College Hockey Update:  Last weekend presented eight top twenty-five matchups, and Quinnipiac beat Yale and held on at #1 (Quinnipiac had beaten Brown the night before), while Yale edged down to #8 (Yale had beaten Princeton the night before). North Dakota swept Nebraska-Omaha, and the Fighting Hawks rose up a couple of spots to #2 (with losses by BC and St. Cloud State), while UNO dropped a couple of slots to #15. Boston College split with UMass-Lowell, edging BC down to #3, while Lowell held at #11, and Michigan likewise split with Minnesota, but the Wolverines held at #6, while Minnesota moved up three pegs to #17.  Boston University split with Notre Dame, keeping BU at #9 and Notre Dame at #10, while Harvard lost to Clarkson and beat St. Lawrence, keeping Harvard at #12, edging Clarkson up to #24 (Clarkson also beat Dartmouth the next night), and keeping St. Lawrence at #19 (St. Lawrence had also beaten Dartmouth the night before).  And Cornell tied Rensselaer, as Cornell dropped a couple of notches to #18 (Cornell was blown out by Union Friday night), and dropping RPI four spots to #21 (RPI lost to Colgate Friday night).

Providence swept UMass-Amherst, edging Providence up to #4, assisted by, check this out — St. Cloud State getting swept at home by Minnesota-Duluth, which dropped St. Cloud a couple of slots to #5; wonders never cease, and I suppose it’s possible that some of those St. Cloud guys are pretty tired at the end of this season after beating just about everything wearing skates.  Denver swept Western Michigan, edging the Pioneers up to #7; Michigan Tech swept Alaska-Fairbanks, edging Tech up to #13; Mankato swept Alaska-Anchorage, lifting Mankato up two slots to #16; and Robert Morris swept Canisius, lifting the Colonials up two pegs to #20. Bowling Green swept Ferris State, edging the Falcons up to #22; Northeastern swept Maine, edging the Huskies up to #23; Miami of Ohio swept Colorado College, edging the RedHawks up to #25; and an idle Penn State edged up to #14.

Last weekend Denver had huge help from its freshman forward Dylan Gambrell, of Bonney Lake, WA., who scored a goal in his team’s 5-1 win Friday night, and scored a goal and added two assists in his team’s 4-1 win Saturday night, both against Western Michigan.  The 6’0″ 179lb. forward is second on his team in goals scored with 13, and is second in assists with 26. Before coming to Denver, he played for three seasons for the Dubuque Fighting Saints of the USHL and scored 39 goals and added 69 assists in 172 games.  Denver is 19-8-5, is ranked #7, and has only one loss in its last 16 games, going 12-1-3 in that stretch, starting January 1st. Conference-Tournament-wise, Denver is in a good spot, tied for second in the NCHC with a mile of road between them and the fourth place team, so they’re assured a top three finish.

Gambrell’s home town of Bonney Lake, WA. sits at 574 feet of elevation and is home to 17,000 residents among its eight square miles.  Bonney Lake is 37 miles south of Seattle, and sits between Puyallup and Enumclaw.

This week we expanded the coverage to the top 25 teams so we could specifically call attention to another team on a hot streak.  Northeastern started out this season 1-11-2.  But since an opening round OT loss to UMass-Lowell at the Friendship Tournament in Belfast, Northern Ireland on November 27th, they have gone 15-2-3, including a win over Harvard, and ties with Quinnipiac and Boston College.  Last weekend they swept Maine convincingly, and as the #6 seed in the Hockey East Tournament, will play the #11 seed, Maine, yet again on home ice at Matthews Arena this weekend.  If they were to sweep Maine again, they would be 18-13-5, and would have won half of all games played.  That would be quite a turnaround, and it would sure be a treat to be at Matthews this weekend to see them in Tournament action.  But here’s a killer — they did this last year too!  They started out last year 0-8-1, and then went 16-6-3, ending the season 16-14-4.  Not a great way to go through the season, but impressive they come back so strong.  And this year they have a chance to end with a better overall record than they did last year.  The Huskies are currently ranked #23.

This weekend there is only one top-twenty five matchup, as #7 Denver will host #15 Nebraska-Omaha, to end their regular season NCHC play.  This is also the last regular season weekend for the WCHA, and is the penultimate regular season weekend for the Big Ten, Six, whatever. Conference Tournaments start this weekend for Atlantic Hockey, The ECAC, and Hockey East, with byes for the top four teams, and best two-out-of-three matchups for everyone else.  Top 25 teams in tournament play this weekend are #9 Boston University vs. UMass-Amherst, #18 Cornell vs. Union College, #21 Rensselaer vs. Brown, #23 Northeastern vs. Maine, and #24 Clarkson vs. Princeton.  As we all know, anything can happen during March Meltdown!

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

[table id=128 /]

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

— Tom