Last weekend was a good weekend for the CCHA, but was a good weekend for me? Of course not.
Last week: 3-4-2 (.444)
Season to date: 73-49-21 (.584)
Slowly approaching season numbers that may not even add up to mediocrity.
Tonight
There’s a full schedule of CCHA action this weekend, but there are two games tonight, one conference and one nonconference. I’ll pick the weekend’s game Friday morning, as usual.
Bowling Green at Michigan. Last weekend, the Falcons traveled to New York State to play Canisius, tying the Golden Griffins 2-2 Saturday and winning 3-2 Sunday. BGSU senior Marc Rodriguez had the game winner Sunday, his first point in 19 games dating back to March 16, 2012. Meanwhile back in Ann Arbor, the Wolverines lost an exhibition game to the U.S. Under-18 Team, 5-3, Friday night — UM’s first loss ever against the youngsters from across town. The Falcons and Wolverines played the night before Thanksgiving (Nov. 21, 2012), a 3-1 home win for Michigan. Tonight’s contest is UM coach Red Berenson’s 1,200th career game. I’m thinking that this milestone plus last week’s loss may be enough for Michigan to pull this one out, in spite of the absence of senior A.J. Treais, who is serving a one-game suspension for his disqualification in the Great Lakes Invitational third-place game Dec. 30. The puck drops at 7:35 p.m. and the game is televised on the Big Ten Network. Michigan 3-2
No. 2 Notre Dame at No. 1 Minnesota. This is the first game since Dec. 15 for the Fighting Irish, who carry a six-game win streak into Minneapolis. In their last game, the Irish defeated Bowling Green on the road, 4-1. The Golden Gophers were in action most recently at their own Mariucci Classic, where they demolished the competition — a 4-0 win over Air Force and 8-1 over Boston College in the title game. There are some very interesting notes for this one. First, freshman Mario Lucia — son of Minnesota coach Don Lucia — returns to the team after capturing a gold medal with Team USA in the IIHF World Junior Championship tournament. Second, sophomore forward Garrett Peterson will join the Irish for the second half of the season after sitting out the first half for what ND said were personal reasons. (In fact, Peterson is returning to college, too, after sitting out last semester.) Third, Minnesota is 14-8-2 against Notre Dame in Minneapolis, but the Irish have defeated No. 1 teams 12 times in their history. This game begins at 7:07 p.m. CST and is televised on Fox Sports North. I don’t know about your cable company, but mine carries the came tonight in southeast Michigan. ND 3-2
