Clearly, it’s because of my malicious East Coast bias, isn’t it?

In all seriousness, I haven’t had a chance to get a good look at Genoway, but as a defenseman averaging more than a point-per-game on a Fighting [CENSORED] team that’s No. 2 in the country with precious few signs of those previous first-half struggles, he certainly should be on the radar.

That said, it may well be a good thing that I haven’t had a chance to watch Genoway closely. After all, this past weekend, I took the opportunity to take a closer look at Princeton’s Zane Kalemba and Quinnipiac’s Brandon Wong, and what did I get? Kalemba’s backup, Alan Reynolds, backstopping the Tigers to an overtime win over Dartmouth, and Wong going without a point in a 4-2 win over the Big Green.

Translation: a rough weekend for my alma mater, and almost as rough an outing for my Hobey candidate viewing.

I say “almost,” because while I didn’t get to see much from Wong – except for the attention he commanded from the Big Green throughout the game - I got a good look at his Bobcats teammate Eric Lampe, who is shaping up to be as strong a Hobey candidate as Wong, despite not having put up eye-popping numbers before this season.

Of course, the fact is that he had no numbers to speak of against Dartmouth, having a point-free night after burning Harvard for a hat trick and an assist the night before. That said, he was a major presence for the Bobcats, particularly on the penalty kill, where he was relentless in pressuring the point, leading to multiple shorthanded opportunities and more than one early end for a Big Green power play.

That kind of play is huge for the Bobcats, who play the hockey equivalent of what Virginia Tech football fans call “BeamerBall.” The Bobcats are always looking for scoring opportunities, whethere it’s even strength, power play, or penalty kill, and as I saw on Saturday, Lampe has been an even bigger part of that than his 14 points in nine games suggest.

And if you don’t believe me, just ask his coach.

“Brandon’s having a very good year,” Rand Pecknold told me after the game on Saturday, “and his numbers show that, but Eric Lampe’s been excellent. He’s our best player. He’s been absolutely dominant in eight of those nine games, and not just from an offensive standpoint. He’s great on the penalty kill. He’s great defensively. We’ve got a lot of guys playing well right now. He’s been our best player.”

Of course, none of this is to say that Wong may not eventually emerge as the top Hobey candidate on this Bobcats team, even if Lampe is the best player. You can certainly make arguments for Hobey winners who weren’t the best players on their teams, albeit usually when there was another Hobey finalist on the team. We heard it from some quarters last year, arguing that Colin Wilson was more Hobey-worthy than winner Matt Gilroy (I disagreed then, and I disagree now). It was certainly part of the conversation in 2005, vis-a-vis Marty Sertich and Brett Sterling, and while I wasn’t even in college yet in the spring of 2000, looking back, you could have made the argument for Brian Gionta over Mike Mottau.

Also, at some point, it does become a question of numbers, and with a 27-goal season on his resumé, Wong may go on to have the better season for Hobey purposes. As Pecknold points out, he has a lot of players performing well right now (keep an eye on sophomore Scott Zurevinski, while we’re at it, if not for this year than for the future).

“,” Pecknold said.

Of course, all of this said, it begs an important question, and it’s a question that also affects a guy like Matt Read of Bemidji State – whom I was asked about on Hockey on Campus last week – or Nick Schaus of UMass Lowell for that matter (and I was VERY impressed with him when I watched the River Hawks beat UNH on ESPN U weekend before last).

The question is: how much does a school’s brand name mean for winning the Hobey?

Now, obviously, the schools with the biggest names tend to attract a lot of talent, so in that sense, it’s hardly a surprise that the Hobey has gone exclusively to players from big-time hockey programs (I include Bowling Green in that program’s heyday in that statement).

Of course, we don’t have this problem in NCAA tournament selection, as the basketball folks do (and really, I’ll take the KRACH arguments over basketball’s tournament grousing every day of the week and twice on Selection Sunday). However, it is worth noting that no player has won the Hobey while playing at a school that couldn’t be considered a national hockey power at the time, and no matter what Quinnipiac and Lowell do this year, that kind of recognition takes some time to build up. Heck, Notre Dame and Miami are just starting to reach national power status now, and it’s taken consistent NCAA tournament presence and a national championship game berth apiece to get there.

In that light, it’s worth asking whether the fact that Brandon Wong or Nick Schaus could have a harder road to the Hobey than, say, Cornell’s Colin Greening or New Hampshire’s Blake Kessel, even though they play in the same conferences, because Wong and Schaus play at Quinnipiac and Lowell, respectively.

I’m not sure myself. What do you guys think?

* Part of you has to feel bad for Niagara. As close as the Purple Eagles come to getting their first victory of the season, they just can’t get it done.

Saturday at Robert Morris, they were up 3-1 midway through the game but could only manage a 3-3 tie to, um, improve (?) to 0-8-2 this season.

Four of their eight losses have been by one goal. They’ve lost by three goals, with two of them empty-netters. The three other losses were by two goals.

Niagara has been in all of these games and has held a third-period lead in some.

But although we now know there will not be an unbeaten team this season, we still have three winless squads — Niagara, Brown (0-4-1) and Dartmouth (0-5).

* Teams headed in opposite directions met in Michigan this weekend, but it remains to be seen how far toward the top Michigan State is headed and how far toward the bottom Michigan will fall before leveling out.

The guess here is that the Spartans are going to be around for a while. The Wolverines? By all appearances, there haven’t been many reasons to think this is going to get much better in a hurry.

* Bemidji State isn’t the most talented team in the top 10, but it’s up there in the ranking of teams that work for everything they get.

* Remember a couple years ago, when schools were being encouraged to move the goal lines at their rinks to 11 feet from the end boards from 15?

Doesn’t look like that movement got very far. Besides schools that share rinks with pro teams, has anyone moved the goal line? Seriously. Let me know. I’m intrigued.

* Speaking of intriguing, then there’s Ferris State. If you had the Bulldogs getting four of a possible six points from a series at No. 1 Miami this weekend, well, congrats to you.

Ferris State continues to move along this season, and it has posted a 7-3-2 record. But, even without the shootout victories, the pair of ties at Miami was eye-opening.

* Six weeks into the season, five players are scoring at a goal-per-game pace, led by Minnesota-Duluth’s Justin Fontaine.

Fontaine, however, has scored in only five of his 11 games. He has three two-goal games and put up a four-spot on Michigan Tech on Saturday. (To be fair, two of those goals came on the power play, and against the Tech penalty kill many nights this season, that has been like taking candy from a baby.)

The others hitting on a goal-a-game rate: Quinnipiac’s Eric Lampe (9), Merrimack’s Stephane De La Costa (8), Cornell’s Blake Gallagher (5) and Yale’s Broc Little (5).

* If you have a place in your heart for those who endure season-ending injuries and have a long road to come back, there were good feelings Saturday night for Wisconsin’s Ben Street.

Street, who got a medical hardship waiver from the NCAA last season after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament just four games into what would have been his last college season, scored a pair of goals in a 6-2 Badgers victory over Alaska-Anchorage.

You never know how things are going to turn out after major injuries like Street’s, but you have to appreciate it when those who put in the effort to come back get rewarded.

* Your national top five in scoring offense: Cornell (4.40 goals per game), Quinnipiac (4.22), Merrimack (4.00), Wisconsin (3.80) and Union (3.73).

Their ranks last season, respectively: tied for 40th, 15th, 51st, 11th and 28th.

* Here’s my top 20 this week:

1. Miami
2. Denver
3. North Dakota
4. Massachusetts-Lowell
5. Michigan State
6. Cornell
7. Colorado College
8. Yale
9. Bemidji State
10. Alaska
11. Notre Dame
12. Nebraska-Omaha
13. Princeton
14. Vermont
15. Quinnipiac
16. Boston College
17. Wisconsin
18. Massachusetts
19. Michigan
20. Ferris State

So, what would a Bracketology look like today?  I’ll let you know as I sit in a hotel room in Munich…

A reminder on the sites of the regionals:

East – Albany, N.Y. (host – Rensselaer)

Northeast – Worcester, Mass. (host – Holy Cross)

Midwest – Ft. Wayne, Ind. (host – Notre Dame)

West – St. Paul, Minn. (host – Minnesota)

Who are our conference champions that get the assumed autobids based upon winning percentage?

Atlantic Hockey – Air Force

CCHA – Miami

CHA – Bemidji State

ECAC – Quinnipiac (The Bobcats won the coin toss over Cornell)

Hockey East – Massachusetts

WCHA – Colorado College (The Tigers won the three-way coin toss over Denver and North Dakota)

Our Top 16 teams in the PWR, plus those teams not in the Top 16 that are conference champions (as of Nov. 9, 2009):

1.  Bemidji State

2.  Miami

3.  Michigan State

4.  North Dakota

5.  Quinnipiac

6.  Massachusetts

7.  Alaska

8.  Cornell

9.  Western Michigan

10. Boston College

11. Colorado College

12. Notre Dame

13. Denver

14. Mass.-Lowell

15. Minn.-Duluth

16. Nebraska-Omaha

–  Air Force

Therefore the 16 teams in the tournament as of Nov. 9, 2009 are:

1.  Bemidji State

2.  Miami

3.  Michigan State

4.  North Dakota

5.  Quinnipiac

6.  Massachusetts

7.  Alaska

8.  Cornell

9.  Western Michigan

10. Boston College

11. Colorado College

12. Notre Dame

13. Denver

14. Mass.-Lowell

15. Minn.-Duluth

16.  Air Force

Our Brackets:

West Regional (St. Paul)

1. Bemidji State vs. 16 Air Force

8 Cornell vs. 9 Western Michigan

East Regional (Albany)

2 Miami vs. 15 Minn.-Duluth

7 Alaska vs. 10 Boston College

Northeast Regional (Worcester)

3 Michigan State vs. 13 Denver

6 Massachusetts vs. 11 Colorado College

Midwest Regional (Ft. Wayne)

4 North Dakota vs. 14 Mass.-Lowell

5 Quinnipiac vs. 12 Notre Dame

I am not going to get into the craziness of attendance, etc.

It does say one thing though: while the PWR at this time of year might be fun to look at, it don’t mean squat.

* Defending national champion Boston University is 2-5 overall and 1-4 in Hockey East play. There’s not much more you can say to illustrate how much things can change from one season to the next.

The Terriers had six overall losses and five Hockey East losses all of last season.

The Boston Herald’s Jocko Connolly points out how injuries have contributed to this season’s issues for BU, but he also quotes Terriers coach Jack Parker with what I think is getting right to the point:

“We have to be patient with our overall outlook here,” Parker told the paper. “We don’t know everything we knew last year. …”

Early November is no time to hit the panic button, but it also has to be the time a line is drawn before things get out of control.

* Care to guess which team ranks 41st among Division I men’s schools in attendance so far this season?

It’s Ohio State, which this season has started letting students in for free. Maybe instead they should ask for a two-month road trip at the start of the season to let football season end first.

The Buckeyes are averaging 1,604 fans per game at Value City Arena, which holds 17,500. That’s 9.2 percent full, by far the lowest percentage in the country. (American International is next at 17.2 percent for one home game.)

Being 2-4 at home and 3-6-1 overall probably isn’t going to help a lot, either.

* That was a heck of a shot by Massachusetts-Lowell defenseman Ryan Blair in Sunday’s game against New Hampshire. No-look, short side, caught the goalie sleeping.

Yeah, so it was in his own net. (Blair appeared to be trying to send the puck behind his net off a faceoff but, um, missed.) I still give him credit for a pretty good looking shot.

All kidding aside, I give Lowell credit for absorbing that blow and still beating UNH by three goals. And Blair ended up even in plus/minus in a game where his team’s starting line was a combined minus-7.

By the way, I’m starting to see what people liked about Lowell going into the season. It looks like they have quite a few ways to beat teams.

And by the way, South Carolina couldn’t have just won that soccer game in the first overtime, when it was dominating LSU? That had to go to penalty kicks, and then nine rounds of penalty kicks, before we got to see some hockey?

* I got an interesting e-mail on Saturday, and I suspect some of my USCHO colleagues got the same, from an anonymous sender (don’t you just love those?) looking to promote that Ferris State had just made history.

It seems that the Bulldogs swept three straight home series for the first time.

So there. Publicity.

* Great line from Michigan coach Red Berenson after his team got swept by Miami in a key CCHA series:

“I’m embarrassed,” Berenson told annarbor.com. “We played like a bunch of spoiled brats, and we’ve gotta suck it up.”

Three Michigan players got misconduct penalties in the third period of the 5-1 loss, and the Wolverines took 51 minutes of penalties in the final 20 minutes of a weekend in which the RedHawks seemingly had everything in hand.

* Tough week to pick the top 20. Here’s my best guess:

1. Miami
2. North Dakota
3. Denver
4. Cornell
5. Massachusetts-Lowell
6. Michigan
7. Notre Dame
8. Yale
9. Alaska
10. Nebraska-Omaha
11. Bemidji State
12. Colorado College
13. Michigan State
14. Vermont
15. Princeton
16. Boston College
17. Massachusetts
18. Quinnipiac
19. Minnesota-Duluth
20. Wisconsin

(Part of the draw, of course, was the Wisconsin-Minnesota rivalry — something a college hockey fan should experience in either building at least once.)

Would it be the Golden Gophers that were shut out in three of their first four games of the season en route to an 0-3-1 record?

Or the team that gained separation from Alaska-Anchorage last weekend and at least temporarily righted the ship?

I can’t say it was either, but for most of the game, it certainly drifted toward the former.

Minnesota’s offense wasn’t effective at all through two periods of what turned out to be a 4-2 loss to Wisconsin. In the brief moments when the Gophers did look dangerous in the Badgers’ zone, they misfired. See Nico Sacchetti’s great chance at the side of the net in the second period, after a shot rebounded to the winger off the back boards. He got stuffed by Badgers goaltender Brett Bennett on the first try, but he had a second effort that he flipped over the bar. He showed the frustration that was evident regardless.

Full credit to Wisconsin’s defense for putting the clamps on the Gophers’ ability to get things started offensively. The Badgers blocked 30 of Minnesota’s 59 shot attempts (51 percent), and that kind of thing gets in a team’s head.

Minnesota’s offense did show life in the third period, but by that point, the Gophers were playing from behind. They made a run at a tying goal after cutting the deficit to 3-2, but Wisconsin held on.

So what do we make of these Gophers, now 2-4-1 both overall and in the WCHA? Are they destined for another middle-of-the-pack finish and spectator status for the NCAA regional not far from home at the Xcel Energy Center? They’ve already lost one of their key offensive forces, Jay Barriball, to season-ending surgery, but they can still field four forward lines of NHL draft picks, like they did Friday. No matter how goaltender Alex Kangas plays — and he gave up a doozy for Blake Geoffrion’s second goal of the game Friday — the offense has to drive the bus for Minnesota.

“It’s a long season, so we’re still figuring things out and guys are still identifying their roles,” Gophers winger Mike Hoeffel said. “But if we just stick to our plan of being a gritty team and being relentless and getting pucks behind their D and just grinding them out and getting scoring opportunities off of that, I think we’ll be a good team.”

If you want to be a team others will call gritty, though, you need to consistently wear down opponents with toughness, and while there were some flashes in that area Friday, it wasn’t enough to earn the moniker.

This season looks to keep the craziness going. From Bishops in net to the USCHO.com Division III men’s poll, wackiness is in the air.

Preseason polls tend to be unsettled. Teams that finish at or near the top last season are shown respect irregardless of what their teams may look like this season. Up and coming teams get their due, and then you have the perinnial powers who tend to reload and not rebuild.

This year’s first poll is exceptionally diverse with eight teams getting at least one first place vote and a total of 27 squads getting a mention.

Stay tuned for regular weekly polls beginning November 9.

The last time I wrote, I was looking at what last season might have to say about this season. Now, we’re starting to see who some of this season’s best players have been. With a month of college hockey gone, not only do we have a decent statistical basis on which to evaluate top players, but we also have Player of the Month awards. So, in this entry, I’m going to look at this month’s honorees from across the country and evaluate their likelihood of being a factor in the Hobey race.

In the CCHA, Alaska goaltender Scott Greenham was a surprise winner of the award, not in the sense that he was undeserving, but in the sense that it was hard to see this kind of a performance coming going into the season. The Nanooks went 5-0-1 in October, and with Greenham posting a .949 save percentage and a 1.14 GAA, it’s not hard to see why. Greenham’s play in October put him solidly in what we here at the Hobey Watch like to call “Ryan Miller territory,” and if he stays there, there’s certainly no reason why he couldn’t be a contender for the Hobey. Of course, he’d need some help from the team in front of him to get there, but the Nanooks produced a Hobey finalist last season in Chad Johnson, and they may well have another where that came from.

Now, playing devil’s advocate, all six of the Nanooks’ games in October were in the state of Alaska, against opponents who traveled from the lower 48. When it’s Alaska’s turn to travel and contend with jet lag and all the other occupational hazards that go with going on the road, we’ll start to get a better sense of how much of a contender Greenham is. That isn’t to say he’s not a contender – Johnson certainly was – but we don’t really know yet.

In Atlantic Hockey, the player of the month is R.I.T. defenseman Dan Ringwald, who had nine points (3g, 6a) in seven games for the Tigers. Nice numbers, certainly, especially from a defenseman, but RIT went 2-5-0 in October. On the one hand, that makes Ringwald’s +1 rating all the more impressive. On the other, it’s hard to get noticed on a sub-.500 team, even more so when that team doesn’t play in one of the Big Four conferences. That said, RIT’s five losses were against ECAC Hockey opponents Clarkson, St. Lawrence and Colgate, plus a pair against reigning Atlantic champ Air Force. Given the way the Tigers decimated UConn, it wouldn’t be too shocking to see them emerge as a force to be reckoned with once again in Atlantic Hockey, and if that happens, Ringwald will get more of a look as a potential Hobey finalist. I have my doubts about him as a potential winner, but we’ll see.

In Hockey East, it’s hardly surprising that UMass forward James Marcou is the Player of the Month. All he did was score 11 points in five games as the Minutemen went 4-1. Last year, I couldn’t help but norice how often Marcou’s name turned up on the Hockey East press releases, and I think that this year, he could easily be a finalist. Is he a contender to win the Hobey? I’ll need to see more goals, because we know Hobey likes his forwards to score goals, but Marcou has definitely put himself on the radar as much as anyone else in the season’s first month.

Now, as of this writing, ECAC Hockey, the CHA and the WCHA have not named monthly award winners, so I’m going to have to pick players who grabbed attention.

In ECAC Hockey, the fact that half the conference’s teams started play last weekend makes it tough to pick a player, but Quinnipiac forward Brandon Wong makes it easy. Wong had three goals and six assists for the Bobcats, who went 4-1-0 in October, including a pair of wins at Ohio State. One of Wong’s goals was the game-winner in one of those road wins over the Buckeyes, and performing well in non-conference action is often a good way to get yourself noticed. Wong has made noise before, and has a history as a goal-scorer (27 as a freshman, in case you’ve forgotten), so it’s going to be well worth watching Wong – all about alliteration! – as the season progresses. Can he win the Hobey at Quinnipiac? My gut feeling is no, but then again, if he keeps putting up the numbers, my guts – like John Cusack’s in High Fidelity – may be proven to have doo-doo for brains (yes, I said doo-doo…this is a family site, people!). And I have no problem invoking Cusack…he’s buddies with former Wisconsin Badger Chris Chelios (gotta love the Malibu Mob).

In the CHA, Bemidji State forward Matt Read has 10 points in six games for the 5-0-1 Beavers. Bemidji is going to be watched a good bit more this season – between the Beavers’ run to the Frozen Four last season and their impending WCHA membership – so if Read can continue to produce, he may give Jacques Lamoureux a  run for his money when it comes to that Hobey finalist spot that seems to go to one small-conference player each year.

Finally, there’s the WCHA, where there are three players well worth a Hobey look based on October numbers. One is Wisconsin defenseman Brendan Smith, who has nine points in seven games. Now, the Badgers’ start this season hasn’t exactly been red hot – they’re 3-2-1 with a couple of tough conference losses to Colorado College and Minnesota State, but when the Badgers win, they win big, and Smith’s +2 rating complements his two goals and seven assists nicely. Plus/minus isn’t that big in the Hobey finalist considerations – see Smith’s former teammate, Jamie McBain – but if Smith continues to produce at this level, don’t be surprised to see Smith – a former first-round NHL draft pick and a rare college pick by the Detroit Red Wings – force his name into serious Hobey consideration.

The other players worth watching out of the WCHA after a strong October are a pair of Bulldogs: Minnesota Duluth’s Jack Connolly and Justin Fontaine. What I like about their Octobers is that they’ve both shown excellent balance on the scoresheet, scoring goals AND handing out assists. The Bulldogs are off to a solid start, and if it continues, these two should have a shot to get into the upper echelon of the Hobey talk.

Speaking of which, let the talk continue.

* I know many do have a real problem with the CCHA using shootouts to decide how points are allocated after tie games. I share some of those concerns, but I am in favor of the shootout as a way to inject some life into what can be a very dull ending to a game.

But if you’re going to use it, the least we can ask you to do is to get it right.

That didn’t happen Friday night in Omaha, where Bowling Green took the extra point for winning the shootout even though an ineligible player scored.

CCHA rules say a player who is serving a penalty at the end of the five-minute overtime is not eligible to shoot in the shootout. Yet, that’s exactly what the Falcons’ Jordan Samuels-Thomas did.

As we learned in the days following Wisconsin’s no-goal-that-should-have-been-a-goal drama in Denver two seasons ago, the result is final once the officials step off the ice, so there was no way to replay the shootout to determine a fair result under the rules. Bowling Green keeps the extra point.

In a statement released before Saturday’s game, CCHA commissioner Tom Anastos called the mishap “unfortunate,” and the league said it would review its policies and protocol.

I feel the same way about this that I did about the Wisconsin-Denver fiasco. Just like in that case instant replay wasn’t to blame, the shootout is not to blame here. It’s the human error that — although prone to happen — gives a black eye.

* I was expecting a little more out of New Hampshire in its two-game series at Wisconsin this weekend.

Like, say, being competitive.

* Here’s something that caught me off-guard when it arrived in the inbox Sunday evening: Minnesota’s pair of victories over Alaska-Anchorage marked its first sweep of a two-game regular-season home series against one opponent since January 2008.

Yeah, that’s a lot of qualifiers, but it still surprised me. The Gophers had nine chances for a true home sweep since taking two from Wayne State on Jan. 4-5, 2008.

Here’s hoping that’s not a bad sign for the future of Alaska-Anchorage’s program.

* Both of the WCHA members-elect are off to unbeaten starts through six games. Despite the shootout, um, loss on Friday, UNO is 4-0-2. Bemidji State is 5-0-1.

Nothing like reinforcing consumer confidence.

* There were scary moments in Denver on Friday when goaltender Marc Cheverie had to be taken from the ice on a stretcher after his left calf took a deep cut from a skate.

It appears there was no major damage in the sense of risk to his career, but Cheverie will miss time — at least a few weeks.

That puts freshman Adam Murray in the solo spotlight a lot earlier than expected, and he’ll have to bring up his stats — 1-2-1 record, 4.27 goals-against average, .856 save percentage — to keep the Pioneers going at the pace it appeared they were reaching before Cheverie’s injury.

* Michigan State earned its sixth victory of the season on Saturday by beating Western Michigan. That’s news only in relation to last season, when the Spartans didn’t reach six wins until they beat Alaska on Jan. 2 en route to a dismal 10-23-5 record.

You don’t need to look much past Michigan State’s goals-for/goals-against split to see the difference. Last year, it was 1.63/3.11. So far this season, it’s 3.62/2.50.

* It’s about time to start downgrading teams in my top 20 ballot for having losing records. With that being said, here’s what I submitted for this week:

1. Denver
2. Miami
3. North Dakota
4. Michigan
5. Yale
6. Massachusetts-Lowell
7. Notre Dame
8. Cornell
9. Nebraska-Omaha
10. Boston University
11. Alaska
12. Bemidji State
13. Colorado College
14. Princeton
15. Vermont
16. Michigan State
17. Wisconsin
18. Boston College
19. Quinnipiac
20. Massachusetts

Kessel’s on-ice homecoming Friday didn’t start well and didn’t finish well, and he wasn’t feeling too upbeat about either development.

As the starters skated around in the interval between the end of the national anthem and the opening faceoff, Wisconsin captain Blake Geoffrion crossed the center red line and appeared to brush up against Kessel and start chirping at the UNH sophomore.

“He’s just going to come up and say whatever he wants,” Kessel said. “That’s their captain. He can say whatever he wants; I’m going to sit there and I’m going to back myself up. If he’s going to talk the talk — it’s a big thing in college hockey where I guess you can talk, but normally you have to back it up at this level, and that’s kind of a tough thing. You’ve got to listen to the crap. Obviously, it’s going to come from them guys, me being back at home. But it’s not like I can’t give it right back at them. It’s just part of the game.

“Off the ice, I have no problem. I’ve got good friends on the team, obviously. But when a guy comes right off the opening draw and comes at me and runs into me before the first draw even starts, I’m going to take that a little personal. It’s kind of something that’s ridiculous where they allow a guy to come on our side of the red line before the game even starts.

“That’s not going to fly anywhere else. But I guess it’s part of the game. We’ve got to deal with it. Tonight, it’s not even really about that. I’m more disappointed just the way that the game turned out more than anything.”

Kessel’s Wildcats looked listless in much of a 4-1 loss at the Kohl Center on Friday.

“We didn’t come to play off the bat, and they jumped all over us,” Kessel said. “That was the difference in the game, just the start right there. When they’re carrying momentum like that, it’s tough to overcome.”

The scene was quite unlike the last time a Kessel played at the Kohl Center. On Jan. 28, 2006, Phil Kessel — Blake’s brother — scored the clinching goal for Minnesota in a 3-1 victory over the Badgers, then cupped his ear as if to welcome the boos from the crowd, which had followed the long recruiting battle between UW and the Gophers for the forward’s services.

Blake Kessel was introduced as part of New Hampshire’s starting lineup Friday night. No audible boos. A little bit of applause.

He played in front of more than 30 family members and friends, including sister Amanda, a senior at Shattuck-St. Mary’s prep school in Minnesota who is considering Wisconsin and Minnesota among her college destinations.

“It’s a lot of fun to have them watch me play, but it’s more important to win the game than to have them watch,” Kessel said.

He had already played Wisconsin once — in his first collegiate game, even. Last season, the Wildcats thumped the Badgers 5-1 in Durham, and Kessel had an assist and was plus-2.

“This year, I think it’s a little bit more pressure on me,” Kessel said. “That was early in the season last year. This year, I feel a little bit more pressure of having to step up.”

There’s a little bit of pressure on Kessel and UNH to step up in Saturday’s series finale.

“We feel we’ve got something to prove, obviously. Tonight was not the way we can play at all.”

* I’ve never seen this before. And neither have you, unless you were a Minnesota hockey follower in 1930 and were around for those momentous games against the Tulsa Athletic Club and Wisconsin.

Denver blanked the Golden Gophers in both games of a WCHA series on this, the third weekend of the season. Minnesota hadn’t been shut out in consecutive games since a 0-0 tie with Tulsa and a 2-0 loss to Wisconsin.

You can argue that it was a shot in the dark, a complete anomaly. But look at the Gophers’ season to date: four games, three of them shutouts. It doesn’t take much to get them riled up about the Gophers in the Twin Cities, so I suspect this isn’t sitting well.

Minnesota has Alaska-Anchorage heading to Mariucci next weekend, which you normally would think would be a welcome sight. But given the Seawolves’ victory over North Dakota on Saturday, maybe not. Of course, the games probably will be welcome after what I’m guessing will be a pretty grueling week of practice.

* I posted this on the USCHO Twitter feed when it happened, but in case you missed it: When Boston University lost to Notre Dame on Tuesday, it fell to 0-2 and became the first defending national champion to open with two losses since Denver in 2005.

Yeah, not too long ago, really, so it wasn’t a stunning development. But remember that the Pioneers didn’t make the NCAAs in 2005-06 despite a 21-15-3 overall record and a 17-8-3 WCHA mark and second-place conference finish.

Those early losses seem to haunt teams, so it was important that the Terriers responded with a victory over Michigan on Saturday. A home-and-home series with Massachusetts-Lowell next weekend should tell us quite a bit about both sides.

* Since everything I write here today seems to have at least a connection to Denver, here’s another one: Pioneers coach George Gwozdecky earned his 500th victory on Saturday.

That’s in a little over 23 seasons, working out to an average of a shade under 22 victories per season. By comparison, Ron Mason, the all-time wins leader with 924, averaged over 25 wins a season over 36 seasons. Not a fair comparison, of course — I’m not sure there is one when Ron Mason is at the other side — but interesting to note.

* Wisconsin got called for two major checking from behind penalties in the third period Saturday night at Minnesota State, and the Mavericks scored the eventual game-winning goal on the power play resulting from the second.

And they were bad checks from behind. Craig Smith got Geoff Irwin first and rightly earned a game disqualification that will keep him out of Friday’s game against New Hampshire.

Wisconsin tri-captain Ryan McDonagh hit Eriah Hayes 4:30 later. That one could have merited a DQ as well, but the defenseman got off with just the major and game misconduct.

The double trouble got me thinking about the idea of progressive penalties when a team is called for multiple checking from behind majors in the same game. My first reaction was that maybe you punish a team more for the second major in the same game to try to emphasize how awful it is that you saw it happen earlier and did it again.

But leaving your team on a five-minute penalty kill is already a pretty hefty fine. Unless we start seeing an uptick in checking from behind majors, maybe status quo is punishment enough.

* In beating Michigan Tech 8-5 on Saturday, Colorado College scored five times in 10 power-play chances and added two shorthanded goals (one into an empty net). A night earlier, CC scored three power-play goals and an empty-netter in a 4-1 victory.

I try to give the benefit of the doubt, but there is no good light to be found there for the Tech penalty kill, which is now operating at a national-worst 60 percent early this season (18-for-30).

* Here’s my top 20:

1. Denver
2. Miami
3. North Dakota
4. Boston University
5. Massachusetts-Lowell
6. Michigan
7. Yale
8. Vermont
9. Notre Dame
10. Cornell
11. Nebraska-Omaha
12. Bemidji State
13. Princeton
14. Colorado College
15. Quinnipiac
16. Boston College
17. Alaska
18. Massachusetts
19. Michigan State
20. St. Cloud State