COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE: What a bum I am to be starting this so late. This post shows the date as one day earlier than my first last year, however, last year’s first came on the Friday, not the Saturday . . . . This post will cover a lot of ground — last weekend’s top ten results; a very short recap of the season, including a look at the #1 team; conference tournament results, and what is happening this weekend. So let’s get to it.

Last weekend featured one top ten matchup, and Denver edged up to #3 after splitting a home and home series with Colorado College, after which CC held at #10. Boston College held at #1 after its win at Merrimack; Boston University held at #2 after sweeping a home and home series with Providence, knocking PC down two spots to #13; Michigan State moved up two pegs to #4 after and idle weekend as the only team with a bye in the Big Ten conference tournament.

North Dakota dropped two notches to #5 after getting swept at Nebraska-Omaha, lifting UNO up four slots to #12; Minnesota moved up two spots to #6 after sweeping Pennsylvania State in the Big Ten conference tournament; Quinnipiac held at #7 on an idle weekend with a bye in the ECAC tournament; Maine edged up to #8 after sweeping UMASS-Amherst, knocking UMASS down four pegs to #16; and Wisconsin dropped four notches to #9 after dropping two of three to Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament.

COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE FEATURED PLAYER

Last Saturday night Boston College had huge help from its freshman forward Will Smith, of Lexington, MA., who scored a goal and tallied two assists to help his team to it’s 6-4 win last Saturday night, March 9th, in their regular season finale at Merrimack. The 6′ 181lb freshman is third on his team in goals scored with eighteen and is first in assists with thirty-nine. Smith was the #4 overall pick in the NHL Entry Draft this year, selected by the San Jose Sharks. He is a third consecutive generation BC attendee, following his father who graduated in 1990, and his grandfather who graduated in 1956. B.C., 28-5-1, and ranked #1, hosts Connecticut tonight, March 16th, in a Hockey East quarterfinal.

Boston College really had its hands full last Saturday night at Merrimack. After a pretty evenly played (BC had ten shots, vs eight for Merrimack) but scoreless first, Merrimack got on the board nine minutes into the frame, and then again two minutes later, to take a 2-0 lead at the midpoint of the game. But BC showed its pedigree one minute and two minutes later on a pair of short-handers by Jamie Armstrong and Will Smith, tying it at two apiece. And that’s how the second ended, tied at two. Merrimack was quite efficient and opportunistic, bagging a couple of goals on only five shots, and BC wasn’t so bad either, with two goals on twelve, badly out-shooting Merrimack.

The show continued in the third, and it was BC’s show. Merrimack regained the lead a minute into the period, but Eamon Powell scored for BC four minutes later (assist by Will Smith) to tie it again, at 3-3. Then it was Cody Ambrosio three minutes later, then Cutter Gauthier four minutes later, and then Jamie Anderson again, seven minutes later, and BC had four unanswered goals for the 6-3 lead. Merrimack put one in with time about to expire to make the final 6-4, but BC had handled them with a 13-9 shots advantage in the fourth, and a 35-22 advantage in the game.

COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE QUICK AND CONDENSED SEASON REVIEW

I’ll focus on the top ten teams because it’s both quick and condensed, as the subhead says. For the last eight weeks the top five has pretty much consisted of the teams you see now, except that Wisconsin recently dropped down to the next five, and was replaced by Michigan State. For the last eight weeks the next five spots in the top ten have been pretty much what you see, except that Michigan State recently moved upstairs and was replaced by Wisconsin from the top five; also Providence recently moved down and was replaced by Colorado College.

So what’s the story been of this season? I’d have to say Boston College. Last season both BC and BU brought in new head coaches and I was a bit surprised by the results at each place. Since 2016 BC had a fairly long run of not so great seasons — a few good seasons, and a couple of bad season, particularly right before new coach Greg Brown was brought in. I didn’t expect to see an immediate, huge turnaround, but I expected an improvement, given his tenure as an assistant for Jerry York. Why didn’t it happen? I don’t know if there were injuries, lack of buy-in from players, coach “getting his feet under him,” or what. BUT — whatever it was, it is fixed. Big time. BC has not lost stupid games they should never have lost. The team seems to have maturity on the ice all season long through their focus and commitment, and it seems the players and coach are truly on the same page with each other. I don’t suppose it hurts that of twenty-six players on the roster, thirteen have been drafted by NHL teams — four first rounders (#s 4, 5, 8, and 23) and another five before the end of the fourth round. They score like crazy — in terms of goals scored, they have the #1 goal (Gauthier) scorer in the country with 32, their second (Leonard) is tied for #3 with 25, and their third (Smith) is tied for #24 with 18. Three players with 75 goals. Shades of the Gaudreau/Hayes/Arnold year(s?) when those three added up to probably a few goals more than these guys. Lethal. They are the #2 team in goals scored per game, with 4.38, and they are #4 in goals allowed with 2.21 per game, #5 in power play success at 27%, and #1 in penalty killing at 90.3%. Lethal.

The other guys — Boston University played better than I expected last season, but was exposed by Minnesota in the semifinal game of the Frozen Four; this season they have lost games they shouldn’t have, and have not displayed the level of maturity/focus/commitment one might have hoped for. Never count out Denver, North Dakota, or Minnesota when they are ranked highly and are just flat out playing well all season long. Qunnipiac might only be #7, and might not have the type of guady numbers they had last year, but hey, 24 wins? Wisconsin? I’d say I would have a lot of trouble with looking the other way if the team on the ice against you has 26 wins, even if they dropped two of three in their conference tournament to a supposedly not very good team.

I’m running out of time. Tournament playoff games are down stream by now so I’m cutting this short. No to ten table for now but may be an update later.

SUPER BRIEF, CONDENSED VIEW OF TOURNAMENT ACTION FOR NOW

Atlantic Hockey

Down to four teams, playing best two of three, started playing last night, Friday, March 15th:

American International at #22 Holy Cross

Niagara at #19 Rochester Institute of Technology

Big Ten

Down to four teams, single game elimination tonight:

Ohio State at #4 Michigan State

#11 Univ Michigan at #6 Univ Minnesota

CCHA

Down to four teams, single game elimination tonight:

Lake Superior State at #20 Bemidji State (and do I have a BSU story next post!)

Mankato State at #24 Michigan Tech

ECAC

Down to eight teams, playing best two of three, started playing last night, Friday, March 15th:

St. Lawrence at #23 Colgate

Harvard at #15 Cornell

Union College at #25 Dartmouth

R. P. I. at #7 Quinnipiac

Hockey East

Down to Eight teams, single game elimination tonight:

Connecticut at #1 Boston College

#21 Northeastern at #2 Boston University

#17 New Hampshire at #8 Maine

#16 UMASS-Amherst at #13 Providence College

NCHC

All eight teams, playing best two of three, started playing last night, Friday, March 15th:

#12 Nebraska-Omaha at #10 Colorado College

Minnesota-Duluth at #3 Denver

#14 Western Michigan at #18 St. Cloud State Univ

Miami of Ohio at #5 North Dakota

TOP TWENTY TEAMS, RANKINGS, RECORDS, LAST WEEKEND’S RESULTS

Rnk	Team	(First Place Votes)	Record	Points	Last Poll
1	Boston College	(50)	29-5-1	1000	1
2	Boston University		25-8-2	945	2
3	Denver		26-9-3	880	3
4	North Dakota		26-10-2	839	5
5	Michigan State		23-9-3	806	4
6	Quinnipiac		26-8-2	720	7
7	Maine		23-10-2	691	8
8	Minnesota		22-10-5	632	6
9	Wisconsin		26-11-2	603	9
10	Michigan		21-13-3	571	11
11	Omaha		22-11-4	476	12
12	Colorado College		21-13-3	420	10
13	Massachusetts		20-12-3	389	16
14	Cornell		19-6-6	351	15
15	Western Michigan		21-15-1	274	14
16	Providence		18-13-4	250	13
17	St. Cloud		17-15-5	222	18
18	RIT		26-10-2	131	19
19	New Hampshire		20-15-1	126	17
20	Bemidji State		20-15-2	64	20

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

— Tom