College Hockey Update:  SO SORRY FOLKS, late again, and still no re-creation of the email lists, so you will get a notice that his has been posted right about the time the games start on Friday night.  Hope to make it up to you next week.  Just trying to get into the swing of things again with this . . .  hope there are not too many typos!

Last weekend featured two top ten matchups, and Michigan held at #3 after hosting and splitting with Minnesota (each team giving the other a wallop), which edged the Gophers up and into the top ten at #10; St. Cloud State edged down to #6 after hosting and splitting with North Dakota (with St. Clout State giving North Dakota a healthy wallop Friday night), as North Dakota held at #7.  Mankato State edged up to #1 after hosting and sweeping Michigan Tech; Quinnipiac moved up two spots to #2 after road wins at RPI and Union; and Western Michigan moved up two pegs to #4 after sweeping their weekend at Miami of Ohio.  Minnesota-Duluth dropped four notches to #5 after getting swept at Northern Michigan; Notre Dame held at #8 after hosting and splitting with Ohio State; and Cornell held at #9 after its win at St. Lawrence, and its tie at Clarkson.

COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE FEATURED PLAYER

Last weekend Mankato State had huge help from junior forward Nathan Smith, of Hudson, FL., who scored the game winning OT goal in his team’s 2-1 win Friday night, and scored a goal and added two assists in his team’s 3-1 win Saturday night, both at home against Michigan Tech.  The 6’1″ 185lb junior is first on his team in goals scored, with eleven, and is first on the team in assists, with fifteen.  Smith has been a major contributor at Manakato State all along.  His sophomore year he was tied for fourth on the team in goals scored, with nine, and was second on the team in assists, with sixteen; as a freshman he was tied for sixth on the team in goals scored, with nine, and was tied for fifth in assists, with eighteen.

Last Friday night in Mankato the Mavericks generally controlled the game tempo, but after seventeen minutes of stalemate, Michigan Tech got on the board on a powerplay opportunity to take the early 1-0 lead.  In the second, Mankato’s fast and deliberate action off of the face-off led to Ryan Sandelin scoring to tie the game at one apiece.  The game, despite Mankato outshooting Michigan Tech 8-5 in the first, 14-9 in the second, and 7-2 in the third, ended tied at 1-1.  In OT Mankato State took over, and Nathan Smith scored only half a minute into the frame, to give Mankato State the 2-1 win.  Saturday night Cade Borchardt put Mankato up 1-0 on a power play seven minutes into the first (assist by Nathan Smith), and three minutes into the second Jake Livingstone extended the lead to 2-0 (assist by Nathan Smith).  Michigan Tech capitalized on a power play opportunity with four minutes left in the second to narrow the Mankato State lead to 2-1.  The two teams played very evenly throughout, as they each made seven shots on goal in the first, and Mankato State had a 6-4 advantage in a stingy second.  In the third Michigan Tech had a 9-6 shots advantage, and pulled their goalie with a minute and a half left, but Nathan Smith found the empty net with a minute remaining, giving Mankato State the 3-1 win.

Nathan Smith’s hometown of Hudson, FL., is home to 20,000 residents, spread among its six square miles.  It is a beach town, with a large beach built by the residents in the 1960’s, and is about forty miles north of Tampa/St. Petersburg.  Hudson proclaims itself to be the “Gopher Racing Capital of the World,” as a result of resident William Trippet sweeping both the 8-10 year old, and the overall division victories in both 1976 and 1977 with his Gopher Tortoise named “St. Pete Flash.”  Until last year’s second Super Bowl win by the Buccaneers, it had ranked as the greatest single sporting accomplishment of the region.

Mankato State, founded in 1868, is located in Mankato, of all places.  It enrolls 13,000 undergraduates and 1,800 graduate students.  The town of Mankato, founded in 1852, is home to its 43,000 residents.  Mankato State started its NCAA Hockey Team in the 1969-70 season, as a Division II team until 1984; they competed as a DIII team from the 1984-85 season until 1992, returning to DII from the 1992-93 season until 1996.  Mankato State became a DI team in the 1996-97 season, and were in the WCHA from the 1999-2000 season through last season.  The re-configured WCHA ceased to exist when Mankato State led an exodus of the teams in the Great Lakes region, and they collectively re-formed the CCHA this season, abandoning Alabama-Huntsville, Alaska-Anchorage, and Alaska-Fairbanks.  Mike Hastings is in his tenth season as coach of Mankato State.  His teams have compiled a record of 250-94-24, and have earned six NCAA Tournament berths during his tenure.  Mankato State, 14-4-0, and ranked #1 travels to play two games tonight and tomorrow night at Bemidji State.

Very quick history lesson.  You might recall that years ago a posting here explained that there is a popular story that “Mankato” was a clerical spelling error at the time, as the intention was to name the town “Mahkato,” borrowing from a Dakota tribe expression meaning “the river where the blue earth is gathered.”  Lately Mankato has become synonymous, with some, for meaning that Abraham Lincoln was a bum and we should tear down all statues having anything to do with him, and strip his name off every school carrying his name.  Some people know about this, some don’t.  This provides the facts that those who currently are “out to get Lincoln” probably don’t want you to know.  At the conclusion of the Dakota war of 1862, a military commission conducted trials of Native Americans for criminal actions during the war, on the orders of Colonel Hastings Sibley.  These trials were held in Mankato.  There is plenty wrong with all of this.  The Army Judge Advocate General determined that Sibley had no authority to be the organizer of such a trial because of his prejudicial views as a combatant in the matters being put to trial.  The trials themselves were deficient, and were in fact criminal proceedings regarding acts conducted during a war.  Make no mistake about it, what the Native Americans experienced from the day Europeans came ashore, was an invasion, and it became war.  Lincoln was not happy with the continued confrontation and militaristic conflicts.  In this case, numbers are important facts, and here are the numbers:  498, 303, 264 and 38.  What was on trial was basically war crimes, specifically massacres.  498 were accused, but charges were dropped either in advance of trial or as a result of trial, against 195, bringing 303 convictions.

The trials were not truly trials as we understand them — some trials were less than five minutes long, defendants did not have charges explained to them, and they had no defense counsel.  There was plenty wrong with this.  303 were sentenced to death.  Lincoln learned of this and halted everything.  He and two hand-picked white house attorneys reviewed all 303 cases during November and December of 1862.  They were attempting to commute the sentences of all those convicted.  They came to the conclusion that two men had violated women, and they would not have commuted sentences.  They came to the conclusion that forty had participated in massacres, including the two men just mentioned.  The commission then communicated that one of the men should only receive a ten year sentence, and Lincoln commuted the sentences of 264 men, not the remaining 39.  At the end Sibley telegraphed to Lincoln his doubts about the guilt of one more man, who then received a commuted sentence, leaving 38 to be executed.  It is the largest mass execution in the history of the US.  With plenty wrong about it.  But Lincoln’s role was not to ride into Mankato and declare it was time to find 38 Native Americans to hang.  Lincoln commuted the sentences of 264, and eventually 265, in an attempt to commute the sentences of all 303.  We should learn from history.  This was a result of a war.  One which should not have happened, and one that had very bad outcomes, as did the entire invasion of the continent by Europeans.  Not to mention the not too very good things that have gone on in nearly every war and revolution the planet has seen, such as World War II, Mao Tse Tung’s overthrow of China, Stalin’s starvation of his fellow Russians . . . . Let’s all hope, and commit to, a good future, a better one in which we avoid the same awful mistakes of the past.  But let’s be honest about the past when we discuss it.

BACK TO HOCKEY — THIS WEEKEND

There are no top ten matchups this weekend, but there are two top ten vs. top fifteen matchups.  #4 Western Michigan will host #14 Nebraska-Omaha for two games this weekend, and #5 Minnesota-Duluth will host #11 Denver for two games as well.

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

[table id=231 /]

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

— Tom