Wisconsin finally returned to the ice, as the Badgers took on Ohio State at home. This season, the Badgers have been phenomenal at the Kohl Center, and they’re now 13-2-1 at home.

Only two teams had Big Ten series last weekend, and Michigan and Michigan State were the other two conference teams that tangled. The Wolverines swept the Spartans, snapping a six-game winless streak. Michigan’s J.T. Compher led the conference in scoring over the weekend with five points (3g, 2a).

The Gophers went outside the league and competed for the North Star College Cup. Minnesota won the inaugural tournament but also reminded us that no tournament can be taken seriously when it ends in a shootout. Yes, Minnesota won the championship game in a shootout.

Speaking of the Gophers, Adam Wilcox is really good. And the Gophers are one of the best teams in the country, but we already knew that.

The Nittany Lions also played out of conference, hosting Boston College. Penn State lost once again, but the team played the Eagles closely and limited them to three goals in the game.

Boston College averages 4.48 goals per game and has the nation’s top-two leading scorers.

That’s not bad for Penn State, especially since they faced Thatcher Demko in net.

I still haven’t figured out how I feel about Wisconsin, and I probably won’t until they can consistently win away from home. Right now the Badgers are 1-5-1 on the road, and all five of its Big Ten wins have come at home.  

(After the jump: Why David Glen is doing a great thing, Michigan’s struggles and the Buckeyes becoming elite) Read the rest of this entry »

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Durham, NH. – UNH and Maine faced off in the so called Border War on Friday night, and the start was typical and similar to most starts between these two teams at the Whittemore Center. UNH scored an early goal at 47 seconds of the first period for the lead, as a Maine turnover at the blue line to Nick Sorkin deking Martin Ouellette and putting it past the Maine netminder. Maine answered 2:09 later when Will Merchant scored his first of the year. Maine outshot UNH 6-3 in the first eight minutes, but the Black Bears stormed back to dominate the last 12 minutes. It outshot UNH 12-0 in the last 12 minutes of the first period.

The second period was much of the same in terms of possession and shots, but UNH scored a go ahead goal off an Eric Knodel midway through the period to take a 2-1 lead. That lead held into the second intermission. UNH scored an early goal in the third period to take a two goal lead into the latter stages of the third period. Mark Anthoine brought Maine to within one goal with 54.7 seconds remaining in the game, but UNH would hold off a fierce Maine rally attempt to win 3-2 in front of a sell-out crowd. UNH improves its record to 14-12-1 overall and 6-5-0 in Hockey East play, while Maine falls to 11-9-2, 5-4-2. New Hampshire moves up to 17th in the Pairwise rankings with the win, with Maine falling to 23rd. Read the rest of this entry »

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Michigan (10-6-2, 2-2-0 B1G) vs. Michigan State (8-10-3, 2-2-2 B1G): Jan. 23 at 7 p.m., Jan 24 at 6:30 p.m.

The teams will play a home and home series that starts Thursday at the Joe Louis Arena. It marks the 50th time the two teams have met at the Joe, and they have played there every year since 1990-91.

The Wolverines played the Spartans on Dec. 27 at the Great Lakes Invitational, falling 3-0.

Michigan has been fairly idle over the past month, playing four games over a six-week span. The Wolverines are on a five-game losing streak and haven’t won since Dec. 2. Over that span, the Wolverines have failed to score more than two goals. When Michigan scores three goals this season, they are 8-0-0.

Since Steve Racine returned from his injury, he has been sharing the net with Zach Nagelvoort. Nagelvoort is 6-5-1 with a 2.06 goals-against average and a .932 save percentage. Racine is 4-1-1with a 2.81 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage. Read the rest of this entry »

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A year ago, the final night of the regular season decided the Hockey East title. Massachusetts-Lowell defeated Providence to earn its first regular-season championship, but four different teams could’ve claimed the distinction with some slightly different results.

It was, for most, the most exciting ending to a regular season in the league’s history. Similar results were expected this season, but it’s not likely to happen. With about seven weeks left before the postseason, Boston College has the trophy wrapped up. It will take a bit of a collapse from the Eagles and near perfect performances from Northeastern, UMass-Lowell or Providence to get past BC.

With eight league games remaining, BC has 21 points with a 10-1-1 record through its first 12. UML looks like the only realistic contender to knock off BC. Even then, the River Hawks essentially can’t lose more than once or twice to do the job and must sweep BC in the process.

The Hockey East Tournament promises some drama to decide the 2014 recipient of the Lamoriello Trophy. For now, though, the hardware handed out for the regular season champion is almost guaranteed to land in Chestnut Hill.

(After the jump: Four critical points at stake between Providence and Lowell; Notre Dame needs to get going; A tough year for BU isn’t all on its first-year head coach)

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As I stated last week, the standings were a lot closer than met the eye.  Both Union and Quinnipiac had the weekend off from ECAC play, playing non-conference games instead. Teams right behind them, like Clarkson, Colgate and Cornell played two conference games and the three of them gained on the top two teams. One team, Clarkson will pick up another game this weekend and has a possibility of leading the conference by the end of the weekend. The Golden Knights have two games this weekend sitting three points behind Quinnipiac in third, while Union sits in second place just a point behind Quinnipiac and two ahead of Clarkson. Union has a lone conference game against Harvard this weekend.

In recent weeks, the ECAC conference has excelled in non-conference tilts and this past weekend was no different. Union picked up a big two wins on the road against New Hampshire. Quinnipiac defeated Merrimack College on Friday, but fell to those same Warriors on Saturday. In terms of inter-conference records, the conference sits in third place in winning percentage but if the tournament started today, the league would have five teams in the NCAA tournament. Two teams, Quinnipiac and Union, would have one seeds in the tournament as well as the two sit third and fourth in the Pairwise Rankings. Without further ado here is what I think this week: Read the rest of this entry »

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Big Ten play has been picking up, although not every team in the conference has faced off yet. All teams, except for Michigan, have now played at least six league games. Minnesota leads Big Ten play with a 7-0-1 record over eight games.

Michigan and Wisconsin were idle over the weekend, while Michigan State swept Penn State and Minnesota swept Ohio State.

With the limited amount of conference games, it’s hard to tell which teams — aside from the Gophers — are elite in Big Ten hockey. But the Buckeyes proved over the weekend they’re capable of playing against the best.

The Nittany Lions are still searching for their first conference win, and their four wins this season have all been against Atlantic Hockey teams. In Saturday’s contests against the Spartans, Penn State lost 3-2 but played well and tied the Spartans twice during the game.

But the rest of the season is only going to get harder for the Nittany Lions, who resume against Boston College. The Eagles defeated Penn State 8-2 earlier in the season. After that, Penn State will play 14 games against Big Ten teams.

(After the jump: Minnesota’s offense, Ohio State’s goalkeeping and Ryan Dzingel) Read the rest of this entry »

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Durham, NH – While it was snowing outside, New Hampshire and Union put on a show in front of smallish crowd at the Whittemore Center. Union opened the scoring at 15 minutes, five seconds of the first period when Mark Bennett put in a goal from zero angle on the backhand to give the Dutchmen a 1-0 lead. UNH responded seconds after its star defenseman, Trevor van Riemsdyk, went down with an apparent right leg injury, as Kyle Smith sent a pass to Tyler Kelleher to send the game into the first intermission tied at one.

The second period was a sluggish period of hockey, at best, by both teams. Union scored the only goal of the second period at 17:26 off a beautiful tip from Max Novak. The Dutchmen took the 2-0 lead into the third period, looking for its second win in as many nights against UNH. Union added an empty netter in the third period to cap the 3-1 win, securing the weekend sweep at UNH. Union improves to 15-4-3 on the season, while UNH falls to 13-12-1.

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Allston, MASS- Cornell came out flying in the first period in front of a rare, packed house at the Bright Landry Hockey Center. The Big Red held the Crimson without a shot for nearly ten minutes of the first period, and were rewarded by a short-handed goal on a breakaway by Madison Dias at the six minute, 22 second mark of the first period. The lead was doubled with just four seconds remaining in the period, as Joakim Ryan picked up his second assist of the night on a beautiful individual effort on a 2 on 1 break by Christian Hilbrich. Cornell held the Crimson to just five first period shots, and the Crimson struggled to possess the puck on the much bigger Big Red.

Harvard played a much better second period and came charging back in the period. Sean Malone brought the Crimson to within one, while getting tripped in the slot on a feed from Jimmy Vesey at 10:17 of the second period. Devin Tringale scored his first collegiate goal to tie the game, short-handed, five minutes later. But Cornell scored another last minute of a period goal, when Brian Ferlin fed a pass to Dustin Mowrey all alone in front of Steve Michalek sending Cornell into the second intermission up 3-2.

Cornell would hold on, literally, in the third period for the win. Harvard arguably gave its best performance of the season, as it outshot the Big Red 11-7 in the third period but it was not to be, as Cornell won the game 3-2. Cornell improved to 9-4-3, 5-3-2 in the ECAC with the win, while Harvard fell to 5-9-3, 2-7-3. Cornell moves within seven points of league leading Quinnipiac, with still three games in hand. Read the rest of this entry »

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Ohio State (11-6-1, 1-2-1 B1G) at Minnesota (15-2-3, 5-0-1 B1G): Jan. 17 at 8:07 p.m., Jan. 18 at 5:07 p.m.

The No. 2 and 3 offenses in the country will face off in the Hockey City Classic on Friday, which will be played at Minnesota’s TCF Bank Stadium. The Gophers average 3.95 goals per game, while the Buckeyes average 3.83 goals per game. Minnesota hasn’t lost since Nov. 24 and holds the longest unbeaten streak in the country.

Ryan Dzingel’s 27 points leads the Buckeyes and the Big Ten in scoring. Three different freshmen — Logan Davis, Christian Frey and Matt Tomkins — have started in net for the Buckeyes this season.

Sam Warning paces Minnesota’s offense with 23 points this season. Adam Wilcox, who’s started all but one game in net, has a .925 save percentage and a 2.13 goals-against average.

This is the first meeting between both teams since 2007.

Prediction: Minnesota sweeps the series

Penn State (4-12-1, 0-4-0 B1G) at Michigan State (6-10-3, 0-2-2 B1G): Jan. 17 at 6:35 p.m., Jan. 18 at 7:05 p.m. (NBCSN)

The Nittany Lions have yet to win a conference game this season and have lost nine of their past 10 games. Michigan State’s lone win over the past six contests came against Michigan at the Great Lakes Invitational.

These teams faced off last season, splitting the series. Penn State’s Casey Bailey and Max Gardiner each had four points, while Mike Ferrantino netted three for the Spartans.

Goalkeepers Jake Hildebrand and Matthew Skoff are both from the Pittsburgh are and played together for the Sioux City Musketeers in the USHL. The two netminders faced off in Penn State’s 3-2 win last season.

Eric Scheid leads Penn State’s offense with 13 points and eight goals. Michigan’s State’s Jake Chelios has 14 points, while Greg Wolfe has tallied seven goals.

Prediction: Series split

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Another week and more movement at the top. Clarkson continues its struggle in the second half and plummets in the rankings this week, while RPI, Dartmouth, Princeton and St. Lawrence are really close at the bottom of the rankings. Quinnipiac defeated Union on Friday night in Hamden, in a game that saw the two top teams in the ECAC faceoff. Quinnipiac took back the lead in the league with the win by a measly point, with teams behind them having a ton of games. See this week’s Three Things I Think for that storyline. Without further ado here are my rankings for the week. Feel free to send your opinion by twitter and follow me @JoshSeguin24

1. Union (13-4-3, 9-2-0 ECAC) – Last Week 1

Like I didn’t penalize Quinnipiac for its road loss to Union in the first half, I won’t penalize Union for its road loss to Quinnpiac. At this point, there is no doubt that Union and Quinnipiac are interchangeable at the top of these rankings. The Dutchmen’s loss to the Bobcats on Friday, was its first blemish in ten games. This weekend gets no easier for Union, as it travels to the Olympic Sheet of Lake Whitt on the University of New Hampshire for a pair. Both games will have huge implications for Union in the Pairwise Rankings., which it currently sits sixth. Read the rest of this entry »

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