College Hockey Update:  In last weekend’s only top ten match-up, Quinnipiac won at Clarkson Friday night; Quinnipiac edged up to #4 (they also beat St. Lawrence Saturday night) and Clarkson edged up to #9 (they went on to beat Princeton Saturday night).  Elsewhere, St. Cloud state held at #1 after hosting and sweeping Miami of Ohio, and Massachusetts held at #2 on its win at Boston University.  Ohio State edged up to #3 after hosting and sweeping Notre Dame; Minnesota-Duluth dropped two spots to #5 on its split at Colorado College; and Mankato State held at #6 after hosting and sweeping Alabama-Huntsville.  Denver held at #7 after hosting, beating, and tying North Dakota; Western Michigan held at #8 on its split at Nebraska-Omaha, and Cornell jumped up three pegs and into the top ten at #10 after their road weekend saw them beat Union and tie R.P.I.

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Last weekend, Cornell had huge help from sophomore forward Morgan Barron, who scored two goals in his team’s 4-0 win at Union College Friday night, and tallied an assist in his team’s 1-1 tie at Rensselaer Saturday night.  The 6’3″ 208lb forward is tied for first on his team in goals scored, with eleven, and is tied for first on his team in assists, with thirteen.  Saturday night at Union College, Michael Regush got Cornell on the board seven minutes into the first and was followed by Morgan Barron four minutes later, who made it 2-0, Cornell.  Cody Haiskanen added one with three minutes remaining in the period to give Cornell the 3-0 lead they took into the first break, and to bring on the retirement from the game for the Union College goalie.  Cornell was quite efficient, netting three on fifteen shots, while Union did not convert on any of their eleven first period shots.  Cornell seemed to be in total control of the game in the second period, and with five minutes left in the period, it was Morgan Barron who scored again on a power play, to make it 4-0, Cornell.  Union did a decent job of standing up to the Cornell assault, as they were out-shot 13-5.  But seemingly just for fun, Union retired another goalie, and platooned in a third for the third period.  Union out-shot Cornell 8-4 in the scoreless third as Cornell took the 4-0 win.  The next night at Rensselaer, Cornell controlled the tempo of the game, with a 41-15 shot advantage, but Rensselaer goalie Owen Savory made life hard for Cornell anyway with his 40 saves.  Both teams scored in the fourth period, and R.P.I. was very efficient, netting one on only five third period shots, as the game ended tied, 1-1.

As a freshman, Morgan Barron tied for sixth on his team in goals scored, with five, and tied for third in assists, with 13.  He came to Cornell from St. Andrew’s College, a boarding high school he attended for two years in Aurora, Ontario, just north of Toronto and in the greater Toronto area.  At St. Andrews he scored 28 goals and added 22 assists over 46 games in 2016-17.  In the previous season he scored 40 goals and added 32 assists, and helped his team to win the Canadian National High School Championship.  He also played soccer at St. Andrew’s, and was the team MVP in 2016.  He spent is first two years of high school at the Newbridge Academy in his hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Halifax is home to its 403,000 residents and it ranges in elevation from sea level to a high point of 795 feet.  It was established as a town in 1749, and incorporated as a city in 1842.  It was established as a regional municipality in 1996.

Cornell University was founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell, the founder of Western Union.  Its enrollment numbers 14,000 undergraduates and 7,000 graduate students, in seven undergraduate colleges and seven graduate colleges.  While it was founded as a private school, and it still is, it is very unusual in that some of the schools are state supported by the State University of New York system, or are under contract with the SUNY system; three of the undergraduate colleges or schools have this status, and one of the graduate schools, the Veterinary School, has this status.  Cornell Hockey has won the NCAA title twice, in 1967 and 1970; the 1970 team is the only team in NCAA history to win the national title and go undefeated and untied, with a record of 29-0-0.  Cornell is coached by Mike Schafer, who started there in 1995 and is in his 24th season;  his record to date is 425-254-93.  He was a defenseman at Cornell, having graduated in 1986.  He started coaching as an assitant at Cornell, then as an assistant at Western Michigan for four years immediately prior to becoming the head coach at Cornell.  His teams have made eleven appearances in the NCAA Tournament, and made it to the Frozen Four in 2003.  Cornell is 13-6-2, is ranked #10, and plays next tonight when they host #9 Clarkson for one game; they host St. Lawrence tomorrow night.

The only top ten match-up this weekend is the #9 Clarkson at #10 Cornell game, just mentioned; face-off at 4pm Pacific Time today/tonight.  In last Monday night’s opening round of the 67th Beanpot Tournament in Boston, Boston College beat Harvard 2-1 in the early game, and Northeastern prevailed 2-1 over Boston University in OT in the late game.  This Monday night #17 Harvard will face Boston University in the consolation game at 1:30pm Pacific Time, and #13 Northeastern will face Boston College for the pot ‘o beans at 4:30pm Pacific Time.

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

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

— Tom