Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.
It was the final weekend of 2023 but also the first weekend of the second half of the college hockey season. And there were plenty of highlights.
Here’s a look at 10 that stood out:
1. Tournament season returns in abundance
In-season tournaments have sadly been on the downswing in college hockey in recent years. That seems to be changing a bit this year. You had some of your traditional events returning – the Ledyard Bank tournament at Dartmouth, the Great Lakes Invitational at Michigan Tech. Wisconsin hosted the third version of the Kwik Trip Holiday Face-Off in Milwaukee. And the Adirondack Winter Invitational premiered in legendary Lake Placid, N.Y. Arizona State will host its tournament this coming weekend. It’s a good thing to see more in-season tournaments.
2. Wisconsin takes home hardware behind two blank sheets
Wisconsin’s first half success was one of the biggest surprises. And the Badgers picked up right where they left off, earning two wins in Milwaukee at the QuikTrip Holiday Faceoff to earn the title. Leading the way was goaltender Kyle McClellan who posted two shutouts, stopping 27 shots against Air Force and 28 against Northeastern to earn identical 3-0 victories. In the championship game, Simon Tassy scored all three goals for the Badgers.
3. Host Michigan Tech wins GLI in shootout
Certainly not many hockey purists enjoy seeing a tournament championship decided in a shootout, but that was the case for two of this weekend’s four in-season events, including the Great Lakes Invitational. Jack Works scored a hat trick in regulation against Michigan State in the but that wasn’t enough as the two clubs skated to a 3-3 tie through regulation. Ryland Mosley was the only player on the Huskies to score in the shootout. Goalie Blake Pietila stopped 54 shots in regulation and overtime and all three MSU skaters in the shootout.
4. Maine’s offense explodes to earn title at Dartmouth
One of the legendary holiday tournaments, Dartmouth’s Ledyard Classic (nee the Auld Lang Syne tournament), was dominated by a Maine offense that posted five goals on back-to-back nights to cruise to the tournament title. The Black Bears defeated RIT, 5-2, in the semifinals and host Dartmouth in the championship game, 5-1. Bradly Nadeau, Harrison Scott and Sully Scholle each potted two goals on the weekend as Maine rose to the No. 1 spot in the PairWise Rankings.
5. Arizona State rallies in semis, takes title in shootout in Lake Placid
The Sun Devils trip to the inaugural Adirondack Winter Invitational didn’t start well but the ending was as great as could be. Arizona State was down, 2-0, to Clarkson in the semifinal game of the tournament but rallied for five goals, four coming in the third period, to advance to the title game against Cornell. Against, Arizona State dug a 2-0 hole, but evened the game before the end of regulation and neither team scored in overtime, forcing another shootout. Kyle Smolen provided the only goal in the shootout to give the hardware to the Sun Devils. Arizona State has the chance to repeat that feat this weekend when they host UMass Lowell, Omaha and Harvard in the Desert Hockey Classic.
6. Providence breaks open deadlock to claim Mayor’s Cup over Brown
It’s not a holiday tournament, but the annual Mayor’s Cup clash between Providence and Brown, two schools located just miles apart, has become quite the tradition for these two schools. And behind three third period goals, Providence took home the trophy for the seventh time in eight seasons, 3-0. After two scoreless period, Chase Yoder broke the deadlock with 11:38 remaining. Taige Harding added an insurance tally and Craig Needham the empty netter. This was the 37th edition of the Mayor’s Cup.
7. Army West Point earns first win vs. ranked opponent since 2017
The start of the season was a difficult one for Army West Point, losing its first nine games of the season. But since the Black Knights earned their first win on November 18 against Canisius, things have been looking up. Army is 5-3-0 in its last eight games and on Friday pulled off an upset of No. 16 New Hampshire in front of a sold-out home crowd at Tate Rink. Barron Woodring notched two goals in a game where Army never trailed. It was the first win for the Black Knights over a nationally-ranked opponent since December 9, 2017, when they beat – you guessed it – New Hampshire, ranked 13th at the time, 4-3 in Durham.
8. Vermont runs winning streak to five with sweep of St. Thomas
Hockey East has been one of the hottest conferences in college hockey in the first half of the season with six teams currently inside the top 16 of the PairWise. But one team on the outside looking it, Vermont, might be the conference’s hottest team. The Catamounts swept St. Thomas this weekend, 5-1 and 4-1, to run their win streak to five games, the longest for the program since the 2016-17 season. Goaltender Gabe Carriere stopped 58 of the 60 shots he faced on the weekend.
9. Idle NCHC teams move up in PairWise
Despite many clubs being idle or playing exhibition games, the NCHC moved three teams into the top 10 of the PairWise as Western Michigan moved to 10th after a tie and overtime loss for Massachusetts at the Adirondack Holiday Invitational in Lake Placid. As we enter 2024, Hockey East has four teams in the top 10, the NCHC has three, the Big Ten has two and defending national champion Quinnipiac is the lone rep for the ECAC. There’s still plenty of hockey to be played, but teams in the top 10 on January 1 each year have a significant advantage to qualify for an NCAA bid.
10. Team USA earns top spot in Group B at WJC
Despite battling a stomach bug that is moving rapidly through the Team USA locker room, the American boys cruised to the top spot in Group B at the 2024 World Junior Championship being played in Gothenburg, Sweden. The US beat Norway (4-1), Switzerland (11-3) and Czechia (4-3 in shootout) to set up a New Year’s Eve battle with Slovakia for the top spot in the group. Boston College’s Ryan Leonard scored with 1:40 left in the second and that opened the floodgates. The US score the final seven goals of the game in a 10-2 victory. Michigan’s Gavin Brindley and Frank Nazar and BC’s Cutter Gauthier lead Team USA in scoring with eight points each through four games. Team USA will face Latvia in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.
