College Hockey Update:  Last weekend presented three sets of top twenty matchups, and Providence beat Yale, keeping Providence at #1, and keeping Yale at #10.  Harvard beat Notre Dame in the first round of Notre Dame’s tournament, keeping Harvard at #8 (Harvard beat RPI the next night), and dropping Notre Dame a couple of spots to #20 (Notre Dame beat Western Michigan the next night).  Boston University tied Cornell in the biennial Big Red Hockey Game at Madison Square Garden, keeping BU at #11 (BU had beaten Bentley earlier in the week), and edging Cornell up to #15.

Boston College remained at #2 with wins over Connecticut and RIT, Quinnipiac remained at #3 on a sweep of UMass-Amherst, and North Dakota edged up to #4 on their sweep of Michigan State, and UMass-Lowell’s failure to sweep,  Umass-Lowell edged down to #5 after beating Northeastern but settling on a tie with Brown, Nebraska-Omaha held at #6 on its sweep of Ohio State, and St. Cloud State held on to #7 on its sweep of Minnesota.

Michigan remained at #12 after beating and tying Dartmouth, Bowling Green edged down to #14 after sweeping Northern Michigan, and Merrimack dropped three spots to #16 after its horrific showing against Union.  Michigan Tech moved up a couple to #17 after sweeping Alaska-Fairbanks, and Penn State edged up to #19 on its win over Vermont.  An idle Denver held at #9, an idle St. Lawrence edged up to #13, and an idle Minnesota-Duluth edged up to #17.

Last weekend Nebraska-Omaha had huge help from its junior forward, Austin Ortega, of Escondido, CA.  The 5′ 8″ 170 lb junior scored a goal and added an assist Friday night in his team’s 3-1 win, and he scored two more goals Saturday night in his team’s 7-4 win, both over Ohio State.  Ortega is first on his team in goals scored with 12, and he is tied for third in assists with six.  UNO is coached by Dean Blais, the mastermind of North Dakota’s great success while he coached there from 1994 to 2004, and has really made a huge difference for UNO since his arrival in 2009.  UNO plays in the brand-spanking new Baxter Arena, which opened on October 23 this year, with a UNO 4-2 win over Air Force.  Baxter seats 7,500, has two ice rinks, and is unusual in that spectators first see the practice and community ice rink upon entering, not the main arena ice rink.  UNO has a great record of 11-2-1, is ranked #6, and travels this weekend to play two games at #7 St. Cloud State.

And here’s one for you.  Last weekend there was a Hockey Tournament called the Friendship Four, and I’m not kidding.  Seems like an odd way to express friendship.  This took place in Belfast, Northern Ireland.  Friday night Umass-Lowell beat Northeastern 3-2, and Brown beat Colgate 5-0.  Saturday night Lowell and Brown tied 5-5 in the championship game (rather fitting for the Friendship Championship I suppose), and in the consolation game, Northeastern routed Colgate by a 7-1 margin.  This outcome delighted Jane Slaughter, Northeastern freshman, and daughter of CHU Co-Publisher Jim Slaughter, and her gang of about nine Northeasterners in attendance.  Photo of Northeastern and Colgate on the ice after the game, below, courtesy of Jane Slaughter.

In addition to that top twenty matchup in St. Cloud this weekend, there are four more scorchers. #1 Providence will play a home-and-home series with #16 Merrimack, #3 Quinnipiac will travel to play #10 Yale Friday night, #4 North Dakota will host #9 Denver for two games, and #13 St. Lawrence will travel to play #15 Cornell Friday night.  What a great slate of contests!  Wish I could see them all.  Or at least one of them!

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

 [table id=117 /]

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

— Tom