College Hockey Update:  Last weekend featured a top-ten matchup, and North Dakota held at #2 on their split weekend at Minnesota-Duluth, edging UMD back into the top ten at #10.  Elsewhere, Cornell held at #1 after hosting and beating Dartmouth, then hosting and tying Harvard; and Mankato State held at #3 after hosting, beating, and losing to Bemidji State.  Denver edged up to #4 after sweeping their weekend at Miami-of-Ohio; Boston College edged down to #5 after hosting and getting swept by Maine; and Clarkson moved up two spots to #6 after hosting, beating, and losing to Arizona State.  Massachusetts held at #7 after losing to New Hampshire at home, then settling on a tie at UNH; Pennsylvania State edged up to #8 after splitting their weekend at Michigan State; and an idle Providence edged up to #9.

COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE FEATURED PLAYER

Last weekend, Mankato State had huge help from junior forward Dallas Gerads, of Blaine, MN., who scored one goal in his team’s 3-2 home win Friday night, and scored another goal in his team’s 2-4 home loss Saturday night, both against Bemidji State.  The 5’10” 185lb forward is tied for ninth on his team in goals scored, with four, and is seventh on the team in assists, with eleven.  As a sophomore he tied for third on the team in goals, with twelve, and tied for ninth in assists, with nine; as a freshman he tied for tenth in goals, with seven, and tied for thirteenth in assists, with seven.  His hometown of Blaine, located at the northern end of the Twin Cities metropolitan area, is about fourteen miles from downtown Minneapolis, and is home to 58,000 residents spread out among its thirty-four square miles.  The area first saw white settlement in 1862, was founded as a town in 1877, and incorporated in 1954.  Blaine is also the birthplace and childhood hometown of Nick Bjugstad of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins.

Friday night was a defensively-dominated game in which Bemidji scored on a power play five minutes into the first period for the 1-0 lead, which stood for a long time.  Bemidji limited Mankato to only five shots in the first, but only managed three of their own.  The second wasn’t too different from that, with Bemidji limiting Mankato to only seven shots, while Bemidji managed to fire off ten.  But Mankato was the productive team on the board, with goals at the ten and seventeen minute points by Andy Carroll and Nathan Smith, giving Mankato a 2-1 lead.  In the third each team managed to get seven shots off, and Dallas Gerads scored the ever-important insurance goal five minutes into the period, extending the lead to 3-1.  This proved to be a critical goal for the night, as Bemidji scored again a couple of minutes later to tighten it to 3-2, which is how it ended after the two teams battled out the last thirteen scoreless minutes.  Saturday night didn’t go as well for Mankato, as Bemidji State was very efficient and extremely productive, scoring three unanswered goals at thirteen minutes of the first, two minutes of the second on a power play, and at seven minutes of the third, to establish a 3-0 lead.  Sixteen minutes into the third Dallas Gerads scored to pull Mankato within two, and a couple of minutes later Charlie Gerard scored to make it a 3-2 game.  Could Mankato pull this one off?  They gave it all they could, adding an extra attacker, but with a minute left, Bemidji found the empty net to make it a 4-2 final.  And this on a night in which Mankato heard the bell and the offense fired of 50 shots, compared to only 18 for Bemidji State!

Mankato is led in goals by Marc Michaelis (16), Charlie Gerard (11), Parker Tuomie (10), Reggie Lutz (9), and Julian Napravnik (7).  These five skaters account for 53 of the 101 team goals so far this season, which is 52% of the goal production.  In assists, the team is led by Lucas Sowder (19), Marc Michaelis (17), Parker Tuomie (16), Ian Scheid (14), Nathan Smith (13), Connor Mackey (12), and Dallas Gerads (11).  These seven players account for 102 of the 177 assists made by the team so far this season, which is 58% of the total.  With only two players appearing on both lists, Mankato has the bulk of its offensive production spread among ten different players, which is a whole lot of guys for opposing teams to worry about.  And with Dryden McKay is having a heck of a season in the net, (1.35 GAA, .940 save percentage), Mankato gives its opponents a ton to worry about.  Best of luck to Alaska-Anchorage this weekend.

This weekend features two great top-ten matchups, as #4 Denver will host #10 Minnesota-Duluth for two games, and #5 Boston College will play one game at #7 Massachusetts Friday night.  Who wouldn’t love to see any one of those three games???  And again, best of luck to Alaska-Anchorage this weekend.  Monday night will be the opening round of the 68th edition of the Beanpot Tournament in Boston.  The early game features two ranked teams, with #13 Northeastern facing #16 Harvard; the late game features #5 Boston College against a Boston University team that quite clearly continues to struggle to find its way in the dark.  A seemingly very dark place.

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

[table id=211 /]

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

— Tom