College Hockey Update:  Last weekend presented a couple of top twenty matchups, and Nebraska-Omaha bounced back with a big sweep over Minnesota-Duluth, lifting UNO up a couple of pegs to #6, and dropping UMD down seven spots to #13.  Harvard and Yale skated to a tie, and Harvard held at #7 (they went on to beat Brown the next night), and Yale moved up a couple of rungs to #10 (they went on to beat Dartmouth the next night).

Boston College notched a shut out over UMass-Amherst, and then two more over Maine, edging BC up  to #2, while North Dakota was upset by Wisconsin in the first of two games as the teams split the weekend, dropping the No-Names (see update on North Dakota name below) a couple of spots to #3.  Quinnipiac kept its perfect record alive with wins over Colgate and Cornell, and edged up to #4, while UMass-Lowell swept Vermont and edged down to #5.  And Denver swept Colorado College and edged up to #8.

Boston University swept Northeastern, and held on to the #11 spot, while Merrimack moved up a couple of spots to #14 with wins over Bentley and Canisius.  Bowling Green edged down to #15 after two ties with Lake Superior State, St. Lawrence held at #15 with a win over Union and a loss to RPI, and Miami of Ohio rose up a couple of spots to #17 after sweeping Western Michigan. Notre Dame held at #18 after splitting with Minnesota, Clarkson dropped a couple to #19 with a win over RPI and a loss to Union, and Michigan Tech joined the top twenty at #20 with its sweep of Alabama-Huntsville.  An idle Providence edged up to #1, an idle St. Cloud State edged up to #9, and an idle Michigan edged up to #12.

Boston College has accumulated an 8-1-0 record so far this season, and has really done it with a stingy defense.  In its nine games played, and its eight wins, BC has recorded six shut outs.  BC has received huge help from its goalie Thatcher Demko, of San Diego, CA.  The 6′ 4″ 210lb. junior as an astonishing GAA of 0.67, and a saves percentage of .974 in his nine games played so far. His numbers his first two years were also impressive, but he only had three shut outs from his first two seasons:  Sophomore year GAA was 2.19, and saves percentage was .925; Freshman year GAA was 2.24, and saves percentage was .919.  Add to this his 2012-13 record on the US Under-18 Team of 30-9-4, with six shut outs, and a saves percentage of .910, and his 2011-12 record on the USHL Omaha Lancers of 9-3-0, including one more shut out.  Makes you wonder if anyone will score on BC again this year, doesn’t it?

Speaking about wondering . . . . have you heard the latest election results?  We’re talking North Dakota, where a new nickname for the North Dakota teams is being determined.  Just in case you don’t know the story here, the nickname “The Fighting Sioux” was deemed offensive, although it would seem that somehow a very large cash payment from the University to the Sioux Tribe would have made it inoffensive . . . . Anyway, the five names put on the ballot in North Dakota for a five day voting period were:  The Fighting Hawks (not the first school to consider using the hawk to replace an American Indian name,  although one could speculate this could open them to a lawsuit from the growing number of accipitrid/accipiter sympathizers); The Roughriders (even though Teddy Roosevelt’s face is carve into a mountain in SOUTH Dakota); The Sun Dogs (does this sound like a team from Phoenix or what?); The Nodaks (probably would get a lawsuit from the Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks for this one); and the Northstars (a lot of fear that the team might move to Dallas if given this name).  So they voted, and the top three names were the Fighting Hawks (31%), the Roughriders (21%) and the Nodaks (20.5%).  In the second vote, the Fighting Hawks got 45.7%, the Roughriders got 28%, and the Nodaks got 26.3%.  The final vote between the Fighting Hawks and the Roughriders is taking place right now, as it started yesterday, and voting closes on Monday night.  I know we’re all on the edge of our seats on this one.  In an interview this morning, Donald Trump said, “Look, a Hawk is just a stupid bird, and birds don’t play hockey.  Roughriders just sounds really uncomfortable.  In fact, too uncomfortable.  And Nodaks?  Are you kidding me? You’re going to name your team after a camera?  These people should just name their team ‘The Trumps.’  Yeah, ‘The North Dakota Trumps.’ Then they’d win all the time.  Case closed.”

Speaking about the Phoenix Sun Dogs . . . . here’s something not covered here as of yet.  We are in the inaugural year of Arizona State Sun Devil Division I Hockey.  Yes, DI hockey has now made it pretty far west in the Lower 48.  ASU is not in a league yet, and they are 3-6-0 so far, and pretty much regularly get their rears kicked by the DI teams.  Even Wisconsin.  They somehow have a win over Alaska-Fairbanks (see how this thing has gone full circle — whew!), and two wins over Southern New Hampshire, which isn’t exactly a DI school . . . .  While this is not to be confused with the South Harmon Institute of Technology, featured in the 2006 movie “Accepted,” there is nonetheless some investigation going on about the school being primarily an online learning center, and its use of a couple of defensemen who had only been telecommuting from Kazakhstan.  Ok, back to reality after that little trip at expense of ASU.  The truth is that I’m thrilled to see ASU introduce a DI Hockey to the far west, and in a dream it will expand to the Bay Area and allow people here to see good, live college hockey in the not too distant future.

This weekend there are some seriously great top twenty matchups.  For starters, there is the home/home series for the #1 ranked, undefeated, and defending National Champion Providence Friars against #11 Boston University.  While this does pair the two schools from last year’s NCAA Championship game, Providence is on a roll this season that BU doesn’t match.  In addition, Providence returns just about everyone from last year’s team, while BU lost their star Jack Eichel, their third-leading scorer Evan Rodrigues, and their one of their most pivotal assist leaders, Cason Hohmann.  Last year’s second-leading scorer, Ahti Oksanen, has not stepped up to the plate and taken leadership of the team, and neither have their two incoming top recruits, Jakob Karlsson and Jordan Greenway.  Could be a long weekend for BU.  This game starts in about thirty minutes.  Also this weekend, #3 North Dakota hosts #17 Miami of Ohio for a pair, #4 Quinnipiac hosts #7 Harvard for one game tonight, and #8 Denver travels to play two at #13 Minnesota-Duluth.  There’s more!  #15 St. Lawrence hosts #19 Clarkson tonight for one game, and #15 Bowling Green travels to play two at #20 Michigan Tech.  That’s 60% of the top twenty!

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

 [table id=114 /] 

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

— Tom