For the second weekend in a row we had a deluge of top twenty matchups, so again, let’s focus on a couple of scorchers.  First off, last week’s #6 Merrimack played last week’s #16 Boston University — the game ended tied in regulation, and Merrimack scored quickly in OT to take the win, which leap-frogged Merrimack (now the only unbeaten team in the land) to the #2 ranking, earning it more first place votes than any other team.  Boston University went on to face last week’s #2 Boston College on Sunday, and BU slammed BC to the tune of 5-0.  BU remained at #16 on its split weekend, and BC, having beaten Northeastern on Friday night, dropped to #3 on its split weekend.  Next, one that was not billed as a key matchup last week — last week’s #14 Northern Michigan played two against unranked Ohio State, and Northen Michigan was mugged!  Ohio State registered two powerful wins, and in the process entered the top twenty at #14, as Northern Michigan dropped to #20.  Ohio State scored eight goals over the weekend, and seems to have a slate of eight players who make it happen:  Corey Schneider scored two goals; Danny Dries scored a goal and had two assists; five players scored a goal and had an assist — Chris Crane, Alex Szczercha (have to love that name), Nick Oddo, Alex Lippincott, and Curtis Gedig; and one player had two assists — Al McLean, who is the son of David McLean, of Duluth, MN., who happens to have played hockey at St. Cloud State, same as our contributing field reporter, John McLean.  Turns out this is John’s brother, and this Al McLean at Ohio State is the nephew of our field reporter, John McLean.

Elsewhere, #1 Minnesota split with Wisconsin and remained #1,while last week’s #3 Colorado College played one and lost to last week’s #12 Denver, which dropped CC to #5, and lifted Denver to #11.  Last week’s #7 Notre Dame rose to #4 on its sweep of Alaska-Fairbanks, and also won against #10 Western Michigan this week, after the rankings came out.  Last week’s #8 Ferris Stated rose to #6 on its win and tie against last week’s #11 Lake Superior State, which dropped to #12. 

Last week’s #4 Michigan dropped to #7 on its loss and tie with Miami of Ohio, and Minnesota-Duluth’s sweep of Alaska-Anchorage moved the bulldogs up from #10 to #8.  Yale jumped up four places to #9 from #13 on its two wins against RPI, and Union, who was ranked #9 last week.  Union dropped to #13 on a split weekend, having beaten Brown on Friday night; Union also beat RPI this week, afer the rankings came out.  Last week’s #5 Western Michigan dropped five slots to #10 on its two losses at the hands of Michigan State. 

 #15 Michigan Tech was idle and held on to the #15 ranking.  Colgate’s split weekend dropped them from #17 to #18; Cornell’s entered the top twenty at #18 on its two wins; and Nebraska-Omaha entered the top twenty at #19 having earned a win and tie on the weekend.

This weekend features a few top twenty matchups — #4 Notre Dame will host a game against #3 Boston College; #7 Michigan will host two against #14 Ohio State; and #11 Denver will host two against #19 Nebraska-Omaha.

This provides the top twenty teams, rankings, records, and last weekend’s results (plus two from this week):

[table id=28 /]

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

 — Tom