College Hockey Update:  Last week/end presented a few top twenty matches, one of which we reported on last week as Cornell topped Providence for Providence’s first loss, setting up the Florida Classic Tournament consolation round of Providence vs Boston College, which Providence won.  BC had lost to Ohio State to set that up, and Cornell went on to lose to Ohio State (and I don’t mean just lost, it was 8-0!), as Ohio State was the unlikely winner of Cornell’s Tournament.  And to top it off, Providence then went on to lose to Brown last weekend.  These results dropped Providence a couple of spots to #3, dropped BC three spots to #7, and Cornell held at #9.  Another top twenty matchup was Notre Dame and Denver, which produced two ties between the teams.  Notre Dame edged up to #15, and Denver held at #17.

Meanwhile, North Dakota swept Alabama-Huntsville, and edged up to #1; Quinnipiac swept Princeton and tied Northeastern and edged up to #2; and St. Cloud State swept Arizona State and edged up to #4.  Harvard beat Ferris State and Minnesota, winning the Mariucci Classic, and moved up a couple of slots to #5; Michigan beat Northern Michigan and Michigan Tech to win the Great Lakes Invitational, and moved up a couple of notches to #8; and Mass-Lowell beat Clarkson and lost to Robert Morris in the Three Rivers Classic, dropping Lowell down a couple of slots to #10.  Penn State lost to eventual and unlikely Three Rivers Classic Champion Robert Morris, and then beat Clarkson, and Penn State held at #14; Bowling Green lost to Western Michigan, then split with Clarkson, dropping Bowling Green four rungs to #16; and RPI entered the top twenty at #20 after splitting with Miami of Ohio.  An idle Nebraska Omaha held at #6, idle Boston University held at #11, idle Yale edged up to #12; idle St. Lawrence moved up a couple of spots to #13, idle Mankato held at #18, and idle Minnesota-Duluth held at #19.

This weekend presents seven top twenty teams in four top twenty matches. #2 Quinnipiac will host #5 Harvard on Saturday night, and Harvard will host #11 Boston University on Thursday night.  #3 Providence will have a home-and-home series with #7 Boston College, with the two having just faced each other last week, and #6 Nebraska-Omaha will host #17 Denver for two.

Boston University has been idle since Saturday, December 12th.  That night, and so far this season, BU has had huge help from its senior forward Matt Lane, of Rochester, NY.  In BU’s last outing on the 12th at Quinnipiac, the 5’10” 184lb Lane scored two goals in BU’s 4-1 win over the Bobcats.  Lane is second on the team in goals scored, with 8, and he is tied for eighth on the team in assists with five.  Last year Lane was seventh on the team with 8 goals scored and he also tallied 10 assists.  Boston University will travel two and a half miles to play #5 Harvard on Thursday night (a game any true BU fan would love to attend), and will host the University of Massachusetts-Amherst on Saturday night.  BU has had a spotty season so far, and has been hampered by the suspension of key player Nick Roberto (for gambling on sports, but not on hockey), and injuries to two key players, captain Matt Grzelcyk and Nikolas Olson. In the net, the departure of Matt “Let’s toss one in for Providence” O’Connor has BU playing two goalies:  Sophomore Connor LaCouvee, who only played six games all of last year; and Senior Sean Maguire, who didn’t play any games last year as he sat out recovering from a concussion sustained in the 2013-14 season.

The outlook going forward is further hampered by the loss of A.J. Greer to the QMJHL over the Christmas break, and could be threatened by the shoulder injury on December 12th to their leading scorer Ahti Oksanen.  In addition, four BU team members have been part of the World Juniors Championships on three different teams, and three of them were in the bronze medal game played today in Finland; it is questionable as to whether or not these guys will have any gas left in the tank for either game Thursday or Saturday, given the constant game-playing schedule they have just endured.  There is a chance that Oksanen Grzelcyk and Olson might play this week, but BU certainly has its work cut our for themselves for the rest of this season, given all of this turmoil in their roster.  In addition, just to make things interesting I suppose, BU will add two brand new players as January-entering freshmen to the University, and will try to work them into the team.  Sheeeeesh!

This provides the top twenty teams, rankings, records and last week/end’s results:

[table id=120 /]

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

— Tom