Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.
1. Sun Devils win Desert Hockey Classic
A week after winning the Adirondack Winter Invitational, Arizona State took another step towards an NCAA tournament bid as an at-large this weekend, earning its second-consecutive tournament win. The host Sun Devils beat Harvard 5-2 then topped Omaha 2-1 in overtime to win the Desert Hockey Classic in Tempe. Ryan O’Reilly scored three goals on the weekend and TJ Semptimphelter made 42 saves in the tournament while Kyle Smolen’s overtime game-winner helped the Sun Devils move up to No. 16 in the Pairwise rankings. ASU, now 16-3-5, has another prime chance to climb the Pairwise this upcoming weekend when they host Cornell for a series in Tempe.
2. Badgers keep rolling in B1G
It doesn’t seem that Wisconsin will be cooling down any time soon. The Badgers’ win streak reached nine following their sweep of Notre Dame in South Bend. On Friday night, Charlie Stramel scored the game-winner right minutes into the third period to lead Wisconsin to a 2-1 victory. Saturday’s game had a few more twists and turns. Although the Badgers led the whole way–including 5-1 early in the second period–the Irish didn’t back down and eventually scored the next three goals to cut Wisconsin’s lead to 5-4 at the end of the second. However, Ben Dexheimer gave the Badgers some insurance eight minutes into the third and Carson Bantle scored an empty-netter to make it a 6-4 final. The sweep put Wisconsin atop the B1G standings, and UW’s win streak is its longest since 1989-90.
3. Atlantic intrigue
The top of Atlantic Hockey isn’t separated by much. Coming into the weekend, idle RIT sat atop the league standings. But following last week’s results, the top three slots in the league are separated by just three points. Sacred Heart, who split with Mercyhurst, leapfrogged RIT to (at least temporarily) move into first place with 28 points. RIT–who beat Clarkson and tied with St. Lawrence in some nonconference games on the weekend–has 27 points. Meanwhile, American International earned just two points on the weekend, winning a shootout against Holy Cross on Friday but falling to the Crusaders on Saturday; the Yellow Jackets have 25 points in third. All this is to say: don’t expect more clarity on how AHA plays out anytime soon.
4. Maine rallies for tie, keeps streak alive
Seventh-ranked Maine rallied from a three-goal deficit against Colgate on Saturday night to avoid defeat and keep their unbeaten streak to eight games. The Black Bears–currently No. 3 in the Pairwise–beat Colgate 3-1 on Friday behind goals from Bradly Nadeau, Harrison Scott and Ryan Hopkins. However, Colgate came out swinging on Saturday. The Raiders scored the game’s first three goals–including a strike from Brett Chroske just 59 seconds in–but Maine kept chipping away. Donavan Villeneuve-Houle helped them get one back later in the first, then Thomas Freel scored twice in the final minute of the second to tie it at 3-all. Chorske gave the Raiders the lead early in the fourth, but the Black Bears had a final answer in the form of Sully Scholle, who scored with less than five minutes to play to tie it up. The teams skated to a scoreless overtime to help Maine, now 13-3-2, earn the tie. The Black Bears are currently third place in Hockey East and return to league play next week with a series against UConn.
5. North Dakota sweeps Alaska
After an uncharacteristic three-game losing streak (all in overtime, North Dakota got back on track with a sweep of Alaska in Grand Forks. The Fighting Hawks netted six goals in each game. Riese Garber and Owen McLaughlin scored three goals on the weekend while Hunter Johannes and Cameron Berg both had two. UND finished its nonconference season at 9-2-0 as they move into the second half of the NCHC season; they are just four points behind NCHC leaders St. Cloud State. Alaska, meanwhile, saw its hopes of an at-large NCAA bid take something of a hit with the losses. The Nanooks are currently No. 21 in the Pairwise and their opportunities to move up will be limited from this point on; their two series against Arizona State are the only ones left against a team ranked higher than them in the Pairwise.
6. Nonconference sweeps for UNH, Western, Denver
Aside from North Dakota, a number of other top-15 Pairwise teams managed to sweep their non-league opponents to open 2024. Western Michigan traveled to Lindenwood and won twice; they scored twice in the third period Friday to win 3-2 before taking the series finale 6-1. WMU, now up to 10th in the Pairwise, had already defeated the Lions twice in Kalamazoo back in December. Meanwhile, Pairwise No. 8 Denver took it to Niagara, winning 5-2 and 6-1 in Colorado. Finally, New Hampshire topped Princeton in back-to-back games, winning 5-2 and 3-1 at home in Durham. The Wildcats’ 11-5-1 start to the season is their best since 2012-13; they are currently No. 12 in the Pairwise.
7. Wild win for Penn State
Down four goals early through the second period, Penn State seemed outmatched against Army West Point. The Black Knights led the Nittany Lions led 6-2 after Max Itagaki’s tally five minutes into the middle frame. However, Penn State managed to overturn that deficit and complete the largest comeback in program history. PSU scored twice in the second to make it 6-4 going into second intermission, and then the Nittany Lions scored twice in the first three minutes of the third to tie it up. Aiden Fink scored what would prove to be the game-winner midway through the third period.
8. Quinnipiac settles for tie with Northeastern
Quinnipiac saw a goal by defenseman Cooper Moore overturned late in the third period after Northeastern challenged for interference, and the two teams eventually skated to a 3-3 tie in overtime. Moore had scored his first goal as a Bobcat earlier in the game, and the teams went back-and-forth the entire contest. Victor Czerneckianair and Charles-Alexis Legault also scored for the Bobcats, while Vinny Borgesi, Jack Williams and Dylan Hryckowian scored for Northeastern. The Bobcats (13-4-2) sit at No. 5 in the Pairwise and return to ECAC play next week with a series against Princeton.
9. Minnesota State back above .500
It’s no secret that CCHA teams have been struggling this season. Only two teams are currently above the .500 mark, and both are just barely there. One of those teams, Michigan Tech, is currently 9-8-4 following their win in the Great Lakes Invitational the previous week. The other team above the .500 mark is Minnesota State, who got there this past weekend following a nonconference series against future league rival Augustrana. The Mavericks, now 9-8-3, scored twice in the third period of Friday night’s game in South Dakota for a hard-fought 3-3 tie. The Mavericks also needed some late-period magic on Saturday, netting two goals in the final frame to win 2-1. Sam Morton, the CCHA’s leading goalscorer, had one in each game. Morton has 15 goals and is third on the national leaderboard behind Denver’s Jack Devine and Western Michigan’s Dylan Wendt.
10. CC upsets Minnesota
We don’t usually have late Sunday night games to write about when we are working on these columns. However, there was one matchup last night that raised enough eyebrows to mention. No. 20 Colorado College – ranked for the first time in 11 years – traveled to Minneapolis to play Minnesota for the first time since the dissolution of the old WCHA. And the Tigers, behind two goals by Bret Link and 33 saves by Kaidan Mbereko (and despite two goals by Gophers star forward Jimmy Snuggerud), managed to knock off the Gophers 6-4. It was CC’s third-straight win over an opponent in the top 10 of the Pairwise, as they swept North Dakota in Grand Forks to close out 2023. The teams return to 3M Arena at Mariucci for the finale of this odd Sunday-Monday series tonight in Minneapolis.
