This post is brought to you by the letters M and N and the number 11.
(Take a guess where I am right now. Brr.)
In which we had the weekend of the split sweep, save the UND/UNO series. But we’ll get to that.
Colorado College swept Alabama-Huntsville
– Raise your hands if you were surprised about this.
*Looks around*
Didn’t think so.
– Thanks to Michael Morin’s second period goal on Saturday and Mike Boivin’s four point weekend, every CC skater now has at least one point on the season. I say skater since second- and third-string goaltenders Tyler O’Brien and Josh Thorimbert are still pointless.
– Speaking of whom, Tyler O’Brien saw his first regular season appearance on Friday when he started the third period.
Wisconsin swept Minnesota State
– In which the Mavericks fall further in league standings, and their nice little run falls apart.
– Shane Frederick of the Mankato Free Press had an interesting stat in his blog – in MSU’s last six WCHA games, they’re 0-5-1. Four of those losses were by one goal; the fifth was by two goals as a result of an empty-netter.
– Which says the Mavericks are close in league play, but not close enough to matter.
– Saturday’s win extended UW’s unbeaten streak at home to 10 games – its longest home win streak at the Kohl Center.
– The sweep also moved the Badgers into sole position of fifth place in the league.
Minnesota-Duluth swept Michigan Tech
– Again, like CC/UAH, really no surprise there.
– The Huskies were able to hang with the Bulldogs for the first period on Friday, and then the game fell apart for them.
– The weekend was good for the UMD goaltenders – two straight shut-outs.
– UMD’s Justin Fontaine is now in the top 25 of UMD’s career scoring list.
St. Cloud State swept Bemidji State
– This weekend meant four huge points for the Huskies, who are now one point out of (a tie for) home ice.
– Conversely, it makes for a much harder struggle for Bemidji, as they have five more weekends left to try and gain some ground.
– Friday made for a tough loss for the Beavers, as SCSU’s Nic Dowd netted the game-winner with a mere 28.5 seconds remaining in overtime.
– Speaking of Nic Dowd, the freshman has quietly put together a decent rookie campaign (4g, 11a) and is the fourth leading scorer on the team.
Denver swept Alaska-Anchorage
– With how well the Seawolves have been playing, this series was disappointing for them.
– Friday’s game was a back-and-forth affair with tons of momentum changes and really, could have gone either way.
– An interesting stat that was shown at Magness Arena was that DU’s unbeaten streak going into the weekend was 3-0-3 … interesting, because 303 is Denver’s area code. (har-de-har, i know).
– Saturday’s game, though I wasn’t there, sounded like it was at least some of the same – from the Denver Post‘s Mike Chambers’ blog:
Pioneers go from a 1-0 deficit to a 3-1 lead in the final four minutes of the first period, then survive a second-period Alaska-Anchorage barrage after captain Kyle Ostrow made it 4-1 early in the frame.
– Also a fun stat from Chambers – All of freshman Jason Zucker’s 17 goals this season have come in league contests.
North Dakota and Nebraska-Omaha split
– Let’s play the “raise your hand” game again … who expected UNO to be up 7-1 on the Sioux after two periods?
– Granted, the Sioux came back somewhat in the third, but their rally was stopped by senior Joey Martin’s first career hat trick.
– One thing you might not have noticed: I’ll copy from the Omaha World Herald‘s Chad Purcell’s blog:
College hockey’s new penalty-delay rule — which awards a team a power play even when they score on the penalty delay — had a big impact on this weekend’s games. On Friday, it contributed to UNO’s five-goal outburst in the second period. On Saturday, it helped the Sioux swing momentum their way in a flash after the Mavs went ahead 1-0.
– Just go look at Friday’s box score and look at the second period – PPG, PPG 5×3, GWG EAG PPG, PPG 5×3. Insane.
– Other interesting facts from Friday’s game, courtesy of the Grand Forks Herald‘s Brad Schlossman:
– It was the first time UND lost a game by more than one goal since October … Last time UND lost by four was in October 2006 … Last time UND gave up eight goals at home was in March 1992.
– Saturday, though, showed a possible step in the right direction for UND getting back on track after, as a commenter mentioned this week, a few disappointing outings.
