Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.
1. Hockey East final four set, with what could be an epic final between nation’s top two teams
There are plenty of storylines of interest at this year’s Hockey East semifinals. Maine is back for the first time since 2012. Massachusetts, after a one-year absence, is back looking for their third conference tournament title in four seasons.
With all four teams ranked in the USCHO.com men’s D-I poll, the Hockey East semis should feature some quality hockey no matter what happens. But it’s likely everyone — save for UMass and Maine fans — will be rooting for Boston College and Boston University, the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the USCHO.com men’s D-I poll, to meet in the championship final. BC will have to get past No. 16 UMass in the opening game, and BU must beat eighth-ranked Maine in the nightcap to make it happen. If it does, it will be the first time the two schools have met in the Hockey East championship game since 2006.
2. NCHC’s Frozen Faceoff field set
It’s a similar situation in the NCHC, where all four semifinalists are nationally ranked. But the potential finals matchup that has everyone licking their chops is, of course, No. 5 North Dakota vs. No. 3 Denver.
For it to happen, Denver will have to first beat No. 18 St. Cloud State, and North Dakota has to top No. 12 Omaha on Friday night at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minn. (which, incidentally, is the home of this year’s Frozen Four).
Denver and North Dakota swept their way into the Frozen Faceoff, but Omaha and St. Cloud had to sweat out a 3-game series. Veeti Miettinen scored a pair to lift St. Cloud to a 5-1 romp over Western Michigan in the deciding game of their series, while Omaha’s Brock Bremer scored the game winner in a 2-1 win over Colorado College in Colorado Springs to clinch.
3. No. 4 Michigan State, No. 11 Michigan to play for B1G crown
Nash Nienhuis’s goal early in the third period stood as the game winner, as Michigan State earned a 2-1 win over Ohio State in the B1G semifinals. Daniel Russell also scored for the Spartans and Trey Augustine made 37 saves in goal. Max Montes tallied Ohio State’s goal and goalie Logan Terness finished with 36 saves.
Kienan Draper and Gavin Brindley scored and Jake Barczewski turned in a 23-save performance for Michigan, as the Wolverines upset Minnesota 2-1. Michigan will visit Michigan State for the league title on Saturday.
4. ECAC Hockey down to its final four
Cameron Buhl, Felikss Gavars and Jan Olenginski scored to lift St. Lawrence to a 2-1 win over Colgate for a two-game sweep. In fact, all the ECAC Hockey quarterfinals were sweeps. Luke Haymes’ goal at 14:04 of the third period proved to be the game winner as Dartmouth bounced Union 4-2 in Game 2. Cornell swept Harvard at Lynah Rink in Ithaca, N.Y., winning on the strength of two goals each from Ben Robertson and Gabriel Seger. Ian Shane made 21 saves. And Quinnipiac was a 5-2 winner for the sweep of RPI — Andon Cerbone scored two goals for Quinnipiac, while Collin Graf, Anthony Cipollone and Jacob Quillan also scored and goalie Vinny Duplessis made 22 saves.
On Friday in Lake Placid, N.Y., Quinnipiac will face St. Lawrence in the first semifinal while Cornell will go head-to-head with Dartmouth in the evening matchup.
5. And then there were two in Atlantic Hockey
American International will visit RIT for the Atlantic Hockey Championship on Saturday night in Rochester, N.Y.
AIC earned its way in with a 2-1 series victory over Holy Cross. In the deciding Game 3, Theo Angesved, Dario Beljo and Dustin Manz all scored. RIT swept its way to the final with a 5-2 win over Niagara in the clinching game. Elijah Gonsalves scored two goals while junior forward Carter Wilkie added a goal and two assists.
6. CCHA will come down to Bemidji vs. Michigan Tech
Bemidji State is in the CCHA title game after Eric Pohlkamp, Jake McLean, Kirklan Irey and Jere Vaisanen found the back of the net in a 4-1 win over Lake Superior State. Mattias Sholl made 13 saves in goal.
Bemidji’s opponent in Saturday’s championship game will be Michigan Tech. Logan Pietila scored the winning goal with 9.1 seconds left in the third period to lift the Huskies 4-3 past Minnesota State. Pietila had tied the game 3-3 on a penalty shot at 15:27 of the third period. Blake Pietila made 29 saves.
Bemidji will be the home team for the CCHA championship on Friday night.
7. Lucia honored
CCHA commissioner and former longtime coach Don Lucia was named the 2024 Hobey Baker “Legend of College Hockey” award recipient.
In 31 seasons as a coach, Lucia compiled a 736-403-102 record, and is Minnesota’s all-time winningest coach with 457 wins for the Gophers from 1999 to 2018. He is one of 10 coaches to record more than 600 NCAA men’s hockey wins, and one of six to win national titles in back-to-back seasons.
8. Hockey East honors trio of legends
Former commissioner Joe Bertagna, former Providence athletic director Bob Driscoll, and former New Hampshire athletic director Marty Scarano were named recipients of the Hockey East Founders Medal.
Bertagna was the longest serving commissioner in Hockey East history, Driscoll served as the Providence athletics director for 21 years and Scarano served 22 years in his position at UNH.
9. Morton, Sholl and Looft honored by CCHA
Minnesota State graduate student Sam Morton was voted CCHA player and forward of the year. Bemidji State fifth-year senior Kyle Looft has been voted defenseman of the year and Bemidji State junior goalie Mattias Sholl has been tabbed goaltender of the year.
Morton paced all CCHA skaters in goals (15), goals per game (0.63), power-play goals (8), shots (102), face-off wins (292) and face-off wins per game (12.2). Looft led all CCHA skaters in plus-minus in league action at +16 and paced conference blueliners in assists (14) and points (18), despite playing in only 20 games. Sholl led conference netminders in goals-against average (2.03) and winning percentage (.786), going 10-2-2 with a .924 save percentage in 14 games for the Beavers.
10. Freshmen dominate Hockey East year-end teams
Was this the year of the freshman? It was according to the league’s 11 coaches who voted nine to their annual all-star teams, including three on the first team.
Goalie Jacob Fowler of BC and defenseman Lane Hutson and forward Macklin Celebrini of BU each earned first-team honors. The second team was almost all freshman, with goalie Michael Hrabal of UMass, defenseman Tom Willander of BU and forwards Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perreault of BC earning honors. Maine forward Josh Nadeau was the lone freshman named to the third team.
