I suppose the big news from last weekend would be that Denver split with Colorado College, and that Michigan was swept by Miami-Ohio.  Denver dropped in the rankings from #2 to #4, and CC moved up one from #20 to #19 on the split.  Michigan took a big tumble from #8 down to #13 after being swept, and Miami-Ohio moved up one from #13 to #12.

Meanwhile, Boston College shut out UMass-Amherst 5-0 to remain ranked #1, and Yale swept a weekend vs. Harvard and #17 Dartmouth; Yale remained #2 and Dartmouth remained #17, having beaten Brown.  Minnesota-Duluth revisited their rivalry with Minnesota, and came out with a tie and a win, lifting UMD from #4 to #3.  In the UMD win there was something you don’t see very often at all — five goals by one player, Mike Connolly.  And as you might expect with five goals from one player, there were two players who each made many assists — Jack Connolly (no relation to Mike; Mike is from Calgary, Jack is from Duluth) made four assists, and Justin Fontaine made three.  What a night for these three players!  An idle North Dakota remained at #5. 

New Hampshire notched two wins against Maine, leaving UNH at #6, and dropping Maine from #15 to #18; Wisconsin was idle and remained at #7.  RPI tied Quinnipiac and beat Princeton, and rose from #9 to #8; Princeton dropped to #20, from #19, on an additional loss to Union.  Union moved up from #11 to #9 on this win, and a win over Quinnipiac.  And Notre Dame remained at #10 on an idle weekend.

Merrimack can sure score a lot of goals — after beating Northeastern 4-3, they pulverized UMass-Amherst 11-2, and rose up to #11 from #12.  Boston University beat UMass-Lowell to hang on to the #14 spot, and Western Michigan tied and beat Bowling Green, and continued its recent ascent in the poll, landing at #15, up from #16.  And Nebraska-Omaha swept St. Cloud State, and is now #16, up from #18.

All of this happened prior to this week’s poll, and Monday night, after the poll, the Beanpot played out in Boston.  In the opening game, Northeastern scored once in the first, and three times in the second, to shut out Harvard 4-0.  In the late game, #1 Boston College faced #14 Boston University, and I watched this game down the street at the Philosopher’s Club.  It was a really great game, played at a playoff game pace.  Both teams put up solid defense, and when possible mounted terrific assaults on the net.  Phillip Samuleson of Boston College scored first, about 14 minutes into the first, and Wade Megan of Boston University came back 38 seconds later and tied it up.  Then, a couple of minutes into the second, Corey Trivino of BU scored to take a 2-1 lead, and held it through the period.  In the third, the pace continued, and as BU had the goal fairly well sealed off, a BU defender moved out to challenge for the puck, and BC’s Jimmy Hayes saw the opening and took it, to tie the game at 2-2.  The game ended in regulation tied at 2-2, and and very evenly as BC had 35 shots on goal to BU’s 34.  BU had four powerplay opportunities and continued with its powerplay struggles, converting on none of them; BU even had 3:59 of consecutive one man advantage late in the third, and just could not get the job done.  In regulation, BC had one powerplay opportunity, and BU managed to hang on and kill the penalty — something they have had a lot of difficulty with this year. 

Both goalies played great games, and in fact, BU’s Kieran Millan saved a BC game winning goal with 00:00.4 on the clock when, down flat on the ice, he stretched his leg back behind him to block the puck at the line with his skate.  BU had managed to play three periods with only one penalty, but in OT was short handed after upending a BC player with the stick.  BC smelled blood.  After a face off in the BU zone, the puck was passed to Tommy Cross at the point, and he and skated along the line and fired to the goal.  Cross, his shot, and the puck were all pretty well shielded from Millan by a BU defender close to the goal, and a BC player about midway in the zone.  Game to BC, 3-2.  The game winning goal deflected off the leg of the BU defender, and the other two goals BC scored also deflected off of BU players.  Sometimes the job of a goalie is extra hard, and no one should know better than the Terriers about the value of deflected goals, having won the national championship in 2009 by way of one against Miami.  So BC goes to the championship against Northeastern on Monday the 14th, and BU goes to the consolation game (only the third time in 28 years for them) against Harvard.

And what’s up this weekend?  Some great top twenty matchups — #6 New Hampshire and suddenly hot #11 Merrimack will play a home and home series; #7 Wisconsin will travel to play two games at #16 Nebraska-Omaha; #12 Miami-Ohio will host #15 Western Michigan for a pair of games; and #17 Dartmouth will host #20 Princeton for a game.  A great in-state rivalry series between #3 Minnesota-Duluth and St. Cloud State is also slated, and we just might get a summary of  that game next week by our crack contributing field reporter in Minnesota, John McClean.

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

[table id=17 /]

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