College Hockey Update:  Last weekend featured two top-ten matchups, as Harvard edged up to #3 after its win over Union College, edging Union down to #7 (Union went on to beat Dartmouth Saturday night).  And Boston University edged down to #4 after losing to UMass-Lowell, as Lowell jumped up three spots in the poll to #6 (Lowell went on to beat UMass-Amherst Saturday night). [ Note:  These rankings take into consideration the Monday, February 6 Beanpot wins by Harvard (over Northeastern) and BU (over Boston College) which were reported here last week but were played after last week’s poll came out.]

Elsewhere, Denver held onto #2 after sweeping Colorado College, and Minnesota held onto #5 after splitting with Ohio State.  Western Michigan held onto #8 after splitting with Nebraska-Omaha; Penn State edged up to #9 after sweeping Wisconisn; and Providence entered the top ten, edging up to #10 after sweeping Connecticut.  An idle Minnesota-Duluth held at #1.

Last weekend Providence College had huge help from its sophomore forward Erik Foley, of Mansfield,, MA, who notched a hat-trick, including the game-winner, and added an assist, Saturday night, in his team’s 4-3 win as they swept Connecticut on the weekend. Foley is first on his team in goals scored, with thirteen, and is tied for fifth in assists, with fourteen. As a freshman he scored seven goals and added twelve assists.  The 5’11” 193lb forward was picked in the third round by the Winnipeg Jets (78th overall) in the 2015 NHL entry draft.  Providence College has a nine game winning streak and has won 10 of their last 11, and 11 of their last 13; in their last seventeen games they are 13-2-2, including a win and tie against Denver, and a two-game sweep of UMass-Lowell.  Providence is now 18-8-4, and is ranked #10 in this week’s poll.

Last Wednesday night, February 8th, in Hartford, it was really all Providence, as they got on the board only a half-minute into the game on a Brian Pinho goal, and with only a half-minute left in the first, made it 2-0 on a Vimal Sukumaran goal.  Providence out-shot Connecticut 17-3 in the period.  In the second, Connecticut evened up the play as they out-shot Providence 12-10, and they made it a 2-1 game on a goal by Karl El-Mir with four minutes left in the period.  But in the third, another Vimal Sukumaran goal two minutes into the period was followed by a goal by Scott Conway with about twelve minutes left to play, and Providence took home the 4-1 win.

Friday night in Providence things did not go exactly the same way, as Connecticut got on the board first, six minutes into the game, but Erik Foley responded for Providence just two minutes later to tie it at one apiece.  Half a minute into the second, Connecticut struck again to take the 2-1 lead.  Brian Pinho scored four minutes later on a power play goal (Erik Foley on the assist), and Erik Foley struck for his second time with six minutes left in the period to give Providence the 3-2 lead they took into the break.  In the third, Connecticut tied it up at three apiece on a power play goal.  But with seven minutes remaining in the game, Erik Foley struck for his third time to make it 4-3.  The last seven minutes were scoreless, and Providence took home the 4-3 win.  Providence greatly out-shot Connecticut in all three periods of the game,, and had a 52-18 shot advantage on the night (following Wednesday night’s 38-22 shot advantage, for a total of 90 shots in two games); Connecticut scored three goals on only 18 shots Friday night.

Last night the championship and consolation games of the Beanpot tournament were played in Boston (note:  these games were played after the poll came out).  In the early consolation game, David Cotton scored with two minutes left in the first to give Boston College a 1-0 lead, but Matt Filipe scored for Northeastern twelve minutes into the second to tie at one apiece, the score going into the third.  Matt Filipe struck again seven minutes into the third for the Northeastern lead, but Colin White scored six minutes later to tie it up for BC.  The two fought it out for the next six minutes, and with only a minute left in the game, Dylan Sikura scored to give Northeastern the 3-2 lead.  BC added an extra attacker right away, but it was Adam Gaudette finding the empty net with a half minute left that gave Northeastern the 4-2 win.  In the late game, the championship game, a 5-on-3 goal by Nathan Krusko gave Harvard the 1-0 lead fifteen minutes into the first, as Harvard out-shot BU 18-2 in the period.  In the second, play evened up a bit as BU scored only a minute into the period, and then again three minutes later for the 2-1 lead.  But Luke Esposito scored six minutes later, and Nathan Krusko struck again with a minute left in the second, to give Harvard the 3-2 lead at the break.  Alexander Kerfoot scored on another five-on-three opportunity a half minute into the third, and four minutes later, Ryan Donato scored to give Harvard the 5-2 lead.  A minute later a BU goal made it interesting at 5-3, interesting enough for BU to add an extra attacker with three minutes remaining.  But Adam Fox found the empty net with two minutes left in the game, scoring the game’s final goal, and giving Harvard the 6-3 win and its first Beanpot Championship since 1993.  In the game Harvard buried BU in shot attempts, 46-17.  Congratulations to Harvard for taking home the Beanpot.

Okay, where are we now?  Wow, things are sort of winding down, so is your team streaking or fading?  Who do you think will be in the frozen four in Chicago?  Have any ideas?  In the here and now category, four conferences, Atlantic Hockey, ECAC, Hockey East, and WCHA, have only two weekends of regular season games remaining, and then it’s off to their conference playoffs; the NCHC has three weekends of regular season games remaining before their conference playoffs, and the Big Ten/Six have four weekends remaining before their conference playoffs; this weekend presents one top-ten matchup as #5 Minnesota travels to play two games at #9 Penn State.

This provides the top ten teams, rankings, records, and last week’s results:

[table id=147 /]

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

— Tom