Ryan Edquist had 42 saves in a dominating performance.
This week’s action was highlighted by the heavyweight matchup in Grand Forks. The Fighting Hawks welcomed (kind of) the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers for their now annual series.
While the UND vs UM series headlined this week’s slate of games, the St. Cloud State Huskies stole the show this weekend. They easily dispatched the perennial-contending Boston College Eagles.
SCSU
The Huskies are good. After a weekend series where they outscored the Eagles eight to three on their way to a 5-0-0 record, this should be a widely known fact.
Friday night, Boston College took a 2-0 lead early in the second period. They would not see another lead again all weekend. The Huskies scored five unanswered goals taking advantage of a sloppy Eagles team that took nine penalties in the third period for a 5-2 victory.
Ryan Edquist made 42 saves for the Eagles, but let 4 goals in and was not able to come away with a win.
The following night, the Huskies got an early 3-0 lead in the first period, and David Hrenak stood tall blocking 36 of the 37 shots he faced for a 3-1 victory.
The Poehling brothers netted four goals combined, two each this weekend.
SCSU has an off week this week and will resume play the following weekend against in-state rival University of Minnesota-Duluth.
UND
Ticket prices easily reached $100+ per seat in the upper deck at Ralph Englestad Arena this weekend. The 23,752 fans that attended this weekend were treated to a weekend of high energy, exciting hockey against their hated rival: The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Although they were out-shot 18-35, the Gophers made the best of their few chances scoring two goals to the Hawks one on Friday night. The score was 2-0 until Rhett Gardner was able to finally cash in on UND’s sixth power play making it 2-1.
Goalie Eric Schierhorn played phenomenally with 36 saves in a game that was dominated by the Hawks in most facets of the game other than the score. He was peppered with shot all night long.
Saturday evening, The Hawks soared to 4-0 win. North Dakota was lethal on the power play as they scored three of their four goals with a man advantage.
Unlike Friday night, the Gophers out-shot the Hawks 22-18, but had nothing to show for it as it was Cam Johnson’s turn to be a wall in net en route to a shutout.
UND travels to Colorado Springs, Colorado next weekend for a series with the Colorado College Tigers. The Hawks are 12-1 against the Tigers in the last three years and have knocked the Tigers out of the NCHC tournament twice in that time span.
DU
The defending champions received their rings and raised their championship banner this weekend as they hosted Lake Superior State.
Friday night the Pioneers tied the Lakers 3-3. Liam Finley scored his second goal of the season late in the third period to tie it up.
DU had a mind-boggling 66 shots, almost half coming in their period when they took 28. Lakers goalie Nick Kossoff saved 63 shots, a career best.
Saturday night went more along the lines of what people expected as Denver won 5-1. The Pioneers once again peppered the Lakers net with 54 shots this time around.
Troy Terry scored his second and third goal of the new season for DU at the end of the first and second periods, which was all the Pioneers needed for the win.
Denver travels to Boston this weekend where they will face Boston University Friday night, and Boston College Saturday night. In the last three seasons, the Pioneers have knocked both teams out of the NCAA Playoffs, and are 2-3 against the Eagles and 3-1 against BU. Their only loss to BU came the last time they played both Boston teams in consecutive nights.
WMU
While Minnesota and North Dakota had their rivalry weekend, the Broncos also had a series against their nearby foe, Michigan State University.
Friday night’s game was played in East Lansing, Michigan, home of the Spartans. The Broncos fell, 4-6 to the Spartans. Two goals in the first minute of the game by the Spartans put the Broncos in a hole. They took the lead seconds into the third period, but three late goals from MSU spoiled their comeback.
Some home cooking helped the WMU defense shut down the Spartans Saturday night. The Broncos only let MSU take 16 shots on net in their 3-1 win.
Eight different Broncos scored a goal this weekend. They now have scored 22 goals, one behind the conference leader, SCSU.
The Broncos will and an off weekend with no games until next week. They will face Denver at home. The Pioneers are currently tied for the least amount of goals allowed. Last season, the Broncos lost four of five games against the Pioneers, including a 1-3 loss against DU in the NCHC playoffs.
UMD
The Bulldogs hosted winless Merrimack College Warriors this weekend. The Warriors remained winless after the series was over, but UMD was not able to pull out a sweep.
After MC took a two goals to none lead, the Bulldogs stormed back with four unanswered goals. They looked like they were about to coast to a victory until late in the third period when the Warriors scored three goals, two on power plays, to take a 5-4 lead.
Peter Krieger scored for UMD with just over a minute remaining to tie the game at 5-5. The game remained tied through the overtime period.
Saturday UMD sent a barrage of pucks at the Warriors net. They shot the puck 41 times, seven of which found the back of the net in their 7-2 thrashing of MC.
Jared Thomas and Parker Mackay lead the Bulldogs Saturday night with three points each.
Next weekend, UMD travels east to play the University of Maine. This will be the first time the Bulldogs and Black Bears have faced each other since the Bulldogs ended the Bears season in the 2011-2012 NCCA Playoffs in Worcester, Massachusetts.
UNO
After dominating Friday night, the Mavericks and the Arizona State Sun Devils skated to a tie on Saturday night.
The Mavericks put on a show Friday night. They scored five goals, and the game was never in doubt. Each goalie shared a similar number of shots faced, 25 vs. 26, but the difference was Evan Weninger only allowing one shot by in their 5-1 win.
Saturday started as more of the same, UNO took an early 2-0 lead. The Devils stormed back with two goals of their own. They traded goals twice making the score 4-4, but a winner was not able to be determined after an overtime period,
Omaha was perfect on their power play Saturday night as Tristan Keck, Jake Randolph and Tyler Vesel all scored up a man.
UNO will travel for the first time in two weeks to take on the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a rare Thursday-Friday series. The Mavericks and Irish haven’t squared off since the 2012 Ice Breaker Tournament where the Irish won 3-2.
MU
Miami made the same trip east that UMD will make this weekend to play the University of Maine.
In the series’ first game, the Red Hawks won 7-5, but never trailed at any point in the game. They chased the Bears’ starting goalie, Rob McGovern in the third period.
Gordie Green came up huge for the Hawks scoring two goals and adding three assists for a five-point night.
The script flipped Saturday night. The game was over before the first period was even finished as Maine scored five goals en route to a 5-3 victory over the Hawks.
Next week, MU hosts the University of Connecticut Huskies. The teams have never faced each other before.
CC
The Tigers faced the University of New Hampshire Wildcats in Durham, New Hampshire. The Tigers came into the matchup with the momentum of their 3-1 start, and earned a split with the Wildcats.
CC came out flat Friday night. They briefly made the score 1-2 after surrendering two goals beforehand, but seven minutes later, they were down 1-4 as Max Gildon scored his fourth and fifth goals of the season for UNH. The Tigers never recovered and lost 3-6.
Saturday night could’ve been another lopsided loss for the Tigers had goalie Alex Leclerc not played tremendously. Leclerc registered 39 saves on the 40 shots he faced.
Trevor Gooch scored his first goal of the season a little over a minute into overtime to seal a 2-1 win for the Tigers.
With the win last weekend, the Tigers sit at 4-2 and have guaranteed they will have a .500 or better record heading into November for the first time since they started the 2012-2013 season 3-3.
This weekend they have their first in-conference series as they host the University of North Dakota.
Play of the Week:
Grant Mismash with a beautiful feed to Collin Adams for his first career colligate goal. (0:20)
