College Hockey Update:  Last week featured two top ten matchups, and Denver edged up to #1 on its tie and win against North Dakota, which slipped a couple of spots to #8.  Quinnipiac jumped up three rungs to #4 after beating Harvard last Saturday night (Quinnipiac also beat Dartmouth last Friday night), which dropped Harvard out of the top ten.  Minnesota-Duluth edged down to #2 after splitting with Western Michigan, Boston College held at # 3 after beating New Hampshire and Arizona State, and Boston University edged down to #5 after splitting with Michigan.  UMass-Lowell edged down to #6 after splitting with Maine, Notre Dame held at #9 after they managed a win and a tie against Northeastern (the tie game ended suspended with the score 0-0 going into the third, after a zamboni broke down and melted the ice in a corner; with the teams unable to find a reschedule date, Hockey East ruled the game a tie), Penn State moved up two slots to #10 after sweeping Alaska-Anchorage, and an idle Minnesota edged up to #7.

Last week Boston College had huge help from its sophomore forward Colin White, of Hanover, MA, who scored a goal and tallied an assist in his team’s 5-3 win over New Hampshire Tuesday night, November 8th, and scored a goal in his team’s 3-1 win over Arizona State last Sunday.  White is second on his team in goals scored, with seven, and is tied for fourteenth in assists, with three.  Last year he scored nineteen goals and tallied 24 assists as a freshman.  Boston College is 10-2-1, ranked #3, and will travel the three miles over to Allston to play #11 Harvard tonight, and then to Hartford to play Connecticut on Tuesday night.  That Harvard game will be starting in a little more than an hour from the time of this posting.

In the November 8th game against New Hampshire, BC got on the board first when Chris Brown scored on a power play about eight minutes into the first.  In the second it looked as though BC had blown it open when Casey Fitzgerald scored about eight minutes into the period, and then about four minutes later Matthew Gaudreau scored to put BC up 3-0.  But UNH didn’t quit, and Liam Blackburn scored with about five minutes left in the second to make it 3-1.  In the third things went New Hampshire’s way as they scored two power play goals at about nine minutes into the period, and then again about seven minutes later.  But BC’s J.C. Dudek scored a goal only a couple of minutes later, and then with only a second left on the clock, BC’s Colin White found the empty net to make the final 5-3, BC.

In BC’s game last Sunday against Arizona State, Colin White scored on a power play goal only a couple minutes into the first, but Arizona State tied the game at 1-1 with about three minutes left in the first.  BC really peppered ASU freshman goalie Joey Daccord, of Boston, as they outshot ASU 15-5 in the first, and it continued as they had a 17-6 shot advantage in the second, which yielded a BC goal when David Cotton scored on a power play five minutes into the period.  The pace reversed in the third as ASU fought for a chance and outshot BC 13-9, but couldn’t capitalize on it, yet BC managed another goal when Chris Calnan scored with about three minutes left in the game to make it 3-1, BC.  ASU freshman Daccord stopped 38 of 41 shots on goal in the contest.

This weekend features a great top ten matchup which is already half over.  Last night UMass-Lowell traveled to Notre Dame, and Lowell prevailed 4-1 in a game in which they never trailed, and they saw C.J. Smith net two.  The two teams play at Notre Dame again tonight.

Lastly, our contributing field reporter, John McLean has decided to slip back the the hammock for the weekend, and instead of contributing some field reporting, has done the astonishingly heavy lifting of providing a link to an article in the New York Times.  I wouldn’t normally provide a full piece written elsewhere in The Update, but in the age of participation trophies, I’ll try to encourage some continued involvement, and say “good job John.”  For those who have the time to read about some hockey glory days out in Minnesota from days long gone, it is a rather good piece and pays tribute to true hockey hero Herb Brooks:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/17/sports/hockey/minnesota-colleges-herb-brooks-stcloud.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad

This provides the top ten teams, rankings, recrords, and last week's results:

[table id=135 /]

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

— Tom