NFL
By: Jason Gulden
Hello again, NCHC fans. What a weekend around the conference. Several teams swept their opponents. Multiple teams got swept, including Denver. Our arch-nemesis strikes again. Let’s look back on a fun-filled weekend and the new USCHO top 20 rankings.
Thursday Night
St. Cloud would travel to Chestnut Hill to take on Boston College. Boston College got a 4-0 shutout to open the weekend.
Miami (OH) welcomed Robert Morris to Oxford and easily took care of business with a 7-1 victory. Ilia Morozov and Kocha Delic each scored 2 goals. Kocha added an assist, finishing with 3 points. David Deputy had 3 assists, and Matteo Giampa had 4. Will one of those players be named NCHC Player of the Week? Check back later in the week to find out.
NCHC fans, I’m sorry, but I’m really getting sick and tired of Augustana beating us. That’s what happened once again this weekend. The first time was when they took on Omaha in Sioux Falls, SD. Augustana won the game 2-1.
Friday Night
Friday night was the beginning of the Dave Hakstol era at Arizona State. They traveled to Massachusetts to take on UMass-Lowell. Lukas Sawchyn scored the game-winning goal at the 17:37 mark of the 3rd to help the Sun Devils win 5-4.
Western Michigan had no issues with the Fighting Irish, cruising to a 6-1 win.
Colorado College would travel to Storrs, CT, to face UConn. The Tigers would fall 3-2 in overtime.
Minnesota Duluth would easily beat the Golden Gophers with a 7-1 win. Ty Hanson and Hunter Anderson would score two goals each. Zam Plante would have 3 assists, and Victor Plante would score a goal and get 2 assists.
North Dakota would have its first 5-0 victory of the weekend against Bentley.
The weekend’s big game took place at Magness Arena. #2 Michigan would come to town to take on #1 Denver. It would be Denver’s first home game of the season. Which means we had a banner-raising ceremony. Denver raised its National Championship Banner to the rafters before the game. Michigan would then go on to beat Denver 4-1. It would be Denver’s first loss since January. Denver didn’t have Johnny Hicks in goal, as he was dealing with an injury.
I know this is an NCHC article, but after seeing Michigan play this weekend, I have to mention one of their players and his impressive stats so far this season. Michigan’s Jayden Perron has 9 goals and 6 assists in 6 games.
Saturday Night
St. Cloud State and Boston College would resume their series after skipping Friday. St. Cloud would come out with a 5-3 win to split the series.
Miami (OH) would travel to Moon Township, PA, to finish its weekend series with Robert Morris. Miami (OH) would finish off the sweep with a 3-2 victory. Ilia Movozov would finish the weekend with 4 goals, including 2 in the final game. I think he has a good chance of winning Forward of the Week. Check back later in the week to see if I’m correct.
Once again, Augustana takes care of an NCHC team. They beat Omaha in overtime, 3-2.
Over the last 2 seasons that I have been writing NCHC articles, Augustana has gone 9-2-1 against the NCHC. Thankfully for our NCHC teams, we won’t play them again this season unless we meet in the NCAA tournament.
Colorado College earned the split on the weekend with a 4-1 win over UConn. Connor Hvidston scored 2 goals for the Tigers.
Western Michigan swept Notre Dame with a 4-0 win. Quentin Miller earned his second shutout of the season.
Minnesota Duluth and Minnesota would skate to a 2-2 tie.
For the second night in a row, North Dakota beat Bentley 5-0. We might have seen our Rookie of the Week and/or the Goaltender of the Week in this series. On both nights, Caleb Heil earned shutouts. He stopped all 29 shots he faced over the weekend. Check back later in the week to see what award he wins.
The Dave Hakstol era at Arizona State starts with a sweep of UMass Lowell by the score of 4-2.
We had the second game of the big weekend series up at Magness Arena. Michigan would come away with the victory and the sweep of Denver by the score of 4-3.
Rankings
The new USCHO rankings were released on Monday. North Dakota moves up 1 spot to #3. After being swept, Denver drops 3 spots to #4. Western Michigan moves up 1 spot to #5. Minnesota Duluth and Colorado College hold their spots from the previous week, #9 and #12, respectively. Those are the only teams ranked in the Top 20 of the USCHO poll.
Other teams receiving votes this week include Miami (OH), Arizona State, St. Cloud State, and St. Thomas.
Closing
Like I said at the beginning of the article, what a weekend it was for the NCHC. As a top conference in College Hockey, the NCHC, every weekend is going to be exciting. We are only in non-conference games right now, and it’s already been a blast.
This coming weekend is all non-conference games, and then we hit league play, with multiple teams playing league games during the Halloween weekend.
I will be back later in the week to go over the players of the week from this past weekend, plus a preview of all the NCHC games, including a BIG in-town series in Colorado Springs.
Talk to you all in a couple of days.
