College Hockey Update:  Last weekend featured a pair of top-ten match-ups, and Boston College edged up to #4 after their win at Massachusetts Friday night, which edged UMass down to #8; and Minnesota-Duluth jumped up four spots to #6 after sweeping their weekend at Denver, which knocked the Pioneers down three pegs to #7.  Elsewhere, North Dakota edged up to #1 after hosting and sweeping Colorado College; Cornell edged down to #2 after losing at Quinnipiac, then winning at Princeton, and Mankato held at #3 after visiting, beating, and tying Alaska-Anchorage.  Clarkson edged up to #5 after hosting and beating both Yale and Brown; Pennsylvania State edged down to #9 after hosting, tying, and losing to Notre Dame; and Providence edged down to #10 after losing at Northeastern.

COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE FEATURED PLAYER

Last week (if we can consider Monday to have been part of last week, and for our purposes . . . . we will!) Boston College had huge help from freshman forward Alex Newhook, of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, who scored one goal and tallied one assist in his team’s 3-0 win at Massachusetts Friday night, and scored another goal in his team’s NCAA-official 4-4 tie Monday night against Boston University in the Beanpot Tournament at the TD Boston Garden (note:  Monday’s game was played after the poll came out on Monday afternoon, and therefore the results are not reflected in the rankings table at the end/bottom of this posting).  An interesting note — this season the NCAA has required all games ending in a tie to go into a five minute OT period to determine the outcome of the game.  For the NCAA official purposes, if there’s a winner, that’s the winner; if there isn’t, then there’s a tie, and that’s how it’s recorded.  Should the teams involved need to determine a winner, they’re free to do so, but the results after the initial five minute OT period do not change the NCAA-official outcome.  This explains the results reported earlier in January for Providence and Cornell at the Fortress Invitational in Las Vegas, in which Cornell and Providence played to a 2-2 tie, and after the first five minutes of five-on-five OT the score remained 2-2, and was recorded that way.  In the case of the Fortress, the two teams then played another five minutes of three-on-three OT and the score remained 2-2; the teams next went to a shootout, and Providence won the shootout and the tournament.  Monday night in Boston, what happened?  Well, keep reading and you’ll find out!  Now, back to Alex Newhook.  The 5’11” 195lb forward is third on his team in goals scored, with eleven, and is tied for fourth in assists, with eleven.  Newhook came to Boston College after two terrific seasons with the Victoria Grizzlies of the BCHL.  How terrific?  Well, he was selected in the first round with the sixteenth pick in the 2019 NHL entry draft by the Colorado Avalanche.  That terrific.  His hometown of St. John’s is home to 64,000 residents spread among its 64 square miles, and the metropolitan area is home to 220,000 spread out among 310 square miles.  It saw its first white exploration in either 1494 or 1497 by Venetian explorer John Cabot, sailing for Henry VII of England.  Cabot’s handwritten notes declare the year 1494, but English and French historians state the year at 1497.  See how far back stuff like this goes?  St. John’s was named for St. John the Baptist, because Cabot’s landing was on the feast day of St. John the Baptist, June 24th.  It was first established as a claimed British Colony by Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1583, but was not settled until shortly after 1630.  In all this time the fishing waters were mainly controlled by the British.  St. John’s fortunes were linked to fishing, primarily cod, for five centuries, until the industry collapsed in the 1990s.  By 1993, the biomass level was down to about 1% of its 1990 level — this followed a massive collapse in the seventies.  Both of these collapses were caused by over-fishing of the waters brought about by advances in the building of super-trawlers that could fish deeper in the water and for longer stretches.  By prohibiting international fishing boats in waters within 200 miles of the Canadian coast, the biomass levels actually grew to historic highs by the mid-eighties, exceeding of the biomass levels of 1970 by 50%.  But the growth in biomass led to excessive fishing and over-fishing by the super trawlers from Canada, and from the U.S. (U.S. trawlers had not been banned from the Canadian territorial waters).  An additional impact was that these super-trawlers removed other fish previously not caught, that shaped the ecosystem for the cod, particularly capelin, the prey species for the cod.  The early 1990s collapse put 37,000 people in the industry out of work.  A strict and full moratorium was put in place in 1992, and even after ten years of the moratorium, in 2002 the biomass levels were still only at 2% of those in 1990.  By 2011 the biomass levels were at 9% of the 1990 levels, and it was evident that the cod biomass levels were on a path to return to their original levels, but that it was taking much more time than originally forecast.  These levels grew to about twelve percent of the 1990 levels about three years ago, and it is hoped that with the moratorium in place that it might reach the 1990s levels in ten more years.  One of the unforeseen developments as a result of the over-fishing was the elimination of many predator fish by the super trawlers, which led to a proliferation of snow crab and shrimp.  This industry has grown slowly, and today is almost the size of the cod industry was in 1990.  Since the early 1990s,  there has coincidentally additionally been high growth in the industry supporting oil and gas exploration and recovery in the ocean nearby.

Friday night after a pretty evenly-played scoreless first period (Massachusetts out-shot Boston College 9-8), the two teams seemingly produced another pretty evenly-played second period (UMass out-shot BC 10-8) , but with drastically different results.  Alex Newhook got it started with a goal only a minute into the period to put BC up 1-0, and it would prove to be the game winner.  After ten scoreless minutes Jordan Hutsko scored to add to the BC lead, 2-0.  And Graham McPhee (son of the legendary George McPhee — his dad clearly knew what state to send his son to for the best college hockey experience) scored with only a minute left in the period to make the BC lead 3-0 going into the third.  Hard to imagine a team overcoming a three-goal BC score in the third period, and despite both teams playing pretty evenly again — both teams with eleven shots — neither team scored as BC went into the stall and delay they can execute so well, keeping UMass at bay, and taking home the 3-0 win.

Monday night at the Beanpot was similar in many ways, except that BC flexed its ranked #4 muscles and jumped to a very quick lead on the overly-proven hapless Boston University Terriers.  Patrick Giles made it 1-0, BC, at only the two minute mark.  At the seven minute point a tripping call on BU’s David Farrance gave BC a power play opportunity, and only twelve seconds later, Alex Newhook drove one in to extend the BC lead to 2-0.  But a minute later BC’s Logan Hutsko was called for high-sticking, and BU’s Patrick Curry capitalized on the power play only forty seconds later to close the gap to 2-1.  Somehow the hapless BU team appeared to have their skates under them, and in a period in which BC outshot BU 10-7 the two teams skated the next eleven minutes scoreless and took the 2-1 score into the first break.  In the second the momentum was all BC’s as they blistered BU in shots 15-9.  But BU managed to stay in the game for eighteen minutes, until a David Cotton shot was stick-blocked by BU goalie Abel, but the puck hit BU’s Alex Vlasic, and bounced off him into the goal, giving Cotton his eleventh goal of the season, to make it 3-1, BC.  BC found itself entering a third period for the second time in three nights with three goals, and decided to once again sit on the puck, stall, delay, and just go home with the 3-1 win.  And it worked beautifully, with BC surviving a two minute short handed stretch early on.  At eleven minutes Logan Cockerill was called for hooking, putting BU short handed against the BC slowdown.  But a minute into it, BC’s Luke McInnis was called for interference, creating a four on four, and eight seconds later it was David Farrance who put in a rebound of a Patrick Harper shot to tighten the score to 3-2.  And a minute later Patrick Harper blistered one in to tie it up at three apiece.  A seemingly most unlikely score.  BU was pressing (BU had a slight shot advantage of 14-12 in the third) and BC had to abandon the stalling plan.  And four minutes later a quick pass to Robert Mastrosimone at the goal was turned into a quick goal, and an even more unlikely 4-3 BU advantage on the scoreboard, with less than two minutes left in the game.  Only sixteen seconds later Patrick Curry was called for hooking, and BC added an extra attacker; skating with a six on four advantage, David Cotton scored only forty-four seconds later (assist by Alex Newhook) to tie it at four apiece, which is how it ended in regulation, and after the first NCAA-compliant OT period.  And then came overtimes in twenty minute stretches until a wining goal would be scored.  In the first twenty minute OT, BU double shifted their top line to generate offense, and BU had extended zone time.  It paid off seven minutes into the OT when Alex Skoog potted a rebound off of an Alex Vlasic shot to put BU into the Beanpot final against Northeastern.  Northeastern’s win over Harvard was much less dramatic.  Harvard scored five minutes into the first period for the early 1-0 lead, and Northeastern scored to tie it at one apiece seven minutes later.  Northeastern scored again with time running out in the second period for the 2-1 lead.  Northestern had out-shot Harvard 13-8 in the first, but things slowed in the second, and Northeastern out-shot Harvard 6-4.  In the third Harvard out-shot Northeastern 14-7, but Northeastern held them off; Harvard added an extra attacker with two minutes left, but to no avail as Northeastern found the empty net with a minute left to end it 3-1.  Boston College will face Harvard in the early consolation game on Monday.

Boston College is led by four players in goals scored:  Logan Hutsko (15); David Cotton (12); Alex Newhall (11); and Aapeli Rasanen (9).  These four players account for 45 of the 90 goals scored by the team this season (50%).  The team is led by five players in assists:  Julius Mattila (26); David Cotton (19); Ben Finkelstein (14); Alex Newhook (11); and Aapeli Rasanen (11).  These five players account for 81 of the 155 assists made so far this season (52%).  With three players appearing on both of these short lists, a total of only six players have accounted for half of the offensive production so far this season.  Not quite the typical size of the lists that have appeared here in the last several weeks.  If one were curious to compare how many players accounted for the equal number of goals (4) per team in their game against Boston University on Monday night, what do you suppose one would find . . .?  Well, surprisingly, BC’s offense — all goals scored and assists made, were accounted for by nine players; two of the leaders listed here were not among them, so the list included five players not on these two “leaders lists.”  Boston University on the other hand, had all of Monday night’s offense accounted for by a total of only six players — remember, it was BU that double-shifted its top line in the first OT to generate offense.  Clearly BC can generate offense beyond it’s leaders.  BC goalie Spencer Knight has a 2.08 GAA, and a .928 saves percentage.  While his GAA may not be as stark as those who have appeared here in the last several weeks, these are not remotely numbers to sneeze at, and are in fact great numbers for Knight.

This weekend features a top ten match-up as #8 Massachusetts and #10 Providence will play a home-and-home series, Friday night at UMass, and Saturday night at PC.

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

[table id=212 /]

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

— Tom