Many eyes were fixed on the goings-on in Oxford, Ohio, this weekend, which hosted a two-game NCHC set between fourth-ranked Miami and No. 12 Omaha. A series that appeared to have “split” written all over it ended that way, with Miami winning big by an 8-2 count on Friday before UNO came away with a 5-2 victory the following night.<\/p>\n
UNO actually opened the scoring on Friday when David Pope put a puck past RedHawks goaltender Jay Williams 4:14 into the game. Things then quickly went south for the Mavericks, however, as Miami reeled off seven unanswered goals, with five of them coming in the second period.<\/p>\n
Mavericks goaltender Ryan Massa, who has led a young UNO team to a surprising level of success in the first half of this season, struggled on Friday. He only lasted until 9:41 into the second period before coach Dean Blais pulled him in favor of sophomore Kirk Thompson.<\/p>\n
Saturday’s rematch was much more to Blais’ and Massa’s liking. Massa redeemed himself with a stellar 40-save performance while his Mavericks teammates got the job done at the other end of the ice.<\/p>\n
Miami (11-5-0, 7-3-0-0 NCHC) is now off until Dec. 28 when it takes on Notre Dame in the Florida College Classic. UNO (8-4-2, 4-3-1-1) will host St. Cloud State this upcoming weekend.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>The USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll hasn’t seen much continuity at the top in recent weeks. It’s a little unlikely, but we might have yet another new No. 1 on Monday depending on how pollsters see things.<\/p>\n North Dakota went into this weekend ranked No. 1 in the country, but it put itself in real danger of losing that spot on Friday. Non-conference opponent Lake Superior State — which lost a combined 10-0 at home in two games against Minnesota State a week ago — came into Grand Forks, N.D., on Friday and began the game by punching well above its weight.<\/p>\n UND coach Dave Hakstol opted to give freshman goaltender Cam Johnson the first start of his collegiate career on Friday, but it went poorly. After giving up two first-period goals to the Lakers, Johnson was pulled in favor of Zane McIntyre 54 seconds into the second frame when a third LSSU goal went in.<\/p>\n Lake State eventually pushed its lead to 4-1, but UND came roaring back from there. In scoring six goals in the final 27:25 of the game, UND won 7-4 and, in so doing, snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.<\/p>\n Saturday’s rematch provided somewhat less of a hassle for UND. The team went 2-for-4 on its power play opportunities in the game, and it was largely because of that that UND came away with a 3-1 win to clinch a sweep of its series with the Lakers.<\/p>\n UND (12-3-2, 5-2-1-0) will face a much tougher test this next weekend when it visits No. 10 Denver for a big rivalry series.<\/p>\n Just as UND had a tough time with a perceived lesser opponent on Friday, so, too, did Minnesota-Duluth.<\/p>\n The Bulldogs welcomed to Amsoil Arena a Colorado College team that had lost each of its five NCHC games so far this season and that had only three wins to its name under first-year coach Mike Haviland.<\/p>\n CC’s league record dropped to 0-7 with a pair of losses to UMD, but the Tigers weren’t about to go quietly. They proved that on Friday in a 3-2 overtime win for Duluth, with Kyle Osterberg netting the game-winner 3:32 into the extra session to spoil a 30-save performance from CC goalie Chase Perry.<\/p>\n The Bulldogs had a much easier time in Saturday’s series finale, which ended up 7-2 to UMD. Duluth scored each of the game’s first four goals before cruising to victory.<\/p>\n UMD is now 11-5-0 overall and 7-3-0-0 in the league, which puts the Bulldogs level with Miami for first place in the NCHC with 21 points. Duluth will hit the road this week to face fifth-ranked Michigan Tech.<\/p>\n CC (3-10-0, 0-7-0-0) is also on the road this next weekend, with the Tigers visiting Western Michigan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Clash of ranked teams ends in a stalemate Many eyes were fixed on the goings-on in Oxford, Ohio, this weekend, which hosted a two-game NCHC set between fourth-ranked Miami and No. 12 Omaha. A series that appeared to have “split” written all over it ended that way, with Miami winning big by an 8-2 count […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1425],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDuluth weathers storm before clinching sweep<\/h4>\n