College Hockey Update:  This week Massachusetts moved up a couple of spots to #1 in the poll after hosting and beating Connecticut last Friday night; and St. Cloud State edged down to #2 after they settled on a couple of ties at #17 Miami of Ohio.  Mankato State edged up to #3 after winning two at Lake Superior State; and Minnesota-Duluth moved down a couple of pegs to #4  after they hosted, and split with, #14 North Dakota.  Notre Dame moved up three notches to #5 after a win Tuesday night,  November 27th over Northern Michigan, and then hosting and sweeping R.P.I.; Ohio State dropped a couple of slots to #7 after  settling on a couple of ties at Minnesota; and Quinnipiac edged up to #8 after sweeping a home-and-home series from Princeton.  Pennsylvania State dropped three spots to #9 after they split their weekend at Wisconsin; Providence held at #10 after they hosted  and tied New Hampshire, and then won at New Hampshire; an idle Denver edged up to #6.

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Denver has had huge help this season from senior forward Jarid Lukosevicius, of Squamish, B.C., who leads his team in goals scored, with eight, and is tied for fourth on the team in assists, with four.  He has been a contributor in each of his four years at Denver — his junior year he was second in goals, with 21, and was seventh in assists, with thirteen; his sophomore year he was third in goals, with sixteen, and was sixth in assists, with sixteen; and as a freshman he was eighth in goals, with six, and tied for seventeenth in assists, with four.  Before Denver he played for the Powell River Kings of the BCHL, scoring 33 goals and adding 40 assists in 55 games during the 2014-15 season, and he scored 26 goals and added 33 assists over 57 games in 2013-14.  He was a major force on the 2017 NCAA Championship team, named the most outstanding player of the Frozen Four after scoring all three goals in his team’s 3-2 win over Minnesota-Duluth in the Championship game.  Squamish is home to 20,000 residents and sits at the northern tip, and end, of Howe Sound, about 40 miles and a one-hour drive north of Vancouver.  Squamish was established as a result of the construction of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway in the 1910s, and was primarily a sawmill and pulp mill town, but with the closing of those plants, and the increase in population of nearby Vancouver, has become much more reliant on tourism.

The University of Denver is in . . . . Denver, which sits at an elevation of exactly 5,280 feet, hence it’s nickname.  It sits twelve miles from the start of the Rocky Mountain foothills, and is home to 700,000, and the greater metropolitan area is home to 2.9 million.  Denver was founded in November of 1858 as a mining town during the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush in the western side of the Kansas territory.  Denver was incorporated in 1861, and it flourished in that decade as a mining and agricultural supply and service center, a role it still largely plays today, as well as business center, as a result of its location in the middle of the mountain/high plains region.

The University of Denver was founded in 1864 as the Colorado Seminary, a Methodist seminary, and its name was changed to University of Denver in 1880.  It currently has 5,800 undergraduates, and 6,400 graduates, and it sits on a 125 acre campus.  Denver is composed of eleven colleges and schools.  It has the second highest telescope in the world, which sits 14,148 feet high at the summit of Mt. Evans, which was named for the founder of the University, John Evans.  Since 1999 the University has built and opened seven new buildings and two new athletic fields, as the product of a $500 million capital fundraising campaign.  Some names you might recognize as graduates of Denver are Condoleeza Rice, Michelle Kwon, Mary Cheney, Suzy Chaffee, Peter Coors (MBA), Craig Patrick, the assistant coach of the 1980 Olympic Hockey Team, who played on the 1968 and 1969 Denver NCAA Championship teams, Senator Peter Domenici (law), and NHLers Matt Carle, Jason Zucker, and Paul Stastny.  Its sports teams are called the Pioneers, and they wear maroon and gold.  The University has a surprising 33 NCAA championships — 24 in Snow Skiing, eight in Hockey, and one in Lacrosse.

Denver is coached by David Carle, who is in his first season, replacing five- year coach Jim Montgomery.  Carle, a native of Anchorage, AK., graduated from the University of Denver in 2012.  At the age of 28 he is the youngest active head coach in NCAA DI Hockey.  After a very successful high school career at Shattuck-St. Mary’s, he was selected in the seventh round of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft.  He was on his way to play at Denver, but after being diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, he was forced to retire from playing at the age of 18.  He was a student assistant for the Denver hockey team during his four years there, after which he spent a season and a half as an assistant coach with the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL.  From there he returned to Denver for four and a half years as an assistant to Jim Montgomery, and succeeded Montgomery after he left for the head coach job with the Dallas Stars.  David Carle is the younger brother of Matt Carle, who played for three years at Denver from 2003-06, was on the 2004 and 2005 NCAA Championship teams, and was the winner of the 2006 Hobey Baker Award; he just finished a twelve year NHL career, playing on the Sharks, Lightning, Flyers, and Predators.  David Carle is also the older brother of Alex Carle, who is in his senior year on the Merrimack College Warriors Hockey team.  Denver, 7-3-2, and ranked #6, will play two games at #14 North Dakota this weekend, games telecast on Midco Sports Network Friday at 5:30pm Pacific Time, and Saturday at 5pm Pacific Time.  After these games Denver will have about a three week break from games, and then travel to the northeast when Denver will play Merrimack on Friday, December 28th, for what must be a rarity, when a DI Hockey coach will coach a game against his brother‘s team; the next night they will face UMass-Lowell.  The 12/28 Merrimack game will be broadcast at 4pm Pacific Time on NESN (DirecTV 628, Dish 434).

This weekend presents two top ten matchups with #1 Massachusetts at #8 Quinnipiac Friday night, and then at home against Quinnipiac Saturday night; Saturday night’s game will be on ESPN+ at 4pm Pacific Time.  In addition, #5 Notre Dame will play two at #9 Penn State.

In addition to the three broadcast games listed above, you can watch, from home,  #2 St. Cloud State hosting Nebraska-Omaha Friday at 5pm, and Saturday at 4pm Pacific Time on Fox Sports North; #3 Manakto State hosting Alaska-Anchorage Friday and Saturday at 5pm Pacific Time on FloHockey.TV; #10 Providence at Merrimack Friday at 4pm Pacific Time on NESN; and #12 Bowling Green at Ferris State Friday and Saturday at 4pm Pacific Time on FloHockey.TV.  #15 Michigan hosts Minnesota at 5pm Pacific Time Friday and Saturday on BTN; #20 Michigan Tech plays two at Northern Michigan Friday and Saturday at 4pm Pacific Time on FloHockey.TV; Lake Superior State plays two at Alaska-Fairbanks Friday and Saturday at 8pm Pacific Time on FloHockey.TV; and Alabama-Birmingham plays two at Bemidji State Friday and Saturday at 5pm Pacific Time on FloHockey.TV.  Vermont plays two at Colorado College Friday and Saturday at 6:30pm Pacific Time on ATT Rocky Mountain, ATT Southwest, and ATT Pittsburgh; Michigan State plays Wisconsin Saturday at 5pm Pacific Time on Fox Sports Wisconsin and Fox Sports Detroit+; and #1 Massachusetts will also host Yale Tuesday night at 4pm Pacific Time on ESPN+.

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

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

— Tom