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

* 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

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

Part of the draw was to see which Minnesota team would take the ice at the Kohl Center on Friday.

(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.

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

Trying out a new weekly installment of the blog — some random (and not-so-random) thoughts on the week prior.

* 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

The USCHO.com/CBS College Sports Division I preseason men’s poll is out today, and I’ll be the first one to tell you that it doesn’t mean a whole heck of a lot.

Really, what do we have to go on? Last season and a lot of conjecture, neither of which tends to amount to anything definitive a few weeks into the season.

Let’s look back at last year’s preseason poll. We had Boston College ranked first and Colorado College third. Neither made the NCAA tournament.

If that happens again, only one of Denver, Boston University and Michigan will make the field of 16. Sounds pretty far-fetched, right? Maybe it is, but just remember that being near the top of the poll at this point isn’t as much of an indicator of success as it is a forecast of potential. And you’ve always got to be careful when throwing the word “potential” out there.

That being said, I tried to put together as educated a guess as I could when I filled out my first ballot of the season. Here’s how it looked:

1. Denver
2. Boston University
3. Michigan
4. Notre Dame
5. Miami
6. North Dakota
7. Yale
8. UMass-Lowell
9. New Hampshire
10. Minnesota
11. Vermont
12. Wisconsin
13. Cornell
14. Princeton
15. Boston College
16. Ohio State
17. St. Cloud State
18. Harvard
19. Northeastern
20. Air Force

If you’re counting, that’s six teams from Hockey East, five from the WCHA, four each from the CCHA and the ECAC and one from Atlantic Hockey. That’s the same breakdown as the top 20 in the RPI at selection time last season. That’s not a coincidence.

The actual poll shows six teams from Hockey East, six from the WCHA (I didn’t think Minnesota-Duluth would get as much attention after losing so much from last season), four from the CCHA, three from the ECAC and one from Atlantic Hockey.

Nice to see you again. Good summer? Ours was fine, thanks.

The offseason is just about over — in case you missed it, college hockey won’t look quite the same after this season because of what took place over the last few months — and soon enough, USCHO will be getting back to full speed.

Things have already started moving, with the preseason conference polls rolling out here and there. For the second year in a row, I compiled the results for a WCHA media poll (this year, for madison.com), and the benefit of that is that I get the raw data to detail for you here. I could spend way too much time doing that, so here we go.

(The actual poll, along with the coaches’ poll, can be found here.)

It was absolutely no surprise that Denver was the overwhelming favorite. The Pioneers return 2.93 goals per game from last season (that statistic, however, includes stats from Dustin Jackson, who will miss the season with a broken right leg), are stacked on defense with Patrick Wiercioch leading the way and have a dependable goalie in Marc Cheverie.

There wasn’t that much of a gap between the teams picked for second, third and fourth, which tells me that North Dakota, Wisconsin and Minnesota should be right in the mix. I think everyone’s getting the idea that if you think North Dakota lost too much to be a contender, you’re probably wrong. The Sioux lost five regular forwards and three regular defensemen, but they’re a pretty solid pick for one of the top spots — 24 of the 25 voters had them in the top four.

People think St. Cloud State will be good enough to make the top five, and that might be shorting the Huskies considering the top-end offense they have in the fold.

Eight of the 25 voters picked Minnesota-Duluth to finish in the top five. Six others picked the Bulldogs to end up eighth or ninth. It seems there are a lot of questions with UMD, and after it lost nearly half of its regular lineup, they seem valid.

More people picked Colorado College for eighth than seventh, but four voters picked the Tigers to finish in the top five, compared to just one for Minnesota State. Alaska-Anchorage and Michigan Tech were unanimous bottom-half picks.

Here’s how my ballot looked:

1. Denver
2. North Dakota
3. Minnesota
4. Wisconsin
5. St. Cloud State
6. Colorado College
7. Minnesota State
8. Minnesota-Duluth
9. Alaska-Anchorage
10. Michigan Tech

It’s funny how all of this seems to make sense now, only to look so pathetic when comparing it to the final standings in March.

Minnesota forward Jordan Schroeder got 14 of the 23 votes for player of the year (not all voters wanted to cast ballots for the individual awards). Denver players had their votes split — Wiercioch got four, forward Rhett Rakhshani got three and goaltender Marc Cheverie got one — while North Dakota defenseman Chay Genoway also got one vote.

Wiercioch got my vote. Nothing against Schroeder, but I thought Wiercioch was a better player last season, too. Of course, I saw the Denver defenseman play against Wisconsin a bunch of times last year, so maybe I saw his best games.

Seven players got votes for the rookie of the year — a pretty typical response considering you never really know what to expect from freshmen. St. Cloud State goaltender Mike Lee was the leader with seven. Minnesota-Duluth defenseman Dylan Olsen had four votes, while Wisconsin forward Craig Smith, Minnesota defenseman Nick Leddy and North Dakota forward Danny Kristo had three each. Denver forward Drew Shore and Minnesota forward Zach Budish got one vote each.

I had a tough time with this one, but I went with Kristo. I understand why Lee got many of the votes, but I just wasn’t ready to commit to a goalie that may not play every night this season. With a lot of big-time players gone from last year’s team in North Dakota, Kristo should get his chance.

The voting for all-league team shook out like this:

Forwards — Schroeder 22, Ryan Lasch (SCSU) 19, Rakhshani 6, Justin Fontaine (UMD) 6, Joe Colborne (DU) 3, Chris VandeVelde (UND) 3, Anthony Maiani (DU) 3, Tyler Ruegsegger (DU) 2, Kael Mouillierat (MSU) 2, Garrett Roe (SCSU) 2, Derek Stepan (UW) 2, Mike Connolly (UMD) 1, Jack Connolly (UMD) 1.

Defensemen — Wiercioch 20, Genoway 16, Ryan McDonagh (UW) 6, Cade Fairchild (Minnesota) 3, Garrett Raboin (SCSU) 2, Aaron Ness (Minnesota) 1.

Goaltenders — Cheverie 17, Brad Eidsness (UND) 5, Lee 2.

My ballot had Lasch, Schroeder, Rakhshani, Wiercioch, Genoway and Eidsness. I went on my best judgments from last season and hoped that things carried over to this year.

Another year, another poll. Now it’s time to work on the national top 20. Anyone have any suggestions on that one?

Feedback? Contact me here.

One of Bowling Green’s prominent hockey alumni is involved in an effort to make sure the program stays alive in tough times for the athletic department.

Washington Capitals general manager George McPhee said in a meeting with reporters in the second intermission of Saturday’s national championship game that he hosted a meeting Friday with Bowling Green athletic director Greg Christopher and other alums to talk about the program’s future.

“How did we get from where we were 20 years ago, as a hockey powerhouse, to this?” McPhee said.

A budget shortfall caused the school to postpone renovations to its arena, fueling speculation that the program was on its last legs.

Christopher said last month that the Falcons would play again next season, but the long-term future is unsettled.

McPhee, who won the Hobey Baker Award in 1982, two years before the Falcons won the national championship, said some plans are in the works to get the alumni involved.

“We’re going to have a group to work on the arena and a group to work on the program,” McPhee said.

He added: “I think we can get right back up to that [championship] level again.”

McPhee also addressed other subjects Saturday:

** On the tournament: “This is a nice trip down memory lane. We’re really pleased with how it’s gone. We thought the Washington market would respond to this, and they did.”

** On the potential for a Division I college hockey team in the area: “I think that’s something we’d like to discuss and see if we can get something going in the near future. It would be nice if we could get some Division I college hockey here in the near future.”

He added, though, that was “just a dream right now.” But he said there is “a lot of potential.”

Miami coach Enrico Blasi threw out a one-liner today when talking about his relationship with Boston University coach Jack Parker, his counterpart in Saturday’s national championship game.

Blasi was talking about Parker’s legacy and how he takes time to initiate conversation with young coaches.

Then he added this:

“A few years ago in Florida, he slapped me in the face and caught me off guard. I’m like, ‘What was that for?’ He said, ‘Take a good look — this is you in 30 years.’ I thought that was pretty cool. And then today he was commenting on my gray hair.”

This is making its way through college hockey tonight, including over on our message board, but I thought it deserved to be mentioned here.

The D.C. Sports Bog, a production of the Washington Post’s Web site, is reporting that George Mason’s pep band, known as the Green Machine, will be standing in for the Bemidji State band at the Frozen Four.

We occasionally make jokes about the “tournament atmosphere” that the committee is supposed to keep in mind when it assigns teams to regionals, but this is an actual example of how a small move can help create that effect.

I, for one, am interested to see Doc Nix and his band in action this weekend.