Some random (and some not-so-random) thoughts after the fifth week of the season:

* 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

It’s hard to believe – especially if you’re a fan of an Ivy League team whose season just began, but an entire month of the 2009-10 college hockey season is in the books. We’re now past the point of using last year to try to project what might happen this year, and that is especially true in the case of the race for the Hobey Baker Award.

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.

Some thoughts after the fourth weekend of the season:

* 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

A night like this was one of the things that was part of the recruiting pitch to Blake Kessel. New Hampshire had games scheduled against Wisconsin, and the Wildcats used that as incentive to lure the defenseman out East from his hometown near Madison, Wis.

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.”