Archive for November, 2012

The Takeaway: UNH Keeps Rolling, Defeats Lowell 5-2

Friday, November 30th, 2012

UNH took an early lead at nine minutes, 43 seconds  on a breakaway, shorthanded goal off the stick of Grayson Downing and would proceed to score the next three goals in the game to race out to the 4-0 lead on the River Hawks. The goal was Downing’s sixth of the season. He would later score his second of the game, while Kevin Goumas and John Henrion also scored for UNH. The 4-0 lead was more than enough for UNH and they would hold on for the 5-2 victory over Lowell.

UNH improves to 10-1-2 on the year with the victory and 7-1-1 in Hockey East, while UML falls to 4-6-1, 2-4-1. Coupled with a BC loss to BU on Friday night, the win moved the Wildcats to within one point of the Eagles in the Hockey East standings, with a game in hand. The loss was the first for UML in three games and UNH is unbeaten in seven tilts. (more…)

The Week Ahead Hockey East 11/29/12

Thursday, November 29th, 2012

Hockey East teams return to conference action in a major way as a total of ten games will be played between the league teams. The biggest two game series this weekend is without question Boston University and Boston College who will take the regional and national stage by storm with two nationally televised tilts. The home and home series becomes a popular concept this weekend as four out of five series’ are of the such. This weekend could be the one that teams could make a big splash in the league standings as many of the games are between teams in all four tiers, which Hockey East has turned into. Without further ado, here is my weekly take on the games: (more…)

WCHA Power Rankings: 11/28/12

Wednesday, November 28th, 2012

The top three remain the same, but eight of the nine teams to follow are in a different spot than last week. Although the top three didn’t change, things certainly got more interesting at the top thanks to Denver being swept.

1. Denver (9-3-0, 7-1-0 WCHA) — Last week: 1
The Pioneers had a comfortable enough lead over Minnesota that they remain at the top despite losing a pair of nonconference games over the weekend. They lost to Yale 2-1 in overtime on Friday, then blew a 3-0 lead en route to a 6-4 loss to New Hampshire on Saturday. Friday was just the second time the Pioneers scored fewer than three goals in a game, and Saturday was the second time they allowed more than three. Denver went 0-for-10 on the power play in the two games.

2. Minnesota (9-2-2, 4-2-2 WCHA) — Last week: 2
The Gophers closed the gap between first and second by sweeping Vermont with a 5-1 win on Friday and 3-1 win on Saturday. Adam Wilcox stopped 48 of 50 shots in the series and now ranks second in the conference with a .931 save percentage. Kyle Rau tallied three points on the weekend, while five others registered two. The Gophers went a perfect 8-for-8 on the penalty kill. (more…)

Atlantic Hockey Power Rankings

Wednesday, November 28th, 2012

There were only six Atlantic Hockey games played last week, along with three non-conference games, but there were still some major shake ups in our power rankings. Even with the shake ups there is still one constant: Niagara. For the fifth consecutive week the Purple Eagles top the power rankings.

1. Niagara – Even with the weekend off, the Purple Eagles are without a doubt the best team in Atlantic Hockey at the moment. They’ve won six straight are 7-0-2 in their last nine games. It’s the second longest active streak behind only Boston College (10-0-0). The Purple Eagles host Sacred Heart for two games this weekend.

2.Holy Cross – The Crusaders had a 2-0 lead after the first period at Brown but couldn’t hold on as they fell 3-2. They host Robert Morris for an important two game series this weekend. (more…)

Hockey East Power Rankings: 11/28/12

Wednesday, November 28th, 2012

The way I see it, Hockey East has four tiers right now — the top two, BU, the middle four, and the bottom three. This weekend helped highlight the line between the latter two tiers, but it didn’t result in a whole lot of movement in this week’s rankings. Two teams swapped places, but everyone else stayed where they were last week.

1. Boston College (10-1-0, 8-1-0 HE) — Last week: 1
The Eagles extended their winning streak to 10 with a 6-3 triumph over Dartmouth on Saturday. With the victory, Jerry York is now just one away from tying Ron Mason’s all-time wins record. BC’s top line of Johnny Gaudreau, Pat Mullane and Steven Whitney combined for an incredible five goals and seven assists in the game. Gaudreau has at least one point in every game this season and is second in the league in points. Mullane and Whitney both rank in the top five as well.

2. New Hampshire (9-1-2, 6-1-1 HE) — Last week: 2
The Wildcats blew a 4-0 lead and ended up tying Colorado College 4-4 on Friday, then they overcame a 3-0 deficit to beat Denver 6-4 on Saturday. Grayson Downing and Kevin Goumas each registered a hat trick on Saturday, while Casey Thrush scored twice on Friday. Goumas ended up with seven points on the weekend and now leads the league with 20 on the season. The eight goals allowed on the weekend were more than UNH had allowed in its previous eight games combined. (more…)

ECAC Power Rankings 11/28/12

Wednesday, November 28th, 2012

Another weekend of ECAC non-conference action brought us even more turmoil in these rankings. Yale went out to Colorado over the weekend and swept Denver and Colorado College. This sweep has to move them up in the rankings as they are the only ECAC team, save Union, to take two wins out of the weekend. Cornell also won against Michigan at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.

Friday night was a success for the conference as a whole as the teams had an aggregate 4-0-1 record, but Saturday night was more of a struggle as the conference went 3-4-1 against teams from the other conferences. The conference still looks good in terms of non-conference tilts and should bode well going forward. Cornell and St. Lawrence have done well in their non-conference games while they have struggled within the league.

1. Union (8-2-1, 3-1-0) – Last Week 2

Troy Grosenick returned for the Dutchmen on Sunday and this can only improve an already good team that was ranked second last week in these rankings. Union swept Penn State over the weekend, sending 88 shots at the Penn State goal.  (more…)

This Week in Atlantic Hockey

Monday, November 26th, 2012

It looks like UConn has turned their season around, without head coach Bruce Marshall. The Huskies have won four of the last five games, highlighted by a sweep of Air Force. They squeaked out a pair of one goal wins, including an overtime win against the Falcons. A big part of the sweep was Garrett Bartus, who stopped 57 shots for the Huskies. The Huskies also had five different players score their five goals. (more…)

The Takeaway: BU Dominates St.Lawrence, wins 4-0

Saturday, November 24th, 2012

Boston University outshot the Saints 17-8 in the first period and escaped the first period up 1-0, on a wicked wrister by Wade Megan at eleven minutes, 15 seconds that found the back of the net. The second period turned into the Matt Weninger show as he kept his Saints in the game by making 21 of 22 saves the Terriers sent his way in the period. BU would score two third period goals to put the game away and win it 4-0. The Terriers sent 47 shots at the St. Lawrence net and controlled the game from start to finish.

What I Saw

  • Matt Weninger was the star of the show on this night despite giving up a goal apiece in the first two periods and two more in the third. The Terriers dominated the second period and until late in the period were unable to solve the Saints goaltender. For 19 minutes BU threw shot after shot at Weninger but he was able to come up big.   On the 22nd BU shot of the second period (more…)

The Takeaway: St. Lawrence takes down Northeastern, 5-2

Saturday, November 24th, 2012

BOSTON – An early lead for Northeastern turned out to be just that after St. Lawrence capitalized on a a sluggish second period from the Huskies and took the game, 5-2. With the win, the Saints moved to 6-3-2 on the season while Northeastern fell to 2-6-1.

The Huskies opened up the scoring when Ludwig Karlsson took a feed from Dan Cornell out by the blue line and shot high with a wrister that went above goaltender Matt Weninger to make it 1-0 at 12:25 in the first period. As the final seconds of that first period ticked off, St. Lawrence’s offense broke up the Northeastern defense which made it possible for Greg Carey to get right in front of Bryan Mountain, deke, and beat him with a backhand shot to tie it up going into the second.

The Saints carried that momentum with them, capitalizing on a power play chance caused by a hooking call on Dustin Darou. The power play combination of leading scorers Kyle Flanagan and Greg Carey set up the opportunity for Gunnar Hughes 16 seconds into the power play to make it a 2-1 Saints lead, one they wouldn’t give up throughout the latter half of the game.

Flanagan notched one of his own at 13:05 in the second, taking a feed from Patrick Doherty while positioned perfectly between the circles to beat Mountain. That closed out the second period scoring, but Chris Martin and Pat Raley would each score one in the third to give St. Lawrence a 5-1 lead.

Northeastern added a late goal to cut the deficit when Dax Lauwers scored his first goal as a Husky for a 5-2 final.

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The Takeaway: Minnesota Wins 5-1 in First Trip to Vermont

Friday, November 23rd, 2012

BURLINGTON, Vt. — Spurred by a three-goal second period, Minnesota beat Vermont 5-1 in its first game ever at Gutterson Fieldhouse and its first regular-season game out east since 2005. Seth Ambroz gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead 7:52 into the game when he cut to the middle from the right side and slid a backhander past Brody Hoffman (30 saves). The Catamounts (2-6-2) tied it with 4:34 left in the first when Matt White found Brett Bruneteau alone at the top of the crease, but the Gophers retook the lead three minutes later when Kyle Rau capitalized on a Vermont turnover at the side of the net.

Minnesota (8-2-2) put the game out of reach with three straight goals in the second. Zach Budish scored on the power play 2:26 in when he pulled the puck out of a scrum in front and fired past a down-and-out Hoffman. Ten minutes later, Nick Bjugstad scored on a breakaway just after exiting the penalty box. Mike Reilly made it 5-1 when he beat Hoffman with a shot through traffic for his first career goal. Adam Wilcox stopped 22 of 23 Vermont shots to improve to 7-1-2 on the season.

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