This weekend of Big Ten hockey saw Minnesota finally earn its first win of the season. The Gophers swept Northeastern, but Wisconsin and Ohio State were both swept by their opponents. This means the Badgers and Buckeyes are now the only winless teams in the conference.

Wisconsin and Ferris State were locked in a high-scoring, 5-5 affair on Friday night. The Badgers then dropped Saturday’s contest 2-1. The Buckeyes dropped both games to Providence, but the scores were close. Ohio State fell 2-1 on Friday and 6-4 on Saturday.

Elsewhere, Michigan earned a tie and a win in New York. There were some struggles for the Wolverines, who scored five goals in both games. Michigan tied Union in the first contest amidst some back-and-forth scoring and beat RPI 5-2. The Wolverines are unbeaten on the season, but there are some issues that will hurt Michigan when it plays stronger competition.

Penn State’s offensive success continued against AIC, and the Nittany Lions finished the series with a sweep. Penn State has now scored four or more goals in all games this year, and at least five over the last three.

The Spartans received a boost with Michael Ferrantino’s return over the weekend, but still split its series with Lake Superior. The Lakers won the first game 4-2 before Michigan State won the second 2-0.

(After the jump: Belief in Eric Schierhorn, mistakes from the top teams and Penn State’s offense.) (more…)

NCHC teams went 12-2-1 in their nonconference games this week (with both losses coming in a CC sweep at Mass.-Lowell), and this weekend, Nebraska-Omaha opens its new arena as the Mavericks host Air Force, while elsewhere, two of the three teams in the country who are currently 4-0-0 square off — as St. Cloud, already with three shutouts in four games, travels to Vermont.

Weekend Schedule (all two-game series):

Nebraska-Omaha (4-0-0) hosts Air Force (1-2-1):  Following a pair of wins at Minnesota State, Omaha stayed hot on the road last week, sweeping Vermont, and as a result was named CHN Team of the Week on Wednesday. This weekend, the Mavericks open up their brand new facility, Baxter Arena, and will raise their Frozen Four banner honoring last season’s team that advanced to Boston. UNO’s success has been buoyed first of all by offense from its stars: (more…)

All 12 Hockey East teams are in action this weekend with four playing home-and-home series in the league standings. Let’s take a look around the league with 12 thoughts for 12 teams …

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About three seasons ago, to have league teams playing the likes of Miami, St. Cloud State, Michigan and UNH all on the same weekend would have probably been a stretch. This week four of the top programs will visit league rinks. St. Lawrence will host Miami at Appelton, Michigan will travel to Union and RPI, UNH visits Messa rink to play Union and finally two undefeated teams will faceoff in Hamden, as Quinipiac plays host to St. Cloud. The visit from Michigan will mark its first trip to an ECAC rink since, January 3rd 1988.

The highlight of the weekend will be St. Cloud and Quinnipiac. Both teams enter the weekend undefeated, at 4-0. Quinnipiac is in dire need of a team to challenge them in non-conference play, which the Huskies certainly will. While Quinnipiac has played the likes of Holy Cross, Arizona State and Maine, its opponent is coming off a weekend sweep of Minnesota State. Quinnipiac looked the part as a good team on Tuesday against Maine, dominating its opponent on the scoreboard and in shots, but a real challenge is something they have yet to receive.

The Bobcats will need to find a way to beat Charlie Lindgren, who has three shutouts in his three starts. Last weekend against Minnesota State, he sent aside all 54 of the shots that he saw.The two teams split a weekend series last season, with Quinnipiac picking up a 4-1 win against Lindgren in the finale of that series. If anything, Quinnipiac has the confidence that it cant beat the Huskies. Based on how Quinnipiac played against Maine on Tuesday, I feel as though they may again be highly underrated. They have a huge chance to prove me right this weekend. (more…)

All six Big Ten teams are in action this weekend. Penn State, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan State are at home while Ohio State and Michigan are on the road.

There are several storylines to keep an eye on, including Minnesota’s offense. The Gopher only have on goal on the season. Minnesota, along with Ohio State and Wisconsin, are still searching for its first win.

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Hamden, CT. – Maine was no match for the Bobcats on a rare Tuesday night game. The Black Bears got off to a good start, holding Quinnipiac’s high powered corsi machine but it was a shortlived, as a power-play midway through the first period changed the game. Quinnipiac generated five shots on goal, and many other chances on the power-play. Its momentum grew even more, when Chase Priskie retrieved a puck in the neutral zone and went in all alone to score on Maine’s Matt Morris. The Bobcats took the one goal lead to the dressing room, but its possession took over as it sent puck after puck at the Maine net in the latter stages of the period. All told QU sent 33 shots, 17 right in front of Morris and 19 of them found its way on the net.

The onslaught continued in the second, but Quinnipiac was able to use its chances to generate scoring. Tommy Schutt slapped a shot off the post at 5:08 of the period, Devon Toews retrieved a puck off a Maine defender and shot it five-hole and KJ Tiefenworth received his own rebound to put the Bobcats up by a lofty four goals after two periods. It was much of the same in the third period, as both teams had chances but neither found the back of the net. QU improved to 4-0-0 on the season with the 4-0 win, while Maine is still winless at 0-2-3. Garteig picked his 13th career shutout for Quinnipiac and his second in a row. (more…)

The first full weekend for Big Ten hockey saw Michigan open its season against Mercyhurst. The Wolverines swept the Lakers and scored six goals on Friday. Meanwhile Minnesota’s struggles continued, and the Gophers are now 0-3 after a series sweep by Minnesota-Duluth.

The Buckeyes are 0-4 on the season after dropping two series to in-state rivals Bowling Green and Miami. Penn State split its series with Notre Dame, while Michigan State was swept by Denver.

Wisconsin’s woes continued thanks to a road sweep in Boston, although there were a couple of positives from the losses. The Badgers have some talent, but they’re too inexperienced and reliant on underclassmen. Still, this isn’t last year’s Badger team.

It’s early in the season, but so far Kyle Connor is leading the Wolverines in scoring. He has four points through two games, including three goals. And Michigan is sixth in the country with an average of 4.50 goals per game.

While it’s still early in the season, it looks like this will be another year of non-conference struggles for the Big Ten. Penn State, Michigan and Michigan State are the only teams with wins.

(After the jump: Matt Jurusik will be Wisconsin’s starter, a new basement team for the Big Ten and it’s going to be a tough season for Minnesota.)

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It was an up and down weekend for league teams. St. Lawrence and Clarkson swept UNH, but struggled against Merrimack. RPI dropped two non-conference games to the Alaska teams and Union went 1-0-1 against Maine. Overall, the conference is 13-7-2 against non- league opponents and more importantly in the comparison with Hockey East the two premier eastern conferences are 4-4-1 against each other. Quinnipiac will play a game against Maine on Tuesday night, a game I am looking forward to catching in Hamden.

Next weekend brings about many great non-conference matchups at league rinks.Clarkson hosts Western Michigan for a pair, SLU has Miami for a weekend series, Quinnipiac gets St. Cloud State and Michigan hits the capital region, with games at RPI and Union. This could be a make or break weekend in terms of pairwise and I look forward to seeing where the ECAC is in comparison to the NCHC and BIG. The NCHC has been dominant the last couple of years and it will prove to be a challenge. I feel more confident going into this weekend than I have in the past. I am convinced the league will pick up a few big wins. (more…)

The results around Hockey East on opening weekend where, in a word, interesting. UMass swept Colorado College, Boston College and Boston University both suffered losses in the Capital Region while Providence impressed at Miami, Lowell beat a good RPI team and Maine picked up two ties in the IceBreaker, including one against North Dakota.

It’s dangerous to make any assumptions about a team — good or bad — based on one or two games, but here goes nothing …

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This is the first full weekend of play for all Big Ten teams. There’s still time until conference contests kicks off, but this weekend features some interesting matchups and in-state rivalries.

A weekend against Minnesota-Duluth will give the Gophers an early chance to show the kind of team they are. Minnesota needs its junior class to lead the team, and the Gophers need to find a goaltender who can be an adequate last line of defense.

The Buckeyes have a tough challenge in Miami, while Michigan will open its season against Mercyhurst. Penn State hosts Notre Dame, while the Badgers travel East to face Boston University and Boston College.

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