NFL
By Jason Gulden
Welcome back, NCHC fans. What a weekend we had across the NCHC last weekend. We will look back at those games, the USCHO rankings, the players of the week, the upcoming games, as well as an outlook for the coming holiday season, regarding the articles around mid-December.
Western Michigan got a much-needed sweep against Miami (OH) up in Kalamazoo. Both nights, they allowed 2 goals each. Western would score 5 goals on Friday and then 6 goals on Saturday.
The other sweep happened in Colorado, much to the dismay of Colorado College Tigers fans. Denver University would win both games. Friday night was a 2-1 game that went into overtime and then a 3-2 game on Saturday.
Arizona State would face off against North Dakota in Grand Forks, North Dakota. On Friday night, North Dakota would win 5-2. Saturday night, Arizona State would win 4-2.
Omaha would travel up to Duluth to face off against Minnesota Duluth. Duluth would come out victorious on Friday by the score of 5-2. Omaha would get its revenge on Saturday with a 2-0 victory.
Following the games this past weekend, USCHO will release the newest rankings for the coming weekend on Monday. Denver and Minnesota Duluth would switch spots in the rankings. Denver is now #3, and Duluth is now #4. North Dakota would stay put at #6. Western Michigan would move up one spot to number #8.
On Tuesday each week, the NCHC releases its Players of the Week for the previous weekend. Like last week, we have 2 goaltenders who won awards this week. The goaltender of the week goes to Quentin Miller out of Denver University. He would stop 67 of the 70 shots he faced on the way to sweeping Colorado College.
The Rookie of the Week goes to Dawson Cowan from Omaha. He would get his second career start on Saturday and would lead the Mavericks to a 2-0 victory over the Bulldogs to earn his first career shutout. He would have 32 saves on the night.
The Defenseman of the Week goes to Boston Buckberger from Denver. He had the game-winning goals on both nights against Colorado College and tallied an assist on the game-tying goal on Friday night.
The Forward of the Week was Ben Strinden from North Dakota. Ben scored 3 goals on the weekend. One on Friday and then would only score the only goals for North Dakota on Saturday. This is his second time earning this recognition this season.
This coming weekend, all 9 of the NCHC teams are in action. There will be 4 league games and one exhibition game. The league games feature Western Michigan at Omaha. Denver is traveling to the desert to face off against Arizona State. Minnesota Duluth travels to Colorado Springs to play Colorado College. St. Cloud State will travel to Oxford, Ohio, to take on Miami (OH). North Dakota would play the exhibition game and welcome the U.S. Under-18 team to Grand Forks.
North Dakota leads the conference standings heading into the weekend with 13 points. Denver follows them with 11 points. Minnesota Duluth has 10 points. Omaha and Western Michigan each have 9 points. Arizona State has 8 points. The bottom three teams are Colorado College with 5 points, St. Cloud State with 4 points, and Miami (OH) with 3 points.
I know we still have 4 weeks until we get the holiday break for the NCHC. The next four weeks, expect two articles each week. Once we get to the week of Monday, December 14th, through the end of the year, there will probably be only one or two NCHC until January 2nd due to the few number of games during that time.
