Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature
1) Penrose Cup No. 7 for North Dakota
With its 5-3 win at No. 4 Western Michigan on Friday, No. 3 North Dakota earned its seventh Penrose Cup as regular-season champions of the NCHC, the most in league history. Perhaps more impressively, North Dakota also has 22 overall regular-season conference titles, the most in NCAA history.
North Dakota goalie Jan Špunar finished Friday night’s game with 22 saves to improve to 17-3-1 this season.
Western Michigan won 4-3 in overtime the following night to split the weekend series. North Dakota improved to 32-17-1 all-time against Western Michigan and 14-7-1 in Kalamazoo, Mich.
2) Providence tops Hockey East final standings for first time
No. 6 Providence beat New Hampshire 3-2 on Saturday to clinch the outright Hockey East regular-season championship for the first time in program history.
Michael Simpson made 27 saves including 16 in the third period to close out the win for Providence. The Friars extended their program-record road winning streak to nine games and set the program record for Hockey East wins in a season with 17.
3) Mavericks win McNaughton Cup for 10th time
No. 18 Minnesota State won its 10th MacNaughton Cup as CCHA regular season champions (and eighth in the last nine seasons) with a 3-0 win over Northern Michigan in front of 4,872 fans at Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center on Saturday night.
Goaltender Alex Tracy made 20 saves Saturday night for his 12th career shutout (second all-time in program history).
The Mavericks cemented the game with a pair of third-period goals. Ean Somoza scored unassisted at 18:11. Tristan Lemyre added an empty net goal. Both teams were scoreless on the power play and the Mavericks outshot the Wildcats 35-20.
4) It’s playoff time in ECAC Hockey
It’s win-or-go-home time in ECAC Hockey, with the league announcing its tourney bracket featuring eight first-round, single-elimination matchups for the coming weekend.
On Friday, No. 11 St. Lawrence will visit Harvard and No. 9 RPI will travel to No. 8 Clarkson. On Saturday, No. 12 Brown will visit No. 5 Union, and No. 10 Yale is at No. 7 Colgate.
The quarterfinals will be a best-of-three affair the following weekend. Top seed Quinnipiac will host the lowest remaining seed, No. 2 Dartmouth hosts the second-lowest remaining seed, No. 3 Cornell will host the third-lowest, and No. 4 Princeton will host the highest remaining seed.
The semifinals and finals are single-elimination and will be held the weekend of March 20 in Lake Placid, N.Y.
5) …and the NCHC
A weekend of best-of-three quarterfinals are on tap in the NCHC, with North Dakota as the No. 1 seed. The Fighting Hawks will host No. 8 Omaha, No. 4 Minnesota-Duluth hosts intra-state rival St. Cloud State, defending NCAA champ No. 3 Western Michigan hosts No. 6 Colorado College and No. 2 Denver hosts No. 7 Miami.
Denver coach David Carle won both his 200th game overall in his college coaching career and 100th in NCHC conference play with Denver’s 4-1 win over Arizona State on Saturday, which, incidentally, knocked the Sun Devils out of the playoff picture.
The semifinals and finals are single elimination and will be played the following two weekends at the home of the higher seed.
6) …also, the CCHA
The CCHA announced its playoff bracket featuring a best-of-three quarterfinal round to be played this weekend.
No. 8 Ferris State is at No. 1 Minnesota State, No. 5 Bowling Green visits No. 4 Michigan Tech, No. 6 Bemidji will travel to No. 3 Augustana and No. 7 Lake Superior State is at No. 2 St. Thomas.
The semifinals and championship will be a single-elimination affair, with all games hosted by the higher seed. The semifinals are the weekend of March 13 while the final is the weekend of March 20, with times and dates to be determined.
7) …and finally, Atlantic Hockey America
Hockey fans jonesing for some tournament action won’t have to wait long, as Atlantic Hockey America plays its first round on Tuesday with two games — No. 10 Mercyhurst at No. 7 Canisius and No. 9 Army at No. 8 Niagara.
The quarterfinals are this weekend and are best of three. No. 1 seed and Robert DeGregorio Trophy winner Bentley will get the lowest remaining seed and No. 2 Sacred Heart, the highest. After that it’s No. 5 RIT at No. 4 Holy Cross and No. 6 Air Force at No. 3 Robert Morris. The semifinals and finals are single elimination and will be played the following two weekends at campus sites of the higher seed.
8) Ohio State takes 4 of 6 from No. 1 Michigan State
With two goals each from Max Montes and Jake Karabela, Ohio State skated to a 5-1 win at No. 1 Michigan State Friday night in Big Ten action.
The Buckeyes scored three goals in less than four minutes in the first period and led 4-1 after the second for the victory. The next night, the teams tied 3-3 before the Spartans won the shootout for the extra point in the league standings.
Montes had four points on the weekend. Buckeye goalie Kristoffer Eberly had a 1.93 goals-against average and .933 save percentage in the series.
9) Boston University sweeps Battle of Comm. Ave.
Whatever has led Boston University to struggle over the second half of the season wasn’t evident over the weekend, as the Terriers throttled rival Boston College by scores of 3-1 and 5-1.
BU, which had been in danger of possibly falling far enough in the Hockey East standings to warrant playing a first-round road game, is now in sixth place heading into the final weekend of the regular season. Boston College clings tenaciously to second place, just one point ahead of Connecticut.
BU goalie Mikhail Yegorov stopped 52 of 54 shots over the weekend and allowed just one even-strength goal. Jack Harvey of BU leads Hockey East and is tied for second in the NCAA with three shorthanded goals.
10) Hockey Humanitarian finalists announced
The five finalists for the 2026 Hockey Humanitarian Award were announced last week.
They are: Kara Goulding, Boston College, who promotes mental health awareness, supports special-needs athletes, and organized a fundraiser benefiting families battling cancer; Grace Sadura, Minnesota Duluth who works with specia- needs hockey players and supports local outreach initiatives; Meg Simon, Middlebury College, who supports individuals with developmental disabilities and serves in key campus leadership roles; Jayden Sison, Princeton, who leads youth clinics and literacy programs; and Ryan Tattle, Connecticut, who founded a cancer fundraising initiative in honor of his late mother, helping raise significant funds for cancer research.
The award will be announced April 10.