Team USA advanced to the quarterfinals of the World Junior Championship with a resounding 9-3 win over Slovakia on Monday. Johnny Gaudreau and Vince Trocheck scored two goals apiece, while Jimmy Vesey contributed three assists. Alex Galchenyuk, J.T. Miller and Jake McCabe all had multipoint games as well. Slovakia tied the game at 1-1 just 14 seconds after Cole Bardreau opened the scoring, but the U.S. scored the next four goals to take control of the game. Jacob Trouba scored his fourth goal of the tournament, while Mike Reilly scored his first. John Gibson made 26 saves in the win.

What I saw
-Gaudreau and Trocheck got off the schneid in a big way. They were expected to be two of Team USA’s top scorers before the tournament, but neither of them had a single point entering Monday’s game. They each posted three points against Slovakia and looked dangerous in the offensive zone all game. Both were able to make plays down low and find open space around the net. Gaudreau and Trocheck, who aren’t on the same line 5-on-5, hooked up for two power-play goals. Trocheck picked up the second assist on a highlight-reel goal by Gaudreau, then Gaudreau made a nice pass from below the goal line to find Trocheck in the slot.

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Hanover, NH- It was a game that featured the second and third ranked teams in the Pairwise, but one team really stood out for all the wrong reasons and one for all the right reasons. Dartmouth struck first six minutes, five seconds into the first period as Nick Bligh found himself all alone in the high slot and fired it past UNH goaltender Casey Desmith. The Big Green would increase their lead to two as Ryan Bullock struck five minutes later to give Dartmouth the 2-0 lead after one stanza. Both of those goals were the first in their respective collegiate careers.

To begin the second period, UNH scored 46 seconds in to make it a game at 2-1, but Dartmouth would make it a 3-1 game off the stick of Tyler Sikura. The 3-1 score would hold until the end, where Dartmouth held on and added an empty netter to pull out the 4-1 victory over UNH in front of a sell out crowd of 4500 at Thompson Arena. UNH falls to 11-3-2 on the season, while Dartmouth improves to 8-2-2. (more…)

Hanover, NH.- It was a tale of three different periods for UMass and Bemidji State. The first period was a struggle to find the puck by both teams but Bemidji State found their groove quicker than UMass and took a 2-0 lead at the intermission, on goals by Aaron Macleod at nine minutes, 17 seconds and a power-play goal by Brance Orban at 14:47. The second period was a much different story as UMass dominated the Beavers and were able to take a 3-2 lead, on goals by Michael Pereira, Darren Rowe and Adam Phillips.

The third was a relative stalemate as the Minutemen and Beavers traded goals to make it a 4-3 final in favor of UMass. UMass improves their record to 6-9-2 on the season, while Bemidji State falls to 5-9-3 overall. Both teams will continue in the Ledyard Bank Classic on Monday evening, UMass in the championship game and Bemidji in the consolation game.

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MINNEAPOLIS – On a day that saw Jerry York break the all-time record for college hockey wins, the second game of the Mariucci Classic saw a family affair. Air Force (5-8-3, 4-4-2 AHA) head coach Frank Serratore faced his son, Minnesota junior forward Tom, and it was the Gophers (12-3-3, 6-3-3 WCHA) who came away with a 4-0 win.

It was a team effort for the Gophers on Saturday night. Four different Minnesota players scored, led by two points from Erik Haula (1G-1A) and Nick Bjugstad (2A), and freshman goalie Adam Wilcox made 18 saves for his third shutout of the season. Haula started off the scoring when he banked a shot off of Jason Fabian’s skate 6:58 into the game. That was followed in the second period by Ryan Reilly’s first goal as a Gopher when he roofed in a Christian Isackson pass over Air Force goalie Jason Torf. After a breakaway attempt by Stephen Carew was stopped by Wilcox, third period goals by Minnesota’s Kyle Rau and Nate Condon put the game out of hand for the Falcons.

Minnesota next faces Boston College Sunday at 7 p.m. CT while Air Force goes up against Alabama-Huntsville at 4 p.m in the final day of the Mariucci Classic.

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For the second straight game, Team USA struggled to finish around the net and wound up with a 2-1 loss, this time to archrival Canada. Canada took a 1-0 lead 7:13 into the game when Ryan Nugent-Hopkins found some open space off a faceoff and beat John Gibson from the high slot. The Canadians added to the lead seven minutes later when Brett Ritchie wrapped around the net before finding Ryan Strome alone in front.

The U.S. cut the lead in half with 8:58 left in the game when Alex Galchenyuk fed Jacob Trouba for Trouba’s third goal of the tournament. The Americans stymied their own comeback by taking four penalties in the next five minutes, but they killed all of them and managed to earn a power play of their own with 1:37 to go. They generated several good looks, but couldn’t net the equalizer.

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HAMDEN, Conn. — Two teams that pride themselves on defense ended up in a shootout Saturday, as Quinnipiac beat Nebraska-Omaha 5-4. Jordan Samuels-Thomas scored two goals for the Bobcats, including what proved to be the game-winner 3:47 into the third. Just three minutes after UNO’s Ryan Walters tied the game at 4-4, Matthew Peca led a 4-on-2 and found Samuels-Thomas in the high slot for the goal. Quinnipiac extended its unbeaten streak to 11 games with the win.

Samuels-Thomas and Peca also opened the scoring, as each scored within the game’s first four minutes to give the Bobcats (13-3-2) a 2-0 lead that they would hold until the end of the first. Matt White cut the lead in half early in the second before Ben Arnt restored Quinnipiac’s two-goal lead. The Mavericks (11-7-1) came back to tie the game at 3-3, though, as Johnnie Searfoss and Brian O’Rourke both found the back of the net. It looked like the game would go into the third deadlocked, but a UNO turnover behind the net allowed Kellen Jones to feed Kevin Bui in front to give the Bobcats a 4-3 lead with 1:06 left in the second.

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Despite putting 42 shots on net, Team USA fell to Russia, 2-1, in its second game of the World Junior Championship. Vladimir Tkachyov scored what proved to be the game-winner 4:10 into the third when he banged home a rebound right in front. Valeri Nichushkin set up the goal with a great rush down the right wing to get by Seth Jones and get the puck to the net. Andrei Makarov made 41 saves for the Russians, while John Gibson turned aside 28 shots for the Americans.

The U.S. had a strong first couple shifts, but it was Russia that opened the scoring when Albert Yarullin unloaded a one-timer that ricocheted off a couple bodies and past Gibson for a power-play goal. The U.S. tied it with 6:42 remaining in the second when Jacob Trouba scored a power-play goal of his own, ripping a one-timer through traffic from center point for his second goal in as many games.

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American fans couldn’t have asked for a better start to the World Junior Championship, as Team USA steamrolled Germany 8-0 to open group play. It took the U.S. just 19 seconds to get on the board. Alex Galchenyuk chipped a puck to Riley Barber in the neutral zone, Barber sent Sean Kuraly in alone, and Kuraly finished with a backhander through Marvin Cupper’s five-hole. The U.S. made it 2-0 eight minutes later when Blake Pietila picked a defender’s pocket and fed Jacob Trouba for a point shot through traffic.

The Galchenyuk-Kuraly-Barber line struck again 1:24 after that when Galchenyuk circled off the boards and beat Cupper with a beautiful shot into the top right corner. That line did it again 14 seconds into the second period when Galchenyuk forced a turnover and found Barber alone in front. From there, the rout was on. Shayne Gostisbehere made it 5-0 with a one-timer on the power play, and Ryan Hartman pushed it to 6-0 when he buried a Pietila rebound. J.T. Miller scored the seventh goal off a turnover and Seth Jones scored the eighth with a nice shot from the high slot. John Gibson made 19 saves and Jon Gillies made seven in the combined shutout.

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Sometimes it isn’t easy to be a college hockey fan. As much as our passion for the sport bleeds through, few outsiders would know that and that’s disappointing. If the NHL is a niche sport in the United States then college hockey is a niche of a niche. You could say we’re the hockey fans of hockey.

So it is satisfying to see when fans of locked out teams check out games on NBC Sports Net and double viewership from last year. The same is true when Peter Richmond gives Sports Illustrated readers a chance to experience the passion of a North Dakota game and Grantland’s Katie Baker writes nearly 5000 words on the Minnesota-Wisconsin rivalry at Mariucci Arena. The things WCHA fans experience on a weekly level that normally stay inside are  out there for the rest of the world to see.

It’s even more rewarding when college hockey polls make the bottom line of major sports networks or John Buccigross casually drops scores in the middle of a Sportscenter or to his 111,000 Twitter followers. Many of these things don’t mean much in the long run but as fans that aren’t used to any attention, the effort is appreciated. It’s much better than watching intermission reports that have nothing to do with college hockey.

Along with them and everyone who works hard day-in and day-out to bring more attention to college hockey, I’m thankful for this great sport we all love.

After the break, I continue to celebrate college hockey and the holiday season with bad puns. There’s also Bemidji State helping Denver crash to rock bottom, North Dakota rising to the top and thoughts on Minnesota State’s split with Nebraska-Omaha, but mostly bad holiday puns. (more…)

Well, we’ve arrived at winter break. The top two teams in these rankings are exactly who we thought they’d be before the season, but there have been plenty of surprises after that. Minnesota State, under first-year head coach Mike Hastings, has overcome a slow start to emerge as a top-five team. Elsewhere, Denver has dropped from one of the top teams in the country to the middle of the pack, and Wisconsin hasn’t even come close to meeting preseason expectations that, in hindsight, were probably too high in the first place.

1. Minnesota (11-3-3, 6-3-3 WCHA) — Last week: 1
The Gophers had the weekend off, so they stay at the top heading into break. North Dakota certainly closed the gap a bit, though. Minnesota leads the league in both defense (2.00 goals allowed per game) and special teams net (+9), and ranks fourth in offense (3.35 goals per game). Erik Haula enters the break riding a 12-game point streak, and he currently ranks seventh in the league with 22 points on the season.

2. North Dakota (10-5-3, 7-2-3 WCHA) — Last week: 2
North Dakota pulls right up to Minnesota’s bumper after outscoring Michigan Tech 10-2 in a weekend sweep. Corban Knight and Danny Kristo led the way with six points apiece in the series. Knight now has a 13-game point streak, and his 23 points on the season are tied for fourth in the conference. Clarke Saunders stopped 65 of 67 shots and is now fourth in the league with a .925 save percentage.
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