Monday 10: Top-ranked North Dakota gets sweep, Boston College logs holiday air miles, Michigan Tech takes both at Minnesota State for first time

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Michigan Tech players celebrate a goal during the Huskies’ sweep at Minnesota State over the weekend (photo: Michigan Tech Athletics).

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

1. No. 1 North Dakota holds serve

Five teams have been No. 1 in the USCHO men’s Division I ice hockey poll this season. North Dakota joined Boston College as the only programs this campaign to get a weekend sweep after rising to the top spot.

The Fighting Hawks needed overtime to get it done on Friday, downing visiting Bemidji 3-2 at home on a goal by Jackson Blake. North Dakota took down the Beavers in emphatic fashion Saturday, blowing open what was a 2-0 lead with three goals in a 4:23 span of the third period.

Friday’s OT win caused a bit of controversy on social media as a still frame capture of the Midco broadcast appeared to show that North Dakota’s Garrett Pyke entered the zone early, an opinion shared by the North Dakota television commentators. A video review would have required a coach’s challenge, but Bemidji did not contest the play.

2. Well-traveled Boston College takes two

Boston College won both road games over the holiday weekend — with 1,600 round-trip air miles between them.

Friday saw the No. 2 Eagles trounce No. 18 Notre Dame, 6-1, in South Bend. BC reeled off six goals before Landon Slaggart spoiled Jacob Fowler’s bid for a shutout with 1:35 left in the game.

Harvard hosted Boston College on Sunday with the visitors reeling off three goals in the third period for the 4-1 win.

Ryan Leonard scored twice in each contest, giving the freshman a total of nine goals and seven assists on the season. Fowler, who turned 19 on Friday, had a 0.963 save percentage and 1.00 goals against average on the weekend.

3. No. 4 Denver blows out Yale

Denver goaltender Freddie Halyk recorded a pair of shutouts on the weekend, bringing his season total to three, as DU stomped on visiting Yale 5-0 Friday and 9-0 on Saturday.

Four different Pioneers tallied three or more points in Saturday’s game.

“I think it was a good weekend from everyone throughout the whole lineup,” said junior forward Massimo Rizzo. “Good for a lot of guys to get on the scoresheet and build confidence and do the right things heading into next weekend.”

That opponent next weekend? No. 1 North Dakota visits Magness Arena for a pair of NCHC contests.

4. Cornell keeps the Kelley-Harkness cup for another two years

Junior goaltender Ian Shane made a season-high 35 saves for No. 16 Cornell in the Big Red’s 2-1 win over No. 5 Boston University in front of 15,289 at Madison Square Garden. It was Cornell’s fourth consecutive victory in the biennial Red Hot Hockey game.

Junior Ondrej Psenicka scored the game-winning goal for Cornell. Boston University’s top scorers, freshman forward Macklin Celebrini and sophomore defenseman Lane Hutson, were both held scoreless for only the second time this season.

The victory snapped a four-game winless streak for the Big Red.

5. No. 8 Minnesota splits Big Ten points with No. 7 Michigan State

Minnesota’s Jimmy Clark got the game-winning goal with 1:02 left Sunday as the Golden Gophers ended Michigan State’s seven-game unbeaten streak. 6-5. The two teams combined for 42 penalty minutes and 87 shots.

Gopher goalie Justen Close made a career-high 41 saves in the contest.

Michigan State’s Joey Larson sent the game to overtime with an extra-attacker goal with about 18 seconds remaining.

Friday saw the two teams skate to a 3-3 tie with the Spartans taking the extra Big Ten point in the shootout. That game marked a career-best 44 saves for Spartans netminder Trey Augustine.

Each team picked up three conference points on the weekend.

Michigan State remains in first place in the Big Ten with 19 points. Wisconsin and Notre Dame trail with 12 points each, but have two games in hand.

6. First-ever sweep for Michigan Tech at Mankato

Michigan Tech beat Minnesota State on the road Friday and Saturday by identical 3-2 scores for the Huskies’ first-ever sweep of the Mavericks on the road.

Michigan Tech improved to 6-6-3 overall and 4-2-0 in CCHA play.

“It was a great job by the guys grinding that one out,” Michigan Tech coach Joe Shawhan said. “Mankato gave a couple of good pushes, and we actually pushed back. We’ve taken points in five of six in league play. I really like this group, and we’re going to keep growing and getting better.”

The Huskies are tied for third in points in the CCHA standings with 12 and trail first-place St. Thomas by three points, but with two games in hand.

7. A great Friday and still a good weekend out of conference for Atlantic Hockey

Atlantic Hockey went 6-1 on Friday in out-of-conference games and ended the weekend 7-5 in non-league play.

Friday saw No. 20 Rochester Institute of Technology down No. 12 New Hampshire, 5-4, and Holy Cross beat up on visting Brown, 6-3. Niagara upended host Colgate 5-2, and Mercyhurst got an overtime victory at Miami, 4-3.

Perhaps the most significant of the wins was Bentley’s 4-1 win over UMass Lowell in the Turkey Leg Classic. Former Lowell assistant Andy Jones took over the Bentley program last June and has the Falcons at 7-8-0 after an 11-21-2 campaign last season.

Army downed Lowell 4-2 on Saturday in their Turkey Leg matchup. The Black Knights are 3-1 in their last four after opening the season 0-8.

RIT, Niagara, and Mercyhurst all dropped the second half of their two-game series.

At .366 out of conference — inlcuding 6-6-0 vs. Hockey East — Atlantic Hockey, as well as CCHA (.368), and ECAC (.364) are below the around .400 mark that has been a benchmark for conferences to get at-large bids. But it’s also on pace to be the best showing for Atlantic Hockey in non-conference play.

8. Last-second heartbreak. Twice.

After the win over No. 12 New Hampshire on Friday, No. 20 RIT was seconds away from a weekend sweep on Saturday.

The Tigers jumped out to a two-goal lead for a second night, but a five-minute major in the first period opened the door for the Wildcats to tie it at 2-2. RIT retook the lead midway through the third after an UNH penalty as freshman Matthew Wilde tipped a shot from Gianfranco Cassaro past Wildcats goalie Jakob Hellsten.

New Hampshire pulled Hellsten with just over two minutes remaining and tied the game with 5.3 seconds left. Stiven Sardinian sent a pass to Ryan Conmy in the slot who one-timed it past RIT goalie Tommy Scarfone.

Both teams had opportunities in overtime, but Conmy’s blocked shot in front of the UNH net allowed him to spring Cy LeClerc on a breakaway for the winning goal with 6.2 seconds left in overtime.

“I loved our heart tonight,” RIT coach Wayne Wilson said in his postgame radio interview. “This is a highly-ranked team and you learn some tough lessons. A one-goal lead with under 20 seconds left, under 15, under 10, you’ve got to find a way to finish it off.”

9. Wisconsin drops third straight but turns it around in Gramme’s debut

No. 1 has not been kind to teams this season as we noted already. Wisconsin dropped a pair of games at Michigan State last weekend to drop to No. 6 in the USCHO poll.

Alaska Anchorage made it three straight losses for the Badgers with a 1-0 win on Friday, backstopped by Jared Whale’s 41 saves.

Saturday was a different story as Wisconsin downed the Seawolves 5-0. Freshman William Gramme got the shutout in his debut in the Badgers’ net.

“I wanna make sure to tip my cap to Gramme,” said Wisconsin coach Mike Hastings. “Seeing our guys’ reaction in the locker room for him because I’m not gonna say he works harder than anybody else, but I will say I don’t believe anybody works harder than he does.”

Gramme was elated.

“It was a dream come true; I had some tears in my eyes before I went out. It was just so fun, and I’m so happy; I had my debut going, and I’m so proud of the team and so happy.”

10. Friars and Sun Devils split in the desert

Dylan Jackson’s overtime game-winner gave No. 13 Arizona State a 4-3 win on Friday over visiting No. 9 Providence. Goalie TJ Semptimphelter had 38 saves for the Sun Devils, including three in overtime.

Arizona State is 7-0 at Mullett Arena in overtime games and was 10-1 at home coming into Sunday’s game two.

“It’s a tough place for teams to come in and play,” said ASU coach Greg Powers after Friday’s win. “We wanted to create an incredible home ice advantage and atmosphere and make this a hockey school and we’re well on our way to it. With nights like tonight, we’re getting there.”

Providence got the split on the weekend on Sunday afternoon, 2-1, snapping a three-game losing streak. The Friars have next weekend off before a single game at Boston College on Dec. 9 and the Mayor’s Cup game at Brown on Dec. 30, the only two on the Providence schedule until home-and-home with BC on Jan. 12 and 13.

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