Monday 10: Cornell breaks out offense, Michigan sweeps Penn State, top-ranked St. Cloud falls in OT, Canisius gets first sweep

Cornell celebrates one of its 11 goals against Rensselaer last Saturday at Lynah Rink (photo: Eldon Lindsay/Cornell Athletics).

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

1. Second-ranked Michigan stays hot, sweeps No. 19 Penn State on road

After splitting two series to end October, Michigan has now swept two to start November.

The Wolverines downed Penn State 5-1 on Thursday and completed the sweep by winning 6-2 on Saturday.

Matty Beniers had two power play goals in Thursday’s contest and Luke Morgan, Johnny Beecher and Garrett Van Wyhe also chipped in. Luke Hughes scored twice on Friday, where the Wolverines also got goals from Beniers, Brendan Brisson Thomas Bordeleau and Owen Power.

Erik Portillo was solid in both contests, stopping 33 shots on Thursday and 35 on Friday. The Wolverines welcome Notre Dame to Ann Arbor next weekend.

2. No. 3 Minnesota State throttles Bowling Green on Friday, finishes  sweep Saturday

Minnesota State must have not enjoyed getting upset at Ferris State last weekend, as it took out its aggression on Bowling Green at home this weekend. The Mavericks downed the Falcons 9-2 on Friday and won 5-3 on Saturday.

Junior forward Cade Borchardt had a hat trick in Friday’s game and Ryan Sandelin scored twice. The Mavericks also got goals from Sam Morton, Jake Livingstone, Nathan Smith and David Silye.

It looked to be more of the same on Saturday when Julian Napravnik, Ondrej Pavel and Lucas Sowder gave MSU a 3-0 lead after one period, but Taylor Schneider and Nathan Burke scored for the Falcons in the second to cut the lead to one goal. The team traded goals in the third period before Morton put the game out of reach with about five minutes left in the third.

Minnesota State and St. Thomas will play a home-and-home series this Thursday and Saturday. Bowling Green will host Lake Superior State.

3. No. 11 Omaha battles back for OT victory over No. 1 St. Cloud State

After St. Cloud State won 5-1 on Friday, Omaha found itself trailing 1-0 after one period on Saturday thanks to a goal by Jack Peart. Nolan Krenzen leveled the score around the midpoint of the game and the Mavericks took their first lead of the weekend when Ty Mueller scored at the 8:39 mark of the third period. The Huskies leveled the score with a shorthanded goal by Kevin Fitzgerald with 5:19 left in regulation and that would be all the scoring until Taylor Ward gave the Mavericks the overtime winner at the 2:46 mark.

The loss doesn’t count as a full loss for PairWise purposes but, with both teams behind them sweeping, it’ll be interesting to see if the Huskies lose their top spot in the USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll this week.

4. No 13 Cornell finds its groove, hangs 11 on RPI

Offense was not in short supply for Cornell this weekend, with a 4-1 on victory over Union on Friday and a 11-3 drubbing of RPI on Saturday. The latter contest was the first time Cornell had scored 11 goals since 1979.

The two teams did trade goals in the first period, with Ben Bernard scoring for Cornell and Rory Herrman leveling things up for RPI, but that was as close as it’d get for the Engineers. Ben Tupker, Max Andreev, Ondrej Psenicka, Andreev and Zach Tupker scored the next five goals of the game for Cornell. Andreev completed his hat trick in the second period and added a fourth in the third period, Tim Rego, Matt Steinburg also scored for Cornell.

5. Boston University has positive weekend vs. No. 8 Massachusetts

It had been a struggle, to say the least, over the past couple weekends for Boston University. The Terriers has lost five of their last six but avoided a loss against UMass this weekend. The two teams tied on Friday and BU pulled out a 4-3 overtime victory on Saturday.

Friday’s game featured three goals in the first, Reed Lebster and Garrett Wait scored for UMass and Case McCarthy for BU. Dylan Peterson leveled the contest at the 12:13 mark of the second period and that did it for the scoring.

The Terriers took a 2-0 lead on Saturday, but gave up an even-strength, power-play and shorthanded goal to find themselves down by one in the third period. Ty Gallagher tied the game at the 6:30 mark of the third period and McCarthy netted the overtime winner at the 3:29 mark.

Boston University plays a home-and-home series with Northeastern next weekend.

6. No. 4 Minnesota Duluth cruises on Friday, can’t find any offense on Saturday

Maybe this is proof that one game doesn’t always necessarily carry over to the next. Minnesota Duluth had no problem with Colorado College on Friday, winning 5-0, but neither team could find the back of the net in Saturday’s contest.

Koby Bender, Noah Cates, Casey Gilling, Owen Gallatin and Blake Biondi scored for the Bulldogs on Friday. Saturday, it was all about the goaltenders. Matt Vernon made 30 saves for the Tigers and Ryan Fanti had 26 for UMD.

The Bulldogs travel to North Dakota next weekend and CC will take a weekend off.

7. No. 18 Ohio State rallies to down No. 6 Minnesota, Gophers salvage split Saturday

For about 24 minutes of Friday’s contest, all was looking well for the Gophers. They were leading 3-0 thanks to goals by Jack Perbix and Ben Meyers in the first period, but Ohio State started to turn the game around early in the second. Jake Wise and Patrick Guzzo scored in the middle period to cut the Gophers’ lead to one and Gustaf Westlund tied the game early in the third before Joe Dunlap potted the game-winner with 10 minutes left in the game.

The Gophers nabbed the lead again on Saturday with a late first-period goal from Jonny Sorenson. This time they held on as Matthew Knies doubled the lead with a power-play goal in the third and Jack LaFontaine stopped all 13 Ohio State shots.

8. Canisius picks up first sweep of season

Of the three conference series in Atlantic Hockey this weekend two ended in splits, but Canisius was able to pick up its first sweep of the season.

The Golden Griffins downed RIT 5-2 on Friday at home and followed that up with a 4-1 victory on Saturday.

Friday’s game was al teams display as six of the seven goals scored were via the power play. The one that wasn’t was a late shorthanded goal by Keaton Mastrodonato to give Canisius its fifth goal. Jackson Decker, Lee Lapid and Max Kouznetsov also scored for the Golden Griffins.

Canisius kept the special teams vibe alive on Saturday when Ryan Miotto scored a shorthanded goal to go up 1-0 and Austin Alger doubled the lead with a power play goal. RIT’s Elijah Gonsalves scored a very late power-play goal to ruin the shutout for Jacob Barczewski, who had 28 saves.

9. Bemidji State sweeps at Lake Superior State

Bemidji State had a rough go to start the season, going 1-3 against Minnesota Duluth and North Dakota, but the Beavers are now 5-1 since then after sweeping Lake Superior State this weekend. BSU won 5-4 on Friday and 4-2 on Saturday.

Alex Ierullo, Owen Sillinger, Lukas Sillinger and Tyler Kirkup scored goals for the Beavers on Friday night. The Lakers were able to erase a two-goal lead in the second period and were able to cut it close in the end but eventually ran out of time.

The Lakers took a 1-0 lead on Saturday thanks to goal from Cole Craft but BSU got the next three in the contest. Miroslav Mucha cut the BSU lead to one in the third period, but Owen Sillinger scored an empty netter to secure the sweep.

10. No. 15 Notre Dame too much for Wisconsin at home

Roman Ahcan scored a power-play goal at the 2:35 mark of Friday’s game, but that lead and any good feelings for the Badgers about the weekend would only last until early in the second period when Landon Slaggert evened the score at the 2:47 mark. From then on, it was all Notre Dame. The Irish took Friday’s contest 5-1 and picked up a 3-0 victory on Saturday.

Jesse Lansdell, Trevor Janicke and Max Ellis scored for Notre Dame on Friday night. Grant Silianoff, Nick Leivermann and Hunter Strand lit the lamp on Saturday while Matthew Galajda made 22 saves for the shutout.