As each week moves along, we learn more about all the teams in the conference. Over the weekend, RPI continued its seven game unbeaten streak, Quinnipiac remained undefeated and SLU made inroads and proved that maybe they belong in the conversation as well. Clarkson provided QU with its first blemish on the season, in a 1-1 tie in Hamden but were unable to back it up, dropping a 3-0 game to a much improved Princeton team that I will talk about in more depth below.

Rensselaer and Quinnipiac are tied at the top of standings, as the Bobcats squandered their chances to take an outright lead with two ties. Both teams are now 4-0-2 and have 10 points already in the bank. Harvard and Cornell are nipping on their heels, as the Big Red picked up a win at Brown and an impressive tie at Yale, but every team in the top six remain within three points of the lead. The Pairwise continues to be bloated, but this weekend will prove to us just how many teams are capable of being in the tournament. There are big games up and down the schedule this weekend. Harvard and RPI participate with Notre Dame and Western Michigan in the Shillelagh Tournament in South Bend. Dartmouth travels for a pair against Michigan, while Colgate and Brown participate in the Friendship Four. All told, the ECAC has six teams in the top 15 of the Pairwise, thanks mainly to a .667 win percentage in non-conference contests.

If you haven’t read the wonderful piece by CHN editor, Adam Wodon, on the Big Ten’s attempt to put an age limit in college hockey, I highly suggest you read it in the next couple of days. Also, as is normall customary for me, I would like wish all my readers a very Happy Thanksgiving. I hope everyone enjoys their families and falls asleep because of all the Triptofan. Oh and don’t forget there are great college hockey games on Friday morning, from Belfast when Colgate and Brown open the Friendship Four on NESN and TSN at 11am eastern time. (more…)

Again, instead of traditional weekend previews, check this space on the CHN blog each Saturday for developing mid-weekend NCHC storylines and observations from Friday night games.

Friday’s results: road wins by North Dakota (4-3 at St. Cloud) and Minnesota-Duluth (5-0 at Colorado College), and a pair of 3-3 ties (Nebraska-Omaha at Miami, and in the lone nonconference game of the night, Denver at Wisconsin). Though the game ended as a 3-3 tie for NCAA record purposes, Miami earned the extra NCHC standings point by scoring in the 3-on-3 OT period. As a reminder, NCHC conference games play a five minute 5-on-5 OT followed by a 5 minute 3-on-3 OT if the game remains tied (and then, if still tied, a shootout).

1. Slow out of the gates

It was an unfortunate opening minute for Colorado College last night, playing at home against Minnesota-Duluth At least three turnovers in the defensive zone led to groans around the World Arena in Colorado Springs, with fans looking for a one-time powerhouse to show some signs of life. CC came into the night with an 0-10-0 record and 1:12 into the first, fell behind 1-0 thanks to UMD’s Austin Farley’s seeing-eye wrist shot from the slot.

Certainly, UMD pressured the Tigers and came out of the gates looking for a goal as quickly as possible, but it was far from reassuring from a CC standpoint to see the Tigers start so slowly — all things considered. Netminder Tyler Marble had little chance on the goal, which is a shame considering the flashes of talent he still is able to show (one example was on a UMD breakaway in the second period). The Bulldogs put the game away in the second with three quick even-strength goals in a 4:14 span. The Tigers mustered just 19 shots on goal, fell to 0-11-0 (the last remaining winlesss team in the nation), and continue to test head coach Mike Haviland.

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The Big Ten continues this week with out-of-conference play. After splitting with Minnesota State, the Gophers are back on a bye this weekend. The Buckeyes, who are on a three-game winning streak, are also on a break.

Michigan State, Michigan, Wisconsin and Penn State are all in action this week.

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Most teams will be in conference action this weekend, while Union, Dartmouth and Harvard all have the weekend off. RPI plays a lone non-conference game on the road against Bentley. One has to wonder how long Quinnipiac’s winning streak will go on, as it approaches the absurd at this point. The 11 game winning streak to start the season is the longest such streak to start a year, since Air Force won 12 to begin the 2008-09 season. The Bobcats will host the North Country teams this weekend, after a 6-2 triumph on Tuesday against a struggling Uconn squad. Cornell-Yale looks to be the best game on the docket, but either Quinnipiac games should  also be entertaining.

With RPI playing a lone non-conference game, its lead on Quinnipiac sits at two and the Bobcats will take the lead in the Standings this weekend playing two conference games. The Pairwise also looks good, but I caution one in taking too large of a look, but as a whole the league is in good position. Also check out my Three Things I Think from earlier in the week and a feature on RPI’s Cam Hackett. (more…)

Another weekend in conference action, again there were surprises. Brown left the weekend with three points, and almost four as it had an overtime goal disallowed that probably shouldn’t have been. RPI picked up three points and picked up a win against Yale on Friday, in arguably the biggest upset of the weekend. Quinnipiac continued to roll with wins over Harvard, Dartmouth and UConn. They have looked good and this Quinnipiac team is scary offensively, which I will talk about below. It is still much too early to look at the league standings but RPI is the surprise early leader by two points over QU, which has two games in hand.

The CHN pairwise is up, but I will caution against looking too deeply at it as the sample size is much to small. But the good trend is the number of ECAC teams that are in the top 20 and in the tournament spots today. QU sits at the top with their undefeated record, Cornell, Harvard, St. Lawrence ,Yale and Clarkson join it in the top 15. Rensselaer also sits on the outside looking in at number 23. But again it is much too early, what the league needs to do is continue its dominance in non-conference play that is has shown early in the season. Also be sure to check out my feature on Rensselaer’s Cam Hackett, who is a former Cornell commit and excelling in the absence of Jason Kasdorf

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Last weekend, Big Ten found some of its best success in out-of-conference play. The Spartans (expectedly) dropped their game to Boston College, although in an unexpected fashion.

All teams defeated their Atlantic Hockey opponents. Michigan netted a 7-3 win over Niagara, Penn State swept Sacred Heart and Ohio State swept Canisius. The Buckeyes are now on a three-game winning streak and have scored 15 goals over their last three games. After an 8-2 win over the Purple Eagles, the Nittany Lions recorded a 3-2 win.

In Minnesota, the Gophers split with the Mavericks.

(After the jump: Michigan State’s offensive boost, Big Tem powerhouse offenses vs. defense and the early Pairwise that doesn’t matter) (more…)

Something a little different – instead of traditional weekend previews, check this space on the CHN blog each Saturday for developing mid-weekend NCHC storylines and observations from Friday night games.

Friday’s results: road wins by St. Cloud State (5-2 at Western Michigan) and Denver (3-0 at Minnesota-Duluth), and a dominant home win by North Dakota (6-2 over Miami).

1. Highlight Reel

Thanks in large part to a quick start from North Dakota (two fourth-minute goals, separated by 20 seconds), the ultimate result in the UND/Miami game in Grand Forks last night was essentially decided long before a pair of highlight reel third period goals, one by each team. Check them out here. But those goals are also notable for typifying the remainder of the game. First, for Miami, Josh Melnick scored his fourth goal of the season (second-most on the team) to pull the RedHawks within three — it was an impressive individual play below the left circle for the sophomore, who corralled the puck while falling down and sniped a wrist shot into the top left corner behind UND netminder Matt Hrynkiw.

Taking nothing away from Melnick’s outstanding goal, it typified Miami’s play on Friday by highlighting the reliance on individual plays, without few signs of the teamwork displayed just a week ago in the RedHawks’s sweep of Western Michigan. Less than 90 seconds later, Nick Schmaltz finished off a spectacular four-player passing play to punctuate UND’s win — after a dizzying series of five passes between Schmaltz, Brock Boeser, Troy Stecher, and Drake Caggiula. All night, UND played well as a unit — routinely situating two players in front of the Miami goaltenders (Jay Williams and Ryan McKay), and that teamwork was highlighted again with Schmaltz’s highlight-reel goal.

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Another week in Hockey East kicked off on Thursday, when Notre Dame beat Northeastern 3-2 in South Bend. The rest of the league schedule kicks into gear tonight. Here are this week’s 12 thoughts on Hockey East’s 12 teams …

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Another full weekend of conference games will again help us to sort out the contenders from the pretenders. The highlight of the weekend will indeed be Quinnipiac and Harvard in Hamden on Friday night. The two heavyweights will battle in what could ultimately be a title match preview. The other highlight of the weekend, pits the North Country rivals, SLU and Clarkson, against each other. In all honesty, it is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, rivalry in the league.  Those are just two of the premier matchups that dot the schedule this week, without further ado here are some thoughts for the upcoming weekend.

Friday

Harvard at Quinnipiac

We should learn a lot about these two in this game. Harvard has looked good in its minimal action so far and it will take on an unblemished Quinnipiac team that is now 8-0-0 on the season. For Harvard, this will probably be the toughest test for them to date because unlike Yale, QU has a dangerous offense that sends a ton of great chances toward the net. We all know that Harvard has the offense, but whether or not its defense will hold up against a team like QU, is something that we have no idea about yet. It looked good against Yale, but there wasn’t much in the way of dangerous up and down play in that game. This will also be the Crimson’s first big road test, against a good team. For Quinnipiac, it still needs a tough road test to quell the juries. This home game, however, could go a long way in telling us if they belong in the tier as Yale and Harvard.

Prediction: 5-2 Harvard (more…)

This is one of the last weekends of non-conference play, as Big Ten contests will be underway soon. The conference fared better last weekend but have still really struggled. Wisconsin, which upset North Dakota on Friday, is off this week.

Much of the Big Ten play this week is against Atlantic Hockey, with Michigan playing Niagara, Penn State hosting Sacred Heart and Ohio State facing Canisius. The Spartans also travel to Boston College while Minnesota faces Minnesota State.

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