College Hockey Update:  Last weekend featured a pair of top-fifteen matchups, and Cornell held at #1 after they dismissed Clarkson, and Clarkson held at #7  (Cornell had beaten St. Lawrence the night before, while Clarkson had settled on a tie with Colgate); and Mankato State edged down to #3 after they split their weekend at Bemidji State, which edged the Beavers up to #10.  Elsewhere, North Dakota edged up to #2 after hosting and sweeping Western Michigan; Boston College held at #4 after hosting and crushing Merrimack, and another crushing win at Boston University; and Minnesota-Duluth held at #5 after they swept their weekend at Colorado College.

Denver held at #6 after splitting their weekend at St. Cloud State; Massachusetts edged down to #9 after splitting a home-and-home series with Connecticut, with each team winning at home; and Ohio State edged down to #11 after hosting and splitting with Wisconsin.  Massachusetts at Lowell edged down to #12 after hosting and tying New Hampshire, then winning at New Hampshire; Quinnipiac jumped up three spots after hosting and beating both Brown and Yale; and Maine held at #15 after taking a loss at Providence.  An idle Pennsylvania State edged up to #8, and idle Arizona State edged up to #13.

COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE FEATURED PLAYER

Last weekend Massachusetts-Lowell had huge help from sophomore forward Sam Knoblauch, of Rochester, MI., who scored a goal in his team’s 3-2 win at New Hampshire Saturday night, and scored a goal in is team’s 2-2 tie at home against New Hampshire the night before.  The 6’1″ 195lb forward is tied for twelfth on his team in goals scored, with three, and he is also tied for fourteenth on the team in assists, with three.  As a freshman he was tied for seventh in goals, with five, and tied for seventeenth in assists, with four.  His hometown of Rochester is home to 13,000 residents spread among its four square miles, and it sits at an elevation of 750 feet, thirty miles north of Detroit.  It was first settled in 1817, and today it hosts several festivals, the biggest of which is the annual Christmas Parade, which started in 1951, and now features over 100 entrants/units.  In 2006 the town started lighting the downtown merchants at Christmastime, and in 2019 this grew to over a million individual lights adorning the shops.

Saturday night at New Hampshire, a scoreless first period, and two-thirds of a scoreless second were set up to come to an end when a UNH player was given a five minute major and a game misconduct for contact to the head.  Two minutes later a UMass-Lowell shot bounced off the board to Sam Knoblauch, who fired it in to put his team up 1-0 over their hosts, which is how it stood going into the second break.  New Hampshire had the momentum in the first, out-shooting Mass-Lowell 16-6, but Lowell had the momentum in the second, out-shooting UNH 9-4.  Right at the start of the third, a UNH player tripped a Lowell player who had a wide-open shot near the net, and on the ensuing penalty shot, Colin O’Neil converted to give Lowell the 2-0 lead.  New Hampshire scored just a minute later on a four-on-four goal, but Anthony Baxter put Lowell up 3-1 just two minutes later.  With five minutes left to play, New Hampshire scored on a power play, making the final 3-2, Lowell.  Friday night had not been so easy for Lowell.  As he would do Saturday night, Friday night in Lowell Sam Knoblauch got things started, putting Lowell up 1-0, this time late in the first period.  But with time running out, New Hampshire scored on a power play to end the first knotted at one apiece, despite Lowell having out-shot UNH 9-4 in the period.  In the second New Hampshire had the momentum, out-shooting Lowell 15-5, and it produced a goal twelve minutes into the period for a 2-1 UNH lead.  In the third Lowell had the momentum, out-shooting UNH 12-4, and with time running out, they scored on a power play to tie it at two apiece.  OT was evenly played but neither team yielded, and they both settled on the 2-2 tie.

You might well be aware of, and familiar with, UMass-Amherst — UMass — which gave the sports world basketball sensation Dr. J. Julius Erving, who brought the horizontal game into basketball’s vertical game, creating a sphere of play above the rim.  Well, this isn’t that UMass.  UMass-Lowell was founded in 1894, thirty-one years after UMass-Amherst.  It has 18,000 students and is located in Lowell, a town at the confluence of the Merrimack and Concord Rivers.  The UMass-Lowell campus is in three “chunks” and it straddles the Merrimack river.  It sits five miles below the New Hampshire border, fourteen miles west of Merrimack College, a Hockey East foe, and about thirty miles north of all the schools it plays in Boston.  Lowell is a town of 109,000 people that was designed in the early 1800’s as a purely industrial town, taking advantage of the power of the rivers, and constructing many canals for many factories.  The canals are still there today.  During the 1850s, Lowell was the largest industrial center in the U.S.  UMass-Lowell, 17-10-6, ranked #12, will play the final game of their regular season Friday night when they host University of Connecticut.

END OF THE REGULAR SEASON AND START OF THE CONFERENCE TOURNAMENTS

This weekend features one top fifteen vs. top twenty matchup when #15 Maine hosts #18 Providence Friday night for one game, to end the regular season for both teams.

It’s here, three conferences start their tournaments this weekend, and two end their regular seasons this weekend.  In Atlantic Hockey, the top five seeds have byes, and the bottom six seeds are paired up for a best two-of-three on the home ice of the higher seed.  In Big Ten action, top seed Pennsylvania State has a bye, and the other six teams are paired up as in Atlantic Hockey.  And in the ECAC, the top four teams have byes, and the bottom eight, well, you get it.  Next weekend play will continue only for the top eight seeds in Hockey East, as they pair up on the ice of the top seed for a best two-of-three series, and in the NCHC the same will happen with all eight teams in the conference.  Which teams will make it to the Frozen Four in Detroit?  What are you feeling??

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

[table id=216 /]

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

— Tom