COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE:  Last weekend featured three top-twenty matchups, and North Dakota held at #3 after visiting and splitting with Western Michigan, which held at #4.  Quinnipiac edged down to #8 after visiting and losing to Dartmouth Friday night (Quinnipiac beat Harvard Satuday night), while Dartmouth moved up two spots to #12 (Dartmouth tied Princeton Saturday night); and Connecticut edged down to #14 after hosting and losing to Massachusetts Friday night, then visiting and settling on a tie with UMass Saturday night, which lifted UMass up two pegs to #17.

Elsewhere, Michigan edged up to #1 after hosting and splitting a pair with Minnesota; Michigan State edged down to #2 after hosting, losing to, and tying Ohio State; and Providence College edged up to #5 after hosting and losing to New Hampshire Friday night, then visiting and beating them Saturday night.  Pennsylvania State edged down to #6 after visiting, tying with, then losing to, Notre Dame; Denver edged up to #7 after hosting and sweeping Arizona State; and Cornell moved up two notches to #9 after hosting and beating both St. Lawrence and Clarkson.

Minnesota-Duluth edged down to #10 after hosting, losing to, and tying, Colorado College; Boston College dropped three slots to #13 after being swept by Boston University in and home-and-home series; and Mankato State moved up two spots to #16 after hosting, tying, and beating Northern Michigan.  Maine moved up two pegs to #18 after hosting and sweeping Northeastern; St. Thomas dropped two notches to #19 after visiting, losing to, and tying, Bemidji State; Michigan Tech dropped four slots to #20 after hosting and getting swept by Bowling Green.  Wisconsin edged up to #11, and Augustana held at #15 on their idle weekends.

COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE FEATURED PLAYER

Last weekend Western Michigan had huge help from its senior forward Liam Valente, of Marsta Sweden, who was the first to score for his team with early first-period goals both Friday and Saturday nights when they hosted and split with #3 North Dakota last weekend.  The 6’0″ 200lb forward is first on his team in goals scored, with nineteen, and is tied for sixth on the team in assists, with thirteen; as a junior he was he was fifth in goals scored, with fourteen, and was sixth in assists, with nineteen.  As a sophomore at Providence, he tied for sixteenth in goals, with four, and tied for eighteenth in assists, with five; as a freshman there he tied for twelfth in goals, with three, and was eighth in assists, with eight. His hometown of Marsta, Sweden, is home to its 30,000 residents who live within its three square miles, and is twenty-three miles north of central Stockholm.  Evidence of habitation of this area dates back to 500 B.C.

Last Saturday night’s game at Western Michigan was a barn-burner, and Liam Valente put Western Michigan on the board first with a goal only four minutes into the period.  A North Dakota goal a couple of minutes later tied it at one apiece, the score at the first break.  Scoring in the second was much as in the first, with Western Michigan getting an early goal from Sam Huck three minutes into the frame, and North Dakota responding five minutes later to tie it at two apiece, the score at the second break.  The teams battled it out scorelessly for the first nine minutes of the third until William Whitelaw netted one for Western Michigan, and then again for the next eight minutes, until North Dakota responded for yet another tie, then three to three, the score at the end of regulation.  Four minutes into OT Owen Michaels scored to give Western Michigan the 4-3 win, and the split on the weekend series.

This week the Big Ten and Hockey East finish their regular season schedules.  All four of the other conferences are in their playoffs with varying formats to determine their final eight, too numerous for me to detail considering how late I am with this posting.  More on all this next week.

This provides the top twenty teams, rankings, and records, in Monday’s poll:

That’s all for now.

Stay tuned, and go Terriers ! (???)

— Tom