A look at all of the college hockey games from last weekend(that I had something to say about).
Notre Dame 4 Minnesota 3
If college hockey was more popular, this is where I would put the fantastic .GIF image of Kent Patterson watching his water bottle go flying and falling over backwards after Riley Sheahan destroyed him on a shorthanded breakaway. Remember two years ago when people said that Sheahan couldn't score goals? He was close to dominant here, with two goals an assist, and a couple other great chances.
This one wasn't really as close as the final score made it look, after Minnesota scored two late goals, but never really came close to tying it. Both teams came into this game ranked in the top 5 in the country. By the end of the night, Notre Dame definitely looked like they belonged there. It's a little more difficult to tell with Minnesota. They're still a mess defensively. It's remarkable how many 2-on-1s and breakaways they give up while on the power play.
The Gophers are still probably an NCAA tournament, but idea of them keeping up with Minnesota-Duluth for the WCHA title, especially with Duluth's easier schedule, seems silly now.
Alabama-Huntsville 3 Denver 2, DU 5 UAH 2
Huntsville grabbed their second win of the year against a WCHA team in a shocking upset of Denver on Friday. George Gwozdecky came in for some criticism for his decision to send Jason Zucker home for the weekend after the World Juniors. It seemed most teams planned on sitting their World Juniors guys out on Friday night--Jon Merrill played, but fatigue probably isn't an issue there--and that's the game DU lost, so it's tough to put the blame on that.
Still, that loss could be killer for Denver if they have any hope of climbing back into tournament consideration.
Dartmouth 4 RPI 3
NBC Sports' lucked out with a great match-up between Notre Dame and Boston University in their inaugural college hockey broadcast. Their second game turned out to be a bit of a dog though. Even watching them in person, I'm perplexed at how RPI is managing to be this bad this year. There's a lot of talent on their roster, and yet, they're rightfully ranked as the worst major conference team in all of college hockey in the RPI. Chase Polacek is easily coasting to victory for the just-made-up-by-me Garrett Raboin Award for player whose team goes from pretty good to complete, flaming shambles once they leave.
This game seemed to get a pretty lukewarm reception from even diehard college hockey fans, which I'm betting doesn't bode well for ratings.
North Dakota 3 Clarkson 1
This game took place in Winnipeg, and was North Dakota's first official game without a nickname.
With forward Derek Rodwell now out for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury, North Dakota is starting to look really thin. They only dressed 17 skaters in this game.
Michigan 4 Lake Superior 2, Mich 2 LSSU 2(LSSU wins shootout)
Just to make Jon Merrill's suspension more confusing, he went from "probably out until the end of the month" to being a surprise insertion into the lineup on Friday night, where he promptly picked up two assists and was a team best +3 on the night.
Michigan goalie Shawn Hunwick left Friday's game after the second period. Nobody would say Hunwick had a concussion, but it looked, sounded, and quacked like a concussion. Back-up Adam Janecyk held on for the win on Friday and gave a pretty solid performance on Saturday. I've long been the lone member of the Janecyk bandwagon, and still think, with once he gets a little confidence and gets used to game speed again, Michigan isn't completely screwed if Hunwick is out long-term.
Of course, Janecyk's excellent performance on Saturday was only worth one point. Michigan lost once again in a shootout, which they should probably just stop trying to do, because it's starting to bum people out.
Minnesota-Duluth 4 Western Michigan 1, UMD 5 Western Michigan 2
Both of these games were tied heading into the third period when Minnesota-Duluth was able to pull away. Duluth has now gone 16 straight without losing, and looks pretty near unstoppable.
Bowling Green 2 Ohio State 2, BGSU 1 Ohio State 1, Bowling Green wins both shootouts
This was a Saturday/Sunday series with Bowling Green declaring Saturday's game a "Threat Level Orange," encouraging fans to wear orange to the game, and reminding them there was a high risk of a terrorist attack. It seemed to work, with the Falcons drawing 3200 fans on Saturday, by far their biggest crowd of the season, and with Bowling Green tying one of the top teams in the country twice, and stealing the shootout point both nights.
St. Lawrence 4 Minnesota State 3, MSU 3 St. Larry 1
If, like Denver, you look past two games against Alabama-Huntsville, you have to go back to November 11th to find the last time Minnesota State won a game. Mankato's Phil Cook got his first official game action since giving up 9 goals on his last 11 shots, and responded by stopping 29 of 30 shots.