As helpfully pointed out on the front page of College Hockey News, this is a big week for rivalries in college hockey.

Denver faces Colorado College (Which means LetsGoDU is teeing off on a regular basis on their arch-rivals.)
Denver and CC are both on pretty hot runs as of late. CC winning five of their last six, and the Pioneers unbeaten in their last seven.

BC/BU is as interesting as always, with both teams falling all over themselves to find any semblance of consistency. Along with the pressure of beating the team a few stops down the Green Line, this should be some entertaining hockey. I suspect we’ll be seeing some wild scores.

I point out the St. Lawrence / Clarkson matchup, not just because I’m a Clarkson Alum and I think it’s one of the most greatest and most overlooked rivalries in all of sports, but because this matchup is huge in terms of the ECACHL standings as well. St. Lawrence is the only team undefeated in ECACHL play with a 4-0-0 record. Both North Country teams will face Yale and Brown in difficult, but winnable games. If St. Lawrence takes all three, suddenly they’re running away. You’ve got a 7-0-0 team in December with everyone else muddled in the middle, and they’ll STILL have games in hand.

Minnesota is riding a 14 game unbeaten streak right now. When your only loss is the season-opener to Maine. You’ve gotta be feeling pretty good right now. Also, I’d like to personally thank Minnesota for giving Phil Kessel an extra year of development. He scored the game-winner in a marathon shoot-out last night for the Bruins.

One of the more intriguing matchups this weekend is the series between Notre Dame and TAFKAF in South Bend. Both teams are still trying to strip away the “overrated” reputation, and while a sweep by either team won’t necessarily do that in the minds of the fans, it’s a huge CCHA series at this point in the season, and should be an excellent set of games. It’s also the first weekend without college football in quite sometime. Will the Fighting Irish fans take note that they’ve got a ranked hockey team with a 10-3-1 record?

A big congrats goes out to Wayne State who got arguably their biggest win over the past few seasons when they defeated Cornell last weekend. It’s tough to say if this is the traditional Cornell power that we’ve seen year after year, but it was an eyebrow raiser when it came through on the ticker none the less.

Friday, December 1st, 2006 - 12:19 pm | Uncategorized