Each week during the season, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.
1, No. 7 Michigan, Minnesota State split series
Minnesota State picked up a road split to open the season, winning 5-2 on Friday at seventh-ranked Michigan before falling 4-1 Saturday to the Wolverines.
Four unanswered goals Friday helped Minnesota State earn its upset victory, in which five different Mavericks found the back of Michigan’s net. Alex Tracy made 32 saves at the other end to help MSU beat Michigan in the teams’ second all-time meeting.
The third one went the Wolverines’ way, as a goal and an assist Saturday from Michael Hage helped the hosts rebound from Friday’s defeat. A first-round NHL draft pick earlier this year by the Montreal Canadiens, Hage had three assists and four points in his opening weekend of college hockey action while helping to give Brandon Naurato his 50th win as Michigan’s coach.
2. UMass’s Carvel reaches 150 wins
Massachusetts coach Greg Carvel on Saturday hit the 150-win mark for his Minutemen career, thanks to a 5-4 nonconference win at Bentley.
Carvel’s ninth season in charge started the right way, thanks in large part to a four-goal second period. Aydar Suniev, Jack Musa and Daniel Jenčko accounted for those goals across a span of 12:59, with Suniev getting the first and last. Bentley roared back with three unanswered goals in the third period but couldn’t tie the game.
Carvel has led UMass to two Hockey East playoff titles as well as the program’s first national title in 2021. Four of the Minutemen’s five NCAA tournament appearances have come under his watch.
3. Newcomers come up big in BU’s opener
Third-ranked Boston University opened the new season with a 5-2 home win Saturday against Holy Cross. Junior co-captain Ryan Greene bagged two goals for the hosts, while freshmen Cole Eiserman, Cole Hutson and Alex Zetterberg each scored once in their collegiate debuts.
Greene has a knack for getting the Agganis Arena crowd going in its first games of the season, having now scored five goals in his three BU home openers. He and his linemates Shane Lachance and Quinn Hutson combined for a plus-9 rating Saturday.
Mathieu Caron, a BU senior goaltender and former transfer from Brown, where he was a Hobey Baker Award nominee, made 29 saves.
4. Air Force splits with No. 20 Arizona State
Arizona State’s first pair of games as a conference member had good and not-so-good moments for the Sun Devils, as they picked up a split at Air Force.
Special-teams units accounted for five ASU goals in the visitors’ 8-1 win Friday, when 12 different Sun Devils logged at least one point. Friday’s win also set a new top margin of victory in ASU program history. Three shorthanded goals scored that night also made for a new program record.
Air Force bounced back with a 4-3 win Saturday, as senior Clayton Cosentino bagged the winner in overtime. The Falcons were behind 2-0 after five minutes in the series finale, but clawed back to beat a ranked opponent for the first time since late last season, against then-No. 20 RIT.
ASU’s Ryan Kirwan and Air Force’s Brendan Gibbons both scored in the final minute of regulation, before Cosentino scored the sixth game-winning goal of his career.
5. Bemidji edges No. 18 UMD on road in overtime
Scott Sandelin’s 25th season as Minnesota Duluth’s coach didn’t start as he would’ve wanted, as the Bulldogs fell 4-3 in overtime Saturday at home to Bemidji State.
Jackson Jutting, a nephew of former Minnesota State coach Troy Jutting, bagged the winner 3:47 into the three-on-three extra period inside Amsoil Arena. That put a bow on a game where neither team led by more than one goal.
Zam Plante had forced overtime for UMD with a goal at 18:18 of the third period. Four different Bemidji skaters scored in the game, with nine Beavers recording one point apiece.
UMD bounced back Sunday with a 7-2 exhibition win over Manitoba. The Bisons held a 1-0 lead at the first intermission but were outshot 26-6 by the time Duluth got on the board early in the second.
6. St. Lawrence opens with two wins
The Appleton Arena crowd in Canton, N.Y., had a lot to feel good about last weekend, as St. Lawrence opened the new season with a pair of home wins.
Greg Lapointe’s game-winner 2:42 into overtime Saturday gave the Saints a 3-2 victory over RIT. The visiting Tigers were held without a shot on goal in the extra frame, and St. Lawrence won despite going 0 for 5 on power plays.
St. Lawrence then scored five unanswered goals in a 5-2 win Sunday against Canisius. After falling behind 2-0 in the first period, Drake Burgin started the Saints’ comeback attempt with a goal 2:44 into the hosts’ four-goal second.
Two of those goals came from St. Lawrence’s special teams units, with Burgin scoring on a power play and Ty Naaykens adding a shorthanded tally in the final minute of that period.
7. North Dakota suffers first exhibition loss in nearly 30 years
Two Brett Meerman goals helped Augustana to a 4-1 exhibition victory Saturday on the road against No. 5 North Dakota, handing the Fighting Hawks their first loss in a noncounter game since the 1996-97 season.
Meerman scored off a rebound 2:20 into the game, and Augustana led 2-0 after one period and 3-0 through two. Will Svenddal and Nace Langus also bagged a goal apiece for the visitors, before a Cameron Berg power-play goal midway through the third period ended Christian Manz’s shutout bid.
Augustana gets going for real this weekend with a home set against Long Island. North Dakota, which played Saturday’s game in front of an announced sellout crowd at Ralph Engelstad Arena, plays there again this Saturday against Providence.
8. Omaha dedicates rink for original coach
When Omaha hosted Wisconsin for an exhibition game Saturday, the Baxter Arena playing surface was dedicated as Kemp Ice, in honor of the Mavericks’ original coach, Mike Kemp.
Now a special advisor to UNO athletic director Adrian Dowell, Kemp was hired as the Mavericks’ first hockey coach in 1996 and held that position for 12 years. Kemp previously served as an assistant at Wisconsin under legendary coaches Bob Johnson and Jeff Sauer.
Wisconsin won Saturday’s game 3-2 in overtime, overcoming a 2-0 deficit with a pair of third-period goals and Quinn Finley’s winner.
9. Air Force grad, Augustana assistant Demers remembered
Former Air Force forward and, more recently, Augustana assistant coach Chad Demers died Wednesday following a long battle with brain cancer. He was 33.
Demers, who was a prep standout for Grafton-Park River (N.D.) and later the USHL’s Fargo Force, was an associate head coach with the Force before coming to Augustana ahead of the Vikings’ inaugural 2023-24 season.
After graduating from the Air Force Academy, Demers served on active duty as an acquisitions officer in California, and as a ROTC instructor at the University of North Dakota.
Funeral services for Demers are scheduled for today at the Grafton High School Gymnasium.
10. Denver, Penn State coaches visit old stomping grounds
Top-ranked Denver and Penn State opened their respective campaigns last weekend in familiar spots for their head coaches. Denver won a pair of games at Alaska Anchorage, in DU coach Davie Carle’s hometown, while former Alaska coach Guy Gadowski led Penn State to two wins in Fairbanks.
Four power-play goals Saturday helped Denver begin its campaign with a 6-2 win over UAA, before the visiting Pioneers won 4-1 in Sunday’s rematch. Denver had jumped out to a 4-0 lead, and only saw Matt Davis’s shutout bid wiped out in the game’s final two minutes.
Over in Fairbanks, Penn State won 4-3 on Saturday thanks to an overtime goal from Simon Mack. The Nittany Lions then won 5-0 on Sunday, after scoring four goals in the second period. Reese Laubach had two of those, and Arsenii Sergeev pitched a 32-save shutout.
