Colorado College rekindles the Gold Pan
Entering the weekend, Colorado College had lost 14 straight games to its in-state rival Denver. Seeing Denver hoist the national championship last season was extra mud in the eye. Friday at Denver, the Pioneers fell behind twice, but a late goal by Jaakko Heikkinen seemed to have Denver poised for a 15th straight win. However, CC’s Mason Bergh had other ideas. He scored with 6.8 seconds left, digging the puck out in the crease and firing it into the open net. While neither team scored in the OT, CC’s Christiano Versich scored on a power play during the 3-on-3 OT, earning the Tigers the extra conference point and setting loose a celebration for CC. The next night in Colorado Springs, CC carried a 1-0 lead into the third period thanks to the outstanding goaltending of Alex Leclerc, who made 37 saves, but Liam Finlay scored 17 seconds into the third period, and the game again finished in a tie. Finlay scored again in the 3-on-3 OT to give Denver the extra conference point.

The Gold Pan is awarded to the team that wins the season series. In recent years, Denver has owned it, and the rivalry has diminished, with fans not even paying much attention to it. If this is any indication, it’s heating up again thanks to a Tigers squad that is proving resilient and much better than expected. The Gold Pan does need to be won outright, so if Denver wins one of the two games between the teams in February, Denver will retain the award.

Miami breaks the aura
So far this season, Western Michigan has seemed like an almost unbeatable opponent at its home arena, Lawson Ice Arena, where they have scored goals in bunches. However, Miami, which has shown itself to be a solid team in recent weeks with wins over ranked teams like Cornell, may have burst that bubble just a little this weekend, winning convincingly Friday, 5-2. Gordie Green scored two goals and added an assist, and Josh Melnick had a goal and two assists, including the game-winner at 13:20 of the second period with a snap shot right off a faceoff. Miami almost managed a sweep, leading 3-1 in the second period, but Wade Allison scored twice, including the goal to tie it with just over four minutes left in the game, and then scored the overtime winner at 3:53, which snapped a four-game losing streak, including two at Lawson. Miami meanwhile, is back at .500 overall and is climbing in the NCHC standings. The RedHawks are off till January, when they host Denver for a pair.

St. Cloud State moves into first
With a tie/shootout loss and then a win over No. 5 North Dakota on Saturday, the St. Cloud State Huskies continued their strong season and moved into sole possession of first place in the NCHC, three points ahead of North Dakota and four ahead of Denver and Western Michigan. The Huskies had a strong weekend overall, with solid defensive play. In Friday’s shootout loss, Jeff Smith made 30 saves., though twice North Dakota rallied from a goal down to earn the tie. Christian Wolanin scored on Smith in the shootout to earn the extra point for North Dakota. Saturday, St. Cloud scored three goals in the first 8:33 of the second period, with Mikey Eyssimont scoring twice. Jon Lizotte had two assists. Coach Bob Motzko started rookie Dávid Hrenák in net, and he responded with 34 saves in the win, moving to 4-1 on the year with a 1.40 goals-against average and .962 save percentage.

St. Cloud is done for the first half, and resumes play on Dec. 29-30 with a road trip to Princeton before a home-and-home with in-state rival Minnesota in the first weekend of January. The Huskies close the first half sitting atop the PairWise, and currently have the second toughest strength of schedule.

The Golden Knights continue to roll as they improved to 8-0-0 in ECAC play with a two game sweep against their rival St. Lawrence.

On Friday night in Potsdam, Clarkson came away with a 3-1 victory over the Saints in front of a packed Cheel arena. After St. Lawrence jumped out a 1-0 lead. Sheldon Rempal got the Golden Knights going in the second period with two goals on the power play.

Nico Sturm who assisted on both goals added a tally of his own in the third period with 36 seconds remaining in the game.

Saturday in Canton, Clarkson jumped out to a quick start as Rempal and Dylan Gareau scored in the opening four minutes in a 4-2 victory

Rempal is third in the scoring race in the nation with 16 goals and nine assists. His 16 goals lead the NCAA in that category.

Kevin Charyszyn scored early in the third to stretch the lead to 3-0.

The Saints showed some resilience as Joe Sullivan scored twice to cut the deficit to 3-2. The come back couldn’t be completed as Sturm added his second empty netter of the weekend.

Clarkson is off until Jan. 2 when they host Canisius while St. Lawrence tries to hit the reset button with a dismal first half along with the school investigating the hockey program. They return to action Dec. 29-30 at the Catamount Cup with games against Vermont and UMass-Lowell.

Hockey East bests ECAC this weekend

There were a few inter conference matchups between the two conferences this weekend and Hockey East came out on top with a 4-0-1 record.

There was one two game series as Quinnipiac hosted the Maine Black Bears and Rand Pecknold has to feel the Bobcats left two wins on the table. As the Bobcats Hockey Blog pointed out, this will be the first time since 2005-06 Quinnipiac will be below .500 to end the first half of the year. They currently sit 6-10-2.

Friday they jumped out to a 3-0 lead early in the first period before the Black Bears stormed back to a 7-4 victory which included a highlight reel goal by Eduards Tralmaks.

Saturday, it was Maine who let a multi goal slip away as they lead 3-1 in the third before Tanner McMaster scored twice to tie the game. Patrick Shea scored for Maine with 24 seconds left and Maine added an empty netter before the buzzer.

In the two games Quinnipiac out shot Maine 102-56 on the weekend.

McMasterbeen playing well the past couple weeks for the Bobcats with four goals in his past five games. He’s second on the team in scoring with eight goals and seven assists in 18 games.

Colgate continues to struggle to put pucks in the net as the fell to UConn 4-2 on Friday night. It’s been two weeks since they have potted more than two goals in a game.

Union suffered a 2-1 loss to UMass on Sunday. It was the second time the Dutchmen hosted the Minutemen this season as they dropped a 5-4 decision on Oct. 13.

Brown battled Vermont to a 2-2 tie on Saturday as the Bears couldn’t hold onto a lead as they lead 1-0 and 2-1. Gavin Nieto was given the night off in goal and freshman Luke Kania was solid making 34 saves to earn the tie.

Conference did a little better versus Atlantic Hockey teams

There were a few ECAC vs. Atlantic Hockey games this week and ECAC did a little better with a 2-2 record. Yale and Union picked up wins over Atlantic Hockey foes on Saturday night. Yale squeak out a 2-1 victory over in state rival Sacred Heart. Joe Snively had both goals for the Bulldogs.

The Dutchmen rallied past Holy Cross to win 4-2. The Crusaders went up 2-0 in the first period while Union did their damage in the second and third periods. Ryan Scarfo and Cale Maier each had a goal and an assist. Ryan Walker and Jack Adams.

Bentley had great success over ECAC opponents for the week. It started out with a win Wednesday night against Brown. They followed it up with a 5-1 win over Dartmouth on Saturday evening in Hanover.

The Big Green look to pick up their first win since Nov. 4 next weekend when they travel to Denver to take on the Pioneers.