed to arrive because their bus was stuck in a snow storm).  Minnesota-Duluth held at #5 after sweeping its weekend at Miami of Ohio; and Quinnipiac edged up to #6 on their win at Boston University.  Mankato State edged down to #7 after hosting and splitting with Lake Superior State; Bowling Green held at #9 on their split weekend at Alaska-Fairbanks; and Clarkson jumped up four pegs into the top ten at #10 on their wins at Yale and Brown.

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Last weekend the Clarkson Golden Knights had huge help from junior forward Nico Sturm, of Augsburg, Germany, scored a goal and added an assist in his team’s 4-2 win at Yale Friday night, and he scored a goal in his team’s 4-0 win at Brown Saturday night.  Friday night in New Haven Yale scored first four minutes into the game on a power play.  But Nico Sturm scored only four minutes later to tie at one apiece, and seven minutes later Devin Brosseau scored again on a Clarkson power play to make it 2-1, Clarkson, which was the score at the first break.  Yale had controlled the tempo, out-shooting Clarkson 15-5 in the first frame, but Clarkson stood up to the pressure, and was amazingly efficient, bagging two goals on only five shots.  The second started as the first, with Yale scoring three minutes into the period.  Josh Dunne responded with a goal for Clarkson only two minutes later, to break the tie and make it 3-2, Clarkson.  And Haralds Egle scored with seven minutes left in the period, assist by Nico Sturm, to make it 4-2, Clarkson.  The tempo was more even in the second as Clarkson had a shot advantage of 11-8.  Clarkson held Yale off in a scoreless third, as Yale had a shot advantage of 6-3, but Clarkson took the 4-2 win over Yale.  The loss knocked Yale down a spot ot #20.  The next night at Brown it was all Clarkson, as they won 4-0.

At 6’3″ and 211lbs, Nico Sturm is first in goals on his team, with eleven, and he is first in assists, with nineteen.  As a sophomore he was third in goals, with eleven, and he was tied for third in assists, with 22; as a freshman he was fifth in goals, with eight, and was tied for sixth in assists, with thirteen.  Before Clarkson, Sturm tied for fifth in goals scored, with fourteen, and tied for fourth in assists, with 25, for the Tri-City Storm of the USHL in 2015-16, and he tied for seventh in goals, with eleven, and was second in assists, with 30, for the Austin Bruins of the NAHL in 2014-15.  Sturm’s hometown of Augsburg is home to 300,000 residents and sits at an elevation of 1,600 feet in Bavaria on the Singold River, also at the confluence of the Lech River and the Wertach Rivers, both Alpine Rivers.  It was established in 15, B.C., and was named for Roman Emperor Augustus.  Augsburg was an Imperial City from 1267 to 1803.  In 1803 it was annexed to the Kingdom of Bavaria upon the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire; it then became part of Imperial Germany in 1871.

So what do you know about Clarkson?  Well, for starters, they are the only college to have their team name heisted by the NHL!!  Clarkson was founded in 1896 in Pottsdam, NY, and is a school of 3,500 students.  The campus sits on the banks of the Raquette River in Pottsdam, a town of 17,000, across the river from downtown Pottsdam and SUNY Pottsdam.  It is in a cooperative consortium of library and academic services with SUNY Pottsdam, and St. Lawrence University and SUNY Canton, both of which are ten miles away in Canton, NY.  One can easily walk to both downtown and SUNY Pottsdam.  It gets cold in this neck of the woods, and it has been known to get very, very cold.  The average low/high for January is 6/26, and for February is 8/30.  The record low is -41.  Yikes!  It is 90 minutes from Lake Placid, the site of the 1980 Winter Olympic Games, and about two hours away from the Canadian cities of Ottawa and Montreal.  Their hockey home was  the 1,800 seat Walker Arena from 1938 to 1991, when they moved to their new 3,000 seat Cheel Arena.

The Golden Knights started playing hockey in 1921, and have a historical record of 1,413,-851-154, and have completed 72 winning seasons.  They have claimed ten regular season ECAC titles, and five ECAC tournament titles.  They have made twenty NCAA tournament appearances, and they have had thirty-seven All-Americans.  They are coached by Casey Jones, who is in his eighth season there; three of his first four were losing seasons, but the last three he stayed above .500, and look how they’re doing now!  Jones started out as an assistant at Clarkson for two years, from 1993-95, and then moved on to Ohio State, where he was an assistant for thirteen years, from 1995-2008.  His next stop was three years at Cornell, from 2008-11, which he left for this job as head coach.  He is a graduate of Cornell, and played four years there from 1987 to 1991.  He scored thirty goals and had eighty-two assists for a total of 112 points in 112 games played.  He was drafted by the Boston Bruins in the tenth round of the 1987 draft.  At one time the Golden Knights would have been referred to as a younger team; they have only three seniors, and they have nine juniors, while they have nine sophomores and nine freshmen.  Today that’s probably fairly typical.  None of the players are straight from high school, while twenty-nine came from elite junior leagues.  Clarkson, 16-6-0, and ranked #10, plays at Harvard tonight, and at Dartmouth tomorrow.

This weekend does not feature any top-ten matchups, but features two great top-ten vs. top-fifteen matchups; #4 Denver will play two at #13 Western Michigan, and #8 Northeastern has a home-and-home series with #14 Providence, at Providence tonight, and at Northeastern tomorrow night.  I’d sure love to see either one of these!

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

[table id=187 /]

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

— Tom