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Women’s Division I College Hockey: Weekend Wrap February 3, 2025

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(1) Wisconsin at (6) Minnesota Duluth

Each team scored in the opening frame on Saturday and those stood as the only goals late into overtime. Grace Sadura gave UMD the lead seven minutes in as she tipped a shot from Brenna Fuhrman to make it 1-0. The Badgers responded a few minutes later when Marianne Picard put back a third-chance opportunity with a snipe from the faceoff dot to tie the game 1-1. Wisconsin outshot Minnesota Duluth 42-28 over the course of the game, but neither team was able to beat the goaltenders, who both had great games to keep their team tied. With under a minute left in overtime, Kirsten Simms had a chance right in front of the net. The first shot was saved, Simms whiffed on the second change, but she was able to gather the puck and the third time was the charm as she scored to give the Badgers the 2-1 overtime win. In the second game, after a very close, back and forth period, Olivia Mobley put UMD up 1-0 late in the first. She put back a rebound on a long shot from Nina Jobst-Smith. The Badgers began to put more pressure on in the second, out-shooting the Bulldogs 13-4 in the frame, but they could not break through. Minnesota Duluth had a few opportunities to extend their lead, including two shots off the post, but the score remained 1-0 into the third period. Six minutes in, a loose puck in front of the net was not cleared. Lacey Eden tried to backhand it on net and the rebound went to Laila Edwards on the far post and she scored to make it 1-1. With eight minutes left in the third, the Badgers moved the puck around the zone before Laney Potter at the point found Sarah Wozniewicz in the near faceoff circle. Wozniewicz took two strides and sniped it top-self, glove side to put the Badgers up 2-1. The score would hold as Wisconsin took five of six points on the weekend. UMD held the top-ranked Badger power play scoreless on the weekend. 

(2) Ohio State at (3) Minnesota

The two teams played a bit of chess through the first two frames with no one wanting to make a mistake on Saturday. Ohio State led 17-14 in shots after the first two periods. As the second period expired, OSU’s Joy Dunne and Minnesota’s Abbey Murphy each were called for roughing. Just 44 seconds into the third, OSU took another penalty, giving the Gophers a 4-on-3 power play. Ella Huber tried to redirect a shot from the point by Sydney Morrow, which was unsuccessful, but the ensuing rebound dropped to Huber’s stick and she scored to make it 1-0 Minnesota. Huber doubled the lead a few minutes later, throwing the puck out front from behind the net and somehow it found twine to make it 2-0. A major penalty gave the Gophers a long power play and Abbey Murphy took advantage of the open ice to snipe a shot from the far faceoff circle to make it 3-0. OSU got on the board with a power play goal with two minutes left on the clock, but ran out of time and Minnesota took the 3-1 win. In the second game, it was all Sloane Matthews for Ohio State to start. Every time Minnesota scored, she had an answer. Emma Connor scored less than two minutes into the game for the Gophers to make it 1-0 and that lead held into the second when Matthews picked up her own rebound and wrapped around the goal to sneak it in the far post just 1:13 into the frame to make it 1-1. Peyton Hemp’s power play goal put Minnesota ahead 2-1 a few minutes later, but Matthews replied just 1:21 after that. A turnover in their defensive end led Jocelyn Amos to hit Matthews with a stretch pass. She was in alone on net and scored to tie it 2-2. Hemp added another goal with about six left in the second, but with under a minute to go in the period, Matthews picked up a loose puck at the top of the zone and quickly beat the goalie to tie the game 3-3. From there, the Buckeyes broke open the game. Mira Jungåker scored with a slapper from the high slot on the power play to make it 4-3 Buckeyes just 33 seconds into the third. OSU continued to take advantage of penalties, as Jocelyn Amos scored on a 5-on-3 advantage and then Emma Peschel lit the lamp on the second half of that power play to extend the lead to 6-3. The Gophers had a goal called back after Ohio State challenged for offsides. Kiara Zanon topped off the scoring with under three to play to make it a 7-3 win for the Buckeyes, making it a weekend split. 

(9) Clarkson at (4) Colgate 

Clarkson came out fast and strong and asserted themselves throughout the game, pushing Colgate back on their heels. The Golden Knights outshot the Raiders 57-31 and thanks to a second-period power-play goal from Caroline Goffredo, looked to be heading to a big win. But Colgate pulled their goalie with 54 seconds left in regulation and with the skater advantage Alexis Petford tied the game with ten seconds left in regulation. That the game was even salvageable for the Raiders at that point was thanks to a career-high 55 saves from Hannah Murphy. In the overtime, a breakdown by the Clarkson defense left Kaia Malachino all alone entering the zone where she put the game away and gave Colgate the come-from-behind, 2-1 OT win. The pass that launched Malachino into the zone game from Neena Brick, who earned her 100th career point with that assist. 

(7) St. Lawrence at (4) Colgate 

The Saints took the lead late in the first thanks to a rebound put-back by Anna Segedi, but Colgate replied before the intermission thanks to a power play goal from Emma Pais from right in front of the net. In the second, Sara Stewart’s redirect added another power play goal to put Colgate ahead 2-1 and they carried that lead into the third. Abby Hustler’s breakaway tied the game early in the third to tie the game 2-2 and eventually send it into overtime for the second straight game for the Raiders. Just 30 seconds into the extra frame, Elyssa Biederman took advantage of a turnover and took off on a breakaway, scoring to win the game 3-2. 

(7) St. Lawrence at (5) Cornell

A quick first period with few whistles was capped off by a goal from Rory Guilday to put Cornell up 1-0 and they did not look back from there. Ashley Messier, Gabbie Rud and Katie Chan each scored in the second to extend the lead to 4-0. McKenna VanGelder made it 5-0 midway through the third and Messier’s empty-netter secured the 6-0 win. Annelis Bergmann earned the 20-save shutout.

(9) Clarkson at (5) Cornell

Clarkson took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission thanks to a gorgeous goal by Sena Catterall, who wove through traffic to put the Golden Knights ahead. Cornell managed just four shots on goal in the second, but Rory Guilday’s one-timer on the power play found the back of the net late in the second to tie the game 1-1. With six minutes left in the third, Gabbie Rub put the puck in off Holly Gruber’s back to give Cornell the lead and eventual win. The Big Red now have a 1.5 point lead atop the ECAC. 

(8) Penn State at Robert Morris

Katelyn Roberts scored twice while Stella Retrum, McKenna Walsh and Tessa Janecke each added a goal to lead Penn State to a 5-0 win on Saturday. With the assist on Walsh’s goal, Lyndie Lobdell became the Penn State career points leader for a defender. In the second game, Abby Stonehouse opened the scoring on the power play to put PSU up 1-0. Early in the second, Nicole Hall’s shot from the slot doubled the lead to 2-0. Robert Morris quickly responded as Janelle Evans tipped in a puck in front of the net to cut the lead to 2-1. Brianna Brooks tipped in a goal of her own on the power play midway through the game to push Penn State’s lead to 3-1. Emma Goding’s shot from the point on the power play once again cut the lead for Robert Morris, making it 3-2 at the second intermission. Tessa Janecke’s short-hander early in the third was a bit of back breaker, stealing the momentum to put the Nittany Lions up 4-2. Leah Stecker’s shot from the blue line on the power play secured the 5-2 win and weekend sweep for Penn State. 

Harvard at (10) Quinnipiac

The teams spent nearly half the game skating carefully and figuring each other out. Quinnipiac led in shots 9-4 after one. With under four to play, Maya Labad finally opened the scoring, giving the Bobcats a 1-0 lead on a shot from the far faceoff dot. Kendall Cooper’s shot from distance doubled the lead late. Sophie Enley’s goal midway through the third put Harvard on the board but they couldn’t put together a comeback and Quinnipiac took the 2-1 win. 

Dartmouth at (10) Quinnipiac

Maddy Samoskevich tallied her first career multi-goal game, scoring a one-timer in the first and putting back a rebound in the third to lead Quinnipiac to a 3-0 win. Kathryn Stockdale’s empty-netter rounded out the scoring.

(11) St. Cloud State at St. Thomas

Sofianna Sunderlin had two goals and an assist, Alice Sauriol had a goal and two assists and goalie Sanni Ahola earned the win to become the program’s all-time leader in goaltender wins with 35 as St. Cloud State won the first night of a home and home series with St. Thomas. Sundelin scored in the first to make it 1-0 for SCSU. Sauriol and Breja Parent scored in the second to make it 3-0 before Chloe Boreen’s power play goal got St. Thomas on the board with about three minutes left in the second to make it 3-1. Laura Zimmerman quickly responded for the Huskies to extend the lead to 4-1. Sundelin’s second came a minute into the third to extend it to 5-1. Ella Boerger’s power play goal added one more for the Tommies, but SCSU ultimately took the 5-2 win. In St. Thomas on Saturday, the Tommies’ defense stepped out. Despite being outshot 33-8 over the course of the game, St. Thomas took a 2-1 OT win. The teams played nearly 40 minutes of scoreless hockey before Boerger’s power play goal with just more than three minutes left in the second opened the scoring. St. Cloud evened the game with about seven to play with a goal from Sundelin that would eventually force overtime. Just 36 seconds into the extra frame, Lauren Stenslie carried the puck through the slot and shot across her body to the far post to earn St. Thomas the overtime win.

(12) Boston College at Boston University

BC got off to a quick start as Abby Newhook and Gaby Roy executed a perfect two-on-one breakaway to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead. Lilli Welcke tied it for BU midway through the frame as she dragged the puck through the high slot before sniping a goal from the top of the far circle. Kaileigh Quigg gave the Terriers their first lead early in the 2nd, to make it 2-1. After digging the puck out along the boards, BC tied the game as Kate Ham found the back of the net. As the game was winding down, the Terriers pressed forward and Kate Riley was able to tap in a loose puck in the crease to give BU the 3-2 lead and eventual win.

(12) Boston College at Merrimack

The Warriors came out firing, pushing BC back on their heels from the opening whistle. Sage Babey scored just three minutes into the game to set the tone for the Warriors. Maria Lindberg found the puck in some chaos in front of the net to extend the lead to 2-0 a few minutes later. Just 22 seconds after that, Natalie Nemes picked off a pass as BC tried to exit the zone. She Michaela Littlewood, whose backhander was stopped, but the rebound fell to the slot where Nemes was able to put it back and extend the lead to 3-0. Katie Pyne got the Eagles on the board midway through the first to send the teams to the locker rooms with Merrimack up 3-1. Julia Pellerin’s goal early in the second cut the lead even closer for Boston College, but Merrimack pushed back. Chloe Goofers put back a rebound to extend the lead to 4-2. Pellerin scored late in the third to make it a 4-3 game and the Eagles tried to pull the goalie for an extra skater, but Merrimack kept the pressure on, preventing the switch and eventually forcing a turnover that Littlewood buried to secure the 5-3 win. 

Dartmouth at (13) Princeton

Bridget Pringle’s tap-in had Dartmouth up 1-0 after the first period. Midway through the second, Emerson O’Leary unleashed a writster on the power play that was blocked, but fell to Khristina Khramtsov at the net front and she put it away to tie the game 1-1. With about three to play in the second, Shae Messner took advantage of some chaos at the net front to sneak the puck in and give Dartmouth the 2-1 lead. With about seven left in regulation, Issy Wunder saw the path through the slot wide open and jumped up to get a pass from Mackenzie Alexander that she roofed as she was falling to tie the game 2-2 and eventually force overtime. In the extra frame, Sarah Paul pulled off a 360 pass to drop the puck to a crashing O’Leary, whose shot went through the goalie and into the net to give Princeton the 3-2 OT win. 

Harvard at (13) Princeton

Jennifer Olnowich earned her second shutout of the season while Mackenzie Alexander and Issy Wunder scored early before the Princeton defense shut down any offensive attempts by Harvard and the Tigers took the 2-0 win.

Vermont at (14) Northeastern

This game was full of drama. A back and forth first period led to no scoring. In the second, Vermont thought they’d scored on the power play, but were assessed a goalie interference penalty instead and the score remained 0-0. Northeastern outshot Vermont 27-14, including 15-3 in the second, but Sydney Correa was strong in net and the Catamounts made 21 blocks in the game. Midway through the third, while Northeastern was on the power play Ashley Kokavec picked off the puck in the neutral zone and fed Lara Beecher, who fed it back across the ice and Beecher skated backwards into space and unleashed a wrister to put Vermont up 1-0. Despite a late push, Northeastern couldn’t find an equalizer and Kokavec’s shorty stood as the game-winner in the Catamounts 1-0 victory. 

(14) Northeastern at (15) Connecticut

After a scoreless first period, Northeastern scored first on a redirect in front of the net by Skylar Irving. UConn responded late in the second as Jada Habisch went the length of the ice to tie the game 1-1. Ava Rinker’s power play goal on a shot from the point gave Connecticut the 2-1 lead. Just two minutes later after some good puck movement put UConn on their heels, Lily Shannon scored to tie the game 2-2. Two minutes after that, the Huskies took a puck from a center ice faceoff and Shannon found Jaden Bogden at the back post to put Northeastern up 3-2. With under eight to play, Habisch scored again, this time on the power play with a shot from the slot to tie the game 3-3 and eventually force overtime. A major penalty on Connecticut at the end of regulation gave Northeastern a 4-on-3 advantage in the extra frame and Tuva Kandell’s first touch off the bench found the back of the net to give Northeastern the win. 

(15) Connecticut at Merrimack

After a scoreless first, freshman Sadie Hotles scored her first career goal to give UConn the 1-0 lead. Jada Habisch extended that lead with just two seconds left on the clock in the second to make it 2-0. Alex Ferguson got Merrimack on the board late in the third to cut the lead to 2-1, but Claire Murdoch’s empty-netter secured the the 3-1 win for the Huskies

 

Monday 10: Boston College keeps winning, Denver ties NCHC record with 11-goal outing, Minnesota sweeps away Wisconsin in ‘Border Battle’ series

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Denver scored 11 unanswered goals in defeating Omaha Saturday night 11-2 (photo: Tyler Schank/Clarkson Creative Photography).

Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.

1) BC Steamrolling into Beanpot showdown…

One last test stood between the No. 1 Boston College Eagles and an anticipated showdown with two-time defending Beanpot champion Northeastern, but any threat from the upset-minded UMass Lowell River Hawks slipped into the ether after Ryan Leonard scored a mind-bending hat trick at Conte Forum on Friday night.

The BC sophomore snuck his way atop the national goal scoring charts by pushing a hat trick across the crease for the second consecutive weekend, but Leonard used the tongue-in-cheek joke about empty-net goals from last week’s trifecta against BU to throttle the UML net for three contested shots across a quick span in both the first and third periods. Coupled with Gabe Perreault’s ninth goal of the season, goalie Jan Korec recorded his first shutout of the season and second of his career in just his second appearance of the 2024-25 campaign.

Anticipated to remain No. 1 in the country, the lightning-hot Eagles head into Monday’s Beanpot first round with heightened expectations for their first Beanpot championship game appearance since 2019.

2) …Against a team still hanging in the rafters.

That said, any road to the first BC Beanpot championship since Barack Obama’s final year in office requires the Eagles to first eliminate the team that’s hung the banner in the TD Garden rafters for the last two seasons. For Northeastern, the game against BC isn’t so much an attempt to clinch its seventh straight appearance in the late game on the second Monday as much as it’s a must-win game for a team seeking a rebound from this weekend’s loss to Maine.

Ordinarily, a team well outside the Pairwise Rankings bubble wouldn’t draw much attention for its loss to a program faring well enough to warrant No. 1 seed consideration, but the Huskies are starting to run out of options for a possible trip to the national tournament. Playing at Alfond Arena against a top-four side, Eli Sebastian knotted a 1-1 game after Maine’s Owen Fowler scored a short-handed goal in the first 70 seconds of the second period. Taylor Makar later broke the tie before adding an empty net goal in the last minute of regulation.

In total, Northeastern failed to capitalize on five different power play opportunities while surrendering the one shortie in the second period, but getting outshot 32-21 spelled doom for a team that at least still plays eight games against teams inside the Pairwise bubble and more specifically ranked around the inner top 10.

As for the Beanpot, Northeastern hasn’t lost in the first round since Harvard scored a one-goal win during the 2017 edition, and over the last decade, the team once regarded as the tournament’s also-ran holds five wins against BC.

3) Extra Innings

The first weekend game between No. 5 Denver and an unranked Omaha side receiving upwards of 30 votes required a two-goal comeback by the Pioneers to even sniff and force an overtime period. DU never led, but Eric Pohlkamp’s goal with under 30 seconds remaining in the second period bookended Zeev Buium’s goal in the first 80 seconds of the third period to send the visiting Mavericks into an overtime and shootout that didn’t look likely after they built a 3-1 lead in the second period.

But once the game hit the shootout, it went on. And on. And on. And on. And on. And on. And on.

And on.

And on again.

Sixteen rounds to be exact.

As far as the national Pairwise Rankings are concerned, Denver didn’t lose much space, but the second point dropped in the 16th round of a home-based shootout was enough to keep the Pioneers away from the NCHC’s top four after Saturday’s night 11-2 outburst. For what it’s worth, Omaha also led that game by a two-goal margin in the first period, but Denver scored six times in the second and another four times in the third despite having only one goal-scorer, James Reeder, hit the back of the net more than once (he had two power play goals).

At last count, Denver remains in fifth place in the NCHC with a one-point differential separating it from North Dakota, but an eighth-place spot in the Pairwise Rankings precariously kept the defending national champions within shouting range of Western Michigan’s NCHC-leading fifth spot.

4) USA! USA! USA! USA!

The NCAA doesn’t hold onto any records for games held between the respective military colleges of both the United States and Canada. None of the 85 previous meetings before this year’s edition are considered official games because of their exhibition nature, but the Challenge Cup offered between the two sides is often a measure of pointed pride after a week spent training and building camaraderie between the two national institutions.

Seventy-one years ago, head coach Jack Riley won his first Challenge Cup as part of the West Point program and found himself hoisted on the shoulders of the American contingent after a 5-3 victory. On Saturday night, son Brian Riley won his final Cup over the Royal Military College with a 3-2 victory that sent Army West Point south of the border with its 49th victory in the series.

Goals by Dylan Wegner, Adam Marshall and Barron Woodring staked the Black Knights to a 3-0 lead in the second period before the Paladins roared back with two of their own, but the 18-save performance from Evan Szary kept the Canadians at bay long enough for the retiring Brian to find himself hoisted on his team’s shoulders in an homage to the longtime family tenure at the academy.

5) The Gopher saw his shadow. Six more Minnesota wins?

No. 4 Minnesota truly lurked behind No. 2 Michigan State and No. 3 Western Michigan for that final spot behind the top-ranked Eagles last week, but busting through Wisconsin for a six-point weekend should move the Gophers ahead of both programs after both teams dropped results before the end of their overtime periods.

One week after the Spartans crushed Minnesota with a 9-3 win, a 4-2 loss on a Thursday night in Buckeye Country opened the door for a weekend split. The Broncos, meanwhile, beat Colorado College in their first game before enduring an overtime loss in the second game in the altitude-induced atmosphere of Ed Robson Arena. Back in the Twin Cities, a pair of resounding sweeps over Wisconsin dispatched the bubble-bound Badgers after a combined eight unanswered goals across both nights.

Having trailed 2-0 in the first game, five straight goals led directly to a scoreless first 40 minutes on Saturday, but three goals in five minutes in that second game sunk Bucky and kept the Gophers within earshot of Michigan State’s Big Ten-leading 40 points with six games remaining on their Big Ten schedule.

More than that, Minnesota grabbed an opportunity to replace Michigan State as the No. 2 team in the Pairwise Rankings if the Spartans faltered over the next three weeks. Their RPI is separated by approximately .03 points, the difference between two straightaway losses. It amounts to a half-game difference, which accounts for the two-point separation within the Big Ten standings.

6) All roads are nearly leading to Martire

The Atlantic Hockey America postseason is notoriously chaotic, but the four-weekend postseason is likely to begin with all teams chasing a chance to play at Sacred Heart’s glittery and new Martire Family Arena.

A five-point weekend on the road at Niagara was especially huge for the Pioneers, who maintained a five-point lead over surging Holy Cross despite the Crusaders earning five points in a home series victory over Canisius. The inability to gain more than one point in Connecticut summarily left the Purple Eagles seven points removed from the race for No. 1, while Bentley’s 37 points, even with games in hand, is starting to lose steam after the Falcons struggled against both teams in front of them.

If ever a game pulled air out of the late season race’s balloon, Saturday was the prime example. Through the first 30 minutes, Niagara nursed a one-goal lead, but 30 seconds after Trevor Hoskin staked the Purple Eagles to a 2-0 lead, Matthew Guerra and Mikey Adamson scored twice in two minutes to tie the game. Holding that score until the end of regulation then allowed Adamson to nail down a 4-on-3 power play goal in the overtime period.

To be fair, Niagara threw the kitchen sink at Sacred Heart, but the 2-1 lead in the first period on Friday night likewise was erased by goals from Cole Galata and Max Dorrington in a 3-2 win.

7) Don’t tell these guys that they’re not playing for the postseason

Neither Alaska school is heading to the national tournament this year. Their respective Pairwise Rankings place them on the back half of college hockey, and the lack of a conference tournament ensures that their respective seasons end before the month completes its final cycle. Alaska Anchorage at least has two home games remaining in the Last Frontier, but this weekend’s games at the Carlson Center set the stage as two of the final Nanook appearances at home before next season.

Perhaps it was fitting that the team played their archnemesis from the state capital, but the 8-1 aggregate victory sent Alaska’s flagship fans into their season-ending road trip with a glut of goodwill against the encroaching UAA banner. Matt Hubbarde scored a Texas-sized hat trick with four goals in the second game’s 5-1 win after providing a fifth goal in the first game of the weekend, and Broten Sabo, Matt Koethe and Nathan Rickey each allowed goalie Lassi Lehti to improve to 4-2-1 on the season.

Each of the Nanooks’ last six games take them down into the Lower 48 with a season-long trip to LIU ending the year, but one game still remains against the Seawolves on Feb. 8. After that, UAA will travel to Connecticut and LIU before returning home for a pair of games at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex against Lindenwood.

8) Women’s tournament taking shape

Anywhere from two to three weeks remain in the women’s college hockey regular season, but several games from the past week allowed the national picture to round into form after results provided some final shifts among the Pairwise Rankings’ top-ranked sides.

Minnesota, for example, split with Ohio State, but the Buckeyes’ road win allowed the team to maintain a slight edge for the No. 2 seed in the national picture behind No. 1 Wisconsin. Colgate’s overtime wins over Clarkson and St. Lawrence, meanwhile, allowed the Raiders to remain in shouting range of travel partner Cornell after the Big Red likewise dispatched their North Country opponents in ECAC play.

Few other opportunities remain, though, for teams to claim possible at-large locks in a tournament capable of producing conference champions from outside the top 11. Northeastern and Boston University are currently tied for the No. 10 spot, which means this week’s home-and-home is likely an elimination round for the national picture unless one of the two teams falters or surges along the way. Once the NEWHA champion is in the field, the remaining four leagues would prevent the next teams from advancing only if:

— An Atlantic Hockey America team other than Penn State wins the league tournament
— A Hockey East team other than the non-Northeastern/BU winner wins the tournament, though that would essentially just swap the team with whichever team is potentially bumped from the bubble.
— A WCHA team that isn’t Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio State (the top three national teams) or Minnesota-Duluth wins the conference championship
— An ECAC Hockey team outside of the top four wins the league tournament

9) Showing love to D-III

Wentworth entered Saturday’s game against No. 14 Endicott without a win since a 3-2 win over No. 10 Wilkes on Jan. 12. Having only won that game in the 2025 portion of their program extended further to the beginning of the year after the only other win following a 3-2 start to the season came on Dec. 7 in a 2-1 victory over Nichols. To recap, that’s a five-win team with two wins after Nov. 15, but the second of those wins was against a ranked opponent.

Yet playing the Gulls in the friendly confines of a home arena located 10 miles and 20 minutes from campus, Wentworth scored three times in the second period before holding Endicott long enough to gain a 4-2 victory. Ethan Lim scored a hat trick for the Panthers after netting two goals in that eponymous second, while goalie Jack McGovern stopped 41 of 43 shots to earn his fourth win of the season.

10) To refute my eastern bias, here’s some western D-III love, too

On the other end of the national D-III spectrum, third-ranked Aurora swept No. 4 Trine in a game with major implications towards both the national picture and the upcoming NCHA postseason race. After boxing a 6-3 win on Friday night, the Spartans broke out with three straight goals across the first 30 minutes of Saturday’s game against the visiting Thunder. Not to be outdone, power play goals by Logan Furstenau and Tyler Blanchard flanked an even-strength goal by Bobby Price to negate the original work, but Landry Schmuck’s D-III leading 24th goal kept him running a goal-plus per-game average that lifted the hosts to their 18th win of the season.

Bids to the Division III tournament often differ in their approach. Last year’s tournament granted nine different slots in the 13-team tournament to the eastern teams, which resulted in all four western teams being grouped into their own bracket while No. 1 Hobart and No. 2 Trinity received first round byes. Under the similar structure for this year’s tournament, No. 1 Hobart and No. 2 Utica would receive byes among the nine-team east contingent while the four-team west is left to play among itself.

Sweeping the weekend created distance for Aurora at a time when Trine can’t necessarily fully close the gap, which means potential postseason meetings in both the NCHA tournament and the NCAA tournament would return to the Fox Valley Ice Arena.

Rankings roundup: How the top 20 NCAA Division I men’s hockey teams fared, Jan. 31-Feb. 1

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Ohio State and Michigan State split their Thursday-Friday series in Columbus last week (photo: Ohio State Athletics).

Here is a rundown of how the top 20 teams in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Hockey Poll of Jan. 27 fared in games over the weekend of Jan. 31-Feb. 1.

No. 1 Boston College (19-4-1)
01/31/2025 – No. 8 UMass Lowell 0 at No. 1 Boston College 4

No. 2 Michigan State (21-4-3)
01/30/2025 – No. 2 Michigan State 2 at No. 11 Ohio State 4
01/31/2025 – No. 2 Michigan State 4 at No. 11 Ohio State 1

No. 3 Western Michigan (18-5-1)
01/31/2025 – No. 3 Western Michigan 4 at RV Colorado College 1
02/01/2025 – No. 3 Western Michigan 2 at RV Colorado College 3 (OT)

No. 4 Minnesota (21-6-3)
01/31/2025 – No. 17 Wisconsin 2 at No. 4 Minnesota 5
02/01/2025 – No. 17 Wisconsin 1 at No. 4 Minnesota 4

No. 5 Denver (19-6-1)
01/31/2025 – RV Omaha 3 at No. 5 Denver 3 (OT)
02/01/2025 – RV Omaha 2 at No. 5 Denver 11

No. 6 Maine (17-5-3)
01/31/2025 – RV Northeastern 1 at No. 6 Maine 3
02/02/2025 – No. 20 Massachusetts 2 at No. 6 Maine 3

No. 7 Providence (16-6-4)
01/31/2025 – No. 9 Connecticut 3 at No. 7 Providence 3 (OT)
02/01/2025 – No. 7 Providence 6 at No. 9 Connecticut 3

No. 8 UMass Lowell (14-8-3)
01/31/2025 – No. 8 UMass Lowell 0 at No. 1 Boston College 4
02/01/2025 – Merrimack 2 at No. 8 UMass Lowell 3

No. 9 Connecticut (14-9-3)
01/31/2025 – No. 9 Connecticut 3 at No. 7 Providence 3 (OT)
02/01/2025 – No. 7 Providence 6 at No. 9 Connecticut 3

No. 10 Boston University (14-9-1)
01/31/2025 – No. 18 New Hampshire 2 at No. 10 Boston University 7

No. 11 Ohio State (16-8-2)
01/30/2025 – No. 2 Michigan State 2 at No. 11 Ohio State 4
01/31/2025 – No. 2 Michigan State 4 at No. 11 Ohio State 1

No. 12 Arizona State (16-9-1)
01/31/2025 – No. 12 Arizona State 7 at Miami 1
02/01/2025 – No. 12 Arizona State 4 at Miami 1

No. 13 Michigan (15-11-2)
01/31/2025 – RV Penn State 5 at No. 13 Michigan 4
02/01/2025 – RV Penn State 3 at No. 13 Michigan 7

No. 14 Quinnipiac (16-8-2)
01/31/2025 – No. 14 Quinnipiac 5 at RV Dartmouth 4 (OT)

No. 15 Minnesota State (18-8-2)
01/31/2025 – St. Thomas 3 at No. 15 Minnesota State 2
02/01/2025 – No. 15 Minnesota State 3 at St. Thomas 2 (OT)

No. 16 North Dakota (13-10-2)
01/31/2025 – No. 16 North Dakota 3 at RV St. Cloud State 3 (OT)
02/01/2025 – No. 16 North Dakota 6 at RV St. Cloud State 2

No. 17 Wisconsin (11-14-3)
01/31/2025 – No. 17 Wisconsin 2 at No. 4 Minnesota 5
02/01/2025 – No. 17 Wisconsin 1 at No. 4 Minnesota 4

No. 18 New Hampshire (11-10-3)
01/31/2025 – No. 18 New Hampshire 2 at No. 10 Boston University 7

No. 19 Augustana (16-7-3)
01/31/2025 – Lake Superior State 3 at No. 19 Augustana 6
02/01/2025 – Lake Superior State 3 at No. 19 Augustana 4

No. 20 Massachusetts (14-11-2)
01/31/2025 – Merrimack 2 at No. 20 Massachusetts 4
02/02/2025 – No. 20 Massachusetts 2 at No. 6 Maine 3

RV = Received Votes

SATURDAY COLLEGE HOCKEY ROUNDUP: No. 7 Providence scores final three in 6-3 win over No. 9 UConn; No. 4 Minnesota sweeps and No. 13 Michigan rebounds for split in B1G

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Providence’s Hudson Malinoski scored three goals, including the game-winner midway through the third period as the No. 7 Friars defeated No. 9 Connecticut, 6-3 (File photo: Hockey East)

In a battle of ranked opponents, Hudson Malinoski’s goal with 9:42 remaining completed a hat trick and broke a 3-3 tie as No. 7 Providence beat host No. 9 Connecticut, 6-3, to take four-of-six points from the Huskies in a key Hockey East series.

The Friars jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the game on Malinoski’s first goal of the game in the first period coupled with a tally from John Mustard. Malinoski added a second period tally to  extended the lead to three.

But UConn had a response to energize the XL Center crowd of 11,781, scoring twice in the second, goals by Ethan Gardula and Jake Richard. Joey Muldowney scored the equalizer at 3:31 of the third.

After Malinoski scored the critical goal ahead goal midway through the third, Providence scored twice into the empty net for the 6-3 final.

SCOREBOARD  |  PAIRWISE RANKING  |  USCHO.COM POLL

Colorado College 3, No. 4 Western Michigan 2 (F/OT)

Bret Link’s goal with 1:42 left in overtime broke a 2-2 tie as Colorado College rallied from a 2-1 deficit to earn a 3-2 victory on Saturday, splitting the series with No. 4 Western Michigan.

The Broncos still took 4-of-6 points in the NCHC series on the weekend, keeping Western Michigan two points ahead of Arizona State for first place in the league.

It is the second straight weekend Colorado College has rallied in the third period to earn a series-splitting victory having rallied against Arizona State last Saturday.

Zaccharya Wisdom scored twice for Colorado College, including the tying goal at 4:39 of the third.

Western Michigan took the lead late in the second on the power play when Liam Valante scored just 12 seconds into a major power play. From there, though, the Tigers shut down the Broncos power play, allowing Wisdom to tie the game.

No. 4 Minnesota 4, No. 17 Wisconsin 1

The host Golden Gophers completed the sweep of No. 17 Wisconsin, scoring four times in the third period in a 4-1 victory.

After two scoreless periods, Matthew Wood finally lit the lamp at 9:16 of the third. That opened a floodgate for Minnesota, which extended the lead at 11:21 on Connor Kurth’s goal and extended the lead further on Oliver Moore’s tally with 5:41 left.

Wisconsin tried to climb back when Ryan Botterill scored with 3:56 left but Kurth’s second of the night into the empty net accounted for the 4-1 final.

No. 13 Michigan 7, Penn State 3

A night after falling 5-4 to visiting Penn State, No. 17 Michigan bounced back to earn the series split, exploding for seven goals from seven different Wolverines in a 7-3 victory.

The two teams traded goals over the first half of the game before Michael Hage’s goal at 9:53 of the second started a four-goal outburst for Michigan. William Whitelaw, Garrett Schifsky and Evan Warner scored goals in a span of 2:23 in the third to break the game open.

Cameron Korpi stopped 36 shots for Michigan to earn the win.

 

Merrimack’s Yuhas suspended one game by Hockey East for major high sticking penalty Jan. 31 vs. UMass

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Hockey East announced today that Merrimack freshman forward Vann Yuhas has been suspended for one game stemming from an incident at 13:39 of the third period on Friday, Jan. 31 at Massachusetts.

On the play, Yuhas was assessed a major penalty for high sticking and a game misconduct.

Yuhas is ineligible to play Saturday, Feb. 1 at UMass Lowell and is able to return to the Warriors lineup on Friday, Feb. 7 against Boston University.

FRIDAY COLLEGE HOCKEY ROUNDUP: Top-ranked Boston College blanks UMass Lowell; No. 2 Michigan State downs No. 11 Ohio State; St. Thomas knocks off No. 15 Minnesota State; No. 4 Minnesota defeats No. 17 Wisconsin; Omaha ties No. 5 Denver, wins shootout in 16 rounds

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St. Thomas avenged a loss and a tie to Minnesota State earlier this season with a 3-2 win Friday night on the Mavericks’ home ice in Mankato (photo: Wesley Dean).

Cooper Gay’s goal at 13:45 of the third period proved to be the game winner as St. Thomas defeated No. 15 Minnesota State 3-2 from the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center in Mankato, Minn.

Jake Braccini and Caige Sterzer added goals for the Tommies and goaltender Aaron Trotter finished with 34 saves.

Evan Murr scored the two goals for the Mavericks and Alex Tracy made 27 saves in goal.

SCOREBOARD | STANDINGS | POLL | PAIRWISE

No. 1 Boston College 4, No. 8 UMass Lowell 0

Jan Korec stopped all 22 shots fired his way as Boston College blanked UMass Lowell 4-0 from Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

Ryan Leonard registered the hat trick for BC and Gabe Perreault also scored.

River Hawks goalie Beni Halasz made 23 saves.

No. 2 Michigan State 4, No. 11 Ohio State 1

On the road at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio, Michigan State used four different goal scorers and 22 saves in goal from Trey Augustine to knock off Ohio State 4-1.

Tanner Kelly, Isaac Howard, Gavin O’Connell and Daniel Russell scored for the Spartans.

For the Buckeyes, James Hong scored and goaltender Kristoffer Eberly finished with 25 saves.

No. 3 Western Michigan 4, Colorado College 1

Cameron Rowe made 26 saves and four different players scored to lead Western Michigan to a 4-1 win over Colorado College at Ed Robson Arena in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Owen Michaels, Alex Bump, Cam Knuble and Iiro Hakkarainen recorded goals for the Broncos.

Owen Beckner scored for the Tigers and goaltender Kaidan Mbereko finished with 24 saves.

No. 4 Minnesota 5, No. 17 Wisconsin 2

Jimmy Snuggerud and Brodie Ziemer each had two goals and two assists to lead Minnesota past Wisconsin 5-2 from 3M Arena at Mariucci in Minneapolis, Minn.

Erik Påhlsson also scored for the Gophers and goalie Liam Souliere made 33 saves.

Simon Tassy and Ryland Mosley had the Badgers up 2-0 after the first period and Tommy Scarfone registered 23 saves in net.

Omaha 3, No. 5 Denver 3 (OT, Omaha wins shootout)

Zeev Buium’s goal at 1:12 of the third period pulled Denver into a 3-3 tie with Omaha at Magness Arena in Denver, Colo.

Omaha took the extra standings point by winning the shootout that went 16 rounds.

Kieran Cebrian and Eric Pohlkamp added goals for the Pioneers and Matt Davis fashioned a 26-save performance in goal.

Sam Stange, Liam Watkins and Brock Bremer scored for the Mavericks and goaltender Simon Latkoczy made 39 saves.

No. 6 Maine 3, Northeastern 1

Owen Fowler, Taylor Makar and Aidan Carney all scored to lead Maine to a 3-1 win over Northeastern from Alfond Arena in Orono, Maine.

Maine goaltender Albin Boija made 20 saves.

Northeastern’s goal came from Eli Sebastian and Cameron Whitehead stopped 29 shots between the pipes.

No. 7 UConn 3, No. 9 Providence 3 (OT, UConn wins shootout)

Ryan Tattle scored two goals for UConn and Graham Gamache two for Providence as the two teams tied 3-3 at Schneider Arena in Providence, R.I.

The Huskies earned the extra standings point, winning the shootout in nine rounds.

Jake Richard also scored for UConn, while Tyler Muszelik made 25 saves in goal.

Logan Sawyer tallied the other Friars goal and Philip Svedebäck finished with 39 saves and an assist on Sawyer’s goal.

No. 10 Boston University 7, No. 17 New Hampshire 2

Quinn Hutson’s hat trick and goaltender Mikhail Yegorov’s 19 saves lifted Boston University to a 7-2 win over New Hampshire from Agganis Arena in Boston.

Jack Harvey, Shane Lachance, Cole Eiserman and Brandon Svoboda also scored and Hutson added an assist for a four-point game.

Robert Cronin and JP Turner notched the Wildcats’ goals and goalies Jared Whale and Rico DiMatteo combined on a 30-save effort.

No. 12 Arizona State 7, Miami 1

Ryan Kirwan potted two goals and Luke Pavicich made 20 saves in net as Arizona State defeated Miami 7-1 from Steve Cady Arena in Oxford, Ohio.

Cole Gordon, Bennett Schimek, Cullen Potter, Lukas Sillinger and Artem Shlaine added goals for the Sun Devils.

Dylan Moulton scored for the RedHawks and goalie Brett Miller stopped 18 shots.

Penn State 5, No. 13 Michigan 4

Penn State topped Michigan 5-4 at Yost Ice Arena in Ann Arbor, Mich., on the strength of two Aiden Fink goals and 35 saves between the pipes from Arsenii Sergeev.

Reese Laubach, Tyler Paquette and JJ Wiebusch also scored for the Nittany Lions, with Wiebusch’s standing as the game winner at 14:52 of the third period on a Penn State power play.

For the Wolverines, Evan Werner, Will Felicio, Kienan Draper and William Whitelaw scored and goaltenders Logan Stein and Cameron Korpi stopped 27 shots.

No. 14 Quinnipiac 5, Dartmouth 4 (OT)

Jack Ricketts completed his hat trick 47 seconds into overtime to give Quinnipiac a 5-4 win over Dartmouth at Thompson Arena in Hanover, N.H.

Ricketts sent the game to overtime with a goal at 16:03 of the third period.

Jeremy Wilmer and Charlie Leddy also tallied goals for the Bobcats and goalie Dylan Silverstein made 22 saves.

Luke Haymes, Sean Chisholm, Alex Krause and Cam MacDonald scored for the Big Green and Emmett Croteau stopped 23 shots between the pipes.

No. 16 North Dakota 3, St. Cloud State 3 (OT, North Dakota wins shootout)

Barrett Hall’s goal at 16:08 of the third period pulled St. Cloud State into a 3-3 tie with North Dakota at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud, Minn.

North Dakota won the subsequent shootout for the extra standings point.

Ethan AuCoin scored the other two goals for the Huskies and goalie James Gray finished with 32 saves.

For the Fighting Hawks, Cameron Berg scored twice and Jayden Jubenvill added a single as goalie TJ Semptimphelter stopped 21 shots.

No. 19 Augustana 6, Lake Superior State 3

A balanced attack of six different goal scorers helped Augustana to a 6-3 win over Lake Superior State from Midco Arena in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Luke Mobley, Simon Falk, Colton Friesen, Nace Langus, Tyler Hennen and Payton Matsui scored for the Vikings and goalie Josh Kotai made 26 saves.

Jacob Conrad, Luke Levandowski and Nate Schweitzer scored for the Lakers and Rorke Applebee stopped 28 shots in goal.

No. 20 UMass 4, Merrimack 2

Kenny Connors scored two goals to pace UMass over Merrimack from the Mullins Center in Amherst, Mass.

Lucas Mercuri and Jack Musa added goals for the Minutemen and netminder Michael Hrabal made 23 saves.

For the Warriors, David Sacco and Michael Emerson scored and goalie Nils Wallstrom stopped 23 shots of his own.

Hobart still tinkering with lineup for continued success

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Hobart forward Luke Aquaro is among a deep and balanced offensive group pursuing another NEHC title (Photo by Adam Farid – Hobart and William Smith College)

When you are the two-time defending national champions and have just established a new NCAA unbeaten streak (currently at 41 games), you might think that everything is perfectly aligned and calibrated with the 17-0-0 Hobart Statesmen. Not so for Coach Mark Taylor and staff who have a very deep roster that competes hard and has obviously found success on the ice, but the focus continues to be forward looking and on how to be better.

“You can always do things better,” stated Taylor. “Whether its our face-off percentage wins, power play or penalty kill or line combinations, we are always tweaking things a little bit to find improvement that might help us in each game. While we always skate and rotate seven defensemen who are used to playing with different partners, the forward lines are very fluid with opportunities to put our best groups together and give us the balance and depth we want to see in our rolling four lines.”

It would be hard to argue with the Statesmen’s success this season to date which includes seventy-nine goals for and a paltry seventeen against in seventeen contests. The goaltending duo of Damon Beaver (9GP – 1.00 GAA – .960 SP – 3SO) and Mavrick Goyer (8GP – 1.00 GAA – .949 SP – 4 SO) have combined for seven shutouts so far this season and have surrendered one-third of the total goals against on the penalty kill this season. The defensive group is agile, physical and plays with good offensive skills while the forwards have been productive up and down the lineup with the entire roster boasting a positive plus/minus statistic. Knowing every team that Hobart plays is bringing their absolute best, the Statesmen have continued to stay focused and bring their best hockey in each and every game.

“Last weekend we played on home ice for the first time since we played Elmira before the semester break,” said Taylor. “It was great to be at home and the guys really felt it as we came out with a lot of energy against Norwich. We always want to play a good first period, a better second period and a great third period and I thought we did that on Friday night and it carried over into Saturday. You see so many upsets across college hockey like Dubuque beating Adrian and Chatham knocking off Geneseo last week. I like the discipline and maturity of our team that even when we have to move players around or put someone new in the group, they are ready to go and maintain our high level of play. There is a long way to go with a lot of points available in the next four weekends so we are focused on Albertus Magnus who we will face for the first time this weekend in their rink. You must respect every opponent, but we go in with confidence and expect a good battle from Kyle’s [Wallack] team who knocked off Babson twice and split with Salve Regina last weekend.”

As two-time defending NEHC champions, Hobart is comfortably on top of the standings today but is not assuming they have a lock on the current spot nor the conference championship.

“There are a lot of good teams in this conference,” stated Taylor. “We know we are going to get everyone’s best and that will certainly ramp up come playoff time. We have the conference championship trophy in our locker room, and we would really like to keep it there knowing this is the final season of the NEHC in D-III hockey. While we didn’t have the unbeaten streak as a team goal, and it is a nice one to have for this group, the league title is naturally a key goal for this team and especially the senior class that always wants to be just a little bit better than the previous group. There is a lot of hockey still to be played and I believe that some of our minor adjustments are only going to help us playing our best game at the most important time of the season.”

The Statesmen have just eight conference games remaining starting at Albertus Magnus this weekend before hosting Southern Maine and New England College and then closing out with two games at Babson. March brings the NEHC tournament and a likely opportunity to defend their NCAA title. Before all that, the tweaking will continue to help make the nation’s best team even better when it matters most.

NCAA D-III West Men’s Hockey Weekend Picks

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The Aurora Spartans battle Trine in a matchup of nationally ranked NCHA teams. (Photo Credit: Steve Woltmann/Aurora Athletics)

The final month of the season is here and conference games headline another weekend.

None will be bigger than the games taking place in the NCHA, where Adrian hosts St. Norbert and Trine takes on Aurora. All four teams are nationally ranked.

Here’s a look at predictions for those matchups and more.

St. Norbert (14-5, 9-3) vs. Adrian (14-5, 8-4)

It’s never a dull moment when these two long-time rivals battle on the ice.

The Green Knights hold a two-point edge on the Bulldogs in the standings and are ranked seventh nationally. Adrian is ninth in the country.

Liam Fraser and Logan Dombrowsky are among the best offensively, with Fraser scoring 15 goals and Dombrowsky tallying 12 to go along with 17 assists.

Ian Amsbaugh has been key for Adrian, scoring 12 goals and dishing out 23 assists.

Adrian has scored 79 goals as a team. St. Norbert has given up just 40.
Adrian, 4-2; St. Norbert, 5-3

Trine (16-2-1, 10-1-1) and Aurora (16-3, 10-2)

Is this a potential preview of the NCHA championship? Perhaps. For now, it’s a regular season battle that has a lot riding on it.

No. 4 Trine is in first place, holding a two-point edge over No. 3 Aurora, and the winner of this series will be in the driver’s seat for the title.

Aurora has scored 93 goals, the most of any team in the league, and that offensive firepower will make the Spartans a tough team to deal with. Landry Schmuck leads the way with 21.

Trine’s strength is its goaltending where Cristian Wong-Ramos and Kyle Kozma lead the way. It will be interesting to see how this series shakes out.

Aurora has won six in a row and is unbeaten in six home games this season. Trine is on a four-game win streak and is 7-2-1 on the road.
Aurora, 5-4; Trine, 4-3

Saint Mary’s (8-8-1, 4-3-1) vs. St. Scholastica (9-9-1, 4-6)

One point separates the two teams in the standings as the Cardinals are fourth and the Saints are tied for fifth.

Three of the best playmakers in the MIAC will be on the ice for this one as Wyatt Wurst of St. Scholastica and Colin Tushie and Joona Juntunen of Saint Mary’s are tied for the most assists in the conference. All three have 15 helpers apiece.
Saint Mary’s, 4-3; St. Scholastica, 5-3

Bethel (9-6-2, 5-2-1) vs. Gustavus (11-6, 7-1)

The Gusties are the top team in the MIAC and plan on keeping it that way this weekend. The Royals come in third but are just one point out of second.

Gustavus has scored a league-best 65 goals and features two of the top five goal scorers in the league in Hunter Newhouse and Jack Suchy. The two have scored 10 goals apiece. Netminders Colin Androlewicz and Matthew Malin give the Gusties depth in goal.

Tyler Braccini leads the Royals and is tied for first in the conference in goals scored with 11. Austin Ryman has been one of the top goalies in the league this season. A split here wouldn’t surprise me.
Gustavus, 4-2; Bethel, 5-4

St. Olaf (7-7-3, 2-5-1) vs. Augsburg (7-11-1, 3-6-1)

Both of these teams know what it’s like to be at the top of the conference, but at the moment, the Oles and Auggies are in a tough spot.

The Auggies, though, are just two points out of a top five spot in the conference and could change their fate with a big weekend.

St. Olaf sits in last but is never a team you can count out either.

Augsburg has won two in a row. The Oles are winless in their last three games.
Augsburg, 4-2; St. Olaf, 2-1

UW-River Falls (10-8-1, 4-4-1) vs. UW-Stevens Point (14-4-1, 6-2-1)

The nationally ranked Pointers have won their last eight and look to keep that momentum going against an always tough River Falls squad.

Stevens Point, ranked 10th in the latest USCHO.com poll, has scored four or more goals in seven of their last eight. Dawson Sciarrino and Peyton Hart are tied for the league lead in goals scored, tallying 14 apiece.

Dylan Smith and Jonny Meiers are ones to watch for the Falcons, scoring nine and eight goals, respecitively, and are looking to end a two-game winless streak as they take on the Pointers on the road for this series. River Falls is playing a ranked opponent for the second straight weekend.
UW-Stevens Point, 4-1 and 3-2

UW-Superior (14-3-2, 7-1-1) vs. UW-Eau Claire (8-10-1, 6-3)

The 13th-ranked Yellowjackets sit atop the conference and look to maintain that position when they hit the road to take on the Blugolds.

Reed Stark and Justin Dauphinais have been stellar for Superior, tallying 10 goals apiece.

Jordan Randall has been a key offensive player for the Blugolds, racking up seven goals, while Max Gutjahr remains a steady player in goal for Eau Claire and is the reigning league player of the week.

Superior is 9-1-2 at home this season. The Blugolds are 5-5 away from home.
UW-Superior, 4-2; UW-Eau Claire, 2-1

 

This Week in Atlantic Hockey America: Canisius on right path as Golden Griffins ‘doing a good job of not looking at the standings and overthinking’

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Kyle Haskins notched a goal and added two assists in Canisius’ 4-2 win at Robert Morris this past Tuesday (photo: Tom Wolf).

Canisius has flown under the radar most of this season.

Trevor Large’s team has at least one game in hand on everyone else, and is currently in fifth place, the final bye position, based on points earned per game.

“The reality for us is that like most seasons, it’s been a roller coaster,” said Large, now in his eighth season at Canisius.

“We have a really young ‘D’ corps, and we’re really young in net. But that’s been coming along and I like where we are right now. Up front, we have a really deep group of forwards and we’ve solidified the roster and are finding good chemistry. I really like the way we are playing right now.”

The growing pains resulted in an 0-8 nonconference record, which is a league-wide problem. All AHA teams have completed the nonconference portion of their schedules, finishing with a combined record of 17-64-8 (.236), the league’s lowest winning percentage since 2015 (.217). This is despite better facilities and stronger rosters from top to bottom.

“It is what it is,” said Large. “If I had the answer, I’d fix it. The reality is that we are going up against bigger schools from bigger conferences and we want to play those schools, but they have more resources and have been able to attract players from our conference (in the transfer portal).

“Most of our (nonconference) games were early in the season, and we played well in a lot of them despite losing. We were up on St. Lawrence but allowed them to come back. We went toe to toe with Clarkson. When we played, RPI, they were a wagon. They were clicking on all cylinders at the time. We learned a lot about our team in those games.”

Large, like every Division I hockey coach, is dealing with the new realities of the transfer portal, NIL and recruiting CHL players.

“The job hasn’t changed,” he said. “New markets opened up. People are still trying to figure it out. Some are hitting the panic button. But it’s all about finding the right players and people we want at Canisius. Showing them why Canisius is their best option. The pool of players may have changed, but we’re still looking for the right people and building relationships.”

One of those relationships that worked out both parties was the recruitment of forward Matteo Giampa. The sophomore from Virgil, Ont., was rookie of the year in Atlantic Hockey last season, and picked up where he left off this year, leading the team in points (25), assists (18) and is tied for the team lead in goals (seven).

Also producing are the all-graduate student line of Cole Kodsi, Alec Cicero and Kyle Haskins, which have combined for five goals in their last three games, including three in a 4-1 win over Robert Morris on Tuesday.

“That line has been really clicking,” said Large. “We just let them do their thing – playing hard and producing. They’re playing great.”

The Golden Griffins have seven games remaining, five against teams ahead of them in the standings, including three with rival Niagara, which is nine points ahead but has two fewer games remaining.

Large explained how he likes his team’s attitude down the stretch.

“We’re doing a good job of not looking at the standings and overthinking,” he said. We’re not thinking that every win is the most important thing on planet earth. We’re thinking beyond, ‘Did I score and did we win?’ I think that shows the maturation of a young team.

“We want to be playing our best hockey at the end of the season. The times we went to the NCAA tournament, we did so as a fourth seed and a seventh seed. We need to go out and get after it, play our way, and enjoy the time together.”

NCAA D-II/III East Men’s ice Hockey Game Picks – January 30, 2025

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Trinity’s Devon Bobak and the Bantams play “host” to Hamilton in a battle between the top two teams in the NESCAC standings (Photo by Trinity Athletics)

“Punxsutawney Phil” may be telling us of an early spring or six more weeks of winter come Sunday, but he won’t be telling any teams how much time is left in their season as the calendar month turns to February. The only way to ensure longevity and more meaningful hockey games is to win. Pivotal conference battles are everywhere and while there are some teams with comfortable point spreads in the standings, all can change with either a very good weekend or a really poor one. Scoreboard watching is everywhere from coaches to players and fans, and especially amongst the teams trying to take care of their own business and hoping to get some help in other matchups.

Last week my picks finished at 10-1-1 (.875) which was one of my most productive slates so far this season. Like the good teams that are looking to separate themselves, my picks must do the same heading down the final month of the regular season. Overall, my season numbers moved in a very positive direction at 88-42-7 (.698) which now means that a 70% success rate is very much attainable if I stay consistent. Here are this week’s game picks for the east:

Thursday, January 30, 2024

Neumann v. Wilkes

The Colonels are comfortable sitting atop the MAC standings, but ties like last week at Alvernia won’t help them keep the gap if other teams, like this week’s opponent get hot. Back on home ice to face the Knights and a fast start from Nick Swain and strong special teams help the home team eke out a nice win – Wilkes, 5-4

Salem State v. Plymouth State

The Panthers lost for the first time last week in conference and the Vikings with strong goaltending from Will Nepveu would like to help them drop another contest this week. Will Redick and a deep group of forwards will challenge Nepveu and take a hard-fought one-goal win on home ice – PSU, 4-3

Friday, January 31, 2024

Arcadia v. Alvernia

The “A” Teams face-off against one another with the home team coming off a pair of ties with league-leading Wilkes  while Arcadia looks to rebound from losses against King’s. Momentum is fickle but there were a lot of positives for the Golden Wolves last week that carry over to a nice win – Alvernia, 3-2

Suffolk v. (6) Curry

UPSET ALERT – Sure the Colonels are great on home ice in the Ice Den but goaltenders can steal games and CJ Hapward has been a very good thief for the Rams this season. Expect a low-scoring affair with Killian Rowlee or Eelis Laaksonen netting the game-winner that may take place in OT – Curry, 3-2

Norwich v. Babson

This is still one of the best rivalries in the NEHC and produces some very entertaining albeit typically low-scoring hockey. Both teams have been opportunistic offensively this season and that works out in the Beavers favor as depth and balance produce a late game-winner to keep their second-place position in the league – Babson, 2-1

Nazareth v. Chatham

The Cougars showed what they can do on a Friday night against strong competition a week ago in their win over Geneseo. Nazareth will be a more physical challenge but Nick Cyprian & Company score at even-strength to pick up a big UCHC win – Chatham, 4-3

(15) Cortland v. Buffalo State

After Tuesday’s loss to Fredonia, this one is a battle for who wants first place in the SUNYAC and that should be enough motivation for the Bengals, who want to re-establish their presence and game on home ice where they hope to be playing some more meaningful hockey through the month of February. Motivation, yes – win to the Red Dragons – Cortland, 5-4

Saturday, February 1, 2025

(5) Geneseo v. Manhattanville

The Knights are looking keep pace with Utica after their stumble at Chatham last week while the Valiants want to extend their strong play that produced a pair of wins. Visitors will be focused with Zach Purcell and Alex Dameski leading the scoring in a one-goal win – Geneseo, 3-2

Post v. St. Anselm

The Hawks are comfortably on top of the conference standings but should not take the Eagles lightly as they have produced a number of surprise wins in the NE-10 already and would love to continue their climb in the standings. A lot of goals likely in this one with the Alberti-Brackett-Burum line finding the one that counts for the win – St. Anselm, 6-5

(8) Hamilton v. (12) Trinity

They say “to be the champ you need to beat the champ” and the Continentals can’t make a bigger statement in NESCAC than sweeping their Wesleyan/Trinity weekend on the road. Luke Tchor and a deep offense will keep Devon Bobak very busy in a playoff style win for the visitors – Hamilton, 3-2

Oswego v. Plattsburgh

These rivals are both chasing Buffalo State and Cortland in the standings, so a win here means a lot. The Cardinals have been successful of late in close games including last week’s one-goal win at Amherst. A little more scoring here but same result although it takes overtime to decide a winner – Plattsburgh, 4-3

Franklin Pierce v. Keene State

The Ravens are still in search their first win of the season, so the Owls best not take this in-state opponent lightly. Chase Carney has been a complete player for the home team and he helps the Owls pick up a win in front of a very partisan home crowd –                  Keene State, 4-1

Going out on a limb that I see my shadow this weekend and there is at least eight more weeks of great hockey across the region. Still a long way to go with regular season conference action before tournaments and national title games. It is going to be a crazy ride – “Drop the Puck!”

This Week in Big Ten Hockey: Upcoming Border Battle series between Minnesota, Wisconsin promises to be ‘just a grind’

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The Border Battle between Minnesota and Wisconsin dates back to 1922 (photo: Tom Lynn).

“You don’t have to do anything special. You just can’t do anything wrong.”

That nugget from Minnesota coach Bob Motzko speaks to so much in life, but it’s especially useful when trying to contain one of the top lines in the country, a line that also happens to play for your own team’s top conference rival.

This week, No. 4 Minnesota hosts No. 17 Wisconsin in the final two regular-season games of the Border Battle, a series that dates back to 1922. As in all great rivalries, each opponent reserves the right to tell at least a little bit of its own tale: according to Wisconsin, Friday’s game will be the 313th between the teams, but according to Minnesota, it’s the 317th.

In early November, the Golden Gophers swept the Badgers in Madison, a pair of 3-2 wins with the second coming in overtime. Wisconsin struggled early in the season, with three wins in nine games leading into that set against Minnesota.

“They’ve been pretty darned good ever since our series with them,” said Motzko.

Since starting 3-8-0 including their series against the Gophers, the Badgers have gone 9-4-3 starting with a sweep of Penn State and including wins over No. 2 Michigan State and No. 13 Michigan. Part of Wisconsin’s success is due to the Badgers’ top line of Quinn Finley, Gavin Morrissey and Ryland Mosley. It was a question on his weekly radio show about how to play against that line that Motzko suggested aiming for flawless hockey.

“When you make mistakes is when those guys capitalize,” said Motzko.

Finley, Morrissey and Mosly have combined for 39 of the Badgers’ 84 goals this season, 12 of them on the power play.

“Of course, you really have to watch them on the special teams,” said Motzko. “That’s where they’re very dangerous and that line’s got a lot of confidence and Finley’s been terrific this year in his sophomore year, but every team we’re playing now has got top guys.”

And at this point in the season, every team has guys that are emerging. In a 5-4 win and 4-4 tie at home against Michigan last weekend, the Wolverines limited that top trio to one goal and two assists, but Wisconsin’s second line of Tyson Dyck, Christian Fitzgerald and Kyle Kukkonen wouldn’t be contained. Fitzgerald had three goals on the weekend, including Friday’s game winner from Dyck with less than five minutes remaining in regulation. Kukkonen had two assists Saturday, the second coming on Ben Dexheimer’s tying goal which also came with less than five minutes to go in the third.

Fitzgerald’s three-goal weekend doubled the number he’s scored on the season, and his goal Friday was his first since a Dec. 29 game against Connecticut in the Kwik Trip Holiday Faceoff.

“Christian’s been fighting through this real hard and stuck with it,” said Wisconsin coach Mike Hastings, “and as a coach, you hope the game pays him back some time.”

Fitzgerald’s performance earned him this week’s Big Ten first star, the first weekly award in the junior winger’s career.

Said Hastings, “This weekend, he earned everything that he got.”

Since their sweep of Penn State, the Badgers have been struggling to earn points on consecutive nights in series against conference opponents, something they have in common with the rival they face this weekend. On the road last weekend, Minnesota lost to Michigan State 9-3 before salvaging a point the following night with a 3-3 tie. They split with Notre Dame the week before and the week before that, they split with Ohio State.

After losing 5-1 to Ohio State Jan. 10, the Gophers beat the Buckeyes 6-1 the following night so, said Motzko, “You kind of pawn it off. We had an off night.”

Against the Fighting Irish the following week, though, the Gophers again couldn’t find their consistency. They won 5-2 Friday but lost 4-3 in overtime Saturday.

“The next Friday night, we have a great first period against Notre Dame, and then the Saturday game, we were outcompeted,” said Motzko. ‘But now we have a little data here. Three weeks in a row, we’ve been off of our game and we’re digging into that.”

Motzko said that he doesn’t like to make excuses, but right now the Gophers are fighting injuries as well as illness.

“There’s no question that we’re one of the teams right now where you find yourself in the middle of the season in January where we’re not on top of our game every night,” said Motzko. “We were also on top of it three nights of those weekends, but that’s not acceptable for us.

“Also in January, the second half of the season, everybody’s playing harder. The games are tougher. So when we’ve been pushed, we’ve rebounded, but why are we always being forced to rebound?”

With their 32 points, the Gophers sit in second place in the Big Ten standings, five behind first-place Michigan State and eight ahead of Wisconsin. Motzko said that one of the differences between the Gophers and Badgers is that early in the season, Wisconsin hit the same kind of rough patch Minnesota has hit in January.

“Wisconsin has turned the corner and lo and behold, they were decimated with injuries early in the season,” said Motzko. “Well, since then, they don’t have many losses. Mike does a great job there and he went through his stuff early.”

Hastings said in his weekly press conference that the early trials have hardened his team a little in the second half.

“You know what’s been really good about it from my standpoint is that we’ve had some peaks and valleys in that that we’ve learned to be a little harder to be successful,” said Hastings.

With the uneven first half behind them, the Badgers need to focus on what they can control themselves, said Hastings, but also to come to terms with their slow start.

“We had to own that, identify it, and then also look out the front windshield because once it goes by there’s really not much you can do,” said Hastings. “You flush it, you learn from it, and you move on. The resiliency of this group going through that adversity I think has allowed them to grow, and we need to continue to lean on that.”

Like Motzko, Hastings knows the talent of the opponent his team faces this weekend.

“You know, they’ve got ability up and down their lineup, they’ve got some guys,” said Hastings. “’Snuggy’’s probably playing as well as anybody in the country right now. Rinzel, real good defenseman. Their whole ‘D’ corps.”

With his 18 goals and 19 assists, winger Jimmy Snuggerud leads Minnesota in scoring and is sixth nationally in points per game (1.32). In the Gophers’ 9-3 loss to Michigan State, Snuggerud had the first assist on linemate Brodie Ziemer’s goal to tie the game 2-2 in the middle of the second before things got away from Minnesota, and he scored the Gophers’ final goal of the game late in the second, with the second assist on that marker coming from linemate Erik Påhlsson.

Snuggerud had two goals in the tie game the following night, the first assisted by Rinzel and the second by Ziemer.

“They’re going to go back home and try and defend their home ice just like we did last weekend,” said Hastings. “We’ve got to go on the road and find a way to play good hockey and give ourselves opportunities to get points.”

Hasting said that the series with Minnesota will be “as it always is with them … just a grind.”

Friday’s game starts at 7:00 p.m. CT. Saturday’s start is 5 p.m. CT. Both games will steam live on Big Ten+.

This Week in Hockey East: Northeastern eyes second three-peat, while Boston College, Boston University in hunt for 2025 Beanpot championship

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Northeastern won the 2024 Beanpot and celebrated on TD Garden ice (photo: Jim Pierce).

All three Hockey East teams participating in this year’s Beanpot tournament have a reason to believe the target is on their back.

Northeastern, long the Beanpot’s doormat, is looking for its second three-peat in seven years. Boston College is the No. 1 team in the USCHO men’s D-I poll. And Boston University is the only other team to win the thing during Northeastern’s recent string of success.

It’s a fitting scenario for a tournament whose unofficial slogan has been “throw out the records” for all of its 72 chapters.

“I think when you have success in this tournament, I think teams aren’t going to take anyone lightly,” said Northeastern coach Jerry Keefe. “Because you kind of proven that you know how to play in these big games and you’ve got some guys that have won it before, so they have the experience.”

Northeastern enters the 72nd Beanpot as the two-time defending champion and winners of five of the last six tournaments. Its 5-2 win over BU in the 2018 championship game snapped a 30-year Beanpot title drought for the Huskies. Only BU, which beat Northeastern 1-0 in the 2022 final, has hoisted the coveted trophy since.

The Huskies thrice erased one-goal deficits in last year’s final vs. BU. Jack Williams scored midway through the third to tie the game 3-3, sending it to overtime, where Gunnarwolfe Fontaine scored with just 29 seconds left to lift Northeastern to the title and the Husky faithful into a frenzy. Fontaine also scored in overtime a week earlier in the semifinal vs. Harvard.

Williams, now a junior, said he thinks experience will help Northeastern in its quest for a second three-peat.

“There’s a lot of stress that goes into it,” Williams said. “That was a tough game for us, (but) we showed a lot of resilience in it. We’ve been fortunate to win the last two and we’re looking for our experienced guys to carry that into this year’s.”

BC enters this year’s tournament as the No. 1 team in both the USCHO poll and the PairWise, but also with the longest drought of any of the four teams, having last won in 2016, a 1-0 overtime win over BU. Brown said that while the national rankings are nice, he wouldn’t expect Beanpot opponents to take the Eagles lightly even if they were having a ho-hum season.

“We hopefully expect everyone’s best game anyway,” Brown said. “It is what it is, and we have to be ready for our opponents. We’ve had a tough schedule so far the last couple weeks and it’s staying tough right in our near future, too.”

BU had won four straight games before a weekend sweep at the hands of BC this past weekend. Terriers coach Jay Pandolfo, who has participated in the Beanpot as both a player and a coach, said he was pleased with his team’s performance vs. BC despite the losses. He said playing on a big stage leading up to the Beanpot can only help BU.

“These pressure moments can really help your team and boost your team, especially if you perform well,” Pandolfo said. “You have to, in these moments, be able to perform well as a team. We’ve had some different opportunities this year where I think we’ve handled it pretty well as a team, but this becomes a little bit of a different animal when you get to the Beanpot. (We) have enough guys that have been there, and hopefully they can lead the way. That’s what you’re looking for.”

This year’s Beanpot kicks off Monday with BU vs. Harvard (ECAC Hockey) at 5 p.m., followed by Northeastern vs. BC. The consolation and championship games are a week later starting at 4:30 p.m. All games are on NESN and ESPN+.

This Week in NCHC Hockey: Arizona State taking lessons from each game even though Sun Devils ‘know we’re really good’ this season

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Cole Gordon and Sam Court celebrate a goal last weekend against Colorado College (photo: Sun Devil Athletics).

You’ll often hear coaches and athletes say they learn more from losses than they do from wins.

To hear Arizona State coach Greg Powers say it during his team’s press conference Tuesday, the Sun Devils took important lessons from the back end of a split last weekend.

ASU had won five of its last six games heading into the then 11th-ranked Sun Devils’ home series with a Colorado College team that had been going in the opposite direction, losing five of the Tigers’ last six. That run continued Friday when three second-period goals helped ASU to a 4-1 win, but on Saturday, the Sun Devils let a 4-1 lead slip before falling 5-4.

“We have to flush it, obviously, but it’s not something that we can forget,” Powers said. “When something like that happens, and to be honest, we probably didn’t deserve to be up 4-1, I thought CC played a better game Saturday, and credit to them for not going away, and doing what they did. I think it speaks a lot about their character and their resolve, trying to course-correct where they’re at in their season.

“We have a decision: We can let that get the train off the tracks, which I know it’s not going to, or we can let things like that happen and learn from it and grow from it and make sure it doesn’t ever happen again, and that’s exactly what we plan on doing with it.”

ASU had revenge on its mind Friday, having fallen twice on the road against CC earlier this season. In the teams’ third meeting, the Sun Devils got goals from four different skaters. Beating the No. 19 Tigers that night also gave ASU its seventh straight win over a ranked opponent.

Saturday’s rematch looked to be going in a similar direction, as two goals apiece from Ryan Kirwan and Charlie Schoen gave ASU a three-goal cushion with under 14 minutes to go. But after CC’s Noah Laba cut into the deficit at 6:24, Chase McLane made it 4-3 less than a minute later, and it was a different game. Max Burkholder tied it at 11:28 before Drew Montgomery netted the eventual winner at 14:37.

“There’s nothing you can do in practice to defend leads,” Powers said Tuesday. “It’s a mindset and a killer instinct, and it’s something that this team has not perfected yet.

“I think the good news is we know we’re really good and we know we’re going to be out in front quite a bit, and we have all year, but it’s developing that killer instinct to go out and end games, and extend and continue to skate and continue to defend, kill plays and do everything the right way when other teams have to press and they’re down, and we just didn’t do that Saturday.

“You can preach mindset. You can work on it and you can develop it, absolutely. They have it in them. We’ve done it. We did it against North Dakota on Friday night (a 4-1 home win Jan. 10), we did it against Cornell (a 4-0 home win Jan. 4), we certainly did it against Denver at Denver (a road sweep in November). They have it in them, they’ve proven they can do it, they just have to do it down the stretch, because it’s an important stretch for us.”

The Sun Devils now prepare for a road trip to NCHC basement-dweller Miami. ASU should be heavily favored against a RedHawks team that has lost its last 16 games.

Clearly, though, Powers is taking nothing for granted.

“We don’t focus on them, we focus on us,” he said. “There’s enough there to focus on after what we pi$$ed away on Saturday night.”

This Week in CCHA Hockey: Augustana being led between the pipes by Kotai, who says ’emphasis and intensity’ winning games for Vikings

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Josh Kotai has been solid between the pipes this season for Augustana (photo: Dave Eggen/Inertia).

Last weekend’s series at Slater Family Ice Arena in Bowling Green was a feast for goaltending fans.

Occupying the nets across from one another were the No. 1 and No. 2 goalies in the nation in save percentage in Augustana’s Josh Kotai (.950) and Bowling Green’s Christian Stoever (.948). Fittingly, only three goals were scored all weekend, over nearly 130 minutes of play. And in the end, it was Kotai who got the better of Stoever, stopping 74 of 75 shots on the weekend as Augustana won 1-0 in overtime on Friday before earning a 1-1 tie Saturday with a shootout victory.

“It was a tight weekend, but that really made it lots of fun,” Kotai said. “To be able to compete in those games, it was really like a playoff kind of atmosphere, but coming away with a win and a tie gives you lots of confidence moving forward and is a good test for the playoff games coming up here.”

Kotai, a sophomore from Abbotsford, B.C., has been playing like this all season. In 21 of Augustana’s 24 games, he has three shutouts and a 1.59 goals-against average to go with that best-in-the-country save percentage. After splitting time with senior Zach Rose last season as a freshman, Kotai said earning the trust of his coaches to start nearly every game as a sophomore was his goal coming into the season. Kotai went 2-9-2 last season with a .904 save percentage and a 3.32 GAA.

“It was like, OK, Rose is leaving, and so there’s the opportunity to be able to step up into the starting role, so that kind of drove my offseason and gave me kind of a clear vision of how I want to see this year coming along,” Kotai said. “So then at the start of the year, it’s just battling to have the net. Then I got in against North Dakota [a 4-1 exhibition win at the start of the season] and had a good game, so I guess I just kind of kept it rolling from there. And so it’s been good, I’ve been able to find a rhythm each week, which has been a huge thing.”

Kotai credits some of his success this year to head coach Garret Raboin bringing him to Augustana and giving him the chance to play so much as a freshman. It did wonders for his development.

“I really liked ‘Rabs’ as a coach, and I thought, you know, he had a good vision for where he wants this team to go, and he knew what it takes to get there, being at St. Cloud,” Kotai said. “And so talking with him, I kind of got excited about that idea of being part of the inaugural team and the history of it, too.

“But having a chance to go out there and having an opportunity to go and play right away was the biggest thing for me. I really wanted to get my feet wet and find some success at the college level right away, and not having to wait a year or something to be able to get in the game. I think the experiences I got from last year were really huge in my development. And I learned so many lessons on and off the ice and then being in college for your first year, too, it was big.”

Last season, the Vikings went 12-18-4 — not world-beating, but certainly better than most people’s expectations of a first-year Division I program. The players who got their seasoning on that team as freshman are key contributors to this season’s team–one that is 14-7-3, just got its first-ever national ranking (No. 19 in the latest USCHO.com poll) and is still in the conversation for an at-large NCAA tournament bid when it comes to the Pairwise.

Sophomores Brett Meerman and Hunter Bischoff are tied for second on the team with 15 points, while Owen Bohn is second in goals with six. Luke Mobley — a senior who transferred to Augustana last season from Clarkson — leads the team with eight goals.

Kotai said that while the national accolade is nice, it’s not something they’ve really thought about — nor is it as goal of theirs.

“It’s cool that we’re ranked, and it’s nice that people are seeing us, whereas before, maybe they don’t know anything about us. And so, OK, maybe people take more interest in, ‘Who is Augustana?’ and stuff like that. But that doesn’t change what we’re trying to accomplish,” Kotai said. “As for the Pairwise, we know that if we move up a few spots, there’s a possibility of getting to the tournament, but we can do that anyways, by playing well and winning our conference. So it’s not a huge deal for us. It’s just a cool little thing you put in the back of the pocket, it’s motivation to keep working hard each and every day.”

The Vikings are currently in second place in the CCHA standings, behind Minnesota State and ahead of Michigan Tech. But because Augustana didn’t officially join the league as a full member until late in the summer, the conference standings are based on points-percentage this year.

Right now, Minnesota State is at .704, Augustana is at .667 and Michigan Tech is at .630. The math is a little confusing — because Augustana has played half as many conference games as everyone else — but Kotai said the easiest math for the Vikings will simply be to win.

“We had been out of conference play for a while before last weekend, and we hadn’t really been thinking about it, but last week before the Bowling Green series, we said, ‘OK we’ve got four weekends in a row of conference play here. Each of them means so much.’ And so you have to go into each weekend focusing on, ‘OK, we got to win this game, and then from there, win the second one,’” Kotai said. “It just comes down to, when you get to playoffs, you want to have that home ice advantage. So it makes a huge difference. There’s definitely that emphasis and intensity and like how we approach those CCHA games.”

The Vikings host fifth-place Lake Superior State this weekend before traveling to Minnesota State next week. Their final conference series is against Michigan Tech in Sioux Falls on Feb. 14-15.

This Week in ECAC Hockey: Improving Harvard squad aiming for more ways to ‘close out games on our toes, not on our heels’

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Sean Keohane rips a shot from the blue line for Harvard during a recent game (photo: Harvard Athletics).

The dog days of college hockey’s regular season usually hit around January’s latter weeks.

Conference tournament races are well-shaped for teams facing postseason contention, and even the national picture within the Pairwise Rankings won’t shift frequently after results between its highest contenders. Everything is starting to fall into place for February’s mad dash to the playoffs, but it’s still far enough away for obligatory matchups that don’t move too many needles.

The Northeast historically bucked that trend by installing several infamous rivalries along the stretch of calendar leading directly into the playoffs. Historic matchups between longtime rivals dot ECAC Hockey in particular, and the high likelihood of a dramatic ending or weirdly unprecedented finish helps build a league race increasingly centered around its emerging parity.

For the Harvard Crimson, late-season hockey is exactly the perfect time to begin moving along those story tracks. The team representing arguably the world’s most famous university still isn’t tracing the steps from its more recognizable finishes within the territory of NCAA Tournament at large teams, but the dark horse status behind the first-place teams is starting to move its way towards Cambridge as the program’s battle-tested growth barrels into one of the nation’s most famous college hockey tournaments.

“There are certain details and fundamentals that allow you to play winning hockey,” explained Harvard coach Ted Donato. “I think we’ve done a better job of staying away from a costly penalty or a costly turnover. We want to close out games on our toes, not on our heels, and we want to continue to be aggressive, but we also recognize that we have to do a good job defending, so we don’t give up outnumbered rushes and power plays at crucial times during the games.”

The Beanpot is not a run-of-the-mill midseason tournament for its four schools, but the buildup to playing its first round requires a balancing act unlike anything else in college hockey. The pre-tournament media event from this past Monday, for example, brought the four coaches together under a single roof for the first time since last year’s Beanpot, and throngs of media quenched a Beanpot thirst by putting representatives under isolated microscopes as questions about playing at the famed TD Garden began flying.

Yet for all four schools, the days ahead of the Beanpot aren’t exactly loaded with pre-tournament preparation. Harvard, for example, has a scheduled game against Princeton on Friday night before playing Boston University in Monday’s first round, and the three possible points from a home game against the Tigers are more critical to the Crimson’s postseason hopes than the matchup with the Terriers.

“Our guys are pretty focused on Friday night,” said Donato. “I think we’d be lying if we didn’t say that we weren’t excited about the opportunity that’s ahead, playing in the Beanpot, but there’s a lot of respect in our locker room for Princeton. We played them in the playoffs last year, and we played them earlier in the year in a game that went to overtime. There’s a real understanding that it’s important to stay focused and play our best hockey because we’ll need to have success against Princeton.”

Harvard’s 12-7 record in its final game between the Beanpot illustrates the criticality of that point. With the exception of the COVID-19 season that canceled both Harvard and the Beanpot in 2021, the Crimson rode a six-game winning streak ahead of consecutive losses to Quinnipiac in 2023 and 2024, and they’ve rarely been on the receiving end of a losing streak longer than a couple of games. The 2010 and 2011 losses to Princeton and Yale aside, 2013 and 2015 results against Union and RPI built a 3-5 record dating back to a 2008 loss to Brown.

Claiming those league points is paramount, and this year’s ECAC race is much tighter and much more compact than how previous seasons presented themselves. The three points from beating Colgate over this past weekend launched the Crimson into a sixth-place tie with Union, which was idle in league play while playing its non-conference Mayor’s Cup game against RPI, while preventing Cornell, which beat Harvard on Friday, from climbing closer after the Big Red dropped a 6-1 decision to second place Dartmouth.

Eleventh place Princeton, meanwhile, is a three-point swing away from gaining home ice in the first round, though the same three-point swing puts Harvard on a path towards a first-round bye after last year’s eighth place hiccup.

“This is a great group of guys that are committed to trying to improve and push each other to be their best,” said Donato. “We’ve seen bigger contributions throughout the lineup, and whether that’s lower down in the forward group or lower down in the defensive pairings, we’re very aware that we need everybody to have [our team] have sustained success. We need those contributions up and down the lineup, and I think we’ve started to see people grasp their roles and do things that allow us to have more success.”

None of the team’s numbers necessarily jump off the page, but Harvard’s success stems from its ability to play even-keeled hockey in any situation. From a pure rankings standpoint, the No. 33 scoring defense and No. 46 scoring offense wouldn’t translate to those even numbers, but the Crimson are averaging within one-third of goals scored versus goals allowed and are separated from opponents by less than a shot per game. They remain one of the nation’s least-penalized teams, but the number of penalties taken and number of faceoffs won all align with exactly how each game seemingly plays against them.

It’s almost uncanny how much there’s a yin to every yang on this team. Casey Severo’s team-leading eight goals totals half the number of league-leader Ayrton Martino, but a little under a dozen players have multiple goals on the stat sheet. Nine different skaters have positive plus-minus ratings, and both Aku Koskenvuo and Ben Charette have goals-against averages (2.80 versus 2.34, respectively) rivaling one another’s save percentage (.903 versus .926, also respective) and full save numbers (250 for Koskenvuo to Charette’s 275).

Whether or not that translates to a Beanpot win won’t become clear until next week, but Harvard ran top-ranked Boston College to the limit of its 3-1 loss from two weeks ago and previously shut out first-place Quinnipiac with a 3-0 win on the road. The six-point weekend over Brown and Yale got the team’s juices going in the right direction to start the second half of the year, and last weekend’s win over Colgate continued thrusting the Crimson forward with a game against Dartmouth lurking on the horizon between the two Beanpot weekends.

“We’ve certainly seen some improvement,” Donato said. “And I think we’re generating good zone time and good scoring chances. We’re trying to improve our special teams since it’s not where we want them to be. That would allow us to be more dynamic, and if we become more dangerous, particularly on the power play, there are positive signs that our best hockey could be coming.”

BRACKETOLOGY: Heading to February, surging UConn looking to solidify favorable spot in 2025 NCAA men’s hockey tournament

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UConn won both games last weekend at the annual CT Ice tournament (photo: UConn Athletics).

Welcome to Week 3 of Bracketology.

Each week from now until Selection Sunday, March 23, I will outline the current 16 teams in the Men’s NCAA Division I tournament and attempt to seed a bracket based on the current field.

This past weekend was majorly beneficial to one team: Connecticut. The Huskies won the Connecticut Ice tournament win regulation wins over Quinnipiac and Sacred Heart. The Quinnipiac win is considered a neutral-ice win, while the win over Sacred Heart is a road win as the games were played at Sacred Heart’s arena.

The Huskies two wins catapulted them all the way to the fourth spot in the PairWise, meaning that if the season ended today, UConn would be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. That’s remarkable when you consider that when the month of January began, UConn wasn’t even in the projected NCAA field (they were 18th in the PairWise on January 1.

UConn gained 14 spots by posting a 6-0-1 mark since the start of 2025. Absolutely remarkable.

All that said, here are the 16 teams who would qualify for the NCAA tournament if the season ended today:

1. Boston College*
2. Michigan State*
3. Minnesota
4. Connecticut
5. Maine
6. Western Michigan*
7. Denver
8. Providence
9. UMass Lowell
10. Boston University
11. Ohio State
12. Michigan
13. Quinnipiac*
14. Arizona State
15. Minnesota State*
16. Sacred Heart

* – Indicates team that currently has the top conference winning percentage in their respective conference. While each conference is awarded an autobid for its tournament champion, for the purposes of this exercise we will use the first-place team (based on winning %) to receive the autobid.

With the field of 16 in place, we can now seed the four regions using basic bracket integrity (1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15, 3 vs. 14, etc.).

1. Boston College
8. Providence
9. UMass Lowell
16. Sacred Heart

2. Michigan State
7. Denver
10. Boston University
15. Minnesota State

3. Minnesota
6. Western Michigan
11. Ohio State
14. Arizona State

4. Connecticut
5. Maine
12. Michigan
13. Quinnipiac

As a reminder and also for those who aren’t regular readers of Bracketology, there is one thing that the committee seems to avoid at all costs and that is first-round matchups between teams from the same conference. In the above bracket, we have one: 8 Providence vs. 9 UMass Lowell.

It is possible to make a swap of 9 UMass Lowell and 11 Ohio State that will clear up that interconference matchup. Another option of the committee would be to switch 8 Providence with 7 Denver. I tend to like to switch the the lower seed to reward the higher seed.

Making that swap we have the following four regional brackets:

1. Boston College
8. Providence
11. Ohio State
16. Sacred Heart

2. Michigan State
7. Denver
10. Boston University
15. Minnesota State

3. Minnesota
6. Western Michigan
9. UMass Lowell
14. Arizona State

4. Connecticut
5. Maine
12. Michigan
13. Quinnipiac

With this bracket in place, Let’s assign regions to each four-team group. When considering this, we must place host schools in the region they are hosting. Right now, none of the four hosts are in the field (New Hampshire, Bowling Green, North Dakota and Penn State). So that’s not an issue this week.

Boston College is the top seed and should play closest to home in Manchester, N.H. Michigan State is the second seed and the closest region is Toledo, Ohio, less than two hours from Lansing. Minnesota is the third overall seed and would head to Fargo, N.D., which leaves Connecticut to play in Allentown, Pa.

That gives us the following:

Manchester Region
1. Boston College
2. Providence
3. Ohio State
4. Sacred Heart

Toledo Region
1. Michigan State
2. Denver
3. Boston University
4. Minnesota State

Fargo Region
1. Minnesota
2. Western Michigan
3. UMass Lowell
4. Arizona State

Allentown Region
1. Connecticut
2. Maine
3. Michigan
4. Quinnipiac

Let’s look at how attendance should be in each region. Manchester is fine with BC, Providence and Sacred Heart. Toledo should be okay with both Michigan State, but having Denver, BU and Minnesota State isn’t the easiest travel for those fan bases. Fargo is a concern, though as we mentioned last week, Minnesota is one of the closest teams to Fargo not named North Dakota. Arizona State has a strong national fan base as well.

The concerning region remains Allentown. As we said last week, as long as Penn State doesn’t make the field, drawing in Allentown will be a struggle. UConn is about four hours away by car and Quinnipiac an hour closer. Maine travels well but not that well and Michigan, though a national presence, it’s hard to count on them to help with attendance.

Is there anything we can do? Not really. When we look at the 16-team field, we’re already sending two of the closest teams geographically to Allentown (UConn, Quinnipiac).

So with that, let’s leave this alone for this week.

Here is the final bracket:

Manchester Region
1. Boston College
2. Providence
3. Ohio State
4. Sacred Heart

Toledo Region
1. Michigan State
2. Denver
3. Boston University
4. Minnesota State

Fargo Region
1. Minnesota
2. Western Michigan
3. UMass Lowell
4. Arizona State

Allentown Region
1. Connecticut
2. Maine
3. Michigan
4. Quinnipiac

Last in: Arizona State, Michigan
First out: New Hampshire, Massachusetts**

** – Wisconsin ranks higher in PairWise but not tournament eligible right now as current record is below .500

Women’s Division I College Hockey: The PodKaz Episode 35 – Critical series ahead in ECAC Hockey and WCHA; St. Thomas has a breakthrough

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Nicole Haase and Todd Milewski from USCHO.com take a look at the last full weekend in January, when St. Lawrence and Clarkson couldn’t decide anything in a rivalry series, Long Island and Sacred Heart couldn’t decide anything at the top of NEWHA and St. Thomas removed the interim tag from coach Bethany Brausen after a program first.

The women’s goalie of the year award will be narrowed to 10 finalists soon, and we look at some of the top candidates and discuss how much the games played column matters.

This week’s Bracketology has a new look and a couple teams who might get on a bus rather than a plane.

And the look ahead to this weekend’s games starts with a series between No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Minnesota in Minneapolis.

The PodKaz is a production of USCHO.com. Have a question for our mailbag? Reach out to Nicole (@NicoleHaase) or Todd (@ToddMilewski) on social media or email [email protected].

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TMQ: Talking rare penalty in BC-BU game, postgame Dartmouth-Cornell scuffle, looking ahead to NCAA tourney possibilities

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Minnesota looks to be a lock to once again head to the NCAA tournament later this spring (photo: Jim Rosvold).

Each week during the season, we look at the big events and big games around Division I men’s college hockey in Tuesday Morning Quarterback.

Ed: Jim, we’ve covered the weekend’s events and the ins and outs of the PairWise in other columns and podcasts this week, so let’s look at some things that otherwise may have been missed.

Every season, the NCAA ice hockey rules committee designates points of emphasis that officials are expected to give more focus. Readers might remember the 2022-23 season in which one of the points was pregame and intermission protocols. Teams were starting games or periods with minor penalties for staying on the ice a second or two too long past the 23:00 mark before the start of the game, or for coming out of the tunnel a bit early or late.

I think everyone got the message that things had gotten a bit sloppy, but the enforcement struck me at the time as a bit nitpicky.

Ever since then, players and coaches have paid attention. Some players have even had a bit of fun with it, hopping off the ice with a second or so left after warmups. And I’ve seen a penalty assessed this year when a hyped-up rookie goaltender stepped out 15 seconds too soon.

So I expected that’s what happened at Boston College on Saturday night – something borderline – when Boston University was tagged with a protocol violation that put BC on the power play to start the game. It resulted in the game-winning goal by rookie phenom Teddy Stiga just 24 seconds into the contest.

But apparently what took place was a lot stranger than that. Fortunately for us, you were there on the television broadcast and saw it firsthand. What the heck happened?

Jim: You’re correct that this wasn’t your run-of-the-mill protocol violations. Boston University’s goaltender on Saturday was Mikhail Yegorov, a Russian-born rookie who officially joined the Terriers last Tuesday, a semester earlier than originally planned.

Yegorov was told Saturday morning he would get the start against No. 1 Boston College, BU’s archrival. Certainly, he was excited but he somehow entered the ice before the officials. Protocol calls for the officials to enter the ice with 39:00 left on the clock. The home team enters at 38:00 and the visitors at 37:50. Yegorov entered the ice 30 seconds before the officials and thus the penalty was awarded.

I don’t know what made Yegorov go out early. Certainly someone should have told him how things work. But the penalty, as strange as it was, was more costly than you could imagine, leading to the game’s only (non-empty net) goal.

Certainly not an everyday occurrence.

Ed: I’m glad that something else we don’t see every day is fighting at the end of the game.

Tempers flared at the end of Dartmouth’s 6-1 win over Cornell at Lynah Rink on Saturday. A frustrated, but not violent shove at the buzzer by a Cornell player on his opponent sparked a little scuffle behind the Cornell net that quickly dissipated. Dartmouth then skated away but gathered at the glass to celebrate in front of Cornell’s student section.

The Big Red, in home white, quickly skated over to the gathered Big Green and a few punches were thrown. Officials tried to separate the two teams and get the players off the ice. Coaches for both squads headed out into the melee, including Dartmouth’s Reid Cashman and Cornell’s Mike Schafer. Cashman was particularly animated, grabbing players and yanking them toward the door while yelling at them. Schafer, accompanied by associate head coach Casey Jones, also had heated words for the officials before leaving the ice. The ceremonial handshake was understandably dispensed with.

Both teams ended up with three fighting majors which are accompanied by automatic disqualifications, plus two roughing minors coupled with two misconducts.

A less chaotic but similar situation happened between Holy Cross and Air Force after their two-game series at the Academy last weekend. The box score seems to be missing a couple of penalties to go along with a DQ for each team. Neither conference has made public any further disciplinary action.

With a lot on the line at this time of year, it’s understandable that there would be high emotions. The tough part is that both Dartmouth and Cornell will be down three players as the Big Green welcomes Quinnipiac and Cornell heads to St. Lawrence.

Jim: I think you hinted at it: it is getting late in the season. Certainly, tensions can flare at any game, but when teams are possibly chasing their seasons and trying to win every possible game to help their status in the league and national standings, things can boil over.

What is too often forgotten is that a melee like we saw at Lynah on Saturday will have carryover effects. Obviously, both teams will be missing three players based on the assessed penalties alone that carry the automatic suspension. But I would be shocked if there weren’t additional actions from the league that could easily include additional suspensions or multiple game suspensions that would create longer impact.

The good thing is these are outlier events.

Changing the subject, I was taking a deep dive into the PairWise this morning in order to write this week’s Bracketology column. It struck me that there aren’t that many more weekends for things to change, which means the current PairWise likely represents a large portion of what will be the NCAA field.

Something that stands out is that three of the six conferences are likely to only place one team each in the tournament. Atlantic Hockey America, the CCHA and the ECAC all currently have just a single bid. Quinnipiac is the highest ECAC team and is barely inside the bubble. Minnesota State in the CCHA is below the bubble as is Sacred Heart, though AHA will only get one team no matter what else happens.

It is mathematically possible for the ECAC and CCHA to place a second team in the NCAA field, but it is statistically unlikely.

So what does this say about the six conferences? Is the parity that we love to preach every season something that even exists? Or is this season just an aberration?

Ed: I don’t know if it’s an aberration or not. But the whole thing comes down to one metric: a conference’s composite record out of conference.

The number of teams inside the bubble right now is about proportional to the record against other leagues and independents for Hockey East, Big Ten, and NCHC. Even the NCHC is looking like only two or three teams in the NCAAs unless there is an upset in the league championship.

The Big Ten leads D-I men’s hockey with a nonconference winning percentage of .743 and winning records against everyone else. Hockey East is not far behind at .716. The NCHC is below its usual pace and the three leagues you mentioned likely to have single bids are all below .500 against the rest of D-I. Worst of those three is AHA, which had been improving year after year but took a big step back this season.

Is this just a blip? I don’t know. Atlantic Hockey had its cookie jar raided in the offseason by the transfer portal. Last year’s regular-season and conference champions, Rochester Institute of Technology, lost three of its returning leading scorers and an all-conference goalie to the portal and have slid from first to 10th in the standings.

So it does seem like a have and have not situation that has benefited the bigger programs. Will the influx of major junior players offset that? Some have said so, but it remains to be seen.

Do you have a hunch on this? Are we seeing the end of parity, or is this just an off year?

Jim: Every time that I begin to worry about parity, things seem to settle. I thought in the 90s and 2000s that there were only a handful of programs that could win. Then Minnesota Duluth, Yale and Union all win national titles.

Then end of 2010s into this decade, we thought only the Big Ten or NCHC would win and UMass and Quinnipiac each shock the world.

Quinnipiac was just a couple of years ago, so we maybe aren’t in a world of hurt, but if we end up with the deepest player pool ever this summer because of the CHL and other factors, I will choose to stay positive and think this will be a good thing to help maintain parity.

Then again, it may just be wishful thinking.

St. Thomas removes interim tag, names Brausen, ‘one of the best emerging coaches in women’s college hockey,’ head coach of Tommies

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Bethany Brausen celebrates the Tommies’ 3-2 win over No. 4 UMD last Thursday evening (photo: Kylie Macziewski).

St. Thomas has announced that Bethany Brausen will be the next head coach of the Tommie women’s hockey program.

Currently the interim head coach, Brausen led St. Thomas to its first sweep of a top-5 program this past weekend over then-No. 4 Minnesota Duluth and has played an integral role in the Tommies’ Division I transition.

“Bethany Brausen has demonstrated an alignment with our athletics and institutional values and is committed to the pursuit of comprehensive excellence,” said St. Thomas VP and director of athletics Dr. Phil Esten in a statement. “I am thrilled to introduce Bethany as our new women’s hockey head coach as she has established herself as one of the best emerging coaches in women’s college hockey. Coach Brausen’s leadership over the last four years has made me confident that she is the right person for the job, especially as we enter a new era of Tommie hockey.

“I am confident she will lead St. Thomas women’s hockey with poise and uphold the core values of Tommie athletics at the highest level.”

Brausen brings a wealth of experience to the head coaching roll, serving as St. Thomas top assistant, active head coach and interim head coach since joining the program in 2021. In her first three seasons, the Tommies rose from eighth to sixth in the WCHA standings, earning wins over ranked opponents in both 2022-23 and 2023-24. With Brausen on the bench, St. Thomas earned its first ever win over a top-10 opponent, a shootout victory over then No. 7-ranked Minnesota Duluth, in 2022-23, and defeated No. 9 St. Cloud State in 2023-24 for its first regulation win over a nationally ranked opponent.

“It is both an immense honor and one of the greatest privileges of my professional career to be named the head coach of the women’s hockey program at the University of St. Thomas,” said Brausen. “Our program is uniquely positioned within the landscape of women’s college hockey to offer an unparalleled academic and athletic experience—one that stands apart from any other institution in the country.

“At every level of our organization, from staff to student-athletes, we are committed to fostering a values-based culture grounded in gratitude, commitment, and integrity. We will lead with purpose in every facet of our daily lives, striving for excellence both on and off the ice. Our program will embody a relentless pursuit of success, ensuring that our student-athletes are equipped to thrive in all aspects of their future endeavors.”

Prior to joining St. Thomas, Brausen was an assistant coach at Minnesota. She joined the coaching staff in 2016-17 after competing for the Gophers from 2010 to 2014. Brausen’s resume also includes stops at some of the top prep programs in the state of Minnesota, including Breck High School, Minnesota’s Elite League and OS Hockey. She also has ties to the NHL. In the summer of 2023, Brausen joined the Boston Bruins development camp coaching staff as part of the NHL Coaches’ Association Diversity Guest Coach Program.

Brausen’s playing resume is equally impressive. A four-year letter-winner and two-time captain with the Gophers, Brausen led Minnesota to back-to-back national championships in 2012 and 2013 and was a member of the Gophers national runner-up team in 2014. She helped Minnesota to a 139-17-5 (.879) record during her career, including an NCAA-record 62-game winning streak. Minnesota won three-straight WCHA Final Faceoff titles Brausen’s sophomore, junior, and senior years and earned two WCHA regular-season titles during her time. A three-time WCHA scholar athlete, academic all-WCHA, and academic all-Big Ten honoree, Brausen played 161 career games, recording 51 points on 16 goals and 35 assists for the Gophers.

“I would like to express my sincere gratitude to President Vischer and Dr. Phil Esten for entrusting me with this incredible opportunity,” said Brausen. “Their unwavering support and commitment to the growth and success of our program, as well as to the broader athletics department, is unparalleled. I am both honored and humbled to lead our program towards a culture of competitive excellence as we move towards a promising future.”

Boston College earns 42 first-place votes, stays No. 1-ranked team in Jan. 27 USCHO.com Division I Men’s Hockey Poll

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Top-ranked BC swept BU in a home-and-home series last weekend (photo: Meg Kelly).

With 42 first-place votes this week, Boston College retains the No. 1 ranking in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Hockey Poll.

Michigan State, with seven first-place votes, stays No. 2, while Western Michigan has the last first-place vote and is again third in the poll.

USCHO.com Division I Men’s Hockey Poll – Jan. 27, 2025

Minnesota, Denver, Maine and Providence are still ranked fourth through seventh, respectively, UMass Lowell is up four to No. 8, UConn is up four to No. 9, and Boston University drops two spots to sit 10th in this week’s rankings.

Ohio State falls out of the top 10, going from ninth to 11th, while Michigan drops from No. 10 to No. 13.

Wisconsin (17th), Augustana (19th) and UMass (20th), all unranked last week, are ranked this week.

In addition to the top 20 teams, 13 others received votes in this week’s poll.

The USCHO.com Division I Men’s Hockey Poll is compiled weekly and consists of 50 voters, including coaches and media professionals from across the country. Media outlets may republish this poll as long as USCHO.com is credited.

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