Hockey East

Hosts Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger look back at the weekend and news of the week.

It was a great weekend for No. 1 Boston College, which swept UMass Lowell, No. 2 North Dakota with a sweep of Denver, No. 3 Minnesota State with just one goal allowed – and an eighth shutout for Dryden McKay, and a bounce back for then-No. 5 Minnesota with two 3-0 wins over Notre Dame.

Then-No. 7 Wisconsin and then-No. 8 Michigan split while then-No. 4 Minnesota Duluth had a lost weekend at the hands of Western Michigan.

Teams that are on a hot streak include Boston University, Michigan Tech, and Army West Point.

Intensity of play has stepped up if suspensions and supplemental discipline are an indicator.

And Jim and Ed weigh in on embellishment, game management by officials, and setting expectations for sportsmanship.

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Hosts Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger look at the past weekend’s games and news of the week.

No. 1 Boston College split with No. 15 Boston University but maintain the top spot in this week’s poll.

Then-No. 2 Minnesota gets blown out by No. 11 Wisconsin: Are the Badgers the hottest team in college hockey?

No. 6 Minnesota State had big wins over No. 8 Bowling Green, and Mavericks goalie Dryden McKay picked up his seventh shutout in 12 games.

Elsewhere: Minnesota Duluth swept Miami to move within a point of first-place (and idle) North Dakota in the NCHC; Quinnipiac swept St. Lawrence to move ahead in the ECAC; Michigan Tech won three on the week; Robert Morris improved to 14-5-0.

And in the news, UMass is on a minimum two-week pause and the NCHC announced its single-elimination playoff format for this year to be held at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

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Hosts Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger look at the games and news of the past week.

Two coaching milestones were reached: 400 career wins for Minnesota Duluth’s Scott Sandelin and 250 for Bentley’s Ryan Soderquist.

Idle Boston College stays at No. 1, while Minnesota was rewarded for its sweep of Ohio State and North Dakota dropped a spot after a split with Omaha.

Bemidji State is back on peoples’ radar after going 5-2-2 in their last nine.

Bowling Green returns to the win column with a sweep of Michigan Tech.

UMass sweeps rival UMass Lowell with goalie Filip Lindberg allowing just two goals in his last four games.

Wisconsin’s Cole Caufield had a big weekend and has 14 goals and 14 assists in 18 games.

AIC, at 13-3, picked up three wins on the week.

And UConn and Providence had Hockey East weekend sweeps.

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Hosts Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger look back at a busy weekend – and week – in college hockey.

Boston College coach Jerry York hit another career milestone: 1,100 wins.

Minnesota, North Dakota, Michigan, Minnesota Duluth, and Bemidji State were among the teams with sweeps.

Minnesota State’s Dryden McKay notched his sixth shutout, putting him not only in the Richter conversation, but also for the Hobey.

Quinnipiac and Clarkson are neck-and-neck in the ECAC.

Mercyhurst took five of six points from Robert Morris.

And how about Boston University at 5-1?

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Hosts Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger take a look at the weekend and the news of the week.

Highlights include Notre Dame’s sweep of No. 1 Minnesota, which displaces the Golden Gophers from the top of the USCHO.com men’s D-I poll, while Boston College ascends to the top with weekend wins over a tough Merrimack.

Minnesota State and Bowling Green – with its 1,000th team win – keep up their winning ways in the WCHA.

Western Michigan surprised some with a pair of home wins over No. 4 St. Cloud State.

The Big Ten’s Michigan and Wisconsin got weekend sweeps.

Quinnipiac seems a cut above in the four-team ECAC, while UConn popped up on people’s radar with a sweep of New Hampshire.

Also, LIU split the weekend at Army as coach Brett Riley faced uncle Brian Riley at West Point.

And why the seeming differences in approaching COVID-19 protocols between leagues and teams?

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Hosts Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger look at the games of the past weekend and at top news of the week.

No. 1 Minnesota fell from the ranks of the unbeaten in a split at No. 12 Wisconsin. That’s good news for the Badgers and not necessarily bad for the Gophers.

No. 6 St. Cloud State got a weekend sweep – including a come-from-behind win and by scoring the only goal in OT – at No. 5 Minnesota Duluth.

No. 2 Boston College split with New Hampshire, with the road teams winning each end of the weekend in overtime.

The ECAC is tight right out of the gate, and close results and OT games proved it.

Then No. 20 Robert Morris has 11 wins and shouldn’t be overlooked.

Also … The Riley family notched its 1,000 win behind the Army West Point bench for father Jack and sons Rob and Brian. Three-on-three overtime is getting more comfortable for teams, with 12-of-14 overtime games being decided before a shootout. And is scoring up? It feels like it.

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Host Ed Trefzger and guest host Dan Rubin look at the past week of college hockey:

No. 1 Minnesota at 9-0 continues to roll. Denver’s split with Colorado College should have the Pioneers concerned in the NCHC, while the Minnesota Duluth-St. Cloud State split shouldn’t surprise anyone.

The ECAC is finally underway, and St. Lawrence is off to a great start. In the WCHA, Bowling Green and Minnesota State remain hot.

While Boston College was a preseason favorite in Hockey East, UMass is right there. And Canisius and Robert Morris have good Atlantic Hockey weekends.

We also look at COVID-19 postponements, how the NCAA tournament selection process might shake out, and reflect on the joy that is the USA WJC team.

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Hosts Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger look at the games and news of the past week.

At the top of this week’s episode, we look at what we learned about the NCHC now that the bubble in Omaha – run without a hitch – is over. Nearly every team has good things to take away from the 38-game confab.

Other highlights from the weekend include Bowling Green’s road sweep at Quinnipiac, a resurgent Providence offense, and a close pair of games as Notre Dame hosted Michigan State.

Plus we look at a better-than-most-expected Minnesota and take our hats off to the conferences whose flexibility has made even this much of a season possible.

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Hosts Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger look at the games of the past week and a couple of news items.

Last week there were four undefeated teams who had seen action, but this week there’s only one of them standing alone on top. Minnesota’s perfect 8-0 record has the poised and confident Golden Gophers reaching No. 1 in the USCHO.com men’s D-I poll.

The teams right behind all had one or more losses in the past week, including North Dakota and Minnesota Duluth in the very competitive NCHC pod in Omaha, and Boston College, which lost its first game of the season to UConn.

The WCHA is down to eight teams with the announcement of Alaska’s suspended season – which the team is working to reverse – and off to a great start is Bowling Green.

Plus, we ask whether the IIHF is really doing all it can to protect players as they head to Edmonton.

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Hosts Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger look at the games of the past weekend and news of the week.

The top three teams all season in the USCHO.com Division I men’s ice hockey poll remain undefeated: North Dakota, Boston College, and Minnesota Duluth. They’re joined by a 6-0 Minnesota.

In the NCHC Pod, despite an 0-3 record, Denver is playing well and 2-2 Omaha is off to a strong start.

Weekend upsets include Michigan Tech over Minnesota State and two splits: Merrimack with UMass and Mercyhurst with Bowling Green.

World Junior camp is underway, leaving a lot of holes for top teams and leaving out three Boston University players because of COVID-19 protocol.

Wisconsin on Monday announced it’s on a pause.

And a bit of a rant – the first of the season! – from Ed about what people don’t get about the aforementioned USCHO.com poll.

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Hosts Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger look at the games of the past weekend, including Arizona State’s sweep of a depleted No. 14 Wisconsin, Notre Dame’s road sweep of No. 4 Michigan, No. 2 Boston College’s home-and-home wins over No. 7 UMass, and RIT’s come-from-behind win on Friday in a weekend split with No. 9 Clarkson.

We also discuss the large number of canceled or postponed games and whether playing makes sense (spoiler alert: it does) and how difficult it is to prevent the virus from impacting a team.

We take a look at the upcoming NCHC bubble in Omaha and ask whether that could be a preview of this year’s NCAA tournament protocol.

And we note that the pandemic can hit very, very close to home.

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Hosts Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger look at the games and news of the week, including Michigan’s strong start, the NCHC pod arrangements, and the large number of postponed games thus far.

Plus how will the cancellation of eight teams’ seasons affect ECAC Hockey in the future?

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Hosts Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger look back at the first weekend of college hockey for the 2020-21 season.

Wisconsin picked up six points in the Big Ten with a weekend road sweep at Notre Dame while Michigan won both ends of a home series against Arizona State.

Eight teams have cancelled their 2020-21 campaigns, including the Ivy League as a whole, and others have seen delays and postponements.

Alabama Huntsville has $17 million contributed to fund operations for the next decade, while Long Island University has defied critics and is ready to get its new program underway this week.

And the training camp for the Canadian World Juniors team has three NCAA programs facing a dilemma.

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Hosts Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger look back at the weekend of March 5-8, which saw four conferences begin playoffs and two others wrap up their regular seasons.

In ECAC Hockey, Princeton’s two overtime wins advanced the Tigers past Dartmouth, while it took two overtimes for Yale to advance past Union in the league’s only game three.

The big surprise in Atlantic Hockey was that there were no surprises; all three higher seeds advanced, though only Robert Morris needed three to move past Holy Cross, including a game two overtime win.

In the Big Ten, the higher seeds all won as well. Notre Dame will miss the NCAA tournament after a disappointing second semester, while Wisconsin will await decisions by three first-round draft picks who might turn pro.

The WCHA saw two lower seeds advance. Bowling Green swept Alaska and Michigan Tech downed rival Northern Michigan in a three-overtime thriller.

Hockey East settled its playoff lineup and home ice as did the NCHC, which decided everything on Friday except whether North Dakota would be alone in first place. The Fighting Hawks’ win over Omaha gave them sole possession of the Penrose Cup.

Arizona State continues to watch the PairWise, which Bemidji State showed over the weekend still has some volatility.

Plus we weigh in on the impact of the coronavirus as Rensselaer announced its series against Harvard will be played at an empty Houston Field House.

This episode is sponsored by the NCAA Frozen Four, April 9-11 in Detroit. Visit ncaa.com/frozenfour to get your tickets today.

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Playoff fields are set in four conferences after last weekend, while two conferences still have a final week left in their regular season. Hosts Jim Connelly and Ed Trefzger look at the results of February 27-29, 2020.

In Hockey East, Boston College has clinched the regular season and UMass has locked up home ice, but four teams are still battling for the last three playoff spots.

In the NCHC, North Dakota has won a share of the regular-season Penrose Cup, but Minnesota Duluth could share that title, while St. Cloud still has a shot at home ice.

Cornell’s highly-anticipated Saturday contest with Clarkson was a bit anticlimactic after the Golden Knights’ tie with Colgate on Friday clinched the Cleary Cup for the Big Red, but the surprise team in ECAC Hockey is Rensselaer, which earned a first-round playoff bye.

With its season completed last week, Penn State had to await the results of the weekend to see whether it would hold onto first place in the Big Ten. The Nittany Lions won their first Big Ten regular-season title after Minnesota and Ohio State managed just one point each on the weekend.

In the WCHA, Minnesota State clinched sole possession of first place with a weekend split with Bemidji State, while Alaska’s sweep of Alaska Anchorage gave the Nanooks home ice in the first round of the playoffs.

Atlantic Hockey’s repeat regular season champion American International had already clinched the league, but three teams competed over the weekend for the first-round bye, which Niagara won with a sweep of Robert Morris.

And Arizona State’s PairWise position was shored up by the weekend’s results, with the Sun Devils at No. 12.

This episode is sponsored by the NCAA Frozen Four, April 9-11 in Detroit. Visit ncaa.com/frozenfour to get your tickets today.

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