College Hockey Update:  With no top-twenty matchups last weekend, and so many teams idle with byes in the first round of conference tournament play, I suppose the big news would be that out of the eight teams that played regular season games, three ranked teams suffered losses:  North Dakota edged down in the rankings to #10 after splitting with Western Michigan; Michigan edged down to #13 after splitting with Michigan State; and Minnesota-Duluth edged down to #20 after splitting with Nebraska-Omaha.  On another note, as mentioned last week, #11 Notre Dame neatly dispatched with Boston University in a play-in round of Hockey East tournament play, ending BU’s season with only ten wins — the lowest win total in fifty-one years, since 1963, for the Terriers.  Yuck.

Elsewhere, #1 Minnesota earned a win and a tie against Ohio State, #4 St. Cloud State swept Colorado College, #5 Wisconsin swept Penn State, and Ferris State edged up to #6 after sweeping Lake Superior State.  #15 Vermont beat UMass-Amherst in a play-in round of Hockey East tournament play; #16 Yale swept Harvard in a best-of-three first round series of ECAC tournament play; Mankato edged down to #18 on its win and tie against Michigan Tech; and Maine edged up to #19 after beating Merrimack College in a play-in round of Hockey East tournament play.

So now all conferences except the Big Six Ten are done with regular season play and are starting, or continuing with, tournament play, so the schedule is pretty close to a normal weekend with many, many matchups playing two games (in the Big Ten), and a best of three series in the conference tournaments.  With so many games scheduled, let’s just look at the top twenty matchups that the weekend presents.  #1 Minnesota will travel to play two games at #13 Michigan in this last weekend of Big Ten regular season play, and #2 Boston College hosts #11 Notre Dame in a best of three series in Hockey East tournament play.  #6 Quinnipiac hosts #16 Yale in a best of three series in ECAC tournament play, and a playoff rematch of last year’s NCAA championship game.  #8 UMass-Lowell hosts #15 Vermont, and #10 Providence hosts #19 Maine, both matchups are best of three matches in Hockey East tournament play.

So let’s get acquainted with Mankato State — it was established in 1868, and is a school of 13,500 undergraduate and 2,000 graduate students, making it the third-largest student body in the state.  The school offers 158 undergraduate degree programs, and 82 graduate programs.  Mankato State officially changed its name to Minnesota State in 1999, but I find it impossible not to refer to it as Mankato, after all the years seeing its hockey scores listed that way, and I suspect a good many Minnesotans might still have the habit of calling it Mankato as well.  Its 300 hundred acre campus sits on the south side of the town of Manakato, which has a population of 40,000, and a metropolitan total population of 53,000.  The town of Mankato was founded in 1852 at a bend in the Minnesota River, and sits 75 miles southwest of Minneapolis, very similar to St. Cloud State, which sits 75 miles northwest of Minneapolis.  Mankato somehow sits in three different counties — Blue Earth (of which it is the county seat), Nicollet, and Le Sueur.  It was here that the US Army conducted the largest mass execution in US History, hanging 38 Dakota Indians after the the Dakota War in 1862.  The military tribunal had sentenced 303 to death, but Abraham Lincoln pardoned 265 of the condemned as he believed they had been involved in legitimate defense against military forces.  It is believed that the name Mankato was originally a sort of a typo, as the town was named after the Dakota Indian word “Mahkato,” which means “Blue Earth;” the “h” was mistaken for an “n,” and never corrected.  With this town being located so far south, in the sun belt of Minnesota, it doesn’t get quite so cold there, as the average low in January is six degrees, and in February it is eleven.  Mankato is the hometown of Adrienne Armstrong, the wife of Greenday guitarist/singer/songwriter, Billy Jo Armstrong.

Ok, Mankato State sports — the teams are called the Mavericks, and their colors are purple and gold.  Their hockey team plays at the Verizon Center, a 5,300 seater in downtown Mankato, owned and operated by the city of Manakato.  Mankato State hockey started in 1969 and played as a DII independent until going to DIII from 1984-92.  They played from 1992-96 in DII again, and then went to DI in 1996, joining the WCHA in 1999.  The team is coached by Mike Hastings, who is in his second year.  Last year his team went 24-14-3, and made an NCAA appearance.  His roster this year is on the younger side of experience, with four seniors, six juniors, ten sophomores, and seven freshmen.  For a brief discussion of actual ages, see last week’s post, in which I discussed the ages of the Colgate and Mankato players, and attributed the older ages to the change in college hockey not focusing on taking student players straight out of high school.  Since Mankato went DI in 1996, they have had two NCAA tournament appearances.  So far this year the team is already 22-13-1, is ranked #18, and has a shot at making the NCAA tournament.  Last weekend Mankato missed the co-championship of the WCHA when they tied, instead of beat, Michigan Tech on Saturday night, the last regular season game of the year.  This weekend Mankato State hosts Northern Michigan in a best of three round of WCHA tournament play.

We are really into the conference tournament play now, and the first two games are tonight when Nebraska-Omaha hosts Denver in best of three action in the NCHC tournament (in about three hours), and Alaska-Fairbanks hosts Alaska-Anchorage in best of three action in the WCHA tournament (in about six hours).  Who will make it to the Frozen Four in Philadelphia?  In about eleven days you will have to pick that when I send out the NCAA Tournament Brackets.  Right now it looks like the top twelve teams are probably pretty sure bets for the NCAA tournament, and the teams ranked from thirteen to seventeen, maybe eighteen, all have a shot, depending on what happens this weekend and next.  It’s almost here, the NCAA tournament.  Are you going to get your name on that list of pool winners on the homepage of the blogsite this year?

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

[table id=86 /]

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

— Tom