Three upsets highlighted the first round of the Hockey East and WCHA tournaments, and the second round of the ECAC tournament.  Last week’s #4 Union lost two of three to Colgate, dropping Union to #9, and last week’s #12 Nebraska-Omaha was swept by Bemidji State, dropping UNO to #14; both teams will probably make it to the NCAA tournament, Union for sure.  Last week’s #13 Boston University lost two of three to Northeastern, dropping BU to #16, and almost certainly banishing BU from the NCAA tournament.

Things elsewhere went as they should have, with North Dakota remaining at #1 after sweeping Michigan Tech, and Boston College reamaining at #2 after sweeping UMass-Amherst.  Yale remained at #3 after winning two out of three against St. Lawrence (Yale has lost only six games all year, and two have been to St. Lawrence), and Michigan moved up from #5 to #4 after sweeping Bowling Green.  Denver moved up to #5 from #6 after sweeping Mankato.

Miami of Ohio moved up from #7 to #6 after sweeping Alaska  Fairbanks, and Merrimack moved up from #9 to #7 after sweeping last week’s #14 Maine; Maine had just swept Merrimack at the end of the season, and Maine’s losses dropped them to #17.  Notre Dame remained at #8 after taking two of three from Lake Superior State, and New Hampshire remained at #10 after sweeping Vermont.

Minnesota-Duluth remained at #11 after sweeping St. Cloud State, and Western Michigan moved up to #12 from #15 after taking two out of three from Ferris State.  Colorado College moved up from #16 to #13 after taking two of three from Wisconsin, and Wisconsin remained at #19.  Dartmouth moved up to #15 from #18 after taking two of three from Harvard, and Cornell joins the top twenty at #20 after taking two of three from Quinnipiac.

So this week it’s the semifinals and finals for all five conferences, and off to the NCAA tournament!  At this point there are many, many top twenty matchups, and some grueling hockey games to be played out.

In the Atlantic Hockey semifinals, Holy Cross will face #26 Air Force, and Connecticut will face #22 Rochester Institute of Technology.  In the CCHA semifinals, #6 Miami of Ohio will face #8 Notre Dame, and and #12 Western Michigan will face #4 Michigan. 

In the ECAC semifinals, #20 Cornell will face #15 Dartmouth, and #28 Colgate will face #3 Yale.  In the Hockey East semifinals, #7 Merrimack will face #10 New Hampshire, and Northeastern will face #2 Boston College.  This Northeastern team started the season 1-8-2 up to November 13, and while their record since has not exactly lit the world on fire,  they are 12-7-5 since November 20.  In this stretch they have a tie/win weekend against Boston College, a split weekend with Boston University, and last weekend took two out of three from BU.  While they will probably play a fantastic game against BC, it is a bit hard to imagine that BC will not be quite prepared in a playoff game.

You know, the midwest conferences seem to have a problem with numbers, don’t they?  How many teams in the Big Ten?  In the WCHA, they are calling the upcoming week the “Final Five,” and there are eight teams in it.  Anyway, they will have four of the teams play play-in games tonight to determine two of the teams in the semifinals:  #11 Minnesota-Duluth will face Bemidji State, with the winner advancing to tomorrow night’s semifinal game against #5 Denver; and tonight #13 Colorado College will face Alaska-Anchorage, with the winner advancing to tomorrow night’s semifinal against #1 North Dakota.

Should be a great weekend in college hockey, and I wish I could see all of these games, or even just one of them!

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

[table id=22 /]

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