Monday 10: Another No. 1 falls, Notre Dame takes five of six, North Country teams fall to Quinnipiac, tight Atlantic Hockey race

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Notre Dame earned a win and a shootout win over the weekend on home ice over Ohio State (photo: Notre Dame Athletics).

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

1) Wisconsin earns a split with Minnesota

It seems we can’t go many weekends without the No. 1 in the USCHO Men’s Division I poll getting at least one loss. After a 4-1 loss to the visiting No. 1 Golden Gophers on Friday, the Badgers came back to split the series 3-1 on Saturday.

Minnesota scored first, but a late first-period goal by Cruz Lucius and goals by sophomore Daniel Laatsch and junior Carson Bantle four minutes apart in the second gave the Badgers the victory in front of a season-high 11,705 fans at the Kohl Center.

Minnesota still needs at least a point against Penn State next weekend to clinch the Big Ten.

2) Quinnipiac sweeps in ECAC hockey’s North Country

The longest road trip the Bobcats have in the ECAC each season is to northern New York to face Clarkson and St. Lawrence. No. 2 Quinnipiac not only swept the weekend, but didn’t give up a goal.

The Bobcats followed a 3-0 win at Clarkson on Friday with a 5-0 victory over St. Lawrence on Saturday.

It’s the first time the Bobcats have swept shut out opponents on a weekend this season. Yaniv Perets’ eighth shutout ties him for second with Michael Garteig’s 2015-16 total but the sophomore has Quinnipiac’s single-season record with 11 last season. But his 19 career shutouts now matches Garteig’s career record.

The Bobcats have clinched a first round bye in the ECAC playoffs and can cement first seed next weekend.

3) A thriller at Little Caesars

Michigan picked up five of six points against Michigan State in games at Munn on Friday and in downtown Detroit on Saturday, keeping the Wolverines still in the hunt for the top spot in the Big Ten.

After a 4-2 Michigan win on Friday, in a game in which the Spartans outshot the visitors 32-28 and the two teams combined for 105 penalty minutes, it would take 4:59 of overtime on Saturday for things to be settled in the “Duel in the D.”

The teams had returned to four-on-four after a pair of penalties had expired in OT before Luke Hughes buried a shot that went in and out of the net.

Michigan travels to Ohio State’s Schottenstein Center before the teams play outdoors on Saturday in Cleveland for the “Faceoff On The Lake.”

4) Nothing is mathematically settled in the NCHC

Despite 5-3 and 5-2 wins over North Dakota over the weekend, Denver still hasn’t clinched a top-four home-ice spot in the standings in the NCHC, though at least a point this coming Friday against Minnesota Duluth will guarantee at least fourth.

Denver opened up a 3-0 lead on Saturday with three consecutive powerplay goals.

“It was good to win games in two different ways,” said Denver coach David Carle after Saturday’s game. “Last night our five-on-five really excelled, and tonight, obviously, our special teams did.”

Western Michigan and St. Cloud were idle over the weekend.

5) Notre Dame takes five of six points

The Fighting Irish have been just outside the pile-up in the middle of the Big Ten standings and needed a strong weekend to get back into the mix for home ice. A 2-1 win over visiting Ohio State and a shootout win after a 2-2 tie Saturday have put Notre Dame into a three-way tie for third with Michigan State and the Buckeyes, though Ohio State and idle Penn State, a point behind, have a couple games in hand.

Nick Leivermann got the equalizer on Saturday while Notre Dame goalie Ryan Bischel made 49 saves.

6) After 70 years, finally Northeastern and Harvard

Northeastern and Harvard face each other for the first time in the Beanpot final tonight, and it only took until the 71st Beanpot final to get that matchup.

Northeastern comes into the game after a Friday 3-3 tie and shootout win over Providence in Hockey East, while Harvard picked up a 6-3 win at Dartmouth.

DraftKings has Harvard (-130) as a slight favorite over Northeastern (+100) with an over/under of 5.5 goals.

7) Elsewhere in Hockey East

Things are still not clinched for home ice in Hockey East, but three teams can get there next weekend, Boston University, Northeastern, and Merrimack.

BU and Merrimack, both idle over the weekend, face each other in a home-and-home series, while Northeastern has a single game at Vermont on Saturday.

UMass Lowell capped the weekend with a 1-1 tie and shootout win over visiting Maine, but it was a spectacular save by Maine’s Victor Ostman that preserved a tie.

8) First seed still up for grabs in the CCHA, but MTU clinches home ice

Michigan Tech’s weekend split with Bowling Green while Minnesota State was idle has clinched no lower than the second seed in the CCHA for the Huskies, while only Lake Superior State has been eliminated from a top-four spot.

9) Atlantic Hockey is a log jam

Rochester Institute of Technology came into its Thursday-Saturday weekend at Niagara with a chance to clinch the top seed, but fell short with a 4-3 loss in the first game and 4-1 on Saturday. The Tigers still need either two wins, a win and a Sacred Heart loss, or a pair of losses by the Pioneers to clinch first seed.

Sacred Heart came out of a three-game slide with a win over Air Force on Saturday, ending the Falcons’ four-game winning streak, while American International picked up two points with a shootout win in the backend of a home-and-home with Bentley, but can finish no higher than second in the conference.

RIT has Bentley and Air Force at home the next two weekends, while Sacred Heart travels to Canisius and AIC flies out to Air Force before the Pioneers and Yellow Jackets end the regular season with a home-and-home series.

With two weekends left, only Bentley has been eliminated from a top-four finish. Bentley and Air Force are battling against elimination, as only the top eight make the playoffs.

10) A trophy for Bob

Last Thursday, Atlantic Hockey announced that it was naming its regular-season trophy for retiring commissioner Robert DeGregorio.

I’ve known Bob for almost that whole tenure, and there’s something about him that critics who think the league hasn’t moved quickly enough probably don’t realize. DeGregorio has had to balance often differing interests between member institutions who wanted to stand pat – especially in the eastern part of the league – and those who wanted to move forward. A commissioner serves at the pleasure of the schools that make up the conference, and it’s no small task to navigate that.

Atlantic Hockey wouldn’t have 18 scholarships or several new or improved buildings were it not for the efforts of Bob DeGregorio. He leaves having seen the league grow from cost-containment to contender, and where Atlantic Hockey goes from here is only because a great foundation has been set.

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