College Hockey Update:  Last weekend featured twelve of the top twenty teams in top-twenty matchups, and Mankato State held at #1 after sweeping its weekend at Michigan Tech, edging Tech down to #15; Denver held at #3 after splitting its weekend at Nebraska-Omaha, lifting UNO into the top twenty at #20; and North Dakota jumped up three spots to #4 after hosting and sweeping Western Michigan, knocking the Broncos down two notches to #8.  Michigan dropped three rungs to #5 after the spanking of getting swept at Notre Dame, lifting the host team up two slots to #7; Quinnipiac edged down to #6 after hosting and losing to Cornell (Quinnipiac had hosted and beat Yale the night before), edging Cornell up to #17 (Cornell also won at Princeton); and St. Cloud State edged up to #10 after hosting and tying with Minnesota-Duluth in the mid-week (St. Cloud also went on to sweep its weekend at Colorado College), knocking the Bulldogs down three spots to #11 (UMD went on to host and split with Miami University of Ohio).

Minnesota moved up two notches to #2 after hosting and simply destroying Wisconsin; and Massachusetts-Amherst edged up to #9 after sweeping its weekend at Vermont.  Northeastern moved up two rungs to #13 after sweeping its home-and-home series with Connecticut; Boston University edged down to #14 after splitting its home-and-home series with Boston College; and Massachusetts-Lowell held at #16 after one win over Long Island University.  Clarkson edged down to #18 after hosting and losing to Yale, and hosting and beating Brown; Providence held at #19 after hosting and sweeping Maine; and an idle Ohio State held at #12.

A COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE “HATS OFF”

Don’t think we’ve mentioned this, but there are two recently new teams in NCAA Division I Hockey, which is great for the sport.  Just mentioned Long Island University above which joined D-I last season, and also St. Thomas University from St. Paul Minnesota, which joined D-I this season.  It’s wonderful to see schools adding D-I hockey teams.

COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE FEATURED PLAYER

Last weekend Minnesota had huge help from its junior forward Ben Meyers, of Delano, MN., who scored thee goals Friday night, and added another goal, and an assist on Saturday night, as his Minnesota team hosted and roasted the Badgers of Wisconsin in an overwhelming sweep. The 5’11” 200lb forward is first on his team in goals scored, with fifteen, and is second in assists, with nineteen.  Last season he tied for third on the team in goals, with fifteen, and tied for third in assists, with sixteen; in his first year he was fourth in goals, with ten, and tied for third in assists, with sixteen.  His hometown of Delano, MN., is home to its 6,300 residents spread among its four square miles at an elevation of 922 feet, and sits twenty-nine miles west of Minneapolis.  It is home to the Kurier Polski, which claims to be the only Polish-American newspaper located in the midwest, although Kuryer Polski in Milwaukee might possibly disagree.  Not intending to start a kielbasa war here, and either way, Delano’s Kurier Polski has a distribution of 1,500 copies, and is bi-monthly.

Well, what can we say about the games last weekend in Minneapolis?  Friday night Minnesota railroaded Wisconsin off the ice, out-shooting them 44-20.  A first period goal by Jonny Sorenson making it 1-0 proved to be the game winner.  A second period Jaxon Nelson power play goal with time running out in the second made it 2-0.  Then came the Ben Meyers show in the third, during which he scored at the four, twelve, and seventeen minute points for his hat trick, and the 5-0 Minnesota win.  Would Saturday night be any different?  Well, a little bit, yes. In the first, Ben Meyers scored what would be the game winner for Minnesota, followed twenty seconds later by Tristan Broz to make it 2-0.  Bryce Brodzinski scored on a power play with six minutes left in the second to make it 3-0.  In the third, goals by Sammy Walker, Mike Koster, Matthew Knies (assist by Ben Meyers), Rhett Pitlick, and Grant Cruickshank brought the total to 8-0, Minnesota.  In this game, Minnesota only shot twenty-seven times to net its eight goals, compared to twenty-four shots by Wisconsin.  Minnesota scored five goals in the third off of only eight shots.

The University of Minnesota was founded in 1851, straddles the Mississippi River, putting the campus in both Minneapolis and St. Paul, and has an enrollment of 52,000, the sixth largest in the U.S.  In addition to the Twin Cities campus, the University of Minnesota also has campuses in Crookston, Duluth, Morris, and Rochester.  Minnesota first put a team on the ice in 1921, has won five NCAA titles, and is currently coached by Bob Motzko, of Austin, MN.  He was a forward at St. Cloud State, graduating in 1987, and prior to coaching at Minnesota, coached for thirteen seasons at St. Cloud State, during which his teams made it to the NCAA Tournament eight times, including one trip to the Frozen Four in 2013.  Before St. Cloud State, he was head coach for six seasons on two different USHL teams, and was an assistant coach for eleven seasons at St. Cloud State, Miami of Ohio (twice), Denver, and Minnesota.  Motzko is in his fourth season as Minnesota Head Coach; in his first three seasons his teams compiled a 58-37-11 record, including last season’s 24-7-0 record and trip to the NCAA Tournament .  His lifetime NCAA coaching record is 357-240-60.

The Minnesota Athlete’s Village opened four years ago and is nothing short of stupendous.  It functions as something of a world-within-a-world for student athletes there.  Not only is it the base location for all practices for student athletes in all sports, it also contains The Land O’ Lakes Center For Excellence, comprised of state of the art weight and conditioning facilities, academic, study and tutoring facilities, and a new, central nutrition and dining facility for student athletes only.  On the subject of nutrition, in a recent interview with the Minnesota Alumni Magazine Coach Bob Motzko said, “Well there will be other things that are fun for the student athletes as well.  It seems the interest for this comes mainly from the Hockey, Lacrosse, Crew, Soccer, and Golf athletes, for some reason, and we’ve been the main team pushing for this, as we have been for years the team making sure it has been included in the campus cafeterias up to this point.  We will have cake brought in from the best of those bakeries south of Minneapolis that straddle the Minnesota River; The Queen of Cakes, Jerry An’s Cakes, and so on.  It has always been a big plus in our recruiting here to get that certain type of athlete from that certain type of background down there, and it was for me at St. Cloud State as well.  I can’t really relate to it, coming from Austin, and being a very down to earth guy, but it’s a different world down there, and even for those who come out of the private schools in other parts of Minnesota, so we do what we must to get them to sign here.  Some of these kids come from schools that serve these cakes on a regular, daily basis, so we have to have the right stuff.” Minnesota, 23-11-0, and ranked #2, has a bye-weekend as the top seed in the Big Ten Tournament, and awaits the lowest-ranked team to advance out of the other six Big Ten teams, which are facing off in quarterfinal, best-two-of-three pairs this weekend, all games being held on the campus of the higher seed.

THIS WEEKEND

This weekend features a couple of top-twenty matchups, with #4 North Dakota playing a pair at #20 Nebraska-Omaha, and #10 St. Cloud State playing a pair at #11 Minnesota-Duluth.  Friday night’s game in Duluth will be televised on the CBS Sports Channel, starting at 5:30PM Pacific Time.  The remainder of the NCHC and Hockey East will play their final regular season games this weekend as well.

CONFERENCE TOURNAMENTS

All conferences will open first round action with best-two-of-three matchups this weekend played on the campus of the higher seed, and with the highest/higher seeds in the conferences having byes until next weekend (except the CCHA, which will not have byes in the first round). Matchups for this weekend are listed below.

Atlantic Hockey

• Holy Cross at Mercyhurst
• Bentley at Niagara

Big Ten

• Michigan State at #5 Michigan
• Wisconsin at #7 Notre Dame
• Pennsylvania State at #12 Ohio State

CCHA (that’s what they’re calling themselves this year)

• St. Thomas at #1 Mankato State
• Ferris State at #15 Michigan Tech
• Bowling Green at #25 Bemidji State
• Northern Michigan at #26 Lake Superior State

ECAC

• Yale at Colgate
• Dartmouth at Rensselaer
• Brown at St. Lawrence
• Princeton at Union

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

[table id=233 /]

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

— Tom