It’s looking like a frigid weekend for much of college hockey country, but it likely won’t keep people away from the rink … at least not with series like the ones we chose to feature in this week’s INCH Friday Four-cast on tap.

Denver at North Dakota (Friday-Saturday): If nothing else, this weekend’s series in Grand Forks will provide a look at the resiliency of these two teams. The Fighting Sioux—in the midst of grueling seven-week stretch during which they’ve faced or will face Minnesota, Cornell, Denver, St. Cloud State, Minnesota Duluth, and Colorado College—are trying to get back into the top half of the WCHA standings. The Pioneers were clipped by Wisconsin in Madison, getting just one point from the Badgers.

Denver’s healthier and has the edge in goal with Marc Cheverie (pictured), but consecutive high-stakes series at unfriendly venues like Wisconsin and North Dakota can be mentally draining. And you can bet that the Engelstad Arena crowd, which hasn’t seen the Sioux play at home in three weeks, will be at a fever pitch for this series.

St. Lawrence at Cornell (Friday); Union at Yale (Friday): The top four teams in ECAC Hockey line up against each other Friday night and have an opportunity to shake up the top of the league standings. First-place Union leads by a single point over three second-place teams in Yale, St. Lawrence, and Cornell.

Yale hosts Union at Ingalls Rink. These teams tied in the first meeting of the year back in early November in Schenectady, but the Bulldogs have a chance to hold serve in their barn this weekend. Yale is just 2-2-0 in its last four league games and Union suffered its first two conference defeats last weekend on home ice.

Cornell and St. Lawrence played to a 1-1 tie two weeks ago and will meet again at raucous Lynah Rink. The Saints have surged into second place and are among the title contenders after going 4-0-2 in their last six conference games. The Big Red are also 4-0-2 in their last six ECAC Hockey games and earned a difficult split at home last weekend against North Dakota.

Michigan vs. Michigan State (Friday at East Lansing, Saturday at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit): Interesting that word of a Cold War redux in Ann Arbor in December broke Thursday; while the granddaddy of outdoor hockey games was all about spectacle and rivalry, the Spartans and Wolverines head into this weekend’s games focused inward.

Michigan State is on track to earn a CCHA first-round playoff, but the Spartans are just 1-2-2 in their last five games. Defense has become a bit of an issue; the Spartans have allowed 18 goals in their last five matches after giving up a total of 10 goals in seven games from Dec. 4-Jan. 8. Michigan, meanwhile, is in seventh place in the conference standings but just four points out of fourth place and the final opening-round bye. The Wolverines, who are 4-1-1 this month with the lone loss coming last weekend at Ferris State, are searching for offensive consistency.

BEANPOT SEMIFINALS, Harvard vs. Boston College, 5 p.m.; Northeastern vs. Boston University, 8 p.m. (Monday): The first Monday in February means the return of college hockey to Boston’s downtown arena. This year’s semifinal games match last year’s second day schedule when BC and Harvard played in the third-place tilt and BU defeated Northeastern in the tournament final—BU’s 29th Beanpot title.

This season hasn’t gone according to plan for the defending national champion Terriers, currently in sixth place in Hockey East, can use what has been unofficially dubbed the “Terrier Invitational” as a second-half spark plug. BC has won just twice in seven games since the calendar turned to 2010 and has lost twice to BU in that span. Harvard comes into the Beanpot as the hottest team among the four, with a 3-0-1 record in their last four, including wins over nationally-ranked Yale and Union. Northeastern is the only team of the four Beanpot participants that has a tournament title to its credit this year. The Huskies started 2010 by capturing the Ledyard Bank Classic at Dartmouth.

Also: Huge weekend in the WCHA—in addition to Denver at North Dakota, St. Cloud State travels to Colorado College and Wisconsin is at Minnesota Duluth. … Robert Morris travels to Bemidji State in a College Hockey America showdown featuring teams responsible for 75 percent of Miami’s losses this season. … Ferris State scored 14 goals in two games against Ohio State in Big Rapids in November. The two teams meet again this weekend in Columbus. … Scott Darling should be back in goal this weekend for Maine as the Black Bears take on Vermont in a key Hockey East series.

TV Schedule | INCH Pick ‘Em

Travis Vermeulen has set career-highs for goals and points as a senior.

TRAVIS VERMEULEN
St. Lawrence
Sr. | F | Centerville, Minn.

His Statistics: 2 GP, 2-4-6, GWG, +3 rating

His Impact: Vermeulen recorded a point on six of St. Lawrence’s nine goals over the weekend and helped lead the Saints into a three-way tie for second place in ECAC Hockey. He had two assists in the Saints’ 5-2 win over Brown on Friday and then came back with two goals and two assists in an important 4-2 win over Yale on Saturday at Appleton Arena.

Vermeulen’s huge night against defending league-champion Yale included a strong start in the first period. He assisted SLU’s opener and then scored less than three minutes later as the Saints held a 2-0 lead. Yale rallied back to tie it in the first minute of the third period, but Vermeulen scored the eventual game-winning goal at 11:00 of the period. He then assisted on an insurance tally with 1:52 remaining.

The senior forward leads St. Lawrence in scoring with 11 goals and 24 points but hasn’t been counted on for offensive production throughout his collegiate career. He started the year with just 42 career points. That’s not to discount his contributions over the last three and a half seasons. Saints coach Joe Marsh told the Watertown Daily Times, “He’s the best defensive forward I’ve ever coached. He brings it every single night.”

His Runners Up: Michael Davies, Wisconsin; Brian Foster, New Hampshire; Dave Jarman, Sacred Heart; Ian Lowe, Bemidji State; Brandon Richardson, Nebraska-Omaha

The INCH Player of the Week is brought to you by The INCH Shop.

This weekend’s Denver-Wisconsin series lived up to its advance billing; it was a well-played, intense, highly entertaining affair between two legitimate national championship contenders in a playoff atmosphere. If the two games at the Kohl Center are an indicator, put our names on the list of those who’d like to see a rematch in March or April.

Generally speaking, last weekend wasn’t a great one for teams in the INCH Power Rankings. Of the 20 teams currently ranked, only St. Cloud State, Bemidji State, New Hampshire, UMass Lowell and newcomer St. Lawrence managed two wins. Five ranked teams, meanwhile, were winless-Boston College, Minnesota Duluth, and Union were swept outright, while Denver and Lake Superior State salvaged only ties against Wisconsin and Notre Dame, respectively.

“This guy has never had any coaching (at the University of Michigan). … Michigan is the worst. For hockey people, if you’ve got a choice between a kid-all things being equal-one’s going to Michigan and one’s going to Boston University, you all want your player (going to Boston University). … Red (Berenson) doesn’t coach. It’s ‘do what you want.’”

Asked about the maturation of defenseman Jack Johnson, Los Angeles Kings general manager Dean Lombardi blasted Johnson, Berenson, and the Michigan program during a wide-ranging Q&A with Hockeytalk.biz blogger Gann Matsuda. The comments set the hockey world abuzz, and compelled Johnson to defend Berenson and the Michigan program. When asked about the comments a few days after they became public, Lombardi blamed Matsuda for taking his quotes out of context.

Maybe Lombardi is right-there exists anecdotal evidence that a fair share of high-profile ex-Wolverines (Andrew Cogliano, Al Montoya, and Jeff Tambellini, for example) haven’t panned out, but the flip side is that a number of lesser-heralded Michigan prospects have far exceeded expectations (think Matt Hunwick, David Moss, and Jed Ortmayer)-and he’s entitled to his opinion. But to make such statements and claiming his words were taken out of context is bush league.

An oddity in this week’s voter-driven rankings regarding Cornell and North Dakota, who split a series at Lynah Rink last weekend. In the USCHO.com poll, both the Fighting Sioux and Big Red edged up one spot to fourth and eighth, respectively. In the USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today poll, however-a poll in which INCH casts a ballot weekly-the Fighting Sioux moved up one spot to fourth while the Big Red fell one rung from seventh to eighth. It’s nothing to get mad about (unless you’re a Cornell fan, perhaps) but it’s fascinating how two different groups of voters interpret the same results.

@SchlossmanGF - In Lynah Rink. It’s freezing in here.

@undsid - In Lynah Rink. It’s freezing in here. @SchlossmanGF: Stop whining!

@SchlossmanGF - @INCH_Gladdy Strange that two guys from North Dakota are complaining about the cold?

The Tweets of the Week share some levity from Grand Forks Herald beat writer Brad Schlossman and North Dakota media relations director Jayson Hajdu. Here are a couple of guys who wake up to sub-zero Fahrenheit temperatures throughout the winter and got the chills in a 40-50 degree hockey rink.

The bigger picture is that one of the ideas for this week’s Stick Salute was to raise the branches to North Dakota’s willingness to travel east and set up a very good series between two very good teams. We understand that several high-profile Western teams have big rinks and big financial responsibilities to their athletic departments. That being said, North Dakota has made a commitment to get on the plane and play non-league games against prominent Eastern-based teams. Last year, it was the IceBreaker Tournament at BU with another game against UMass. This year, a trip to Cornell; and next year the Sioux embark on a two-game series at Maine.

It has been a decade and a half of ups and downs since Lake Superior State won three national titles in six years was a perennial contend for a spot in the NCAA tournament. Looking back on the glory days in Sault Ste. Marie, names like Brian Rolston, Doug Weight, and Jim Dowd jump off the page as obvious catalysts for a tournament-caliber team. But if one thing has become clear to current coach Jim Roque in recent years, it’s that if the Lakers are to succeed, it’s not the late-blooming goal scorers they consistently unearth who pave the path of success for Lake Superior—it’s the goaltenders.

Glove-ly: Lake Superior State goaltender Brian Mahoney-Wilson has the Lakers in the mix for a top-four finish in the CCHA regular-season standings.

Had it not been for Blaine Lacher, perhaps the Lakers wouldn’t have made the mark that they did on the 1990s. And more recently Lake Superior’s memorable 2006-07 trip to Joe Louis Arena for the CCHA’s semifinal round was on the shoulders of stellar netminder Jeff Jakaitis who gave up just one goal per game in an upset sweep of Miami in the quarterfinals.

But since Jakaitis moved on, Roque and Lakers couldn’t seem to settle on a full-time goaltender. Over the past two seasons, both Pat Inglis and Brian Mahoney-Wilson proved themselves capable college netminders, splitting time almost equally, but neither ever grew comfortable in their role.

Heading into this season, Roque thought back to the successes of No. 1 netminders like Jakaitis and Lacher and decided to make a philosophical change that might turn the fortunes of one lucky goaltender and the Laker program as a whole.

“I think, if anything, it has been more of my fault in not settling on one guy,” Roque said. “It’s always tough when you keep changing stuff. This summer, I said no matter what, I was going to make a decision and stick with it.”

Mahoney-Wilson caught Roque’s eye after putting in a summer of hard work and playing well in the early stages of the season, which has helped the coach keep his word and pick one starter. The consistent playing time has paid dividends so far, with Mahoney-Wilson amassing a .917 save percentage and a 2.53 goals against average en route to a 12-7-4 personal record and a chance to compete for a first-round bye in the conference playoffs.

Heading into this weekend’s home series against Notre Dame, Lake Superior sits in fourth place on the back of an impressive run since their Thanksgiving trip to the Rensselaer Holiday Tournament. Since earning ties against Union and Bentley in Troy, the Lakers have gone 8-1-1 with sweeps of Bowling Green, Northern Michigan, Robert Morris, and Nebraska-Omaha.

Mahoney-Wilson’s play has given his teammates the backbone to take chances offensively during that 10-game stretch, resulting in an increase in the team’s offensive output of 1.5 goals per game.

“If your goalie plays well, it changes how your whole team plays,” Roque said. “The forwards are not afraid to make mistakes … I’m a little disappointed in my forwards. We don’t have anyone producing at a point-per-game level, and I still think we can produce a little better up front.”

While he’d like to see more scoring from his forwards, Roque is still pleased that his team is playing well, and more importantly that they showed resilience after their 3-6-1 start in league play.

“I’m proud of the way they stuck with it,” Roque said. “We didn’t have as fast of a start as we wanted, but we stuck with it.”

Several key conference games make this mid-January weekend particularly relevant in terms of league standings. We also highlight a cross-regional matchup between teams heading in opposite directions.

Miami at Ferris State (Friday-Saturday)

Blair Riley scored two of Ferris State's three goals in a November series against Miami.

The odds-on CCHA preseason favorites meet up with this year’s surprise story this weekend with plenty to decide in the standings. The RedHawks and Bulldogs enter the weekend tied for first place with 34 points in 14 conference games. Momentum will be the story in Friday’s series opener as the RedHawks enter the game on the heels of dropping two games to lightly-regarded Robert Morris while Ferris State dominated the third period in each of its two wins last weekend over Notre Dame.

These teams met two months ago in Oxford, Ohio and couldn’t settle things after 65 minutes of hockey each night. The visiting Bulldogs earned bonus standings points through the shootout after each tie and some Ferris State fans described the weekend as a sweep. This weekend on home ice they’ll get the opportunity to pursue such an achievement in a more traditional manner.

Wisconsin at Colorado College (Friday-Saturday)

It’s a chance for the homestanding Tigers to get back on track after last week’s sweep at the hands of Minnesota Duluth, and for the Badgers to solidify their chase of the MacNaughton Cup. CC won six straight games in November, but is just 2-5-2 since then.

Wisconsin is five points behind first-place Denver with two games in hand, and is just a point behind fourth-place CC despite having played two fewer games. This will be the first meaningful hockey for the boys from Madison since winning the Badger Showdown title two weeks ago. Last week’s slate included an exhibition against the US NTDP Under-18s and several key Badgers rested for that one. They will get a boost in the lineup as Derek Stepan, John Ramage and Jake Gardiner return to the lineup after winning gold for the United State at the World Junior Championship.

Massachusetts vs. UMass Lowell (Fri. at UMass; Sat. at Lowell)

This in-state rivalry doesn’t get the notoriety of BC-BU or UNH-Maine within Hockey East circles but it means plenty to the fans, students, alumni and teams that are involved. This weekend it also means a great deal in the Hockey East standings. Since almost nothing was determined in the first half of the Hockey East season, this is a big chance for one of these teams to make a big jump in the standings and get some quality wins in terms of NCAA Tournament criteria.

These teams are currently tied for fourth place in Hockey East with 14 points, though UMass Lowell has played one fewer game. They met once earlier this year, a 5-3 win for Lowell on home ice that saw the River Hawks rally from a two-goal deficit.

St. Cloud State at Quinnipiac (Friday-Saturday)

This is a classic meeting of teams headed in different directions. The St. Cloud State Huskies have put together a solid run of four straight victories and are 7-1-1 in their last nine contests. They’ve vaulted to third place in the WCHA and have outscored their opponents 19-7 in their four-game win streak. Of course, those four wins came against Brown and Michigan Tech. This week’s tests at Quinnipiac will be tougher, even though the Bobcats are skidding. After starting 12-1-0 and moving into the top 10 of the national polls, Quinnipiac is just 1-6-1 since then and has lost six straight conference outings to lose their grasp on first place. This weekend’s games against St. Cloud State and next week’s tilts against Niagara are a good opportunity for the Bobcats to right the ship before the home stretch in ECAC Hockey play.

Also: One of the WCHA’s best rivalries resumes in Minneapolis when North Dakota visits Minnesota for two … Boston College hosts Maine Friday night in a meeting of top teams in Hockey East … Union, atop ECAC Hockey, hosts travel partner Rensselaer Saturday in a highly-contested rivalry that has already featured three very good games this season … Michigan State and Notre Dame will play a home-and-home in the CCHA and Michigan hosts Alaska for a pair at Yost.

TV Schedule | INCH Pick ‘Em

When Ferris State headed into the holiday break with a 13-3-2 record and just a stone’s throw out of first place with an 8-2-2 record in CCHA play, to many it seemed too good to be true. The Bulldogs have put together strong seasons before, the 2002-03 regular season championship team being exhibit No. 1, but it was hard to believe that this year’s team could keep up its excellent team defense and torrid scoring pace coming out of a three-week intermission.

After the first night back on the ice at the Badger Hockey Showdown in Madison, those who had their doubts felt vindicated, as Ferris State came out uninspired and flat and experienced its first great disappointment of the campaign – a 6-1 bulldozing at the hands of an excellent Yale team on the strength of a four-goal third period. The battle of the Bulldogs was hard-fought through two periods, with Yale leading 2-1 after 40 minutes, but a bad goal past Ferris State netminder Taylor Nelson in the opening minutes of the final period sent Nelson and his teammates reeling and Yale flying.

Having faced adversity for the first time all year, it was far from certain how Ferris State would respond.

“It’s going to be interesting to see,” Bulldogs coach Bob Daniels said after the game. “We knew somewhere along the line we were going to stub our toe, and we were going to have a real downer of a game, and this is the first time that has occurred. I would like to think we’ll respond with a hard-fought game.”

And that Ferris State did, rebounding from the crushing defeat to cruise past Merrimack in the third-place game by a 5-1 mark, and then spoiling goodwill Notre Dame had built up at the Shillelagh Tournament with a 5-2, 4-2 sweep in South Bend.

With the two wins at Notre Dame, not only had the Bulldogs overcome the disappointment from their lackluster second-half opener, but they also closed the gap between themselves and the CCHA-leading Miami RedHawks, leaving the two teams tied atop the conference standings ahead of a critical pair of head-to-head clashes in Big Rapids this Friday and Saturday.

Preparing for a series that will either leave the teams in a deadlock for first place or give one team a marked advantage in the chase for the title, Ferris State will look back on lessons learned from the disappointing loss to Yale to avoid similar pitfalls against an equally, if not more, dangerous Redhawks team.

“Certainly we need to handle the puck better,” Daniels said. “We’re normally a pretty good passing, receiving and puck handling team, but you wouldn’t know it from (the Yale) game. I thought we were fighting it and our passing was off. I did think that as the game wore on, we responded by trying to play more individualistic instead of staying with the team game and getting more grounded in our systems.”

Goals could be hard to come by in the Miami series with two of the nation’s top three defensive teams facing off. The RedHawks boast the nation’s stingiest team defense at 1.77 goals surrendered per game, and Ferris State is not far behind, sitting third nationally with just 1.91 goals against per game. Because play is likely to be tight and the Bulldogs don’t boast the depth of explosive talent up front that Miami does, the systems and teamwork Daniels alluded to will be of utmost importance.

If Ferris State is to put together a strong offensive performance, it will rely on a top line of Blair Riley, Casey Haines and Cody Chupp. The Bulldogs’ top group that has been productive all year long, with Riley’s 16-10-26 line and 10-game point streak leading the way. The trio have worked well together, acknowledging their own strengths and weaknesses and sticking to Daniels’ system to give opponents fits. Riley scored twice in the first Miami-Ferris State meeting of the season, but was held scoreless on the second night.

In the earlier meetings at Miami, the teams were tied after five minutes of overtime both nights, with Ferris State escaping with the extra point both nights after winning the shootout.

Starting Shorthanded: Ferris State will be without freshman forward Travis Ouellette for both contests this weekend after he took a checking from behind penalty in the third period of Sunday’s series finale at Notre Dame last weekend. Ouellette’s hit on Teddy Ruth earned him a game disqualification, which took him out of Friday’s game, and then he was handed an additional game’s suspension by the CCHA earlier this week.

Neil Koepke of the Lansing State Journal has a terrific look back at the life of Amo Bessone, the “Godfather of Spartan Hockey” who left his mark at Michigan State and in the college game. Bessone passed away Saturday at 92.

Ostergard stole the show against Miami.

BROOKS OSTERGARD
Robert Morris
So. | G | Chagrin Falls, Ohio

His Statistics: 2 GP, 2-0-0, 1.00 GAA, .975 save pct.

His Impact: The sophomore goalie for Robert Morris was at his best this weekend in helping the Colonials to a pair of victories over previously top-ranked Miami. In Friday’s game at Mellon Arena, home of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, Ostergard made 39 saves and allowed just a power-play goal in a 3-1 win.

Sunday in Oxford, Ohio, Ostergard stopped 38 Miami shots and again was only beaten by a power-play goal. He made 14 saves in the third period when the Colonials were protecting their 2-1 lead, which held up as the final margin.

Ostergard was named First Star of the game after both wins. For the season he has a 4-9-21 record in 17 games with a .907 save percentage and 3.43 goals-against average.

His Runners-Up: Bobby Butler, New Hampshire; Brandon Coccimiglio, Mercyhurst; Mike Connolly, Minnesota Duluth; Mike Embach, Ferris State; Allan York, Rensselaer

There were a lot of impressive visuals from Fenway Park over the last two weeks when a hockey rink was built on the famous baseball ground and hosted a number of hockey events. When Boston University and Boston College took the ice on Friday night, our initial reaction was being overwhelmingly impressed by the special sweaters worn by the BU Terriers.

The font on front resembled that worn by the Boston Red Sox on their home jerseys, and the hanging skates shoulder-patch tribute to the Red Sox’ alternate logo was a particular fitting touch. The design was almost entirely the idea of head coach Jack Parker, as the Terriers used to wear warm-up jackets with a similar font in the late-1980s and early-1990s. He and equipment manager Mike DiMella worked with some of the team’s equipment providers to make the vision a reality. And if you’re hoping to get your hands on one … too bad. The idea behind the special design was so that the team members would always have something to hold on to and remember the experience.

We understand that people tend to think their own little corner of the world is the best there is, but sometimes that provincialism can be a bit misguided. Take Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo, for example, who, in the afterglow of the NHL Winter Classic at Fenway Park earlier this month, was prepared to lobby the league to have the event in Beantown every year. The notion was quickly shot down by NHL brass.

Fenway is one-of-a-kind setting and the Winter Classic certainly benefited from the aura surrounding the venerable ballpark, but suggesting the event should be permanently housed in Boston is a disservice to the cities that have hosted the Winter Classic in the past as well as those poised to host it in the future.

“I was a little smarter than he was. I gave my gold to my mom.”

Wisconsin sophomore defenseman Jake Gardiner, a member of the U.S. team that won first place at last week’s IIHF World Junior Championship, wisely sent his hardware home to suburban Minneapolis with his family following the tournament’s conclusion.

The U.S. team captain and Gardiner’s Badger teammate, forward Derek Stepan, planned on toting his medal back to Madison. The bauble went AWOL, however, when the airline lost his luggage. Fortunately, the bag and the medal showed up a couple days later unharmed.

Miami must have fostered a heaping helping of goodwill with poll voters somewhere, because the RedHawks managed to drop just one spot to second place in both the USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today and USCHO.com polls despite managing a total of two goals in a pair of losses to Robert Morris, a team that entered the weekend series in the throes of a nine-game winless streak and hadn’t won consecutive games all season.

That the RedHawks only managed to score twice in 120 minutes against the Colonials is even more troubling (or impressive, depending on your perspective) given the fact that RMU ranks 54th among the 58 Division I teams in scoring defense, allowing an average of 3.75 goals per game, and ranks 52nd in penalty killing success rate.

@evalois What we learned yesterday? Defense, not defence, wins games. #wjc

http://twitter.com/evalois/status/7445063437

Similarities outnumber differences between Canada and the United States, but last Tuesday they seemed a world away, something a Toronto-based newspaper editor captured with this tweet. The World Junior Championship gold medal game was the most watched show in the history of TSN, Canada’s ESPN, while ESPN itself could barely mention it. Don Cherry later dismissed the result as USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program manufacturing a triumph over Canada’s natural superiority in the sport.

Whatever the rest of the United States’ interest was, the college hockey world watched with great interest as the Americans - including 11 current college players - upset the five-time defending champions. Team USA’s win was a source of great pride - and bragging rights throughout campus locker rooms populated by both American and Canadian players.

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The first weekend following the holiday break always seems like kind of a strange one. No one’s completely back into their routines yet—a lot of schools still aren’t in session yet—so there’s still a lingering vacation feel. Think of it as a transition week, one that sets us up for the six-week grind during which the league races really heat up.

But back to this weekend. Some teams jump right back into conference play, while others are engaged in non-conference action. Then there’s Boston College and Boston University, who venture outside for a game.

Ben Smith and Boston College have played Boston University plenty of times, but not in a venue like Fenway.

Boston College vs. Boston University (Friday at Fenway Park): Seeing these two teams play in Fenway is like seeing Springsteen perform during halftime of the Super Bowl—you get a sense of what the full show would be like, but the unique setting creates some limitations. Analyzing what could happen is futile, since no one can predict how either team will react in this highly charged environment.

There’s no question it’ll be a great scene, what with two bitter rivals clashing in front of more than 30,000 fans in one of the most hallowed sports venues in the world. As for the hockey itself,it’s not a stretch to say that the spate of outdoor games have hardly been memorable. When Michigan and Michigan State met in East Lansing in 2001, the play wasn’t sloppy, per se, but it did lack a certain flow.

Perhaps the biggest irony of the large-scale productions meant to celebrate the game of hockey is that the on-ice product is hardly worth celebrating.

Rensselaer and Union at Quinnipiac and Princeton: This weekend’s travel-partner set features four teams with intriguing mid-season storylines. Quinnipiac won 12 of its first 13 games but have gone just 1-4-1 in six games since then, and the lone victory came over American International. The Bobcats host RPI Friday night and Union Saturday. It’s the start of a stretch of eight home games in their next nine overall, and the Bobcats are a perfect 8-0-0 at home, a good time for them to get back on track.

Princeton had a disappointing first half but seems to be getting things back on track. They tied Maine and beat Cornell at the Florida College Classic and defeated Quinnipiac in overtime earlier this week on the strength of a Dan Bartlett hat trick. It total, Princeton carries a four-game unbeaten streak into the weekend and may be playing to its potential. The Tigers host Union on Friday night and RPI Sunday afternoon in an ESPNU-televised game, beginning at 3 p.m. ET.

RPI finished second at the Great Lakes Invitational by defeating Michigan in the semifinals before falling to Michigan State in the championship. Of course, they played those games without freshman forward Jerry D’Amigo, who helped the United States to a gold medal at the World Junior Championship. D’Amigo won’t play in Friday’s game at Quinnipiac as he recovers from the grueling international duty, but expects to be in the lineup for the televised game Sunday at Princeton.

Union has lost just once in its last 13 games (8-1-4) and that defeat came at the hands of nationally ranked Massachusetts. The Dutchmen are undefeated in league play with a 4-0-3 ECAC Hockey record, and stand just three points behind first-place Quinnipiac despite having played four fewer league games. Those teams meet on Saturday.

Ferris State at Notre Dame (Saturday-Sunday): The eight-game Ferris State Reality Tour (as in, are the Bulldogs for real?) continues this weekend with its third and fourth legs at the Joyce Center. The jury’s still out on Ferris after last week’s performance in Madison in the Badger Hockey Showdown—coach Bob Daniels’ team was rocked by Yale, but recovered to beat Merrimack, 5-1.

Notre Dame, meanwhile, showed some spark in a win against Colgate and tie with North Dakota at the Shillelagh Tournament in suburban Chicago. The Irish are in the midst of an important stretch of games as well, with series against Michigan State and surprising Lake Superior State on the horizon.

Colorado College at Minnesota Duluth (Friday-Saturday): These two teams split a series in Colorado Springs earlier this season, not suprising considering how evenly matched they are. Both the Bulldogs and Tigers have played 20 games, and both have scored 70 goals this season. Both have scored 49 goals in 14 league matches. Both have 12 overall wins and eight in the WCHA, but two points separate them in the conference standings; CC has two fewer losses and two more ties than UMD.

Both teams would also like to bounce back from disappointing losses during the holidays. The Tigers beat an excellent Cornell squad in the first round of the Florida College Classic, but allowed two third-period goals to Maine en route to a 3-2 loss in the tournament championship. The Bulldogs, meanwhile, throttled Mercyhurst in the first round of the Catamount Cup last week before host Vermont handed them a 5-2 loss in the title game.

Also: Bentley, fresh off wins against UConn and UMass at last week’s UConn holiday tournament, hosts Canisius in the week’s marquee series in Atlantic Hockey. … Only two CCHA teams have more goals this season than Lake Superior State. The Lakers, currently in fifth place in the league, head to East Lansing to face second-place Michigan State. … Important weekend for current Hockey East leader New Hampshire. The Wildcats host UMass Lowell Friday and UMass Saturday.

TV Schedule (all times Eastern): Friday—Boston College vs. Boston University, NESN and NHL Network, 7:30 p.m.; Lake Superior State at Michigan State, Fox Sports Net Detroit, 7:30 p.m.; Connecticut at Air Force, CBS College Sports, 8 p.m.; Harvard at Minnesota, Fox Sports Net North, 8 p.m.; Minnesota State at North Dakota, Fox College Sports, 8:30 p.m.; Alaska Anchorage at Denver, Fox Sports Net Rocky Mountain, 9:30 p.m.

Saturday—UMass Lowell at Northeastern, NESN, 7:30 p.m.; Minnesota State at North Dakota, Fox College Sports, 8 p.m.; Alaska Anchorage at Denver, Fox Sports Net Rocky Mountain, 9 p.m.; Harvard at Minnesota, Fox Sports Net North, tape delay TBA.

Sunday—Rensselaer at Princeton, ESPNU, 3 p.m.; Massachusetts at Northeastern, ESPNU, 8 p.m.

DU's Rhett Rakhshani posted identical 2-1—3 scoring lines in wins against Nebraska-Omaha and Boston College.

RHETT RAKHSHANI
Denver
Sr. | F | Huntington Beach, Calif.

His Impact: Rakhshani was the catalyst as Denver captured its own holiday tournament with wins over Nebraska-Omaha and Boston College. Denver opened the tournament with a 7-0 win over UNO and Rakhshani posted two goals, an assist and was a plus-4.

Denver trailed Boston College 2-0 after two periods, but Rakhshani took over in the third period. He scored just 30 seconds into the period to cut the Pioneer deficit in half. Later in the period, he scored the game-tying goal with 5:16 remaining and then set up Joe Colborne’s game winner with 3:15 left on the clock.

His Runners-Up: Dan Bakala, Bemidji State; Brett Perlini, Michigan State; Kyle Rank, Bentley; Chris Rawlings, Northeastern; Jason Walters, Union

Among the longest shots to win any of the holiday tournaments, the Bentley Falcons left Storrs, Conn., with the trophy following 4-1 wins over host UConn and nationally-ranked Massachusetts in the UConn Hockey Classic. Goalie Kyle Rank was named tournament MVP after stopping 65 of 67 shots he faced in the two games, and made 42 saves in the win over UMass.

We panned Atlantic Hockey’s non-league performance in earlier editions of the First Shift, and will take this opportunity to salute Bentley’s big win. The Falcons are 6-4-2 in Atlantic Hockey, currently in fifth place, and have played fewer games than three of the teams ahead of them in the standings.

Regular readers of this site know that we’re not the greatest fans of post-game shootouts. Unfortunately, at many holiday tournaments across the country, the shootout is used to determine which teams advance and in some cases which teams win the tournament (Wisconsin). Our personal opinions aside, the holiday tournament season is probably the best time to use this format. With teams playing back-to-back nights and more than one game at each venue, there are time concerns and burdens on the players. Still, we applaud the Great Lakes Invitational and Beanpot for putting 20 minutes on the overtime clock.

We can accept that the CCHA uses the format for its league games, but why was there a shootout after Saturday’s 0-0 tie between Bemidji State and Western Michigan? When the host Broncos prevailed, fans left the rink with the perception that the Broncos won the game. Not bad for a team that failed to score an actual goal all weekend.

“Things just kind of turned for the worst and it just became a big distraction this year for us. And I think that’s one reason we were so up and down this year, because some of the things that he said to his players and some of the things that were done. People just didn’t cope with that.”

Texas Tech offensive lineman Brandon Carter made those remarks to ESPNDallas.com reporter Jeff Kaplan following the Red Raiders’ Alamo Bowl win over Michigan State last weekend. The situation surrounding the dismissal of Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach is bizarre, but the entire episode drives home an important lesson—that even though journalists and fans alike think they can dissect the problems plaguing Team X or get to the bottom of why Player Y isn’t performing, the truth is that we really don’t know.

Sure, we can speculate that a specific team’s issues stem from a lack of effort, an absence of finishers on offense, or zero attention to detail. And we might be right. Then again, maybe the guys hate each other, maybe they’ve tuned the coaching staff out, or, in the case of Texas Tech, the coach is a jerk.

On the strength of a pair of convincing wins over Michigan Tech and Rensselaer at the Great Lakes Invitational, Michigan State leapt past Bemidji State in this week’s INCH Power Rankings and both voter-driven polls. The Beavers didn’t help their cause with a scoreless tie at CCHA bottom-feeder Western Michigan, but the decision to flip the Spartans ahead of BSU wasn’t as easy as you might think.

@twolinepass America is a helluva country!

A simple statement from Ryan Lambert of Puck Daddy that captured a lot of the pride and emotion evident on Twitter Sunday night after the United States defeated Sweden in the semifinals of the World Junior Championship.

It’s not Friday, but allow us to deviate from our weekly schedule to present the latest installment of the Four-cast. This edition will be the first of two focusing on important holiday tournaments.

Florida College Classic; Dec. 29-30
Germain Arena; Estero, Fla.

Bill Sweatt leads CC with 20 points in 18 games.

This is an intriguing tournament featuring four teams with something to prove. Is Cornell a legitimate top-five team and Frozen Four contender? Is Colorado College as good as its 11-4-3 record indicates or did they simply take advantage of a favorable home-ice schedule in the first half? Is Maine on its way back to the NCAA Tournament and contending for Hockey East honors? Can Princeton play up to its talent level after a difficult first half?

Maine and Cornell are the annual co-hosts of this event and it regularly draws competitive invited teams to fill the field. After lots of snowy bus rides and flights all year long, it’s even a bit of a reward for these teams to make it down to Florida’s gulf coast, where the current 10-day forecast shows high temperatures ranging between 66 and 82. Not too shabby, but the team that comes home with a couple of victories this week will have more to remember than pleasant weather.

Great Lakes Invitational; Dec. 29-30
Joe Louis Arena; Detroit, Mich.
Interesting field, albeit one that won’t drive ticket sales. Two inconsistent teams, Michigan and Rensselaer, meet in one first-round match, and two consistent teams, Michigan Tech and Michigan State, square off in the other (hey, we didn’t say both were consistently good).

At first glance, this appears to be the Spartans’ tournament to lose mainly because they’ve got the best goaltending in the draw with sophomore Drew Palmisano. Don’t be surprised if Rensselaer knocks off Michigan in what could be a high-scoring affair; both teams like to push the tempo, and the Engineers tend to play to the level of their opponent, which explains why they’ve beaten New Hampshire, Yale, and Boston University and lost to Army and Niagara.

IIHF World Under-20 Championships; Dec. 26-Jan. 5
Regina and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Playing on home turf in Saskatoon and Regina and winners of the last five World Junior Championship gold medals, Canada enters this year’s event as the odds-on favorite. Six of the 22 players on the Canadian roster are returnees from last year. That said, the most talented players in the lineup could be a trio of newcomers-forwards Taylor Hall, Nazem Kadri, and Brayden Schenn. Sweden is considered the top threat to Canada’s supremacy.

The U.S. team, meanwhile, is a young group but one that knows how to win on an international stage-a lot of the names on this roster won gold at the World Under-18 Championship last spring. While there may not be the high-end talent like a Colin Wilson or James van Riemsdyk on the U.S. squad this time around, this team boasts great balance. Typically, the U.S. thrives in this event when it gets superb goaltending, which puts the onus on goaltenders Mike Lee, the St. Cloud State freshman, or US NTDP product Jack Campbell.

The U.S. should benefit from a favorable draw-others in Group A are Canada, Latvia, Slovakia, and Switzerland-and should exit pool play as one of the tournament’s top four seeds. A difficult quarterfinal match against the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, or Sweden looms. Given the youth of this team, a top-four finish for the U.S. would be an outstanding effort.

UConn Hockey Classic; Dec. 29-30
Freitas Ice Forum; Storrs, Conn.
Sure, UConn’s annual holiday tournament doesn’t get the national attention of the three aforementioned events. It usually draws a field of teams from within the region, bringing together a quartet of clubs from Hockey East, Atlantic Hockey and ECAC Hockey. That’s the case this year, but the first semifinal is definitely worth taking note of as nationally-ranked teams Union and Massachusetts will drop the puck on this two-day event. That gives the UConn Classic one more ranked team in its field than the Great Lakes Invitational can claim.

Some players worth watching in the early semifinal include UMass standout James Marcou, the nation’s leader in assists and his wingman Casey Wellman, who has 13 goals. Union’s offensive strength is in its depth as eight players have 10 points or more already this season but keep an eye on senior Mario Valery-Trabucco, who has 10 goals and 21 points in 15 games played. Bentley and UConn met earlier this year in an Atlantic Hockey tilt and Bentley got a 4-3 win as Dan Koudys scored with five minutes left to play. Sean Ambrosie had a pair of power-play goals for UConn and Erik Peterson scored twice for Bentley in that one.