Sorry Bemidji and Niagara. My bad. After all the hype and suggesting at-large berth for all, Bemidji was swept by Michigan Tech, and Niagara was swept by Denver. Both teams are on thin ice now with only a few non-conference games left. They’ll both need to consider running the tables to have any hope of getting in outside of the being the CHA champ, as they’ll both play fairly weak schedules after this weekend. Expect both the Quinnipiac/Niagara series and the Bemidji/North Dakota to take on a playoff like feel as all of these teams are currently on the PWR bubble.

Same goes for Minnesota and St. Cloud. who both had unbeaten streaks snapped. Wisconsin continued to claw their way back by defeating the Gophers 2-1, but fell the following night 1-0. St. Cloud fell to Minnesota State 6-4, and then in a bizarre twist, skating to a 0-0 tie.

More RIT please! After Sacred Heart took out Cornell, we all thought they were the team to run away with Atlantic Hockey. Wrong. The sophomore Tigers come out and sweep Sacred Heart 4-0, 6-3 to take sole possession of the conference WITH game in hand. Of their remaining twelve games only two are against teams above .500. The Atlantic is theirs to take, and if it happens, expect the whole “ineligible for the NCAA tournament” threads to appear on hockey forums across the country.

Quinnipiac is sitting pretty on stop of the Ecac but Clarkson and St. Lawrence are both lurking with FIVE games in hand. Clarkson missed a prime opportunity to pick up some ground as Cornell and Colgate both took a point off of them, while St. Lawrence pulled a sweep. The Saints are winning when it counts.

The Battle for Ohio continues with Miami and Ohio State meeting in a big series as Ohio State continues to win and make up ground in the CCHA. Miami looks to get back to the consistent winning play they had before the holiday break and not let Notre Dame put any more space between them.

Congrats to Boston University for being the CHN Team of the Week. They had a huge weekend in a sweep over Maine. John Curry stopped 70 shots on the weekend, coming up big for BU.

We don’t mention Women’s Hockey much around here even though we should. Mercyhurst and Wisconsin have been simply dominant. And if you’re into the some traditional rivalries, the Clarkson and RPI programs will face each other, with RPI making significant strides in their second season. In addition, very competitive programs at Boston college and Boston University will be facing each other in yet another Commonwealth Ave. battle. If you haven’t had a chance to catch the Women’s game, this weekend might be a good time to take a look.

Thursday, January 18th, 2007 - 11:30 pm | Uncategorized