Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.
1. No surprises among NCAA tournament’s top seeds
The PairWise Rankings ensure that there are never any big omissions from the NCAA tournament field, and to that same end, the four No. 1 regional seeds generally belong there, too.
Boston College, Boston University, Denver and Michigan State were handed No. 1 seeds when the full tournament bracket was announced Sunday. They will be favored to win their regionals, taking place in Providence, R.I.; Maryland Heights, Mo.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; and Springfield, Mass., respectively.
View the complete bracket including television information and starting times.
2. BC runs rampant in Hockey East title game
Top-ranked Boston College on Saturday won its 12th Hockey East playoff title, using four goals from freshman Will Smith to down No. 2 Boston University 6-2.
BC’s best-in-the-nation penalty kill shut down BU’s No. 1 power play units through the game’s first two periods. The Eagles scored on their own three power plays over the first 40 minutes.
Jacob Fowler, more on him later, made 34 saves in the winning effort.
3. Denver heats up to win NCHC title
Third-ranked Denver used four unanswered goals Saturday to earn the Pioneers’ third National Collegiate Hockey Conference playoff title, defeating Omaha 4-1.
Denver senior captain McKade Webster scored twice against the Mavericks, and sophomore Rieger Lorenz and freshman Miko Matikka bagged a goal apiece. Matikka also added an assist to make for consecutive multi-point games.
Matt Davis made 15 saves in the Denver net, in a game where the Pioneers outshot Omaha by a nearly 2 to 1 margin. The Mavericks only had three shots on goal in the third period.
4. Sparty beats archrival Michigan to take Big Ten title
Michigan State freshman Patrick Geary’s goal 13:47 into overtime Saturday gave the Spartans a 5-4 win on their home ice against Michigan in the Big Ten tournament final.
Fifth-ranked MSU earned its first-ever Big Ten playoff and regular-season crowns this season. The Spartans won their first postseason title since 2006, and their first regular-season championship since 2001.
MSU’s victory on Saturday was the Spartans’ fourth in a row against Michigan.
5. Cornell grabs ECAC Hockey crown
Fourteenth-ranked Cornell used two goals from freshman forward Jonathan Castagna to down St. Lawrence 3-1 during Saturday’s ECAC Hockey tournament championship game.
The Big Red’s 13th Whitelaw Cup victory was Cornell’s first since 2010.
Hank Kempf and Dalton Bancroft each chipped in two assists Saturday, joining Castagna in having multi-point nights. Castagna was named the tournament’s MVP.
6. RIT takes Atlantic Hockey title
Two goals and two assists from RIT graduate student forward Elijah Gonsalves and another two goals from first-year forward Matthew Wilde helped RIT win 5-2 Saturday on home ice in the Atlantic Hockey playoff title game against American International.
The top-seeded Tigers won their fourth Atlantic Hockey title, and their first since going back-to-back in 2015 and 2016. RIT will make its fourth NCAA tournament appearance later this week.
7. Michigan Tech wins first CCHA crown
Michigan Tech will hold the No. 16 seed for the NCAA tournament, after the Huskies won 2-1 Saturday in the CCHA title game on the road to Bemidji State.
Ryland Mosley scored the eventual game-winning goal 9:20 into the second period. Blake Pietila finished with 34 saves for the Huskies.
Tech clinched its third-consecutive NCAA tournament berth for the first time since 1976. Huskies coach Joe Shawhan will take MTU to its fourth NCAA tournament in his seven years so far with the program.
8. Richter Award finalists named
Boston College freshman Jacob Fowler, Colorado College sophomore Kaidan Mbereko and Wisconsin senior Kyle McClellan were named last week as the three finalists for this year’s Mike Richter Award, given each season to the top goaltender in men’s NCAA Division I hockey.
An initial watch list of 32 goalies was later whittled down to 10 semifinalists. The winner will be named April 12 during the NCAA Frozen Four in St. Paul, Minn.
Richter, a Hockey Hall of Fame member and legendary New York Rangers goalie, played his college hockey for Wisconsin and earned a degree from Yale.
9. Stonehill coach Borges calls it a career
The newest NCAA Division I men’s hockey program will have a new coach going forward, after Stonehill announced last week that David Borges is retiring after 11 years with what was previously a Division III program.
Borges had joined the Skyhawks’ coaching staff, first as an assistant, after spending 26 years with the boys hockey team at Coyle and Cassidy High School in nearby Taunton, Mass.
At Stonehill, Borges had a program-best 102 wins and five Northeast-10 Conference championships over his 11 seasons at the helm.
10. Miami dumps fifth-year coach, alumnus Bergeron
Miami will have its first new head coach in the better part of a decade next season, after the school announced last week that it has parted ways with Chris Bergeron.
A former Miami player and RedHawks assistant coach, Bergeron’s Miami teams were 35-116-16 overall and 18-91-11 in NCHC play in his five years behind the bench there.
Bergeron helped Miami to its first CCHA title in 1993, and later made two Frozen Four appearances with the RedHawks as an assistant. However, it has now been nine years since Miami reached the NCAA tournament.
