NFL
By: Jason Gulden
Welcome back, NCHC hockey fans. What a great weekend we had for the NCHC as we inch closer to conference play. We had a top 3 matchup in Michigan. We had a battle in Minnesota between the top 20 teams. Let’s look at those games as well as the rest of the results from this past weekend.
#8 North Dakota traveled up to Potsdam, NY to take on Clarkson. Friday night, Clarkson manhandled North Dakota 5-2. North Dakota would get their revenge, however, on Saturday night when it beat Clarkson 1-0 with the game-winning goal coming at the 1:34 mark of the second period, scored by Keaton Verhoeff. North Dakota goalie Jan Špunar would stop all 17 shots he faced to earn the shutout.
#7 Denver would travel up to Massachusetts for the weekend with games against #9 Boston College and Northeastern. Friday night, they faced off against #9 Boston College, and they took care of business in the game by winning 7-3. Saturday night, they would battle Northeastern, and they would be shut out 1-0.
St. Cloud State would welcome Alaska Anchorage to the Herb Brooks Center and would take care of business on both nights to earn the sweep over the Seawolves. Friday night’s score was 5-2. Saturday nights would be a 5-1 score.
Omaha would welcome #13 UMass to Omaha, Nebraska. Friday night, UMass would win 5-4 as they would score the winning goal in the last minute of the game. Saturday night, the Mavericks would get their revenge by the score of 5-2 to earn the weekend split.
4-0-0 Miami (OH) would return to action after being off the previous weekend and traveled to Maryland Heights, Missouri, to take on Lindenwood. Miami (OH) would need extra time both nights to improve their record to 6-0-0 as they win both games by the score of 5-4.
Now it’s time for the battle of Minnesota for this weekend as we have the #12 Minnesota Golden Gophers hosting the #18 Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs in a battle of top 20 teams. It would be the Bulldogs earning the sweep of the Golden Gophers. Friday night, Duluth would win 3-0 with Adam Gajan earning the shutout with 17 saves. Saturday night, Duluth would win 4-1. Come back for the next article on Friday, preview this coming weekend’s games to see how that outcome affected both teams in the USCHO rankings.
The final matchup of the weekend was the Top 3 battle up in Michigan between #2 Western Michigan and #3 Michigan in a home-and-home series. In a strange Thursday night matchup, these two teams have the college hockey world in themselves. The matchup took place at the Yost Ice Arena in Ann Arbor, Michigan, home of the Wolverines hockey team. Michigan would manhandle Western by the score of 4-0. On Friday night, they would travel to Kalamazoo, Michigan, and face off at the Lawson Arena. Western would take care of this game by winning 5-2 in front of their fans, just like the Wolverines would do on Thursday.
Well, NCHC hockey fans, we have gotten to an exciting part of the schedule for our teams. This past weekend was the last weekend when all teams were playing non-conference games until Thanksgiving weekend. This coming weekend, we start NCHC league play.
Come back in the next NCHC article dropping on Friday as we look at the rankings heading into the weekend, the conference schedule, players of the week for the weekend we just recapped, and a look at the standings and how the NCHC point system works for the league. Games.
