College Hockey Update:  Last weekend nearly all the top ten teams faced another top ten team, and we had another couple of matchups from the bottom half of the top twenty.

So let’s start with a scorcher, as #1 Minnesota took a beating and suffered their first loss of the season at the hands of #4 Notre Dame Friday night, and then bounced back to earn a split on the weekend in a close game on Saturday night; both teams held their spots in the rankings.    #3 St. Cloud similarly suffered its first loss of the season last Friday night at the hands of Miami of Ohio, and then won a close one on Saturday night, coming from behind to win; St. Cloud held its spot in the rankings, and Miami was nudged down a spot to #8.  In a great rematch of last year’s NCAA championship game, Quinnipiac and Yale battled to a tie; Quinnipiac nudged down a spot to the #6 ranking, and Yale held at #9.  Boston College pounded the daylights out of Boston University Friday night (outshooting them 40-23), knocking BU out of the top twenty, and rising up a notch to the #7 ranking (BC also scorched Army on Sunday, and beat UMass-Amherst last night).  RPI fought to a tie with Cornell and RPI held onto the #10 ranking (they also beat Colgate), and Cornell (which went on to lose to Union College) dropped down to the #19 ranking.  And Northeastern re-entered the poll at #18 after beating UMass-Lowell, which dropped Lowell four spots to the #16 ranking (Mass-Lowell beat Penn State last night).

Elsewhere, Michigan held at #2 on and idle weekend; Clarkson sling-shot up five spots to #11 on wins over Dartmouth and Harvard; and Wisconsin nudged up to #12 on an idle weekend.  North Dakota slid down to #13 after splitting with Nebraska-Omaha, Ferris State rocketed up five spots to #14 after sweeping Bemidji State, and Lake Superior State nudged down to #15 after splitting with Alaska-Fairbanks.  St. Lawrence entered the top twenty at #17 on wins over Harvard and Dartmouth, and Minnesota-Duluth held at #20 on an idle weekend.

This weekend we have four great matchups as #8 Miami of Ohio hosts #12 Wisconsin for two games, #11 Clarkson hosts #19 Cornell for a game, #13 North Dakota hosts #20 Minnesota-Duluth for two games, and #17 St. Lawrence hosts #19 Cornell for a game.

Now, what the dickens is going on at Providence College?  Well, it appears that the coaching change made two years ago is paying off for the Friars.  This is the third season for Coach Nate Leaman, who came from eight years at Union College.  While his career record as head coach is 176-162-47, and it is currently 38-35-12 at Providence, let’s dig a bit deeper.  After four losing seasons at Union College, he had four wining seasons there, and the last two were 21-12-6, and 26-10-4.  His first at Providence was a losing season; last year the Friars went 17-14-7, and at one time were ranked as high as #16.  And now the Friars are 7-1-1 and ranked #5.  Quite a turnaround for a coach who seems to have a formula for turning teams around.  Right now his roster of 29 is made of four seniors, five juniors, fourteen sophomores, and six freshmen.  It also is made of eight players directly from high school, and twenty-one who came from junior hockey league play after high school.  The two captains are seniors Steven Shamanski (had to get that one in there) of Carberry, Manitoba, and Kevin Hart, of Cumberland, ME.  It will be interesting to watch what happens the rest of this season for the Friars and in the years to come.

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

[table id=70 /]

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

— Tom