Sure, we’ve mocked the proliferation of outdoor hockey games in the past. And, some would argue, rightly so. This weekend, however, isn’t the time to get up on our soapbox. Sure, there are outdoor games on the slate, but this time around it’s more than just a spectacle—these contests will play significant roles in the races for league titles in the CCHA, ECAC Hockey, and Hockey East.

Fenway Park is the site of Friday's important ECAC Hockey showdown pitting Union against Danny Biega and Harvard.

Outdoor Hockey (Fri.-Sat-Sun.): As outdoor games have proliferated throughout the years, one of the strangest facts about them in our eyes is that most of them have been league contests and factored in the standings. That’s the case again this weekend when three prominent games involving league rivals take place on baseball diamonds. It starts with Friday’s game at Fenway Park where Union and Harvard meet in an ECAC Hockey contest. They played last week and tied 3-3 at Union’s home rink. That’s followed Saturday at the same site where Boston College and Northeastern will meet. Northeastern is one of the nation’s hottest teams, but had a slow start in Hockey East games. They’ll have a chance to knock off the league’s first-place team.  Sunday, it’s the second-half of a two-game weekend when Michigan and Ohio State will play at Progressive Field in Cleveland, home of the Cleveland Indians. Ohio State currently leads the CCHA with a 10-3-3 league record and owns a seven-point advantage over Notre Dame and Western Michigan.

Minnesota at North Dakota (Fri.-Sat.): While there’s a tendency to believe these teams are trending in opposite directions, that isn’t really the case. Sure, the Gophers aren’t crushing their opponents’ skulls like they did during the first six weeks of the season and North Dakota has played light years better than it did during its 4-7-1 start, but the roles haven’t completely reversed.

Minnesota is deeper and more talented than the injury-riddled North Dakotans, but the Gophers can be maddeningly inconsistent—those who witnessed the boatload of giveaways and odd-man rushes against in last weekend’s loss to Notre Dame can certainly attest to that. NoDak, meanwhile, has been relying almost solely on the Corban Knight-Danny Kristo-Brock Nelson line for offense and the re-emergence of goalie Aaron Dell, who has a 1.97 GAA and a .923 save percentage in his last seven starts. But credit coach Dave Hakstol and his staff for patching together a lineup that has clicked thus far.

Notre Dame vs. Western Michigan (Fri. at Notre Dame; Sat. at Kalamazoo): The Fighting Irish and Broncos enter the weekend tied for second in the CCHA standings, seven points behind first-place Ohio State. Notre Dame comes into the home-and-home with a little momentum courtesy of impressive wins against nationally ranked Boston University and Minnesota; the Irish also appear to have found a no. 1 goaltender in Steve Summerhays. Western Michigan was swept by top-ranked Minnesota Duluth last weekend, but the games were closer than the final scores indicate—both nights, the Broncos led after one period and were tied heading into the third period.

Minnesota Duluth at Nebraska-Omaha (Fri.-Sat.): About a week ago, Dean Blais and Scott Sandelin were guiding the U.S. entry at the IIHF World Junior Championship in Alberta. This weekend, the two coaches will patrol opposite benches as Sandelin’s top-ranked Bulldogs head to Omaha to face Blais and the Mavericks. UMD hasn’t lost in forever, but this might be the time and place its 16-game unbeaten streak ends. UNO can keep pace with the Bulldogs offensively, but whether or not the Mavs get reliable goaltending will likely spell the difference here. More that 15,000 fans are expected to pack CenturyLink Center Friday; when it comes to big games, dating back to the old Bullpen, Mavs crowds have historically risen to the occasion and given their team a boost.

Also: That creeping sound you hear is preseason Frozen Four favorite Miami ever so slightly tiptoeing back into the race for the CCHA regular-season title. The RedHawks get the chance to run down one of the teams ahead of them in the league standings, Lake Superior State, this weekend. … Big showdown in Hockey East this weekend as Maine travels to Merrimack for a two-game set. The Black Bears have won seven of their last eight while the Warriors are 2-4-2 in their last eight … Neither Dartmouth nor New Hampshire are having the type of seasons they envisioned. Still, the battle for the RiverStone Cup has routinely been one of the better non-league games in recent years. The teams faceoff Saturday in Manchester, N.H.

While the Hockey East standings are a bit of a jumbled mess, the league has done more than just beat up on each other. Seven of the 10 teams have at least a .500 mark in out-of-conference games, including Massachusetts, which holds a 4-2-1 mark in non-conference contests, with a 4-1-1 record against non-Hockey East opponents.

Despite the Minutemen’s strong out-of-conference mark, Massachusetts holds just a 3-6-4 record in league play, though head coach Don Cahoon’s squad has started to show signs of turning things around in Hockey East. The Minutemen have gone 3-1-2 since the first of December, including last weekend’s thrilling 3-2 overtime victory over Vermont at Fenway Park in Boston.

“We’re really trying to put that one to bed and move forward,” Cahoon said of the experience of playing outdoors. “The experience was a terrific one, and anytime we go into Eastern Massachusetts, it’s amazing how many people come out of the woodwork to support us. They show up at all of the Boston-area schools, but when we get a chance to play at the TD Garden or at Fenway, we even get the non-hockey types out and they bring their family and friends, and it was great for our players to experience that.”

Of Massachusetts’ last six games, four of those were non-league contests, with the Minutemen scoring victories against ECAC Hockey’s Cornell and Yale and earning a tie against Harvard. Last weekend, Cahoon’s club picked up three out of a possible four points, earning a tie at Providence before the win over the Catamounts.

“It was really a matter of time with our team trying to evolve,” Cahoon said. “We were getting more consistent, more prepared to play, and getting into the right mindset and putting in the right effort and executing. Away from our rink, we’ve been struggling with attention to detail, and we started to fix that in Florida – one game was really good, and it would suggest we’re starting to get better.

“Our guys are starting to bear down a little more, gaining a little more maturity, and evolving,” Cahoon added. “As we go along, the more different situations and the more adversity we face, it creates a stronger group of people.”

Massachusetts enters this weekend’s lone game, a home contest against Boston College on Friday night, tied with Northeastern for the eighth and final spot in the Hockey East playoffs, though both teams still have 14 league games remaining. Further, both the Minutemen and Huskies are only five points out of the all-important fourth spot in the standings, a spot that would give them a home series when the league playoffs roll around in March.

But before the Minutemen can start looking toward March, their more immediate focus is on their next opponent, Boston College.

“With only one game this weekend against Boston College, those are the only two points we can get,” Cahoon said. “Next weekend is the same thing, with only one game against Vermont – we can only get two points there. It’s really important for us to get something each of these weekends so that we can build some momentum and string together a few four-point weekends.”

FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG

• Of the Hockey East teams with winning non-conference records, it’s a bit surprising that the two who barely made the cut happen to be Boston College and Boston University. The Eagles have a 4-3 mark outside of the league, while the Terriers are 2-2, with a game against Harvard coming up this weekend. Both squads also have a pair of non-league games in February with the Beanpot.

• So what is the team with the best mark outside of Hockey East? As of today, it’s eighth-place Northeastern, at 4-0-1 overall. And before one thinks those games were against cupcakes, think again; not one of those games came at home, with road wins at Michigan, at Minnesota, and at Notre Dame twice, with a tie against Princeton at the Mariucci Classic. Like BC and BU, the Huskies have the two Beanpot contests that could alter their non-league mark yet to come.

• Boston College and Northeastern will wrap up Hockey East’s foray into outdoor games for this season when the two clubs will play at Fenway on Sunday afternoon.

• Oddly enough, Maine is the only Hockey East team to rank in the top 15 nationally in power play percentage, ranking third and converting on 27.8 percent of their chances. Ordinarily, one would think the national leaders in penalty killing percentage would be full of Hockey East clubs, but that’s not the case. Only Boston College (tied for fourth) and Providence (10th) rank among the top quarter of teams nationally.

CONNOR KNAPP
Miami
Sr. | F | York, N.Y.

His Statistics: Backstopped the RedHawks to two wins at Michigan State—including a 4-0 shutout Saturday—by turning aside all but one of the 54 shots he faced on the weekend.

His Impact: A preseason Frozen Four favorite basically written off after losing six of eight in October, Miami has crept to within three points of second-place Notre Dame and Western Michigan in the CCHA standings thanks to a 9-3-3 record since Nov. 1.

Knapp was the hero for the RedHawks in their sweep of Michigan State in East Lansing. He made 33 saves in his team’s 2-1 overtime win Friday, then stopped all 20 shots he faced in Saturday’s series finale. Knapp, who started the year by losing three of his first four starts, is 4-1-0 in his last five appearances. During that span, he’s lowered his GAA by a full goal (from 3.17 to 2.17) while boosting his save percentage from .888 to .917.

His Runners-Up: Daniel Bahntge, Mercyhurst; Daniel Carr, Union; Joey Diamond, Maine; Carter Rowney, North Dakota

Charles “Lefty” Smith never led the Notre Dame hockey team to an NCAA Tournament appearance, nor did he guide them to a conference regular-season or playoff championship. Heck, in his 19 seasons as the Fighting Irish head coach, the team won 20 or more games in a season just four times.

That said, Notre Dame would have never soared to its recent heights without Smith, who passed away last week just two days shy of 82nd birthday. In 1968, after a successful 10-year stint as a high school coach in South St. Paul, Minn., he guided the Irish from their modern-day debut  as a Division I independent to membership in the WCHA, then the CCHA and, ultimately, back to independent status. A number of standouts played for Smith—Bill Nyrop, Jack Brownschidle, Greg Meredith, and Dave Poulin, to name a few—but his most notable achievement might be that each of the 126 players who played for him completed their college eligibility and earned degrees.

After stepping down as head coach in 1987, he became facilities manager at the school’s Loftus Sports Center, a post he held until his retirement last month. The main ice sheet at Notre Dame’s Compton Family Ice Arena bears his name.

We’re at that point in the college hockey season when people start talking about the PairWise Rankings, even though they’re only relevant for a matter of hours on the day the NCAA Tournament field is selected. And while we really don’t pay attention to the ups and downs of the computer rankings, they did catch our eye when we noticed that Northern Michigan is currently tied for sixth in PWR.

No disrespect to the Wildcats, who’ve had a decent season thus far, but does anyone really believe they’re better than Minnesota (eighth in the Pairwise), Merrimack (tied for 11th), Colgate (21st), or Union (26th)? One could legitimately argue that NMU is the sixth-best team in the state of Michigan. Fortunately, these types of things have a way of working themselves out in the end.

What Happened: Most of the players who returned from the recently completed World Junior Championship in Calgary and Edmonton slotted right back into their college lineups over the weekend, but in two notable instances players were held out of action. Canada’s Jaden Schwartz wasn’t in the Friday night lineup for Colorado College, which lost that night to visiting Cornell. Canada had played in the bronze-medal game the day before. United States captain Jason Zucker had the entire weekend off as Denver split a non-conference series with Alabama-Huntsville.

What We’re Watching: Hey, anybody notice we’re in the midst of another bunch of outdoor hockey games during this two-week span? Fenway Park hosted a Hockey East doubleheader on Saturday and will host two more games this weekend when Harvard plays Union and Boston College faces Northeastern. Michigan and Ohio State will play this weekend at the home of the Cleveland Indians. Here’s our take—there sure are a lot of these games seemingly every season. The concept is still a cool one and while it’s no longer a unique spectacle, it’s unique to most of the participating teams and cities that are getting on board. Far be it from us to chastise them for providing and enjoying the outdoor hockey experience.

What the … ? Cheers and congratulations go out to the Northern Michigan duo of Matt Thurber and Andrew Cherniwchan as each recorded a hat trick in the Wildcats’ 7-3 win over Alaska on Saturday night in Marquette. It was the first time that happened for a Northern Michigan team since the 1991-92 season.

@saveuahhockey Save UAH Hockey

Did we mention that Denver was #11 and that this loss probably puts them out of the NCAA postseason? No? Well, now you know. — GFM

• OK, hold on a second here. We’re not taking anything away from Alabama-Huntsville’s excellent 3-2 win at Denver on Friday night, it probably supplanted Sacred Heart’s November win over Yale as the biggest upset of the season. But to claim that it affects Denver’s postseason standing is a little out of whack. If the Pioneers take care of business in the WCHA over the rest of the season, earn a top-four finish and make it to the Final Five, they’re going to be in the NCAAs no problem.

There’s no better way to get the second half of the season underway than with a slate of games that is arguably, from top to bottom, the best weekend of college hockey to date. In addition to a slew of games pitting ranked foes against one another, there are a few important conference matchups, a handful of intriguing non-league affairs, and a couple neutral-site games.

Chase Balisy and Western Michigan will try to snap Minnesota Duluth's 14-game unbeaten streak this weekend in Kalamazoo.

Minnesota Duluth at Western Michigan (Fri.-Sat.)
UMD hasn’t lost since mid-October, but the top-ranked Bulldogs haven’t played in nearly a month. They’ll face a Western Michigan team that has bounced back from a four-game Novemeber losing streak to post a 4-1-2 mark its last seven games. Lawson Ice Arena has been a tough venue for road teams even in the Broncos’ lean years, but since the start of the 2010-11 season, WMU is 19-7-4 at home. No question the place will be electric this weekend—both games will be sellouts, and the Lawson Lunatics will bring the venom usually reserved for visits from Michigan and Michigan State.

Notre Dame at Minnesota (Sat.)
The Fighting Irish and Gophers are similar in a few respects—both have slowed after getting out to strong starts, welcome back key players following a stint for the U.S. team at the World Junior Tournament, and boast deep, talented lineups virtually bereft of seniors. Minnesota has the edge in goal with Kent Patterson, but Notre Dame could get a boost if forward Anders Lee, a Twin Cities native who snapped a nine-game goal drought by scoring twice against Boston University last week, is back on track. This game starts a difficult month-long stretch for the Gophers, who follow this contest with league series against North Dakota, Colorado College, St. Cloud State, and Denver.

Merrimack at Boston University (Fri.)
Merrimack at Boston College (Sun.)
It’s too early to call this a make-or-break weekend for Merrimack, but it’s a noteworthy weekend on the schedule in evaluating exactly where the Warriors stand among the top teams in Hockey East. While they’ve already posted an overtime win over BU earlier this season, this back-to-back set will be more telling as to how Merrimack stacks up. After starting the season 9-0-1 through 10 games, Merrimack is just 2-3-2 in its last seven. Boston College comes into the weekend following a third-place finish at the Great Lakes Invitational and Boston University suffered a 5-2 loss to Notre Dame during the holiday break. It’s a good chance for all three teams to start the second half in a positive manner.

Cornell at Colorado College (Fri.-Sat.)
Cornell heads to Colorado College for a two-game series this weekend before both teams head into an extended stretch of conference play to close the year. Keep an eye on the officiating standard as both teams have been tremendously proficient on the power play and relatively poor in penalty killing. CC is fifth in the country with a 25.3 percent conversion rate while Cornell is sixth at 23.9 percent. One big difference between the power-play units is that Colorado College has been stung for seven short-handed goals against while Cornell has not conceded any. While short-handed, both teams rank in the last 13 teams nationally as Cornell is 46th with a 78.2 penalty-kill success rate and Colorado College has killed off 77.6 percent, which ranks 48th.

Also: RIT, fresh off wins against top-20 opponents Ferris State and Lake Superior State at the Catamount Cup in Burington, Vt., last weekend, can add to its non-conference resume this weekend when it travels to Madison to face Wisconsin. … Speaking of Ferris, the Bulldogs have followed a 9-2-0 start by posting a 2-6-1 mark in their last nine games. They host Colgate, owners of a seven-game unbeaten streak. … Safe to say no one expected Michigan and Miami to be eighth and ninth, respectively, in the CCHA standings at the midway point of the season. Both teams can make up ground this weekend on teams they’re chasing—the Wolverines host fourth-place Lake Superior State and the RedHawks visit sixth-place Michigan State. … In the spirit of the original Winnipeg Jets, we encourage everyone attending Saturday’s Clarkson-North Dakota game in the ‘Peg to wear white. … They’ll be playing two games at Fenway Park Saturday—it’s Vermont against Massachusetts in one and New Hampshire and Maine in the other. We expect big things from the Black Bears’ Joey Diamond.

TERRIERS TAKE TIME TO REGROUP

The annual break for exams and finals is normally a down time for a team to rest and regroup for the second half of the season. For Boston University, however, the three-week span between games couldn’t have been more tumultuous.

Chris Connolly

First came the dismissal of senior Corey Trivino following an alcohol-related incident on campus on Dec. 12. Four days later, sophomore Charlie Coyle, training with the United States team in advance of the World Junior Championships, announced he was leaving to sign with the Saint John Sea Dogs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. At the time of their departures, Trivino and Coyle ranked first and fifth on the Terrier roster in scoring, with a combined 16 goals and 15 assists between the pair.

The Terriers began putting things back together upon the team’s return from the holiday break, despite returning to action with a disappointing 5-2 loss at Notre Dame on New Year’s Eve.

“We had a great practice before we left Boston; practices were really, really sharp,” said head coach Jack Parker following the game against the Irish. “The turmoil (of the break) was over once we started practice on the 26th, and people had different roles. It’s time to move on, and nobody’s worried about it.”

“It is a big loss,” said senior captain Chris Connolly, “but I think we have a lot of depth, and it’s just going to take the adjustment of guys playing some different positions with some different players. We’re still in a very good situation – this is a very good team.

“I think everybody was excited,” Connolly added about the Terriers getting back on the ice for game action. “You spend the first half trying to put yourself in a decent position so you don’t have to dig yourself out of a hole, and I think we’d done that.”

— Kevin Zeise

EVALUATING THE CCHA

When it comes to passing judgment on college hockey teams after their performance in holiday tournaments, it can get a little tricky. Thinking back a few years to the Badger Holiday Classic, watching Yale throttle a competitive Ferris State team helped put things into perspective for both sets of Bulldogs, as Yale went on to an unforgettable loss to Boston College in the second round of the NCAA Tournament and Ferris State narrowly missed the Big Dance.

But with the dawn of 2012, the CCHA heads into the second half of its penultimate season with just as must uncertainty as they left the first half of the year.

While the current first place team, Ohio State, made it through the holiday season unscathed with a 4-2 victory over Robert Morris and second-place Notre Dame beat both Boston University and the Russian Red Stars, none of those victories give faith that these favorites will run away with the title in the second half of the year. And the successes and failures of some of the second-tier competitors in the 2011-12 title race help gray the issue even more.

With third place Western Michigan splitting a road series at St. Cloud State and eighth-place Michigan beating both Boston College and sixth-place Michigan State in the Great Lakes Invitational, it’s hard to say whether the Broncos have matured as a national contender or whether the Wolverines can bounce back to preserve the program’s NCAA Tournament streak.

If anything, we’ve learned that while the conference may lack an inarguably favorable national contender that it had in Miami, Michigan and Notre Dame in past years, but also that it’s reasonable to say that the eventual conference champ will be battle tested and perhaps ready to make the noise that has put Michigan, Notre Dame and Miami in the Frozen Four over the past few years.

In short, buckle up and enjoy the ride: it’s far from over in the CCHA.

— James V. Dowd

NORTH DAKOTA, CLARKSON VENTURE ACROSS BORDER

It sounds like something urged by Deepak Chopra or some other self-help guru: If you’re seeking identity and success, a journey of discovery to a foreign land may be useful.

The North Dakota hockey team, which now has no nickname identity (for another three years, minimum) and is seeking more non-conference success, will do just that this weekend. Dave Hakstol and company travel to Winnipeg for a single-game engagement with Clarkson on Saturday.

Dubbed the U.S. College Hockey Classic, the game will be played at the MTS Centre, home of the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets, which is 150 miles from the North Dakota campus in downtown Winnipeg. They’re planning to close the upper level at the 15,000-seat rink and are hoping for a crowd that fills the lower bowl. It’s the first time in nearly 60 years that NoDak has played a game in Canada.

“For us it’s not a novelty. For us it’s purely a business trip going to Winnipeg,” said Hakstol at his weekly press conference. “We have to win a hockey game. It’s a critical game for us.”

Hakstol, assistants Cary Eades and Brad Berry, and 11 of their current players are from Western Canada originally, and the coach admits that he’d been hoping to play a game in Manitoba or somewhere further west for years. When True North Sports, owners of the Jets, offered their rink, things came together over the past 18 months. Officials from College Hockey, Inc., are using the game as an opportunity to educate

a Canadian audience. They’ll host a free seminar on American college hockey at the rink before the North Dakota-Clarkson game.

“This is a great opportunity for fans in Winnipeg to get a first-hand look at the college game,” said Paul Kelly of College Hockey, Inc. “Any time new fans can see the quality of college hockey in person

it’s beneficial, and we applaud North Dakota, Clarkson and the MTS Centre for putting this event together.”

The less encouraging news for North Dakota fans is the continued mess of injuries plaguing the team. They got a win and tie with Harvard last weekend, but also lost sophomore forward Derek Rodwell for the

season with a shoulder injury. Hakstol said Corban Knight is unlikely to play against Clarkson, Rocco Grimaldi has yet to return, and Mario Lamoureux’s status is questionable for this weekend too.

In other words, the nickname category is far from the only place where North Dakota is seeking some identity as the team heads north of the border this weekend.

— Jess Myers

COLGATE VISITS FERRIS STATE IN KEY NON-LEAGUE MATCHUP

The Colgate Raiders are one of the nation’s most surprising teams so far this season and the Raiders have a chance to prove their national merit this weekend with a road trip to Ferris State against a Bulldog team that has spent the majority of the season in the national rankings. The Raiders carry a 12-4-2 record into the New Year and have rattled off a seven-game unbeaten streak (6-0-1) with the tie coming against Merrimack.

This is an uptick in the schedule for the Raiders as people start to look toward NCAA Tournament selection criteria. Colgate is one of the teams on the tournament bubble at this point and these will be the Raiders’ last two non-conference games before concluding the regular season with 14 games against ECAC Hockey opponents.

One of Colgate’s keys to success this year has been strong overall team defense. The Raiders are ranked eighth nationally in team defense by allowing just 2.17 goals per game. Sophomore goalie Eric Mihalik has handled the bulk of the goaltending duties and owns a 2.48 goals-against average and .912 save percentage in 12 starts, with an 8-3-1 record. Alex Evin has a 1.48 GAA and .948 save percentage in six starts. He is 4-1-1.

Colgate can also score some goals. The Raiders are tenth in the country with a 3.39 goals per game average, of course led by the point-scoring contributions of Austin Smith. Smith leads the nation in scoring with 19 goals and 31 points.

— Joe Gladziszewski

ARMY HOPES FOR BETTER SECOND HALF

Two wins by New Year’s Day is hardly what a senior-laden Army hockey team expected. Yet, these Black Knights are not demoralized.

“Injuries have hurt us,” said senior captain Marcel Alvarez, “But, honestly, we don’t try to use that as an excuse. We have to deal with some of that the rest of the season.”

Army lost two players – freshman right winger Tyler Pistone and junior forward Mike Santee – for the entire season before the first game. Junior defenseman Cheyne Rocha was lost to a broken leg in a Nov. 19 game with Brown. Couple those season-enders with a host of other injuries ranging from a weekend to several weeks in length, and coach Brian Riley was able to field only 17 skaters in a pair of recent games, and has a number of skaters playing out of position.

At 2-9-6, this is Army’s slowest start (for wins) since the 2001-02 season. Riley remains encouraged, though, because his team has managed points – albeit through a school-record six draws – in all but two weekends.

“It’s kind of a fine line between winning and losing,” Riley said. “In three of those (ties), we had breakaways in overtime, two of them while we were short-handed. That’s how close this team has been to winning a few more games.”

Special teams play has to improve, Riley said. The good news is Army has not allowed an even-strength goal in the past three games. The bad news is the Black Knights have allowed two power-play goals in each of the past four contests.

The roster situation will get better. Senior forward Danny Colvin is expected to return for this weekend’s series against Canisius. Junior defenseman John Clark may return in a few weeks. Senior defenseman Bret Larson, out since Nov. 11, should return in February.

— Ken McMillan

Great Lakes Invitational at Detroit
Boston College vs. Michigan; Michigan State vs. Michigan Tech (Thu.)
Third-Place Game and Championship (Fri.)

The Lions are in the playoffs for the first time since 1999; maybe Brett Olson and Michigan Tech can win the Huskies' first Great Lakes Invitational title since 1981 this week in Detroit.

By far, the Great Lakes Invitational highlights the holiday tournament schedule with four participants that have all been nationally ranked at some point this season. A resurgent Michigan Tech squad was one of the first half’s pleasant surprises under new coach Mel Pearson (previously an assistant coach at Michigan) and this is MTU’s best chance at winning the title in many years. The Huskies haven’t won the tournament they host since 1981. Boston College and Michigan State have the chance to meet on Saturday, a midseason reunion of sorts after they played one of the first games of the college hockey season at the Ice Breaker in North Dakota in early October.

Air Force at Colorado College; Union at Denver (Fri.)
Denver at Air Force; Union at Colorado College (Sat.)

It’s a travel-partner sort of weekend in Colorado, which should make Union comfortable even though the Dutchmen are the geographic outlier. Three of the four teams come into this weekend set with some momentum, as Union is 4-0-2 in its last six games, Air Force has won four in a row and CC has won four of five. Denver has split its last three two-game weekends and also dropped an OT game at Colorado College earlier this month. Jason Zucker of Denver and Jaden Schwarz of Colorado College are out of the lineups, due to their involvement in international play.

Boston University at Notre Dame (Sat.)

Ringing in 2012 with a New Year’s Eve battle between the Terriers and Fighting Irish at the Compton Family Ice Arena isn’t a terrible way to spend the final days of the holiday season. Both teams could use a little good news—Notre Dame had lost four in a row before beating Ferris State in its last game prior to the break and, although BU has won seven of its last eight, the Terriers have to adapt to life without forwards Corey Trivino (booted from the team) and Charlie Coyle (off to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League after the World Junior Championship). The WJC also means lineup shuffling for both coaches, as BU is without defenseman Adam Clendening and the Irish play without defenseman Stephen Johns and forward T.J. Tynan.

Catamount Cup at Burlington, Vt.
Ferris State vs. RIT; Lake Superior State at Vermont (Thurs.)
Lake Superior State vs. RIT; Ferris State at Vermont (Fri.)

At first glance, this doesn’t seem like a marquee event but for Ferris State, Lake Superior State, and RIT, the opportunity to get two wins against quality non-conference opponents definitely helps the NCAA Tournament resume (and yes, it’s getting to that time where we have to start thinking about stuff like that and, yes, UVM has struggled to date, but a road win against a Hockey East foe never hurts.) It’s also a chance for Ferris and Lake State to start the second half of the season with a bang—both teams have lost four of its last six games.

Also: Other holiday tournaments include the UConn Hockey Classic (Army, UMass Lowell, Rensselaer, and the host Huskies) and the Florida College Classic (Clarkson, Cornell, Maine, and Massachusetts) on Thursday and Friday, and the Ledyard Bank Tournament (Holy Cross, Merrimack, St. Lawrence, and host Dartmouth) and the Mariucci Classic (Niagara, Northeastern, Princeton, and host Minnesota) on Friday and Saturday. … A trio of nice non-conference series in WCHA-land this weekend as North Dakota hosts Harvard, Western Michigan travels to St. Cloud State, and Quinnipiac visits Nebraska-Omaha. … Consol Energy Center, home of the Pittsburgh Penguins and a future Frozen Four site, hosts Friday’s game pitting Ohio State against Robert Morris. The Pens are out of town the following day, so you won’t have to worry about running into Sidney Crosby. Better yet, Sidney Crosby won’t have to worry about running into you.

In following up with the recently-published conference midseason reports, Inside College Hockey figured this lull in the schedule would be a great time to reflect on the first half from an awards perspective, and so we present the first edition of the Hobey Tracker for the 2011-12 campaign. We’ll look at a group of seven standouts (listed alphabetically) who have established themselves as top candidates so far, and mention six more worthy of consideration.

The Hobey Baker Memorial Award is presented to a deserving recipient on the day before the last college hockey game of the season, but that doesn’t mean that college hockey fans, players, and media members don’t think about it all year long. Inside College Hockey’s Hobey Tracker looks at our picks for the top candidates and other players worthy of discussion.

Nick Bjugstad
Minnesota, So., F
20 GP, 16-11–27

Bjugstad was a fast-starter this season with six goals and 11 points in the Gophers’ first seven games. He gets his points in bunches, with 10 multi-point nights in 20 games, but he’s also been held off the scoresheet entirely in five other games.

Jack Connolly
Minnesota Duluth, Sr., F
18 GP, 12-17–29

A finalist for this award last year, Connolly has shown that he’s as dynamic on his own as he was with one of the nation’s top lines for the national champs last year. He had an impressive total of 13 points through 10 games this season, but heated up with 16 points in the Bulldogs’ last eight contests, as UMD continues to roll.

Cal Heeter
Ohio State, Sr., G
11-2-1, 2.11 GAA, .926 sv. pct.

The Buckeyes have been one of the biggest surprises in the first half of the season, and Heeter has played a big role in that success. He’s given up two or fewer goals in 10 of his 15 starts and has seven starts in which he’s allowed a goal or less.

Chris Krieder
Boston College, So., F
18 GP, 12-11–23

Kreider started his season strongly in leading Boston College to a pair of wins at the IceBreaker tournament, and has continued to post steady point totals in a very consistent year. He has points in 16 of BC’s 18 games so far, but has just five multi-point games on the season.

Justin Schultz
Wisconsin, Jr., D
18 GP, 9-19–28

A 2011 Hobey finalist after leading the nation’s defensemen with 18 goals and 47 points, Schultz is on pace to surpass both totals this season. He’s scored at least one point in all but two of the Badgers’ 18 games, and enters the holiday break having scored five goals in his last four games.

Austin Smith
Colgate, Sr., F
17 GP, 18-10–28

Arguably, the front-runner for the Hobey at this point in the season, Smith is meeting some of the high expectations that accompanied him to Colgate for a resurgent Raider team. He’s the nation’s leading scorer, has five short-handed goals on the year, and has at least two points in eight of 17 games played.

T.J. Tynan
Notre Dame, So., F
20 GP, 7-20–27

Tynan has cooled after a blistering start—he notched 14 points in the Irish’s first seven games—but he’s still producing at a good enough clip to rank tied for third in the country in scoring. Though he’s more playmaker than sniper, Notre Dame is 6-1 this season when he scores a goal.

Danny Biega, Harvard; Joe Cannata, Merrimack; Kyle De Laurell, Air Force; Paul Karpowich, Clarkson; Rylan Schwartz, Colorado College; Jason Zucker, Denver

SURPRISE TEAM

For a team that won just five games a year ago, it’s pretty easy to call UMass Lowell a surprise team this season. The River Hawks have responded well under first-year head coach Norm Bazin, entering the break at 10-5-0, and playing much better on both sides of the puck. Offensively, the River Hawks are more than halfway to last year’s goal total (51 this season, 83 last), while the defensive end has tightened up as well behind vastly improved play from sophomore netminder Doug Carr (.934 save percentage, 1.82 goals-against average). More importantly, rather than receiving an influx of new talent, it’s the returning players from last season’s squad that are carrying the load; freshman Scott Wilson (fourth) is the only newcomer among the top seven scorers for the River Hawks.

SURPRISE INDIVIDUAL

Tim Schaller

Providence’s Tim Schaller has played a large part in the Friars’ resurgence this season. After scoring just two goals as a freshman and five as a sophomore, Schaller already has nine goals to lead a balanced Friar offense. Schaller had entered this season with just one goal on the power play and one short-handed, but already has six and two, respectively, this season. Schaller had 19 points all of last season, but enters the break with 13, adding four assists to his offensive tally.

WHAT HAPPENED TO …?

During New Hampshire‘s string of 11 straight NCAA tournament appearances heading into this season, the Wildcats have had success both at the Whittemore Center and on the road. Over those 11 seasons, New Hampshire has won at least six games away from Durham each year, and posted double-digit win totals in road and neutral games five times. If the Wildcats are to extend their string of NCAA tournament appearances to 12, they’re going to have to figure out a way to win away from the home; New Hampshire heads into the break with a disappointing 0-6-2 road mark. The second half of the schedule doesn’t do the Wildcats any favors, either, as trips to Merrimack, Boston College, Providence and Merrimack still await.

BEST NEW FACE

Northeastern’s Ludwig Karlsson is tied with Boston College’s Johnny Gaudreau for the most points among Hockey East freshmen, but has played four fewer games and is asked to help carry the offense more for his team than Gaudreau does for the Eagles. Karlsson has four multi-point games so far this season, including a four-assist performance as the Huskies downed Notre Dame on Dec. 2. Half of Karlsson’s points this season have come during Northeastern’s current six-game winning streak.

BIGGEST UPSET

Several teams have had some surprising non-league victories during the first half of the season, but Massachusetts may have pulled off the most surprising one when the Minutemen rallied to knock off Yale, 3-1, to close out the fall semester on Dec. 7 in Amherst. Massachusetts has been up-and-down over the first two and a half months, but perhaps a victory over one of ECAC Hockey’s top teams will provide the catalyst for a stronger second half of the season.

TOUGHEST ROAD OUT

The early-season schedule certainly wasn’t kind to UMass Lowell, who played nine of its first 15 games away from the Tsongas Center, including a pair at both Maine and New Hampshire. They went 3-1 in those two venues, places that have traditionally been nightmares for Lowell. The River Hawks also have played their season’s alottment against league-leading Boston College in the first half. In spite of that schedule, the River Hawks still hold one of the spots in the top half of the league standings, a testament to just how well  Norm Bazin and his crew have done.

TOUGHEST ROAD IN

Joe Cannata will need to keep up his spectacular goaltending as Merrimack faces a difficult second-half schedule.

Those who doubted Merrimack when the Warriors were ranked first in the nation won’t have long to wait after the break to see if their concerns were valid. Merrimack resumes league play in January with road games at Boston University and Boston College, two games at home against Maine and a home-and-home series with New Hampshire. That’s just the first three weeks of January; February holds two more games against the Eagles and three against UMass Lowell. Of Merrimack’s 17 remaining league games, nine are against teams that head into the break in the top half of the league table.

MUST-SEE GAMES

Three games on Frozen Fenway might garner the headlines, but the on-ice product is likely to be better at the opening round of the Beanpot (Feb. 6). Boston College and Boston University appear up to their normal high standards, and Northeastern enters the break having corrected its early-season slide. The ECAC Hockey representative in the cross-town tournament, Harvard, has a much more impressive offense this season than last, which should make for a pair of extremely entertaining contests.

BIGGEST QUESTION ANSWERED

Many wondered how Northeastern would fare with a new coach in Jim Madigan who’d not been behind the bench since 1993. As the Huskies enter the break on a six-game winning streak and with a .500 overall mark, it’s clear that his players have taken to his system. Madigan has the Huskies playing a high-pressure style that has resulted in several surprise results, including a win over Michigan at Yost Arena and a road sweep of then-No. 2 Notre Dame. With a club boasting just one senior, Madigan certainly has Northeastern trending upward.

BIGGEST QUESTION REMAINING

Early in the season, some of the more puzzling results in Hockey East involved an up-and-down Boston University squad. The Terriers scored a win against then-No. 3 Denver, then fell at home to Holy Cross a week later. A 7-1 loss at UMass Lowell was followed a week later by a 5-0 blanking of Boston College, BU’s first shutout of the Eagles since 1983.

It was that victory against the Eagles that sparked Boston University’s string of seven wins in their final eight games of the semester, and it bears asking: have the Terriers finally put their inconsistent ways behind them?

INCH’s FIRST HALF ALL-HOCKEY EAST TEAM

G- Joe Cannata, Merrimack: Though UMass-Lowell’s Doug Carr has a slightly better save percentage, the nod goes to Cannata based on his overall body of work. One poor game, allowing six goals to Providence on Dec. 3, marred an otherwise consistent first half of the season; Cannata has allowed more than two goals just once.

D- Chad Ruhwedel, UMass-Lowell: Ruhwedel’s emergence has been a key part of the River Hawks’ success this season. Ranking second in the league in scoring among defensemen, he has nearly matched his offensive output from his freshman season already. He has a pair of goals and 11 assists, with six of those coming on the power play. Ruhwedel ranks fourth overall in scoring and leads the team in assists while owning a +7 rating.

D- Spencer Harvey, Providence: Harvey has provided a surprising offensive boost for the Friars from the blue line. Having entered the season with just three assists to his credit through his first two years, Harvey has already tallied 11 points on five goals and six assists. Harvey also has a pair of game-winning goals and assists on two others as the Friars have already matched their season win total from last year.

F- Spencer Abbott, Maine: The league’s scoring leader, Abbott has had a hand in just over half of the Black Bears’ goals this season. Abbott has 10 goals and 13 assists, averaging better than 1.5 points per game, and had the best individual weekend in the league this season when he posted nine points on five goals and four assists Dec. 2-3 at Vermont.

F- Chris Kreider, Boston College: Kreider has matched Abbott’s 23 points on the year, but has needed three more games to do so. Still, the New York Rangers prospect has been a consistent force for the Eagles, scoring at least one point in all but two games this season.

F- TJ Syner, Massachusetts: Much like with Kreider, it’s consistency that lands Syner on this list, as the senior for the Minutemen has posted a point in 14 of the team’s 16 games so far this season. Massachusetts has struggled through the first half of the season, but Syner isn’t the reason why.

DANE WALTERS
Western Michigan
Jr. | F | St. Paul, Minn.

Dane Walters

His Statistics: Five points in the Broncos’ tie and win against Bowling Green, including three goals and an assist in Saturday’s 6-1 win in Kalamazoo.

His Impact: Walters’ play helped Western Michigan launch into the holiday break with a five-game unbeaten streak. He had an assist in the Broncos’ 3-3 tie at Bowling Green Friday, then scored the first hat trick of his college career as WMU routed the Falcons, 6-1, at Lawson Arena.

Though 18 games this season, Walters, one of the Broncos’ assistant captains, leads the team with nine goals, 17 points, and a plus-minus rating of +10. He’s scored five goals and seven points in WMU’s last three games.

His Runners-Up: Michael Colavecchia, RIT; Zach Lehrke, Minnesota State; Patrick McNally, Harvard; Kieran Millan, Boston University

The United States Hockey Hall of Fame enshrined five members on Monday night, including three former college players. Chris Chelios played two years at Wisconsin and one with the United States Olympic team prior to beginning a standout NHL career that spanned parts of 27 seasons during which he won the Norris Trophy three times. Gary Suter played two years at Wisconsin before going on to the Calgary Flames, where he won the Calder Trophy as the league’s rookie of the year. He played 1,145 professional games and totaled 845 points. Keith Tkachuk had 40 points in his only season at Boston University and then totaled 1,065 points in his NHL career.

Announcer Mike Emrick is among the best-liked play-by-play men in the business and endears himself even further to college hockey fans by regularly mentioning the schools where NHL players plied their trade before heading to pro hockey. “Doc” earned a master’s degree from Miami and a doctorate degree from Bowling Green.

As always, when compiling the INCH Power Rankings, it gives us a first look ahead at the upcoming schedule. This week, the realization was mostly, “What upcoming schedule?” There are only 10 Division I men’s ice hockey games scheduled for this weekend, plus North Dakota’s exhibition. We understand that semester breaks and finals week at most institutions have something to do with it, but it’s a bit of a tough realization that college hockey fans will have to wait until holiday tournaments for a full slate of action after being treated to a great first few months of the year.

What Happened: Rare are the occasions when college hockey players take part in an actual, gloves-off fight. What took place between coaches from Michigan Tech and Minnesota at Mariucci Arena last Saturday was even more unique.

Chippiness on the ice peaked late in the third period of the Gophers’ 6-2 win—to the tune of 51 minutes in penalties in the last 3:11 of regulation—and that venom spilled over to the benches, sparking a shouting match between Michigan Tech assistant coach Bill Muckalt and Minnesota head coach Don Lucia and assistant Grant Potulny.

“There was some talk going back and forth,” Lucia said Monday on his weekly radio show. “I don’t think that is the way we want to finish a game. I don’t think that is the way they want to finish a game. It is regrettable and hopefully it doesn’t happen again.”

What We’re Watching: In the most recent INCH Podcast, our panel mentioned that Alabama-Huntsville goaltender Clarke Saunders would continue his college hockey career at North Dakota next season. Of course, Saunders made up his mind before new UAH president Robert Altenkirch saved Chargers hockey from the chopping block.

However, the Grand Forks Herald’s Brad Elliott Schlossman reported Monday that despite the reprieve for Alabama-Huntsville, Saunders is following through on his plan to transfer. And according to Schlossman, Saunders will be eligible to play next season since he announced his intention to transfer after UAH opted to drop varsity hockey at the end of this year. At first glance, this development seems insignificant, but it could have a far-reaching impact on not on Alabama-Huntsville but also programs that accept UAH transfers.

What the … ? Great point brought up by INCH’s Hockey East correspondent Kevin Zeise in response to the logo for last weekend’s Festivus Faceoff, the Lake Placid doubleheader featuring Clarkson, St. Lawrence, Union, and Rensselaer—where’s the Festivus pole? In the “Seinfeld” Festivus episode, the pole was integral to the plot. Leaving it out of the logo seems egregious, but, again, credit for naming the event after Festivus in the first place. We might need a Festivus pole, but we don’t need another Holiday Classic.

@2lidgett2quit John Lidgett

Good Luck to the boys on the battle to stay eligible @joewill426 @chriswags23 @Firdogger @UncleLeids @Longer11 @ochoTRON @ClaytonJardine

• For some students at Colgate, the end of the semester means a chance to put the finishing touches on academic excellence. For freshman forward John Lidgett, it’s about encouraging his teammates to meet some minimum standards. Attaboy keeping the main thing the main thing, John, and compliments on your Twitter handle.

One of the biggest question marks in Hockey East before the season began involved the Northeastern Huskies. With a rookie head coach and a young roster, not many knew what to expect. Early on, the results weren’t positive. Northeastern was just 1-7-2 in its first 10 games, all in Hockey East play, and scored more than three goals just once over that span, in a 4-0 victory over New Hampshire.

But as new coach Jim Madigan began to settle in, so too did his players, and they have turned their season around, courtesy of their current five-game winning streak. The Huskies began that string with wins at Providence and at home against Vermont before stepping outside of league play for the first time with a single game at Michigan the day after Thanksgiving and came away with a 5-2 win at Yost Arena. Then, last weekend, the Huskies returned to the midwest and handed Notre Dame their first two losses at their new arena, including a 9-2 victory in the opener of that series.

Junior forward Steve Quailer leads Northeastern with 15 points in 13 games.

Madigan has credited his players with the turnaround, from putting in the work needed to correct mistakes and for buying into the systems he and his coaching staff have put in place.

“Our players were playing hard, but they weren’t always playing with intelligence,” Madigan said of his team overcoming the slow start to the season. “We’re playing smarter, our discipline is better now, and we’re not shooting ourselves in the foot.”

Like most coaches at this point in the season, Madigan has his efforts focused more on his team and their systems – a situation made all the more imperative by the implementation of an entirely new system and coaching staff – and less on the opposition.

“We’re getting confident in our systems and in our approach,” Madigan said. “Our players have really embraced it, and we’re getting so much better each day in practice.”

Northeastern’s recent success has come as a true team effort. The Huskies boast a pair of lines that are capable of scoring at any time, and a balanced offensive approach that makes it difficult for the opposition to key in on a particular player. In last weekend’s series at Notre Dame, five of the six members of the Huskies’ top two lines recorded at least three points. On the season, junior Steve Quailer leads the club in scoring with 15 points on five goals and 10 assists, with an additional four others in double figures. Fellow junior Justin Daniels, freshman Ludwig Karlsson and sophomore Braden Pimm share the team lead with six goals apiece, while junior Vinny Saponari has equaled Quailer’s 10 assists to pace the squad.

Defensively, while Northeastern’s blueliners have accounted for only 20 of the team’s 122 points entering this weekend, they have been strong at even strength. None of the defensemen on the club has a negative plus/minus rating on the year. In goal, junior Chris Rawlings has seen the vast majority of time, posting a 6-6-2 record in addition to a .931 save percentage and a 2.27 goals-against average, ranking third among Hockey East netminders in both categories.

Still, the Huskies, like many clubs, aren’t without their warts; their 9.7 percent conversion rate on the power play ranks last in Hockey East and 54th in the country, and the penalty kill is at 79.7 percent, seventh in the league. Even in the series sweep at Notre Dame last weekend, Northeastern went a combined 1-for-9 on the power play, while two of the three goals allowed during the weekend came with the Irish on the power play.

Despite the special teams woes, it’s worth mentioning that Northeastern is an extremely young team. The Huskies last made the NCAA tournament in 2009, and team captain Mike McLaughlin – currently out with an injury – is the only member from that squad still with the Northeastern program, though McLaughlin did not play in that game, a 3-2 loss to Cornell in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Should the Huskies defeat UMass-Lowell on Saturday, Northeastern would close out the 2011 portion of the 11-12 season at .500 overall on the year – not bad for a team that had but one win on Nov. 12.

FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG

• Maine’s Spencer Abbott posted nine points in the Black Bears’ two-game set at Vermont last weekend, catapulting him into second place in the nation in scoring average at 1.64 points per game. Teammate Brian Flynn (1.50) is the only other Hockey East player in the top 15 nationally.

• Providence’s Tim Schaller is a special player – literally. Schaller has nine goals on the season, but only one at even strength. Schaller has six power-play goals, tied for third in the nation, and a pair of short-handed tallies, tied for second in the country.

• Despite giving up 10 goals in the Warriors’ last three games over the past week, Merrimack still ranks second nationally in scoring defense, allowing an average of 1.69 goals per contest.

• The importance of special teams play in Hockey East cannot be understated. Four Hockey East clubs rank in the top 10 nationally in penalty minutes per game, with Merrimack leading the way in that category at nearly 22 minutes per game. Joining the Warriors among the most penalized teams in college hockey are Boston University (third, 21.1 minutes), Maine (eighth, 17.1) and Boston College (10th, 15.8).

• Following this weekend’s action, eight of the league’s 10 clubs will pack away their sticks for the semester. Only Vermont and Merrimack will be in action next weekend, with Vermont playing host to St. Lawrence and Merrimack at home against Union.