BOSTON — Despite displaying one of its better all-around performances of the season, Vermont fell, 4-3, to Boston University at Agganis Arena Friday night. The team fell to 1-6-1 on the season and continues its position at the bottom of Hockey East. The Catamounts were outplayed by BU during the first half of the game, despite taking a 1-0 lead early in the first period. Vermont found itself in a 4-2 deficit before a power-play goal late in the third period brought the team within one goal. However, the Catamounts failed to tie the score despite multiple scoring chances in the final 90 seconds with an extra attacker.

What I Saw

• Vermont saw its early lead disappear on two plays that involved unfortunate bounces; both of which created shots that goaltender Rob Madore had little chance to save. BU forward Corey Trivino scored the first, after he collected a deflection off a Vermont defenseman at the top of the crease and easily put his shot past Madore five-hole. The second involved a carom off the boards behind the net that fell on the stick of Charlie Coyle in the slot. The sophomore forward launched a wrist shot to the top of the net that, again, afforded Madore little reaction time. (more…)

It’s almost Thanksgiving and Minnesota State is ahead of North Dakota in the league standings… who-da thunk it?

Anyways, here are this week’s power rankings:

1 — Minnesota (Last week: 1)

The Gophers did their job last weekend, getting two points on the road at the Kohl Center. And because other teams in the top-5 struggled, Minnesota remains the top team in the nation — and deservedly so. They get tested with yet another rivalry series this weekend and a home-and-home with SCSU.

2 — Minnesota Duluth (Last week: 3)

The Bulldogs are 6-0-2 since getting swept by the Gophers to open the league schedule. Both losses to Minnesota were one goal losses where UMD posted 50 shots. This team is a lot better than most gave them credit for and will likely stick with the Gophers all season.

3 — Colorado College (Last week: 2)

The Tigers are holding in the top-3 by a thread after losing 2 of their last 3 games. Joe Howe has been destroyed in each of those two losses, living up to his reputation as a great goalie… most of the time. He has shown a tendency to get lit up every once in a while, and so far this season, it’s no different.

4 — Nebraska-Omaha (Last week: 4)

Last Friday, Bemidji State scored a late goal to gain a tie in its game with UNO, and it looked like the Beavers were going to haunt the Mavs yet again. So it had to be sweet for the Mavericks Saturday, winning 5-1 and getting their first win over Bemidji State since the two squads joined the league last season.

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With all due respect to Massachusetts sophomore defenseman Conor Allen, who picked up a hat trick against Holy Cross on Friday night, a few other players around the league have managed a better few games over the last few weekends. This list includes one of Allen’s teammates and an opponent of his next Saturday.

Joe Cannatta, Senior, Goaltender, Merrimack

Friday’s win over Boston University capped an 8-0-1 start and gave the Warriors the win over the Hockey East powerhouse it needed to legitimize itself in the eyes of some. In the win, Cannatta made 36 saves and overcame a pair of first period goals allowed. Through eight games played this season, Cannatta is 7-0-1 with .940 save percentage and a 1.48 goals-against average. Many wondered if the Warriors would be able to build on least year’s best season in program history. Through nine total games, the undefeated Warriors look better than they did a season ago, and Cannatta is a big reason for that. (more…)

For the first time all season, there has been a change at the top of my WCHA Power Rankings. Here they are for you to enjoy:

1 — Minnesota (Last week: 2)

All facets of the Gopher game are rolling right now. They head to Kohl Center this weekend with a chance to dagger a rival for the second weekend in a row.

2 — Colorado College (Last week: 1)

Every once in a while, Joe Howe plays a game where all you can do is scratch your head and wonder, “why?” His effort last Friday in a 7-5 loss to UNO was one of those games.

3 — Minnesota Duluth (Last week: 3)

The Bulldogs are finally looking like defending champs after taking three points from Denver at Magness Arena. That has a chance to be one of those series you look back at in March.

4 — Nebraska-Omaha (Last week: 5)

John Faulkner was bailed out by Dayne Belfour and the Maverick offense in the third period last Friday after he allowed four goals on just 16 shots in 40 minutes. That earned him a spot on the bench Saturday — something that happened just a handful of times last season.

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Northeastern dropped another game in overtime at Matthews arena Saturday night, this time to the Merrimack Warriors in a 3-2 overtime loss, bringing the team to 1-5-2 on the season.

The Huskies gained an early 2-0 lead, but weren’t able to follow through despite seven power play opportunities. They were also significantly outshot by Merrimack, 31-19.

What I saw

After disturbing Merrimack’s winning streak in a tie Friday night, the Huskies looked strong out of the gate, but it didn’t last. Northeastern went 0 for 7 on power play opportunities. You can’t do that when you’re playing the No. 7 team in the country, and definitely not when that team goes 2-5 on their power play chances in the same match. The Huskies played almost all of the last 5 minutes of the game on the power play and just couldn’t capitalize to end the game in regulation and avoid overtime, which has proven to be deadly for them.

Penalties were big in this game, and Northeastern spent a combined 21 minutes in the penalty box due to some undisciplined play, handing Merrimack chance after chance to even the score, which the Warriors did. (more…)

What a game tonight at Mariucci Arena.

First things first:

The Gophers sweep North Dakota for the first time since December of 2005. It was Don Lucia’s first home sweep of North Dakota as Gophers head coach and Minnesota’s first sweep of the Fighting Sioux at Mariucci since 1996-97.

The win puts the Gophers 10 points ahead of North Dakota in the WCHA standings — still a long ways from the finish line, that 10 points back of a quality team like Minnesota likely means the MacNaughton Cup will be somewhere other than Grand Forks, N.D. come early March.

UND has gained a reputation as a bit of a slow starter during the Dave Hakstol era — but not this slow. This is North Dakota’s worst start in WCHA play in almost four decades, when UND started 1-9 in 1974.

If there was any doubt heading into the weekend about how good Minnesota is, that doubt is now gone. Yeah, North Dakota is down right now. But the Gophers showed a grit and determination Saturday night they haven’t shown in years. Despite heavily outshooting the Sioux through two and a half periods and having been blanked on their previously powerful power play, Minnesota refused to quit — tying the score with a greasy goal by Nick Larson with 6:04 left before scoring another dirty one by Kyle Rau with under a minute left. (more…)

Another week in the books and with October hockey in the books, here are three things I think about the WCHA this week.

• OK, so Michigan Tech wasn’t going to go undefeated in conference play. But just a week after being swept by Bemidji State, the Huskies put up a three-point weekend against conference favorite Denver. Don’t look now, but Tech is all alone in second place with the league’s worst team, Minnesota State, headed to Houghton this weekend. If the Huskies sweep the Mavericks this weekend, they’ll almost certainly avoid last place in the conference standings this season. If Tech is for real, it is this weekend’s series that will tell the story. One would expect a team to have no trouble getting hyped to play the Denvers of the world. But with a banged up, bad hockey team coming to their building, getting ready this weekend may prove a bit more difficult.

• As I said before the start of the season, way too many folks were overvaluing the goaltending in Anchorage. One of the darlings of the preseason media poll, several believed the Seawolves were ready to compete for a home ice spot after UAA upset the Gophers in the first round last year to advance to the Final Five. Fact is, UAA got a nice five game stretch from Chris Kamal at just the right time last season. Anchorage didn’t bring in any blue-chip freshmen, and other than that five game stretch, Kamal and Rob Gunderson have done zilch to prove themselves among the best in the league. They did lose their best offensive threat in Tommy Grant. And all of that led many to believe Anchorage actually improved during the offseason? I didn’t buy in, putting UAA 10th in my poll, and that may be a little high. The Seawolves have had trouble scoring so far in conference play, so unless Kamal is going channel his ‘inner-late-2010-11’ self, UAA will continue to struggle to get points in the conference. There’s simply too much uncertainty around this squad right now.

• Speaking of uncertainty, it was reported by Brad Schlossman over the weekend that Mike Lee has an injury — potentially a serious one — that could cost him the rest of this season. If that’s the case, St. Cloud State could be in free fall mode. Already shaky along the blueline, adding a major question mark in goal could be too much for SCSU to overcome this season. Lee has the ability to win games by himself when he’s right, and it remains to be seen whether the Huskies have another goalie that can do that. Ryan Faragher pitched a shut out Friday in Grand Forks and was solid this weekend in helping the Huskies get two points at Ralph Engelstad. But is a long term answer in goal for the Huskies? Behind Faragher, SCSU has former Hill-Murray standout Joe Phillippi and senior Nate Hardy. Neither have played a single minute of meaningful hockey past the NAHL level. Until two weeks ago, neither had Faragher. More should be known about Lee’s status as soon as this week, but reports from the Granite City don’t sound encouraging.

Five conference series and 11 of the 12 teams are in action this weekend around the league. Here are a look at my WCHA power rankings as we hurdle towards November:

1 — Colorado College (Last week: 1)

The Tigers got the week off last week and head out east for a nonconference series at RPI this weekend. Should be a great chance at a pair of wins.

2 — Denver (Last week: 3)

DU got off to a sluggish start Friday against Minnesota State, allowing the Mavericks to keep it a game until the very end. Saturday, they took advantage of a banged up MSU bunch and hung 10 goals en route to a relatively easy 4 points.

3 — Minnesota (Last week: 2)

Nobody in the league in scoring more than the Gophers, but the goaltending effort by Kent Patterson on Sunday was not good enough. It didn’t help that Minnesota was taking dumb penalties. Shore those things up and Minnesota can beat anyone in the country.

4 — Minnesota Duluth (Last week: 6)

The Bulldogs quietly went out east and took 3 points from Providence, a boost for UMD’s confidence more than anything. They’ll need at least that many this weekend against Bemidji in order to be considered a true contender.

5 — Nebraska-Omaha (Last week: 7)

Alex Hudson returns to the line-up and the Mavericks gain four points. I guess he was as big a loss as advertised.

6 — North Dakota (Last week: 4)

To say Aaron Dell and Brad Eidsness have not provided the type of goaltending they did last year would be like saying after A, B, and C comes D. With a young group, combined with some injuries and eligibility issues, North Dakota is limping through the first month of the season.

7 — Bemidji State (Last week: 9)

Yes, it was Michigan Tech. But the Beavers showed some killer instinct last weekend and the ability to put the puck in the net. That could come in handy this weekend in Duluth.

8 — Wisconsin (Last week: 10)

The Badgers rebound off being swept at Michigan Tech by sweeping North Dakota. Only in the WCHA, I tell you…

9 — St. Cloud State (Last week: 11)

After opening their home schedule with a win and a tie last weekend against UNH, the Huskies open their conference schedule back on the road at UND. They need to take advantage of a staggering North Dakota team, as these points could be crucial in March.

10 — Alaska-Anchorage (Last week: 5)

After a good start, the Seawolves hit the road for the first time last weekend and were promptly swept in Omaha. Back in Anchorage this weekend, their challenge gets even tougher as a red-hot Minnesota team comes to town.

11 — Michigan Tech (Last week: 8 )

After already equaling their win total from the year before, perhaps asking Tech to start the season with a three game conference winning streak was a bit too much. They’ll get a true test this weekend as the Pioneers come to Houghton.

12 — Minnesota State (Last week: 12)

Never has a week off been better timed. MSU was down eight players last Saturday because of injuries, and it showed as MSU was pounded 10-2 at Magness Arena. This weekend is all about getting healthy before jumping back into WCHA action next week. The Mavericks need points and will have a shot to get some at Tech in seven days.

THIS WEEKEND AROUND THE WCHA

Denver at Michigan Tech

The Huskies better get their goaltending taken care of or, like Minnesota State, Tech will get run out of the building. Beau Bennett dished out five assists in a game and a half before a game misconduct Saturday took him out of the goal scoring bonanza. With Drew Shore and Jason Zucker already in midseason form, adding a playmaker like Bennett to the mix is truly unfair.

Bemidji State at Minnesota Duluth

The Beavers have had their share of success against the Bulldogs over the years, including a Final Five quarterfinal match-up in St. Paul last season — a 3-2 BSU win, the final time UMD suffered a defeat en route to the national title. Nine goals last weekend against Michigan Tech could be a precursor to what they will need this weekend, as the ‘Dogs can still score, seemingly at will.

Nebraska-Omaha at Wisconsin

A pair of Jekyll and Hyde outfits do battle in Madison this weekend as the Mavericks (poor start, nice sweep last weekend) take on the Badgers (swept by Tech two weeks ago, sweep of North Dakota last weekend). Wisconsin must take advantage of shaky goaltending like they did last weekend, scoring 10 goals in two games despite putting only 41 shots on goal. John Faulkner has been a model of inconsistency so far, but kept the previously hot UAA virtually off the board all weekend (just two goals in two games).

St. Cloud State at North Dakota

The Fighting Sioux broke with history last season by starting the year red-hot — and pretty much carrying that momentum all the way to the Frozen Four. UND is back to its old tricks this season, but with questionable play in net combined with missed man games from Rocco Grimaldi, climbing out of this hole will be significantly harder than in years past. UND can’t win the MacNaughton Cup in October, but they’ll certainly able to lose it. SCSU is the only team without a conference game played, so any points this weekend will be points in hand on everyone else.

Minnesota at Alaska-Anchorage

It’s safe to say the Gophers offensive explosion is more a trend than a mirage. They even scored four in their first loss of the season Sunday against Vermont. As long as Minnesota learns from its mistakes in game two against the Catamounts, they’ll be fine. A sweep in Alaska would go a long ways towards silencing the critics. It would also exact a bit of revenge for UAA’s sweep of Minnesota at Mariucci Arena in the first round of the WCHA playoffs last season.

Colorado College at RPI

RPI is off to a 1-4-0 start, with that lone win coming at home to Minnesota State (a night after they were shut out by the Mavericks). If CC can jump ahead early, these games could get ugly.

As October draws to a close in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, 11 of the 12 league teams have played at least one conference series (SCSU has played six games with none counting in the league standings). Already, there are some clear trends starting to take hold, and as the holiday season approaches, it will be interesting to see whether these trends become mirages.

Here are three things I think, in no particular order, about the WCHA right now:

• Welcome back Minnesota. When the Gophers were raising banners and winning trophies during the early part of Don Lucia’s tenure, Minnesota was a fun team to watch. Their power play was nearly unstoppable, they scored four or five goals it seemed like every night and they had a physical presence that could slow an opponent’s momentum.In recent years, Minnesota has struggled to score, struggled to defend and was seemingly pushed all over the ice by teams like North Dakota. Finally, it seems, the style that won Lucia and the Gophers a pair of national championships a decade ago is back. Led by sophomores Erik Haula and Nick Bjugstad and freshman Kyle Rau, the Gophers have scored 35 goals over their first six games (13 more than the second best team in the league, UMD) at almost a six goal per game clip. It’s power play is scoring over 36 percent of the time, tops in the league, and the roster boasts monsters up front in Bjugstad and Zach Budish (Both 6-4) and on the back end in Seth Helgeson and Mark Alt (both are also 6-4). In goal, Kent Patterson has played every minute, stopping over 92 percent of shots faced and allowing just over two goals per contest. Obviously, it’s early. But if October is any indication, the mighty Minnesota Golden Gophers could be very much back in the picture.

• You gotta feel bad for Minnesota State. Already down six players because of injuries over the course of the opening two weeks, the Mavericks lost two more players while getting hammered by Denver over the weekend. And these aren’t just third or fourth line players the Mavs are missing either. Michael Dorr, Chase Grant and Eriah Hayes are expected to be among the team leaders in points. Tyler Elbrecht is the team’s captain and emotional leader. Max Gaede has the potential to be an impact freshman this season. Combined with suspect goaltending in all but one game (the season opener, a 1-0 win over RPI), the Mavericks have just one win in six tries to open the season. A weekend off could not have come at a better time for MSU, as the Mavericks will look to get healthy this weekend before heading to Houghton the first weekend in November.

• Reports of Michigan Tech’s rise as well as Wisconsin’s and Nebraska-Omaha’s demise were greatly exaggerated. Just one weekend after sweeping the Badgers, the Huskies traveled to Bemidji and lost twice. I didn’t expect Tech to sweep the Beavers, but a point or two on the road would have gone a long ways towards showing folks that perhaps Mel Pearson is the savior he appeared to be after two weeks. The Badgers, meanwhile, lacking in offense and in upperclassmen, welcomed North Dakota to the Kohl Center and duplicated what Minnesota did to UMD last weekend — gain four points in the standings despite getting outshot both nights (including a 42-15 deficit Saturday). Home cooking did the red Mavericks well too, as UNO avenged a nonconference loss to Anchorage in the Brice Alaska Goal Rush two weeks ago by sweeping the Seawolves in a pair of games that counted in the standings. Matt White and Terry Broadhurst are doing an adequate job of filling Alex Hudson’s skates right now, but the faster Hudson can get back up to speed (he was back in the line up this weekend), the better of UNO will be.

Be sure to check back later this week for my weekly power rankings and a look at action this weekend in the WCHA.

Boston – Northeastern’s Joseph Manno scored two of the team’s three goals in Friday’s night’s 4-3 overtime loss to Boston College Saturday night, the first of his college career. When BC scored within the first two minutes, Northeastern answered quickly with an equalizer. By the end of the second period, the Huskies held a 3-1 advantage over the Eagles, but BC’s second goal would prove to change the game, giving them the boost they needed to get back in it.

That momentum got the Eagles to overtime, where a goal from Bill Arnold gave them the win with just a minute to play in the extra session. The win brings BC to 3-0-0 in Hockey East play and 5-1-0 overall, while Northeastern fell to 1-3-1 in league and overall play.

What I saw

Penalties — a lot of them. BC tallied 10 and Northeastern seven, but it felt like someone was constantly headed to the box. Between boarding, hooking and roughing, the refs stayed busy.

Northeastern’s Chris Rawlings was strong. While the score was close, shot numbers would suggest otherwise with BC outshooting the Huskies 43 to 22. In Northeastern’s last win, 3-0 against New Hampshire, much of the credit for the shutout had to go to the defensive pairings in front of Rawlings, but Saturday night the goaltender was confident in each of his saves, not much hesitation or fidgeting. Just clean saves on a lot of really good shots from BC.

What I thought

This was a Boston rivalry at it’s finest. The history between the two teams mixed with the talent level made for great hockey. It was really interesting to see the interaction between BC’s Johnny Gaudreau, a former Northeastern commit, and his “could have been” teammates and former USHL teammate Vinny Saponari. He definitely took some heat on the ice between chirping and a few scuffles.

Bill Arnold is going to be key for BC moving forward. It’s only October and it feels like the sophomore is already having a huge season. He leads the Eagles offense with five goals, and he clinched Saturday’s win with that overtime goal with just 60 seconds to play. Arnold and the BC offense put an awful lot of pressure on Northeastern’s defense in the first period.

Good looks from Northeastern’s freshman Joseph Manno. First home game against BC team isn’t a bad time to score your first two collegiate goals. The line of Manno, freshman Ludwig Karlsson and sophomore Braden Pimm is young, but it certainly didn’t look green against a strong BC team. All three find themselves among Northeastern’s top six leading scorers, Pimm with two goals and three assists, Karlsson with one goal and three assists, and Manno now with his two goals.

What they said

“We found a way to win a hockey game that was slipping away from us, especially when we took those two penalties in the third period, so the ability to sustain that energy level even though we’re down and time was winding down really impressed myself as a coach watching our club … We felt very fortunate that Billy’s [Arnold] stick was up there, he caught that puck of the shaft of his stick, must have been a baseball player growing up.”

— BC head coach Jerry York on his team’s play and Bill Arnold

“I just remember the line before I had a really good shift, and we got smart changes and were able to keep the puck down in their zone. I think it was Kevin Hayes who threw the puck out to Patch Albert. We talk a lot about going to the net and getting bodies to the net, so I went to the net, and Patch put the puck down there and when you do that good things happen and I was able to get a stick on it.”

– Bill Arnold on his game-winning goal

“When you lose a two goal lead in your own building, that’s not a good thing whether it’s a No. 1 team in the country or a No. 10 team in the country. But those are things we’ll continue to work at.”

– Northeastern head coach Jim Madigan

What they didn’t say

Still no word from Jim Madigan as to when Cody Ferriero and Rob Dongara will be back on the ice for Northeastern. It looks like he’s going to be a strict disciplinarian, because Ferriero and Dongara surely would have been useful on the ice against a top team like BC, but for a team whose season start was plagued with disciplinary issues, it seems best.

What else you should know

Matthews Arena was over capacity Saturday night with 4,746 in attendance. It was the biggest crowd Matthews has seen this season.

BC lost junior defenseman Patrick Wey. A skate blade went through the tongue of his skate and severed a tendon in his foot. He can be expected to be out for six to eight weeks and was headed to the hospital to hopefully get the tendon sewn back together post game.