Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.
1. Hardware season in the Nutmeg State
The state of Connecticut’s answer to the Beanpot took place this past weekend at Yale’s Ingalls Rink, with the hosts joined by Sacred Heart, No. 13 Connecticut and No. 6 Quinnipiac.
UConn repeated as champion with a 4-2 come-from-behind win over Quinnipiac, after trailing 2-1 at the end of two. Jake Percival scored the go-ahead goal with 2:25 left in third, and the Huskies cemented the win with an empty-netter.
The Bobcats advanced to Saturday’s championship game with a 5-1 win over Sacred Heart on Friday, while UConn downed Yale, 5-2. Sacred Heart took the consolation game over the host Bulldogs, 3-2.
2. No. 8 Penn State wins the weekend at No. 5 Wisconsin
The Nittany Lions saw career-first hat tricks from Dane Dowiak and Gavin McKenna in a 7-2 win over the Badgers on Friday. Penn State was down 2-0 after the first period and had been outshot 18-6 before reeling off seven straight. Jackson Smith picked up the other goal and Joshua Fleming made 39 saves in the win.
Wisconsin took the early lead again on Saturday with a Christian Fitzgerald shorthanded goal in the first, but Penn State scored three times in the third for the sweep. Tempers boiled over with 10 seconds left and 11 penalties were doled out between the two squads. Social media attempted to make an issue of a non-handshake between Wisconsin’s Mike Hastings and Penn State’s Guy Gadowsky, which confused Gadowsky and was explained (to press postgame) to be a wave and “Good game” by Hastings.
Penn State moved into a tie for first in the Big Ten with its first-ever sweep of a top five team, while Wisconsin extended its home losing streak to four games.
3. Western Michigan takes five of six points on the road
No. 3 Western Michigan pulled ahead of No. 7 Minnesota Duluth in the NCHC standings with a pair of 4-3 wins, with Saturday’s game needing overtime to settle it.
On Friday, the Broncos held off a two-goal Bulldogs rally in the final two minutes. WMU’s Hampton Slukynsky tallied 34 saves for his 17th win of the season.
Saturday’s game saw Western Michigan score late in regulation to tie the game and then getting the win on a power play with 17 seconds left on the clock.
The Broncos leapfrogged Duluth in the NCHC standings for third place, just two points behind Denver, but with two games in hand.
4. Providence gets the home-and-home sweep of Boston University
No. 11 Providence improved its winning streak to six with a 4-3 home win over No. 18 Boston University on Friday and a 4-0 shutout of the Terriers at Agganis arena on Saturday.
Aleksi Kivioja scored with under four minutes left in the weekend opener for the win. Jack Parsons made 33 saves in a game that was a tight 1-0 through the midpoint of the third period.
Providence took over first place in Hockey East, three points ahead of UConn with a game in hand over the Huskies. BU dropped to 12-12-1 overall and 8-9-0 in Hockey East. The Friars are seventh in the NPI with the wins, highest in Hockey East, while BU sits at No. 22.
5. Michigan State takes both from visiting Minnesota
It has been a rough season for unranked Minnesota, and it got more troubling after a sweep at the hands of No. 2 Michigan State.
Trey Augustine made 25 saves in a 3-1 win Friday that saw the Spartans outshoot the Golden Gophers 43-26. Michigan State shelled Minnesota 42-31 in shots again on Saturday, but goalie Luca Di Pasquo made 39 saves to keep it close in a 3-2 loss.
Michigan State pulled within one point in the Big Ten standings behind league leaders Penn State and idle No. 1 Michigan.
6. North Dakota wins both in the desert
No. 4 North Dakota never trailed on Friday in a 7-4 win over NCHC foe Arizona State, but had to come back from a two-goal deficit Saturday at Mullett Arena to pick up the a 5-3 win. The Fighting Hawks tallied three unanswered in the third period.
North Dakota now leads second-place Denver by eight points in the NCHC regular-season race, and improved to 20-6-0 under first-year head coach Dane Jackson. The Hawks will stay on the road next weekend against Minnesota Duluth.
7. St. Cloud State gets an upset on Friday to split at Denver
The Huskies were down 2-0 early in the second period at No. 9 Denver, but scored four unanswered goals to grab a 4-2 win in NCHC play.
Denver salvaged the weekend on Saturday with a 6-0 thumping of SCSU. Freshman goalie Quentin Miller made his 24th consecutive start, but left the game with a lower-body injury after just one save. Freshman netminder Johnny Hicks came in at the 4:43 mark of the first and made 22 saves in the shared shutout.
“He’s awesome,” Denver defenseman Boston Buckberger said of Hicks. “He’s such a hard worker off the ice and just deserves it so much to have a chance in the pipes there, and he kept us in that.”
8. Minnesota State gets three CCHA points over visiting Augustana
No. 20 Minnesota State ended a six-game winning streak by No. 14 Augustana with a 4-1 win, scoring four unanswered for the victory. The Mavericks outshot the Vikings 32-17.
The victory pulled Minnesota State to within four points of fourth-place Augustana in the CCHA standings. Both teams are just outside the NPI bubble in the hunt for an at-large NCAA berth.
9. League-leading St. Thomas sweeps Lake Superior State
No. 16 St. Thomas took two games on the road, 7-4 on Friday and 5-0 on Saturday at Lake Superior State.
The Tommies had to come back from a 4-1 deficit early in the second period on Friday with six unanswered for the win.
Aaron Trotter stopped all 24 shots he saw in the Saturday shutout, the fourth of his career, with one coming each of his four seasons at St. Thomas.
The Tommies have opened up a five point lead for first in the CCHA after Northern Michigan picked up just its second with of the year with a 3-2 road win over Michigan Tech. The Tommies host MTU next weekend.
10. Robert Morris’s sweep of visiting Holy Cross tightens the AHA race
Robert Morris took a lead in the first period Friday that it did not relinquish in a 5-2 win over visiting Holy Cross, outshooting the Crusaders 34-26. RMU goalie Lucas Massie made 24 saves in the win.
Massie got his second shutout of the season in four starts with a 1-0 victory on Saturday, making 33 stops. Tanner Klimpke scored the game’s lone goal.
The standings in Atlantic Hockey America have tightened up with the Colonials’ sweep. Bentley, which had a nonconference weekend hosting Princeton, leads with 38 points, but just seven points separate second-place RIT from sixth-place Robert Morris, though the Tigers have played two more games in the conference.