Monday 10: No. 1 Boston College loses, Wisconsin sweeps Ohio State, Alaska keeps Governor’s Cup, Cornell looking for consistency

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Alaska’s Pierce Charleson gets ready for a shot from Alaska Anchorage’s Conor Cole during Saturday night’s game (photo: UAA Athletics).

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

1. Northeastern takes one from No. 1 Boston College

The last time Boston College was ranked No. 1, the Eagles split a pair of road games with Maine and were bumped out of the spot they’d held for two weeks.

After making their way to No. 1 three weeks later, the Eagles split a home-and-home series with Northeastern.

Trailing 3-0 after one in Friday’s 5-3 home loss, Boston College scored three goals in the second half of the second period to tie the game. In the third period, however, Cam Lund netted his second and third goals of the game to put Northeastern ahead. It was Lund’s second collegiate hat trick.

Boston College bounced back on the road Saturday, winning 3-1 on goals from Gabe Perrault, Will Smith and Lukas Gustafsson. Smith assisted on Perrault’s game-tying goal in the third period, as did goaltender Jacob Fowler, who made 25 stops in the win.

2. No. 2 North Dakota, No. 3 Denver split

Denver saw two solid leads evaporate with four third-period North Dakota goals in Friday’s 7-5 game. The Pioneers came from behind to beat the Fighting Hawks 3-2 in overtime Saturday and earn a split at home.

The Fighting Hawks had four goals on eight shots in the third period of their Friday win as Jackson Blake, Louie Jamernik V, Riese Gaber and Cameron Berg each found the net.

Trailing 2-1 in the game Saturday, the Pioneers tied it midway through the third on a goal by Zeev Buium. Buium also factored into the OT game-winner, skating into the North Dakota zone on a 2-on-1 with Massimo Rizzo. It was the third man in, Carter King, who picked up Rizzo’s rebound for the winning goal. Rizzo leads the nation in assists with 22.

Denver’s win stopped North Dakota’s eight-game win streak.

Both the Fighting Hawks and the Pioneers are chasing first-place St. Cloud State in the NCHC standings. With 18 points, second-place North Dakota is two points behind St. Cloud. In third place, Denver is seven points out of first and a point ahead of fourth-place Western Michigan.

There is a full slate of NCHC games this weekend before the midseason break, including Denver’s road trip to Western Michigan.

3. Terriers solidly on top

No. 5 Boston University solidified its place at the top of the Hockey East standings with a home-and-home sweep of Merrimack, extending the Terriers’ conference win streak to six games.

Shane Lachance had two goals in Friday’s 4-1 road win, including the second-period game-winner. In Saturday’s 5-2 win at home, Nick Zabaneh’s first goal of the season broke a 2-2 tie at 7:27 in the third.

Mathieu Caron had 45 saves in the two wins. The Terriers outshot the Warriors 71-46 in the two contests.

Heading into the midseason break, Boston University has 23 points in the HEA standings, seven more than second-place Boston College.

4. No. 5 Quinnipiac closes out first half strong

With a 5-1 win over Rensselaer and 5-0 win over Union, Quinnipiac finishes the first half nearly unblemished in ECAC play, earning 22 of 24 possible conference points and sitting on top of the league standings with a 7-0-1 record.

Colin Graf had the game-winning goal at 12:24 in the first period of the win over the Engineers. Christophe Fillion’s goal at 1:11 in the second Saturday was the winner against Union.

Vinny Duplessis made 23 saves in the shutout, his second of the season and the seventh of his career.

The defending national championship Bobcats are now 27-2-1 in their last 30 ECAC games dating back to last season.

5. No. 6 Wisconsin makes most of it

In Big Ten play, only No. 6 Wisconsin made a clean sweep of things, beating Ohio State 3-0 and 6-1 at home and narrowing the gap between the second-place Badgers and first-place Michigan State.

Eight different players scored in the series for Wisconsin with Cruz Lucius recording goals in each game.

In the 6-1 win, the Badgers scored goals five different ways: once even strength four-on-four, once even strength five-on-five, twice on the power play, once short-handed and one with a penalty shot.

Kyle McClellan made 29 saves in his third shutout of the season and stopped 60 in the series.

The six conference points bring the Badgers’ season total to 18 so far, one behind first-place Michigan State. In addition to gaining ground on the Spartans, who had a bye week, Wisconsin benefits from the two other Big Ten series splitting.

In Ann Arbor, Notre Dame beat No. 13 Michigan 6-1 Friday with the Wolverines winning Saturday’s game 2-1. On the road Friday, No. 7 Minnesota beat No. 18 Penn State, while the host Nittany Lions defeated the Golden Gophers Saturday, 6-3.

Tied with Notre Dame at the start of the weekend, the Badgers are now three points ahead of the third place Fighting Irish.

6. No. 16 Cornell still looking for some consistency

After a 4-0-1 start to the season, No. 16 Cornell is 2-4-0 in its last six games after having split a home-and-home series with Colgate.

The Big Red won the opener on the road Friday night, 4-2, before dropping Saturday’s game at home by the same score to the visiting Raiders.

Gabriel Seger led all Cornell players with two goals and two assists, all in Friday’s win.

Reid Irwin had the game-winner for Colgate at 1:16 in the third Saturday.

After the loss, Cornell coach Mike Schafer said, “I told the players after the game, it’s been so long since I’ve been this angry and disappointed. We talked about trying to grow as a hockey team, and we’ve made some good strides, and we reverted to some terrible habits tonight.”

7. Tigers keep goals coming

No. 19 RIT scored 10 goals in a two-game sweep of Robert Morris, outpacing the visiting Colonials 4-1 and 6-2.

The Tigers’ goals-per-game average increased from 3.33 to 3.57 with the wins. In the last 10 games, RIT has averaged 3.80 per contest.

In the 6-1 game, the Colonials took a 2-1 lead on Cade Townend’s power-play goal at 14:55 in the second, but Carter Wilkie’s goal 55 seconds later was the first of three the Tigers scored within the final five minutes of the period. Tyler Fukakusa’s goal at 16:59 held up as the game-winner, followed by Elijah Gonsalves’ goal at 19:09.

Three Tigers had multigoal weekends. Wilkie had a goal in each contest, as did Simon Isabelle. Philippe Jacques had two third-period goals in the 6-2 win.

RIT’s offense is tops in Atlantic Hockey and 10th nationally.

8. Alaska keeps Governor’s Cup for 13th season

With 5-0 and 3-1 road wins over Alaska Anchorage and after sweeping the Seawolves Nov. 3-4, Alaska has secured the Governor’s Cup for the 13th consecutive season.

Chase Dubois’ goal on the power play at 10:51 in the first period was the game-winner Friday night. Brady Risk had the first two goals for Alaska in the Saturday game.

Pierce Charleson, who spent his first three seasons with Michigan State, recorded his first shutout win Friday with 14 saves.

The Governor’s Cup, awarded annually to the Alaska team with the most wins over its in-state rival during a given season, originated in 1994.

9. Three periods, three goalies, zero wins

It’s been a tough season for Ohio State, a team still looking for its first conference win after being swept on the road by No. 6 Wisconsin, and nothing sums up how tough it’s been for the Buckeyes more than the box score in Saturday’s 6-1 loss.

Ohio State employed all three of its current goalies in the loss. Logan Terness started in net, allowing four goals on 17 shots through 26:35.

Reilly Herbst replaced Terness in net in the second and closed out that period, allowing two goals on six shots in just over 13 minutes of play.

Kristoffer Eberly played the entire third period, stopping all 10 shots he faced in the closing stanza. It was the freshman netminder’s collegiate debut.

Said coach Steve Rohlik, “We just didn’t play well tonight. It wasn’t our best effort. We got into penalty trouble and that put us in a tough position.”

Two of the goals that got past Terness came on the Wisconsin power play, and one of the two goals allowed by Herbst was scored four-on-four.

10. Two brothers, two hat tricks, second place

In No. 11 Maine’s 5-2 win over visiting New Hampshire, Josh Nadeau recorded his first career hat trick, including the game-winning goal at 18:32 in the second.

Not to be outdone, Bradley Nadeau – Josh’s younger brother – had a hat trick of his own in Sunday’s 7-3 win over Connecticut. Bradley Nadeau’s first career hat trick also included the game-winning goal, scored at 19:06 in the second period.

The brothers were each the first assist on the other’s hat-trick goals. So there’s that.

The two wins keep Maine in the hunt in Hockey East as first-half conference play comes to a close. Tied with No. 1 Boson College for second place in the HEA standings with 16 points each, the Black Bears and Eagles are seven points behind first-place Boston University.

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