College Hockey Update:  Last weekend featured a top ten-fifteen vs. top-twenty matchup, and Maine held at #15 after hosting and beating Providence, knocking the Friars down three spots and out of the top twenty to #21.  Elsewhere, Mankato State edged up to #2 after hosting and sweeping Alaska-Anchorage in opening round action of the WCHA Tournament; North Dakota edged down to #3 after splitting their weekend at Nebraska-Omaha; and Minnesota-Duluth edged up to #4 after hosting and sweeping St. Cloud State.

Boston College edged down to #5 after hosting and beating, then visiting and tying, New Hampshire; Denver held at #6 after visiting and tying, then hosting and beating, Colorado College; and Massachusetts held at #9 after hosting and beating Vermont, one game.  Ohio State edged up to #10 after hosting and sweeping Wisconsin in opening round action of the Big Ten Tournament; Bemidji State edged down to #11 after hosting and needing three to beat Lake Superior State in opening round action of the WCHA Tournament; and Massachusetts at Lowell held at #12 after hosting and beating Connecticut, one game.  An idle Cornell held at #1; idle Clarkson held at #7; idle Pennsylvania State held at #8; idle Arizona State held at #13; and idle Quinnipiac held at #14.

COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE FEATURED PLAYER

This season, Quinnipiac has had huge help from sophomore forward Wyatt Bongiovanni, of Birmingham, MI., who leads his team in goals scored, with fifteen, and is eighth on the team in assists, with ten.  As a freshman, he was named to the ECAC All-Rookie Team as he was third on his team in goals scored, with fourteen, and was eleventh on the team in assists, with nine.  His hometown of Birmingham is surprisingly close to the hometown of last week’s featured player, UMass-Lowell forward Sam Knoblauch, who is from Rochester, MI; the two towns are only thirteen miles apart.  Birmingham, which is where we started, is nineteen miles north of Detroit, and in addition to the Bongiovanni Family, is home to 21,000 residents among its five square miles, at an elevation of 780 feet.  Birmingham saw its first white settlement in 1819, was incorporated as a village in 1864, and incorporated as a city in 1932.  Comedian and actor Tim Allen (of the TV show Home Improvement), went to high school in Birmingham.

Quinnipiac, located in Hamden, CT. (just north of New Haven), was founded in 1929 and became Quinnipiac University in 2000.  It enrolls 6,500 undergraduates, and 2,500 graduate students, and has become known for its public opinion surveys.  The hockey team was established in the 1975-76 season as an independent DII team.  In 1998 it went DI and joined the MAAC (the MAAC became Atlantic Hockey in the 2003-04 season).  Quinnipiac has had six NCAA tournament appearances, in 2002, and then four years in a row from 2013 to 2016, and then again last year.  They made it to the Championship game in 2013, losing to Yale, and in 2016, losing to North Dakota.  Quinnipiac joined the ECAC in the 2005-06 season and in the fifteen seasons since joining, they have had thirteen winning seasons, one season at .500, and one losing season (two years ago).  They have been coached by Rand Pecknold, a graduate of Connecticut College, for the past twenty-six seasons (his first year was 1994-95, and he only graduated from college in 1990).  His record is 532-318-93, which puts him 24th on the all-time list, and 7th on the active coaches list.  Quinnipiac, 21-11-2, and ranked #14, will host Yale this weekend in second round action of the ECAC Tournament for a best-of-three series.

CONFERENCE TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEKEND

Well, we’re here.  The regular season is over and all six conference tournaments are underway (four of them are continuing, having started their first rounds last weekend).  There are a total of forty teams still playing games at this point.  This weekend features three top-twenty matchups when #8 Pennsylvania State hosts #18 Minnesota in a Big Ten semi-final on Saturday; #9 Massachusetts hosts #19 Northeastern for a best-of-three series in opening round action of the Hockey East Tournament; and #10 Ohio State hosts #17 Michigan in the second Big Ten semi-final on Sunday.

This provides the match-ups for all conference tournaments.  All match-ups are a best of three series, and are scheduled for Friday and Saturday, unless otherwise noted.

Atlantic Hockey

• Bentley University at #20 American International University
• Robert Morris University at #23 Sacred Heart Univ.  (Thursday and Friday)
• Niagara University at United States Military Academy (Army)
• United States Air Force Academy at Rochester Institute of Technology

Big Ten  (Semi-final, single elimination games)

• #18 University of Minnesota at #8 Pennsylvania State University (Saturday)
• #17 University of Michigan at #10 Ohio State University (Sunday)

ECAC

• Princeton University at #1 Cornell University
• Colgate University at #7 Clarkson University
• Yale University at #14 Quinnipiac University
• #24 Harvard University at #27 Rennselaer

Hockey East

• #21 Providence College at #5 Boston College
• #19 Northeastern University at #9 University of Massachusetts
• Boston University at #12 University of Massachusetts at Lowell
• University of Connecticut at #15 University of Maine

NCHC

• Colorado College at #3 University of North Dakota
• Miami University of Ohio at #4 University of Minnesota at Duluth
• University of Nebraska at Omaha at #6 University of Denver
• #26 St. Cloud State University at #16 Western Michigan University

WCHA (Semi-final, single elimination games on Saturday)

• Michigan Technological University at #2 Mankato State University
• #22 Bowling Green State University at #11 Bemidji State University

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

[table id=217 /]

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

— Tom