College Hockey Update:  Last weekend presented eight top twenty matchups starting with the big news of St. Cloud State edging up to #1 after they hosted and swept Minnesota-Duluth, which dropped UMD four spots to #12.  North Dakota moved up two notches to #2 on the bad weekends of a couple of teams, after they traveled to, beat, and tied, Wisconsin — the Badgers held at #7.  Speaking of bad weekends, more big news as Denver dropped a couple of pegs to #3 after traveling to, and getting swept by, Western Michigan — the Broncos entered the top twenty at #18 on their weekend.  Notre Dame jumped up four rungs to #6 after they traveled to, and swept Ohio State, which edged the Buckeyes down to #17.

Providence dropped a couple of spots to #8 after they travelled to, and were beaten by Boston University Friday night.  BU hosted, and lost to Northeastern on Saturday night, and BU dropped three notches to #15 on the weekend, while Northeastern moved up two pegs to #13 on their win over BU.  Mankato State edged down to #10 after traveling to, and splitting with, Northern Michigan; Northern Michigan entered the top twenty at #20.  Cornell jumped up four rungs to #14 after they travelled to, and beat, Quinnipiac Friday night (Cornell also travelled to, and beat Princeton Saturday night); Quinnipiac also hosted, and lost to, Colgate on Saturday night, and dropped five spots to #16.

Wow, that’s nearly all of the top twenty, just in those matchups; elsewhere Minnesota edged up to #4 after hosting, and sweeping, Michigan State; and Harvard dropped down two notches to #5 on their weekend at home, as they lost to Yale Friday night, and beat Brown Saturday night.  New Hampshire jumped up four pegs to #9 after they travelled to, and beat, UMass-Amherst Saturday night; Clarkson moved up two rungs to #11 after their weekend at home, as they beat RPI Friday night, and beat Union Saturday night; and Penn State dropped a couple of spots to #19 after they hosted, and split with, Michigan.

North Dakota had huge help from freshman forward Collin Adams, of Brighton, MI., as he scored the team’s first goal in their 3-2 win Friday night, and he scored the team’s first goal in their 2-2 tie Saturday night, both at Wisconsin.  The 5′ 9″ 185lb. freshman is first on his team in goals scored, with four, and is tied for fourteenth in assists, with one.  His hometown of Brighton, MI, is just outside of Detroit in the suburbs, and is home to 7,400. Adams played for the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the USHL for the past two years, scoring 51 goals and adding 61 assists in 116 games.  He was selected by the New York Islanders in the sixth round, with the 170th overall pick, in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft.

North Dakota is coached by Brad Berry, who is in his third year, and he took his team all the way to the NCAA Title his first year in 2016.  He’s a North Dakota alum, having played there from 1983-86.  A defenseman, he scored twelve goals and added 62 assists in his Fighting Sioux (name of the team at that time) career.  North Dakota is 6-2-2, ranked #2, and will play two games at Miami of Ohio this weekend.

Friday night in Madison, the Badgers got on the board first with a Matthew Freytag goal seven minutes into the opening frame.  But forty-two seconds later North Dakota answered when Collin Adams scored to tie it at one apiece.  With four minutes left in the first, another Matthew Freytag goal gave Wisconsin the 2-1 lead on only four shots taken in the period, compared to 10 for North Dakota.  But a second period North Dakota goal by Adam Poganski only a minute into the period tied it at one apiece.  Wisconsin and North Dakota both mounted charges in the period, with fifteen shots for the Badgers, and thirteen for the Screaming Hawks, but it ended at 2-2.  In the third, Wisconsin went into overdrive, taking nineteen shots (nine for North Dakota), but it was the Hawks that capitalized on a power play, with Nick Jones scoring the game winner eleven minutes into the period.  Whew!

This weekend presents six top twenty matchups, starting with a real screamer, as #1 St. Cloud State travels to play two at #3 Denver.  #5 Harvard  travels Saturday to #14 Cornell for one game; #6 Notre Dame will host #19 Penn State for two games; #9 New Hampshire will travel to play one game Saturday night at #15 Boston University; #12 Minnesota-Duluth will host #18 Western Michigan for two games; and #13 Northeastern will host #15 Boston University Friday night for one game.

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

[table id=155 /]

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

— Tom