Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.
1. No. 1 Boston College sweeps No. 8 Boston University in home-and-home weekend
Boston College took the only two Hockey East regular-season games against archrival Boston University in the Battle of Commonwealth Avenue, 6-2 at BU on Friday and 2-0 at home on Saturday. BC now has a six-game winning streak.
Eagles goalie Jacob Fowler notched his sixth shutout of the year (tied for third in program history) and ninth of his career (fifth all-time).
“We try not to take it for granted, but he’s so consistent,” said Boston College coach Greg Brown about Fowler after the game. “He gives us a chance every night and his demeanor is so calm that it really helps spread confidence throughout the team.
BC has scored a power-play goal in five of its last six games. Ryan Leonard leads Hockey East in scoring with his 19th goal – second nationally. Rookie Teddy Stiga is on a seven-game point streak.
2. Spartans take five of six points from Minnesota
No. 2 Michigan State stunned No. 4 Minnesota on Friday night with a 9-3 win over the visiting Golden Gophers. Michigan State scored four goals in both the second and third periods, with eight Spartans logging multiple-point games. It was the most goals against the Gophers in Michigan State history, going back to the first games between the two teams in 1926.
“You’re not going to score every night like that,” said Michigan State coach Adam Nightingale. “But I thought our quality of play was good. Up and down our lineup our guys played well.”
Michigan State’s Isaac Howard had two goals and an assist Friday, and leads the nation with 20 goals and 39 points.
Howard pushes it back to a three-goal game with this putback. Russell and Strbak with the helpers. pic.twitter.com/mr5GsNveHL
— Michigan State Hockey (@MSU_Hockey) January 25, 2025
The Gophers managed a 3-3 tie on Saturday, with Michigan State picking up the extra point in the standings with a shootout win. The Spartans took 10 of 12 Big Ten points against Minnesota, going 2-0-2 with two shootout points.
3. Relief goaltenders make the difference as Wisconsin takes five points at home against No. 10 Michigan
Wisconsin came from behind to take Friday’s game 5-4 with three straight goals, including two in the last 5:12. After giving up two goals in the middle of the second period in less than a minute, starting goalie Tommy Scarfone was relieved in net by William Graeme. Graeme kept the Wolverines off the board in the final 28:40 of the contest.
In Saturday night’s rematch, it was Scarfone who came in to spell Graeme, with the Badgers down 3-1 just 12:13 into the game. Wisconsin battled back to tie it at 3-3, and overcame a 4-3 deficit with Ben Dexheimer’s first goal of the season with 3:43 remaining in regulation. Michigan took the shootout point in the 4-4 tie.
“We should be really proud of ourselves,” said junior defenseman Dexheimer. “We took eight of 12 points against a top-10 team this season. We’re taking baby steps every weekend and building some momentum for the end of the year.”
4. UConn takes Connecticut Ice championship
No. 13 UConn beat host Sacred Heart to win its first Connecticut Ice Chammpionship. Filip Sitar scored the lone goal of the game, the first of his collegiate career, while Tyler Muszelik made 23 saves in the win.
The Huskies made it to the championship game with a 2-1 win over No. 15 Quinnipiac on Friday. Ryan Tattle scored both goals for UConn, including the game winning power-play goal with just .5 seconds remaining on the Martire Family Arena clock.
THE GAME WINNING GOAL❄️🏒🚌 pic.twitter.com/TdyUK8O7pQ
— UConn Men's Hockey (@UConnMHOC) January 25, 2025
Sacred Heart downed Yale, 8-2, on Friday to advance to the championship game. Quinnipiac took third place in the tournament with a 6-2 win over Yale.
5. Watch out for the #IceBus!
UConn’s weekend wins – coupled with a 6-0-1 record in 2025 – have propelled Mike Cavanaugh’s Huskies to fourth in the USCHO PairWise Rankings. That would be good enough for a No. 1 regional seed in the NCAA tournament were it actually the end of the season.
The Huskies are currently in fourth place in Hockey East and have their next test in a two-game series against No. 7 Providence, in Rhode Island on Saturday and busing to downtown Hartford to the XL Center on Saturday.
6. Here come the Mavericks!
Omaha notched its third straight sweep on home ice against St. Cloud State on Friday and Saturday. Eight different Mavericks scored goals on the weekend. Omaha is just one point behind first-place Western Michigan in the NCHC standings, though the Broncos have two games in hand.
“Having eight different scorers and everybody contributing and everybody playing well, and that’s what you need to be successful in this league,” Omaha coach Mike Gabinet said.
Things are going in the opposite direction for St. Cloud, which has been swept in six straight conference games. The Huskies are now 4-10-0 in the NCHC, and are 16 points out of first place.
7. Colorado College splits at Arizona State
No. 19 Colorado College came back from a 4-1 deficit Saturday night in a five-goal third period to earn a weekend split against host No. 11 Arizona State, including Drew Montgomery’s game-winner at 14:37 of the period. The loss knocked Arizona State out of first place in the NCHC.
5⃣ in the third, capped by a Monty game-winner🔥
Ken on the call📻#CCTigers pic.twitter.com/u9TBmWpAnT
— CC Hockey (@CCTigerHKY) January 26, 2025
The win was just the second since the start of the year for Colorado College.
“I’m not going to act like everything is fixed now and everything is solved, but if you look at how we won this game, I’m really happy on how committed we were to doing the right things,” said CC coach Kris Mayotte.
The Sun Devils took Friday’s game, 4-1, in front of Luke Pavicich’s 24 saves.
8. No. 5 Denver salvages split at Minnesota Duluth
Minnesota Duluth held off visting Denver on Friday night at AMSOIL Arena, with a 4-3 win. The Bulldogs never trailed and went 2-for-2 on the power play. The win was the first against Denver on home ice since Nov. 9, 2019 and snapped a four-game losing streak vs. the Pioneers.
Denver took the second game of the weekend, 2-1, on goals by Carter King and Samu Salminen.
“Lots to be proud of — how we dug in, the physicality that we played with, and I just think that’s going to be a bit of a blueprint victory as we head down the stretch with 12 games to go,” said DU coach David Carle.
9. Who’s in first?
Standings are generally tight across D-I hockey’s six leagues with just over a month to go in the regular season.
Preseason favorite Sacred Heart tops Atlantic Hockey America with Niagara, Bentley, and Holy Cross all within a weekend’s points out of first. Michigan State’s five-point weekend has given them a five-spot on second-place Minnesota.
In the CCHA, Minnesota State has a four-point lead on second-place Michigan Tech, while in ECAC Hockey, league-leading Quinnipiac has Dartmouth, Clarkson, and Colgate on its heels, all within two wins of first.
Boston College moved into first place in Hockey East, jumping past Boston University and leading by four points over the Terriers. In the NCHC, Western Michigan leads Omaha by one point and insurgent Arizona State by two.
10. Living in the bubble
Things are still looking optimistic for Hockey East to get five or six teams into the NCAA tournament. With Quinnipiac sitting at No. 13 in the PairWise Rankings – just a whisker ahead of Arizona State – the Bobcats would be in a spot to be an at-large entry. But that’s a precarious position as a post-season loss in the conference tournament could be enough to drop them outside of the “bubble,” leaving ECAC Hockey with one entry.
So as things stood on Sunday night as we put together this column, we’d see the following if the season had somehow ended yesterday.
Hockey East would have six teams in the tournament: Boston College, Connecticut, Maine, Providence, UMass Lowell, and Boston University.
Four from the Big Ten would be in: Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, and Michigan.
The NCHC would see two or three teams: Western Michigan and Denver would be in, and 14th-ranked Arizona State would only make it in if 13th-ranked Quinnipiac wins the ECAC tournament.
ECAC Hockey at this point would have only one team in, either Quinnipiac or the championship winner.
Minnesota State has fallen to 17th in the PairWise and Sacred Heart is 28th, so the CCHA and AHA would have just one team in each.
