College Hockey Update: Last week featured two top-twenty matchups, and Denver moved up three spots to #5 after hosting and sweeping North Dakota in the opening round of the NCHC Tournament, which edged the Hawks down to #20; and Ohio State dropped two pegs to #8 after hosting and losing to Pennsylvania State in the Big Ten semi-finals, as the Nittany Lions held at #17.  Elsewhere, St. Cloud State held at #1 after hosting and sweeping Miami of Ohio in the opening round of the NCHC Tournament; and Mankato State held at #2 after hosting and sweeping Lake Superior State in the second round of the WCHA tournament.  Massachusetts held at #3 after hosting and sweeping New Hampshire in the opening round of the Hockey East Tournament; and Minnesota-Duluth held at #4 after hosting and sweeping Nebraska-Omaha in the NCHC Tournament.  Northeastern moved up three slots to #6 after hosting and sweeping Maine in the Hockey East Tournament; Quinnipiac dropped two spots to #7 after hosting and getting swept by Brown in the second round of the ECAC Tournament; and Clarkson moved up two notches to #9 after hosting and sweeping Yale in the ECAC Tournament.

Cornell held at #10 after hosting, losing to, and then taking two games from Union College in the ECAC Tournament; Providence dropped four slots to #11 after hosting and beating, then losing two, to Boston College in the Hockey East Tournment; and Harvard moved up two spots to #12 after hosting and sweeping Dartmouth in the ECAC Tournament.  Bowling Green moved up two pegs to #13 after hosting and sweeping Northern Michigan in the WCHA Tournament; Western Michigan held at #15 after hosting, losing to, beating, and then losing to Colorado College in the NCHC Tournament (the second loss was last night after the poll came out); and an idle Arizona State edged down to #14.  In other games involving top-twenty teams, Notre Dame held at #16 after hosting and beating Minnesota in the Big Ten semifinals, UMass-Lowell held at #18 after hosting, losing to, beating, and losing again, to Boston University in the Hockey East Tournament; and American International entered the top-twenty at #19 after hosting, beating, losing to, and then beating Army again, in second round action of the Atlantic Hockey Tournament.

COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE FEATURED PLAYER

Last weekend Massachusetts had huge, and I mean huge, help from freshman goalie Filip Lindberg, of Espoo, Finland, who stopped 38 shots on the weekend, as his team hosted and swept New Hampshire, 5-4 Friday night, and 6-0 Saturday night, in the first round of the Hockey East Tournament.  Lindberg came into Friday night’s game in relief midway through the second, and helped his team dig out of a three goal deficit to win in overtime, then played Saturday’s game as the starter.  Lindberg has a 1.63 GAA and .932 saves %.  And he’s the backup goalie!  He has started nine games this season, and has appeared in twelve.  The regular starting goalie, sophomore Matt Murray, of St. Albert, ALB., has started and appeared in twenty-seven games this season, and has a 2.11 GAA, and a .919 saves %.  Before Massachussets, Lindberg played for the TUTO Hockey U20 team in the Jr. A SM-liiga in 2017-18 and saw action in 49 games, recording a 2.69 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage. His hometown of Espoo is home to 282,000; it is the second largest city in Finland.  It was originally chartered as a town in 1458, and incorporated as a city in 1972.  He’s the second backup goalie from Espoo, Finland to be featured here in the last six weeks, as hard as that might be to believe!

Friday night in Amherst, Massachusetts had the offensive momentum, out-shooting New Hampshire 10-5, but New Hampshire held the Minutemen off, and the game was scoreless at the first break.  New Hampshire was amazingly opportunistic and efficient in the second, scoring three goals in twelve minutes, and getting only nine shots on goal in the entire period.  Down 0-3, Massachusetts pulled regular goalie Matt Murray at the 12:30 mark, and substituted in Lindberg.  Seven minutes later Bobby Trivigno scored to tighten the game at 3-1, where it stood at the second break.  Despite a 15-9 second period shots advantage, Massachusetts was down 1-3.  One minute into the third, Jacob Pritchard scored for Massachusetts and tightened the score to 3-2, but New Hampshire was not giving up, and they scored four minutes later, extending their lead to 4-2.  Bobby Trivigno scored again at the eight minute mark to again tighten the score to 4-3, and Cale Makar scored to tie it up three minutes later at 4-4.  The two played scoreless for the remaining nine minutes, sending the game to OT, with the third period closely played, and Massachusetts notching a slight 10-8 shots advantage.  UMass badly out-shot New Hampshire in the fourth (first OT) 15-3, but to no avail — the Wildcats held tough through the scoreless period.

In the fifth (second OT) it was Mitchell Chaffee who found the net after six minutes of very evenly played hockey, and UMass took the 5-4 2OT win.  Saturday night was nothing like Friday night at all.  Off of only ten shots (compared to six for UNH), UMass scored four times, at the 5, 7, 13, and 15 minute points of the first period taking the 4-0 lead into the first break from goals by Cale Makar (2nd on the weekend), Jacob Pritchard (2nd on weekend), Brett Boeing, and Bobby Trivigno (third on weekend).  The second was equally as perplexing, with each team only managing to get six shots off, but UMass continued to score unanswered goals, by Colin Felix at the five minute mark, and by Brett Boeing (game/weekend second) at the nine minute mark.  The game went scoreless for the last eleven minutes of the second, and for the entire third period, in which UMass out-shot UNH 9-6.  UMass took the 6-0 win/demolition, and advanced in the Hockey East Tournament.

UMass Hockey plays in the 8,600 seat Mullins Center, which was built in 1993.  UMass has one NCAA DI Tournament appearance in its history, in 2007, in which they won in the opening game, and lost in the second round.  They also claim the longest college hockey game ever, played in the 2015 Hockey East Tournament against Notre Dame, in which UMass prevailed towards the end of the fifth overtime, at the 151 minute and 42 second point, by the score of 4-3.  A couple of notable UMass hockey alumni are Jonathan Quick, goalie of the Los Angeles Kings, who was with the team for two Stanley Cup Championships, and Conor Sheary, forward on the Buffalo Sabres, who also was with the Pittsburgh Penguins for two Stanley Cup Championships.  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.  UMass-Amherst 28-8-0, and ranked #3, will face Boston College in the Hockey East semi-finals Friday night.

COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE FUN CORNER PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Mark Krajan, last year’s pool winner, only received his trophy sweatshirt yesterday — it took me that long to find a place that would screen just one single sweatshirt for our CHU Pool Winner logo on the back.  Below Mark is showing off the front, with the four different team logos from last year’s Frozen Four:

Want one of your own?

You know you do.  I know you do.  Everyone knows you do.  The only way to get one is to enter our pool.  Oh, and win it, which isn’t easy.  Mark had entered many times, and had been in at least two, or maybe even three tie-breakers after the tournament, and at last came out the winner.  How do you enter?  Keep reading after you feast your eyes on the backside of the Trophy Sweatshirt, featuring our CHU Pool Winner Logo, done for the first time in 2018 in red and white.  You know you want one of these so badly.  Real quote from Mark (I honestly did not make this one up): “This was on my bucket list.”

THIS WEEKEND’S TOP FIFTEEN MATCHUPS

This Friday night features two top fifteen match-ups:  #4 Minnesota-Duluth will face #5 Denver in the NCHC semifinals; and #9 Clarkson will face #12 Harvard in the ECAC semifinals.  In addition there is a top fifteen match-up Saturday night in the WCHA Championship game, when #2 Mankato State hosts #13 Bowling Green.  There are twenty teams still playing college hockey, and this provides the games (all games are semifinal single-game-eliminations, with the winners facing each other the next night, unless noted):

FRIDAY NIGHT:

ATLANTIC HOCKEY At Harbor Center, Buffalo, New York

• Robert Morris University vs. #19 American International University
• Niagara University vs. Rochester Institute of Technology

ECAC At Herb Brooks Arena, Lake Placid, New York

• Brown University vs. #10 Cornell University
• #12 Harvard University vs. #9 Clarkson University

HOCKEY EAST At TD Boston Garden, Boston

• Boston University vs. #6 Northeastern University
• Boston College vs. #3 University of Massachusetts

NCHC At Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, Minnesota

• Colorado College vs. #1 St. Cloud State University
• #5 University of Denver vs. #4 University of Minnesota at Duluth

SATURDAY NIGHT

BIG TEN

• #17 Pennsylvania State University – at – #16 Notre Dame (Championship)

WCHA

• #13 Bowling Green State University – at – #2 Mankato State University (Championship)

THE NCAA TOURNAMENT POOL

Here’s what will happen next for us readers:  I’ll send the NCAA tournament bracket Monday night, March 25th via email.  When you receive it, please make your picks and email to me right away, following the directions on how to send me your picks (in a single typewritten line), by the deadline, Thursday, March 28th.  It’s right around the corner, the NCAA Tournament and the Frozen Four!  Who do you think will make it to the Frozen Four?

NOTE:  You should be receiving two notices when there is a new posting:  1) One via an email directly from me, during the day when the posting is made; and 2) One via an email from the system hosting the website, at night, after I have sent out my email.  If you are only receiving the night time email from the system hosting the site each time there is a new posting, you will not receive a bracket from me, since brackets are sent via my personal email, so you should send an email to me right now advising me of this, and I’ll add you to one of three email lists to which I send notices.   Send an email to my personal email address:  [email protected]

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

[table id=195 /]

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

— Tom