Each week, USCHO.com picks the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature
1. Buckeyes upset top-ranked Wolverines in Big Ten opener
No. 1 Michigan had looked pretty unstoppable in their previous seven games this season, but arch rival Ohio State proved the Wolverines can indeed be stopped taking 4 of a possible 6 points in a weekend series at Jerome Schottenstein Center.
On Saturday, it looked like the Wolverines had finally met their match when Ohio State took a 2-0 lead in the second period and never looked back, eventually winning 5-2 thanks to a pair of empty-net goals with less than two minutes left. Sascha Boumedienne’s snipe with nearly 10 minutes to go in the game turned out to be the game-winner.
On Sunday night, a back-and-forth affair ended in a 5-4 Michigan win, with Malcolm Spence scoring with 1:12 left in regulation to force overtime, and Adam Valentini scoring the game winner with just 44 seconds to go in the extra frame. The lead thrice changed hands and was tied on five occasions.
2. Spartans prevail over Fighting Hawks in heavyweight battle
A knock-down, drag-out battle between two top-10 teams ended with the team in green and white prevailing over the team in green and black. No. 4 Michigan State overcame a late power-play goal by No. 8 North Dakota to win 5-3 in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame game in Austin, Texas.
MSU’s Anthony Romani had given MSU a 3-2 lead seven minutes into the third but a Thomas Bleyl tripping penalty gave UND a power play opportunity with less than five minutes left. The Hawks capitalized in the form of Cooper Simpson’s second goal of the game to tie it up at 3-3, but that deadlock barely lasted. MSU’s Cayden Lindstrom scored 19 seconds later to give MSU the lead and the Spartans added an empty-netter to seal the deal.
3. Augustana makes statement in CCHA opener
Augustana is one of the front-runners to win the CCHA title this season, and if there were any doubts, the Vikings certainly quashed them this weekend in the form of a weekend sweep over Northern Michigan. And it wasn’t so much the opponent (the 2-6-0 Wildcats) as it was the manner of victory — Augustana (still unbeaten at 7-0-1) beat NMU with a double-digit 12-0 win Friday before pulling away late Saturday for a 4-1 win.
Perhaps most impressive about the weekend for the Vikings was their balanced scoring attack. Nine different Augustana skaters recorded at least one goal in Friday’s rout. Leo Bulgakov, who is tied for the CCHA lead in points with 11, also finished the weekend with two goals and three assists. Mathis Langevin earned his first career shutout on Friday with 19 saves.
The Vikings will travel to Michigan Tech next weekend for a battle between what should be the two front-runners in the CCHA title race.
4. Wisconsin stays undefeated with big wins over Notre Dame
There aren’t many undefeated teams remaining, but Wisconsin is still among them following a huge weekend against Notre Dame. The Badgers racked up the goals, beating the Fighting Irish 7-1 and 9-1.
In Friday’s game, the Badgers peppered Notre Dame with 41 shots on goal. Brent Solomons scored two goals while Grady Deering had three assists and Alexis Cournoyer stopped 27 shots. On Saturday, Bruno Izdan scored a natural hat trick in the second period and the Badgers scored six times on the power play to complete the sweep.
Wisconsin, now 6-0, is off to its best start since starting the 2000-01 season, when it went 7-0. Next up for the Badgers are rivals Minnesota on the road in Minneapolis.
5. Quinnipiac hands Providence first loss
No. 5 Providence, on the other hand, was removed from the ranks of the unbeaten after falling to No. 10 Quinnipiac 5-1 on Saturday. The Bobcats (5-2-0) had been upset by Army the previous weekend but managed to get back in the win column this week thanks in part to a big game from Andon Cerbone.
Cerbone, a sophomore, posted the second hat trick of his collegiate career and scored his first three goals of the season in the win over the Friars (5-1-0). Christian Kirsch added 30 saves for the Bobcats, who beat a top-5 opponent for the first time since beating Minnesota in the 2023 national title game.
The win also notched Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold his 698th victory, meaning he could reach milestone victory 700 as soon as next weekend. The Bobcats take on Cornell and Colgate on the road to open up ECAC play. Providence will look to bounce back next weekend when the Friars take on UConn.
6. Sacred Heart earns split with Cornell
Sacred Heat hasn’t had the most consistent season to date, but the 4-4 Pioneers already have a number of marquee wins under their belts. On Saturday, they added another to the list when they toppled No. 12 Cornell 3-2 and earn the series split.
The Pioneers trailed 2-1 going into the third period before Aiden VanRooyan tied it up nearly 10 minutes into the final frame. Freshman Ethan Semeniuk scored the eventual game-winner less than three minutes later — not bad for his first collegiate goal. Freshman Jack Spicer had a monster day in net for the Pioneers as well, making 42 saves, including 14 in the third period.
The Big Red (1-1) had defeated Sacred Heart 5-2 in their season opener on Saturday, taking an early lead on two goals by Ryan Walsh. The Pioneers managed to tie it up at 2-2 in the second but Caton Ryan scored with 10 seconds left in the period and the Big Red went into the intermission up 3-2. They eventually scored twice more in the third for the comfortable win.
7. Dartmouth opens season with sweep of Alaska
No. 12 Dartmouth kicked off its season with a pair of statement victories, sweeping Alaska with a pair of shutouts on Friday and Saturday in Hanover, N.H. Drew Stewart had a hat trick in Friday’s game, a night in which the Big Green raised their 2026 ECAC tournament championship banner, while Nikita Nikora added four assists and Emmett Croteau recorded a 13-save shutout as the Big Green outshot the Nanooks 31-13.
Saturday’s game was much more competitive from a shot chart perspective (28-27 Alaska) but the result was similar: a 4-0 Dartmouth shutout. CJ Foley, Hank Cleaves, Ryan Schelling and Hayden Stavroff all scored for Dartmouth and Croteau again had a 28-save shutout.
The Big Green kick off their ECAC schedule next week with games against Yale and Brown.
8. CC, UMD split series
Two of the NCHC’s top teams kicked off conference play with about as close a series as you can imagine. Minnesota Duluth beat Colorado College 1-0 on Friday before the Tigers came back for a 5-3 win on Saturday.
Friday’s game was fairly dull — a scoreless tie until late in the third, when Ty Hanson netted the game’s only goal with less than three minutes left. The shots were even at 20 apiece, but it was UMD’s Carl Axelsson who made one extra save to earn the shutout and the win.
Saturday’s game was much more entertaining, although it didn’t appear to be until the second period, when the scoring started. Bret Link scored shorthanded and then again on the power play two minutes later to give CC the early lead and forced UMD to play catch up. They never relinquished the lead, but the Bulldogs certainly made it interesting, rallying from down 4-1 in the third period to cut it to 4-3 with goals from Carter Murphy then Zam Plante with 2:30 to go in regulation, but the Tigers sealed the win with a late empty-netter.
9. Army stays hot with sweep of RIT
After getting a signature win last week with an upset of Quinnipiac, Army didn’t take its foot off the gas this weekend. The Black Knights blanked RIT in both games to sweep the Tigers, 2-0 and 3-0, and extend their winning streak to five games.
Junior JJ Cataldo stopped 23 shots on Friday and 27 on Saturday for his second consecutive and NCAA active streak leading eighth career shutout. Nik Hong and Billy Batten scored for Army on Friday while Rhys Wallin, Ben Ivey and Nils Forselius were the goal scorers on Saturday.
Army will head to Colorado next weekend for a series against service-academy rival Air Force while RIT travels to Bentley.
10. BU sweeps Maine
Boston University won big on Friday before rallying to win in overtime on Saturday to sweep Maine in Hockey East action. Friday’s game saw the Terriers (6-2-0) score 29 seconds into the game and then twice more in the next 62 seconds to take a commanding lead over the Black Bears and never look back.
Seven different players scored for BU, including Conrad Fondrk, Ben Merrill and Tynan Lawrence, who each had a goal and two assists. Xavier Villeneuve added three assists and goaltender Mikhail Yegorov made 33 saves. On Saturday, Maine’s Rowan Calvert and Max Scott gave the Black Bears an early 2-0 first period lead before the BU’s comeback started in the third period. Tynan Lawrence scored BU’s first goal on the power play almost seven minutes into the game, then tied it up with just more than three minutes to play in regulation, helping force overtime. Caleb Malhotra completed the comeback 1:35 into the extra frame.
The Terriers will look to take this momentum into next weekend’s big non-conference series on the road at Michigan State, while Maine (4-4-0) has a home series against UMass.