College Hockey Update:. Last week featured two top-fifteen matchups, and Massachusetts edged up to #2 after sweeping a home-and-home weekend from Northeastern, which knocked the Huskies down three spots to #13; and Pennsylvania State jumped up six pegs to #6 after hosting and sweeping Wisconsin, knocking the Badgers down five notches to #12.  Elsewhere, Denver held at #1 after hosting and sweeping Niagara; Mankato State edged down to #3 after hosting, tying, and beating Bowling Green; and Cornell opened up its season and held at #4 after sweeping their weekend at Michigan State.

Notre Dame held at #5 after settling on a tie, then winning at Minnesota; Clarkson moved up three slots to #8 after hosting and sweeping St. Lawrence; and Ohio State jumped up four spots to #9 after hosting and sweeping Michigan. North Dakota also jumped up four spots to #10 after hosting and beating Michigan Tech, one game; Providence dropped down three pegs to #11 after hosting and tying Colgate, and then hosting and losing to Boston College; Massachusetts-Lowell moved up three notches to #14 after sweeping their weekend at Vermont; and Quinnipiac dropped down six slots to #15 after getting swept on their weekend at Arizona State.  An idle Minnesota-Duluth edged down to #7.

COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE FEATURED PLAYER

Last weekend Cornell had huge help from sophomore forward Michael Regush, of Surrey, B.C., who tallied an assist in his team’s 3-2 win Friday night, and scored two goals in his team’s 6-2 win Saturday night, as Cornell swept their weekend at Michigan State.  The 6’1″ 211lb sophomore is first on his team in goals scored, with two, and is tied for fifth in assists, with one. As a freshman he scored twelve goals, and tallied three assists.  His hometown of Surrey, B.C., is just a few miles southeast of Vancouver, and is home to 520,000 residents.

Last Saturday night at the Munn Ice Arena in East Lansing, Michigan, it was eventually all Cornell, as Tristin Mullin broke a sixteen minute, evenly played first period stalemate when he capitalized on a power play opportunity to make it 1-0, Cornell.  The score stood at the end of the first, in which both team registered six shots on goal.  After eight more minutes of stalemate in the second, Liam Motely scored to put Cornell up 2-0.  Michigan State again held their ground, or ice, this time for another eight minutes, until Michael Regush scored what would be the game winner, making it 3-0.  Cornell was on the move at this point, and Morgan Barron scored just two minutes later to make it 4-0, the score at the end of the second, a period in which Cornell out-shot Michigan state 11-5.

The fun continued for Cornell only a minute into the third when Michael Regush scored again, this time on a power play opportunity to make it 5-0.  Five unanswered goals seemed to wake Michigan State up, and they too capitalized on a pair of power play opportunities, six minutes later, and then two minutes later, to make it 5-2, with eleven minutes remaining. Could the Spartans pull it out?  Maybe, but Sam Malinski netted a power play goal four minutes later for Cornell, making it 6-2, and with seven minutes left in the game, that seemed to be the real back-breaker for Michigan State.  The game ended 6-2 after the hard-fought third, in which Cornell out-shot Michigan State 13-10.  The night before, Michigan State took a 1-0 lead seven minutes into the first, and Cornell tied it up nine minutes later.  In the second, Michigan State again took the lead, 2-1, two minutes into the second, but Cornell scored seven minutes later, and again five minutes later, to make it 3-2, Cornell, which is how it ended after the ensuing twenty-three minutes went scoreless.

Cornell University was founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell, the founder of Western Union.  Its enrollment numbers 14,000 undergraduates and 7,000 graduate students, in seven undergraduate colleges and seven graduate colleges.  While it was founded as a private school, and still is, it is very unusual in that some of the schools are state supported by the State University of New York system, or are under contract with the SUNY system.  Three of the undergraduate colleges or schools have this status, and one of the graduate schools, the Veterinary School, has this status.  Cornell Hockey has won the NCAA title twice, in 1967 and 1970; the 1970 team is the only team in NCAA history to win the national title and go undefeated and untied, with a record of 29-0-0.  Cornell is coached by Mike Schafer, who started there in 1995 and is in his 25th season;  his record to date is 460-259-95.  He was a defenseman at Cornell, having graduated in 1986.  He started coaching as an assitant at Cornell, then as an assistant at Western Michigan for four years immediately prior to becoming the head coach at Cornell.  His teams have made twelve appearances in the NCAA Tournament, and made it to the Frozen Four in 2003.  Cornell is 2-0-0, ranked #4, and hosts Brown tonight, and hosts Yale Saturday night.

This weekend features two top-fifteen matchups, starting with #1 Denver traveling to #7 Minnesota-Duluth for two games; and #5 Notre Dame hosts #9 Ohio State for two games also.

COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE SPECIAL COVERAGE CORNER

On Saturday, October 26th, a statue of the late, great Herb Brooks was unveiled in front of the Herb Brooks Arena at St. Cloud State University.  For those of us lucky enough to have been around for the spectacular 1980 US Olympic Team win over the USSR and eventual gold medal win that Brooks coached, the guy has to be an icon of hockey.  In addition, Brooks scored eighteen goals and added twenty-seven assists in his three years on the University of Minnesota team; was the last player cut from the 1960 US Olympic team, and played on the US national team ’64-65, ’66-67, and ’69-71, and the US Olympic team ’68.  He was the head coach at the University of Minnesota for seven seasons from ’72-79; NHL’s Rangers ’81-85; St. Cloud State ’86-87; NHL’s Northstars ’87-88; NHL’s Devils ’92-93; NHL’s Penguins ’99-2000; and US Olympic Team, 2002.  He had, perhaps, his greatest successes coaching the Minnesota Gophers, where his teams won three NCAA titles in seven years, and the 1980 Olympic Team (the 2002 US team did finish with the silver medal).  He coached St. Cloud State the last year they competed in DIII, bringing great excitement to the program, including spearheading that great St. Cloud State athletic logo still used to this day.  The link below is a short one-minute highlight video of the unveiling ceremony at St. Cloud, and it begs one super-serious question:  University of Minnesota, in all of your history you never won an NCAA title until Brooks coached the team, and his teams won three of the five titles you have; he played hockey there; you have an entire arena named after a coach who never coached a single NCAA title team; Brooks did the UNIMAGINABLE, coaching the greatest hockey win in American history, defeating the USSR in the ’80 Olympics; he coached one single season at St. Cloud State and yet they have a statue of him on campus — University of Minnesota, where, or where in the hell is your on-campus statue of Herb Brooks????!!!!!  Thanks to John McLean for sending me the video.  Link to video:

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

[table id=200 /]

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

— Tom