Home is where the heart is
No. 1 St. Cloud State split with No. 10 Minnesota in a state rival series, with each team winning at home. On Saturday in front of a sold-out crowd of 5,714 at Herb Brooks National Hockey Center, the Huskies emerged with a 5-2 win in a game that marked the return of coach Bob Motzko to the team after his absence with Team USA at the World Junior Championship. After falling behind 1-0, the Huskies reeled off four goals, with Blake Winiecki starting the barrage. Mikey Eyssimont assisted on that power-play goal, and then Eyssimont scored just 40 seconds in the second period. Eyssimont also scored just 1:27 into the third to put St. Cloud up 4-1. Goalie Jeff Smith made 21 saves in the win.

Sunday on the road, St. Cloud fired 34 shots, but was blanked by goalie Mat Robson in Minnesota’s 2-0 win, which broke a five-game losing streak to the Huskies. Darian Romanko scored at 3:10 of the third period, and Mike Szmatula added insurance at 19:21. The Huskies have had success of late against the Gophers, as has fellow NCHC team Minnesota Duluth. Since the 2013-14 season, when the Gophers won twice against St. Cloud, including in the NCAA tournament quarterfinals on March 30, 2014, St. Cloud had won five of the last six between the two entering the weekend, and the Huskies had swept the Gophers each of the last two years. Duluth meanwhile, has won eight straight against the Gophers, including the win earlier this year.

Miami moving up
With a split with No. 4 Denver, the Miami RedHawks have vaulted into fifth place in the conference. Goaltender Ryan Larkin made 44 saves in Friday’s 4-3 win over the Pioneers, where Denver gave up a goal just 1:10 into the game and never quite recovered. Larkin has a history of playing well against the Pioneers, as last season in Denver he helped Miami earn two ties, keeping Denver to three goals in two games. Miami got two goals on the power play in the third period to prevent Denver from rallying, including one from Casey Gilling, who also opened the scoring for the RedHawks. Miami now has the fourth-best power play in the country, one that clicks at a 25.88 percent success rate. Also important to Friday’s win was Miami’s penalty kill, which is 16th in the country with an 83.52 percent success rate. Miami killed off five Denver power plays.

Denver continues to struggle with consistency. The power play, which is eighth in the country, could only get one goal in 10 chances total. Defensive lapses continue, as in its two Friday games of the second half, Denver has given up seven goals. Also of note are the ongoing offensive struggles of Troy Terry, who had an assist in each game. Since the beginning of December, Terry has a goal and three assists in 10 games, well down from his usual scoring prowess.

Omaha starting strong in second half
In recent years, fans of the Omaha Mavericks were always waiting for “Swoonuary,” when the Mavericks would start to fade in the second half after a strong start in the first half. Dating back to the WCHA, Omaha failed to win a playoff series, and they have never advanced to NCHC Frozen Faceoff.

It’s still only January, but Omaha has shown life in the second half this season, starting 3-1, with all wins coming over ranked teams. This weekend’s road split with No. 6 North Dakota showed a little “Jekyll and Hyde,” but Friday’s 4-1 win showed a lot of positives for the Mavericks. After giving up a tying goal on a penalty shot in the first period, Omaha came out strong in the second with two power-play goals, one from Luke Nogard and one from David Pope. Evan Weninger made 34 saves, including one on a breakaway early in the third period when North Dakota was trying to rally.

Unfortunately for Omaha, Friday’s win was followed by a lackluster effort Saturday in a 7-0 loss. Kris Oldham made 25 saves in the loss, while the offense could only muster 15 shots on Peter Thome. The win was important for North Dakota, moving the Fighting Hawks into a tie atop the NCHC standings with St. Cloud State, though the Huskies have two games in hand.

It was a wild weekend in the ECAC as there was five overtime games. Quinnipiac defeated Colgate 4-3 on Friday night. St. Lawrence earned a 4-4 tie against Canisius also on Friday night.

Saturday, the remaining three OT games were even wilder. Henry Bowlby scored his second goal of the game with five seconds remaining in the extra session as Harvard defeated Union 4-3. It was Harvard’s only lead of the afternoon.

Up in Hanover, New Hampshire, Dartmouth College, jumped out to a 3-0 lead but needed to comeback to tie it up at five to force their game with Rensselaer into the extra session. Shane Sellar had the tying goal with 1:23 remaining in the game while Kevan Kilistoff had the game winner with 50 seconds remaining in overtime.

Down in Durham, New Hampshire, Brown scored four unanswered goals to earn a 4-4 tie with University of New Hampshire. Tyler Bird and Brent Beaudoin each had a goal and an assist for the Bears.

Colton Point doesn’t miss a beat; Fox gets some rest

Nearly 24 hours after winning a Gold Medal with Canada at the World Junior Championships, Colton Point returned to the Raiders’ net on Saturday evening where he stonewalled the Princeton Tigers with 37 saves in a 4-0 victory.

Its has been nearly a month since he was in Colgate’s net as he appeared in the contest against UConn on Dec. 8 where he allowed four goals in a 4-2 loss. He didn’t get much action while with Team Canada either in the past month in terms of game action. He only played 89 minutes in the games versus the CIS All-Stars during the Selection Camp. He only only appeared in one exhibition game where he played 40 minutes. He appeared in one game during the tournament making 20 saves in a 6-0 victory over Slovakia on Dec. 27.

He only missed one Colgate game while he was away and that was Friday’s game against Quinnipiac.

Adam Fox who played for Team USA didn’t suit up for Harvard on Saturday after winning a Bronze Medal Friday. Harvard coach Ted Donato said after the Union game because the minutes Fox logged at the World Juniors, he decided to give Fox the day off to recuperate.

St. Lawrence continues their unbeaten streak

After winning the Catamount Cup to start the second half the season, the Saints continued the momentum in a home series against Canisius. As mentioned above they skated to a 4-4 tie on Friday night.

Saturday night they earned their fourth victory of the season with a 4-1 victory to extend the unbeaten streak to four games

Mike Marnell has a six game point streak dating back to Dec. 8 against Clarkson. He has seven points in those six games. Joe Sullivan is riding a five game point streak dating back to Dec. 9.

St. Lawrence is still looking for their first victory in the ECAC and return to conference play this upcoming weekend as they travel to RPI on Friday and Union on Saturday night.