Monday 10: Colorado College takes both from North Dakota, Holy Cross coming alive in Atlantic Hockey, Quinnipiac close to ECAC Hockey regular-season crown

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Kaidan Mbereko and the Colorado College defense stymied the North Dakota offense all weekend (photo: Casey B. Gibson).

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

1. Colorado College sweeps North Dakota in convincing fashion

Earlier this season, the Tigers snapped a 15-game losing streak to the Fighting Hawks with a pair of 3-2 overtime victories in Grand Forks.

The rematch in Colorado Springs wasn’t that close.

CC dominated UND 7-1, 6-2 for its first four-game season sweep of its conference rival in program history. The schools have met 273 times.

On Friday, freshman Zaccharya Wisdom scored four goals to lead the Tigers, the first time a CC player reached that mark in a game in five years.

North Dakota outshot Colorado College 45-32 on Saturday, but CC goalie Kaidan Mbereko made a career-high 43 saves.

The sweep moved the Tigers, who are having their best season in 16 years, up to 11th in the PairWise Rankings.

2. Ohio State sweeps Wisconsin

The Buckeyes came into their home series with Wisconsin with just one Big Ten win but tripled that with a (3-2 OT, 3-1) sweep of the fourth-ranked Badgers.

On Friday, Ohio State never led until Davis Burnside’s game-winner with 22 seconds left in overtime.

In Saturday’s contest, the Buckeyes never trailed. Burnside and Cam Thiesing scored 48 seconds apart near the end of the first period, and after UW’s David Silye cut the lead in half with a power play goal eight minutes into the second, Joe Dunlap finished out the scoring for OSU a few minutes later.

Wisconsin failed to gain ground on idle Michigan State, which remains in first place, four points ahead of the Badgers.

3. Holy Cross within striking distance in Atlantic Hockey

The Crusaders entered the weekend in third place, behind first-place Rochester Institute of Technology and weekend foe Sacred Heart.

Thanks to its sixth and seven straight wins (5-1 on Friday, 2-1 on Saturday) and third consecutive conference sweep, Holy Cross now sits alone in second and is the only team that can catch RIT. The Crusaders trail the Tigers by two points heading into the final weekend of the regular season in Atlantic Hockey. RIT has a game in hand.

On Friday, Holy Cross opened a 5-0 lead paced by a pair of goals from Liam McLinskey. Saturday was a different story, with the Crusaders erasing a 1-0 SHU lead. McLinskey got the game-winner with 12:14 left in the third.

Jason Grande stopped 60 of 62 shots in the series for Holy Cross.

4. Bowling Green stays hot

The Falcons extended their unbeaten streak to six games after a win and a tie against St. Thomas. Bowling Green took five of six points in the series thanks to a shootout win after a 3-3 tie on Friday, and Saturday’s 3-1 victory.

Brett Pfoh scored a goal in both contests, extending his scoring streak to four games.

Bowling Green continues to climb up the CCHA standings, now in a three-way tie for second, two points behind leader Bemidji State.

5. Cornell moves ahead, falls back in PairWise

The Big Red took five of six points this weekend against Brown (3-0 win) and Yale (shootout win after a 1-1 tie), allowing a total of just 22 shots in the two games.

Ian Shane stopped all but one of those as Cornell extended its unbeaten streak to 14 games, dating back to Dec. 29.

But the home tie with Yale dinged Cornell in the PWR, dropping it to 14th, squarely on the bubble.

6. New Hampshire sweeps Maine

Is it an upset if you do it again the next night? No. 19 New Hampshire took down seventh-ranked Maine 6-2 on Friday, and then did it again on Saturday, this time by a 5-2 score.

UNH’s Liam Devlin had a hat trick in Friday’s win and was one of five goal-scorers on Saturday.

Six league points for the weekend moved the Wildcats into a tie for fifth in the Hockey East standings. New Hampshire sits at 17th in the Pairwise.

7. Top-ranked Eagles soar past Minutemen

Boston College entered this weekend’s series with No. 11 Massachusetts as the No. 1 team in the USCHO Division I Men’s Poll as well as in the PairWise.

Things will likely stay that way thanks to a 5-1 win on a Friday and a 6-4 victory on Sunday against the Minutemen.

BC’s Ryan Leonard had a hat-trick on Saturday and a pair of goals on Friday, extending his point streak to 13 games and goal streak to four games. He has seven goals in those four contests.

8. No. 8 Minnesota salvages pair of points against Notre Dame

After a 6-1 loss to the Fighting Irish on Friday, the Golden Gophers managed a 3-2 overtime win on Saturday.

Jimmy Snuggerud’s OT winner was his 19th goal of the season and snapped an eight-game stretch where he failed to score. It was also his fifth game-winning goal this season for Minnesota.

Friday’s win by the Fighting Irish marked the 1,000th game coached by Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson, who also coached at Lake Superior State. After the weekend split, Jackson’s career record is 589-314-98.

9. Quinnipiac edges closer to ECAC regular-season title

The defending national champions clinched a bye to the quarterfinals on Friday with a 6-2 victory over Union. 13 different players recorded a point for Quinnipiac.

On Saturday, Rensselaer scored the opening goal, but the Bobcats got the next five to cruise to a 7-2 win, capped off by a highlight-reel goal by Travis Treloar.

Quinnipiac can clinch the Cleary Cup on Friday with a regulation win at Brown.

10. In case you missed it…

Northeastern split its series with UMass Lowell this past weekend, but the bigger win for the Huskies happened back on Monday when they captured their second Beanpot title in a row, and fifth in the last six seasons.

Gunnarwolfe Fontaine scored in overtime as the Huskies defeated Boston University, 4-3. Fontaine, who also scored the overtime game-winner against Boston College in the first round, was named MVP.

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