Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our brand-new Monday 10 feature.
1. No. 3 Minnesota Duluth sweeps No. 1 Notre Dame
In a rematch of last year’s national championship game, Minnesota Duluth swept Notre Dame and now seems a near certainty to take over the top position in the polls.
On Friday, the Irish led 2-1 going into the third, but a pivotal Nick Swaney shorthanded goal at 12:37 evened it, and Dylan Samberg scored the game-winner with less than three minutes left.
One night later, no rally was needed. The Bulldogs took a 2-0 lead and went on to a 3-1 win.
2. No. 2 St. Cloud State also falls
St. Cloud travelled East with a perfect 4-0 record and on Thursday destroyed Boston College, 7-0. That perfection fell by the wayside, however, in a battle of Huskies vs. Huskies.
The mantra that stresses the importance of goals in the last minute (or two) of a period and the first minute (or two) of a period proved true and led to St. Cloud’s downfall.
The St. Cloud Huskies took a 2-0 lead, and carried that late into the second period. The Northeastern Huskies, however, rallied to get to within one in the final two minutes of the period, and tied it in the opening two minutes of the third. Grant Jozefek scored the game-winner at 13:35.
3. No. 15 Bowling Green crushes No. 4 Ohio State, 8-2
Bowling Green didn’t merely topple Ohio State, adding the Buckeyes to the list of fallen top teams. The Falcons took no prisoners.
In the road half of a home-and-home series, they scored the first seven goals of the game before Ohio State finally got on board. Special teams were the key. In building that 7-0 lead, the Falcons scored four power-play goals and one short-handed.
One night later, back at home, Bowling Green took a third of the four points up for grabs with a 2-2 tie.
4. Two Boston powers continue to struggle
This past week’s Hockey East column focused on Boston University and Boston College both opening with 0-3 records, something that has happened only once in their long, illustrious histories: 1933-34.
Well, it got worse this week. The two perennial powerhouses were outscored by a cumulative 12-0 to now stand at 0-4.
Boston College got shellacked by No. 2 St. Cloud, 7-0. For BU, it wasn’t much better, a 5-0 loss to No. 6 Providence.
5. Winless Rensselaer sweeps undefeated No. 11 Union
This home-and-home series looked like a serious mismatch before the weekend started. The Union Dutchmen were 3-0-1, including a road sweep of then-No. 12 Northeastern. Rensselaer, on the other hand, had lost all three of its contests.
A mismatch on paper.
Those expectations lasted for about 31 minutes. As expected, Union jumped out to a 2-0 first period lead, but Rensselaer had it tied up by halfway through the second and added two more in the third to take a lead it would not surrender.
One night later, the Engineers kept rolling, scoring twice in both the first and second periods to take a 4-0 lead en route to a 4-2 win.
The Rensselaer penalty kill was pivotal, holding Union off the scoreboard in 13-of-14 power plays.
6. With UNLV looking on, North Dakota vs. Minnesota draws over 7,000 to Vegas
If the University of Nevada-Las Vegas was using the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game to assess a possible move to D-I hockey, it got a great recommendation.
Excellent hockey. A sold-out Orleans Arena. And a great atmosphere.
North Dakota won the game, 3-1. The ultimate winner, though, may be college hockey.
7. The Ivies get off to a rough start
The Ivy League teams–Dartmouth, Yale, Cornell, Princeton, Harvard, and Brown–opened their seasons this weekend. It wasn’t a good start.
Dartmouth defeated Harvard, as did Yale to Brown, in the two intra-Ivy matchups. However, the Ivies lost all four of their nonconference contests. No. 8 Cornell got swept by Michigan State; No. 13 Princeton fell to No. 10 Penn State; and Brown lost to Vermont after its loss to Yale.
8. One Ivy got off to a great start
Although it was a tough start collectively for the Ivies, one particular Ivy got off to a great start.
Yale senior Joe Snively, the Bulldogs’ top scorer last year, scored twice in the first period to lead his team to a 3-2 win. The first goal came just 14 seconds into Yale’s season.
9. On Saturday, 60 minutes wasn’t enough
Seven games went to overtime on Saturday night. Five of them didn’t make it to 65 minutes.
Both Atlantic Hockey contests went to OT with Army defeating Mercyhurst, 3-2, and RIT beating Robert Morris, 2-1.
In the ECAC, Dartmouth and Harvard went into an extra frame with Dartmouth winning, 7-6.
All three Hockey East contests went to overtime. New Hampshire defeated Vermont, 3-2. Massachusetts beat Merrimack, 5-4. Maine and Connecticut settled for an atypical 2-2 tie.
The other tie came in the Bowling Green – Ohio Stat nonconference game, 2-2.
10. Shutouts and more in the WCHA
In the WCHA on Friday, three of the four contests were shutouts: Northern Michigan 3, Bemidji State 0; Minnesota State 4, Alaska 0; and Ferris State 4, Alaska Anchorage 0.
One night later, three of the league’s four winners held their opponents to only a single goal: Lake Superior 2, Alabama Huntsville 1; Minnesota State 3, Alaska 1; and Bemidji State 2, Northern Michigan.
Note: USCHO.com staffers Jayson Moy, Jack Hittinger, Nate Owen and Dan Rubin contributed to this edition of The Monday 10.
