Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature
1) Hawks take care of business at home, could again
North Dakota likely cemented its No. 1 regional seed chances for the NCAA tournament when the Fighting Hawks advanced to the NCHC playoff semifinals. Back-to-back wins over Omaha gave North Dakota, the conference regular-season champion, a
relatively straightforward first-round playoff journey. A four-goal run through Friday’s second period gave UND a 5-3 win in the series opener, before the Hawks scored five unanswered in their 5-1 win Saturday.
UND will now host No. 8 Minnesota Duluth in a best-of-one NCHC semifinal this Saturday. And speaking of the Bulldogs…
2) Duluth puts St. Cloud away with overtime wins
Listed 29th in the Men’s National Collegiate Percentage Index, St. Cloud State needed to win the NCHC playoff title in order to make this year’s NCAA tournament.
The Huskies’ season is done now, but not for a want of trying. They were swept in the NCHC quarterfinals at Minnesota Duluth, but made the Bulldogs earn their corn. Zam Plante tied Friday’s series opener with 23 seconds left, then bagged the overtime winner in UMD’s 4-3 win.
You’ll never guess how Saturday’s 2-1 win for the Bulldogs panned out. Plante equalized with 31 seconds to go, then scored again at 5:11 of free hockey.
3) Wisconsin nets impressive sweep over Penn State
Having dropped two of its past three games, Wisconsin finished its regular season last week with a very good road sweep over No. 6 Penn State.
Four unanswered goals in Thursday’s series opener lifted Wisconsin to a 7-3 win over the Nittany Lions. In Friday’s rematch, the Badgers jumped out to a 4-0 lead before winning 5-2. Oliver Tulk scored twice for the visitors.
No. 11 Wisconsin will host Ohio State in Wednesday’s Big Ten quarterfinal playoff round.
4) Providence makes statement against UConn
Fifth-ranked Providence finished its regular-season slate Saturday with a 3-1 home win over No. 14 Connecticut. Logan Sawyer bagged the winner early in the third period inside Schneider Arena, and Jack Parsons strung together 37 saves in the winning effort.
Alexei Kivioja and Graham Gamache also scored for Providence, which has now won five of its last six games. Providence and UConn will host Hockey East playoff quarterfinal games this Saturday.
5) Minnesota State survives Ferris State
CCHA regular-season champion Minnesota State was made to go the limit last weekend in a first-round playoff series against Ferris State.
Goals from five different skaters saw Minnesota State roll to a 5-1 win in Friday’s series opener, only for Ferris State to turn things around with a 2-1 win Saturday. Sunday’s deciding game was tight, too, with second-period goals by Luigi Benincasa and Mason Wheeler being the difference in MSU’s 2-0 win.
Alex Tracy had 17 saves Sunday for the Mavericks, in a game where they outshot Ferris by greater than a 2-1 margin.
6) Denver ends Miami’s impressive run
At 33rd in the NPI, Miami had no at-large qualifier hope of reaching the NCAA tournament. The RedHawks experienced a big turnaround this season under Anthony Noreen, though, and their two NCHC quarterfinal losses last week at Denver won’t take away from that.
Noreen and Denver’s David Carle were both finalists for their conference’s coach of the year award, and last weekend, Carle’s Pioneers were just too strong. Johnny Hicks pitched a 23-save shutout in Denver’s 3-0 win Friday, before the Pioneers scored five straight during their 6-2 win Saturday.
Denver hosts Western Michigan this Saturday in the NCHC semifinals.
7) No surprises in ECAC first round
ECAC first-round playoff games went chalk last weekend, although most of those games were tight. Clarkson snuck past RPI in the Golden Knights’ 2-1 win Friday, while No. 7 Colgate defeated Yale 3-2 to set up a date with second-seeded Dartmouth in the ECAC Hockey quarterfinals, with Clarkson set to meet top-seeded Quinnipiac.
Colby MacArthur and Lucas Buzziol both scored twice in Union’s 9-0 win Saturday over Brown, one day after seven different players scored in Harvard’s 4-3 overtime win over St. Lawrence, as Mick Thompson bagged the winner. Harvard gets Cornell in the quarters, with Union facing No. 4 Princeton.
8) Defending national champion WMU advances
Third-seeded Western Michigan made quick-ish work of Colorado College during last week’s NCHC quarterfinal series in Kalamazoo, Mich.
Ish. Let’s stick with ish.
Western scored three unanswered goals during the Broncos’ 5-2 win Friday, with former UMD Bulldog Cole Spicer scoring the winner on a power play in the third period. Colorado College was then in front most of the way in Saturday’s Game 2, but Owen Michaels tied the game at 1-1 midway through the third period before Liam Valente scored at 3:16 of overtime.
Valente’s winner came with WMU on a rare five-minute overtime power play, after CC’s Mateo Mrsic was also given a game misconduct for a slew foot.
9) Bentley sweeps Mercyhurst in Gotkin’s final series
A 38-year era in Mercyhurst men’s hockey history came to an end last weekend, when the Lakers were swept by Bentley in Mercyhurst coach Rick Gotkin’s final games with the team.
Jake Black scored Bentley’s winner in the Falcons’ 4-3, triple-overtime win. The game was the 16th-longest Division I men’s game on record.
Saturday’s 6-0 win was much more straightforward. Lukas Swedin made 14 saves for his first career shutout for Bentley, which led 2-0 after nine minutes. Gotkin became in February only the sixth hockey coach in NCAA history to put together 1,300 games
behind the bench. Best of luck going forward to one of the best people this sport has.
10) Holy Cross knocks out RIT with two overtime wins
Also in Atlantic Hockey action, Holy Cross advanced in tight fashion, sweeping RIT in a pair of games that both went to overtime.
William Elias scored the Crusaders’ winner 9:06 into overtime Friday, after Holy Cross’s Noah Eyre scored a power-play goal with an extra attacker on the ice at 19:08 of the third period.
Jack Stockfish then scored Saturday’s winner at 4:06 of the extra period, lifting Holy Cross to a 5-4 win.