Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.
1. Arizona State takes 29th annual Ice Breaker
With a 5-3 win over Notre Dame Friday and a 5-2 victory over Alaska in Saturday’s title game, Arizona State is the 2026 Ice Breaker champion, winning on home ice at Mullett Arena in Tempe, Ariz.
The early season hardware comes a week after the Sun Devils dropped a pair of tough losses at home to Penn State.
Coach Greg Powers said that while the Sun Devils have work to do, getting a “taste of winning a trophy” is good for his young team.
“I told the guys after what was pretty much a heartbreaking weekend last weekend, for a young team to bounce back and win a trophy and score ten goals and do a lot of good things. It’s really promising.”
All five goals against Alaska were scored on the power play, including the three netted by senior Cruz Lucius in the third period for his first career hat trick. Lucius’ first goal in the period held up as the game winner.
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Connor Hasley, a transfer this year from Bentley, earned his first career win in the title game. With two assists Saturday, ASU captain Kyle Smolen reached 50 career points.
2. Tough opening night, Part 1: Ferris State topples No. 1 Western Michigan
Thursday was a rough night for four ranked teams in nonconference play at home, with perhaps none rougher than Ferris State’s 3-2 win over top-ranked and defending national champion Western Michigan in front of a sold-out crowd in Lawson Arena.
Of course, it was a pretty good night from the Bulldogs’ perspective.
Carter Rapalje had the first two Ferris State goals, but it was Gavin Best’s third goal of the season, unassisted at 16:26 in the third that put the Bulldogs ahead for good.
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In his first game for Ferris State after spending his first two seasons with North Dakota, Hobie Hedquist made 38 saves on 40 shots on goal. The Broncos outshot the Bulldogs 50-18 in the game.
In the second game of the home-and-home series Friday, Western Michigan won 6-4 in Ewigleben Arena. The Broncos led 4-0 by the four-minute mark in the second before the Bulldogs made a game of it. Sam Huck had the game winner for the Broncos at 14:58 in the second, and Best added two goals in the loss.
In the two games, the Broncos outshot the Bulldogs 84-36. Noah Rupprecht replaced Martin Lundberg in the Ferris State net at the end of the first period in the second game. Hampton Slukynsky made 29 saves in two games for Western Michigan.
3. Tough opening night, Part 2: New Hampshire upsets No. 2 Michigan State
With the score tied 3-3 and 3.8 seconds remaining in regulation, New Hampshire’s Marty Lavins scored his first of the season to give the visiting Wildcats a win over No. 2 Michigan State Thursday night.
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It was the opening game of the season for each team. Kyle Chauvette stopped 34-of-37 in his first game for New Hampshire after three seasons with Union College.
Michigan State took Friday’s recap, 2-0. Spartans’ captain Matt Basgall had the game winner at 14:12 in the second and Trey Augustine made 13 saves in his seventh career shutout.
4. The RedHawks are red hot
The season is just four games old and already Miami’s record is better than it was for the entirety of 2024-2025.
The RedHawks swept the Rensselaer Engineers on the road, 5-3 and 5-0, giving the Miami a 4-0-0 start and one more win than they registered in 34 games last season. Miami’s last 4-0 start to the season came in 2007-08, when the RedHawks went 8-0-0 to begin the year.
Miami came from behind in Friday’s win and were outshot badly in the first period Saturday after Matteo Giamba opened the scoring 1:02 into the game.
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Giampa, who spent his first two seasons with Canisius, has two of Miami’s four game-winning goals.
Freshman Matteo Drobac earned his first career shutout Saturday and fourth win.
5. Bad night on a B1G(ish) stage
This one could be called “Tough opening night, Parts 3 and 4.”
Thursday was an especially disappointing night for Big Ten hockey. In addition to Michigan State’s loss to New Hampshire, both Penn State and Minnesota dropped their home openers in nonconference play.
Unlike the Spartans, though, the Nittany Lions and the Golden Gophers did so on the Big Ten Network, for all the college hockey world to see.
In the first game, Clarkson upset No. 4 Penn State after scoring three third-period goals to come from behind with a 6-4 win. It was Adrian Misaljevic’s second goal of the night midway through the third that put the Golden Knights ahead for good. Shane Soderwall turned aside 36-of-40 for Clarkson.
Penn State scored five unanswered goals the following night to win 5-2 and earn the split.
In the second televised game, No. 11 Boston College beat No. 12 Minnesota, 3-1. The Eagles outshot the Gophers 34-19 in a game that never seemed to be in question.
The teams tied 2-2 Friday, with Dean Letourneau scoring the evener for BC at 15:36 in the third. The Gophers outshot the Eagles 33-31, including by a 5-2 margin in OT when Eagles’ netminder Louka Cloutier did some of his best work of the night.
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Cloutier finished Friday’s game with 31 saves and a total of 57 in the series. For Minnesota, Nathan Airey had 60 saves in the two games.
The network coverage arrives earlier this season and with nonconference play, gives more than the single league good exposure. Thursday’s televised games came a week after the NHL Network televised Penn State’s series against Arizona State.
6. Four for naught
JJ Wiesbusch scored all four Penn State’s goals before the halfway mark in Thursday’s 6-4 loss to Clarkson.
It was the sophomore’s second career multi-goal game. After adding a goal in Friday’s win, Wiesbusch now has six goals in four games. He scored 14 in 40 last season.
7. Maine’s Justin Poirier is a fast starter
In his first collegiate game, Maine forward Justin Poirier scored three goals to help propel the Black Bears to a 5-2 win over visiting Holy Cross.
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Pourier is a fifth-round pick of the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2024 NHL Draft.
The No. 6 Black Bears completed the sweep of the Crusaders with a 6-0 win Saturday.
8. Denver comes from behind to tie Air Force in season opener
Clarke Caswell’s first collegiate goal was a big one. With less than five minutes remaining in regulation, Caswell scored from Eric Pohlkamp and James Reeder, tying the game for the Pioneers.
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On the road against the Falcons, No. 5 Denver had been trailing since Will Dawson put Air Force up 1-0 at 16:44 in the first.
The Pioneers outshot the Falcons 59-24 through three periods and overtime. Carter Clafton made 58 stops for Air Force.
In Denver’s 6-0 home win over Bentley the next night, Pohlkamp earned his first career hat trick and 12th Denver defenseman to score three in a game.
9. Boston University comes from behind to beat Colgate
After beating Colgate 6-2 at home Friday night, No. 3 Boston University chased and finally caught up to the Raiders in the third period of Saturday’s 2-2 tie.
Midway through the first period, Colgate’s Jack Sullivan gave the Raiders a 1-0 lead that lasted until early in the second, when Cole Eiserman tied it for the Terriers.
Antonio Fernandez put Colgate ahead 2-1 at 1:48 in the third, but it didn’t take BU’s Jack Murtagh long to even things out.
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Andrew Takacs made 33 stops through regulation and overtime for the Raiders. In net for the Terriers, Mikhail Ygorov made 23 saves.
10. Michigan has 26 goals through four games
There are quite a few teams scoring quite a bit early in the season, but no one has had a more productive start to the year than Michigan.
In their road sweep of Providence, the Wolverines outscored the Friars 8-2 in two games. Those eight goals fattened Michigan’s stats from having outscored visiting Mercyhurst 18-1 in their opening series Oct. 3-4.
Will Horcoff leads the Wolverines with five goals, tying him with Boston University’s Cole Eiserman. Penn State’s JJ Wiebusch currently leads the nation with six goals.
Including Michigan (6.50 goals per game), there are five teams averaging four or more goals per game in four games played this season. Penn State (4.75), Miami (4.75), Bemidji State (4.50) and Lake Superior State (4.0) round out that group of fast horses.
It’s early, but this is another interesting Michigan stat: the Wolverines are the only team that’s played at least four games with fewer goals allowed than games played.