Remember earlier this month when we when we proclaimed the season’s best weekend of hockey? Well, this would not be that weekend. It doesn’t help that we’re in the doldrums of the regular season when the newness has worn off and the playoffs are way out on the horizon. Every weekend can’t be a hockey-pocalypse but, hey, there’s still some quality out there if you poke around, mostly focused familiar names renewing acquaintances.

Colorado College forward Jaden Schwartz leads the Tigers with 18 goals in 21 games.

Colorado College at Minnesota (Fri.-Sat.): The best thing to come out of the Gophers’ win at North Dakota Saturday—other than the epic postgame rant from Minnesota radio play-by-play man Wally Shaver—was the six goals they scored and who scored. Sure, Nick Bjugstad had two, but so too did Nate Condon (one shorthanded), and Minnesota also got single tallies from Nate Schmidt (his first since Oct. 23) and Seth Ambroz. That kind of scoring depth bodes well for the Gophs moving forward. Speaking of scoring depth, Colorado College is third nationally in scoring offense (3.68 goals per game) and has seven players with six or more goals. However, the Tigers are 39th in scoring defense (2.95 goals per game). This series could come down to the goaltenders which would seem to favor Minnesota’s Kent Patterson, but Josh Thorimbert has been great for CC over the last month—in seven starts since Dec. 10, he’s 5-2-0 with a 1.72 GAA and a .935 save percentage.

Michigan at Notre Dame (Fri.-Sat.): The Wolverines and Fighting Irish are separated by two points in the CCHA standings, which you can pretty much say about any two teams in the league. Michigan enters the weekend 7-0-2 in its last nine games—five of the seven wins have been by one goal (4-2 wins against Boston College and Lake Superior State included insurance markers in the final 15 seconds of regulation.) Notre Dame has had offensive issues lately; they’ve lost six of their last nine and have scored two or fewer goals in those defeats. We’re looking in your general direction, Anders Lee, scorer of just two goals in his last 13 games.

Boston College at Maine (Fri.-Sat.): The Black Bears have quietly worked their way back into the top four in the Hockey East standings with a 7-2-2 mark in their last 11 games. The Eagles, meanwhile, are tied with Boston University for the top spot in the league in spite of a 6-7-1 showing after an 8-1-0 start. Both BC and Maine are dominated by goal-scoring trios—Chris Kreider, Bill Arnold, and Barry Almeida for the Eagles and Joey Diamond, Spencer Abbott, and Brian Flynn for the Black Bears—who’ll get theirs. Second- and third-line contributions will play a huge role in determining the outcome here.

Western Michigan at Miami (Fri.-Sat.): If you made the argument that outside of Minnesota Duluth, college hockey’s best team since Nov. 1 has been Miami, we’d yield the floor for you to make your case. The RedHawks started the season 2-6-0, but are 10-4-2 since. Part of that improvement is due to the Miami freshmen finding a comfort level. For example, rookie forward Jimmy Mullin has four goals and seven points in his last seven games and classmate Austin Czarnik has 13 points in 13 games since Veterans Day. The RedHawks haven’t cornered the market on impact freshmen, however. In 10 starts since becoming the team’s no. 1 goaltender in mid-November, Western Michigan goaltender Frank (The Big) Slubowski has posted a 1.98 GAA and a .915 save percentage.

Also: Ohio State still leads the CCHA but is 2-3-2 in its last seven games. The Buckeyes host Ferris State, which is unbeaten in its last four games. … Hockey fans and ichthyologists will pack Lynah Rink Saturday as Cornell hosts Harvard. At 4-6-6 overall and 3-4-4 in ECAC Hockey, the Crimson are the very definition of average—they’ve won back-to-back games once and lost back-to-back games once, but managed to string together consecutive ties twice. … Back on Nov. 12, Yale shut out Union behind 45 saves from goaltender Jeff Malcolm. The Dutchmen have gone 7-2-3 since, while the Bulldogs are 4-6-1 since that date. … Bad scheduling, part I: Minnesota Duluth (insert superlative here) plays its first home game since Nov. 19 when it hosts Alabama-Huntsville this weekend. … Bad scheduling, part II: Mercyhurst, which travels to Holy Cross this weekend, plays 11 of its last 14 games on the road.

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 | Sr. | D
To Date: 22 GP, 11-21—32, 5 PPG

The Skinny: One could draw a parallel between Schultz, who has 32 points in 22 games, and an offensive defenseman who won the Hobey in 2006, Denver’s Matt Carle. Carle put up ridiculous numbers (11-42—53) from the blue line in ‘06 for an above-average Pioneers team that didn’t qualify for the NCAA Tournament. It’s unlikely the Badgers will make the NCAAs, but Schultz is on pace to score 53 points (he already has 11 goals) for a team that doesn’t get much in terms of offense outside of him and Mark Zengerle.

Jack Connolly
Minnesota Duluth | Sr. | F
To Date: 22 GP, 13-23—36, 5 PPG, 2 GWG

The Skinny: Connolly’s got a bunch of things working in his favor. He’s the nation’s leading scorer in the midst of a 20-game point streak, captains the nation’s best team, and his team has a pretty manageable schedule the rest of the way— the only games against teams with records better than .500 are home dates with North Dakota (Feb. 10-11) and Colorado College (Feb. 24-25). Our hangup? Even without Connolly, the Bulldogs are still an NCAA-caliber club. Not sure you could say that about Colgate sans Austin Smith.

Austin Smith
Colgate | Sr. | Forward
To Date: 22 GP, 22-13—35, 4 PPG, 5 SHG, 5 GWG

The Skinny: Smith was the nation’s leading scorer for most of the year, but like his Colgate team’s record in recent weeks, his Hobey fortunes have started to slide a bit. With 35 points and five short-handed goals to match five game-winning goals. The senior is making the most of his last year on campus and is just six points shy of matching his career-best 41-point sophomore season. He’s a Dallas Stars property and is raising his personal value for sure, but there are other team goals that still lie ahead for a relatively surprising Colgate team.

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

Troy Grosenick, Union: In a year that has seen several goaltending candidates make relatively short-term runs for Hobey consideration, the best long-term case at this point in the season belongs to Union’s Troy Grosenick. He leads the nation in both goals-against average (1.60) and save percentage (.939), and has three shutouts to his credit. His 11-3-3 record in 18 starts might be even better — in his three losses, Union has scored a total of two goals. The Dutchmen are also winless (0-2-3) in the games he doesn’t start.

Alex Guptill, Michigan: It’s not all that realistic to consider a rookie forward for the Hobey this year, but Michigan’s recent success has coincided in an uptick in production from Guptill. The Wolverines are unbeaten in their last nine games and during that span, the Newmarket, Ontario, product has five goals and eight assists—all at even strength. Through 26 games, Guptill has 12-12—24, second among NCAA freshmen in scoring behind Minnesota’s Kyle Rau. Michigan’s success this season hinged on replacing the offense generated by Carl Hagelin and Louie Caporusso; thus far, Guptill’s done his part.

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.

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.

When a team rises from relative mediocrity and obscurity to maintain a presence as a league-title contender and nationally-ranked outfit, challenges inherently present themselves. No longer will they be able to “sneak up” on teams that might have underestimated them. Struggling teams near the bottom of the standings will target games against those teams as a season-highlight maker. Plus, your team’s own standards increase and there’s more on the line with each weekend series.

Union's Josh Jooris

Those are some of the challenges that Union is facing this year, on the heels of an historic 2010-11 campaign that saw Union qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the first time at the Division I level. There were some obvious departures, including senior forward Adam Presizniuk and senior defenseman Brock Matheson to graduation, sophomore goaltender Keith Kinkaid to professional hockey and head coach Nate Leaman to Providence. Still, seven of the team’s top nine scorers returned from that 26-10-4 team and associate head coach Rick Bennett was promoted to take over the Union bench full-time.

Perhaps the biggest challenge of sustaining success from year to year was described by goalie Troy Grosenick. There comes a time when realizing and building on success has to be done with a new attitude and some new ingredients.

“It’s not last year anymore,” he said. “We have to take what happened with a grain of salt and move on. There’s a point where every team becomes its own team, and we’ve done a pretty good job of getting over what happened last year and realizing that this is a new team. We want to be better.”

Some of the identity change from last year to this was bound to happen with the coaching change. A few new ideas and adaptations have Union poised for a big second half.

“Every year is a new challenge, and the way we look at it, we’re still building and are in a phase where we’re still learning. It’s been good and Coach Bennett has brought in some new perspectives,” leading scorer Kelly Zajac.

Zajac leads a balanced scoring ledger for the Dutchmen with 21 points in 21 games, including a team-high 17 assists. Seven players have 12 points or more so far this year, and Union’s power play is clicking at an impressive 26.9 percent, which ranks fifth nationally. That matches a recently-developed reputation, as Union had the nation’s top power play one year ago (29.5 percent) and had seven players record 30 points or more.

The bigger story this year is at the other end of the ice. Union owns the nation’s best overall team defense, and has allowed just 1.95 goals against per game.

“The team has been great defensively and the defense corps has done a great job in front of me limiting chances, plus the forwards are coming back hard and blocking shots. I think that’s shown in our results so far,” Grosenick said. “We know that if everyone in the room is doing their job, it will help get us through games and through the tough times, so I would say that our team unity and our team defense are our team strengths.”

Grosenick, a sophomore, has taken on an increased workload this year following Kinkaid’s departure. Grosenick played in just three games as a freshman, for about 85 minutes of actual game time. So far this season, he’s already made 16 starts and has gaudy numbers that include a 1.74 goals-against average and .932 save percentage. His record is 9-3-3.

Union bounced back from back-to-back losses at the end of December at Denver and Colorado College with a 3-3 tie against Harvard and a 7-1 win over Dartmouth. This weekend brings a couple of highly-anticipated opportunities. The Dutchmen will play at Harvard Friday night outdoors at Fenway Park. That’s followed up by a return trip home Saturday night against rival Rensselaer. It will be just Union’s eighth home game of the season, in the Dutchmen’s 23rd game overall. They close the season with six of their last nine games at Messa Rink.

The schedule sets up favorably for a good Union team that’s focused on what’s ahead, not what’s in the past.

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.

Fact: Each WCHA team plays 28 conference games in a season.
Fact: Each of the WCHA’s 12 teams has played 14 conference games thus far.

With six WCHA series on tap this weekend, that means the second half of the season is upon us, and for some teams there’s plenty of work to do if they want to play at home in March.

Here’s a quick look around the league at a few of those likely feeling the most pressure as the puck drops on the 2012 portion of this particular campaign:

Wisconsin – The Badgers won a pair of non-conference home games with RIT last weekend in what was puzzlingly billed as a rematch of the 2010 Frozen Four meeting between those teams. Can you have a rematch more than 18 months later?

Mark Zengerle

In any case, the Badgers did what they’ve done plenty of this season. Namely, winning non-conference games at home, where they’re 5-1-0 versus non-WCHA foes. This weekend the Badgers visit Mankato and will face Minnesota State trying to do something they have not accomplished yet: winning a road game. Wisconsin’s 0-5-1 mark away from the Kohl Center is a big reason why the Badgers currently sit 10th in the 12-team league.

“We’re definitely in a hole, but it’s nothing deep enough that we can’t crawl out of,” Badgers wing Ryan Little told Andy Baggott of the Wisconsin State Journal.

With 12th-place Minnesota State and 11th-place Alaska Anchorage (in Madison) on the schedule the next two weekends, if the Badgers are going to make a run for home ice, it’s got to start soon.

Bemidji State – You might think that a road trip to face the team predicted by many to win the WCHA would be a tough way for the Beavers to start the new year. But Tom Serratore’s club has lost just once since Nov. 19, and heads to Denver seemingly primed for an upward move in the standings.

“We’ve had a lot of confidence over the course of the last month,” Serratore said in his weekly press conference. “We’ve played hockey, I think the guys feel good about themselves, and they’re champing at the bit to play a game right now. They’re bored with practice.”

The Beavers have a light schedule in January, with no games the first or third weekends of the month. And their last time in WCHA competition, they split a home series with Denver. But Serratore acknowledged that traveling to Colorado to face the Pioneers is a much different challenge. Still, the coach said for now the line juggling is over, and he seems to have found a lineup that he’s comfortable with and that is producing goals and wins.

“We’ve established some continuity to our top two lines, which, once you do that it helps your team,” Serratore said, crediting a junior forward from Ottawa for his role in the run. “A lot of it is Aaron McLeod. Once we inserted Aaron McLeod as that first line center, our game has picked up, we have more depth, we’re tougher to play against and our chemistry right now is good.”

And as if they needed one more piece of optimistic news in Bemidji this week, on Thursday the Beavers learned that a noted alum, Flyers forward Matt Read, was named to the NHL All-Star Game.

Denver – The Pioneers bounced back with a 5-2 home win over Alabama-Huntsville last Saturday, but by then the damage was done. On Friday, in once of the bigger upsets in all of college hockey this season, the Chargers shocked Denver with a 3-2 win. It was just the most recent example of a talented Pioneers team that often has seemed to play down to the level of its competition.

That Denver loss, and a mediocre 6-5-3 conference mark in the first half, has the Pioneers fully aware that a lengthy winning streak will be required in the next eight weeks if they have designs on a league title.

“We have put ourselves in a position where we have very little margin for error in the last 14 games of the conference schedule,” said Denver coach George Gwozdecky this week, acknowledging that better health and a fuller roster will be a key if his team is to stay in the title picture. “As time goes on here, we know that we’re going to be able to put some bodies back in the lineup that had been out of the lineup for a while.”

Most notably, forward Jason Zucker will be back this weekend after missing the past month while playing with Team USA at the World Juniors. Gwozdecky was hopeful for good news on defenseman David Makowski’s potential return, and said that goalie Sam Brittain is at least skating again, but has yet to go through a full practice yet, so his return from summer surgery is still on the more distant horizon.

The coach said the Beavers’ unique style presents a real challenge for his team, and compared their series in Bemidji last month to a ping-pong game at times, with the teams trading opportunities to fire the puck deep into the other’s zone.

The Pioneers have the advantage of playing five key second half games (two with Minnesota, two with North Dakota and one with Colorado College) at home, and have two very winnable road series, at Alaska Anchorage and at Wisconsin.

A pair of weekend losses at Wisconsin has not dampened the spirits of a Rochester Institute of Technology hockey team that was coming off a pair of wins over nationally ranked foes during the holiday break.

The Tigers competed in the Catamount Cup in Burlington, Vt., and came away with a 3-0 win over No. 11 Ferris State and a 3-1 victory over No. 16 Lake Superior State.

Fresh off two losses to the Badgers (6-3 and 2-1), coach Wayne Wilson is nonetheless encouraged by the efforts of his team.

Chris Saracino leads RIT defensemen with nine points, including a goal at Wisconsin

“I am really happy with the way we played,’’ Wilson said of the Wisconsin series. “We played smart and consistent, not only through one complete game but through a complete weekend.’’

RIT carries a 9-8-3 overall record into the second half of Atlantic Hockey play. The Tigers sit in fourth place in a very tight race with 17 points and a 7-3-3 mark.

Wisconsin’s Justin Schultz had two goals and two assists in the Friday win, and Jake McCabe tallied the game-winner at 3:20 of the third period on Saturday. For RIT, Matt Garbowsky, Adam Mitchell and Adam Hartley scored in the opener and Chris Saracino had the lone tally on Saturday. Shane Madolora had 27 saves in the first meeting and Jordan Ruby made 17 stops in the nightcap.

“You can’t always control results of games,’’ Wilson said. “We were .500 after beating two ranked teams in Vermont and the two games with Wisconsin, and none of them were at home. I thought we responded well.’’

Four of Wisconsin’s eight goals came on the power play.

“I thought we played well, particularly five-on-five against Wisconsin,’’ Wilson said. “We held them to two shots in the second period – that speaks volumes for how we were playing at that time. The difference was special teams and yet our power play played well, although we didn’t get as many goals as we would have liked.’’

RIT was 1-for-7 with the man advantage.

Wilson said he learned a lot about his team over the first three months of the season, and decided to scale back his team’s aggressiveness to put less pressure on Madolora and the defense.

“We’ve had to be a little smarter since we came back from Christmas break,’’ Wilson said. “We aren’t taking as many aggressive risks, aggressive chances … For me, it’s always risk and reward – if you are not being rewarded playing a certain way, you have to change, it’s not worth the risk.’’

The proof came in the two wins in Vermont, and went a long way in selling Wilson’s new approach to his troops.

“When you tinker with some things and then all of a sudden you talk about it, you address it and you beat two ranked teams, now the coach is believable so the guys believe in it, too,’’ Wilson said.

RIT has won the Atlantic Hockey regular-season title four times (outright in 2006-07, 2009-10 and 2010-11; shared with Air Force in 2008-09) and placed second once (2007-08), but the battle figures to be much harder this season with more parity.

“We want to win the league, so I don’t want to dodge that,’’ Wilson said. “It’s still not our ultimate goal, I guess. For us, our goal, the one that stands out the most, is making it to the NCAAs.’’

Is there pressure to repeat?

“There’s a little bit of an internal pressure,’’ he said, “but it’s a positive thing. It’s nice when you are playing at home, in particular, and your fans have an expectation of winning. That pushes you as a player and a coach and as a group to play well. You just can’t mail an effort in and say, ‘Who’s going to notice?’ That’s positive.’’

RIT, in the midst of nine consecutive road games, returns to Atlantic Hockey play this weekend with a pair of games against Sacred Heart, to be played at the Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, Conn., home of the American Hockey League’s SoundTigers. The college-pro doubleheaders have created unique start times of 4 p.m. on Saturday and noon on Sunday.

“That’s different,’’ Wilson said, “but it might be good to mix things up.’’

FRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG

Top December honors – Michael Colavecchia of RIT was named the Atlantic Hockey player of the month, Brooks Ostergard of Robert Morris was named the top goalie and Holy Cross netminder Matt Ginn was the rookie of the month.
Colavecchia had eight points in seven games, helping the Tigers to a 5-2-0 record and championship in the Catamount Cup, where he was named to the all-tourney team.

RIT coach Wayne Wilson had praise for Colavecchia.

“He’s played very well, he’s come through for us,’’ Wilson said. “I think he’s very determined. He works hard, after practice and before practice. He has a strong desire to get better.’’

Ostergard was 3-1-1 during December, reaching a high of seven games unbeaten before suffering a setback. In four of his five appearances, Ostergard made at least 29 saves, including 47 against Niagara. His 4-0 win over RIT was his first shutout of the season and third of his career.

Ginn posted a 3-1 record, 1.51 goals-against average and .923 save percentage. He recorded his first collegiate shutout on Dec. 4, making 14 stops against Canisius.

Top weekly honors – Cole Schneider and Garrett Bartus of Connecticut earned player and goalie of the week awards, respectively, and Daniel Bahntge of Mercyhurst was the top rookie.

Schneider, a sophomore, posted his second career hat trick in a 4-2 win over Niagara on Friday and had an assist on the game-winning goal in a 2-0 win over the Purple Eagles on Saturday. Schneider has points in 11 of his last 12 games and leads the Huskies with 22 points.

Bartus, a junior, stopped 67 shots in the two wins, posting a .971 save percentage. The shutout win was his third of the season and career.

Bahntge, a forward, had four goals and two assists in the sweep of Sacred Heart. He had a career-high four points in Friday’s 9-1 win. His 20 points leads the Lakers.

East trumps West – Holy Cross secured three of four points with visiting Air Force, Connecticut swept Niagara and Bentley took three of four points from visiting Robert Morris. The Air Force loss in Worcester was its first since 2004 and first against the host Crusaders in Atlantic Hockey play. Holy Cross is off to its best league (7-4-1) and overall (9-9-1) starts since the championship 2005-06 season.

Top Lakers – Mercyhurst’s sweep of Sacred Heart left the Lakers in sole possession of first place. At 12-8-2, this is the quickest Mercyhurst has reached 12 wins since the 2005-06 season.

Charitable – Army hosted a prostate cancer awareness night, deemed the “House of Blues,’’ on Saturday before a sell-out crowd of 2,625. The Black Knights wore special blue uniforms, their fifth different sweater this season. Army fans went home feeling blue after Canisius posted its first sweep at West Point – the Golden Griffins were 4-12-2 all-time at West Point prior to the series.

Stay ‘til the end – Late goals proved decisive in the Bentley-Robert Morris series. Alex Grieve snapped a 1-1 tie with 9.7 seconds remaining to lift Bentley to the Friday win. Cody Wydo of Robert Morris netted the equalizer with two seconds left in Saturday’s draw.

Coming up – League play resumes with six weekend series. Army travels to Niagara, Holy Cross goes to Robert Morris, American International hosts Mercyhurst and Air Force hosts Bentley in Friday-Saturday sets. Connecticut travels to Canisius and RIT takes on Sacred Heart in Saturday-Sunday sets.
Air Force is 13-1-2 against Bentley since 2007. Niagara is 5-1 all-time versus Army.

Having gone winless in the first two weekends of CCHA play and sitting with a 2-6-0 overall record, it goes without saying that things hadn’t gone as planned for INCH’s preseason national No.1.

Reilly Smith has eight goals and 12 points in his last 12 games.

After several years of consistent success within the conference and on the national stage, it looked like maybe this season would mark an off year for the Miami RedHawks, as they brought in eight freshmen and tried to mitigate the loss of Hobey Baker winner Andy Miele, star forward Carter Camper and several other major contributors after last year.

But sitting in their home locker room after being swept by Lake Superior at the end of October, an impassioned discussion about where this team was headed began to turn the tide, as the team realized it was time to focus on the things they could control – how hard they practice, and how hard they compete on game night.

“After the Lake Superior weekend where our record was 2-6 after the sweep we sat together as a team and realized that it wasn’t acceptable,” Miami captain Reilly Smith said. “We focused on our problems and moved past them, and we realized that we are only going to beat teams by working harder than them.”

With leaders like senior defenseman Will Weber and junior forward Smith setting an example, the large freshman class began to catch on to what has made Miami hockey so special in recent years and the results turned around quickly.

“At the start of the year, we had a lot of new faces and it took time to get everyone on the same page,” Smith said. “In past years, we haven’t had as many freshmen as we have this year, so we needed them to step up early on, and that’s a lot to ask of an 18- or 19-year old kid coming from the USHL or whichever league they came from. Once they got over that hump, our team really started playing well.”

Beginning with a road sweep at Alaska to start November, Miami’s rediscovered work ethic helped bring out the talent that had been hidden by inexperience and nerves earlier in the year. The RedHawks ran up an eight-game unbeaten streak and lost just three of their final 12 games in the first half.

And with a sweep on the road at Michigan State last weekend, Miami seems to have picked up exactly where it left off, and it now sits in fifth place – certainly a contender for a first-round bye in the CCHA tournament and an NCAA Tournament bid – if things continue to progress the way they have since Halloween.

While Ohio State has been the class of the conference thus far, and Notre Dame and Western Michigan have proven themselves as deep, talented contenders, the CCHA seems to be particularly muddled this year. Lacking a star like Andy Miele or Kevin Porter that can make the difference on a consistent basis, there isn’t a lot to choose between the CCHA’s upper-middle class, giving a slow-starting team like this year’s RedHawks a chance to make up for early-season struggles.

“The parity in our league has really gone up this year,” Smith said. “There really aren’t any teams that you can blow out like there have been in past years. Also, teams have been able to rely on one or two superstars to take over games, and this year it’s more physical.”

The NHL’s Central Scouting Service has released its midseason ranking of the top players eligible for the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. The rankings list North American and European players separately, as well as separating goalies from skaters (forwards and defensemen).

The top-ranked player with college ties is U.S. National Team Development Program defenseman Jacob Trouba, who will attend Michigan in the fall; he is ranked ninth. Others listed among the top 30 prospects include Vermont recruit Zemgus Girgensons (12th), who plays for Dubuque in the United States Hockey League; U.S. NTDP defenseman Brady Skjei (18th), who has committed to Minnesota; future Wisconsin wing Nicolas Kerdiles (27th), who also plays for the U.S. NTDP; Michigan freshman forward Phil Di Giuseppe; and Dubuque blueliner Mike Matheson, who’s heading to Boston College next season.

The North American lists rank 212 skaters and 34 goalies, all playing in the U.S. and Canada. In addition to college players, the list features draft-eligible major junior players as well as a number of college-bound high school, prep, and junior players. The NHL Entry Draft takes place June 22-23 in Pittsburgh, Pa.