College Hockey Update:  Last weekend featured a top-ten vs. top-twelve matchup, and Pennsylvania State edged down to #7 after they hosted and split the weekend with Ohio State; the Buckeyes held at #11.  Elsewhere, Mankato State held at #1 after they hosted and swept Alaska-Anchorage; Cornell held at #2 after hosting and beating both Quinnipiac and Princeton; and North Dakota moved up two spots to #3 after hosting and sweeping St. Cloud State.

Denver held at #4 after hosting and splitting with Western Michigan; Notre Dame slipped down two pegs to #5 after settling on a tie and taking a loss at Michigan State; and Clarkson moved up two notches to #6 after wins at both Brown and Yale.  Minnesota-Duluth edged up to #8 after hosting and sweeping Colorado College; Harvard edged up to #9 after its win at Rensselaer Polytechnic; and Massachusetts slipped down three slots to #10 after hosting and tying, then visiting and beating, Merrimack College.

COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE FEATURED PLAYER

Last weekend Clarkson University had huge help from junior forward Zach Tsekos, of Montreal, QUE., who tallied an assist Friday night in his team’s 2-1 win at Brown, and then scored two goals and added another assist Saturday night in his team’s 4-1 win at Yale.  The 5’9″ 175lb junior is third on his team in goals scored, with five, and is fifth on the team in assists, with six. He transferred from Sacred Heart to Clarkson last year and sat out as he was ineligible to play until this year.  At Sacred Heart his sophomore year he was fifth on the team in goals scored, with eight, and was first in assists, with eighteen; his freshman year there he tied for ninth in goals scored, with four, and he tied for sixth in assists, with eleven.  His hometown of Montreal, centered on the Island of Montreal at the confluence the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers, and founded by the French in 1642, is named after Mount Royal, the three-peaked mountain in the heart of the city.  It is home to 1.7 million residents spread among its 140 square miles, and the population of the metropolitan area is 4.1 million in that 1,777 square mile area.  Montreal’s official language is French, and is the first language, spoken at home, for 50% of Montreal’s residents, compared to only 23% for English; 60% of the population speaks both.  In the metropolitan area, these number are 66% for French, and 15% for English.

Historically the commercial capital of Canada, Montreal was surpassed in population and economic influence by Toronto in the 1970s.  French explorer Jacques Cartier visited the Island of Montreal in 1535, followed by Samuel de Champlain in 1605, who established a fur trading post there in 1611.  A settlement was established in 1642, and by 1643 was the target of Iroquois raids and attacks which became so frequent by 1651 that the French had to reinforce the settlement, which took until 1653 to accomplish, preserving the settlement.  The Canadian territory was a French Colony until 1760, when it was surrendered to the British during the Seven Years War.  Whew!  All this to live in a place with a daily average temperature of 14 degrees in January!  And no central heating back then.  Montreal was incorporated as a city in 1832.  Fast forward to modern times, and we have the place that hosted the 1967 World’sFair (Expo 67),  and the 1976 Summer Olympics.  Oh, and they have an NHL team called the Montreal Canadiens, which has won 25 NHL titles, far more than any other team (the inaugural season of the NHL was 1917-18). And the Montreal Alouettes (founded 1946) have seven CFL titles as well.

Ok, back to Tsekos and last weekend — Saturday night Yale came out thundering in the first, outshooting Clarkson 15-10, and netting the first goal three minutes into the period.  But Devin Brosseau was able to tie it up for Clarkson only three minutes later, and the score stood at 1-1 at the end of the first.  In the second Connor McCarthy scored what would be the game-winner on a power play with five minutes left in a period in which Clarkson outshot Yale 10-6.  In the third Zach Tsekos gave Clarkson a little breathing room when he scored four minutes into the period to make it 3-1.  Clarkson had the momentum in the third, outshooting Yale 15-7; Yale added an extra attacker at the end but it only led to an empty-netter by Zach Tsekos, making the final 4-1, Clarkson.  The night before Anthony Callin’s very late first period goal gave Clarkson a 1-0 lead over Brown, and the Brownies respond with an equally late second period power play goal to tie at at one apiece, where it stood through the third, and ended a 1-1 tie. Greg Moro got the game winner three minutes into OT (assist by Zach Tsekos) for the 2-1 Clarkson win.

Clarkson University was founded in 1896 in Pottsdam, NY, and is a school of 3,500 students.  The campus sits on the banks of the Raquette River in Pottsdam, a town of 17,000, across the river from downtown Pottsdam and SUNY Pottsdam.  It is in a cooperative consortium of library and academic services with SUNY Pottsdam, St. Lawrence University and SUNY Canton, the latter two of which are ten miles away in Canton, NY.  One can easily walk to both downtown and SUNY Pottsdam.  It gets cold in this neck of the woods, and it has been known to get very, very cold.  The average low/high for January is 6/26, and for February is 8/30.  The record low is -41.  Yikes!  It is 90 minutes from Lake Placid, the site of the 1980 Winter Olympic Games, and about two hours away from the Canadian cities of Ottawa and Montreal.  Their hockey home was  the 1,800 seat Walker Arena from 1938 to 1991, when they moved to their new 3,000 seat Cheel Arena.  The Golden Knights are 10-3-1, ranked #6, and will be taking time to enjoy the turkey and rest up for a bit before resuming play on Saturday, December 7th, when they host St. Lawrence University.

COLLEGE HOCKEY UPDATE THANKSGIVING THOUGHT CORNER

It’s that time of year when we recognize and give thanks for our lives and for whatever it is we do have.  This provides a link to a story that recently appeared in the Anchorage Daily News about a young guy who is giving thanks in his way as a player on the University of Alaska at Anchorage hockey team.  He’s a survivor of that sad and awful accident that took the lives of so many young hockey playing kids from Humboldt, Saskatchewan, about a year and a half ago.  And while it’s overwhelmingly tragic that these kids lives were cut short, it is also great to see that at least one of those who survived is continuing on with his life and with something he loves.  I hope you will find that from this article.  Happy Thanksgiving to you all, and thanks to John McLean for providing this link:

https://www.adn.com/sports/uaa-athletics/2019/11/14/from-the-humboldt-broncos-to-uaa-a-survivor-of-a-deadly-bus-crash-plays-for-those-who-cant/

This weekend features a great top-ten matchup as #1 Mankato State University will travel to play two games at #8 University of Minnesota at Duluth.

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

[table id=203 /]

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

— Tom