Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.
1. No. 6 Boston College survives opening game shootout, wins IceBreaker Tournament
If you look at Saturday’s score, you might think Boston College’s road to the IceBreaker Tournament title was a cakewalk. On the second night of the predetermined pairings tournament, the Eagles scored four early goals in a 5-1 win over Holy Cross to clinch the title.
But one night earlier, the Eagles were needed a goal in the final round of a shootout just to stay alive. After surrendering a 2-0 lead against Quinnipiac, the two teams needed a shootout to decide which team got the extra point in the tournament standings. Trailing 1-0, Eamon Powell forced sudden death with his goal in the third and final round. Casey Carreau won the shootout a round later, giving Boston College the extra tournament standings point over Quinnipiac, the difference in deciding the winner.
2. No. 2 St. Cloud State finally solves red-hot No. 1 Minnesota State, earning a split
If you haven’t heard, Minnesota State has been pretty impressive to begin the season. Last weekend, the Mavericks swept then No. 1 Massachusetts, spoiling their national championship banner-raising weekend. And Friday, super goalie Dryden McKay posted his second shutout of the season to earn a 1-0 win over St. Cloud State.
But on Saturday, the Huskies finally found a chink in the armor of Minnesota State, earning a 3-1 victory. Each team now stands an impressive 3-1-0 on the young season and are both highly likely to earn first-place votes in Monday’s USCHO.com poll.
3. Atlantic Hockey posts an impressive Friday night against the Big Ten
The Big Ten has not been a welcome foe of late for Atlantic Hockey. Over the past three seasons, Atlantic Hockey teams were a collective 0-21-1 against Big Ten team. But on Friday night, those results turned on a dime.
Bentley defeated Ohio State, 2-1 (more on this one later). Air Force used overtime to knock off Michigan State in East Lansing. And Canisius scored three third-period goals to beat Penn State on the road.
Credit due to those Big Ten teams, though. All three earned wins on Saturday while Minnesota completed a two-game sweep of Mercyhurst.
4. Coaches challenge help Bentley on Friday night
Bentley’s 2-1 upset of Ohio State on Friday night opened plenty of eyes. But if you weren’t among the 1,585 in attendance at Bentley Arena, you might not know, as the late Paul Harvey would call it, “the rest of the story.”
The Falcons led 2-1 late in the game when Ohio State appeared to score the tying goal. While the supposed tally came from a feed to the slot from behind the net, Soderquist’s captain Ethan Roswell, who was sitting on the bench at the time, encouraged the coach to challenge the play for offsides.
Listening to his captain paid off as the officials overturned the goal and the Falcons held on in the game’s final minutes to earn the win.
5. CCHA opens (re-opens?) league play with Northern Michigan sweep of St. Thomas
It’s been a while since there was a CCHA conference game. But with the league re-started this year with a new look and new members, the league season kicked off with the CCHA and college hockey’s newest member, St. Thomas.
Unfortunately for the Tommies, they were unable to pull out a victory as Northern Michigan’s offense cracked out 12 goals over the two games to earn six league points for the Wildcats.
6. Success for Michigan Tech spells rough weekend for No. 13 Wisconsin
Another CCHA team with an offense that was rolling was Michigan Tech, which scored five goals in each game against No. 13 Wisconsin and handed the Badgers two losses.
The Huskies spread out of the offense, particularly on Saturday with five different goal scorers. And while it is a great start for Tech, it raises some early questions for Wisconsin which many wonder how successful this team can be after the departure of Hobey Baker winner Cole Caufield.
7. NCHC off to a hot start out of conference
After two weekends, the NCHC has an early lead in non-conference play. With a 15-4-1 mark in play outside of the conference, the NCHC leads the Big Ten (10-5-0), the ECAC (6-4-3) and Hockey East (10-8-1).
The CCHA, which accounted for nine of the NCHC’s 15 wins, ranks fifth with an 8-11-1 mark. And even with the impressive trio of wins over the Big Ten on Friday, Atlantic Hockey pulls up the rear with a 3-15-0 record (including 0-7-0 against Hockey East teams).
8. Northeastern’s Levi sets a new mark for Huskies goaltenders
On Friday, Northeastern’s Devon Levi, who missed all of last season playing for Team Canada at the World Junior Championship where he suffered a season-ending injury, posted a 21-save shutout against Holy Cross. It was his second consecutive blank slate after stopping all 29 shots he faced last Saturday against Bentley in the season opener.
Levin became the first Northeastern goaltender to post shutouts in consecutive games to begin a career. In fact, he was the first Northeastern netminder to post consecutive shutouts at any point in their career since Keni Gibson in 2003.
9. New Hampshire off to best start under Souza
New Hampshire swept its weekend series against Union to start the season 2-0-0. It’s the best start to their season under coach Michael Souza, who took over for longtime coach Dick Umile in 2018.
In fact, the Wildcats best start of last was the 2017-18 season, Umile’s last, when they began the year 5-0-0. Unfortunately, that team struggled the rest of the way, winning just five more games, finishing 10-20-6.
10. Take the under, baby!
If you were able to find any betting action on college hockey this past weekend, let’s hope you took the over.
Twenty-four games featured five goals or less on the weekend and 26 teams scored either one or zero goals in a game.
Sure, there were some explosions like Northern Michigan’s eight goals against St. Thomas, but goal scoring seemed to be at a premium in the first full week of men’s D1 play.
