We could use a little Ming-Ming this weekend, because it’s about to get REAL serious in college hockey. The conference races, with teams tangled together in the standings like bubble gum in a pony tail. And while it is serious business for teams from coast to coast, it’s seriously thrilling for college hockey fans; this may be the most unpredictable collection of conference races we’ve seen in years. We’re certain the teams below will do their best to contribute to the chaos.

Minnesota vs. Denver (Fri.-Sat.)

Nick Bjugstad and Minnesota hope to skate away with the WCHA regular-season title; first, they'll have to contend with teams such as this weekend's opponent, Denver.

The Gophers are the nation’s top-ranked team and the Pioneers are coming off a loss and tie against Colorado College, so it feels as if these teams are trending in opposite directions. Widen that view; you’ll see that post-Christmas, DU is 7-2-1 while the Gophers are 5-4-0. As we’ve mentioned previously, the Pioneers are getting healthier—goaltender Sam Brittain could start both games this weekend—but forward Beau Bennett (out 14 games and counting with a wrist injury) and defenseman David Makowski (out eight games with an upper-body injury) aren’t ready to go. And while we tend to think of Minnesota as an offensive juggernaut, the Gophers have really scratched and clawed their way to top of the WCHA standings—10 of their last 13 games have been decided by one goal.

Yale at Colgate (Friday)
Yale at Cornell (Saturday)

This season hasn’t gone as planned for preseason favorites Yale, but it can all be remedied by a late-season run. The Bulldogs aren’t focused on what the standings look like from week-to-week, but on improving the way they’re playing headed into the ECAC Hockey tournament. It’s a real test this weekend, as they’ll visit second-place Colgate on Friday and then head to Lynah Rink on Saturday. Even though Yale is building from within, some long-range goals are still within reach. A strong finish over the last six games of the regular season could have them in a top-four spot in the standings, guaranteeing Yale a weekend off followed by a quarterfinal series on home ice. Five of the Bulldogs’ last six games are against teams ahead of them in the standings, so they control their own destiny.

Merrimack at UMass Lowell (Friday)
Maine at UMass Lowell (Saturday)

While Boston University and Boston College fans are all Beanpot-ty this weekend, surprising UMass Lowell has a chance to slip ahead of the Terriers into first place in Hockey East. So, too, could Merrimack. But probably not both, because the River Hawks and Warriors play at Tsongas Arena Friday and the loser is likely relegated to third place in the league come Sunday. These games against Merrimack and Maine might represent UMass Lowell’s best chance to gain the upper hand in Hockey East—the River Hawks are 8-1-0 against conference foes at home, but just 5-5-0 in league road games and they close the regular season with home-and-home series with Boston University, Merrimack, and Providence.

Michigan vs. Michigan State (Friday at East Lansing, Saturday at Detroit)

With just a single game separating the Wolverines and Spartans in the CCHA standings, the latest installment of hockey’s version of the Great Lakes State’s most heated rivalry has a lot of the line – A sweep would propel the winner into legitimate contention for the regular season title and the loser onto the NCAA Tournament bubble. The Wolverines come into the series hot, having lost just a single game since Dec. 3, while the Spartans look to build on last weekend’s road sweep at Ohio State, and both schools would love nothing more than to take a big step towards conference glory while casting doubt on their least favorite sibling’s ticket to the NCAAs.

Also: It’s Winter Carnival time at Michigan Tech, which means elaborate snow sculptures, no classes, extended periods of recreating, and a couple of hockey games. Even without the hoopla, the Huskies’ series with Nebraska-Omaha is significant—Tech, UNO, and North Dakota enter the weekend in a three-way tie for fifth in the WCHA standings. … While we’re on the topic, North Dakota travels to Minnesota Duluth for a series with the Bulldogs. One plus about playing for the Fightings: if you’re on the bus, you’re in the lineup. Freshman forward Brendan O’Donnell this week was shelved for the remainder of the season, so NoDak must make do with a lineup of 18 healthy skaters. … The CCHA race is as clear as the final season of “Lost”, so odds are the Notre Dame-Ferris State home-and-home series and the Ohio State-Western Michigan series will further muddy the waters. The Buckeyes are 0-6-4 since Jan. 7. … Atlantic Hockey scoffs at the CCHA standings jumble. Participants in this week’s AHA shell game are first-place Air Force, which travels to fourth-place Niagara, and third-place Mercyhurst and fifth-place Robert Morris, combatants in a home-and-home set that starts in Erie Friday.

On Saturday, Lucia took in a game at Notre Dame’s new rink and came away impressed with his alma mater’s digs. And on Sunday he went to a football game of some renown in downtown Indianapolis.

Mariucci Arena (Courtesy gophersports.com)

So it makes perfect sense that Lucia returned from the home of the Irish, and from the Super Bowl, thinking about a once-revered but aging structure that can benefit from having some work done to bring it back up to enviable status again.

A lot of people have those same thoughts after seeing Madonna.

On his weekly radio show, Lucia told Wally Shaver and Joe Anderson that in order to keep pace with arena improvements taking place elsewhere, he’d like to see Mariucci Arena get remodeled team areas, a bigger and better weight room, new amenities in the coaches’ offices, a high-definition scoreboard, and an improved sound system.

The rink is less than 20 years old, but since the first puck was dropped there in 1993, it’s gone from being the newest to the fourth-oldest in the 12-team WCHA. And with newer rinks at three of the other four Minnesota-based college hockey schools (St. Cloud State’s rink opened in 1989, and will undergo a sizable remodeling project soon), Lucia knows that he may be at a facilities disadvantage when it comes to recruiting.

“Kids want to see what you have and they’re going to compare it from one school to the next,” Lucia said on 1500 ESPN in the Twin Cities. “You want to have kids come in and look through your area and have a little bit of that ‘wow’ factor. I think that’s important.”

The clamor for new facilities is a familiar one in the Minnesota athletic department. There’s a new football stadium on campus, they’ve been trying to find a way to get a new baseball park for years, and Gopher basketball coach Tubby Smith has been campaigning for a practice facility since arriving in Minneapolis.

MICHIGAN TECH TAKING IT OUTSIDE

For one day anyway, Winter Carnival was not the biggest news on the Michigan Tech campus. Yes, the snow sculptures (2012 theme: “From All Over the State, What Makes Michigan Great”) the pageant and the hockey series with Nebraska-Omaha are all big events in Houghton, but the bigger news is still 11 months and about a 10-hour drive away.

On Wednesday it was announced that in conjunction with the 2013 Winter Classic between the Maple Leafs and Red Wings at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, an outdoor rink at Comerica Park in Detroit will be the home of the 2012 Great Lakes Invitational. Michigan Tech is co-host of the tournament, which will be an all-Michigan affair (Western Michigan, Michigan and Michigan State are the other participants. The tournament will be held Dec. 29-30 at the home of the Detroit Tigers.

Tech last won the GLI in 1980, with current Huskies coach Mel Pearson scoring the game-winner to beat Michigan for the title.

BACK TO BEING THE SIOUX, FOR NOW

The easy joke is that the once-retired Fighting Sioux nickname at North Dakota is taking its retirement advice from Brett Favre. On Jan. 1, the controversial moniker was officially retired by the school, and the teams have been referred to simply as North Dakota for the first five weeks of 2012.

Now, the nickname is back, at least temporarily. On Tuesday petitions were filed in the North Dakota state courts calling for a statewide vote on whether or not the nickname should stay. The petitions being filed reinstated a 2011 state law which requires the school to refer to its athletic teams as the Fighting Sioux.

That law, also controversial, was repealed by the North Dakota state legislature in November at the request of those fearful that NCAA sanctions will hurt the school if the nickname’s use continues.

On the ice, things won’t look much different either way. The hockey team was still playing with sweaters bearing the Sioux name and logo, awaiting new sweaters that are due to arrive later in the season. And the ice surface at Ralph Engelstad Arena still had the Indian head logo and “Home of the Fighting Sioux” on it anyway.

BICKEL A THREAT ON ICE, AND ON SCREEN

Former Gopher Stu Bickel has made a rookie splash with the New York Rangers as their designated fighter, and has quickly become a fan favorite in the Big Apple with his willingness to drop the gloves. And when he’s finished with a bout, the video folks inside Madison Square Garden treat Rangers fans with a clip of Stu’s long-lost relative, Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro’s character in “Taxi Driver”) staring at the screen and sneering, “You talkin’ to me?” A classic scene, evoking New York City at its grittiest.

HOBEY QUARTET IN DULUTH

With a campaign promoting Jack Connolly for the Hobey Baker Award in full swing, Minnesota Duluth will honor the four previous Bulldogs to win the trophy this weekend when they host North Dakota. Tom Kurvers (1984), Bill Watson (1985), Chris Marinucci (1994) and Junior Lessard (2004) will be recognized at Friday’s game. Interesting fact to note: Marinucci is the only one of the 31 Hobey winners to play for a sub-.500 team.

GRAND FORKS: CRADLE OF COACHES

Speaking of the Sioux-Bulldogs get-together, credit Sioux assistant coach Cary Eades for pointing out that five of the six coaches on the two benches this weekend are North Dakota alumni. Bulldogs coaches Scott Sandelin and Jason Herter, and Sioux coaches Dave Hakstol, Dane Jackson and Eades all played for North Dakota. Bulldogs assistant coach Derek Plante is the only one behind either bench with no green in his hockey past (unless you count that Stanley Cup he won with the Dallas Stars in 1999).

HAPPY TRAILS TO THE TIGERS

Colorado College’s trip to northern Minnesota for this weekend’s series at Bemidji State went off without a hitch, and there are no severe weather predictions for this weekend. So unlike last year, when a snowstorm grounded their flights home from Minnesota, the Tigers won’t likely need a 1,200-mile bus ride to get back to Colorado Springs.

TRIVIAL MATTERS AT ST. CLOUD STATE

Houghton isn’t the only place where Huskies play, or where there are big doings on campus this weekend. While the St. Cloud State Huskies have the weekend off, we like to think at least a few of Bob Motzko’s players will be pouring through reference books late at night, racing other teams for the right answer.

This weekend marks the 33rd annual edition of SCSU Trivia Weekend where teams from throughout the region compete in a 50-hour round-the-clock marathon to find answers to hundreds of truly obscure and supposedly Google-proof questions. Tom Nelson, the Huskies hockey sports information guru notes that in the run-up to Trivia Weekend, thousands of books (everything from encyclopedias to children’s lit) are checked out of libraries throughout central Minnesota, as competitors seek to load up on any and all reference materials.

The contest was started in 1980 by a campus radio station looking to give students a break from the cabin fever that sets in during a long Minnesota winter. In that spirit, we’ll offer the weekend’s first trivia question (although it’s hardly Google-proof).

Tweet your answer to @JessRMyers. First correct answer gets a RT:

Who is the only St. Cloud State player to take a penalty in overtime of a NCAA tournament game won by the Huskies, and what was the call?

SHAWN HUNWICK
Michigan
Sr. | G | Sterling Heights, Mich.

His Statistics: 2 GP, 2-0-0, shutout, 53 saves, 1 GA in series sweep of Miami

His Impact: Some will make a claim that Hunwick is the best goalie in the country, and he made a case for that distinction this weekend in a key CCHA series at Yost Ice Arena against Miami. Hunwick’s 24-save effort in the series opener boosted Michigan to a 4-1 win. He blanked the RedHawks one night later with 29 saves, including one of the controversial variety when a shot on a Miami breakaway was reviewed on video and ruled not to have crossed the goal line.

The bigger picture is that Michigan has risen near the top of the CCHA standings with some stellar play over the last two months. The Wolverines are 10-1-2 in their last 13 games. Hunwick has played in 12 of those and has a 1.34 goals-against average and .957 save percentage during that stretch.

His Runners-Up: Spencer Abbott, Maine; J.T. Brown, Minnesota Duluth; Shayne Gostisbehere, Union; Jason Torf, Air Force

Midway through the second period of Friday’s 6-3 win at Ohio State, Michigan State defenseman A.J. Sturges scored his first goal of the season, cutting a two-goal Buckeye lead in half. Not only was the goal significant in that it sparked a Spartan comeback from a 3-1 first-period deficit, but it was also a milestone for Sturges, who in the fall of 2008 was severely beaten in an off-campus fight.

Sturges, a Madison, Wis., native, sustained a fractured skull and concussion and missed the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons due to his injuries. He spent most of last season getting back into game shape, appearing in one contest.

This season, Sturges has played in 10 games. His goal this past weekend was the second of his Spartan career—his first was Nov. 10, 2007, in a win against Mercyhurst at Munn Ice Arena. For some timeframe perspective, a guy named Justin Abdelkader also scored in that game. Good on you, A.J. Making it back on the ice was remarkable, and getting a goal is pure frosting.

Michigan’s impressive sweep of Miami was blemished when the two teams racked up 72 minutes in penalties in the final 3:20 of the Wolverines’ 3-0 win Saturday. Included in that total are fighting majors assessed to Miami’s Will Weber and Michigan’s Chris Brown that carry with them an automatic one-game suspension. For Weber, that means sitting out against Alabama-Huntsville Friday. Brown has to miss the Wolverines’ match at Michigan State that same night. Disadvantage, Michigan.

It’s clear that the frustration was building on both sides. The Wolverines felt the RedHawks were repeatedly running goaltender Shawn Hunwick with no consequence. The longer Hunwick kept the RedHawks off the board, meanwhile, the more Miami stewed.

We understand the regular season is a grind, points are hard to come by, and the cramped quarters of the CCHA standings make the weekly battles that much more ferocious. We’re not pointing fingers here; rather, we’re advocating that everyone play with a little more poise. It avoids situations that give the college game a bad look and ultimately hurt teams down the road.

What Happened?: It was a night of comebacks on Friday as three ranked teams turned early deficits into victories. The most dramatic comeback was achieved by Maine, as the Black Bears trailed Alabama-Huntsville 3-0 after two periods. Maine scored three times in the third period, including the tying goal in the last minute of the period, and then won 4-3 in overtime. Both Michigan State and Harvard fell behind 3-1 after one period in road games. The Spartans ended up defeating Ohio State and Harvard toppled Quinnipiac by identical 6-3 finals.

What We’re Watching: Is Michigan Tech the streakiest-scoring—and goal-allowing—team in college hockey? Based on recent results, the Huskies are in the midst of a trend that may warrant a closer look. After a little poking around, here’s what caught our eye:

Jan. 13 vs. Alaska Anchorage: The Seawolves score the game’s first goal. The Huskies then reel off five straight en route to a 6-2 win.

Jan. 14 vs. Alaska Anchorage: Tech scores three times in the game’s first 10 minutes. UAA scores the next four to take a 4-3 lead with 15:19 left in regulation, but the Huskies score the last three to win, 6-4.

Jan. 21 at Northern Michigan: The Wildcats score two goals in a 42-second span of the first period, but the Huskies score two power-play goals less than two minutes apart in the second. Alas, NMU scores three unanswered goals for a 5-2 victory.

Jan. 27 at Minnesota Duluth: Top-ranked UMD scores four goals in a 10-minute span of the first period. Tech counters by scoring four times over a 20-minute stretch of the second and third periods, salvaging a 4-4 tie.

Jan. 28 at Minnesota Duluth: The Huskies score four goals in the first period on their way to a 5-0 whitewash of the Bullodgs. That’s nine straight unanswered goals for MTU.

Feb. 3 at Minnesota State: The Mavs score three goals over a six-minute arc of the first period; the Huskies respond by tying the game with three straight of their own. Minnesota State earns a 5-3 win with two third-period goals.

Feb. 4 at Minnesota State: The hosts take a 1-0 lead less than two minutes into the game, but Tech takes command by scoring six first-period goals and cruise to a 7-3 win.

What the …?: On a lot of nights, especially when television isn’t a part of the equation, college hockey fans can count on getting from the first-period puck drop to the final buzzer in about two hours and 15 minutes. That wasn’t the case at Princeton’s Baker Rink when the Tigers and visiting Dartmouth tussled for three hours and 19 minutes. Not that it was all related to the on-ice activity, although the game did end 3-3 after a scoreless overtime. An hour delay took place near the midpoint of the third period when a shot from Dartmouth’s Jesse Beamish hit the glass and shattered it. Earlier in the day, two other planes of glass were broken during the team’s pre-game skates – one by each team.

@fergy2004 Ryan

Do I want the patriots or giants to win to help the Sioux in the pairwise?

• Yup, it’s that time of the year. And they prefer to be called University of North Dakota.

It’s a far cry from where this team was a month ago, when injuries and inconsistency had taken the popular pick to win the WCHA title and left the team scratching and clawing to stay above .500. Now, since that head-scratching loss to Alabama-Huntsville in their first outing of 2012, the Pioneers have won five in a row and find themselves just two points back of second-place Minnesota Duluth heading into a home-and-home series with archrival Colorado College.

In his first start of 2011-12 after returning from a knee injury, goaltender Sam Brittain made 24 saves in a 6-3 win at Alaska Anchorage last weekend.

“We’ve put ourselves in position with 10 games remaining in the season to see if we can track down Duluth and stay ahead of some of the competition that’s right on our heels,” said Gwozdecky in his weekly news conference.

The turnaround has been fueled by a combination of positives that were nowhere to be found in the first half. The team is getting healthier just as key rookies are stepping up their games, and an overall emphasis on team defense is allowing the goal scorers to do more.

“There was a general feeling that we’d be able to outscore anybody,” Gwozdecky said of the team’s mentality in October and November. “If the other team got five, we’d get seven. If they got four, we’d get six. But a real positive adjustment has been made in the way we’re playing team defense.”

And a key element in that defensive picture was the return of goalie Sam Brittain, who hadn’t played since last season after undergoing surgery. Brittain got the call on Saturday night in Anchorage and stopped 24 shots in a 6-3 win. Still, the coach expected rust, and got it, from the goalie.

“It was not going to be a shock to any of us if he started off rusty, and I think he did,” Gwozdecky said. “He was not the Sam Brittain that any of us knew from last year.”

But in the second period, when a 5-0 Pioneers lead was quickly cut to 5-3, the Pioneers saw flashes between the pipes of the kid who won 19 games as a rookie a year ago. “As has always been the case with Sam, when he’s challenged he buckles down and closes the door.”

The door may be tougher to close this weekend, with Colorado College right behind the Pioneers in the standings. And on Thursday the Pioneers lost a key cog in their offense when Gwozdecky suspended rookie forward Ty Loney indefinitely for a violation of team rules. Loney, the son of Stanley Cup-winner Troy Loney, has 16 points in his first 20 college games and had posted a dozen points in the Pioneers last seven games since being promoted to the team’s top line.

That may be a blow for a Denver team on the rise, but with a visit from the Front Range rivals looming on Friday and a trip to Colorado Springs set for Saturday, there’s little need for extra inspiration.

“It’s CC week,” Gwozdecky said. “You can certainly sense that in the building, and at practice and in our locker room. It’s always a special atmosphere. This series is as big as they get at this time of year.”

NEED BUCKS? GET A BIG PUCK

For years they’ve tried all of the conventional channels to get funds for improvements to the rink in Mankato. Opened in 1995, the Verizon Wireless Civic Center has been the home of Minnesota State hockey as the program transitioned from Divison II to Division I independent to the WCHA, but school and community officials say the time for upgrades is long overdue.

Officials in the state legislature twice approved the needed funds, only to have then-Governor Tim Pawlenty veto the money both times. Now, they’re taking an interesting new approach to raise awareness of the financial needs for the home of the Mavs.

This week the school unveiled an initiative called Greater Mankato Carries the Puck. Starting before Friday’s home game with Michigan Tech, MSU will have a replica puck nearly five feet in diameter that supporters can sign to show they support state dollars to improve the rink. They’re hoping to gather 1,000 signatures and bring the puck to the State Capitol in a few weeks to present to Governor Mark Dayton (a former Yale goalie).

“We are really excited about our opportunity to help rally support for this project,” said Minnesota State athletic director said Kevin Buisman, in a statement released by the school. “These planned improvements would have a dramatic impact on our program by creating a new modern home for our men’s and women’s teams that will be attractive to both current and prospective student-athletes.”

The school is seeking $31 million from the state for the project.

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 season. Inside College Hockey’s Hobey Tracker looks at our picks for the top three candidates and other players worthy of discussion.

Justin Schultz
Wisconsin | Jr. | D
To Date: 26 GP, 12-26–38, 5 PPG, GWG, +15 rating

The Skinny: Dare we say that Schultz, the country’s leading scorer among defensemen and the sixth-best scorer overall, is mired in a bit of a slump? In seven games since erupting for two goals and two assists in a Jan. 6 win against RIT, Schultz has just one goal and five assists, well below his scoring clip of nearly 1.5 points per game. One could argue Schultz’s recent drop in production is enough to move him out of the Big Board’s top spot, but then again, we’re carping about a blueliner who averages a point and a half per game. Throw in a plus-minus rating of +15 (sixth among NCAA defensemen) and his paltry 10 penalty minutes in 26 games, and you’ve got a pretty impressive resume.

Austin Smith
Colgate | Sr. | F
To Date: 26 GP, 26-15–41, 6 SHG, 4 PPG, 5 GWG, +21 rating

The Skinny: Smith moves up one spot this week on the Big Board following a momentum-building weekend for the Raiders in which their leading actor gave an award-worthy performance. Colgate was mired in a six-game winless slide (Smith still got seven points in that stretch) but broke through with two wins against then-first-place Cornell. Smith was a huge factor all night and assisted on the Raiders’ first goal in a 2-1 win on the road. He then scored twice at home as Colgate scored four in the last 20 minutes to complete a 5-3 comeback win. Smith’s first goal knotted the score at 1-1, and his second tied the score 3-3 in the third period. It was a short-handed goal, his sixth of the season, which leads the country.

Jack Connolly
Minnesota Duluth | Sr. | F
To Date: 26 GP, 15-25–40, 5 PPG, 2 GWG, +16 rating

The Skinny: Not since the second game of the season, way back on Oct. 8, had Jack Connolly been kept off the scoresheet. Then it happened on consecutive nights as Michigan Tech went to Duluth and got a tie and a win on the road, and became the only team other than Notre Dame to hold Connolly without a point in a game this season. Connolly also had a minus-3 rating in the series, and Michigan Tech scored nine straight goals on the weekend after Duluth built a 4-0 lead on Friday night. While our Big Board flip-flop between Smith and Connolly has a lot to do with recent performance, it’s a really close call between all three of the top candidates at this point.

A deeper look at a Hobey hopeful and an issue (or issues) surrounding his candidacy.

Doug Carr, UMass Lowell: Since first-year head coach Norm Bazin anointed Carr the full-time starter in early November, the River Hawks have been nearly unstoppable. The Hanover, Mass., native has a 15-4-0 record on the year, putting UMass Lowell, which won five games last season, on track for an NCAA Tournament berth. He’s fifth in the nation in goals-against average (1.82) and save percentage (.935), and only Minnesota Duluth’s Kenny Reiter and Minnesota’s Kent Patterson have more wins. Assuming the River Hawks continue on their current trajectory—especially with games against Boston University, Maine, and Merrimack on the horizon—Carr will be strong candidate for one of the 10 Hobey finalist spots.

Shane Madolora, RIT: Last season, Madolora kicked his game into high gear during the second half of the season, and it appears he’s doing the same this season. In his last six starts, including last weekend’s win and tie against Mercyhurst that moved the Tigers into first place in Atlantic Hockey, Madolora is 5-0-1 with a 0.66 goals against average and a .975 save percentage. He enters this weekend’s series at Air Force ranked third nationally in both goals-against average (1.78) and save percentage (.937); his numbers would likely be more impressive had he not missed five games early in the season after running into an issue with the NCAA Clearinghouse.

DAN SULLIVAN
Maine
So. | G | York, Pa.

His Statistics: Sullivan stopped 28 of the 30 shots he faced in the Black Bears’ 4-2 win at Boston University Friday, then made a career-high 38 saves to lead Maine to a 3-1 triumph Saturday and a series sweep of the host Terriers.

His Impact: The charging Black Bears are 11-2-1 since Thanksgiving and—fresh off sweeps of perennial Hockey East heavyweights Boston College and Boston University—enter February with as much momentum as any team in the country.

Sullivan’s consistency in goal is one reason for Maine’s surge. His 38 saves in Saturday’s 3-1 win against BU marked the fourth time in his last five starts he’s made 30-plus saves; in his last five appearances, Sullivan is 4-0-1 with a 2.33 goals against average and a .921 save percentage. Among Hockey East goalies, only UMass Lowell’s Doug Carr has more wins than Sullivan.

His Runners Up: Garrett Bartus, Connecticut; Cody Ferriero, Northeastern; Derek Graham, Ferris State; Luke Salazar, Denver; Joe Wilson, Colgate

Congratulations to ex-Wisconsin goaltender Brian Elliott, who preceded his first NHL All-Star Game appearance over the past weekend by signing a two-year contract extension with the St. Louis Blues, the team that picked him off the scrap heap for little more than the league minimum in the offseason, for a reported $3.6 million. Elliott won the battle for Ottawa’s starting gig prior to the start of the 2010-11 season but struggled, lost the job, and was dealt to Colorado. At the break, the Blues are two points behind Detroit in the Central Division standings thanks in large measure to the goaltending platoon of Elliott and Jaroslav Halak—St. Louis has allowed 102 goals in 49 games, second fewest in the league.

We understand that student media generally serves a very specific audience, primarily composed of its peers, which is why it’s not the best move for a college newspaper staffer to call out student peers on the sports pages. A columnist for the Cornell Daily Sun put a strongly-worded rip-job together following the Big Red’s men’s hockey losses against Colgate over the weekend, and wasn’t afraid to name names. The bigger problem was that he named the wrong one by assigning culpability for Colgate’s game-changing short-handed goal to Cornell senior forward Sean Collins, when two defensemen actually coughed the puck up on the play.

What Happened: The American Hockey League held its annual all-star classic Sunday and Monday in Atlantic City and many former collegians participated. Recent college alumni included the likes of Cory Conacher from Canisius and ex-Miami teammates Andy Miele and Carter Camper. Some of the league’s elder statesmen also came from the college ranks including Krys Kolanos, Clay Wilson and Darren Haydar. Former Maine goalie Ben Bishop earned MVP honors after stopping 10 of 11 shots in the third period and all four shootout attempts to lead the Western Conference to an 8-7 shootout victory. A total of 26 players who played at least one year of college hockey took part among the 48 players overall.

What We’re Watching: Ferris State extended its unbeaten streak to eight with two wins against Michigan State this past weekend, climbing to first place in the CCHA standings. The Bulldogs close the regular season with four tricky series (at Northern Michigan, vs. Bowling Green, home-and-home with Notre Dame and Western Michigan), significant because staying in the top four of the league standings and retaining a home-ice spot for the CCHA playoff quarterfinals is more important for Ferris than any other team in the league. The Bulldogs are a sterling 11-1-2 at home this season and a mediocre 6-7-1 away from Big Rapids. In those seven losses—six on the road and one at a neutral site—FSU has scored a total of five goals and has been shut out on four occasions.

What the …?: Through 20 games of Harvard’s season, they’ve posted a record of 6-6-8. Yup, that’s eight ties in 20 games for the Crimson with just six wins and six losses. With that kind of ledger, it’s bound to create some statistical oddities. How about this? At this point in the year, only four teams have fewer wins – Vermont (5), American International (5), Army (3) and Sacred Heart (2). But on the other side, only two teams have fewer losses – Minnesota Duluth (5) and Merrimack (5).

@Akillorn19 Alex Killorn

Guess I got caught picking my nose on national tv. Whatever, where I come from they call that a #powermove

• When you score two goals on national TV against an ancient rival, extra-curricular activities can be overlooked. The real power moves came in the Harvard senior’s two-goal performance against Yale – the first was a wraparound goal and the second came when he drove the net and scored the game-winning goal. By the way, if you haven’t seen Killorn play, check out the early game at the Beanpot on Monday. He’s worth the price of admission and worth setting your video recorder to see.

Matt Nieto leads Boston University in scoring with 23 points in 20 games.

Maine at Boston University (Fri.-Sat.): Outside of Minnesota Duluth, no one’s been better than the Black Bears and Terriers over the last two months. Hockey East-leading BU is 12-2-0 since its Nov. 13 shutout of Boston College and Maine, the league’s fourth-place team, is 9-2-1 since Thanksgiving. This series represents the last big hurdle for both teams in what remains of the regular season; the Terriers’ toughest remaining games are a single game at Merrimack and a home-and-home series with UMass Lowell, while the Black Bears’ biggest remaining test is a single game at Lowell. This could be a goal-filled weekend at Agganis Arena what with the Black Bears and Terriers both among the top six in the country in scoring offense and power-play success rate. Enhancing the teams’ power-play potency this weekend is the fact that Boston University and Maine just happen to be the two most penalized teams in the nation.

Colgate vs. Cornell (Friday at Cornell, Saturday at Colgate): These travel partners will play a seldom-seen ECAC Hockey home-and-home weekend beginning Friday night at Lynah Rink in a nationally-televised game. These teams spent most of the first half of the year at or near the top of the league standings. Lately, fortunes have changed a little bit. Colgate is 0-for-2012, with five losses and a tie since the turn of the New Year. A once seemingly impregnable Cornell  team on home ice that achieved five straight shutouts at Lynah Rink was beaten for five aggregate goals last weekend by Dartmouth and Harvard. The return-game Saturday night at Starr Rink in Hamilton always draws a full house. The Raiders need a big weekend to get turned back in the proper direction, and Cornell can maintain its hold on first place by taking care of business against its local rival.

Mercyhurst at RIT (Fri.-Sat.): The top two teams in what is a ridiculously tight Atlantic Hockey race (nine clubs within seven points of first place entering the weekend), the Lakers and Tigers have been on a roll over the last two months—since Dec. 1, Mercyhurst is 8-2-2 and RIT is 9-4-0. The similarities pretty much end there. The Lakers have leaned on the country’s 13th-ranked scoring offense (3.19 goals per game) and sixth-best power play (23.6 percent); the Tigers have the nation’s third-best scoring defense (2.04 goals allowed per game) and 16th-best penalty kill (84.6 percent). Bolstered by the strong play of goalie Shane Madolora, RIT has allowed one or fewer goals in eight of its last 13 games, but with eight of its last 12 matches decided by one goal or ending in a tie, Mercyhurst is accustomed to playing in tight games.

Wisconsin at North Dakota (Fri.-Sat.): A sweep by either the Badgers or NoDak probably puts the final nail in the coffin of the losing team’s NCAA Tournament hopes. That we’re even talking about either team making the NCAAs speaks volumes about the rampant above-average-ism in college hockey this season. That said, both North Dakota and Wisconsin are in good shape considering extenuating circumstances. The painfully young Badgers (a combined four juniors and seniors) are 7-2-1 since Thanksgiving. North Dakota isn’t painfully young, just painfu. With five players on the shelf nursing various injuries, North Dakota has been dressing 17 players and two goalies as of late. Still, the team is 9-3-1 since Turkey Day.

Also: It’s typically been one of the marquee matchups in Hockey East, but it’s fair to say there’s a little shine off this weekend’s Boston College-New Hampshire home-and-home series. Since starting the season by winning eight of their first nine, the Eagles are 7-9-1. The Wildcats have lost eight of their last 12 games. … Denver travels to Alaska Anchorage for a WCHA series. The Pioneers could regain the services of goaltender Sam Brittain and defenseman John Ryder, both of whom have been sidelined with injuries. Brittain has yet to play this season. … Miami is surging, but the NCAA criteria computations inexplicably love Northern Michigan, the CCHA’s ninth-place team. Those two teams meet in Oxford this weekend. … Michigan State hasn’t played a true road game since Dec. 9 and the Spartans’ last road series was a mid-November trip to Northern Michigan. They’re at Ferris State this weekend; the Bulldogs, 4-0-2 in their last six games, have a 9-1-2 mark in Big Rapids this season.

Reilly Smith

REILLY SMITH
Miami
Jr. | F | Mimico, Ontario

His Statistics: Four goals in the RedHawks’ sweep of visiting Western Michigan, including all three goals (one of them short-handed) in Friday’s 3-1 win and the game-winner in Saturday’s 4-0 shutout.

His Impact: Since a disastrous October in which it won two of its eight games, Miami has climbed to within two points of first-place Ohio State in the CCHA standings by going 12-4-2 since Nov. 1. Smith has played a huge role in the RedHawks’ revival, scoring 14 goals and 20 points in those 18 games. His four goals this weekend give him 18 for the season—in all of college hockey, only Colgate’s Austin Smith (24) and Minnesota’s Nick Bjugstad (20) have more.

Smith and the RedHawks have a tough, but favorable, schedule from here on out with seven of their 10 remaining games at home, including a potentially huge home-and-home series with Ohio State to close the regular season. The only road series left on Miami’s slate is an equally important trip to Ann Arbor Feb. 3-4 to face Michigan.

His Runners Up: Shane Madolora, RIT; Mike Mangene, Maine; Bryce Merriam, Rensselaer; Justin Schultz, Wisconsin

While we chose Reilly Smith as the INCH National Player of the Week, it wasn’t an easy decision. The efforts of all the runner-up candidates made this the most difficult choice of the year, so we’ll take this time to salute them in greater detail. The goalies were at the top of their games, as RIT and RPI went to New England states and came home after four-point weekends. RIT’s Shane Madolora (62 saves) and RPI’s Bryce Merriam (81 saves) each had a shutout and allowed one goal in the other game. Matt Mangene of Maine led the Black Bears to a sweep of Boston College by scoring the overtime-winner in Friday’s victory and adding a hat trick in Saturday’s win. Wisconsin defenseman Justin Schultz had another big weekend to boost his Hobey candidacy with five points and a plus-seven rating in two wins against Alaska Anchorage.

Over the last several weeks, people have had the opportunity to login and vote for their favorite players or other deserving candidates in the first phase of the Vote For Hobey. With that, has come some campaigning and balloting updates (and even misinformed articles) from different factions in support of players. We’re all for the enthusiasm, but the bottom line is that it really doesn’t matter at all in determining the top-10 Hobey finalists, let alone the winner. At this stage of voting, 58 coaches receive ballots. Additionally, the fan vote accounts for one percent of the total results – roughly a little more than half of one coach’s vote.

What Happened: Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson was understandably peeved after the CCHA denied the Fighting Irish’s appeal of its suspension of forward Riley Sheahan, causing the standout junior to miss Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Michigan. The league iced Sheahan for what it termed an “illegal hit” in the second period of Notre Dame’s Jan. 13 loss to Western Michigan.

Thing is, had the officials working that game made the correct call, it’s unlikely Sheahan gets suspended. Referees Keith Sergott and Matthew Miller saw the hit, but wrongly assessed the major penalty and game misconduct to Notre Dame’s Jeff Costello—hence the CCHA’s revisionist justice nearly a week later.

“It was more about the process. It wasn’t so much about the call,” Jackson told the Notre Dame Observer. “I hope they take a hard look at the official that involved and give him the same kind of suspension.”

What We’re Watching: We’re watching college hockey on TV—lots of it. With the proliferation of national and regional sports outlets and DirecTV, it’s the golden age of televised college pucks. But we’ve got a simple request for game analysts: less is more. Just because you’re on television for two to three hours at a time, you don’t have to try to cram everything you know about the game into that time frame. Tell us what we need to know, and move on.

What the …?: Saw some brief reports Monday from the Canadian Press about an AHL suspension to former New Hampshire defenseman Garrett Stafford. He’ll sit out one game for the Hamilton Bulldogs due to his actions in Saturday’s outdoor game against the Toronto Marlies. Stafford’s transgression? He apparently threw a water bottle at the Marlies’ bench.

@BruceCiskie Bruce Ciskie

Not surprised to see UMD lose a couple first-place votes. There are voters who use the Pairwise now that it has enough data to be valid.

• If this is indeed the case, and we have no reason to believe it’s not true, then what value do those voters bring to the polling process? Many fans like to clamor that the PairWise is the only thing that matters for NCAA Tournament selection and the polls are meaningless. That’s true … on one day of the year. The PairWise is designed to measure teams based on the entire season’s body of work and there’s a lot of hockey left to be played. To view it as a ranking system is flat-out wrong. The benefit of voter-driven polls and compiling the INCH Power Rankings is that actual hockey coaches and media who closely follow the games can make their case based on what they’ve seen by watching teams all season long. Besides, do you really want to rely on a comparison system that currently deems CCHA ninth-place team Northern Michigan more worthy of an NCAA Tournament spot than WCHA leader Minnesota or ECAC Hockey leader Cornell?

The past week in the WCHA was not one of those times.

Perhaps it’s the weight of a tight conference race combined with the mid-season doldrums when injuries pile up, but the league sounded like anything but a dozen teams united under one banner over the past seven days or so.

Don Lucia says it might be a while before the Gophers are back in Grand Forks.

It started, as so many of college hockey’s newsworthy events seem to, in Grand Forks on Saturday, as the final seconds ticked away on Minnesota’s decisive 6-2 win over North Dakota. As the final horn sounded, North Dakota defenseman Ben Blood fired a puck which touched off a brief scrum with a few players from both teams. In the subsequent handshake line, Blood took a swipe at Minnesota’s Kyle Rau, which touched off another tussle, as Blood and Seth Ambroz paired up.

High above the ice, Gophers radio announcer Wally Shaver took exception at Blood’s action and launched into an on-air rant, which concluded with the radio booth veteran calling North Dakota, “cheap hoseheads.”

North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol, to his credit, did the right thing to send a message internally and externally, stripping Blood of the player’s assistant captain status early in the week.

That same night, several hours drive south down I-29, Nebraska Omaha managed to do what no other team had accomplished since the second week of the season. The Mavericks got 43 saves from Ryan Massa, and beat top-ranked Minnesota Duluth 3-1, snapping the Bulldogs’ 17-game unbeaten string. But before the final horn sounded in that one, there were words, possibly gestures, and at least one dangerous hit exchanged between Omaha’s Dominic Zombo and Duluth’s J.T. Brown.

On Tuesday the WCHA announced a one-game suspension for Zombo, for a knee-to-knee check on Brown. This prompted Mavs coach Dean Blais to question why Brown wasn’t punished for some unpleasantness of his own. Blais told Rob White of the Omaha World-Herald that Brown had flashed an obscene gesture during the game, which should be worthy of a suspension as well.

“You suspended Zombo for a hit, OK. Now, what are you going to do with J.T. Brown?” Blais asked rhetorically. “To me, that’s worse than the hit.”

As of this writing, the WCHA has taken no action against Brown, and it is unknown if there will be a further league review of the alleged incident. In past years, Hakstol was suspended for two games for flashing a middle finger on TV during a game.

The tension between Minnesota and North Dakota reappeared later in the week when Hakstol fired back at Shaver on a radio show.

“We all work for somebody, I get it. I understand that,” Hakstol said. “But a man that I’ve known for a long time, almost 20 years, I thought really crossed the line. I haven’t spoken with him but I’m really upset about it and I think it was wrong.”

A day later, when asked about the high-tension rivalry between the Gophers and North Dakota, Minnesota coach Don Lucia suggested that a cooling off period might be in order starting in two years when the teams are no longer in the same conference.

“We will go back there as a non-conference team,” Lucia said at his weekly gathering with the media. “We have a great rivalry. Sometimes it gets a little over the top and I’m not sure that is healthy for anybody. So we will continue to play, but I doubt we will continue to play each and every year.”

He added that the Gophers’ schedule for the 2013-14 season, their first in the Big Ten, is set save for two home games that they have to fill, and it does not include a trip to North Dakota. That means it will be at least three years before Minnesota’s next visit to the Ralph.

The official breakup of the current WCHA is still more than a year away. But with some actions on the ice and some words off the ice this week, it looks like some cracks are already appearing.

Stevie Moses

STEVIE MOSES
New Hampshire
Sr. | F | Leominster, Mass.

His Statistics: Five goals in the Wildcats’ wins against Providence and Dartmouth, including the lone tally in UNH’s 1-0 win at Schneider Arena Wednesday and four goals in a a 4-1 victory over the Big Green in Manchester, N.H., Saturday.

His Impact: It hasn’t been a banner year for New Hampshire—the Wildcats enter the week in eighth place in the Hockey East standings, just one point ahead of ninth-place Northeastern—but it’s been a pretty good one for Stevie Moses. The senior forward took over first place in the Hockey East goal scoring race this past weekend, netting the lone goal in UNH’s 1-0 win at Providence Wednesday, then added four goals Saturday as the Wildcats cruised past Dartmouth, 4-1, in a non-conference match in Manchester, N.H.

Moses, who also scored four goals in his team’s Nov. 26 win against Alabama-Huntsville, leads the Wildcats with 16 goals, 26 points, and five power-play goals.

His Runners Up: Michael Colavecchia, RIT; Troy Grosenick, Union; Alex Guptill, Michigan; Drew Shore, Denver

North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol took swift and decisive action against Ben Blood Monday, pulling the ‘A’ from the senior defenseman’s sweater for his role in a confrontation in the postgame handshake line Saturday following NoDak’s 6-2 loss to visiting Minnesota.

“Regardless of any provocation, Ben’s actions in the postgame handshake were not acceptable,” Hakstol said in a prepared statement. “The handshake is a traditional, gentlemanly part of our game where, at the end of a hard-fought battle, opponents show good sportsmanship and shake hands like men.”

Blood tussled with Minnesota freshman forwards Seth Ambroz and Kyle Rau in the handshake line. Blood was possibly provoked by a slash from a Minnesota player late in the third period of the game, and as the final horn sounded Saturday, Blood whistled a slap shot that hit Ambroz, resulting in a brief skirmish.

It’s a tough way for Hakstol to teach Blood a lesson, but it’s the right move. Ultimately, this experience will make Blood a better player, a better teammate, and a better leader.

After perusing the social networks on a weekly basis, we’re inundated with complaining. From your favorite team’s results to downgrading a rival, travel woes or even the weather, people are always complaining. Why should we pile on and bring more negative into the world? Instead, we present this:

What Happened?: OK, OK, so we’re probably beating a dead horse at this point, but it’s our horse and it’s our beatin’ to dole out. One of the aspects of outdoor hockey games that we enjoy is that often teams will wear an alternate sweater for the special event, and that was the case over the last few weeks. While New Hampshire and Maine stuck to their tried-and-true uniform looks, as well as Michigan and Union in alternate black sweaters, other teams presented new looks to mixed results. Our favorite of the bunch were the designs sported by Harvard, and we were less impressed by Ohio State’s pseudo-pajama look. Northeastern wore red against Boston College, dressed in gold; and one week earlier Massachusetts sported a big M on the crest of their sweater against Vermont with a retro diagonal UVM on their road greens.

What We’re Watching: Usually, it’s the time of the year when we’ve got a pretty good idea of which teams have established themselves as the truly elite groups in college hockey. This year, that seems to be a bit murkier. Some of the top teams really haven’t run away from the pack and other contenders are showing obvious flaws. You don’t have to look much further than the overall records. At this time last year, eight teams in the country had 15 wins or more. This year, there are just two – Minnesota (16) and Minnesota Duluth (15). We’ll see what happens over the next six or seven weeks, but all indicators point to a wide-open playoff season where any number of teams could make legitimate championship runs.

What The …?: It’s not often that you see a coaching staff or bench assessed unsportsmanlike conduct penalties for working the referees, as the officials usually exercise a degree of restraint to accompany the requisite thick skin required to do the job. That wasn’t the case Sunday at Clarkson, where both benches were whistled for unsportsmanlike minors during the game. Yale’s unsportsmanlike penalty came in overtime, giving Clarkson a power play that the Golden Knights converted for a victory. Whoa.

@TheRoEbOaT9 Garrett Roe

Some people are pretenders and just run from adversity. Especially guys who flake and transfer schools midseason. #bestofluck #kidding

• That tweet from former St. Cloud State forward Garrett Roe was a not-so-veiled shot at sophomore Mitch MacMillan, an ex-teammate of Roe who decided to transfer to North Dakota where his brother, Mark, is a freshman forward. Roe now plays for the Adirondack Phantoms of the American Hockey League. Sure, it’s tough to lose a player to a rival via transfer, but Roe’s objection seems over the top.