College Hockey Update:  Last weekend featured a top-ten vs. top-fifteen matchup, and Cornell is now in sole possession of the #1 ranking after they hosted, tied, and beat, Northern Michigan; Northern Michigan moved up two spots to #15 on the results of the weekend.  Elsewhere, North Dakota edged down to #2 on its tie and win at Miami of Ohio; Mankato State held at #3 on its sweep at Bowling Green; and Boston College edged up to #4 on its road win at UMass-Lowell, and its home win over Boston University.  Denver edged down to #5 after settling on two ties at Nebraska-Omaha; Ohio State moved up three pegs to #6 after hosting, tying, and beating Notre Dame; and Massachusetts moved up three notches to #7 after sweeping its weekend at Vermont.  Clarkson edged down to #8 after a loss at Dartmouth and a win at Harvard; Pennsylvania State dropped three slots to #9 after hosting, losing to, and tying, Michigan; and Providence edged up and into the top ten at #10 after splitting a home-and-home series with New Hampshire, losing at home Friday night, and winning at New Hampshire Saturday night.

COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE FEATURED PLAYER

Last weekend Providence had huge help from freshman forward Parker Ford, of Wakefield, R.I., who scored one goal and added an assist in Friday night’s 3-4 home loss, and scored one goal in Saturday night’s 5-1 road win, both against New Hampshire.  The 5’9″ freshman is tied for third on his team in goals scored, with nine, and is tied for fourth in assists, with eleven.  Prior to Providence, he played two years with the Sioux City Musketeers of the USHL, scoring twenty-four goals and adding nineteen assists as an alternate captain last year, and scoring eight goals and adding fourteen assists the year before.  He also scored two goals and tallied two assists en route to winning a gold medal with Team USA at the 2018 World Junior A Challenge.  His hometown of Wakefield is a village, or significant identifiable neighborhood, within the city of South Kingston.  Wakefield and Peacedale combine to make the census-designated place of Wakefield-Peacedale (population 8,500) within South Kingston, which has a population of 31,000.  The Wakefield area first saw European settlement in the early 1700s.

Saturday night New Hampshire, playing at home, scored only a minute into the first period for the 1-0 lead, but Parker Ford struck only two minutes later for Providence to tie it at one apiece.  With nine minutes left in the first, Patrick Moynihan scored on a power play to give Providence the 2-1 lead.  New Hampshire had the offensive momentum in the first, out-shooting Providence 13-7.  In the second, New Hampshire had a slight shot advantage of 11-8, but to no avail, as Greg Printz scored for the Friars at the mid-point of the period to extend the Providence lead to 3-1.  In the third New Hampshire aggressively added an extra attacker at the 16:20 point in a period that was defensively dominated, and Shane Kavanagh found the empty net only forty-three seconds later to make the Providence lead 4-1.  And only forty seconds later Greg Printz scored again on a power play goal to make it 5-1, Providence, with two minutes left, which is how it ended.  It didn’t go so smoothly for the Friars down in Providence the night before, as New Hampshire jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period.  In the second a pair of power play goals by Vimal Sukumaran (assist by Parker Ford) at the nine minute mark, and by Parker Ford, with five minutes left in the period, tightened things up to a 3-2 score.  With six minutes left in the third, Vimal Sukumaran scored again to tie it at three apiece, but a New Hampshire goal scored with three minutes left made it 4-3, New Hampshire, which was the final score.

Providence College was founded in 1917 and sits about two miles west of downtown Providence.  Its enrolls 3,900 undergraduates, and 750 graduate students.  It is the only college or university in the U.S. that is under the direction of Friars of the Dominican Order of the Catholic Church.  At one time it’s basketball team was coached by Rick Pitino, father of current University of Minnesota basketball coach Richard Pitino; Richard Pitino is an alumnus of Providence College.  The Providence teams are called the Friars, and their colors are black and white.  Providence hockey is coached by Nate Leaman, who is in his ninth season there.  Before coming to Providence Leaman was the head coach at Union College for eight seasons.  In his first eight seasons at Providence his teams compiled a record of 176-101-38, and they appeared in the NCAA Tournament in each of the last six seasons, including winning the NCAA Championship in 2015, and a berth in the Frozen Four last year.  Providence College, 14-6-5, ranked #10, plays next on Friday, January 31st, when they travel to play one game at Northeastern.

This weekend features a pair of top-ten vs. top-fifteen matchups, as #2 North Dakota travels to play two games at #11 Minnesota-Duluth, and #8 Clarkson hosts #13 Arizona State for two games.

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

[table id=210 /]

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

— Tom