Monday 10: Top six ranked teams all lose over weekend, Big Ten starts conference play, half-dozen OT games Saturday night

By
-
Minnesota Duluth senior goaltender Zach Stejskal secured his first collegiate shutout with 23 saves against Bemidji State last Friday night (photo: Terry Cartie Norton).

Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.

1. Hiccups in the top 6

Each of the top six teams in the USCHO.com Men’s Division I Poll lost a game this past weekend.

No. 1 Minnesota split with No. 5 North Dakota in Grand Forks, with the Gophers winning 4-0 Friday and the Fighting Hawks taking Saturday’s game 2-1.

Jake Livanavage had the game winner for North Dakota 59 seconds into the third period Saturday.

On a trip east for the Pioneers, No. 10 Providence beat No. 2 Denver, 4-3. Denver then beat No. 3 Boston College, 4-3.

No. 4 Quinnipiac split on the road against New Hampshire, winning 5-2 before a 5-4 OT loss.

2. The Big Ten begins

After crushing No. 13 Ohio State 7-1 in the opening game of Big Ten conference play, No. 7 Michigan took one point from the visiting Buckeyes the following night, as OSU came from behind to tie Michigan Saturday.

The Buckeyes earned the extra shootout point as well.

That’s junior goaltender Logan Terness with the post-shootout arm pump. Terness made 30 saves in the tie.

3. Apparently, it takes 10 goals to sweep

The only two teams in the top 10 to sweep the weekend were No. 8 Michigan State and No. 9 Western Michigan, and each put up 10 goals against their opponents.

The Spartans beat the visiting Canisius Golden Griffins, 6-4 and 4-3. Daniel Russell had a hat trick for Michigan State in the Thursday night game, the first of the sophomore’s career.

Western Michigan took two 5-2 games from Bowling Green in a home-and-home series. Sam Colangelo picked up a hat trick of his own with an empty-netter in the third period of Saturday’s home win.

4. AIC takes down No. 12 Penn State

American International split on the road against Penn State, winning 6-4 Saturday after dropping the first game 3-2. Eight different Yellow Jackets scored in series.

Alexandros Aslanidis made 36 saves for AIC in the win, the first of the season for the Yellow Jackets.

5. Give a minute to Massachusetts

With three straight wins over ranked opponents, unranked Massachusetts is now 5-1-0 to the start of the season.

The Minutemen swept No. 19 Minnesota State on the road, following Friday’s 6-3 win with a 1-0 blanking Saturday.

Aydar Suniev’s game-winning goal Saturday was his second career marker. The first was the opening goal in Friday’s game.

Freshman goalie Michael Hrabal made 60 saves in the series, including 32 in his first career shutout Saturday.

6. Extra hockey, especially on Saturday night

Seven games went to overtime on the weekend, with six OT games played Saturday night.

Friday night, Lindenwood and St. Thomas tied 4-4.

Saturday saw two ties in Atlantic Hockey and one in the Big Ten, plus three nonconference OT games with winners.

In Minnesota Duluth’s 5-4 road win over Bemidji State, the Beavers overcame a two-goal deficit with late in the third when Lleyton Roed scored at 13:04 and Adam Flamming tied it at 17:54.

When overtime play began, the Bulldogs needed just 27 seconds to win the game.

Cole Spicer had the game-winner in the three-on-three OT, unassisted. It was Spicer’s third goal of the season. The sophomore had three goals in 32 games last year.

7. A shoutout to a couple of seriously overworked goalies

Through five games, Robert Morris’s Chad Veltri has made 174 saves. That’s an average of nearly 35 per game, including 46 in Saturday’s tie against Holy Cross.

Veltri’s 1-2-2 record belies his skill. Through five games, he’s posting a .946 save percentage and 1.94 GAA.

Another netminder playing solidly with little fanfare is Lindenwood’s Trent Burnham (1-3-2, .927 SV%, 2.91 GAA).

In the Lions’ 4-4 tie with St. Thomas Friday, Burnham stopped an astonishing 59 shots on goal. He had 35 saves in a 3-1 loss to the Tommies Saturday.

8. A rookie on a roll

Through four games, Northern Michigan’s Tanner Latsch leads all D-I players with seven goals. The freshman from Muskegon, Mich. had a hat trick in his collegiate debut in the Wildcats’ 5-5 tie with Minnesota-Duluth Oct. 13 and added two more goals the following night.

Latsch had a goal in each of NMU’s two losses to Arizona State this past weekend. Six of Latsch’s seven goals have come on the power play.

9. This looks familiar

With a record of 23-7-3, the NCHC has the best win percentage (.742) in early season interconference action. The Big Ten (23-9-1, .712) is a close second, with Hockey East (26-12-1, .679) in third.

10. This looks familiar, too

The seven current teams not affiliated with any conference have a combined .386 win percentage. Among the independents, Arizona State is off to an impressive 4-0 start, following up a sweep of Merrimack with two wins over Northern Michigan, 3-2 Friday and 5-1 Saturday.

Eleven different Sun Devils accounted for the 11 total goals against the Wildcats in the series. TJ Semptimphelter made 39 stops in two games. Semptimphelter has impressive numbers (1.24 GAA, .952 SV%) through four games this season.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR