It was a pretty uneventful weekend in college last weekend. The biggest series of the weekend out west arguably took place in South Bend, where Notre Dame and Miami faced off, and battled to ties both nights, with each team winning a shootout to take three points on the weekend.
With each team only taking half of the possible points, it didn't matter all that much that Michigan coughed up a gimme against Michigan State in their only game of the weekend. Notre Dame moved into a temporary one point lead in the CCHA standings, but now Michigan has two games in hand against the Irish, and despite the Wolverines somewhat inconsistent play this season, they've yet to be swept in a weekend series all year.
Meanwhile in the WCHA, North Dakota had a chance to take a lead in the WCHA standings with both Denver and Minnesota-Duluth idle on the weekend, but the Sioux split their series at Colorado College, marking the third straight weekend in the second half of WCHA play in which the Sioux have split. The Sioux also have a precarious one point lead in the WCHA standings, with Denver having two games in hand on the Sioux, while Duluth is two points back with two games in hand.
The rest of the week's action is after the jump.
Minnesota seemed to be getting themselves back on track with a convincing 5-1 win over Alaska-Anchorage on Friday night, and then came crashing back down to Earth on Saturday with a brutal 1-0 loss that you probably couldn't have paid me to watch. With both games in hand and games against Michigan Tech, Minnesota has a pretty decent shot at eking out a home playoff spot, but inconsistent efforts like Saturday night will likely make this enough disappointing season for the Gophers. One thing you can say for certain about Saturday night: Dean Blais would never let that happen.
So Dean Blais let that happen. Nebraska-Omaha had what should have been two freebie wins at home Alabama-Huntsville, but UAH surprised everyone with a tough 2-1 overtime win on Saturday night. It's nervous time for UNO fans. The loss on Saturday dropped UNO outside of at-large bid territory for the NCAA tournament, and win just six wins dating all the way back to November 19th, they're obviously not trending upwards.
It's kind of weird that we have to actually start paying attention to Western Michigan now. The Broncos dominated a weekend series against Northern Michigan, earning all six league points, and pushing themselves up to 11th in the PWR. Next weekend is an interesting series at home against Bowling Green. It may not seem like a big deal, but the Broncos desperately need two wins to give themselves a little insurance since they finish with a brutal stretch of series against the league's top three teams.
St. Cloud's recent hot streak and Minnesota State's streak of league futility both came to an end this weekend with the Mavericks stealing three points in St. Cloud. Twenty-one penalties were called in Saturday's game, in pretty much a never-ending string of calls from the referee nowhere near the play, and subsequent make-up calls. If you ever want to argue against a two ref system, that was your textbook example.
Alaska swept Ohio State, scoring Friday's only goal in overtime, and then dominating with a convincing 6-2 win. Next weekend should be a huge series between Alaska and Ferris State to help determine who will earn the final first round bye in the league playoffs. It's also important because with Western's difficult schedule down the stretch, both Alaska and Ferris could make a run at finishing fourth and getting home ice in the second round of the playoffs.
Bowling Green and Lake Superior split on the weekend. The Falcons will finish last in the CCHA this year, but Lake Superior stayed ahead of Michigan State in the epic battle for 10th place in the CCHA.
And finally, Michigan Tech lost twice more, this time to Wisconsin. Dan Savage lied to you, Michigan Tech fans. It does not get better.