[Please note that instructions for entering the NCAA Tournament Pool next week are at the bottom of this posting, right above the rankings table.]

College Hockey Update:   Last week presented one top fifteen matchup, and Notre Dame moved up two spots to #10 in the poll after convincingly sweeping Providence in second round action of the Hockey East Tournament; the losses dropped Providence down a couple of pegs to #12.  Meanwhile, the charging train that remains #1, Denver, rolled right through Colorado College, in another convincing sweep, this time in opening round action of the NCHC Tournament, and Harvard remained at #2 after another convincing sweep of Yale in the ECAC Tournament.  Minnesota-Duluth remained at #3 after sweeping Miami of Ohio in the NHCH Tournament, while UMass-Lowell remained at #4 after needing three games to take two from New Hampshire in the Hockey East Tournament.

Minnesota remained at #5 after a win and a tie with Michigan State in the last weekend of the Big Ten season; Union College remained at #6 after a convincing sweep of Princeton in the ECAC Tournament; and Boston University edged up to #7 after a tightly-squeezed sweep of Northeastern in the the Hockey East.  Western Michigan edged down to #8 after needing three games to take two from Nebraska-Omaha in the NCHC; Cornell held at #9 after needing three to take two from Clarkson in the ECAC; and North Dakota jumped up three slots to #11 after sweeping St. Cloud State in the NCHC.  Ohio State moved up two notches to #13 after sweeping Wisconsin in the last weekend of the Big Ten Season; Boston College jumped up three slots to #14 after unleashing fourteen crushing goals in two games to sweep Vermont in the Hockey East, and knock them out of the top fifteen in the poll; and Penn State dropped four rungs to #15 after Michigan swept them in the final weekend of the Big Ten.

Last weekend Denver had huge help from its sophomore forward Troy Terry, of Highland Ranch, CO, who scored a goal and added two assists in his team’s 4-1 win Friday night, and then scored two goals in his team’s 4-0 win Saturday night, as they swept Colorado College in the opening round of the NCHC Tournament.  The 5′ 11″ 170lb forward is second on his team in goals scored, with 19, and is tied for third in assists, with 17.  As a freshman he tied for sixth in goals, with nine, and was seventh in assists, with thirteen.  He was selected by the Anaheim Ducks in the fifth round with the 148th pick overall in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft.  And what about Denver?  Are you serious, 28 wins and they aren’t done with the NCHC playoffs yet?    These guys are 28-6-4, have an astounding thirteen game winning streak since January 20th, and of course, are ranked #1 in the poll.  What, if anything at all can stop these guys??  Denver plays next on Friday night against #11 North Dakota in the NCHC semifinals.

Friday night at the Magness Arena on the University of Denver campus, Denver out-shot Colorado College 12-6 in the scoreless first period.  But they erupted in the second starting with a Troy Terry goal two minutes in for the 1-0 lead.  Five minutes later it was a Liam Finlay power play goal (Troy Terry on the assist), and two minutes later a Blake Hillman goal (Troy Terry on the assist) made it 3-0, Denver.  Two minutes later a CC goal made it 3-1; would they make a game of it?  The two teams skated scoreless for the next nine minutes to the break, with Denver again out-shooting CC, this time 16-10.  In the third Denver again badly out-shot CC, 18-6, and Matt Marcinew scored the final goal on a power play opportunity with seven minutes remaining, to make the final 4-1, Denver.

Saturday night was pretty much a repeat of Friday, with Denver out-shooting CC 10-7 in another scoreless first, and then erupting to a 14-4 shot advantage in the second.  Logan O’Connor scored neatly at the five minute and ten minute marks, giving Denver the 2-0 lead at the break.  In the third, action on the ice was much more even, with Denver’s seven shots to CC’s six, but the highly opportunistic play of Troy Terry yielded a goal on a power play opportunity only eighteen seconds into the period, and then again with only eight minutes left in the game he scored a short-hander to give Denver the 4-0 win.

This weekend there are a whole lot of top fifteen matchups, given it’s the semifinals of the conference tournaments.  In addition to Denver/North Dakota, #3 Minnesota-Duluth will face #8 Western Michigan in the other NCHC semifinal; #4 UMass-Lowell will face #10 Notre Dame, and #7 Boston University will face #14 Boston College in the two Hockey East semifinals, and #6 Union College will face #9 Cornell University in an ECAC semfinal.  This provides the entire slate of games for this weekend, the final weekend of college hockey before the NCAA Tournament (All games in each and every conference are single-game elimination at this point and are Friday/Saturday, except the Big Ten, which is Thursday, Friday, and Saturday):

Atlantic Hockey (In Rochester, NY)

• United States Military Academy (Army) vs. #17 United States Air Force Academy
• Robert Morris University vs. #20 Canisius College

Big Ten/Six (In Detroit, MI)  Thursday to yield semifinalists vs. #5 Minnesota and #18 Wisconsin.

• Michigan State vs. #13 Ohio State University
• University of Michigan vs. #15 Pennsylvania State University

ECAC (In Lake Placid, NY)

• #19 Quinnipiac University vs. #2 Harvard University
• #9 Cornell University vs. #6 Union College

Hockey East (In Boston, MA)

• #10 Notre Dame vs. #4 University of Massachusetts at Lowell
• #14 Boston College vs. #7 Boston University

NCHC (In Minneapolis, MN)

• #11 University of North Dakota vs. #1 University of Denver
• #8 Western Michigan University vs. #3 University of Minnesota at Duluth

WCHA (In Houghton, MI, at Michigan Tech’s MacInnes Ice Arena)  One final game only, Saturday.

• #24 Bowling Green State University vs. #21 Michigan Technological University

In case you are wondering where the heck Bemidji State is, they were surprisingly swept by Bowling Green last weekend, knocking Bemidji out of the WCHA Tournament, and down to #25 in the poll.

THE NCAA TOURNAMENT POOL

Here’s what will happen next for us readers:  I’ll send the NCAA tournament bracket Monday night, March 20th via email.  When you receive it, please make your picks and email to me right away, following the directions on how to send me your picks (in a single typewritten line), by the deadline, Thursday, March 23rd.  It’s right around the corner, the NCAA Tournament and the Frozen Four!  Who do you think will make it to the Frozen Four?

NOTE:  You should be receiving two notices when there is a new posting:  1) One via an email directly from me, during the day when the posting is made; and 2) One via an email from the system hosting the website, at night, after I have sent out my email.  If you are only receiving the night time email from the system hosting the site each time there is a new posting, you will not receive a bracket from me, since brackets are sent via my personal email, so you should send an email to me right now advising me of this, and I’ll add you to one of three email lists to which I send notices.   Send an email to my personal email address:  [email protected]

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

[table id=151 /]

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

— Tom