Nebrasaka-Omaha freshman forward Avery Peterson, of Grand Rapids. MN, scored a goal in Friday night’s 3-4 loss, then scored two goals and added an assist in Saturday night’s 4-1 win, both against Colorado College.

College Hockey Update:  Last weekend featured one top ten matchup, and Boston University needed overtime to squeak past UMass-Lowell on Saturday night; BU edged down to #3 after losing to Boston College Friday night — UMass-Lowell edged up to #5 having beaten Maine the night before; BC dropped a couple of spots to #19 as they went on to lose to Maine the next night.  Last weekend also featured another matchup of a top ten team and another ranked team as Bowling Green and Michigan Tech split a weekend series; Bowling Green edged up to #6 and Michigan Tech edged back in to the top ten at #10.  Mankato State swept Ferris State and held at #1, while North Dakota swept a very lopsided weekend against Niagara, and held at #2.  Minnesota-Duluth tied and lost at the hands of Western Michigan, dropping the Bulldogs a couple of notches to #7, while Nebraska-Omaha split with Colorado College and held at #8, and an idle Miami of Ohio held at #9.  Vermont’s loss and tie against Northeastern knocked the Catamounts out of the top ten, down a couple of rungs to #12.

Let’s see, are we missing anyone?  Oh yeah, there’s Harvard . . . .  Harvard won an easy one against Clarkson Friday night and hosted St. Lawrence Saturday night.  Our contributing field reporter, Bruce Carlisle, watched most of the game, and provided this game summary for our reading enjoyment.

Bruce Carlisle wrote: (note: Bruce Carlisle (@rbcarlisle) born in Boston, learned how to skate at Appleton Arena at St. Lawrence University, and played pee-wee and midget hockey.  He says he skated badly, but he’s never seen me on ice skates any of the four times I have attempted it; he actually played hockey but downplays it, saying he wasn’t good enough for high school, whereas I have only ever watched it.  Bitten by the hockey bug by his playing experience, his love of the game blossomed as he trudged across Canton’s “frozen tundra” in sub-zero weather to see every St. Lawrence hockey game from about fourth grade on, and it all took him to perhaps the zenith of his involvement with the game when he became the radio play-by-play voice of the Skating Saints for all four of his years at St. Lawrence, starting as only a sixteen-year old college freshman striking out to be a hippie, long hair and all, and broadcasting two games from Madison Square Garden — Boston University and Bowdoin — before his 17th birthday.  I think he invented the entire notion of being an understated ham, if you can conceptualize that one; it makes sense to me.) — ok, here is Bruce’s summary:

The Skating Saints, coming off a Friday night 3-2 nail-biter at Dartmouth stormed down I-93 and into Bright Center for their 103rd meeting with the Harvard Crimson by scoring three unanswered first period goals.  With Bright Center sold out and a boisterous crowd of Larry fans in attendance (representing roughly 30% of the crowd and 80% of the noise by one observer’s estimate), the Canton, NY. team chased starting Harvard goalie Steve Michalek off the ice fifteen minutes into the game.

All three first period markers came off of the sticks of SLU’s New Englanders.  The first goal by captain and power forward Gunnar Hughes sealed the deal for the Hughes family.  The second generation of D1 players from the Westwood, MA. family can now boast that each of SLU’s junior Hughes brothers will finish their careers with a goal scored against their father and uncle’s old team at Bright (Brother George Jr. was a 2012 SLU All-American.  Dad, George and Uncle, Jack Hughes starred for the Crimson in the late 1970s).

New Hampshire boys Gavin Bayreuther (last year’s ECAC co-rookie of the year) and Assistant Captain Pat Doherty (from Hanover!) scored the next two (see photo of Doherty goal at very bottom of this post).  The Crimson scored the only goal of the second period with Harvard’s all-world Jimmy Vesey ensuring that his at-least-one-point-in-every-game streak stayed intact.

The Cambridge, MA. community college’s hopes were dashed early in the third period when Brian Ward, another local (from Haverhill) scored on the power play at 1:54, followed by an Alexander Dahl insurance goal at the ten minute mark.  Ward’s goal was his second of the weekend as he had scored the game winner at Dartmouth the previous night, a goal representing JUSTICE:  Ward had begun his career with the Big Green, where they dissed him and refused to play him, before transferring to St. Lawrence, where he has thrived and wears the “A” as a junior.  Behind 5-1, Harvard pulled their goalie with 3:20 remaining but no luck.  Oh, and Kyle Hayton, the best freshman goalie in the nation stopped 46 of 47 shots and now leads the NCAA by a mile with 673 saves on the season.

The Saints are unbeaten at Bright in their last four efforts and despite sporting a .550 overall record, with the win have moved into third place behind Harvard in the ECAC standings sporting a 7-4 league record.  Harvard held at #4 in the poll.  Only Yale and St. Lawrence have beaten Harvard thus far this year.

Harvard heads to Lynah to face a struggling Cornell team tonight, Friday, while the skating Saints will take on #13 Yale in the rustic, homey, wood-stained confines of Appleton Arena.  Yale is a team they have already beaten during an early season road sweep in New Haven and Providence.  On Saturday, the brotherly roles will be reversed as Brown University’s traitorous star, Nick Lappin will face the Saints at Appleton — where his father Pete and his two uncles Mike Lappin and Chris Lappin led SLU to two ECAC Championships and the NCAA Final at Lake Placid in 1988.  Brown has taken at least a point from the Saints in the annual two game series in each of the last twenty years.  The Saints could finally break that curse with a victory Saturday night.

Trivia Note:  Jack Hughes business partner is BU Olympian Jack O’Callahan.  Name of Company:  Beanpot Financial Services.

Thanks Bruce! (Note:  We welcome your game summaries from games you have attended or watched)

Last weekend Nebraska-Omaha had huge help from freshman forward Avery Peterson of Grand Rapids, MN., who scored a goal Friday night in his team’s 3-4 loss, and then scored two goals and added an assist in his team’s 4-1 win, both against Colorado College.  Peterson is second on the team in goals scored, with nine, and is tied for sixth in assists, with nine.  Last week he was named NCHC rookie of the week for the second straight week, and for the third week this season.  The 6′ 3″ 215lb. forward played for the Grand Rapids High School Thunderhawks where he scored 37 goals and added 30 assists in his last season, and was named Minnesota’s Mr. Hockey 2013-14.  His career total of 203 points is the school record.  He also played for Sioux City of the USHL, scoring six goals and adding fifteen assists in 27 games.  He was selected in the sixth round with the 167th pick of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft by the Minnesota Wild.

Peterson’s home town of Grand Rapids is the county seat of Itasca County.  At least a couple of big-time hockey names come from Grand Rapids — Bill Baker, who led Grand Rapids High to the State Championship and played on the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team, as well as Don Lucia, the coach of the highly revered Minnesota Golden Gophers, and clearly the patron saint of hockey to all knowledgeable hockey fans in the state.  Grand Rapids is home to 11,000 and is named after the rapids in the Mississippi River, which made it the northernmost navigable point of the river to steam boats in the late 1800s.  The rapids are now under the dam of the Blandin Paper Mill.  Grand Rapids was founded in 1872 and incorporated in 1891.  It was originally settled as a logging town, using the river as natural transportation.  It is the birthplace of Judy Garland, and in addition to the Judy Garland Museum, it is home to the Forestry History Center, a historic site that recreates the early 1900s logging life for its visitors.

The old Central School was built downtown in 1895, and served as three floors of classrooms from 1895 to 1972.  It was restored in 1984 as a commerce location, and it is in the national register of historic places.  The town’s twenty-four square miles are adjacent to the 1000 lakes and one million acres of forest of Itasca County.  Highway 2 goes west to Bemidji, and East to Duluth (and south to Duluth as Duluth sits in the warmer climes of the sunbelt of the state).  Highway 169 goes north to Virginia and Hibbing, and south to Hill City and eventually to Minneapolis (again in the warmer climes of the sunbelt).  While historically dominated by the timber industry with the Blandin Paper Mill still active downtown, Grand Rapids has an emerging tourist industry with visitors taking advantage of the four golf courses there, the museums, fishing in the lakes, hiking in the forests (and some hunting in some of the forests as well), and a variety of festivals from spring through fall.  Now don’t you want to go to Grand Rapids for a summer vacation?

This weekend there are no top ten matchups scheduled, but one might take place anyway.  There are a host of top ten teams facing other ranked opponents.  Let’s start with the North Star College Cup, Minnesota’s in-season tournament for the championship of Minnesota, with five eligible teams, only four playing per year, and Minnesota always in it.  Tonight #1 Mankato State plays #17 Minnesota, and #7 Minnesota-Duluth plays Bemidji State.  St. Cloud State is a spectator this year.  Saturday night the two winners face off, as do the two losing teams from tonight.  #3 Boston University will play two at Vermont, #4 Harvard plays one at #15 Colgate, #5 UMass-Lowell plays a home/home series with #18 Providence, and #9 Miami of Ohio will host two games against #11 Denver.

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

[table id=102 /]

That’s all for now, except the picture below.  Stay tuned, and go Terriers!

— Tom