Last weekend produced an upset of a top-twenty team in each of the CCHA, ECAC, Hockey East, and WCHA Tournaments.

At this point it’s actually hard to tell if New Hampshire losing to Providence was really an upset; UNH has been very spotty for the last couple of months, and Providence, on the other hand, has only three losses in its last fourteen games.  UNH dropped two of thrre games to Providence, and dropped three places in the poll to #10, while Providence rose up one slot to #16.  Western Michigan was swept by Michigan; Michigan has lost only two of its last twelve games, and now finds itself at #20 in the poll; Western Michigan dropped three slots to #12.  Denver dropped two out of three to Colorado College; Denver has been streaky in the second half of the season; they dropped two rungs in the rankings to the #13 spot.  All three of New Hampshire, Western Michigan, and Denver probably have a good shot of making it to the NCAAs, although none of them will be going in with a roar.  On the other hand, RPI was looking like a team on the verge of making the NCAAs, but dropped two out of three to Brown; RPI dropped three spots to #19, and is probably out of contention for the NCAAs.

The other top twenty teams prevailed in last weekend’s tournament play, to advance in their repective tournaments.  Minnesota swept Bemidji State, and by that sweep, and Quinnipiac’s one-game loss to Cornell, Minnesota is now ranked #1 and Quinnipiac is now ranked #2.  Quinnipiac did take two out of three from Cornell, but after suffering a close loss to Cornell Friday night and then striking back with an avalanche of goals to crush Cornell Satuday night, Quinnipiac found itself in a fight for its life on Sunday, and did not prevail until fourteen minutes into the second overtime period, despite taking 63 shots on goal on the night.  Cornell actually had the lead, 2-1, with a minute to go in the third, when Quinnipiac added an extra attacker and tied it up.  Cornell was able to stay in the game on the great play of their goalie, Andy Iles, who had 60 saves on the night, including 28 in the two OT periods.  #3 Miami of Ohio took two out of three from Michigan State, and #4 Boston College swept Vermont.

#5 UMass-Lowell swept Maine, and North Dakota’s loss sandwiched between two convincing wins over Michigan Tech dropped the Sioux two spots to the #6 ranking.  #7 St. Cloud State easily swept Alaska-Anchorage, #8 Mankato State took two out of three from Nebraska-Omaha, and Notre Dame is back in the top ten at #9 after sweeping Bowling Green.

Yale’s convincing sweep over St. Lawrence moved them up two rungs to #11 in the poll, #14 Wisconsin easily swept Minnesota-Duluth, and #15 Niagra swept R.I.T.  #17 Boston University swept Merrimack, and #18 Union College swept Dartmouth.

In Atlantic Hockey, Canisius swept and upset Air Force, and Mercyhurst upset Holy Cross, taking two out of three, while Connecticut came through and swept Robert Morris.  And in the CCHA, Ohio State previaled over Ferris State, taking two out of three games.

The semifinals and finals for all five conferences will be played this weekend, and the WCHA will have two play-in games Thursday night to determine two of the semi-finalists.  Here are the semifinal matchups for this weekend.

In the Atlantic Hockey semifinals, Canisius plays #15 Niagra, and Mercyhurst plays #28 Connecticut.  In the CCHA semifinals, #20 Michigan plays #3 Miami of Ohio, and #25 Ohio State plays #9 Notre Dame.

In the ECAC semifinals, #23 Brown faces #2 Quinnipiac, and #18 Union College plays #11 Yale.  In the Hockey East semifinals, #16 Providence plays #5 UMass-Lowell, and #17 Boston University faces #4 Boston College.

In the WCHA play in games on Thursday night, #22 Colorado College faces #6 North Dakota, and #8 Mankato State faces #14 Wisconsin, with the winners going on to play #1 Minnesota and #7 St. Cloud State in the semifinals.

What a weekend we have coming up!  When it’s over we’ll have the final poll, the conference champions, and the sixteen teams in the NCAA Tournament!  And who do you have picked to make the Frozen Four in Pittsburgh?  Your secrets will all be out pretty soon as you submit your picks for the pool.  I will send out the brackets as quickly as I can.  Please be sure to play — remember, it costs nothing to play, and the winner gets a prize.

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

[table id=65 /]

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

— Tom